*43 Amy Carmichael first met the living Lord on the streets of Belfast. she was just a girl then, in her teens. the meeting with the Savior was sudden and startling, wholly unexpected. in god Cord, the autobiographical account of the background and the building of the Christian home for girls and boys at Dohnavur in South India, she relates the meeting, as important in her life as was the revelation of the Lord Jesus to Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus.
'it was a dull Sun morning, she recalled, in Belfast. my brothers and sisters and I were returning with our mother from church when we met a poor pathetic old woman who was carrying a heavy bundle. we had never seen such a thing in Presbyterian Belfast on Sunday , and, moved by sudden pity, my brothers and I turned with her, relieved her of the bundle ,k took her by her arms as though they had been handles and helped her along. this meant facing all the respectable people who were, like ourselves,on their way home. it was a horrid moment. we were only 2 boys and a girl and not at all exalted Christians. we hated doing it, crimson all over (at least we felt crimson, soul and body of us) we plodded on, a wet wind blowing us about and blowing, too, he rags of that poor old woman, till she seemed lie a bundle of feathers and we unhappily mixed up with them. but just as we passed a fountain
*44 recently built near the kerbstone, this mighty phrase was suddenly flashed as it were through the grey drizzle;
'Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. if any man's work abide...'
IF ANY MAN'S WORK ABIDE - I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. the fountain, the muddy street, the people with their politely surprised faces, all this I saw, but nothing else. the blinding flash had come and gone, the ordinary was all about us. we went on. i said nothing to anyone, but I knew that something had happened that had changed life's values. nothing could ever matter again but the things that wee eternal'.
that afternoon the 18 year old Amy shut herself in her room, talked to God and settled once and for all the pattern of her future life. Amy had found the Lord Jesus as her personal Savior 2 years before when a student at school in Harrogate, North Ireland. in the moments of quiet at the conclusion of an evangelistic meeting, the good Shepherd, she said, 'answered the prayers of my father and mother and many other loving ones and drew me, even me, into His fold'.
at the age of 19 she attended a convention in Glasgow. there she heard the 'Keswick testimony' of the life of victory by the Holy Spirit for the first time. she recalled:
'I had been longing for months, perhaps years, to know how one could live a holy life and a life that would help others. I came to that meeting half hoping,half fearing. would there be anything for me? I don't remember feeling there was anything (my fault) in either of the 2 addresses. the fog in the hall seemed to soak into home. my soul was in a fog. then the chair man rose for the last prayer. perhaps the previous address had been about peter walking on the water and perhaps it had closed with the words of Jude 24, for the one who
*45 prayed began like this, 'O Lord, we know Thou art able to keep is from falling'. those words found me. it was as if they were alight and they shone for me.
in exaltation of mind and spirit she left the meeting and went with her hostess to a restaurant for lunch. 'The mutton chop wasn't properly cooked and somebody said so', wrote Amy Carmichael. 'I remembered wondering, 'whatever does it matter about mutton chops? O Lord, We Know Thou Are Able To Keep Us From Falling'.
assurance of salvation at Harrogate ('the one watered moment in an arid 3 years), awareness of eternal values by the Holy Spirit at Belfast ('something had happened that had changed life's values') and the actuality of the new life in Christ at Glasgow ('Thou are able to keep us from falling') - these were the spiritual milestones of Amy Carmichael's awakening and preparation for her long fruitful service for the Lord Jesus.
early did this Irish girl learn the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit that is indispensable in a close walk with god. still in her teens she was led to Christian service in a Belfast mission, 'the Welcome'. for some nights there were sols saved night after night, then suddenly the meetings went dead. as she prayed and searched her own heart she remembered 'a rollicking hour when we reached home after the meeting an, as usual, it was my fault. there was nothing wrong in the fun, But It Was Not The Time For It. I have never forgotten the shock of that discovery. Grieve not the Spirit, that was the word then, In His mercy he forgave and the work went on again'.
there was the implicit and wholehearted response to the call for foreign service, quite unthought of even the day before it came, on Jan 13, 1892. obedient to that call of God ye she was appointed the first missionary under the Keswick convention and within a few months went to japan. though her service
*46 there was brief she learned many lessons that were invaluable later in the 55 consecutive years that she served in India.
not long after she arrived in Japan, she learned the importance of simplicity of dress and appearance on the part of missionaries and the value of adaptability to the clothing and the standards of teh people among whom one had come to witness for the Savior.
it was a hare lesson, learned in a sad way. with her Christian fellow worker, misaki San, she had gone to visit an old lady who was ill. in response to Miss Carmichael's word, translated by Misaki San, the needy heart seemed just about to turn to the Savior when the lady noticed fur gloves on the missionary's hands and was distracted from the message. 'i went home, said the young missionary, 'took off my English clothes, put on my Japanese kimono and never again, I trust risked so very much for the sake of so very little....'
another valuable lesson cam out of that experience. said Miss Carmichael: 'the touch of that old lady on my fur gloves set free, though I never imagined it, thousands of hours of time; for the saving of tie is great when a company of people live for many years without having to spend any time in giving thought to their clothes. and it set fee hundreds of pounds; for the saving of money is also great, when at a stroke all the extras of dress are cut off, and nothing need by spent on them. and all this time and money saved has meant just so much the more to give to Him who gave us all. but more than that, as i believe, it led to the opening of doors never opened before. it would have been impossible for one in foreign dress to go to the places to which I had to go if I were ever to discover the truth about things in India. and more, far more than that, it opened doors to hearts. if any question that, I can fall back on this: it made it just a little less easy for the great enemy to distract a soul who was drawing near to its Savior'.
*47 early in her missionary life she also learned the strength of the Strong One. a Buddhist neighbor in the Japanese village of Matsue was possessed by the 'Fox spirit', as they called it. the Japanese knew the reality of demon possession but had heard nothing of deliverance from that dreadful bondage. Miss C and Misaki San went uninvited to pray for a demon-possessed man, only to be driven away, but not before they had assured the wife that they would pray at home until her husband was delivered from the power of the Fox spirit. within an hour a messenger came to say that all the Foxes, 6 or them , were gone; and the next day the man, perfectly well, came with a branch of pomegranate flowers to express his appreciation for their prayers. some months later he died of malaria, peacefully, with his New Testament clasped in his hands. thus she learned in actual combat that 'greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
such was the beginning of her deep acquaintance with the lord and her preparation for service in India. one day in India, while sitting under a wide-spreading tree with her Tamil grammar and dictionary before her, she became conscious of the 'unfolding sense of a presence, a listener'. it seemed to her he looked for some to listen with Him, to listen to the voice of one's brother's blood crying to him from the ground. time ceased for the lady under the tree and she sat all that day in his presence. that day on the hillside influenced all the years that were to follow for Amy Carmichael and gave depth to them all.
when she was called by the Lover of little children to the rescuing of girls from the temple and later of boys in danger, few missionaries or Indian Christians were in sympathy with her. of this she wrote: 'Sometimes it was as if I saw the Lord Jesus Christ kneeling alone, as he knelt long ago under the olive trees. the trees were tamarid now, the tamarinds that i see as i look up from this writing. and the only thing that one who cared
*48 could do, was to go softly and keel down beside Him, so that He would not be alone in His sorrow over the little children'.
the sensitivity to spiritual and eternal values gave her not only insight to discern the presence of her lord. but also outer sight to 'see things as they are'. the publication of a volume by that name, Things As They Are, in 1903, caused tremendous stir in India and also in Britain: so much so that a committee on the field was appointed to ask her to return to England. she found, however, that the Lord of the Harvest overruled in her behalf when others misunderstood her obedience to marching orders and her understanding of the battle.
she had by the Holy Spirit a wonderful gift of teaching others to trust the Faithful One. when the First War brought great hardship and uncertainty to the work in Dohnavur there were opportunities to help the children learn the simplicity and sweetness of faith in god. in her 1915 diary we read:
'Oct 26. had children in field weeding. told them of need of money - a new idea to them. explained a little to older girls bout our way of working and what it involved of careful sensitiveness towards God. finally got them, an all, to the point of willingness to give today 9Festival Day) to weeding. girls splendid over it, children very sweet and good. inwardly prayed for a quick assurance from our Father that he was pleased. it would be like Him to do this.
Oct 27. mail in today and 50 from a friend of Irene Streeter, the soldier brother's money left to her. took letter up to field where children were weeding and we all praised God standing in shadow of cactus hedge. there was other money too - more in one mail than has come for many months. all much cheered and much awed too'.
the Spirit-filled life is a practical one. AC found it so. in the problem of guidance she learned to pray, to trust, to obey and not to look back.
*49 'when decisions have to be made, don't look back and wonder what I would have done. look up and light will come to do what our Lord and Master would have you do.
it may be that decisions which seem to change the character of the work will have to be made. but if the root principles which have governed us from the beginning are held fast, there will be no real change. the river may flow in a new channel, but it will be the same river.
if you hold fast to the resolve that in all things Christ as Lord shall have the pre-eminence, if you keep his will, His glory and His pleasure high above everything and if you continue in his love, loving one another as He has loved you, than all will be well, eternally well'.
Amy Carmichael had a singing heart. sensitive, artistic and radiant, her gift of song found expression in her poetry. few writers in our generation have had the ministry of pen in poetry and also prose as has AC of Dohnavur. these responses of her heart to trials of faith and triumphs of God's faithfulness have been printed and reprinted in every quarter of the globe.
from prayer that asks that I may be
sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
from fearing when I should aspire,
from faltering when i should climb higher,
from silken self, o Captain, free
thy soldier who would follow Thee.
from subtle love of softening things,
from easy choices, weakenings,
not thus are spirits fortified,
not this way went the Crucified,
from all that dims Thy Calvary.
O Lamb of God, deliver me.
*50 give me the love that leads the way,
the faith that nothing can dismay,
the hope no disappointments tire,
the passion that will burn like fire,
let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.
and what shall we say of her books:
Things As They Are,
Meal in a Barrel,
God Cord,
If
Though the Mountains Shake to mention a few...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment