Never Beyond the Pale II

As we continue with our theme that no man is beyond salvation if God wills him to be saved, I am reminded of the story of Robert Thomas. The first Protestant missionary venture to Korea was led by Robert Thomas of the London Missionary Society in 1866. He traveled to Korea on an American ship, called the "General Sherman", which was going on a voyage of exploration. As the ship sailed up the Tai Tong River, Thomas shared the gospel and handed out Bibles to people at various places that the ship stopped. When the ship neared the city of Pyonyang, hostilities broke out. The ship was set on fire, and the crew and its passengers jumped into the water and made for shore. There they were bayoneted by soldiers. One of the missionaries, some believe it was Robert Thomas, staggered to shore with his arms full of Bibles. As he was being killed, he handed Bibles to his Korean attackers. Although the authorities tried to gather and burn all the Bibles, some of them were hidden and later read by some of the soldiers and the people of Pyonyang.
Seventeen years later, a Presbyterian minister named Samuel Moffett came to Pyonyang to bring the gospel and to start a church. The missionary found that there were a number of people of the city who knew the Bible, and one of the first members of the church was the son of one of the soldiers who had killed a missionary on the shore of the Tai Tong River. And beginning with that see God brought a large and famous revival to Pyonyang and its surroundings under the ministry of Rev. Moffett. Oh the mystery of the providence of God in salvation!