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True Stories from Fuh-Chow.

BY A LADY MISSIONARY.

II.

OW I will show you the inside of another house. I went during the summer holidays, for I wanted, as you do, to see the interior of a Chinese Christian home. The man was paid a little money, only just enough to keep his wife and himself in food. And here I should like to state, that in Fuh-Chow it has been the object of the missionaries to give very small salaries, because by nature the Chinese are a money-loving race, and if larger salaries were given there might be a risk of some trying to enter the Church work for earthly gain; as it is, the men could, most of them, earn considerably more than they now get by following their own occupation. There is another reason: we all want the Church to be self-supporting, and when they pay for their own teaching they learn the value of money, so we try to prepare them beforehand to do God's work without looking forward to the future. God has promised to supply their need, and He never breaks His promises. I have heard many different opinions from those who give money to missionary societies; but if they would just give it to God, and leave Him and trust Him to use it, not wanting to know exactly how every penny is spent, it would be so much better, and relieve the already tired-out workers considerably. It is painful to hear, "Well, I work hard for my money, and I don't find people so ready to give to me; if, therefore, I do give, I want to know where the money goes, and what it is used for." One feels inclined to say, (6 What have any of us that we have not received? The Lord is able to give you much more than this. He loveth a cheerful giver, and what the cheerful giver layeth out shall be paid him again."

Well, now I will invite you to accompany me into a boat placed at our disposal; the straw matting over the top hardly protects us from the sun, but we soon reach our landing-place, and we go round the foot of the mountain ("we," that is, myself and servant) until we reach a village where we are welcomed with shouts of "A foreigner! Look at the foreign woman; come and see-quick, she walks fast-let us see where she goes." They crowd on, and gather as we go, until we reach the chapel, which is a private house, with one large room on the right fitted up for Divine worship. There are two other small rooms with mud floors; the first the living room, and then a door leading into a windowless tiny room used as a bedroom.

The living room was soon crowded to excess; all talked at once, and each wished to have her, or his, question answered. Most of the women were poor and had families, therefore it was not improper for them to come in; and their tiny feet were not thought of when curiosity to see and hear a foreigner stood in the way. Soon Mrs. Ling (the catechist's wife) said to me, "Please come into the chapel; the people are crowding you so, and you can talk to them there.' So we wended our way en masse into the chapel, and then, feeling very tired and hungry, I asked the catechist to speak to the people. Of course I had to sit and listen; and while the teacher tried to give them the words of life they were feasting their eyes on me, and making very queer statements about myself and garments. When he had ended I answered as many questions as I could. Then I told them they must be very hungry; would they not go home and take some refreshment (we had given them tea), and come again afterwards? Many of them kindly took the hint, and I was able to move out. I then asked for my room. There was a ladder placed in the living room leading up to a trap-door in the ceiling. I climbed up, and when in the room I found myself unable to stand upright, it was so low; and not having

any window, and being very hot, I slipped off some of the tiles to admit light and air.

I was not allowed to remain quiet long; the men had returned from work, and hearing that a foreigner had arrived, came at once to see me. They were most respectful and quiet, and asked me why I had come. I told them I wanted to see their wives, and help the teacher's wife to begin a school for their children. I tried to tell them how important it is that children should learn; but as I had only a limited stock of words at command, I don't fancy they understood much. But the teacher's wife came to my rescue, and I thanked Mrs. Ling for not only translating my words intelligibly, but adding more of her own, for it was her heart's desire to begin a school there. Some children were standing near, and she said, "I have tried to teach these." So I pointed to the picture of Moses and the "What is Brazen Serpent hanging on the wall, and said, "A serpent." "Can it bite ?" "No." Why

that?

not?" it?"

"Because it is brass." "What is that man doing with "God told him to do that, and then if the people looked they got well." These answers were given by a wee fellow of not more than eight years old, who had up to the last few months been worshipping idols. And he added, "I can read a hymn." "Can you? Let me hear you." He brought the book and read, or rather repeated, the whole of "He leadeth me, oh blessed thought"; our Chinese translation of that hymn is good. Then he repeated "Jesus loves me, this I know." The men were highly delighted, and promised to send their children to learn. The little boy had a tiny girl in his arms, so I asked, "Is that your sister?" "No," he answered, and looked very shy. His brother, standing near, said, "That's his wife." This was the first baby-wife I had seen. It seemed so dreadful that I asked the mother why she took a child so young from its own mother. "Well, you know, if I had waited I should have had to pay a high price, and I can't afford it; so as I had a little girl about her age we exchanged children, and hers being a big fat baby I gave one dollar (about 3s. 9d.) and a bundle or two of cakes." I felt dumb. It is a lawful custom in their land, and until Christianity makes way it will not be changed. I don't think civilisation will ever do it, so many of them think their own civilisation superior to ours.

Some rice having been prepared, I seated myself on a wooden stool, at a wooden table, and with a pair of chop-sticks in one hand, ate my rice and fish. One man ran home and brought a basin of very good potatoes, all hot; and Mrs. Ling said, Fancy his being kind to you. Five years ago he threatened to kill my husband, and declared that the Christian doctrine should never be introduced here; now he comes to church, brings others, and is our best friend, but I thought he still hated foreigners."

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It was soon time for evening worship. Mr. Ling called the men in, and Mrs. Ling went out to fetch the women, or tried to. She succeeded in getting three to come in; with all their curiosity to see me, they could not be persuaded to come in for prayers. Mr. Ling gave out a hymn, and by the time we had finished the room was uncomfortably full. The little oil lamps gave out a disagreeable smell, and the men were smoking all the time. Mr. Ling then read and expounded a chapter from the Epistle to the Romans, and then we knelt a very few present knelt, kneeling means going to become a Christian. After Mr. Ling's prayer several joined in the Lord's Prayer, and the sweetest and loudest voice belonged to my little boy-husband, whose acquaintance I had made that morning. Before we had time to rise from our knees an old man began, "O God, do forgive me, I thought more of my potatoes on Sunday than I did of Thy commandment. I was afraid it would rain and they would spoil, and my family have no food; I didn't trust Thee. I am very sorry, do forgive me." Poor old man, two years after this

event he and his whole family were admitted into the visible Church by baptism.

As it was getting late I ascended my loft. The bed was simply four boards laid across two forms, and yet I was very happy. A nest of rats was close to my head, but I forgot them entirely while listening to the men talking far into the night of Jesus, and God's wonderful love, while inquirers were asking most intelligent questions. I stayed in that place for four days; the ignorance of the poor women was deplorable, and I could not help thinking if the next generation are to be better than these, these women must be taught. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Ye are the light of the world." "Go ye therefore into all the world." Yes, dear friends, go, and take that life-giving Gospel with you. And give of your substance, ye who abide by the spoil. The Master needs it will ye lay it up in bags that are full of holes, and try to keep to yourselves that which will take to itself wings and flee away, when He wants it? No, give, and give now, and God accept your sacrifice. M. F.

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THE "CAMP" AT MARGATE.

HE income of the Church Missionary Society is raised in many ways. Benefactions, subscriptions, missionary boxes, house-tohouse collections, and collections at sermons and meetings are the most usual methods. In many places, however, the zeal and ingenuity of our friends have devised other plans for awakening interest and raising money; and to one such device we now draw attention.

A handsome contribution is yearly raised by the Church Missionary Juvenile Association at Margate. In 1865, the first year of the special effort, a Missionary Tree was thought of. It produced £39. The following year a second Tree produced £100, a great increase in the quantity of fruit its branches bore. Then, as Margate is a sea-side town, the idea of a Ship was conceived, which bore excellent results for three years in succession. Then came a Grove, a Hive, and another Ship, followed by an Ark, a Chalet, a Bread Fruit Tree, a Bower, a Vineyard, a Pagoda, and a Grove again. The most popular of all these was the Hive, which, with its "Missionary Bee Collections," yielded as much as £221. The Pagoda brought in £150. This year a MISSIONARY CAMP was resolved on, which has yielded nearly £150 also, making a total of more than two thousand guineas raised for the Society by this Juvenile Association in the eighteen years.

In each case, the room in which the sale was held, or a part of it, was fitted up in the likeness of the Grove, or Hive, or Ship, or other device. How the Camp was managed the following extract from the programme will show :

The hall will be transformed into a tented field; and the Camp will be stored with every variety of work, and with useful and approved articles as in the former seventeen years.

A guard will be furnished by the 7th East Kent Rifles, kindly permitted by Lieut. E. Foord-Kelcey.

On the platform will be found spoils of war, the results of foregoing expedi tions by a battalion of cadets.

A canteen will be opened for refreshments and luncheon, for which all kinds of provisions are solicited, to furnish a good mess for all visitors. Camp tea served at four, and at seven o'clock.

The attractions will be so great that the encampment is likely to be speedily carried by a storm of golden fire, and the tents swept away by an avalanche of silver; at any rate, the camp having been fairly looted by hundreds of assailants, a trace will be sounded at five o'clock.

The Camp will be re-opened for evening visitors at 6.30.

The Camp will be seen in its best when gorgeously illuminated; but camp fires being put out, tents will be finally struck at nine p.m.

This eighteen years' work has been carried on under the auspices of the Rev. H. Woods Tindall, so well known as the Lecturer of Trinity Church, Margate, who is now removed to Manchester. He has been assisted by Miss Rich, the untiring Secretary of the Association. The pupils in the numerous private schools at Margate have taken the greatest interest in the yearly gatherings, and it is they who have raised a large part of the money. We trust that, now Mr. Tindall has left Margate, our young friends there will feel specially bound to keep up the Association in all its strength and attractiveness, and continue to support the cause of their Divine Leader and Master with all zeal and earnestness.

GOSPEL TROPHIES.

Carolis Almeda, the "Old Stick-man" of Talangama.

N the 10th of December, 1881, an old man, very well known to many gentlemen in Colombo, Carolis Almeda by name, though better known as the "Old Stick-man," passed away from earth to heaven, so that the place which knew him so well now knows him not.

I had known the old man ever since I went to Ceylon, i.e., for fifteen years, as a consistent Christian, and in his later years as a "shining light" in his village. The old man lived near the road-side, and if he knew that I was to pass along the road, would wait for me, and after telling me something about himself, or the work in his village, and asking me about the work in those places to which I had been, would let me depart, and always with his blessing, most earnestly and solemnly invoked in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I miss the old man's bright countenance, and for weeks and months after his death I never passed along that road without expecting to see his happy face. When the C.M.S. missionaries began the work of Christ in the Talangama villages, Carolis Almeda despised and ridiculed them, and paid no regard either to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, or the religion which He had founded. He was a married man, and had two little boys, whose mother died when they were very young. When his children were old enough he sent them to the C.M.S. School at Talangama, where they became convinced of the truth of the Christian religion. They were, however, so afraid of their father that, for a time, these two boys did not make their convictions known to him; but as faith increased they felt constrained to try and bring about the conversion of their father, and resorted to a stratagem to accomplish their purpose.

They said one Sunday, "Father, if you will also go with us to the church we shall be so very glad. We are very sorry because you do not go." The father replied, "My boys, I cannot go to church. You can go. The Buddhist religion is good for me." The sons immediately said, "If so, we also will not go to church," and at once took off their Sunday clothes, and put them in the house. The father was grieved, and thought, Though I do not believe the Christian religion, yet to please my sons I must go with them to the church; and so he said, "Put on your clothes again, I also will go with you," and thus the three of them went to church.

Although he went to church only to please his sons, and with no idea of ever becoming a Christian, it pleased God to plant the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ in the heart of Carolis Almeda; and from that day, on every Sunday, and every day when religious services were held, he attended the church with his sons, and also began daily to read the Word of God. After a time father and sons were all baptized, and lived together in peace and happiness, until both of his children were taken away from him by death, and the old man was left alone to bear testimony by a long and consistent life to the reality of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

After the death of his sons, he for a long time tried to maintain himself by making walking-sticks, which he collected from the jungles and sold to Europeans in Colombo. Some of the old man's productions were most ingenious and fantastic. He would search out any sticks of peculiar growth, and fashion them with heads of snakes, or cranes, or whatever in his fancy the natural growth most resembled. He took quite a pride in his work, and was delighted when he succeeded in producing a better specimen than ordinary. As age and infirmities increased, he was less able to work, and he was unfit to go alone into the jungle to hunt for sticks; but the good Lord mercifully raised up kind friends who helped him, and he also received a small monthly allowance from a fund administered by the Ceylon Government. In this way his last days were rendered comfortable, and he was freed from all anxiety about temporal things; but to the very last he tried, in a feeble way, to carry on his old trade, which had become a pleasure to him, and he did not like to be idle.

It was a real sorrow to him when, owing to age and infirmity, he was no longer able to walk to the church. Several times I picked him up and took him with me in my waggon, on those Sundays when I went to his church to administer the Lord's Supper; and he was so very grateful, and so glad to be present at the Table of the Lord.

As his strength failed, his faith and hope brightened, and he spoke of his death cheerfully and hopefully to all who visited him. Talking to them, he would also bless and pray for them, saying, "I have no fear of death. I have entrusted my spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ." And his countenance testified to the brightness of his faith and hope. His old and wrinkled face glowed with delight as he testified of the grace and goodness of the Lord in sending to him the glorious light of the Gospel of His dear Son. Often have I sat or stood and watched the old man's face as he thus spake of "Jesus and His love"; and very often have I bowed my head as he prayed God for His blessing on me and mine, and the work of the Lord in which I was engaged.

It was his wish that he should die on a Saturday, and then be carried to the churchyard as the people were going to church-for it would be "like going to church," he said-and be buried by the side of his sons, and this

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wish he expressed to his friends. When he was dying he prayed for the whole Church of Christ and the Christians of his own Church, and as he had often wished, so he fell asleep on the Saturday, and was carried by the people to church on the Sunday and buried in the presence of a large congregation.

It is difficult to state his exact age, but it is believed that he was about 97 years old. He had known all the C.M.S. missionaries who had lived at Cotta, and often did he bless God for sending them to make known His truth to the people of the Cotta district. He had known the district before they came, and he was fond of comparing the missionaries to lamps which had enlightened the surrounding darkness by their preaching and teaching in the churches and schools which they had established. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." "Let your light so shine before men." R. T. DOWBIGGIN.

THE STORY OF THE NEW ZEALAND MISSION.
By the Author of "England's Daybreak,"
""The Good News in
Africa," &c.
IV.

HE details of the first actual settlement of a missionary band in the Great Britain of the Southern Seas, as New Zealand has sometimes been called, are all so interesting that it is an effort to hurry over them, as the limits of time and space require. We must not linger now over Ruatara's romantic story. His ardent reception of his European friends; the thrilling interest of the first missionary service on the Christmas Sunday of December 25th, 1814, when he interpreted to his people the "glad tidings of great joy" as they fell from Mr. Marsden's lips; the planning out of the future Church and settlement; the affectionate welcome received by the missionary on his further excursions inland; and then the sudden blow which fell upon all the bright hopes awakened, by the noble young chieftain's fatal illness and death within a fortnight after. Remedies might, indeed, have availed to save his life, but he was tapu," forbidden by the idol priests to touch either suitable food or medicine, and spite of Mr. Marsden's reiterated efforts to break this barrier, the influence of the priests prevailed. He listened eagerly again and again to the story of the Cross, and clung to his teacher's prayers with him, but seemed unable to break through the fetters of superstition and idolatry further than this

66

MAORI CHIEF.

before he sank. To complete the mournful tragedy, his committed suicide the following day. favourite wife declared herself unable to live without him, and

The death of Ruatara might truly be called, in Longfellow's words, "The setting of a great hope like the setting of the sun," to the little band of missionary pioneers, but He was with them, Whose presence is all in all to His people, and, their hearts stayed on Him, they were not permitted to fear. Mr. Marsden remained with them till the end of February to see them properly settled, and then had to return to his own post at Port Jackson. The party consisted of Mr. Kendal, Mr. Hall, and Mr. King, with their wives and children, Mrs. King's mother, and seven mechanics and labourers. Their work was twofold-to provide themselves by the labour of their hands with the necessaries of life, while seeking in every way to bring Christian and civilising influences to bear upon the natives. The position itself involved much trial of feeling, from the condition of those whose welfare they were seeking. Their persons and habits were so filthy and disgusting, and the English language they had picked up from the sailors was so terrible, that the mere intercourse with the natives implied no small amount of self-denial. Then the difficulty of carrying on anything like steady instruction was prodigious. The boys were clever and intelligent, and would seem deeply interested for a little while, but presently would jump up to dance or play, and the teacher would have perhaps to follow his pupils into the bush, and coax them to sit still there, if only for a quarter of an hour, while they learnt an English word or a letter of our alphabet.

The settlers' wives had the same trial with the girls. They took the more promising into their homes, and at first they seemed delighted with acquiring the arts of household work, but speedily tiring of it, they would run off just when most wanted. Mrs. Williams' description of her experiences at Paihia, though occurring some years later, gives too graphic a picture of this state of things to be omitted.

"A missionary's wife," she says, "must for the sake of cleanliness wash and dress her children and make the beds herself. She must be housemaid, chambermaid, and nurse, and must superintend everything connected with the cooking. The very best of the girls will perhaps, just as you are wanting her, take

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