A New Work Needed
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
How true are these words? When the Lord is bringing in great blessings in the best possible way, how many times our unbelieving hearts are feeling, if not saying, like Jacob of Long and go, “Everything is against Rne!” Or we are filled with fear, as the disciples were when the Lord, walking on the water, came near to quiet the troubled sea, and took them quickly to a safe place.
Yet common sense should tell us that Hs, whose way is perfect, can make no mistake. He has promised to “perfect (or fulfill) that which concerns us. In His care, He counts the very hairs of our heads and forms for us the things that happen to us. He must know better than we, the best way to finish our work and bring glory to his name.
Blind unbelief is sure to go the wrong way
And see His work as useless;
God has His design,
And He will make it clear.
If had to treat the little group of Christians in Ningpo who needed much care and teaching.
This was a time of great sorrow. The sense of loss was no less when medical advice told me that I couldn’t return to China for years to come. Little did I know then that my long stay in England was a necessary step toward the beginning of work that God would bless as He has done for the China Inland Mission.
In China, there was such great pressure of work that needed to be done around me that I could not think of the much greater need in the areas more inland! Even if I could think of them, there was nothing I could do.
While I was kept for some years in England, I saw the whole country on the large map on the wall of my study. In my heart, I was as near to the large areas of inland China as to the smaller areas where I had worked for God. Prayer was the only way that the pain in my heart could be helped.
As a long time away from China seemed to be necessary, the next question was how best to serve China while in England. This led to my work for several years with Rev. F.F. Gough of the C.M.S., rewriting the New Testament in the common language of Ningpo for the British and Foreign Bible Society.
In doing this work, I saw only the use that the Book and study notes would be to Christians. But since then, I have often seen that, without those months of studying and feasting on the Word of God, my heart would not have been prepared to begin the China Inland Mission.
In the study of the Holy Word, I learned that to get faithful workers, not to make a great appeal for help, but to pray to God, first to send out workers and then to make the spiritual life of the Church so strong, that men would not be able to stay at home.
This was the need. I saw that the plan of the Bible was not to raise great amounts of money. The Bible’s plan was more to do the work, trusting in”His sure Word who has said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
In the meantime, the prayer for workers for Chekiang was being answered. The first, Mr. Meadows, sailed for China with his young wife in January 1862, through the kind help of our friend, Mr. Berger. The second left England in 1864, having her voyage given by the Foreign Evangelisation Society.
The third and fourth came to Ningpo on July 24, 1865. A fifth came to Ningpo in September, t 865. The prayer for the five workers was fully answered and our faith was strengthened to look to God for still greater things.
I spent months in prayer about the difficulties involved in the evangelization of inland China. I was led to know that a special society was needed. I had the daily help of prayer and discussion with my beloved friend and fellow worker, the late Rev. F.F. Gough.
Valuable help and advice were also given by Mr. and Mrs. Berger, with whom my beloved wife and I spent many days in prayer. I had the. unhappy thought that we may compete with existing missions in England.
By simple trust in God, we decided that a mission might be started and kept going without bringing hurt to any existing effort. I had a growing conviction that God would have me seek from Him the needed workers and go back to China with them.
But for a long time, unbelief kept me from taking the first step. How wrong unbelief always is I did not doubt that God would answer any prayer for workers, “in the name” of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I did not doubt that the means for our going out would be given and that doors would be opened before us in unreached areas of the nation. But I had not then learned to trust God for keeping power and grace for myself. It was no wonder that I could not trust Him to keep others who might be prepared to go with me.
I feared that in the middle of danger and difficulty, some inexperienced Christians might break down and blame me for having asked them to undertake a great work that they were not equal to.
Yet, what was I to do? Guilty feelings grew stronger and stronger. Simply because I refused to ask for them, the workers did not come forward to go out to China. Every day, several thousand people were dying without Christ.
The dying of China so filled my heart and mind that there was no rest day by day and little sleep by night. Finally, my health failed. At the request of my beloved and honored friend, Mr. George Pearse, I went to spend a few days with him in Brighton.
On Sunday, June 25, 1865, I was unable to stand the sight of a group of a thousand or more people praising God in their security, while millions were dying for lack of truth” I went out alone in great spiritual pain.
There, the Lord gave me victory over my unbelief and I gave myself to God for this service. I told Him that everything must rest with Him and that as His disciple it was my duty to obey and follow Him. His duty was to direct, care for, and guide me and those who might labor with me.
Do I need to say that peace came at once into my heart? There and then, I asked Him for twenty-four fellow workers, two for each of the eleven inland areas which were without a missionary, and two for Mongolia.
Writing the request on the inside of my Bible, I returned home with peace that I had not enjoyed for months. I had the conviction that the Lord would bless His work and that I should share in the blessing.
I had prayed before and asked others to pray, that workers be sent out to the eleven areas of China that were without missionaries and that their needs be provided for. I had not given myself up to be their leader. With the help of my beloved wife, I had just written the little book, China’s Spiritual Need and Claims.
Every part of it was clothed in prayer. My friend Mr. Berger had given valuable help in reading the book to check it before it was finished. He paid for printing the 3,000 books. I spoke in every possible place of the work we planned to do. I was especially happy to speak at the Perth and Mildmay Conferencs of 1865.
Prayer continued for fellow workers who were soon raised and invited to my home which was then in the east of London. Our house soon became too small. When our neighbor moved, I was able to rent the house.
Later that was not large enough, and more places to stay were provided close by. Soon some men and women were under training and involved in missionary work at home” This tested them in many ways as they tried to win souls.