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ceremony was planned for the green lawn under the trees, but the rise of dark
threatening clouds caused a last-minute shift to the parlor. Wisdom was justified of
her children, when the clouds showed that they meant business, and we were visited
with a downpour.
Nothing could dampen the happiness of the occasion as we rejoiced in the Lord
and in those whom He had joined together.
As we look back on that felicitous occasion, it would seem that those dark clouds
were the harbingers of sorrow that was to come shortly over that particular company
and on a more comprehensive scale to foreshadow the war clouds that were to hang
heavy a brief two years off.
Those were halcyon days in Old Cathay, such as we do not expect to see again in
this age. Not for a millennium had China enjoyed the tranquility that characterized the
years from1932-1937 under the Nanking government with General Chiang-Kai-Shek
at the helm.
* * * * *
The month of June was drawing to a close. It came time for me to commence a trip
north to Peitaiho, lovely seaside resort just south of where the Great Wall meets the
Sea, and where Summer Bible Conferences were held. I went by Nanking to pay a
brief visit to our newly-weds, Lena and Jonathan, in their home. They accompanied
me to the railway station partly to escort me and partly to meet Ernest Yin who was
coming from Shanghai on the train which I would board for the North.
Ernest stepped off the train and greeted us with characteristic warmth. He informed
me with shining face that he had arranged a vacation for Arthur from his bank that he
might go North to attend the Peitaiho Conference and that Grace would join him in
Nanking and she also would go.
“They will leave on this same train tomorrow night! I wanted them to go with you
tonight, but they could not get away quite so soon.”
I thought of that later and considered how differently things might have turned out
if they had been with me that night instead of delaying a day.
The other brother “Tao-Yung” or James, who had been saved in Kaifeng, had been
asked to be a secretary at the Peitaiho Conference. He met me on the station platform
th
when I arrived in Peitaiho that Saturday afternoon of June 30 . When I told him that
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