Amy Carmichael:
Let the Little Children Come

by Lois Hoadley Dick

Reviewed by Reuben Stoltzfus

Mark 10:13-16 “And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.’ And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.”

Amy Carmichael was born December 16, 1867, in Northern Ireland, in the village of Millisle, facing the Irish Sea. She was the oldest of seven children. Amy was born into a religious family, with a strict atmosphere of faithful church and prayer meeting attendance. With this background she developed a strong faith, but also a strong dislike for formal religion that did not encourage a child-Father relationship with the Almighty.

At age three Amy prayed earnestly that her brown eyes would turn to blue, her favorite color. Her mother had said, “God always answers prayer,” so she fell asleep confidently. In the morning she ran to the mirror, never doubting the miracle, but God, able to see far down the years to her ministry in India, had answered for her best good. He said “no.”

When Amy was eleven years old, she was sent to a boarding school in Yorkshire. A few years later a visiting speaker gave his message, then asked them to bow their heads and sing “Jesus Loves Me.”

“During the quiet moments that followed, something happened to Amy. She had always known the Gospel story, but this time it was personal, and she invited the Lord Jesus into her life.”

God continued to faithfully mold and shape His servant Amy in her youth, using circumstances, sermons, and other people to bring her to a place of submission to God and His will for her life. He was also teaching her a life of faith and waiting on Him for financial needs. She shunned partying, luxury, and many other things that others simply accepted as the normal Christian life. Her burden for the down-and-out girls and women was not popular in her day, but she faithfully ministered to them and reached hundreds of them for Christ.

In 1892 God’s call to the foreign mission field became personal to her. Her reply to her mother: “He says ‘Go’; I cannot stay.”

“Amy, frail in health, subject to neuralgia and headaches, the financial support of her widowed mother who was left with seven children, the least likely to pioneer in a pagan land, was called by God. An old, oft-repeated story. God uses nobodies, foolish things, things that are nothing. For so she considered herself. And her brave mother’s reply was to go. Her heart echoed God’s command.”

Again, Amy was greatly misunderstood even by renowned Bible teachers of her day, and their words tore her heart. People in general considered it a terrible mistake. Through it all she learned that a Christian must expect to be misjudged—Christ was.

First Amy spent 15 months in Japan where she broke down with brain exhaustion, fever, and pain. After a short rest she went to India, arriving with a high fever and feeling “wormy,” as she described it. She quickly learned that India is Satan’s chosen battleground. Amy was faced with deadness and corruption in the “Christian” church; the power of Hinduism, caste, and customs; the enervating climate; and the lack of sympathy from Christians in both India and Britain. She had yet to find out about the untold suffering of countless children.

Amy applied herself to language learning, and spent many long, sweaty hours studying Tamil, a most difficult language to learn.

“Hours pulled out like hot, stretched taffy into weeks, months. The perplexities of Tamil conjugation knotted her brain. Thoughts she did not like to admit as her own materialized before her: ‘I am too sensitive for this type of work – the weather is too wearing on me.’”

Those first years were lonely and sometimes discouraging and depressing. She again found herself at odds with the nominal Christianity that filled the church. She was misunderstood as she sought to discover why there were so few converts, little interaction with the Indian people, and why a daily example of Christ being lived out was so difficult to find. A deeper walk and talk with the living Savior began during that time, and it continued to the very end.

March 7, 1901 was a day to be remembered. Pearleyes, a little girl who was given to the temple of the god Perumal at five years of age, came to Amy. At seven years old she escaped and returned to her mother, but the temple women followed, and her mother dared not keep her. Upon their return they informed Pearleyes that she is about old enough to be married to the god. She was terrified and that night prayed to die—a tender young child of seven praying to die! Later she finally escaped and was providentially brought to Amy.

Over time she told all about the horrors of temple life, describing it in the uninhibited way of a child until Amy thought she could bear no more. The obscene things they were taught at such a tender age, the terrible living conditions, the slavery to the gods and their keepers, and the inability to find people who really cared—these things all helped to shape Amy and her Indian co-workers’ lives and ministry.

He will gather, He will gather
The gems for His kingdom,
All the pure ones, all the bright ones,
His loved and His own.

Little children, little children
Who love their Redeemer
Are the jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.

Refrain:
Like the stars of the morning,
His bright crown adorning,
They shall shine in their beauty,
Bright gems for His crown.

By William O. Cushing