Page 53 - incense-bearers of han

going to hell.”

The next morning I looked for the doctor in the morning service. I scanned the
audience in vain for his shining countenance. He didn‟t appear, but attended the
afternoon service, seemingly more eager than ever. Following the afternoon service,

he again came to have a conversation with me.

“You may have noticed,” he said, “that I was absent form the morning service.”

I assured him that I had taken note of it. He said, “I had my Bible in hand and was
going out the door of my house in Hankow (Hankow is across the Yangtze River from
Wuchang), but as I started out the door, it seemed as if some unseen force literally
thrust me down upon the floor in a passion of prayer for the salvation of Dr. Chow

(the mathematics professor of whom he had spoken the day before). I had hardly been
able to sleep all of Saturday night, thinking of my friend‟s near approach to eternity
without Christ. So when this overpowering burden of prayer came upon me, I knelt
there on the floor of my own room and cried aloud to God, literally weeping a puddle

of tears. The paroxysm of agony continued for about an hour. Then as suddenly as it
came, it departed, and I rose from my knees with absolute peace of heart and mind.
Looking at the clock, I saw that it was 11:30 and realized that it was too late for me
now to arrive at the morning service. So I decided simply to stay at home until time to

leave for the afternoon service.

“Now, Brother Graham, what I want to see you about is to exact a promise from
you that as soon as you are able to return down the river, you will go to Shanghai and

call on this friend of mine whose life hangs in the balance and minister Christ to him
before he goes hence.”

I promised him that I would do this at my own earliest convenience, and that if I

were delayed, I would communicate with some other Christian is Shanghai to go and
perform this ministry. That night at conclusion of the meetings, I took a ship down the
river to my home near Nanking, and after a few days of Bible conference in my own
town of Chinkiang, I boarded a train and missionary doctor who worked there, the

beloved Dr. Thornton Stearns.* Upon my arrival in Shanghai, I called Dr. Stearns over
the phone and made a date with him to go to the beside of the mathematics professor.
Promptly at 9 o‟clock the following morning, my friend met me on the steps of the
hospital. We went into the hospital office of the registrar to seek information as to the

room in which Dr. Chow would be located (the Red Cross Hospital of Shanghai has

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