Mission Notes

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 18, 1905

THE Aryan Messenger states that 6,016,759 little Indian girls, between the ages of five and nine, are married, and that 174,000 of these are widows.

THE cobra, one of the most poisonous of serpents, is worshiped by millions. It is common in Southern India to see a whole village, with music and processions, worshiping a living cobra.

A MISSIONARY (Anglican) is at Obihiro in Hokkaido, Japan. “There is a church here,” he says, “with sixty or seventy members. The chief of police is an earnest Christian, as are also some of the ordinary constables. There are two Sunday-schools, whose pupils number ninety.” Through such little congregations in country districts the leavening of the nation is being prepared.

ONE gets a glimpse of the real facts from the following bit of description from a missionary in South Africa: “Our bell is a broken pick tied to a branch, and beaten with a bit of stone. You should see my dear students at a lecture. Their attention is simply glued from beginning to end; and you can easily tell when an argument has gone home; for a great light comes over their jolly, black faces, and they give vent to a strange grunt of appreciation.”

THE following story is told of a Filipino evangelist, who was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of the Philippine Islands in January, 1904. As early as 1872 a copy in Spanish of one of the Gospels was given him. The priest who gave it was afterward executed by the Spanish government for having ideas, but this Domingo Nocum buried the Gospel between two other books, and so saved it; for when he ventured to uncover his treasure, the white ants had eaten up the other books, and left the Gospel whole, the only time known in history that white ants stopped at anything. Domingo read the book, accepted its teachings, became a true Christian, and is now free to impart to his people the light in which he rejoices. The Presbyterians have now quite a number of native evangelists in the Philippine Islands.

BECAUSE of the great revival in Wales, the Bible is in demand. One bookseller writes to the British and Foreign Bible Society, under pressure that is unmistakable, although he stumbles in choosing the words: “Please send them at once. Great demand for Bible now the revival is doing such havoc (!) in our midst.” The orders for Scriptures received by the British and Foreign Bible Society from Wales in November and December were three times the amount for the corresponding months in 1903. The Christian Briton or American, once converted, cares for the Bible just as much as the converted Confucian or fetish worshiper.