ABSTRACT
Bitter cup, bitter cup, the bitter cup of the Lord which is hard to drink silently obeying the Heavenly Father bitterness enters the bone. Simon Zhao, originally from Shenyang, felt a calling to undertake evangelistic work in the late 1940s. In 1949 he and his wife, along with two others, went to Xinjiang. He was arrested in 1951 and suffered many hardships because of his faith. His wife died in prison in 1960. He was released in the early 1980s and became a legend among the Christians of Xinjiang. He wrote many hymns and poems which became a source of encouragement and hope for the Chinese Christians. Hymn written in 1983 by Simon Zhao which many Chinese Christians find a powerful expression of the years of suffering they have undergone. This hymn was written in the early 1980s after the author had witnessed the martyrdom of some of his colleagues.
