The following day, July 25, C.T. wrote Priscilla a letter. He got straight to the point, asking her to be his bride. Then he outlined the kind of life they would lead together:
It will be no easy life, no life of ease which I could offer you, but one of toil and hardship; in fact, if I did not know you to be a woman of God, I would not dream of asking you. It is to be a fellow soldier in His Army. It is to live a life of faith in God, a fighting life, remembering that here we have no abiding city, no certain dwelling place, but only a home eternal in the Father’s House above. Such would be the life: may the Lord alone guide you.
Priscilla’s reply was less than C.T. had hoped for. She was not convinced that God wanted her to marry him. She said, however, that she would keep praying about C.T.’s proposal. C.T. fired off another letter to her, and another, until in October he finally got the answer he had prayed for. Priscilla agreed to be his wife.
C.T. was overjoyed. He sat down right away to write to his mother. It was only then that he realized how little practical information he had about his future wife. He did not know her age, how much schooling she’d had, her parents’ names, or how many brothers and sisters she had. But this did not daunt C.T. He knew Priscilla’s commitment to God, and that was what mattered most to him.
C.T. expressed this feeling in his next letter to Priscilla, dated October 14, 1887.
I laugh when I think of how little I know of you my own darling, not even your age or anything, only it’s more than enough for me that you are a true child and lover of the Lord Jesus, that He has knit my heart to yours and yours to mine to work together for Him with all our hearts and souls and minds till He come.… I love you for your love to Jesus, I love you for your zeal toward Him, I love you for your faith in Him, I love you for your love of souls, I love you for loving me, I love you for your own self, I love you for ever and ever. I love you because Jesus has used you to bless me and fire my soul. I love you because you will always be a red-hot poker making me run faster. Lord Jesus, how can I ever thank You enough for such a gift?
The two of them did not know when they would see each other again, as they were both busy with their missionary work, but December 26, 1887, changed everything. That day C.T. received a letter from one of Priscilla’s coworkers. The letter contained bad news. Priscilla was gravely ill with pneumonia. C.T.’s mind went back to the time when he had first met her. Priscilla was extremely weak from heart problems, and he wondered whether the pneumonia might be fatal in her weakened condition. He did not know, and he was unwilling to wait around and find out. He calculated that if he traveled day and night, he could be at Priscilla’s station in Hoh-chau in three days. He set out immediately, praying all the way that she would recover her strength.
Thankfully his prayers were answered. C.T. arrived at the mission station to find that Priscilla was over the worst of her illness. She was delighted to see him, and the two of them spent many hours praying and reading together. C.T. was also impressed with the work Priscilla and three other single women had accomplished. It had not been easy for them in Hoh-chau, but slowly they had found ways to share the gospel with the residents of the town. Recently they had seen their first converts, and the nucleus of a small church was forming.
Stanley Smith arrived in Hoh-chau several days later, and he and C.T. decided to journey back to northern China together. It was difficult for C.T. to part with Priscilla again, but they both felt that the time was not yet right for them to marry.
Stanley and C.T. had reached Hungtung when it became evident that they would not be going any farther for a while. Stanley had typhoid fever, and C.T. set about nursing him.
It was three weeks before Stanley was well enough to travel, and in that time C.T. had had plenty of time to think about his future. He believed that God wanted him and Priscilla to be married, and he could no longer think of any reason to wait. Instead of continuing northward, C.T. and Stanley headed back to Hoh-chau.
Priscilla was both surprised and delighted to see the two men again so soon, and she agreed that it was time for a wedding. She packed up her bags and prepared to accompany C.T. to Tientsin, where the nearest British consul resided.
The couple’s decision to do this caused shock waves among the new converts of Hoh-chau. In the town, unmarried men and women were not permitted to see each other’s face, and here were two unmarried missionaries planning to travel across the country together. The converts told C.T. that it was unthinkable to do such a thing, and so C.T. and Priscilla agreed to have a Chinese wedding before they left Hoh-chau.
Arrangements were quickly made, and a visiting Chinese evangelist, Pastor Shi, offered to officiate at the service. Priscilla and C.T. dressed in their usual Chinese attire, though Priscilla added a white sash with the words “United to fight for Jesus” written across it. C.T. smiled when he saw the sash. He had certainly found himself a fiery woman for his wife.
After the ceremony everyone was invited to a feast at the mission house, and the next day C.T. and Priscilla set out for Tientsin. Along the way C.T. managed to learn some more about his companion. Priscilla was born on August 28, 1864, making her four years younger than he was. She got her golden-colored hair from her father and her petite build from her mother.
C.T. wondered out loud what they would do for a wedding ring, and Priscilla produced the answer from her baggage. Before she left Ireland, she explained, a close friend had presented her with a ring as a memento. Priscilla showed the ring to C.T. Amazingly, when it had been given to her in Ireland, it had the initials C.T.S. engraved on the inside! C.T. took this as an added sign that God had approved their marriage.
When they reached Tientsin, a letter was waiting for C.T. It was from his solicitor in England, explaining that all of the money had been dispersed according to C.T.’s instructions. However, a surplus of three thousand four hundred pounds was still left, and the solicitor wanted to know what to do with it. Since he was now married and this was the last money he had, C.T. decided to give it to Priscilla and let her decide what to do with it. She shook her head when he presented the money to her.
“C.T.,” she said, “what did the Lord tell the rich young man to do?”
“Sell all,” C.T. replied.
“Well then, we will start clear with the Lord at our wedding. Give the money to the Salvation Army and let us trust God together for our needs,” Priscilla said cheerfully and firmly.
Once again C.T. was impressed with the dedication of the young Irish woman who had consented to be his bride.
The second wedding, in Tientsin, was a small affair and took place on a beautiful spring morning on April 7, 1888. Most of the missionaries present at the service were horrified that the couple did not wear specially made Western wedding clothes. C.T. and Priscilla had decided against this. They could not see the point of wasting money on such clothes.
At the end of the service, C.T. and Priscilla knelt side by side and made a promise to God and to each other: “We will never hinder one another from serving Thee.”
In the years ahead, fulfilling that promise would cost them more than anyone present at the wedding could have ever imagined.
Chapter 7
Foreign Devils
Leave now, you white devils! You will bring bad luck to all of us!” an old Chinese man yelled as C.T., Priscilla, and their coworker Mary Burroughs stood in the marketplace of Lungang-Fu.
C.T. waited for the tirade to end. He did not blame the man or the others who were encouraging him on. After all, the missionary trio were probably the first white people they had ever seen. C.T. also was aware that the people of inland China knew little about the outside world. They had been taught that China was in the shape of a huge circle that touched the edges of a square. The corners of the square, which fell outside the circle, contained the rest of the world, the “Kingdom of the Foreign Devils.” The people had no idea that different countries or religions existed beyond their own.
After about half an hour, the crowd that had gathered about the missionaries dispersed, and C.T. was able to ask a millet vendor if he knew of any houses in the city that were for rent. At first the man told C.T. that every house was taken, but when C.T. was not satisfied with the man’s answer, the man said that there was one empty house, and for good reason—it was said to be haunted.
As C.T., Priscilla, and Mary trudged up the cobblestone street in the direction the millet vendor had pointed, people hurried past them, cursing or spitting at the foreign devils. Near the top of the street, the three missionaries found an abandoned house. C.T. pushed open the creaking gate, and the trio stepped into the overgrown courtyard. The door to the house flapped on its hinges. C.T., Priscilla, and Mary went inside. The whitewashed walls were faded and bare, and scorpions scuttled across the uneven, brick floor. A brick platform bed sat against the far wall, and a fireplace was in the center of the room. Another room had a brick bed and a small stool in it and a tiny window without a windowpane. A third room was empty, and C.T. thought it would make a fine kitchen and dining room. The house was hardly luxurious, but it would provide a roof over their heads and an inroad into the town, which had never heard the gospel. A smaller building, which C.T. imagined using as a chapel, was on the other side of the courtyard.
C.T. escorted the two women back to the market, where their porters and donkeys were waiting. Together they all set off to find the man who owned the house. When C.T. found the owner, he was able to convince him to rent the house to the missionaries, though he was sure that the owner made them pay more for it than it was worth.
It did not take long for the three missionaries to settle in. All they had brought with them was an extra set of Chinese clothing each, some pots and plates, and a few personal items, such as combs and mirrors. These few items became an irresistible draw to the neighbors, who peered in the window and the open doorway to see what the “white devils” were up to. C.T., Priscilla, and Mary made a point of looking welcoming, even though they would rather have shut the door on the prying eyes and enjoyed some privacy.
Not all the neighbors were inquisitive or tolerant of the missionaries. Whenever the missionaries ventured out of the house, they were subjected to volleys of cursing and spitting. It was worse when C.T. and Priscilla went out together, because they walked side by side down the road. Chinese custom dictated that a wife should walk three steps behind her husband, but C.T. and Priscilla felt that it was important for people to see that in a Christian marriage men and women were equal. This led to a lot of mocking and mimicking, but C.T. and Priscilla did not mind. The people were at least taking note of the point they were trying to make.
There was one bright spot during the first few months at their new post in Lungang-Fu. Priscilla announced that she was expecting a baby. The child was due in February 1889. The question C.T. and Priscilla now began asking themselves was, should they leave their post and travel to a China Inland Mission hospital to have the baby? C.T. calculated that they would need to leave Lungang-Fu three months before the baby was due and stay away for two months after the child was born, when Priscilla would be strong enough to travel again. Although C.T. could not justify being away from his mission station for that length of time, he left the final decision to his wife. Priscilla decided that they should stay in Lungang-Fu and trust God to keep them safe.
As it turned out, C.T. soon had cause to wonder just how safe they would be staying at the mission station to have their baby. The mandarin, whose word was law in Lungang-Fu, did not like having English people in his city, and he constantly stirred up opposition to the missionaries and refused to allow C.T. to preach in the streets. Also, as the first year dragged on, a drought set in. The crops in the region around Lungang-Fu failed, and the land was soon parched. The people of the town were quick to blame the foreign devils for the drought, saying that their gods were angry that Christians were living among them.
