Page 29 - incense-bearers of han

“Come along in and have some hot tea and rice and we shall discuss everything at

our leisure!” was the rejoinder of the host.

Here began a visit of several weeks, during which the scholar Chu expounded
enthusiastically to a solid and truculent Hu the revelation of the Grace of God in

Christ.

Visibly softened though yet unconvinced, it was midway of the second month
before Elder Hu returned to the fenced village of Hu, laden with a Bible and several

commentaries written by Faber, an early German missionary who had become a
master scholar of Chinese. These he promised his friend Chu to read carefully.

“The marvelous logic of the Book of Romans under the guidance of the scholar

Faber, laid hold upon me,” Mr. Hu told me in after years. “It was superb!
Unanswerable! Unique! I fell down on my knees and confessed my sin and Christ my
Savior, and wrote a letter to my friend Chu saying, „I too have now believed in the
Christ of Calvary, the Mediator between God and man.”

Rarely if ever have we encountered such deep devotion to the oracles of God—to
the Person of Christ! Such a lofty concept of the undiluted Grace of God! Such tender
solicitude that others should be informed of it.

The autocrat abdicated, the ambassador of Christ succeeded.
The humblest farm-hand yet with the dust of the fields upon him would be invited
to a seat of honor as the Elder Hu (in later years becoming lame in one foot) hobbled

on crutches to pour tea for him, after which he would tell him of the Grace of God in
Christ.

His wisdom as village father was enhanced after he came into fellowship with the

Source of Wisdom. The rest of the country was scourged with bandits. The largest
villages had been raided and looted and the leading citizens carried off for ransom, the
local militia helpless to withstand the onslaught of the desperadoes.

But Elder Hu out-maneuvered them. He picked a brave and able man for Sergeant
of Militia, and commanded that the men should be carefully selected, well-paid and
adequately uniformed and equipped, and that the men should be constantly and
carefully schooled in marksmanship. The bravery, efficiency and deadly aim of the

militia detachment of the Hu village were so noised abroad that the town became a

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