Page 69 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 69
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 69
intention of making an example of the man in order to prevent further like
occurrences He was, however, non-plussed when the starving man asked
why he should be punished for “eating what the dogs are eating?”
In the face of the terrible and desperate plight of countless thousands, all on
the very verge of death from starvation, it was useless to dispense the funds
which had been entrusted to us by friends at home, through the agency of the
Mission as well as the International Famine Relief Commission, in an
indiscriminate free distribution of what food we could get, to all and sundry.
This would simply have meant the slight lengthening of the lives of some who
would eventually have to go once more through all the horrors of slow
starvation. Selection of a number proportionate with the sum available
seemed to be the only solution. It was a terrible experience to have to refuse
a mouthful of even the “bread that perisheth”, but it had to be done. To be
forced to stand helpless in the face of so great suffering was an experience
which in itself was a drain on the physical strength. It led one a little deeper
into the “fellowship of His sufferings”. Those who were thus refused were
veritably doomed to death. The methods adopted varied in the different
centres but that employed at the Mission’s Hospital at Lanchow was fairly
representative. Here some seven hundred, later increased to one thousand,
were fed daily. The fortunate ones were each supplied with a ticket of
admission to the distributing centre, and in addition each person had a secret
sign put on their forearm with some kind of indelible ink and this was the
indispensable passport for entrance. It was in connection with this work that
Dr Rand contracted the typhus which eventually cost him his life. Daily the
Word of Life was preached to these starving multitudes. At Anting we had
another similar free relief depot and here numbers, varying from two to five
hundred were fed daily. To see the utter destitution and despair to which
these poor folk had been reduced was heart-touching in the extreme. It was
after a visit to that depot, on a memorable afternoon, when feeling exhausted
by the drain on my sympathy, that I felt I realized a deeper significance, than
ever before in the record of the Master, Who one day on a mission of mercy,
knowing in Himself that virtue (power, strength) had gone out of Him, turned
Him about in the press and said, “Who touched Me?” The little abandoned
children who had been admitted to the depot had to be carefully supervised
whilst they ate the pitifully small supply of food we were able to give them.
Had they been allowed to carry it outside the gate they would in all probability
have been waylaid and robbed. At that one distribution one death actually
took place whilst waiting for the food to be served out and another, this time of
an old grandmother, occurred on the street within a few hundred yards of the
distribution centre, the poor old woman expiring with the little portion of food
held tightly in her grasp.
intention of making an example of the man in order to prevent further like
occurrences He was, however, non-plussed when the starving man asked
why he should be punished for “eating what the dogs are eating?”
In the face of the terrible and desperate plight of countless thousands, all on
the very verge of death from starvation, it was useless to dispense the funds
which had been entrusted to us by friends at home, through the agency of the
Mission as well as the International Famine Relief Commission, in an
indiscriminate free distribution of what food we could get, to all and sundry.
This would simply have meant the slight lengthening of the lives of some who
would eventually have to go once more through all the horrors of slow
starvation. Selection of a number proportionate with the sum available
seemed to be the only solution. It was a terrible experience to have to refuse
a mouthful of even the “bread that perisheth”, but it had to be done. To be
forced to stand helpless in the face of so great suffering was an experience
which in itself was a drain on the physical strength. It led one a little deeper
into the “fellowship of His sufferings”. Those who were thus refused were
veritably doomed to death. The methods adopted varied in the different
centres but that employed at the Mission’s Hospital at Lanchow was fairly
representative. Here some seven hundred, later increased to one thousand,
were fed daily. The fortunate ones were each supplied with a ticket of
admission to the distributing centre, and in addition each person had a secret
sign put on their forearm with some kind of indelible ink and this was the
indispensable passport for entrance. It was in connection with this work that
Dr Rand contracted the typhus which eventually cost him his life. Daily the
Word of Life was preached to these starving multitudes. At Anting we had
another similar free relief depot and here numbers, varying from two to five
hundred were fed daily. To see the utter destitution and despair to which
these poor folk had been reduced was heart-touching in the extreme. It was
after a visit to that depot, on a memorable afternoon, when feeling exhausted
by the drain on my sympathy, that I felt I realized a deeper significance, than
ever before in the record of the Master, Who one day on a mission of mercy,
knowing in Himself that virtue (power, strength) had gone out of Him, turned
Him about in the press and said, “Who touched Me?” The little abandoned
children who had been admitted to the depot had to be carefully supervised
whilst they ate the pitifully small supply of food we were able to give them.
Had they been allowed to carry it outside the gate they would in all probability
have been waylaid and robbed. At that one distribution one death actually
took place whilst waiting for the food to be served out and another, this time of
an old grandmother, occurred on the street within a few hundred yards of the
distribution centre, the poor old woman expiring with the little portion of food
held tightly in her grasp.
