More than candles

(Estimated reading time: 15 minutes)

On Thursday 19th March, I emerged from 7 days of self-isolation, after 5 days of feeling fatigued and experiencing mild symptoms (fever, dry cough…). Although I have no evidence that it was ‘the’ virus (I didn’t qualify for testing), my biggest concern was that I might have infected others with COVID-19.

6 days before my symptoms arrived, I met up with a good friend. She encouraged me to read Archibald Glover’s autobiography, ‘A Thousand Miles of Miracle in China’ and loaned me her copy. I finished reading it during my week at home.

The narrative follows the young Glover family’s journey through China at the height of the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901). Miss Caroline Gates accompanied Mr Archibald Glover, Mrs Flora Glover, Hedley Glover (4 years old) and Hope Glover (3 years old) when they fled from their mission station in Lu’an, Shansi (now Changzhi, Shanxi) on July 6th 1900. Interestingly, their escape led them to safety in Hanchow (now Wuhan), China.

The book is an outstanding and compelling testimony to the faithfulness of God towards those who put their trust in Him through times of suffering and hardship.

At one point in the autobiography, the five hide in a crater on a mountain top, ‘some three thousand feet above sea level’. The previous day, they were ‘Three times… assaulted by murderous hate with cruel violence.’ After escaping to the mountain, they spend the night in the ‘bitter cold’. As the sun begins to rise, their mountain basin offers no shelter from the ‘fierce blaze of heat’. They remain hidden and without food or water. As the hours pass, their little girl begins to cry out in thirst,

‘…as time went on, our precious little Hope was unable to control herself. Her involuntary wail, “Father! Mother! water, water!” … tore our very heart strings.’

p164

Under the full heat of the midday sun, Mrs Glover – who is in her third trimester – ‘lay prostrate… overborne in physical weakness and deeply troubled in soul.’

‘As I watched her panting and gasping for breath, with no power to alleviate her suffering beyond supporting her head, it seemed as though I heard the serpent’s hiss,

“Yea, hath God said? Where are His promised mercies and His lovingkindnesses now? Has He not forgotten to be gracious?”

The cruel taunt was winged to the heart of my beloved too; and in an agony of soul she cried out from the deep darkness,

“Oh, God has forsaken us! It can only be that we are not in His will, or He would surely never have suffered us to come to this.”

Her distress, physically, was such that I felt sure she was dying; but it was as nothing to the trouble of her soul.’

p169

Mr Glover tells of how his heart was ‘utterly broken’ before God, and yet ‘The moment of deliverance was at hand; and we were about to know what it was to “overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.”‘ (Revelation chapter 12 verse 11)

Scarcely had the words of anguish passed my precious one’s lips than God put into Miss Gate’s mouth the most wonderful song of praise I have ever heard. Kneeling by the side of her prostrate sister* and holding her hand, she poured forth passage after passage, promise after promise, from the Word, exalting His name, declaring His faithfulness, and proving His unchanging and unchangeable love, sworn to us in the everlasting Covenant and sealed to us in the Blood of His own beloved Son.

Never shall I forget the music of that heavenly utterance. It was as if heaven were open above us, and the strains of the harps of God were being borne to us from glory. My beloved Flora drank it in, oh, how eagerly! – with the avidity of a soul athirst for God, the living God. Together we drank “out of the wells of salvation” – with what joy I cannot express – deep draughts of the pure river of water of life, flowing freely to us now from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The time had come at last for Him to reveal Himself to us. Our eyes were opened, and we knew Him…

Instantly the darkness was past and the true light was shining again. The heavenly expression in her countenance of joy unspeakable and full of glory, where but a moment before it had been one of unspeakable anguish and distress, was an evident token of what God had wrought. I see her now as she looked when, with tears coursing down her cheeks, she said,

“Oh, I will never, never doubt Him again.”

And may I add here that from that moment her glorious faith never wavered for an instant, but went from strength to strength through conflict after conflict…’

*Miss Gates and Mrs Glover were not naturally related.

Have you ever come across faith like theirs?

Beaten by the relentless, burning, blistering sun. Stripped of all they owned. Hearts torn and broken by the suffering of their loved ones. And yet, revived and sustained through the gift of faith.

They are a shining example to me.

‘Faith is not a pathetic sentiment, but robust vigorous confidence built on the fact that God is holy love.’ (Oswald Chambers)

I came to faith when I was 17 years old. I was staying in a youth hostel in the suburbs of Paris. As I lay in the silent darkness of the room I was sharing that night, I received the revelation that I was nothing more than a filthy fist of rebellion against a Holy God. I cried out to Him for forgiveness, as I have done many times since. It was then that I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.

As the Coronavirus pandemic sweeps through our world like wildfire, my thirsty soul is crying out to the living God for those ‘deep draughts of the pure river of water of life’. In this vast unknown territory, I sense a desperate need to walk and live by faith, fixing my eyes moment by moment ‘…not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’ (2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 18)

On Sunday 1st March, I taught both of the children at St Michael and All Angels in Ledbury this song:

‘When the road is rough and steep,

Fix your eyes upon Jesus,

He alone has power to keep,

Fix your eyes upon Him;

Jesus is a gracious Friend,

One on whom you can depend,

He is faithful to the end,

Fix your eyes upon Him.’

Click here for the tune

We sang the words to the congregation at the end of the morning service.

In spite of the onslaught of anxious thoughts and sleepless nights, I long to live out my faith through my relationships with others, moment by moment, day by day. These anticipated weeks of lockdown will give me plenty of exercise here. Within a few days of self-isolation in the comfort of my own home, I was getting irritated and snappy with my ‘nearest and dearest’. I know from too much past experience that, if left to my own devices, I won’t consistently show love and kindness towards others – no matter how hard I try.

Thankfully, all the family have returned home and there are now 5 of us sharing a 4 bedroom house, one bathroom and a downstairs loo. One of our household is on Day 5 of self-isolation. The other 3 are symptom-free and completing their 14 days of quarantine. If I can learn – by the grace of God – to live peaceably alongside 4 very different, independent and strong-minded personalities, that will be a miracle in every sense of the word.

In fact this is one of the many miracles recorded in Mr Glover’s first-hand account: ordinary people receiving the grace to die to self-centredness and be Christ-like in their relationships with each other. Towards the end of the book 10 missionaries and their 7 children are confined together in a squalid prison. 12 of them are suffering from dysentry and some have ‘gaping, maggot-infested wounds’. As they nurse and care for each other, Mr Glover tells us,

‘A tender-heartedness, the outcome of meek submission to the will of God, which was recognised at all times to be “good, perfect and acceptable”, breathed through all our relations with one another, infusing into them withal a certain cheerfulness that killed irritability in the germ.

Even there, amid so much that tended to wretchedness, we were given “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness’; for His right hand had holden us up, and His gentleness had made us great…’

p340 (I added the italics.)

Irritability killed in the germ. I love that thought, don’t you?

They had no building to go to for a Sunday service, no bible to read (although they had memorised many bible passages by heart), no musical accompaniment or strong voices to lift their songs of praise… but what a beautiful example of church!

Read on to see how they react when faced with intense persecution and placed under severe provocation…

‘The man standing immediately in front of my wife suddenly darted forward, and seizing her left hand attempted to tear the wedding ring from her finger. In a moment the hot blood shot to my temples, and as my beloved one looked at me appealingly and closed her hand to guard the sacred symbol, all the feeling of resentment natural to the flesh rose up in me with strong temptation to strike.

But the power of God kept me, as He brought to remembrance the word, “Avenge not yourselves, but give place to wrath. Recompense to no man evil for evil,” and I just whispered, “Let it go, darling…”

So, meekly opening her hand, she yielded up the treasure. What it cost her thus to part with, and what it cost me to see her subjected to such an insult, no words can express.’

p128

That night in moonlit darkness, Miss Gates and the Glover family are surrounded again by Boxer rebels. Two of them, ‘big, stalwart young fellows’, armed with pole-axes.

The two rushed simultaneously upon the women, and seizing them at the throat tore each their upper garment from them. Miss Gates still retained a light gauze vest, but my beloved wife was left naked to the waist…

…who can measure the burning indignation of my heart’s crying sorrow…?

…I thank Him Who enabled me to pray, with them, out of a true though breaking heart, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”

p151

How astounding that they were able to genuinely pray for their attackers to be forgiven! After doing so, Mr Glover speaks to the men in Chinese and delivers ‘a righteous, pertinent and legitimate rebuke.’

‘I am bound to say that I was not prepared for the effect it produced. To my amazement the words went home like an arrow to the mark. Sullenly they took the garments and flung them back to their respective owners.’

p151

These events took place on the same night the group of 5 managed to escape, led by their faithful Chinese guide, and climb to their hiding place at the mountain’s summit.

I have so much to learn from these dear people. Oh, Lord! Find me faithful!

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‘The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 

For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.’ 

(2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 4-9)

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