Historical quotations and extracts from various writers which may assist the thoughtful student of the Scriptures.
Chronologic Prophecy
THE conviction that we are living in days which have about them a character of finality deepens in the minds of thoughtful men. From the most unlikely quarters there come, ever and anon, expressions of this feeling. The grounds assigned for the sentiment or opinion differ; in some cases it is apparently without foundation; but it prevails.
It is in reality a well-grounded conviction; the Word of God leaves no room for doubt that we are living in the last days of this dispensation, and have well-nigh reached the close of the existing state of things. It leaves no room to doubt that a change—a change greater than any the world has ever seen—is impending. Bible readers have a clearer and deeper impression on the subject than others, though in too many cases even they would find it difficult to give any solid reason for their opinion. But students of the prophetic Scriptures have no such difficulty; to them the fact that these are in the most literal sense the last days is one capable of the fullest demonstration, a fact as clearly ascertained and as easily proved as any other fact of science.
The assertion may sound strange to some, but there is a science of chronologic prophecy—a science of recent origin, and one as yet too little studied, but one of unspeakable interest and importance.
Our desire in the following pages is to lead lovers of truth to the study of this sacred science. It is not a fashionable one in any circle. It is condemned and decried as speculative folly in some, and totally neglected in others; in others again it is pursued, but only in a desultory12manner, by a few. As a rule, it is not publicly taught, even by those who understand it; and the result is that it is scarcely recognized as a science at all.
But if science be a knowledge of facts arranged in order and explained by law, then is there beyond all question a science of chronologic prophecy; and none of the sciences so ardently studied in this nineteenth century yield results of greater practical importance. In bygone ages there was a cause why this science made little progress, a reason that it could not be understood. But this cause and this reason exist no longer; on the contrary, the time has come when this subject must and will be successfully studied and understood by many; for, so it is distinctly predicted in Scripture.
When, twenty-five centuries ago, God granted to Daniel the revelations which form a large part of the material of this science, the prophet, who failed to understand especially the chronological statements embodied in the predictions given to him, asked further explanation. His request was refused, and he was informed that these predictions were not for the benefit of the then existing generations, but for that of distant future ones. He was directed in the meantime to “shut up the words, and seal the book,” and informed that the meaning of the visions was “closed up and sealed” to “the time of the end;” and in that time “the wise” would understand them, though “the wicked” would never do so. “None of the wicked shall understand,” it was said to him; “but the wise shall understand.”
Now it is clear that none can read a divinely sealed book until God himself breaks the seal and throws open the pages. None can penetrate his sacred mysteries till he is pleased to remove the veil that covers them. Chronologic prophecy must, in the very nature of the case, be designed for the benefit of later and not of earlier generations. The prophets themselves did not always understand their own chronological predictions. When the time was near, the period short, and the language in which it was expressed simple and literal, they of course did so; but when the events were distant, the period long, and the prophecy expressed in symbolic language, we are told by the apostle Peter that, so far from understanding, they “inquired and searched diligently . . . what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,” and it was revealed to them “that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister.” Hence it is evident that the treasures of chronologic prophecy were committed to earlier ages for the benefit of later ones, and especially of the latest. As the end draws near, the mysterious predictions are gradually explained by their own progressive fulfilments, and the light grows stronger and clearer to the close.
The statement that not even “the wise shall understand” chronologic prophecy till “the time of the end,” accounts for all the misunderstandings of earlier ages, and all the partial comprehensions of later times, and is an encouragement to the study of it in these days; for that we live in “the time of the end” is plain with a moment’s reflection.
What does the expression in Daniel “the time of the end” mean?—Clearly the time of the end of the events revealed to Daniel. His prophecies foretold the events of twenty-five centuries, the existence of the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires, and represent these as occupying the entire interval between the prophet’s own days and the day of the resurrection of the dead, and the establishment of the glorious and everlasting kingdom of God on earth. They predict that the last or Roman dominion would exist in two distinct and successive stages, contrasted in many respects, but alike in some, and especially in that they are both phases of the rule of Rome. The first, a stage in which that great city is the fountain of authority and government to an undivided empire; and the second, in which it is so, in a different way, to a tenfold commonwealth of kingdoms.
We know that not only the first three of these great universal empires have risen, ruled, and passed away as predicted, but that the dominion of Rome pagan was in due time, as foretold, succeeded by that of Rome papal over the ten Gothic kingdoms of modern Europe; and that this last is now in a state of decadence, its temporal rule having already come to an end sixteen years ago [1870]. In other words we are not only living at a distance of twenty-five centuries from the days of Daniel, but we can trace, during the course of these centuries, the fulfilment of all his predictions except the very last. The Babylonian empire occupied the time of the beginning; the rule of Persia, Greece, Rome pagan, and Rome papal, occupied the long subsequent course of the period, and the fall of this last power must clearly mark the close of the predicted series of events. The promise that in the time of the end “the wise shall understand” must therefore, if it is ever to be fulfilled at all, be fulfilled in our days; and there is no room for an “if” as regards any of the promises of the Faithful and True Witness, the God who can not lie. The time has come at last for the comprehension of the chronological predictions of Scripture, and all who desire to understand them may plead the promise that there shall be light on them in these days. . . .
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ began his ministry with a statement connected with chronological prophecy; a statement which showed how carefully he had pondered, and how clearly he comprehended, Daniel’s prediction of the “seventy weeks.” Mark records, as the first utterance of the ministry of Christ, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” What time was fulfilled?—The mysterious “seventy weeks” to the Messiah the Prince.
Peter says of this study, that we do well to take heed to it; and John says of it, “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear,”—the words of the most mysterious of prophetic books,—the latter clause showing that prophetic study has practical bearings.
Daniel, a scholar and a statesman, one of the wisest and holiest of men, gave himself earnestly, even in his old age, to the study of chronologic prophecy. He was himself a prince among prophets; and yet he disdained not, as he tells us, to devote himself to the study of “books,” especially of the books of Jeremiah, that he might solve to his own satisfaction the chronological problem of the exact period of the termination of the Babylonish captivity. The effect of his studies was to prostrate him in prayer and supplication before God, and to secure for him an additional revelation, the most glorious that up to that time had ever been given—a revelation of the exact interval to the first advent and redeeming work of Christ.
Simeon and Anna were students of chronologic prophecy, and to their light on this subject it was owing that they were found in the temple, waiting for “the Consolation of Israel.” The just and devout Simeon was rewarded with a special revelation, that “he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” Do these things look as if prophetic students of the God-fearing, holy living, Bible-loving, sober-minded sort, are fools, or wise? Nay, is it not an insult to the All-wise to assume that it is folly for his people to study the predictions which he in his wisdom has given, and which he has sealed with his unconditional promise, that the wise shall in “the time of the end” understand them?
Twenty-five centuries of history are now casting back the light of their multiplied fulfilments on these sacred prophecies. Men require in these last days just such fresh demonstration of the inspiration of Scripture as only fulfilled prophecy can afford. Miracle is doubted or denied; the supernatural is spurned as incredible by this generation, which smiles at the idea of inspiration. But if it be so that the very things now going on in the world were distinctly predicted in Daniel’s day, and even the very dates of the occurrence of contemporary events indicated, who can doubt that “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”? Such evidence should be, and frequently is, valuable for convincing the most skeptical unbelievers; but if it only serves to root and ground true Christians in their most holy faith, and to render them proof against the attacks of infidelity, it answers no mean end. If it serves, moreover, to quicken hope and practical zeal, and to produce and preserve in the church a body of disciples who shall be watching and waiting for Christ at his coming, it abundantly accomplishes its purpose.—“Light for the Last Days,” by Mr. and Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1893, pages 3-70.
The Universe and Its Creator
An unbelieving scientist was one day visiting in the library of a Christian man, and there saw some very beautiful new globes, terrestrial and celestial, with which he was greatly pleased. He inquired where he had procured them, and was very much astonished upon hearing from the lips of his grave friend that they had simply come there by chance. But it was meant as a rebuke to his unbelief, and it was a rebuke that struck home. If it is utterly incredible that a globe should happen by chance, how foolish beneath contempt is the idea that this universe could come into existence without the wisdom and power of the infinite Creator! From every part of this universe come the voices that call us to praise and prayer.—Selected.
“That Tired Feeling”
By Nina Mae Baierle
NINA MAE BAIERLE, M. D.
The world is full of tired men and women. “I feel tired all the time;” “I am as tired in the morning as when I retire at night;” and “I have no ambition,” are common expressions heard every day. Thousands and thousands of bottles of “patent” medicine are sold because they claim to cure this almost universal feeling of weariness. Many apparently receive benefit while taking the medicine, but as soon as its use is discontinued, the false strength disappears, and greater lassitude and weakness are the final result. In most of these “cure-alls” the principal effects are produced by the alcohol and vicious drugs they contain. More havoc is wrought among the living body cells by this daily administration of stimulation and poison than can be estimated. Constantly forced to work beyond their power, while no real help is given them, the cells use up their stored energy, and sooner or later signs of degeneration appear from which they may never recover.
“That tired feeling” is not a disease; it is only a symptom of some greater disturbance, which, if ignored, may result in the total wreck of health. As soon as it manifests itself, an earnest, thorough investigation should be made to find out and remove the cause.
The causes of “that tired feeling” are numerous. They might be classified under two heads: First, mental causes; second, physical causes. The majority of tired people will find the cause to be one of the following mental disturbances: a guilty conscience, discontent, worry and sorrow, self-pity, or licentiousness.
The physical causes are certain organic diseases, such as diseases of the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, and blood, or much more frequently lack of exercise, errors in diet, overwork, and enslaving habits.
When we say physical weariness may be due to a guilty conscience, many are surprised and incredulous. It is, however, a true and most important cause. “Six bottles” of peruna, “Payne’s celery compound,” or “Hood’s sarsaparilla” will never cure “that tired feeling” when due to this cause. Sin-sickness may never be diagnosed by either physician or patient as the real cause of many physical ailments; but many can count the complete restoration of physical health and the birth of new energy and ambition from the time when victory over sin, through Christ, was obtained. The average Christian’s experience of being overcome by sin instead of overcoming sin is enough to make one soul-and-body weary. Those who indulge in faultfinding, gossip, displays of temper, or who excuse themselves from walking in revealed light, will find their physical health depressed accordingly.
A person whose mind is quiet and satisfied in God is in the pathway to health. The message of health reform was given to prepare a people to stand through the last great time of trouble. To do this we must be strong spiritually and physically, able to endure privations, exposure, hardships, and persecutions. Health reform means more than “peanut butter” and a “fomentation cloth.” Many of us must get a new idea of this matter. God is not going to work a miracle to save us when he has given light which, if followed, would give us health and strength sufficient. When we have done all we can, then God will finish to a glorious completion the work begun.
The greatest aid to health is an earnest seeking after God. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” said Jesus.
Discontent is cousin to a guilty conscience, and similar in its effects upon the body. It will cause sleeplessness, headache, indigestion, and loss of appetite, and will terminate in a run-down condition of the body, which will take months to repair. The whole disposition is changed. I am acquainted with a young man who illustrates this perfectly. A few months ago he was filled with enthusiasm for his work, knowing it was the Lord’s work; he worked long hours in the open air, drinking in the beauties of nature, eating good, wholesome food, and was full of joy and gladness. He was transformed in a few months from an invalid to a strong, muscular, sun-browned man, radiating health and energy. A few weeks ago he became discouraged, opened the door to discontent, and the result is astonishing. He moves around slowly, complains of sleeplessness, and nothing suits him. He spends hours in bed that were formerly filled with cheerful whistling in the glad, fresh outdoors. His looks and actions in every particular bear out his statement, “I feel tired all the time.” A rigid physical examination reveals nothing but discontent as the cause.
Sorrow and worry cause more physical breakdowns than real disease. In a few days they will make such sad changes in an individual as to cause great anxiety among friends and loved ones. The whole organism is depressed. Food lies for hours in the stomach undigested. The hands and feet are cold from depressed circulation, the processes of waste and repair are hindered, and shortness of breath and utter weariness will take possession.
On the other hand, joy and gladness of heart will stimulate the functions of the body to increased activity. Even real fatigue is forgotten in some great joy. It will banish tired feelings, hasten digestion, increase the circulation, and stimulate metabolism. A whole-hearted trust in God and in the great life plans he has for us, and a patient acceptance of his ways, will make us glad and happy under the most trying circumstances. Believe that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” A fearful looking forward to the future will drive rest from the heart, and grim disease will linger near to stalk in when the resistance is depressed to the right level.
Self-pity, sensitiveness, and selfishness are synonyms. Those who are listening eagerly to every word to detect some hidden meaning, who “carry chips on their shoulders,” and keep their feelings where they are sure to get hurt are kith and kin to the unhappy, the fretful, the discontented, and the guilty. The physical effects are the same.
Licentious thoughts, vicious day-dreams, and novel reading are productive of much physical harm and disease. The delicate nerve-cells are exhausted and devitalized. The highest ambitions and enthusiasm are blunted and weakened. The bodily weariness and lassitude are so marked as to need no further comment.
“That tired feeling” may be due to some underlying organic disease. The lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, stomach, blood, and general body state should be carefully examined and considered. Many of these diseases are under the patient’s control. By careful, temperate living in obedience to all natural laws, the body will often repair itself, and health be regained.
It sounds strange to say that lack of exercise will make a person tired. Some of the most tired people I have ever met, were tired because they did so little. They stayed in bed until the refreshing, invigorating, inspiring hours of the morning were gone. They had no appetite for breakfast. Before dinner they had a headache, and were faint and weary. After a hearty dinner, a little work completely exhausted them. When extra work had to be done, the unused muscles were sore and lame, and real illness was the result. This may seem a little extreme, but I could cite you many such cases. If such a one had risen at five or six in the morning, taken a dash of cold water, or a brisk walk around the square, and assisted in preparing breakfast14or chopped wood, the food would have tasted good. A day of busy employment brings sweetest rest and enjoyment at its close. Steal a few minutes from your busy day for a brisk walk in the open air. Be sure you walk as if you were going somewhere. Do not wear high heels; that in itself will bring great weariness. Do not neglect a morning sponge-bath in cold or cool water. It will waken and tone up the entire body. Get out in the sunshine, out in the snow; run, jump, laugh, take in deep full breaths of pure fresh air, and that tired feeling will leave you. It is often due to sluggish elimination. Work, air, sunshine, and a happy heart will start the body “house cleaning.” In a few hours all the accumulated rubbish disappears, and rest and quiet prevail.
Errors in diet are responsible for most of the stomach troubles, which in turn cause, among many distressing symptoms, “that tired feeling.” It would be impossible to consider this question fully in this article, but a word to the wise is sufficient. Overeating, eating too little (rarely), hasty eating, eating between meals, drinking at meals, bad combinations, too much pastry and sweets, and large amounts of indigestible foods are productive of much evil.
All agree that the use of alcohol and tobacco are health-destroying habits, but many still cling to tea, coffee, and meat, and they wonder why they realize so little of the blessing of God, and why life seems so little worth while. What has been said in the beginning of the use of moderate doses of alcohol and poisonous drugs as contained in patent medicine, might well be repeated here. The same stimulating and destructive processes go on in a degree proportional to the dose of poison contained in each. No fixed rules can be laid down for each one to follow in matters of diet, but seekers after light and truth will find the way to obey and follow where light leads. Get the right motive in the heart, then as the little birds chirp and flutter around the “morning bath,” singing sweetest songs of praise over simple, plain, wholesome food, so our life, eating, drinking, sleeping, and all our habits, will be a spontaneous outflow from a happy heart to the glory of God.
You who are tired from whatever cause, bring yourselves in harmony with physical laws, secure nature as your ally, then take a daily dose of Isa. 58: 7, 8: “Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily.” There is eternal health in a cup of cold water given in the name of Christ.
Melrose, Mass.
My Pilot
By E. B. MELENDY
E. B. MELENDY
TAKE the helm and guide aright,
Safely, surely, through the night.
Anchor us at break of day
In the haven far away.
Santalia and the Santals—
By W. A. BARLOW
No. 9
Preaching the Gospel
W. A. BARLOW
PREACHING the gospel, teaching the young, healing the sick,—these form the back-bone, or rather, if we use the terms in a broad sense, the whole body of mission work, all the world over. Preaching the gospel is not so much the first as the whole duty of the missionary; but it is a gospel to be preached in deed as well as in word, a gospel which aims at the material as well as the spiritual good of man, and seeks not only to enlighten his mental darkness, but also to relieve his physical pain. Educational and medical work are not adjuncts to, but parts of, a true evangelistic mission. The missionary of Christ, if animated by the spirit of his Master, will seek, in the words of John Wesley, “to do all the good he can, in all the ways he can, to all the people he can.”
A BURMESE WOMAN SPINNING
Confronted by the dead wall of indifference, ignorance, and superstition, the missionary may be tempted at times to believe that little can be effected by preaching alone, that the soil must first be turned up by the educational plow before it will receive the seed of the Word. A man will listen intently to the most earnest preaching and individual pleading, and when you wait for his response, it is to beg a little tobacco, or to ask how much you paid for your boots.
BURMESE PRIESTS
We were once preaching to a crowd in a Santal village, when one of them, more intelligent than the others, interrupted us with the remark that it was of no use to preach about religion to them; they were so poor that they could think of nothing except how to get food. We turned to our Santali New Testament and read to him the words of Christ: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” “Well, that way may be your way,” was the reply, “but it is different with us. First we want a few fowls; then having got fowls, we would like pigs as well; and when we get pigs, we want goats and sheep; and when we get them, we want cows; and even when we get cows, we are not content till we have buffaloes.” Even this degree of self-consciousness is altogether exceptional; the Santal, as a rule, is so utterly worldly as to be unaware of his worldliness. Still, the God who could raise from the stones children to Abraham, is pleased to save men by the foolishness of preaching; and if the evangelist among the Santals may seldom find an intelligent audience, it is still more rare to meet a hostile one. “The barbarous people” show us “no little kindness,” almost invariably producing from the nearest but a string-bed for the preacher to sit on, and sometimes even offering him food from their scanty store. Nor has the simple preaching of the gospel, without other preparation or attraction, been without fruit. One of our oldest and most faithful Christians owes his conversion, under God, to the preaching of an unknown stranger who once passed through his village. “Duties are ours, events are God’s,” says Samuel Rutherford; and our duty is as clear as anything in the Word of God, to tell the people the old, old story of the redeeming love of Christ. Here we must tell it simply, tell it slowly, and tell it often.
Educational Work
Schools must form an integral part of our missionary propaganda, not only because education is a good thing in itself, and apart from mission work it is almost unknown among the Santals, but also because schools are absolutely necessary for the training of mission workers. Santals must be reached by Santals. The training of these workers for mission work must begin with the A B C. What Dr. Johnson said of the Scotchman is true of the Santal, that a great deal may be made of him if he is caught young. Thus at each mission station there should be a training-school for boys (and if possible, for girls, but they should be quite separate from each other—a boy’s school at one station, and a girls’ school at another). The schools should be open for boarders and day scholars, with the object of winning souls to God and training them for his service and glory. The result has amply justified the wisdom of this policy15throughout the Santal missions in general.
Medical Missionary Work
Then a missionary at work in a remote district and among poor people must be a medical missionary to the best of his ability. If he refuses to give help to the sick and the dying, they will attribute it not to his inability, but to his unwillingness to help them; and wherever he goes, he will meet with demands for medical relief, which, in common humanity, to say nothing of Christian charity, he must do something to supply. The people themselves settle the question as to medical work being made a part of our missionary efforts; what we have to settle is whether the help we give them is to be efficient or inefficient.
The Lord’s command is to heal the sick, not merely to drug them; and until we have done for them the utmost that modern methods of hygienic treatments will enable us to do, we have not fulfilled this duty. Among many, however, the idea still prevails that in a land like India, which is under British rule, the medical relief afforded by the government must be sufficient for the needs of the people. No one who is familiar with village life in any part of India is under this delusion. The government institutions are chiefly confined to cities and towns, and even there they by no means meet the need; for in Calcutta itself it has been shown that more than half of those who die receive absolutely no medical care of any kind during their illness. Ninety per cent of the population live in the villages. The inspector-general of hospitals for Bengal has recently stated that in order to supply every town or rural area having a population of three thousand with a dispensary, there would need to be over forty times as many of these institutions as there are at present. In districts like the Santal District, the condition of destitution as regards medical relief is one that those who live in more highly favored conditions can hardly imagine. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” “It is high time to awake out of sleep.” Matt. 9:3, 8; Rom. 13:11.
Simultala, E. I. R., India.
The Evil Eye Sees Iniquity
“HALF an evil eye can see more iniquity than the whole of an innocent one”
Our Work in Sumatra
By E. H. GATES
E. H. GATES
After Elder R. W. Munson left Sumatra for Australia nearly three years ago, no aggressive work was done there till about a year ago, when Brother G. A. Wantzlick, of Queensland, entered the field. Several months ago it was learned that Brother Immanuel, a young Battak of northern Sumatra whom Brother Munson had instructed in the present truth, had begun to keep the Sabbath. We wrote to this young man, asking him to come to Padang and stay awhile with our missionary there. Later we learned that there were six young men of that nationality keeping in the Sabbath.
A few weeks ago I received a translation of a letter from Immanuel in which he said there were twenty-three of the Battaks who had accepted the truth, and a few days later a cablegram from Brother Wantzlick saying that six young Battaks were at his home, and asking me to go to his place in order to counsel with him.
After one day's stay in Batavia, Java, I passed on to Sumatra, reaching Padang January 3. Here I met the six Battak men. They were all youth, ranging in age from seventeen to twenty-four years. It was a great pleasure to meet with these brethren, the first-fruits of a people who, till within the last half century, have for ages been degraded heathen.
GROUP OF BATAKS, WITH TWO MISSIONARIES
The young man in the front row on the right, dressed in white, is Immanuel.
The oldest of these was Immanuel. He is a young man of some ability and fair education, and is the son of the leading native missionary of Battakland, who was also the first native of that country to become a Christian under the labors of the Rhenish missionaries.
Since Immanuel has begun to keep the Sabbath, he has been active in teaching the truth to his acquaintances, going as far as Medan on the northeast coast, where there is a small number of Battaks in business.
Of the twenty-three whom he reports as keeping the Sabbath, a few are married, but the majority are single people.
The young men whom I have thus far met are quiet and respectful, and seem like honest persons, who, after a training in our school and association with our laborers, may become good workers. In intelligence and in general good sense, they seem far in advance of many whom I have met among those converted from heathenism. It should be remembered that fifty years ago the Battaks were all heathen, many being cannibals, and that these young men have had no instruction in the spiritual part of the message except what they have obtained by reading our Dutch "Bible Readings" during the past year.
We decided to take the three oldest of these youth to our training-school at Singapore, and at this writing I am on shipboard in the Indian Ocean, accompanied by them, on my way to that place.
According to the Dutch laws we are not at present permitted to send our missionaries to Battakland, so we shall, as soon as possible, have Immanuel translate our literature into the Battak language, and send it into that country.
Little being known about the Battak people and country, I will give a few facts concerning them. The district occupied by this people is just south of Acheen, the most northern district of Sumatra. From Acheen its western border is the same as the western border of Sumatra to a point between Siboga and Padang. Its southern and eastern border is very irregular, extending at one point almost to the east coast. The principal products of the country are gold, benzoin, camphor, and cassia. Until the introduction of Christianity, the people were noted for their wild savage practises. It is said by those who have studied the matter, that in early days aged parents were killed and eaten by their children after they had outlived their usefulness. This seems almost too horrible to believe; but the Word informs us that 'the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.' Cannibalism was practised as much to gratify revenge as to satisfy hunger; and so enemies taken in war were eaten by those who gained the victory over them, also great criminals met the same fate. Tribal wars were the almost constant occupation of the men. Polygamy was common, the men being allowed to take as many wives as they could maintain. The women, as is always the case under such circumstances, were greatly degraded, and were obliged to do most of the hard work, the men living in idleness except when engaged in war. The men could sell their wives and children.
The stature of these natives, as far as I have seen, is somewhat less than that of the Malays and Polynesians, and their complexion is slightly fairer. The Battak language is said to be the most ancient in Sumatra, and is the root of the various dialects that overspread the island; but it has very little resemblance to the Malay, which is used so extensively in the East Indies.
Since the preaching of the gospel by the Rhenish missionaries in this dark land, many thousands have become Christians, at least nominally. It is a cause of sincere thankfulness that the truths of the last message have found a lodgment in the hearts of a few of these former heathen people.
