According to a Chinese authority, Korea, like the world of the ancients, has its “seven wonders.” Briefly stated, they are as follows: First, a hot mineral spring near Kin Shanta, the healing properties of which are believed by the people to be miraculous. No matter what disease may afflict the patient, a dip in the water proves efficacious. The second wonder is two springs situated at a considerable distance from each other; in fact, they have the breadth of the entire peninsular between them. They have two peculiarities—when one is full the other is always empty; and, notwithstanding the fact that they are connected by a subterranean passage, one is bitter and the other pure and sweet. The third wonder is a cold-wave cave—a cavern from which a wintry wind perpetually blows. The force of the wind from the cave is such that a strong man can not stand before it. A forest that can not be eradicated is the fourth wonder. No matter what injury is done to the roots of the trees, which are large pines, they will sprout up again directly, like the phoenix from her ashes. The fifth is the most wonderful of all. It is the famous “floating stone.” It stands, or seems to stand, in front of the palace erected in its honor. It is an irregular cube of great bulk. It appears to be resting on the ground, free from supports on all sides; but, strange to say, two men at opposite ends of a rope may pass it under the stone without encountering any obstacle whatever. The sixth wonder is the “hot stone,” which, from remote ages, has lain glowing with heat on the10top of a high hill. The seventh and last Korean wonder is a drop of the sweat of Buddha. For thirty paces around the temple in which it is enshrined not a blade of grass will grow. There are no trees or flowers inside the sacred square. Even the animals decline to profane a spot so holy.—New York Christian Advocate.
RESCUED
By M. Louise Ford
“Here, you, Jen, start your boots ’n’ see if you can sell any papers this day. And mind what I say, young woman, I want them papers sold; d’ye hear?”
Jen, a bright-looking girl of fourteen, hugged the bundle of papers tightly under her old and thin shawl, and flashed out of the house just in time to escape a rough push from the coarse woman who spoke; and the door banged sharply behind her, making the cracked and dirty windows rattle and the rusty stove send out a fierce puff of smoke.
She hurried along in the keen air, and in a few minutes was in the square, where she took her usual place and began her day’s work. Trade was not very good, and it was cold standing still; her hands ached, and it was hard work to keep the tears back as people hurried by and the bundle of papers grew no less heavy, altho she was doing her best to lighten it.
“Papers go slowly this cold morning,” said a pleasant-looking lady, stopping to buy one.
“Yes, ’um,” was the answer; but Jen did not look up; she was winking hard to keep the tears back.
“Where do you live, my dear?” continued the lady. “I often see you as I pass this way. Don’t you go to school?”
“I live with Mis’ Bumpers, down in Simpson Street,” replied the child, venturing to look into the pleasant blue eyes. It was very nice to have some one speak kindly to her again. But her heart was too full, and in a moment the big tears rolled down her cheeks and dropped upon her cold little hands. She tried to brush them away, but they would come, and the lady, seeing she was in trouble, drew her into the shelter of a building and tried to quiet her and draw from her her story. It came with many sobs, and soon she knew it all—no, not all, for the neglect and cruelty Jen had suffered could not be put into words.
A year before she had been taken from an institution by Mrs. Bumpers, and soon after the family moved into this city. In the sudden departure the kind friends at the home lost all trace of Jennie Hill. The girl was put to work and became the household drudge. School and church, which had been faithfully promised, were denied her, and the last straw was her being obliged to sell papers on the street.
This she had done for a week now, and her little heart was so full of the wrong and injustice done her, that the kind voice, the first she had heard in all that great city of strangers, caused it to overflow.
“You poor child!” said the lady kindly; “something shall be done about it at once. Now, tell me the number of your house and I will do my best for you. But you must be patient, for I must write to the home, and it may take some time to hear, but I’ll find you again, never fear,” and, writing the address in the little book she carried, with a few parting words the lady left her.
But the sunshine had sunk into Jennie’s heart, and her life had grown brighter for the kind words and promised help.
“She said I ought to tell Jesus about it, and I s’pose I had, but I’d ’most forgotten. I thought he’d forgotten me, too; but now I know he hasn’t,” she thought. It cheered her, and things looked brighter. The bundle of papers lessened, and Mrs. Bumpers didn’t scold quite as much when she went home. The thought of the strong Friend she used to hear about so much was a help over the hard places.
Miss Lane, the city missionary who had spoken to Jennie, knew just what to do in the case and how to do it, and it was but a few days before she appeared at her home, and, with proofs of all the neglect and abuse and failure to keep her agreement, she confronted Mrs. Bumpers.
At first the woman resisted, but, frightened because she had been discovered, she at last consented to give up the child, and a very happy girl Jennie was to escape her clutches and enter the new home provided for her in an institution.
“I’m just going to pitch in now and do my best,” she said one day to Miss Lane; and “pitch in” she did. Her studies were a delight to her, and it was not long before she made up her mind to be a Christian, and then she longed to do more for her dear Friend who had done so much for her.
A place in a training school for Christian workers was found for her, and she made the most of her opportunities, and after a few years of study and work she was ready to teach.
On last January (for this is not a fancy sketch) our little Jennie, now a bright and wide-awake young woman, set out for her chosen work among the colored people in the south, and what a glad and happy day it was for her! And with what earnestness did she say to her dear friend, Miss Lane:—
“Only to think of it, that I can go! O, how different it all might have been! Do tell people that it pays to save the children.”
And the friend whose life is spent in the work thinks that truly indeed “it pays.”—M. Louise Ford, in Child’s Paper.
REFORM IN CHINA.
A PRESS despatch dated Tokio, December 22, says that the report of the Society for Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese contains this paragraph:—
“There is a feeling even among the Chinese themselves, which has lately found expression in many contributions by them to the native press, that this is a critical hour in Chinese history, that great changes are imminent, and that the wisest management is necessary to avoid national shipwreck. Among the younger men there is a great deal of unrest and not a little secret disloyalty. This is greatly to be deplored. All needed reforms may be introduced and ought to be introduced by peaceful and legal methods, and it is our hope that as a society we may be able to turn this misdirected energy into lawful channels, and that, by reaching the minds of those who are in authority, we may help the government by timely advice to recognize the dangers ahead, and to avoid them by introducing such reforms as will take away the just reasons for dissatisfaction. We can not but believe, therefore, that the work of our society merits the heartiest support of all those who have any interest in the well-being of China.”
It is to be hoped that among these suggestions will not be the first strand in the rope which binds together “Church and State” in so-called “Christian” nations, namely, the Sunday established by law; but judging from Japan this will probably be the case.
A BAPTIST EXPRESSION.
We have before noted the decision of Judge Pryor, of New York, refusing to incorporate a Jewish society because the articles specified that the annual meetings should be held on Sunday. Here is what the Watchman, the leading Baptist paper, says about it:—
“That may be good law, but for a number of reasons it is not good policy. The Hebrew association should have its rights to incorporate determined by fairly-defined conditions, and not by the personal opinions of a judge. Justice Pryor’s labored argument to show that to hold this special business meeting on Sunday is a desecration of the day, will commend itself to many people; but Baptists, who believe in the separation of Church and State, will repudiate the justice’s sophistry. This Hebrew association does not interrupt or disturb other persons in their observance of Sunday, which is the ground upon which the application could be rightly denied. The decision is contrary to the spirit of our institutions, and is an instance of petty persecution. We hope that the Hebrew association will carry the case, if that is possible, to the Court of Appeals. They will find that Baptists all over the country will sustain them.”
We are informed that Judge Pryor has since carried his judicial ideas of Sunday observance still further, even denying the privilege of incorporation to a society because its annual meeting was to be held on December 31, which in some years would fall on Sunday.
Clergy Attend Theatrical Performance
On February 15 Charles Frohman, of New York, the noted theatrical manager, gave a special performance of “Heartease” at the Garden Theater for the benefit of the clergy of New York, 1,062 of whom accepted the invitation and viewed the performance. It is stated that the members of the Methodist denomination were the only ones invited who sent their “regrets.”
“IT'S NOTHING TO ME.”
“It's nothing to me,” the mother said;
“I have no fear that my boy will tread
The downward path of sin and shame,
And crush my heart and darken my name.”
It was something to her when her oldest son
From the path of life was early won,
And madly quaffed of the flowing bowl.
Then—a ruined body and shipwrecked soul.
“It's nothing to me,” the young man cried;
In his eye was a flash of scorn and pride.
“I heed not the dreadful things you tell;
I can rule myself, I know full well!”
’Twas something to him when in prison he lay,
The victim of drink, life ebbing away,
As he thought of his wretched child and wife
And the mournful wreck of his wasted life.
—Selected.
The Poisonous Properties of Tobacco
By John Harvey Kellogg
TOBACCO POISON
Chemists, botanists, and physicians unite in pronouncing tobacco one of the most deadly poisons known. No other poison, with the exception of prussic acid, will cause death so quickly, only three or four minutes being required for a fatal dose to produce its full effect. It is botanically known as nicotiana tabacum, and belongs to a class of plants known as the solanaceae, which includes the most poisonous of all species of plants, among which are henbane and belladonna. There are more than forty different varieties of the plant, all of which possess the same general properties, tho varying in the degree of poisonous character.
Nicotine.—The active principle of tobacco, that is, that to which its narcotic and poisonous properties are due, is nicotine, a heavy, oily substance, which may be separated from the dried leaf of the plant by distillation or infusion. The proportion of nicotine varies from two to eight per cent., Kentucky and Virginia tobacco usually containing six or seven per cent. A pound of tobacco contains, on an average, three hundred and eighty grains of this deadly poison, of which one-tenth of a grain will kill a dog in ten minutes. A case is on record in which a man was killed in thirty seconds by this poison.
A Pound of Tobacco Will Kill Three Hundred Men.—The poison contained in a single pound of tobacco is sufficient to kill three hundred men, if taken in such a way as to secure its full effect. A single cigar contains poison enough to extinguish two human lives, if taken at once.
Hottentots use the oil of tobacco to kill snakes, a single minute drop causing death as quickly as a lightning stroke. It is much used by gardeners and keepers of greenhouses to destroy grubs and noxious insects.
A number of instances are recorded in which death has been produced by applying a little of the oil from the stem or bowl of an old pipe, to a sore upon the head or face of a small child.
Poisoning through the Skin.—The poison of tobacco is so potent and violent in its action that even the external application of the moist leaves to the skin is sufficient to produce most serious symptoms. If a cigar be unrolled, and the leaves composing it be applied over the stomach, great nausea will be produced in a very short time. This method has been used to induce vomiting. Cowardly soldiers have been known to place tobacco leaves under their arms just before going to battle, for the purpose of producing sickness.
Some years ago a man was detected in an attempt to smuggle a quantity of tobacco by placing the leaves next to his skin. The nearly fatal symptoms which followed, led to the discovery of the smuggler.
Deadly Vapor.—If tobacco is poisonous when applied to the skin, it is doubly so when inhaled. The smoke of tobacco contains, in addition to nicotine, several other poisons, the chief of which are pyridine, picoline, sulphuretted hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbonous oxide, and prussic acid, all of which are fatal poisons when received into the system in any other than the most minute quantities. Thus it is not to nicotine alone that the evil effects of smoking are due, but to all of these poisons combined.
Birds, frogs, and other small animals die when exposed to the fumes of tobacco in a confined space. Cheese-mites, bees, and other insects may be quickly killed by directing upon them a stream of tobacco smoke from an ordinary pipe.
Poisoning through the Lungs.—Inhalation is the most speedy way of getting any volatile poison into the system. The reason of this is obvious when the fact is made known that the lungs present a mucous surface fourteen hundred square feet in extent, every inch of which is in the highest degree capable of absorbing gaseous substances brought in contact with it. This membrane is of the most marvelously delicate character, being of such exceeding thinness that it forms scarcely any obstacle to the passage of gases which enter the lungs by respiration. Just underneath this delicate membrane passes all the blood in the body, or an amount equivalent to the whole quantity of the blood, once every three minutes. The vapory poison inhaled by the tobacco smoker is not simply taken into the mouth and then expelled, but it penetrates to the remotest air-cells, and spreads itself out over the whole of the immense extent of membrane stated. Thus it is plain that the blood of the smoker is literally bathed in the narcotic fumes drawn from his pipe or cigar.
So readily does the system receive the poison of tobacco in this way, that it has repeatedly been observed as a fact that persons who are engaged in the manufacture of cigars often suffer much from the characteristic effects of nicotine poisoning, even when not using the weed.
When tobacco is applied to the mucous membrane, as in chewing and snuff-taking, its poisonous elements are absorbed in essentially the same manner as when it is applied to the skin, but much more rapidly. In chewing, considerable quantities are also absorbed through the stomach, being swallowed with the saliva.
The giddiness, nausea, and deathly sickness which follow the first attempt to use the drug, are indubitable evidence of the poisonous character of tobacco, which evidence is confirmed by the difficulty, in many cases very great, experienced in becoming addicted to its use. In severe cases of poisoning, violent vomiting and purging, vertigo, deathly pallor, dilatation of the pupil, a staggering gait, disturbed action of the heart, interference with respiration, and, in extreme cases, insensibility and syncope, are commonly observed. Only a very small quantity is necessary to produce these symptoms in a person not accustomed to its use; but in persons who have habituated their systems to the poison, a much larger quantity is required.
Persons not accustomed to the use of tobacco often show symptoms of poisoning from taking a very small quantity of the drug, as by inhaling its fumes in a smoking-car or a barroom. Infants are often sickened by inhaling the air of a sitting-room which is poisoned by a smoking father.
The fact is established beyond the possibility of successful controversy, that tobacco is a poison, deadly in large doses, pernicious and harmful in all doses. It taints the breath, ruins the digestion, obliterates taste and smell, spoils the blood, oppresses the brain, depresses the heart, irritates the nerves, wastes the muscles, obstructs the liver, dims the vision, stains the skin, and deteriorates and contaminates every organ and tissue with which it comes in contact in the body. Its influence is to lessen vitality, to benumb the sensibilities, to shorten life, to kill.
J. H. KELLOGG, M.D.
Honesty as Policy
“HONESTY is the best policy,” but a man who is honest because it is “policy” isn’t the most desirable sort of a citizen.—L. A. W. Bulletin.
Freedom for Others
We should love freedom, but we should not forget that perhaps the other fellow loves freedom also.—L. A. W. Bulletin.
A DOCTOR'S STRANGE IMPULSE.
THE following remarkable experience in the life of Mr. Emmons T. Mockridge, president of the Philadelphia Medical Mission, was published in Dr. Gordon's magazine:—
“After a busy day, sitting in my counting-room in meditation, there came upon me an irresistible impulse to take the train and go to a distant city. After vainly trying to shake off the impression, I sent word to my family that they need not look for me that night, hastened to the cars without baggage, and at the end of a three or four hours' journey found myself at my destination, heartily ashamed of having yielded to so unaccountable an impulse. Finding that the next train would not start for my home for some time, I strolled up into the town to pass away the time, amazed that I could have been so weak as to take a journey without any motive.
“As I passed a public office, a door opened, and there came forth a man whom I well knew, who, without expressing any surprise at my presence, asked me to walk with him, to which I consented. I noticed that he was under great suppressed emotion, and I was seeking to find the cause. He told me that the night before he had been badly treated by another, and that he was now on his way to take that man's life. Of course I was horrified, and tried all sorts of argument and persuasion to induce him to desist from his purpose; but he was a man of singularly strong will, and had become almost insane by brooding on his wrongs. For perhaps two or three hours I followed him as he entered different places in search of his enemy, vainly seeking to deter him from his fell purpose, until at last at midnight I fell upon my knees in the street and cried to God to save him from committing the dreadful crime of murder.
“Immediately the answer came. He raised his pistol, fired it into the air, and said, ‘I yield to your entreaties and forego my purpose.’ ‘Now take me home with you,’ I said. He consented, and when we came there, I kneeled down, insisting that he should do the same, and prayed that he might not only forego his purpose of vengeance, but also forgive the offender. It was a long time before he yielded to my entreaties that he should forgive him, but every time he refused I turned to God with fresh prayer, until finally he consented to forgive. I then asked him to pray for his own forgiveness, and to ask God to receive him into his family as one of his children.
“For a long time he refused my appeal, but I kept continually calling upon God for him until finally, as the day broke, he made a full surrender, and as we both rose from our knees, we gave the glory to God, who had used me as his feeble instrument to save a soul from death, deliver him from the power of Satan, and bring him into Christ's kingdom.
“More than a quarter of a century has passed since that eventful night, but the event was of God, who, when he commences a good work, carries it to the end; for he has ever since lived a godly and sober life, exemplifying the mighty power of God to save, to keep from falling, and to present faultless before the holy Presence with exceeding joy.”
“HELPING SOMEWHERE.”
“Is your father at home?” I asked a small child on our village doctor’s doorstep. “No,” he said, “he’s away.” “Where do you think I could find him?” “Well,” he said, with a considering air, “you’ve got to look for some place where people are sick or hurt, or something like that. I don’t know where he is, but he’s helping somewhere.”
And I turned away with this little sermon in my heart. If you want to find the Lord Jesus, you’ve got to set out on a path of helping somewhere, of lifting somebody’s burden, and lo! straightway one like unto the Son of man will be found at your side.—New Orleans Christian Advocate.
Our Work and Workers.
Reports from Buenos Ayres state that the work is growing, and our workers receive more calls for help than they can fill.
Elder J. E. Evans reports that seven members were added to the church at New Orleans, January 10, and three were added at the last quarterly meeting.
Meetings held in Cairo, Nebraska, by Elder E. L. Stewart have resulted in the conversion of eleven adults, with others interested, at the time the report was made.
Elder Francis Hope, whose field of labor is in England, notes good meetings with additions to the churches at Plymouth, Southampton, Bath, Grimsby, Ulceby, and Hull.
Our missionary in the Tonga Islands, Elder E. Hilliard, says, “I am quite well satisfied that the best way to reach the natives is through the medical missionary work.”
Nine members were recently added to the church at Wacopa, Manitoba, where Elder D. T. Bourdeau has been laboring, and Elder W. H. Falconer reports the addition of seven members at Winnipeg. He says work is being carried on in the country, notwithstanding the frequent “blizzards,” and the fact that the snow is three feet deep in the roads.
From the Cape Town, south Africa, Sentinel, we learn that a new chapel has been erected at Rokeby Park, near Graham’s Town, and that Elder A. T. Robinson officiated at the dedication. Also that on December 12, seven converts were baptized at Cape Town by Elder H. J. Edmed. A church organization was contemplated at Mowbray early in the year.
Elder Graf, one of our missionaries in Brazil, tells how an attack of intermittent fever, which seemed to be a great hindrance to his work, was the means of bringing an educated Catholic man and his wife to a knowledge of the truth. Thus a much-needed help in the school at Curitiba was secured. “All things work together for good to them that love God.”
Elder F. H. Westphal, missionary in Uruguay, S. America, reports the organization of a church of eighteen members. All were baptized in the Rio de la Plata, and none of them ever had witnessed the rite of immersion before. The church is in a German Swiss colony, and the elder and deacon are both from the Catholic Church. A number of other colonists attend the meetings of this church.
The first baptism (immersion) ever witnessed in the State of Tarapaca, Chile, was administered early in the winter by Elder G. H. Baker. There were five candidates, three of whom had been Catholics, and they were baptized in the sea at Iquique. A church of seven members was organized as a nucleus of the work in that place. The elder of this church was formerly a Methodist preacher.
Elder L. H. Crisler, president of Florida Conference, suggests the establishment of a Cuban mission at Tampa, which he says must be the base of Cuban operations. He says “the time is ripe for it.” As a matter of fact, the “time is ripe” for work everywhere. “Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.” Elder Crisler also says that the way is opening in a marked manner for carrying the message to the Seminole Indians.
The Cape Times of January 13 contains an elaborate report of the opening of the new Claremont Medical and Surgical Sanitarium, near Cape Town, S. Africa. The report states that the Sanitarium “is an innovation which is likely, before a very long time has elapsed, to find appreciation as a great boon by invalids from all parts of South Africa.” The building consists of fifty-one rooms, twenty-eight of which are bedrooms, and there is accommodation for forty patients. It is built both externally and internally on the most modern American principles, on grounds about sixty acres in extent. In a separate building are an elaborate steam laundry and drying rooms, and a bakery constructed on the most approved principles.
From a letter from Elder Jean Vuilleumier we take the following extract: “I am writing you from the province of Santa Fé, colony Felicia, on a farm at a Swiss brother’s who embraced the Sabbath twelve years ago, without having ever read a single one of our tracts or a copy of our papers. He heard a conversation between a Baptist and Methodist minister. The former easily cornered the disciple of Wesley on the baptism question, but was in his turn cornered on the Sabbath question by the latter. Later, an agnostic told this brother that if he was12pretending to follow the Bible, he should keep Saturday, and not Sunday. Finally he received a Baptist paper which contained a mention of Seventh-day Adventists. This decided him, with two other farmers, to begin the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord.”
On account of having lost all their oxen by the native uprising and by the rinderpest, our brethren at the mission farm in Matabeleland, Africa, have turned their attention to gardening. From a letter published in the Review we take this extract: “We have a nice garden growing, but have to watch the locusts closely. There are over five hundred tomato plants, sweet potatoes, watermelons, cucumbers, ground cherries, and pumpkins. When you send us help, be sure to send a liberal supply of all kinds of garden seeds, and some of the best seed corn you can find. I think small fruits would do well here if we had a start.”
THE INFLUENCE OF A SONG.
By Clara J. Denton
A MAIDEN sat within the door
And sang as many times before.
A man to daily toil passed by,
No love nor pleasure lit his eye,
But when he heard the merry song
He whistled as he went along.
A woman by the window wept
For one who in the churchyard slept,
But when upon her hearing fell
That tune she knew and loved so well,
The flood of burning tears was stayed,
And soon a song her lips essayed.
Her neighbor heard the tender strain,
And softly joined the sweet refrain.
Thus all day long that one song bore
Its joyousness from door to door.
—Clara J. Denton.
TEN REASONS FOR MEDICAL MISSIONARIES IN FOREIGN WORK.
I. The better a missionary is equipped in all departments of work the better his success; hence a knowledge of medicine is a benefit.
2. Medicine has been found to be the best means for breaking through prejudices, plowing down old customs, and opening the doors into the homes of the ignorant classes.
3. It is human nature to put confidence in the physician. The more ignorant the patient, the more supernatural do the abilities of the physician seem. Because of the blind reverence of the heathen for the doctor, the medical missionary has a great advantage.
4. Frequently the best time to convert the soul to Christ is in adversity, in sickness, on nearing death. Who can do this work better than a Christian physician in foreign primitive life?
5. The medical missionary, because of his knowledge that disease is the result of sin, and that much of sin is caused by the perversion of laws, can better than any other man convince the heathen of this truth and readily discover the true remedy.
6. The body and soul are intimately associated, one dependent upon another. The medical missionary who considers them so related succeeds better in his work than one who regards the body and soul as distinct one from the other.
7. The missionary, in traveling through filth and among dangerous diseases in foreign lands, needs a knowledge of medicine for self-protection.
8. The medical missionary is often wholly or in part supported by the gifts of grateful patients. This condition of self-support of the missionary is an item of importance in missionary work.
9. While there are many native “so-called doctors” among heathen nations, there is only 1 enlightened physician to every 3,000,000 inhabitants. (In the United States there is 1 physician to every 540 inhabitants.)
The sending out of more medical missionaries is worthy of the deepest consideration, because these native doctors, through their ignorance, superstition, and barbarity, practise untold cruelties.
10. We should ever try to follow closely the footsteps of the Saviour. He sent out 82 men, and to all of them gave this command: “Heal the sick . . . and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”—Selected.
Conversions at Madero Institute
MADERO INSTITUTE, at Saltillo, Mexico, has matriculated sixty-two up to date. Last September (a year ago), during a series of revival services, every Catholic girl in the school except one made a public profession of faith.—Baptist Record.
MONEY SPENT NOT IN VAIN.
ONE beautiful Sunday afternoon, Wen Hsin, a Chinese girl, lay dying in our Peking school.
We knew that she must soon go, and, as is the custom in China, she was bathed and dressed in her graveclothes. Her glossy black hair was knotted on the top of her head with bright red cord. She wore a dark blue garment with a bit of bright trimming down the edge; snowy stockings and embroidered slippers were on her feet. Her white hands were folded peacefully, and she lay so calm we knew she was resting in the arms of Jesus.
It was the hour of the Sunday school. They knew in the chapel that she was dying, and through the open window we could hear them singing, “There's a land that is fairer than day.”
The busy little clock on the square red table kept on ticking, ticking, until the school was dismissed, and many of her schoolmates gathered sorrowfully around the brick bed on which the dying girl lay.
Several of her old friends came in from the neighborhood. None of them had ever seen a Christian die before, and they gazed with wonder upon the peaceful girl, and went back to their homes with the wondrous news that Wen Hsin lay dying and was not afraid.
Somebody in America had given thirty dollars a year to support her in a Christian school.
As she found how precious it was to have the dear Lord Jesus go with her through “the dark valley and the shadow,” she was thinking of them, the kind friends so far away, who had done so much for her.
I said to her, “Wen Hsin, do you want anything?”
“I—want—to—write—a—letter.”
“O, you are too weak! What is it you want to say? Tell me, and I will write it for you.”
Gathering up all the strength she had left, she gasped it out in her weakness, a word at a time:—
Soon she had closed her black eyes in death, but she had sent her precious message to cheer and encourage the home workers in the mission cause.—World-wide Missions.
FROM JAPAN.
Dr. De Forest, who was on the committee of relief for sufferers by the great tidal wave last year, in a report of his work, says:—
“We spent eight days along the coast. What an awful desolation that was! There were whole villages where not a house is left, and where two-thirds of the people were swept off in a moment. We received from the governor’s office a letter of introduction to the head men of the desolated region, and he gave us letters to all the heads of the smitten villages. Thus introduced we were everywhere welcomed.”
Aside from distributing relief, religious meetings were held, in connection with Mr. Jones, of the Baptist mission, which were very tender and helpful to the people. Later on Dr De Forest visited Samuna, of which he writes:—
“For four days we have been holding meetings night and day, mainly the best kind of meetings, with a dozen or twenty inquirers at once. It is like the olden days again, when the early churches of Japan were formed in this same way. It is the very best kind of work, where we get onto the floor around the hibachi, with a bowl of chestnuts or a dish of sweet potatoes to aid conversation, and then go right into the decisive power of Christianity. There are several candidates for baptism here, and it is planned to receive them at a later date.”—Missionary Herald.
Sharing Joy with Others
THE happiest people in the world are they that have learned most fully to share their joys with others.
