d to us
a seal of God upon the new life opening before us.

III

"GO FORWARD ON YOUR KNEES"

1887-1894

"I will go before thee, and make the crooked
places straight: I will break in pieces the gates
of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron"
(Isa. 45:2).

IN ATTEMPTING to record what prayer meant in our early pioneer days,
other than purely personal testimonies must be given; for we were, as a
little band of missionaries, bound together in our common needs and
dangers by a very close bond.

* * * * *

In October, 1887, my husband was appointed by the Canadian Presbyterian
Church to open a new field, in the northern section of the Province of
Honan, China. We left Canada the following January, reaching China in
March, 1888. Not till then did we realize the tremendous difficulties of
the task before us.

Dr. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, writing to us at this
time, said: "We understand North Honan is to be your field; we, as a
mission, have tried for ten years to enter that province from the
south, and have only just succeeded. It is one of the most anti-foreign
provinces in China. . . . Brother, if you would enter that province, _you
must go forward on your knees_."

These words gave the key-note to our early pioneer years. Would that a
faithful record had been kept of God's faithfulness in answering prayer!
Our strength as a mission and as individuals, during those years so
fraught with dangers and difficulties, lay in the fact that we did
realize the hopelessness of our task apart from divine aid.

* * * * *

The following incident occurred while we were still outside Honan,
studying the language at a sister mission. It illustrates the importance
of prayer from the home base for those on the field.

My husband was finding great difficulty in acquiring the language; he
studied faithfully many hours daily, but made painfully slow progress.
He and his colleague went regularly together to the street chapel, to
practise preaching in Chinese to the people; but, though Mr. Goforth had
come to China almost a year before the other missionary, the people
would ask the latter to speak instead of Mr. Goforth, saying they
understood him better.

One day, just before starting as usual for the chapel, my husband said:
"If the Lord does not give me very special help in this language I fear
I