E-text prepared by Joel Erickson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg
Distributed Proofers
By
1912
[Illustration: MRS. FLORENCE (MOTHER) ROBERTS.]
A missionary, upon returning from his field of labor in India, wasmaking an effort to stir up the sympathies of the people in behalf ofthe heathen. By telling his countrymen of the influence of the gospelupon the Indians and of the hundreds, even thousands, of them who hadbecome Christians, he succeeded in creating an interest among many ofhis friends. He told many stirring experiences of the difficultiesencountered in the missionary work, and gave affecting accounts of thepersecution of the native Christians because of their turning fromtheir idolatry and former beliefs.
A noted English hunter had just returned from a hunting tour in Bengal.These two men were invited to speak at a certain assembly. The largeaudience listened attentively to thrilling experiences of the hunter ashe related the hairbreadth escapes in the jungles and told of the manyBengal tigers seen and killed. After he had finished his account of hishunting tour, he was asked to give a report of the missionary work ashe had found it in India. He stated that in all his travels in Bengalhe had not seen a native Christian and, further, that he did notbelieve there were any, but that there were plenty of tigers. He saidthat he had not seen a missionary on the field and that themissionaries were deceiving the people by their reports.
The missionary was stung to the heart. He knew that the people werealmost ready to cast him down in derision because of the powerfulinfluence this noted hunter had exerted over the audience. When hearose, trusting the Lord for wisdom that he might be able to convincehis hearers of the real situation of missionary work in India, hekindly referred to the statements of the eminent hunter and said: "Hehas related his exciting experiences in tiger-hunting and has told youthat tigers abound in that country. Why should I believe his word?Though I spent several years in Bengal, yet I never saw a tiger outsideof a cage nor any one hunting tigers. He says he did not see a nativeChristian or a missionary on the field. I have seen hundreds of them,have lived among them, have taught them, and I am able to verify mystatements. Shall I discredit the statements of the hunter because Isaw no tigers? I was not looking for tigers; therefore I did not go tothe jungles to find them. He was not looking for Christians andmissionaries, and for that reason he did not go to the plains wherethey were to be found." The words of the missionary had the desiredeffect, and the cause that he represented was sustained.
It has often been said that the world is growing better and that theplaces of vice are few; but if the veil is drawn aside only enough togive a glimpse of the pitfalls of darkness and sin, one is made tostand aghast and lift the hands in horror. How little is known of thenext-door neighbor! In our cities many people do not even know thenames or the occupations of those living in the next room or in someother apartment of the same house. Oft-times dens of vice are almost atour door, and we know nothing of their existence until we are awakenedby some sad occurrence that might have been avoided "had we known."
Many parents fear to inform their children of the evils of the worldand of the dives and pitfalls of vice. This false modesty, or failuret