THE KI NG' S BUS I NES S
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tables, knives and forks, plates, spoons, kerosene lamps and o ther fu rn itu re, replaced palm leaf shelters, skins on the ground gourds, fingers, and a flaming palm leaf fan ; and a church and a school were added for worship and e d u cation.” In A rgentina, Brazil, Bolivia and P araguay the population is illite ra te to th e extent of 50, 60, 80 and 90 per cent, respectively. F ifty years ago Jap an was a pagan nation, bu t today th ere are th ree times as many teachers and pupils in the schools of Jap an as in th e schools of all South America. Not more th an one person in ten thousand in all South America has seen a copy of the Word of God. There are 700 towns in the A rgen tine Republic w ithou t m issionary work or any religious influence whatever. AFRICA Two A frican Christians who have retu rned , afte r train in g in Johannes burg, to th e ir home in th e wilds, are carrying on a rem arkable work among th e men in th e mines. A m issionary tells of a visit to a village where a group of converts lived. He went a t night, th rough a severe thund er storm , and describes his experience as follows: “W ading th rough mud and w ater it was pitch d ark on reaching th e appointed place, one of the crude shelters where the men are housed. It was almost as black inside as out. Gradually, by the flicker of ju s t one tallow dip, I made out th a t th e h u t was about fifteen feet in diameter. Every inch of the earth floor was packed w ith the silent, expect a n t congregation, num bering about sixty, all young men, excepting several girls from a nearby kraal. The only fu rn itu re was my table, a soap box on stilts. The storm came back and, pro ceeding w ith th e service, I stood in a mud-puddle while from above the drops came fast. I have conducted commun ion under various conditions, bu t never
in circum stances quite like these. A dinner pail served as a baptism al font; for th e bread we used an enamel wash basin. There was no way bu t to make p rep aration s rig h t before th e audience. Six young men were baptized. But while the thund er crashed w ithout, w ithin th e h u t th e re was a sense of the presence of Him who breathed peace upon th e disciples.” Do you know: T h at ih e largest P resbyterian Church in th e world is among th e converted cannibals of W est A frica? T hat African Christians, only a de cade out of savagery, gave, in th e year 1917, five dollars for each communi cant, yet in Africa wages are only ten cents a day? CHINA Every th ird child born into the world looks into the face of a Chinese m other; every th ird person who dies is a Chin ese. Yet more th a n half of th e walled cities of China have no residen t mis sionary. Tens of thousands of towns and villages have no center of Gospel light. No province is adequately worked. Among the many means employed by th e energetic governor of th e province of Shansi, in his attem p t to promote a higher type of manhood, is th e H eart W ashing Society. By his stric t orders, th is society is to be promoted by the m ag istrate of each county; and in Fenchow, which is th e county seat for a large section of country, meetings are held every Sunday in th e Confucian temple of the P refecture, and every fam ily and every shop is forced to send its representative, one member, to hear the lecture th e re given. These lec tu res are presided over by the magis tra te himself, who often gives th e lec ture. One of th e first things to be done afte r the establishm ent of a jun io r divi sion of th e Y. M. C. A. in Shanghai was to make a survey of th e working boys. The first resu lt of th is survey was to
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