How One Heathen Woman Found the Lord by Bertha L. Selmon, M.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 31, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, Nos. 43, 44.

How One Heathen Woman Found the Lord

By Bertha L. Selmon, M.D.

We have just received a letter written by one of our Chinese sisters in Hunan:

"I have truly learned to trust our heavenly Father. I can not be thankful enough for His goodness to me. My mother-in-law has come home to live with me, therefore I am unable to be in the school this year. Pray for me, that I may grow in grace, and be a witness for the Lord no matter where I am."

When I first saw this woman, seven years ago, she had never heard the Gospel. She was as unhappy as a woman could be. She was born in an educated family, and married an official's son, but he had deserted her. Her mother-in-law is one of the most wicked women I have ever seen. She cursed Shao Nai whenever occasion offered, and, had she dared, she would have beaten her; but Shao Nai's parents being well-to-do, she dared not do this.

When we arrived in Hunan, Shao Nai was living alone. She could not read, and had nothing to live for, and spent the most of her time smoking her pipe. She was then sallow looking, and her heart was full of hatred for the foreigner and the Gospel. She cursed us when we came to live in the compound next to hers.

She was then thirty-eight years old. She expected we would treat her harshly; but when we did not, her interest soon got the better of her. She would come in alone when sick people came to the dispensary, and soon she began to take an interest in that work. Later she was persuaded to learn to read. Since then she has learned the Chinese characters. She has read much of the Bible, and has become a sincere Christian. She has taught the younger girls in our school to read, and has studied some geography and mathematics herself. She learned to write the Romanized, spelling the sounds of the Chinese with our letters. No more tobacco, no more curses now; she is a happy woman, with something to live for, and enjoys working for the salvation of her sisters. She expected to be back to work in the school; but as her letter indicates, she is hindered in this by the return of her brutal mother-in-law, now old, whom she must care for in her home. Still she writes with full submission, "Pray for me, that I may be a witness for the Lord no matter where I am."

BERTHA L. SELMON, M.D.

Shanghai.