Days of Grace in Manchuria

Author Unknown

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”

IN the previous pages the story of the gracious movement in the Manchurian Church has been limited to Mukden and its outposts. The movement, however, was not confined to that city; it spread like a flame of fire to all the places whither Mr. Goforth went, and to many places whither he could not go, so that Liaoyang, Hsinminfu, Kuangning, Chinchou, Haicheng, Fakumen, Tieling, Hailungcheng, Kwan-chengtze, the port of Newchwang, and their out-stations, have all shared in the blessing.

Before describing this extension it may be interesting here to say something more in detail regarding the inception of this great movement, and the man through whom, in the providence of God, this signal blessing came to us, the methods he used, and the message he brought. I have been asked about the “previous preparation.” I am not aware of any special preparation. Some of us, were quite unprepared; we were not waiting for it in any sense whatever. We, were not, if the truth were told, much interested in it, and had no great enthusiasm for missions of the kind! As for the Chinese Christians, such a special mission, although not entirely a new thing, did not evoke any great sense of the necessity for special preparation. So, if the question be asked “What did you do beforehand in the way of making preparation for this great movement? “my answer must be ‘We did nothing! We may have been wrong; I think we were very wrong. We have received much one wonders how much we have lost by neglecting the very necessary previous heart-searching, repentance, and prayer.

Having said this, it must be added that, for a year or more, there had been, deep in the hearts of many of the missionaries and Chinese Christians, a sense of great need, a dissatisfaction with existing conditions within the Church, and a longing for better days. So far back as the Presbytery meeting of I906 (our first meeting after the war), we heard with profound interest of remarkable spiritual movements in other parts of China, and at our Presbytery meeting the previous year, when visitors from Korea told us of the work of grace there, the Chinese brethren were deeply stirred, and the Presbytery at once resolved itself into a prayer-meeting to invoke similar blessing on Manchuria. For two years there had been a prayer-meeting of all the ladies of the mission once a fortnight, when prayer was constantly offered for Revival. From Liaoyang two men were sent to Korea to see the work for themselves; and these men, returning before the mission began, were of immense service in Liaoyang, Mukden, and elsewhere. When the time for Mr. Goforth’s coming to Mukden drew near, although there were no special prayer-meetings held, Mr. Liu, the respected minister of the Mukden congregation, made use of the ordinary course of worship to impress the people with the importance of prayer, in view of the forthcoming meetings.

The coming of Mr. Goforth, one might say, was a pure accident. Rev. Dr. Mackay, of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, was on a visit to China in connection with the Centenary Conference in Shanghai. In the course of the summer he visited Korea to see at first hand the wonderful work there, and took Mr. Goforth along with him as his travelling companion. On their return they passed through Manchuria and visited Mukden, spending one Sabbath day there. Mr. Goforth preached to the Christian congregation, and rehearsed something of what they had been privileged to see in Korea. Such was the impression produced, that the desire was expressed that he might see his way to come back, and conduct a special mission with a view to the quickening of the spiritual life of the Christian community of Mukden. Nothing, however, was definitely arranged; in a day or two the travellers left Mukden, and, dropping off at Liaoyang, spent a short time there. Without having had an opportunity of speaking to the people of Liaoyang the desire was again expressed that Mr. Goforth might visit Manchuria later in the year, and conduct a series of special meetings for the Chinese Christians. For the first time the thought impressed itself on Mr. Goforth’s mind that it might be in the line of duty, for him to come. Negotiations were begun, and ended in the Presbytery of Honan generously granting Mr. Goforth’s services to the Church in Manchuria, for the space of two weeks. This time limit was afterwards extended to six weeks. Thus it was that Mr. Goforth came to Manchuria, being “ sent!”

Mr. Goforth is Canadian born. His father is a Yorkshireman and his mother emigrated from the north of Ireland. He was educated in Knox College, Toronto, sitting at the feet of the late Principal Cavan. He was the pioneer missionary of the Presbyterian Church of Canada on the mainland of China. For many years that Church had been carrying on a successful mission on the Island of Formosa, but it was only in 1886 that work was begun in China proper, in the province of Honan. During the previous years, there had been a wonderful revival of missionary interest and zeal in two of the principal theological colleges of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, and as a result of this movement each of these colleges undertook the support of one missionary, for the new field. Mr. Goforth was chosen by his own College as their representative, and arrived in China just twenty years ago. He has thus had the benefit of that kind of training only to be obtained in pioneer work in a new field, a training which peculiarly fits him for the new duty which God in His providence seems to have called him to fulfil.

In common with all his colleagues, Mr. Goforth passed through a very trying experience during the Boxer uprising in China. It will be remembered that the Honan missionaries had to flee for their lives. During a most exciting and perilous journey of over twenty days, the party was attacked by an armed mob, and had a miraculous escape. Some were severely wounded, Mr. Goforth receiving sword cuts on the head. For a whole day and night, Mrs. Goforth and he lost trace of their little boy, and had all but given up hope of ever seeing him again. In schools like these he has been taught to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ; he has learned patience, forbearance, and tactfulness in dealing with the Chinese, and above all the meaning and power of prayer.

During these twenty, years in Honan, Mr. Goforth and his colleagues have laid the foundation of, and built up a Christian institution on Evangelical lines, having had as their aim from the first a self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating Church. In all this work Mr. Goforth has had much success. In his evangelistic work he has sought to reach, not only, the illiterate or moderately educated classes, who are most susceptible to missionary influence, but the students and scholars of his district; knowing well that in order to bring about the regeneration of the Chinese empire, the men of influence must be brought into living touch with the redeeming principles of the Christian faith. In all this he has shown a breadth of vision and a sympathetic appreciation of the real missionary problem in China, which, together with great and good common-sense, knowledge of the Chinese language, literature and peoples, simple faith, and apostolic zeal, places Mr. Goforth in the front rank of Presbyterian missionaries in the Empire of China.

And his message? It is a simple, plain, old-fashioned one.

To begin with, we learned much of the story, of the Korean Church. We heard of the Revival movement through which it has passed, the rapid progress of Christianity in the Hermit Kingdom, the amazing increase of converts, the strength and independence of the Churches, the number of schools and colleges, all established within the past few years, and all self-supporting. We soon learned to our cost that the preacher was as well versed in our statistics as in that of the Korean Church, and there followed a merciless comparison between the progress there and here during the last decade; a very striking, humbling contrast.

While he was sorry to disillusion us if we imagined we were doing well, Mr. Goforth felt it imperative to assure us that he had not come to Manchuria to praise up missions. He asked us to seriously inquire what was the meaning of this extraordinary, difference between Manchuria and Korea, in the spiritual sense. We could not explain matters by saying that the work had beep hindered in Manchuria by long-continued unrest and the turmoils of wars and insurrections. Korea has had her own share of wars and insurrections. Nor was the explanation to be found in the political situation, the bondage of the Korean people, and their galling yoke, driving them to embrace a foreign cult, in the hope that the Western powers would step in to deliver an oppressed and helpless people. On the other hand, the Church has stood out as the leader of anti-revolution, and shown a loyalty to the authorities and a forbearance under oppression which has been an example to the whole body of the people. It is not to these things that we must look for an explanation of what has taken place in the Korean Church. “ Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”

One has heard it said that in every great Revival movement there has been some particular truth on which emphasis has been laid. Thus, in 1859-60 it was “Ye must be born again.” In 1873-75 it was “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” The point of Mr. Goforth’s message on which the emphasis rested was this “It is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” This doctrine, presented in many aspects, reiterated and amply illustrated, certainly formed the distinguishing theme of Mr. Goforth’s ministry in Manchuria.

The holiness of God, the exceeding sinfulness and destructive nature of sin, the absolute helplessness of man without God’s Holy Spirit, the possibility, of keeping back the Holy Spirit from working His miraculous work in and through us — these were the preacher’s principal subjects. He did not deal in abstract theories about the work of the Holy Spirit. “I speak that I do know, and testify that I have seen,” is what he seemed to say. There was a note of certainty about it all. He says nothing of which he is not perfectly sure, and then he declares it with all his might. He believes that idolatry and superstition are not the fruits of the Spirit and he says so. And he equally believes that men who have given up these practices and have become nominal — even baptized — professors, may yet be the enemies of His Cross. He believes that enmity and hatred, jealousy and suspicion, uncleanness and lasciviousness, falsehood and dishonesty, pride and hypocrisy, worldliness and avarice, are not the fruits of the Holy Spirit of God, and that while these things are cherished and sanctioned in the hearts of men and women who name the name of Christ, no blessing can come such as came to the Church in Korea.

There was no doctrine of the Atonement unfolded. The Cross was not the preacher’s theme, though it burned like a living fire in the heart of every address. Neither was there any lurid picture of torment everlasting, held up to strike terror into the hearts of sinners. That which oppressed the minds and hearts of the penitent was not the future punishment of the wicked. That thought may have been present to them, but seldom did one hear it expressed. Their minds seemed full of the thought of unfaithfulness, of ingratitude to the Lord who had redeemed them, of the heinous sin of trampling on His love.
“Sorrow and grief replace my bliss,
I have no wish that any joy should be,
I have no room for any thought but this
That I have sinned, have sinned, have grieved Thee.”

It was this that pricked them to the heart, moved them to the very depths of their moral being, and caused multitudes to break out into a lamentable cry “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

The special mission began in the city, of Liaoyang on February I0th, and continued for a week. As I have already stated, two of the Liaoyang evangelists had been to Korea. They came back “on fire,” and on the Sabbath previous to Mr. Goforth’s arrival had told the people of what they had heard and seen. During the latter half of Mr. Goforth’s visit there was a signal manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and many were moved to penitence and prayer. The outposts of the mission were subsequently visited by Chinese deputies from Liaoyang, great blessing following the preachers as they went from place to place. On their return to Liaoyang, they rehearsed to the congregation what they had seen in the provinces, and another series of meetings was begun, continuing for a week. The work in the out-stations and this second week in Liaoyang are well described in a letter written in English to Mrs. Macintyre of Haicheng, by one of her old pupils, Mr. Lin Yun Sheng (now one of the assistants in the Liaoyang hospital).

I cannot do better than quote from this quaint epistle. Mr. Lin writes (I give it verbatim) ‘The meetings of Revival are very interesting. When Mr. Goforth went away from Liaoyang, Mr. Douglas sent some of the evangelists to the other stations to conduct meetings there. Through the help of the Spirit they did it very well. The effect was so great that all the Church members got roused. Their eyes brightened so that they could see the dirt as of a leper all over them. They went up to Jesus one by one, cried for mercy, and owned their faults and sins. This great sight even touched the conscience of the outsiders. They knew their burdens were heavy enough to put them to death, but they did not know what to do. So they asked the evangelists if they could be saved. They were told Jesus is not partial. He came to the world for nothing but sinners. He is only, too pleased to see sinners repent, and will receive every one who cares to yield himself. So they own their sin and become Christians immediately. And when the evangelists came back they thought Liaoyang should have meetings again, so they, gathered all the members at the Church on Sunday, but there was no effect whatever.

“On Monday we had other two meetings. The first one was very quiet, but at the second which lasted two hours, just before the meeting was closed, Elder Liu went up to the pulpit. He looked long at the members with great dignity. This made the members give their best attention to him. All waited anxiously, for his speech. He said very few words, and then began to weep in very agony, looking so that no one who saw him could bear it. The room was filled with the voice of crying. Many of the members and schoolboys owned their sins.

“On Tuesday we continued the meetings and the effect was even greater. There were more people who owned their greatest crimes. The meetings on Wednesday were very much the same, but still a great many, did not give their greatest burdens to our gracious Saviour. On Thursday, two outsiders came. It was the first time, they had been in church. The first went before the pulpit. He knelt and cried. He said ‘I have much more sin than all the others. I am the chief bad man in my village. I used to persuade my village to go to law with others . . . I will not do any thing like this again.’ Then he asked all the members to pray for him. So we obeyed and prayed for him. When all had finished he said in a low voice, ‘K’o Liao Pu Teh’ (‘It is terrible’). I hope he will soon become a Christian. Another outsider said he was an undutiful son to his parents.

“And now I am not afraid to tell you of one more who has been a [professed] Christian for a long time, but he did not do his duty. He, too, owned his sin. You would have been sorry for him if you had been present, for he is a friend of yours.” (He then goes into particulars of his fault, showing how he had involved a relative.) He was sorry, not only that he had sinned himself, but because his relative had sinned through him. Now you will deny that you have a friend like this, but you have, and he will sign his name at the end of this letter! My dear Mrs. Macintyre, I hope our great Lord will take up my great burden and deliver me. Will you be kind enough to mention my name in your prayers, and let me sin no more!”
Of the movement in Liaoyang, Rev. George Douglas (of the United Free Church of Scotland Mission) writes

“There are manifestations of a profound conviction and confession of sin, accompanied by great emotion, and general pleading for mercy, and forgiveness from the whole body of the people, and a sense of responsibility for the heathen around. There are abject confessions of secret idolatry, fraud, theft, adultery, opium-smoking, gambling, various forms of deceit, resistance to the Spirit, and indifference to the salvation of souls. These are made before the whole congregation, and in great distress. It has been a most awe-inspiring and humbling experience for all. Even outsiders have been drawn into the tempest of confession and prayer, and in some cases great fear has fallen on the neighbourhood. They say ‘What has come over the Christians? Yamen torture could not draw confessions such as these from human lips, and they are respectable people enough!’ ‘Don’t go near them,’ say others; ‘their Spirit has come down, and He is irresistible! You will be drawn in before you know it.’ ”