Appeal of the Nations for the Gospel

BY MISS HATTIE BATTSON.

[The performers are to be simply costumed to show the nations represented. They come up successively to recite, each remaining till all have come forward, forming a sort of tableau effect. Then all recite the last stanza in concert.]

CHINESE.

FAR, far to the east, where the tea plant grows,
Is the hut where my mother dwells,
Abused and beaten and starved and scorned,
As the Christian traveler tells.

Her female babes, for the want of food,
By her own foud hand must die;

But I have escaped, and with feet unbound,
Yet a Chinese maid am I.

O Christian wife, how blest your lot
You may scarce, I think, divine,
Unless you compare your peace and joy
With the fate which must soon be mine!

EAST INDIAN.

I have stood amid India's jungle grass,
And heard the half-stifled scream
Of the helpless babe by its mother cast
On the breast of our sacred stream.

'Tis the will of our gods of wood and stone,
Who make only cruel laws,

And bid the half-frenzied mother throw
Her child to the crocodile's jaws.

I have left my home on the Ganges' bank,
And have crossed the encircling sea

To plead that the Christ who blessed the babes
Will set our poor India free.

JAPANESE.

I come from Japan, and my island home Shut in by the sapphire sea

Is better than India's coral strand,

Or the gloon of the banyan tree.

I have heard the tale of a risen Christ,
And my heart now burns to speak
To sin-bowed nations everywhere

And bid them the Christ-child seek.

Shall my own dear nation dwell in gloom,
And I in the Gospel's ray?

Nay, God forbid! it is twilight now
That shall grow to the fuller day.

TURK.

I have knelt on a gorgeous Turkish rug
Full oft at the sunset hour,

In one of Mohammed's sacred mosques,
And have feared the prophet's power;
For he poured out blood as a purple flood-
Not blood that will cleanse and save,
Like the pure life stream from a Saviour's side,
Which cleanseth both prince and slave.

To Mecca we turn when our hearts are sore,
And travel with penance meet.

O when shall we lay our burdens down
At a crucified Saviour's feet?

AFRICAN.

Away in the heart of that vast plateau
By Stanley and Livingstone trod.

I dwell on the bank of a noble lake,
And worship a heathen God;

But the one great fear that chills our blood
Is the Arab who deals in slaves,
For he bears away hundreds every year
To fill up untimely graves.

Our brows are dark, but we think and feel,
And we bleed, 'neath a tyrant's stroke.
O when will the strong white nations come
To tear off the Arab yoke?

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN.

O wild, free land, where my fathers roved,
I seek for a forest glade,

Where along with the wounded deer may crouch
The form of an Indian maid.

This smiling land, with its woods and streams,
Was the red man's birthright dear,
But the pale face came, and my tale is told-
We now dwell as outcasts here.

O white man, when shall thy debt be paid,
Or when shall our hatred cease?

It shall never be till you bring your God
With the olive branch of peace.

MEXICAN.

I dwell where the aloe opens its buds
'Neath the blue of a southern sky,
Where the fierce war god of the Aztecs reared
His emblazoned front on high,

Where the priest tore out the quivering heart
From the human victim's breast,

And laid it before the war god's shrine,
And in this way purchased rest.

But the proud Montezuma bowed his neck
'Neath the conqueror's iron heel,
And the Virgin Mary all adore,
Enthroned by the Spaniard's steel.

BRAZILIAN.

Where the good Dom Pedro lost his crown,
And wept over poor Brazil,"

We have watched a new republic rise,

But we hold to our old faith still;
We pray to the saints and our lady dear,
And we offer them incense sweet,

And we kneel to be cleansed of our many sins
At a fellow mortal's feet.

We have gazed on the sacred bones of saints,
And the pope in his pride of state;

But we plead for a Christ to whom all may come,
Nor fear the dread words, "Too late."

ESKIMO.

I dwell in a far-off frigid clime,

And my house is a bank of snow, While the night is bright with auroral light; 'Tis enough for au Eskimo.

We glide along in our sledges drawn
By our faithful dogs or our deer,
And the fatal malaria's finger gaunt
Has no power to touch us here.

We feed on the flesh of the whale and seal,
For with frost 'tis a bitter strife;
Yet we hunger still till our souls be fed
With that manna, the Bread of Life.

ALL, IN CONCERT.

To you who dwell in a Christian land,
Made bright by the Gospel's ray,

We plead for a light that shall banish gloom
And drive our false gods away.

We moan and we weep, but the gods are dumb
As the pitiless skies above.

O take our wooden and marble gods,
And send us the God of love!

-Missionary Reporter.

Missionary Games.

BY MARTHA BURR BANKS.

As there is constant demand in mission bands and circles for anything that will be a means of educa tion in missionary lines, it is often helpful to know about some simple games which may be used at a social gathering of a society or as the recreation at the close of an ordinary meeting. This sort of instruction will help fix in mind what has been learned in the previous course of study.

Fields and Heroes may be played in the same man. ner as Characters. Take the name of some person or place of missionary fame. like Brainerd or Greenland, and appoint to each player round in regular order one of the letters of this name. Then let each one choose the name of some missionary or of some missionary sphere of labor, beginning with that special letter, and be ready to answer questions thereupon from one of the number not in the secret, who is to discover these names, and from the initial letters spell out the foundation name. If this plan should be too difficult, the names may be selected at random without reference to one original name.

Anything in a heathen land may be serviceable in Twenty Questions and in Geography or History. Decide upon some letter for a starting point, and have a friendly contest to see who can write in a certain time the longest list of names of places or of names of persons in mission countries beginning with that letter.

Countries and Characters is Beast, Bird, and Fish cut over to suit a missionary purpose, one player throwing a knotted handkerchief to another and calling out, "Africa," "Siam," or "Persia," and then counting ten, if possible, before the second player can give the response, which should be the name of some worker or place, or of anything connected with the country specified. Or, twisting the game round the other way, the first player may name a missionary, a station, a town or an object, while the reply may be the name of the country where such a person, place or thing may be found.

Some games may be rendered doubly entertaining by allowing the members of a society to assist in their

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construction. Get a few more than one hundred blank cards, and write or print upon each one a letter of the alphabet, forming in all about four alphabets, except that the unmanageable letters like Q, U, X, and Z should in most cases be replaced by a vowel or some of the more desirable consonants. Divide the cards equally among the players, and, starting with the one left of the dealer, let each player in turn cast upon the table a card, saying at the same moment the name of some missionary country. The first player each time who can supply the name of something from that country beginning with the letter on the card is entitled to the card, and the one who holds the greatest number of cards at the end of the game is the victor. This game is styled Alphabet.

When and What, or Missionary Dates, also may be made from cards. Arrange fifty-two cards in pairs, marking the two in each pair with the same number. On one card of each pair then write some prominent event in mission history, and upon the corresponding card place the date of that event. For instance, put on one card "William Carey went to India," and on its mate1793."

Distribute the cards as usual, each player spreading his portion out in his hand with their faces toward himself and their backs toward his companions, so that he alone can see the numbers. Each player should in turn draw a card from his left hand neigh bor. If after playing at any time he should hold in his hand two cards bearing the same number, he should read aloud the sentence recording the event and its accompanying date, and throw the two cards upon the table. The player who first exhausts his stock of cards wins the game. This game may be called Names and Facts, and the cards may match in this fashion: "China" and "The Flowery Kingdom," "Japan" and a statement of the population of Japan, "The Apostle to the Indians" and "John Eliot," First Protestant Missionary to China" and "Robert Morrison."

Quiz consists of a number of questions on the general subject of missions, or on one particular missionary country, on one set of cards and the appropriate answers on another set. These questions, with their respective answers, are numbered in pairs as in the former game. Shuffle the questions and answers separately and give each player an equal assortment of each kind, adapting the number of cards used to the number of players. One player may begin the game by asking a question from one of his cards, not announcing the number, and each player may have a chance to offer any answer that he may think the right one, in due order, as his turn may come. If correct the question and answer should be laid aside together; if wrong, the one who shall have made the mistake must take the question and keep it until he shall have opportunity to present it himself, unless some one farther on shall

hazard a guess, when that one must receive the card and act with it according to the nature of the answer, as in the preceding instance, and so on through all the players. Then the player to the left of the dealer may try his luck with a question. If any player have already a pair in his hand when his play shall come, he may throw it down instead of propounding a question to anybody else. When one player shall be out of questions the one next to him must proceed with the queries, and the one who shall first dispose of all of his cards shall win the game.Congregationalist.

Young Y.

BY F. J. STEVENS.

DISTANT China, far away,
Sent a son to U. S. A.

Young Y came in Chinese dress,
Came with active hand to bless,
Came to work, and with a will
Set about his sphere to fill.
Washing-board and irons and soap,
Keys the gates of wealth to ope;
Diligent by day, by night,
Work a treadmill of delight.
Heathen could he live, where heaven
Gave the gracious spirits leaven?
Passing Christians looked and gave
Scarce a thought his soul to save.
Those who hated and despised
Spared him not, but oft chastised;
Smashed his windows, broke his door,
Stole his money, cursed and swore,
That no Chinaman had rights
Where the white man's land requites

Ev'ry laborer with pay
Honest for an honest day.
Homesick, fearful, oft was he;
With such treatment well might be;
Better far was China's land,

Fiends would there feel China's hand.
But the Christ the Shepherd sent
One who came with heart unbent.

Young Y found in him a friend
To instruct, advise, defend.

China's son soon learned that those
Who loved Christ were not his foes.

Learned the love that shines afar
In the light of Bethlehem's star;
Gave his love to him who died
With a robber on each side.
When returned was China's son,
Correspondence was begun;
Letters crossed the ocean wide
To rejoice the Christian guide.
Faith in China had a soul
Looking toward the heavenly goal.

The Work of the Spirit in China.

BY MRS. H. P. BEACH.

SOME forty miles from our home in Tung-cho a young helper and his wife were stationed in a wholly heathen section of country. He went about his work with untiring zeal, established a Sunday service, held evening meetings with inquirers, preached to men in the jail through a little hole in the wall, taught what boys he could find to read, and sold books and preached on the streets and in the neighboring vil lages. All went prosperously for a while, until one day some underlings from the yamen thought they would go to one of his meetings for some fun. They talked in a rough, insulting way to his wife, threw his things about the room, and pulled him around by his cue until they were tired.

In a day or two this case of assault was brought up at the yamen, and the young helper appeared to plead his cause. As he stood there before the great official, it suddenly occurred to him that he was like the apostles brought before rulers, and, forgetting all about his case, he thought only of his rare opportunity to preach the Gospel. "The honorable great man does not understand," he began; and immediately there was an uproar in the court. "Don't understand! what do you mean by that kind of talk to an official?" The poor fellow had used an expression only suitable to use to the common people and not respectful to his high mightiness. For a moment he was confused, but recovered himself, and his message still burned within him. He did not mean any offense, he explained; he was only a poor man, and did not know official language and usage. "But," he went on, warming up, "it is true; the great man does not understand." And before the then silent court he preached of Christ and righteousness, of sin and judgment.

When he was through, the official, who for the first time in his corrupt life had listened to a man possessed of moral earnestness, said quietly, "It is true; I did not understand," and ordered that there should be no more disturbance of his work. The next day official notices, on red paper, were posted at the gates of the city, forbidding any interference with his preaching hereafter. And so the young helper gained his case in a way which no wisdom of man would have directed.-Life and Light.

Conversion of Jemal Padmanji, a Jain Priest,

I PLACE the following testimony before all true seekers after truth with a pure heart, and trust it may be accepted. I belong originally to the Vaniyo caste, and am a native of Marwar. My religion and that of my family was the Jain religion. When I was twenty years of age I, with a religious motive, renounced the lay life and took the vows of monkhood as prescribed among Jains. For the past seven years I have been a priest, and a constant student of