SUNDAY SCHOOL, CHINCHEW

The neighbours, who did not understand about worshipping God, noticed that Yo-ah had given up his rude ways, and did not answer back as he had done before he went to school. One of them, a widow who had an only son named Wu-mei, was very much struck by the change in him. Her son had been called Wu-mei, that is, Black Little Sister, to deceive the evil spirits into thinking that he was an ugly little girl, not worth troubling about, in the hope that they would let him grow up to manhood in peace. His mother, seeing how much Yo-ah had improved by study, sent Black Little Sister to the same school.

The new scholar read diligently, and soon began to drink in the story of the Gospel. Three or four months after he entered school a bad illness, called plague, broke out and many people died, both inside and outside the city. Black Little Sister sickened one day and had to be carried home in a chair, slung on two long bamboo poles.

His teacher, who wanted all the children he taught to know the Lord Jesus, was troubled about him, for he saw that he was very ill, and he did not know whether Black Little Sister had learnt to trust the Saviour or not. Just as he was starting off to go to the boy’s house, Yo-ah’s father came into the school-room and said:

“You need not go, teacher; Black Little Sister’s mother has filled the house with idols, and he is delirious. Even if his people allowed you to enter his room, he would not understand what you said to him.”

The teacher was very sorry when he heard what Poah said, for he saw that it would be useless to go to see his little friend.

Very early next morning Yo-ah’s father came again with news of Black Little Sister, and best of all, he told the teacher that the dying boy believed in our Lord Jesus as his own true Saviour.

“Last night,” said he, “when everyone could see that Black Little Sister was very ill and must surely die, his relations turned all the idols out of the house. Then I went in to see him. When I entered his room, I said, ‘Black Little Sister, people say that you have lost your senses. Is it true?’”

“‘No, brother Poah,’ he answered, ‘these heathen, who do not understand what I am doing, think that I am out of my senses, because they see me constantly getting up and kneeling upon the bed to pray.’”

Seeing that the boy was able to talk quite sensibly, Poah brought another Christian, a man called Ah Lin, to come and see him.

“Shall I read some verses from the Bible to you?” asked Ah Lin, sitting down by the bedside.

“Yes, I should like you to read some very much,” answered the dying boy.

Ah Lin opened his New Testament and began reading from the third chapter of St John’s Gospel. When he reached the fifteenth verse he stopped.

“Black Little Sister,” he said, “do you know the next verse?” It had been the golden text, repeated by the children at the Bible service on the previous Sunday.

“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The poor dried lips slowly repeated the precious words to the end.

Then Poah and Ah Lin prayed. When they had finished Black Little Sister put his hands together and said: “Thank you, God, so much for giving your only born son, that I, a sinful one, believing on Him, might have everlasting life.” Then the room was very quiet, for the boy was tired and neither Poah nor Ah Lin could speak a word.

Soon after this the fever died out of Black Little Sister’s face and eyes. The fight was over. He had left the narrow room and its useless idols, and gone to the home of love and everlasting life.

Whilst Poah told the story to the good teacher, he cried for joy and sorrow, until the tears ran down his cheeks.

In the fourth moon of the next year, the plague came to the city once more. On the 15th, Yo-ah was taken ill after morning school. When his minister went to see him, he said:

“Please do not say anything to my father about my sickness, for I am the last of six brothers, and if he were to hear that I was ill, he would be so sorry.”

But the minister of course felt he must send for the father as quickly as possible.

When Poah reached the school he found Yo-ah sitting in bed reading his Bible. He seemed bright enough, and had just finished doing up accounts for one of the Christians, who had been out selling fish.

“What is wrong with you, Yo-ah?” asked his father.

“I have only got a small lump above my leg, which pains me a little, father.”

The doctor came presently and gave the boy some medicine, but the medicine did not seem to have much effect.

That evening Yo-ah felt poorly. “If the fever does not go down to-night I will certainly be in Heaven to-morrow, father,” said Yo-ah.

Next morning Yo-ah looked so much better that Poah was very glad and exclaimed to one of his friends, “I took a straw rope for a serpent this time,” meaning that he had been frightened by his boy’s illness when there was no reason to be afraid.

During the day one of the schoolboys, a great friend of Yo-ah’s, went to see him. The sick lad was very glad to see him, and said: “Ah! So-and-so, you will go on to the middle school by-and-by. Afterwards you must give yourself to God’s service and work for Him.”

“You, too, must work for God, Yo-ah,” answered his friend.

“The Lord is not going to leave me long in this world,” said Yo-ah.

After this he begged one of his uncles to believe in Christ and find safety in Him. He also spoke to several of his friends asking them to give up things which they knew to be wrong in their fives. To one, who was careless about money, he said, “Brother Lin, you ought to live more sparingly. How can you glorify God when you are constantly in debt and people have to dun you for money at the end of the year?”

His father, seeing that though Yo-ah looked better, he acted like one about to leave this world, said to him:

“If you die, I will go and hang myself.”

“Daddy, if you do what Judas did, then after my death, we two, father and son, will never see each other any more. You must live for God and tell people His truth with all your might when I am gone.”

After this he spoke much with his father, asking him to be faithful to Christ. When noon came he stopped talking, saying, “Now all is finished.”

His poor father was very sorry and tried to speak to him, but all that Yo-ah would say after this was “Submit, gladly submit,” repeating the words over and over again, meaning that his father ought to be willing to let him go if God took him.

By seven o’clock that evening Yo-ah was restless, throwing himself from one side of the bed to the other. His father sat by, trying to soothe and quiet him, and as he watched through the dragging minutes he cried to God, for he was not willing that his only son should die.The bell rang for evening prayer in the church, next door to the school. The poor man in his sore trouble wished to go to the service, but dared not leave the sick-room, fearing that Yo-ah might roll from the bed and fall upon the ground.

A change passed over him and a new calm came into his heart. He fell upon his knees in front of the bed and prayed:

“O, God! I submit to Thy will. I pray Thee to let my child go home in peace.”

He rose from the ground. The restless tossing had stopped. Yo-ah was lying still upon the bed. After one long look the poor father went into the church. The service was nearly over when he entered the building and the minister was just saying, “If anyone wishes to lead us in prayer, let him do so.” Poah began: “O God, I thank Thee for having given me this son to care for these fifteen years. Now Thou hast taken him home to Thyself. I gladly submit to Thy will. Only please help me to remember, and to do all that he spoke of when he talked to me.”

At the close of the service the people knew that Yo-ah had ‘crossed over’ to the better land. Some of them wished to try to comfort his father, but they were all so grieved for him that no one could find a word to say. Poah, whose face was very calm, began to comfort them instead. He told them what Yo-ah had said, and asked them to join with him in submitting to the will of God.

That year plague raged in the city and many people died. One of the minister’s sons, a boy of ten, sickened and died without a word. When Poah heard of it he said: “God has indeed been merciful to me. If my boy had died like this without comforting me, what should I have done?” Yo-ah’s father, who now seemed to live only for the good of others, went everywhere to help with the sick and dying. Next year he became an elder of the church, which he served most faithfully. A year later, the plague came again, and joyfully submitting to God’s will he, too, went home to be with Jesus.