Then I remember the famine and its horrors. I can scarcely believe that
it is all a thing of the past, and I have become Ping-an, the child of
rest and peace. And what has done it all? Just this—the love of Jesus. It
was Jesus who sent the missionary with the message of love and pardon,
and it is Jesus who now fills my heart with joy. Yet I cannot forget that
there are many—oh, so many!—of my sisters in China in the same sad plight
as I was. I wonder how long it will be before the message will come to
them? How long before they will enter the land of rest and peace?
In the city of Pekin there hangs a great bell, and there is a legend
connected with it on which I love to ponder. Twice had the labor of
years been lost at the time of casting. The third time, just as the
molten metal was to be poured into the mould, the lovely daughter of
the maker, knowing that by no other means could a perfect bell be cast,
flung herself into the cauldron and gave her life to save her father from
disappointment and shame.
China now is waiting to be moulded. Old things are passing. It is a new
China we are beholding. Many ways have been tried for her regeneration.
The cold morality of Confucius is powerless. Buddhist monks and Taoist
priests have come in vain. Only by the cleansing Gospel of Christ can
China be purified and made a vessel meet for the Master’s use. Ages ago
this girl sacrificed herself that the bell might be perfect. What we
women and girls of China need is that more missionary teachers should
come to us, bringing the love of the Lord on their lips and in their
lives—then will China be saved and won for Christ. It is worth it a
thousand times. Will some of you come? Will more of you give? Will all of
you pray? There is something each can do, if you will only try. Out of
death springs life, and out of your sacrifice for Christ shall spring a
new China, free from the sins which have bound her in the past.
David Livingstone
BY A FELLOW-TOWNSMAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
"They're a multitoode" and other stories — John Shaqi
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