Two Scenes in a Nyassaland Village by J. C. ROGERS.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 3, 1910

Two Scenes in a Nyassaland Village

By J. C. ROGERS.

I CAN imagine a brother, a sister, who has never seen a heathen village, who was born in a Christian land, with the light and blessings of ages all about him, saying: “I am always hearing calls for missions,—money for missions, weekly offerings, yearly offerings, special offerings. I am tired of giving. I can’t afford it.”

Come with me, brother, sister, along a foot-path through the woods. Now we hear drums, tom-toms. Now we are nearer, we hear wailings, weird, heart-breaking. Leave the path now; go quietly, keep hidden behind trees. The wailing sounds are women’s cries.

See! there about that large hut are all the women of a dozen villages. A child is dead. Look! they bring beer and food, a sacrifice to the evil spirit. Again the wailing. You are a mother, a father. I need not show you more.

But come with me to the other side.

NATIVE TEACHERS, NYASSALAND. THE YOUNG MAN BY THE WALL, AT RIGHT EDGE OF WINDOW, WAS A SLAVE HUNTER BEFORE ENTERING OUR SCHOOL.

Two hundred men and boys are in the court. Now the women are coming also. They are gathering round some one. Listen!—

“Yesu Ndiye Bwenzi latu, Atikonda ifedi; Ati, Nsoni ndi zoipa kutenga.”

(“What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear.”)

It is one of our teachers, leading these heathen in their own tongue in that blessed hymn. Now he prays with them, and opens the Book which they have never seen. He reads, in their own tongue, words of life and comfort to the mourners.

He tells them how Jesus died and rose again, and that he died to save them also. This same teacher will come again and again, until these people put away their sacrifices for the dead, and learn to hope in Jesus.

We will open a school in that same heathen village, where some teacher will hold services every Sabbath. Some will be converted and baptized, and no doubt two or three teachers will be developed who will go to other villages. So the message will extend till all this land hears the gospel of the kingdom.

Are you sorry that you gave ten cents, ten dollars, a hundred dollars, to clothe and feed these evangelist teachers while they preach the Word to their people? I listen for your answer, and seem to hear you saying, “O, that I had a hundred lives to spend; and more means to give, for the saving of these poor souls who never tasted a Saviour’s love!” Such an answer from every one of us will soon see the work of the gospel message finished, with a glorious ingathering of souls. Let the glad time be hastened. J. C. ROGERS.

Malamulo Mission.