nmf


YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY








A CHRISTIAN HERMIT IN BURMA.








The Buddhist hermit who has become a Christian, outside his
cave, in which he lived for fifteen years.


A CHRISTIAN HERMIT
IN BURMA
AND OTHER TALES

ILLUSTRATED

THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL
IN FOREIGN PARTS, 4x<>-«c|of\
Westminster, S.W.
1914.





NOTE.
These stories, all of which are true,
deal with fields of work in which the
Society is engaged, with the exception
of the last story, " A Brave Boy." All
the stories have appeared in the
Society's publications.





CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. A Christian Hermit in Burma, by the Rev. G. Whitehead 1
II. What it means to become a Christian, by the Rev. C. F.
Andrews ... ... ... ... ... '" ... 11
III. How a beat helped to spread the King's Message, by the
Rev. K. W. S. Kennedy  IS
IV. A Japanese burglar, by the Bishop in South Tokyo ... 21
V. Maqamusela, the first Zulu Martyr, by Dr. Smyth, formerly
Bishop of Lebombo  31
VI. Sammy : an Australian Aboriginal, by the Rev. H. Pitts 35
VII. A Story from Corea, by C. Lillingston  42
VIII. A Snowstorm in Newfoundland  52
IX. The Story of Father Pat  56
X. The Life Story of Ngcombu, by the Rev. E. Hill ... 64
XI. Simeon: a story of the Cawnpore Mission ... ... 71
XII. The Story of Venkayya  78
XIII. A Brave Boy  82


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Buddhist hermit who has become a Christian Frontispiece
The Burmese hermit preaching  facing page 1
A Sikh priest  , ,, 11
Guarding the crops ... ... ... ... ... ,, ,, 15
Kametaro Nakazawa .. ... ... ... .. ,, ,, 21
A Zulu warrior ...  ,, 31
An aboriginal family in Western Australia  ,, ,, 35
Corean bride and bridegroom  , ,, 48
Father Pat's old church at Rossland B.C  ,, ,, 56
A South African catechist with his wife and children ,, ,, 64
An Indian clergyman in the Telugu country ... ,, „ 78
A Tikopian  „ „ 82





The Burmese hermit preaching.


I.
A Christian Hermit in Burma.
1V/IAUNG Tha Dun was a cultivator in the
Henzada District, and was in fairly
comfortable circumstances. He was
religious from his youth up; and like all Burman
boys, spent some time as a novice in a Buddhist
monastery. But the life of a monk did not appeal to him,
as few of the monks seemed to have any fervour,
but were quite satisfied to spend their lives idly
but respectably. The monks are greatly
honoured, and they pass their time in ease and
comfort (with the considerable qualifications
that they may not marry and may not eat after
midday). So Tha Dun left the monastery, and
afterwards married happily and had several
children ; but he was ever looking forward to
the time when he should be able to renounce all
worldly cares and pleasures for the hard life of
a hermit. Perhaps this lofty ambition was not wholly
Christian, for though many true followers of the
Master are called upon to "leave house, and
brethren, and sisters, and father, and mother,
i
<5m./0.21851)


2 MISSIONARY STORIES
and wife, and children, and lands, for Christ's
sake and the Gospel's," yet this desire for the
hermit life was mainly for the welfare of a man's
own soul ; whilst the Lord Jesus prayed for His
disciples, not that they should be taken out of
the world, but that they might be kept from the
evil (St. Mark x. 28 ; St. John xvii. 25).
However, when Tha Dun could see his way
to a provision for his wife and children he
parted from them amicably and became a "forest
dweller." For thirteen years he continued to
live the hermit life, eating only vegetables and
fruit, and that only once a day sparingly at
dawn. He had, too, become firmly convinced
of the existence of the Eternal God our
loving Father ; and was zealous to teach others
the truth as far as he himself saw it, and to
preach a conversion of heart and life. He
would frequently go from village to village
preaching ; and sometimes a disciple would
erect a rest-house for him to make a lengthened
stay. He had come to regard popular
Buddhism as an evil, and preached much
against images, the worship of the monks, and
sundry common superstitions.
Still some of his friends and relatives wished
him to become a Buddhist monk, and were


A CHRISTIAN HERMIT IN BURMA 3
ready in that case to build a commodious
monastery for him ; he would then have a much
greater reputation throughout the country, and
they themselves would share in his reflected
glory. As was the experience of the supreme
Master, his brethren did not yet believe in him.
During all these years he never came in
contact with a Christian missionary, though he
had met with native Christians and catechists.
Whilst there was so much in Christianity that
appealed to him, he felt that the one-sided
preaching of salvation by faith which he heard
from some Baptist converts tended to negligent
conduct ; and he was utterly dissatisfied with
both Roman Catholic and American Baptist
missionaries because they would frequently go
shooting. Here, again, he was wrong in
thinking that life should never be taken, for he
would imagine it was a mortal sin to kill even
mosquitoes and flies and snakes, which should
be left undisturbed ; but surely it is a mistake
when a missionary to the Burmese goes out to
shoot deer and other game. If one wishes to
lead someone to the truth one must not begin
by doing some indifferent thing which the other
person believes to be a mortal sin, on the
principle that St. Paul enunciates that " if meat


4 MISSIONARY STORIES
make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh
while the world standeth, lest I make my
brother to offend " (I Cor. viii. 13).
Afterwards, having heard of our Church, the
hermit came in to the Rev. T. Ellis at the
Mission at Kemmendine, some 100 miles away
from where he was then living. It seemed a
strange case* almost too good to be true, for the
missionary is apt to grow distrustful of people
who come to him saying that they want to
become Christians ; the straightforward seeker
after truth is often himself too dubious and
distrustful to go to unknown quarters to ask
the way.
Mr. Ellis tried to put before Maung Tha Dun
the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, and gave him
some books to read, and asked him to return
after further consideration of the question.
Then, after he came a second time, the hermit
lived a while on the Mission premises in Kem
mendine to learn more of Christian faith and
practice ; and would accompany the missionary
on his tours and tell eager Burmese and Karens
about his own experiences. " Come and hear,
all ye that fear God, and I will declare what
He hath done for my soul" (Ps. lxvi. 16). He
was then baptized by the name of "John


A CHRISTIAN HERMIT IN BURMA 5
Baptist," and was set to try to bring into the
fold of the Church his own followers, to teach
them of the self-revelation of God in our only
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom alone
we have remission of sins.
It was not considered needful that he should
give up his old distinctive dress of dark-brown
bark-dyed cotton cloth or his ascetic life and
vegetarian diet ; and when his old disciples
asked him if his new European teachers them
selves conformed to his custom of abstaining
from eating fish and flesh he would reply: "No ;
and it is written in the Christian Scriptures,
' Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth
not ; and let not him which eateth not judge
him that eateth, for God hath received him ' "
(Rom. xiv. 3)
His old disciples continue to support him,
both those who have followed him into the
Church and those who are still considering the
question ; and during the last three years — that
is, ever since his baptism — his whole time is
occupied in retirement and meditation (often in
a garden a few miles from Kemmendine), or in
extended preaching tours among his old friends
and others. He has never drawn any salary or
allowance from the Mission, which is, however,


6 MISSIONARY STORIES
at any time ready to pay his railway or boat
fares ; but the hermit prefers that his own disci
ples should normally bear this charge.
The first missionary to accompany the hermit
on his tours, and also the first to baptise many
of his followers, was the Rev. C. R. Purser, who
writes as follows : —
" After nearly a month's wanderings in
districts which we have not yet reached before,
I have at last got to Kyaiklat. You have
already heard about the hermit who has accepted
Christianity. He has been baptised, and was
confirmed on St. Michael's Day. His extra
ordinary keeness is most inspiring. He has
been round several times to visit his disciples,
who are scattered all over the country.
"At the beginning of the month we left Kem
mendine with Saya Po Sa, a Burmese deacon,
to tour round as many of the villages where the
hermit has disciples, as time would allow.
Never have I had a more inspiring time in the
jungle. The visit I paid to Nyaung-bin-kaing-
swe, a village some five miles from Paungde,
was just magnificent. An old man, eighty years
of age, and two women (one of them blind, and
both over seventy-five years of age) had walked
ten miles to hear the message of Christianity.


A CHRISTIAN HERMIT IN BURMA 7
The house where I stayed had been chosen as
a meeting-place for those in the surrounding
villages who cared to come and hear ' the Law.'
There were three dear old men, bent with age,
but with a look of peace shining from the old
faces. " We talked about the Christian Faith, and
told them the story of Christ, and for two hours
they listened without saying a word. When
we had finished the old man could not restrain
himself. He got up and said, ' That's the
Faith. That's what I ' ve been seeking for twenty
years ; I want nothing else now, I am happy.
It's the old Faith which we all had once. But
we have lost it. Now we have found it again.
I am happy.' It was really wonderful.
"Afterwards he told us his story. He said
that twenty years ago he and his house had
parted with Buddhism. He had spent his days
in trying to understand ' the One God.',..' He
had been persecuted ; his house had been stoned,
his crops destroyed ; he had been abused, but
he had withstood it all. And now he and his
house would be faithful till death. Christianity
had met his needs, and he was satisfied.
Later on in the evening another pathetic
incident happened. These old men wanted to


8 MISSIONARY STORIES
make us comfortable and happy. They had
got some cocoanuts out of the compound, and
one of the old men sat down to take off the
thick outer fibre. He had finished three cocoa-
nuts when his old limbs began to ache, and he
said he could not do any more. Then the other
old man said, ' Go on, brother, remember you
will not have an opportunity of doing this to
morrow.' And again the dear old man set to
work. " I stayed the night in this house, with the
result that we sat on the floor talking till mid
night. The old blind woman meant to have
her say. She said, ' This morning I came here
in darkness. I could not see. Now it is night
and I see.' How the words, 'Light at eventide'
flashed through my mind ! I could have stayed
a week in this village, but it was necessary to
move on at 4 a.m. next morning. We had a
long walk before the sun got hot.
" This is only one example of the many
similar experiences which I have had on this
tour. The hermit is splendid. He rises at 4
a.m., eats the only food which he takes during
the day, says his devotions, and lies down again
till the people are astir. The rest of the time
he is preaching, preaching, preaching. Slowly


A CHRISTIAN HERMIT IN BURMA 9
he is learning the great truths of Christianity.
Day by day he becomes more enthusiastic as he
finds something else in Christianity which his
former life could not give.
"We walked through the villages together
and caused great excitement. We never had
any difficulty in getting people to listen. If we
were on the station waiting for a train, we soon
became the centre of a great crowd ; then the
hermit explained why he became a Christian.
If we sat down to rest on the wayside, the same
thing happened. In fact, the latter part of the
tour we avoided public places as far as possible.
We crept into the village, looked out for a suit
able house, asked if we might stay for the night,
and before long we had a sufficient number of
people to hear 'the Law.' In one village
practically the whole of the inhabitants, includ
ing the thu-gyi (headman of the village),
asked to be admitted as catechumens.
" During the journey, I followed the railway
line as far as Prome, then down the river via
Donabyu to Kyaiklat.
" I am glad to get back. Almost all has
been new work. The nights have been almost
as the day. People stayed on, asking question


io MISSIONARY STORIES
after question ; till I could scarcely keep my
eyes open.
" But looking back now I rejoice that I have
been able to go on this tour. In each village I
have left behind a man who will proclaim what
he has learnt, which, with God's blessing, will
bring forth a tremendous result in the future,"





A Sikh priest.


II.
What it means to become a Christian.
'T'HE following story, told by the Rev. C. F-
¦*¦ Andrews, will show how [much it means
for a Hindu to give up his old religion and
become a Christian. The place to which the
story refers is Delhi, which has lately become
the capital of India, and where the S.P.G.
has been working for more than fifty years.
" Were you born a Christian ? " I asked.
"No, Sahib," he replied; "when I was a
young man I used to hate the very name of
Christian, and in the bazar, when any missionary
got up to speak, I used to throw stones and
mud, for I was a Sikh, and we hated the
Christians up here near the Frontier ; but the
Pathans hated them worse than we did, and we
hated the Pathans. It is all hatred up here.
" One day I was much worse than usual ; it
was as if Satan had got possession of me, and I
tried to make the missionary angry, but he
answered nothing back. He seemed to be
praying when he could not make himself heard,
and I was afraid. I thought, ' He is calling on
his God to curse me.' After the crowd had


12 MISSIONARY STORIES
gone he came up to me and said, ' Why do you
treat me so badly?' I thought he would be
very angry with me and said, 'Why are you
not angry with me ' ? He said ' Because in our
Injil (Gospel) it is written, " Bless them that
curse you." ' I said, ' Sahib, they tell me that
the Injil is an evil book, and that Christians are
evil people, but that word, " Bless them that
curse you," is a good word.' ' Read the Injil
yourself,' he said ; do not trust what other
people say.' I took it and read it, and you
know, Padre Sahib, what effect the Injil has.
I soon became a Christian."
" What followed ? " I asked.
" Padre Sahib," he answered, " God first made
me learn all that I had done to others. I used
to throw mud and stones at Christians, and then
everyone threw mud and stones at me. All
my family, my father and mother, treated me
with such blows that I was bruised from head
to foot, while they called out, ' Will you give up
being a Christian ? ' But I knew it was all a
punishment from God for my past sins."
" What about your wife ? " I asked.
His face beamed and he said, " Oh, Padre
Sahib, she is indeed a Christian. There is
none like her for warmth of heart, and she has


WHAT IT MEANS TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 13
had to endure much persecution. Once upon
a time we were at  , and she had become the
friend of a young Pathan girl — Sahib, you
know how fierce those Pathans are ! They
think nothing of murder! Well, at last the
good seed of the Love of God was sown, and
the girl desired to become a Christian. When
it was known, at once she was cruelly beaten —
worse than I was, Sahib — and her own husband
imprisoned her. But she escaped, and fled for
her life to the English missionary, and all the
Pathans of the city came running out, and the
English Padre sent word to us, ' Come with all
your family quickly into our compound. The
Pathans are out, and they are saying that they
will kill your wife.' We got there in safety, and
the missionary showed the girl at the window
to the Pathans and said ' She shall speak for
herself ; if she wishes to come to you I will let
her go.' Then her father and mother came
weeping, but she answered, I will be a Christian.'
Then all the Pathans shouted out, 'We will
murder you ! We will murder you ! ' But she
said, ' I will be a Christian,' and at last the
Pathans went away and she was baptized.
" Once, Padre Sabib, I was very ill, and so
ill that I thought that I was dying. It came to


14 MISSIONARY STORIES
the time of Sham-ki-Namaz (evening prayer),
and I said to my wife, ' Go to prayer ; do not
stay by my side.' She went, and I was all alone.
" Padre Sahib, I speak the exact truth ! I
was so ill, I could scarcely lift up my hand.
But at the time of prayer I saw One Who stood
before me, and He said to me, ' Turn kirn karo ,
(work!), and I knew that the Lord had work
for me to do, and at that very moment 1 got up
from bed and walked about the room. My wife
was coming back from Church. I told her.
She said, ' At the time of prayer the Padre
Sahib prayed for you by name. See what is
the effect of prayer ! '
" Oh, Padre Sahib, my great wish ever since
has been to go away to some island where they
have never heard about Christ, and do work
there." " But," said I, " there are millions here in
India who are heathen still."
"Ah, yes, Padre Sahib," he said, "your
words are true words ; but I often think how
glorious it would be to go to some island where
not a single word had been spoken about Jesus
Christ and work there ; and sometimes I think
that is what the Vision meant when the Voice
came, ' Turn kam karo.' "





Guarding the crops


III. *-
How a bear helped to spread the
King's Message.
LIE was a brown bear. Long before day
light he had been hard at work digging
up an anthill. Not the hard, busy, sting
ing, little black ants, but the so-called "white
ants," had made the hill, and deep underground
the queen ant had grown in her royal chamber
to a huge ungainly size. Very sweet the bear
thought her, and licked his lips. Then he
thought he would like some grain or berries as
second qburse or dessert. And so he lumbered
off to a little field close to the edge of the jungle
where the ant-hill was. Part of it was planted
with millet and the bear was quite hidden from
view as he made his way through the high
stalks. Upon a little platform, nearly ten feet high,
the owner of the field, poor Kedar, had watched
his crops all night long. For wild deer and
pigs play sad havoc with the crops planted in
the clearings along the edge of the jungle,
15


1 6 MISSIONARY STORIES
unless there is some one to frighten them away.
So Kedar had built this little platform and
made an umbrella like roof of palm leaves to
keep off the rain and dew, and night by night
he sat there, armed with his little axe, and
trusting to the height of the platform to keep
him out of the reach of leopards or tigers, while
he guarded the crops which he and all his family
had laboured so hard to plant.
As the bear moved, he shook the tall stalks.
In the dim dawning light, Kedar saw the heavy
millet heads tossing, and shouted loudly to scare
away the intruder.
But the bear only grumbled to himself, "That
stupid man. I wonder what he is making such
a noise for ! He can't see me here. I don't
want to attack him. I don't eat flesh like the
tiger. I'll just get my dessert and go home to
bed," and he moved slowly on.
Kedar saw the millet heads still waving and
shouted again.
Then he said to himself, " That can't be a
deer. They always run when I shout. It
must be a pig. Ah, yes ! I think I can see it
dimly now in that place where the stalks are
thin. It doesn't seem to hear. I wonder if I


HOW A BEAR HELPED 17
could creep up and kill it. The children would
so love a good feed of pig's flesh."
So he climbed down from the platform, and
grasping his axe, he stole softly along in his
bare feet, trying to get ahead of the animal and
cut off its retreat to the jungle. Nearer and
nearer he came. Sometimes he could see a
dark, clumsy form in the half-light and through
the high-growing grain. Sometimes he could
only hear. But gradually he came close up
behind it, but before he could do anything,
instead of a pig a bear wheeled round and rose
up on his hind legs with a great roar.
It was impossible to escape. One stroke of
the great paw that so easily digs deep into the
ant-hills knocked him down, leaving deep claw
marks on neck and shoulder. And then the
bear seized his left arm in its jaws and tore and
worried at it in a terrible rage. The blood
gushed out with such force that poor Kedar
fainted and lay quite still. Its rage satisfied, the
bear sniffed at him for awhile, and thinking him
dead, shambled off muttering and growling.
Meanwhile, the sun rose, and two of Kedar's
children came along driving their little herd of
goats and two plough-bullocks to graze along
the edge of the jungle while they should watch


1 8 MISSIONARY STORIES
the crops and set their father free to sleep
awhile at home.
But as they came they saw the bear, and
rushed for protection to the platform where they
thought their father was.
No sign of him there, so they climbed up and
screamed loudly for him or their mother to come
and protect them.
Then they saw their father lying in a space
in the field where all the millet seemed beaten
down. Their screams had brought their mother
and soon all screaming together brought more
people from their little jungle village. The
blood was flowing still, so they knew he was
not dead. Quickly they collected some cow-
dung and filled up all the wounds to check the
bleeding, and got a cord-bed to carry him home.
But as they lifted him on to it the poor arm
hung loose and limp, for the bone was broken in
several places and most of the flesh torn across.
For a whole week he lay in high fever. They
plastered on various poultices of roots and leaves
supposed to heal wounds. They tied on cowry
shells and bear's hair to avert the evil eye.
They hired the wizard and offered their best
goat in sacrifice to appease the evil spirit who
was supposed to be causing the fever. But he


HOW A BEAR HELPED 19
only got worse and worse till no one but his
wife could endure to come near him to drive the
flies from the festering wounds.
Then a neighbour said, " When I was at
bazar (market) one week I saw the Padre Sahib
and a Miss Sahib putting medicine on very bad
wounds, and some people told me that their
medicine is very good and they take no pay.
You had better take him there. He can only
die here. We will all help to carry the bed on
a long pole in turns." So they brought him in
fourteen miles.
And when the Mission doctor saw him, he
said, " I must cut off his arm at once or he will
die." " Do what you like," they said " he is dying
now." But God was merciful to him. He did not
die, and in a few days the doctor became very
hopeful. But then he suddenly got lock-jaw,
and could swallow nothing. And all hope
seemed gone again. But day by day the nurse
and doctor worked and prayed, and slowly this
disease, which is so seldom cured, was overcome.
For weeks he lay in hospital, and every day
he heard the prayers for his recovery, and as
soon as he was able to be taught, every day he


20 MISSIONARY STORIES
learned a little about Jesus Christ and His
religion. Then he made up his mind that he
would become a Christian, but first he must go
home to his fields. Some of his family had
been in the hospital with him all the time, and
the farm was greatly neglected.
So a schoolmaster from the nearest village to
his where there are Christians; was told to visit
him regularly and teach him more of
Christianity and help him on with his reading,
of which he had learnt a little. And now he
and his whole household are being prepared for
baptism, and there is good hope that others
too in that village may become Christians.
So you see how a bear helped to spread the
King's message, and I hope you will pray for
all medical missionaries, who try to spread it by
copying Our Lord Himself, Who used to heal
the sick and preach the good news.





! ''

W£0:

l^iH
gl
*%** ^^1
^^^
R^m
1 w\
{"¦ ^m I- i
^¦4 :^L V'- jI
Mp ' ">^w»
F/'i
^LJK
Br "f .'.¦
Kametaro Nakazawa.


IV.
A Japanese Burglar.
| AST year there came to Tokyo and to the
' house of Mr. Sugiura, who is a clergyman
of our Church in Tokyo, a man with a
long history of crime and punishment reaching
over twenty-five years. The son of parents too
poor to educate him, he early became the slave
of drink and gambling, and at the age of twenty-
six came a misfortune which sent him utterly to
the bad. Short of money one day he induced
a girl cousin to lend him her best clothes to
pawn. Before they were returned her mother
missed them ; the girl lied through fear, and the
police were informed that they had been stolen.
There was no difficulty in identifying the man
who had deposited them, but when the police
went to arrest him he was away on a gambling
bout, and was thereupon condemned for burglary
by default and arrested by a detective as he was
returning home without suspicion. It was easy
to explain ; but the detective, thinking it simpler
to avoid the trouble of taking the case to Court
again, took the course (odd according to English


22 MISSIONARY STORIES
ideas, but not unknown in Japan) of persuading
the young fellow to slip away somewhere ;
advice which he was fool enough to accept, but
which soon left him in loneliness and misery.
Then the devil suggested to him that as he
was already condemned for burglary he might
as well commit the crime. Thus started his
long criminal career of twenty-four years. The
jail proved a school of crime ; and each time he
was re-committed his heart was harder, till at
length, when twenty-nine years of age, he did
what, if discovered, would have incurred at leaslr
ten years' imprisonment and hard labour. It
was not discovered, though he incurred frequent
short sentences for minor thefts, and one for
stabbing a policeman.
But non-discovery did not mean peace of
mind. " My heart," he told Mr. Sugiura, " was
always burdened with secret fear. Any little
noise would wake me and every man walking
behind me sounded like a detective."
After nine years of this internal misery he
felt driven to give himself up to justice. This
was in 1899, and the result was that at the age
of thirty-five he found himself sentenced to a
term of twelve years in jail and sent to the cold
north coast of the Hokkaido. Twelve years


A JAPANESE BURGLAR 23
out of what remained of life awoke an anguish
which soon turned to something like repentance,
and as he looked back on his spoilt life, all this
seemed to have come to him for lack of the
opportunity of education. So he began to
spend his weary prison hours in study ; such
money as he earned he spent in books, and
more and more he connected his ignorance and
his crime as cause and effect.
But what was true of himself he thought was
true of his companions in jail, about one thousand
in number, of whom he found that some seven
hundred could neither read nor write ; and he
set his heart on lifting them as well as himself.
He urged them to study, and he begged of the
prison officials to provide them with paper
slates that they might learn to write, since with
out writing they could hardly hope to get work
later on.
The appeal seemed in vain, but his strong
nature was set on it, and, Japanese that he was,
he determined to give point to his request by
killing the head of the jail who would not listen
to it, in the hope that though he sacrificed his
own life thereby it would bring his request to
notice. To his fellow prisoners he revealed his
secret purpose, begging them to study hard and


24 MISSIONARY STORIES
never fall into jail through ignorance again after
they should have profited by his sacrifice. But
before he found the waited-for chance of assass
ination, one of the prisoners, hoping thereby to
further his own interests, let the secret out to
the jailer.
Our poor fellow found himself separated in
solitary confinement, but not before it had been
resolved to grant that for which he had striven ;
the slates were granted the following month.
Pleased as he was by that news, in his solitary
confinement he was naturally fired by the thought
of the faithlessness of the one informer, and his
first idea was revenge. He went so far as to
buy books that would show him the way to make
a bomb ; but the whole plan seeming impossible,
all interests failed, and he resolved to take his
own life. As a preliminary step and to put the
jailers off suspicion he pretended to be becoming
insane. He had no knife," but secreted a
bit of steel which he found. He gradually
ground it to an edge on the brick walls and
wooden floor of his cell. He distributed his
only possessions, his little library of books,
among his fellow prisoners, and at last, when
the steel was ready, and no one in sight, he
prepared to cut himself open.


A JAPANESE BURGLAR 25
" Stop !" shouted a man's voice from some
where, and a concealed jailer appeared before
him. " Stop ! aren't you a man of Yamato
Damashi — a man of spirit ? "
There was magic in the words. Never in
his life before had anything like that been
addressed to him. He could only stare dumbly,
and the jailer went on — " If you want to die,
die at once in your old sinful self, but live again
with a new, pure heart. Your term is up in
three years more, and then you can go into the
world a new man to a new career." "At that
minute," he told Mr. Sugiura, "I felt as if awak
ing from a long dream and my hea'rt made new."
The three years passed, and in November,
191 1, aged now fifty years, he was released.
But while still in prison he heard grievous
news of the man who had savedhim. Appointed
to another prison this jailer had been killed
there by one of the criminals. So the first
thing to be done was plain to his Japanese
sentiment ; he must visit and pay his respect at
the tomb of his honoured benefactor. Two
hundred miles he journeyed for the purpose till
there was little left of his scanty savings. And
then he saw the grave. What marked it was
not the usual little grave-stone of a Japanese


26 MISSIONARY STORIES
grave shaped like a milestone on a pedestal, but
the Christian Cross.
Then for the first time he understood ; the
jailer had been a Christian. Offering his flowers
he threw himself on the ground before the
grave and spoke as to a living friend. Sobbing,
he confessed his past to the dead, thanking him
for the words that had saved him to try again,
and promising him that he would never desert
the new-found way. Crying thus to the dead,
he was, though yet he knew it not, drawing
near, step by step, to the Father in Heaven.
From the grave he turned his journey
towards a neighbouring town in search of work,
but on reaching the village, where he must take
sea passage, he found himself short by two sen
(less than a penny) of the needed four shillings
for his fare. Two sen only ! He had nothing
to sell, and for that trifle must linger and earn
it in that out of the way spot. What was two
sen to steal for this old and practised thief?
But he knew it for temptation — the first tempta
tion of his new life — and that oath taken at the
grave was ruling his heart now ; he would stay
till he could come by his fare honestly at any
cost.


A JAPANESE BURGLAR 27
Before those last shillings were quite gone he
got a job. It was as servant in the village inn,
and his first task was to carry in the newly delivered
goods. They were tubs of sake* — to him that
" devil- water " which had enslaved him long ago
and spoiled his life. For twelve years in poison
he had remembered it and longed for it, and
now the pleasant scent of it in his nostrils
fascinated and almost maddened him. Thus his
second temptation was far fiercer than the first.
But with his arms round the tubs he knew that
if he gave, if he allowed himself one drop of the
sake, his salvation would be undone ; and again
that oath prevailed, and he fought down the
appetite. "These two temptations," he afterwards told
Mr. Sugiura, " brought me to the very edge of
the precipice. It was only a miracle of God's
power that kept me back."
Gradually he worked his way towards Tokyo ;
and at Morioka he met a Christian worker
from whom for the first time he heard the
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and that
doctrine of the new heart which He bestows,
who interpreted for him the strange new
*i.e. Rice-spirit, the usual Japanese intoxicating drink.


28 MISSIONARY STORIES
experience into which he was entering. At
Utsonomiya he met one of our own Japanese
priests, and by him was directed with an
introduction to our friend Mr. Sugiura, in whose
words as nearly as possible I have put down
this story with detail that would otherwise have
been impossible. His journey to Tokyo had
taken him four months ; but, once with Mr.
Sugiura, he found himself watched and helped
in the "Christian Labour Reform Union" by
men, some of whom had histories not very
different from his own. " Help the next man"
is the rule there, and this man was entrusted to
the special guardianship of one who is now as
leading a Christian as he was notorious a thief :
one who could share with him that big tempta
tion of those who have been accustomed to live
easily and as something of heroes in their old
profession, and then late in life find themselves
as unfitted as babies for holding their own or
even earning a living in ordinary society.
I must not enter here into the methods by
which Mr. Sugiura and his Labour Union strive
to help them on their feet ; but I cannot forbear
to add one incident of my last visit to a meeting
of these men in their own poor quarter of the
city. One of them left it to show me back to


A JAPANESE BURGLAR 29
the tram. I knew he had once been a well-
known and violent criminal, and I asked him
what he was doing now. ' ' Only selling ordinary
things on a barrow," was his answer ; and then,
after a pause, he added, "but it is a splendid
opportunity for ' dendo ' — i.e. ' telling the Gospel '
— and when one knows that, nothing else
matters." That few minutes' walk to the tram
was alone worth the whole evening's journey.

The above story appeared in The Church
Abroad. The Revd. Y. Sugiura, after reading
a copy of this magazine, wrote a letter to the
Bishop of South Tokyo, in the course of which
he said : —
" Many thanks for your kind letter and the
magazines. I am very much grateful that the
story should be read by so many people in your
country by your kind trouble, and that the
matter which had occurred in such an obscure
corner of the world was brought into the light
to glorify the name of God.
" My work is getting on very well as ever,
but my only trouble at present is that those
members of the (Labour Reform) Union, who


30 MISSIONARY STORIES
had been already Christian and came to me to
help the work with some interest, but want to
carry themselves with their own will, give me
rather hindrance in encouraging other members
who were saved by the Union itself from the
awful life. While these two are moving in one
accord it is very nice, but it is difficult to keep
always such harmony in mankind.
" It is an unutterable distress on my part so
at last I was obliged to order the former that
they would go away if they do not like to be
more discreet. I said to them, ' Your pecuniary
help and kind trouble are valuable, but the con
verted hearts of the poor are more precious :
they are greater than you in my Union : with
out them I can do no work, but without you
there great many means by which God help
me.' " Sometimes I am fired (i.e., obliged) to give
such a blow to the hearts of haughty rich and
purify my work, whatever difficulties might be
aroused by it. There is no more dreadful
temptation than to depend upon the human
power in carrying my work on."





A Zulu warrior.


V.
Maqamusela : The first Zulu Martyr.*
ABOUT the year 1877, one of the mission
aries, Mr. Ofterbro, of Eshowe, had a
class of people preparing for Baptism.
The class was held in the church, and consisted
of a few old people, and some little ones. The
door of the church was, of course, open, and if
anyone liked to come in for a few minutes to
listen, they could do so. Some who were not
members of the class did drop in, in a casual
way, and go out again. Among the people who
did so was a middle-aged man, Maqamusela,
one of the king's soldiers, but he differed from
the others in that he did not hurry away, but
came regularly time after time, and stayed till
the end. Being a soldier, his name was not
put down as belonging to the class.
At last the time arrived when some members
of the class were baptized. After the Baptism,
Maqamusela came to Mr. Ofterbro and said :
"You baptized so-and-so and so-and-so, why
did you not baptise me ? " Mr. Ofterbro asked
* NOTE. — This story was related by Dr. Smyth, formerly Bishop of
Lebombo, in The Kingdom.


32 MISSIONARY STORIES
him if he had not heard of the king's word, that
if any of his soldiers became Christians, he
would have them killed ; and told him not to be
in a hurry, but to think about it, and pray about -
it. He finally came back, and said that he
believed that Jesus Christ wished him to be
baptised, and he wanted Mr. Ofterbro to do it.
There was nothing more to be said ; he had
counted the cost ; he knew what it might
involve, and he had made up his mind. So it
was arranged that he was to be baptised on a
certain day. But the king got to hear about it ;
and one evening, just before the day for his
baptism, he was walking home from Church ;
and, coming into a valley with some trees in it,
he met the soldiers of the king ; and they told
him for what they had been sent. One of these
men afterwards told Mr. Ofterbro what had
happened. " O, yes," said Maqamusela, "but you must
give me time to pray first."
They made no objection, and, being merely
rough, raw, Zulu soldiers, they sat down in a
ring round him, to prevent his running away,
and began to make themselves happy by taking
snuff and talking.


MAQAMUSELA 33
Maqamusela stood in the middle, and began
to pray. He prayed for himself, that God
would have mercy upon him ; and that, although
he was not baptised, He would receive him
among His children.
He prayed for his wife and children, whom
he was leaving behind. He prayed for the
missionaries who had taught him.
He prayed for his king, who had ordered
him to be put to death.
He prayed for the soldiers who had been
sent to do it.
He prayed for many Zulus by name.
And finally he prayed for Zululand, that it
might become a Christian country.
When he had finished, he said : "Now I
have done."
Those soldiers, being merely raw Zulus, had
sat down prepared to enjoy themselves ; but
when he began to pray, they began to look and
to listen ; and, as he went on praying, they
looked and listened harder ; and they thought
that there was something uncanny about it ; and
when he said, " I have done," not one of them
durst lift his hand to kill him.
But they dared not go back to the king until
that had been done for which they had been


34 MISSIONARY STORIES
sent. It so happened that, on one of the hills
near, there was a herd of cattle in charge of a
young man ; so they beckoned to that young
man to come, and put a weapon into his hand,
and told him what to do ; and Maqamusela
died.





An Aboriginal family in Western Australia.


VI.
Sammy: An Australian Aboriginal.
CAMMY was born in the neighbourhood of
^ De Grey River in North- West Australia
where the country is very sandy, and vast
tracts grow nothing but spinifex, and the white
man's sheep farms are about fifty miles apart
along the river's bank.
When Sammy was quite a little baby, or
piccaninny as they call them in those parts, he
was a beautiful golden brown, but under his
eyes and on his arms and other parts of his
body were little jet black lines, and these
gradually widened and spread till in a few
weeks' time he was a very deep chocolate
colour, for though we call Sammy's people " the
blacks," they are not really black at all.
At first he used to be carried about in a funny
little cradle, or pitchi as it was called, made of
a piece of bent bark sewn up at the ends with
spinifex fibre and covered with a few green
leaves, but when he was a little older he seemed
to prefer to sit astride his mother's shoulder or hip
and hang on by her hair. 35


36 MISSIONARY STORIES
Until Sammy was ten he wore no clothes and
was very seldom bathed as English children
are. Yet he loved a romp in the water and
would often stay there with his brothers and
sisters for hours at a time; His house was a
little " humpy" on the river's bank, made of a
few boughs and a piece or two of old corrugated
iron put up on the weather side.
As he loved fishing and hunting he would
sometimes spend whole days in these pursuits.
His method of fishing was to get a long spear
and to stand by the edge of a pool waiting
patiently till he saw a fish near enough to spear.
Then down his spear would go, and with quick
wrist and ready eye aiding him he would take
that fish home to supper.
Another day with his little "kaila," or
boomerang, he would secure a parrot or a few
cockatoos and a right royal feast he and his
companions would have when the day's work
was over and the camp fires were burning
brightly on the river bank. Sometimes they
would have a sing-song at night, and the
strange, weird monotone could be heard away
on the station verandah far into the night.
Sammy was afraid of the darkness. He
would go on any errand you liked in the day


SAMMY 37
time far away into the lonely bush, but he would
not move far at night. The reason was that he
and all the other aboriginals peopled the dark
ness with evil spirits whom they called " Junos,"
and they believed that they were always on the
look-out to do them harm.
These "Junos" were the spirits of the dead,
and as the dead were often buried in trees, they
thought that their spirits continued to haunt
those trees afterwards. They had no idea of
any Paradise or of Heaven, or of good spirits,
or of angels who watched around them in the
darkness, or of a great Spirit Who ruled over
them all and sent His Son to be a sacrifice for
their sins and to open the gates of Heaven to
all who believed in Him.
When Sammy was about fifteen he was taken
away into the bush and solemnly initiated by
his elders into his manhood. One of his front
teeth was knocked out, he was told the secrets
of his tribe, how he must behave himself, and
that he must always look up to and obey his
elders. He was told, too, that merry little
Rosie in the next camp, with such laughing
bright eyes, was the wife who had been assigned
to him in infancy, and that he might now go


38 MISSIONARY STORIES
and claim her and marry her at once. He also
learned that he belonged to the "Emu men,"
and the story of his origin was told him. It
was something like this.
"Ever so many moons ago" (for black fellows
count all time by moons) " a mighty emu came
up out of the earth not far from Coolcoolinarrina
water-hole and wandered about for a long time.
When he got tired of walking he changed him
self into a man and amused himself by making
spirits. Of course, being really an emu, he
could only make emu spirits. These emu spirits
did not at all like having no bodies, so as they had
none of their own they began to look about for
others to go into. Some went into emus and
some into little black children who happened to
be born in their country. Then one day the
big emu, who had changed himself into a man,
called them all together — all the emus and all
the little children with emu spirits — and told
them that they were all really brothers and must
never eat or harm one another. That was why-
emus never ate men and why those men who
belonged to the emu group must never eat emu."
Since he was ten Sammy had worked on the
sheep station, either helping the shepherd or
doing odd jobs, He was fed, clothed, and


SAMMY 39
provided with a new blanket every year. Some
times, but not very often, when he was lazy and
did not want to work (for black fellows, like
white men, would often rather play than work)
he was given a thrashing, but on the whole, he
was kindly treated and not asked to work too
hard. Once or twice a year he would be given a
"pink-eye," or holiday, and then all restraints
would be scattered to the winds and right
royally would he enjoy himself in the heart of
the bush. His hardest work had to be done at
shearing time, when thousands of sheep would
be brought in from the different paddocks on
"the run," and there would be thirty or forty
older men shearing, and he would help by taking
up the fleeces and carrying them to the tables
where they were "classed."
Sammy was very fond of little Rosie, and
though he would beat her sometimes because
she would not do what she was told, he really
loved her in his wild way, and they both loved
their two sturdy little piccaninnies and spoiled
them fearfully.
Yet Sammy had no respect for women as
such, for he had never seen that beautiful picture
of the Madonna and Child, and so the lot of the


40 MISSIONARY STORIES
old women was pitiable indeed. They had to
do all the dirtiest and hardest work, and were
given ragged clothing and the coarsest food.
If any luxury was brought into the camp,
such as an unusually fat lizard or a specially
delicate piece of kangaroo the old men had the
first share, then the turn of the younger men
came, then that of the younger and prettier
women, then that of the dogs, and the old
women came last of all.
In spite of all their brightness and merry
laughter, neither Sammy nor Rosie were really
happy at heart. Strange longings would come
into their souls sometimes which they could not
understand and which made them restless and
unsettled and anxious to get away into the bush
and live a wild life. You see they had never
heard of our Blessed Lord and His Love.
There were people in their country who knew
and had been told to tell but had not done
so. The white men on the station knew, but
they were so busy thinking about their sheep
and how to make money quickly that they had
forgotten about the message which they had
been told to give.
A good man — Bishop Gerard Trower, of
North-West Australia — has gone to live in


SAMMY 41
Sammy's country now, and he is determined
that Sammy and all his kin shall know. The
Government have set apart reserves for them
and he wants to teach the aboriginals on these
reserves. To one of them, on the Forrest
River near the little tropical townofWyndham,
the missionaries have already gone, and to
others we hope that they will soon go. The
Bishop needs our money and our prayers, and
if we give these faithfully perhaps some day
Sammy and Rosie, little Jackie and Bob, will
cease to fear the evil spirits and will enter
into the joy of the Lord.


VII. *""
A Story from Corea.
IT was a glorious day in the spring of the
year ; everywhere there were signs that
the long cold winter was at an end and the
summer at hand. As little Suni accompanied
her mother to the well on the hillside and
looked around she knew there would soon be a
busy time coming for her, when she would be
called upon to take her share in the weeding
and tilling of the fields.
The feeling of spring in the air was reflected
in little Suni's heart, and no work seemed too
hard to the happy little girl as she thought how
near now was the great day to which she had
been looking forward for so long.
On the following Sunday, Suni and her
parents, together with many of their neighbours,
were to receive the gift of Holy Baptism. All
through the winter they been preparing for
this great event, and now the time had almost
come. You will be wondering who little Suni was,
and how it came about that she had not been


A STORY FROM COREA 43
baptised as a baby ; and still more that her
parents should have waited till they were grown
up and old enough to have a little girl like her
to be baptised with them, Poor little Suni was
a little Corean girl and when she was born her
parents knew hardly anything about God, and
nothing about the Lord Jesus. They only knew
about evil spirits, and of these they were very
frightened and spent a great deal of time and
trouble trying to keep them away.
It was some time before the day that we are
writing of that rumours of Christian teaching in
Corea, the " foreign learning " as it was called,
began to reach the town where Suni and her
parents lived. First they heard stories of people
in other towns and villages a long way off who
were learning, and very strange and wonderful
these stories seemed.
These foreign teachers, it was said, could
teach them all about Ha-na-nim, the great God
whom they only vaguely knew about ; and,
what seemed more wonderful still, they were
not afraid of evil spirits and would not let the
people who came to learn the new teaching go
on worshipping and propitiating them. Then
by and by they heard that some of their own
relations were learning ; they were very much


44 MISSIONARY STORIES
alarmed when they heard that the first thing
they did was to turn out of their houses all the
things which are supposed to frighten away
evil spirits, and to give up many of their old
customs, such as the worship of their ancestors
and witchcraft.
They made sure that something dreadful
would happen to them. But when after a time
they saw that nothing happened, but that these
people were leading better and happier lives
than they had ever done before, they began to
wish they could learn too.
Now a number of these Corean Christians
lived on an island, about a day's journey away,
and after a great deal of discussion it was
decided that Suni's father and two or three
other men, as well as two or three of the older
women, should go over to this island and learn
more about the teaching.
They were away about three weeks, and had
wonderful things to tell when they came back
of the friendliness of the Christians to them,
and the big building which they called a church
where they held their services, and the foreign
teachers, who looked so strange and wore such
funny clothes and yet could speak their language
quite well, and had taken so much trouble to


A STORY FROM COREA 45
teach them and to help them to understand.
And to their great joy some of the elder
Christians came back to spend a few weeks with
them and to teach them more.
One of these newcomers stayed with an aunt
of Suni's, who lived in the same town and to
whom she was related, and well did Suni
remember the day of her arrival and part of the
conversation which she had overheard.
" Was it true," asked her aunt, " that she had
really become a Christian and went to
Church ? "
"Oh, yes," was the answer, "it was quite
true." At first she had been frightened and
stayed at home when her neighbours went to
the classes ; but they had gradually persuaded
her to go with them, and though at first she had
been too frightened to go into the room and
had only listened outside, she had by degrees
become more and more interested. Now she
and her husband and their two children were
all baptised.
"And was it true that they no longer
worshipped evil spirits ? "
" Yes," replied her cousin ; " people who
worship the Lord God must worship Him only,
they cannot worship evil spirits as well. Besides,


46 MISSIONARY STORIES
why should they ? If you belong to God He will
take care of you."
" I've heard," said Suni's aunt, " that four or
five times in each month you stop your work
for the whole day and go to the church and
say prayers and sing hymns. Is this really
true ? "
" Indeed it is," answered her visitor," for
God has ordered that we should rest and worship
Him once in every seven days."
Suni's aunt gave a sigh ; she thought of all
the work she had to do, the cooking of food for
her husband, the making and washing and
ironing of his clothes which often kept her at
work until the early hours of the morning, and
the beatings she got if the things were not
ready when he wanted them, or not done as he
liked. Just think of being able to put it all
aside occasionally !
But there was something she wanted to know
even more. She looked round furtively as if
afraid of being overheard, and then, coming
nearer to her cousin, whispered, " I've keard thax
if people are Christians no second wife is
allowed to come into the house. Are these true
words ? "


A STORY FROM COREA 47
" Indeed they are quite true. There is
absolutely no such custom among Christians."
" Ah, that is good," and for some moments
Suni's aunt sat silently gazing out into the
courtyard, overcome at the thought of that
terrible dread being removed. It is true she
had a child, but only a little girl ; and if she
should not have a son she knew how probable
it was that her husband would bring another
woman into the house to usurp her place, and
then what misery her life would be !
Suni got restless after a time and wandered
away. When she came back one of the old
women from a neighbouring house had joined
the party, and with her long pipe in her hand
was squatting on the verandah listening in
bewilderment to such talk as had never been
dreamt of in her young days. They were
talking now of the names given to the Christians,
and the visitor was telling how every one of
them, even the women and the little girls, were
given their own name when they were baptised,
and how she herself was called " Sarah," after
one of the women in the Bible This is
wonderful to a Corean, for they think a woman
has no soul and do not trouble to give her a
name. The names the children are distinguished


48 MISSIONARY STORIES
by are more like nicknames and are dropped as
they grow older ; when they marry they are
known as So-and-sO's wife (or, more literally,
house), and, if they have a son, as So-and-so's
mother. Then seeing Suni's eyes fixed upon
her, she turned to the child and asked her if she
wouldn't like to go to school and study like the
little girls of her age on the island did. Thus
directly addressed, Suni was too shy to express
her wishes, but hung her head sheepishly and
murmured, " We have no one to teach us here."
" That is sad," answered Sarah, " but whilst
I am here I will teach you a little every day,
and we will pray to God to send you a teacher
who can stay here always. And Granny must
learn too," she added, turning to the old woman,
for, like all Corean Christians, she was anxious
to pass on to as many as possible the happiness
that had come into her own life. Poor old
" Granny " shook her head ; her mind was too
old and dark she said. But Sarah was not to
be denied ; slowly and perseveringly she taught
the old lady, and when she left Suni took on the
task, passing on everything she learnt herself,
till " Granny " knew as much as many of the
younger ones, and was looking forward as
keenly as any of them to her baptism, which


Corean bride and bridegroom.





A STORY FROM COREA 49
was to take place at the same time as her little
teacher's. All this was long ago, but Suni still remem
bered it quite clearly, and how she had run
back to her little friend Ka-na-ni, who lived
next door, and told her all about it ; and how
late she was when she got home and the beating
she got in consequence. Suni got very few
beatings nowadays, but she had one great
sorrow, and that was that her little friend
Ka-na-ni was not allowed to learn the teach
ing with her. Ka-na-ni's grandfather was a
Christian ; he had been one of the first people
in that town to become one, but his wife had so
far held out, and till she gave leave neither
Ka-na-ni nor her mother, though the latter was
a grown-up woman, would be allowed to go
near the church even.
However, Suni had begun to hope that the
old woman's heart was softening ; in the early
days when her husband first began learning she
had given him a terrible time, spoiling his food
if he went to the classes, destroying his boots,
and making his home life misery to him ; but
latterly she had been much less aggressive and
had even appeared in church occasionally, sitting
quietly at the back and apparently listening to


So MISSIONARY STORIES
what was being taught; so that Suni, who
prayed daily to God to turn her heart, began to
hope that before so very long she would see the
answer to her prayers.
And deep down in the bottom of her heart
Suni had another source of happiness ; she
would not have spoken of it to anybody for the
world (she would have considered it terribly
unmaidenly to do so), but you and I may just
take a glimpse into that little heart, where was
hidden the knowledge that once she was
baptised her parents might not send her away
to a heathen household, but must marry her to
a Christian. A Corean girl generally marries at about
fifteen or sixteen years of age (she used to be
married at twelve or thirteen, but a law has
recently been passed preventing this), and the
first years of her married life are anything but
enviable. She lives with her husband's parents
and becomes practically the slave of her mother-
in-law and the drudge of the household. She
dare not sit down in her husband's presence,
nor speak to him unless he first addresses her.
He looks upon her as little better than an
animal, and if he has occasion to speak of her
does so with the greatest contempt. Her


A STORY FROM COREA 51
position improves somewhat if children are
born to her, especially if she has a son ; but
should that gift be denied to her, she often has
to face the terrible fate of seeing another woman
admitted into the household and usurping her
position. Ever since she had begun to understand
about it little Suni had dreaded the time when
she would be sent to her mother-in-law's house ;
but now the prospect had ceased to be alarming,
for in a Christian household her lot would be a
very different one.
So, tired though she may have been, it was a
very happy little girl that folded up the clothes
that evening, and hoisting the bowl, in which
she had placed them, on to her head, hastened
home with her mother to prepare her father's
evening meal. And before she lay down to
sleep that night she sent up a very fervent
prayer to her Heavenly Father that He would
send many more teachers to her land, so that
all the people in it might learn to know .Him
and be made happy in His love.


VIII.
A Snowstorm in Newfoundland.
NEWFOUNDLAND was one of the first
places to which the S P.G. sent Mission
clergy. From early times the work there
has been carried on by self-sacrificing men, who
have often laboured under difficulties which
might have appalled weaker men. The first
entry in Two Hundred Years of the S.P,G.
relating to Newfoundland is as follows : " In
April, 1703, the Society took into consideration
the deplorable condition of Mr. Jackson, a pain
ful minister in Newfoundland, who had gone
upon a Mission into those parts with a wife and
eight children upon the encouragement of a
private subscription of ^50 for three years which
had come to an end. On May 21st he was
adopted as a missionary of the Society — ^50
per annum being voted for three years as salary.
He was recalled by the Bishop of London in
1705. While returning he was shipwrecked
and lost all his effects."
The following experience of a missionary
stationed at Grand Falls, suggests that there
52


A SNOWSTORM IN NEWFOUNDLAND 53
are still difficulties to be faced in carrying on
the Church's work in Newfoundland, which may
be compared with those experienced by Mr.
Jackson. He writes : —
" We are having very cold weather here. I
took a funeral this afternoon, and I was almost
perished. . . . Walking is at its best now.
The snow is very deep, but it is frozen hard.
We have cold winds. This afternoon, as I was
on my way to take the funeral, the wind threw
my cassock round my legs, and before I could
release my legs I was sailing down a hill, on the
back of my cassock, at about thirty miles an
hour. ' How are the mighty fallen ! '
"On January 20th we had a fearful night.
The bunk was close to the roof of the camp,
and too small for two. (Mr. Loder, a catechist,
and I were together). I was in continual fear
of falling out.
". . . We walked across Red Indian Lake
to G. J.'s camp, and had something to eat.
About a foot and a half of snow fell last night,
so walking was bad. The lake is a mile wide
here and it took us an hour to get across. At
1 1.30 Mr. L. wished to set out for O.G 's camp,
about eight miles away. It was a foolish idea,
but we agreed to try it. At 1.30 I was standing


54 MISSIONARY STORIES
in one corner of a disused camp, by the shore
of the lake. Of all the storms I had ever seen
or heard of, I was then in the worst. As we
ploughed along I thought many times we would
be suffocated with the snow, and my eyes filled
with snow that froze as soon as it settled. I
frequently removed pieces of ice from before
my eyes. The snow had drifted waist deep in
most parts of the way by which we were forced
to travel. Walking was so awful that Mr. L.
and I clasped hands and just pushed along
together. The wind rose after we left. As I
stood in the old camp, the snow was drifting in
through the openings that were once windows,
and I could not see out of the open door for the
snow. "What a terrible time we had after we left
the old camp ! After tramping about in the
woods through thick snow for more than two
hours, we realised, when we were just worn out,
that we had taken a wrong track. We had to
face the fact that we were lost in the forest. (I
have since learned that two others were lost that
day, and were found dead the next morning.)
We sat down in the snow, but it was too
comfortable, and we feared we would go to sleep.
The trees looked lovely — especially the spruce


A SNOWSTORM IN NEWFOUNDLAND 55
and fir, with their green boughs laden with snow.
After a very short rest we set off back, and
when we had followed our trail for about a mile
we decided to strike off in another direction.
"How tired I was! I was looking about for a
good place to spend the night, and I was plan
ning a little service for the two of us, and think
ing it would be wise to try and light a fire to guide
a search-party — if one should come out to look
for us — when Mr. L cried, ' I can see a man ! '
I have had some strange feelings at different
times, but I never experienced anything like
what I felt when I saw he had not made a
mistake. We reached the man — who was the
Cookee, or assistant cook — and he directed us
to the camp. As soon as we arrived I removed
my wet clothes and hung them by the stove to
dry, had something to eat, and lay down in a
bunk utterly exhausted. When we had been in
the camp a few minutes the ' Boss ' arrived.
How thankful he was to see us! He said it
was the worst storm he had ever been in, and
he has lived seven years in the woods. He
was going to organise a party and go out to
look for us if we had not arrived.
" I held a Service to-night. All the men —
about 25 — attended."


IX.
The Story of Father Pat.
THIS sketch is of a clergyman who worked
amongst the miners in the Far West of
Canada and who was always called by
them " Father Pat." (His other name was
Henry Irwin.) He was educated at Oxford,
where he was the champion boxer of the
university, a fact which greatly helped
him in his Canadian work. He started
for the Far West of Canada in 1885 and
worked at first amongst the men who were
engaged in making the great railway which
runs across the Rocky Mountains and reaches
at last the Pacific Ocean. In 1896 he began
work amongst the miners at Rossland in British
Columbia. The picture shows Father Pat in the
corner, and below the first church built at
Rossland. Had we entered the church in its
early days we should have found a curious con
gregation. We might, for example, have heard
the following conversation in the middle of the
56


Father Pat's old church, Rossland, B.C.





THE STORY OF FATHER PAT 57
service. The clergyman had just mentioned
the name of some person for whom the prayers
of the congregation were asked. " Hold up,
parson," said one of the miners ; " I don't pray
for that fellow." " Why not ? " " Because the
papers said so-and-so about him." " Well, but
the papers don't always speak the truth, do
they ? " " Not by a long chalk," was the reply.
" And if all these stories were true he would
need our prayers all the more, wouldn't he ? "
" Well, I guess you are right, parson ; fire
away ! "
At these mines were to be found men of
almost eyery country in Europe, as well as
from China. A visitor to Rossland one day
overheard the following conversation : —
" Why, Dick, did I see you in church this
evening ? "
" Yes, your reverence, I was there. The
first time for thirty years. I couldn't stand too
much of it at a time, though. So just when it
was getting a bit long I went outside and had a
smoke. I say, yer reverence, it was good. I
went in again after I'd had a bit of a smoke,
and it all came back to me as I was used to it
when I was a boy, and I tell you I did come
down on them Amens."


58 MISSIONARY STORIES
Father Pat was one of those men who never
could keep anything for himself if he thought it
would do somebody else good. On Bishop
Dart's first visit to Rossland, after a drive which
he described as "a journey through the air with
an occasional rest on a seat," he found Father
Pat cosily housed in one of the rooms under the
church, which were intended for his parsonage.
On the Bishop's second visit he found that
Father Pat had given up these rooms to a
homeless prospector — the sort of man who is
always in search of mineral wealth and then
seeks for a capitalist who will buy his secret.
Father Pat had retired in this man's favour to
a wretched little shack, made of boards, with
rough, uneven wooden steps climbing up a mud
bank to a door, planted in a side alley out of
sight of the fine view of hill and valley. Even
this shack he was constantly sharing with
another man.
His clothing was treated much like his
home. His overcoat was so green and thread
bare that his congregation summoned up
courage to present him with a new one, more
suited to the severities of the wintry cold. He
accepted their gift with affectionate gratitude,
and for a short time appeared in the new coat


THE STORY OF FATHER PAT 59
and spoke of the comfort he found in it.
Presently the green coat made its appearance
again. " Where is your new coat, Father Pat ? "
they asked. "What have you done with it?"
"Well, what could I do?" was the answer.
" I met a poor fellow who had no overcoat at
all. I couldn't let him go without one in this
bitter weather, and I couldn't give him my old
one, could I ? "
A prospector lay sick away out on the lonely
mountain side, thirty miles from doctor or
medicine. Father Pat heard of it. He
gathered together medicines and hit the trail.
While nearing the cabin he came across three
mounted miners who saluted him with the
question, '' Hello, parson, where are you going ? "
He told them. " Bill needs a doctor instead of
a parson." They commenced to abuse him,
and would not let him pass. Quicker than
lightning the parson jerked one of the miners
off his horse, knocked another one off, and
cleared the trail.
He reached the sick man's side and ministered
to his wants. On returning the next day he
met the three miners, who had camped on the
trail bent on revenge. While being abused he


60 MISSIONARY STORIES
appeared as meek as a lamb. The trio
surrounded him in a threatening manner.
Then the parson spoke, "Will you see fair play
if I will fight one at a time ? "
" Yes, yes, yes ! " exclaimed they, chuckling
at the prospect.
A ring was formed, and soon one of the three
measured his length on the ground. " Come
on," said Father Pat pleasantly, as the other
two seemed rather dazed. One came on and
followed the first. " Next," said Father Pat,
but the third miner took to his heels as though
his Satanic Majesty was behind him instead of
only a meek minister. Father Pat bathed the
bruises of the two prostrate miners, and after
preaching them a sermon on the iniquity of
fighting went his way.
On another occasion a miner, finding that no
insults to himself provoked Father Pat, began
insulting Christ. Father Pat turned on him
fiercely, saying, " I don't mind your insulting
me, but you shall not insult my Master." The
miner drew near threatening to strike him, but
in a few moments was lying on the ground
unconscious and bleeding. Down on his knees
went Father Pat, anxiously examining the
man's injuries, and crying aloud, "O Lord


THE STORY OF FATHER PAT 61
forgive me for not telling this poor man that I
was champion boxer at Oxford."
Here is his own account of one of his trips to
minister to these wandering sheep : —
" Just got in from an eight days' trip on ' the
camel,' that will show you what ' tough ' means.
After a.m. service here last Sunday week I did
forty-one miles between i and 7 p.m. for service
— that's not bad for an old crock of a horse —
then on and up the Kettle River for another
forty miles, and away back off trails for another
thirty miles by Wednesday, when on came one
of those awful rainfalls we have in summer, cold
as charity — and one's light gum coat is no
protection, nor would a tarpaulin keep out the
soak as you fight your way in and out of deer
trail windings. Three to four miles away
through the very depth of a thick pine forest on
a wet day, with a shirt and pants and socks and
boots and straw hat and nothing more on will
give you my feelings — with nothing to eat but
some chocolate and a lump of cheese from
Wednesday, 7 a.m., till Thursday, 9 a.m., in the
saddle the whole time ; then into camp, where
the tents were the only dry places. Next
night I struck the tent of two Ross-
landers lost on the mountains. I wish I


62 MISSIONARY STORIES
had a snapshot of the old wagon spread — for
that was the tent — under which lay the two
owners side by side, and I at the mouth, across
their feet, slept as guard with a great fire of logs
three feet high, blazing on the graceful scene.
Then up at 3 a.m. to hunt for horses, off and
away at 4 a.m., and twenty miles to breakfast,
leaving the pair snoring under their roof, and
the night's fire just dying out in smoking gasps.
Those fellows were glad to see me, as they had
just used their last match."
After five years of strenuous work his health
began to break down and he started to go to
Montreal in order to rest. On the way he was
picked up by a farmer, who found that his feet
were frost-bitten. He was taken to the hospital
at Montreal, where he died a few days later.
When his death became known in Rossland the
miners grieved for him as for their best friend.
They at once set about collecting money for
some memorial which would keep his memory
fresh in their midst. An ambulance was pur
chased for the benefit of injured miners, while a
drinking-fountain with a lamp above it stands
in the main street of Rossland, speaking at
once of the Light of the World and the Water
of Life. Whom Father Pat had ever striven to


THE STORY OF FATHER PAT 63
bring to the thirsty souls that sat in such deep
darkness. The inscriptions on the fountain
were designed by his old parishioners in Ross
land. The inscriptions on the monument which
they erected to his memory are : —
On the east — " I was thirsty and ye gave me
to drink."
On the west — " I was an hungered, and ye
gave me to eat."
On the south — "A man he was to all the
country dear."
On the north — " In memoriam, Father Pat."
" He who would write an epitaph for thee,
And do it well, must first begin to be
Such as thou wert ; for none can truly know
Thy life, thy worth, but he that liveth so."


The Life Story of Ngcombu.
THOUGH few of our readers will feel able
* to pronounce the surname of Josiah
Ngcombu, the story of what he was and
what he did in the cause of Christian Missions
in South Africa will be of interest to all. We
give the story as told by the Rev. E. Hill.
It was during the latter part of the Boer war
that I was sent as chaplain to Naauwpoort and
first met Josiah, who was working as catechist
among the natives in the location and the
camps there. His appearance struck me at
once as being different from that of the average
native ; his high forehead, his stern, dignified
expression, which was continually softening into
the merriest lines of good humour, and the
energy revealing itself in all his actions made
me realise that I had a subordinate in office,
but a superior as a man to work under me.
I was somewhat surprised, after seeing him,
to be visited by a deputation from the Native
Church, who came to lay many complaints
against him. I did my best to get to the
64


A South African catechist with his wife and children.





THE LIFE STORY OF NGCOMBU 65
bottom of their accusations, asked for expert
advice and summoned the deputation a second
time, but could only gather that perhaps some
of his sermons hit too hard, and that one in
particular, on drunkenness, had hurt the feelings
of a prominent Church official.
I was surprised that Josiah did not volunteer
to throw light on the matter, but was favourably
impressed by the fact that he carried on his
Services as usual, obviously quite unconcerned
by the agitation against him.
I was sitting one morning quite at a loss as
to how to deal with these natives when my
orderly came in and said, to my consternation,
that a lady wished to see me. I told him to
put the room straight and show her in, expect
ing some officer's wife.
To my surprise, it was Mrs. Josiah in the
plainest of dresses and an old shawl over her
head, but, like her husband, she too was
possessed of a dignity which involuntarily com
pelled the orderly to tell me a lady wished to
see me. She hadn't much to say, only that I
would never find out what it was the congrega
tion really had against Josiah, as the deputation
had no intention of telling me, but now that she
heard that they intended burning his hut down


66 MISSIONARY STORIES
that night, she thought she ought to tell me
that the opposition was due to his being a Zulu,
and his congregation belonging to some other
tribe apparently not having an entente cordiale
with the Zulus.
Even this threat failed to disturb Josiah's
quiet unconcern and calm carrying on of his
duty, but it agitated me, and caused me to
agitate the whole deputation in a way which
greatly relieved my own feelings.
The way Josiah behaved made me ask him
about his past history, and I ascertained that he
was the son of a chief who had won much cattle
in war and gained several wives, and was looked
up to as a great warrior. Josiah had left him
when he was a youngster. He had been con
verted somewhere in Zululand or Natal, and
had eventually made his way along the Cape
Government Railway and become boss boy in
the big coal shed at Norval's Pont.
There he lived with his wife, and held Services
regularly for natives. No white missionary
visited Norval's Pont at this time as the Boers
had passed this point and were holding Coles-
berg beyond, and effectually cutting off all
communication between Naauwpoort and Nor
val's Pont. Here, then, he stood alone for the


THE LIFE STORY OF NGCOMBU 67
Church, courteously refusing all overtures from
a flourishing congregation of Dissenters. He
prepared men and women for baptism, and
Christians for confirmation, and when the Colony
was reconquered by the British and com
munication secured again, Josiah received his
first visitation, and was able to present a number
of carefully prepared candidates for baptism and
confirmation. He was asked by Mr. Douglas Ellison, of
the Railway Mission, soon after this to give up
his lucrative billet as boss boy of the coal shed,
and come to Naauwpoort for a greatly reduced
salary as catechist, with a sail hut, costing 20s.
to live in, and the use of a school-room for a
church. He readily consented to come, and
when I once asked him if he regretted the
change and loss of money, he merely said " No,
boss, I get more time for prayer now." Prayer
was the secret of Josiah's strength, and even
gave him that expression of reserve power
which one could not fail to be influenced by.
Josiah not only had the gift of personal
devotion himself, but he also was able to inspire
his flock with the same spirit. This was brought
home to me one Lent when I had told him that,
for a Lenten discipline, I would put an extra


68 MISSIONARY STORIES
Eucharist at 5 a.m. on Tuesday. To my
surprise, I heard his church bell ringing at
4 a.m., and on arriving at 5 and asking the
reason for his ringing an hour too soon, he said,
with many apologies, that the boy had forgotten
it was their late morning. I then discovered
that in Lent his custom had been to hold
Service every morning from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.,
and it was not a case of his holding a Service
in an empty church by any means.
His influence for good over his flock soon
had a still more striking illustration. Martial
law obtained in the camp, and a military P.C.
used to inspect the location and bring natives
up to the Commandant's Court for fines if they
broke certain regulations. The native P.C.
happened to be a heathen with a grudge against
the Church, and so was continually running
Christians in under false accusations, and
getting them fined 10s. by a Commandant
who had enough to do without investigating
these charges.
While this was going on, Josiah came down
to me, and asked me if I didn't think the
Gospel which exhorted us to forgive our
enemies seventy times seven a splendid
Gospel ? I said yes, and he left. He repeated


THE LIFE STORY OF NGCOMBU 69
this inquiry with little variation once or twice
more until I got tired of him, and thought he
was a bit unlike his natural self. However,
when he came down again about this old
Gospel I told him to either tell me what he
had at the back of his mind or -to clear. He
cleared, but on second thoughts ran back, and
went to my colleague, Mr. Skey, and blurted
out — " Please how many times may the heathen
fine us 1 os. for nothing? I've asked the boss if
seventy times seven is correct, and he says it is,
but the people say they can't pay any more."
It was a long speech for old Josiah, and
fairly mystified Mr. Skey, until he got up to
the location and secured evidence of a
prolonged persecution, patiently borne in
obedience to Josiah's forcible rendering of the
Gospel. Skey prevented a repetition of this,
and its heavenly value remains where old
Josiah told them to lay it up in generous
forgiveness. Josiah never lost his influence over his flock,
and the candidates he asked me to examine for
baptism or confirmation always astonished me.
Once, when he gave me a list of over ninety
confirmation candidates I reduced it to fifty,
having ploughed forty in their knowledge of


70 MISSIONARY STORIES
Christian doctrine. He said nothing to me
about these forty until ten days before the
Bishop's visit, when the whole forty were again
produced for another trial, which they all
passed, thanks to Josiah's determined efforts.
Josiah was hard to beat, and I never remember
him losing a single communicant. He was a
shepherd who led them and sought them out
and never failed to watch.
His death did not come until he had seen a
church — St. Agnes — and it was under the
shadow of this church that he breathed his
last, just retaining consciousness long enough
to receive telegrams from two old friends of
" Well done," and " God be with you till we
meet again."
He is buried under the east wall of St.
Agnes, and as one stands before his grave one
feels how cheap and vulgar is this shallow-
pated criticism which says you can't make a
native a real genuine Christian or fit to be a
minister. Josiah was a man, a Christian, and a loyal
Churchman, and I know not only his native
converts, but more than one white man owe
more than they can say to that faithful and
true life.


XI.
Simeon : a Story of the Cawnpore
Mission.
HPHE following story is taken from a book
*¦ called the " Story of the Cawnpore
Mission," published by the S.P.G., price 2/6
net. The Rev. W. H. Perkins was at
one time an S.P.G. missionary in Cawnpore.
There was an old Hindu, belonging to the
clerkly or writer caste, a very intelligent and
well-educated man, who knew Persian well.
Persian, under the Mohammedans and in the
early days of British rule, held much the same
place as Italian did in the middle ages in Europe.
It was the language of the polite, of poetry,
literature and the arts. Mr. Perkins met with
him one day while preaching in the bazaar, and
was surprised by the knowledge he possessed
of the writings of the New Testament.
It appeared that he had been for a little while
at Mirzapur with a Christian missionary. Mir-
zapur is a station of the London Missionary
Society. The missionary had given him a copy
of the New Testament, which he had read from
71


72 MISSIONARY STORIES
cover to cover. The following day he sought
out Mr. Perkins, and the result of the interview
was that in order to be instructed more perfect
ly in the things of God he took up his abode in
Mr. Perkins's compound.
Day after day, with all the humility and
teachableness of a child, this aged man sat at
the feet of the missionary. " I do not recollect,"
wrote Mr. Perkins, "to have met as yet with
an instance in which the great truths of the
Gospel were more intelligently and more joyfully
received." His love for Christ grew apace.
He besought Mr. Perkins to admit him into the
Church, and in spite of the endeavours of some
of his relatives he confessed the Faith, and
received in his baptism the name of Simeon
(Shamaiin in Hindustani) ; " being one," writes
Mr. Perkins, "ready to depart in peace, having
seen the Lord's salvation." " There was some
thing," he adds, "so pleasing and patriarchal in
his appearance and deportment, mingled with
almost childlike simplicity, that every member
of the Mission circle felt that he had a peculiar
claim on his tenderest sympathies."
After some weeks Mr. Perkins discovered
that Simeon had not declared himself a
Christian to his non-Christian relations so openly


SIMEON 73
as he ought to have done. He felt it therefore
needful to rebuke him, and in plain words to
point out to him his duty.
" The poor old man was deeply moved ; the
big tears," said Mr. Perkins, " dropped from his
cheeks as he listened to me, and he replied :
' Sir, you must not expect me to put off the
vices and infirmities of seventy-two years of
heathenism in a single day. I am a weak
believer, younger than your infant ; he is four
or five months old, I was born but a few weeks
ago.'" My exhortation seemed to have had some
effect ; but still I found that there was some
hesitation in boldly confessing his Master, and
I was compelled again to introduce the subject,
and to show him the exceeding sinfulness of his
attempting, in any measure, to appear a Hindu
before his relatives and a Christian before me ;
how his doing so would grieve the Spirit of our
Lord, destroy his own simplicity, and ultimately
bring upon him more suffering and dishonour.
I entreated him to strengthen himself for the
trial, and accompany me at once to his relatives,
and fearlessly acknowledge to them whose
servant he was.
Strong and painful must have been the


74 MISSIONARY STORIES
struggle in the old man's breast ; but greater
was He that was with him than all who were
against him ; the Spirit prevailed over the
flesh. He bowed his head in assent, and the
missionary and his convert went on their way
together, that very hour, to Simeon's home, a
dwelling-house in the centre of the city. There
they were received with kindness and civility ;
and word was sent out to his relatives, who
were very many, and all in a respectable class
of life, that Simeon had arrived. These soon
gathered together to pay their respects to one
whom they all seemed to hold in great honour.
Meanwhile, Simeon sat awaiting them under
the shade of a spreading tree. A little nephew,
who appeared a great favourite, sat on his lap
playing with him. What must have been the
old man's thoughts as he silently caressed the
child ! Here in his own home, and the home
of his fathers, how often had he sat beneath
that very tree with children playing at his feet,
and their parents standing round him to listen
to his words, honoured and beloved alike by
young and old. Well he knew that this was
the last time the trees of his old home would
shade him from the sultry sun — the last time its
doors would be open to receive him from the


SIMEON 75
scorching blast. Never would that little child
who clung so fondly to him run into his arms
again — never would the many dear ones come
forth to welcome him,
But there was One dearer, even there — One
who would never leave him nor forsake him —
One who died and rose again for him — for him,
a miserable sinner — to receive him to Himself
— One whose name is love ; and for Him the
aged Hindu was resolved to take up his cross,
to leave all and to follow Him ; knowing that
he was faithful and had promised that He
would repay him a hundredfold.
When all his friends and relations were
assembled, Simeon rose up in the midst of
them, and lifting up his eyes on them he said
with quiet simplicity, " Brethren, I am a
Christian." Not a word was uttered in reply by anyone.
Every eye rested on the apostate (as they
regarded him) with a gaze of mingled sorrow
and anger ; the boy playing by him was called
away, as if in danger of pollution by his
proximity to his former friend ; and all the
persons present retired to a little distance, and
sat down.
I interrupted the painful silence by the


76 MISSIONARY STORIES
inquiry, " Did you not know of Simeon's having
been baptised ? "
" Know, sir? " exclaimed one with the great
est bitterness. " Think you not we would have
put a knife through his liver, rather than he
should have lived to forsake the faith of his
forefathers ? He is the head of our family, and
he has disgraced us all."
After some little time had passed, Simeon
turned to me, and with his eyes filled with tears
said, " Well, sir, now I trust that you are satis
fied. Why should we stay here longer ? We
can do no good ! " And being fully satisfied, and
sensible that our work was done, I returned
with my aged friend, now more deeply bound to
me than ever.
It is difficult for one who has never known
the trial, fully to realise the sacrifice which a
man must make who thus cuts asunder strong
domestic ties for Christ's sake. The events of
that forenoon gave me some practical insight
into its painfulness. But it must be strong con
viction and lively faith which can enable a con
vert to meet the pain of such a parting, the
bitterness of which follows him into all his sub
sequent experience, and meets him at every step.


SIMEON 77
This story shows what is the greatest of all
obstacles to the conversion of Hindus, viz. their
family. The Hindu's love for his kith and kin
is one of his conspicuous virtues.
Instead of being impatient that converts in
North India cannot yet be numbered by millions,
we should rather praise God for the miraculous
change which has come over the many thousands
who have already become Christians.


XII.
The Story of Pagolu Venkayya.
WENKAYYA was a Mala living at
* Raghavapuram, a village about twenty-
eight miles from Bezwada, which is in
the new diocese of Dornakal. In his
youthful days he was well known for his
daring, and was for a time the ring-leader of a
band of violent men. When he was about
forty-seven years of age his renunciation of
idolatry took place. It happened in this wise.
A heathen friend, standing with him in the
presence of some idols, told him that since he
had heard a Christian missionary say that idols
made by the village carpenter were impotent
things, he had ceased to believe in them.
Venkayya instantaneously accepted the new
light and renounced the worship of idols. The
same friend told him that the subject of the
missionary's preaching had been the great God
who was the only true God. Venkayya then
made a prayer, which from that time he used,
in the form : " O Great God ! Who art Thou ?
Where art Thou ? Show Thyself to me."
78


An Indian clergyman in the Telugu country.





THE STORY OF PAGOLU VENKAYYA 79
From time to time he heard and pondered over
fragments of the missionaries' teaching which
were carried from hearer to hearer in the
villages. Once, too, a Christian tract was
brought to his own village, and he heard it read.
It spoke of God as the Saviour of the world.
This brought more light to Venkayya, and
thenceforth he changed his prayer to " O great
God, the Saviour! Show Thyself to me." One
more fragment of the truth he received with
avidity. Some of his friends and fellow-
castemen in a distant village came upon a band
of native Christians. While they were there,
the funeral of one of the Christians took place,
and these men went to it. The strange things
that they saw and heard they carried back to
Venkayya because they knew that he would
wish to hear them. Especially they told him
that the Christians believed that the dead would
rise again from their graves. Venkayya
received this as teaching sent from God.
These were the chief fruits, in three years, of
Venkayya's search after God.
The crisis of his life came in 1859, when he
was about fifty years old. The great Siva
Rathri festival was being held at Bezwada, and
40,000 people gathered to wash away their sins


80 MISSIONARY STORIES
in the river Krishna, and to worship their gods.
Venkayya also had come — not, however, to bathe,
but to find, if he could, one of the Christian
missionaries, of whose preaching at this festival
he had heard. He sat down by the river-side,
and there a remarkable incident followed.
A Brahman approached him and asked if he
were not going to bathe. Venkayya replied
that water so foul as that of the river had now
become could not wash the body, much less
cleanse the soul. The Brahman asked if he
was a Christian. Venkayya answered that he
was not, but wished to be one. The Brahman
then showed him the mission bungalow, and
bade him go there and be made a Christian.
At the same time, Venkayya's friends, wander
ing among the crowds, had actually fallen in
with the missionary himself as he was preaching,
and had heard the invitation given to all to
come and be taught at his own bungalow.
They hastened back to tell Venkayya, and the
entire party together went to the bungalow.
It was not long before the whole object of their
quest was laid bare. Mr. Darling, the
missionary referred to, explained to them the
story of the Gospel. When he had finished,
Venkayya rose and solemnly said : " This is my


THE STORY OF PAGOLU VENKAYYA 81
God, this is my Saviour. I have long been
seeking for Him ; now I have found Him."
So ended Venkayya's search.
Of the men that came with Venkayya, all
except one declared that they too believed, and
a day was at once fixed for the missionary's
visit to their village. There he spent some
time in instructing the new converts. Before
many days had passed their baptism was
arranged and took place in March 1859.
Venkayya, his wife and five children, and
sixteen other men, were the first to be baptised.


XIII.
A Brave Boy.
/^"aptain Sinker, speaking at a meeting of
the Melanesian Mission in November,
191 3, told this story : —
" I will take you to an island down in
Melanesia, because I want to tell you a story
about a native. I tell the story to show the
pluck of a native boy in the first place, and
secondly, to show you how Providence comes
in and helps the work, when you feel everything
is anyhow, and you don't know what to do for
the best. The island is called Tikopia, and is
180 miles from any other island. The King
of Tikopia is a powerful chief, and nobody may
speak to him unless they kneel in his presence.
He expected us white people to do the same,
but we told him it was not usual for white
people to grovel ; he overlooked it, though not
well pleased. We were not able to call there
very often in the old days, because we had not
enough steam-power ; so we were only able to
put a native teacher on this island. I cannot
82


A Tikopian.





A BRAVE BOY 83
tell you how the native teacher would start
work with these people, but first of all he
would have to learn the language. One of
these Tikopians took a fancy to his teacher
and sat in his hut at night, when he noticed
that the teacher knelt down. He could not
understand this, because there was no one there
to kneel to — the King was not there. The
teacher explained that he was talking and
praying to the white man's God, a powerful
chief, Who could do anything for you if you
asked Him. After a long while this boy got to
know something about the white man's God,
and he went up to the King and told him about
it, and said, ' When I come to speak to you in
the future I shall not kneel down, because I find
I cannot kneel down to you and the white
man's God.' If it was the custom of the place
to kneel down to the King, there was no reason
why this boy should not do it ; but you will
agree with me that he was being led by Provi
dence. At this the King declared, ' We shall
have to kill you.' Their method of killing is
not very attractive. After sentence is passed
they give a man a paddle, a canoe, and a
coconut, and tell him to go ; and the man
knows that all the people will congregate on


84 MISSIONARY STORIES
the beach with bows and arrows, clubs and
spears, to prevent him landing, so he does not
attempt to do so, and drowns himself. But this
boy was not going to kill himself. He said,
' I shall still come back again. The white
man's God will take care of me. I shall come
back, and you will be glad to have me.' Then
he was sent off in a canoe, knowing that if he
could go on long enough in one direction,
keeping the south-east wind behind him, he
would eventually come to an island where there
was a Mission station. So he started off, and
was six days and nights in that boat till he
sighted the island. Then his strength gave
out, and he felt he could go no further ; so
he made himself secure in the canoe and offered
up a prayer ; and then he knew nothing more
till he was landed on the island where we have
a Mission station. If he had been landed five
miles on either side he would have been killed
and eaten.
" The teachers came out and saw what they
believed to be a dead boy in the canoe, but
they were eventually able to restore him to life.
Then we came along in The Southern Cross,
and he told us all about it. We were very much
surprised to see him, and took him back to the


A BRAVE BOY 85
island. I made a point of going ashore with
him, because I wanted to see the sort of thing
that would go on. I knew it would be exciting.
The Tikopians are a Polynesian people, who
always rub noses when greeting, like the
Maoris. When they first saw this boy they
rushed away from him, thinking he was a
ghost ; and he had to call to them and beckon
them to come back, which they did in fear and
trembling, and would not come close to him for
some considerable time, At last they felt
him and pinched him, and then welcomed
him as only Polynesians can, rubbing
noses and pressing him warmly to their hearts.
Then the boy went to the King, who at first
was frightened, then welcomed him warmly,
and spoke to all the people of how he did not
believe in the white man's God ; but now he
was forced to believe that there was such a
being, and that He must be a very powerful
chief indeed, because He had saved this boy's
life. So he wanted everybody on the island to
learn something about the white man's God,
and set the example himself."

Roffey & Clark, Printers, Croydon.


Penny
Missionary Story
Books

These attractive little books do much to secure the sympa
thetic interest of young people in missionary matters. Just
one, given to a child, will impart an understanding of the
everyday life of children and others across the seas, which
cannot be achieved by oral teaching. Simple language is
used, but each story in the series is a vivid word-picture,
and makes a deep impression on the child-mind. Each
booklet makes about 16 pages, and is well illustrated and
bound in tinted paper cover —

A Missionary Hero.
Work amongst Children in
India.
Story of a Japanese Boy.
A Bride of Lash i ma (India).
Story of a Chinese Clergyman,
The Story of a Kaffir Boy,
The Story of a_ Chinese Boy.
Rajah Brooke in Borneo.
East to West.
The Faithful Ones.
A Little Chinese Godson,
A Boy's Life in Burma.
Story of a Japanese Girl.
The way to the Zenanas.
Stories of the Early Christians
Pandita Ramabai.
Two New Guinea Boys.

Lucy and her Family.
Japanese Boys and Girls.
The Indian Orphans. Part i.
The Indian Orphans. Part 2.
Negroes and Coolies in B.
Guiana.
Two Cousins.
Assam. Mtshazi. Story of a Slave Boy.
Corea and the Coreans.
(Under Revision).
Indians in Canada.
Dyaks and Dreams,
Reminiscences of an Old Zulu
Woman.
Sita or Prita.

Single copies l£d. by post.

Attractive Volumes
are obtainable, consisting of ten selected stories bound in a
handsome cover. Sunday School and Bible Class teachers,
etc., will find them excellent for reading aloud. Two
distinct volumes are published — 1st and 2nd Series — at the
low price of 1/- net each vol., by post 1/2.
Obtainable through any bookseller or direct from
The Society's Office, 15, Tufton Street,
Westminster, S.W.


Penny
Missionary Picture
Books

Children love pictures. Advantage may be taken of this
trait, by the presentation of these picture books, to create a
missionary spirit in their earliest years of understanding.
Each contains at least 8 pages Of clear, bright photographs
printed on art paper. A few words of explanation accom
pany each picture, and a brief history of the Mission is
given. The booklet is bound in an attractive coloured
cover. Excellent for Sunday Schools.

No.

I.

Burma, i, 2, and 3.

No.

II.

New Guinea.

No.

III.

jArAN.

No.

IV.

Cawnpore (India).

No.

V.

Corea.

No.

VI.

ZULULAND.

No.

VII.

China.

No.

VIII.

S.P.G. House.

No.

IX.

Borneo.

No.

X.

Tinnevelly and Madura.

No.

XI.

Madras.

No.

XII.

Australian Aboriginals.

No.

XIII.

Australian Bush.

No.

XIV.

North West Canada.

No.

XV.

Madagascar.

No.

XVI.

Medical Missions.

No.

XVII.

Delhi.

No.

XVIII.

Kaffraria.

No.

XIX.

Trinidad, &c.

No.

XX.

Gold Coast.

Obtainable through any bookseller or direct from
(Single copies Ijd. by post)
The Society's Office, 15, Tufton Street,
Westminster, S.W.


Recent Books
World Problems.
Five bishops survey current missionary problems. A book
of exceptional interest and value. Clearly printed on
antique paper and handsomely bound in cloth with gilt
embellishments. 104 pp. Price (by post 1/2) net 1 /-
Here and there in South India.
Vivid sketches of native life in a part of the Indian
Empire. Excellent illustrations reinforce the text through
out. Well printed on fine-surface paper and tastefully
bound in cloth. 100 pp. Crown 8vo.
Price (by post 1/2) net \jm
Here and there in North India.
A companion volume. The complete difference in the
country, peoples, and customs shows strikingly the vastness
of India. Similar in size, etc., to the above.
Price (by post 1/2) net 1 jm
Father Pat. (Fifth Edition.)
By Mrs. Jerome Mercier. A stirring story of life in
British Columbia. The history of a Christian Man— a
hero of the Far West. Illustrated, and clearly printed on
good paper. Artistically bound in cloth, price 1/6 net
(by post i/g). In paper covers, price (by post 1/2) net \jm
Three Boys.
A story book for children. By Janet Sinclair. 200 pp.
of text and 16 pp. of illustrations ; attractively bound in
cloth. Price (by post 1/9) net 1 /£
Obtainable through any bookseller.
Full illustrated Catalogue free on application to
The Society's Office, 15, Tufton Street,
Westminster, S.W.








YALE UNIVERSITY

a 3 9 0 02 002705839b




131