English: Chao Ta-niang, the Bible-woman at Sin-tien-tsï. On being photographed, she insisted on having her hymn-book open at her favourite hymn, "I am not ashamed to own my Lord." Photograph by Isabella Bird. See also Anglicanism in Sï-ch'uan. (Note: Sin-tien-tsï, now spelt Xindianzi, was a small mission station opened in 1892. The spot is presently a village located in Baihe Town, Cangxi County, under the administration of Guangyuan City, which is near Pao-ning, headquarters of the Anglican Diocese of Szechwan.)

It was on just such a day, in that very place, during last summer, that a group might be seen in a corner of that busy, thronged street, gathered round our Bible-woman, Chao-ta-niang. I can see her now, her dear old wrinkled face all aglow with joy and earnestness, as she spoke of the Saviour she loves so well. She has known Him herself just four years, and she often says they have been the happiest years of her life. How much she rejoiced that day, when she saw that among her listeners were two old women who drank in the Word, as those do whose hearts have been prepared by the Spirit to receive the seed of the Kingdom. One of these was Uen-ta-niang, aged seventy, and the other, her relative, Chang-ta-sao, a few years older.

That evening, Mrs. Chao came with me to an opium-suicide case, and on the way home she told me about Mrs. Uen and her relative, and it was good to see her intense desire that they might be saved.

They both came the following Sunday to learn more—and oh! the joy of speaking of Jesus to these longing, hungry souls! I wish I could tell you what an intense joy this is. Surely it is part of the "manifold more in this present time."—(Luke xviii. 30.)

Mrs. Uen and Chang-ta-sao continued to come regularly for weeks; then the latter went to live with a nephew, who opposed her coming to us, and her visits became few and far between. She was always pleased to see us when we visited her, but on hearing that the nephew treated her cruelly after our visits, we discontinued them. Uen-ta-niang has attended the classes regularly, and every Sunday, no matter what the weather may be, she is with us. Her little house is three and a half English miles from us in a lonely but beautiful spot.

When she became a Christian, her only son and his wife and children, who had been living with her, left her and took a house further down the valley. This was a cruel thing to do, and even in the eyes of the heathen was wrong, because they lay so much stress upon filial piety.

Certainly, old Mrs. Uen had aroused her son's ire many times before he went, by always going out when he performed his idolatrous worship, and once, being able no longer to stand the smell of the incense, she carried all the idols out into the courtyard, telling him if he wished to worship them he could do it out there!

When the son and his family went away, they left the family gods in their place. Mrs. Uen then destroyed them, but in the centre room was a tablet to "Heaven and Earth," which she dared not touch, because it belonged partly to a nephew, who, though living at some distance from her, had, through some complicated arrangement, a share in it. Mrs. Uen longed to be rid of the tablet, but was afraid of offending this man. After the son had gone, she used the centre room as little as possible, doing everything in her own little room which served her as bedroom and kitchen in one.

Thus the winter passed by, and early this year she went away to visit a married daughter living a long way from us. How we trembled for her among all that was heathenish again. We prayed daily together that God would keep her from the evil, and we rejoiced greatly when, after two months' absence, she came back to us still bubbling over with joy as she spoke to us "of things touching the King." She had found an old unused loft where she had often gone to talk with Him, and on Sundays she had had a little meeting alone with Him there, repeating all the texts and hymns she had learnt. She told us that the magic-lantern picture of the Crucifixion, seen shortly before going away, had never left her mind, and it had taught her much of the great love of Jesus Christ for her.

It was not long after her return home that she had a striking dream. In the valley opposite she saw a figure, which she knew was that of the Lord Jesus Christ. She saw Him coming across the valley, and cried out many times: "Saviour of the people" (her own name for Him), "I am a sinner; come and save me." But though He drew near her house, it was only to look sadly in, and then He passed sorrowfully by. She tried to run out to Him, but some power restrained her.

Awaking, she felt convinced it was the presence of the idolatrous tablet that had prevented Him from entering, and she became more and more determined to get rid of it.

A few weeks later an opportunity arose of speaking to her nephew and son together about the necessity of destroying the tablet, but they would not consent to it. She then told them she must obey God rather than man, and that if they would not take it away she would burn it. Finally they left her to do as she would with it, and the following Sunday she triumphantly brought it under her arm to the service and set fire to it with great delight, and while it burnt we sang the hymn, "I want to follow Jesus."

During the week following the burning of the tablet, she told us she wanted to have her house white-washed. Knowing how very poor she is we tried to dissuade her from incurring this expense, telling her that the burning of the idols was necessary, whilst the renovating of her house was not.

"But," she answered quickly, "I want my Lord Jesus to always live with me there, and it must be clean for Him; and am I not expecting Him to come back from Heaven at any moment? I would not like Him to smell any trace of the incense."

Of course, as this was her motive, we could say no more. Would that our Lord's return were such a momentary reality to all His children as it is to some of these dear people.

From that time Uen-ta-niang's earnestness increased daily. Much persecution and trouble from unbelieving relatives and neighbours followed the burning of the idols, but she has borne all bravely, and has found that "as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth in Christ." This she has experienced in realising the fulfilment of her one great desire, that her Saviour should dwell with her. She was quite hurt once when I asked if she were lonely sometimes in her little house, and answered decisively: "How can I be lonely when my Lord is always with me? I talk to Him and He speaks much to me."

Another thing that has struck us much about Mrs. Uen is her constant desire to give something to God in return for all His love to her. The first of all her crops and vegetables she brings to us. One day, hesitating to take her first basket of new peas, for she is very poor, I said: "Why do you give us so much?" She answered: "Have you not brought me the Gospel and told me of the love of Jesus? By giving to you I feel I am giving to God also."

Dear old woman, her face shines with the joy of her salvation. She reckons she only began to live in the ninth month of last year when she first heard the Gospel. All her life before that was, she says, lived in vain. Thank God, she now lives in the conscious realisation of His presence, in the light of His countenance, and His presence is indeed to her "fulness of joy."

——Davies, Hannah (1901). Among Hills and Valleys in Western China: Incidents of Missionary Work, pp. 173–179.