MISSIONARY MURMURINGS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1890

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 10.

MISSIONARY MURMURINGS.

GATHERED FROM VARIOUS MISSIONARY JOURNALS.

THERE are thousands of “Red Kaffirs,” says Mrs. Osborne, who recently traveled through that portion of Africa, to be found in the Eastern province of the Cape Colony, “as dark and ignorant of God as any in Central Africa.” They are easily accessible.

THE Ahirs (cow-keepers) in Benares have decided to expel from their caste all who use intoxicating liquors. Other smaller castes have followed the example thus set, and in this way 40,000 or 50,000 of the inhabitants of Benares have become total abstainers.

J. HUDSON TAYLOR estimates that with 1,000 additional missionary evangelists in China, every man, woman, and child in that vast land could be reached with the gospel message before the end of 1895, and he asks the prayers of Christians for that number to be speedily supplied.

MR. THOMPSON, of the American Board’s Shansi Mission, tells of a parsimonious convert whose heart the gospel had opened, and he has lately grown very charitable. He recently gave half a month’s pay to the famine sufferers. The gospel is doing in China what it very often fails of doing at home.

A JAPANESE remarked that his difficulty about becoming a Christian was that having borrowed money his creditor would, as soon as he was baptized, expect him to pay it at once. So long as he was not a Christian, it made no difference whether it was paid or not. This certainly is a compliment to Christianity.

THE Doshisha, the great Christian training school of the American Board in Japan, has been but fourteen years in existence. Under the superintendence of Mr. Neesima, this institution has been wonderfully blessed, and ranks very high even in the estimation of some of the highest Japanese officials. Of its 900 students 172 made profession of faith in Christ last year, 98 at one time; 142 made a similar confession the year before, and most of the students are Christians.