(Concluded from page 365.)
WE closed the former part of our sketch with a reference to Mr. Hsi’s pathetic parting with Mr. David Hill, the missionary, who had been instrumental in his conversion, but who had now, early in the year 1880, to leave P’ing-yang—the scene of his labours for a period of two years—to go to his mission in Central China.
The missionary and Mr. Hsi had only been together for a short time—a little over two months, but much had transpired. A soul had been called out of the heathen darkness into the marvellous light of the gospel in the person of this gifted Confucianist. He had also obtained a remarkable deliverance from the opium vice, and a definite call to the work of the Lord. The latter privilege was still hid in his own breast, but it made itself manifest in due time. Not but signs of coming usefulness were even then showing themselves. He had written two tracts entitled, “How to obtain deliverance from Calamity,” and “The Ten Commandments of God,” which were widely circulated, and he had adopted what may appear to us a very strange and almost startling title, Sheng-mo, or Demon-Overcomer. The adoption of new names, at important periods in men’s lives, seems to be a custom in China, and Mr. Hsi, evidently deeply impressed with the victory he had obtained by grace over the great adversary, signalises this memorable point in his history by the adoption of this significant name, throwing down, as Mrs. Howard Taylor so well puts it, “in the strength of his new Master, the gauntlet to his old enemy.” For, although the title may seem at first sight of a boastful character, yet there is nothing in Hsi’s life that suggests anything of this spirit. Everything points to the fact that he was a man who had learned to live entirely in dependence upon strength from above. At the same time, it cannot be doubted that Hsi regarded the Christian life from the start of his spiritual career as very largely a conflict—a warfare with sin and Satan. Naturally high-minded and courageous, he goes forth, in the strength of grace, to wage war with the powers of darkness. A Scottish missionary who saw much of him, bears the following testimony to his experience:—”He knew well what temptations meant. He dealt with God; and if one may say so, dealt with Satan too. For he had strange experiences at times, that used to remind one of Luther in the Wartburg. But in all such conflicts he had learned to overcome upon his knees. With prayer and fasting he fought the tempter. Indeed, whatever the trouble was he seemed to resort at once to this scriptural practice.” It may be said, indeed in a word, that in Mr. Hsi our readers will understand that they have no ordinary man, Christian, or missionary to deal with. Much of the life he now begins to live stands so high above the ordinary level of Christian character and activity that we can only look on with wonder and admiration. Not that he was by any means perfect, but he attained to such a loftiness of faith in Christ through much prayer and anguish, and remarkable answers to his requests, that he appears more like a prophet or an apostle than an ordinary Christian. He was manifestly a man called of God for a special work, and he obtained special and abundant grace for the performance of it.
It is impossible for us here to go into all the details of his life after conversion. We shall only mention a few particulars, that may be sufficient in such a sketch as this to show what manner of man he was, and the work he accomplished, by the grace of God. It was by gradual steps that he was led on to active and extensive service for Christ in preaching the gospel over a wide area of his native province, and in opening and conducting numerous opium refuges. His first efforts began in his own home. Mrs. Hsi was at the beginning bitterly opposed to her husband’s acceptance of the Christian religion, but the remarkable change in his life affected her deeply, and she began to recognise that Christianity was not a mere name but a power for good. She was gradually beginning to see eye to eye with him when a strange and alarming event took place. China is a land of evil spirits, and as far as we can see, this is no mere imagination but a certain fact. Demonic possession in a physical way seems almost as great a reality there as it was in Palestine in the days of Christ. Suddenly Mrs. Hsi fell under the influence of some evil power which carried her “quite out of herself,” and “especially when the time came for daily worship” cast her “into paroxysms of ungovernable rage.” “Sometimes she would rush into the room, like one insane, and violently break up the proceedings, or would fall insensible on the floor, writhing in convulsions that resembled epilepsy.” Her husband’s faith as “conqueror of demons” was now put to the severest test. His neighbours who had become favourably impressed with the new religion, now turned round and began to mock him. “Let us see what his faith can do now,” they cried. And it appeared for a time as if all was hopeless. Local doctors could do nothing, and the prayers of Hsi seemed to get no answer. At last he called for a special fast of three days and nights in his household, and anew gave himself to prayer on behalf of the sufferer, with the result that he was enabled to lay hold on the promises of God for a complete deliverance. And then we are told “he went to his distressed wife, and laying his hands upon her, in the name of Jesus, commanded the evil spirits to depart and torment her no more. Then and there the change was wrought. To the astonishment of all except her husband, Mrs. Hsi was immediately delivered,” and “never again suffered in this way.” As we may well suppose, “the effect upon the villagers was startling.” They had never seen or heard of a cure of demon-possession, and this miraculous event had the effect of turning some of them to the Lord, along with Mrs. Hsi, who became a decided Christian. Hsi’s faith in the power of Christ was now greatly strengthened and he began to take a special interest in the spiritual welfare of some neighbouring villages, where one or two persons had already embraced Christianity. Here he went preaching the gospel in farm houses, and here also, wonderful to relate, he prayed and laid hands on the sick and they recovered. This latter phase of his work may seem incredible to many in these sceptical days, but the reality of it is sufficiently vouched. Let it be clearly understood that Hsi was never taught by any of the missionaries “to expect the working of miracles.” He was manifestly led to look for wonderful works of God in answer to prayer, in the very simplest way. Brought into a great strait and alone in his home, with no teacher to direct him, he was cast entirely on the Lord for help, and was led to take the words of Christ, as applicable to believers in later as well as in primitive times:—”These signs shall follow them that believe: in my name they shall cast out devils . . . they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” Some such things we have heard of in Reformation times, and even at a later date in our own country. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” His power is unchangeable, and while we do not look now for miracles in the strictest sense of the word, yet we know not how much is being accomplished at this moment in the bodies as well as souls of men in answer to prayer, and through the name of the Lord Jesus. Hsi’s early Christian labours in the villages stirred up much persecution, but he was a man of action as well as a man of words, and though in after years he disapproved of appeals to the law for redress, at this time he brought the treaties with England and America for the safety of Christians to bear upon the persecutors, and succeeded in getting the authorities to restore law and order and peace.
It is interesting to learn that Hsi’s Christian character and life began slowly but surely to tell in a marked way upon his fellow villagers. They saw that they had a man of great energy, experience, and moral rectitude among them, and about a year or so after he was converted the chief men of the village actually requested him to take the headship of the community. Hsi saw great difficulties in the way, and stated several objections from his Christian position, but “refusals were all unavailing;” he was unanimously elected; and at last, on two conditions, he consented to accept the office. The conditions were, first, that he would have nothing to do with the idol-worship, and secondly, that the whole village would take up the same attitude, and “promise that no public worship of the gods be held throughout the year.” The first stipulation was at once agreed to, but the second threw the men into great trouble, and seemed an impossible one; but, strange to say, after some time for reflection, they accepted it also, and for three whole years Hsi acted as headman of the village, the temple was closed, and the village prospered. He was again elected at the end of the third year, but his Christian activities had now multiplied to such an extent that he definitely refused the office.
Hsi found at an early stage in his Christian career that he would require to act the part of a philanthropist as well as a preacher of the gospel. The new converts were much persecuted. They often were deprived of the means of livelihood through their acceptance of Christ, and Hsi felt it was his Christian duty to help them in every way that he could. Many came considerable distances to hear the gospel; they were mostly poor, and though they brought some little food with them, there was abundant scope for Hsi’s hospitality. And further, what was still more serious, there was the terrible opium vice to contend with, which had become almost universal in the province. Hsi knew what this evil meant by sad personal experience, and his sympathies went out towards the victims. He gave any medicines he had to such as came to him, but it was not until a remarkable incident took place in his experience that he entered upon the extensive opium refuge work which became latterly so prominent a feature of his life. This we may relate as follows:—Hsi had a knowledge of Chinese drugs, and finding that his various efforts on behalf of his weaker brethren proved a serious drain on his financial resources, he decided to open a drug store in the village of Tengts’uen, only five miles from his home. This he also employed as a centre of missionary work. A man of the name of Fan, who here visited him, came under the power of Christianity, and became useful to others at his village twenty miles distant. Fan in his missionary efforts saw that he would require to assist men to give up the opium habit, and received numbers who placed themselves in his hands for a cure. The medicines were supplied by Mr. Drake, a foreign missionary in the neighbouring city of P’ing-yang, but on one occasion they ran short—Mr. Drake had gone away a considerable journey, and there were none to be had. Just at this crisis Hsi happened to appear on the scene. Though he had seen and used these medicines, Hsi had never compounded any. Fan, however, earnestly entreated him to do what he could to help, as the patients were in sore straits. Hsi was deeply impressed that the work was of God, and telling Fan to give the men the medicines he had left, he wended his way back again to his own place, fervently praying that the Lord would make a path out of the difficulty. At last, the thought came to him that the Lord might use his knowledge of the native drugs for the compounding of an opium remedy, and “with prayer and fasting” he waited upon the Lord and besought Him to help him and to direct him to the proper ingredients. Wonderful to say, “it all came to him just how these pills were to be made,” and after making them, he hastened back to the refuge, and “he and Fan together, assured that this remedy was of God, administered it to the patients. It proved an entire success, and with grateful hearts they gave Him all the praise.” This striking providence led Mr. Hsi from one step to another to engage in the opening of numerous refuges for victims of the opium habit, until he had forty-five under his supervision at the time of his death. But his great object was not so much salvation from opium, as salvation from sin, and he had no confidence in the final and effectual reformation of any unless they gave evidence that they had embraced Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the lost.
It was in 1886, six years after his conversion, and a considerable time after he was engaged in his strenuous labours, that he was regularly ordained as a pastor of the Church in and around the city of Hung-tung. Long before this the people in the many places he visited looked upon him as their shepherd, and some of them did not hesitate to speak of him as pastor, though he was only an elder in the ordinary sense of the word. But such was the humility of Hsi, and his regard for the glory of Christ, that he disclaimed the title, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the missionaries prevailed with him to be ordained pastor at all. The following passage from his pen will show the spirit which animated him both before and after his ordination. “The devil,” he writes, “seeing that God was using me during these three or four years by the power of the Holy Spirit, sought to involve me in pride and self-consciousness. He caused ignorant men to address me as ‘Pastor,’ and I could not stop them. Some even behind my back went so far as to speak of me as the ‘Living Jesus.’ I knew that all this was just the devil’s scheme to get me to take glory to myself and forsake the Cross of Christ. Therefore, I humbled myself still more, and sought to have in all things the heart of a bond-slave, exercising my whole strength to lead men to repent and forsake sin, and thus yield no place to the devil. Not that I was able of myself to do this; it was all and only through the grace of God.”
Though Pastor Hsi was the remarkable man that he was, his work was not all success. He had many difficulties and disappointments to meet. Some of his most hopeful converts proved false, and even rose up against him in the most bitter and malicious manner, and would have killed him if they could. His journey was through fire and water, but his latter end was peace, and he died on the 18th day of February, 1896, at the age of 61, mourned by hundreds who had learned to love and revere him as a father in the Gospel. There was no disease, no pain—only a decay of the vital powers as the result of the unremitting toils and self-denying labours of crowded years spent in the service of Christ. His career was comparatively brief, but he accomplished more by Divine grace in a short time than many men together do in long lifetimes. This can only be fully understood by readers of his biography. It was evident that the Lord was with him.
Pastor Hsi possessed the literary gift, and wrote some sixty hymns in his own language. The following touching verses were composed “at a time when funds were low, and there was a good deal of persecution and distress, as well as the prospect of famine.” They may fittingly close our sketch:—
Through the faith,
Grown so poor!
How can I but be sad?
Think of Christ
Born so low!
And then my heart is glad.
Chorus.
Jesus gives me peace,
Jesus gives me peace.
The peace that Jesus gives
Unlike the joys of this world,
None can take away:
It is the peace of heaven.
For the truth,
Treated ill,
How can I but be sad?
Think of Christ
Crowned with thorns!
And then my heart is glad.
For “Good News”
Pass through pain;
How can I but be sad?
Think of Christ
Scourged and torn!
And then my heart is glad.
For the Church
In sore straits;
How can I but be sad?
Think of Christ
On the Cross!
And then my heart is glad.
Further Resolution anent Opium Traffic.
A Committee of the Southern Presbytery have sent copies of the following resolution to the Prime Minister and Mr. John Morley, M.P., Secretary for India:—”This Presbytery humbly prays the Government to eschew the danger of allowing any private interests in the Indo-Chinese opium traffic to interfere with our national and moral responsibility to the Chinese Government relative to the vigorous measures they are taking to suppress said traffic. Such private interests have been allowed in the past to prevent the Government of this country from taking up an uncompromising attitude against this sinful and demoralising trade. This Presbytery is convinced that the whole British nation, except those directly interested in the trade, feels bound to suppress the opium curse at any cost, and will support the Government to the utmost in accomplishing this much-needed reform.”