n great trouble, I prayed the Lord to
grant me a clear sign of his favor by giving me a certain petition,
which affected a child in the homeland. The request was a complicated
one, including several definite details. A little more than a month
later, a letter reached me from the one for whom I had asked the Lord's
favor. She wrote joyously, telling that she had received just what I had
asked for, and in every detail as I had prayed.

* * * * *

When my husband resigned the regular field work of Changte, Honan, it
became necessary for us to find a home elsewhere. The only suitable
place, meeting all our requirements, was on the hills at Kikungshan,
South Honan. On going there to get a site for our home, though we looked
for more than a week, we could find no place. As we started down the
hill, one morning soon after midnight, I was feeling our failure very
keenly, for we had given up our old home. When my husband saw how bad I
felt, as he told me later, he began to cry earnestly to the Lord to give
us a site. And before we reached the station the assurance had come that
we would get a place. A friend on the train, traveling third class, saw
us getting on the second class, and came in for a few words before
getting off the train. When he heard we had failed to get a site, he
said:

"I know of a beautiful site which our Mission is reserving for a future
missionary. I'll ask them to give it to you."

A few days later the treasurer of this Mission wrote us that they had
unanimously and gladly voted to give us the site.

I am now writing these closing words in our God-given home, built on
this beautiful site, one of the most lovely spots to be found in China.
So from this quiet mountain retreat, a monument of what God can give in
answer to prayer, this little book of Prayer Testimonies is sent forth.

As the past has been reviewed, and God's wonderful faithfulness
recalled, there has come a great sense of regret that I have not trusted
God more, and asked more of him, both for my family and the Chinese.
Yes, it is truly wonderful! But the wonder is not that God _can_ answer
prayer, _but that he does_, when we so imperfectly meet the conditions
clearly laid down in his Word.

In recent years I have often tested myself by these conditions, when
weeks, and perhaps months, have passed without some answer to prayer,
and there has come a conscious spiritual sagging. As the discerning soul
can