THE KING’S BUSINESS
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has labored among the cannibals of Male- kula for twenty years, having been the first man to approach them. They are a dan gerous people. On one occasion when pass ing through the forest up a mountain side, Mr. Paton, on scaling a giant ledge, sud denly felt the cold muzzle of a rifle against his cheek. Pulling up short he noticed guns in all directions, pointing at him from out of the bush. “I spoke quickly to th e ow ners of th e rifles an d as th e y saw th a t I w as un arm ed , they recognized th a t I w as on a n e rra n d of peace. If I h ad been arm ed I should h av e been shot. “ ‘I have com e to tell you a b o u t God,' I said. ‘W e know ab o u t God,’ th ey replied. T hen I told th em how th ey h ad m issed th eir w ay to God an d how Je su s h ad com e down from heaven to show th em th e w ay back. T h eir in te re st deepened a s th ey h eard of th e ato n em en t. ‘T his is a tru e w ord,’ said th e chief. ‘T h a t is good.’ T hey believed th a t no w rong could be ato n ed for w ith o u t the shedding of blood, eith er of m an or of a n i m al. One m an explained th a t he w as ju st going off to kill a few m en, b u t (w ith u t m o st com posure) h is b usiness could w ait, as he J could kill m en a t a n y tim e, b u t could n o t o ften h e a r ab o u t Jesus. “E v eryw h ere I found n ativ es longing to h e a r m ore ab o u t C hrist. W hen I left th a t m o u n tain th e old chief p resen ted m e w ith hia sacred spoon, th e spoon w ith w hich he and his an cesto rs h ad eaten h um an flesh, a spoon blackened w ith h um an blood an d reeking w ith trag ed y . ‘Y our sto ry ,’ he said, ‘is re a sonable to m e. I t is tru e w e h av e lo st our w ay to God an d need God’s Son to show us th e w ay b ack .’ “One old m an w as v ery e arn est th a t som e one should be se n t to tell him m ore about C hrist. So clam orous w ere h is ap p eals th a t I w en t back to m y own m ission sta tio n and said to th e n ativ es th ere: ‘H ow m an y y ears have you know n ab o u t Je su s ? ’ ‘Six or seven,' th ey replied. ‘T h en you m u st go a n d tell th e sto ry to th o se b ro th ers of y o u rs in the m o u n tain s.’ ‘B u t w e sh all be killed and eaten ,’ th e y replied. ‘T hen you m u st be killed an d eaten ,’ I retu rn ed , ‘for a t an y cost m u st th e a tte m p t be m ade to h an d on the m essag e.’ “A tea c h e r w as disp atch ed to th e district, an d by h is efforts th e whole village becam e C h ristian .’’
that the boys were very inferior to the girls in every way. On looking for the cause of this differ ence it was found that a large majority of the boys were habitual cigaret smokers and that there seemed to be little or no other general difference in the every-day habits of the sexes. An investigation was ordered to ascer tain exactly how far the smoking was to blame for the boys’ inefficiency and low moral condition. The investigation extend ed over several months of close observation of twenty boys whom it was known did not use tobacco in any form and twenty boys known to be “cigaret fiends.” The non-smokers were drawn by lot. The report represents the observation of ten teachers. The pupils investigated were from the same rooms in the same schools. No guess work was allowed. Time was taken to get at the facts of the case on the twenty questions of inquiry—hence the value of the report. The ages of the boys were from ten to seventeen. The average age was a little over fourteen. Twelve of the smokers had poor mem ories and ten of the twelve were reported as very poor, only four had fair memories and not one of the twenty boys had a good memory. Eighteen stand low in deportment, only one is good, and none are excellent. Seven of them very low, being constantly in dur ance vile, because of their actions. Twelve of the boys are in a poor physi cal condition, six being subject to “sick spells” and are practically physical wrecks already. Eight were reported as being in a fair or good condition, but none were excellent The table shows that the average effi ciency of the average boy in this school who has never used cigarets is represented by about ninety-five per cent or, in other words, out of one hundred such boys, nine ty-five of them are reasonably sure of get ting at least a good common school educa tion.— Teachers’ Institute.
I n a certain school of about 500 pupils, grades up to the ninth year, it was found
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