1900 - Brother Zheng & Sister Zhao

June 1900

Binzhou, Shandong

A 64-year-old Christian, Brother Zheng, was a member of the English Baptist Church in Binzhou. For many years he had followed Christ, and was known to be a zealous student of the Scriptures. Ten Boxers captured him as he returned home from a worship service one evening. They pointed the sharp ends of their swords at his face, and said, “If you will promise not to study the doctrine, we will not kill you.” Zheng answered,

“‘Though you threaten to kill me, yet it is my purpose to study the doctrine. If I say that I will not study, I can not face God with a good conscience.’ The Boxers dragged him some distance, then set upon him with their swords. To the end he would not recant, and he was chopped to fragments by the roadside.”[1]

In the same town lived a Christian woman named Zhao. When the Boxers came near, she left her village and hid in the home of a relative in a neighbouring village. The Boxers were informed, and immediately went and seized her. When she realized there was no chance of escape, Sister Zhao bravely followed the Boxers to a field outside the village. There

“they ordered her to kneel, facing the southeast, that she might worship their gods. She refused to turn her face in that direction, saying, ‘Since I have learned the doctrine I do not worship devils, but only the true God.’ So she knelt in a different direction.”[2]

Sister Zhao’s act of defiance enraged the Boxers. They immediately hacked and sliced her body to pieces with their sharp swords. Finding that the gruesome act was not enough to calm their anger, they then burned Zhao’s body until it turned to ashes.