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A Glance at the Field at Home and Abroad
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EUROPE.—One of the ingenious fea tures of the work of the Y. M. C. A. in the European war camps, is the use of the special abilities of the prisoners them selves. Men of all callings, professions and trades' are available. In the larger camps, whole university courses are in operation. Eighty-five trained instructors were found in one camp, pining for occu pation. Several thousand students were soon enrolled in serious' pursuit of learn ing. All the countries have given and lost of their best. It is these, well-equipped men 1 whom the Association is discovering and organizing into efficient servants of the desperate need of the prisoners of every warring country. RUSSIANS.—Some Russians carry the Bible on their watch chains. The book is only one inch square,' and three-eights of an inch in thickness. It contains all the five books of Moses in Hebrew, and the title of the chapters in Latin. The type is so small that a glass is needed to read, but the Russian does not trouble himself about that. He is satisfied that he carries the Word of God with him. MALAYSIA.—The influence of mis- siQnary work in the agricultural settle ments of Sitiawan and Sarawak, Borneo, has put an end to practically all forms of heathen worship, even among the Chinese who are not members of the church. In Sitiawan, non-Christians are constantly coming to the church to be married. No heathen temple is to be seen' for miles around, and there is practically no idolatry in the homes of these people. A Chinese' Board of Education has assumed responsi bility for all village schools and appoints and controls the teachers. Prejudice against the education of girls is now a
thing of the past, although the Chinese here have always been more conservative than those in other cities of Malaysia. KOREA.-—The Korean Christians are proving as faithful in systematic giving,.as in many other forms of Christian activity. The women are taught to put aside a por tion of rice and other grain each time they prepare a meal and bring it each Sunday in a special little sack. Men and boys are instructed to weave a pair of straw shoes each week during thè leisure hours of the evening and bring them as an offering. These plans were heartily adopted by the churches. A young leader of another small Korean church, becoming ashamed of his church s lack of zeal, obtained seventy-five gospels from Andong, put aside fifteen for the other members and kept sixty for his - own task! Rising before dawn one morning for prayer, he put his sixty books in a box, and with a sack to receive grain, in lieu of the. cash price of the gospels, he started out.- In his own village he sold the whole sixty before breakfast. CHINA-—The story is told of a poor Stone-mason in the village of Lai Yang, wheré he is about the only Christian, who for the last two years has hired one of the best school-teachers employed in the mission, paying him half of the $90 yearly salary, and even contracting debt to do this. Unsatisfied with the cramped and crowded quarters in which the school has to meet, he has erected a large'building with rooms for both school and church, giving his own land for the site, most of the stone and much of the work. He has done all this without money and in the face of discour- aging opposition, yet he has never lost faith and courage.
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