Daily Providences in Mission Wilds by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 23, 1909

Daily Providences in Mission Wilds

By W. A. S.

Is it not remarkable that in all the history of missions there is scarcely an instance—some say not one—of the death of a missionary or a member of his family by serpent or wild beast?

In his book, “The Cobra’s Den,” Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, of the Telegu country, India, says that one day a large cobra darted across the veranda of the mission house and disappeared among some flower-pots in the yard. On looking carefully he found a hole in the ground, between two flower-pots in which were roses that Mrs. Chamberlain carefully tended every day. Throwing a ray of sunlight down the hole by a mirror, he could see the bright scales of the cobra coiling only a foot or so below the surface. Stopping the hole partially, and firing into it with a revolver, two great cobras were wounded and crawled out, to be quickly despatched. Dr. Chamberlain says:—

Their hole shows that they had evidently been living there right among the flower-pots that were daily tended, and within six feet of our veranda, for weeks or months. A short time after, some expert snake-charmers were summoned to rid our compound of serpents. In half an hour, while we were intently watching, they had, with their weird, enchanting music, charmed and enticed from their holes not noted by me before, in the grass and under the shrubbery about our dooryard, and dextrously captured, one by one, five more full-sized cobras. And though the cobra is the deadliest serpent known, and thousands of persons die of their bite yearly in India, no one in our mission has ever been harmed by one. Verily, “He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways,” is the unbidden exclamation of many a missionary in such a time.

In the same book the missionary tells of meeting a spotted tiger early one morning on a mountain path. Mr. Chamberlain was alone, and armed only with a big white umbrella. The tiger was evidently hunting something to eat, the author says, for only great hunger sends them out in broad daylight. Giving a great war-whoop, which he had learned as a boy among the Indians of Michigan, and opening the umbrella, he charged the tiger. The animal stood its ground for a moment. But as the war-cry was repeated, and as the big umbrella was suddenly closed and raised to strike, the tiger turned and fled. Dr. Chamberlain says:—

I am thankful to say that such incidents are not common in our preaching tours. I have never known of a missionary being seriously injured by ravenous beasts or venomous reptiles. But such an incident forcibly reminds us of the protection promised in the last few verses of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, in connection with the giving of the great commission, and that promise is wonderfully fulfilled.

When the Saviour sent forth the seventy, he said to them: “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:19, 20. The privilege of being counted a child of God, and of having a part in the work of the Lord, is the greatest thing of all. Yet, truly, with the missionary army so continually subject to dangers in many places, the special protection of the Lord alone accounts for the immunity from harm.

It is impossible to list these daily providences. It is the protection from the

minor unseen dangers that demands constant recognition. One of our sisters in India was once making her bed, and discovered a snake whose bite is deadly crushed to death between the mattress and the wire spring, where it had crawled in. More than one station could duplicate Dr. Chamberlain’s story of poisonous serpents about garden and verandas. Yet it is remarkable how seldom these dangers appear near enough to alarm. However, life and health are precious things in this work of saving the lost, and it is our privilege daily to pray that God’s protecting providence may shield the gospel laborers.

W. A. S.