A YOUNG ABYSSINIAN

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 9, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 32.

A YOUNG ABYSSINIAN.

A KEEN desire to learn, to get that knowledge which brings with it power, is shown by the natives wherever Christian missionaries have gone. The incident related by the Rev. J. Lotka, of Alexandria, ought to remind us all of the privileges we enjoy, in being able to get an education.

A poor Falasha youth came to me, asking for instruction. I asked him whether he knew anything of the Gospel.

"No," he replied, in his broken Arabic, "I am a Jew, and know the law and the prophets, but nothing of the Gospel; I want to learn; do teach me."

"Do you know anything of Christ?"

"No; I am a Jew, and know of Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but nothing of Christ; but do teach me; I want to learn."

Though I hardly knew what to do with the poor fellow, I could not shut my ears to his earnest entreaty. In humble dependence upon God I took him up, to send him to the American Mission School, and part of the day I instructed him myself.

He is an intelligent young fellow, and seems well up in his own language. I got him an Amharic Bible, in which he follows me while I read and explain to him the Gospel of St. Matthew in Arabic. And, O, what a pleasure to see the flashes of light and joy spreading over and brightening up his black face at every quotation from the prophets, in which the Gospel abounds, and with which he seems familiar.—Selected.