MAY 25 1955

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Vol. XXX VI NOVEMBER, 1906 No. 11

Missionary Miss Esther B. Fowler, principal of the Woronoco

Personals. Girls' Boarding School in Sholapur, in the Marathi Mis- sion, sailed October 6, returning from her furlough. With her went Miss Mary B. Harding, the beloved teacher at the head of kindergarten work in Sholapur. She is accompanied by her mother, Mrs. Elizabetii D. Harding, who, though in delicate health, goes gladly back to the people to whom she has given many years of missionary service. The daily noon prayer service in the rooms of the American Board uwas nusually interesting on Wednesda}-, September 19. Dr. Barton, in behalf of the American Board, presented commissions to Dr. William Cammack and Dr. Sarali L. (Seymour) Cam- mack, about to join the mission in West Central Africa. Dr. and Mrs. Cammack sailed the next day, en route for their field. Each having a medi- cal equipment, they will have an added element of efiiciency in their work.

Tried Three times during the past year word has come to tlie

BY Fire. W^oman's Board of the burning of one of the buildings of one of our girls' schools. First of Barton Hall in the American College for Girls at Constantinople, then of the seminary at Aintab, and now comes a dispatch from Umzumbe in South Africa, saying that the teachers' residence is burned, adding total loss." No farther particulars have reached us. One wonders if the work of these girls' schools is so particularly effective against the kingdom of darkness that the great adversary has an especial grudge against them. The teachers who go through these very trying experiences need special sympathy and prayer ; and in some cases having lost all their material belongings they need substantial help.

A Centenary. — Not only at the haystack was the Spirit of God at work in 1806 urging men to work and pray for the coming of the Kingdom all the w^orld around ; in other places devout souls, both men .and w^omen, felt the same high impulse, and some banded themselves together. In Jericho, Vt., a little town under the shadow of Mt. Mansfield, a little group

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of earnest women formed a society which has" gone on without inter- ruption through all the hundred years. Not long ago the present mem- bers celebrated the centennial anniversary with interesting and appropriate exercises. Friends from neighboring societies joined in the rejoicing, and some of the old records were brought to fresh remembrance. Miss Torre}-, of Burlington, Foreign Secretary of the Vermont Branch, gave a brief sur- vey of the religious condition of the world one hundred years ago, and told some of the changes that have come since then. Supper was served at the parish house, and varied exercises in the evening filled out the memorable occasion. How much of blessing may have gone forth from this century of prayer? How many of the present auxiliaries will continue faithful and growing for so long a time? How can we make sure that our own society shall show as good a record?

A Sagacious A recent letter trom a missionary, giving some details

Combination. of the work of the married women in his station, con- tains these words : "All know now the Source of all power both physical and spiritual, but not all know as well as it should be known the Prayer Calen- dar and Life and Light, wiiich strikes one as a most sagacious combination in the work of' moving the Hand which moves the world.' It would be no less than stealing for us not to confess to an unusual sense of nearness to God and of being upheld by divine strength in answer, most assuredly, to the prayers of friends both known and unknown, not because of our own per- sonal worth, but because of the simple fact that we were in a critical place at a critical juncture, unworthy and unprepared for the heavy weight of the responsibility of the situation."

This missionary has been for several years in a position peculiarly per- plexing and difficult, and his testimony to our helping together in prayer should inspire to more earnest intercession. All our missionaries need the wisdom and strength and cheer which come only from above, and which we can help to gain for them. In the monthly article Our Daily Prayer, Life and Light tries to bring you the latest word of their work and their needs.

Helps for Study Most of the work in the islands of tlie Pacific has been OF Chkistus done by British and German societies, and they have Redemptor. published few leaflets concerning it. The leaflet list on our side of the water is very brief, and our leaders must be willing to search in books for the information wanted. This search will be very fascinating and rewarding, but it will take time. Do not grudge to give time to it; we cannot expect to get all our knowledge predigested like the patent foods.

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We append a list of helpful brochures. Largest of all is Great Voyages and What Came of Them, by Katharine R. Crovvell ; 25 cents in paper, 30 cents in cloth. Published by the Willett Press, 5 West 20th Street, New York.* Three leaflets — Triumphs of the Gospel among Fijian Cannibals, Stories of Hawaiian Lepers, and How the Liglit Came to ]Man- gaia — all published at 2 cents each, 10 cents a dozen, by the Woman's For- eign Missionary Union of Friends in America, Carmel, Lidiana. Flying Timbers on Ponape, a story of the Hurricane, by Miss Beulah Logan. Pub- lished by tlie Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior, at 40 Dearborn Street, Chicago ; sent on receipt postage. How the Children Helped, and John Williams, at 2 cents each. Published by the Women's Foreign Mis- sionary Society of the M. E. Church, 36 Bromfield Street, Boston.

The Refer- Ever}' study class and every auxiliary who are using

ENCE Library. Christus Redemptor should have the help of the Refer- ence Library issued by the Central Committee on the United Study of ^lis- sions. Perhaps the class or society will tax themselves to buy it ; perhaps individuals will buy each woman one ; in some way everyone ought to read every one of these illuminating volumes. It consists of eight standard vol- umes in uniform bindings, packed in case, for only five dollars.

The lives of Paton, Chalmers, Patteson and Calvert, are thrilling stories of Christion heroism such as the world has rarely known, while Brow^n's New Era i?i the Philippines^ Brain's Transfovfnation of Ha-juaii^ Alex- ander's unsurpassed volume. The Islaiids of the Pacific and Banks' Heroes of the South Seas^ form a comprehensive library for students. If your society cannot buy it, secure it for your Sunday school library, or get it into your town library as many are doing. This price is less than half that charged by booksellers.

Samoans and Others in Samoa

BY MISS ALPHA \V. BARLOW

-j-^ARxVLAXGI " — " Breakers through the sky." Such is the name \^ the Samoans still give to white men. It brings down to us vividly -1- the impression of childish wonder and awe with which these islanders received the first pale-faced travelers who came to them in strange ships out of a great unknown beyond the Samoan horizon of sight or thought. This is said to have happened as long ago as 1721. At

* A set of eight illustrative post cards accompanies this book; price, 15 cents the set. Send directly to the different publishers for these leaflets.

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anv rate, the whaling ships and occasional slavers, in the palmy days of both trades, had already, before the middle of the nineteenth century, sprinkled these as well as the other South Sea Islands with " beach combers," those runaway sailors who were tempted by the luxurious laziness of native exist- ence as they caught glimpses of it from the unspeakable old-time " fo'c'sle."

These runaways found the Samoans cordial in their welcome. Here were no cannibal horrors, and they lived on friendly terms with the natives, who

ISLAND VILLAGE AKD PALMS

marveled at the wonderful things the white man could do and tell about. Such settlers vvere unencumbered with high moral and social ideals. They often married native wives, sometimes acquired land, and were quite con- tent with the " charm of free savagery," and longed for no other contact with the outside world than the infrequent calls of passing ships like those they had left.

Often these passing ships made ill return for the hospitality of the islanders. Sometimes the captain would buy native goods, and when they were safely on board, would send back armed men to seize again forcibly the price that had been paid. Sometimes the crew would come ashore, steal food, and

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carry off women, and when the natives resisted, fire upon tiie viUage. Such were the islandeis' first lessons in white civilization.

It seems almost marvelous that there was any welcome left for the mis- sionaries when they arrived in 1830. But the natives had been at least im- pressed with the superior powers of " papalangi," though these had so often brougiit harm. Possibly' to pagan minds the thought that supernatural powers sliould be hostile was too natural for them to harbor any surprise or ill will. At any rate, the story as we have it in Christus Redeinptor is one of childlike cordiality to these new messengers from the greater world. Perhaps the race had outgrown its national religion, and like Augustan Rome, or Japan of to-day, was ready for a substitute. At any rate, the missionary was a higher type of civilization than they had touched before ; and they came to regard him with " a queer mixture of affection, awe, and curiosity."

Not in vain, however, did the passing slavers and whalersgohome with their tales of South Sea abundance. Visions of trade were inspired and realized. Firnisof merchants sent agents to tlie islands tobuy copra at a low price in exchange for trade goods at a high price," and their ships came and went, bringing gaudy calicoes and cheap guns, and carrying the copra to Europe and America, where cocoanut oil was in demand, and prices were high. So, not long after the missionaries, came tlie "German firm" to Samoa, where it soon obtained possession of most of the available land in the most available island, Upolu, and established the great plantations and stores and barracks that are still the head and front of business in Apia.

Other traders, to be sure, tried to gain a foothold, so that both England and America are represented in Samoan commerce ; but the Germans had the under-grip. It became, as Stevenson says, " a game of 'beggar my neighbor ' between a large merchant and some small ones." Let Steven- son give us the rest of tlie situation : " Close at their elbows, in all this con- tention, stands tlie native looking on. Like a child, his true analogue, he observes, apprehends, misapprehends, and is usually silent. He looks on at the rude career of the dollar hunt, and wonders. He sees tliese men rolling in a luxury beyond the ambition of native kings; he hears them accused by each other of the meanest trickery ; he knows some of tiiem to be guilty ; and what is he to think.? He is strongly conscious of his own position as the common milk cow ; and what is he to do.?"

When this stage of affairs is reached, of course there follow consuls — American, German, English — to protect the interests of their respective fellow citizens, and the islands have stepped out of the category of unknown lands.

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While all this has been going on, chiefly in Upolu, a certain Captain Mead, of America, has raised the Stars and Stripes over Pago-Pago in Tutuila, and declared it " under the protection of the United States." I find no clear evidence that the captain was commissioned to do this, or tiiat the island yearned for protection. But even in those days, there were Am- ericans who took the position that " the flag must never be hauled down " — with the result that in the seventies of the last centur}', Samoa entered the political arena by signing a treaty with the United States, which gave them the right to a coaling station at Pago-Pago. Immediately, and of course, there followed treaties with Great Britain and Germany ; and for the next twentv-five years poor Samoa found political relations an arena indeed, in which her part was no better than tha*: of the poor bull, goaded to destruc- tion by superior skill and cunning.

The wretched tale of that quarter of a century is briefly outlined in Christus Redemptor. To know something of its details for a part of that time, you must read Stevenson's Footitote to Histoiy^ which tells with won- derful sympathetic insight and kindly breadth of judgment, the story of "this distracted archipelago of children sat upon b\^ a clique of fools." At its end we must sadly echo the lament of one of Samoa's own native daughters : "Ane e I Talofa ! My heart weeps at the trouble in Samoa and the wicked nessofwar." Stevenson did not live to see the conclusion of the stor}^, when, no longer ago than 1899, the islands were " partitioned ofl' among the powers, ' to keep them from being troublesome.'" Such has been the record of our boasted Anglo-Saxon superiority in Samoa. What has been its effect upon the native himself.^

Barring the beach comber, perhaps the whites have been more consistent in setting the lesson of industry than any other. Here oftener than else- where has the example of other foreigners reinforced the efforts of the missionaries to train students in habits as well as methods of systematic, well-directed labor. Yet universal report says that the Samoan remains " lazy." Indeed, he looks with a condescending and somewhat scornful wonder at men who spend all their time and labor in growing food only to send it away and sell it. " A man at home who should turn all Yorkshire into one wheat field, and annually burn his harv^est on the altar of Mumbo- Jumbo, might impress ourselves not much otherwise," for in Samoa no one could be rich if he tried. There would be sure to be "poor relations" to devour the surplus ; and in Samoa there is nothing apologetic about the poor relation. He is a recognized factor in society. Stevenson tells of one of the native maids at Vailima whom the ladies of the house had fitted out with some small finery as well as with substantial protection against the

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cool nights. Thus arrayed the woman went to make a visit to her relatives in the bush. She came back next day vvitii no garment save a ragged blanket, having given away all to meet the demands of these beggars. Under such a system, " to work more is only to be more pillaged ; to save is impossible." But Stevenson goes on to say, " The injustice of the system begins to be recognized even in Samoa." And it is chronicled that the native will work if taken away from the island, so that this communism ceases to fetter him.

This is only one point at whicli Samoan ideas are bv nature, and inherit- ance, and all the weight of social habit, diametrically opposite to ours. And social habit the world around is slow to change. So there are many

SAMOAN VILLAGE

other respects in which the native remains as yet unaltered by precept or example.

He is primitive still in his love for war and in his war methods, though in some scenes he has appeared fully as noble as his white antagonist. He has learned to wield firearms, but with a childish delight in the commotion and incredible disregard of effectiveness, for which a woman at least would hardly brand him as more savage. No prohibition has yet availed to anni- hilate the traditional custom of taking heads as war trophies. With native shrewdness of intellect a chief has appealed to precedent on that point : " Is it not so, that when David killed Goliah he cut off his head and carried it before the king? "

To-day, as of old, the Samoan is content and comfortable in his native house, which someone has described as " a huge beehive on stilts." Still

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to-dav, in the open space around which the liouses of a village are built, they dance the ancient siva, and listen to the " talking man," and follow tlieir minute and curious ceremonies of courtesy. Yet even in the cast-iron rules of kava etiquette, white influence is felt. When kava is made, at least for white people in their presence, the root is pounded with sharp stones instead of being chewed by the village maiden and her train, according to the ancient recipe, before mixing in the many legged bowl with v^'ater brought in cocoanut shell cups. (See frontispiece.)

Manv superstitions of the old religion still survive, though every Samoan is nominally Christian. We need not be surprised. Rather must we wonder that so much has been achieved in barely three quarters of a cen- turv bv tliose few white men who alone have come to the islands not for what thev can get out of them. Most remarkable is the testimony to the ever-present village church, to the large and regular attendance at its ser- vices, to the universal custom of evening prayers in the family. Think that eighty years ago, the language had never been reduced to writing, and then hear that, "excluding those who are so old that they had passed the learning age when school facilities \vere offered, it is safe to say that the Samoan who is unable to read, to write, and to cipher is singular in his ignorance." Read the story of the hurricane, and how, in a time of war, when the fury of the sea threatened with death the very foes whom the natives had expected to fight, it was their strong arms, trained from baby- hood to swim the environing seas, that saved their enemies. And if it be true, as some observers would remind us, that much of Samoan Ciiristianitv is merely nominal, shall we not look nearer home for the same sad phenom- enon, and soberly ask ourselves how much of that blame, in Samoa, lies with the example that Christian nations in the islands have set over against the teaching of the missionaries?

Light in Dark Places

BY MISS MARY L. DANIELS Principal of Girls' Department in Euphrates College

IT is a great cause for joy that we have so many girls who are ready and willing to go out to teach. Every w^eek a call comes from some city or village for a teacher. The cry is, " We wish a spiritual leader, one who will w^ork for souls." At the same time girls come to me and say: '' Please send me out to teach this year. I wish to tell the women of Christ's love."

J9o6'\ Light in Dark Places 489

One of our most consecrated teacliers has just left us to give her life for the women of this land. From time to time she has gone out to the near villages to try to lead someone to the Lord. Wherever she has gone she has won the women. A year ago a young theological student asked for her hand. She felt that the Lord was calling her to work for the " poor women," dying souls."

July twentieth in the large schoolroom there was a simple ceremony. Our dear Anna was the sweetest bride tliat I have seen in Turkey. vShe wore a dainty gray silk, with sweet peas in her hair and hands. Her face was the face of an angel as slie knelt to con- secrate her life for the salvation of souls in this dark land. So the Lord has called our sw'eetest and dearest teacher to go out from us to win souls. May he find many others wlio shall say, *'Here am I, send me."

A few weeks ago Mr. Knapjo invited me to accompany him on a tour to a distant part of our field. The party consisted of Mr. Knapp, his son, one of our teachers, her brother and myself. We were absent eleven days, and were in the saddle six. During my twenty years in Turkey this was the first time that I had visited this part of our field. We spent more or less time in six vil- lages or cities. M}^ heart went out to the women of the village where we anna sjDent the first night. They work all

day in the fields, are "dead tired" at night, have nothing to elevate them, and do their washing on Sunday. One of our graduates lives there with lier mother. They have a large farm and many harvesters, so her life is given to housework, but I urged her to work for the souls of the women.

The following day we spent a few hours in a beautiful village. The houses were so clean and white that I said as I entered one, "Why this is heaven ! " Our schoolgirls and some of the women came to see us. We spent the night in a forlorn village, in which there was only one Protestant. Tiiere has been no preacher since the massacre. Birds flew in and out of the cliapel at their own pleasure.

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Thursday we rode through a gorge by a branch of the Euphrates. The scenery was grand. I was so tired that I dismounted, threw n^yself down on the sand by the roadside and went to sleep. That night we reached the beautiful city of Egin and received a royal welcome. We called at the homes of our pupils, led meetings, visited the school, went on a picnic, and were invited out to feasts. The people are hospitable and refined. The city suffered terribly at the time of the massacre. We were talcen down into a garden and shown a trench under a wall where eight or nine men liid for three or four days. Everything was so calm and peaceful that it seemed impossible to realize the bloody scenes that had taken place near the spot where we were seated.

There are only three or four Protestant brethren, but they carry on the work with almost no help from the missionaries. The wife of the principal man was one of our schoolgirls. She was delighted to see her old teacher, and begged me to be her guest for two weeks. Mr. Knapp planned a trip on the river for us, and instead of riding three hours by horse, we rode for two hours on a kelek, (A kelek is a raft made by inflating goat skins, over which boards and branches have been put.) We had a delightful ride for an hour, then we drew up by a fountain under some trees for breakfast. After another hour's ride we mounted our horses and bade our kind friends good-by. That afternoon we stopped for a few hours at a little village. There I found a dear woman who graduated eighteen years ago. How the tears stood in her eyes as she talked with me ; her hands were hard and soiled from the farm work, but her heart was aglow with love for Christ. She is a light in that dark place. I made a few calls and found sad women, who felt that the Lord sent me to them.

That night we reached Arabkir, where we were entertained very lovingly at the home of one of the teachers. It is a pleasure to remember how

CROSSING A RIVER ON A RAFT OF GOATSKINS

A Few Facts About the Baikwa

491

thoughtfully they cared for us. We made many calls, and had entrance to Gregorian homes. We had a large meeting for women. How they urged us to stay longer, but work called us home. This city also suffered badly at the time of the massacre. All the best houses were destroyed, and i,^oo people were killed. The next night we spent at a summer house in a large garden ; the shadows in the moonlight were quite bewitching.

Friday we reached home ; and oh, what a welcome we did have ! It did my heart more good than I can tell you to see so many of our girls and former pupils in their homes, and to see how hungry and eager the people are for more knowledge of Christ. I just hope that hereafter I can steal away now and then to go out and help our girls and women in tlieir walk heavenward. Pray that the women of this land may find the satis- faction of their longings in Ciirist and his presence.

A Few Facts About the Baikwa

(The Plum Blossom School)

This is a Christian day school (with twenty-eight boarders), in the heart of the heathen city of Osaka, with 226 girls enrolled. It is carried on by some of the Kumiai Cin istians of Osaka. The trustees of the school are three of the pastors of Osaka with seven representative laymen and two of the early graduates of the school. Rev. T. Osada is principal, and gives

HOME OF THE TEACHERS IN THE BAIKWA

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his time, what he can, to the school. This school is run by the Japanese, l)ut they have the help and advice of the three missionary teachers con- nected with it. Miss Colby and Miss Case live in the W. B. M. house connected with the school. Miss Daniels lives about a mile away at the concession, and she has given about six hours a week to the scliool of English teaching for tlie past six years. She also has charge of a girls' Hero Band, and a Junior Christian Endeavor Society of the younger girls in the school. We have a good Christian Endeavor Society of about sixty girls from the three upper classes. Miss Colby teaches music, Bible and a little English, about eighteen hours I think. Miss Case teaclies English, Bible and foreign cooking seventeen hours a week.

Our graduates number about one hundred and fifty, and are scattered all over the empire, some being in Korea and one in China, and two now in America studying. Others are wives of pastors, teachers and prominent men in church and city. Some, of course, I am sorry to say are not Chris- tians, but they have gained much from the benefit of Christianity in the school. We liave many girls from fine families, and our entrance into those families is always a pleasure. We have six Bible classes in the school all taught in Japanese, and all except the first class have some knowledge of Jesus Christ. The first class have been here only a little more than two terms, and cannot be said to have a very intelligent knowledge of Chris- tianity, although they are regularly taught. Tliey, the first class, came from entirely heathen families.

Nothing is compulsory in the school. As a matter of fact, they all attend morning exercises and Bible class, and a fair proportion attend Sunday school and church. Nearly all the three upper English classes are Chris- tians and members of churches also. Scattered through the younger classes are quite a few Christians, .although many are not allowed by their relatives to join the church. The regular Japanese and English course is five years only, and there is a graduate course of one year foi- those who cannot leave Osaka for other schools. The expenses of the school are met by some gifts from the Japanese and the tuitions of the pupils.

Two diflferent missionaries in Tien Tsin were recently approached by anxious fatliers wanting their assistance in securing suitable husbands for two daughters. "What is the trouble?" was asked. "They have old style, small, bound feet, and are not acceptable to the young men."

The Connecting Link

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The Connecting Link

BY MISS ANSTICE ABBOTT (^Concluded)

FOR answer she sank down at his feet and began to weep bitterly. The husband was greatly perplexed. While he had all the time feared his wife's sorrow and anger when she should learn that he had become a Christian, yet at the same time he had felt that something had changed her of late. It was long since he had heard her sharp little tongue in torrent of scornful abuse of a neighbor or a cheating trader, but it was only the day before that a neighbor had told him that the Bible women were going regularly to neighbor Radhabai's, and that it would, be well for him to look after his wife as she was often thei'e to hear the preaching. So, while it never entered his mind that his wife cared for those things, he had hoped that she would not be heartbroken at the news he had to bring her. He bent down and touched her forehead gently : " Tell me, Yamuna, why you weep ; are you grieved because I have become a Christian?"

She controlled herself with a great effort and looked up into his face. Seeing tears in her husband's eyes, but a smile on his face, she clasped her hands together, and looking up beyond him, she ejaculated, " Jesus, I thank thee," and then followed another burst of tears.

Narayanrao's heart beat with this unexpected joy, and he in turn, witli a trembling voice, gave thanks to God for this wonderful thing that had come to pass, that each, unknown to the other, had seen the beauty of the Saviour and had believed on him.

After a long silence they began to explain to each other how this had come about. As for Narayanrao, a tract put into his hands in the street had called his attention to Christ ; then he had occasionally stopped to hear the street preaching of missionaries and native helpers. Then he had bought a New Testament and read it. One day in his office work he had to take a government paper to a missionar3^ This gentleman's bearing and upright- ness so attracted him that this chance meeting led to many more, until the friendship ripened into Christian brotherhood. He would have confessed Christ long before had it not been for fear of estranging his much-loved wife. The whisper, the day before, that Yamunabai was listening to the Bible women, awakened in him the purpose to tell his wife of the new faith he had accepted. So this evening he had come to his house later than usual, having spent an hour with his friend, the missionar3', in asking counsel and prayer, and in receiving strength and encouragement.

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As for Yamunabai, when she saw that her husband's earl}' hours, etc., made him neglect the worship of their gods, she was more assiduous than ever in all the religious duties of the day, as a loyal Brahmin wife should be. When the Bible women began to come into their little street, she heard them with curiosity until her husband had forbidden her to ask them into their court. Then she tossed her little iiead in fine scorn of the doings in Radhabai's house. But little Vishnu had to go to school, and the govern- ment school was too far away ; what was to be done? A Christian school was near and many little Brahmin boys went there. " They learned well," it was said, and really their manners were improved ;" so after a deal of hesitation, Yamunabai asked the father what had better be done. He in his indifference said: "Send him to the mission school. It will do him no harm while he is so young." Vishnu went. He was only six years old, but a bright little boy.

He soon conquered the long Marathi alphabet, singly and Jn all its com- binations, and his mother was proud of him. Then he began to lium about tlie house and his little voice was very sweet. The mother paid no atten- tion to the words he sang, until he began to teach them to his baby sister. "Jesus" seemed to occur very often in the hymns and the baby learned to lisp the name in her attempts to join her dearly loved brother. "Jesus! " He was the one the Bible women were always telling about. " Jesus " and " love" seemed always to go together in the children's singing. She would slip around to Radhabai's the next time the Bible women came there and hear what they had to say ; anything about love could not be very bad. So, at first, Yamunabai stood at Radhabai's door. She would not go in. The next time she did " just step in." " The old, old story" was so very sweet it had in time conquered her, until the proud little Brahmin woman sat with the other Brahmin women at the feet of those whom before they had reviled and called " the defiled v/omen." Sitting there they heard of the love of Christ; how he suffered and died that they, the women of India, might be saved. The two took no note of time as they related their heart's history to 6ach other. And Yamunabai, after she had finished her story, asked her husband when it was that he had first begun to think of these things.

" Nearly two years ago," he answered. "The day our Nana, our first- born, died. Coming back from the burning ground, a man on the street put a tract into my hand. I should have indignantly pushed it away, only that the large heading caught my eye — ' He shall live again ! ' I took it, read it and re-read it many times. That was the beginning. For a year I have almost been persuaded to become a Christian. The fear of breaking up our

The Zulu Woman: A Plea

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happy home has prevented me, and I do not know when I should have had the courage to make the decision and tell you of it if Mahdaras iiad not cautioned me to look after you. But I thought if my wife listens to the Bible women, she will not be very angry with me, and I could not help a little hope that, possibly, she might sympathize with me."

"Ah, yes," said Yamunabai, " if I iiad not listened to the Bible women, how very difterent things would have been to-night. I should have been so horrified, so very angry with you, and I should have been heartbroken also to think that our happy home had ceased to be. The missionaries are wise to send women to teach us women about the Saviour, otherwise there would be nothing but quarrels and partings. The men would be saved, but we poor wives, how could we know of tlie love of Christ? But now the same Christ who meets you in the streets, and comes to our children in the schools, finds us in our own homes. Blessed be his name! The Bible women are such good, kind women, too. Oil, how happy T am to-night."

Narayanrao's face also shone with joy as reverently bending over the table with his hand on his wife's slioulder, he thanked the Lord for his wonderful salvation and asked him to bless the Bible women who had been the means of bringing them, the husband and wife, togetlier at the feet of Christ.

And thus the little Brahmin home had its first consecration, by family prayer, to ''the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God," the God who " so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

The Zulu Woman: A Piea

BY MRS. LAURA MELLEX ROBINSOX

AN English newspaper in Natal, Soutii Africa, in a recent account of the Zulu rebel uprising against the government, makes this statement: "Bands of women liave been passing from kraal to kraal inciting the men to fight. They have taken part in the doctoring, and their fiendish suggestions were accountable for the awful treatment of the white man's body found on Tuesday at a rebel chiefs kraal. The remorseless destruction of the kraals, and the scattering of their man- kind and the loss of their cattle, will have a lasting efiect on the minds of the native women, and they are less likely in future to incite a rebellion."

The Zulu woman is thus seen to be not without influence in her home. 'Tis she who intercedes with the ancestral spirits, and who teaches her child to lisp its first request to these spirits for their favor and protection. 'Tis she who is versed in the superstitions of her people, and most frequently

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practices its sorceries and incantations. She lias the most intimate relations with the spirits of darkness, often submitting herself to their evil suggestions^ and running to and fro as the emissary of the arch fiend himself, till mind becomes distorted and body often racked with pain.

Bring this woman under the influence of God's spirit, and what does she become.'' A power for good to her people that cannot be estimated. Now has come a special time in which to hold out the saving hand, which shall redeem her life and turn her influence into manifold channels of good for her people. Stript of father, brother, husband, lover, kraals burned, cattle confiscated, the Zulu woman stands destitute to-day. What shall become of her.-^ What of her children.^ W^ill she seek a livelihood in the employ- ment of the Europeans in their towns, and become a prey to bad men (white and black) who live there Will she rebuild her hut, till her gardens, as heretofore, feed and protect her children in her home? Such questions come to mind as one's heart goes out in pity and sorrow for these Zulu women, many whom I know, and whose children I have taught and love.

The government that has been forced to strike so mercilessly with one hand will stretch out the other to "take care of the wives and children of rebels who lost their lives." Their immediate physical needs will l)e met, but what of hearts sore and minds distraught.'* What of the train of dire temptations that follow in the wake of such disasters.^ If ever tiiese women and children needed the reforming, enlightening influence of the gospel of Clirist it is now. Nor will that influence ever more eflectually reach and touch their bruised souls than now.

The Zulu woman stands before two ways to-day. In one is the fjite of a dragged out, ever degrading existence — a blot on the history of her people. The other — the way of life — patient, strong, " fervent in spirit, constant in pra37er," overcoming superstition and sin. Thus we have seen her, and know she can be. God grant us a part in helping her to attain to this end^

China: The Awakening Giant

BY MRS. CHARLES S. HARTWELL

SOMETIMES we do not realize a truth until we bring together the facts we know about it. The separate facts, learned one by one, have not impressed us, so we gather here some of the signs to be seen in the Middle Kingdom to-day. A recent cartoon represents the giant, China, in bed, yawning and stretching. As he stretches, his right arm overthrows a bust labeled Tradition, and his left another marked Supersti-

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tion. Chinese tradition and superstition have not yet had a disastrous fall, but they are toppling.

• From our earliest days, perhaps, the first things thought of when China v^as mentioned were the braided cues of tlie men and the tiny bound feet of the women. It has not been many years since a Chinese in this countrv would be likely to lose his life if he returned to China without his cue, but recently the government has abolished the cue in the navy and clothed the naval soldiers in foreign dress.

About three years ago the wives of several Chinese officials, of Hangchow, called a meeting in an ancestral hall, which was attended by eighty non- Christian women who formed themselves into an anti-footbinding society. Think of it! Chinese women actually beginning to have clubs, and clubs with an object which is worth while ! Fifty of those women present pledged themselves to unbind their own feet and never to bind their daughters' feet. About that time the Empress Dowager issued an edict against this cruel custom of footbinding. An edict does not enforce itself, but public senti- ment is growing, and in Foochow there is a growing sentiment in favor of the heavenly foot. You know the society opposing footbinding is called the Heavenly Foot Society. Is not China awakening if the women, the mothers, are beginning to assert themselves on the side of reform? What started these ideas? In different parts of the empire mission boarding schools were years ago established where no bound-footed girls were admitted. Often women who became Christians were persuaded to unbind their feet and to let the feet of their daughters grow. Now the little leaven hidden here and there is beginning to work.

The Chinese used to make maps of the world, representing the earth as flat and rectangular, almost tlie entire space filled by China itself, the rest of the world appearing as a little indefinite border. To them China was tiie world. What use had they for anything which they did not have and did not know? When outsiders came to their land from the regions represented by these straggling border fringes of their map, they were "foreign devils," looked upon with a mingled feeling of hatred, fear and scorn. Contrast this with the large delegations of officials and prominent men sent recently to America and Europe to study Western civilization and education. At a banquet given in their honor in New York, Viceroy Tuan Fang spoke as follows: "We take pleasure in bearing testimony to the part taken by American missionaries in promoting the progress of the Chinese people. They have borne the light of Western civilization into every nook and corner -of the empire. They have rendered inestimable service to China by the laborious task of translating into the Chinese language religious and scien-

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tific works of the West. They help us to bring happiness and comfort to the poor and suffering by the establishment of hospitals and schools. The awakening of China, which now seems to be at hand, may be traced in no small measure to the hand of the missionary. For this service you will find China not ungrateful." Tliese high commissioners visited the rooms of our American Board in Boston. During this call the Viceroy referred more than once to his personal knowledge of the good work done by our mission- aries, and said emphatically, *'Send us more like those you have sent."

In 1873 the Chinese government sent several young men to America to be educated, but fearing they were becoming Americanized they were re- called before they had finished their studies. In spite of the difficulties they find in gaining entrance to our country there are now fully one hundred Chinese students in America ; halt of them taking either college courses or post graduate work. They are studying railway, mechanical and electrical engineering, and mining, as well as physics, chemistry, medicine and other branches. This knowledge they will, no doubt, make use of in their own country.

Just before the commissioners started for