Missionary Servlo's.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXIX, Issue 9154, 26 September 1898, Page 3

Missionary Servlo's.

Yesterday special missionary services were held in the Mary street Baptist and Congregational Church, f : In tho morning the pastor, the Rev ■ ,\7. It Woolley, occnyitd the pulpit, 1 and Ukiug as his text "it is more f blessed to give than to reoeivo." (Acts xx-35), pointed out that these words had a very direct bearing-on "all mi s'onary effort?. The numberless blessings which his hearers onjoved were largely due to Ihe fact that they as a people had received tho gospel, but experience showed that blessed as this was it was even raoro blessed to give the gospel to others. In the alternoo'n the church was well filled with the scholars of the two Sunday Schods and their parents and frieuds After the usual devotional exercises Mr Woolley welcomed Miss Peters, one of the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society's staff at Brahman Varia, in Bengal. Tb's lady interested her young hearers at the outset by introducing them to the people among whom she labors, describing in quick succession the district—a very beautiful and* fertile'one.' The houses of the 1 natives were neither wood nor brick, but of matting, and where in New Zealand people have one four-roomed house, in India they have, four oneroomed houses -one for idols, another for cooking in; and two for living in. Some of the ; superstitions of the natives were next described, and the lot and position of a Bengali, boy and a Bengali girl were .vividly described. The native word for son was " pntra,'' meaning saviour, and indicated the value set upon the boys. Indeed, the correct way to address a married womao v was ' Johnnie's ma," and not Mis So and So, or the wife of Mr So and So, The lot of tho girl was very different ; hur birth was the sign of weeping an t. lumoutation; at 12 years of age she would be "married,'? and become, to all intents andpuri {ioses, a slave and shut out from all outside influeuces. Some idea of the vast field of work presented by India was givon by the children being in< vited to take a Bible, and beginning at Genesis, to count every letter in every word until they come to the end of

Revelations, and to repeat the process 40 times. Miss Peters then told the boys and girls that their annual gifts of toys were a' great help to the Missionaries, and she added with effect unless her young hearers differed from the Dunedin boys and girls, they would understand how the approach of Christmas time improved the attendance at their schools in India, and in concluding told them a most striking anecdote about "Opportunity" She then sang a couple of hymns in Bengalese, one to a native air and the other to one of J. D. Sankey's melodies,

At night the Church was filled with a most attentive congregation, iiefore delivering the main address Miss Peters''spoke to. the Chinese present,' Mr Willie Wing interpreting. Speaking to the congregation as a whole, Miss Peters briefly recounted the circumstances under which the N»Z. Missionary Society was formed at a Conference inDunedinl3 years ago. The first agent was Miss Bosalie MacGeorgo, who died in harness when Dr. North, now completing his medical studies id England, and she reached India eight or ten weeks hence. The N.Z. agents would'be ten in number, of whom quite half would .be still employed in leaining the language. The district wub again' briefly described, and the circumstances under which the work is carried on were detailed. The majority of the inhabitants were Mohammedans,' but the missionaries laboured more particularly among the Hindoos, , who were pantheistic in their belief. One of the greatest difficulties encountered was the prevailing idea of " caste." To describe the lot of the women of India, Miss Peters said, was next to impossible. The child wife was a slave, but sad as her lot is, that of a widow was worse, In fact the marriage oustoms were altogether bad.

All inai'riages were a matter of buiii-

ness arranged by the fathers and priest without reference to bride or bridegroom; t'lus it often happened that a man of 60 was married to a girl of 12;

an educated man to an uneduia'ed

woman. . Missionaries had to adapt themselves to circumstances. A The high caste man had to bespoken to in his home. The English speaking native had to be spoken' to in English, the low oaste man was

addressed'in the street. The high caste woman bad to be spoke to in her zenana, and this was generally the

happiest part ofitho lady missiouary's work. The low caste woman was

more easily reached. Work in the schools was also.a valuable means of

projiagaling the' Gospel,. Miss Peters after speakiug in the terms of tho

warmest appreciation of the medical mission work as a means to an end,coii»

eluded ,hy askiug for increased interest in the 'Misiionnrv Society, assuring her hearers that thorn now in the field were not nearly [sufficient to 1 meet the

needs of the district, for the people were ready and willing to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, The whole address was most attentively likened to, and wo anticipate an even - larger attendance, to morrow

night, when Mies Peters is to be

joined by Rev, Dr. MacFarlane, one of the Loudon Missionary Sooiety's medical staff in China whose addresses

in Auckland Have proved, unusually attractive, and a most interesting time is expectpd.