21
June, 1934
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
clean, wholesome truths learned from their books! Little Naggappa had never thought o f his home ^s being dark and filthy till he had spent a day in.the bright schoolroom; and then when He came back home at night, the contrast dawned upon him. He longed to be permitted to live in the Mission boarding home, like some o f the boys who attended the school, so that he might be in those at tractive, happy surroundings all the time— but that delight seemed such a remote pos sibility that he dared not think o f it. The missionaries noticed the eager face o f this lad and wished they might give him the benefits which the boarding home a f forded. But the father would not consent to letting his boy go there, and threatened to take him out o f school. In his better moments, Naggappa’s fa ther did have some love for his oldest son ; and as he saw him growing up, naked and undernourished, and as he compared him with the boys in the boarding home, he se cretly wished that his boy might have those privileges, too. But a nameless fear haunted him at the thought o f his boy’s becoming a Christian and thus disgracing the family in the eyes o f their heathen neighbors. Under the pressure, o f famine, however, the father threw away his scruples and permitted Naggappa to go to the boarding home. This
one day a new world opened to him. A t tracted by the sound o f a Christian hymn sung by the night-school teacher in his vil lage, the lad, in curiosity, turned a corner in the narrow, crooked street. He saw be fore him a kindly faced Indian man, seated on a mat, with a lighted lantern before him on the ground. The hymn was strange and new to the boy. Perhaps his first impulse was to run away, but he was soon seated with some o f his playmates before this teacher, repeating the words o f this new hymn. Though he did not then realize the sig nificance o f his act, when Naggappa turned the corner in the street that night, he also turned a corner in his life. From that time on, he was to feel the upward pull o f God’s Spirit. The night-school teacher came faith fully every night to teach the children. But one by one, the boys became tired o f sitting still for an hour at a time and learning the names o f queer-looking marks called let ters, and they dropped out o f the school. But not Naggappa! He was determined to learn to read, and he made such progress that the teacher asked him whether he would like to come to the Mission’s day school. Naggappa was eager to come, but his father would not give his consent, for the boy would not be able to help the father
was another glad day in the life o f this little heathen lad. A N ew B irth It was the work o f a brief half hour for the mis- ;sionaries?to give Naggappa a hair cut, a bath, and the first suit o f clothes he had ever worn. And oh, what a change that brief labor made in his appearance! Proper food and care soon made a great change in the boy’s health, and his scrawny little body began to develop. Un der the teaching in school and the Bible teaching and prayer conducted in the boarding home each morn ing and evening, his mind and heart were likewise de veloping. It was not long till he realized that Jesus Christ, the One whom some o f the other boys owned as Sav
herd the cattle for the townspeople. And besides, was it not reported that the Mission people compelled the children attending their school to become Chris tians ? A son’s departure from the traditional reli gious beliefs, o f his ances tors would be such a terrible disgrace that the father would never hear the end of the matter. No, Naggappa should never go to the Mis-, sion school! However, as the lad continued to attend the night school and was now able to read, even the father took some pride in the fact that his son was forging ahead o f the other lads. And, as the boy continued to beg his father to permit him to enter the day school, the fa ther’s consent was finally gained. A N ew W orld
A heathen boy in India wears his hair in a knot at the back of the head. When he makes an open break with the old life and becomes a Christian, his hair is shorn— and the new headdress becomes a testimony for Christ.
iour, was his Saviour, too. When he became a new creature in Christ, he felt it was no longer right for him to be called Naggappa, for the heathen snake god. The mission aries gladly agreed, and from that time on, they called him Joseph. Having seen some o f the other boys pub licly confess their faith in Christ in bap tism, Joseph also desired baptism. But he was not yet sixteen years of age, and British law does not permit the baptism o f minors without their parents’ consent. W e told [Continued on page 219]
It was a red-letter day in the life o f this little fellow, when for the first time he en tered the Mission school, there to be under the influence o f Christian teachers and to mingle with Christian boys. What a change from the dingy, cramped, smoky, foul- smelling hut he called home, to the airy, well-lighted, clean schoolroom! And what a difference between the quarreling, the curs ing, and the vile language heard at home, and the singing o f Christian hymns, the re peating o f Bible verses, and the reciting o f
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