2.25.2017 HOW I KNOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYER (1921) - Rosalind Goforth

1 -Getting Things from God

1  'are not five sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten before God?...fear not therefore: yea are of more value than many sparrows'...

the pages of this little book deal almost wholly with just one phase of prayer - petition. the record is almost entirely a personal testimony of what petition to my Heavenly Father has mean in meeting the everyday crises of my life.
...God is my Father, I am His child. as truly as I delight to be sought for by my child when he is cold or hungry, ill or in need of protection, so is it with my Heavenly Father.

prayer has been hedged about with too many man-made rules. I am convinced that God has intended prayer  to be as simple and natural and as constant a part of our spiritual life, as the intercourse between a child and his parent in the home. and as a large part of that intercourse between child and parent is simply asking and receiving, just so is it with us and our Heavenly Parent.

2 perhaps, however, the most blessed element in this asking and getting from God lies in the strengthening of faith which comes when a definite request has been granted.  what more helpful and inspiration than a ringing testimony of WHAT GOD HAS DONE?
as I have recalled the past in writing these incidents, one of the most precious memories is that of an evening when a number of friends had gathered in our home. the conversation turned on answered prayer. for more than 2 hours we vied with one another in recounting personal incidents of God's wonderful work; and the inspiration of that evening still abides.

a christian minister once said to me:  'is it possible that the great God of the universe, the Maker and Ruler of mankind, could or would, as you would make out, take interest in such a trifle as the trimming of a hat! to me it is preposterous!'
yet did not our Lord Jesus Christ say, 'the very hairs of your head are all numbered' ; and 'not one sparrow is forgotten before God';  and again, 'Your heavenly

3  Father knoweth what ye have need of BEFORE ye ask Him'?

it is true that 'there is nothing too great for God's power' ; and it is just as true that 'there is nothing too small for His love!'
if we believe God's Word we must believe, as Kan Crawford has tersely and beautifully expressed, it that 'the God of the infinite is the God of the infintesimal'.  yes, he
'who clears the grounding berg
and guides the grinding floe,
He hears the cry of the little kit fox
and the lemming of the snow!'

no more wonderful testimony, perhaps, has ever been given to God's willingness to help in every emergency of life, than that which Mary Slessor gave, when asked to tell what prayer had meant to her. 'My life,  she wrote, is one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer.  for physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance, given marvelously, for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to the Gospel subdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that goes to make up life and my poor service. I can testify, with a full and often wonder-stricken awe, that I believe God answers prayer. I KNOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYER!'

I have been asked the question: 'Has God
4  ALWAYS given you just what you have asked for.

Oh, no! for him to have done so would have been great unkindness. for instance:  when I was a young woman I prayed for 3 years that God would grant me a certain petition.  sometimes I pleaded for this as for life itself, so intensely did I want it. then God showed me very clearly that I was praying against His will. I resigned my will to His in the matter and a few months later god gave what was infinitely better. I have often praised Him for denying my prayer;  for had He granted it I could never have come to China.
then, too, we must remember that many of our prayers, though always heard, are not granted because of some sin harbored in the life or because of unbelief, or of failure to meet some other Bible-recorded condition governing prevailing prayer. (see Bible study on pgs 129-30)

the following incidents of answered prayer are by no means a complete record.  how could they be, when no record of prayer has been kept all these 50 years? had there been, I doubt not that volumes could have been written to the glory of God's grace and power in answering prayer. but even from what is recorded here I, too, can say from a full hear, I KNOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYER....

2 - Early lessons in the Life of Faith
6  'I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications.  -Psalm 116.1

when a very little child, so young i can remember nothing earlier, a severe thunderstorm passed over our home. terrified, I ran to my mother, who placed my hands together and pointing upward repeated over and over again the one word 'Jesus'.
more than 50 years have passed since that day, but the impression left upon my child-mind, of a being invisible but able to hear and help, has never been effaced.

the most precious recollections of early childhood are associated with stories told us by our mother, many of which illustrated the power of prayer.
one that made a specially deep impression upon me was about our grandfather, who as a little boy went to visiting cousins in the south of England, their home being situated close

7  to a dense forest. one day the children, lured by the beautiful wild flowers, became hopelessly lost in the woods. after trying in vain to find a way out, the eldest, a young girl, called the frightened, crying little ones around her and said; 'when mother died she told us to always tell Jesus if we were in any trouble. let us kneel down and ask him to take us home'.

they knelt and as she prayed one of the little ones opened his eyes, to find a bird was close to his hand that he reached out for it. the bird hopped away, but kept so close to the child as to lead him on. soon all were joining in the chase after the bird, which flew or hopped in front or just above and sometimes on the ground almost within reach. then suddenly it flew into the air and away. the children looked up to find themselves on the edge of the woods and in sight of home.

with such influences bearing upon one at an impressionable age, it is not surprising that I came even as a very little child to just 'tell Jesus' when in trouble.

through the mists of memory one incident comes out clearly, which occurred when I was 6 or 7 years of age. while playing one day in the garden, I was seized with

8  what we then called 'jumping' tooth ache. I ran to my mother for comfort, but nothing she could do seemed to ease the pain.
the nerve must have become exposed, for the pain was acute. suddenly I thought, 'Jesus can help me', and just as I was, with my face pressed against my mother's breast, I said in my heart:
'Lord Jesus, if You will take away this toothache right now, NOW,K I will be your little girl for 3 years'.
before the prayer was well uttered the pain was entirely gone,  i believed that Jesus had taken it away; and the result was that for years, when tempted to be naughty, I was afraid to do what I knew was wrong lest, if i broke my side of what I felt to be a compact, the toothache would return, this little incident had a real influence over my early life, gave me a constant sense of the reality of a divine presence, and so helped to prepare me for the public confession of Christ as my Saviour a few years later, at the age of 11.
about a year after my confession of Christ an incident occurred which greatly strengthened my faith and led me to look to God as a Father in a new way.

when Easter Sunday morning came it was
9  so warm only spring clothes could be worn. my sister and i decided at breakfast that we would not go to church, as we had only our old winter dresses. going to my room, I turned to my Bible to study it, when it opened at the 6th chapter of matthew and my eye rested on these words: 'why take ye thought for raiment...seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.'

it was as if God spoke the words directly to me. I determined to go to church, even if I had to humiliate myself by going in my old winter dress.  the Lord was true to His praise; i can still feel the power the resurrection messages had upon my heart that day so long ago. and further, on the following day a box came from a distant aunt, containing not only new dresses but much else that might well be included in the 'all these things'.
an unforgetable proof of God's loving care came to us as a family about this time, when my parents were face to face with a serious financial crisis. Isaiah 65.24 was literally fulfilled: 'before they call, i will answer and while they are yet speaking, I will hear'.

at that time, it is necessary to state, we
10  depended on a quarterly income, which came through my mother's lawyer in England.  unusual circumstances had so drained our resources that we found ourselves, in the middle of the quarter, with barely sufficient to meet a week's needs. my dear mother assured us that the Lord would provide;  that He would not forsake those who put their trust in Him. that very day a letter came from the lawyer in England,  enclosing a draft for a sum ample to meet our needs till the regular remittance should arrive. this unexpected and timely draft proved to be a bonus, which did not occur again.

some years later, having moved to a strange city, a great longing came to do some definite service for my Master. one day there came to the Bible class I attended a call for teachers, to aid in a Sunday-school near by. when i presented myself before the superintendent of this sunday-school the following Sunday and offered my services, it is not much wonder i received a rebuff, for I was young and quite unknown.  I was told that if i wished a class, it would be well for me to find my own scholars. i can remember how a lump seemed choking me all the way home that day.

at last, determining not to be baffled, I
11  prayed the Lord to help me get some scholars.  I went forth praying every step of the way, the following Saturday afternoon; and canvassing just one short street near our home. I received the promise of 19 children for Sunday-school.  the next day a rather victorious young woman walked up to the Sunday-school superintendent with 17 children following. needless to say i was given a class.

in the autumn of 1885 the Toronto Mission Union, a faith mission, decided to establish a branch mission in the East End slums of that city three others with myself were deputed to open this work. everything connected with it  was entirely new to me; but most helpful and inspiring  I found it.  for in face of tremendous difficulties, that seemed to my inexperienced eyes insurmountable, I learned that prayer was the secret which overcame every obstacle, the key that unlocked every closed door.

I felt like a child learning a new and wonderful lesson - as I saw benches, tables, chairs, stove, fuel, lamps, oil, even an organ, coming in answer to definite prayer for these things. but best sight of all was when men and women, deep in sin, were converted and changed into workers for God, in answer to prayer. praise God for the lessons then
12  learned, which were invaluable later when facing the heathen.

the time came when two diverse paths lay before me - one to England, as an artist;  one to China, as a missionary. circumstances made a definite decision most difficult. I thought I had tried every means to find out Cor's will for me. and no light had come.
but in a day of great trouble, when my precious mother's very  life seemed to hand in the balance, I shut myself up with God's Word, praying definitely for Him to guide me to some passage by which I might know His will for my life. my Bible opening  at the 15th chapter of John's Gospel, the sixteenth verse seemed to come as a message to me:
'Ye have not chose Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit'. going to my dear mother and telling her of the message God had given me, she said: 'I dare not fight against God'.
from that time the last hindrance from going to China was removed. surely the wonderful way God has kept His child for more than 30 years in China is proof that this 'call' was not a mistaken one.  'in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will make plan thy paths' (prov. 3.6).

13 during the summer of 1887 a book written by Dr. Hudson Taylor came into my hands.
in 'China's Spiritual Needs and Claims' the writer told many instances of God's gracious provision in answer to prayer. the incidents related impressed me deeply. a little later,  a few weeks before my marriage, when I found i was short 50 dollars of what I would need to be married free of debt, I resolved not to let others know of my need, but to just trust God to send it to me.  the thought came - if you cannot trust God for this, when Hudson Taylor could trust for so much more, are you worthy to be a missionary?
it was my first experience of trusting quite alone for money. I was sorely tempted to give others just a hint of my need. but I was kept back from doing so; and though I had a week or more of severed testing, peace of mind and the assurance that God would supply my need, came at length. the answer, however, did not come till the very last night before the wedding.

that evening a number of my fellow-workers from the East End Mission called, and presented me with a beautifully illuminated address and a purse. after these friends had left I returned to my home circle assembled in the back parlor and showed them the address and purse unopened! not for a moment did I think there was anything in the purse till my brother said: 'you foolish girl, why don't you open it? I opened the purse and found it contained a check for 50 dollars!

this incident has ever remained peculiarly precious; for it seemed to us a seal of god upon the new life opening before us.

3  Go Forward On Your Knees (1887-1894)

'I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron. Isaiah 45.2

in attempting to record what prayer meant in our early pioneer days, other than purely personal testimonies must be given;  for we were, as a little band of missionaries, bound together in our common needs and dangers by a very close bond.
in October,  1887, my husband was appointed by the Canadian Presbyterian Church to open a new field, in the northern section of the Province of Honan (H), China.  we left Canada the foll wing January,  reaching china in march, 1888.  not till then did we realize the tremendous difficulties of the task before us.
Dr. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, writing to us at this time, said: 'We understand North H is to be your field; we, as a mission, have tried for 10 years to enter that province from the south, and have only just succeeded. it is one of the most anti-foreign provinces in china...Brother, if you would enter that province, YOU MUST GO FORWARD ON YOUR KNEES'.

these words gave the key-note to our early pioneer years. would that a faithful record had been dept of God's faithfulness in answering prayer!  our strength as a mission and as individuals, during those years so fraught with dangers and difficulties, lay in the fact that we did realize the hopelessness of our task apart from divine aid.
the following incident occurred while we were still outside H,  studying the language at a sister mission. it illustrates the importance of prayer from the home base for those on the field.

my husband was finding great difficulty in acquiring the language; he studied faithfully many hours daily, but made painfully slow progress. he and his colleague went regularly together to the street chapel, to practise preaching in Chinese to the people;  but, though Mr. Goforth had come to China CH) almost a year before the other missionary, the people would ask the latter to speak instead of Mr. G, saying they understood him better.
one day, just before starting as usual for the chapel, my husband said:  'if the Lord does not give me very special help in this language I fear I shall be a failure as a missionary'.

some hours later he returned, his face beaming with joy. he told me that he realized most unusual help when his turn came to speak; sentences came to his mind as never before; and not only had he made himself understood, by some had appeared much moved, coming up afterward to have further conversation with him. so delighted and encouraged was he with this experience that he mad a careful note of it in his diary.
some 2 months and a half later a letter came from a student in Knox College,  saying that on a certain evening a number of students had met specially to pray for Mr. G.  the power of prayer was such and the presence of God so manifestly felt, that they decided to write and ask Mr. G if any special help had come to him at that time. looking in his diary, he found that the time of their meeting corresponded with that time of special help in the language.

'I cannot tell why there should come to me
a thought of some one miles and years away,
in swift insistence of the memory,
unless there is a need that I should pray.
18 we are too busy to spare thought
for days together of some friends away;
perhaps God does it for us - and we ought
to read his signal as a sign to pray.
perhaps God does it for us - and we ought
to read His signal as a sign to pray.
perhaps just then my friend has fiercer fight,
a more appalling weakness, a decay
of courage, darkness, some lost sense of right;
and so, in case he needs my prayers - I pray'.

at last the joyful news reached us women, waiting outside of H, that our brethren had secured property in 2 centers. it would be difficult for those in the homeland to understand what the years of waiting had meant to some of us. the danger to those dear to us, touring in H was very great. for years they never left us to go on a tour without our being filled with dread lest they should never return; yet the Lord, in His mercy, heart our prayers for them; and though often in grave danger, none received serious injury.  this is not a history of the mission, but I cannot forbear giving here one incident illustrating how they were kept during those early days.

2 of our brethren, after renting property at a town just within the boundary of H and near the Wei River, moved in, intending to spend the winter there; but a sudden and bitter persecution arose, just as they had become settled. the mission premises
were attacked by a mob and everything was looted. the two men were roughly handled, one being dragged about the courtyard. they found themselves at last left alone, their lives spared, but everything gone.
their position was serious in the extreme - several days' journey away from friends, with no money, no bedding and no clothes by those upon them and the cold winter begun.

in their extremity, they knelt down and committed themselves to the lord. and according to His promise he delivered them out of their distresses;  for even while they prayed a brother missionary from a distant station was at hand. he arrived unexpectedly, without knowing what had occurred, a few hours after the looting had taken place. his coming at such an opportune moment filled the hearts of their heathen enemies with fear. money and goods were returned and from that time the violent opposition of the people ceased.
a few months after the above incident several families moved into H and a permanent occupation was effected; but the hearts of the people seemed as adamant against us. they hated and distrusted us as if we were their worst enemies. the dis-
20  trict in which we settled was known for its turbulent and anti-foreign spirit, and as a band of missionaries we were frequently in the gravest danger.

many times we realized that we, as well as our fellow workers at the other stations, were kept from serious harm only by the over-ruling, protecting power of God in answer to the many prayers which were going up  for us all at this critical juncture in the history of our mission. the following are concrete examples of how God heard our prayers at this time.

we had for our station doctor a man of splendid gifts.  he was a gold medalist, with years of special training and hospital experience and was looked upon as one of the rising physicians in the city from which he came. imagine his disappointment, therefore, when month after month passed and scarcely a good case came to the hospital. the people did not know what he could do, and moreover they were afraid to trust themselves into his hands. we, as a little band of missionaries, began to pray definitely that the Lord would send cases to the hospital which would open the hearts of the people toward us and our message.
it was not long before we saw this prayer answered beyond all expectation. several

21  very important cases came almost together, one so serious that the doctor hesitated for days before operating. when at last the operation did take place the doctor's hands were strengthened by our prayers, the patient came through safely and a few days later was going around a living wonder to the people.

very much depended upon the outcome of this and other serious operations. had the patients died under the doctor's hands, it would have been quite sufficient to have caused the destruction of the mission premises and the life of every missionary. 3 years later the hospital records showed that there had been 28,000 treatments in one year.
again, we kept praying that the Lord would give us converts from the very beginning. we had heard of missionaries in India, CH and elsewhere , who had worked for many years without gaining converts;  but we did not believe that it was His pleasure and purpose to save men and women through His human channels, and why not from the beginning? so we kept praying and working and expecting converts and God gave them to us. the experience of 30 years has confirmed this belief.

space permits the mention of but 2 of these earliest converts.

the first was Wand Feng ao,  who came with us into H as mr. G's personal teacher. he was a man of high degree, equal to the Western M. A.,  and was one of the proudest and most overbearing of Confucian scholars. he despised the missionaries and their teaching and so great was his opposition that he would beat his wife every time she came to see us or listen to our message. but Mr. G kept praying for this man and using all his influence to win him for Christ.

before many months passed a great change had come over mr. Wang; his proud, overbearing manner had changed and he became a humble, devout follower of the lowly Nazarene . God used a dream to awaken this man's conscience - as is not uncommon in CH.  one night he dreamed he was struggling in a deep, miry pit; but try as he would he could find  no way of escape. when about to give up in despair, he looked up and saw mr. G and another missionary on the bank above him, with their hands stretched out to save him. again he sought for some other way of escape; but finding none, he allowed them to draw him up.
this man, later on, became mr. G's
23  most valued evangelist. for many years his splendid gifts were used to the glory of his Master in the work among the scholar class in the Changtefu district. he has long since passed to his reward, dying as he had lived, trusting only in the merit of Jesus Christ for salvation.

another of the bright glints, in the darkness of those earliest days in H, was the remarkable conversion of Wang Fu-Lin.  for many years his business had been that of a public story-teller; but when mr. G came across him he was reduced to an utter wreck through opium smoking. he accepted the Gospel, but for a long time seemed too weak to break off the opium habit, again and again he tried to do so, but failed hopelessly each time.
the poor fellow seemed almost past hope, when one day mr. G brought him to the mission in his cart. the 10 days that followed can never be forgotten by those who watch Wand Fu-Lin struggle for physical and spiritual life. I verily believe nothing by prayer could have brought him through.  at the end of the 10 days the power of opium was broken and Wang Fu-Lin came out of the struggle a new man in Christ Jesus.
24  I shall have occasion to speak of this man again.

in all the cases of divine healing cited in this record it will be noted that God healed in answer to prayer either when the doctors had done all in their power and hope had been abandoned, or when we were out of reach of medical aid.
soon after coming to CH the Rev. Hinter Corbett, one of the most devoted and saintly of god's missionaries, gave a testimony which later was used of God to save the writer from giving up service in CH and returning home to Canada.
Dr. C said that for 15 years he had been laid aside every year with that terrible scourge of the East - dysentery; and the doctors at last gave a definite decision that he must return at once to the homeland and forsake CH. but, said the grand old man;
'I knew God had called me to CH and I also knew that God did not change. so what could I do/ I dared not go back on my call; so I determined that if I could not live in CH I could die there;  and from that time the disease lost its hold on me.
this testimony was given over 25 years ago, when he had been almost 30 years in CH! in jan. 1920, when
25  well-nigh 90 years of age, this beloved and honored saint of God passed to higher service.

for several years I had been affected just as Dr. C had been and each year the terrible disease seemed to be getting a firmer hold upon me. at last, one day my husband brought me the decision of the doctors, that I should return home. and as I lay there ill and weak, the temptation came to yield. but, as I remembered Dr. C's testimony and my own clear call, I felt  that to go back would be to go against my own conscience.  I therefore determined to do an Dr. C had done - leave myself in the Lord's hands - whether for life or for death. this happened  more than 20 years ago and since then I have had very little trouble from that dread disease.
yes, the deeper the need and the more bitter the extremity, the greater the opportunity for god to show forth His mighty power in our lives, if we but give Him a chance  by unswerving obedience at any cost.  'in the day when I cried Thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul'.  Psalm 138.3
during our 4th year in CH , when we were spending the hot season at the coast, our
26  little son, 18 months old, was taken very ill with dysentery. after several days' fight for the child's life came the realization, one evening, that the angel of death was at hand.

my whole soul rebelled; I actually seemed to hate God; I could see nothing but cruel injustice in it al; and the child seemed to be fast going. my husband and I knelt down beside the little one's bedside and he pleaded earnestly with me to yield my will and my child to God. after a long and bitter struggle God gained the victory and i told my husband i would give my child to the Lord. then my husband prayed, committing the precious soul into the Lord's keeping.

while he was praying I noticed that the rapid, hard breathing of the child had ceased.  thinking my darling was gone, I hastened  for a light, for it was dark; but on examining the child's face i found that he had sunk into a deep, sound, natural sleep, which lasted most of the night.  the following day he was practically well of the dysentery.
to me it has always seemed that the lord tested me to almost the last moment; then, when I yielded my dearest treasure to Him and put my Lord first, He gave back the child.

while writing the above I came across an
27  extract from the Christian of march 12, 1914, in which the editor said:

'speaking at the annual meeting of the Huntingdon County Hospital, Lord Sandwich referred to the power of spiritual healing and premising that the finite mid cannot measure the power of the infinite, said he 'looked forward to the day when the spiritual doctrine of healing and the physical discoveries of science will blend in harmonious combination, to the glory of God and the benefit of humanity.'.

4 - A God-Given Field (1894-1900)

'Lord, there is none beside Thee to help, between the might and him that hath no strength; help us, O Lord our God; for we rely on Thee, and in Thy name are come against this multitude'. II Chronicles 14.11
the story of the opening of Changte (Ch) is so connected by a chain of prayer that to give isolated instances of prayer would be to break the chain.
a few months after our arrival in CH  an old, experienced missionary kindly volunteered to conduct Mr. G and his colleague, who had just arrived, through North G,  that they might see the field for themselves.
traveling southward by cart, they crossed the border into H early one morning. as my husband walked beside the cars, that morning, he felt led to pray that the Lord would give that section of H to him as his field. the assurance came that his prayer was granted. opening his daily textbook, he found the passage for that morning was from isaiah 55.8-13.  like a precious

29  promise of future blessing for that field came the words: 'As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater;  so shall My word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void'.
for 6 years, however, our faith was sorely tested.
of all places, Ch seemed most determined to keep out the missionary. and thee were other difficulties in the way. a presbytery had been formed as others joined us and all matters had to be decided by that body. 2 stations that had been opened, where a foothold could first be gained, required all, and more than all, the force we then had. so for 6 years the door to Ch remained fast closed. but during all those years Mr. G and his colleage visited the city, they were mobbed and threatened, the people showing the utmost hostility.  but the day came, at last, when the long-prayed -for permission from the presbytery to open Ch was granted. the very next morning found Mr G EN ROUTE for Ch, to secure

30  property for a mission site. often has he told how, all the way over that day to Ch, he prayed the Lord to open the hearts of the people and make them willing to give him the property most suitable for the work. within 3 days of his reaching Ch he had 35 offers of property and was able to secure the very piece of land he had earlier chosen as most ideal for the mission.

thus the Lord did break in pieces the gates of brass which had dept us so long from our promised land.
a year later I joined m husband there, with our 3 little children. it was arranged that our colleage should take charge of the outside evangelism, while we opened work a t the main station.

to understand what it meant for us to have our need supplied, there should be some knowledge of what that need was.
we decided, from the first, that no one should be turned from our doors. Mr. G received the men in the front guestroom while the women and children came to our private quarters. during those first weeks and moths hundreds, nay thousands, crowded to see us. day by day we were literally besieged. even at meal-time our windows were baked with faces.

31  the questions ever before us those days were - how to make the most of this wonderful opportunity, which would never come again after the period of curiosity was past;  how to win the friendship of this people, who showed in a hundred ways their hatred and distrust of us;  how to reach their hearts with our wonderful message of a Saviour's love?

all that was in our power was to do, day by day, what we could with the strength that was given us. from early morning till dark, sometimes 9 or 10 hours a day, the strain of receiving and preaching to these crowds was kept up. my husband had numbers of workmen to oversee, material for building to purchase, and to see to all the hundred and one things so necessary in building up a new station. besides all this he had to receive, and preach to, the crowds that came. he had no evangelist, Mr. Wang being then loaned to Mr. MacG. I had my 3 little children, and no nurse or Bible-woman. when too exhausted to speak longer to the courtyard of women, I would send for my husband, who though tired out would speak in my stead. then we would rest ourselves, and entertain the crowd, by singing a hymn.
so the days passed. but we soon realized that help must come, or we would both break down.

36  one day mr. G came to me with his Bible open at the promise, 'My God shall supply all your need', and asked: 'do we believe this? if we do, then God can and will supply us with some one to help preach to these crowds, if we ask in faith.
he prayed very definitely for a man to preach. with my doubt-blinded heart, I thought it was as if he were asking for rain from a clear sky. yet, even while he prayed, God was moving one to come to us. a day or 2 later there appeared at the mission the converted opium fiend, Wang Fu-Lin, whose conversion has been already recorded.
no one could have looked less like the answer to our prayers than he did. fearfully emaciated from long years of excessive opium smoking, racked with a cough which 3 years later ended his life, dressed in such filthy rags as only a beggar would wear, he presented a pitiable sight. yet the Lord seeth not as man seeth.
after consulting together Mr. G decided to try him for a few days, believing that he could at least testify to the power of God to save a man from his opium. soon he was reclothed in some of my husband's Chinese garments; and within an hour or 2 of his entering the mission gate, practically a beggar, he was seated in charge of the men's
33  chapel, so changed one could scarcely have recognized him.

from the first day of his ministry at Ch there was no doubt in the minds of any who heard him that he had indeed been sent to us by our gracious God, for he had in a remarkable degree the unction and power of the Holy Ghost. his gifts as a speaker were all consecrated to one object - the winning of souls to Jesus Christ. he seemed conscious that his days were few, and always spoke as a dying man to dying men. little wonder is it, therefore, that from the very beginning of his ministry in our chapel men were won to Christ. God spared him to us for the foundation laying of the church at Ch, then called him higher.
Mr. G's need was relieved by the coming of Wang Fu-Lin, but not mine.  the remarkable way God had sent him, however, gave me courage and faith to trust god to give me a Bible-woman. those who know anything of mission work in CH  will agree with me that it is far more difficult to find women that men who are able to preach the Gospel;  or if able, who are free for the work. but I was beginning to learn that God is limited only from the human side; and that He is always is willing to gibe beyond our asking.
34  if the human conditions He has so plainly laid down in His Word are fulfilled.

a short time after I had begun to ask my Heavenly Father definitely for a Bible-woman, Mr. mac G came in from a tour and his first words were:
'will, Mrs. G, I believe we have a ready-made Bible -woman for you!

then he told me how he had come across a widow and her son i a mountain village, who had heard the Gospel from a recent convert out of one of the other stations. this man had been a member of the same religious sect as the widow and her son. when he found Christ he at once thought of his friends and went over the mountain to  tell them. Mrs. Chang received the Gospel gladly. she had been a preacher in that heathen sect and had gained the fluency in speaking and power in holding audiences, so necessary in the preaching of the Gospel.
the way was soon opened for her to come to me and she became my constant companion and valuable assistant in the women's work during those early years. she witnessed a good confession in 1900 - being strung up by her thumbs when refusing to deny her Lord. faithfully she served the lord as a Bible-woman, until the time of her death in 1903.

35  During the first two or three years at Chang Te Fu we lived in unhealthy Chines houses, which were low and damp. it was therefore thought best that we should have a good semi-foreign house built for us. the work at this time was so encouraging - converts being added weekly and sometimes almost daily - that we feared lest the new house a means of reaching the people - a blessing , and not a hindrance. the answer to this prayer, as is often the case, depended largely upon ourselves. we had to be made willing to pay the price that the answer demanded.

in other words, we came to see that in order that our prayer could be answered we would have to keep open house every day and all day, which was by no mean as easy. some assured us it was wrong, because it would make us cheap in the eyes of the Chinese ;  others said  it was wrong because of the danger of infection to the children. but time proved these objections to be unfounded. the very highest as well as the lowest were received, and their friendship won by this means..and, so far as I can remember, our children never met any contagion because of

this way of receiving the people into our house.

the climax in numbers was reached in the spring of 1899, when 1835 men and several hundred women were received by us in one day. these were first preached to in large bands, and then led through the house. we have seen evidences of the good of this plan in all parts of our field. it opened the hearts of the people toward us and helped us to live down suspicion and distrust as nothing else could have done.
in May of 1898 we started down to Tientsin by houseboat, with our children, for a much-needed rest and change. cold, wet weather soon set in. 12 days later, as we came in sight of Tientsin, with a bitter north wind blowing, our eldest child went on deck without his overcoat, in disobedience to my orders. shortly after the child came in with a violent chill. that afternoon when we arrived in Tientsin, the doctors pronounced the verdict - pneumonia.
the following day, shortly after noon, a second doctor, who had been called in consultation, met a friend on his way from our boy's bedside and told her he did not think the child could live till morning. I had
37  taken his temperature and found it to be 106.
he was extremely restless, tossing in the burning fever.  sitting down beside him, with a cry to the Lord to help me, I said distinctly: 'P  , you disobeyed me and have thus brought this illness upon yourself. I forgive you; ask Jesus to forgive you and give yourself to him'.

the child looked at me for a moment steadily, then closed his eyes. I saw his lips move for a moment; then quietly he sank into a sound sleep. when he awoke , about dusk, I took his temperature, and found it 101. by the time the doctor returned it was norma., and did not rise again. althogh he had been having hemorrhage from the longs, this ceased.