Several years ago I read some books written by Isobel Kuhn. They were accounts of the ministry of John and Isobel Kuhn among the Lisu* Tribes of southwestern China. Doing pioneer work, taking the gospel to "hidden" tribes in the forbidding mountains of that area, they demonstrated the principle of the Cross: my life for yours. Churches were established in that part of the world that, despite war, persecution, prison, torture and other difficulties of many kinds, are still meeting together today--and growing--in house churches, to praise God and learn from His Word. Isobel Kuhn is one of the heroes of my faith, and an inspiring example to me as a fellow disciple. She and her husband John worked with China Inland Mission (now Overseas Missionary Fellowship) for many years and suffered many hardships, but their testimony is one of joy and of the faithfulness of the God of love that we serve. In a little booklet titled "The Earthen Jar" (taken from her book _Ascent to the Tribes_, and still available through OMF)), Isobel Kuhn aptly relates some of her life experiences, and how she learned some necessary lessons. Excerpts from that booklet (and book) are below.

May we be encouraged by these experiences to (as one of the people in this story said) "Press on!!" May all that we do be done in the name of Christ, our Saviour.

In Him,
Elaine

p.s. Interesting side note: Isobel Kuhn, in telling her story, talked about how the Lisu people loved to sing four-part harmony and preferred singing a capella. The effect of this had a curious effect on me. Thinking of a people so far away in the high mountains of one of the most inaccessible provinces of that time in China, singing the same hymns I sing in praise to the same God I serve, and without musical accompaniment, gave me new insight into the unity of all believers.

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(From _Ascent to the Tribes_ by Isabel Kuhn, repeated in the little booklet, "The Earthen Jar"))

"Living in such unhandy primitive quarters, don't your earthen vessels ever jar each other?" "What about personality rubs?"

There is no easy cure-all answer. We would say with Paul, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended . . . but I follow after." My answer, then, would not be as to what we have apprehended, but as to what we are following; in other words, the drumbeat we march to in this very vital matter. Sometimes a soldier gets out of step with his drumbeat--that is possible in the spiritual realm also. But the drumbeat--or, in plain language, the ideal--is important.

* * * , , , Dr. J. H. Jowett says, "Our visions always determine the quality of our tasks. Our visions are our dies---quietly, ceaselessly pressing against the plastic material of our lives . . . . Our visions of the possibilities help to shape our actualities." So the drumbeats we march to shape our actualities. They pull us back up after a fall. They refuse to let us be content with anything inferior. When we are sinking into the rut of ordinary living, our ideal is like a hand that catches us by the chin and tilts our face upward again.

Our first drumbeat, then, is 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.". We have a precious jewel to share with others, but we carry it in only an earthen jar. Our friends at home, who send us off to foreign shores with adulation and tears over our sacrifice, throw us out of step with this drumbeat. They are apt to give us the idea our particular jar is really a vase; less of earth and more of porcelain, you understand. Then the Lord has the unpleasant task of getting us back into step with His drumbeat.

Before I went to China I had a friend who was a counsellor with me at a Bible conference. She came from a family of millionaires, but she gave up all that easy life to be God's missionary to the Chinese. I sailed [to China] before she did, and it was sixteen years before we met again. In talking over our missionary experiences I have never forgotten a quiet word she dropped. "The first few years of my service," she said, "the Lord had to spend in bringing me to an end of myself." I gasped, dumbfounded. I had not told her, but that is what I would have said about my first years in China too! But I had not given up what she had.

Before we can show off our jewel, we must thoroughly learn that we ourselves are but earthen jars. And our fellow [disciples] must be patient with us while we are learning. Anyone who comes to [service for God] with even a subconscious idea that he or she is someone special is due for a crucifixion experience. . . . our Lord alone is fit to assign to each his own particular clarifying of vision, his crucifixion of self-life. But everybody gets involved, unfortunately, when such a lesson is needed. This brings us to our second drumbeat.

"Bear ye one another's burdens, . . . " (Galatians 6:2 ). Or, as someone calls it, the ministry of "bearing" is our second drumbeat. Our mission is interdenominational and international; within those two words alone lie many possibilities of difference and resultant anger. A willingness to yield in non-essentials is necessary to maintain unity. A refusal to be taken up with the puny pricks is another. One of our dear old CIM saints had a little word that has often helped me. When someone had done something irritating or disappointing, she would say, "Oh, let's press on! Press on!" Refuse to be taken up with the petty and small. We have great issues at stake; let them have our undivided attention and strength. That will mean bearing the burden of another's failings--forgiving and forgetting in order to press on to the important.

When a [disciple] is going through a crucifixion experience, it will be a burden to have to live with him; he may be forgetful, morose and irritable--and always critical. He may even write to...friends...criticizing the work . . . That is the hardest to take of all. I have never forgotten the lesson my husband taught me in a matter like this, many years ago. We had just such a case, and the letter to the homeland folk was pungent because the writer had a natural gift for writing! I was all for sitting down and putting our side on paper too, especially to certain friends whom we deeply valued. But John refused to let me write. Then he said a potent word, which has also become a drumbeat down the years. It was this: "Don't vindicate yourself or the Christians. Trust the friends at home to have wisdom enough to discern this matter. They are not fools." I did not believe he could be right, but he was. Some months passed before we heard from the homeland about that thing, because in those days airmail was not much used; then one day came a letter from these precious friends. It read something like this: "We are much in prayer for you and John. Although you have said nothing, X writes in such heat of spirit that we feel he cannot be wholly right; therefore you are going through difficulties and we wish you to know we are standing with you in prayer. That was a moment in our family history when the man said, "I told you so!" Years have passed. X is no longer young, but his zeal and devotion to the Lord all these years have been unremitting. How often, as we praised the Lord for X, I have also thanked Him that I was not allowed to write against a precious brother who was just passing through a needed crucifixion-of-self period, that was all. But it took a little bearing at the time. "We are disciples of clay. And there is still the skill of the Potter," said Peter Marshall. Do we count on that skill? Or do we shrug our shoulders and give up on our fellow Christian with a hopeless, "Oh, he is always that way!"? Such an attitude is surely sinning against the Potter; we should count on His skill and the fact that He cares about the blemishes of the earthen jars which bear His jewel.

A third major drumbeat is "Love covereth" (Proverbs 10:12). Bearing is not quite enough. I was taught this by a worker much my junior. A "jarring of the earthen jars" affair was on, and I was talking with a young worker who was said to have criticized me. "Oh, I didn't mean that by what I said," she broke out quickly. "I'll go right and tell them." "No, please do not tell them a thing. I meant to apologize to you, that was all. If you go and say you did not say that, it will stir up everything again. Remember Proverbs 26:20, 'Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out.' Don't add any more wood." "You are right," she replied sadly. "Kill it with love; that is the only way." I felt stunned. I had meant to bear up nobly, but I saw instantly that she was right. Bearing did not go far enough; I should put myself out to do something loving toward the one who I felt had begun the fire. C.S.Lewis has helped me much in this matter of loving one's enemy. He says this, "Christian love . . . does not mean an emotion . . . Loving your enemy in the Bible is wishing him good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he isn't!"

A fourth major drumbeat is found in Psalms 51:17--"A broken and contrite heart." Brokenness. Hudson Taylor once said, "Hard missionaries are not of much use: they are not like the Master. . . . It is better to be trusting and gentle and sympathetic, even if often taken in . . . "It is a broken earthen jar which most reveals the jewel within. . . .

We were most [blessed] in having J. O. Fraser as our superintendent when we began missionary life. One of his drumbeats was Matthew 18:35. He practiced it himself and taught the Lisu church to practice it. No telling of the brother's fault behind his back; go to him when he is alone and tell him right to his face. If he will not listen, take another for a witness and the two of you go and speak to him about it, again when he is alone. If he does not listen, then tell it to the church, and the church must take action. Anyone who practices this will live in a state of brokenness. As has been said, "The basis upon which Christians can speak to one another is that each knows the other is a sinner . . . . We speak to one another on the basis of the help we both need." There is no room for pride or hardness there.

Knowing you are but an earthen jar is basic. But a sense of humour helps, and a small ditty like this on one's wall.

To live above with saints we love,
Oh, that will be glory;
To live below with saints we know,
Well, that's another story.

The last major drumbeat which I would record is found in Philippians 1:12, in the phrase "the furtherance of the gospel." Dr. C. R. Erdman has this comment: "Passionate devotion to the things which are vital delivered Paul from bitterness of soul, from anger and ill-will. Taking advantage of the fact that Paul was in prison, some Christian leaders, jealous of Paul's influence, were preaching 'of envy and strife .' . . . But Paul was delivered from bitterness of soul at their puny thrusts, by the fact that they were getting out and preaching!" Passionate devotion to the things which are vital. That will deliver from discord in any group; it is a wonderfully unifying power.