Page 61 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 61
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
interesting talk on the history of ancient China in connection with
Chinese Turkestan. We felt like privileged students listening to a
great teacher, and we learned more from one of the greatest
travellers in Chinese Turkestan in a few hours than we could have
done in as many years if left to ourselves. We were specially
interested to know that the Great Wall does not end, as everybody
thinks, at Jiayuguan, but much further into Central Asia, and it was
more to protect the Great Silk Road, the ancient trade route between
China and the west, than to keep other nations out. The wall was
guarded against Mongol and Tibetan robbers who frequently came
down to attack traders along the road. I wonder if the Apostle Paul
may not have heard of the trade route to China and planned to carry
the Gospel along it before he was directed instead to Europe?"
I have in my possession two volumes of the "Ruins of Desert Cathay" written by Aurel Stein which
were Arthur Moores and in which he preserved a personal letter written to him after their meeting on
this occasion.
Arthur and Percy were strongly tempted to stay longer in Anxi, encouraged by a long talk with the
military official there who seemed genuinely interested in the Gospel, and by a warm invitation to visit
and preach the Gospel in all the villages within one hundred li of the city. But with Mr. Hunter eagerly
awaiting them at the other end, they did not feel they could stay too long.
Their next main stage would bring them to Hami, and instead of taking the direct route, they decided to
detour somewhat to take the Gospel to villages where the Name of Jesus had never been heard. It
took them nine days instead of the normal two, but they revelled in being God's ambassadors in so
many small places in the middle of the Gobi Desert.
Here they had misadventures too. Getting up one morning to make an early start, they were
dismayed to see two of their mules leap the pole that acted as the inn gate and gallop away into the
desert. They managed to get one back, but the other completely disappeared and, at the end of two
and a half hours, was still missing. At daybreak they all scattered in different directions to try and
trace the animal. Arthur had gone some ten miles or more when he saw a horseman coming
towards him. It was the carter riding, not a horse, but the missing mule. He had found it some forty
li away, taking refuge from wolves who had been following if for some considerable distance.
They sold so much literature on this detour that they ran out of supplies and another sand storm
delayed them for two days before they got back on to the main Anxi-Hami road. Hearing that the next
place only had a broken down house in which to stay, they gathered sticks and wood along the way to
make a fire when they got there, and were thankful they had done so when it began to rain heavily. It
was one o'clock in the morning before they reached their destination. They made themselves a hot
drink and tried to make themselves comfortable in the carts for the night. They were glad to see the
dawn and, after another hot drink and some bread, they pressed on to the main road. Other carts
joined them there and a long cavalcade of gold diggers, business men, carters and missionaries all
travelled on together.
THE GOBI DESERT
61
Amy Moore
interesting talk on the history of ancient China in connection with
Chinese Turkestan. We felt like privileged students listening to a
great teacher, and we learned more from one of the greatest
travellers in Chinese Turkestan in a few hours than we could have
done in as many years if left to ourselves. We were specially
interested to know that the Great Wall does not end, as everybody
thinks, at Jiayuguan, but much further into Central Asia, and it was
more to protect the Great Silk Road, the ancient trade route between
China and the west, than to keep other nations out. The wall was
guarded against Mongol and Tibetan robbers who frequently came
down to attack traders along the road. I wonder if the Apostle Paul
may not have heard of the trade route to China and planned to carry
the Gospel along it before he was directed instead to Europe?"
I have in my possession two volumes of the "Ruins of Desert Cathay" written by Aurel Stein which
were Arthur Moores and in which he preserved a personal letter written to him after their meeting on
this occasion.
Arthur and Percy were strongly tempted to stay longer in Anxi, encouraged by a long talk with the
military official there who seemed genuinely interested in the Gospel, and by a warm invitation to visit
and preach the Gospel in all the villages within one hundred li of the city. But with Mr. Hunter eagerly
awaiting them at the other end, they did not feel they could stay too long.
Their next main stage would bring them to Hami, and instead of taking the direct route, they decided to
detour somewhat to take the Gospel to villages where the Name of Jesus had never been heard. It
took them nine days instead of the normal two, but they revelled in being God's ambassadors in so
many small places in the middle of the Gobi Desert.
Here they had misadventures too. Getting up one morning to make an early start, they were
dismayed to see two of their mules leap the pole that acted as the inn gate and gallop away into the
desert. They managed to get one back, but the other completely disappeared and, at the end of two
and a half hours, was still missing. At daybreak they all scattered in different directions to try and
trace the animal. Arthur had gone some ten miles or more when he saw a horseman coming
towards him. It was the carter riding, not a horse, but the missing mule. He had found it some forty
li away, taking refuge from wolves who had been following if for some considerable distance.
They sold so much literature on this detour that they ran out of supplies and another sand storm
delayed them for two days before they got back on to the main Anxi-Hami road. Hearing that the next
place only had a broken down house in which to stay, they gathered sticks and wood along the way to
make a fire when they got there, and were thankful they had done so when it began to rain heavily. It
was one o'clock in the morning before they reached their destination. They made themselves a hot
drink and tried to make themselves comfortable in the carts for the night. They were glad to see the
dawn and, after another hot drink and some bread, they pressed on to the main road. Other carts
joined them there and a long cavalcade of gold diggers, business men, carters and missionaries all
travelled on together.
THE GOBI DESERT
61
