dlatnell itniaersitij Sibtaty Mbata. Ifjiu fork CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 The date sbows when this volump w3o taUnn ^ Tn rone* this book copy the I Cornell University Library ? - -J- . * ":'■ ""' BV 2065.G62 Light on our lessons, or What is the u 3 1924 023 021 441 -> LlBhARfiluIEX DATE DUE JlB-fj Zu J^ GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.SA AN ARAB SCHOOL. \_Frontispiece, LIGHT ON OUR LESSONS; ' OR, "WHAT IS THE USE?" A MISSIONARY BOOK FOR BOYS AND CJRLS. By GEORGINA A. GOLLOCK. WITH PREFACE BY EUGENE STOCK (Editorial Secyclaiy of the C.M.S.) LONDON : CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C. i8g2. PRINTED BV HA2ELL, ■\VATSON, AND VrNE"\', L1^^TED, LONDON AND AVLEhliURV. TO THE YOUKXx READERS OF TlilS BOOK. DEAR BOYS AND GIRDS — I am not the Author of this book ; but my friend who wrote |it asks me to write a Preface. What is a Preface ? Vou find a Prefitce in most books, though not in all. It is a short chapter which comes before the first chapter 1 Boys know that sometimes in a game of cricket a trial ball is bowled before the first ball ; and girls know that sometimes a lady who sits down to play the piano, strikes a chord or two before she begins the piece. A Preface is something like that, but not quite. It is generally meant to explain to the readers why the Author has written the book : that is, first, what led him to write it, and secondly, what his object or purpose was in writing it. But sometimes the Preface is written by a person who is not the Author, and then it is generally meant to tell people why they ought to read the book. ^Vell, that is what I want to do now. Yes; but do boys and girls ever read Prefaces ? I am sure I didn't when I was a boy. I was always in such a hurry to begin the books themselves, that I used to skip the Prefaces, which generally looked very dry ! Well, if you read this book without reading the Preface, I shall be quite satisfied. I don't care a bit about your reading the Preface, but I want you to read the book. Why do I want you to read the book ? Because it is a missionary book, and I want you to know something about missionary work. I wish I had had such a book when I was a boy ! I had some capital books, — books about ships, and books about animals, and books about great travellers, and books about great warriors and heroes, and books about the sun and moon and stars, and books aljout boys and girls. Many of these books I used to read over and over again, they were so interesting. But I don't remember ever having a missionary book. Then did I not know anything about missionaries? Yes, I did ; but I learned about them from some very ugly-looking tracts, with no pictures in them. After that, I came to know a little mite of a green magazine which came out every month, called the Church Missionary Juvenile Ins/niifor. That little magazine has been published vi What the Lord Jesus saia. month after month ever since, never once missing, all these long years ; and, like its young readers, it got bigger as time went on. Many of you have read it, and you know that it still comes out every month, only it lias now got another name — The Childretis World. You may have read some of the stories in this book, and seen some of its pictures, in The Children's World ; but there is a great deal in the book which you have not seen before, and I want you to read every word of it. And I am sure that if you live to be grown-up men and women, you will often be pleased to remember what you have read in this book. But the book is not only about missionaries. It is also about lessons : reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography, languages, music, and drawing. ^Vhat can it tell us about them ? Ah, well, you must find that out ! Do you remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples after He had risen from the dead, and before He ascended to heaven ? He told them to " Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mark xvi. 15 ; see also Matt, xxviii. 18-20; Luke xxiv. 46, 47; John xx. 21 : Acts i. 8). That has never been done thoroughly yet, and now those who love the Lord Jesus Christ are trying to do it. Some go out to far-off lands to preach tlie Gospel to people who have never heard of Jesus ; these are the missionaries. Others, who cannot go, stay at home and pray for the missionaries, and read what they are doing, and give or collect money, to pay for their food and clothing, and houses, and boats, and books. What can " Our Lessons " have to do with the missionaries and their work ? That is what this book will tell you. So now, read away, and when you have got to the end, turn back to the first chapter and read it again ! And may God write its words upon your hearts ! Eugene Stock, October, 1S91. Editorial Stcrctary, Church Missionary Society. NOTE. The Author of the book asks me to mention clearly that some portions of it are a reprint of a series of articles in The Children'' s World, signed " G. W." Those initials did not stand for a real name, but were adopted because, while the name of the writer began with " G," some of the material was provided by a friend whose name began with " W." The articles have now been re-written, enlarged, and added to, and other friends have furnished fresh material, all of whom the Author desires me to thank in her name. E. S. C O N T E N T S . CHAP. PAGr I. ROUNIl THE tt'ORLD IN SCHOOI, ........ I II. READINi; . . . . . . . . . . -15 III. wRiTixc; ............ 27 IV. ARITHjnnTC ............ 3'') V. HISTORY ............ 46 VI. f,F.OC;RAPHV . . . . . . . . . . • 5- VII. LANGUAGES ............ 63 VIII. MUSIC ............. 74 I-X. DR.WVING ............ S2 X. THE LAST !......... . . 87 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. An Arab School . . FrontispiiLe What is the Use ? . . . .2 " Play while you play " A Trader's Dog Sledge Eskimos, from the shores of the Polar Sea .... A Hydah Woman from Massett The Capture of a Slave Boy C.M.S. Mission Buildings at Frere Town, 1885 Boys' School in China Malagasy Catechists Uphill Work in Japan A Japanese Family on the mov Indian School Girls . A Bullock Cart, or Bandy Bishop Tucker, of Eastern Equatorial Africa . . . . .21 The Blind School at Umritzar . . 24 A Blind Chinese Beggar . . • ^5 Strings of Cowries . . . .28 A Page of Bishop Hannington's Diary 30 An Indian ^Vriting Lesson . . 32 A Yoruba Postman . . . -32 A Japanese Man writing . . -33 A Missionary Caravan in Africa . 40 Sukkur, in Sindh . . . -43 S 7 S 9 12 ^5 18 PAGE In the Catacombs at Rome . . 49 A Geography Lesson in Tinnevelly . 52 Mtesa, late King of Uganda . -53 View near Ispahan, in Persia . -57 Chaleel Ibrahim — a Palestine Boy . 59 Mount Kilima-Njaro (two views) 60, 61 An African Hut . . . .66 In a Red Indian's Hut . . .68 The late Bishop French . . .69 A Cobbler in Beluchistan . ■ 1° View of Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir . . . . ■ 1- Street Singers in Japan . . -74 Native Helpers at Peshawar . .76 A Chinese Lady with her Musical Instrument . . . .77 The Sacred Book of the Sikhs . . 78 A Japanese Musician . . .So Our Kiongozi. (Sketch by Bishop Tucker) . . . . .82 Learning to Draw . . . .84 " A Magic-Lantern ^Meeting" in South India 85 Children at Rest . . . .88 Miscellaneous i, 15, 27, 36, 37 46, 51, 63, S7 Map of the Niger District .... page 41 Map of the World showing C.^I.S. Missions ,, 55 i'^Iit on our ^555005 ; ^ or, VKcit i5 IKe U^q ? CHAPTER I. ROUiXD THE WORLD IN SCHOOL. OF course no one " grown u[) " \\\\\ e\'er want to read tin's book, so you and I can be cjuite confidential, and tall< just as we might do if we were strolling liomc from the cricket field, or sitting cosil)- b\" the school-room fire before tea. Generalh" speaking, bo\-s and girls do not talk at such times about their lessons (except when the\' in- dulge in a grumble or i two !j, for the simple r e a s o n that the)' and the A Lack of Liglit. c;ro\vn-up folk differ rather widely in their ideas on the subject, and the chat might possibly develop into an argument, which \\-ould be very sad indeed. But every rule has its exceptions, and we are going to be striking illustrations of that well- known fact. About lessons, and nothing else, we are going to talk, only we shall not argue (you cannot argue with a book ! ) ; and I think I can promise you that we shall not be dull. Are you very fond of your lessons? If j'ou were all asked that question the " Noes " would " have it," as they say in Parliamentary debates, and the " Ayes " would be ver\' few and feeble indeed. Vivxt wh)' not ? Ah ! that is not a question so easy to answer, because to say " I am too lazy " would scarcely be a pleasant admission to make, just as we are beginning to be friends. I think the reason is very likely to be not because you are so very lazy, but just because you do not see the use of it all. You have not got light on your lessons, and they seem like a terrible waste of time when you might be doing something that was much better fun. We all like to have an object in our work. Bo}'s do not care to rig a boat that will never sail, or girls to hem a strip of calico " just for practice." On board a man-of-war many years ago some sailors were brought up before their officer ; they had done something wrong, and were to have extra work in punishment. They were ordered to polish the old-fashioned leaden cannon-balls. It was not particularly Jiard work, but it was perfectly useless, and the men almost broke out into mutiny about it. Sometimes that sort of feeling creeps in about o?ir lessons. We do them for several hours every day, but we keep on saying in our hearts, ^^H^T Is THE USE ' " IVor/c ivJdk yoii WorkT 3 " What is the use ? " Reading, writing, arithmetic ; history, geography Crammar ; French, Greek, Latin ; music, drawing, needleworl< — such a hst of troublesome things! Are they not too mucli trouble? Could we not do without them very well ? That question has a very short answer, " NO." And lest any bo)-s or girls who have got the question in their minds should fail to see the answer, I will have it printed in large letters on a line all by itself — NO ! If you keep your ears open you will often hear grown-up folk lamenting that they learned so little when they were }-oung. " Knowledge is power," as the old proverb says, and school-days are the time for storing it up. You know that horses have to be trained when they are young, and that it is most difficult to teach an old dog a trick which is quickl}- mastered by a puppy. Young shoots arc easily bent and guided b}' the gar- dener, but a year later the}- would snap right across. So you can learn now with far less difficulty than in }-ears to come. It is very sad to see a man or a woman who feels the great want of knowledge and yet has not time or power to learn what might have been learned at school. If you do not want to spoil your whole lifetime, work with a will at }-our tasks ; work with a will at them nozo ! ' AND PLAY WHILE YOU PLAY ,1'W 1,1 Red, Black, Broiun, YelloK>. I wonder what sort of place you do your lessons in ? Is it a bright, cheerful schoolroom, cool in summer and warm in winter, with pretty pictures and a canary in the window ; or is it a big bare room, all desks and forms, where dozens of other boys and girls sit e\'ery day in classes to be taught? There are a great many different kinds of schools and schoolrooms in England, but we are m^it going to have light on the lessons of \\-hite boys and girls only, but on the lessons of the red, and black, and brown, and yellow children all o\xr the world. If >-ou look at the picture on our co\-er \-ou will see that this is "a Iilissionary Book for Boys and Girls." You know some of the boys and girls in English schoolrooms to-day will be missionaries in a very few years, going out witli the message of sah-ation to the heathen. Yes, indeed ! There are boys at public and j)rivate schools preparing for Oxford Cambridge Unix'crsit)', whom the Lord Jesus wants as His messengers ; and there are girls now busy with French, and German, and music who \\\\\ be going to China, and Africa, and India b}'-and-bye. So lessons are very iiiissioiiaiy things — first, because so many of our future missionaries are learning them now ; and second, because it is often a great part of a missionar3''s work to teach lessons to the children and c\'en to the gi own-up people in far-off Of) for the North. ESKIMOS, FROM THE SHORES OF THE POLAR SEA. Come with me now for a long, long journey right across the world, and let us peep into some curious schools and schoolrooms and see the missionaries at work. Please put on your overcoat, a thick 6 Rather a Perplexing School. muffler, a furry cap, and }-our warmest gloves. We are bound for North- West America, the land of the red children, and truly it is cold ! One missionary writes from York Factory, on the shores of Hudson's Bay, to say that the weather is so cold sometimes that they cannot have school at all ! The schoolhouse is \-ery badly built, and when the ther- mometer is 30 or 40 degrees below zero (ask father or mother to tell you what that means), the little hungry Red Indian children often sink down fainting in school. When they recover the kind missionary sends them to his own kitchen to be warmed, and have a good breakfast, but I think they must find it ver}- difficult to learn any lessons with little half-frozen brains. There are not so many of the red children as there are of the black or yellow or brown. The Indians are scattered so far apart in some districts that a schoolroom would be no use to them at all. Yet the children want to learn. This is the wa}- they managed in one place. The missionarj- started off with a waggon-load of books, and at every house where he saw some boys or girls he stopped, gave them some lesson-books, and set them a lesson. Then he promised to come again at the end of a month to hear the lesson and to change the book. In this way, though he had no school, he had about two hundred scholars. I hope no one will be tempted to envy the little red folk who only had one lesson and one lesson book a month ! As we have come to North America, we must go right over the Rocky Mountains to British Columbia, on the shores of the great Pacific Ocean. A school was started in a lonely spot there many years ago by a missionar\'. He had no schoolroom, so the chief, whose name was Legaic, gave him the use of his own house. It was rather a perplexing school, for the grown-up men and women would come to be taught, and the poor teacher found himself with fifty children and fourteen or fifteen adults as his pupils to begin with, including the chief, who had once hated him, and tried to kill him. Not many miles from that first school, at a place called I\Ietla- kahtla, there are now not only schools but a Girls' Home, where young Indian girls can be taken in and taught to be useful and tidv, as J^C,/ Bn and 1 1 'kite. read and ^\'rite. Another kitish Columbia uses one botli as schoolroom and church. The bell is pulled ten times for school and fift}' times for service. He says the boys are very eac^er to learn, and almost mastered the alphabet in one week ! Vou must not think the missionaries do all the teachinL,^ themseh'es. Sometimes the school- master or schoolmistress is a native, ■who lias been taught enough to teach others. On Queen Charlotte's Island, off the coast of British Columbia, there is a school at a place called Massett. The last time I heard of it the teacher was an energetic little Hydah woman (the Hydahs are the Indian tribe who live there), named Mary Kinaskalas, Perhaps she is a little like the dear old Hydah woman whom you see in our picture. The missionary writes : " You ^vould be interested in seeing a class of young Hydahs, their ages varying from five to eight years, standing barefoot in a semi-circle, and demurely repeating the Lord's Prayer or a verse of a hymn after their teacher." It is not always very easy to keep the little red folk in order during school hours ; they seem fonder of fidgeting than of sitting still, and do not find school discipline entirely to their liking. But, after all, I am not sure that in this respect red bairns and white are not pretty much alike. Off again on our journey, please ; it is time we left the red folk for the A HYD.^H WOMAN FROM niASSETT. 8 Alud-Pic Gcograpliy. black. chancy warm man)- have at all. Wc arc bound for West Africa, \\'herc it is — oh ! .so hot, and the c will be quite trying after the cold climate we have left. Take }-our things off, and pack them a^^•a}' ; }-ou will not want them again for a da}-. Put on cool garments, and keep out of the sun, or you may bad fe\'er, and not be able to enjoy your ^-isit to the black children Shall we stop at Sierra Leone, and see the Schools for the children of those who were once bla\cs, and \-isit the Fourah Bay College, where '\fiican young men get a good education? \\'c ha\e not time for e\-er\-thing, alas! so we must hasten on, just glancing at a school further down the w estern coast, where we see tiny black children m il nig " mud pies " on the verandah, and their English teacher talking to them all the while. Ail the)- at pla)- or at work ? Both combined. The)' are having a geograph)- lesson, I and instead of an atlas the)- ha\-e trays i of sand and some water. See ! here is OLR PICTLRFS SHOW THE CAF'TURE OF A SLAVE T;0^■, AND HIS APPEARANCE \VHEN HE WAS RESCUED FROM AN ARAB " DHOW." S/(7ves at ScJiool. C.ni.S. MISSION BUILDINGS AT FREKE TOWX, j£S5. a sand mountain, and there a river-bed, and }'onder a lake, while in front is the lagoon of Lagos, with its sandbar. How the black mites love this lesson, and how eagerly they learn ! One day the teacher was visiting at the house of a black lady whose little grand-daughter had been having these geography lessons at school. She heard the little one saying, " Look, grandmother, here is an island, with the water all round it, and here is a cape, just like my nose ! " Some time ago to this school a little seven-year-old princess, and her nurse, aged sixteen, were sent. The princess came from a district a long way off, where there was not a lo Slaves as Sc/io/ars. single Christian. She was a very quick child, and could speak three languages nicel)- ; she and her nurse were in the same class at school ! After a time the little princess \\'ent back to her father, but no doubt she remembered many lessons taught her by her English friends. We spoke of the freed slaves in Sierra Leone. Now you must visit some little freed slaves in school at Frere Town, right at the other side of Africa, on the east coast. Here is what one of their schoolmasters wrote home about them : — " Wdicn books were first placed in their hands it was most ludicrous to see the peculiar manner in \\-hicli the)' held them, not ha\-ing the least idea which was the top or the bottom, the beginning or the ending. But that difficult)- is ox'ercomc, and they can find the page when the number is called out. " Xe.xt came the figures. The difference of the characters somewhat amused them at first, but they soon seemed to lay hold of them. " The first lesson in writing was most trying to the teacher as well as the taught, and their writing \\'as as different from the copy as it was possible for it to be. But it \\-as very encouraging to see the pains they took, and in a very short time they fell into the right method. It was a long time before I ventured to let any of them use copybooks, and when I did, you could see their little hands tremble in their eagerness to begin, and yet fearful of spoiling the book. " The ' cleanliness ' of their books is a particular feature in their writing ; and now, all but between twenty and thirty are daily using the pen. " Arithmetic was the last experiment, and this was, and is, ver)- slow work, it being an extremely difficult thing to make them understand how two and two make four, etc. Now they have mastered it, and they quickly add up. " Coming to the first class, we find them working from addition up to division, being able to write down tens and hundreds of thousands. But you cannot imagine how slowh^ these things dawned upon their minds, and the vast amount of words \\hich had to be expended in explaining our meaning. Subtraction is a ver)' difficult thing for them to understand. They daily repeat the multiplication tables, so as to firmh' imprint them upon their memory. Tlh- Land of Schools. 1 1 " Sinu."iiiL; thc\- arc vcr\' fond of, and thc)' show a xxt)' fair anioinit of skill. Sometimes the\' siny" so softl)' that it is difficult to thstinL;"uisli the parts when the_\' arc siny;iny; ' rounels.' " The L;"irLs spend the wliole of the afternoon in sewing', and while engaged in this the)' arc taught many pretty little hymns and songs. When in school they still kneel on the ground and write on the benches ; but I hope, in a very short time, to be supplied with desks." So far we have onlj'gone round the coast of Africa ; now come for just a moment into the heart of the Darl-; Continent, to the Mission station at Chagga, where a patient missionary has been doing his best to overcome the opposition of Mandara the king. Some of the bo)-s were most an.xious to be taught to read and write, so he started secretly a little school for them. He carefulh' curtained tlie windows of his little house, so that no one should i)eep in, and in a week nine lialf-naked bo)'s \vere busy learning to write, quite too many for the tiny space. They moved to a larger room, where they put up some rough tlesks, and sometimes as man)' as si.xteen boys \\'ould come at once. They made a window at the back of their schoolroom, by «'hich they could tiuiekly escape if any one made an attack on the front. I wonder, if lessons were a forbidden pleasure, whether )'oii would love them as dearly as these Chagga boys? But our brown and yellow frientls will think us vcr\' late in pa)'ing them a \'isit if we do not hasten on. Intlia is the land of schools. There are native schools, where the boys are taught some very odd things about the world resting on the head of a serpent, who is supported by an elephant, who stands on the back of a prodigious tortoise. What the tortoise stands on no one can say. When the elephant shakes himself they say he causes an earthquake. A story is told of the way some of the native schoolmasters got their brown pupils to school in good time. The first bo\' who arrived had one stroke of the cane, the second bo}- had two, the third boy had three, while the last boys to arrive had tjuite a bad time of it! Then there are the Government schools, where the brown bo\-s are taught all kinds of good and useful thing.s — except the best and mcjst useful thing of all, the knowledge of God's Word and of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the reason why J/issio// schools are so much needed in India. Withotit them the children would ne\er be taught the things that Hidden Away. 13 you and I Icarnctl at our mcjthcr's knee ; they would grow up to be educated l^eathen, ver}' little better tlian before. But all over India these blessed Mission schools are dotted to-day. Some are up on the hill-tops, amongst the shy, wild tribes who live there ; others arc-in the hot villages of the plains ; some are in great heathen cities, surrounded by idol temples and shrines. Some are schools where very simple teaching is gi\en ; others are high schools, or schools for training teachers and catechists ; and some are real colleges, where clever young men may learn almost as if they were at Oxford or Cambridge. In some schools the pupils pay to be taught, in others they are taken free. ^lan)- who come to the Christian schools are heathen, and often tliey lea\e and go away without showing an)- change of heart. But we know that God's Word is very strong, and that God's Holy Spirit never tires of following any soul, so we can ivait to know all the blessing that has come to India through these Mission schools. I said that in the native schools " the bo)'s " were taught very odd things ; did I leave the girls out purposely or by mistake ? Alas ! I did it purposely, because in India the natives ne\-cr teach the dear little brown maidens anything at all. Thc\' are so quick, and bright, and gentle, that one wonders how they can e\-er be considered too stupid to learn. Certainly the elder women are dull and sad, because of their dreary lives, but the little girls are full of sh}-, gentle merriment, quite ready to learn. Many of the JMission schools are for girls, and you will read stories about them in the following chapters. It is not only a belief in their stupidity which makes the men of India want to keep the women from being taught. They think it dreadful if any one sees an Indian lad)' ; she is always supposed to be hidden from every one but her own family. The poorer women are not so guarded, but those of " high caste " are hedged in on every side. In one place where some of these high-caste girls are allowed to come to a Mission school they are driven in a cart, called a " bandy," which is closed in front and with a leather curtain behind. The cart is backed up quite against one of the doorways of the school, then the door is opened, the leather curtain raised, and the little girl steps out unseen by the outer world. Are the Arab children, and the Persian and Egyptian children, and 14 JJ7/, rt Cliiucsc Childi-cii did. the little ones in the Hoi}' Land, a lii^ht brown or a brownish yellow? Or are some of them nearl)- white? I scarcely know where thc\" ought to come in as to colour, but later on we must visit them, too, in school. Just now let us call upon our yellow child friends in China and in Japan. All the yellow, pig-tailed laddies, except the poorer countr)- ones, are supposed to go to school in China, for it is the land of examinations and literary degrees. Men up to seventy j-ears of age will gooff to be examined as if they were sclioolboys. Some of the waj's in these Chinese schools are very curious ; for instance, the children are all expected to learn their lessons out loud, and would be thought verj- idle if t!ie>' wcxc silent. Then, when they are repeating their task, they stand with their back to the teacher, instead of facing him. Of course in these Chinese schools God's Word is not taught, so in that country, too, Mission schools are needed. In one of the southern provinces of China, Fuh-Kien, there are numbers of them dotted here and there in the country villages. The}- are mainh" supported bj- the Chinese themselves, and do a great work in spreading Bible knowledge. In one village the school was the onl)' light amid heathen darkness. Each day the Bible was read, and the children repeated at home \\'hat they heard at school. The result was that sixty people became Christians, and in that place there are now one hundred and fifty who worship God in a little church built by themseh'cs. Japan — the children's land! What shall we say of the slight, clever lads and their lessons, or the quick, well-mannered maidens with their elaborate politeness and man}" bows ? Rich and poor differ as wide]}- in Japan as anywhere else, but as a whole the children there are better off than any others in Asia. Once the Japanese hated all knowledge from the West, but now the countr}' is open, and good schools are springing up. But as it is a bad thing to learn the wisdom of the West without the " wisdom tliat cometh from above," the missionaries in Japan ha\-e to teach the children just as the}' do in other countries. Now we have had a long journe}- together, and }-ou must be quite tired. Have you not learned how much teaching there is in the world, and how- many litt'e people have lessons like }-ourselvcs ? In the following chapters we must talk about the lessons which you and the}' liave to learn. CHAPTER II. READING. \A II AT lesson shall we take first? Reading, of course ! — the first lesson we had' to J learn. " That is on!}' for babies ! " Stop a bit ; have you bo)'s yot on far enough to tr\' to r ''' read Greek ? And what about the girls and ', their German ? And as to missionaries, wh)-, the)- ha^'C often hard work indeed, first to learn '^ to read the strange languages themsehx-s, and then to instruct the nati\"es. You know we ha\-e twent)--six letters in our I nglish alphabet fand quite enough, too ! ;, but in China c\-er)- word has a special letter, and before ) ou could read the Bible )Tju would need to master many hundred characters. As soon as the Chinese countr)- people begin to know about God they grow ver)- anxious to be able to read His Word. A woman in Mid-China, who had heard the Gospel from her own husband, gave u[) idol worship. They had no Christian books till a colporteur came round one day, and then the woman bought three tracts. She could not read a Word, but she was quite determined to learn. Just then, a native school was opened near by, and the woman used to \\atch for the boys who passed her house to go to it, and get them to teach her i6 ' Darlins: Youus; Thomas" 6S;5ll 30-Tioii ] 3. sSpcsj/^., 16. 16—19. [e;;-ii so--X=:i lo iS5x.-> 7i-\ Jj^ Si^oS^-^J^isb £;l\oS5a5SbA5b. 2;^J5o?3-;^.^l — Ti ^ — ^ 17 'iS^ i0.^3 -i -Cof-So; '^T' Ty^^^e;- ^d&)5,s3boO<^ 'S?K"4.M55bSo, ^s'^eS ' CO b-::T't?', es-s^S" ST. JIARK XVI. 16-19, 1-^' TELUGU. 1 caj^^w:j3.1S,36. ^'S- 2.38: 16.30-32. £r«^, 10. 9. 1-tcai, 3. 21. 2s^6t.*, 12. 43. 3 tu^s^, 10. 17. irt,K- 5- 1C-. S.7: 16. 18:19. 12. 19. 6. lrec5j,12.10,2S. ^oj--^, 10. 19. F-c^. 2S. 5. 6rs§. 5. 15.16: 9. 17:28. 8. d5-j=ftB,5.M,15. 7 s-fg. ] . 2, 3. one or two of these difficult character.s. When the boys got tired of doing this for nothing she would pay them with a little rice. In a short time she could read quite well, and she and her whole jiousehold have been baptised as Christians. In one of the Indian languages, called Tamil, one word is sometimes three inches long, and the last one comes where wc should put the first, \\'hich must make it difficult. A missionary, named Thomas Young Darling, told us \\-hen he came home from the Tclugu country in India that his name in Telugu, a language which goes backwards like Tamil, would read " Darling Young Thomas." The Red Indian languages up in North America are not so difficult to read as those in India and other parts of Asia, because the characters are much more simple, and in some of them English letters are used. But I think they would be very difficult indeed to read nloiui. A report of thirty-nine baptisms amongst a tribe where missionaries are at work caused much interest in 1 889, and, when it was announced at the Church Missionary Society Annual Meeting, the speaker said he could not pro- A Pet Nil nil- IVaiiicd! noiincc the name of the tribe himself, but as the audience might like to try he had liad it printed in large letters. A roll some four feet in length was held up, on which could be read TRURHTSYIKKWITCHIN UP-HILL WORK IN lATAN. I think we generally call them How the people laughed ! Is not that an enormous \\'ord ? Surely they must have a " pet name " of some sort, for they could never be known by anything so impossibh' lone the Kwitchin Indians now. Perhaps in no place is the language more difficult to read than in Japan. One missionar\-, a strong, grown-up man, said he had actually cried o\'cr it, because he thought he could never learn to read it well enough to teach the people. But even while the missionaries are learning to read, God can use them as messengers. ]\Iore than once we have heard of a heathen teacher who has been won for the Lord Jesus whilst teaching a missionary to read. It is not right to be content with prcacliiiig to the heathen. God's Word is the bread for their souls, and the}- cannot grow into strong, healthy Christians unless they arc taught to read it for them- selves. We hear many stories of what the Bible has done, without any missionaries, for people A JAPANESE FAMILY ON THE HOVE. Rcadhii:' is Good. who can read, but \-ou will never hear of real lasting work elone b)- missionaries without the Bible. As soon as the nati\x- Christians can read the Bible the>- turn into most useful missionaries themselves. A missionary wrote home from China some }'cars ago to tell us about a village called Liang-moi. Only two people in the whole place could read; one was a Christian man named Cheng Seng, and the other his little son of ten )-ears old. Cheng Seng had been the means of bringing twenty people in the \'illage to lo\'e the Lord Jesus, though there was no missionary or catechist there. At last the father went awa}- to study and prepare for further work, and the bo}' was left as the onl)- one in the place \\-ho could read God's Word. How do you think the\- managed ? W'h}', the twcnt}' Christians came together morning and e\'ening, and the boy read a hymn, wliich they all joined in singing. Then he read a few verses from the Chinese New Testament, after which some of the Christians pra\xd, or the bo}- read some pra)xrs from the Pra}X'r Book in Chinese, ]\Iany beautiful stories come }-ear by \-ear telling of boys and girls from the Mission schools \\'ho ha\'e taken home a knowledge of reading the \^'ord of God. One heathen woman in India gave such a grand tcstimon}- about a little child who had been married, after the terrible Indian cus- tom, to her son. " I think reaciing is good," INDIAX SCHO0L-c;lRLS. Cruel Pcrsciulioii. 19 she said, " for G is such a good daut;htcr-in-law ; sItc nc\x'r speaks rudely to inc now." The secret was not altoL;"ethcr in the reading, ho\ve\'er, for the httle girl had reall)' learned to lo\'C the Lord Jesus as she read His Word, and He had changed her heart. Then from China wc hear of a young heathen girl who came to a Mission school to learn to read. She read of the Sax'iour, and gax'e her heart to Him. She was the means of reacliing her father and mother, and her whole family became Christians. Three Singhalese boys in Cej'lon also came to school, and ^\'erc taught to read. The catcchist went to visit the countr\- part where the}" li\-ed some months later, and found, to his joy, that the boys had been teaching their mothers, who had grown cjuite interested in " the old, old story of Jesus and His love." Instead of running away into their dark rooms, as rabbits would into a burrow, they wanted to- hear m(jre of the wonderful new teaching which their boys had brought, and the catechist thought them quite civilised. You know where the large island of Madagascar is, of course, but 1 think you might just as \\'cll look it up on the map again. About si.xt\' j'cars ago a great «'ork was begun in Madagascar, and many of the Malagasy people became true followers of Christ. Then persecution came. The cruel Oucen Ranavalona banished the missionaries, and determined to destroy the Christians. Ikit when the missionaries went away they left ///(.• Bible behind. So all the Queen's efforts were in \-ain , the people could read God's Word, and it kept their futh ali\-e. Many Christians were cruelly put to death, but still they grew and increased in number, and at the end of twenty-five )'ears of persecution there were 7,000 Christians in the island. When the white missionaries were driven out the Malagasy men and women became missionaries themselves, and taught the people about salvation out of the Bible which they loved. The little picture at the beginning of this chapter shows you some Malagasy Christians going out, with their Bibles, to preach. Perhaps it seems easier to bear persecution when there are a good many Christians all together than when one man or woman has to suffer alone. Let mc tell you a story of a young lad of sixteen who was at school in Tinnevelly, in South Lidia, and )X)U will sec how reading the 20 ^4 Prisoner in Ids Fatlwrs House. ]3iblc helped him to endure. He had become a true Christian, and was anxious to be baptised. His heathen re- latives lived near by, so, for fear of a disturbance arising among them, he was sent to be bap- tised at Madras. On his return to Tinnevelly Col- lege all seemed to be going on well ; his rela- tions appeared to be quite friendly. One day his uncle asked him to go for a ^\'alk with him. Hardly were they out- side the town when the lad was seized, gagged, put into a bandy (the kind of cart they drive in), and for four months the missionaries heard nothing of him. He was a prisoner in his father's house. Ever)' sort of treatment, both unkind and kind, was used to make him give up his faith in Christ, but to no purpose. He had a constant secret source of strength of ^\■hich his parents knew nothing. I will tell you what it was. A large box full of books stood in the corner of his room. He remembered that when he first desired to be a Christian his father had taken away from him his ]->ible. Possibly it might be in this box ! He turned out all the books, and at the bottom found it. Through weeks of persecution that Bible was his constant source of strength. One day, as his health at last began to give way, his father wished to take him to sec an astrologer who li\'ed half a mile away. But he was too weak to get so far. The father's heart was touched, and as A BULLOCK C.'\RT. OR P..-\NDY. The Escape 21 the night wivs, very hot, he al- lowed his son to sleep in the ve- randah of the house. At mid- night the lad awoke. All was quiet ; he felt that he had now an opportunity for flight, though he knew how weak he \\'as, and how far from Christian friends. I.ifting up his heart to God in a pra\'er for strength to escape, off he started, and fled for eighteen miles to the house of a na- ti\e pastor. His friends next day brought him before a magis- trate, in hope that they might get him back ; but the magistrate said that as he was sixteen years old he had every right to be a Christian if he wished it. He went back to the College, where he was one of the brightest j'oung Christians among the students. BISHOP TUCKEK, OF E.XbTERX EuU.XTORIAL AFRICA. (Fvoin a Photograph by Messrs. Elliott c" Fry, Loncloii.) 22 Heroes of llic Cross. But of all the jMissions ^\'hich have had stories of Bible reading told about them, Uganda comes first. Of course you know where it is, in the heart of Eastern Equatorial Africa, to the north of the great Victoria Nyanza. You know the story of James Hannington, the first Bishop, \\'\\o was cruelly put to death at the order of Mtesa the king ; and you have heard, too, of ISishop Parker, \\\\o died before he e\-er reached Uganda ; and of Bishop Tucker, \\\\o made the journe\- there and back again, bringing rare tidings of the work which God had done. Noble missionaries they have been one and all, and there are others as noble \\\\o are still at work, or who lie at rest in the little grave\'ard at Usambiro, at the southern end of the Lake. But greater far than the work done b}' any of these men, greater than the work of them all combined, is the work done by the Word of God amongst those dusky African Christians. When Alexander Mackay was in Uganda he worked hard at his printing press, that the people might have even part of the Bible in their own tongue. Then persecution came, as fierce and as fiery as that in Madagascar, and the Christians had to flee for their lives. Many of them were imprisoned, many of them were cruelly slain, and went to swell that " noble army of mart}'rs " who give " praise " to God. Amongst the Waganda (as the people of Uganda are called) God's Word did just what it had done in Madagascar. It kept faith and hope alive. When the great traveller Stanley was in Ankori, a country not far from Uganda, a party of these banished Christians came to see him one da\'. This is one thing he said about their \dsit, — " Now, I noticed as soon as they left my presence, the}' went to their own little huts, and took out little books that the}' had in their pockets in their shirts. And one da\' I called Samuel (a nati\'e Christian who had become known by some remarkable act of honesty) and asked him, ' What book is that that you have ? I did not know that Waganda read books.' And that was the first time T knew they had the Gospel in their language. Then I took greater interest, for I found that almost e\ery one of the party had a small pamphlet — prayers, and the Gospel of St. Matthew, and I think of St. Luke. I remember very well seeing the word Mathaio, or Matthew, on the top of the book — on its title-page. I noticed that they retired to their huts and threw themselves upon the ground, and took out the books and began to read them." Till- Book and the Bullet. 23 After a time the persecution in Ui^'anda ceased, the Christians ^\■ere able to go back again, and new missionaries began to work. Oli, how tiie people thirsted for the Bible ! Thc\' gathered round Mr. Pilkington, one of the brave young missionaries, and men and women eagerly learned texts as he said them aloud. A man was glad to give three months' work for a Testament. The sister of King 3.1tcsa, who had been succeeded by his son Mwanga, came and sat silent and gloomy in Bishop Tucker's hut until he gave her a Testament, and then her whole face lit up, and she told him her heart was singing for joy. On Sundax's the people gather early in the morning in the church, and read the Bible in groups until it is time for the service to begin. Here is one story which Bishop Tucker told us at his Welcome Home meeting in Exeter Hall on June 2nd, 1891. You should have heard the people cheer as he drew the torn and tattered book from his pocket, and held it up for us to see. He said : — • " A man named Benjamin came to mc in Uganda with a Testament in his hand, but he asked if I would give him another. I said, ' You ha\'e one.' 'Ah,' he said, 'this one is so injureci that I can only read a part nf it.' I asked to be allowed to see it, and true enough, it was greatly injured. I asked how this had happened. ' Well,' he said, ' wlien I went to war against the Mohammedans, I took my book with me, and I wrapped it in my cloth here. In the fight a bullet struck it, and it has pierced it nearl)- through. It has saved my life. I lo\-c it very much ; but can )'ou give me another ? ' I told him, ' I have only one, and that is my C)wn ; but,' I said, ' if you will give me your book, 1 will give \'ou mine.' The exchange was made ; I received the shattered book, and here it is, and I need not say that I look on that book as one of my greatest treasures." Here is part of a letter which another of the Uganda missionaries, the Rev. G. K. Baskcrville, wrote after the arrival of one hundred precious books in the country : — " Thursday, February iS///, 1891. — It has been a pleasant task, book selling, the people so eager, and dancing round you for joy that the books have at last arrived ; they will die with joy, they say. Crowds flock here wanting to buy books, and until more come up from the Lake we must refuse them. // is really piteous to hear the people aski)ig for books, and 24 Shouting for Joy. THE BLIND SCHOOL AT ui\iRiTZAR. {Worhcd bv hdics of ihc C.E.Z.H/.S.) zue unable to supply thci/i. One said, ' I will bring )'0U a cow with calf for books.' My boy Marko, when I showed him St. Matthew in Luganda, said, ' I do want to bu)' one ver\' much.' I would gladly have given him one, but that only one hundred have come, and we are not c\e\\ selling these. We shall give the Katikiro (the Prime Alinister) one, but the others are being kept for lending purposes. FfV cou/d sell several thousaiuls in a few days — / might say hours. Won't )-ou send them to us? Prayer- books, too, we want. So few are in the country that even I am unable to do more than get the loan of one. I \vish )'ou could all have seen the intense joy of the people to-day. Thanks unending, some actually dancing and shouting for jo}'." Have you ever seen a blind man read ? You know there are special books with raised letters (not the same as ours) printed for them, and thc}' feel the shape of them, and then the}- can say the words aloud. In China In Darkness and ilie S/iadozu of DcatJi. 25 A BUND CHINESE BEGGAR. -26 Reading A loud. there are very many blind people, a great many more than in England, and some of the missionaries have been teaching a small number of them to read. They are so quick about it ! The little boys can teach others in quite a short time, and some of the blind readers go out and travel about the country, and people come and listen eagerly to them as they read God's Word aloud. In Peking, the blind boys sometimes stand and read aloud in a chapel or a church, and the people crowd in to hear. In .South India, too, in the Sarah Tucker Institution at Palamcottah, there are several blind children who have a teacher all to themselves. A short time ago two of the blind girls were baptised, and it is hoped that thev may be made God's messengers to their heathen relations, as they read the Bible to them. There is also a blind school at Umritzar, in the Punjab; the poor blind folk are taught here to do what they can to earn their living. In the picture on page 24 you see them busy making baskets. Then here is a beautiful story about reading, which shows how God uses even the difficult chapters with long names as His message to those who are really thirsting after Him. A poor Indian woman longed for some one to stand between her and God. She knew nothing of the true God, but she felt that there must be a Holy One, and that she, as a sinner, had offended Him, and could not come near Him unless some one stood between. She heard that the Christians had a Book which could tell her what she wanted to know. But she could not i-ead, and she was too old and too feeble to learn. She sent for a pundit (that is, a learned native) to come and read aloud to her. He came. A Bible was given to him. He thought it did not much matter where he began, so he read her the first chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel. She listened to all the long names, and as the grave old man went steadily through, she thought, " What a great Prince this must be to have such a long line of ancestors ! " Then as the pundit read on, she felt, " This is the Prince to stand between me and God," and when she heard the name '' Jesus," " He shall save His people from their sins," she believed with all her heart, and found peace and joy. If God can make such wonderful use of a poor heathen pundit's reading aloud, \\'hat use may He not make of yours ? i-hile to be so careful about the up-strokcs and down-strokes, about the " m's " and " n's " and " w's " ? Of course it is, for writing" is such a ivoiidcrfiil power — have you ever thought about it ? Just picture for a moment what the Missionary Societies ^\'Ould do if nobody knew how to write ! There would be no monthly magazines and no interesting books ; there would be no missionaries' letters read at working parties, and no news from all the workers in God's great world. We should be quite ignorant about them all, except when a missionary came home to tell us of God's loving care, and of the heathen whom He was winning to Himself Then the poor missionaries. Wc could not cheer them up or advise them, or tell them how we are praying for them, unless wc knew how to write. And as to the work at home by which we gather up money and interest for Foreign Missions, what \\-ould happen to it it we could not use our pens! I have heard of a seven-year-old Irish laddie who wanted to help, so, as he was just beginning to learn to write, he sent little notes asking his friends for things to sell. All the letters were written by himself and when the time for the little sale came he did all the selling too, and got £c) ! JVIiat the Cowries say. Without \M-iting \vc should ne\'cr liave had our Bible, for it had to be copied by hand for hundreds of years until printing was invented. Some da)', search out all about " writing " in the Bible, from the gi\ ing of the Ten Commandments down to the Book of Re\X'lation ; you will be surprised at all the verses about letters and " rolls " (which were the written book-s of those da}'sj, and )-ou will find something about "posts" as well. The Assyrians and Eg_\'ptians used to write on rocks, long, long ago, and some of tliese old rock \\-ritings illustrate Bible stories so clcarl}'. Perhaps you have seen some of them in a museum or mis- sionar)' exhibition. After all, we ought not to grumble about our copybooks, because the}- are so much easier than the wa\' other people have to \\'rite. The Chinese boys write with a paint-brush, and their letters are terribly difficult ; the little girls fand tlie bo)-s, too) in South India write with their finger on a copybook of sand, and sometimes they write on a palm-leaf In parts of Africa they have a strange wa)- of sending messages instead of writing them. The)" attach a meaning to certain things. Spice means something pleasant ; two cowries strung face to face on a string mean friend- ship, back to back the)' mean the re\"ersc ! Look at the curious messages in our picture, and see if a cop)-book is not an easier wa)'. The string of cowries, on the right hand at the top, was sent b)- the King of Ijcsha, a countr\- fi\-e da\-s' NlIl's from Afar. 29 distant irom Layos, to uiic of our missionaries, Mr. Gollmcr. It meant " Tlic king- has heard of the Alapako" (the name the nati\'es liad gi\-en to ^Ir. GoUmer), "and Itc wislies \"ou to come and see liim ; and l^rini^ \\'hite man with )'0U to Xwa witli liim." You would think a great deal of some ui the letters tliat come to the Church ]\Iissionar\' House. The\' ha\"e been written far awa\- by the dear missionaries, sometimes in burning heat, sometimes in bitter cold, often amid great trials and difficulties. The thin foreign paper is sometimes stained and crumpled, showing the long and perilous journey it has had. Here is an account of one packet that came in 1 S8fj, written b)- the (jne who opened it : — "Never can we forget the e\'ening i.if AIonda\-, October 25th ''i8(S6). Just before six o'clock, as the Secretaries were lea\ang the Church ^Missionary House to go home after a long day's work, the postman brought in a large thick packet in a strong linen enx'elope, sealed with man\" seals. It was the mail from Zanzibar. On this occasion it fell to the lot of the Editor of the Gleaner to have the sacred privilege oi open.ing that packet. Up to midnight that night he \vas opening and reading letter after letter enclosed in it from the \-arious stations. He confesses that the large en\"elopes bearing the well-known handwriting of Air. Mackaj- and Air. Ashe were opened with trembling hands ; and it was with an awe that comes back to him as he recalls it, that he took rjut of one of those en\'elopes three little Letts's diaries filled with the beloved Bishop Hannington's last journals (see page 30J. " Turn quickly to the last entry of all ; what is its date ? October 29th, 1S85 — the very day of his murder! Even in the dark and miserable hut in which he was a prisoner, he had gone on faithfully recording each tlay's incidents and suffcrincrs, in a handwritincrso minute that it needs a magnif\-- ing glass to read some parts. And then his sketch-book with — after many others of the scenes on his journey — two rough sketches of his \'cry prison itself ! " Surely it is a cause for thanksgiving to God that these precious relics have been so wonderfully preserved ; taken by his executioners back tij Uganda, seen there by native Christians at the king's court, recovered by them, handed to the missionaries, sent two hundred miles across the great ^o A Wonderful Packet. lake and seven hundred miles by land in charije of native messengers, and so home to ILngland ! And then the letters of June and July, from Mr. Ashe and Mr. Mackay, iWo,« «**Kf %Ma«» r V.K ^^n.&i/d ^Hi ^C4««A 'v>n.^.J t«ti U\u># Ntk* ^ '^^•jm '*vv (*»/h. *i*« (c-A rf^ rt**i( ''"- f*-^ ''*" ^ > ^ ^'■WM «.*.fAt .^.VvmJ L«^ t«> *!. *^ (.o>^ lent. »<'*'"*^'"'^'"»'*^ scarcely paralleled in the whole history of modern Missions — let- ters now wringing the heart with anguish, and now filling it with thankful joy, at the miracles wrought by God's grace in the faith and courage of the suf- ferers. No, never can that evening be for- gotten. Only Rev. vii. could sum it up : / belield, and lo, a great intiltititde . . . of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues ■ . . before the throne and before the Land'. What are these ? . . . These are they zchich came out of great tribu- lation, and Jiave washed their robes and made them ivhite in the blood of the Lamb." The missionaries _ to do that is much less interesting than of what has happened. One missionary in Japan gives us a little picture of the use to \\-hich he sometimes has to put his pen. 'Vm. icM=wO'i , U^ c*_« -^ ^X'TVIW-^A^ '*'*>^>»«fr "tsi* itA,^^ t*^****- l-- t*<**X«. FACE OUT OF BISHOP HANNINGTON S DIARY (CXacl i have a great deal of writing sending home ne A Black Hoys Letter. 3 i " I have been tr)-ini;' to bring the Gospel to those who will not come to hear, b>' writing, printing, and circulating letters inviting people to come to Christ, and telling them the benefits they may expect to recei\-e in coming to Him. I ha\-e done this twice, circulating two letters in February, just previous to the Special Mission we held then, and again in June, when we circulated one thousand five hundred letters. The letters were all folded and put in envelopes ; five hundred of these letters were distributed in the country districts, and man\' of those who recei\'ed them thanked the catechist for them, and said the}- had ne\"er rccei\-ed such a letter before, and were very much astonished to find that an}- one took so much interest in them as to send them a letter. During the coming }-ear I hope (I).^■.; to print and distribute more letters of the same kind." Not onl}' do the missionaries write to us, but the nati\-e converts send such touching letters home, either in English or in their own strange languages, which the missionaries ha\e to translate. Vou ma}- ha\e read these letters sometimes in the missionar}- magazines, asking that more teachers ma}' be sent out ; perhaps some of }-ou \\\\\ go out as missionaries, and thus ansn'cr them b}--and-b}-e ! Here is a letter from a black bo}- which a little white bo}- sent me latel}'. You shall read them both, and I hope }-ou will like them as much as I did. " Dear , — The children of our Scripture Unirjn are helping to keep a little African bo}- called ' Kombo ' at Frere Town, East Africa. Sexcral of us ha\-e just received a letter from him ; and I send \-ou mine with the English translation, thinking you might like to read it. Here it is : — '"Dear \V , — Xainua mkoro wangu Rukuandikia wew& Barua hit Kwa nguvu za Muungu salamu sana rafiki yangu nami Kujua Kwa Rwana Mr. R. Ross na}-e nisalaimie sana rafiki }-angu. Dear W" , I whant Bible. I am quite of the grace of God nami hukuniko Kisauni kwctu nami miaka yangu kumi ma 14 years Plsams 39, 4, mimi hopo rafiki }-ako. ' Klimi'.o B. \\'.' " EnGLLSH. — I lift my hand to wutc you this letter b}- the power of God. Many greetings, m}- friend. And I want to know of Mr. Ross ; Dictiouatces a Failure. tences. A black man has been known to say at the end of his speech that he would now " incubate his former locality," meaning that he would sit down where he had been before. Evidently the dictionary had put him on the wrong track, and he had mixed himself up with a hen who " sits " on her eggs, or incubates ! Another greet him much, my friend. Dear W , I want Bible, I am quite of the grace of God. I am here in our home at Kisauni (Frere Town). My years are 14. Psalm xxxix. 4. I am here your friend, Kombo.' " I am, " Yours truly, C. W." The Africans who know some English write much finer ' letters than you or 1 would do. They love long words, and use a dictionary to find them. This sometimes leads to funny sen- A YORUE;\ POST:*I.\N. HoiJ titer People Write A JAPANESE MAN WRITING, 34 Al'>li to See. African, instead of ending his letter, " I am e\-cr faithfull}- j'ours," put " I am, sir, the retainer of the identit}' ! " If we think so \.'/tie/t lie sat to enjoy his ill-gotten treat. Of course the note showed the mis- sionary \\-hat had been taken, and the thief was again found out ! He thought writing was a wonderful thing, no doubt, and so did a native JTon/s oil the Wall. 35 of Rarotonga, one of the South Sea Islands, of \v'hom the following story is told. A well-known missionary named John Williams \vas building a little chapel. He found that he had left his carpenter's rule, of which he stood in need, at his house, some distance off. I'icking up a slip of wood, he wrote on it a message to his wife, asking her t(j send back the tool b_\" the bearer. He then gave the piece of wood to a nati\'e, and told him t'iJt none, Mesopotamia none, Persia one ; in these lands now thirt)'-se\"en. In Jaj^an then one, no\\' thirty-se\-en. In the North Pacific Mission then two, no^v twelve. In the Dioceses of ^loosonce, Saskatchewan, Calgar}", Athabasca, Mackenzie, then se\'en, now twent}'-one. North India and the Punjab then sevent\\ now one hundred and ten ; China, then nineteen, now fift\'- one ; Ceylon, then twehx-, now nineteen. Onh" South India and New Zealand have less. The total number of European missionaries, ordained, la\', and ladies, not including '\vi\-es, \\"as then two hundred and thirty ; now it is four hundred and thirt\'-fi\"e. There were then one hundred and forty-three nati\-e clerg\-men ; there are now two hundred and sevent\--eight, although man}' ha\-e died. In case any of these figures ha\'e been too difficult for you to grasp, here is some arithmetic which the youngest bo\' or girl can imdcrstand. In one Sunda)' School seven girls agreed to trade with one pcnn\- each, and produced b)' this means six shillings and sixpence at the end of the }'ear to help Missionary work. The teacher tried too, and she made 13J. ohd. ! She spent her penn)- on cloth, with which she made a penwiper. This she sold for threepence. The threepence she spent on materials for Emery pincushions, and these, together wixh several other small articles, made the original penny grow into one hundred and fift}--six halfpennies in a year. Wonderful ! Why should not some of us go in for that sort of missionary arithmetic at once ? CHAPTER V. HISTORY. I\'ERYB0DY docs not quite ai^rce about liistory. Some small folk like it immensely ; I for one never did, because I could not remember the dates. I always thought, too, that history ended in the reign of George III. ! The first histor)- book out of which I learned — it was a dear old-fashioned one with a very thick co\-er, and faded yellow leaves — stopped when he died, and I quite be- lieved that history stopped there too, and never went on again. Finding the dates so very troublesome, we children hit on a grand plan for making them easy to remember. We resoh'ed to write " A Rhythmical History of England." Oh, \\o\\ we have laughed over it since ! W'e never got past the " Black Prince," »but perhaps some of our quick-witted little readers will set to work and finish our poor history at last. It began : — In tlie year Anno Dumini ten sixty-six, King Harold at Hastings got into a fix, For William of Normandy came with his host, And the crown and tlie kingdom to Harold were lost. Poor Harold was killed in that terrible fight, And all England was conquered by M'illiam's great might. Diir/iiig zi'it/i Ddtcs. 47 And very soon after he took the surname Of Conqueror, 'eos he made all peoijle tame. In ten eighty-seven his son's reign began, For \\'illiam had died (couldn't help it, poor man!). This William was Rufus, because of his head, ' Which was clothed with a fleece of bright carroty red. One day to the New Forest King William went, When an arrow by Sir Walter Tyrell was sent ; 'Twas meant for a stag, but it glanced from a tree, And killed the poor king — what a sad historee ! Henrj' Beauclerc, his brother, for learning well known. In the year eleven hundred ascended the throne. We think he could read, and perhaps do sums too, Xot exactly what we should now call a /jus hlni. But whether wc like it or not, we ah lTa\'e to learn liistor\-. You sec, it must be a gooti thing, or God would nc\'er have put so much of it in the Bible. Just think of the Old Testament, with the long list of kings and the stories of dozens of battles ; see, too, how much Roman history is mi.xcd up in the New Testainent, as well as the early Christian history of the different Churches. Now, perhaps, some of you elder ones, who have begun to think for yourselves, may say, " Of course Bible history is all right, but if I'm going to be a missionary what is the use of English, and Roman, and Greek, and French history?" Rather a large question, isn't it? But you shall have an answer all the same. First of all, anything that gives your brain healthy exercise and works your memory will make )'ou a better missionary. Your mind is very like your body after all. If you do not give your muscles plenty of exercise, they will fail \'ou when you \\-ant them. So it is with \-our mind. Besides that, every history is full of lessons helpful to missionaries. The way in whicli Christianity first came to England, for instance, if it is read by missionary eyes, shows us that the Gospel is spreading in the very same way in the world to-day. I used to think that was the dullest part of English history ; but it has become full of interest, and gives fresh hope for lands that are savage now, as England was then. Then when wc read that St. Patrick was once a slave, of course Bishop Crowther comes to mind, 4^ Roman — Grecian — French. and the story of Chr}-sostom Cwhose beautiful prayer is so familiar in our Prayer BookJ, and his institution for training the Goths to preach the Gospel, links itself on with what wQ. read of the Missionary Training; Colleges at home and abroad. When you come to the Reformation, it is just full of teaching for missionaries. Our forefathers fought for an open Bible ; they suffered for the one true faith ; and they proved the need for entire separation from the Church of Rome, ^\■hich is still a living foe, both at Jiome and in the Alission field ! " Then Roman history ? " Why, what heroes some of the men were 1 How they dared e\-cr)'thing, how the)' did their duty, how they endured. All that was brave in them should be an example and an inspiration to our ]uiglish boys. For )'ou belong to a greater kingdom, and fight for a nobler cause ! Everything we can learn about that might)' kingdom shows how much greater Christ's kingdom is. Read all down the centuries from the days of Romulus and Remus ; see how strong the great armies were, how rigid the laws, how cruel the punishments. Read of the great wars and ^•ictories of Rome until you know them all by heart, and then remember that in the midst of her strength and glory Rome did her best to crush Christ's kingdom, and failed. Read about the Catacombs — the great \-aulted passages still to be seen under Rome itself, where the Christians had to live in hiding, where their meetings for prayer and praise were held, and where many a tablet in the walls tells of souls resting in the faith of Christ. Don't )'ou think it must comfort the dear missionaries, going into the great Soudan \\\\\\ the Mohammedan power against them, to remember that the same God who kept His people true to Him in the face of Roman opposition is the \&xy God who is with them to-day? If the (jospel was too strong for Rome, need we fear an)' earthly kingdom or kings ? " And Grecian histor)' ? " Don't )'0U learn from it that c\'cn the most beautiful of the false religions is built up on e\-il and sin ; and that men may be brave as pagans, but they cannot be ^fCrt' without Jesus Christ ? The Grecian gods and goddesses are onl)' remembered now as unreal and false, whilst, all the world over, men of ever\- nation are pro\-ing the Gospel to be true. " French histor)- ? " Yes, A\'hat about the Huguenots? Ls not that a Persecutions in the Past. 49 IN THE CATACOIIBS AT ROME. so flaking History. missionary lesson ? And if you keep your eyes open you will find plenty more. So you see, when we know that God is behind all the kintjs and kingdoms, just working out His will year by year, sending this king here and that one there, we begin to want to know what He is doing, and history becomes quite a different thing. Wc see how the kingdom of Christ, hidden in the hearts of men, is working its way to \'ictory, while other " kingdoms rise and wane." One of our missionaries, tlic Rev. W. Salter Price, wrote to Mrs. Euan Smith, the wife of one of the English Consuls-General at Zanzibar : " The last few months must have been a time of intense anxiety to your dear husband, but he has the satisfaction of knowing that he is making history." Now, missionaries have often a great deal to do with " making history." How Uganda has had its histor\- marked by Hannington, Parker, Mackay, and also by Bi.shop Tucker ! John Paton has brought a new era into the history of the South Sea Islands. What have missionaries done for the history of Japan ? \Vh3^ the President of the first Parliament is a Christian. And in India, how transformed many parts have become since the Gospel message has been proclaimed ! You. never understood that countries like these had a history? Neither did I until I " grew up " ! Of course Uganda or the South Sea Islands have no i^ji-itten history, but countries like China, Japan, and India have histories far, far longer than any you have ever heard. When we read English history we see how England has grown great and free because she has the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; but when Hindus read Indian history they find that, instead of going forward, they have gone back. Their false religion has dragged them down. Women now are despised in India, but history shows them that this used not to be. Indian histor)' tells of native women who were great and brave and wise. There is an Indian " Joan of Arc," named Ghana Bibi, who fought bravely on behalf of her infant nephew, and was only conquered by treachery. The "History of Great Japan," published in 1715, is reall}^ a great work, and fills 243 volumes. The Japanese are enthusiastically fond of the history of their country ; there arc hundreds of children's histories, and this lesson is always taught to Japanese boys and girls. T/uiiik God! SI Have you ever thought that God, u'ho recorded by His S})in't all the history in the Bible, is still recording all the things that happen now the history of to-day ? You know about the "Book of Life" in the ]ve\'elation and the " Book of Remembrance " in Malachi, and the "books" which men are to be judged from before the Throne of God. ]kit ha\-e you e\XT noticed what has been called " The Census Fsalm " ? In Bsalm Ixxxvii. we read of the Lord counting and " \\-riting up the people," and sa)-ing of one place and of another, " This man was born there." If God takes notice of the birth into natural life, don't you think He cares even more about the " second birth," of which the Lord Jesus spoke to Xicodemus ? And in many parts of the world the dear missionaries arc indeed " making history " in this blessed sense. They are sa\-ing to the poor heathen, " Ye must be born again." Thank God for the thousands who ha\-e heard the message and obeyed. Thank God for the records that in ever)- land where the Gospel has gone men and women and little children ha\-e been spiritually " born there " ; and thank God for the missionaries who, if some of them are too lowly to "make history " in the e\"es of the world, are still able in this deeper, fuller sense to help tliat great histor}- in Hea\-en. CHAPTER VI. GEOGRArilY BOYS and girls ma\" just as \\'cll give up trying to understand missionar\' news if they won't take trouble with their geograph}*. P2\'er)' one was talking some time ago about Stanley's great journc)'. African names became quite familiar sounds, but I expect a good many people did not quite kno'w on which side of Africa • the mouth f the Congo was ! How could news from the mis- sionaries mean much to people who would possibh- look for Uganda near Timbuc- too, and scarcel}' dis- tinguish the Victoria Nyanza from Lake Tchad ? It is well worth ever)- one's while to know where ever)' place is. We who belong to the British empire ought to take a special interest in geography — A GEOGRM'llY LESSON' IN TINNEVEl.LV. .V(; Lars:c. So Small — firstly, because \\'C oursehx's beeause our foreign posscs- derful to rcmem- place England is. twenty-six Eng- morc than fort}'- and two hun- And yet how and more pros- is than any of because she has God. China is land that if a stretched round outside edge of pire it would 12,000 miles as the ; whole steamer from kin. Yet Eng- greater t h a n S3 are so small ; and secondly, sions are so large. It is won- ber what a tiny You could put lands into India, one into China, dred into Africa, much stronger pcrous England these countries, the Word of such a great rope were to be the whole of the the Chinese em- ha\"e to be long, as long distance by London to Fe- and is far China in realit)'. -^riESA, LATE K]N(. OF U(;anDA [SCf ilCXt fxiij^c), A Chinese Christian clergyman asked to be shown England upon the map. When it was pointed out to him he was too polite to say he did 54 Ashamed of our Greatness. not belie\-c it, but he evidently thought that such a tiny island could not possibly be the great England whose power was felt all o^■er the world. Then, as we English or Scotch or Irish folk look at the map of the world, with the British empire marked in red, we see how large our possessions arc. In North America that vast dominion of Canada is a colony of ours. In Africa, how many parts arc either colonised or controlled by us ; and then there is the Indian empire in our immediate possession, and the great colonics in Australasia ! How responsible we ought to feci at these geograpli}' lessons ! How much of the world God has specially entrusted to us to win for Him ! Sometimes we are tempted to be proud of our greatness, — how ashamed we shall be of it by-and-bye if we have not fulfilled our trust ! Everybody is the better for looking out into the world, and seeing other lands besides his own. Mtesa, King of Uganda, thought himself one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, man in the world. But then he had never seen anything beyond his own kingdom. It was proposed to him to send some of his men to England to see what the country was like. When they got home he wanted to hear all that they could tell him. The}- gave a very droll account of their experiences. At first they thought Mtesa had sold them as slaves to the white men who took care of them. They told how thc}- had got into a big ship, " a ship as big as a hill," and, " then," they said, " we came to another lake. We sailed on till ■we came to an island which . they said belonged to the Queen, and we thought, ' Surely the Queen lives here, and now we are at the end of our journe\'.' But no ; on we went again, and we thought we would never get to the end, for they told us we were not half wa)- yet." Alexander Maeka}-, the noble missionary who has since died, was in Uganda, and when these messengers returned what was said was reported to him. He knew that b)' the " other lake " the African speaker meant the Mediterranean Sea, and that thc island was Malta. Waganda people found out through this journey something that the}- did not know before. " Oh, m}- master," said one of the messengers to Mtesa, " ZiV ha\-e no countr}- at all ! " But }-ou sa}-, " Missionar}- geography is all \-er}- well ; I don't mind learning about Africa and China and NorthA\'cst America, but, oh dear ! " Tliosc Terrible Iliiii'lish Counties." I\IAP r*F THE WORLD (sho'a'illg C.M.S. I\IissioJ!S). oh dear! those terrible Enoiisli counties, \\'ith the cliief towns and their populations ; \vhate\er is the use of them ? " If you were in the home office of an}- AIissionar\- Societ}- \'ou would soon find out. Somebody has to arranL!;c for sending; out all the mission- aries to speak at missionary meetinLjs. Suppose some one who did not kno'w English geography took up that \\'ork ; he might ask Mr. A. to \-isit Newcastle-on-Tyne on Monda)- and Exeter on Tuesday, while Mr. B. might be sent to Truro on Monda\- and York on Tuesday. Imagine the poor missionaries rushing from north to south of England when Mr. A. might have had the two meetings in the north and ?ilr. B. the two in the south, with half the trouble ! Wli)-, even down to a knowledge of z'i/lages geography is of use. Just look at the end of any Annual Report, and see the list of mone}' sent in b)- the \-arious associations throughout the kingdom. If you know your geography pretty well, you will be able to tell which places have done best. A sum that looks very large may come from a great big place, and therefore be rcall)- less, in proportion to the people, than a far smaller sum from a little \'illage or countr>- town. But unless you know the size of the places, how can }-ou tell ? 56 A jMissionary Game. Look well at this little map of the world. The " Missions " you see marked on it are only those of the Church Missionary Society, and you must remember that in many of those same countries other Missionary Societies are working for the Lord Jesus too. But I want you, first of all, to notice the places where the C.M.S. is not doing anything. I do not want the map to make you think, " What a great Society the C.M.S. is ! " I would rather you thought, " How many places there are where the C.M.S. is not\ How little it has been able to do after all in God's great world." Look at the vast continent of South America. We have no share in bringing the Gospel to it. Others are at work doing what they can for its needy millions. Then the whole Congo district, in Africa, and the great southern part of the continent, are left for others to reach, and the northern coast too, except the tiny work of the C.M.S. in P^gypt. The great Soudan, though we hope to help there, has scarcely been touched as yet. Mada- gascar once had a C.M.S. Mission, but now that large island is left for previous earnest workers to win for Jesus Christ. Arabia sho\\'s no C.M.S. work, nor Thibet, nor the unreached lands of Central Asia. So, though the C.M.S. will give you plenty of work for your geography, do not stop short by caring only for it, but learn all about the other great districts which need the Gospel too, and the other Societies which are working in the Master's name. But now look again at our map, and notice this time the places where the C.M.S. is lifting up the true light amidst the darkness of heathenism and sin. You may say, " Missionary geography is all very well," but I wonder how much you really know about it. Our little map only gives you the names of the Missions, but in most of the Missions there are several stations and districts, where loving earnest men and women are at work. If you cared very much about it I think you would like to learn the names of the places, and understand a little what they are like, and the people who work there. If I were a child again I know what I ^vould do. I would ha\'e a tray of sand like the little black folk you read of in our first chapter, and with it I would play a missionary game. I think I would call it Missionary Journeys. Perhaps I would begin with Bishop Tucker, because it would be easy to draw the coast line of Eastern Africa on the sand, and to make From Pebble to Pebb/e. 57 \'IE\V NEAR ISrAJ{AK, IN i'EUblA. a hollow far inland for the Victoria Xyanza. Then I would put little white pebbles in the sand for Mombasa and I^'rerc Town, and Rabai, and Mpwapwa, and Usambiro, and Ment^^o, and an\' other Mission stations in that part. Finall}-, with my finger or a little pointed stick, I would draw a line from pebble to pebble to show how the Bishop went. By-and-bye, when I knew better how to use my sand-tra_\-, I would travel with some missionaries (perhaps Miss Stubbs and Miss Bird, the two S 58 "Missionary Post." young ladies who went out alone in 1 891) to Persia. That would mean drawing part of the Mediterranean Sea, and the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea, and part of Persia. There are very few ]\Iission stations here, alas ! to mark with white pebbles on the sand, and we should have to consult a map in order to make out the journey. Still our pointed stick could make its line from Constantinople across the Black Sea to Batoum, where P'rench steamers ply ; then it could mark the Russian railway to Baku, and follow the track of the Russian steamer across the Caspian Sea to Enzelli ; then it could trace the carriage road to Rcsht, and I think I should have to pile up the sand \-ery high to show how difficult the long fortnight's ride must have been through the mountains to the Julfa Mission station, where the travellers \\'cnt. Well ! I cannot be a child again, and I am not likely to play at Missionary Journej's ; but e\-en II 77'// //_;,'" about this one has made me feel as if the hearts of those who travel so far and in such dis- comfort must be \-ery full of the lo\-c of the Lord Jesus for the poor dark world, or else they would be afraid to go. If we cannot go ourselves, surely you and I should pray for the missionaries, that in lands like Persia which are so slow to recei\-e the Gospel they ma\- ha\-e grace and strength to labour on. Here is another game which will help your missionary geography. An account of it was sent to mc b\' a gentleman ^\•ho is secretary of a Sowers' Band in the North of England. He saj-s : " At our Sowers' Band meetings we often play at what we call ' Missionary Post.' First, a certain mission-field is described, and gone over on the map. Then ^\-e adjourn to the lawn if it is summer, or to the hall if it is winter. If possible, a huge map is drawn on the ground with whiting, and the principal places marked. " Suppose it is the North Pacific Mission. One child stands at ]\Iet- lakahtla, another at Kincolith, Hazclton, etc. Another personates Bishop Ridley, and others various prominent missionaries. Then I call out, ' Bishop Ridley wants to go from Kincolith to Hazelton.' " The two children at Kincolith and Hazelton ha\'C to change places, while Bishop Ridley tries to get to one of the places first. If he succeeds he takes the name of the place, and the other becomes bishop. Of course, when they change places, they change names, and ha\'c a new name to " On the Tips of tlwii' Toiii^iws." 59 f ' CHALEEL IBKAHIW — A PALESTINE BOY. remember. After fifteen minutes of this, I find the Sowcr.s ha\-e c\-cn the hardest names on the tips of their tonijues." We thought this game was quite a new in\-cntion (at least the missionary part of it !j, so it n-as printed in TllE Chij.DREN'.s Wokld. 6o Sunday Gcogi'aphy. ^ I NT I ILI I \ Nl {A uight-riciu taken fyoin a distance) A little time aftcr\\-ards we found that an African missionary had been playing this ver)- game with the little black folk to teach them geography, and was rather puzzled to know how we in England liad found out the plan ! Another way of helping our missionary geography is by watching the lessons in church, and the chapters that arc read at family worship every da)'. With a ver)' little trouble you will soon learn in this wa)- a great deal about missions in the Holy Land. Of course many, many places are mentioned in the Bible which have now disappeared, and man\- others ^\'herc no missionaries arc at work. Still I think you will find a good many places to learn about if 3'ou tr)-. No Mission is so sacred as the one to the land where the Lord Jesus li\-ed when He was on earth, and as )'ou read the story of missionary work there to-daj' )-ou \\-ill sec that the people are still cold and hard as e\'er. The mention of " Jerusalem " will lead you to think of the young Christian men being trained there as messengers to go out into all the country round as the disciples did ; " Nazareth," and Dear Old Maps. Gi •' licthany " too, will ha\'e fresh interest if }-ou read a little of the earnest lad)- \vorkcrs who are there ; " Gaza," and e\-cry story of the Saviour's healing work, should remind )-ou to pra)- for tlie medical mission at that place ; " loppa" (now Jaffa), with its story of how the Lord tau;ght Peter that the Gospel was also for the Gentiles, should brint; before }-ou the little party of missionaries \\\\o arc ser\'iny' God there to-da\'. I think the Palestine Mission might be our Sunday gengraph)-, as we learn not only \\-hat \\-as done in that land in I^ible da\-s, but what is being done there now. If \-ou want to know about the Palestine schools, just link them on to the words of the Lord Jesus, " Suffer little children to come unto Ale, and forbid them not." The missionaries are tr\'ing to reach to-day the \xry same sort of children as the dear Master suffered to come to Him. So when }'ou and I have missionar)' hearts and heads our geograijh}- lessons run on into Sunday, and are \'er\- happy times indeed. Geography does a great deal for missionaries, and missionaries have done a great deal for geography. Fift}- or sixty years ago the map of Africa was much the easiest of all, because the middle had no names in it, but was marked " Great Desert." Some dear old maps had funn)- little pictures of elephants, and lions, and serpents dotted about, to show how dangerous the Great Desert was. The y^ •f-'Vn 1 1 SsdP-,; ^i^if -'^ -^ '' fir"^*""'*^'"-- » -^ =*^-- 62 ]]'/iat Missionaries have Done ! Greek geographer Ptolem)-, who wrote about .se\-enteen hundred }'ears ago,, said the Nile flowed out of two great lakes at the foot of the Mountains of the Moon. Others, long after, repeated similar tales, but a little o\-er a hundred years ago it was announced that these conjectures were all wrong, that Africa had no rivers running from the centre to the sea, nor any great inland lakes, like North America. So the Dark Continent went into deeper darkness than ever. But by-and-b}' it was pro\'ed that the old writers knew best (ha\-c \-ou never been told that old people alwa}-s do 1)., for the Discovery of Africa really proved to be the Reco\'ery of the great lakes and the long-lost Mountains of the Moon I The great snow-clad Mount Kilima-Njaro, of which you see two ^'iews on pages 6o, 6i, was discovered by the missionaries John Ludwig Krapf and John Rebmann, who ^\'ere the earliest explorers of Africa from the eastern side. "We came to Africa," wrote Rebmann in 1855, "without a thought or wish of making geographical discoveries. Our grand aim was but the spreading of the Kingdom of God." When these two wrote home of the wonders they had seen, ver)' few would credit them. It was too much to belie\-e that they had found a snow-peaked mountain in the burning heat of Central ^\frica ! The geo- graphical world said, "Who can belie\-e this ? It is only a missionary who says so ! " Nevertheless it was true. But at last their letters excited attention. A large map, founded on a sketch which Krapf and Rebmann had made from nati\-e descriptions and sent home, was exhibited before the Royal Geographical Society. It showed a gigantic inland sea. In consequence of this Burton and Speke, two great tra\'cllers, were sent out to Africa. Speke, in one of his books, sa\-s : — " The missionaries are the prime and first promoters of this discover}^ . . . which so much attracted the attention of the geographical world in 1855-6, and caused our being sent out to Africa." I need scarcely tell >'ou \\-hat the missionar\' Livingstone has done for African geography. IMost of you ha\-e read his Life, and know that he discovered Lake Ngami and Lake N)-assa, and traced the course of the Zambesi River. You kno«-, too, that later on he travelled about Lake Tanganyika, near the source of the great Congo River, and finall)- died in Africa, the land he lo\-cd so waW. CHAPTER VII. c LANGUAGES. I'^RTAIXLY some of us think that k-rirninL;- the L^rammar of our own lan|_;"uage is hard work enough. We grumble \X'r)' loudl\- ri\-er " orthograph}', et>'mology, s\-ntax, and prosod)-." ]]ut when it comes to two or e\"en three languages, it does mean a headache ! Just look, on page G5, at the well-known text, John iii. 16, in se\-eral languages. }-[ow \-er)- puzzling it appears ! I do not think you weaild e\x-r grumble again about your language lessons, ^\■ith a teacher at hand to help you and a good graminar with plenty of nice rules, if you could know all the missionaries have to go through when they begin to learn a strange language in the Mission field. First (Mf all, the sounds are sometimes most difficult, so that it is almost impossible to say the words. The Chinese and other nations find some of our sounds just as puzzling as wc find theirs. You have often been amused at the wa}- African names are spelled. People here say they cannot pronounce them, and that it is absurd to spell them like that. The)' quite forget that the Africans say them as easily as we can read linglish. Then again our PLnglish spelling of Chinese names is wonderfulh' waried ; one word " Foo-chow-fu " can be .spelled and arranged m a hundred and fort\'-four wa)'s ! In Chinese the same word pronounced in a slighth' different tone ma\' mean at least eight different things ! People say China has one language for the eye, but two hundred or so for the ea?'. You may make a \'ery droll mistake b\' using tlic right word 64 Wofds ] I 'ail ted. v.'ith a sliijlitl)" -wrong tone or pronunciation. An Englishman in China sent for four hundred pounds of potatoes, and «'as brought instead four- hundred pounds of eels ! A lad}- ordered a pair of ducks for dinner to be serx'eci up in gravy. Her Chinese ser\-ant remonstrated ; she insisted. When dinner time came, the co\-er was removed, and she beheld her best pair of boots -well stewed ! You maj- think you are addressing some one as " My friend," and find that )'ou have instead said, "You fool " ; or you ma}- mean to say " M}- Lord," and fii-id }'0u have said, " My pig ! " Some missionaries sa}' the language they have to learn has so man}- words, that they " don't know what to do," like the poor old woman who li\-ed in a shoe ! One }-oung Indian missionary sa}"s : — " I am \-cry busy from da}' to da}- with m}- Bengali, tr}-ing to get these curious sounds to stick in m}- brain, if possible, though one \\-onders if one can ever really hope to get hold of the language within a reasonable space of time. One great difficult}- is, that the ^vritten or book language is \-ery different to the spoken or colloquial language ; so that, after reading, one cannot speak man}- of the \\'ords which one has learned from the book. For instance, the book word for ' tree' is ' toi-ii' but the colloquial is ' gac/i,' while halRva}' between the two (i.e. half book and half colloquialj is another word, ' brikliau ' ! Most things have this double way of being expressed, and one has to learn both ; the collocjuial for speaking to the poor, the book words for writing letters and speaking to the better classes." Other missionaries 1-iave exactly the opposite difficult}- to report. You ha\-e often been told that in French there is no word for " home," or for "wife." But other languages are much \\'orse off In a letter written from Frere Town, in West Africa, a missionar}- complains that one word in the Swahili language has to do dut}- for six English ones. The}- use the same word for God's throne in hea\-en that they do for a little three-legged stool. And the}- have no -word for " crown " but one which means " turban." The lad}- who wrote was afraid when she taught the black bo}-s and girls about " a crown for little children " that thc}- would think it meant hax'ing to wear a turban like the Arabs, whom they hate ! When Mr. Williams re-visitcd Rarotonga, the South Sea Island where he had done so much, he took with him a nuniber of horses, cattle, and j ' TAMIL. (South India, Ceylon.) S^STJoriT, ^ixi(jpi3roi_LLi QGirSU/mooT QLorrcrSsOT ELnSr&DrrS'lcSiih.lrQSJOTJr 6T6U£(OT) a^QJOTT ©(S)L1 ©uSurrebrruD©) nClS'^'iLLJS'SijSscT ajcTOi_u_| dUitlL aoOcEb^plai a|5STL^(gT^rTt3^rrrr. 4. *f* ■^A\ CHINESE J CI assical. f-t ii: m ^ # h 4^ m •^ tr z 0. m ^ m \± % ^ ■tin m z \tt m^ T- tfn ^ God so loved tlie world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoeTer belieYeth in Him should not perisli, tut have everlasting life." John' iii, 16. s^. ^ ^ 'A JAPANESE t :^ X T ^ * -^ >- if" X ^ 3 1- :^4 i- t 7" X y "^ * -1 ^ ^ ^ ^ y ^ I, y y ^ 7. h 2 7" ;/ 7 u ^ 7 o V 1 ,^- b (^^' ^r. KISWAH ELI. (£as( Coast of Africa.) Kwani ndivyo Muungu alivyoui^enda ulimwengii, akatoa na Mwana wake wa pekee, illi wote wam- waminio waupate uzima wa milele wala wasipotee. 66 Learning to Count. AN AFRICAN HUT, donke^-s. As the nati\-es had ne\-er seen an animal larger than a pig you may imagine their astonishment and delight. Fuit alas ! there were no names in their language for these wonder- ful new creatures which had arrived, so the)- made the best arrangement the}- could. The)" called the horse " the great pig that carries the man," the dog was described as " the barking pig," and the poor donkey had a two-fold title, either " the noisy pig," or "the long-eared pig." It is difficult enough for the missionaries to learn a strange "written language, but -what must it be when they ha^-e to write down and make the alphabet and the words before the}' can begin? Sometimes at dictation a woxA }-ou \\^xc never heard before \\'\\\ be read out, and }-ou know how hard it is to write it down. \'er}- often a// the words are new to tlie missionaries, and the}' ha\x such trouble in getting hold of them. You see ver}- often the nati\'cs are so ignorant and stupid that the}" cannot imderstand ^\■hat the missionar}' wants to know. A clcrg}'man \vas trying to learn how the nati\-es count in Chagga, a countr}- in East Africa. He put down one bean, the nati\-es gave him the word for " one," then he put down a second bean, and they ga\-e him the word for " two." All went smoothl}- till he had nine beans before him, and then the natives failed to understand. A man drew fi\-e beans to one side and said the word for " fi\'e," and pointed to the remainder saying " four." The missionar}- shook his head, put the beans together again, and tried to get the word for " nine." But a native added another bean, and gave him tlic word for " ten." This went on o\-er and o\-cr again until his patience ^\■as almost cone. But at last he got the word. / \'ry Hot, and I 'e/j Tii-cd. 67 Once, some years a;j;o, I had such a funny readini;" lesson. It was on board a steamer, and Bishop I Ic^rden, of ^iloosonec, was my teacher. He told me how troublesome it had been to make an alphabet for tiie Crcc Indians, and then he drew an en\'elope from his pocket antl \\'rote on it in pencil the alphabet which had been made, and told so much about it tliat I felt I could soon read Cree myself When he had mastered the lar.'.Miaye he had to print his own books, as so many other missionaries ha\'e had to do. If )-ou were present when the missionaries ai'e beiuL;" said j;ood-b)'e to, before the}' yo abroad, }"ou would see how important " learn in l;" the lant^uaye " is tliouLjht to be. Lon;j; and lox'inc;" " Instructions " are read to each of the missionaries as a srirt of jjartiuL; messaL;e, and they are ah\'ays lU'ged to stud}- \\-ith patient care the lan^^aiagx' of tlic place to wjiich they go. \'er\' often the missionaries ask us to pra_\- that the)- ma\- be bra\'e and patient, and not get tired of their task. Some da}', when the sun is ver}' hot and you are \ery tired, and find it hard to fi.\- \'our mind on that I'rench \'erb or Latin declensir]n, will }-ou remember tjic dear )'oung mis- sionaries in distant lands, just as hot, just as tiretl, just ,as puzzled o\-er \'erbs and declensions, but much more patient than }-ourself? The thing that tries them most is not the hard work of learning the language, but the king delav' before they can tell the peojile of the Sa\-iour Jesus Christ. Alan}' missionaries learn texts, and saj- them to the peojjle before they can speak the language, and others learn to sing h\'mns. Some of them tell us that the}- just pi-ay for the crowds of heathen A\'hilst the missionaries \\\\n Vwow the language are preaching to them One young missionar}- in India had a wonderful answer to ]M-a}-cr. He was feeling rather discouraged because he could not speak to tire heathen himself, so lie sat down and watched their faces as the}- listened to the jjreaching. He noticed one }-oung man who looked as if he ^\-ere prepared to argue and disturb the meeting. The missionar\- prayed \-ery earnestly that God would stop the young man's mouth and not let him do an}- harm. In a few minutes he began to object, but an old man in the audience answered him so \\-ell that he had to stop and turn awa}' discomfited. If the young missionary had wA been there to pra}-, the \\-hole meeting might have been broken up. Of course it is most important that missionaries should learn to speak 68 Interpreters. well the language of the countr)- they are to li\-c in. But sonne- times people are able to go out for onl)' a few months to w it all the stations" in a Mission, so that they would be starting for home again before the}' had half learned the language ; and sometimes it is neces- sar\- that a missionary should speak to the people directh' after his arri\-al. You ha\'e read of Bishop Tucker preaching in Uganda to V thousand people the ver)- da}' after he first arri\-ed there ; how did he manage when he did not now their language and the}" could not understand English ? He used an interpreter. The liishop spoke a sentence in Lnglish, then Mr. Gordon, a issionar}- who had been long in ganda, translated it ; the Bishop said the next sen- =»'» ^1*\ tence, Mr. Gordon I'll translated that, and JN A R1;d I.NDIAKS HUT. yl Alis-traiislatioii. Gg i ^ \j*'- difficult work to preach like this, and missionaries are ahvays so glad when they know enough to speak to the people without an inter- preter's help. Sometimes, if the interpreter does not know both languages well, very droll mistakes are made. A missionary went to work in North America amongst a tribe of \-er)' tall heathen Indians. He was told they liked very flowery lan- guage, and high- sounding titles. He was preaching through an inter- preter, so when he spoke his open- ing words, "Children of the forest," he paused for the translation. But the interpreter did not know the Indian language vcr)' well, so he ga\-c the meaning of the English words as, " Little men amongst the big sticks." The congregation, who were proud of their stature, were \er\- much in- sulted, and walked away, refusing to listen to an)- more that da\-. In 1887 a party of English gentlemen \\-ent out for a winter's mission THE L.\TE BISHOP FRENCH. (From a Plwtngmph by Messrs. Elliot & Fry, Loudon.) 70 A Learned Cobbler. to India. None of them knew tlie language of the places to which they \\'ent, so they had to use interpreters. One of the clergymen was \-isiting the .Sccundra Orphanage, near Agra, in North India. He was alone in the garden, and one of the Zenana ladies came up to him with a party of the brown pupils from the school. This missionary knew both English and Urdu fas the language mainly spoken in that part of India is called), so the clcrg)-man talked to her, and she translated ^\-hat he said for the dear brown girls. He taught her a short prayer, and she taught it in Urdu to the others. Three \-cars later a lad\- missionar}- who was A'isiting Sccundra mentioned the clcrg}'man's name, and found that the cliildren remembered perfectly the pra\'er he had taught them througli the lady interpreter. Some missionaries ha\e a xei'i ^leat languages. And indeed thcA need 160,000 Mohammedans m B mb i\ six different languages One mis amongst them said he h id of these, and did n( t feci beginning on the three otheis ' Valpy French, tlie first Bish( p who died at Muscat, in Aiabia, kno^\■n to the Indian n itu e as tongued man," for he could preach in seven different lan- guages, and he was able to teach in five others. William Ca- rey, the cobbler who became a great Indian missionary, was also very clever ^ilt for acquiring it There are and they speak sionary working earned three much like Thomas of Lahore, in 1 89 1, was the " seven- 1 {65^^*^?^!^ A cobhli;r in urLucnisTAX. Bible Ti-ajtslatious. J i at languages ; no sooner liad he learned one than he would begin upon another. The longing of his heart was that e\-er\' one in India should ha\^c the ]"5ible in their own language, and he had the happiness of knowing that he and his friends had translated parts of the Bible into twent\'-six different languages. This work of Bible translation is a mrist important one. You ha\'e had many stories about the walue of reading the Bible in f)Ur former chapters, but how can the heathen or XatiA'e Christians read it e.xcept it is translated intench and PZnglish, which she taught them from the Bible, and God used her knowledge to do real work for Him. So )'ou see there will be abundant use for all you know in the Mission field, and that makes it worth while to be " diligent in business," even over grammar and exercise books ! Is any one saying, " These languages are so difficult that I can ne\'er be a Missionar)'," as that little girl did when she read about Chinese ? Have you forgotten Who helped the Apostles when the)' had to speak in many tongues on the Day of Pentecost ? " The Spirit gave them utterance." The same Spirit of God is with the missionaries to-day, and though He does not work as He did at Pentecost, enabling us in a moment to speak strange tongues. He does still wonderfully help the men and women who look to Him, and they can learn b)' His grace what the)- could never learn alone. So canj;w?/. if )'ou tr)'. 7 STREET SINGERS IN JAPAN. CHAPTER VIII. MUSIC. MINIMS and semibrcves, crotchets and quavers, slurs and rests, flats and sharps, majors and minors, counting and fingering and reading at sight ! Oh, how much a music lesson means to little stiff fingers that won't alight on the proper notes, and little wandering minds that want to be off to something else ! " What is the use? I shall never play as other people do ; isn't it waste of time to learn at all ? " It just depends on what your life is going to be. Some people may not find a kno\\'ledge of music much help in their work, though, of course, it is a pleasure to others and to themselves, but I am quite sure that missionaries always find it useful, and very often reall)' necessary. In most countries the heathen will listen readily to music when the}' will listen to nothing else. A missionary who visited some of the wild hill-men who live among the Indian mountains, found that they all ran away at first quite terrified. They peeped at him through holes and little sliding windows in their curious double-storied houses. By-and-bye he and his wife sat down on some logs of wood, and began to play a concertina and sing. Very soon the delighted natives came out and crowded round them, laughing with pleasure at the hymn singing, and ready to listen to the reading and preaching. Very Long Hymns. 75 A missionary writing; home from Tinncvclly says : " Wc go out night after night about sunset, according to the distance wc have to traverse before wc arrive at the preaching place. We hght our candles, set up a table and chairs, one for the native minister who accompanies me, and one for myself, spread mats for the rest, and then we preach and sing Tamil lyrics until eight or nine o'clock. I have a mclodeon, and my native helper a violin. We have three little boys who accompany us with their voices. The singing is in every way useful. It attracts some, and gives others an excuse for coming to hear us." Another earnest Indian missionary, himself a native of the country, tells how he and several native evangelists had been going out on preach- ing tours among the heathen. He says : " I was accompanied by my evangelists, who can all sing Christian hymns and play upon native musical instruments, so that wherever we stopped we were successful in gathering large audiences. It does one's soul good to see these simple-hearted people listening to and admiring the sweet story of redeeming love for hours together." The hymns which the native Christians use in India are very long indeed ; they are called bhajans, and sound very curious to English ears. One of them will often take ten minutes to sing, but no one seems to get tired. I want to tell }-ou the story of a man in North India, whose talent for music is certainly turned to good account. One of our missionaries at Peshawar prayed earnestly that God would send him a good musician to help with the native music at the services, because the singing and playing attracted so many to listen. Shortly after, he was told of a cle\'er man ^\-ho was much sought after at temple services and weddings, but, alas ! he was a Mohammedan. You know the j\Iohammedans believe in the true God, but not in the Lord Jesus Christ as His Son and our Saviour. Their religion is false and full of superstition, and they need missionaries to work amongst them as much as the poor idolaters do. However, the missionary found that this Mohammedan minstrel was a good man, and though not a Christian, he really deserved his name of Ashiqullah, which means " Lover of God." He sang and played beauti- ye Noali s Carpciitcrs. ^V11\E liLLl-LK^ Ai IL^M\\\\K \^llH^LLL\iI ib THE MUSICIAN IN WillTE). fully, and often composed both the words and music of the songs which he sang. He readil)' promised to come and sing Christian hymns twice a-week. By-and-by the missionar)- found that at another place this minstrel had been taught to read the Bible, and knew a great deal about Christian truth. After he had helped in the singing for some time, he asked if he might speak to the people about Jesus. The wise missionary said, " No," at once. He reminded AshiquUah of the men who must have helped Noah to build the ark, but who never got into it, and so were lost in the flood, and he explained that while he was glad of the singing and music to draw the people together, he could A. Real Inquirer. 77 not let anybody speak about the Lord Jesus who did not confess Ilim before men as the Sa\"iour and the Son of God. This conversation opened the minstrel's eyes. He became a real inquirer, and made up his mind to become a Christian. Up to this time Ashiqullah had been a favourite with ever}' one. He was gentle and kind, his music was very popular, and the Sikhs and Hindus who did not agree with his Mohamme- dan religion were glad to be his friends all the same. But when he proposed to become a Chris- tian all these things changed. His former friends turned against him, and abused him, and his wife said she would leave him the moment he was bap- tised. But nothing disturbed his peace and purpose. He went out with the missionary and other Christian converts in- to the villages round Peshawar. As soon as he began to play on his instrument and sing, the people A CI-IINESE LADY WITH HER MU.SICAL IXSTRUjAIENT. {Cupicd jrnin a unlive drawing,'^ 78 " A Splendid SioryT would sit down and listen as he begged them to give their hearts to> Christ. Now that he knew " the Way " himself he was able to point it out to others. Sometimes many eyes were filled with tears, and God's message of lo\-e was sung right into heathen hearts. The long walk.s- from village to village were too much for Ashiqullah, who was not a strong man, and he became \X'r)- ill. The missionary took charge of him at once, and had him carefully nursed. As he reco\-cred from his illness, an elder brother, a bigoted Mohammedan, came from his home two hundred, miles off. Ashiqullah was still very weak and unable to lea\"e his bed, and the brother told the missionary that he would much rather the minstrel had died as a Mohammedan than have him li\-e and become a Christian. But Ashiqullah did live, and on Easter Day, 1S90, he was baptisecL into the Church of Christ. He has proved the greatest help to the mis- sionaries, not only using his musical gifts in the service of God, but also by his life, and his earnest words^ seeking to win other souls for the Saviour whom he loves. Is not that a splendid storj^ for the boys or girls who are quick at music ? Learn all you can, for )'0U see what use it ma\- be. Music is used on man)- occa- sions by the natives in different parts of the world. Of course it i.-^ not like our music, and sometimes what they use in their heathen temples is very strange indeed. One writer \\\\o tells us of the worship of Buddha in the temple of the Thousand Lamas in Peking saj's : " A new stroke of the gong announces the beginning of the sacred chants. It is a psalmody of two choirs, who respond to each other altcrnatcl)'. In this song, THE SACRFD BOOK OF THE SIKHS. Singing to a Book. 79 in which cacli singer holds the same note, we hear ver\- remarkable basses, but the song is always the same, it onl}- varies in intensity. After the vocal music, ver)- imposing, though a little monotonous, came the instrumental music. Three Lamas beat time ; one struck ujjon a tambourine, another upon a copper basin, the third rang a large round rattle like a skull. Add to this the little bells, the sea-shells and the gong, and }'0U will have an idea of the clatter." Again a missionary writes from India: "Come with me in thought to Umritzar, and dri\-e fourteen miles southwards, oxer a road said to be the worst in the Punjab (and be thankful if )-ou arrive with onl}- a few bruises ), and }-ou will find your.^elf at Tarn Taran — the ' Place of Sah'ation,' as the name implies. It is a small country town, but most important, as being a great centre of the Sikh religion. In the middle is a splendid temple, only second to that at Umritzar, in which, on a throne under a canopy, lies the sacred Granth, or hol\" book. Here from 5 till 10 A.M. sits a minister chanting passages from the book, and at internals the musicians belonging to the temple join in with wild singing. " The same ceremony is again repeated from 3 to S r.vi., and numbers of people attend, afterwards presenting oflerings of fijod and money to the Granth. This is all finalh- pocketed b\- the ' Pujaris,' or ministers of the temple." Sometimes missionaries listen to the quaint native music until they catch the tune and \vords. Then they write them down and send them home. Not long ago a North American Indian from a tribe be)-ond the Rocky Mountains composed a Christian h\"mn. He was the recognized poet of his tribe, and wished to use his powers in the service of His Master. The missionar)' said it was most difficult to catch the music, as the time altered in ever}- verse in order to make it fit the words ! Another missionar)' listened to the African porters who sang as the)- were carr)'ing his luggage along through the desert, and when he came home to P^ngland he sang the words and air to some kind people who understood harmon)", and they wrote them down properly, so that you could pla)- the air on the piano, and sing the song if )'ou liked. Learn a lesson not onl)- in music, but in contentment from it. The missionary heard the song in " a truh" dismal spot in Ugogo," in Eastern Equatorial Africa. There was no fresh So Cheerful Porters. \rANESE MUSICIAN. water ; the camp was without shelter ; the air was feverish and stifling ; the march had been weary and long, yet the men sang and sang all the afternoon. They had got a few salt-tasted fish out of the brackish water to eat with their maize porridge for supper, and that unexpected treat " 0-0-0-oh .'" ami " E-c-c-ch / " 8i was enough to balance all the real troubles. I am afraid with us one tin)' unexpected trouble often makes us forget all our real treats ! The boatmen on the lagoons of Travancore in South India keep up one incessant weird kind of chant while they are rowing. As they get near the end of their journey they chant over and o\"er again fin their own language) such sentences as " We'll soon be there ; " " Then we shall ha\'C a present ; " " Who will give it ? Master will give it," etc. The Japanese are very fond of music also, but our Western music is most inharmonious to them. However, as their music is just as unpleasant to us, we are quits on that question. The Japanese ladies, like the one you see in our picture, are very carefully taught, and greatly enjoy singing and playing for their visitors. Sometimes our musical instruments puzzle the Africans greatly. When Mrs. Hinderer (she and her husband were great missionaries about ■whom you ought to know) was in the Yoruba country in West Africa, she "\\'as sent a present of a harmonium by some kind friends. Great was the astonishment of the people when they heard it played for the first time. They listened, open-mouthed. Then one of the chiefs wanted to try to play on the instrument himself, but of course he produced no sound. " It is onl}' the lya " (mother), he said, " \\\\o can make wood and ivory speak with her fingers." Another missionar}' in Eastern Africa was much worse off than this. He was all by himself at a lonel}' station on a hill-top, where the people suspected everything he did. They thought he stopped the rain by ringing a bell which he had, so they requested him to gi\'e it up. He had a little harmonium, too, of some kind, which he used to love as a comfort in his solitude. The bass and treble notes were too mysterious for the natives ! They thought they had found out the real reason now wh)- the rain did not come. They told the missionary that he had two spirits shut up in that box. One was a man, who said, " 0-o-o-oh ! " (a deep bass note), and the other was a woman, who said, " E-e-e-eh ! " (a ver\' high treble squeak). They declared that until he let those spirits out the rain would not fall ! FROM A SKETCH BY BISHOP TUCKER. CHAPTER IX. DRAWING. THE best way to throw some missionary light on this, our last " lesson,"" would be to make the chapter consist entirely of pictures ! There is not the slightest difficulty in proving the use of drawing to missionaries, and the use of missionaries' drawings to the people who stay at home. Why, some of the pictures in this very book are done from sketches which the missionaries sent home. You should see what a delight it is to have even an unfinished drawing arrive from Africa, or India, or China, or North-West America, when those wonderful foreign mails come in. Then when missionaries come back to England, how eagerl}- any drawings are asked for. As to the portfolio of beautiful pencil sketches- which Bishop Tucker brought home from Uganda, we felt they were worth their weight in gold. They showed us places which few English eyes had ever seen, but which many English hearts had long known and cared for. As Bishop Tucker himself turned over sketch after sketch, and \\'ith deep emotion told us incidents connected with them, we felt that drawing was indeed " of use " in making distant scenes seem near. There was the graveyard at Usambiro, where so man}- noble missionaries are awaiting the resurrection morn, with the wooden crosses marking the graves, and the great stones piled up to keep them undisturbed. There was a sketch Sec /or Yoiirsck'cs. 83 of sunrise on the Victoria X)'anza, with the coast of Uganda in the distance. There was a picture of the litde Church Missionary Societ}' boat in which the great lake was crossed. There were two drawings of the great tomb of Mtesa, King of Uganda, built b)- Alexander Mackay at Mwanga his successor's desire. ISut \\'hy should I tell you all this ? You can see all these pictures in the Church Missionary Gleaner, and judge for }"oursel\-es whether it is " an)- use " for missionaries to draw. One of the earlier missionaries to Uganda, Mr. Thomas O'Xeill, did not take clever rapid pencil sketches like Bishop Tucker, but he made water-colour drawings of many places, and from these most of our pictures of that part of the world ha\'e been taken. Sometimes a missionary who really does not know how to draw propcrl)- will just outline quite roughly a group of natives doing something unusual, or else a striking \ie\\'. Per- haps he onl}- scratches it on the page of a note-book, or in the midst of a letter home ; but if it comes to us we can make use of it, and turn it into a prett\- picture. If there is a bit of fun in the drawing all the better ; wh>- should we not ha\'e a pleasant laugh now and then ? Drawing is not only useful for making sketches to send home, but it is also very \-aluable to ha\-e [sictures or magic-lantern slides sent for the missionaries to use in the foreign field. So )'ou sec, if }"0U work awa}- steadily and learn to draw niccl)- now, }-ou ma\- be able either to go out to the Mission field and send us home some sketches, or, if you ha\-e to sta\' at home, you will be able to make magic-lantern slides for the missionaries to exhibit, or else paint pictures and texts to tell of the love of the Lord Jesus in distant lands. A Japanese missionary had some religious pictures hung on the walls of his house, and found their value. The \-er}- da)- he wrote his letter seven Buddhist priests had been to \"isit him, and had greatl)- enjo}-ed the pictures. They listened earnestly as he talked to them about the meaning of what they saw. A Palestine missionary found Scripture picture-books generally ga\'e her an opening for talking to the Mohammedan women, while as to magic- lanterns, the)- are as popular in India as in England. When people will not come to listen to preaching, the)- are often found quite willing to watch the pictures on the sheet, and the)- like to hear what the)- mean, so 84 'Imitation is the Sinccrest Homage^ LEARNING TO DRAW. One Painted JFord. 85 "a BIAGIC-LANTERN BIEETING'' in south INDIA, the missionaries are able to preach to them. In the countr)- villages the people just flock in and listen most eagerl)-. The magic-lanterns arc often taken to great inclas or fairs, so that the natives who are gathered together for trade or for idol worship gain some knowledge of Gospel truth. Archdeacon Moule tells a beautiful stor}- of what one word painted over the door of a little Mission room in Mid-China did. In one of the suburbs of Hangchow, outside the Periwinkle Gate, this humble little preaching place was opened in 1877. The room was low and dark, and only contained a small table and some benches. Over the door, where it could be read from the street, was painted in black letters on a red ground the words — "THE HOLY RELIGION OF JESUS." At first hardly any one came in to listen ; the eager hopes of the workers began to fade. Perhaps the room was useless after all. S6 Tlic Strange Word "Jesus." One morning early a man named Chow Pao-Yong was hastening along the raised causeway which runs past the door of the room. He had been staying with friends near, and was on his way to market in the city. There was nothing about the door of the Mission room to attract him ; it was shut and bolted, the window shutters ^\■ere up, for it was not one of the usual preaching days. But Chow Pao-Yong happened to look up, and there, half hidden away under the eaves, he saw the strange word "JESUS-" He stopped to read it again. What could it mean ? The landlady who lived next door was standing in the sun, so the Chinaman politely asked her what the religion of Jesus might mean. " 1 am only a stupid woman," she said, " and though I have heard something about it I cannot describe to you its meaning. You should go into the city and call on Air. Tai, the Chinese preacher, and on Mr. Moule, the foreign missionary." The Chinaman was interested, and asked the way to Mr. Tai's house. " I will guide you," said the old woman ; and so she did. She brought him safely to the catechist's house by half-past ten o'clock. So, instead of his marketing, Mr. Chow sat and listened to the Gospel news which the faith- ful Chinese teacher opened to him. Eagerly he heard, and readily he understood. In two hours he was taken on to Archdeacon ]\Ioule, having clearly grasped the story of the life of Christ. For two or three weeks he remained in the missionar\-'s house, and then went back to his home in the mountains, with a Chinese Bible, Prayer-book, and hymn-book_ trembling lest his elder brothers should beat him, but declaring his heart- felt belief in the Lord Jesus. Was he beaten ? No ! When he did speak out and confess his faith, man)' of his relations and neighbours gathered round him to hear the Gospel. Catechists from the city were sent down to help, violent persecu- tion began later on, but more than one hundred people were baptised in the first two years. What a noble result of one painted sentence, contain- ing the Name which is above every name ! How solemn we ought to feel about any texts we may be able to paint ! Perhaps by-and-bye some dear little missionary helper may find that the words he or she painted have been God's message too ! CHAPTER X. THE LAST! SO we have come to the last cliaptcr, and ahnost to the last page ! It is rather a pity, for there arc man)- more stories to prove the " use " of our lessons. There has not been space to put the half of them in. But that will not matter if the ones I have told you do their work. " Perhaps " at the end of the year some bo)' or girl will bring back a .school-prize, won b)' patient work ; and though nothing ma\- be said about it, " perhap.s " our missionar)- book will have been at the bottom of the stead}' toil. Or " perhaps " some lad or lassie who has been idle and restless at home, longing for the fields, or the swing, or the rest-time, will suddenly turn diligent and earnest, a jo\- to father's and mother's heart, and "perhaps " it will all be because Christmas time brought " Light ON OUR Le.SSONS " to the house ! " Perhaps" some little fingers ma)- turn from fidgeting and fiddling, and give the " odd minutes " to missionary work ; " perhaps " some stray pennies may have a new purpose, and go into the missionary box. " Perhaps " some little will ma)- resohe to choose the Harvest Field for a life-work, " perhaps " some childish prayer may be sent up for those now toiling there. " Perhaps " — ah, best of all ! — "perhaps " some little heart feeling the world-darkness within it, ma)- come to the Light of the world to be lit up itself by Him. Well, these " perhapses " are very sweet to think of, as our pen is laid aside. 1 wonder if you boys and girls know wh)- this book was written ? Was it to make a pretty present, full of pictures, and attractive in every 88 IF//J' wc Write. way ? No, indeed ! It was written because God's great weary world is rolling on in darkness, and there are so few who go forth bearing the Light. It was written because we believe that if a missionary seed is planted in }'oung hearts now it will spring up and bear fruit by-and-by. It was written because we know that boys and girls can give, and care, and pray for the great missionary cause. It was written with prayer, every page of it, and now it is being sent forth with prayer — prayer that the Holy Spirit of God, " who . . . spake in time past " through human pens, may deign in some measure to speak again to-da}-, and praj'er that little loving hearts may be touched and opened to care for God's great World. Wopij CHILDREN AT REST. Printed by Hazell, W.itsoii, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. M 3 y ^