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THE KING’S BUSINESS
touch an unclean animal.) K. K. took a worhan with her sick child to the hospital. S. carried a waterpot for an old woman from the river to the house. (Water carry ing is considered to be a woman’s job in India). A party of the boys carried sand from the riverbed to fill up a ditch, in order to save money for the poor fund. R. K. and A. N. carried two little girls to Miss Fitzes’ school on a very dirty day and washed their feet.” T he immense value of medical missions appears from the following: A medical missionary in Bengal, some time ago, found on enquiry that while a dozen catechists, working from seven centers, preached the Gospel in 401 villages within the year, the hospital and dispensary in the same year at tracted patients from 517 villages. Very often when the medical missionary is on a tour the people who come to his tent for medicine, and there hear the Gospel, are more numerous than those he and bis preachers would reach by spending the whole day in visiting the villages. The selling of Scriptures is usually carried on in connection with medical work, and in some places more books are sold in hospital and dispensary than by all other means combined. T he R ev . E rnest H all , of Korea, writes that the secret of the rapid growth of the Church there is the same as in the opos- tolic days: (1) The power of the Holy Spirit in the witnessing of disciples by life and lips, and (2) the scattering of Christians everywhere to plant the Gospel seed in other hearts. Mr. Hall says: “The Koreans are -taught that every Christian must become a missionary to his or her own people, in that he must tell the story of Christ s love to those who have never heard it. When a man asks for admission to the Church, he is asked if he has done this, and if not, is kept waiting until he can give evidence of the vitality of his Christianity. As a result thé missionaries are frequently asked to go to places they
have never visited and there organize Churches from disciples won by a native Christian.” L et me give some impressions of mission work in Japan from .one who has come into close touch with it for the first time. The vast number of people to be reached and the few to do the work, makes the task seem almost hopeless. And were it not for the eagerness to learn, .their great curiosity which must be satisfied, and theii affection for the missionary who tries to help them and to lead them into the path of light, the task would be doubly hard. Never have tracts appealed to me as thev do now. When one says “tracts” at home, one thinks of a street littered with them, where they have been carelessly tossed aside, after a casual glance; but not so here. I have seen tracts given out on a street^ car, to probably fifty people, and every one being carefully read except now and then where the person cannot read, in which case it is carefully folded and put away, to take home to a son or daughter who is in school, but never have I seen one thrown aside. We read and hear of heathen worship, but to realize what it is in its full horror it must be seen. I have stood in some large temples, and watched the people come and kneel and pray to Buddha, repeating con tinually, “Help me, Buddha,” and then ris ing, but never until after throwing in their coins, do they leave, with a countenance devoid of any hope or happiness. It has been a revelation to me to simplv study the faces of those who know Christ, or even those who are just beginning to grasp the truth, and to see the bright, happy, hopeful expression on their faces, in comparison to the others. It may seem strange to say you can distinguish a Chris tian by his facial expression, but it is true. We who have had the blessed Gospel all our lives do not realize what it means to have such a wonderful truth cohie into our lives so suddenly. — Mrs. Walter M. Allen.
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