Page 36 - incense-bearers of han

that worldly group, and greatly preferred to remain at home. I told them that I enjoyed

the company of little David.

“They then upbraided me, not too unkindly, for my fanaticism in adhering to a set
of outworn dogmas, and thus threatening to „spoil‟ my life. My father went on to

assure me that he and my mother had once thought there was something to all that,
but that after going to America and sitting at the feet of the great professors in the
universities, they had been convinced by them that the Bible was merely Hebrew
folk-lore, filled with errors and superstition, and of no practical value to the

intellectual people of the modern age. „Yes indeed,‟ put in my mother „I being the
daughter of Pastor Ding Li-Mei, was nurtured in the doctrines of Christianity, but
have been thoroughly disillusioned in the course of my education. It is not good
enough, Lena, to waste your life on.‟ I replied, „My dear parents, I highly regard your

conclusions in most things, but I must say that if all the university professors in
America unite to declare that the Bible is untrue, it cannot alter the fact that Jesus
Christ dwells in me, and I am saved by faith in Him and His blood shed for me on the
Cross. And, my dear parents, Christ is very much grieved with you two, because

having been taught of Him, you have cast it aside and have turned back to the world
and its pleasures. Until I came home little David had not been taught anything about
the Lord Jesus, but now he loves to pray and sing Gospel choruses. You both love
little David very much, so sometimes I wonder if the Good Shepherd is not going to

be compelled some day to take His little lamb back to the Father‟s House, in order
that the sheep may return to His path,‟” The meaning of the last statement was too
obvious to be missed. It was a bold thrust, but uttered with such quiet earnestness and
respect that no offense could be taken. The conversation was thereby terminated.

It was a week later; Lena had returned to her studies in Nanking and the other three
were scattered to other places. Mrs. Yin was in the parlor playing the piano. Little
David was playing in the room. The mother, occupied with her music, failed to

observe David slip out of the room. Presently, she turned to speak to him and, seeing
that he was not in the room, went out into the hall to seek him. Not finding him there,
she called the servants and asked them if they knew where the little chap was. All
denied having seen him, saying that they thought he was with his mother, but joined

in the search for the beloved son all over the house, and spacious grounds. An hour
later they found him, but what a tragic discovery! The house was surrounded by a
deep ditch full of water, similar to a most surrounding a medieval castle. It was on the
surface of this moat that the body of little David was found floating face down! The

Good Shepherd had come and taken the little lamb back to the Father‟s House!

28