Suffering for Jesus in the Studd family

THE young couple went straight from their wedding ceremony to open work in an inland city, Lungang-Fu. They were accompanied by Miss Burroughes, Mrs. Studd’s friend and fellow-worker, and later by Miss Edith Bewes. It was a very different China from that of to-day, danger, insult and in many cases martyrdom, was the price paid for bringing the Saviour to them.

“The first house we had was a haunted house. It was the only one we could get in that city. We were determined to go where there was no European. Of course there were no houses to be had by the foreign devils, but a wicked old man owned this house, and he let us have it, as it was haunted. It was just bare white-washed walls, and brick floors, but very unevenly bricked, with a fire-place in the centre, and a brick bed. Our mattress was a cotton-wool quilt about an inch thick. That was our bed for the first three years, until it became so infested with scorpions that we had to have it pulled down. Then we had a wooden sort of planking.

“For five years we never went outside our doors without a volley of curses from our neighbours. Gradually we got on familiar terms with the people, by allowing them to inspect our apartments, examine everything and pry into all our belongings at their own sweet will. Then when the curiosity of three months was sated, our method of reviving interest was a mixture of ritualistic practices with those of the Salvation Army—a banjo and a procession were combined.

“Everything that happened in that city the Chinese blamed on us. There was a year of drought. Our lives were at stake, for they held us responsible.

Norman Grubb, C T Studd