He told them about a newly married young Chinese who had fallen overboard from a coastal junk into shallow water and deep mud. Taylor had rushed on deck at the splash and cry, found the crew looking helplessly at the spot where the man had disappeared. 'I leapt overboard and waded about in the hope of finding him. Unsuccessful, I looked around in agonizing suspense, and saw close to me a fishing boat with a peculiar drag-net furnished with hooks, which I knew would bring him up.
"Come and drag over this spot directly; a man is drowning just here!"
"It is not convenient."
"Don't talk of convenience! A man is drowning, I tell you!"
"We are busy fishing, and cannot come."
"Never mind your fishing," I said, "I will give you more money than many a day's fishing will bring; only come - come at once!"
"How much money will you give us?"
"We cannot stay to discuss that now! Come, or it will be too late. I will give you five dollars" (then worth about thirty shillings in English money).
"We won't do it for that," replied the men. "Give us twenty dollars, and we will drag."
"I do not possess so much; do come quickly, and I will give you all I have!"
"How much may that be?"
"I don't know exactly, about fourteen dollars."
'At last, but even then slowly enough, the boat was paddled over and the net let down. Less than a minute sufficed to bring up the body of the missing man. The fishermen were clamorous and indignant because their exorbitant demand was delayed while efforts at resuscitation were being made. But all was made in vain. Life was extinct.'
Taylor paused. He could sense hot indignation sweep the Scots at such callous indifference. Quietly he continued, 'Is the body, then, of so much more value than the soul? We condemn those heathen fishermen. We say they were guilty of the man's death - because they could easily have saved him, and did not do it. But what of the millions whom we leave to perish, and that eternally? What of the plain command, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature?"
He dilated on the value of a soul, spoke of 'a million a month...' and swiftly arrayed the mass of facts at his finger tips, to murmurs of amazement at this stark unfolding. The beliefs of his audience on heaven and hell, on the uniqueness of Christ as Saviour, on the awfulness of separation from God in this world and in eternity, were his. They knew the terms, the Biblical allusions, accepted the speaker's premises; were genuine in piety but unaware that 'spiritual sanctification' springs from unselfish action.
Taylor passed to the story of an ex-Buddhist merchant, an educated man, who had been baptized after attending the little church in Ningpo. 'He asked me soon afterwards, "How long have you known this Good News in your own country?"
"Hundreds of years."
"Hundreds of years! And yet never came to tell us! My father sought the truth, sought it long, and died without finding it. Oh, why did you not come sooner?"
Taylor began his conclusion. 'Shall we say that the way was not open? At any rate it is open now. Before the next Perth Conference twelve millions more, in China, will have passed forever beyond our reach. What are we doing to bring them the tidings of Redeeming Love? It is no use singing "waft, waft ye winds, the story." The winds will never waft the story. But they may waft us...'
I've read this story before. It's chilling.
ReplyDelete