<^^ PRINCETON, N. J. '^ 
 
 Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund. 
 
 BV 2400 .P6 1899 
 Pierson, Arthur T. 1837- 
 1911. 
 
 The miracles of missions 
 
^HE MIRACLES 
 J- OF MISSIONS 
 
 MODERN MARVELS 
 IN THE HISTORY OF 
 MISSIONARY EN- 
 TERPRISE :: :: :: 
 
 BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON 
 
 THIRD SERIES 
 
 FUNK&WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 :: NEW YORK AND LONDON, 1899 :: 
 
Copjrright, 1899, by 
 
 FUNK & WAGNAI,I,S COMPANY 
 
 [Registered at Stationers' Hall, England] 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Preface, ...... v 
 
 I. — How the River Godavery was 
 
 Crossed, . . . . .11 
 
 II. — A New Pentecost in Uganda, . 23 
 III. — In the St. John Hospital, Beirut, 43 
 IV. — Work Among the Deep-Sea Fish- 
 ermen, . -64 
 V. — ^The Founding of the Barotsi 
 
 Mission, . . . .80 
 
 VI. — Among the Red Men of North 
 
 America, . . . -93 
 
 VII. — An African Saved by Grace, . iii 
 VIII. — The Blind Apostle of Manchuria, 132 
 IX.— Among the Little Waifs of 
 
 London, . . . . .148 
 
 X.— The Open Door Into Ecuador, . 168 
 XI.— The Isles Waiting for God's Law, 182 
 XII. — The Awakening of the American 
 
 Negro, 215 
 
 XIII.— Ramabai and the Women of India, 248 
 
 ui 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER. 
 
 V. — A Christian Missionary Preaching to an 
 
 African Chief and his People, Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE. 
 
 1. — Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, M.D., D.D., . ii 
 II. — Geo. L. Pilkington in Uganda . . 24 
 
 IV. — Fishermen on Board the Hospital Ship 
 
 '* Queen Victoria," . . .64 
 
 Giving Chloroform in the Hospital Ship 
 " Queen Victoria," . -74 
 
 VI. — Teaching Indians to Read by Characters 
 
 on Birchbark, ..... 100 
 
 VII. — Women Witch Doctors of South Africa, 124 
 VIII. — Blind Hanna and One of her Classes of 
 
 Chinese Women, ..... 134 
 
 The Bible for the Blind and the Sighted, 140 
 IX. — George Holland, "The Nestor of City 
 
 Missions," ...... 148 
 
 XI. — Dr. John G. Paton and the New Hebrides 
 
 Mission Synod, ..... 198 
 
 A Heathen Chief of Futuna and Epeten- 
 
 eto the First, 203 
 
 XII. — Booker T. Washington, .... 216 
 Molders of the Future of the American 
 
 Negro, 228 
 
 XIII.— A Young Hindu Child Widow and her 
 
 Adopted Child, 250 
 
 One of Ramabai's School Buildings at 
 Poona, India, 260 
 
 iv 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 T is thought well to issue a third 
 series of these little sketches, en- 
 couraged by the somewhat excep- 
 tional success of the first and second series. 
 
 The fadl is that, in these days of naturaHsm 
 and rationalism, there is a growing sense of 
 yearning for proofs and examples of the super- 
 natural . Down deep in the human heart there 
 is a craving for God. We were made for Him, 
 and our hearts find no rest until they find in 
 Him their center of revolution, like wandering 
 stars wheeling into a new orbit. The mind 
 demands a rest in settled convi(5lion, and the 
 heart a rest in satisfied affe(5lion, and the will 
 a rest in a higher and dominant and beneficent 
 
 will. 
 
 The history of missions is the nearest ap- 
 proach in modern times to the miraculous in- 
 terpositions of primitive and apostolic times. 
 And there is a reason why, if anywhere, we 
 
VI THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 may look for and expect Divine and special 
 manifestation in the work of missions. What- 
 ever may be thought of the ministry of 
 the miraculous, and the facft or reason of the 
 cessation of miracles, one thing is universally 
 admitted, namely, that when the foundations 
 of the Church were being laid, and the Gospel 
 of Christ was first being authenticated as Di- 
 vine, there was a particular demand and 
 reason for convincing signs of God's sanction, 
 to give requisite authority and affix His seal of 
 attestation to a completed revelation. And it 
 has been argued that, when these proofs be- 
 came adequate, they were discontinued as no 
 longer requisite. As base-blocks, huge, mas- 
 sive and unhewn, are needful for the founda- 
 tions of a building, but neither necessary nor 
 appropriate to the superstrudlure, so the mirac- 
 ulous works, w^hich served, at first, to es- 
 tablish the claims of the Bible, of the Son of 
 God, and of the Gospel of His salvation, be- 
 came correspondingly superfluous after such 
 confirmation had been amply supplied. 
 
 But, as Dr. A. J. Gordon used to maintain, 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 when and where this same Bible with its Gospel 
 message first comes into contadl with a heathen 
 people, and therefore needs Divine sandlion, 
 we may on the same principles expedl some 
 new and striking exhibition of God's power, 
 giving His servants boldness to speak the 
 word by stretching forth His hand to work 
 signs and w^onders. 
 
 Whatever may be our philosophy of the fads, 
 the fadls are, to any careful and candid ob- 
 server, indisputable, that, in every field of mis- 
 sionary labor, and usually in proportion to the 
 previous degradation and deadness of the peo- 
 ple, the marvels of the apostolic age have had 
 a parallel in a wonder-working of God that 
 left no doubt who it was that was behind the 
 phenomena. 
 
 Of this class of fads these brief sketches, 
 carefully prepared to avoid all inaccuracy, 
 misstatement, and overstatement, are both 
 demonstrations and illustrations. They are 
 but handfuls gathered from a wide harvest 
 field, and gleanings behind reapers who have 
 in more ponderous sheaves already given their 
 
viii the; miracles of missions. 
 
 testimony. These sketches are brief, and 
 purposely so, because they are meant for many 
 who can not command time or means to explore 
 more bulky volumes. And the variety of the 
 fields from which these stories of missionary 
 heroism and reward are gathered, will serve 
 to show how wide and varied also is the 
 Divine coworking with His faithful and con- 
 secrated servants. 
 
 There is another marked feature of these 
 narratives to which attention may be called. 
 They are unique in this, that they belong 
 wholly to the realm of Gospel triumph. Chris- 
 tianity may very safely challenge any other 
 sort of work besides preaching the Gospel, to 
 produce such ample proofs of God's coopera- 
 tion. There is but one all-subduing force. 
 It is love, and not human love either, but the 
 love of God, and the love of man, as it is per- 
 fecfted only in His love. The Gospel message 
 is to-day proving itself the power of God and 
 the wisdom of God unto salvation to every 
 one that believeth. Nothing else does or ever 
 did work such results. This is the hammer of 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 God to break the hardest heart; this is the 
 fire of God to melt and subdue and fuse all 
 elements of opposition; this is the sword of 
 God to thrust deep and cut in pieces the 
 rebellious will; this is the rod of God, that has 
 only to be stretched out and miracles follow; 
 it swallows all other rods, and alone blossoms 
 with Divine life. 
 
 These sketches have first been published 
 in the Missionary Review of the \Vori.d. 
 They are here gathered out and gathered 
 together, not only to make them more eas}^ of 
 access, but especially that, associated in one vol- 
 ume, they may mutually illustrate each other's 
 central lesson, that the Lord God of Elijah 
 still lives, and that he who can use the mantle 
 in faith, to smite the waters, will still find 
 that they part before the more than magic 
 charm of that all-powerful name, JEHOVAH, 
 GOD! 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 127 Dean St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 October, 1899. 
 
^V. JACUii l^n^iiiBKRLAlX, JSl. i>. . J >. U. 
 
THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 How Thk River Godavery was Crossed. 
 
 N that charming book, "In The 
 Tiger Jungle,"* that master of 
 missionary narratives, Rev. Dr. 
 Jacob Chamberlain, of Madana- 
 palle, India, records a most impressiv^e in- 
 stance of answered prayer, which suggests 
 what an encyclopedia of prayer might be 
 gathered, if the scattered instances of God's 
 remarkable dealings could be brought into 
 one volume. 
 
 Of course, the whole body of Christian his- 
 tory is a volume of testimony on this subjec5l; 
 but, in many cases, the answers of God can 
 be traced only by a believer, for they are real- 
 ized only in the plane of faith and not of sight, 
 
 * Fleming H. Revell Co. 
 
12 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 and can be seen and known only to those who 
 live on that higher level. Augustine's mother, 
 Monica, besought God that her wayward and 
 skeptical son might not go to Rome, where 
 his temptations would be so much the more 
 seducflive; nevertheless it was that very going 
 to Rome, which led to his being sent as teacher 
 of rhetoric to Milan, where he heard Ambrose, 
 the bishop, by whose preaching and personal 
 influence he was converted. God denied the 
 spoken prayer of Monica that He might grant 
 her heart's desire. So there are many prayers 
 which are not granted in form that they may 
 be in fadl, by the fulfilment of that deeper 
 yearning of which the request is the mistaken 
 expression. And so it comes to pass that 
 many an answer is found in God's apparent 
 silence or refusal. Disappointment becomes 
 "His appointment" — and the trusting soul, 
 living in the high plane of faith, finds an 
 answer in that lofty altitude, though, on a 
 lower level, none is to be seen. 
 
 Dr. Chamberlain himself frankly says of 
 one of his remarkable experiences: " I do not 
 
HOW THE GODAVERY WAS CROSSED. 1 3 
 
 give this as a sample of what usually occurs 
 on our preaching tours. God does not often 
 lift the veil; He bids us walk by faith not by 
 sight. We often meet with opposition, or 
 worse still, with indifference. We often wail 
 with Isaiah, ' Lord, who hath believed our 
 report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord 
 revealed ? ' But now and then God sees fit to 
 raise one corner of the veil and let us see what 
 may occur in scores of scattered villages, of 
 which we shall for the first time learn when 
 we meet those redeemed ones in the land 
 where all is known." 
 
 But, to return from this digression, the in- 
 stance now to be given of prayer, answered in 
 a ver}^ obvious and recognizable manner, en- 
 courages faith to trust where there is no such 
 obvious and visible answer; for the answer is 
 as sure in every case. It would not be well 
 for the discipline of faith to have the interpo- 
 sition of God always too manifest; we should 
 walk too much by sight, if we had the seen to 
 depend on ; and it is the hiding of God's 
 power behind apparent disappointment and 
 
14 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 failure that trains faith to uniform and un- 
 doubting trust. 
 
 Dr. Chamberlain graphically tells how, in 
 September, 1863, he was going on a long 
 pioneer journey into Central India, where no 
 missionary had ever gone before. It required 
 a tour of twelve hundred miles on horseback, 
 and four or five months' time, and was fraught 
 with great peril, from jungle fever, and still 
 worse jungle tigers. But this heroic mission- 
 ary fortified himself by remembering the 
 command, "Go ye unto all the world and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature ; ' ' and 
 the accompanying assurance, ' * Lo, I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the age." 
 Duty called, and the promise was the shield of 
 defense. 
 
 The crisis of the journey is the point with 
 which we are now mainly concerned. The 
 travelers had reached the farthest northern 
 point, up among the mountain gonds (or 
 khonds), who for centuries offered human 
 sacrifices; and they had turned to go back by 
 another route. They expe(5led to find a 
 
HOW THE GOD AVERY WAS CROSSED. 1 5 
 
 government steamer, when they struck the 
 Pranheta River, an a£B.uent of the great Goda- 
 very. But the heavy torrents of the monsoon 
 had made the Godavery a stream of tumultu- 
 ous waters, three miles wide. The steamer, 
 in attempting to stem that fierce current, had 
 broken its machinery and could not come to 
 their aid. There was now no way out of their 
 trouble but to march through the seventy-five 
 miles of that deadly jungle, dare its fever and 
 the tigers, and, at the foot of the second 
 cataracfl, reach the next steamer. 
 
 The adventures of Dr. Chamberlain and his 
 party were thrilling, deserted as they were by 
 the whole force of coolies, armed guard and 
 all, in the midst of an uninhabited districft. 
 Desperate but successful efforts were made to 
 get across the wild flood of the Godavery, and 
 a fresh start was made with another force of 
 coolies, and the new caravan struck once more 
 into the jungle, amid perils and exposures so 
 great that only by intimidation could even 
 those hardy men be compelled to go forward. 
 At last a new and seemingly insurmountable 
 
1 6 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 obstacle lay in their way. Two huntsmen 
 crossed their track, from whom they learned 
 that the backwater of the Godavery flood, 
 thirty feet higher than usual, had made un- 
 fordable the affluents beyond which lay their 
 only safe resting-place for the night. And to 
 their further inquiries the answer was re- 
 turned, that there was neither boat nor raft, nor 
 any floating material to make a raft, whereby 
 to cross to the knoll, where they had pur- 
 posed to encamp. The party were even then 
 standing in the wet and mud, as they surveyed 
 their hopeless plight. The royal guides and 
 native preachers, who were in the party, were 
 disheartened and at their wit's end; and the 
 fierce, hungry roar of the tigers could be 
 heard about them as the night began to 
 fall. 
 
 At this point Dr. Chamberlain rode apart to 
 commit the whole case to Him who hath 
 said: 
 
 Call upon Me in the day of trouble! 
 
 I will deliver thee 
 And thou shalt glorify Me." 
 
HOW the; god AVERY WAS CROSSED. 17 
 
 This was the substance of that prayer in the 
 greatest strait of his life: 
 
 " Master, was it not for Thy sake that we 
 came here ? Did we not covenant with Thee 
 for the journey through ? Have we not faith- 
 fully preached Thy name the whole long way ? 
 Have we shirked any danger, or have we 
 quailed before the foe ?> Didst Thou not 
 promise, ' I will be with Thee ? ' Now we 
 need Thee. We are in blackest danger for 
 this night. Only Thou canst save us from 
 this jungle, these tigers, this flood. O, l^laster, 
 Master, show me what to do ! " 
 
 An answer came, says Dr. Chamberlain, not 
 audible but distindl, as though spoken in his 
 ear by human voice: ''Turn to the left, to the 
 Godavery, and yotc zvillfijid rescue. ' ' 
 
 It was a mile to the river. Its banks were 
 all overflowed, and there was no village within 
 many miles, nor any mound or rising ground 
 on which to camp. So said the guides. Again 
 the leader of the caravan rode apart, and lifted 
 to God another prayer; and again came that 
 inner voice, unmistakable in its impression on 
 
1 8 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 spiritual senses, then supernaturally on the 
 alert, " Turn to the left, to the Godavery, and 
 you will find rescue." Again he consulted 
 his guides, but only to meet new opposition. 
 It would take half an hour to make the ex- 
 periment of reaching the river bank, and they 
 would only lose just so much precious time, 
 and have to come back to the jungle after all, 
 leaving them so much less strength to press 
 forward to a bluff six hours further on, and 
 it would be dark by that time, and then — the 
 tigers ! 
 
 With the deeper darkness of despair falling 
 on the whole company, again Dr. Chamberlain 
 rode apart for prayer. Once more that inex- 
 plicable inner response, heard only by that 
 praying soul, came with thrilling distindlness. 
 " // is God's answer to my prayer,'' said Dr. 
 Chamberlain. * * I can not doubt. I must adl, 
 and that instantly." 
 
 And so he called a halt, and, against all re- 
 monstrance, commanded the column to wheel 
 about sharp to the left, and take the shortest 
 way to the river. Only the sight of that four- 
 
HOW THE GOD AVERY WAS CROSSED. 1 9 
 
 teen-inch revolver in the leader's hand sufficed 
 to turn that column toward the Godavery's 
 flood. To the native preachers who looked 
 up into his face as though to ask a solution of 
 these strange movements, Dr. Chamberlain 
 could only respond, ' ' There is rescue at the 
 river." The word went round among the 
 coolies, ' ' The dhora has heard of some help 
 at the river." He had, indeed, heard of help, 
 but it was all as much a mystery to him as to 
 them in what form that help was to be found; 
 and yet the peace of God possessed him. 
 Anxiety was somehow gone, and in its place a 
 strange, intense expedlancy. 
 
 Just before reaching the river. Dr. Chamber- 
 lain cantered ahead, all his senses keenly 
 observant. And, as he emerged from the 
 dense undergrowth of bushes, there, rig/i^ at 
 hisfeet^ lay a large flat-boat, tied to a tree at the 
 shore — a large flat-boat, with strong railings 
 along both sides, with square ends to run upon 
 the shore. It had been built by the British 
 military authorities, in troublous times, to 
 ferry over artillery and elephants, but it 
 
20 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 belonged at a station high up on the north 
 bank of the Godavery. 
 
 Two men were trying to keep the boat afloat 
 in the tossing current. 
 
 ' ' How came this boat here ? ' ' said the 
 dodlor. 
 
 They, taking him to be a government official 
 who was calling them to account, begged him 
 not to be angry with them, and protested that 
 that they had done their best to keep the boat 
 where it belonged, but declared that it seemed 
 to them possessed. A huge rolling wave had 
 swept down the river, snapped the cables, and 
 driven the boat before it. Despite their best 
 endeavors, it had been carried further and 
 further from its moorings into the current and 
 down stream; they said they had fought all 
 day to get it back to the other shore, but it 
 seemed as though some supernatural power 
 were shoving the boat over the river; and an 
 hour before, they had given up, let it float to 
 its present position, and then tied it to a tree. 
 Again they begged that they might not be 
 punished for what they could not help. 
 
HOW THK GODAVKRY WAS CROSSKD. 21 
 
 Dr. Chamberlain, who was clothed with full 
 authority to use any government property 
 required on the journey, took possession, of 
 course, and astonished the whole party who 
 now came in sight, by pointing to a means both 
 of safety and transportation, which no human 
 foresight could have improved. "Who was 
 it?" — says the grateful missionary pioneer — 
 * ' who had ordered that tidal wave in the 
 morning of that day, which had torn that boat 
 from its moorings, and driven it so many miles 
 down the river and across from the north to 
 the south bank, and that had thwarted every 
 endeavor of the frightened boatmen to force it 
 back to the north shore, and had brought it to 
 the little cove-like recess, just at that point 
 where we would strike the river ? Who, but 
 He on whose orders we had come; He who had 
 said, * I will be with you; ' He who knew 
 beforehand the dire straits in which we would 
 be in that very place, on that very day, that 
 very hour; He who had thrice told me dis- 
 tinctly, ' Turn to the left, to the Godavery, 
 and you will find rescue ? ' I bowed my head. 
 
22 THK MIRACI.es of MISSIONS. 
 
 and in amazed reverence thanked my God for 
 this signal answer to my pleading prayer. ' ' 
 
 This answer needed no watcher high upon 
 the mountain top to see the divine interposi- 
 tion. Not onl}^ the native preachers rev- 
 erently said, " God has heard our call in our 
 trouble and delivered us," but the guides and 
 even coolies were struck dumb with amaze- 
 ment that the ' ' dhora ' ' should know of that 
 boat being there and come right out upon it. 
 They w^ere certain that they had no knowledge 
 of such a rescue, and that they could not have 
 found it. 
 
 Dr. Chamberlain closes his sketch of that 
 pivotal and critical dsiy with these solemn 
 words: 
 
 ' ' Nothing can equal the vivid consciousness 
 we had that day of the presence of the Master; 
 nothing can surpass the vividness of the cer- 
 titude that God did intervene to save us. Some 
 who have not tested it may sneer and doubt; 
 but we five know that God hears prayer. ' ' 
 
No. II. 
 
 A New Pentecost in Uganda. 
 
 O greater proof of a Living God is 
 presented by the history of mis- 
 sions than the frequent, sudden, 
 overwhelming experiences of Holy 
 Spirit power in the communities where the 
 Gospel has been newly preached. The won- 
 ders of apostolic days seem reproduced. 
 
 The case of George L. Pilkington, of Ugan- 
 da, and the native church in that land, pre- 
 sents an instance in point. 
 
 Referring to his own need of the Spirit he 
 says: 
 
 "If it had not been that God enabled me 
 after three years in the mission field to accept 
 by faith the gift of the Holy Spirit, I should 
 have given up the work. I could not have 
 gone on as I was then, A book by David, 
 the Tamil evangelist, showed me that my life 
 
24 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 was not right, that I had not the power of the 
 Holy Ghost. I had consecrated myself hun- 
 dreds of times, but I had not accepted God's 
 gift. I saw now that God commanded me to 
 be filled with the Spirit. Then I read: "All 
 things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe 
 that ye have received them and ye shall have 
 them" (Mark xi: 24, R. V.), and claiming 
 this promise I received the Holy Spirit. 
 
 ' ' I distinguish between the presence of the 
 Holy Spirit with us and in us; our blessed 
 Xord said to His -disciples, " He abideth ivith 
 you and shall be in you." John xiv: 17. 
 
 * ' He that believeth on me, out of his belly 
 shall flow rivers (not a stream or a simple 
 river) of living water. Greater works than 
 these shall ye do because I go unto the 
 Father." What are these rivers, and where 
 are these mighty works ? We must ask 
 rather, where is ' ' he that believeth on Him ? 
 Surely, He is not unfaithful to a single line of 
 His promise. What wonder that infidelity 
 abounds when the worst infidelity of all is in 
 our hearts! What wonder if popery increases, 
 
A NEW PENTECOST IN UGANDA. 25 
 
 when we have dethroned the Holy Spirit from 
 our hearts! " 
 
 About this same time a great desire arose 
 for mission services to be held in Uganda. In 
 the absence of special missioners from abroad, 
 it occurred to the missionaries that God wanted 
 to use them, and all in prayer newly dedicated 
 themselves to Him, and asked Him to baptize 
 them anew. This was December 8, 1893. 
 
 That very morning they began. They had 
 not told the people, but went up after prayer, 
 at the usual time, believing for a blessing. 
 Mr. Pilkington condudled the meeting. They 
 sang 
 
 Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? 
 and Mr. Pilkington prayed, and then spoke of 
 a very sad case which had indiredlly led to 
 the convi6lion that there was need of such 
 meetings, and of some new power coming down 
 from God on the native church and even on 
 the missionaries. A certain Musa Yakuganda 
 had come to the missionaries and asked to 
 have his name given out as having returned to 
 the state of a heathen. The reason he gave 
 
26 THE MIRACI^ES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 was startling. He said : "I get no profit 
 from your religion. ' ' Being asked if he knew 
 what he was saying, he replied: "Do you 
 think I have been reading seven years and do 
 not understand ? Your religion does not profit 
 me at all. I have done with it. " This case 
 was dwelt on by Mr. Pilkington, who pointed 
 out what a cause of shame and reproach it was 
 to the missionaries. The sense of need of the 
 deeper and fuller life and power of the Spirit 
 took strong hold on the missionary preachers 
 and teachers. First of all they were humbled 
 before God; then blessing came to the' whole 
 native church. On two occasions hundreds 
 were all praying for forgiveness, while others 
 were in the simplest language praising God. 
 The meeting, which began at 8.30 A.M., did 
 not close till 12, and then another service 
 began in the church directly. 
 
 Each morning full}' five hundred were pres- 
 ent, and they all found themselves in the midst 
 of a great spiritual revival, and their joy was 
 beyond expression. At the after meetings 
 two hundred were waiting for individual deal- 
 
A NEW PKNTECOST IN UGANDA. 27 
 
 ing. Among others who were the fruits of 
 this work was that same Musa who had asked 
 his name to be announced as having gone back 
 to heathenism. Great chiefs in the land 
 boldly confessed their wish to accept Christ, 
 and one, who had been a leading teacher and 
 suspended for miscondudl, acknowledged, in 
 the presence of the king and his pages, that 
 he had not before accepted the Lord Jesus as 
 his Savior, but did so then. The mission- 
 aries appointed the week following the mission 
 services as a time for special meetings for the 
 deepening of the spiritual life. 
 
 Those wonderful three days, Dec. 8-10, 
 1893, will never be forgotten. They were the 
 signal for years of blessing, pentecostal in 
 characfter and wonderful in results. First of 
 all God had brought the missionaries to hum- 
 ble themselves, feel their need, and seek larger 
 blessing — to be filled with the Spirit. Then 
 they were led to confess to the native church 
 their previous lack of faith, of power, and of 
 prayer, and to ask God for forgiveness. Then 
 came similar humiliations and confessions 
 
28 THE MIRACI.KS OF MISSIONS. 
 
 among the native converts of Uganda. Many 
 who had been looked upon as leading disciples 
 began to see their lack also, and to realize a new 
 force and power in their Christian experience. 
 In fact, such a spirit of confession and humilia- 
 tion was poured out on the native church, 
 and such secret sins came to light in this great 
 upturning, and uncovering of hidden things, 
 that the missionaries felt called on to restrain 
 these public confessions, lest they should 
 bring too great reproach on the name of Christ, 
 and the awakened backsliders were counseled 
 to seek the brethren for private confession, 
 and prayer before God. 
 
 It was particularly noticeable how the con- 
 versions and reclamations were almost invari- 
 ably connected with knowledge of the Word oj 
 God. At the I^iverpool Conference in 1896, 
 Mr. Pilkington said : 
 
 ' ' The power to read the Bible is the key to 
 the kingdom of God. With the exception of 
 one case, I have never known ayiy one to pro- 
 fess Christ who could not read. ' ' 
 
 Throughout this great revival in Uganda, 
 
A NKW PKNTKCOST IN UGANDA. 29 
 
 God has thus put special and very remarkable 
 emphasis upon the Holy Scriptures as the 
 means both of the new birth and the new 
 quickening in spiritual life. A plan was 
 adopted of eredling reading houses^ or, as the 
 people called them, " synagogi," where native 
 teachers could instruc5l the people under the 
 supervision of more experienced workers. 
 The system was fully organized and became a 
 leading feature of the work. It was the means 
 of causing the revival which had started in the 
 capital to spread that same year far and wide 
 through the various outlying stations. 
 
 By April i, 1894, between thirty and forty 
 teachers had offered themselves for such ser- 
 vice in the country distri(5ls, and thirteen were 
 solemnly sent out on one Sunday, and seven 
 more the next week. Shortly word came 
 from the islands of an enormous increase of 
 ' ' reading. ' ' A spirit of new inquiry was 
 found, even among Roman Catholics and Mos- 
 lems. In the autumn of 1894, before the 
 church at Mengo fell in a great storm, at least 
 2,000 were assembling every week-day morn- 
 
30 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 ing, and in the 200 country churches some 
 7,000 more, and on Sundays 20,000 in the va- 
 rious places of meeting. Of these, 6,000 were 
 in classes, under regular instrucftion ; and this 
 great work, reaching out over a circle of terri- 
 tory three hundred miles in diameter, and 
 nearly one thousand in circumference, had to 
 be directed by only twelve Europeans, who 
 worked with the double hindrance of an im- 
 perfe(ft knowledge of the language, and con- 
 stant liability to fever. Yet, with all these 
 disadvantages, the work so rapidly extended 
 that, when, in December, the year 1894 was 
 reviewed, some such results as the following 
 were obvious as signs of God's moving: 
 
 When the year began the number of country 
 churches, reading rooms, or synagogi, did not 
 exceed twenty; at the close of the year there 
 were ten times that number, and the ten largest 
 would hold 4,500 persons. Exclusive of the 
 capital, there were on week days not less than 
 4,000, and on Sundays, 20,000 hearers of the 
 Gospel. The first teachers, paid by the native 
 church, went forth in April, and in December 
 
A NEW PENTECOST IN UGANDA. 3 1 
 
 there were 131 of these, in 85 stations, twenty 
 of which, being outside Uganda proper, were 
 in a sense foreign mission stations. Even 
 these figures can not represent the whole work, 
 nor does this number embrace all the teachers, 
 twenty of whom, not reckoned in the above 
 number, were at work at Jungo. At Bu'si 
 also, an island near Jungo, there were three 
 churches, and 2,000 people under instruction. 
 The ' ' readers ' ' ordinarily became catechu- 
 mens, and the catechumens, candidates for 
 baptism. In 1893 the catechumens numbered 
 170; during the year 1894 some 800 were bap- 
 tized, and 1,500 catechumens remained. The 
 movement, so far from having expended' its 
 force, seemed not yet to have reached its 
 height, and there was every evidence that an 
 enormous accession would yet come, as was 
 the case. 
 
 Mr. Pilkington went to England on fur- 
 lough, in the summer of 1895, and eledlrified 
 the audiences he addressed by his stirring ac- 
 count of the dealings of God with the Uganda 
 mission. Nothing was more noticeable in 
 
32 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 his addresses than the emphasis he laid on this 
 fadl, that \h.^ first step in this vivification of the 
 church in Uganda was that the inissionaries 
 and teacher's themselves were led to just views of 
 their ow7i deep 7ieed ; to see the absolute neces- 
 sity for personal consecration, and for the ex- 
 perience of a direcft and supreme work of the 
 Holy Spirit in themselves. 
 
 Here, then, we have another mighty argu- 
 ment for seeking, with a desperate sense of 
 helplessness and with a confident faith in 
 God's promise, Holy Ghost power. Not to 
 Mr. Pilkington and his fellow-workers only 
 was this indispensable, but the whole native 
 church of Uganda owes the almost unparalleled 
 movement of the last decade of years to the 
 new enduements of power which proved to 
 these missionaries such a divine equipment for 
 their work. 
 
 It was this outpouring of Holy Spirit power 
 whereby the native evangelists do grand work 
 in Uganda, — another proof that Africa is to be 
 ultimately evangelized by Africans, and that 
 the office of missionaries from America and 
 
A NKW PENTECOST IN UGANDA. 33 
 
 Europe is to raise up a native church, with 
 trained native teachers. In Uganda, as in 
 many other parts of the heathen world, the 
 people can follow but can not lead, and some 
 one from outside must lead and organize. 
 
 A few examples of the efficiency of these 
 Waganda evangelists will suffice as representa- 
 tive cases. 
 
 A missionary visiting a small island in the 
 lake two or three years ago, found but one 
 person who could read at all. Two teachers 
 were sent, and, after nine months, sixty were 
 reading the Gospel. Two teachers were sent 
 to another island, and in a year one very rude 
 church building, that even when uncomforta- 
 bly full could hold but one hundred, had multi- 
 plied into four, one of which would hold seven 
 hundred; the original congregation of a hun- 
 dred had multiplied tenfold, and fifty or more 
 had been baptized. 
 
 On the large island of Sese all the chiefs 
 are Roman Catholics. Yet there are some 
 three hundred and twenty Protestants, nick- 
 named ' ' The people of the Holy Ghost, ' ' 
 
 ui— 3. 
 
34 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 which, like the nickname "Christians" at 
 Antioch, is an honor, not a reproach; and 
 these disciples, ignorant as they are, evince a 
 like readiness with the early Christians to face 
 opposition and persecution for His name, and 
 nowhere has a greater desire for ' ' reading ' ' 
 been shown. 
 
 The educational value of the reading of 
 God's Word has been very noticeable in 
 Uganda. The very physiognomy of the peo- 
 ple seems to have been modified by it, so that 
 it is almost possible to distinguish a reader by 
 his outward appearance. The reality of God 
 seems to impress itself on the native mind 
 more forcibly by this daily poring over the 
 pages of the New Testament, at first mechani- 
 cally and almost blindly, then with eyes par- 
 tially opened to catch a glimpse or a glimmer- 
 ing of the meaning, until, with another illumin- 
 ing touch of God, the Divine message of love 
 is intelligently grasped. Sometimes the im- 
 pression is like a driven nail clinched and 
 fastened by a sermon, or a prayer service, or 
 the faithful words of a friend. What a lesson 
 
A NEW PENTECOST IN UGANDA. 35 
 
 God is thus teaching us all as to the honor and 
 value He sets on His own Word, and this at a 
 time when, more than ever before, even pro- 
 fessed Christian teachers in Christian lands 
 seem bent on lowering in the public mind the 
 sense of the dignity and majesty of the 
 Heavenly message. At first those Waganda 
 who hear these words find them unintelligible; 
 such terms as sin and salvation, love and 
 faith, convey little meaning to minds that 
 have been cast in the narrow and cramped mold 
 of heathenism. But, as they hear and read, 
 Scripture interprets itself, and under the light 
 of the Spirit they get totally new ideas of 
 Divine mysteries. 
 
 The outcome of this Holy Spirit revival in 
 Uganda can not be measured; only from the 
 Spirit comes the clear vision of Divine truth, 
 as well as the inward experience of Divine 
 life. And in the native preachers there has 
 been developed remarkable spiritual discern- 
 ment and power in presenting truth. 
 
 A preacher at Mengo said in his sermon 
 that " to form a judgment ot man's deserts. 
 
36 THK MIRACLES OP" MISSIONS. 
 
 man's way is to put into one scale his evil 
 deeds and vices, and into the other his virtues 
 and religious observances; but that God' s way 
 in such a case would be to put both these into 
 the same debit scaled This native preacher 
 had learned that rudimental truth, hidden 
 from many of the wise and prudent, that " all 
 our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and 
 that the only hope of justification is that 
 the perfecft obedience of our adorable Lord, 
 Jesus Christ, shall be placed in the credit scale, 
 and so overbalance and outweigh our evil and 
 selfish deeds. 
 
 Another preacher, discriminating between 
 inward heart piety on one hand and outward 
 religious observances on the other, used the 
 following apt and original simile: 
 
 ' * Religion may be compared to a banana (the 
 natural food of the Baganda). The real heart 
 religion is the juicy pulp; the forms and 
 ceremonies are the skin. While the two are 
 united and undivided the banana keeps good 
 until it is used. And so it is with religion. 
 Separate the forms from the spirit, and the one 
 
A NEW PENTECOST IN UGANDA. 37 
 
 will be of no more value than the banana husk, 
 while the latter will speedily decay and become 
 corrupt, apart from the outward expression. 
 Observances have their value in protedting the 
 holy germ within, and fostering the feelings 
 of the heart. ' ' 
 
 This discourse had its suggestion in a certain 
 spirit of insubordination, which sought to rebel 
 against the ordinances of the church. But as 
 Mr. Pilkington asks, ' ' What European teacher 
 could have used such a simile ? ' ' 
 
 Another native preacher, referring to Romish 
 teaching, said: 
 
 " No poisoner gives poison meat if he would 
 remain undiscovered. The devil knows that. 
 He has two devices; he will do one of two 
 things; first try to deprive you of the food, and 
 if he can not, he will corrupt it. ' ' 
 
 Pilkington before British hearers pleaded 
 earnestly for a sufficient force to take possession 
 of this great opportunity in Uganda — for a hun- 
 dred additional missionaries, men and women 
 filled with the Holy Ghost, as organizers and 
 leaders for native workers, at least ten of whom 
 
38 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 could master, and then translate into, the 
 native tongues; and with rare insight into the 
 true philosophy of missions he urged a new 
 policy of occicpation . He contended that the only 
 true method of distributing missionary workers 
 is to send a large force when and where a desire 
 for histru^lion and an aggressive missionary 
 spirit have been strongly developed among the 
 native converts, instead of sending the bulk of 
 missionarj^ force to places where there is neither 
 desire for teachers nor a missionary spirit. 
 His argument was that the ultimate outcome 
 of the former method will be far the greater in 
 good. For instance, he said, after ten years 
 little or no impression will have been made on 
 the indifferent and hostile community, and this 
 begets depression among the workers and in 
 the church at home. Whereas, if the work at 
 the field where God's Spirit had been out- 
 poured, were reenforced, it would so progress 
 as to become a source of wide influence; a strong 
 native church would be developed with a large 
 force of native evangelists, and thus the fire 
 God has kindled is carried to the other field 
 
A NEW PENTECOST IN UGANDA. 39 
 
 and transferred to this other center. The 
 result is encouragement both among the mis- 
 sionary band abroad, and the supporters at 
 home. 
 
 So strongly did this plea aflfecft his hearers 
 and the readers of his addresses that, for 
 example, the missionaries of the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society in India asked the society, 
 when it could be done, to send candidates, 
 offering to go to India, to Uganda, for the 
 time being, instead, to avail themselves of the 
 exceptional opening in that field, the growing 
 convidlion being that' God's singular blessing 
 in any particular field is a signal for a special 
 reenforcement at that time of the force at work 
 there. 
 
 Mr. Pilkington gave, in Britain, a vivid 
 picture of the Uganda work in the shape of 
 four consecutive scenes, afterward issued in 
 pamphlet form, and called "The Gospel in 
 Uganda," the substance of which is as follows : 
 
 A hundred thousand souls brought into 
 close contadl with the Gospel, half of them 
 able to read for themselves; two hundred build- 
 
40 the: miracles of missions. 
 
 ings raised by native Christians, in which to 
 worship and read the Word of God; two 
 hundred native evangelists and teachers wholly 
 supported by the native church; ten thousand 
 New Testaments in circulation ; six thousand 
 souls seeking instrudlion daily; numbers of 
 candidates for baptism, confirmation, and of 
 adherents and teachers, more than doubling 
 each year for six or seven years, and God's 
 power shown by their changed lives — and all 
 these results in the very center of the world's 
 thickest spiritual darkness and death shade ! 
 
 This was in 1896, and later reports eclipse 
 even this. 
 
 The changes wrought by the Gospel in 
 Uganda can be appreciated only by setting in 
 sharp contrast the state of things in 1880 and 
 in 1895. 
 
 Old Isaiah, " the good-natured giant," will 
 tell how three hundred brothers and cousins 
 of the king were penned within the narrow 
 limits of the dike, still visible by the road- 
 side, two or three miles north of Mengo, and 
 by his orders left there to starve to death! 
 
A NKW PRNTECOST IN UGANDA. 41 
 
 A boy of fifteen lost sight of a goat he was 
 herding, and his master cut off his ear. For 
 a trifling misdemeanor both eyes were gouged 
 out. An unfortunate courtier accidentally trod 
 on the king's mat, and paid the penalty with 
 his life. The king, simply to support his 
 royal dignity, ordered the promiscuous 
 {slaughter of all who happened to be standing 
 on his right and left hand, or all who might 
 be met on the streets at a certain time, by a 
 band sent out for the purpose of such slaughter. 
 Should a remonstrance be made against killing 
 the innocent, the answer would be, " If I only 
 kill the guilty, the innocent will not respe(5l 
 me." Women and children were sold into 
 hopeless slavery and misery. Spirits were 
 believed in, feared, propitiated, and worshiped. 
 Charms were worn; woman was a beast of 
 burden, etc. 
 
 Christ and his Gospel has changed all this. 
 Domestic slavery no longer has any legal 
 status, and any slave may claim freedom, and 
 this claim will be honored. Woman takes 
 her place by man's side. Conversion has 
 
42 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 brought victory over vicious habits; cruelty is 
 seen to be cruelty, and around the Lord's 
 table gather from time to time those who were 
 once darkness, but now light in the Lord, 
 "washed, sandlified, justified, in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus, and b}- the Spirit of our God." 
 
No. III. 
 
 In the St. John Hospital, Beirut. 
 
 ,EFORE the World's Missionarj^ 
 Conference in Exeter Hall, Lon- 
 don, in 1888, there was given the 
 most remarkable testimony to 
 medical missions which we have ever heard. 
 It ought to have a wider circulation, and we 
 embrace it in this volume that many more 
 readers may have access to it. We have not 
 known any other address on the subje(5l which 
 is comparable with it. 
 
 Dr. George E. Post, of Beirut, Syria, said : 
 I shall take you at once to the forefront of 
 the battle, and try to give you a series of 
 living pi(5lures of medical mission work in the 
 field. Imagine 3"0urselves with me to-day in 
 a room which will hold about two hundred 
 people, in the city of Beirut ; within the 
 enclosure of the hospital of the Knights of 
 
 43 
 
44 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 St. John, belonging to the German order, of 
 which Prince Albrecht is the president, and to 
 which the emperor and the greater part of the 
 nobility of Germany belong. The day is 
 Christmas; the occasion is the celebration of 
 their annual festival for the benefit of the 
 patients in the hospital. Imagine to your- 
 selves in the middle of this room a Christmas 
 tree decked out as you deck it out for your 
 festival in this land, or rather, if you please, 
 as the Germans, with their exquisite tastes and 
 with their fervent feelings with regard to this 
 daj', deck their Christmas trees. 
 
 Imagine to yourselves the patients assem- 
 bling and grouping themselves about this tree, 
 while on the chairs around the edges of the 
 room is a select company of English, Ameri- 
 cans, Germans, French, and Arabs, natives of 
 the country and people of other nationalities, 
 gathered to witness the spectacle. And while 
 they are assembling I will try to describe to 
 you the personnel and the history of some of 
 those patients. 
 
 The first whom we see before us is a little 
 
IN THS ST. JOHN HOSPITAI,, BEIRUT. 45 
 
 boy of seven years of age. That boy is a Jew. 
 We rarely get Jews into our hospital. You 
 know how it was in the days of Christ, that 
 the Jews were attending to pots and pans and 
 brazen vessels, and days and weeks and 
 months and years, and that they forgot the 
 weightier matters of the law. They forgot the 
 essence of religion. So they are at this day : 
 they are all bent upon externals. They are 
 afraid if they come to our hospital that we 
 will give them the uneatable flesh ; they are 
 afraid we will give them flesh which would be 
 canonical, but which has not been killed 
 according to their law. This little boy is very 
 ill, he needs the hospital; he is so young that 
 they think he, perhaps, can not be harmed; he 
 is not yet initiated into the secrets of religion. 
 I do not know how it is, but there he is. 
 We sometimes do get Jewish children. He is 
 going to hear about Jesus Christ — the first 
 time in his life that he has ever heard the 
 Gospel of Christ. 
 
 Just behind this Jewish boy sits an old man 
 with a venerable presence, a long white beard. 
 
46 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 a turban, a girdle about his loins, and a loose 
 flowing robe. Whom do you suppose that 
 man to be ? Why, he is a lineal descendant 
 of the great Saladin. He is proud of his 
 lineage. But here he is, in our hospital, a 
 Mohammedan. A month ago if I had gone 
 to his house he would have driven me away 
 as a Christian dog. But now, as he comes 
 into this room, he seizes my hand, covers 
 it all over with kisses, and bows himself to 
 my very feet. What led him to bow down 
 to that Christian dog? That dog gave him 
 the use of his eyes. He came there blind, and 
 now he sees. And here he sits at the feet of 
 Jesus, with his eyes opened and his ears ready 
 to receive the message of the Gospel. 
 
 By his side there is a woman with a long 
 white veil over her face. You see but one eye. 
 She wears a blue dress. She has a little babe 
 in her arms ; but look at her arms : the hands 
 are gone. That woman is a Druse woman. 
 She was sitting in her house in the mountains, 
 warming her hands over the fire in the center 
 of the floor. The}- have no chimneys there — 
 
IN THE ST. JOHN HOSPITAL, BEIRUT. 47 
 
 in many of the houses they have no windows. 
 They let the smoke go out of the door. Well, 
 as she was sitting there warming her hands, 
 some earth and stones and sticks fell from the 
 roof and pinioned her hands in the fire, and 
 her hands were burned to a crisp. She came 
 down to our hospital, and w^e were obliged to 
 amputate both of her hands. Poor woman, 
 that is not the worst of it. Her husband has 
 divorced her. A Druse has only to say to his 
 wife, " Go home," and with no process of law 
 it is all finished for her. But she has come 
 down with that poor babe, and we have been 
 kind to her; we have treated her; she has seen 
 those dear sisters take that babe in their arms 
 and lull it to sleep. They have read the Bible 
 to her, and her heart has been touched. And 
 now she sits there before that tree, which is 
 the emblem of the love of Christ, and she is 
 going to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Just on the other side is another man, with a 
 long beard and a green turban. That man is 
 a descendant of Mohammed. Where do you 
 suppose he came from? He came from He- 
 
48 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 broil ; he is the guardian of the sacred tomb of 
 Machpelah, and has had charge of the bones 
 of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Sarah, 
 Rebecca, and Leah. He is a very bigoted 
 Mohammedan. He would not let you go even 
 into the outer precindls of that sacred tomb, nor 
 let you look through the bars where those 
 blessed ashes repose. No man has been al- 
 lowed to go into the innermost recesses of that 
 most sacred place. The very boys of Hebron 
 would stone you away if 3^ou attempted to go 
 near their mosque. What brought him here ? 
 Sickness. He was blind. He came to this 
 hospital, and the dog that he would have spat 
 upon is the man that gave him the use of his 
 two eyes. And he will now give his heart 
 and his attention to the medical missionary as 
 he preaches the Gospel to him. 
 
 Again, off on one side there is a man clothed 
 in a long blue robe. He has a peculiar hat on 
 his head — a turban of a peculiar characfter, 
 and a long black veil trailing down his back. 
 That man is an Armenian priest. We some- 
 times talk about 'the Apostolic Church,' 
 
IN THK ST. JOHN HOSPITAL, BEIRUT. 49 
 
 but that man believes that his Church is before 
 the ApostoHc Church. He says they got their 
 Church dire(5l from Jesus Christ. He says 
 their king sent a message to Jesus Christ, and 
 received a letter in reply setting forth the 
 principles of the Christian religion ; and he 
 laughs to scorn all our pretensions of antiquity. 
 His is the true and ancient Church of Christ ? 
 But here he is. He is to hear of a Church 
 more ancient than his, the Evangelical Church, 
 the Church which Christ and His apostles 
 founded in deed and in truth. 
 
 On the right hand is a Bedouin from Pal- 
 myra. He had a blood feud with some of his 
 comrades, and they shot him in the side. The 
 bullet entered the chest. An untrained native 
 practitioner there very rightly wished to drain 
 the wound, but ver}- unskilfully rolled up a 
 piece of rag and put it into the wound to keep 
 it open; and, as he did not take care to prevent 
 it slipping in, it slipped in. Then the next day 
 he put in another, and that also slipped in. 
 Then he kept on putting another in day after 
 day, until there was a mass there as big as my 
 
 111-4. 
 
50 THE MIRACI.es OF MISSIONS. 
 
 fist. The poor man began to cough and grew 
 thin, and he almost died. They heard of this 
 hospital in Beirut, and they heard of somebody 
 who dared to perform operations on cases like 
 that. They brought him all the way from 
 Palmyra — it is four days' journey from Pal- 
 myra to Damascus, and three days' journey 
 from Damascus to Beirut. They brought him 
 on a camel to Damascus, and then on a mule 
 from Damascus to Beirut. I laid open his 
 side; there was a great ghastly wound. I took 
 out that great mass, and I could look in and 
 see the adlion of his lungs, and could see clear 
 to the spinal column. That man has got well. 
 People held it to be a miracle, but it was not 
 a miracle of mine, but a miracle of modern 
 science, and modern science is a miracle of 
 Christianity. That man never heard of the 
 Gospel of Christ before. He was a Bedouin 
 Arab. He hardly had heard of Christ, except 
 in terms of reproach. But he sits down here 
 to hear all about the Gospel. 
 
 Here is a poor woman. She can not sit up, 
 but is lying on a bed, and has been brought 
 
IN THE ST. JOHN HOSPITAL, BEIRUT. 5 1 
 
 down on a stretcher. She had a brute of a 
 husband who struck her in the chest, and dis- 
 ease of the bone followed. He struck her 
 right over her heart, and the ribs and costal 
 cartilages were affedled. A great plate of 
 dead bone and cartilage had to be removed, 
 and for the first and only time in my life I 
 looked inside a woman's heart. I laid the 
 four fingers of my hand over the pericardium, 
 and felt every motion of the mechanism of the 
 heart — a thing I never saw or heard of before. 
 She got well. That again was a miracle, not 
 of mine, but of science, and of Christianity, 
 which underlies science. She is here to hear 
 of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 Shall I describe them all? They are 
 gathered from Jerusalem, from Bagdad, from 
 Tuat in the Great Sahara, from Turkestan 
 in Central Asia, from the headwaters of 
 the Euphrates and the Tigris, from every 
 village in Lebanon, from Palestine, from 
 Cyprus, from Asia Minor — they are gathered 
 into this hospital, and there they receive the 
 gifts of healing. Now here they are, gathered 
 
52 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 about this Christmas tree, with these sweet 
 sisters, like presiding angels, going to and fro 
 among them ; and there are the presents on 
 the tree. Each one has a garment or a book, 
 and the children some toys; and the ginger- 
 bread and candy and oranges are not forgotten. 
 Everything is ready. And here is a little 
 choir of the Deaconesses' Orphan School, 
 which is just down the street. They come up 
 every Sunday to our service, and at the time 
 of our Christmas tree they come to sing to us. 
 They open the book and sing about the 
 child Jesus. Then the German pastor gets up 
 and offers a prayer. Then the English pastor 
 makes some remarks to the audience gathered 
 about him; and then the doctor, who has stood 
 by their side, who has held the terrible knife 
 over them — but thanks be to God they were 
 under the influence of an anesthetic that 
 robbed it of its terrors — and who has stood by 
 their bedside and watched them through the 
 crisis of the fever, and who has smiled as he 
 saw returning health and strength — he stands 
 now before them to preach the Gospel of 
 
IN THK ST. JOHN HOSPITAL, BEIRUT. 53 
 
 Christ. Christian brethren, I do not believe 
 in letting down the Gospel to anybody. The 
 IvOrd Jesus Christ made the Gospel as simple, 
 as elementary, and as possible for every man to 
 accept as it can be made, and if we present it 
 as Jesus gave it to us it wall go home to the 
 heart. I am not afraid to stand up before that 
 Mohammedan, that descendant of Saladin, and 
 preach Christ and Him crucified. 
 
 Now understand one thing, that under no 
 circumstances can a missionary, worthy of the 
 name, be ever induced to say anj^thing that 
 would wound the susceptibilities or grieve the 
 heart of one of his heathen or Mohammedan 
 auditors. That is not necessar3^ They tell 
 the story of a judge in Aleppo. He had but 
 one eye. A person was condemned to prison, 
 as he thought, unjustly. He rose before the 
 judge and said: " O, one-eyed judge, I am 
 imprisoned here on a false accusation; and I 
 tell you, O, one-eyed judge, that this man who 
 has testified against me has received a bribe; 
 andO, one-eyed judge, if I do not get justice, I 
 will report this case to the pasha; and if the 
 
54 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 pasha do not do justice, O, one-eyed judge, I 
 will report it to the sultan himself." The 
 judge rose from his seat in a rage and said: 
 " Take the man back to prison. I won't hear 
 him plead before me and call me forever a one- 
 eyed judge." Well, we never go to these 
 people and talk to them about the ' ' false ' ' 
 prophet. That is not the way to begin. We 
 preach Christ and Him crucified. Now we 
 have a great substratum of common thought 
 and feeling with these people. Remember 
 that that sacred Book which we have as our 
 title-deed to heaven is their sacred Book too. 
 In a hundred places in the Koran Moham- 
 medans are told that they must revere the 
 Towrat (Torah), w^hich is the law, and Zubar, 
 which is the Psalms, and includes the poetical 
 and historical books, and the Enjel, which is 
 the New Testament of Jesus Christ. It is no 
 matter if some of these people say that those 
 books have been interpolated or changed; that 
 we need not concern ourselves with. We tell 
 them of this Torah which is spoken of in our 
 Book. We open it before them. Besides that, 
 
IN THK ST. JOHN HOSPITAL, BEIRUT. 55 
 
 ' ' They have Abraham to their father. ' ' That 
 venerable emir traces his lineage back not to 
 Saladin alone, but to Abraham; and they all 
 hold Abraham and Isaac to be prophets, and 
 accept all the prophets of the old dispensation; 
 and, furthermore, they hold the Lord Jesus to 
 be one of the greatest of the prophets. They 
 never pronounce his name without saying, 
 ' ' Our Lord Jesus, upon Him be peace. ' ' 
 
 We open that book and begin to tell them 
 about Father Abraham. I tell them he lived 
 in tents just as some of them live, and that he 
 went to and fro in this land that he might show 
 the people that he had no abiding place here, 
 but looked for an eternal city in the heavens. 
 Then I tell them about Father David, the great 
 prophet, and then about Seidna Esa (our Lord 
 Jesus). And I tell them, "You think this 
 hospital was built b}^ the order of St. John 
 from Germany," and I say, " No; it was built 
 by the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven." And 
 I go on and tell them how these dodlors never 
 would have left their homes but for the love 
 of Christ, and I ask them: " Would you leave 
 
56 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 your home, would you leave your children, 
 would you do for people seven thousand or ten 
 thousand miles away, what is being done for 
 you here unless you had a motive f or it ? " I 
 say to them: ' ' The motive is the love of Christ. 
 Now if the love of Christ constrained us to 
 come to you and give ourselves for 37'ou, then 
 you owe it all to Christ," and you will see 
 tears trickle down those hardened faces, 
 and you will see those forms bowed with 
 emotion as the}^ hear the old, old stor}^ of the 
 Cross. 
 
 I will draw you another pidlure. There was 
 a Mohammedan girl who came under my care 
 many years ago for a disease of one of the 
 bones of the wrist, and a portion of that bone 
 required removal. The operation was suc- 
 cessful, but, as is too often the case, the disease 
 returned in the elbow. The elbow- joint was 
 removed and with the best of results. She 
 was able, after that, to pick up a glass of 
 water; she was able to use her hands to all 
 intents and purposes as before, with a little 
 diminution of strength. But after that the 
 
IN THE ST. JOHN HOSPITAL, BEIRUT. 57 
 
 disease reappeared higher up, and the poor 
 girl's strength was sapped little by little, and 
 not long before I came away from Beirut she 
 was lying on what I suppose will be the bed of 
 death. I visited her one Sunday afternoon 
 with my wife, and we sat with her, and we 
 brought that little choir of children of the 
 Deaconesses, and they sang sweet hymns in the 
 corridor. I asked her if she would like to have 
 me read a chapter of the Scripture, and pray 
 with her, and she said, " Yes." I opened to 
 the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Her name 
 was Fatima. You know that Fatima was the 
 favorite daughter of Mohammed, and that 
 name is as sweet to a Moslem as Mary is to 
 us. I said to her, " Fatima, who wrote that 
 chapter ? ' ' She closed her eyes for a moment, 
 and then opened them and said, "Allah," 
 that is, God. " Well," I said, "about whom 
 did he wTite that chapter ? ' ' She closed her 
 eyes again, and a sweet smile came over her 
 face, and for a moment she did not answer. I 
 said, "Fatima, did he write it about Moham- 
 med?" "No," said she, " He wrote it about 
 
58 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Seidna Esa — about our Lord Jesus, upon 
 whom be peace." 
 
 Twenty-three years ago, in 1865, the cholera 
 was prevailing in Northern Syria. I happened 
 at that time to be in Mount I^ebanon. I was 
 studying the Arabic language, and preparing 
 myself during the summer for greater useful- 
 ness when I should return to my mission field 
 in the autumn. We had a community of about 
 one hundred and fifty Protestants in the city 
 where the cholera broke out. They became 
 alarmed, and they sent a messenger five days' 
 journey with a note saying, ' * Our dear do(5lor, 
 the cholera has broken out in our city, and we 
 are afraid that we may be attacked. Will you 
 please send us a bottle of medicine, and if you 
 can, docflor, will you come yourself? We do 
 not ask you to come simply because the cholera 
 has broken out, but the devil has got in 
 among us, and we are in a quarrel with each 
 other, and we want you to come and settle it." 
 Well, you may be sure I took no more time than 
 was necessary to despatch that messenger with a 
 bottle of medicine suitable as a prophyladlic, 
 
IN THE ST. JOHN HOSPITAL, BEIRUT. 59 
 
 and as a cure for cases of cholera, with the 
 necessary diredlions, and I said that I would 
 follow with all possible haste. I took with me 
 a young man who was a teacher in the theo- 
 logical seminary. He was a devout young 
 man, and I took him in order to have the 
 benefit of his counsels in this affair with the 
 people. He was not a physician. Well, we 
 traveled through the hot days of August over 
 the blazing plain of Coele-Syria five days, and 
 we reached the outskirts of the city. We 
 encamped on the banks of the Orontes. My 
 companion said to me, " Dodlor, we might go 
 in there to-night, but I want to tell you some- 
 thing: I know you will despise me for it, but I 
 am afraid of the cholera." He said, " I mean 
 to go into that city, but I want to spend this 
 night in praj^er and fasting, that God may 
 give me strength." I said, *' Why, I do not 
 despise you, I honor you; I know that fear, 
 but we do(5lors get over that. I do not despise 
 you because you have that fear. ' ' I dare say 
 in this audience I could pick out a dozen or 
 twenty people who would be afraid to go in a 
 
60 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 pest-stricken city, unless they spent a night 
 in prayer to God; and even after that perhaps 
 some of them would not go in. ' ' Well, ' ' I 
 said to him, "if 3^ou want to stay two days, 
 stay. " " No, ' ' he said, ' ' I will stay to-night, 
 and God will give me strength." He went 
 into his tent. He took no dinner that night, 
 but spent the night wrestling on his knees. I 
 spent that night in sleep. I needed the sleep, 
 and I was not afraid of the cholera. The 
 next morning, when I woke up and came out 
 of my tent, I found that 3^oung man with his 
 face glowing like the face of an angel. I 
 knew that the struggle was all over. He said, 
 **Docl:or, let us strike our tents and go into 
 the city; I have found rest, I do not care a 
 particle now for the cholera; I am ready to 
 go." We went into the city, and were met by 
 our brethren there. We saluted them and 
 inquired about the health of the community, 
 and found that no one had yet been stricken 
 with cholera. We commenced then on the 
 quarrel. 
 
 Now, here I will show you how the medical 
 
IN THE ST. JOHN HOSPITAL, BEIRUT. 6l 
 
 missionary has a hold on the people. They 
 knew we had come a five-days' journey into a 
 pest-stricken city from a sanitarium where the 
 cholera never comes. Now, that was a first- 
 rate granite bed on which to build. I began 
 by taking each one of the brethren apart. I 
 said to one, "Well, brother, what is the mat- 
 ter?" He said, "Oh! there is nothing the 
 matter with me, but Yusef has done so and 
 so," speaking of another of the brethren. 
 Then I said, " If Yusef is all right, you are, 
 are you?" "Oh! yes," said he; "I never 
 did anything; I have not done anything against 
 him, but he is the one who stirred up the 
 trouble." "Very well; now, if he agrees to 
 be reconciled, do you?" "Yes," he said. 
 Then I read the Scripture and had prayer with 
 him, and my brother, who was with me, also 
 joined in this exercise. Then we called for 
 another. ' ' Now what is the matter with you, 
 Salem ? " " Oh ! " he said, ' ' there is not any- 
 thing the matter with me, the trouble is with 
 Pharis; he is the one that made the trouble." 
 "Well," I said, "if Pharis is reconciled, are 
 
62 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 you all right ? " ** Yes; there never was any- 
 thing the matter with me. " So we had prayer 
 with him and read appropriate Scripture, and, 
 after a pleasant remark, he went away and 
 Pharis came in. "Well, Pharis," I said, 
 ' ' what is the matter with you ? " " Well, ' ' 
 he said, " there is this other brother who has 
 caused it, I have not done anything ; " and I 
 found, to ni)^ great surprise, that there was not 
 one of them that had anything against any- 
 body else, but every one knew some other man 
 who was the one that stirred up the whole 
 trouble. When we got through with the 
 whole list, and had been assured by every one 
 of them that he was ready to be reconciled, 
 we called them all together. Mind you, they 
 had been calling each other devils and Judas 
 Iscariots, and every opprobrious epithet which 
 Oriental speech contains. We got them to- 
 gether and read over appropriate passages of 
 Scripture, and asked this and that brother to 
 lead in prayer, and then asked if there was 
 anybody in that company that had anything 
 against anybody else, if he would rise and 
 
IN THK ST. JOHN HOSPITAL, BEIRUT, 63 
 
 State it. There was not one who rose, but 
 every one of them was melted to tears. They 
 knelt down there and poured out their hearts 
 to God in prayer and in thankfulness. 
 
 Here was another miracle of the grace of 
 God. I do not mean to exaggerate matters, 
 but it was a very strange thing that not one of 
 that community w^as stricken with the cholera. 
 Is it too much for the power of God that He 
 should have given that miracle to strengthen 
 their faith ? I believe you will say with one 
 voice, ' ' No. ' ' Not one — father, mother, o^ 
 child — of all that community, was taken with 
 cholera, although funerals were passing their 
 door every hour of the day. We left them in 
 a few days entirely at peace with one another. 
 They went out with us as far as the Orontes, 
 and they stood with us on the bank of that 
 river. We knelt down in prayer together, and 
 they bade us ' ' Godspeed ' ' on our w^ay . 
 
 These, said Dr. Post, are some living pic- 
 tures of what medical missions can do and are 
 doing in heathen lands. 
 
No. IV. 
 
 Work Among thk Deep-sea Fishermen.* 
 wilfred t. grenfell, 
 
 Superintendent of Royal National Mission, etc. 
 
 KBP-SEA fishermen come from va- 
 rious sources, the majority from 
 workhouse-schools and orphan- 
 ages, and some from reformatories. 
 Many who drift into the fisheries are out-of- 
 
 * Deep-sea fishermen must be distinguished from 
 'longshoremen; the former are those who leave home 
 for a prolonged period of time, the latter go out for 
 the day only, and, in fishermen parlance, "have 
 tea alongside o' mother." The 'longshoremen are 
 reached by all the various ordinary methods of our 
 regular churches, the deep-sea men are not; they 
 live at sea or away from home, and they are outside 
 the reach of the usual shore workers. Some idea of 
 the extent and importance of the British fisheries 
 maybe seen from the following statistics: Fish land- 
 ed annually in the United Kingdom, 13,996,000 cwts.; 
 value, about $7,000,000; men and boys constantly 
 engaged, 77,000; men and boys occasionally engaged, 
 44,000; craft over fifteen tons, 8,000; craft under fif- 
 teen tons, 14,000; rowing fishing boats, 5,000. 
 
 64 
 
WORK AMONG DKEP-SKA FISHERMEN. 65 
 
 work laborers, short-service soldiers, broken- 
 down mercantile marine sailors, or runaway- 
 boys. While a certain percentage are sons of 
 fishermen, who are unable to obtain work 
 ashore, a very small percentage enter the 
 ranks from the love of a sea life. It certainly 
 has little to recommend it besides the freedom 
 from shore conventionalities, and the possibil- 
 ity of earning a competency of about ten dol- 
 lars a week. The awful monotony, the con- 
 stant hardships, and frequent perils are its 
 greatest drawbacks, and it is pathetic, indeed, 
 to notice how few old men one meets at sea, 
 and how many old fishermen sink into poverty, 
 and end their days in the workhouse. Yet 
 there are, to my mind, many less joyful call- 
 ings in life than that of the deep-sea fisher- 
 men. Their boyish happiness and genial fun, 
 with their brave hearts and kindly generous 
 natures, are proverbial among all whose priv- 
 ilege it is to live among them, and the simple 
 joys of the happy shore-homes of Christian 
 fishermen have not been overdrawn in the 
 many romances in which they figure. When 
 
 III— 5. 
 
66 THB miraci.es of missions. 
 
 Christians they are Englishmen at their very 
 best, full of that Viking spirit which has made 
 great the sea-girt isle of Britain. With stories 
 of their strength, daring, generosity, resource- 
 fulness, and self-sacrifice even to death, one 
 could fill volumes. 
 
 The life of a deep-sea fisherman in the North 
 Sea is much as follows: With four men and a 
 boy he leaves port for the great banks. Over 
 these he drags his huge beam-trawl day and 
 night for a period of two or three months. 
 Then he returns to port to refit and gets a few 
 days rest, after which he is off to sea again. 
 It is the same summer and winter, all the year 
 around — fighting the storms at sea, and send- 
 ing his fish daily to London or Grimsby by a 
 steam fish-carrier. His vessel is a unit in a 
 large fleet of one hundred similar craft, a float- 
 ing village never anchored, and never all home 
 from sea at one time. The fleet, presided over 
 by a fishing admiral, who regulates its move- 
 ments by rockets at night and flags by day, is 
 now off the coast of Holland, now off the 
 Danish coast, again on the Dogger bank, 
 
and then nearer the Norway shore; anywhere 
 and everywhere the fish go, they go too, 
 reaping the harvest of the sea to supply our 
 tables. 
 
 The fisherman's dress, consisting of a blue 
 Guernsey, huge leather boots, duffel trousers, 
 and a sou'wester, with an oily frock for bad 
 weather, combines utility, economy, and pic- 
 turesqueness. His food seldom includes fresh 
 meat and vegetables, but the daily fresh fish 
 well replaces the former. Suet pudding, salt 
 pork, flour, ''hard tack," and butter are the 
 other staples of diet, while the teakettle, ever 
 filled, is always ready for use. 
 
 Besides the fishing vessels in these fleets, 
 until recently only one other kind was known. 
 This was, like themselves, a ketch or cutter, 
 and hailed generally from a Belgian or Hol- 
 land port. It carried no net, and its sides 
 were lined with puncheons of brandy, whisky, 
 gin, and rum. Cheap tobacco was used as a 
 lure to entice the fishermen to visit them, and 
 foul literature also was procurable on board. 
 The * ' schnapps ' ' was potent and fiery, and 
 
68 TH^ MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 was nicknamed ' * chained lightning ' ' by some 
 of its poor vidlims; needless to say it brought 
 ruin in its track, and not seldom led to watery 
 graves. Its reflex influence was sorely felt 
 ashore, and numbers of small liquor dens 
 sprang up in the fishermen's quarters of our 
 coast. The return of once loving husbands 
 and fathers was dreaded by the poor wives and 
 children, while the time and money that 
 should have been spent at home was too often 
 wasted in drunken debauches. Spiritual ad- 
 vantages ashore were seldom made use of even 
 by those men who abstained, for, being weary, 
 they usually stayed at their homes during the 
 few days on land. Deep-sea fishermen were 
 thus pradlically outside the pale of the church 
 and of civilization. 
 
 In 1 88 1 a visit was paid by a I^ondon gen- 
 tleman to the North Sea, the outcome of which 
 was the foundation of the Mission to Deep-Sea 
 Fishermen, for the purpose of carrying the 
 Gospel of Christ to the fishermen on the 
 North Sea and elsewhere. A small vessel 
 named the Ensign was purchased and sent to 
 
WORK AMONG DEEP-SEA FISHERMEN. 69 
 
 sea. As the expense of sending not merely 
 one missionary but a whole crew of men and 
 a ship was necessarily involved, she carried a 
 trawl net, and fished for her living. The 
 scoffers who deigned to notice her departure 
 prophesied a three months' existence at most, 
 while pot-house wiseacres gave her six months 
 to find out that North-Sea fishermen did not 
 want missionaries, and would prefer to keep 
 their grog vessels. God's blessing, however, 
 rested on the undertaking from the very first, 
 and instead of one ship, there are now thirteen 
 of the finest vessels afloat, four of which are 
 hospital ships, and two small steamers doing 
 similar work in Labrador. The agents of the 
 mission are now at work among fishermen 
 in England, Holland, Belgium, Scotland, Ire- 
 land, Iceland, and Labrador. The skipper of 
 the mission vessel is the only regular mission- 
 ary employed, the council believing that a 
 simple, earnest, true-hearted brother fisherman 
 would be used of God to the conversion of his 
 mates. ' ' Follow me and I will make 3'ou 
 fishers of men," is engraved in brass on every 
 
70 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 wheel. Any Christian worker approved of by 
 the council, and anxious to go to sea among 
 the men for Christ's sake, has always been 
 warmly welcomed, and in this way volunteers, 
 lay and clerical, male and female, have from 
 time to time been constantly at sea. But the 
 work is rough, and seasickness is so common, 
 that only those in robust phj^sical health are 
 advised to go out. 
 
 It soon became apparent to those interested 
 in the mission w^ork, that the ph^^sical needs of 
 the men at sea were sadly negledled ; the drink 
 and bad literature were demoralizing a large 
 number, while the lack of a substitute for the 
 grog-shop led mau}^ to visit it who would other- 
 wise have avoided it. It became distressingly 
 apparent that, though the Gospel was making 
 headway and a few men had found Christ 
 as their Savior, the devil's chain of drink 
 was a sore hindrance to the work. It was, 
 therefore, resolved to attack the enemy in his 
 own territory. More than once services w^ere 
 held aboard the grog-ship, and one captain 
 gave his heart to God and left the trade. But 
 
WORK AMONG DKEP-SEA FISHERMEN. 7 1 
 
 where so much money was so easily to be 
 made, the devil readily found tools to do his 
 work. At last one very marked case brought 
 things to a climax. A young husband and 
 father went aboard a grog- vessel to get tobacco, 
 though a total abstainer, with the result that 
 he was induced to stay and drink, and even- 
 tually found a drunkard's grave the same 
 night. 
 
 The Christian fishermen thought it not 
 wrong to smoke, as it is the only luxury in the 
 hours of monotony and cold which is possible 
 for them to enjoy. The mission, therefore, 
 applied to the Board of Trade for leave to carry 
 tobacco in bond, that they might undersell the 
 grog- vessel. This was refused. The mission 
 then shipped tobacco to Ostend and, there 
 being no duty, managed to sell for one shilling 
 what cost on the grog-vessel eighteen pence, 
 at the same time assiduously colleding old 
 literature, pidlorial and otherwise, and storing 
 their vessels with that, and with good healthy 
 tracts and books. The result was marvelous. 
 In five years the whole number of grog- vessels 
 
72 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 was prac5lically swept from the face of the sea. 
 The custom-house officials also found that their 
 fear of increased smuggling was groundless, 
 and made an arrangement with the mission ( i ) 
 to ship tobacco in bond, (2) to issue only 
 limited supplies to each vessel. The men have 
 appreciated the boon, and a very large diminu- 
 tion in the cases of prosecution for smuggling 
 has followed. The end, however, was more 
 glorious than even our faith anticipated. The 
 mission kept the matter before the authorities, 
 and in January, 1895, ^^ international conven- 
 tion was signed by all the powers bordering on 
 the North Sea, absolutely prohibiting under 
 the heaviest penalties the sale of liquor to 
 fishermen at sea. With the death of the 
 " Coper " and grog- traffic, began a new era in 
 the homes ashore. No less than 25 dram- 
 drinking shops closed in Great Yarmouth for 
 want of custom. Homes which had been dens 
 of poverty and wretchedness became little 
 palaces. Men's wages came to their own 
 families, and the separate individual testimo- 
 nies of the mayors of the great fishing ports of 
 
WORK AMONG DEEP-SEA FISHERMEN. 73 
 
 Hull, Grimsby, Lowestoft, and Yarmouth 
 have more than once evinced the fadl that 
 the fishermen's quarters of these towns 
 had become quieter and more orderly — a 
 fadl to which even the police have added their 
 san<flion. 
 
 The intense cold of winter, and the inade- 
 quacy of the warm clothes with which the 
 men, and especially the boys, were able to 
 provide themselves, next claimed attention, 
 and warm hearts of Christian ladies all over 
 England were moved by the tales told of this 
 great need. Hundreds and thousands of warm 
 mittens, helmets, mufflers, and guernseys, 
 have been sent out during these past years, 
 and have been true messages of love. 
 
 ' * Look 'ere, " said a grizzled skipper, pulling 
 out three mufflers from his pocket, to three 
 wild friends of his whom he was visiting, 
 "Look 'ere, will yer admit there's love in 
 those mufflers? Yer see them ladies never 
 see'd yer, nor never knowed yer, yet they jest 
 sent me these mufflers for you. Well, then, 
 how much more must Christ Jesus 'ave loved 
 
74 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 yer, when He give His life blood to save 
 yer." 
 
 I have it from his own lips as well as one of 
 theirs, that this was the beginning of leading 
 those three men to God; and before he left the 
 ship that night, they were trusting in Christ 
 for pardon, and for strength to live as His 
 children. 
 
 Yet another need became now apparent. In 
 pain, in sickness, in accident even unto death, 
 no chance of skilled aid was possible, generally 
 for three or four days, often for a week or 
 more. Limbs were permanently injured, func- 
 tions and lives lost, and families driven to the 
 workhouse for want of medical aid. It was 
 the men themselves that now raised the diflS- 
 culties. 
 
 ''Doctors! I'd like to see one on 'em out 
 'ere a voyage. I guess a week o' this 'ere 
 weather 'd capsize any on 'em." 
 
 But it did not. In the true spirit of Christ, 
 our Master, the mission joined " Healing the 
 Sick" to "Preaching the Word." In four 
 vessels hospitals were built, swing cots erected 
 
WORK AMONG DKKP-SEA FISHERMEN. 75 
 
 for fracture cases, medicine and sets of instru- 
 ments and splints obtained. A specially de- 
 vised stretcher was placed on each ship to 
 facilitate the removal of the injured to the 
 hospital ships. Christian doctors were regu- 
 larly appointed for each. "Heal the sick," 
 in letters of gold, was put on the port bow, 
 and ''Preach the Word," on the starboard. 
 All the mission skippers and mates, and many 
 others as well, were trained in ambulance 
 work, and now one and all are capable of ren- 
 dering first aid to the wounded, by which 
 many limbs, lives, and much suffering have 
 been saved on the vessels where there is no 
 doctor. 
 
 The next hindrance the mission endeavored 
 to remove was the great difficulty in reaching 
 the crews on the steam trawlers and the boys 
 on all the trawlers; for, of course, some one 
 must remain always on board, and this gen- 
 erally fell to the lot of the younger hands, 
 while the steam trawlers scatter so far, and 
 work so incessantly that it is only on rare 
 occasions that the missionary can reach them. 
 
76 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Accordingly a branch called the ' * Fisherlads 
 Association," was formed for corresponding 
 with all that could be reached in that way. 
 Most marvelous, indeed, has been the result of 
 this venture of faith. Some 800 ladies are 
 already engaged in keeping in touch with 
 some 3,000 or 4,000 fishermen. Only those 
 who have the love of Christ in their own hearts 
 are invited to assist in this way. Most in- 
 tensely interesting have been the boys' and 
 men's letters. Many have taken the pledge 
 (with fishermen total abstinence is absolutely 
 incumbent on the converted man) , and many 
 have been truly led to Christ. Never till one 
 reads some of their letters, can he realize the 
 absolute friendlessness of many of the men, 
 some saying, ' ' I never had a father or mother 
 or home." "No one ever cared for me, that 
 I know of, ' ' and * ' I never had a letter in my 
 life." This has led to many of our ladies 
 visiting the ports from which their boys sail, 
 and thus not only benefiting others but being 
 benefited themselves, by taking up acflual 
 personal work for Christ, and learning to 
 
WORK AMONG DEKP-SKA FISHERMEN. 77 
 
 plead for Him with individuals, " to be recon- 
 ciled to God as dear children." 
 
 Another branch formed has been the regular 
 visiting by Christian workers of the sick and 
 injured, and almost always lonely and friend- 
 less fishermen, brought by the steam carriers 
 to the- great metropolitan hospitals; and most 
 deeply do they appreciate this truly Christ- 
 like work. God has allowed the workers 
 to see direc5l fruits of their labors in this 
 branch also, and to see dying fishermen re- 
 joicing in the sure and certain hope of ever- 
 lasting life. 
 
 In the fall of 1895 definite work ashore in 
 Grimsby and Great Yarmouth was recognized 
 to be necessary by the mission council. A 
 United Fishermen's Christian Association was 
 started with the inevitable badge — in this case 
 a fish with the word *'IX0r2,"^^ on it. A 
 most suitable emblem, and one I rejoice to say 
 now rapidly being adopted by all our Chris- 
 tian brethren at sea. 
 
 * Initials of a Greek sentence: " Jesus Christ, Son 
 of God, Savior." 
 
78 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 I must pass over the work in Ireland, and 
 among the drift-net men and others off the 
 Cornish coast. Five years ago it was my priv- 
 ilege to sail a mission vessel from Yarmouth, 
 England, to Labrador. There we have built 
 two hospitals, 200 miles apart, each with a 
 medical mission and Christian matron. Each 
 is served by a small steamer, bringing the sick 
 to and fro. In the small steamer Sir Donald, 
 we range the coast from the Gulf of St. I^aw- 
 rence to Cape Chilsey in Hudson Straits, 
 preaching, do(5loring, and trying to help the 
 people from May to December. One dodlor 
 and one nurse stay through each long winter, 
 keeping the hospitals open, teaching the 
 children, preaching when possible, and travel- 
 ing from place to place with dogs and sleighs. 
 In summer we have some 23,000 men, women, 
 and children, besides the five thousand resi- 
 dents of the coasts. We visit the Eskimo and 
 Moravian stations, where we enjoy the spiritual 
 fellowship of the devoted missionaries. No 
 happier lot ever fell to any man than ours. 
 Navigating, doc5loring, preaching, entrusted 
 
WORK AMONG DEEP-SEA FISHERMEN. 79 
 
 with clothes for the naked and food for the 
 hungry, we live healthy, joyful lives. God 
 has privileged us to see many yield their hearts 
 and lives to Christ.* 
 
 *(i) We endeavor not to pauperize the recipients of 
 food or clothing, and to preserve their self-respect, 
 by in every case providing work, if possible, where 
 assistance is given. (2) Our mission is inter-denom- 
 inational. (3) We have treated 170 in-patients in Lab- 
 rador and 6,500 out-patients. This represents a sa- 
 ving of no little suffering and not a few lives. Con- 
 tributions to this work may be sent to the editor of 
 this Review. 
 
No. V. 
 Th^ Founding of the Barotsi Mission.* 
 
 BW, among all the narratives of 
 missionary labor in the last half 
 century, are more worthy of a per- 
 manent memorial than what is 
 known as the story of the " Banyai Mission," 
 which eventually led to the founding of the 
 Barotsi Mission, and which was not only un- 
 dertaken, but planned by the native Christians 
 of Basutoland. Our friend, M. Coillard, of 
 the French mission, emphatically says that if 
 Africa is ever to be evangelized, it must be 
 done by her own children. This is the testi- 
 mony of all missionaries, and of its truth this 
 attempt of the native Christians of the Basuto 
 country is both an argument and an illustra- 
 tion. 
 
 Three French missionaries came to Basuto- 
 
 * A fuller account is beautifully set before us in 
 that most readable book of M. Coillard, "On the 
 Threshold of Central Africa." 
 
 80 
 
FOUNDING OF THE BAROTSI MISSION. 8 1 
 
 land more than sixty-six years ago, in 1833, 
 and among them the name of M. Arbousset 
 stands out conspicuous. M. Coillard says of 
 him, that "he belonged to the race of giants, 
 whose exploits in the first half of the century 
 have shed such luster on African missions." 
 He possessed two gifts of great importance to 
 his work: First, the gift of evangehzing, and 
 second, the gift of communicating his own zeal 
 to those who were brought to Christ through 
 his instrumentality. It is very noticeable that 
 a large proportion of his congregations and 
 converts were men, and that each of them, 
 according to his own measure of capacity, took 
 a share in the adtive propagation of the Gospel. 
 M. Arbousset was accustomed to send his cate- 
 chists on excursions to spend an indefinite time 
 among the people in the country now known 
 as the Transvaal. Some of these traveling 
 catechists had, before their conversion, been 
 noted warriors, and had made depredations 
 upon the same tribes to whom now they bore 
 the Gospel of peace as a kind of atonement 
 for previous acfts of violence. In 1863 one of 
 
82 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 these, Isaiah Seeley, went with the sanaion of 
 all the missionaries. He was a man of much 
 intelligence and strength of characfter, and 
 spoke French and English as well as several 
 native languages, and had no little knowledge 
 of the healing art. He spent several years 
 evangelizing certain tribes, among whom the 
 Berlin Society of Missions has since been labor- 
 ing successfully, and many of whom, being 
 accustomed to pass through Basutoland, going 
 to and from Cape Colony, had seen something 
 of the benefits of Christian missions, so that 
 their chiefs became desirous of permanent sta- 
 tions in their own country. The wars between 
 the Orange Free State and the Basutoland 
 checked this evangelizing movement. 
 
 In 1865 all the French Protestant mission- 
 aries were driven out of the country, the only 
 exception being at Thabe Bossiou, which the 
 Boers had not been able to occupy. Armed 
 men brought wagons to the door of M. Coil- 
 lard, and carried the missionaries off in such 
 haste, that his wife had not even time to take 
 her bread out of the oven ; and with heavy 
 
FOUNDING OF THE BAROTSI MISSION. 83 
 
 hearts they left, the church-bell, which they 
 carried with them, sounding all along the road 
 a kind of funeral knell. The commandant, 
 who happened to be a personal friend of M. 
 Coillard, tried to cheer them up, but could 
 encourage them with no hope of their return. 
 He said, "Make the best of it and leave noth- 
 ing behind you, for you will never come back 
 here;" but the Divine Master had decreed 
 otherwise, for in 1868 Basutoland became a 
 British colony, and they did go back, having 
 meanwhile gained a knowledge of the Zulu 
 language, which was in later days to prove of 
 great service. 
 
 God makes the wrath of man to praise Him. 
 During this banishment of their pastors from 
 the Basutoland, these native Christians so 
 awoke and arose to a sense of their individual 
 duty and responsibility, that with rare zeal 
 they gave themselves up to the preaching of 
 the Gospel. So large were the results, that, 
 on the return of the missionaries, instead of 
 finding their v/ork in a state of decay, they 
 found the community completely transformed, 
 
84 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 and, instead of a desert, a well- watered garden. 
 It was plain to them that the first thing to be 
 done was to give compac5lness and solidity to 
 this movement by a more thorough organiza- 
 tion. They therefore chose those native Chris- 
 tians who seemed to be most capable and most 
 worthy, and placed them at different points as 
 evangelists, covering Basutoland with a net- 
 work of stations, which have gone on multi- 
 plying ever since year by year. 
 
 And now came the next and most natural 
 step — the Christian life of these native disci- 
 ples having grown so strong, they desired to 
 spread the name of Jesus in the regions beyond. 
 The tree had so grown as to bear fruit after its 
 own kind. M. Mabille, who had succeeded 
 Arbousset, encouraged this missionary move- 
 ment. These native disciples yearned to send 
 catechists to other heathen tribes, and not only 
 to setid but to equip and viaintai7i them; and 
 thus the Banyai expedition was born. The 
 question was — In what dire(5lion should these 
 efforts be made? M. Mabille, accompanied by 
 M. Berthoud, went on an exploring tour in 
 
FOUNDING OF THE BAROTSI MISSION. 85 
 
 the extreme north of the Transvaal, and left 
 the Basuto catechist among the Magivamba 
 tribe, where others afterward joined them, and 
 where a work of perseverance and devotion has 
 been carried forward with much fruitfulness. 
 A year or two later, one of the leaders of the 
 the Basuto catechists — Asher by name — under- 
 took a missionary exploration in Banyai with 
 three others. He was a very remarkable man, 
 had the spirit of a true pioneer, and was not 
 easily to be hindered or turned back. He 
 gave as his report that three of the great chiefs 
 gave glad and full assent to the coming of the 
 missionaries, and had even chosen sites for the 
 stations. He said that some of the Banyais 
 had found a striking analogy in the Gospel 
 message to one of their old traditions — that 
 the son of one of their great chiefs had mys- 
 teriously disappeared, and that every tenth 
 day must be observed in his memory until he 
 should come back. 
 
 When, in 1875, Asher came back to Basuto- 
 land, his report fanned the zeal of his fellow 
 native Christians into a flame. He was full of 
 
86 THE MIRACI.ES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Apostolic devotion. Said he, "Why could I 
 not cut off my arms and legs and make every 
 limb of mine a missionary to these poor 
 Banyais ?' ' His addresses had an eledlric effedl. 
 At one memorial meeting an old man rose and 
 said, * ' We have had enough of talking, let us 
 do something," and going up to the com- 
 munion table, he laid upon it a half crown; 
 the whole assembly followed this example, and 
 the movement spread to other stations. On 
 one communion day men, women, and children, 
 and even babes at their mother's breast gath- 
 ered round the table to laj^ upon it their con- 
 secrated offerings, and in a very short time 
 ;^50o was raised among these native converts 
 in cash, without counting numbers of cattle, 
 great and small. The Missionary Conference 
 could no longer hesitate, and the mission was 
 unanimously determined upon. The money 
 and the men were at once found, and four men 
 were chosen, who prepared to start with their 
 families. 
 
 God has His set time for blessing, and while 
 these events were taking place. Major Malan, 
 
FOUNDING OF THE) BAROTSI MISSION. 87 
 
 — whose name is so fragrant in Britain and in 
 South Africa, the grandson of Caesar Malan 
 of Geneva, and a man who had resigned his 
 commission in the British Army that he might 
 more completely serve the Captain of our sal- 
 vation, — had undertaken a tour among the 
 South African missions, and his coming to 
 Basutoland was the signal for a fresh reviving. 
 Even to M. Mabille and M. Coillard it proved 
 more than a spiritual feast, a revelation. M. 
 Coillard says they ' * had a vision of the Lord. ' ' 
 It seemed to them that they had never given 
 themselves up to God, and did not even know 
 the A B C of renunciation; and they saw that 
 a true and full consecration is not a mere 
 do<5lrine, nor yet a single isolated adl, but the 
 fabric, the very principle of life. One day 
 in crossing the river Kei, and climbing the 
 slope, in obedience to an impulse that was 
 irresistible, he says, ' ' We all three sprang 
 from our horses, knelt in the shadow of a 
 bush I still see before me, and, taking our- 
 selves as witnesses, offered ourselves indi- 
 vidually to the Lord for the new mission — an 
 
88 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 adl of deep solemnity which made us all 
 brothers in arms. Immediately we remounted, 
 Major Malan spurred his horse, galloped up 
 the hill and called out, ' Three soldiers ready 
 to conquer Africa. ' This marked a new era in 
 our Christian life, and was, so far as we were 
 concerned, the true origin of the Barotsi Mis- 
 sion. ' ' 
 
 The history of this mission we can not here 
 trace. It had its trials, but amid them all 
 there was exemplified the perseverance of the 
 saints. A few fadls only may be added to 
 make this brief sketch complete. In the autumn 
 of 1875, the Banyai expedition was preparing 
 to start. It was at first intended to send the 
 native missionaries alone, but the Transvaal 
 government opposed this, on the ground that 
 the Basuto natives going as foreigners among 
 the Banyai, might stir up trouble on their 
 northern frontiers. It seemed necessary that 
 one of the missionaries should escort them, and 
 it was finally determined that this representa- 
 tive should be M. Diertelen, a newly arrived 
 missionary, young, unmarried, and as yet not 
 
FOUNDING OF THE BAROTSI MISSION. 89 
 
 located, whose charac?ter, gifts, and consecra- 
 tion inspired great confidence. 
 
 In 1876, at the General Synod, 78 delegates, 
 besides missionaries and catechists, represented 
 the various congregations, and subscription-, 
 brought from a wider constituency emphasized 
 their messages of encouragement and affedlion. 
 Even heathen chiefs could not remain in- 
 different to such a demonstration, and the 
 British authorities of the country brought also 
 their congratulations and good wishes. It 
 seemed as though God had opened the way, 
 and, after many deeply impressive meetings, 
 M. Diertelen and his four companions with 
 their families, were affedlionately sent forth as 
 pioneers, and commended to the keeping of 
 the Lord. The very place of farewell was 
 one from which in previous days cannibals had 
 gone forth to scour the country, and from 
 w^hich had gone the head of his clan, the chief 
 Sebetoane, to found the Makololo kingdom on 
 the Upper Zambesi . Survivors of those former 
 days were present to see their fellow-country- 
 men sent forth by their native Christians with 
 
90 the; miracles of missions. 
 
 their free-will offerings on a mission of peace. 
 It was an obje<5l lesson that carried a con- 
 vincing power with it. 
 
 As we have said, trials awaited the found- 
 ing of the new mission. Scarcely a month 
 later, the expedition came to an abrupt end in 
 the prison of a civilized and Christian state. 
 These pioneers were arrested, taken to Pre- 
 toria, and imprisoned, accused of carrying 
 contraband, and heavily fined, but afterward 
 released. This persecution proved to be the 
 work of a small political clique, hostile to 
 foreign missions, but it put a check upon the 
 movement. Nevertheless the enterprise was 
 not abandoned, and the Transvaal government 
 managed to let the missionaries know indi- 
 redlly, that they would place no obstacle in 
 the way of a new expedition, provided that 
 certain conditions and formalities were ob- 
 sen^ed. Difficulties were met cheerfully and 
 heroically — difficulties that can only be appre- 
 ciated by those who read the 650 pages of M. 
 Coillard's remarkable narrative, in which he 
 says that, notwithstanding all the trials, 
 
FOUNDING OF THE BAROTSI MISSION. 9I 
 
 dangers, and disappointments of their work, 
 God never left them for an hour without the 
 consolation of His promises and His presence. 
 There is seldom found any book that contains 
 more evidence of moral heroism and undis- 
 couraged faith, than this narrative. 
 
 One facft deserves great stress, namely, that 
 this mission sprang spontaneously from the re- 
 ligious life of the native Christians of Basuto- 
 land; and the disposition exhibited by these 
 native disciples puts to shame the churches of 
 Christ in Christian lands. When, for instance, 
 in 1883, M. Coillard preached at the church of 
 M. Mabille, the latter said to him as he entered 
 the pulpit: ''Speak, and the Lord bless thee, 
 and if the best of my catechists responds to your 
 appeal, I give him gladly. ' ' When the service 
 was ended, he said: "Yes, Boillard, God has 
 asked for my best catechist. I did not expe(5l 
 it, but he shall go." And from that time 
 forth the evangelists of the Zambesi Mission 
 were recruited almost altogether from his 
 church or Bible school. 
 
 This remarkable missionary story illustrates 
 
92 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 to a marked degree, first, the blessed results 
 whicli follow missions even among the tribes 
 of the Dark Continent; and secondly, the 
 method in which Africa is finally to hear the 
 Gospel. The work of the missionaries from 
 other lands is only that of pioneers, and its 
 province is to develop a native church with a 
 native ministry. When this preliminary stage 
 has been reached and accomplished, the work 
 of Africa's evangelization may be safely left 
 to the Africans themselves; and then that great 
 problem which has been so difficult to solve 
 — *' What shall we do in the face of the fatal 
 African fever?" — will have been effectually 
 and finally solved. But there must be, mean- 
 while, an experience of self-sacrifice, and lives 
 must be laid down and become the seed of the 
 Kingdom in the soil of Africa. And so our 
 Lord's words shall have a wider fulfilment: 
 
 ' ' Except a corn of wheat fall into the 
 ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, 
 it bringeth forth much fruit." 
 
 .May the Church of Jesus Christ be found 
 equal to the sacrifice! 
 
No. VI. 
 
 Among the Red Men of North America.* 
 
 by rev. egerton r. young. 
 
 " The wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
 glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blos- 
 som as the rose." — Isaiah xxxv : i. 
 
 HK prophet is looking down to the 
 time when changes will be made 
 in moral wastes, such as our fore- 
 fathers accomplished on this con- 
 tinent when they changed the great forests 
 into these splendid farms and beautiful home- 
 steads. Similar transformations will be wrought 
 in Christ's kingdom. ' ' The eyes of the blind 
 shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall 
 be unstopped. Then shall the lame leap as an 
 hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing; for in 
 the wilderness shall waters break out, and 
 streams in the desert." Those same trans- 
 
 *See the Northfield Echoes, August Conference 
 Number, 1896. 
 
 93 
 
94 'THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 formations, which have been seen in missionary- 
 work in towns and cities at home, the mission- 
 aries have been permitted, under God's bless- 
 ing, to see in the lands of paganism. 
 
 We labored among the wild Indian tribes 
 away up in the heart of the British territories, 
 a thousand miles north of St. Paul. They 
 were the most northern tribes of Indians on the 
 borderland of the Esquimaux people, away 
 from civilization, so far away that the nearest 
 post-office was four hundred miles distant; we 
 received our daily paper there twice a year. 
 We found hundreds of Indians wandering 
 through those vast forests as hunters and 
 fishermen. They lived in a land so remote 
 from cultivation that the word * ' bread ' ' was 
 literally unknown in those days, and the peti- 
 tion, *' Give us this day our daily bread," had 
 to be translated, ' ' Give us something this day 
 to keep us in life." I have seen Indians 
 eighty years of age who never saw a loaf of 
 bread, or a cake, or a pie. When my wife and 
 I went out there we lived as they did; we lived 
 on fish twentv-one times a week for months 
 
AMONG RED MEN OF NORTH AMERICA. 95 
 
 together, and for weeks together we did not 
 average two good meals a day. For years we 
 did not begin to live as well as the thieves and 
 murderers in the penitentiaries of Great Britain 
 and America. But it was a blessed work, and 
 we v/ere happy in it. 
 
 We have the Bible translated for our In- 
 dians; it is the work of one of our mission- 
 aries, Rev. James Evans, who invented what 
 are known as the Syllabic charac5lers. He 
 found these people wandering on the borders 
 of the Great Lakes and rivers, fishing, hunt- 
 ing in the vast forests for bears and other ani- 
 mals, and looking all the time for game, as 
 they were ever on the go. The thought oc- 
 curred to him to invent a simple way of teach- 
 ing these Indians to read, so that they might 
 be able to use the Bible for themselves. The 
 result of it was this invention, each charadler 
 being a syllable, — in all thirty-six of them. 
 They are represented in the accompanying cut, 
 which gives both the Indian charac5lers and the 
 English sounds. As soon as the charaders 
 were grasped we used to turn to the first 
 
96 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 chapter of Genesis, and begin to read. Now, 
 I want to paint a pi(5lure, to take you with me 
 to a band that has never seen a missionary, 
 never seen a Bible, never heard the Savior's 
 name, and I want to show you how we teach 
 them to read on a first visit, which lasts only 
 a few weeks. We have no schoolhouse, no 
 school-books, no pencils or paper. We have 
 only a few Bibles, which that magnificent 
 society (the British Bible Society) now sends 
 out to us. After I have preached to them 
 for some days, and have gained the good 
 will of most of them,'^^ I say, "Would you 
 not like to learn to read this book ? " " Yes. ' ' 
 I can not go and get a sheet of paper, vSlate 
 and pencil, and begin teaching them, but here 
 are great granite rocks near by, and I take a 
 burned stick from my camp fire, and with that 
 burned stick I make the characfters shown in 
 the cut: a, e, oo, ah, ma, me, moo, mah, etc. 
 Then I say to the people, * ' Now say as I do, " 
 
 *The old conjurers hate me because they know 
 that my success means the end of their terrible rule 
 over the people. 
 
AMONG RED MEN OF NORTH AMERICA. 97 
 
 and just as a primar}^ teacher gives a lesson to 
 little children in A, B, C, so I begin, "a, e, 
 00, AH, MA, ME, MOO, MAH." By and by a 
 fellow gets out his flint and steel, lights his 
 pipe, and repeats, A, E, oo, ah; but I can't 
 say anything against the pipe, for one dare 
 not be cross with them. We go over it again 
 and again; I point to the letters in turn and 
 say, ' * What is this ? ' ' They are unknown 
 sounds to them, but I write down a charadler 
 and ask, "What is that? " They look at it 
 and shout, "ma." I put down another, and 
 ask, "What is that?" "ne." I write a 
 third: "What is that?^" "too." I have 
 written the word in Indian — Ma-?ii-too — three 
 chara(5lers, but I have not combined them 
 yet, and they don't know w^hat they will 
 form in combination. I sa}-, "What is the 
 first?" "MA." "The second?" "ne." 
 ' ' The third ? " " too . ' ' Then they combine 
 them — Manitoo. Why ! — they drop their pipes 
 and put up their hands, and open their eyes in 
 wonder. It is w^orth starv^ation and suffering, 
 it is worth any amount of hardship, to see the 
 
 111-7. 
 
98 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 ray of intelligence darting into the eyes of 
 hundreds of these Indians, as for the first 
 time, God, the name of God, becomes visible 
 to their eyes there on the rock, made with a 
 burned stick from the camp fire. Manitoo — 
 God. They have heard him in the thunder, 
 in the blizzard, and in the storm. But to 
 them here is a new revelation. There is Mani- 
 too on the rock, and they can hardly believe 
 their eyes. Then, when the excitement is 
 over, I write: Maiiitoo Sa-kee-e-wd-wmd^ "God 
 is love, ' ' and that is a revelation. So I go on, 
 and on, and on; no more smoking pipes. Most 
 intense interest is excited, and we talk and 
 talk until my mouth is dry and my strength 
 exhausted, and then we go off and sit around 
 our camp fires and have something to eat, and 
 come back again. 
 
 In less than three weeks some of those In- 
 dians can read the Word of God ia their own 
 language. Just as soon as these chara(5lers 
 and some simple sentences have become famil- 
 iar to them, we turn to the first chapter of the 
 Indi:::i Bible, and with those chara(5lers on the 
 
AMONG RED MEN OF NORTH AMERICA. 99 
 
 rock, we begin: ''Ma zua che misttirn ne sa 
 Manitoo.'' "See God in the book just as He 
 is on the rock," they say. They catch the 
 idea at once. Thus slowly we go through the 
 verse. ' ' In the beginning God created the 
 heaven and the earth." To a people that 
 have .been in darkness and ignorance there is 
 a lot of information in that first verse. ' ' Who 
 put those vStars in the sky; who caused the 
 warm sun to greet the eyes and fill up our 
 creeks with fish again ? ' ' Thus had they 
 talked as they groped in darkness. ' ' Now we 
 know: ' In the beginning God created the 
 heaven and the earth.' " Some of them 
 thought their education was complete at once, 
 — they knew all about it now, and I have 
 known a boy to jump up and run away six 
 miles and bring his father, pulling him along 
 to show him the book which tells how those 
 things, talked about by their old people before^ 
 the camp fires, had been accomplished. In 
 some of our villages eighty per cent, of our 
 people over eight years of age are now reading 
 in their own tongue the blessed Book. In 
 
lOO THK MIRACLES OP MISSIONS. 
 
 spite of many hardships and trials, God is 
 blessing the work grandly. 
 
 Not very long ago the governor of our col- 
 ony sent out one of his commissioners to meet 
 the Indians with supplies, in accordance with 
 the treaty. This commissioner sent word to 
 one of our Christian Indians to bring his peo- 
 ple to a certain point, as he would be there to 
 distribute their annual allowances. The Indi- 
 ans were on hand at the time appointed; they 
 brought nothing from their distant camp fires, 
 for they expected to receive abundant supplies 
 to feast upon. But the day came, and the big 
 white commissioner did not arrive, — and it is 
 an everlasting disgrace when government rep- 
 resentatives break word with the Indians. 
 The commissioner did not come the first day, 
 or the second, and the Indians were hungry. 
 They went to the big chief and said, " Pakan, 
 our wives and children are crying for food, — 
 here are our supplies, the gift of the Queen to 
 us, and her servant has not yet come to dis- 
 tribute them. Will you open them and give 
 us enough to satisfy us?" "Oh, no, my 
 
AMONG RED MEN OF NORTH AMERICA. lOI 
 
 children, I have never broken a word of treaty 
 and I don't want to now," replied the chief. 
 The next day no white man appeared, and the 
 third morning those young Indians' eyes be- 
 gan to look ominous and flash out something 
 that boded trouble. They went to the chief 
 and said, " We must have food for our hungry 
 ones. ' ' His answer was, ' ' Have patience a 
 little longer, my people," and he called on an 
 Indian who had a splendid horse to accompany 
 him, and, mounting his own, away they went 
 as fast as they could, to find and hurry up the 
 dilatory commissioner. About noon they met 
 him coming along with a large retinue of 
 friends and servants. In those days that 
 country abounded in game, and these white 
 men had gone out for a good shooting time. 
 As Pakan rode into the camp at noonday he 
 found them preparing to stop there, because 
 not far off was a spot that seemed full of game. 
 Pakan said to the commissioner, ' ' You have 
 broken your promise to my people. You were 
 to have met them three days ago. Don't stop 
 here, — come on and distribute the supplies, for 
 
I02 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 my people are hungry." "Oh, Pakan, I am 
 glad to see 3^ou, ' ' replied the white man, ' ' you 
 are the chief. I would like to have you dine 
 with me, I hear you are a great hunter. Come 
 with us this afternoon and show me your skill 
 in hunting." "No," said he; "you have 
 broken your word. The people are hungry, 
 — come on at once." "Oh, no; I am going 
 to have some shooting." Pakan said, "When 
 are you coming ? " "I will come to-morrow. ' ' 
 "Oh,' said Pakan, "to-morrow is the Sab- 
 bath, and we have been taught to keep the 
 Sabbath. ' ' The commissioner answered, * ' Mj^ 
 religion won't prevent me from distributing 
 the food on Sunday." Pakan looked at him. 
 He is one of the finest specimens of a man I 
 ever saw. He bravely replied, "I don't care 
 what your religion will allow you to do, mine 
 says, ' Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
 holy,' — and, hungry as we are, unless you 
 come and distribute the food to-day, we will 
 not take it until Monday. ' ' The man quailed 
 before him, and at once some subordinate was 
 sent back with him. Before they left the com- 
 
AMONG RED MEN OF NORTH AMERICA. 103 
 
 missioner said to the chief, "I shall come 
 along to-morrow, and we will have our usual 
 annual talk about Indian affairs and the distri- 
 bution of money." Pakan replied again, "To- 
 morrow is the Sabbath, and we will have no 
 treaty talk to-morrow," and away he rode. 
 The next day the white man came on to the 
 Indian encampment. He expected the Indians 
 to meet him, hundreds of them, with firing of 
 guns and waving of flags, but not one came to 
 receive him, and no guns were fired; the only 
 wigwam where the flag was flying w^as the 
 place where the people met together three 
 times a day to worship God. The commis- 
 sioner sent out his criers for a council, but not 
 one Indian responded. He sent for Pakan to 
 come and dine with him, but Pakan said, "I 
 dine with my own family on God's day when- 
 ever I can," — and he refused the invitation. 
 It is a great thing to dine with the ambassador 
 of the Queen, yet this godly Indian refused 
 the honor on account of his respedl for the 
 Sabbath day. 
 
 I give you an incident that is pradlical, and 
 
I04 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 that 3^ou can use when advocating the Sabbath 
 as a day of rest. When Mr. Evans induced a 
 large number of Indians to become Christians, 
 he said to them, * ' Remember the Sabbath daj' 
 to keep it holy." In that country is the 
 greatest fur trading company in the world, the 
 Hudson Bay Company. They have been there 
 since the reign of Charles the First. All the 
 goods are taken through that part of the 
 country by brigades of boats. Until lately 
 they carried all their goods from distant places 
 by Indian brigades, who bring out as the 
 exchange cargo boat-loads of furs, which are 
 shipped to I^ondon. Before these Indians 
 became Christians, they traveled every day 
 alike. When our mission was established, all 
 the missionaries went in for the obser\^ance of 
 the Sabbath day. At once there was opposi- 
 tion from the Hudson Bay Company. They 
 argued, *'Our summer is short, the people 
 have to work in a hurry, and to lose one day 
 in seven will be a terrible loss to us, and you 
 missionaries must get out of the country if you 
 are going to interfere with our business." 
 
AMONG RED MEN OF NORTH AMERICA. I05 
 
 There was downright persecution for 3^ears, — 
 but there is none uoat, for it was found that 
 the brigades of Indians who traveled only six 
 days, and quietly rested on the Sabbath, made 
 the journey of perhaps fifteen hundred miles, 
 without a single exception, in less time, and 
 came back in better health, than those who 
 traveled without observing the Sabbath. So 
 the Hudson Ba}' Company opposes us no more. 
 They say, "Go on, missionaries, and the 
 Lord bless you." 
 
 When traveling in the winter we had to dig 
 holes in the snow, and there cook our fat meat, 
 and make a kettle of tea, and then try to go 
 to sleep, until sometimes the snow piled upon 
 us, during the fierce blizzard storms, so that 
 we were completely covered, and if you were 
 out hunting you could tramp right over us, 
 little dreaming that a missionary and three 
 dog-drivers were asleep there under the snow. 
 I did not take m}- wife on those winter journeys, 
 but in the summer months she sometimes went 
 with me. We were paddling along one day 
 and we came to a sand bar, where we went 
 
Io6 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 ashore, and while the Indian boatmen were 
 cooking the dinner, my wife and I walked 
 along the beautiful beach. Soon we saw a 
 number of Indians coming along in their birch 
 canoes. I saw that they were some of my old 
 friends whom I intended to visit on my return 
 journey. As they came along in their canoes 
 from a distant point, I noticed one old fellow 
 who had not the strength and skill of the 
 younger fellows, and so his canoe lagged be- 
 hind. I said to my wife, ' ' My dear, go down 
 and talk to that old Indian, — his name is Ben- 
 jamin Cameron. Get him to talk to you of 
 what he knows of Christianity, and I will talk 
 to the others. ' ' So my good wife went to him 
 where he landed, and, as she understands 
 the language like a native, they sat down 
 on the rock and chatted. When dinner 
 was ready she did not care to come. She 
 seemed very unwilling to leave the old man. 
 She replied to my call, ''Oh, I would rather 
 talk to this old man; it is such a blessing to 
 hear him tell of what God has done for hiin. 
 It is a greater privilege than eating my dinner. ' ' 
 
AMONG RED MEN OF NORTH AMERICA. I07 
 
 Finally she came with me, and as we walked 
 back she talked about Benjamin, and her face 
 lighted up with interest. When she stopped 
 I said, " I am glad that you think so much of 
 him; I think just as much of him as any one, 
 but listen : he was once a cannibal and ate his 
 first wife. " " Ugh ! ' ' she exclaimed, ' ' can it 
 be possible ? Well, I am glad that I didn' t know 
 it before I talked with him or I am afraid I 
 shouldn't have so enjoyed the interview." 
 Years ago that old Indian went out in the 
 woods with his wife for their winter hunting. 
 They put out their traps and snares to catch 
 the wild animals that wandered there through 
 those northern forests in the cold and snow, — 
 but they were not very successful. The deer 
 did not come as usual, so when there came a 
 day that food was scarce, the man became dis- 
 couraged and one day he got up with his rifle 
 and shot his wife dead. He put the body out 
 on a staging where it froze as solid as marble, 
 and, when other supplies failed, he went to 
 that, and during the winter he ate his own 
 wife. Years after, the missionary came along 
 
I08 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 with his Book. At first Benjamin was very 
 shy and distant, — " No! no! — the Book is for 
 you white people and not for us. " " Come now 
 and listen,— it is for you." He said, " No," 
 but finally he became interested. 
 
 Those Indians have wonderful traditions and 
 stories, and I used to match their tales with 
 Bible stories. Some of the Indians are huge fel- 
 lows, over six feet tall, and they pride them- 
 selves on their stature. As they talked about 
 their height, I would say, " Listen — I have a 
 book that tells about a man as tall as if one of 
 3'ou were seated on the shoulders of the tallest 
 among you." "Oh! what a storj^; what talk 
 is that, missionary?" "Well, come and 
 listen." Then I talk to them about Goliath, 
 and get them interested, and the Gospel fol- 
 lows. In my work among these people I found 
 one reason at least why those stories were in 
 the Bible. Benjamin would not listen, but he 
 became interested in the stories, and then he 
 listened to the Gospel. Then he was in a state 
 of despair as he thought of his great crime; 
 his head hung down, his face was sad. " O ! " 
 
AMONG RED MEN OF NORTH AMERICA. 109 
 
 he said, "if j'ou had only come before I shot 
 my wife, I might have had a chance, but don't 
 tell me that the Holy Spirit is so kind, that the 
 great Father is so kind, and that the Son Jesus 
 is so kind, as to look down and notice a man 
 who shot and ate his wife." " Why, yes, I do 
 believe He can save you." "Oh, no, no; I 
 thank you for your words, but I am sure you 
 must be mistaken. He surely will not stoop 
 so low. " " Yes, He will. ' ' Then I think of 
 the passage ' * beginning at Jerusalem . ' ' Christ 
 said pracflically, * * Go find out my murderers 
 and oflfer them salvation. " So I do not despair, 
 and such a blessed Christian does Benjamin 
 become that, when my wife first met him, 
 mature blessed Christian woman as she is, she, 
 nevertheless, felt that she was a child to sit at 
 his feet, and listen to his blessed words. If 
 you should go to that land, and should 
 want to get a magnificent pair of reindeer 
 horns or a splendid bearskin, there would not 
 be a better man than old Benjamin to guide 
 you to where you could shoot what you desired ; 
 but he would not let vou be with him five 
 
no THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 minutes before he would say, ' ' Are you a 
 Christian ? Do you love my Savior ? Is His 
 love in your heart ? If so, give me your hand; 
 I am glad to shake hands with one who loves 
 this blessed Savior who so loves me. " 
 
 Blessed work! May God give us a mis- 
 sionary spirit, and whether it is in home mis- 
 sions or foreign work, church work or prison 
 work, let us do what we can, and remember 
 Longfellow's words, so applicable in these 
 blessed days: — 
 
 " Out of the shadows of night 
 The world rolls into the light; 
 It is day-break everywhere." 
 
No. VII. 
 
 An African Saved by Grace. 
 
 BY W. A. ElyMSIylE, lylVINGSTONIA. 
 
 N that truly wonderful record, 
 ' ' lyovedale : Past and Present, ' ' 
 defined on the title-page as "a 
 register of two thousand names, a 
 record written in black and white, but more 
 in white than black," we meet the following 
 brief notice of a very remarkable man: 
 
 William Koyi was born of heathen parents 
 at Thomas River, in the year 1846. His 
 mother died a Christian. He left his home 
 during the cattle-killing mania in 1857, and 
 went to seek employment among the Dutch 
 farmers in the colony, earning half a crown a 
 month as a wagon leader. About this time his 
 father died, and five years later his mother and 
 two sisters. He left his Dutch employer and 
 worked for five years at one of the wool- 
 washing establishments in Uitenhage, and was 
 
112 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 promoted to be overseer. From thence lie 
 went to work in the stores of Messrs. A. C. 
 Stewart & Co., Port Elizabeth, where he re- 
 mained for about the same number of years. 
 He had never attended school, but now felt the 
 need of education, and, therefore, set about 
 learning to read Kaffir. He had about this 
 time (1869) been converted and admitted a 
 member of the Wesleyan Church at Port 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 He came to Lovedale in 1871, and his case 
 is one of the most remarkable results of Eove- 
 dale work. A stray leaf of the Isigidimi 
 Sama-Xosa, which he picked up and read dur- 
 ing his dinner hour at Port Elizabeth, was the 
 first cause of his attention being diredled to 
 the place. On inquiry he found it was 150 
 miles distant, and then he resolved to walk to 
 it and seek admission. He had friends in 
 Tshoxa, Rev. Mr. Liefeldt's station, and it 
 was from that missionary he brought a note of 
 recommendation. He attended the first, second, 
 and third years' classes, and during his stay at 
 Lovedale he was a(5live, willing, and trust- 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVED BY GRACU. II3 
 
 worthy, caring for dut}^ and not popularity 
 among his fellows. 
 
 He came to regard I^ovedale as his home, 
 and to be regarded as a humble, but valuable, 
 w^orker, who could always be depended on, and 
 needed no pushing to his work or pressure to 
 keep at it and do his best, and make himself 
 generally useful. After a time he was ap- 
 pointed assistant overseer of the working 
 companies of the native boarders. 
 
 In 1876 he offered, along with thirteen 
 others, to go to Livingstonia as a native 
 evangelist. Only four, including himself, 
 were chosen. He has steadily continued, these 
 nine years, at the work at Lake Nyasa, and 
 shown considerable energy and natural intelli- 
 gence, and has thus proved to be of great serv- 
 ice to the Free Church mission in Central 
 Africa. 
 
 The foregoing statement was printed in 1886, 
 in which year William died on the 4th of June, 
 after a brief, but distressing, illness, which 
 he bore with Christian fortitude. A few notes 
 of his life and chara6ler in Livingstonia, may 
 
114 '^H^ MIRACI.ES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 serve to show how God's grace and power may 
 be manifested in and through the much- 
 despised African native. 
 
 William's first service in Livingstonia was 
 rendered when the mission was located at Cape 
 Macleao, on the southern shores of Lake 
 Nyasa. One of his native companions from 
 L<ovedale died there, and the other two were 
 invalided home. Despite the trying climate 
 and the frequent severe fevers, he persevered 
 in his work, and in many departments rendered 
 important service. He sought to serve the 
 Lord in all that he did, not counting any task 
 too humble to require full consecration in 
 doing it. He was taken by Dr. Laws, the late 
 Mr. James Stewart, and Mr. John Moir on 
 their important journe3^s of exploration on the 
 west side o£ Lake Nyasa, and onward as far as 
 Tanganyika, a great part of which country is 
 now the field of the Livingstonia Mission. 
 When the second station of the mission was 
 opened half way up the lake, at Bandawe, 
 William proceeded there and renewed his faith- 
 ful labors in founding it. 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVED BY GRACK. II5 
 
 THK RAID OF THE NGONI WARRIORS. 
 
 Some incidents connecfted with his work will 
 illustrate his charadler. On one occasion, not 
 long after the mission had opened the Bandawe 
 station, report of a large Ngoni war party 
 being on its way to attack the people around 
 the station, was brought from a village some 
 miles distant. On such occasions the terror- 
 stricken natives rushed to the vicinity of the 
 station, in hope of protection. Thousands of 
 helpless women and children crouched among 
 the brushes around the station, or crawled into 
 holes among the rocks on the neighboring hill, 
 or lay on the beach ready to take to water as a 
 last chance of life. On one .such occasion not 
 only were the natives alarmed, but so threaten- 
 ing were the circumstances that the mission- 
 aries hastil}' put together a few things and 
 launched the boat ready for escape to the rocky 
 island some hundreds of yards off. 
 
 When the report above referred to reached 
 the station, a consultation was held, and Wil- 
 liam Koyi volunteered to go out and meet the 
 war part}^ and endeavor to turn it back from 
 
Il6 THK MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 its purpose. He walked on for some hours, 
 and at last met the party at a little stream, 
 where it had made a temporary camp, to await 
 a favorable opportunity to attack the village of 
 Matete, some two hours' march from the mis- 
 sion station. It was composed of a sedlion of 
 the Ngoni, with whom the mission had, on one 
 of the journeys of exploration, come in con- 
 tac5l. They were, it was stated, not only in- 
 tending to attack the natives of the Bandawe 
 distridl, but also the mission station, in order 
 to secure the wealth of cloth, beads, and other 
 good things they fancied were stored there. 
 When William met the party, and before he 
 could open his mouth, the young warriors began 
 to engage in war dancing. On such occasions 
 the slightest indiscretion in speech or move- 
 ment which might be interpreted as defiance, 
 would have led to an immediate attack. 
 
 There, with only a few friendly boys, Wil- 
 liam beheld the awe-inspiring war dance of 
 Ngoni. They danced in companies and they 
 danced singly, each warrior clad in hideous- 
 looking garb, which, with their large war- 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVED BY GRACE. II7 
 
 shields, almost hid their human form and made 
 them more like war-demons than men, as they 
 leaped and brandished their broad -bladed 
 stabbing-spears, with which they fight. Wil- 
 liam stood for a time watching them, utterly 
 unable to decide what to say or what to do to 
 efiedl the purpose for which he had come out. 
 Secretly praying to God for guidance and suc- 
 cess, he sat down on the bank of the stream. 
 Still at a loss to know what he should do, he 
 took off one of his boots and stockings and 
 began to wash his foot. That done, he as 
 leisurely, and still puzzled, put on his boot 
 again; but still the dancing went on, and there 
 was no opportunity to speak, even had he 
 known what to say. He then proceeded to 
 wash his other foot, and the warriors sat down. 
 He thereupon found the opportunity for speech, 
 and remarked in an off-hand manner: 
 
 ' ' Now, you are sensible people to rest your- 
 selves on this hot day." 
 
 This produced a burst of laughter from the 
 warriors. The spell was broken; the war-like 
 intentions of the party were frustrated; free 
 
Il8 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 and open speech was found. The result was 
 that war was averted, and a secflion of the 
 party was condudled to the mission station, 
 when it was arranged that William and Albert 
 Namalambe, being at that time at Bandawe, 
 should go back with the party and see Mom- 
 bera wdth a view to a permanent residence 
 among the Ngoni. Thus, in the providence of 
 God, the war party that left home bent on war 
 and plunder, returned as guides and escort of 
 the messengers of the Gospel of peace. This 
 incident, which well illustrates the valuable 
 work of our departed colleague, was the pre- 
 lude to the commencement of the work among 
 the Ngoni, the success of which has been 
 very remarkable. 
 
 Mombera, the Ngoni chief, once said to me, 
 ** My army, when away from home, are like 
 mad dogs; they can not be kept in, but bite 
 small and great the same ; ' ' and only those 
 who passed through the fire of the pioneering 
 days at Bandawe and in Ngonilan, can meas- 
 ure the service done that day, not only to the 
 thousands around Bandawe, but toward the 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVED BY GRACE. II9 
 
 success of the Livingstonia mission. Years 
 afterward, when I was one evening encamped 
 at the village near which the Ngoni army was 
 met, the chief related to me the story, and sent 
 a bunch of bananas for William Koyi, to show 
 that he had not forgotten what he had done 
 for them. 
 
 When William accompanied the warriors 
 back to Ngoniland, he and Albert were intro- 
 duced to Mombera, and resided in a hut in one 
 of his villages. The Ngoni took some time 
 before they gave them a welcome, as there was 
 one party favorable to, and another against, 
 their being allowed to stay. They were ex- 
 posed to many insults and threats, and their 
 position was at times extremely critical. They 
 often feared to be both asleep at the same time, 
 and took turns in watching on account of the 
 threatening attitude of the people. In all those 
 days William's knowledge of the Kaffir lan- 
 guage was invaluable. Mombera, the chief, 
 despite his rough manners and despotic be- 
 havior, was very fatherly and fond of children, 
 and formed a remarkable attachment to Albert, 
 
I20 T.HE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 who had a very attradive appearance and man- 
 ner. This Albert, it should be noted, was the 
 first convert in the Livingstonia mission, and 
 has, since Cape Maclear station was vacated by 
 Europeans in 1880, carried on the work there, 
 many having been added to the church through 
 his labors. 
 
 William Koyi was known among the Ngoni 
 by the native name Umtiisani^ and from love 
 to him Mombera had a son named after him. 
 Mombera was very kind to him, and although 
 he often made sport of what was told him of 
 the Gospel, he always showed him great 
 respedl, and was often in hot water with his 
 head men on account of his attachment to him 
 
 AT AN NGONI WAR DANCE. 
 
 On the occasion of the last great tribal func- 
 tion, the ceremony of ' ' crowning ' ' those who, 
 having been out to war and proved their valor, 
 were henceforth to take their places as men in 
 the afEairs of the nation, there was a gathering 
 of several thousand of armed men, in the royal 
 kraal. William attended, as it was politic 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVED BY GRACE. 121 
 
 never to show any signs of fear. A clamor 
 was raised in one of the miHtary parties that 
 he should be killed, as he had come to throw 
 dust in the chief's eyes. One of the most 
 famous of the Ngoni generals, named Da- 
 wambi, led off a great war dance which was 
 very well fitted to make one's hair stand up. 
 This valiant's war whoop was "submit." 
 His movements, as I witnessed on another 
 occasion, were terrible to behold. We were 
 wont to call him Belshazzar, as in his war 
 dancing ' ' he lifted up himself against the 
 Lord of Heaven." With spear in hand he 
 began by walking with uplifted proud look, 
 round and round in front of his warriors, while 
 they continued beating their shields with their 
 war clubs. Then, kicking the dust of the 
 cattle-fold over those around, and pointing his 
 spear at them in seeming indignation, he cried, 
 * ' submit. ' ' The assembled thousands of 
 warriors, beating their shields, cried "submit." 
 Proceeding, he named the several surrounding 
 tribes; the hills and mountains; the sun, moon, 
 and stars; his fury seemingly waxing stronger, 
 
122 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 and the clouds of dust flying, while at each call 
 the warriors beat their shields and cried "sub- 
 mit." The elements of nature, rain, thunder, 
 lightning, were all called upon to submit; and, 
 amid the increasing din of shield-beating and 
 roaring of the warriors, the climax of his dance 
 and his daring blasphemy was reached, when, 
 pointing his spear to the sky, he cried, as the 
 foam flew from his mouth, "Thou who art 
 above, submit!" The tumult was as if all 
 assembled had turned into demons, and it is not 
 surprising that great fear fell on William Koyi, 
 who was alone at the time. Mombera saw his 
 discomfiture, and perhaps feared for his life, 
 and, rising up went and took him by the hand 
 and led him to his own place, and sat down be- 
 side him. It was what, probably, saved his life 
 on that occasion, for if once a cry for blood went 
 out in a company of warriors fired by such 
 dancing as that of Dawambi, they indeed be- 
 came as mad dogs, or worse. Such scenes 
 have forever passed away, but in those days 
 they always ended in bloodshed. 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVED BY GRACE. 1 23 
 
 ACCUSED OF WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 William was in perils oft. On a visit to 
 Ngoniland of some of the members of the Ban- 
 dawe staff, one of the party in a very natural 
 manner touched the head of one of Mombera's 
 children, and remarked how fine a child he 
 was. To do such a thing is considered un- 
 lucky. It so happened that when the party 
 left William, to return to Bandawe, the child 
 sickened and died. The cry was raised that 
 he had been bewitched when he was patted on 
 the head. The matter was threatening enough 
 at the time, and it revealed something of 
 Mombera's chara(fter when he secretly in- 
 formed William, and said that he himself did 
 not agree with those who said the child had 
 been bewitched. The matter was of great 
 importance, and the council summoned the 
 divining men, who fortunately blamed some 
 evil spirit and not the member of the mission. 
 The council were not satisfied, and more than 
 likely the party opposed to the mission con- 
 ceived the idea of seizing on this as a pretext 
 for driving William out of the country, if not 
 
124 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 for killing him. Secretly, Mombera informed 
 him of all that was going on. The council 
 insisted on having recourse to the poison 
 ordeal. Fowls, to represent the mission party, 
 had the poison administered to them. They 
 all vomited, which sign had to be taken as 
 clearing the accused. But so determined, 
 apparently, were the council to obtain a con- 
 vidlion, that they remembered that the usual 
 test as to whether the presiding dodlor was 
 giving true poison {mwave) had not been 
 carried out. They treated one other fowl to 
 the poison, and the result established the inno- 
 cence of the missionaries. The incident serves 
 to show how insecure from man's point of view 
 the position of our hero often was, but to one 
 who walked with God there was in all these 
 things great spiritual help. 
 
 These were not the only occasions on which 
 our colleague was placed in trying circum- 
 stances, which required great wisdom, manli- 
 ness, and devotion to duty; but all through 
 there was no wavering or weakness shown. 
 He understood his position, and the trust 
 
\V..MEN Witch Doctors of S.-ith Africa. 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVKD BY GRACE. 12$ 
 
 which was placed in him, and with characfler- 
 istic humihty and absence of self-seeking, he 
 went through it all, counting it an honor to be 
 a messenger of the cross to Ngoni. Those 
 who have to deal with natives understand how 
 many, who are otherwise good and trust- 
 worthy, lose themselves entirely when entrusted 
 with a little authority. But William Koyi 
 never forgot ' * the hole of the pit whence he 
 was dug," and the character for steadiness, 
 humility, and devotion to duty, which Dr. 
 Stewart gave him, was fully borne out to the 
 very end. 
 
 In those early years of the work among the 
 Ngoni, William had to bear the chief burden 
 of the frequent outbursts of Ngoni pride and 
 impatience. If he was not there alone, and 
 having to meet them himself, he was, till near 
 his death, required as interpreter and chief 
 speaker. I became aware, on several occasions, 
 that he hid from others and from me much 
 of the anger, hard words, and evil intentions 
 of the Ngoni. He was, as a native, able to 
 discount what they said; but his kindly nature 
 
126 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 was shown in his rather suffering obloquy him- 
 self than that his white friends should be dis- 
 tressed. 
 
 WILLIAM AS AN EVANGELIST. 
 
 William Koyi was a devoted evangelist, and, 
 so far as liberty to carry on mission work was 
 given, he was eager to embrace every oppor- 
 tunity for telling of the love of Christ. His 
 life was a sermon which made the people 
 wonder, question, and think. More by per- 
 sonal talks than by set discourse he exercised 
 an influence over the thought of the people, 
 which we can never fully measure. While 
 they w^ere willing to twist our statements to fit 
 them in with their own practices, and to ignore 
 the real objedl of our presence, he kept our 
 objedl ever before them, and compelled their 
 attention to it, in a way at once effedlual and 
 without irritating them. He was a diligent 
 student of the Word of God, and with much 
 warmth of Christian experience he was ever a 
 happy Christian. He had persevered to ac- 
 quire a very fair use of the English language and 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVED BY GRACE. 1 27 
 
 literature. A common Kaffir — ' * a mission 
 Kaffir " — to be sneered at by white men not in 
 possession of a tithe of his manliness or moral 
 charadler, he was one with whom it was a 
 privilege to associate, and from whom, I 
 acknowledge with pride, I received unmeas- 
 ured help, and to whose achievements in those 
 earl}^ daj^s the success we can now chronicle is 
 in- a large measure due. He died before he 
 saw much fruit of his labors among the Ngoni. 
 He lived in the assurance that the day would 
 soon come when the work would be allowed to 
 go on unhindered by the council. He could 
 take a comprehensive view of the aims and 
 work of the mission, looking beyond the im- 
 mediate future, to a degree very remarkable 
 for a native. He strongly urged upon his fel- 
 low-countrymen in the colony the importance 
 and chara(^l;er of the work, and the call for 
 them to give themselves to it. The following 
 is part of a letter written in 1883: 
 
 * ' It will be a great day when the native 
 Christians of South Africa will willingly un- 
 dertake the work here, and give up their lives 
 
128 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 to come and teach their countrymen at Lake 
 Nyasa. I wish I had a better education; I 
 would give myself wholly to my countrymen 
 here. Here is work for Christ standing still. 
 You (native Christians) have received much, 
 and have received education. I do not say 
 you do not work with that education where 
 you are, but can you not spare even two to 
 come and teach these people who are dying in 
 darkness ? What am I to think, and what encour- 
 agement will my poor soul receive, if no attempts 
 are made by you to second my poor efforts? 
 My great wish^ is that there was a white and 
 also a native missionary here, and then the 
 work would progress. I think there should 
 be more coming to help in this great work." 
 
 A TRIUMPHANT DEATH. 
 
 And his death ? How died the faithful soldier 
 of the cross ? As he had lived, strong in faith 
 and in the assurance of acceptance with God 
 
 *This "great wish" was the conviction of Dr. 
 Laws also, and my being sent out in 1884 was the re- 
 sponse to it of friends at home. 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVED BY GRACE. 1 29 
 
 through the merits of Jesus Christ. The sick- 
 ness from which he died ran a rapid course. 
 Having to go to Bandawe, I left him con- 
 valescent from an attack of fever. I had only- 
 been gone a few days when his condition be- 
 came serious, and he expressed a desire to have 
 me with him. I hurried back and found, to 
 my dismay, that a dangerous affe<5lion of the 
 heart had supervened. He rallied for a time, 
 and though still confined to bed, he was full of 
 hope that he was to be raised up again for his 
 work. One day toward the end, a large depu- 
 tation of the chief's headmen were seen ascend- 
 ing the hill to the station. From previous 
 experience we had only too good reasons to be 
 anxious as to their objedl. Great was Will- 
 iam's regret that he could not take his wonted 
 place when the deputation arrived. It was the 
 first occasion on which I had been deprived of 
 his help. I was very anxious, but soon the 
 occasion was one for glad thankfulness to 
 Almighty God. They had come to proclaim 
 that we were now free to teach the children 
 and to go about in the country. As soon as 
 
 111—9. 
 
130 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 they left, I hastened to the sick chamber to 
 give the good news to my dear colleague. As 
 I entered (he was sitting propped up in bed on 
 account of his labored breathing) he said 
 eagerly, "What is it?" "Can you believe 
 it," I said, "we have now full liberty to carry 
 on all our work and open schools ? ' ' Clasping 
 his hands, and taking up the words of the 
 aged Simeon as he beheld the Savior, with a 
 never-to-be-forgotten gleam of joy lighting up 
 his wasted countenance, he said, " Lord, now 
 lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, for 
 mine eyes have seen Thy salvation ! ' ' 
 
 He was overcome and lay for a time as if dead. 
 The words he uttered were his prayer, and it 
 was answered two days afterward, when, in 
 peace he was taken to the higher service of 
 the sanc5luary above. " My Savior is with 
 me," were his last words. The words he 
 uttered were also his thanksgiving, and his 
 resignation. During the interv^al till his death, 
 quite contrary to his former hopefulness of 
 recovery, he was assured he was to die. Once 
 he said he would like to be raised up to see the 
 
AN AFRICAN SAVED BY GRACE. I3I 
 
 work in progress, but he knew it was to be 
 otherwise, and he said it was best. 
 
 So died William Koyi, a humble and faith- 
 ful follower of the Savior; a trophy from 
 heathenism, and the pioneer of the Gospel in 
 Ngoniland. It was meet that, his work done, 
 his dust should rest where he had fought the 
 battle, and his grave become the title-deed to 
 ''Ngoniland for Christ." His was the first 
 mission grave opened there. 
 
 John Ruskin says, ' ' The lives we need to 
 have written for us are those of the people 
 whom the world has not thought of — who are 
 yet doing the most of its work, and of whom 
 we may learn how it can best be done. ' ' 
 
No. VIII. 
 
 Thk Blind Apostle of Manchuria. 
 
 'HE simple story of Ch'ang's conver- 
 sion and apostolic labors is in itself 
 a whole volume of evidences of 
 Christianity. He was a member 
 of the Hun Yuen, a secft of Buddhists that 
 abstained from both flesh and wine, as vege- 
 tarians, and are, in their way, ver}^ earnest, 
 devout, and zealous. They form one of very 
 many secret organizations in China, and be- 
 cause of this principle of secrecy, are under 
 suspicion by the government as involving 
 danger, possibly, to the imperial rule. Their 
 rites of initiation, like those of freema.sonry, 
 are profoundl)^ secret. 
 
 Ch'ang was a blind man, but tho outwardly 
 blind, the inward eye was opened to the truth 
 wherever he could find it. He was well trained 
 in the teachings not only of Buddha but of 
 Confucius, but as is too often the case, these 
 132 
 
BLIND APOSTLE OF MANCHURIA. 1 33 
 
 systems of ethics failed to touch his heart or 
 rule his condudl, and among other vices which 
 ruled him was an inv^eterate attachment to 
 gambling. 
 
 In 1886, when about thirty-seven 3^ears of 
 age, his sight began to fail rapidly, and he was 
 threatened with total blindness. 
 
 He lived in Tai-piug-kou, a remote moun- 
 tain village; but the report of the wonderful 
 cures accomplished by Dr. Christie, a medical 
 missionary of the United Presbyterian Church 
 at Moukden, Manchuria, penetrated to his dis- 
 tant home. In hopes that his sight might be 
 restored, he undertook a journey of more than 
 one hundred miles, groping his way as a 
 blind man over weary roads, to place himself 
 under Dr. Christie's care and treatment. 
 
 In order to pay the debts incurred in gam- 
 bling, he had sold whatever he possessed, and 
 took with him what remained, to pay for his 
 lodging, etc., in Moukden; but, falling among 
 robbers, he was despoiled of everything on 
 the way, and left to starve. Nevertheless he 
 plodded on, weak and weary, until one morn- 
 
134 'I'HE MIRACLES OE MISSIONS. 
 
 ing, destitute and desolate, and with scarcely 
 any clothes left upon him, and in the last stages 
 of dysentery, this poor blind man was found at 
 the gate of the mission hospital. The beds 
 were all full, but so great was the compassion 
 awakened in his behalf, that the native evan- 
 gelist gave up his own couch, that Ch'ang 
 might be provided for. He received the best 
 care and nursing, and before long his health 
 was restored. 
 
 The treatment of his eyes issued in a partial 
 cure, so that he was able to see a little, but, 
 soon after he left the hospital, a Chinese friend 
 and adviser assured him that he would regain 
 his sight by pricking his eyes with a 7ieedle! 
 Poor Ch'ang submitted to the operation, but 
 the very natural result was that, instead of 
 remedying his blindness, it now became total 
 and incurable. 
 
 However, his reception at the mission hos- 
 pital was not in vain. He had heard some 
 Christian instrudion, and the seeds of the 
 kingdom took root in his very soul. He had 
 known enough of Buddha and Confucius to 
 
9^. 
 
 'f?i_'* ' 
 
 
 M' 
 
 iMP" 
 
 11 
 
 fcs."*- 
 
 Kf «»-^ m 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
BLIND APOSTLE OF MANCHURIA. 1 35 
 
 find whatever was helpful in their teaching, 
 but he now saw that Christ alone was able to 
 feed and fill the longings of his soul, and he 
 at once received Him not only as Savior, but 
 as Master and Lord. Desirous to fulfil all 
 righteousness, he asked to be baptized; but as 
 a month had not then expired since his con- 
 version, his teacher felt that it was wiser to 
 put him on probation, deferring his baptism 
 until his piety had been subjedled to a longer 
 test. How pathetic was the reply of this blind 
 disciple: " None of m)^ people have ever heard 
 even the name of Jesus, or of His offer of the 
 gift of eternal life; and do you think I can 
 keep that to myself any longer ? I do wish for 
 baptism, but I can not delay my return." 
 
 So this poor blind man was dismissed with- 
 out having received the outward sign and seal 
 of his new discipleship; but his friend, Rev. 
 James Webster, comforted him with the 
 promise that he would by and by seek him out 
 in his remote mountain village, and there 
 administer the ordinance. There were, how- 
 ever, only three missionaries in Moukden, and 
 
136 THK MIRACLES OK MISSIONS. 
 
 the duties incumbent upon them were more 
 numerous and onerous than they could properl}^ 
 discharge ; so that a half year had elapsed 
 before Mr. Webster could go to Tai-ping-kou, 
 and even then he found the journey very difl&- 
 cult. What was his astonishment, as he ap- 
 proached this distant abode of Ch'ang, to find 
 that, altho blindness is so common in China — 
 it is supposed that there are 500,000 blind peo- 
 ple in the empire, or an average of about 
 one in every six hundred souls — this poor 
 blind man seemed to be a famous charadler in 
 the vicinity; and, when at length he reached 
 the village, which no foreigner appeared ever to 
 have visited before, instead of being received 
 with the usual signs of aversion, called 
 "foreign devil," etc., the village school- 
 master, Mr. lyi, gave him a cordial welcome, 
 as the expecfled ' ' pastor ' ' whose visit had been 
 promised, and who had at length come to fulfil 
 his promise. From him Mr. Webster learned 
 that Ch'ang had gone forth on his daily occu- 
 pation, itinerating from village to village, un- 
 hindered by the mudd}^ swamps, rugged hills, 
 
BLIND APOSTLE OF MANCHURIA. 1 37 
 
 and crooked paths, which even to those who 
 had sight proved so wearisome and difficult, 
 and that the sole work of Ch'ang was to wit- 
 ness for the new Jesus whom he had found, 
 and to tell the people about his Savior and 
 lyord. Sometimes in the evenings he gathered 
 hundreds of hearers beneath the shade of wil- 
 low trees, or availed himself of such smaller 
 gatherings as he could assemble in private 
 houses. 
 
 His experience had been of a somewhat 
 varied charadler. He was at first met with 
 ridicule, or with pity, as one who was not only 
 blind but crazy; but he persevered, meanwhile 
 giving the higher witness of a holy life and a 
 transformed charadter. Public opinion was 
 divided, some blessing and some cursing, but 
 still he kept on in his blessed work, living for 
 God and walking in His fellowship, praying in 
 faith for help from above, and singing the one 
 hymn that he had learned in the hospital: 
 This I know, that Jesus loves me. 
 
 These daily journeys were taken alone — a 
 blind man, with no companion but his staff, 
 
138 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 and no guide but his invisible Master, un- 
 weariedly telling the simple story of good news 
 of eternal life in Jesus Christ to all whom he 
 could induce to listen. 
 
 Mr. Li, already referred to as the village 
 schoolmaster, and himself the first convert won 
 to Christ by Ch'ang, testified that the result 
 of these simple apostolic journeys was, that a 
 large number first inquired earnestly about the 
 dodtrine that Ch'ang taught, and then be- 
 came sincere believers, and desired to be faith- 
 ful followers of this new Master. 
 
 When Ch'ang came back from his day's 
 work, his delight on learning that Mr. Webster 
 had come was most touching to behold. From 
 his sightless eyes tears flowed down, as he 
 exclaimed: "Oh, pastor, I alwaj^s said you 
 would come ! ' ' his words showing that others 
 had met with scoffing his confidence in his 
 friend's promise. Very soon he had sent 
 messengers in every diredlion to the various 
 villages roundabout, and his converts soon 
 arrived. One by one, in their own simple w^ay, 
 but with deep feeling and earnest resolution, 
 
BLIND APOSTLE OI^ MANCHURIA. 1 39 
 
 they told of their faith in Jesus, and gave such 
 proofs of genuineness that, on the next day, 
 nine of them, with their blind teacher at the 
 head, received baptism, and thus outwardly 
 put on Christ, altho such obedience to His 
 commands exposed them not only to ridicule 
 and opposition, but to the risk of persecution 
 even unto death, and in forms atrociously cruel. 
 Others likewise wishing baptism, they were 
 told to wait until they could be more fully 
 taught in the things of God. Let us hear Mr. 
 Webster's own testimony: 
 
 " One thing of which I am well assured, is 
 this: Blind Ch'ang, of Tai-ping-kou, with little 
 knowledge, but with a heart thrilled to the 
 core with the truth which he knew, had in 
 these months done more work and better work 
 for the Kingdom of Heaven than half-a-dozen 
 foreign missionaries could have done in as 
 many years. And this is only one of many 
 proofs that China must be evangelized by the 
 Chinese." 
 
 Ch'ang told Mr. Webster of a night-vision 
 which he had, soon after leaving the mission, 
 
140 THE MIRACLES OE MISSIONS. 
 
 and which had been a great source of comfort. 
 He had seen the Savior in white garments 
 and with a dazzling crown, approaching him 
 with a book in His hand, which he gave to 
 him with a smile, and straightway vanished. 
 Mr. Webster interpreted his vision: the Word 
 of God was now to be given to the blind, and 
 if he wished to teach others, he must himself 
 learn to read the book. He then told him of 
 Mr. W. H. Murray's school for the blind at 
 Peking, and encouraged him to go there as a 
 student. 
 
 The thought of learning to read and write 
 seemed to Ch'ang like a myth, but to please 
 his teacher and pastor, he promised that he 
 would do his best; and, led b}^ a blind lad, he 
 undertook on foot the hundred miles' journey 
 over the mountains to Moukden, then he took 
 boat to Niu Chwang, and by cart, from Tung- 
 chow to Peking. He was greeted with a warm 
 welcome by Mr. Murray, and, within three 
 months, he had so mastered the arts of reading 
 and writing, and also of writing and reading 
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BLIND APOSTLE OF MANCHURIA. 141 
 
 pupil. Mr. Murray desired Ch'aug to remain 
 for a longer course of teaching, but the blind 
 lad, who had condudled him, continued to be 
 ill, and his own longing to go back to his 
 countrymen and impart the knowledge of 
 Jesus to them impelled him to return. He 
 said: " My countrymen are all heathen, and I 
 must go and show them what Jesus has done 
 for me, and teach them His precious Gospel." 
 He started for home, provided with such por- 
 tions of the Scriptures as had then been stereo- 
 typed by the blind students, and with a new 
 writing frame, and soon gladdened Mr. Mur- 
 ray's heart by a letter from his own hand in 
 embossed type. Again he began his daily 
 journeys, reading the Word of God to crowds 
 of his countrymen, who were surprised to see 
 a blind man read with his finger tips. 
 
 Four years later he returned to Peking 
 for further instru(5lion, and, since then, has 
 been working as a pioneer in the Manchurian 
 mountains, at one time reaching a distridl fully 
 two hundred miles eastward. His work has 
 been prospered in a most remarkable degree, 
 
142 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 and many thank God that Ch'ang became 
 blind, for otherwise there might have been no 
 Christians as 3^et in that vicinit3\ 
 
 Rev. John Ross, D.D., well known for his 
 apostolic labors in Manchuria, visited Tai-ping- 
 kou in 1890, and thus testified to those con- 
 verted through Ch'ang's preaching: 
 
 " One of those baptized, named Lin, w^as at 
 one time a highway robber. He was also a 
 heavy opium smoker, and guilty of most of 
 the vices of vicious China. His was a decided 
 case of thorough conversion. A look into the 
 man's face showed what a change had come 
 over him. 
 
 ' ' Next to him stood a native doc5lor, close 
 upon seventy years of age, who had come 
 from a long distance to ask for baptism. He 
 had heard the story of the cross from an old 
 member. He wondered whether it was possi- 
 ble that God could display such mercy as to 
 forgive the sins of a lifetime. Simple-minded 
 as a child, this man received the truth with joy. 
 
 " Beside him was a man named Chao, who 
 had from youth up earnestly sought after truth. 
 
BLIND APOSTLK OF MANCHURIA. 1 43 
 
 He had become a stridl ascetic at an early age, 
 and always meditated on ' The True. ' His in- 
 fluence afterward became so great that over a 
 thousand disciples followed his lead, and prac- 
 tised the same austerities and religious forms. 
 His word with them was law. (He was the 
 local leader of the Hun Yuen secfl.) A more 
 modest man I have not met in Manchuria, nor 
 a man who had dived so deep into the treasures 
 of truth. The questions w^hich he constantly 
 presented showed him to be a profound thinker. 
 His one great regret was that he had led so 
 many men in search of peace, ' on the wrong 
 way.' Most of his disciples are well-to-do, 
 and he loses a large income by becoming a 
 Christian. 
 
 ' ' Close by this man stood a man of twenty- 
 two, a disciple of the last mentioned. His 
 father is one of the largest landowners in that 
 region. His parents were quite willing that 
 he should be baptized, being themselves secret 
 believers, also disciples of Chao. 
 
 "The fifth was a blind man, formerly a 
 schoolmaster, whose peace of mind was well 
 
144 '^HK MIRACIvKS OF MISSIONS. 
 
 displayed in a face always shining with the 
 light within. Before a year is over, each of 
 these will have borne his own fruit, in bringing 
 others in. 
 
 ' ' There was in all a company of twenty- 
 four believers, who met twice daily for Chris- 
 tian instrudlion. They certainly seemed like 
 thirsty ground drinking in the refreshing rain. 
 For an hour each time I spoke on some Chris- 
 tian truth, and when done, I was plied with 
 questions to elicit further instructions. ' ' 
 
 In 1 89 1, Rev. James Webster once more 
 visited the distridl of Tai-ping-kou, and we add 
 his testimony: 
 
 '' Ch'ang was looking stout and ruddy, as if 
 his frequent fastings had done him no harm. 
 
 ' ' Where six years ago we stood and viewed 
 the wide surrounding country wholly given to 
 idolatry, without a single believer, there are 
 now upward of 150 baptized converts, and as 
 many more who believe, and who will ere long 
 proclaim themselves for Christ. But that does 
 not tell half the story of blessing, for from that 
 valley rays of Gospel light have streamed out 
 
BI,IND APOSTI^K OF MANCHURIA. 1 45 
 
 to Other villages which were sitting in dark- 
 ness, but are now rejoicing in the light. Many 
 are the imperfedlions of the converts, and 
 great is their need for further instrudlion, but 
 their word has been wonderfully owned of 
 God. Truly this is the Lord's doing, and it is 
 marvelous in our eyes. ' ' 
 
 In 1892, the year of persecution, Ch'ang's 
 converts were found to number over three 
 hundred, and about three years later, fully five 
 hundred. In the early years of his work, Mr. 
 Li, his first convert, was his assistant in teach- 
 ing and preaching; and in 1897 Mr. Webster 
 thus sums up the results of Ch'ang's preaching: 
 
 ' ' The work in Mai-mai-gai was certainly 
 begun by him, and so we may say that indi- 
 redlly the church in that region owes its ex- 
 istence, under God, to blind Ch'ang. Several 
 years ago he went to another distridl, 200 
 miles further east, and began a work there 
 which has prospered year by year, and is one 
 of our most hopeful stations at the present 
 moment. Ch'ang has his failings like every- 
 body else, but take him all around, there is no 
 
146 THE MIRACI.es of MISSIONS. 
 
 more earnest or successful lay evangelist in 
 Manchuria, or one who has been more blessed 
 of God in winning men to Christ. Hundreds 
 in Manchuria owe their Christian faith to his 
 diredl agency, and hundreds more are in the 
 church to-day as the fruits of the seed he was 
 privileged to sow. He has been the means of 
 winning more men for Christ than any other 
 man I know." 
 
 The memory of this blind man is surprising. 
 He now knows by heart the whole of the New 
 Testament, the Psalms, and several other Old 
 Testament books, and can quote them with 
 such amazing exadlness, that if you mention 
 a chapter and ask him to repeat, say from a 
 certain verse to the end of another, he fault- 
 lessly quotes what lies between these limits, 
 even to the exadl words which begin and end 
 the passage. Surely this blind apostle of 
 Manchuria is, as we said at the beginning, 
 himself an all- convincing argument for the 
 truth and power of the Gospel, and his zeal 
 for God and passion for souls put more favored 
 disciples to shame. Who can estimate by any 
 
BLIND APOSTLK OF MANCHURIA. 1 47 
 
 mathematical calculation the worth of one such 
 convert to the kingdom of God ? How vain 
 to raise that carnal question, "Do Missions 
 Pay?" in view of results like these, which 
 only eternity can measure or weigh! 
 
No. IX. 
 Among the Little Waifs of London.* 
 
 |HE ' ' Nestor of Home Missions, ' ' 
 as Mr. George Holland is com- 
 monly regarded, is almost as well 
 known in the United States as in 
 England. Hosts of American visitors find 
 their way to this famous evangelical center to 
 interview the grand old veteran, and to study 
 for themselves the remarkable cluster of Chris- 
 tian and philanthropic agencies which have 
 grown up around him. 
 
 The locality in which Mr. Holland labors is 
 one of the poorest and most dense in London. 
 It is not now, however, the Whitechapel of 
 olden times, nor even of forty -five years ago, 
 when, in response to the marvelous leadings of 
 the Lord, these institutions were first begun in 
 humbleness and obscurity. From time im- 
 
 * This sketch was furnished by "Pearl Fisher," 
 the late Thomas Paul. 
 
 148 
 
Copyright by Elliott & Fry. 
 
 Geo. Holland. 
 
 'The Nestor of City Missions. 
 
THE LITTLE WAIFS OF LONDON. 1 49 
 
 memorial, Whitechapel has been the dumping- 
 place of the crime of the country round about, 
 a place of refuge for the worst desperadoes, 
 criminals, and the viciously inclined. Even 
 forty years ago when the work was first started, 
 the distridl was infested by multitudes of the 
 most depraved and dangerous classes. Almost 
 every house was a den of thieves and harlots, 
 while most of the public houses were common 
 resorts of gangs of sharpers and criminals of 
 all kinds. Part of the present mission build- 
 ing acftually stands on the spot occupied for 
 nearly two centuries by a tavern called the 
 ' * Black Horse, ' ' one of the most notorious of 
 such dens. It is said to have been labyrinthed 
 by secret exits and cunning contrivances to 
 facilitate the escape of fugitives from the law. 
 For many decades these baffled the ingenuity 
 of the detedlives, but at length strong measures 
 were adopted; the license of the tavern was 
 canceled, and this nest of crime was finally 
 swept away. 
 
 ' ' Thus, ' ' as has been said, ' ' the headquarters 
 of the George Yard Missions are pitched on an 
 
I50 THE MIRACI.es OE MISSIONS. 
 
 extindl volcano; the main block being built on 
 the site of an ancient distillery, and the shelter 
 on the ground formerly occupied by the 
 infamous 'Black Horse,' — that rendezvous 
 of highwaymen, robbers, and murderers." 
 Traces of these evil days lingered long on the 
 premises. A large drain-pipe gave much 
 trouble by repeated stoppages. It was found 
 to be choked with empt}^ purses, which had 
 evidently been snatched from passers-b}^ rifled 
 of their contents, and thrown on the roof. In 
 the early days of the mission the women of 
 the courts around would suddenly all blossom 
 out in new print dresses, " all of a pattern," 
 as the result of a raid upon some dry goods 
 store. The second day on which Mr. Holland 
 first visited the scene of his future labors, a 
 policeman, with kindly intent, tapping him on 
 the shoulder, said, *' Do you know where you 
 are going. Sir ? " " Yes, I do, " was the reply. 
 "Very well, all that I can say is that many 
 gentlemen have gone down there, who have 
 never appeared again, and I thought I must 
 warn you. ' ' 
 
THE LITTLE WAIFS OF LONDON. 151 
 
 Happily this state of things has now passed 
 away. Poor as the districfl is. visitors of to- 
 day may venture into it with safety. Crimin- 
 als are far from extindl, but law and order 
 have the upper hand. At one time the cry of 
 ' ' Stop thief, ' ' might resound fifty times a day 
 in High Street, now it is of rare occurrence. 
 It might not, however, be advisable, even yet, 
 for a visitor to flaunt a gold chain or sparkling 
 jewel in the hungry eyes of the hanger-on of 
 Whitechapel or Mile End Waste. But the 
 change from former days is marvelous, a 
 change which has undoubtedly been largely 
 brought about by the beneficent operations of 
 the George Yard Ragged School Mission, and 
 similar institutions. During the great dock 
 strike, which shook London to its center, the 
 strikers— gaunt, grim, and desperate— were 
 marching en masse past the mission premises, 
 when a socialistic leader, who stood watching, 
 turned to Mr. Holland, and said, "Do you 
 know what keeps these men from sacking 
 London ? " " What do you mean ? ' ' was the 
 reply. ''Only this, it is the influence of such 
 
152 THE MIRACLES OP MISSIONS. 
 
 missions of mercy as 3^ours." All thoughtful, 
 observant men know that this witness is 
 true. 
 
 It may be interesting and instrudlive to re- 
 call the origin of this noble and useful work. 
 God still sele(fts and trains men of His own 
 choosing for His service in special spheres. It 
 was so in this case. Into this region of crime 
 and shame and misery there came, forty-five 
 years ago, a young man wholly without 
 thought of any special labor among the poor. 
 His purpose was to ' ' read ' ' with the incum- 
 bent of an adjoining church, and so prepare 
 himself for ordination to the ministry of the 
 Church of England. But God had other plans 
 for George Holland. Introduced into White- 
 chapel, seemingly by chance, he saw things of 
 which he had never dreamed as possible in 
 London. His heart was deeply moved at the 
 sight of youthful depravity, negledl, and suf- 
 fering which he saw on every side. The bur- 
 den pressed upon his soul, and without thought 
 of any future vocation, he was led — touched in 
 some degree by that compassion which welled 
 
THE LITTLE WAIFS OP LONDON. 153 
 
 forth from the heart of our Lord when he wept 
 over rebellious Jerusalem- -to gather around 
 him a few ragged boys that he might instrucft 
 them intelledlually and morally. Unpromising 
 material they undeniably were. Board schools 
 and Sunday-schools were alike unknown to 
 them. Discipline they scouted ; lessons they 
 abhorred. Suspicion and distrust were deeply 
 rooted by daily contad: with lawless and cruel 
 men. With such boys force was of no avail 
 to improve their condition. If anything was 
 to be done for them, it must be by the con- 
 straint of love. To mission-workers of to-day 
 this is a truism, but the young pioneer of forty 
 years ago had to learn it by experience. Toil- 
 some and tedious was the task, but love and 
 patience prevailed. Rude, rough, and reck- 
 less as his first boys seemed, heartbreaking 
 and hopeless as their condition appeared to be, 
 the youthful but earnest worker was enabled 
 by God's help to persevere until he gained 
 their afcedlion and confidence. So completely 
 did he win them that they walked to North 
 London twice a day to escort him to and from 
 
154 '^^HB MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Whitechapel. Nor did this clamorous body- 
 guard escape public notice. The dwellers in 
 that quiet neighborhood in North London were 
 at first alarmed at the invasion of these fifty 
 Whitechapel urchins, but soon found that they 
 had no evil intent. These early and unorgan- 
 ized efforts were far from fruitless. God gave 
 His young servant much encouragement, so 
 that to-day in many parts of the world there 
 may be found godly and prosperous men, who 
 owe their well-being to these early endeavors 
 in Whitechapel. 
 
 Mr. Holland soon found that his whole time 
 must be given to this work, and he settled 
 down to labor permanently among the outcast 
 and negledled, the ragged and wretched boys 
 and girls of Bast London. The highways, 
 courts, and alleys of Whitechapel were scoured, 
 bringing together the most motley and gro^ 
 tesque assemblies it is possible to imagine. 
 Crowds of ill-fed, ill-clad children were col- 
 ledled, of whom scarcely one in five boasted 
 shoes and stockings. This ' ' raw material ' ' had 
 a kind of magnetic attraction for George Hoi- 
 
THE WTTI^E WAIFS OF LONDON. 1 55 
 
 land; to mold and shape it for God, to gather 
 and polish these rough diamonds for his Master 
 became the aim of his life. He made many 
 and great personal sacrifices in order to devote 
 himself to the rescue of these negledled chil- 
 dren, and to point them to that Savior of whom 
 they knew as little as the ' ' untutored Hotten- 
 tot. " But from that time his days have been 
 devoted with singular assiduity and simplicity 
 of purpose to the service whereunto he so man- 
 ifestly was called. 
 
 Work of this kind must grow — it is the law 
 of life. A little dismal room was secured in 
 George Yard for the first class of rough boys ; 
 but the children thronged in, and before long 
 provision had to be made for them. This ne- 
 cessitated a new departure. More workers 
 were needed, for one man could not do it all. 
 More funds were required to furnish suitable 
 accommodations and appliances. Both of these 
 needs were left with God, and both workers 
 and funds were provided as they were required. 
 Mr. Holland says: 
 
 " Nothing has been more remarkable in the 
 
156 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 whole history of the mission than the way in 
 which every lack has been met — often it has 
 seemed nothing less than miraculous. Funds 
 have come, we know not how; workers have 
 been raised up, and we can only look on them 
 as sent of God. We have been wonderfully 
 favored with devoted workers, belonging to all 
 ranks of society. Peeresses have been among 
 our most energetic teachers. Men of high 
 rank have taught in the classes, side by side 
 with humble costers and work girls. Some 
 who in later years have done noble service for 
 God, first caught the enthusiasm in our Bast 
 End Mission rooms. We can never forget the 
 service rendered by the Misses Beauchamp 
 and their devoted brother, now an honored 
 missionary in China. Nor is this singular in 
 our experience. We have had help from those 
 moving in Royal circles, while ladies of exalted 
 rank have regularly conducted Bible classes, 
 traveling in some cases from distant country 
 seats on purpose to meet their class, and re- 
 turning home again in the evening. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Holland tells the following incident 
 
THK LITTLE WAIFS OF LONDON. 1 57 
 
 showing God's care for those who trust 
 Him: 
 
 ' ' One very cold February morning, when 
 the snow lay thick on the pavement, about 350 
 hungry and half-clad children stood outside 
 the George Yard Mission school. The news- 
 papers that morning had published the sad 
 news about the distress that existed in East 
 London, and stated that some had perished 
 from want and exposure, and that many more 
 were starving. 
 
 " I left home earlier than usual, so that the 
 children should be admitted into the lodge 
 room, and be able to warm themselves by the 
 fire. The door was opened and the children 
 were admitted, but most of them were crying 
 from hunger and cold. I was without money. 
 To whom could I turn but to the lyord. We 
 knelt in prayer, and told God about our dis- 
 tress. We waited, but no food came. Twelve 
 o'clock, I o'clock came, and still no food. At 
 2 o'clock a poor girl (carrying a baby in her 
 arms, its little head drooping) said: ' Please, 
 may I go and ask my heavenly Father for 
 
158 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 food?' She retired, and on returning said: 
 'I think He has heard me.' But 3 o'clock 
 came, and still no food. At 4 a loud knock- 
 ing was heard as the door. Outside was a 
 large wagon in charge of a gentleman, who 
 asked: 
 
 ' * ' Do you want any food ? ' 
 
 '' 'Yes.' 
 
 ' ' It took four men to lift down the large can 
 of good soup from the wagon, and carry it 
 inside the mission room. The gentleman left 
 without telling his name or how he came to 
 bring the soup, or where he came from, and 
 bade me ask no questions. He would send for 
 the can. ' You will find that it is coarsely 
 made,' he said; ' we had no time to cut up the 
 vegetables; you will find whole onions, carrots, 
 heads of celery, plenty of meat.' 
 
 * ' The children were sent home for basins, 
 and returned with divers kind of utensils; 
 flower-pots, with the hole stopped by a cork, 
 broken cups, jars, sauce-pans, tin cans — any- 
 thing. While we were in the midst of serving 
 out this welcome meal, the gentleman returned, 
 
THE IvlTTLE WAIFS OF I^ONDON. 159 
 
 and said, 'You can not do without bread.' 
 He handed me a card, on which was written a 
 large order on a bakery near at hand. When 
 asked how he knew that we were in need of 
 food, he replied: 
 
 " * At 9 o'clock this morning I was reading 
 about the distress in the papers. We had 
 some broken food in the house, meat and 
 vegetables were purchased, roughly prepared, 
 and made into soup. After having put it into 
 the can I started for Whitechapel and called at 
 the baker's shop, where I purchased the bread, 
 and asked if they knew of any one who would 
 like to have the soup. They sent me on to 
 you.' " 
 
 The " Children's Karl," the great and good 
 lyord Shaftesbury, identified himself in a 
 special manner with George Yard, spending 
 hours there in a most simple and homely way, 
 making himself perfedlly free and happy with 
 the poor children, and speaking constantly of 
 Mr. Holland as a personal friend. " I would 
 rather, ' ' he said, ' ' be George than ninety-nine 
 hundredths of the great dead and living. ' ' The 
 
l6o THK MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Earl's diary has many such references to 
 George Yard Mission, and ' ' that inestimable 
 man, George Holland." Many tokens of his 
 regard may be seen at the mission, where also 
 are loyally cherished two precious volumes 
 sent by her Majesty, Queen Vidloria, and 
 inscribed with her own hand. There are other 
 gifts inscribed from H. R. H. the Duchess of 
 Teck, and from her daughter. Princess May, 
 now the Duchess of York. These fadls are 
 referred to, simply to show the way in which 
 God has acknowledged and supported this 
 work. To omit them would be to miss one 
 charadleristic feature of the institution, in 
 which rich and poor have very happily been 
 brought together in a way helpful to both. It 
 may also be recorded that in this East End 
 Mission to the poor and outcast, some of 
 the rich and noble have been converted to 
 God. 
 
 The work which began with the children 
 soon included their elders. In early days 
 these were hard to reach. For a long time 
 they refused even to come into the mission 
 
THE IvlTTl^K WAIFS OF LONDON. l6l 
 
 rooms. But Mr. Holland would not be dis- 
 couraged. He hired a little room in a blind 
 alley, and there began to hold meetings for 
 them. All the light they had was from two 
 candles stuck in the necks of bottles. These 
 meetings went on very well, until one evening 
 the floor caved in with the unaccustomed 
 weight. The landlord, a Jew, then built a 
 small hall, into which were gathered many of 
 the most wretched and degraded. 
 
 Meanwhile the work at the central mission 
 was growing as the children flocked in and 
 workers were raised up by God. Day schools 
 were started for the illiterate children, and are 
 yet maintained with great efficiency. Only a 
 short time ago, in paying a visit to these 
 schools, I found every seat occupied by children 
 of the most negledled and destitute class, who, 
 while learning the rudiments of arithmetic and 
 letters, were also being educated in Christian 
 love, cleanliness, and obedience. The same 
 type of children throng the Sunday-schools, 
 morning, afternoon, and evening, each Lord's 
 day. More than sixty thousand children have 
 
1 62 THE MIRACI.KS OF MISSIONS. 
 
 passed through these schools, and the number 
 of the redeemed who have been gathered there, 
 no man can tell. Innumerable testimonials 
 might be given of those who have passed in to 
 see the King, and of others who are still serv- 
 ing Him as pastors, missionaries, evangelists, 
 teachers, and Christian men of business. 
 
 Dwelling among his loved children, daily ob- 
 servant of their needs and temptations, Mr. 
 Holland added a host of useful agencies, each 
 with its definite aim. These include industrial 
 and sewing classes for boys who have never 
 learnt to use their hands; sewing classes for 
 girls and women; boys' clubs, to keep them 
 from the evils of the streets; Bible classes for 
 old and young; games and recreation classes 
 for the little ones; free meals and other well- 
 devised plans for feeding the hungry and cloth- 
 ing the naked. It is the boast at George Yard 
 that no really destitute child is ever sent away 
 hungry. Moreover, homeless and friendless 
 waifs frequently turn up, and these are 
 sheltered, taught, and cared for, until friends 
 are found, or they are ready to earn their own 
 
THE IvITTLE WAIFS OF LONDON. 163 
 
 living. There is also a creche (or day nursery) , 
 and never does the veteran superintendent seem 
 more happy than when among his babies, who 
 throng the airy nursery, as merry with their 
 toys and nurses as the day is long. 
 
 The work among the young people — particu- 
 larly in behalf of young working-girls — has 
 assumed large dimensions, and has been the 
 means of saving hundreds from treading the 
 path of sin and shame. Classes, clubs, and 
 reading-rooms are provided, and the crown was 
 put on this branch of the work not long ago 
 by the opening of the beautiful Kinnaird Room 
 as an evening resort for working-girls. 
 
 The evangelistic services at the mission are 
 deeply interesting by reason of the poverty of 
 those who attend. In few places in London 
 can such an audience be found. Five or six 
 hundred of the poorest of the poor may be 
 seen gathered here any Sunday evening. They 
 listen quietly to the Gospel, plainly and faith- 
 fully spoken, and the services have been much 
 owned of God. But in addition to this, the 
 Gospel is also carried to those who will not come 
 
1 64 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 to hear; workers go even into the common 
 lodging houses, the last miserable resort of the 
 fallen, the sinful, the self -destroyed. Great 
 difficulty was found at first in entering these 
 places, but now a welcome is given to the 
 workers who are brave enough to face such 
 unutterable abominations of a common kitchen 
 that they may have an opportunity to tell of 
 the love of Christ to those weak and wander- 
 ing sheep. Open-air preaching is now regu- 
 larly carried on without interruption or diffi- 
 culty; but in the pioneer days the open-air 
 preachers — often Mr. Holland by himself — had 
 to endure much fierce opposition, and to stand 
 fire in the shape of old boots and bottles, de- 
 cayed vegetables, and many viler missiles. The 
 people now listen respedlfuUy and willingly. 
 
 The master-vice of Whitechapel being in- 
 temperance, the mission has all along put 
 Gospel temperance well to the front, and for 
 many years a special woman missionary has 
 been at work, going from house to house 
 among inebriate women. Many, formerly 
 slaves to strong drink, have, by patient en- 
 
THE LITTLE WAIFS OF LONDON, 165 
 
 deavor and tireless watchfulness, been freed 
 •from slavery to this accursed and soul-destroy- 
 ing habit. A weekly meeting is held for the 
 reclaimed drunkards, and their testimonies and 
 fervent prayers for others still enslaved, are 
 singularly inspiring, though often decidedly 
 unconventional. There are also bands of hope 
 and total abstinence societies vigorously and 
 effedlively at work. 
 
 Far away from dingy Whitechapel, but con- 
 neded with this work, a beautiful colony has 
 been established by the generosity of Lady 
 Ashburton on her estate at Addiscombe. This 
 colony includes the ' ' Mary Baring Nest, ' ' for 
 aiHng children; the " Louisa Lady Ashburton 
 Rest," for worn out and convalescent parents; 
 and the "George Holland Dovecot Home," 
 for mothers and infants. To these has lately 
 been added an iron room for evangelistic and 
 other services. All these were eredled and are 
 maintained by her ladyship on behalf of Mr. 
 Holland's poor. Moreover, H. R. H. the late 
 Duchess of Teck regularly received, two by 
 two, poor women, for three weeks at a time, 
 
1 66 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 at her cottage near the White Lodge, in 
 Coombe Wood, her usual residence. Another 
 branch is the Training Home for Motherless 
 Girls, now situated at Addiscombe, but origin- 
 ally opened by Miss Marsh and her sister, Mrs 
 Chalmers, at Beckenham. Large numbers of 
 friendless and endangered girls have passed 
 through this home, and are now in service or in 
 homes of their own. Still another beautiful 
 holiday home for poor children from George 
 Yard was eredted by Mr. H. Barclay at Great 
 Bookham, in memory of a dear friend, and in 
 place of an expensive monument. But, in. 
 deed, the story of such love gifts is well nigh 
 endless. At the mission center itself block 
 after block has been added, as need arose, by 
 stewards of God, who have been content to re- 
 main unknown. To attempt to chronicle all 
 the tokens of a Father's loving hand, which 
 have signalized the history of George Yard, 
 would be a hopeless undertaking. From first 
 to last it has been evident to all beholders that, 
 working in the line of the Divine purpose, the 
 blessing of the Lord has rested upon it. Trials 
 
THB LITTLE WAIFS OP LONDON. 1 67 
 
 of faith, failures, and disappointments have 
 not been lacking, but out of them all God gave 
 deliverance. Like that other veteran of faith, 
 George Miiller, George Holland has proved 
 afresh in the eyes of men that he who trusteth 
 in Jehovah shall not be put to shame. 
 
No. X. 
 
 The Open Door Into Ecuador. 
 
 by geo. s. fisher. 
 
 FEW days of tossing on the sea, a 
 short ride across the Isthmus, a 
 calm journey down the coast and 
 "Over the line," four days of 
 travel on mule-back, toiling up the mountains, 
 a wet, cold night in a shepherd's hut on old 
 Chimborazo, 14,000 feet above the sea, a day 
 and a half by stage, and I arrived in sight of 
 Quito — a city whose history is shrouded with 
 a record of licentiousness, murder, rapine, tor- 
 ture, ignorance, and superstition — all that cruel 
 Spain, the unscrupulous priests, and inhuman 
 rulers could make it; but the streams have 
 washed the blood away, the rocks are dumb, 
 and she still lies at the feet of old Pichincha, 
 fair and beautiful, and, thank God, I believe 
 16S 
 
THE OPEN DOOR INTO ECUADOR. 169 
 
 that for her the first rays of light are streaking 
 the mountains and the morning dawneth when 
 there shall be here sounded out the true and 
 glorious Gospel of the Son of God. 
 
 A few mornings after my arrival I climbed 
 the mountain for a short distance, and sat 
 down to pray to the Great Creator and to look 
 over the city. Though 10,000 feet above the 
 sea, Quito is situated in a valley almost sur- 
 rounded by mountains, and three or four snow- 
 capped peaks are to be seen on a clear day, 
 among them the lofty whitened head of Coto- 
 paxi, some 18,000 feet high. It is not now an 
 acflive volcano, but sends forth enough light 
 steam to form a cloud that appears to sit upon 
 its brow like a silvery plume. The city con- 
 tains 60,000 people, and is built very compadl- 
 ly, the streets are paved, and fountains where 
 the drinking water is obtained, play in all the 
 principal piazzas, while numerous streams of 
 water run through the city underground. The 
 climate is quite cold, plenty of rain falls, and 
 hail is not infrequent. But a few hours dis- 
 tant hot valleys are reached, while wheat, corn, 
 
lyo THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 potatoes, etc., are raised in other parts, so that 
 the markets are well supplied with eatables, 
 which are generally sold very cheap. The 
 best restaurant in the city serves meals — about 
 five courses — for twenty cents, and house-rent 
 is quite reasonable. Wool abounds, and some 
 very good, but coarse cloth is manufactured. 
 Almost the entire work of the city is performed 
 by the Indians, and their powers of endurance 
 are marvelous, but they are poorly paid, and 
 are kept in ignorance and poverty. 
 
 Perhaps one-fourth of the city is occupied 
 by churches, convents, etc. — one of the 
 churches with its attachments covering nearly 
 two entire blocks, and enclosed with a great 
 high wall. From the days of the killing of 
 Atahualpa, king of the Incas, by the Spanish 
 troops, to the present time, the Indians have 
 been treated very much as were the children 
 of Israel under Pharaoh. The Catholic relig- 
 ion has been supreme, the Bible is almost 
 unknown, and the priests have become rich 
 and wanton, and are the fathers of many of 
 the inhabitants. I have met here one of the 
 
THE OPEN DOOR INTO ECUADOR. I7I 
 
 chief priests of the Cathedral, who, it is be- 
 lieved, poisoned the Archbishop, because he 
 spoke against their evil pradlices — at any rate, 
 the Bishop drank of the communion cup and 
 fell dead. Sermons are no longer preached, but 
 dozens of bells seem never to cease their clang- 
 ing, calling the people to their idolatrous wor- 
 ship. Images are to be seen almost every- 
 where, and feast days to certain saints are most 
 numerous. Processions march the streets, 
 men with lighted candles, and the priest, ar- 
 rayed in his vestments, walking under a can- 
 opy carried by a boy, on his wa}^ to administer 
 * ' Extreme Unction ' ' to the dying, while men 
 take off their hats and women fall upon their 
 knees on the pavement. This very day I saw 
 a number of horrid looking images carried 
 about the city, before whom, I suppose, some 
 time or other, the faithful are to fall down and 
 worship. Nuns have been paid by the gov- 
 ernment to teach the Indian children, but only 
 attempted to instrucft them so that they could 
 read mass. Many of the people live together 
 as man and wife without being married, be- 
 
172 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 cause the priests charge such an exorbitant 
 sum for performing the marriage service. All 
 sorts of means are used to obtain money from 
 the now poverty-stricken people. Colledlions 
 are taken up in a silver box with a crucifix 
 attached; the people kiss the image and drop 
 their money in the box. Even the dead are not 
 at rest, for, unless the grave-rent is kept paid 
 up, the remains will be exhumed and carried 
 to the burn pile. I do not wonder that in his 
 day lyUther's soul was moved within him until 
 he was forced to cry aloud. Oh, that to-day 
 our God would help us confess our own sin — 
 the sins of the professing Christians of our own 
 land; and then cry mightily for the desolate 
 blinded people of this country, tottering fast 
 into the grave and utter darkness forever ! 
 
 Some thirty-three years ago, under the reign 
 of President Morena (the Tyrant), a large 
 number of foreign priests were brought into 
 the country to help him "hold the people." 
 He was finally stabbed as he came out of the 
 cathedral, and from the date of his death, about 
 1880, until three or four years ago, there was 
 
THE OPEN DOOR INTO ECUADOR. 1 73 
 
 no Strong or lasting government. The liberals 
 desired many changes and struggled a little, 
 but the priests and church party were so firmly 
 entrenched, that there seemed to be no possible 
 means of gaining a vi^ory. But our God had 
 heard the cries of the poor downtrodden 
 people, and was making ready his chariot of 
 deliverance. His ways are not our ways, 
 but He maketh the wrath of man to praise 
 Him. 
 
 Japan, when at war with China, wished 
 to buy from Chili the warship ' ' Esmer- 
 alda," but under some treaty or interna- 
 tional law Chili could not sell to Japan, 
 without probable trouble. Ecuador being con- 
 sidered a small obscure nation, it w^as suggested 
 by Chili that the ship take the Ecuadorian flag 
 and be sold as her vessel. The president, the 
 governor at Guayaquil, and the consul at New 
 York entered into the agreement, and, it is 
 said, received $400,000 for the sale of the 
 Ecuadorian flag, as the transacftion was termed. 
 In some way the adlion became known, a revo- 
 lution was started at Guayaquil, and the pres- 
 
174 'I'HE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 ident was obliged to flee. The old govern- 
 ment being conservative, i. e., for the clergy, 
 the liberals of course now came to the front. 
 A ' ' Hunta, ' ' or meeting of the leading men of 
 Guayaquil, was called and they decided to send 
 for Gen. Alfaro, who had been fighting for 
 liberty for many years, but for some time 
 past had been exiled in Central America, 
 and proclaimed him ''Jefe Supremo." He 
 came at once, bringing with him Gen. 
 Franco, who had also been exiled as a liberal. 
 From Guayaquil Gen. Alfaro marched with his 
 troops up country, taking the cities as he went, 
 and without very much of a struggle, occupied 
 Quito, the capital. His officers and soldiers 
 then began the work of taking the different 
 provinces and cities, and an eledlion was soon 
 ordered for delegates for a convention to reform 
 the constitution and eledl a president. There 
 are no real eledlions in any part of South 
 America — the ruling officer simply reelects 
 himself with the aid of his troops, or designates 
 some friend for whom the few votes are cast, 
 and Gen. Alfaro' s men were, of course, all 
 
THE OPEN DOOR INTO ECUADOR. 175 
 
 eledled. Trouble, however, arose at Cuenca 
 in the South, and the general was obliged to 
 go once more to battle. After quite a severe 
 fight Cuenca was taken and the country 
 quieted. 
 
 On taking hold of the country Gen. Alfaro 
 at once stopped the payment of state money to 
 the church — perhaps a million sucres per year, 
 or $500,000. He also found that the priests 
 were the strong enemies of his party, and were 
 using their vast wealth and power against the 
 government; he therefore confiscated some of 
 their property, and they were pretty thoroughly 
 driven out of the Oriente and the province of 
 Manibe, and a number of them were exiled. 
 Three o'clock in the morning was the regular 
 time for confession and mass, and as few people 
 but women attended at this hour, and the 
 priests were probably using the churches for 
 immoral purposes, he ordered that the churches 
 should not be opened until five o'clock. The 
 archbishop instrudled the priests to stir up the 
 people against the government, until he was 
 in a measure silenced, and he then pretended 
 
176 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 that his life was in danger, and that he had left 
 his palace and was in hiding in the city. Un- 
 doubtedly the priests and church party under- 
 stood that a change had taken place, but the 
 conservatives had much of the wealth of the 
 country, and the priests have never been 
 known to give up. 
 
 Gen. Franco was next to Gen. Alfaro in com- 
 mand of the troops, and was stationed in this 
 city. He was supposed to rule with a much 
 stronger hand than the president, and he 
 was much feared. He placed the city under 
 martial law, and the whistle of the sentinels 
 da}^ and night on nearly every corner, the 
 concerts given by the two military bands, with 
 soldiers attached, the marching of the troops 
 through the streets, all told the people that a 
 ruler was in their midst. 
 
 A conspiracy was formed to assassinate him, 
 but it was discovered, the head man apprehended 
 in the morning and shot at 4 P. M. This 
 caused quite a stir, and Mr. Morla, the head 
 government minister, and others resigned, but 
 the general seemed not at all disturbed and 
 
the: open door into Ecuador. 177 
 
 walked or rode in the streets with a friend or 
 two, and held the key to the city. Both 
 Gen. Alfaro and Gen. Franco received the 
 writer very kindly, and offered any assistance 
 in their power. 
 
 I found here a small grammar of the 
 Quichua language, printed in Spanish, and 
 had a short conversation with a nun who 
 had been in the Oriente for seven or eight years 
 as a teacher for the Indian children. Archi- 
 dona, the capital of that province, is over the 
 eastern range, and some seven or eight days 
 distant, but there are no roads, and a person 
 must walk or be carried on the backs of Indians. 
 That town is, however, only two or three days 
 from the Napo river, at a point where it can 
 be navigated by small vessels to its confluence 
 with the Amazon. The country is supposed 
 to be healthy, and parts of it are inhabited by 
 tribes of wild Indians who speak diale(5ls of 
 their own. 
 
 I found quite a number of people who are 
 now openly opposed to the church and the 
 priests, and while I believe that during the 
 
178 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 past years brave, wise, Holy Ghost laborers 
 could have lived here, and possibly with much 
 persecution disseminated a good deal of Gos- 
 pel, I could now see no reason why God's 
 chosen workers should not come here very 
 soon. However changeable the people may 
 be, and whatever may in the future befall the 
 present liberal rulers, our God still sits upon 
 the throne, and He is well able to care for His 
 own so that they may glorify His Son in life 
 or even in death. 
 
 The Gospel Union, with headquarters at 
 Kansas City, Mo., has already undertaken a 
 work for this country. L<aborers are now at 
 Guayaquil. Brethren, pray for us. 
 
 }fC jjj >{; >fc 
 
 At the annual summer Bible School of the 
 Gospel Union, held at Crete, Neb. (July 17 25, 
 1895), it pleased God to pour out upon the 
 Christians there assembled an unusual spirit 
 of prayer for the evangelization of the world. 
 Without premeditation they were led to pray 
 especially for the opening up of South America 
 to the Gospel, and the sending forth of mis- 
 
THE OPEN DOOR INTO ECUADOR. 179 
 
 sionaries to that land. The interest culmin- 
 ated in an all-night prayer-meeting, and an 
 offering of money, jewelry, etc., amounting in 
 all to about $150.00 for the opening of a new 
 mission in the Negledled Continent. To 
 human eyes this was the beginning of the 
 work which has since resulted in the sending 
 of four missionaries to the hitherto closed 
 country of Ecuador. We say, to human eyes, 
 for in the councils of God the work had been 
 begun before our prayers were offered. It is 
 well known that by the Constitution of Ecua- 
 dor all forms of religion, save the Roman 
 Catholic, are prohibited from being preached 
 or taught, and the fanaticism of the Jesuit 
 priests, by whom the country is overrun, had 
 served to reenforce the law, and make the 
 preaching of the Gospel there exceedingly dif- 
 ficult and dangerous, if not impossible; and 
 the result had been that there had never been 
 any settled Protestant missionary Vv-ork under- 
 taken in the country. There have arisen, 
 however, from time to time in Ecuador, some 
 who have opposed this policy by pen and 
 
l8o THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 sword, and who have attempted to bring about 
 such a revolution in the government that the 
 Constitution might be so revised as to grant 
 religious toleration; but this liberal party had 
 been hopelessly in the minority, the conserva- 
 tive element controlling both the mass of the 
 people and the wealth of the country, while 
 behind it was the tremendous power of the 
 Jesuit priesthood. But God was working for 
 Ecuador. Almost simultaneously with the 
 Kansas Bible School a revolution was inau- 
 gurated, which went forward until Gen. 
 Alfaro v/as elec5led, the first liberal presi- 
 dent of the Republic; the Constitution has 
 been revised, and we have now every reason to 
 believe that religious toleration has been 
 granted. 
 
 It seems to us that under such clear leadings 
 of the Providence of God, there is nothing for 
 us to do but to send out missionaries as rapidly 
 as God may permit us to do so. The faith of 
 the people in the Jesuits is shaken, the doors 
 are opened inviting Protestant missionaries to 
 enter, and now is the time to move forward 
 
th:^ opkn door into Ecuador. i8i 
 
 before the country shall settle back into infi- 
 delity and atheism, or invite the priesthood to 
 resume control. Delay at this time may mean 
 (as in the case of others of the South American 
 countries) a relapse into a condition worse 
 than that from which it is now emerging. 
 
No. XI. 
 
 The Isles Waiting For God's Law.* 
 
 by rev. john g. paton, d.d. 
 
 Pioneer Missionary in the New Hebrides. 
 
 ]EOGRAPHERS have arranged the 
 South Sea islands under three 
 divisions : Polynesia, the many 
 eastern islands between i8o de- 
 grees and South America ; Melanesia, the 
 
 * Balboa, governor of Santa Maria, discovered the 
 Southern Ocean in 1513, named it the South Sea, and 
 took possession in the name of the king of Spain. 
 Six years later Magellan sailed through a large por- 
 tion of it, and called it the Pacific Ocean. In 1569 
 Mendana discovered and named the Solomon group, 
 and in 1595 the Queen Charlotte group. The New 
 Hebrides were discovered in 1606 by Quiros, who 
 thought he had discovered a great southern conti- 
 nent, and called it the Land of the Holy Spirit. He 
 anchored in port Philip Santo, and tried to establish 
 a city (New Jerusalem) on the bank of the large river 
 Yor, which runs into the bay. But the Spaniards 
 quarreled with the natives and left it. Quiros sailed 
 to Mexico, but Torres, the senior officer in command, 
 sailed west, discovered and passed through Torres 
 Straits, which bear his name, between Queensland 
 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD'S LAW. 1 83 
 
 black islands, from the dark-brown color of 
 
 their inhabitants — they include Fiji and all the 
 
 islands west, with New Guinea; Micronesia, 
 
 all the small islands north of the line from 
 
 Hawaii on the east to China on the west. The 
 
 South Sea islands are inhabited by only two 
 
 races, the Malay Polynesian and the Papuan. 
 
 The Malays appear to be of Asiatic origin, and 
 
 and New Guinea. Boginville discovered that it was 
 not a continent, but a group of islands, which Quiros 
 had discovered, and he named them the Great Cy- 
 clades. Bent on discovering new lands, about that 
 period many eminent navigators sailed in the South 
 Sea, but we hear nothing more of the New Hebrides 
 till, in 1767, the famous Captain- Cook sailed on his 
 first voyage to observe the transit of Venus at Tahiti. 
 In 1773 Captain Cook returned, and sailed twice 
 through the group, spending 46 days in exploring 
 and describing every island and the natives with an 
 accuracy scarcely yet surpassed. Believing he had 
 discovered the most westerly group in the South Sea, 
 he gave it its present name, the New Hebrides; but 
 200 miles southwest he afterward discovered another 
 large island, and called it New Caledonia. He took 
 possession of it in the name of his sovereign, King 
 George the Third; but in 1854, when Britain was en- 
 gaged in the Crimean war, France took possession of 
 it, and turned it into a large convict station at the 
 door of Australia, to which, by escaped convicts, it 
 is a source of danger and pollution. — J. G. P. 
 
1 84 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 are the superior race, with well-developed, 
 powerful persons, yellow in color, and with 
 straight, glossy, black hair. The Papuans 
 are so called from Papua, or New Guinea. 
 They occupy the western islands, and are not 
 generally so tall and handsome in person as 
 the Malays. They are of a dark-brown color, 
 with dark, curly hair of different shades, and 
 appear to be allied to the negro; but have 
 plump, pleasant features, unlike the negro and 
 the aborigines of Australia. The Malays all 
 speak one language, with dialedlic differences, 
 all musical and liquid, like the Italian. Every 
 word ends in a vowel. The Papuans speak a 
 different language on almost every island, or 
 dialecfts differing, so that the natives of one 
 island can not understand those of another ; 
 and in some groups, two or even three dialedls 
 are spoken on the same island, so different 
 that the inhabitants of the one distridl can not 
 understand those of the other. Nearl}^ the 
 whole, if not the whole, population of the 
 South Sea islands were cannibals, in a state of 
 nudity, when missionary work was begun on 
 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD'S LAVv\ 1 85 
 
 them; yet even there, by God's blessing, 
 almost every society and church engaged in the 
 work has been used and honored in the con- 
 version of many thousands, and now each is 
 working on an independent portion of New 
 Guinea for the salvation of its natives, and 
 with encouraging success. 
 
 The New Hebrides consist of about thirt}- 
 inhabited islands, with many small ones 
 adjoining. The group lies south-southeast and 
 north-northwest, extending over 400 miles of 
 ocean, between 21 degrees and 15 degrees 
 south latitude, and 171 degrees and 166 de- 
 grees east longitude. The Solomon group, 
 which is the center of the Church of Eng- 
 land's mission, is about 200 miles northwest 
 from the New Hebrides. New Caledonia is 
 about 200 miles southwest, Fiji about 400 
 miles, Auckland about 1,000, and Sydney, 
 Australia, 1,400 miles distant from our group. 
 In her first charter to New Zealand, Britain 
 included the New Hebrides, but, apparently 
 by some mistake, they were afterward left out. 
 Yet, except to New Zealand and Australia, 
 
1 86 THK MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 the group is of little commercial value to any 
 other country, on account of the great dis- 
 tances of all others from it. 
 
 As the natives have got nearly all the bless- 
 ings of Christianity and civilization which 
 they possess, from British missionaries and 
 subjecfls, they unanimously plead for British 
 annexation and protedlion ; while, from the 
 oppressive cruelty of the French to the natives, 
 and their suppression of Protestant schools and 
 mission work on the lyOyalty group and on other 
 groups annexed, they fear and hate them. 
 There are other cogent reasons, for the French 
 Senate passed a resolution "to send 100,000 
 of France's lowest criminals to the New 
 Hebrides, as freed men and women, to live as 
 they could and go where they would, on the 
 one condition that they do not return to 
 France. ' ' Against this Australasia and Britain 
 protested so decidedly that the scheme was not 
 carried out; but the resolution to deport them 
 was renewed, and for the present the destina- 
 tion is kept secret. The French have recently 
 been sending Roman Catholic priests to the 
 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD's LAW. 1 87 
 
 New Hebrides, apparently as political agents. 
 A few months ago the heathen natives of one 
 of our islands eagerly desired a Protestant 
 missionary to settle among them, and give 
 them the teaching of Jesus and His salvation, 
 and when they were selling our missionaries a 
 site for the station, two priests gave them 
 much abuse, and told them of all the fearful 
 calamities which would befall them if they 
 allowed the Protestant missionaries to land on 
 their island. These priests also gave the mission- 
 aries much abuse, and at lasi offered the natives 
 three Sniders (rifles) and two large, fat hogs 
 for the site, if they would forbid the Protes- 
 tant missionaries to settle on the island. 
 Though, above everything else, the heathen 
 islanders desire Sniders and such fat pigs, yet 
 they rejedled the priests' offer, and sold the 
 station to our missionaries. The highest 
 French officials in these colonies have sent a 
 man-of-war to the spot to investigate this case, 
 and their report proves that it was corredlly 
 stated by us. 
 
 In 1839 the famous John Williams and Mr. 
 
1 88 THE MIRACLES OE MISSIONS. 
 
 J. Harris, of the I^ondon Missionary Society, 
 sailed to try and begin mission work on the 
 New Hebrides, but on landing on Erromanga 
 both were murdered by the savages, who 
 feasted on their bodies. In 1843 Drs. Turner 
 and Nisbet were by the London Missionary 
 Society settled on Tanna, but about six 
 months after, they had to escape for their lives 
 by a passing ship. After this Samoan and 
 Raratongan native teachers were again and 
 again placed on the group, but they were either 
 murdered by the savages, or died in the damp, 
 unhealthy climate (comparatively with their 
 own) , or in sickness had to be taken home again. 
 So no effedlive mission work was done on the 
 group till in 1848 Dr. John Geddie, and in 
 1852 Dr. John Inglis, landed on Aneityum, 
 where God spared and used them in bringing 
 3,500 cannibals on that island to serve our 
 dear Lord Jesus Christ; and the work re- 
 ceived great impetus, when they had trans- 
 lated and carried through the press the whole 
 Bible and other books in their language. 
 For the printing and binding of this Bible the 
 
isi.es waiting for god's law. 189 
 
 converted natives paid the noble British and 
 Foreign Bible Society ;^i,200 sterling ($6,- 
 000) , earned by them in preparing and selling 
 arrowroot. 
 
 In 1857 the Rev. G. N. and Mrs. Gordon 
 were placed on Erromanga, where Williams 
 lost his life. By them God brought some four- 
 teen young men and as many young women to 
 renounce heathenism and serve Jesus, but in 
 1 85 1 the savages one morning tomahawked both 
 these missionaries to death. Their young con- 
 verts wept and wailed over their loss, laid them 
 in the grave, and vowed over it that they would 
 conquer Erromanga for Jesus, or die, as their 
 missionaries had died, in the effort. In 1864 
 the Rev. J. D. Gordon, going to convert, if 
 possible, the murderers of his brother and his 
 wife, was placed on Erromanga, and, after 
 much successful work, the heathen there 
 killed him also with the tomahawk in 1872. 
 The Christian party laid his body in the grave, 
 wept and wailed over it, and renewed their 
 vow, and wrought and prayed till they have, 
 indeed, conquered the island for Jesus Christ. 
 
190 THK MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Now every family there daily sings the praise 
 of His redeeming love, and tries to serve him 
 devotedly. 
 
 In 1858 the Revs. Joseph Copeland, J. W. 
 and Mrs. Matheson, John G. and Mrs. Paton, 
 and in 1859 S. F. and Mrs. Johnston, were all 
 placed on Tanna, but soon after Mr. Copeland 
 went to Aneityum. From the first, on Tanna, 
 as on other islands, the native priests gave 
 much opposition to the missionaries' teaching. 
 This priesthood is powerful and profess to 
 have and, by sorcery, to exercise, all the powers 
 of God. After the murder of the Gordons, a 
 Tanna "holy" man, prejudiced by white 
 traders, clubbed an Aneityum chief, a native 
 teacher, who died soon after, rejoicing in 
 Jesus Christ. Also from the effecfts of a 
 savage attack upon my life and his, Mr. 
 Johnston never rallied, but died soon after, 
 having been only about four months on the is- 
 land. In 1862, after much suffering, bereave- 
 ment, and many attempts upon our lives, and 
 the loss of all earthly property except our 
 pocket Bibles, Mr. and Mrs. Matheson, the 
 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD'S LAW. 191 
 
 teacherS; and I escaped by a passing ship. 
 After reaching Aneityum Mrs. Matheson died 
 in March and her husband in June. I left 
 for AustraUa to get, if possible, more mis- 
 sionaries and a mission ship for our mission. 
 There the Lord, by His people, gave me 
 ^'5,000. The new Day spring^ was bought 
 with ^3,000 of it, and the remaining ^2,000 
 sent out and supported more missionaries. Since 
 that time island after island has been occupied, 
 and the Lord has prospered our work, till we 
 had in 1898 the large staff of 26 earnest, edu- 
 cated missionaries, 5 of them medical men and 
 5 lay helpers, besides about 300 native teachers, 
 all educated by our own missionaries for their 
 
 * The Dayspring was lost in 1897, and the need of 
 a new vessel is sorely felt by the missionaries, who 
 must now depend entirely upon godless traders and 
 vicious sailors who trade on Sabbaths, and whose 
 contact with the natives often does incalculable 
 harm. They supply natives freely with rum, and 
 directly oppose the missionaries. The Presbyterian 
 Assembly of Australia has recently voted to post- 
 pone decision as to securing another ship for another 
 year. It is earnestly hoped that then the much-needed 
 vessel will be furnished. — Ed. 
 
192 THE MIRACIvES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 work. In the mission we have a teachers' 
 training institution, with 46 students, under 
 the care of Dr. Annand and his lay teachers, 
 and we have a hospital under the care of Dr. 
 Lamb and his lay helpers. By our mission- 
 aries the whole Bible has been translated into 
 one language, and the New Testament into 
 several. The portions of Scripture so trans- 
 lated have been printed, and are now read by 
 the natives in over twenty languages of the 
 group. This is a great work, which makes 
 our mission laborious and expensive compaied 
 with others having only one language to con- 
 quer. Our islanders had no written language 
 when we began the Lord's work among them. 
 A number of the translations have been printed 
 by the British and Foreign Bible Society, but 
 our natives try to pay it for all it does for them. 
 As results of the work, our dear Lord Jesus 
 has given our missionaries about 16,000 con- 
 verts, and the blessed work is extending among 
 some 40,000 or 50,000 remaining cannibals on 
 the group. In our synod year of 1895-96, 
 1,120 savages renounced idolatry and em- 
 
ISI,ES WAITING FOR GOD'S LAW. 193 
 
 braced the worship and service of Christ. 
 One missionary baptized 200 out of his com- 
 municants' class of 400, after a long and care- 
 ful preparatory Scripture training. We never 
 baptize and teach afterward, but educate and 
 wait till they give real evidence of consecration 
 to Jesus Christ, and then, at their desire, bap- 
 tize, and continue teaching them to observe in 
 their Hfe and conducfl all things Jesus has com- 
 manded. Hence, we have only about 2, 500 com- 
 municants, tho 10,000 attend our day-schools 
 and Sabbath-schools. All our converts attend 
 church regularly. In 1896 they contributed 
 about /900, and the next year over ^1,300 
 by money and arrowroot, and a number of the 
 islands now support their own native teachers. 
 Yet they have no money but what they get by 
 selling pigs, fowls, cocoanuts, and copra to 
 passing ships. God has given four of our 
 present missionaries each from 1,700 to 2,000 
 converts; and at all our more recently occu- 
 pied stations the work is very encouraging, 
 and enjoys the Divine blessing. Our chief 
 concern at present is how we are to get money 
 
 in- 13. 
 
194 '^HE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 to keep our large staff going on, but we trust 
 in Jesus to provide all as it is needed. 
 
 Never since Jesus Christ gave the great 
 commission, have so many of His servants 
 been proclaiming the blessed Gospel, and never 
 before in heathen lands has it shown more 
 vitality and power in its grand results. Yet 
 what large portions of the world are yet in 
 heathen darkness! Oh, for a new Pentecostal 
 baptism of the Holy Spirit to all branches of 
 the Church, to lead her to try to '* preach the 
 Gospel to every creature," and by the Gospel 
 conquer the world for Jesus Christ. A small 
 book, showing the extension and glorious 
 fruits of Christian Protestant missions during 
 the last half century, would do much to silence 
 the infidel and the enemies of Protestant mis- 
 sions to the heathen, enlighten the indifferent, 
 and draw forth the united praise and prayers, 
 and increased money support, and personal, 
 zealous cooperation of Christians in all lands, 
 so to conquer the world for Jesus Christ by 
 h^.s own appointed means. It would show 
 that the Gospel is not only the power of God 
 
ISI.KS WAITING FOR GOD'S LAW. 1 95 
 
 unto salvation to every one who believes, high 
 and low, of every color and of every country, 
 but that, wherever found, it is the only real 
 and lasting civilizer of man. Had Britain felt 
 her responsibility, and improved her privileges 
 by spending a twentieth part of what her 
 present wars will cost her to subdue her 
 rebellious subjeds, in giving them the Gospel 
 teaching of Jesus while under her care, it 
 might have prevented those wars, and saved 
 not only loss of life and treasure, but also the 
 feelings of revenge that remain and fester 
 in the hearts of surviving relatives and the 
 tribes of the subdued. Armies may conquer 
 and sweep the oppressed into eternity, but 
 Christ's teaching enlightens the mind, influ- 
 ences the heart by creating it anew, and leads 
 all so brought under its power to feel their 
 responsibily to our God, the Supreme Judge 
 of all. Thus it lifts them above heathen super- 
 stitions, prejudices, cruelties, and discontent, 
 filling the heart with gratitude to God for His 
 love and mercy in Jesus Christ, and so leading 
 them to love their benefadlors, and to do to 
 
196 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 others as they would have others do to them. 
 Though our New Hebridean savage cannibals, 
 as they all were when our work began among 
 them, have lost many thousands of lives, and 
 suffered much oppressive cruelty by the sandal- 
 wood traders and by the shocking Kanaka 
 labor traffic* which followed, yet because of 
 British missionaries so man}^ of them have 
 been brought to serve Jesus, that now the 
 lemaining population all plead for British 
 annexation and protedlion. And lately, on a 
 recently occupied island, where all under the 
 missionaries' charge were painted savages, 
 after several adls of kindness by the missionary, 
 the war chief was led to hear the teaching of 
 Jesus, and to believe in, and serve Him. He 
 was the first man among some 3,000 or 4,000 
 to appear at the church and to wear clothing in 
 
 *The " Kanaka Interisland Labor" is little better 
 than a system of slavery, and is cruel in the extreme. 
 Natives are brought from various islands to work 
 under contract for traders and planters on unsuper- 
 vised islands. Some of these natives have been 
 flogged to death by their employers. This system 
 calls loudly for reform. — Ed. 
 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD's LAW. 1 97 
 
 public. For some reason his savage warriors 
 wanted him to go to war, but he refused. 
 His enemies sent a man to conceal himself by 
 the path and shoot dead one of the chiefs 
 men, being one of their usual challenges to 
 war, and many afterward urged him to fight in 
 revenge, but he said, "I will not fight and 
 shed blood, but leave all revenge to my Jesus 
 now," and he preached the Gospel of peace 
 and love to them, and prayed for them all. 
 His life was threatened, but he also left that 
 to Jesus. He now teaches a school among his 
 savages, and, following his example, many 
 have begun to wear clothing and attend school 
 and church. The chief and twelve others are 
 now candidates in a class -for baptism and 
 church membership, and a real work of grace 
 seems to have begun all around among the 
 savages. Surely the Divine blessing on the 
 same teaching would produce like blessed 
 results among the heathen subjecfls of all 
 nations, and make them happy, industrious, 
 loyal, loving subjeAs — a thing which can not 
 be done by conquering armies. 
 
198 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Rev. Dr. William Gunn, of Futuna, New 
 Hebrides, bears similar testimony. He writes: 
 
 The New Hebrides are inhabited by the 
 Melanesian, or black race, with woolly hair. 
 Several small islands, as Futuna, Aniwa, and 
 Bmae, are peopled by a mixed race of Poly- 
 nesians and Melanesians. The estimated 
 population is 70,000. Tanna, Epi, Ambrim, 
 and Oba, with 8,000 each, are the most 
 populous islands. Many of the natives are 
 good-looking, with high facial angle. The 
 retreating forehead, broad, flat nose, and pro- 
 jedling jaws of the negroes are rarely seen. 
 Their average height is 5 feet 5 inches. 
 Physically they are inferior in strength and 
 endurance to the white race, and rapidly 
 succumb to disease. The men strut about 
 almost nude. In the south the women are 
 fairly well clothed, but as we proceed north, 
 female clothing decreases, while native me- 
 chanical skill and ingenuity increases. The 
 custom of dividing the hair into many locks 
 in the southern islands is now obsolete among 
 the Christians. Men and women are fond of 
 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD'S LAW. 1 99 
 
 ornaments and wear bead or shell necklaces 
 and armlets, and wooden or tortoise-shell 
 earrings. Those fond of music play the native 
 flute and Paris pipes, and they continue their 
 heathen dances and singing all night. Their 
 houses were from five to seven feet high, and 
 without walls, but with Christianity have been 
 greatly improved. The furniture consisted of 
 sleeping-mats, baskets, clubs, bows and 
 arrows, stone or shell axes, fishing materials, 
 and now a musket or two. Native arts are 
 decaying. Remains of pottery have been 
 found on Tanna and Kfate, but this art is now 
 confined to Santo. Rock carvings in Anei- 
 tyum, Efate, and Epi are now mysterious 
 remains of the past. They had a fair knowl- 
 edge of surger>^ and a little of medicine. The 
 dodlors were specialists, who set fradlures, 
 compressed severed arteries, and trepanned 
 the broken skull. The chief diseases are 
 malarial fever, scrofula, skin and chest diseases, 
 and isolated cases of elephantiasis. Dysentery 
 is sporadic. Consumption is increasing. 
 Venereal diseases have been introduced by 
 
200 THE MIRACLEvS OF MISSIONS. 
 
 whites and returned laborers, and have caused 
 great havoc. 
 
 The natives are observant, well acquainted 
 with nature, and quick to discern charadler. 
 Most of them readil}^ acquire neighboring 
 languages or dialedts. Some have learned to 
 read and write in six months, but the majority 
 take much longer. In arithmetic they are 
 slow, and few, if any, have gone beyond the 
 simple rules. Morality, in heathen days, was 
 very low. In some islands, indeed, it is 
 doubtful if adultery was considered wrong in 
 itself, and it is expressed in their language as 
 stealing a man or woman. The rights of 
 property were usually regarded, save in war or 
 private quarrels. 
 
 The languages of the New Hebrides, though 
 numerous and apparently radically different, 
 form part of the Melanesian branch, which, 
 united with the Polynesian or eastern islands' 
 dialecfls, belong to onj family, now called 
 the Malay-Polynesian. Nearly fift}^ dialedls 
 are known in the New Hebrides, some very 
 slightl}^ while others are not yet discovered. 
 
ISLHS WAITING FOR GOD S LAW. 20I 
 
 The pronouns have four numbers — in some 
 islands three — and a double first plural, in- 
 clusive and exclusive, according as the speaker 
 includes or excludes the persons addressed. 
 In Aneit3^um and Tanna the natives reckon 
 hy Jives, and can not go beyond twenty. In 
 the north numeration is decivial and more 
 perfecfl. 
 
 Polygamy and cannibalism were common. 
 Infanticide, though pra(5lised, was not general. 
 Caste of various and numerous grades, accord- 
 ing to the number of pigs killed at feasts, 
 obtained in the north. Heavy fines were paid 
 for the infringement of rules in each grade. 
 V/omen and children belonged to no caste, and 
 wives lived apart from their husbands. 
 Parental control was unknown. Women were 
 the beasts of burden, and cultivated the planta- 
 tions while the men fought or feasted. Sor- 
 cery, woman-stealing, and land disputes were 
 the principal causes of war. In Malekula the 
 front teeth of the women were removed at the 
 age of eight or ten, just before marriage. In 
 Ambrim the women crawled on their knees 
 
202 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 before their lords. In Aneityum, Tanna, and 
 Santo they were strangled at the death of their 
 husbands. 
 
 The natives were polytheists. They believed 
 in many gods, great and small, mutually inde- 
 pendent of each other. The greatest, variously 
 named Inhujeraing, Moshishiki, Mauitikiteki, 
 etc., created the earth and, perhaps, man. In 
 the south they said he fished up the islands. 
 All the gods were malicious, and, accordingly, 
 the natives appeased them with offerings of 
 food and drink (kava), praying for abundance 
 of food, freedom from disease, and long life. 
 These gods, and the spirits of their ancestors, 
 were the chief objedls of worship. The dead 
 were mourned for from one hundred to one 
 thousand days. For years food was placed 
 daily over their graves. In several northern 
 islands grotesque images were eredled in the 
 public square as memorials of the dead. But 
 offerings were also presented to the sun and 
 moon, and their preserving care was sought. 
 Certain sacred men, or sorcerers, professed 
 to cause disease, and wind, rain, sunshine, 
 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD'S LAW. 203 
 
 and hurricanes. These sacred men, as a rule, 
 were chiefs; but the authority of chiefs in the 
 New Hebrides is very small, and confined to 
 their own tribes. Many, irrespecflive of rank, 
 possessed charms to prote(5l them in war, ward 
 off disease, and cause the fruits of the earth to 
 grow. The future world was dark and dis- 
 mal. No distindl division separated good and 
 bad. The shades in semiconsciousness shiv- 
 ered in the cold and ate refuse. Warmth was 
 sometimes purchased by tattooing their bodies, 
 or was carried below from fires kindled by 
 relatives after burial. There, after passing 
 through successive descending stages of exist- 
 ence, the shades were annihilated. But rays 
 of light struggled through the darkness. Tra- 
 ditions, varying in detail, existed of the crea- 
 tion, the fall, the flood, Jonah, and others. 
 In Futuna the maxim, " I^et not the sxm go 
 down upon 3^our wrath," was repeated; and 
 the curse of Cain was pronounced on the 
 murderer. 
 
 Such were the people, and such was their 
 state in the past, and, in heathen islands, so it 
 
204 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 is still. Degraded by horrid customs, steeped 
 in the grossest superstition, with minds and 
 understandings darkened by sin and Satan, in 
 fear of man by day and of spirits b}' night, 
 the natives of the New Hebrides were Ihe 
 most needful of the Gospel, and by their iso- 
 lation and Babel of tongues presented the 
 greatest difficulties toward receiving it. Burn- 
 ing with desire to supply this need, John 
 Williams endeavored to carry the Gospel to 
 them, but at Erromanga, in 1839, peris' .d in 
 the attempt. A brief sketch of mission work 
 will bring the history of the islands to the 
 present day. After his death teachers were 
 landed on the southern islands and reenforced 
 from time to time. Some died, some were 
 martyred, some returned home, some remained 
 at their posts and prepared the way for mis- 
 sionaries. Messrs. Turner and Nesbit landed 
 in Tanna in 1842, but soon were compelled to 
 leave. The mission work, begun by the early 
 missionaries and teachers under the lyondon 
 Missionary Society, w^as now gradually passed 
 over to the Presbyterian churches. Dr. Ged- 
 

 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD's LAW. 205 
 
 die, from the Nova Scotian church, took up 
 work on Aneityum, in 1848; and Dr. Inglis, 
 from the Reformed Presbyterian Church of 
 Scotland, followed in 1852. A church was 
 formed, and, in 1853, missionary teachers, the 
 first in the New Hebrides, were sent to reopen 
 Futuna to the Gospel. A missionary settled 
 on Krromanga in 1857, ^^^ three on Tanna in 
 1858. But disaster now befell the mission. 
 Measles, introduced by traders, swept away a 
 third of the population of Aneityum, Tanna, 
 and Krromanga. The heathen blamed the 
 missionaries, and, in 1861, Mr. Gordon and 
 his wife were murdered on Krromanga. The 
 Tannese expelled their missionaries. But 
 Aneityum was now all Christian, and the ter- 
 rible scourge roused the half-hearted to more 
 earnestness. A missionary settled on Efate 
 in 1854, who was soon joined by a second. A 
 brother took up the work of the martyred 
 Gordon, and the Daysprhig, obtained chiefly 
 through the efforts of Dr. Baton, arrived, for 
 the exclusive use of the mission. Later the 
 vacated stations in Tanna were filled, and 
 
206 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Nguna added to the missionary islands. But 
 in 1872 the heathen in Krromanga attempted 
 unsuccessfully to oust the Gospel by killing 
 the second Gordon. His place was immediately 
 filled by Mr. Robertson. 
 
 The Christian party grew stronger, frus- 
 trated an attempt of the heathen, in 1880, to 
 murder the missionary, and were joined by 
 one hundred friendly heathen in a body. This 
 was the turning point in Erromanga, and the 
 island, as a whole, is now Christian. In 1883 
 all the principal islands, from Aneityum to 
 Ambrim, were occupied by missionaries, and a 
 third station opened in Tanna. The Aneityum- 
 ese Bible complete, the united labor of Drs. 
 Geddie and Inglis and Mr. Copeland, was dis- 
 tributed in Aneityum in 1887. Nearly ten 
 years later the New Testament in Kfatese, and 
 in a dialedl of Tanna, was given to their re- 
 spec5live islanders. Churches, with substan- 
 tial iron roofs, were erecfted in Aneityum, 
 Futuna, Aniwa, Tanna, Malekula, and Malo, 
 from 1891-93, the natives of the three former 
 islands defraying the cost themselves. The 
 
isi.es waiting for god's I.AW. 207 
 
 success of the mission in Nguna, with its large 
 cathedral-like church, has been phenomenal. 
 In 1892 four hundred and seventy were ad- 
 mitted to church membership. The story of 
 Tongoa is little less wonderful. 
 
 Thirteen islands are now Christian, of which 
 the largest are Efate, Krromanga, Aneityum, 
 Nguna, Emae, Tongoa, and Aniwa. Epi is 
 rapidly receiving the Gospel. In Futuna one 
 distri(5l only is heathen. In Tanna — the 
 hardest field in the group — the report is more 
 encouraging than for years. Ambrini, twice 
 vacated through illness and death, was re- 
 opened in 1892 by Dr. I^amb; but first hurri- 
 cane and then fire destroyed the mission house, 
 and the volcano threatened the mission with 
 extindtion; but a strongly-built hospital has 
 now for months been open to white men and 
 natives. Native teachers are under training, 
 and condu(5l services in difierent districfts. 
 Churches have been formed in Malekula, 
 Santo, and Malo. But the great mass of the 
 people in these northern islands is heathen. 
 More than 50,000 are still in heathen darkness. 
 
2o8 "THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 The Melanesia!! Mission, under Bishop Sel- 
 wyn, formerly under Bishop Patteson, who 
 was martyred in the Swallow Islands, gathered 
 young men from the different islands and 
 trained them, first in Auckland, afterward in 
 Norfolk Island, for mission work in the islands. 
 This mission — always friendly to the Presby- 
 terian — has withdraw!! to the Banks, Santa 
 Cruz, and Solomon Islands. In the New 
 Hebrides their work is confined to Pentecost, 
 Aurora, and Oba, where teachers are settled, 
 and where missionaries stay occasionally. 
 
 The Presbyterian mission staff numbers 
 twenty-five missionaries, of whom five are 
 medical. There are in addition three lay 
 assistants and a hospital nurse. The first 
 native pastor, Epeteneto, anativeof Aneityum, 
 has been ordained. Assisting the mission- 
 aries are two hundred and fifty-six native 
 teachers. More than forty of these are mis- 
 sionary teachers at work in semiheathen is- 
 lands. All the Christian islands have sent out 
 missionary teachers. These have endured 
 many hardships, and many have laid down 
 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD'S LAW. 209 
 
 their lives for the cause of Christ in strange 
 islands. The crying need of the mission is 
 native teachers. Without them evangelization 
 of the islands is impossible. In order to meet 
 the increasing demand, a training institution 
 was opened in Tongoa in 1894. Under the 
 principal, Dr. Arnaud, the institution has met 
 with encouraging success. Sixty-four students 
 from various islands are under instrucftion, 
 which is g iven in English, owing to the di- 
 versity of dialedls. Within the last two or 
 three years several Christian traders have 
 given valuable help in mission work. The 
 Scriptures, in whole or in part, have been 
 translated into eighteen languages. For these 
 the natives willingl}' pay. As converts they 
 grasp the plan of salvation clearly, and the 
 more intelligent among them, from whom the 
 teachers are drawn, can explain it to their fel- 
 lows. They attend to the forms of religion dili- 
 gently, and sincerely follow the precepts of 
 the Gospel. A native of Futuna, a few days 
 after the murder of his nephew, said he was 
 willing to forgive the murderer for the sake of 
 
2IO THK MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 the Gospel — and this is no isolated case. They 
 love their books, and in flood or fire save them 
 first; and the Aneityumese, with the whole 
 Bible, have a wide but not deep knowledge of 
 its contents. They seldom speak of spiritual 
 experience, and we can not point to sudden 
 conversions. The great stumbling-block is 
 immorality, and while many live consistent 
 lives, others have sadly fallen. 
 
 In the Christian islands of Efate, Nguna, 
 and Tongoa the teachers, formerly paid by 
 friends outside, have, within the last few years, 
 been supported by native contributions.* 
 
 The mission is supported by the Presbyte- 
 rian Church of Canada, Free Church of Scot- 
 
 * In the report of the synod for 1897, the following 
 statistics are given, excluding Efate: 
 
 Attending Sabbath services 13,084 
 
 " day schools 5,463 
 
 Adult baptisms 207 
 
 Christian marriages 142 
 
 Admitted to church membership 231 
 
 Teachers settled during the year 33 
 
 Contributions in cash ;^424 
 
 Contributions in arrowroot, 17,683 
 
 lbs., equivalent in money to. . . ;^884.3j. 
 
 The total membership is about 2,700 
 
ISLKS WAITING FOR GOD'S I.AW. 211 
 
 land, Presbyterian churches of New South 
 Wales, Victoria, South Australia, New Zea- 
 land (north), and Otago, New Zealand (south), 
 and Tasmania. Recently the John G. Paton 
 Fund has largely supported the mission. The 
 missionaries meet annually in conference, or 
 synod, to discuss and arrange all matters for 
 the proper conduc5l of the mission.* 
 
 Commerce preceded missions in the New 
 Hebrides. The discovery of sandalwood 
 opened up a trade which has been the in- 
 strument of evils operating to this day. With 
 it originated the inter-island labor trade, fol- 
 lowed by the Queensland and Fiji labor trade. 
 This has drawn the best blood away from the 
 islands, leaving only the old men and women 
 and children. Whaling and cotton planting 
 succeeded the sandalwood trade. Recently 
 the chief exports have been coffee, copra, 
 arrowroot, and bananas. Arrowroot is con- 
 tributed by the natives for mission objedls. 
 
 * In 1890 the services of the D ay spring v^e-x^ super- 
 seded by a trading steamer, but it remains to be seen 
 whether the churches interested will continue this 
 arrangement, or set it aside for another Dayspring. 
 
212 THE MIRACI.es OF MISSIONS. 
 
 The bananas exported have increased in three 
 years from 3,000 to 12,000 bunches a month. 
 These exports promise to be more permanent 
 and remunerative than those of early days. 
 If the islands were annexed by Britain, trade 
 would advance in the future much more 
 rapidly. The natives and mission synod have 
 petitioned for British annexation. This would 
 stop the labor trade and intertribal wars, and 
 promote commerce. The total white popula- 
 tion, including the mission families, is from 
 two to three hundred. The principal nation- 
 alities among the traders are French and 
 British. At present the islands are under no 
 protedlorate, but they have been placed under 
 the ''dual control" of British and French, 
 each power prote(5ling her own subjedls. 
 Owing to restridlions imposed upon British 
 traders the best land in the group is now in the 
 hands of the French, and this may lead them 
 to annex the islands. That such an event 
 would be disastrous to the mission, the history 
 of Tahiti and the I^oyalty Islands too plainly 
 proves; and that commerce would suffer 
 
ISLES WAITING FOR GOD'S LAW. 213 
 
 thereby, may be inferred from the fadl that 
 the bulk of the island trade is at present in the 
 hands of the British. Further, it is reported 
 by eye-witnesses that there is as real slavery in 
 the French plantations as in any part of the 
 world. 
 
 But the future progress of the mission and 
 of trade depends greatly upon the state of the 
 population, and it is steadily decreasing. 
 Tradition, the sites of extindl villages, and 
 statistics prove this. The population of Anei- 
 tyum was 3,500 in 1859; now it is only 530. 
 Futuna has fallen in thirty years from 1,000 to 
 320. This decrease began before the advent 
 of white men; but contadl between the two 
 races has accelerated it by introducing epi- 
 demic and hereditary diseases and the labor 
 traffic. Can this decrease be checked ? The 
 history of the Pacific islands and of some of 
 the New Hebrides shows that in some islands 
 it can 7iot, while possibly in others it may. 
 Christianity is the most powerful fadlor in pre- 
 serving these natives, and were it not for 
 that Aneityum would already have been 
 
214 I'HE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 quite depopulated. It stopped decrease in 
 Raratonga and Samoa, and it will prolong 
 the days of the New Hebrides. Philan- 
 trophy and commerce alike call for the 
 preservation of the race. Chinese, or other 
 higher races, can not, with profit to them- 
 selves, settle in suiB&cient numbers to carry on 
 a remunerative export trade. But this decrease 
 of population affords a powerful argument for 
 haste in evangelizing the people that remain. 
 Prophecy promises success by foretelling their 
 conversion. '* Men shall worship Him, every- 
 one from his place, even all the isles of the 
 heathen. ' ' 
 
No. XII. 
 
 The Awakening of the American 
 Negro.* 
 
 BY DElvAVAN L. PIERSON. 
 
 HE liberation of the slaves was but 
 the first step in the emancipation 
 of the American Negro, even as 
 the exodus of Israel from Egypt was but the 
 beginning of their march toward the promised 
 land. In order to make the liberation of the 
 colored race a true and lasting benefit to them- 
 selves and to the country in which they live, 
 industrial, intellecflual, moral, religious, and 
 political freedom and education must follow. 
 Great strides have recently been made in 
 
 *The facts in this chapter are gathered largely 
 from addresses and articles by Booker T. Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 215 
 
21 6 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 this diredlion, especially through the efforts of 
 one of their own number, Booker T. Washing- 
 ton, "^^ who has been called ''the Moses of the 
 negro race. ' ' He is now well known throughout 
 the country as the leader and educator of his 
 people, and has not only accomplished wonders 
 toward solving the negro problem, by means of 
 his system of education at The Tuskegee 
 Normal arid hidustrial Training Institute, but 
 has awakened much interest and gained much 
 commendation in all parts of the country by 
 his numerous and telling addresses. His 
 thorough knowledge of, and insight into, the 
 problem which confronts him, his wisdom in 
 carrying out his ideas, and his intense earnest- 
 ness, have enlisted for him and his work the 
 sympathies and support of thousands of men 
 and women all over the country. The success 
 of his method has also attested the pradlica- 
 bility of his theories. 
 
 Booker Washino:ton was born a slave on a 
 
 * It is said tiiat when Booker Washington was 
 asked how he got his last name, he replied: "Well, 
 I found myself in need of a good name, and so chose 
 the best there was." 
 
Booker T. Washington, 
 Principal of the Tuskegee Xormal and Industrial Training Institute. 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 21 7 
 
 plantation at Hale's Ford, Virginia, in 1857. 
 He lived with his mother in a little one-room 
 log cabin with a dirt floor, in which was a 
 hole for storing sweet potatoes. At th " close 
 of the war, which made the negroes men 
 instead of property, he went to Maiden, West 
 Virginia, to work in the salt furnaces. While 
 there, he heard of General Armstrong's school 
 in Hampton, Virginia, as a place where a poor 
 boy could earn an education. He made up 
 his mind to go there if possible, and with this 
 end in view began to save every cent he could 
 earn. Finally one morning he started to walk 
 to the coveted school, scarcely knowing where 
 it was located. After traveling many miles on 
 foot, by coach and by rail, he at last found 
 himself in Richmond, without friends, money, 
 or a place to sleep. He spent the night on the 
 street, and in the morning started out to search 
 for means to continue his journey. Seeing a 
 ship unloading pig-iron, he obtained work from 
 the captain until he had enough money to pay 
 his way to Hampton, where he arrived with 
 fifty cents in his pocket. After General Arm- 
 
2l8 THK MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Strong had heard his story, and learned the 
 objedl of his coming, he promised to give him 
 a chance to pay his expenses through. While 
 at Hampton, he learned much that has been of 
 immense assistance in his present work, and 
 resolved that, if God permitted, he would go 
 into the ''black belt" of the Gulf States, and 
 give his life to help young men of his own race 
 to get an education. 
 
 Having been graduated from Hampton 
 with honors, after teaching in West Vir- 
 ginia and, studjdng in Wayland Seminary, he 
 returned to Hampton as a teacher. In 1881 
 the Alabama legislature passed a bill appro- 
 priating $2,000 yearly to carry on a school at 
 Tuskegee for the education of negro youths. 
 General Armstrong was asked to suggest a 
 suitable man to establish and condu(5l the work, 
 and he recommended Booker T. Washington. 
 The distridl in which the new school was to be 
 located is one in which the black people out- 
 number the white three to one. Here, on the 
 4th of July, 1 88 1, he opened the Tuskegee 
 Normal and Industrial Training Institute in a 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 219 
 
 small church and shanty, with thirty students 
 and one teacher. Since that time the institu- 
 tion has grown, until it has now eighty in- 
 strucftors and about one thousand students, of 
 both the sexes, from nineteen States, all over 
 fourteen years of age, the average being 
 eighteen and one-half. 
 
 This institution at Tuskegee is Christian, 
 but not denominational. The instru(5lors 
 emphasize religion as pracftical, not merely 
 theoretical or emotional, and of all the lessons 
 that need to be emphasized in the South, none 
 is more needed than this, oi practical Christian- 
 ity. Prof. Washington cites, as an example 
 of the prevailing idea of religion among many 
 of the colored race, the storj^ of a colored man 
 who went to his weekly class-meeting, and 
 said to his class leader, '' I's had a ha'd time 
 since our las' meetin' ; I's been sometimes 
 up and sometimes down, 'spect I's broken 
 eb'ry one ob de ten comman'ments since 
 our las' meetin', but I tanks God, I's not los' 
 my Higion yet.'' The coming generation of 
 young men and young women need to be 
 
220 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 taught that they should not only profess Chris- 
 tianity, but must put it in prac5lise in their 
 daily lives. 
 
 From the first, industrial training has been 
 given, together with intelledlual and religious 
 instrudlion. This industrial training has 
 several advantages. Young men and young 
 women are thereby enabled to work out about 
 half of their board, paying the rest in cash. 
 Their labor has an economic value to the in- 
 stitution, and at the same time trains the 
 student to make an honest living. Over 
 twenty-four hundred acres of land are 
 owned, six hundred and fifty of which are cul- 
 tivated. Besides the regular literar}^, scientific, 
 and religious training which the students at 
 Tuskegee receive, the institution offers courses 
 in various branches of agriculture, horticulture, 
 dairy produdls, brick masonry, wheel wrighting, 
 blacksmithing, tinning, carpentering, paint- 
 ing, shoemaking, tailoring, dressmaking, and 
 various branches of domestic science — in all, 
 twenty-five branches of industrial training — ^be- 
 sides preparing students for work as teachers, 
 
AWAKENING OP AMERICAN NEGRO. 221 
 
 preachers, physicians, nurses, lawyers, clerks, 
 merchants, machinists, etc. This system en- 
 ables them to make pra(5lical application of the 
 theories which they learn in the class-room. 
 The principles of physics are immediately ap- 
 plied in the machine-shop, those of chemistry 
 in farming and cooking, those of mathematics in 
 carpentry, etc. There are no idlers in Tuske- 
 gee. They ere(5l their own buildings, even 
 manufadluring every brick ; they also do the 
 carpenter and other work. Thus buildings 
 are secured for permanent use, at a minimum 
 of expense, and the students have the indus- 
 trial training, which also helps to rid young 
 men and young women of any old idea they 
 may have had that labor is disgraceful, or 
 that it is beneath one to use his hands if 
 he has had some education. The Tuskegee 
 property is now valued at two hundred and 
 eighty thousand dollars, on which there is 
 no mortgage. There are thirty-seven build- 
 ings, all except three of which have been 
 erec5led by the students. The central aim of 
 all departments of the institute is so to fortify 
 
222 THK MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 the head, hand, and heart of the negroes 
 who attend that they may go out and mingle 
 with their race on the cotton, rice, and sugar 
 plantations, and be the means of elevating them 
 economically, intelledlually, morally, and 
 spiritually. The expense of carrying on this 
 work is only about seventy-five thousand dol- 
 lars a year, over one half of which is met by 
 the labor of the students. 
 
 One great .difficulty met in endeavoring to 
 better the condition of the Southern negro is 
 the ''mortgage system," which makes them 
 virtually the property of the well-to-do plant- 
 ers, taking away all their independence, ambi- 
 tion, and self-respecfl. They live in little 
 cabins, and try to pay sometimes forty per 
 cent, interest on their property and on their 
 crops, which are often mortgaged even before 
 they are raised. The result in poverty and 
 lack of hope for better things can be im- 
 agined. 
 
 Intelledlually their advantages are in many 
 places not much better. Not being allowed to 
 attend school with white children, they go to 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NKGRO. 223 
 
 little log cabins or tumble-down churches. In 
 the country distridls of Alabama these schools 
 are open only three months of the year. Owing 
 to poor pay and other reasons, many of the 
 teachers secured, have been not competent 
 instrucftors, and the results are intellec?tual 
 poverty and stagnation equal to the industrial. 
 
 The moral and religious condition of these 
 people is, if anything, generally lower; wit- 
 ness the number of lynchings in the South for 
 beastly crimes; the charadler of their dances; 
 their preaching services, and many of their 
 religious — but not Christian — leaders. With- 
 out ambition in material things they, to a large 
 extent, live without self-restraint in moral 
 things, their careless natures, joined to their 
 state of poverty and ignorance, tending to 
 divorce morality from their religion. 
 
 Tuskegee Institute is seeking to find and 
 apply a remedy for this state of things, and 
 this work is not considered to be hopeless or 
 even discouraging. The negroes acknowledge 
 their ignorance and low condition, but they 
 think that there is no help for it. What they 
 
224 I'HE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 need is intelligent and unselfish leadership in 
 their religious, intelledlual, and industrial life, 
 and this is what the Tuskegee Institute is 
 endeavoring to give them. The trouble is that 
 these people do not know how to utilize the re- 
 sults of their labor. What they earn gets away 
 from them in paying mortgages and in buying 
 lace, snuff, and tinsel jewelry. They have 
 not yet learned the distindlion between cheap 
 and showy imitation of wealth and education, 
 and the culture and refinement which come 
 only by slow and labored progress. A one- 
 roomed cabin will sometimes have a clock, 
 bought on the instalment plan for twelve dol- 
 lars, when in nine cases out of ten, not one in 
 the family can tell when the hands point to 
 six o'clock and when to twelve; or a family 
 will mortgage a year's crop to pay for a showy 
 wedding or funeral. 
 
 Tuskegee has already succeeded in trans- 
 forming many distri(5ls. At the time of their 
 emancipation, pracflically all of the negroes 
 lived in one-room log cabins; ten years ago 
 nine-tenths of them lived in the same way; 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 225 
 
 whereas to-day one- third of them have at least 
 doubled their accommodations, and many of 
 them own their farms and homes. The stu- 
 dents who come to Tuskegee from wretched, 
 single-room hovels, go back to transform them 
 into homes, where peace and purity can 
 thrive. Already the graduates of the institute 
 are in great demand all over the South, and 
 other schools are applying the Tuskegee prin- 
 ciples and methods of education. 
 
 As examples of the pradlical workings of 
 the system, Mr. Washington cites the follow- 
 ing instances: 
 
 ' * Ten years ago a young man born in 
 slaver}' found his way to the Tuskegee 
 School. By small cash payments and work on 
 the farm he finished the course with a good 
 English education and a pradlical and theo- 
 retical knowledge of farming. Returning to 
 his country home, where five-sixths of the 
 citizens were black, he found them still mort- 
 gaging their crops, living on rented land from 
 hand to mouth, and deeply in debt. School 
 had never lasted longer than three months, 
 
 III— 15 
 
226 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 and was taught in a wreck of a log cabin by 
 an inferior teacher. Finding this condition of 
 things, the young man took the three months' 
 public school as a starting-point. Soon he or- 
 ganized the older people into a club that came 
 together every week. In these meetings the 
 young man taught them the value of owning 
 a home, the evils of mortgaging, and the im- 
 portance of educating their children. He 
 taught them how to save money, how to sacri- 
 fice — to live on bread and potatoes until they 
 got out of debt, begin buying a home, and 
 stop mortgaging. Through the lessons and 
 influence of these meetings, during the first 
 year of this young man's work, these people 
 built, by their contributions in money and labor, 
 a good frame schoolhouse that replaced the 
 wreck of a log cabin. The next year this 
 work was continued, and those people, from 
 their own gifts, furnished funds for adding two 
 months to the original school term. Month by 
 month has been added to the school term, till 
 it now lasts seven months every year. Already 
 fourteen families, within a radius of ten miles. 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 227 
 
 have bought aud are buying homes, a large 
 proportion have ceased mortgaging their crops, 
 and are raising their own food supplies. In 
 the midst of all is the young man educated at 
 Tuskegee with a model cottage and a model 
 farm that served as an example and center of 
 light for the whole community. 
 
 ' ' A few years ago a young woman was edu- 
 cated and converted at Tuskegee. After her 
 graduation she went to one of the plantations 
 where they only had school for three months 
 in the year in a broken-down log cabin. She 
 took charge of the school, and went among 
 the mothers and fathers of the pupils, and 
 found out what their resources were. She 
 taught them how to save money. The first 
 year, many men decided not to mortgage their 
 crops, but to provide suitable homes, and a 
 good schoolhouse. They added to the school 
 term until they have a season of eight months. 
 The community is transformed, and the very 
 faces of the people show the revolution that has 
 been wrought in their lives by that one Chris- 
 tian leader. Every improvement has come 
 
228 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 through this young woman in their midst 
 showing them how to diredl their efforts, how 
 to take the money that had hitherto gone for 
 mortgaging, snuff, and tobacco, and to use it 
 for their own uplifting. ' ' 
 
 What effecft does this work at Tuskegee 
 have upon the relations between the white and 
 the black men ? The Institute aims not only 
 to uplift the ignorant and downtrodden ne- 
 groes, but to bring the white people of the 
 South to the point where they will not think 
 that they need to degrade themselves by dis- 
 honesty at the polls in order to overcome the 
 majority which the colored people have' over 
 them. Whatever fridlion exists between the 
 races will pass away just in proportion as the 
 black man can produce something that the 
 white man wants or respecfts commercially. 
 When the Tuskegee Institute was first opened, 
 it was ignored or despised by the white people. 
 A wheelwright shop was .started, and then 
 men who wanted carriages came to it. A job- 
 printing establishment was opened, and soon 
 the organ of the Democratic party was printed 
 
» 9. 
 
 « IB 
 "IS 
 
 
 I'-** . «il*^' 
 
 t^^.M^.^. 
 
 £ ^ 
 
 • 4»>^ 
 
 f-m 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 229 
 
 every week by the colored students. By hav- 
 ing something that was of commercial value, 
 the whites and blacks became acquainted; 
 their business interests became linked together, 
 and they are now warm friends. If a negro's 
 business interests increase until he gets a 
 mortgage on a white man's house, that white 
 man will not drive the negro from the polls. 
 
 Mr. Washington thus concludes one of his 
 addresses on this subjec5l: 
 
 ' ' If ever there was a people that obeyed 
 Christ's injundlion, 'Whosoever shall smite 
 thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other 
 also, ' that people has been the American ne- 
 gro. To right his wrongs the Russian has 
 appealed to dynamite, the Indian to his toma- 
 hawk, the Irishman to agitation, the American 
 to rebellion, but the negro, patient, unresent- 
 ful, and law-abiding, has always depended 
 upon his songs, his midnight prayers, his 
 groans, on an inherent faith in his cause. If 
 we may judge the future by the past, who will 
 say that the negro is not right ? We went 
 into slavery pagans, we came out Christians; 
 
230 THE MIRACLES OE MISSIONS. 
 
 we went into slavery a piece of property, we 
 came out American citizens; we went into 
 slavery wdthout a language, w^e came out 
 speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue; we 
 went into slaverj^ with the slave chains clank- 
 ing about our wTists, we came out with the 
 American ballot in our hands. 
 
 ' ' You seldom see a black hand on any street 
 in America held out for charity. It is not 
 charity that the black people of this country 
 ask. We do not ask an}- one to do a thing for 
 a student at Tuskegee which the student is 
 able to do for himself. They pay their own 
 board, partly in cash, and partly in labor. 
 They have put up their own buildings to a 
 greater extent than in any other institution in 
 the country. The only thing which they can 
 not pay is the fifty dollars each for tuition. 
 We do not ask to have money scattered pro- 
 miscuously among our people in the South, 
 but simply to be used in educating one or 
 more of those Christian leaders, who, when 
 they have received their education, will go out 
 into other villages and try to accomplish the 
 
AWAKENING Ot^ AMERICAN NEGRO. 231 
 
 work of making the colored people a righteous 
 and thrifty race. ' ' * 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 It may be well to let Mr. Washington him- 
 self testify as to the future of the American 
 negro. He saj^s: 
 
 It is a deep-seated belief of a large and 
 influential sedlion of the American people 
 that the destiny of the negro element of the citi- 
 zenship — which is of African and American 
 origin, and which has been for two centuries 
 and a half losing its generic type and character 
 — must necessarily be different from that of 
 other elements of the population. This belief 
 disclosed itself in the very earliest stages of 
 Colonial life, after the unfortunate introdudlion 
 of African slaver}-, in 1620, and in one form 
 and another it has made itself felt and heard 
 in all departments of the literary life of the 
 
 * The Institute needs an adequate endowment fund, 
 scholarships, additional buildings, tools, and other 
 outfits. Fifty dollars furnishes the means for edu- 
 cating a student for one year, and $1,000 establishes 
 a scholarship. Already the graduates contribute 
 generously to the current expenses, and thereby 
 show their appreciation of the benefits which they 
 have derived from their Alma Mater. 
 
232 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 nation. Indeed, a considerable body of such 
 literature as we have evolved is based entirely 
 upon this phase of the subje(?t. 
 
 The American Colonization Society, estab- 
 lished in the early days of the Republic, and 
 with which have been associated some of the 
 best and ablest public men of the country — 
 such men as Benjamin Franklin, Henry Clay, 
 and others of equal reputation — was the diredl 
 outgrowth of this sentiment. The Republic 
 of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, grew 
 out of the idea as propagated by the American 
 Colonization Society. But in spite of the fadl 
 that this society and the republic founded and 
 fostered by it, have steadil}'- declined in pres- 
 tige, the idea that the black and white races 
 can not occupy the same territory as equals 
 without perpetual antagonisms remains strong. 
 Thomas Jefferson, the greatest Democrat, and 
 Abraham Lincoln, the greatest Republican, 
 living at widel^^ separated periods of our his- 
 tory, were 3^et in harmonious agreement upon 
 this vital point. 
 
 Mr. Henry W. Grady, of Georgia, the most 
 
AWAKENING OI' AMERICAN NEGRO. 233 
 
 eloquent apostle of the white new South, was 
 firmly of the opinion that the Anglo-Saxon 
 race would always dominate the Afro- Ameri- 
 can race, while Mr. E. S. Simmons, a member 
 of the North Carolina bar, has just issued a 
 book, in which he insists that race separation 
 is the only safe and possible solution of the 
 race problem; and, failing to effecfl this separa- 
 tion, he thinks ' ' the pages of the future his- 
 torian will be marred with strife between the 
 races, riotous outbreaks, civil war, Southern 
 soil again drenched in blood, not in a conflict 
 of arms with other sedlions, but among and 
 between the inhabitants of our own fair south- 
 land." "Separate the two races," Mr. Sim- 
 mons insists. ' ' Cause the negro to move to 
 the land set apart for him, to plant his own 
 vine and fig tree, and the whites living upon 
 the same soil to move out, and make room for 
 his uninterrupted course of self-government. ' ' 
 Mr. Simmons thinks that the white people of 
 this country should make liberal provision for 
 the segregated negro people in the territor>^ 
 set apart for them, a territory of some sort. 
 
234 'I'HK MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 somewhere, in which the white man shall have 
 no place. 
 
 But the idea that the races can not live to- 
 gether as equals on the same soil is by no 
 means confined to the Anglo-Saxon people. 
 In this country the idea is entertained by 
 Bishop Henry M. Turner, who has a large fol- 
 lowing, and in Africa the idea is almost as 
 general. There Dr. Edward W. Blyden, of 
 Liberia, perhaps the best-informed man of his 
 race anywhere, leads the thought and advo- 
 cates segregation as the only possible and safe 
 solution of the race problem. But how this 
 segregation is to be effedled, even in Africa, 
 where the European whites have appropri- 
 ated by far the larger part of the territory 
 of the blacks, bringing the latter into sub- 
 jedlion and conta(5l with white colonists, just 
 as they have done in the United States and 
 the West Indies for two centuries, does not 
 appear to worry in the least either the black or 
 the white advocates of the idea. Although 
 the whites have from the very beginning, even 
 unto the present, forced themselves into con- 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 235 
 
 tadl and association with the blacks, and are 
 doing so to-day more than ever before, the 
 black and white advocates of the policy of 
 separation lose nothing of their cheerfulness 
 and persistency in keeping their idea where it 
 can be seen and heard. They, at least, deserve 
 credit for sticking to the theory when nothing 
 but the theor}' remains to them. 
 
 But there is another class of people who 
 have a theory that God permitted the Africans 
 to be brought to America and undergo a long 
 period of bondage, in order that they might fit 
 themselves by Christian civilization to eventu- 
 ally return to their native land, and help to 
 redeem the millions of their race from pagan- 
 ism and savager}. This view of the matter 
 was long a convi6lion of the leading denomina- 
 tions of the United States, and is largely enter- 
 tained now. It deserves more respecft than 
 any other view of the matter which has ever 
 appealed to me, as a pure matter of specula- 
 tion, a theory. There can be no question 
 about it in the mind of any Christian that as a 
 missionary field Africa is one of the most in- 
 
236 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 viting to be found anywhere, and that it should 
 appeal more strongly to the American negro 
 than to any other race of our population. It 
 seems reasonable to suppose that a large per- 
 centage of the young negro men and women 
 who have been graduating from our schools 
 and colleges for a quarter of a century, 25,000 
 of whom are now engaged in the work of 
 teaching in the public schools of the South, 
 would have turned to Africa as the most in- 
 viting field of labor, if the theory that the race 
 was brought here by Divine Providence for the 
 purpose of preparing itself to redeem their 
 brethren from moral and spiritual death in 
 Africa is to hold good. This should be the 
 proper and sufficient test of the theory from 
 any point of view. It would be personally 
 gratifying to me if a very large number of 
 these graduates had in the past quarter of a 
 century gone into the African missionary work, 
 or if a more general spirit to do so had been 
 shown, as the evangelization of Africa, or of 
 any other people outside the Christian fold, 
 must appeal strongly to all of us who hope for 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 237 
 
 the winning of all mankind to the true faith. 
 But no great number of them has done so, and 
 no general disposition to do so has been shown. 
 So far, the work of evangelizing Africa has 
 been left almost entirely to the white churches 
 of America and Europe. White men and 
 women have thus far responded to the call for 
 missionaries. Responses on the part of the 
 blacks of the United States and the West 
 Indies have been of the most discouraging 
 charadler, and the financial support which 
 negro churches have given to further the work 
 has been of like charadler. The advocates of 
 the Divine theor}- of preparation have been 
 much puzzled and confused by this phase of 
 the case, but mainly because they have been 
 unable to see or to reconcile themselves to the 
 fadl that there are other phases of it worthy of 
 consideration, or strong enough to outweigh 
 theirs. In this view they have been as per- 
 sistent and insistent as the advocates of the 
 theory that the two races can not live together 
 in the same territory on terms of friendship 
 and equalit3\ 
 
238 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 No well-defined plan of colonization in 
 Africa, or anywhere else, by whomsoever pro- 
 posed, has met with any general favor among 
 educated negroes in the United States or 
 the West Indies. The masses in this coun- 
 try have been worked up to some sort of en- 
 thusiasm from time to time, but the enthusiasm 
 has always been short-lived. Reports from 
 those who have gone to Africa on the wave of 
 the enthusiasm of the time, some of whom have 
 returned to this countr}^, have alw^ays been such 
 as to discourage others from ' ' seeing for them- 
 selves and not for another." Indeed, it has 
 been a growing convidlion among the masses 
 of our race in this country that their condition 
 and opportunities are vastly better in the 
 United States than in Africa, or any where else. 
 I believe this to be the case, and I further be- 
 lieve that the convidlion will grow stronger 
 with the years, as European subjugation of 
 Africa shall proceed and develop upon the lines 
 that it has long proceeded and developed in the 
 Pacific Islands, in Australia, and in the East 
 Indies. And this is true because the Afro- 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 239 
 
 American race has been so long removed from 
 the African fatherland, and become so im- 
 bued with American civilization, that it has at 
 most but a sentimental interest in Africa and 
 the African people. In their language and re- 
 ligion and customs they are American, as 
 much so as the Europeans who have come here 
 from the earliest days to the present time. As 
 a matter of fadl, the African has become as 
 thoroughly engrafted upon American life as 
 the European, and loves his countrj^ with 
 equal devotion, and clings to it with equal 
 tenacity, and resents as promptly any insinua- 
 tion that he is an alien, an intruder, and that 
 he should return to Africa or anywhere else. 
 
 The Europeans came to America of their 
 own determination, at great personal and finan- 
 cial sacrifice ; but the African came here by 
 special invitation, in ships provided for him, 
 and in the early stages of his residence here, 
 down to i860, he was forcibly restrained in any 
 desire he may have had to return to his father- 
 land. Indeed, he was considered so valuable 
 a personage that it was long a difficult matter 
 
240 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 to restrain white men from adding indefinitely 
 to his numbers by force and fraud. Up to 
 i860 no considerable number of people advo- 
 cated that the African was an alien, an in- 
 truder here, and should be made go back to 
 his home beyond the seas. He represented 
 nearly $4,000,000,000 of wealth as slave prop- 
 erty ; he was the basic industrial force in 
 eleven of the richest agricultural States in the 
 Republic. He was regarded as the best and 
 safest labor force in the world, and perhaps he 
 was. It required an agitation covering a 
 period of sixty years and a bloody civil war to 
 kill him as a slave and to recreate him as a 
 freeman ; and it was only after this was done, 
 after he was made ' ' a man and a brother, ' ' 
 that it was discovered that he was an alien, an 
 intruder, and that he should go back to Africa. 
 It was all right for him to remain here as a 
 slave, but it was all wrong for him to remain 
 here as a free man ! It was all right for him 
 to remain here as a degraded creature, without 
 morality, without family ties, barred out of the 
 Christian Church, but it is all wrong for him 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NKGRO. 24 1 
 
 to remain here as a Christian, with home ties 
 and growing stronger and stronger every year 
 in moral force ! All this reasoning has had 
 the changes rung upon it in all departments of 
 discussion since slavery was buried beneath a 
 monument of black and white bayonets on a 
 hundred battle-fields. It is very strange 
 reasoning, all must agree. 
 
 But there is still a third class of persons, by 
 far the largest and most influential, who have 
 not worried at all over the speculative theories 
 of the possible inabihty of the races to dwell 
 together harmoniously and upon terms of 
 equality, and upon the possible purpose of God 
 in permitting the race to be brought here and 
 enslaved in order that it might the better fit 
 itself to return to Africa and take upon itself 
 the work of evangelizing its people. These 
 good people had no pet theory about the mat- 
 ter. They belonged the great Christian 
 army, who believe, as William Lloyd Garrison 
 expressed it, that slavery was " a league with 
 death and a covenant with hell," and who 
 buckled on the armor of righteousness and 
 
 III— 16. 
 
242 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 created the sentiment that led to the abolition 
 of slavery and the enfranchisement of the free- 
 man. When they had accomplished this 
 much, instead of resting from their labors, 
 they recognized that the late slave population 
 must be fitted for good citizenship, and that 
 this could be done only at the expense of a 
 great deal of personal sacrifice and financial 
 outlay. The missionaries who followed Gen. 
 O. O. Howard, Gen. Armstrong, President 
 Ware, President Cravath, President Braden, 
 and other pioneers, in laying the foundation of 
 the educational work among the freedmen of 
 the South, were no less heroic than the brave 
 men who followed Grant and Sherman to vic- 
 tory. Indeed, these missionaries only con- 
 tinued the work where the disbanded armies of 
 the Republic laid it down at Appomattox Court 
 House. 
 
 These missionaries were not concerned about 
 the speculative questions that beset the race 
 problem. They had a condition and not a 
 theory to deal with, and right nobly did they 
 deal with it. We shall search the history of 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 243 
 
 philanthropic and missionary effort in vain for 
 a parallel to the response which the Christian 
 men and women of the nation gave to the cry 
 for help that went up from the Southern Mace- 
 donia immediately after the war. Men and 
 women and money poured into the Southern 
 States, so that of a truth might it be said that 
 a schoolhouse was planted upon every spot 
 where a slave-audlion block had stood. And 
 the splendid Christian sentiment which grasped 
 the prac5lical and pressing need of the moment, 
 and planted these schools of learning in all the 
 Southern States, has sustained them with 
 lavish expenditure of personal service and 
 money for a quarter of a century, so that to- 
 day they represent a greater outlay than that 
 which is contributed for the support of educa- 
 tional and evangelical work in any other 
 quarter of the globe. It is impossible to esti- 
 mate the value of this work upon the future 
 of the negro race in this country, because it 
 has made any reasonable future possible. 
 Without it all the dark forebodings of those 
 who * * see through a glass darkly ' ' would 
 
244 I'HE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 have been possible. The church and the 
 schoolhouse have made the future of the negro 
 race identical with that of every other race-ele- 
 ment of our population. 
 
 It has been with an abiding faith that the 
 negro has an honorable future in this country 
 and that that future depends almost entirely 
 upon the church and the school, that I have 
 sought to make the school and the church as 
 strong in mental and moral force as the condi- 
 tions would permit, and to do what I could to 
 make the race as strong as possible in other 
 direcftions necessary to successful manhood and 
 citizenship. I have been unable to reach the 
 conclusion that the Afro-American has a future 
 in this country in any way different from that 
 of any other of the many race-elements that 
 go to make up our heterogeneous population; 
 hence my thought and effort have been direcfled 
 to the supreme business of preparing the race 
 to meet the demands made upon them in the 
 condition of freedom, demands essentially 
 different from those made upon them in the 
 condition of slavery; and it is gratifying and 
 
AWAKENING OP AMERICAN NEGRO. 245 
 
 encouraging to all interested in the future of 
 the negro people that the best sentiment of the 
 Southern States has joined forces with the best 
 sentiment of the Northern States to sustain 
 those engaged in this necessary work of prep- 
 aration. The negro is not only given an op- 
 portunity to get a public-school and academic 
 education, such as was never before given to a 
 people in similar circumstances, but he has 
 been given advantages for material develop- 
 ment such as proves beyond a shadow of doubt 
 that there are more people in this country, in 
 the North and in the South, who wish him 
 well and desire him to succeed than there are 
 who wish him harm and desire that he may 
 fail. Indeed, we hear much more in one way 
 and another about the enemies of the negro 
 race than we do about its friends; but the fac5l 
 remains that the negro has friends, and plenty 
 of them, in all sedlions of the country, and that 
 if he should not succeed finally, it will not be 
 because opportunity was denied him, but be- 
 cause nature withheld from him the elements 
 of charac5ler that make for success. 
 
246 THK MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 I think I understand the needs and the hm- 
 itations of my race, and am not given to draw- 
 ing a pi(5lure of what it has accomplished, 
 which would not stand the severest test, or of 
 underrating what it needs to accomplish; with 
 the fa(5ls of the situation before me, I am con- 
 vinced that the race will continue to grow in 
 mental, moral, and material force with the 
 years, and that it will become a valuable and 
 indispensable fa(5lor of the American citizen- 
 ship. When all the facfls of the race's condi- 
 tion at the close of the war are considered, it 
 must be conceded by all candid men that in 
 the condition of freedom it has not failed at 
 all, but has made splendid use of the opportu- 
 nities it has enjoyed, and that, having laid in 
 some sort a foundation in the first quarter of a 
 century of its freedom, so that everywhere it 
 is a self -depending and self-supporting race, in 
 the next quarter of a century it is fair to con- 
 clude that it will make better use of those 
 opportunities, so that more and more it will 
 justify the expedlations of those who have 
 stood by it in the sunshine and in the shadow, 
 
AWAKENING OF AMERICAN NEGRO. 247 
 
 in the calm and in the storm of life's 
 struggle. 
 
 The future of the negro race depends more 
 upon the negro himself than upon any other 
 agency. He was brought to this country to 
 serve a purpose, and he will serve it, in the 
 time and the manner which God designed long 
 ago, before the corner-stones of the greatest 
 republic of all times were laid broad and deep 
 in the greatest religious, civil, and political 
 liberty for the individual consistent with the 
 public good. When the negro has changed 
 his condition, as he is doing, from one of 
 ignorance and poverty to one of general intel- 
 ligence and wealth, his color will cut a much 
 smaller figure than it has done in the past, in 
 affecfling him in all directions in his manhood 
 and his citizenship. 
 
No. XIII. 
 
 Ramabai and thb Women- of India. 
 
 ISTORY circles around individuals, 
 and to understand events we must 
 study the lives of these central 
 actors. The most prominent figure 
 among the women of the Orient in our day is 
 Pundita Ramabai, whose work in India is 
 becoming so well known, and awakening such 
 deep interest the world over. 
 
 The census of 1891 showed 289,000,000 
 people in India, with 625,000 more men than 
 women, owing to the low status of woman and 
 the murder of female infants. Those who are 
 not starved to death or otherwise disposed of 
 in infancy, find life so miserable that many be- 
 come suicides. The men rank as ' ' golden 
 vessels," however defiled the vessel may be, 
 but it is a crime to be a woman; she is but an 
 earthen vessel, and a very unclean one. 
 Especially is a widow despised, for her hus- 
 band's death is supposed to be due to her sin. 
 248 
 
RAMABAI AND WOMEN OF INDIA. 249 
 
 The suttee was, therefore, deemed a fit penalty. 
 Cattle have had hospitals, but not until fifteen 
 years ago was a woman treated with as much 
 consideration as a cow. Everything about 
 that animal is sacred, even to her dung, but 
 now only where Christ has taught the new 
 theology of womanhood is woman respedled. 
 Widows are plenty, for every fifth woman is a 
 widow; and although despised, they are con- 
 sidered good enough for servile work. When 
 no longer able to serv^e, they are allowed to die 
 like other beasts of burden. As the nightin- 
 gale's eyes must be put out if it is expe<5led to 
 sing in its cage, education is denied to woman, 
 and the eyes of her understanding are blinded 
 lest she rebel against her lot. Not one in fifty 
 can read, not to say write. Volumes have 
 been written upon woman in India,* for in no 
 
 *The following authorities may be consulted: 
 Bainbridge, "Round the World Tour;" Woodside, 
 "Woman in India;" Stewart, "Life and Work in 
 India;" Wilkins, " Daily Life and Work in India;" 
 Storrow, "Our Sisters in India;" Mrs. Armstrong- 
 Hopkins, "Behind the Purdah;" "Wrongs of In- 
 dian Womanhood," T/ie Bombay Gnardian, etc., etc. 
 
250 TH^ MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 one country, perhaps, is woman so bound down 
 by chains wrought of combined custom and 
 law, caste and religion. Womanhood is 
 crushed out because hope is abandoned by all 
 those who enter woman's estate. Even the 
 sacred books sandlion this horrible degrada- 
 tion. According to these, she has no legal or 
 social status, no rights which a man is bound 
 to respedl. She is not capable of any acfts of 
 devotion ; is to obey her husband, however 
 immoral his commands, and worship him if 
 she would have salvation. She is an incarna- 
 tion of sin and lying, and can not be believed 
 under oath. The results of such a system of 
 society are, of course, not only child marriage 
 and polygamy, but infanticide, slavery, prosti- 
 tution, and the suttee. 
 
 CHILD WIVES AND WIDOWS. 
 
 The last census taken in the presidency of 
 Madras throws a lurid light on the terrible 
 evils of the accursed system of child marriage 
 in this great eastern empire. It showed 23,- 
 938 girls under four years of age, and 142,606 
 
A Young Hindu Child Widow and Her 
 Adopted Child. 
 
RAMABAI AND WOMEN OF INDIA. 25 1 
 
 between the ages of five and nine married; 988 
 baby widows under four j-ears of age, and 
 4,147 girl widows between five and nine years 
 of age. There are two ceremonies in connec- 
 tion with an Indian marriage. Should the 
 bridegroom die between the first and second 
 of these ceremonies, the little bride becomes a 
 widow, doomed to lifelong wretchedness and 
 ignominy. Many little girls are married to 
 old men tottering on the verge of the grave, 
 and this again aggravates the evil. In the 
 Madras presidency alone are some 60,000 
 Brahman widows, widowed in childhood, and 
 doomed for life to the coarse white cloak and 
 shaven head of the woman who is cursed by 
 the gods. 
 
 The unhapp3^ lot of Indian widows is par- 
 tially described in the following native edito- 
 rial extracft from the Arya Messenger of Dec. 
 I St. This paper devotes much time and thought 
 to the glorification of everything indigenous, 
 and its testimony regarding the sad lot of its 
 womankind is, therefore, particularly valuable. 
 Were a missionary to use the language of this 
 
252 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 extradl, he would at once be accused of men- 
 dacious exaggeration, or something equally 
 terrible. The extra(5l is thus: 
 
 "There are at present out of 6,016,759 mar- 
 ried girls between Jive and nine years of age, 
 174,000 widows in India, These unfortunate 
 creatures are condemned to a life of perpetual 
 widowhood, for no fault of their own. These in- 
 fants, what could they have possibly done to de- 
 serve so cruel a fate ? They could have abso- 
 lutely no idea of the moment when they were be- 
 trothed, and most of them could have no idea 
 of the time when they were married. They 
 had no hand in the choice of husbands for 
 themselves, their parents bestowed them on 
 whomsoever they chose, and now, before they 
 have fairly learned to talk, they are husband- 
 less, doomed never to know the joys of a home. 
 It is impossible to imagine anything more 
 heartless, anything more savage and barbarous 
 than the treatment which has been accorded to 
 these unhappy girls by their misguided parents. 
 Why should they have been betrothed and 
 wedded when mere infants, and on what 
 
RAMABAI AND WOMEN OF INDIA. 253 
 
 grounds can it be justified that their future 
 shall be dark and dreary— a succession of 
 miseries and sufferings ? No law, human or 
 Divine, can justify such a thing, and since it 
 is an outrage upon Divine teaching and upon 
 man's own sense of justice, it is but natural 
 that we should suffer for it. And we do suffer 
 for it in a thousand ways, and we know it. 
 What can be more ridiculous, more monstrous 
 than that while a decrepit, spent-out old man, 
 with one foot in the grave, can marr^^ a young 
 girl at any time, a virgin, who is in the prime 
 of life, who has not as yet lived in the world 
 one-fifth the time the old man has, should be 
 absolutely denied the right of taking some 
 young man as husband! The father of a 
 widow of eight or nine years old may marry 
 again when he chooses, but the poor girl 
 herself must never! This is a state of 
 things which exists nowhere else under the 
 sun." 
 
 There is no real family life in India. There 
 could not be when Hindu philosophy teaches 
 that '' He is a fool who considers his wife his 
 
254 THE MIRACI.es of MISSIONS. 
 
 friend. ' ' A few extracfts from a Hindu cate- 
 chism give some idea of the basis for the ill- 
 treatment of Indian women: 
 
 What is the chief gate to hellf Woman. 
 
 What is cruel f The heart of a viper. 
 
 What is more cruel ? The heart of a woman. 
 
 What is most cruel of all f The heart of a 
 soulless, penniless widow. 
 
 What poison is that which appears like a nec- 
 tar f Woman. 
 
 The marriage of girls to Khandoba is a cus- 
 tom which, like sodomy, can not be treated in 
 plain words, as it belongs among the things of 
 which it is "a shame to speak." Suffice it to 
 say that it implies a devotement to a life of 
 vice as a murli, and reminds one of the similar 
 customs connedled with the rites of Venus and 
 Bacchus. Parents lend themselves to these 
 nameless horrors, and additions to the Indian 
 penal code have been direcfled to the mitiga- 
 tion, if not abolition, of these enormities. 
 
 THE STORY OF RAMABAI. 
 
 Ramabai is a middle-aged woman, with 
 
RAMABAI AND WOMEN OF INDIA. 255 
 
 black hair; she is slightly deaf, and a quiet 
 atmosphere of power invests her. She talks 
 with intelligence, and is heard everywhere 
 with profound interest — the more so as the 
 fadts of her life are known. 
 
 This woman has a romantic history. Her 
 mother was herself a child-bride, wedded to a 
 widower at nine years of age, and taken to a 
 home nine hundred miles away. Ramabai 
 learned many lessons from her mother's lips, 
 who would not marry her in infancy, and so 
 ' ' throw her into the well of ignorance. ' ' Her 
 father, who was an educated Brahman priest, 
 had her taught Sanskrit and trained her well. 
 He lost all his property, and, after enduring 
 fearful suffering with his wife and eldest 
 daughter, fell a vicftim to the awful famine of 
 twenty-five years ago — 1874-77. Everything 
 of value was sold for bread, and then even the 
 necessities of life had to yield before its ex- 
 tremities; and the day came when the last 
 handful of coarse rice was gone, and death 
 stared them in the face. They went into the 
 forest to die there, and for eleven days and 
 
256 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 nights subsisted on water and leaves and wild 
 dates, until the father, who wanted to drown 
 himself in the sacred tank, died of fever, as 
 also the mother and sister. The father's dying 
 prayers for Ramabai were, indeed, addressed 
 to the unknown God, but have been answered 
 by the true God, who heard the supplications 
 of a sincere but misguided father. Then the 
 brother and Ramabai found their way to Cal- 
 cutta, where they were scarcely better off, being 
 still half starved, and for four years longer 
 endured scarcity. There this brother also 
 died — a very strange preparation for the life- 
 work to which God called Ramabai. When 
 twenty- two years old, her parents being dead, 
 in a period of famine, during which she suf- 
 fered both for lack of food and clothing, as 
 well as shelter, she learned a lesson which pre- 
 pared her to S3^mpathize with others who suf- 
 fered. Life's sorrows and privations became 
 a reality. 
 
 Left thus alone, her beauty and culture won 
 her the coveted title, saravasti, and attradled 
 to her friends and admirers. Finallv she mar- 
 
RAMABAI AND WOMEN OF INDIA. 257 
 
 ried a Bengali gentleman, and for about eight- 
 een months was happy in her new home, a 
 baby girl being given her. But her husband's 
 death introduced a new experience of sorrow. 
 The world was before her and her child, and 
 two grave questions confronted her: First, 
 how shall I get a living? and second, what 
 shall I do for others ? 
 
 Ramabai, being thus early left a widow, 
 began to know the real horror of a Hindu 
 widow's lot, and resolved to undertake, as her 
 life mission, to relieve this misery and poverty. 
 Her heart kindled with love for these 25,000,- 
 000 child widows and deserted wives, who 
 know no happiness; who are often half starved, 
 are doomed to perpetual widowhood, and to 
 whom their departed husbands are pradlically 
 gods to be worshiped. 
 
 At the age of twenty Ramabai went to Eng- 
 land, where she heard the Voice that called 
 Abraham to go out, not knowing whither, and 
 like him she obeyed. There she was converted 
 to Christ, and baptized in 1883. She taught 
 Sanskrit in the ladies' college at Cheltenham, 
 
258 THE MIRACI.KS OF MISSIONS. 
 
 her purposes for life meanwhile taking definite 
 shape. 
 
 About twelve years ago she visited America, 
 where she found friends disposed to help her 
 start a school for high-caste widows in Bombay. 
 She began with two pupils, but, despite opposi- 
 tion and ridicule, she went on with her God- 
 appointed mission, and now has over 400 pupils, 
 and a property worth $60,000, embracing a 
 hundred acres, cultivated by them. About 
 225 girls have been brought to Christ, and 
 many have been trained for useful work, 
 happily married, or otherwise profitably em- 
 ployed. In nine years Pundita Ramabai has 
 received upward of $91,000 for the work. 
 For a time her attitude was negative and 
 neutral as regards Christianity, but her 
 work is now distincflly evangelical and Chris- 
 tian. I/)ve is its atmosphere, and unselfish 
 labor for those who are in need, as is shown 
 by the opening of her doors lately to wel- 
 come 300 famine orphans. Through help 
 obtained in England and the United States 
 she built at Poona a building, and opened 
 
RAMABAI AND WOMEN OF INDIA. 259 
 
 a school called Sharada Sadan (Abode of 
 Wisdom). 
 
 In 1896, hearing of the famine desolating 
 the central provinces, she made arrangements 
 for the fifty or more widows to be cared for at 
 Poona, and went to the famine distridl resolved 
 to rescue at least 300 girls from death; and 
 these became her own, under her control, to be 
 brought up as she pleased. Within two years 
 nearly one-third of this number had accepted 
 Christ. These were placed on the farm at 
 Kedgaun, about thirty-four miles from 
 Poona. 
 
 One must have lived in India and gone 
 through a famine experience to understand the 
 fadls. Government poorhouses and relief 
 camps she found to be inadequate; even where 
 the bodies were sheltered and fed, the soul was 
 in danger from the charadler of those who 
 were emplo3^ed as mukadams, managers, etc. 
 She found young girls ' ' kept ' ' for immoral 
 purposes in these government shelters, where 
 virtue was presumably also in shelter; and 
 when the deput}^ commissioner was told of the 
 
26o THS MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 facfls, like Gallic, he ** cared for none of these 
 things." Ramabai says that young women 
 had to sell their virtue to save themselves 
 from starvation. British soldiers often oppose 
 missionary labor because it breaks up this in- 
 fernal traffic in virtue. Dr. Kate Bushnell and 
 Mrs. Andrew exposed the doings of high mili- 
 tary officers, and further exposures are feared 
 where godly women have freedom to work. 
 
 During the late famine, when Poona was 
 abandoned, Ramabai was supporting 372 girls, 
 of whom 337 were in Kedgaun, at the farm, 
 while the rest were at different places. When 
 this farm was bought, embracing 100 acres, 
 the government would not allow dormitories 
 to be put up. Ramabai 's reply was, " I will 
 build a barn for bullocks and grain." She 
 went on and put up a large building, and by 
 the time it was completed, she had permission 
 to put girls in it instead of cattle. Thus she 
 stored it with "grain for the Lord." That 
 " cattle-shed " became a shelter for 200 famine 
 widows, and later served as schoolhouse, 
 chapel, dormitory, etc. Temporary shelters 
 
RAMABAI AND WOMEN OF INDIA. 26 1 
 
 were also ere(5led and the new settlement was 
 called Mukti (Salvation). 
 
 The work at Mukti is constantly growing, 
 and has the growing confidence of intelligent 
 and Christian people. The new buildings now 
 completed are already insufficient to accommo- 
 date the inmates, and new buildings will be 
 put up as fast as the Lord sends means. The 
 heart of this godly woman travails for souls, 
 and she can not see the misery and poverty 
 about her without yearning to relieve it. A 
 few poor women, ruined by vice and terribly 
 diseased, are housed for the time in separate 
 chuppee huts, until a home for such can be 
 provided. 
 
 This home is not a place of idleness, but a 
 hive of industry. Education for the mind, sal- 
 vation for the soul, and occupation for the 
 body is the threefold law; washing and weav- 
 ing, cooking and sweeping, growing grain and 
 grinding it, flower culture and fruit raising — 
 these are some of the industries in which the 
 girls are trained, and which contribute to their 
 self-support. 
 
262 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 The teachers are exclusively Christian, and 
 the settlement is a truly missionary center. 
 Miss Abrams, who superintended the work in 
 Ramabai's absence, gives her whole time to it, 
 giving Bible instrudlion in the school, and 
 supervising the village work. She had only 
 to suggest to students a pledge like that of the 
 student volunteers, and thirty-five at once 
 offered to follow any leading of God into mis- 
 sion work. A score of neighboring villages 
 are already accessible to the Gospel, and 
 crowds gather around Miss Abrams and her 
 Gospel women. 
 
 The Holy Spirit works with Ramabai. The 
 girls show real sorrow for sin, and hunger after 
 salvation. Then when they are saved, they 
 become witnesses, and in their own simple way 
 tell of forgiveness and cleansing. In the 
 hospital there are also frequent manifestations 
 of God's healing power. 
 
 When she set up her school in Poona 
 Ramabai made no efforts at proselyting the 
 inmates; but some five or six years ago twelve 
 or thirteen of them, won to Christ by her un- 
 
RAMABAI AND WOMEN OF INDIA. 263 
 
 selfish love, renounced heathenism, and were 
 baptized into Christ. Poona was greatly 
 aroused by such an event, and for a time it 
 seemed as though the home itself would be 
 reduced to a ruin. Ramabai called a public 
 meeting, and undertook to explain why these 
 widows had accepted Christ. The streets 
 were thronged with people, and a crowd of 
 young mea filled the hall where she was to 
 speak. Without a sign of anxiety, Ramabai 
 stood up to address them. She spoke of the 
 moral and spiritual slavery of the Hindus ; 
 how incapable they are of helping themselves, 
 while they are asking for political freedom ; 
 how unhappy their family life is, and especially 
 how miserable is the lot of their women. 
 Then, holding up the Marathi Bible, she said : 
 * ' I will read to you now what is the reason 
 of all your misery, degradation, and helpless- 
 ness; it is your separation from the living 
 God! " It was growing dark, and she asked 
 one of the excited Hindu youths to bring a 
 lamp that she might read. Without a mo- 
 ment's hesitation he obeyed. After reading 
 
264 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. 
 
 some passages, she began to speak of the con- 
 versions of the widows, and then said: "Your 
 view of my adlions can not influence me in the 
 least, nor can your threatenings frighten me. 
 You like to be slaves; I am free! Christ, the 
 truth, has made me free." The excitement 
 was tremendous, and the Brahmans only re- 
 strained themselves with difficulty; but they 
 heard her out to the end in dead silence, and 
 allowed her to walk uninjured through their 
 ranks to her home. 
 
 The storm passed away, and the home re- 
 mained undisturbed — sheltering some sixty 
 women, and training them for lives of useful- 
 ness. The Sharada Sadan is still a secular 
 school, but Mukti is distincftly Christian, 
 though unsedlarian. 
 
 Pundita Ramabai has made two visits to 
 this country. Once ten or eleven years ago, 
 when she came to ask aid, and again, more 
 recently, w^hen she came to give account of her 
 stewardship. During this decade of years the 
 Ramabai circles had sent her upward of 80,000 
 dollars. Fifty thousand dollars of this she 
 
RAMABAI AND WOMEN OF INDIA. 265 
 
 had invested in property, free from debt, and 
 over 350 high-caste widows have already en- 
 joyed the benefits of her school, and are now 
 filling various places of self-support and ser- 
 vice. 
 
i By ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D. J 
 
 \ 
 
 I The Miracles of Missions \ 
 
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