IN GOD'S APPOINTED SEMINARY
 

1927

One week after his conversion, the 17th day of February, 1927, John Sung felt a sudden urge to buy a fountain pen and a new Bible, for henceforth the Bible was the only Book he would read. On the way back from buying Book and pen, as he walked through the pedestrian mall, he noticed the cherub of a young child writing across the pavement: REST. When he saw a second child writing REST and yet a third writing REST further on, he felt there must be something behind all this. No sooner had he said this to himself than he arrived at the Seminary gate. What was before a home away from home, Union Seminary with her castle-like walls and high towers suddenly appeared to be Satan's stronghold. Her professors and students seemed like Satan's hordes entrenched within. These, said John Sung to himself, who misappropriate God's money to do Satan's work at God's expense! At the thought of such misuse of God's funds, he began to weep. He felt a contest between God and Satan was raging, right in the Seminary.

Sure enough the doorway leading to Room 415 was locked against him. He was politely but firmly requested to go to a prepared place to REST, for it was observed he had had no rest for a whole week. For a whole week, truly, John Sung had gone all out to tell one and all about His Savior. A feverish fatigue was being felt within and without. Perhaps following the Seminary's suggestion to the place of REST would be a good proposition after all. Not permitted to go upstairs to pack his belongings, he was given a hurried send-off, only Bible and pen in hand.

The place of REST booked for him turned out to be Bloomingdale Hospital and his "room" the psychopathic ward. A fine hotel to be sure, since the timing of his arrival was after dark. What John Sung projected to be a one-week vacation in some country hotel became a six-and-a-half month ordeal, 193 days to be exact! Let him tell his own story according to Paragraphs 75 to 79 in "My Testimony" his own Chinese publication:

"The next day after I entered the Mental Hospital doctors came to examine me in detail. First they took my blood to see if there were cells related to mental disorder. Then they questioned me about my ancestry. They wanted to know if there was any heredity in this case. My answers bordered on the humorous, but in effect this was what I said to the doctor, `I can examine myself whether I am mentally ill or not. For I very well know, scientifically, the blood and hereditary connections. Though I am not a well-known M.D. I have also read the books you have read. If you don't believe me, you can investigate with the faculty and students of Ohio State University.'

"While they came to examine me again if my faculties were normal, to induce further evidence the doctor read me a short story and asked me to put it on paper. I retold the story without missing a sentence, not even a word. They were astonished with my retentive powers. Said I to them after this, `I have recently translated a thick volume of the Tao Teh-ching, written the history of a British Orphanage plus a commentary on the Prophecy of Jeremiah. You can read through these works to gauge my thoughts.'

"The doctor said not a word to all my explanations. He ordered me to lie down in bed to rest my body. Truth to tell, I was feeling quite fagged out. I needed very much a rest and reorientation. I saw my pale emaciated face in the mirror, and I thanked God for this opportunity to rest, without paying a cent. With restored health and strength I could resume my testimony for Him with renewed spirits.

"Before this you would count me one of the robust ones. How did I become so weak and thin? From what I've said earlier it was obvious I had come under the oppression of sin. I was torn between the law of sin and the law of righteousness. This made me not only restless but put me into a state of confusion day and night. My sin-load weighed heavier and heavier on me each passing day. This drove me into earnest quest for a new life. I forgot to eat or sleep. I was desperately looking for the way out of my sinful life. I found as a result of this searching the new birth and forgiveness of sins from my crucified Savior. Hence I ceased not to testify His wonderful saving grace and to praise him from the bottom of my heart. Night or day I was engaged in prayer, Bible study and singing praises to the Lord. Seeing that the loving Father had desired me to take a break, I therefore lay me down to sleep. At that, the scene of the three angelic children writing REST across the pavement came back to mind. I understood then these children were giving me a message from the Lord.

"Everyday an X-ray was taken. Everyday I was given a bath under super hygienic conditions. Everyday I ate the most nutritious food. What better treatment could there be found? Never since this treatment have I enjoyed such luxury, but all this wonderful treatment I got consisted of the material which was not my lot. All the material enjoyments could never take away my spiritual woes.

"What made me suffer most was their non-recognition of my sanity and scholarship. I did not mean I wanted them to worship the golden degree of a PhD and hero's welcome that I had got. All I had desired of them was that they would not take me to be mentally deranged and deprive me of my freedom. On the contrary they regarded me like a criminal sentenced to solitary confinement with strictest surveillance. I was under the scrutiny of the nurse day and night who wore the severe demeanor of a judge. How could I stand all this?

"And what a ludicrous method of examination by the doctor who gathered my pile of correspondence left behind in my Seminary room to examine them one by one. Judge for yourself: Wasn't this funny? If they wanted to read my thoughts wouldn't it be more reasonable to read the letters I had sent out? To think of them scrutinizing each one of the letters sent in! Fortunately I wasn't like one of those modern youths with a string of girl friends each twining him round and round with love letters. How embarrassing I should have been!

"All correspondence coming in to me at the Hospital were censored by the doctor. The clerk-in-charge became my secretary. He wrote every reply to letters I had received from relatives and family, saying I was too ill to answer and asked them not to write again. Under such a ban, life became even more miserable and isolated. Worse than a prison, such a control system reduced peace and tranquility within me to zero but enlarged my misery and sorrow to the nth degree. But God instructed me to walk in His Way, so I devoted myself rather to the quiet study of His Word under the lectureship of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual teachings I received here would suffice me for a lifetime of service.

"Now that Mental Hospital was a famous one. There were seven wards planned on a grand scale to perfection. When I first entered the hospital I was warded at No. 4. Having put on weight and regained my spirits I was transferred to Ward 6. The date was February 28th. One week after that I was taken to Ward 2. Each ward took in a particular category of sickness. God used my rotation from ward to ward to show me the different mentalities around, and from each person­ality God taught me a different lesson. On the walls of these wards were hung all kinds of pictures to my delight. I specially lingered to enjoy religious art.

"Now the doctor had promised to release me after forty days. As the days slid by this did not come to fruition. There was no ray of hope of my getting out. Not able to stand it any longer because the doctor did not keep his word, I lost my temper on him. I argued vehemently with all of them which rubbed them on the wrong side. They retaliated by locking me up in Ward 7. Here I stayed with the violent ones. Here I was bombarded with cursing, and swearing day and night. The day I entered happened to be the 9th of May, China's National Day of Shame. On this day when I began my deepest round of suffering in a foreign land, I turned homewards to China. As I thought of father and mother and their love to me and of the sympathies of home, I burst into tears.

"The din around me gave me not a moment of peace. I pleaded with the doctor to no avail to let me shift to Ward 3. So, after a few days, the afternoon of June 23, when I saw that my young warder had fallen asleep, I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to escape. Jumping off the verandah I almost in one breath ran two or three li (lee) = almost an English mile. I hid myself in a wheat-field from my pursuers, but I was foiled in the attempt by an Alsatian. Pinning me down like a criminal they hauled me back to hospital. They dapped me into the ward for violent cases.

"At Ward 7, as I have said before, I was bombarded by a tirade of jangling sounds --- from self-scolding to strident singing, from jumping to clapping, from striking to cursing. Unless you were there you could never comprehend what I am trying to tell you. My mind could hardly snatch a moment of peace under these circumstances - what a mental torture! As I look back, I can truly praise the Lord that He took me through this bitterest phase of my journey. To go through that situation was taxing one to the extreme of extremes.

"One night Satan tried to ensnare me. In the faint light of the setting moon come through the window into my bed, the words of the ancient poet came back to mind:­

Before my bed in the moonlight

The earth seemed covered with frost.

Looking up at her so bright

It made me pine for home.

"As my thoughts wandered from home back to self, to my past, present and the future, I saw my past all gone in smoke. There was no need to look back. But when I considered the present and projected it into the future, I suddenly thought a bad thought - to take my own life. As the idea began to take hold of me in the stillness of the moonlit night, as tears welled up at the thought of home again, I wanted to take the plunge.

"In this moment of despair there suddenly came a voice from above telling me of the Grace of God. `The hand about to strike Isaac' relented. I heard the Lord's still small voice: `My child, you have been bought by my precious blood. How can you take your life so lightly?' I said, `Lord, I'm a worm. I'm born into a sunless world. Since I can't return to you my filial piety, to live is worse than death. So I thought of taking my life.' The Lord's voice continued, `All things work together for good to them that love God. If you can endure a little more, for 193 days of sorrow you must go through, you will have learnt the lesson of carrying my Cross and walk the road of obedience after Me to Golgotha.' Suddenly that thick darkness that had surrounded me gave way to God's glory shining over me.

"After one week I pleaded with the doctor to shift me to Ward 6. I explained to him that my escapade was not due to mental disorder. I was driven to it because by nature I am an active person. I ran away because I just couldn't help it. He relented and I moved out.

"During my days in the asylum America underwent a great flood. Many people were drowned. As it affected a great area the price of goods soared. But God had put me in a place where I was physically well provided. What more could I want? My complaint and unhappiness was only about the loss of freedom.

"Gradually my nurse changed his attitude towards me. No more did he put on that devil face so harsh and sullen against me. He was now willing to be my messenger and postman. Thrilled by his change of attitude, I quickly wrote a letter to my Ambassador. I lodged a complaint to him that I was illegally confined in a mental hospital. I had lost my freedom of movement and speech. I begged him to take up the matter with the American Government.

"On the 30th day of August my bosom friend (Dr Rollin Walker) an American missionary had returned from Europe. Immediately upon his arrival he heard I was confined in a lunatic asylum. He came in haste to New York State to see me. I wept bitterly when he visited me. I told him all my troubles. He comforted me. He went to see the Superintendent of the Hospital and got me signed out at once. Simultaneously the Superintendent had received an inquiry from the Government. This matter had put him in a quandary. Thus with a guarantor on hand what better solution could there be? What better opportunity to return a favor, to do a good turn to someone? I was now a free man!

"Looking back on this episode of my life I consider it rather a drama of paradoxes. From the day of my admission to the Hospital to the evening of my discharge, according to God's timetable, there was a total of 193 days. What I'm going to say hereafter is a recounting of the lessons I've learned in the Mental Hospital.

The first lesson I've learned is how to become an obedient servant. God has thoroughly molded my character and temperament. The day of my complete capitulation and surrender to Him was the day of my graduation from God's Seminary!

"The second lesson was my understanding of Holy Scrip­ture. So, I have declared the Mental Hospital my Seminary from which I have graduated. The Holy Spirit was my Teacher, teaching me the deep things of Truth. The day of my leaving the Hospital was the day I received my diploma.

"The Bible was my textbook. Other teaching materials consisted of visions, pictures, circumstances, inter-personal relationships.

"The Bible comprises 1189 chapters. By the Lord's instruc­tion I've derived 40 methods of study, reading the Bible 40 times. Of course I did not read the Bible crudely word by word. When I read the Bible I was so carried away by it that I kept on and on, like enjoying a delicious meal.

"The Bible is the inspired Word of God, written by the moving of the Spirit of God. Therefore the Bible reader, unless it is revealed to him by God at the instruction of the Holy Spirit, how can he understand it? I thank God that He has shown me the mysteries of the Bible. I know that every chapter, every verse, every word has something good for my spiritual life. At first God taught me through pictures and diagrams, giving me the key verse to each chapter of the Bible. Then He showed me certain key words like `love', `faith', `righteousness' which led me to link them up through the whole Bible. He showed me certain words which had a deeply religious meaning and I would trace such word through the whole Bible. I recorded the findings of every method of Bible study. In a few days I had filled a stack of notebooks. I have told some of my dreams and visions but there are those I have never divulged from the recesses of my heart.

"At first I made my notes in English. When I realized these were open to prying eyes I changed to Chinese, and to this day I've kept my notes in Chinese.

"The day I had completed the lessons God had prescribed for me in my Wilderness was the Day I was `bailed out' --- it was the 200th day of my spiritual life. How I praised God to know that when God wanted to train His servant, it was not a simple matter. God had His time-table, His method, His will. Wonderful, wonderful is my God, my Father.

"After leaving the Hospital, that American missionary most cordially invited me to stay with him in Cincinnati for a month. The principal of my Seminary had all my belongings and baggage returned to me. So I sat before the Lord in quiet meditation, waiting for His Will to be revealed."

During his sojourn in Cincinnati, John Sung was invited to dinner at a pastor's home. There he was asked to play a tune on the piano. Before he played the pastor set a blind, deaf and dumb girl by his side so that her hand might feel the piano as John played. Immediately after the playing this "three-unwholesome" girl was asked to play. Wonder of wonders, she reproduced the tune John Sung had played without a hitch.

This encounter made a deep impression on John. There he learned another lesson from the Lord. He said in one of his sermons, "God wants me to serve Him in these end-times like this blind, deaf and dumb girl. To be a servant of the Lord one must not look at the world and its riches, nor listen to man's ridicule and criticism. Unless one remains silent to taunts around him one cannot carry the Cross to follow Him. But these two hands are to do His work daily to fulfill His will."

"Who is blind but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not?" (Isa 42: 19,20).