Mission Work on the Island of Nias
REV. EDWARD KREILE, writing of the mission of the Rhenish Society on the island of Nias, a little westward of Sumatra, describes the situation as follows:— "Notwithstanding the comparatively small size of Nias, it is an important mission field, not only on account of its dense population, but also because the Niassans extend into some of the other islands. Nias promises more and more to become a second Sumatra, and is at present one of the most hopeful territories of the Rhenish missions, having only become so, however, within a very few years. Inspector Schreiber called to mind at the last Barmen anniversary, that when he was still a missionary in Sumatra, a government officer very friendly to missions argued with him at length that the Barmen Board could do nothing more to the purpose than to recall the missionaries from Nias; and, in fact, Nias was formally regarded as one of the most difficult and hopeless fields. Even in 1892, when the mission completed its first quarter of a century, there was little to be heard except admissions of the small results. "Then it was as if, with the jubilee year, a wholly new spirit from above had begun to breathe over the valley full of dry bones. The number of the Christians has, in the last five years, risen from 706 to 1,813—that is, has almost tripled—and even as we are writing thus, letters come in announcing numerous baptisms of heathen at several stations. Whole heathen villages, which had long closed themselves against all influences of good, now declare that they wish to cast away their idols. It is said that pits are dug in the middle of the village street destined to receive the ancestral gods. This takes place not only in the lately-opened west, in the region of the stations of Fadow and Lahagu, but also in the elder eastern stations, where, for instance, Missionary Cramer, working outward from Gunong Sitoli, can draw one heathen village after another into the net of his activity; where Missionary Sundermann is on the point of establishing a new station, some two leagues to the west of Dahana; where, in particular, Missionary Thomas, working from Gumbuhumene as a center, has won almost the whole region around for the Gospel. "In the very promising west, where, we may remark by the way, the mission has also contributed largely to secure to the greatly tormented land outward peace and security against its enemies, especially from the south, the attempts to found a third and a fourth station have thus far failed when near accomplishment, among other reasons because no missionary forces were to be had. Here, also, grave and momentous problems await their solution, especially as between the more thinly peopled north and the uncommon density of the population in the south of the island, where a solitary missionary grave reminds one of a fruitless attempt made years ago, and thereby of a painful tragedy in the Nias mission. Thus Nias, in the coming years will call for a very peculiar attention, and therewith also for a special enlargement of the missionary force."