Page 43 - incense-bearers of han
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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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