Elisabeth Elliot: She too, in the quietness of her prayers, had tried to find some clear path to follow. Should they stand aside and let the forces of evil reach with black fingers into every corner of the province? Or should they take up the sword and in the name of God strike at the evil hand wherever it clutched?

Lisa Barry: Today on Gateway to Joy, Elisabeth Elliot continues reading the biography of Gladys Aylward. So far we've watched her beat the odds and begin a ministry in China. Then she befriended a Chinese official whom she was able to influence for good. Now as the war continues on, she's faced with difficult questions of conscience and the politics of war. Let's join Elisabeth as she takes us on another leg of this courageous journey on today's edition of Gateway to Joy. Here she is.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, continuing my story today of Gladys Aylward, missionary to China.

We left off yesterday telling about a very interesting young officer in the Chinese army. He was a colonel, actually, of Chiang Kai Shek's intelligence, and he begins to take an interest in her. For the first time in her life, she begins to wonder whether she might be attractive. Was there still in her face and body the indefinable mystery that draws a man to a woman?

"She was a missionary dedicated to God, but God had also made her a woman, full of the natural tides and forces which stir womankind. If she was falling in love, she reasoned, then it was God who allowed it to happen. How much of this activity was due to her desire to please Lin An, this colonel, and how much to a desire to serve China, she did not try to disentangle. She only knew that in the bitterness of this war, she was now equipped with a faith and also a purpose."

Well, she had to flee for safety from the Japanese bombings and spent six weeks in caves in the mountains with men, women and children.

"The leaders of most units of the national army in that part of Shanxi knew Gladys very well. She knew the mountains in that area far better than most of the people who lived there; certainly far better than the troops. Years of wandering over the ridges and the rough valleys on foot or muleback, far from any habitation, had given her an expert knowledge of the terrain.

It was almost dark when she returned to the village where she had first met the nationalist troops. The village elder met her outside his house, a gentle, old man in a faded blue robe; a straggle of white hairs on his chin. 'General Lee is here,' he whispered. 'He called to see me. He's an old friend. When he heard you might return, he waited. He's anxious to meet you.'

She quickened her step. She had heard much of this general, but she had never met him. He was a legendary figure in the province, a Roman Catholic priest, a European, though from what country he came, she did not know. In these days, you did not ask questions about anyone's background. She heard later that he was a Dutchman, but never obtained confirmation.

When the Japanese invaded Shanxi, he had not been content to sit back and rely upon God's mercy. With militant Christian fury, he had found weapons for his parishioners and struck back. Now he was leader of a large guerrilla force. They lived in the mountains and fought the Japanese whenever and wherever they could. It was therefore with a tingle of anticipation that Gladys walked into the courtyard to meet this man.

In the half-light she saw him standing there, feet astride, arms clasped behind his back, a sturdy figure of medium height dressed in a long, black robe. His short, cropped hair was blonde. He had a strong, supple face. His mouth was determined, yet ready to smile. Only his eyes, she thought, were sad, detached. He smiled, hand outstretched.

'Ai Wei Dei,' that was her name in Chinese. 'We shall forget that you are a woman and I am a man, that you're a Protestant and I'm a Roman Catholic.'

'We seem to have some things in common, General Lee,' she said, returning his smile.

'We have a common enemy,' he said, suddenly somber again. His eyes were grave. 'Come inside and let us talk. You must be tired and hungry.'

As they scooped at their bowls of millet by the light of the flickering lamp, there was immediately between them that sense of warm friendship which so rarely illumines a first meeting. They talked of many things. The main body of Lee's men were sheltering in caves some miles away. They were moving across to ambush the main trail between Tse Cho and Gao Ping the next day. Their information was good. 'We shall kill many Japanese,' he said. Their eyes met across the lamp. She understood, and he knew she understood this agonizing dilemma of his Christian conscience.

She, too, in the quietness of her prayers had tried to find some clear path to follow. Should they stand aside and let the forces of evil reach with black fingers into every corner of the province? Or should they take up the sword and in the name of God strike at the evil hand wherever it clutched?

She scraped the last few grains of millet from the bottom of the bowl. 'General Lee,' she mused, 'Why do they call you General?'

'The rank is purely honorary,' he said, smiling again. 'The men prefer it that way. They have more face serving under a general, and it is a convenient nom de plume.'

She hesitated. 'Aren't you frightened of being caught by the Japanese?' She knew it was a naïve question, but it was one she had to ask.

'Often,' he said. 'Very often. Are you?'

'I hardly think about it.'

'I have heard much about you, Ai Wei Dei,' he said quietly.

'What have you heard?'

'At times, you make journeys behind the Japanese lines to gather information for the Chinese armies. That is true, is it not?' There was a ring of accusation in his voice, and she looked at him wonderingly.

'Yes,' she said.

His eyes were fastened on hers. 'Do you not feel that you are betraying the position that God has given you?' he demanded coldly.

'God recognizes the difference between right and wrong,' she said stormily. 'We can recognize the difference, can't we? The Japanese are wicked. Our Lord drove the moneylenders out of the temple with whips. The Japanese go through our countryside, looting, burning and killing. We must drive them out, too, with every means in our power. These are my people they kill. My people--legally, morally, spiritually. And I shall go on doing what I can to protect and help them.'

She stopped suddenly in the middle of her tirade, conscious that he was smiling. 'You did that on purpose,' she said accusingly; nevertheless, she felt relieved.

He nodded slowly. 'Yes.' She knew he did not need an answer. He was examining his own conscience aloud.

'I am a Christian priest,' he said slowly. 'I am in this country to teach the ignorant and aid the sick and bring the Word of God to those who have never heard it. And yet on the battlefield, I see the corpses of the men I have helped to kill. Yes, killed myself with these own two hands.' He jerked out his hands in a quick gesture of contempt. 'Yet what is the use of neutrality? There's fighting in every part of the world, Ai Wei Dei, against a common enemy of evil. And unless every man takes up arms, spiritual, moral and physical arms, and fights in the way he is best equipped to fight, how can we ever defeat it? I am a man as well as a priest, Ai Wei Dei. A man. You know what they have done, Ai Wei Dei. They have killed and looted and burned. How can a Christian man stand by while it continues? I cannot and I shall not.'

Then as quickly as it had risen, the anger died in him. He looked down at his hands, still stretched before him, dropped them to his side and wiped the palms against his gown with a downward movement, as if to wipe out a stain. 'The judgment must come later,' he said wearily.

His eyes lifted again after a moment of silence. A wry smile twisted his lips. 'Mine is a religious order that believes in confession,' he said quietly.

Gladys returned his look. 'I understand,' she said gently. She did not know what else to say, although she yearned for words that would reveal her sympathy and seal the bond between them.

There was no way she knew of offering him comfort beyond that his faith offered him. No one else could carry or share his burden, yet she also knew that from this meeting between them, two aliens far from their homelands, each would take some comfort.

In this way, their meeting was endowed with dignity and a strength that neither would forget. She did not know that in the years to follow in every latitude such transient, comforting meetings of men and women for a few seconds, minutes, hours or days were to be commonplace; that the old fabric of long-growing years, slowly ripening acquaintanceships, civilizing codes of conduct was to be slashed to pieces by the exigencies of war.

The few poignant moments before the battle, before the gas chamber, before the take-off, before the embarkation leave, before the surgical operation, before the falling bomb were all that millions of men and women were to have as solace on their short and bitter journeys to the grave. Yet in these little meetings of kindred spirits, without a past to give them guidance or a future to give them hope, they would find a measure of peace and coherence to lend a reason to their dying; a faith to give some semblance of sanity to their farcical affairs of mankind."

Remember that the Bible says that we are to imitate the faith of our leaders. That's why I always want to recommend Christian biographies. It gives us a chance to see the span of a man or woman's life from birth to death and the faithfulness of God.

Lisa Barry: Is that what you think as you look over your life? I do. And I'm amazed at the useful trials He's allowed me to experience. Maybe you need a friendly reminder today that God has a plan for you. Let the life of Gladys Aylward motivate you for years to come. The biography is entitled THE LITTLE WOMAN.

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Join us again tomorrow when we'll learn what happens to the General Lee. That's next time on Gateway to Joy.