CHAPTER THREE: REVIVAL
MARIE MONSEN
One of the outstanding instruments God has
used for the
reviving of the churches in northern China is Miss Marie
Monsen.
One of her own coworkers describes her coming to Chenping,
one
of the stations of the Norwegian Lutheran Mission in Honan,
in effect as
follows:
How God Prepared Special Instruments for
Use in “The second of
November of 1931 we were in Beginning and Carrying
Forward the
Work of the pressibly gladdened by the news that Miss Marie
Revival.
Monsen had returned to our field and was then at Nanyang. The
early
summer of 1927 God had sent her from Shanghai to Manchuria and
later to Chili, Shantung, and Shansi. In these various places God had
used her in a marvelous way for the reviving of the churches. “It seemed
strange that she should thus be taken away from us to be used in the
reviving of the churches elsewhere while we were longing and praying
for
a revival on our own field.
“Our older missionaries had quietly but
tearfully striven with God in view
of the deadness of the churches. But
with the news of God’s visitation of
the other churches our prayers
took on new life. With every letter from
Miss Monsen our prayers
received a new impetus and became more intense
as the time went on,
until finally they were in the nature of distress calls.
God, who is no
respecter of persons, can not but send Miss Monsen back
to us and make
use of her among us as He has used her in the northern
provinces.
“Then the news reached us that she would be
with us at our annual
conference at Chenping from November 13 to 15.
There was a general
feeling of expectancy as we journeyed to this
meeting, and we were not
disappointed in our expectations. It was a
never-to-be-forgotten
experience to have her again in our midst.
“Already at this meeting it became clear to
us that God had fashioned
Miss Monsen into a seasoned soul winner
through the experiences she had
gone through in the north, and that she
was in possession of a power from
God that was well nigh irresistible.
“The first text she used was from the third
chapter of the Gospel of John,
`Ye must be born anew.’ The greater part
of this address consisted in short
questions, cast forth with holy,
penetrating seriousness: `Why are you a
Christian? Is it not that you
wish to enter heaven? What does Jesus say here?
“Except ye be born anew,
ye can not enter the kingdom of God.” Ye can
not, ye can not.’ These
words sank like lead into the hearts of the listeners.
“The next text was from Rev. 20. 12, about
the sins that were written in
the books with such clear ness. `Also in
Jer. 17. 1 we see that your sins are
written “with a pen of iron” on the
tablets of flesh in your hearts so that
no one can erase them.’
“Other texts were, Mark 14. 3-11, about Judas. `He was a preacher of the
gospel; he was a member of the church; he was a disciple. But he was
false;
he was a thief. Are you a preacher of the gospel, or are you a
thief.’
“She aimed in the first place at our
leaders and the workers in our
congregations. She spoke from Prov. 28.
13, about covering one’s
transgressions. All are born with an
inclination to cover their sins. Other
texts used were, Is. 59. 1-4,
`Your iniquities have separated between
you and your God’: Is. 64. 6,
`Our righteousnesses are as a polluted
garment’; 1 Cor. 6. 9, with the
question, `Is this a catalog of your sins?
Read and find out if your
sins are there.’ Also Mark 7. 21-23, with the
same question and the same
admonition. “Then came John 1. 14, `He is
“full of
grace and truth,” He will not permit you to remain full of falsehood
and deceit.’ And Is. 1. 18, `If you will only acknowledge your sins before
God they “shall be white as snow.”‘ Finally there was an address to
believers
about being in the will of God. `The unsaved have God’s will
behind them.
The saved have God’s will before them. Some are in God’s
will; others are
outside of it. They try to stretch God’s will so as to
make it conform to theirs.’
“At the end of each service she took her
place near the door, and few were
those who managed to get by without
having the question asked them, `Are
you saved? ‘It felt like the thrust
of a sword,’ they explained afterwards.
After the next meeting they
received another sword-thrust, `Are you still on
the road to
destruction.“Many came to see her and to confess their sin
but she sent them away,
some as often as three to four times. They were
not in a condition of real need. `Pray that God’s Spirit may enlighten you
concerning your
sins,’ was the admonition they received to take away
with them. She
never tired of admonishing us, `Do not gather unripe fruit.’
“After the annual meeting there was a special meeting for workers and
leaders. Those who were present told of
the powerful working of the
Holy Spirit manifest at these meetings.
During the course of the meetings
Miss Monsen spent one night in prayer before she could find courage to
step up to Pastor Han Liu Ging and
tell him she was afraid he did not
have life in God. He came under deep
conviction and after two days
found release.“He said afterwards that there was
something that melted
within him when she took him aside. He felt the
love of God was impelling
her and that he must give in. Later on he became Miss Monsen’s helper
during a series of meetings, and is one among those God has used to
further the revival. “Pastor Liu Dao Sheng was another leader
who had
been used of God with much blessing. At these meetings he also
experienced
a renewal and em-powering. His eyes were opened to the need of bringing
people to the point of being saved and re-leased from the
power of sin.
Together with others who had experienced renewal, he began immediately
to enter the work as a definite soul-winner. Liu Dao Sheng
became
Miss Monsen’s chief helper as long as she remained on the field
of the
Norwegian Lutheran Mission, and he is perhaps the one God has
used the
most since her departure. “Miss Monsen’s plan was first to destroy
the
false security of the church members. She spoke of the various kinds
of
patches the unsaved used to hide behind when they tried to persuade
themselves they were saved. Then she spoke of sin, one sin at a time.
It
had cost her several days of prayerful struggle before she became
willing,
as she expressed it, to `descend into the miry cesspool of sin’
in connection
with the sixth commandment, against adultery. But it
turned out that one
of Satan’s well-nigh impregnable strongholds
was at
last broken into when this particular sin was brought out into the open.
“Another text that was laid heavily on her
consciousness was, `It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.’ People by means of this text
were placed face to face with
God. “Finally, the words of gracious promise
from the Scriptures came as balm on open sores. `Unless He, who was
without sin, had been made sin for us, God could never have said to
the
sinner, Come, when you are in earnest about your sins, God, who can
not
away with sin, will speak words of comfort to your heart.“At each
series of meetings there was no
pronounced movement or great visible result.
She was ever alert to
hinder strong emotional outbursts, or public confession.
Everything was
done quietly. After she was gone it became evident that God’s
Spirit had
plowed deep furrows. We could begin to gather in the harvest of
souls.”As we ponder this gripping narrative by one of Miss Monsen’s
co-workers
we are bound to ask ourselves, what is the secret of the power
this
worker of God possesses? Is there anything in her nature or bringing up
that would give a clue to the effectiveness of her service? What means
did
God use to bring about such marvelous results in her own life, and
through
her in the lives of others? We are indebted to another of Miss Monsen’s
coworkers, Mrs. Karoline Samset, of Laohokow, for some intimate touches
regarding her youth and early training and first impressions on meeting
her
before she was sent out to China as a missionary under the N. L. K.
Board.
“Miss Monsen was confirmed in the church of
Sandviken in the outskirts
of Bergen, Norway, under the charge of Rev.
Grimnes, the pastor of the
church, who was of great spiritual help to
her during these formative years.
Elder Tormod Retterdal of the China Society was of especially great help to
her in a spiritual way.
According to her own testimony she never tired of
listening to him as he
always had so much to offer.”It appears that from early
childhood Miss
Monsen loved to wander about among the mountains and hills
of her native
land, and when school vacation arrived she always set her gaze
towards
the high mountains. The majestic Jotunheimen and other tall peaks
were
familiar places loved by her. The year she was to take her examination
for teacher’s certificate she was too young by one year, and it was just
at this
time that she came to clarity regarding her call to the mission
field.
It was in 1898 in the Laksevag church in
Bergen that Mrs. Samset first learned
to know of Miss Mon-sen, who was
later destined to become her close friend
and co-worker. The Rev. Prydz
was occupying the pulpit and the text was,
“Thy kingdom come.” During
the course of the sermon the preacher mentioned
the name of a young
woman who had sought for acceptance by the China Society
to be sent to
China. The Board had asked her to testify as to her spiritual life
and
outlook. During their conversation, the Rev. Prydz and Miss Monsen had
both agreed that it was impossible to explain just how they had become
heirs
of the kingdom. The main emphasis in his sermon at this time was
on the kingdom
of God within us. The following year we find Miss Monsen at
Lovisenberg
Hospital and Training School in Oslo as the choice of the
China Society’s Board
for work in China. Through a friend whom Miss Monsen had nursed,
Mrs. Samset came for the first time into direct
contact with her. She relates:
“It was evident from the first moment of
contact with her that Miss Monsen
was an unusually gifted woman. She
possessed considerable originality of mind,
and, as a rule, was never found treading the beaten paths. In contact with
the deaconesses at Lovisenberg she was never afraid of expressing her opinion
freely. In
those days such behavior was not always well received, so she had
many
heavy burdens to carry at that time, but she was always ready to take
the part of those who were weak. “She wrote to Brandtzeg, then General
Secretary
of the Board from Lovisenberg, `Verily, you have sent me to
the North Pole.’
He replied, `Yes, but I know that you have both pick
and axe so you can dig
yourself out again.’ She made it, and when she
was the hardest pressed, the
head physician came to her assistance.“From that time on her life was unus
rich in experiences. She grew up in a home
where she was supplied with only
the necessaries of life. Money has
never appealed to her as of any worth. She
has always been willing to
extend help to such as were in need.
`Prove me now herewith, saith
Jehovah of Hosts, if I will not open you the
windows of heaven.’ She has
done this and the Lord has never permitted
her to come to grief.“She has gone to the steamships without
money to buy
a ticket; she has traveled by rail across the United States
without provisions;
she has made a journey to the Northland without a steamer berth. `Your Father
knoweth what things ye have need of.’ This
verse came to her at one time
when she was suffering from hunger. She
was led to a loaded table without
the payment of money, and afterwards was in a position to help a fellow
traveler who was on his way to tell
his mother that there is no God. She has
stuck to the promises, and God
has never failed her. But to surrender everything
unconditionally into
the hand of God is not a lesson that is learned
in one day. She has had
to go through the deep waters to come to the place
of utter dependence
on God. “When she came to China in the fall of
1901,
her health failed her. She fell down a stairway in Shanghai and
sustained a
concussion of the brain, and when she arrived on the field
she was taken
down with a bad attack of malaria, so that even her life
was despaired of.
“She was very much
handicapped in her language studies the first few
years. She struggled against the malaria, and her head gave her
constant pain. During the
summer of 1906 she was healed through
prayer. Since that time the Lord
has been her Great Physician,
and she has needed His help on more than
one occasion.
“Something that has always stood out before me as remarkable is
her
prayer life. She has always been an early riser, and the first two
or
three hours of the day have been holy to the Lord. The precious
dewdrops
from the Lord’s altar have sustained her step by step
on the way of
sanctification.
“As a co-worker she was always sympathetic and considerate, and,
on the
whole, easy to get along with. Her aim was to go the way of
the Lord and
do His errands, so that also out here it was never a
question with her
of following the beaten paths. Consequently
there were times when some
stood wondering and questioning. But
that it has paid her to follow the
way of the Lord and to be in His
will, that has been amply shown by her
life during recent years.”
This sketch of the life and work of Miss Monsen would be entirely
inadequate if we left out all reference to an experience she had in
the
spring of 1929 when she was marvelously kept during
twenty-three days of
captivity at the hands of a band of sea rovers
who had captured the
ship she was traveling on from Tientsin, to
meet an appointment to hold
meetings at Hwanghsien in
Shantung. The story of this adventure in faith and dependence
upon the Lord was
told by Miss Monsen in her own characteristic
way in an address before
the Peitaiho Conference in North China,
July 29, 1929, and recorded in a
booklet, “We Are Escaped,”
published by the China Inland Mission in
1931.
In reading this wonderful testimony to God’s faithfulness and
power to
help those who trust fully in Him, we are impressed by
the place and
value of prayer in the scheme of God’s government
of the world, as well
as by the wonderful provision of God for our
every need, if we are only
willing to trust Him to undertake for us.
There is no doubt but that Miss Monsen’s experiences during those
twenty-three days on that bandit-ridden ship were a means in God’s
hand
to prepare her for greater work for Him during the years that
followed.
The narrative is full of interest from be-ginning to end.
In the providence of God she was led to take a boat that sailed one
day
earlier than she had planned. She was also led apparently without
any
reason to purchase several pounds of apples to take along on the
journey. Likewise she was led to keep four boxes of chocolate that had
been sent her by friends. “Never before in my life,” she relates,
“had I
carried about with me four boxes of chocolate. From the last part
of
February I began to get those packages of chocolate, and every time
I
got one, I heard the words, `Keep it for an emergency.’ I had a few
biscuits, dry biscuits, fourteen or fifteen of them. Many, many
times I
had been wanting to leave them behind and not carry them
along, but I
always heard, `Keep them for an emergency.’
For nine days she had those apples, that chocolate, and those biscuits,
and during those nine days she could not get any one of the crew
near
enough to tell them she wanted anything.
The ship left Tientsin on the 19th about noon. The next morning, as
they
were nearing the Shantung coast, she heard shots all over the ship.
About twenty robbers had come along with the ship as ordinary
passengers
and now they took possession of the ship. The words came
to her, “This
is the trial of your faith,” and a thrill of joy went through
her at the
thought of it.
“I was immediately reminded,” she says, “of the word that I had been
using much in years gone by, in Isaiah 41. 10, and I will read it to you
as I had been reading it on the Honan plains, `Fear not, Marie, for
I
am with thee, be not dismayed, Marie, for I am thy God. I will
strengthen thee, Marie, with the right hand of my righteousness.
Fear
not, Marie.’
Suddenly the doors were opened and the passengers were commanded
to go
outside on deck. Miss Monsen did not move. She knew she was
on that ship
that left Tientsin on the 19th because the Lord wanted
her to be there,
and that she had that cabin as an answer to prayer,
so she did not
leave it. A line from a Danish hymn came to her:
“My door-posts have
been marked by the blood of the Lamb.”
She kept singing this over and over, and firmly believed it was so.
A young robber came into her cabin and demanded to see her watch.
He
told her to put it away, thinking that later he would come and get it.
In the meantime another robber came and asked that she make him a
present of her watch. This she refused, whereupon he threatened to
shoot
her. She replied: “Oh, no, you can not shoot me. You can not shoot
me
whenever you like.” She quoted the promise and told him what it meant.
“My God says that no weapon that has been formed against me shall
prosper. You can not use your pistol whenever you like on me and shoot
me. You must have special permission from the Living God to do
that.” He
jumped up again and pointed the pistol at her. “You can
not,” she said,
“you can not. It has been promised to me, no weapon
that has been formed against me shall prosper.” She repeated that to
him four or five
times. Later during the twenty three days they were.
together on that
ship, she heard that young man repeating those words
to himself almost
every day. They just stuck.
Another promise that she claimed was from the third chapter of Malachi:
“And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked,
between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.” She
asked
God that there might be such a difference between her, a child
of God,
and the others, that those two hundred passengers on that ship
might see
that she had a living God, that her God was God, and was to
be praised.
In this respect also her prayers were answered. Miss Monsen
tells about the advent of another visitor: “I saw two robbers standing
outside, looking into my cabin. I have seen quite a few
robbers down in
Honan, but I have never seen more vile looking men than
those two.
One pushed the other into my cabin and shut the door and
tried to lock
it, but the key had been broken. There was that man in
that little cabin,
I felt the devil himself was there. His face and neck
and hands were all
covered with hideous sores, open sores. He sat down
on my suitcase, almost
breathing in my face. I repeated the promise that
had been very precious to
me many times down in our robber province:
`The angel of the Lord
encampeth around them that fear Him and delivereth them.’ And there
was another promise I went over that moment, `The Lord is like a wall of
fire round about His people.’ Round about
me. Once when I had to travel
through a robber district, the night
before, the Lord allowed me to see it.
I suddenly awoke and it seemed to
me the roof was lifted off the house
and I saw a wall of fire higher
than the house, round about me, and I
heard a voice saying, `The Lord is
like a wall of fire round about His
people.’ I could see the arrows
coming from the out-side, arrows without
number, and I could see the
flames consuming them and not a single one
of them passed that wall of
fire round about me. I had known those words
for years and years, but I
had not known what they meant before that time.
So I claimed the promise
that He would be like a wall of fire round about
me then, and that vile
man sitting there was up against the wall before
he could touch me.
“I started the conversation. Is your mother still living? `Yes,’ he
said.
How old is she? He told me. Well, she is about my age. I asked him
about
his father and the rest of the family, and we had a good long
talk together.
I had asked him to open the door and he obeyed me. It
could not be locked.
I found out that he knew a missionary, and he said
about him, `Truly he
is a good man, there is no better man in this
world.’ He knew some real
Christians too. I believe we talked together
for an hour, and when he went
he had tears in his eyes, and he went out
very quietly indeed. I never saw
him again near my door.”
For five days and nights the robbers looted every junk they came across
and sent the loot ashore. On the second day a junk had arrived with guns
and ammunition and the number of bandits had been increased to fifty or
sixty men. The passengers were fed, but Miss Monsen consistently
refused to
eat any of the stolen food. The apples and chocolate and
biscuits lasted her
nine days. On the tenth day the second officer came
to her door. Up to that
time not one of the crew had dared to come near
her cabin. He asked if she
had anything to eat, and on learning she had
nothing, said, “Well, I have a
box of eggs in this cabin, which I bought
in Tientsin with my own money,
clean money; you needn’t fear. I have a box of Chinese cakes too.
You can have it all.”
“From the tenth day till the end of the twenty-three days,” she says, “I
had
for breakfast one egg, for the noon meal, one egg, sometimes two;
and for
the evening meal, one egg. I prayed that the Lord would make
that egg
into a real meal and that He would make it good for vegetables
and fruit
and all that I needed; and He did. I had no trouble what-ever
on account
of the food, and when I had eaten one egg I seemed so
satisfied
I don’t think I could have eaten more if I had had it.”
Every day as they were having their meals, Miss Monsen handed out
tracts
to them. One would read aloud, and the others would explain the
meaning. She relates: “Many and many a time I saw tears in the eyes of
those men. They said, `We can not but be bad,’ and the one they wante
me to look upon as chief and to deal with came every night as I was
standing outside the cabin door to get fresh air.
“We talked for hours together. Even that last night before we left the
ship-I didn’t know it was the last night-we talked together for two
hours
on what I wanted to talk about. I told him what was coming, the
Lord’s
return and the Lord taking His own people unto Himself, and the
tribulation that was to come upon the earth. I must confess it, the day
I
saw those robbers leave the ship, I sighed be-cause my work among them
had come to an end. By that time I had been made perfectly willing to go
with them, to be carried off, with them, although I could not see how
they
could carry me off as long as r had this Book and all the promises
in it.”
During all this time she was perfectly delivered from impatience. Some
of
them remarked: “Can you understand the peace she has got? You can see
it on her face. Look at the passengers; they look yellow and worn and
impatient every day.” She knew it was so and thanked God that they
could
see the difference.The last five days the one question was how to
carry her off the ship.
At three different times they had planned
everything to carry her off,
but each time something turned up to frustrate
their plans. They had
commandeered forty or fifty junks which they
carried alongside. They
pointed out to her the junk she was to be in;
bedding had been taken
into the junks. They were just on the point of
leaving and taking her
with them when a sudden storm arose, so the junks
had to go near the
shore for cover. So they didn’t leave the ship that time.
The twenty third day was Sunday. At three in the afternoon suddenly a
shot was heard. A gunboat was in pursuit. Most of the robbers
immediately left the ship. Ten were left behind. The captain was ordered
out of his cabin, and there was a lively race for the space of two
hours.
The pirates planned to leave the ship and take Miss Monsen with them.
“We must have the foreigner with us;” they said, “we can not go without that
foreign face; they won’t shoot us if we have that foreign
face with us.”
At last they had to go into the junks, and she heard one
voice saying,
“What is the use of carrying the foreigner with us? She
has not been eating
anything for twenty-three days; she won’t be able to run; she won’t be
able to walk. You see the circumstances we are in;
leave her behind!”
And I was left behind: of course I was. `Even the
captives of the mighty
shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible
shall be delivered.’ “
Miss Monsen says the only difficulty she had on board ship was
about how
her old parents would take the news of her captivity.
She was given
grace not to be anxious for her parents, and God under
took for her also
in this respect. Seven days before her deliverance,
word came to Norway
that she had been released, so that during the
last and most difficult
days on board ship they were having praise
meetings in the home land.
She testifies as to what prayer did for her
during the days of her captivity.
“The first four or five days, people did not know we were missing,
so no
one prayed for the missing ones, of course. Those five days
I felt like
one swimming against the current, but I felt that strength
was given to
me and that I would be able to make it. After people got
to know we
were missing and started praying for me, there was a
marked difference. I
felt like one floating on the waters, just
floating, resting on the promises. And those seven days that they
were having praise meetings at home, the hardest part of the time
really, because there was this
terrible struggle between the powers
of darkness and the powers of
light, during those days I was so filled
with joy that I felt like
bursting out with joy more than once.”
After the pirates had left the ship, the passengers swarmed around
her
asking for tracts. They said: “We have seen that your God is God,
and we
want to believe Him too.” She concludes: “Friends, I thank
God for the
Book of promises, and I do thank Him that He is faithful to
His promise,
and that I was allowed to see His faithfulness.”
I have been searching and I found a book translated into English on
Amazon: your faith in the God of the impossible need reviving? Do you think
that stories of walls of fire and hosts of guardian angels protecting
God’s children
are only for Bible times? Then you should read the
amazing accounts in this book
of how God and His unseen armies protected and guided Marie Monsen, a
Norwegian missionary to China, as she
traveled through bandit-ridden
territory spreading the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and standing on the promises of
God. You will be amazed as she
tells of an invading army of looters who
ravaged a whole city, yet were
not allowed to come near her mission compound
because of angels standing
sentry over it. Your heart will thrill as she tells
of being held
captive on a ship for twenty-three days by pirates whom God
did not
allow to harm her, but instead were compelled to listen to her message
of a loving Savior who died for their sin. As you read the many stories
in this
small volume your faith will be strengthened by the realization
that our God
is a living God who can still bring protection and peace in
the midst of the
storms of distress, confusion and terror—
a very
present help in trouble.
There may also be other books. My best wishes for all my Scarf Sisters.
Felisol
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