Page 47 - incense-bearers of han

CHAPTER VII - THE KEEPER OF THE TREASURY

AND THE GOVERNOR

A few short months after the passing of his son and daughter I received a letter
from Ernest Yin. After the usual greetings he made this statement: “The Lord Jesus

Christ has promoted me to be Commissioner of Finance for the Province of Honan. I
shall accept this higher position for the glory of Him Who gave me life.” Would that
we had public officials in the United States who hold office strictly as unto the Lord!

As Tax Bureau Director he had turned in four times more revenues to the central
government in Nanking than his predecessor in that office, so when the highest
finance position in the province became vacant, Ernest Yin was immediately elevated
to it. It placed him in a commanding position in the province with only the Governor
his superior.

When he assumed the office of Finance Commissioner in September the provincial
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treasury was $2,000,000 in the red. At the end of the fiscal year—June 30 of the next
year—it was $700,000 in the black. For the honestly and efficiency of his
administration, this government official, whose heart God had touched, was cited on
the front page of the Shun Pao, one of Shanghai‟s great daily newspapers, in a
conspicuous square of heavy black type.

He concluded his letter by asking me to come and speak to a company of people
whom he would invite into his home to hear the Word of God. This was what he had
done before on a smaller scale but his higher position made it possible for him to

invite any and all of the official class and the intelligentsia. Though his invitation was
in no sense intended as a mandate, it was not considered good form in those circles to
ignore such an invitation.

I was not able to go until late the next spring, but when I did the Lord honored His

Word and the zeal and devotion of Commissioner Yin. Men and women of all walks,
but all of the elite class, highly educated and returned students from the countries of
the West, heard the Word and received it. Another commissioner in the Governor‟s

cabinet and his wife were beautifully saved; first the wife and then the president of the
provincial bank, graduates of Smith College and Columbia, respectively, were saved.
The man had formerly been a notorious drunkard and gambler. The agent for the Ford
automobile for three provinces, an American University graduate, was mightily saved
and his wife with him.
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