I remember as a child hearing my impatient missionary father explain to an elderly Chinese gentleman, “Does it mean nothing to you that if you reject Christ you will burn in hell?”

The Chinese gentleman smiled as he replied, “If, as you say, my ancestors are all in hell at this moment, it would be unfilial of me not to be willing to suffer with them.”

— Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), American writer, recipient of the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes