Always Show Hospitality In Your Homes

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19990, 15 July 1939, Page 15

Always Show Hospitality In Your Homes

CTtOM time to time we read in our newspapers of people who have " crept on board the big ships sailing across great oceans, and have hidden themselves away trying to gain a free passage to some other land.

About 40 years ago a poor Chinese lad, who was unhappy and starved in his own country, watched his chance and slipped on board an American brig which was just about to leave port. He crept down the companion way and hid amongst the cargo. At night lie would crawl out and steal about the vessel trying to pick up odd scraps of food; sometimes he would have to beat off a rat which tried to share the food with him!

When the little vessel was tossing amid the great waves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he was suddenly pounced upon by one of the crew, and dragged before the captain. He looked a very unhappy and dirty specimen, and fully expected to be beaten; in fact, in those rather cruel days he might have been flung overboard. But to his surprise ho found the captain a kindhearted gentleman. He was made to work for the rest of the voyage, but he was treated fairly. When the ship arrived at Baltimore, the captain took him on shore himself and led him to the house of his own minister, a Methodist preacher, and asked the minister to take charge of the lad. A Friendly Family The minister looked round in his congregation for the best Christian home lie could find, and choosing one which was very humble but ■plendidly Christian, he asked the g'.od people to take the boy in as a lodger and look after him. The Chinese lad had never in his life found such friendliness; the family with which he lived guided him into a job and he was soon earning enough to pay for his food. Then Inter.' finding him very 'bright and intelligent, they arranged for him to have a university education. At last came the proud any when Soong, dhe Chinese stowaway, took his degree! Before that, however, he had given his heart to Christ, because of the fine example of the people with whom he lived. He now felt that he Ought to return to his own country and try to serve

China in its great need for the sake of Christ; so he worked his passage back to China and there he prospered and married, and iiis wife, too, became a Christian —indeed, she became a very great and beautiful saint. They had three daughters, all whom grew up as Christian girls. When I tell you their names, if you know anything about China at al! to-day, you will realise what a wonderful thing Christ did through this Chinese stowaway..

The Soong Sisters The eldest daughter married Sun Yat Sen, the man who led the Revolution in China and created the Chinese Republic. The second daughter married Mr. Kung, who is today the Chinese Chancellor of the Exchequer, or, as they call him, the Finance Minister. The third daughter married Chiang Kai-Shek and is that wonderful little woman who might be described as the Joan of Arc of modern China, for .she is the inspiration not only of her husband’s life but of the manhood and womanhod

Contributed by the Ministers’ Association

of China in its great struggle against Japan; she is actually tire head of the Chinese Air Force, and although they are involved in the most unhappy war, .she and her husband are convinced Christians, and ail their aim in life is to bring China to the fee;, of the Prince of Peace. Is it not wonderful that a little, humble Baltimore home should have had such a tremendous .influence upon the life of the world because it was k :, ’rf c.:d hospitable to a poor foreign lad? The New Testament warns us -always to show hospitality in our homes because, it says, we may be “entertaining angels unawares.” — Albert D. Bolden, The News Chronicle (London).