p. 747 | MISSIONARY MURMURINGS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 9, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 47.

MISSIONARY MURMURINGS.

THE heathen shame us by their gifts in the service to their gods. A statement is made by the Rev. Mr. Noyes, of Canton, that $200,000,000 are spent annually on ancestral worship alone. He found that the ratio of gifts to income, in the case of several families about which he inquired, ranged from one-fifth to one-third, and that in no case were the gifts so small as a tithe. Yet we know that the vast majority of the Chinese are wretchedly poor, living only from hand to mouth. To say that it is impossible for Christians to give a tithe is to say that they cannot do for Christ what the heathen do for their idols.—Missionary Herald.

AFRICA.—Rev. W. Allan says that at Bonny, in the Niger mission, the former heathen priest is now a regular attendant at the house of God; the Niger temple, which a few years ago was adorned with 20,000 skulls of murdered victims, is now rotting away; the grove which used to be the receptacle of murdered infants, is now become the regular highway to the church. Mr. Allan says: “At 11 o’clock I went ashore, and addressed 885 worshipers, including the king, the three former heathen priests, chiefs, and a multitude of slaves, and was thankful to ascertain that the work of conversion was still going on; for, in addition to 648 persons already baptized, of whom 265 are communicants, there are over 700 at Bonny alone who are now under instruction.”