Messenger January 1930 Page 1

It is very seldom that Dr. Speer comes to the middle west for addresses. His ??? is to largely commanded by the missionary interests he so ably represents. It can hardly be argued that Dr. Speer is recognized by all denominations and all denominations as the foremost missionary spokesman of our generation. He has a world acquaintance, on all fields, and is in-???ate with the course of missionary enterprise of the last fifty years.

Hence it is with very unusual pleasure the we say he will be with us on the 23rd of January. That is a week-night, however we will fill the Church to hear him.

More of the Slater Letter

We promised last week that we would continue some of the items of particular interest that were written in the last of the Slater letters. "I wish also that you could have come with us as I visited the villages. We have completed our tour of ??? section out at Milaoli. We were in ??? there a little over a week, and I visited about three villages a day. More ???ld have been done, but it was absolutely impossible to use the motor because of the very bad roads. None of the villages that I visited could be reached by ???, so the Indian pastor in charge of that ???, and I, went by cycles and on foot.   ??? meant a lot of hard work, cycling and walking thru heavy sand. The poverty and destitution of many of the Christian ??? in the villages beggars description. And yet in every case they made a small

    ‘‘In one home I received four eggs; in  another, two pounds of grain ; in another two 'pice,’ which is equal to one cent; in another home, one egg and one small chicken three weeks old. These gifts are made from their very limited means. In one case I found an old woman living alone, husband dead, and no children at home.  Her total earnings would perhaps come to  four ’annas',  about eight cents a day. And so the story goes;  In one village a woman sat  crying and  did riot participate in the services.  At the close I spoke to her and asked what the matter was. She told me that three or four months ago she had lost both her son and daughter. Small pox had broken out in a very virulent form in their village, and in the adjacent villages. Their family had escaped, but the Government hearing that the epidemic was serious and spreading. sent an itinerant vaccinator around to vaccinate the people. He visited this village, and the woman asked for vaccination for herself and children. They were outcasts and untouchables, and altho it was his duty as a public servant to vaccinate them, he refused to touch them, thinking he would be defiled. She told me that the man handed her the lancet and vaccine and said to vaccinate herself.  She said she was unable to do this, knowing nothing about it. Fearing to  make the attempt, she had to see this man depart . Shortly afterwards both her son and daughter contracted the disease and died.

   "It is such cases as this that make us glad to be back in India to help a little, tho it is very little that we can accomplish.  But every little counts, and every village Christian who is trying to live a Christian life is helping to bring the Kingdom of God to India.’’
                 ---Arthur E. Slater.