The first Presbyterian missionaries who went to China had a real love toward those poor Gentiles, and they had a testimony. That love and testimony convinced the people, and through that, the door for the gospel was opened. Otherwise, it would have been too hard to open the door among the poor, conservative Chinese. One story is the most inspiring. At that time, no doors for the gospel were open. The missionaries could not do anything. The people made a corporate decision that no one in the whole village would open his door to any of the foreign missionaries. Whenever a foreign missionary came to the village, a gong was beaten to warn of his coming. Then all the people closed their doors. Not one person in the whole village would come out of his home until the gong was sounded again because the missionary was gone.
One dear brother, who was a missionary, studied the situation and began to pray. The people would close their entrances and wait for a long time. The brother would stand beside a door, and when someone would open it to see if the foreigner had gone, the brother would put a stick into the door. He would push the door until he was half through it, and then regardless of what the people inside did, he would push all the way through. In China in the early days, almost every home had a grinding room with a millstone to grind the wheat and corn. That was a hard task since there was no power in those homes. If someone was rich, he would use a horse or mule to do the work, but if he was poor, he would do the grinding by himself.
The missionary studied this situation. After coming through a door, he would right away run to the mill to do the grinding work for the people. The whole family would pay no attention to that poor fellow. They said, “If he is willing to do the hard work for us, let him do it.” The brother would continue to grind without stopping for several hours, almost for the whole day. That touched the heart of the people in the family, especially the older generation. The grandfather would come and give him a cup of water and say, “Drink it.” The missionary would thank him and drink it. Then he would keep on grinding. That truly touched them. It was because of this that the older generation was opened to the brother. They would say, “Please sit down and have a rest. How old are you? From where did you come?” It was through this that the doors were opened one by one.
There are other such stories that are truly inspiring. I would impress you that there is no easy way to bear fruit. If a grain of wheat is to bear fruit, it has to fall into the earth, die, and be resurrected. Then the life will come out. Almost everyone, especially in this country, knows something about Christianity. We cannot win people in a light way or easy way. Rather, we have to pay the price. We have to win people at a certain cost. We have to pay a price for our relatives, neighbors, colleagues, and classmates. We must pray for them and testify the Lord Jesus to them, giving them a real testimony in life.
There is the need of a testimony in life. This kind of testimony cannot be built up in one or two days. It requires a certain period of time. As students in school, we have to build up a testimony day by day. Then after a few weeks or months the way will be prepared to bring people to the Lord. This is the most prevailing way. In this way, not only will people be brought to the Lord, but they will also be kept. I say again, this is not merely the preaching of the gospel but also the imparting of life to others. We have to practice this. In order to be balanced, we must have a life of preaching.
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