/ TRIED BY FIRE/
被火试炼
If a visitor were to start from Yunnanfu,the capital of the province of Yunnan,and travel northward for fourteen days to the city of Chaotung,then turn eastward and journey for several days into the neighbouring province of Kweichow,then change his direction toward the south-east for another eight or nine days till he reached the city of Anshunfu.It would not be necessary for him to pass a single night in a heathen home.For these three or four weeks of arduous travelling among the hills of south-west China he could find Christian tribespeople who would welcome him to the hospitality of their humble roofs.And yet twenty years ago the very name of Christ was unknown throughout the whole of this region so far as the tribes are concerned.The story of the triumphs of the Gospel in this part of China is one of the romances of modern missions.
The pioneer in this work was Mr.J.R.Adam,who commenced his labours among the tribes at Anshunfu,whence it spread to Chaotung where the Rev.Samuel Pollard of the United Methodist Mission became the spiritual father of thousands more,and from this centre the work again spread to Sapushan where the C.I.M. has another centre of work among these non-Chinese tribes.Through cloud and sunshine the work has grown and prospered,but the triumphs of past years have been followed by tragedy and trial.
It was the night of August 9,1915,a day which had been busy with a large conference of the tribespeople,preparatory to Mr.Adam’s going home on furlough and Mr.Windsor’s taking charge of the work during his absence.
The hours of joyful service had concluded and the time for rest had arrived.Mr.Windsor had been indisposed,and,in the evening about half-past nine,Mr.Adam went to the hospital and asked Dr.Fish to visit the patient,who was resting in bed.Dr.Fish responded,and later returned to the hospital for medicine,where he was detained for an hour by tropical rain.Then,supplied with the necessary comforts and drugs,he returned to Mr.Windsor once more,and ere he left stayed and talked with Mr.Adam for some minutes.Within a quarter of an hour Mr.Adam was lying dead on the floor of his own home.A flash of lightning had struck the house, damaging the wall and shattering the mirror in Mr.Windsor’s bedroom and felling Mr.Adam,who,with his lantern in his hand,was at the foot of the stairs on his way to rest.
To the tribespeople,who in common with the Chinese look upon death by lightning as a sign of Heaven’s displeasure,this sudden and tragic death came as a terrible blow and trial of faith.But this was not all.On the following day Mr.Windsor,who should have been resting,was busy superintending the preparations for Mr.Adam’s funeral and seeking to the best of his already diminishing strength to fill the great gap made by the departure of his friend. By night,when the services were over,he was a very sick man,and,though Dr.Fish and Sister Anna Wackwitz who nursed him did all that human skill and love could do,Mr.Windsor,shortly after midnight of the following Sunday,passed through the valley to join his colleague in the better country.
Terrible and stunning as this double blow was, this was not all,for just a month later Mr.Samuel Pollard died from typhoid fever contracted when nursing a colleague.And to this must be added that another worker among the tribes,Mr.Metcalf,has been lying perilously ill in a hospital in England.In this day of sorrow and trial,when it appears as though Satan were permitted to sift these tribespeople as wheat,there is great need that all who care for these tempted and tried members of Christ’s flock should follow the example of the Great Shepherd of the sheep and make supplication for them that their faith fail not.
——China and the Gospel:An Illustrated Report Of The China Inland Mission 1916,20-21.
