er answered beyond all
expectation. Several very important cases came almost together, one so
serious that the doctor hesitated for days before operating. When at
last the operation did take place the doctor's hands were strengthened
by our prayers, the patient came through safely, and a few days later
was going around a living wonder to the people.

Very much depended upon the outcome of this and other serious
operations. Had the patients died under the doctor's hands, it would
have been quite sufficient to have caused the destruction of the mission
premises and the life of every missionary. Three years later the
hospital records showed that there had been twenty-eight thousand
treatments in one year.

Again, we kept praying that the Lord would give us converts from the
very beginning. We had heard of missionaries in India, China, and
elsewhere, who had worked for many years without gaining converts; but
we did not believe that this was God's will for us. We believed that it
was his pleasure and purpose to save men and women through his human
channels, and why not from the beginning? So we kept praying and working
and expecting converts, and God gave them to us. The experience of
thirty years has confirmed this belief.

Space permits the mention of but two of these earliest converts.

The first was Wang Feng-ao, who came with us into Honan as Mr. Goforth's
personal teacher. He was a man of high degree, equal to the Western M.
A., and was one of the proudest and most overbearing of Confucian
scholars. He despised the missionaries and their teaching, and so great
was his opposition that he would beat his wife every time she came to
see us or listen to our message. But Mr. Goforth kept praying for this
man, and using all his influence to win him for Christ.

Before many months passed a great change had come over Mr. Wang; his
proud, overbearing manner had changed, and he became a humble, devout
follower of the lowly Nazarene. God used a dream to awaken this man's
conscience--as is not uncommon in China. One night he dreamed he was
struggling in a deep, miry pit; but try as he would he could find no way
of escape. When about to give up in despair, he looked up and saw Mr.
Goforth and another missionary on the bank above him, with their hands
stretched out to save him. Again he sought for some other way of escape;
but finding none, he allowed them to draw him up.

This man, later on, became Mr. Goforth's most valued e