THE KING’S BUSINESS
827
and with no knowledge of any civilized customs, coming into the neat mission sta tion with barely clothing enough to make them presentable at a boys’ sWimming hole. The missionaries knew no Dyak, and littte about this wild folk, yet after four months in school these boys have learned to read, write, sing and talk both Dyak and English. Where Missionaries Meet Tigers i Missionaries in north Siam are occasion ally called on to help protect the lives and property of the’ people from the ravages of tigers and other savage beasts. Indeed, the recent annual meeting of the North Siam mission in Nan was disturbed by a half-grown Bengal tiger’s invasion of the very city. . . Dr. W. H. Beach, one of the Presby terian missionaries, was on his way from his home to {he meeting place of the mis-- sion one afternoon, when some of his neighbors ran up tp him, appealing for his help in killing a tiger that had entered that part of the city. Returning to the house, Dr. Beach took his Mauser rifle and followed his Laos neighbors to the place where the tiger was lurking. On sight of the animal, the missionary fired, killing it with two shots. Tigers are more numerous in Nan prov ince than in the other parts of the coun try occupied by the North Siam mission. Government officials state that an average of one person a month is killed in Nan province by tigers. Missionaries on an evening walk through the city of Nan sometimes spy the feline form or gleaming eyes of a man-eating tiger, and the animals even enter the house yards of the missionaries. An Enterprising Congregation In Butte, Montana, there is a Chinese Mission which has been very successful for several years. When the missionaries returned last fall after vacation,^ on the opening night of the school they -found
to their intense surprise that the church had been painted inside and out, all the furniture had been reyarnished, and. a new piano had been installed. This had- been done by the Chinese themselves with slight assistance from a few of their Amer ican friends who were interested. The work is progressing well and the atten dance has greatly increased. An Hundredfold Harvest in India Christianity has been spreading widely in the Deccan this past year. The times have been hard on account of the war, and people long for something on which they can really depend. About 6000 con- verted people came to the mission almost in a mass at Ragapur. The handful of pas tors are struggling to instruct, organize, evangelize them, but it is difficult with an illiterate people, though each pastor takes twelve to twenty villages and itinerates con tinually. “The people implore more preach ers, organize class meetings and praying bands and schools, build rude meeting houses, and do all that is possible in extreme poverty,” writes Rev. Geo. O. Hol brooke of Viharabad. “They are a very musical race, and they learn and assimilate the hymns rapidly. The people long to be set free from the demons and witches of the past, and all the miserable accompani ments of caste, child marriage, and conse quent immorality and'short life.. Caste means inevitable and extreme poverty and disease of the majority. “Complicated with this year’s war taxes in national defense, disease has broken out ail over India in the plague. Christianity has extraordinary power to unite, uplift, relieve? preaching is necessary, but rapid growth depends on its passing from neigh bor to neighbor in a community. Our Bible school men live on dry rice at five cents a day; speak out with eloquence and force, stimulate each other in the work; and soon graduate and are out as preachers. The mission unites them for a new life, rouses them to higher thoughts, fills them with graver purpose. The Spirit
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker