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Meenatchie the Missionary.

After Meenatchie had been in the school a month, her father came from the islands to see her. As she saw him coming in at the gate she ran from the playground to meet him, and my sister, who was standing near, heard her say to him, "I am so glad to see you, O father; I want you to become a Christian." This new-found light and joy was in her little heart, and she never thought of keeping it all to herself; she wanted her father to possess it too. She had only known of Christ one month, but already her heart had come in some measure into harmony with the great loving heart of Him who said, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring."

When Meenatchie had been two months in the school, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was celebrated one Sabbath in the church, and some of the older girls of the school were among the number received into the church-fold on profession of faith. Meenatchie had never seen a Communion Service before. It was all new to her. At its close she came to us and said, "Please tell me what they were doing in the church to-day." We explained that we were commemorating Christ's death, because He had asked those who loved Him to do so in remembrance of Him. She said eagerly, "Amma, may I join with the others next time ?" She loved Christ, and when she learned that He had told us to do this, her little heart responded "yes" to His call; so she said, "May I join next time?" We told her she might join the candidates' class first of all, which she did.

At the end of three months a brief vacation was given to the school, and before dismissing the girls, my sister told them she hoped that during the vacation they would all attend the Sabbath services in their various villages with their parents, and that she hoped they would all try to be present at the great Annual Meeting of the mission, which was to be held at Batticotta. In giving these injunctions she did not think of them being carried out by Meenatchie, as her parents were Hindoos, and attended neither the Sabbath services nor the Annual Meetings. But Meenatchie never thought my sister meant her remarks for others, she was so busy taking them ail home to herself.

On going to her island home she took her Tamil gospel and hymn-book, and the first evening, after the family had eaten their evening meal of rice and curry, and were all seated on the veranda enjoying the quiet and bright moonlight and resting after the labours of the day, Meenatchie said, "When I was in the school, I learned to sing some sweet songs. May I sing them now?" They readily assented, for the Tamil people are all very fond of singing. Then the little girl sang from memory several of the beautiful Christian hymns which she had learned. After this she said, "In the school I read some good stories out of a book. May I read some of them to you

now?" They assented, as Tamil people are always very fond of stories, and often at this, the resting-time of the day, amuse each other by telling stories and riddles. Meenatchie lighted the little lamp, which is of the simplest construction-a small earthen vessel with oil and a bit of twisted cloth for a wick, and read to them from her little gospel the story of the birth of Christ. Then she said, "I learned to pray to the true Lord in the school, may I pray now?" There was a dead silence in the family circle, as all were worshippers of idols. But the brave little girl knelt down and prayed aloud a simple childlike prayer, asking the true God for Christ's sake to forgive her sins and help her to do right, and bless her dear grandmother and father and mother and brothers and sisters, and help them all to know Him and love Him. This she did night after night all through her vacation, reading, singing, praying aloud, leading the family devotions by the light of a little flickering lamp-herself a little lamp struggling to shine for Jesus in the gloom.

When the Sabbath came she said to her father, "The Ammas told me that I must go to the church on the Sabbath, father; please take me to the church." But the father said, "No, daughter, I cannot take you to the church; I worship Pulliar, and Vedavan, and Kanther Swami, and Siva. If I went to the Christian church all the neighbours would laugh at me and say I had become a Christian." But she said, "Oh, please, father, take me to the church, for I promised the Amma that I would go to the church;" and she began to weep so bitterly that she was unable to eat her breakfast. When her father saw this his heart was touched, for you must know that the fathers' hearts in Ceylon are just about as soft as the fathers' hearts in England or America, and they love their children just as well, and are as ready to make sacrifices for them. So the father said, "Do not cry, my little daughter; I will go with you this one time." He went, and heard the singing, the reading, the prayers, the addresses by the native Christian catechist, noted the quiet, reverent behaviour, and had no fault to find; so at the invitation of the catechist he came again the next Sabbath.

When my sister and I went on the day appointed to the Annual Meeting at Batticotta, who did we see, to our astonishment, standing in the doorway of the church, but the little Meenatchie with her father on one side of her and her mother on the other, her face radiant with joy as she said to us, " Amma, I've brought them." And so she had; yielding to her daily entreaties, they had come across the water in a small boat, and then a good many miles on foot, and the loving earnestness of a little child had been the motive power. They enjoyed the Annual Meeting, and were much impressed by the services, and by the large orderly assemblage of native Christians-a striking contrast to the noisy crowd which surrounds the heathen temples on festival occasions. When the new term commenced the father and mother both came, bringing Meenatchie

Meenatchie the Goddess.

back to the school, and they brought a sheep and a bottle of melted butter as a present, saying that their daughter had improved very much while in the school and had been a good girl in the vacation, and they wished to express their thanks to us. We earnestly begged the father and mother to attend the Christian church on their island, and they promised to do so.

Meenatchie was received into the Christian church before the end of the year. It is not the custom to receive those who come from heathen homes until they have been in the school a longer time, but an exception was made in the case of Meenatchie, as all her teachers and the native pastor and the church committee felt convinced that

she was truly a converted child, and

that in her daily life she was trying to serve Christ.

I shall never forget the look of joy on her face, or the shining in her large, beautiful black eyes, as she stood up to be received with others into the visible church. Did the "Father of lights" see the shining too, and rejoice with His child? The joy of that day, and of others like it, a hundred-fold more than repaid us for any little sacrifices we may have made in going to the mission-field.

When Meenatchie was baptized she took the English name, Clara Kimball, and dropped the name Meenatchie, which is the name of a heathen goddess, whose great temple stands in Madura. Little Clara still studies in the Boarding-school, and we hope that when she graduates she may go back to her island home, followed by your prayers, to be a blessing to her own people.

THE COBRA.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC A GREAT FOE
OF MISSIONS.

E found the liquor traffic, autho
rized and licensed by the British
Government, a great foe to
Christian work in North Ceylon.

The voices of Rachels weeping for their children and refusing to be comforted fell on our ears and aroused our hearts. Brokenhearted wives and mothers, whose husbands or sons had fallen through the drink curse, asked us why such temptations were placed in their midst? were these always to continue? must they suffer them? The Government certainly does not dream of the bitterness, of the sorrow and despair with which many of the natives look upon this absolutely ruinous traffic, thrust upon them against their wishes for the sake of a revenue. In India and Ceylon the liquor traffic is purely a Government monopoly. The right to sell liquor in a district is sold at public auction to the highest bidder. When some one has bought the right and promised to give the Government a large sum of money for the same, he does not wish to be a loser by the transaction, so he opens as many liquor shops as possible in the district. These are located in the towns and villages near the tea and cinchona estates, in the mining districts, and on the roadsides along which there is most travel, and by means of these multiplied places of temptation "a nation of abstainers is fast becoming a nation of drunkards." The religions of the Hindus, Mohammedans, and Buddhists forbid the use of strong drink, and formerly the people of India and Ceylon were for the most part total abstainers. Formerly spirits were high-priced and hard to get, and drunkenness was uncommon because there was little temptation to drink. But in any country it the facilities for obtaining strong drink are increased the consumption is increased; if the facilities for obtaining strong drink are diminished the consumption is diminished. In India and Ceylon the facilities for obtaining strong drink have been abnormally increased. The British Government for the sake of a revenue has made strong drink to be cheap and plentiful. In Ceylon nine times as much is spent for strong

102

England's Shame in India.

drink as is expended by the Government for education.

In Bengal, where the "outstill" system prevails, "Bhuli" is sold for four annas and less per quart bottle. In that province the excise revenue has in ten years increased twenty-nine lakhs of rupees. In Assam the excise revenue has trebled in ten years. In the North-West Provinces the excise revenue has more than doubled in ten years. In the whole of India the excise revenue has increased in thirteen years seventy-five per cent!

Archdeacon Farrar said in a recent address, "It is now a considerable time ago that an Archdeacon of Bombay, with whom I was acquainted, gave the shocking testimony in public that for every Christian whom we (Great Britain) had made in India we had made 100 drunkards." What do these figures mean? They mean that tens of thousands and hundred of thousands of people in India, who formerly were total abstainers, have fallen before the multiplied temptations placed before them. Is this to be wondered at? If men and women in Great Britain and America, with centuries of civilization behind them, with Christian influences all around them, cannot withstand the temptation of the open public-house and liquor saloon, how could it be hoped that the poor ignorant people of India could withstand such temptations? Is it not a shame to place such temptations in the presence of heathen peoples? It is the glory of the strong to protect the weak. Should not the great British nation protect rather than tempt its subject races? It is the province of Government to make it easy to do right and hard to do wrong, but in India in the matter of this liquor traffic Government has done just the reverse.

It has been said by a great English statesman in the House of Commons that "the combined evils of war and pestilence and famine are not so great as those evils which flow from strong drink ;" and it has been estimated that eighty-four per cent. of the crime is caused either directly or indirectly by strong drink. If this be so, has not poor India crime enough of its own, sorrow and poverty enough of its own, without having this, the curse of Great Britain, imported into India and fostered there against the wishes of the people, for the sake of a revenue? Another of England's great statesmen has said, "Gentlemen, I refuse to consider a question of revenue alongside of a question of morals," and he has said again, "Give me sober and industrious people, and I will soon show you where to get a revenue."

The Government in India for the sake of a revenue creates a class of men whose business it is to push the traffic in strong drink. Surely a revenue should be paid by men who are able to pay it. We should not tempt men to give up their purity and allow their homes to be destroyed for the sake of a revenue. Some one has said, "I feel less shame for the savage who, with rude conscience and untaught life, turns cannibal and picks the bones of human beings that he may live, than for those who