CARRYING CORN TO MARKET. THE LEADER CARRIES NO BURDEN.
The two most important agencies in our work for the natives of Nyasaland are the school and the dispensary. The idea that the heathen of Africa are waiting to accept the gospel as soon as they hear it, is a fallacy. The average native is the most contented person in the world; and if he has enough food, a little cloth, a beer drink occasionally, and some tobacco, he is quite satisfied with his lot. If he is tired of visiting with the people of his own village, he will go off to visit the people of some other village. Should he feel very energetic, he will go to hunt with some of his companions.
The desire for things new is directly traceable to the influence of the school work that has been done by early missionaries. These tell us that they found the native very unwilling to go to school. They had even to bribe him. They had, as they say, "to create wants." Now calls for schools are coming much faster than we can supply teachers. In all these cases, it is seen that boys from fourteen to twenty years of age have come in contact with other schools, or have worked with boys who have learned to read and write, so now they desire a school in their own village.
You will say that this is simply desire for temporal things. That is also true, but we must remember that temporal things are the only things they know. The fact that there is a desire is our opportunity. When the boy or the girl comes to our school, we then have the chance to develop that desire until the pupil asks to join the Bible class and prepare for baptism.
These boys and girls are the hope of Africa. While they are young and impressionable, we can bring to bear on them the power of the Word, and point them to the true life in Christ Jesus. One very seldom hears of an old man's accepting Christ. Another thing that makes education so necessary is that in the native tongue there is no language expressive of sacred things. Many words must take a new meaning, or new words be coined. Every word used has, in the native mind, its original common setting. For instance, the word "cross" is translated mtanda, a cross beam or stick; and the first thought on hearing the word preached will be of the ridge pole of his hut. Any one who tries to see things from a native viewpoint will realize how strange this new message is that comes to them in words taken from the things of their daily life. It is education that is going to enable the native to understand and appreciate the gospel.
STUDENTS AT MALAMULO MISSION, AFRICA
Our great need is workers who have had a good normal training, coupled with "grace, gumption, and go," to train the boys we have here, to build up our present work, and, as fast as possible, establish our work in Portuguese territory lying to the east and west of us. If you look at the map, you will see that we are in just a narrow strip, with broad sweeps of country around us for which we have so far done nothing. The rate at which the gospel travels is limited only by the lack of consecrated workers and consecrated means.
