“Someone told my father that I had been to church and he was very angry, and told me to take salt and salt down my heart, to make dead my heart. He said he certainly would not let me go to church, and told others that they must not let me go. He also said that if I had any communication with the lady missionary he would throw me down stairs and kill me. But the Lord was always with me and delivered me out of the mouth of the lion.
“Afterwards my father brought me to Amoy to my uncle’s house. Two-thirds of the family are vegetarians, and early and late they burn incense and candles to the idols. My heart was miserable in the extreme.
“My father tried to sell me to be the second wife of a rich man, who was willing to give nearly three hundred dollars for me. He said:
“‘Your old friend, the Bible-woman and the Christians will do nothing for you, you might as well make up your mind to it. The Bible-woman says there is no use trying to do anything more for you, that no Christian will marry you now.’
“I felt that he was telling me a lie, but I could not know if the Bible-woman, who had always been so good to me, had really said that or not, and I was very unhappy. My father kept urging me to agree to being sold to the rich heathen man, so that he might have the money to use. He was very angry with me because I was so strongly opposed. I said, ‘I have made a covenant with the Lord, which I cannot break, I am His.’
“One day a sister of a Christian came to speak to my uncle, and someone said to me, ‘That person is a follower of the Gospel like you and lives at Bamboo-tree-foot.’ I said, ‘Is that true?’ After this I found that she knew one of my classmates, who lives at Bamboo-tree-foot, and through her I secretly sent a letter to my classmate, asking her to tell the pastor’s wife where I was. The letter was delayed several days, and before it was delivered one day I saw three Christians passing the house with Bibles in their hands, on their way to church, and so I knew that it was Sunday—I had lost count of Sundays—and I called to them. My father was out, or I should not have dared to speak to them. They were pleased to find me. They told the Bible-woman, and through them and my letter in a week’s time the pastor’s wife and the Bible-woman both came to see me. I found out that what my father had said about the Bible-woman was not true, and they both comforted my heart.
“After this, I dreamed I had fallen into a ditch up to my neck, and someone pulled me out; that I went to school again, and was writing on my slate, and I thought: This means that God is going to open the way for me. In six more days, beyond all my hopes, God’s great goodness was manifested, and I truly jumped for joy, when I was told that my father’s consent was gained, and Miss —— had redeemed me for two hundred dollars, and that I was to go back again to school.
“In two days the pastor came for me and brought me to school. This truly manifests the love of God for sinful me, and also the love of Miss —— in that she gave money to save me. During the time of trial the Lord always helped me, and now He has brought me to this place, free from all fear. Love like this is truly great.”
Phœnix has since become engaged to a young theological student and will probably be married within a year.