St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-06
MISSIONS IN ASSAM.
A Minnesota Girl Relates an Inter
estinS Experience There.

At the First Baptist church yesterday
morning, Miss Nora Yates, a returned
missionary from Assam, India, made an
eloquent and touching plea for foreign
missions. Miss Yates said, among 9TH
er things:
1.-TWO years ago I went with Miss
Amy, one of your Minnesota mission
aries, several miles from our village at
Nawgong, out into the midst of heath
ell village in the jungle, a cluster of
huts, surrounded by hills. covered with
rice and tea-hutS that hardly seemed
fit to be called homes, and, strictly, are
not, there being no such word in their
language. 1t is house But people
lived in these houses; not just mass
of dirty heather, as so many times we
hear them called. but immortal souls;
men, women and children by the hun
dreds and thousands, busy not only
about their rice and tea, but about
something that was of vital Importance
to them. Sin they know is present with
them; they know that they must con-
Stantly be doing something to set them
selves right with the great almighty
never-dying power that Is somewhere
and irresistibly their hands stretch out,
as they say, somewhere They only
earn four pice, half penny, a day, but
out of this you see them take one, two,
three, or, If there is any sickness or
curse overshadowing them, even the
whole four, and put them in hole in
the floor and cover them up again. The
little child, who earns about half this
sum, does the same thing They only
have one meal of rice a day. and only
the wealthiest can afford to put salt
on 1t; but after the rice is spread out on
the leaves, they will take one handful
and put it into basket, and twice a
month there is a feast day Then the
rice is poured out into a mound, pure
ana white and no matter how hungry
one of the children may be- they would
never think of taking any of it. The
money is taken from its hiding place
ana with IT they purchase ducks, chick
ems and animals. cut their throats. and.
dipping their hands in the warm blood,
they sprinkle it on the rice The blood
or children. especially of girls, used to
m1ngle freely with that Of the animals
until the government forbade it, Right
into this place the gospel was brought
little less than two years ago. we
spent weeks, laboring with these peo-
pie, not trying to get them to listen, for
the doors are open on every hand. Six
weeks we labored there and the DeoDIa
came early and late to hear. They
would stay till late at night. then go
nome and attend to their household
dutles, snatch little sleep, and be back
oy O'Clock in the morning, to hear
some more Of the gospel before going
TO their daily work. With the exception
OF one man in that village, none of
them had ever heard of Jesus before.
me people would come and sit down
before US, and at one gathering. there
were seven different tongues, in which
they were being told Of the story of re-
demptlon for man would come and
say that his people spoke a different
dialect, as we told to him, he would in
terpret to them, and in this way the
gospel was being preached in seven dia-
lects at once. AT the conclusion of our
Ilslt Iorty-elght newborn souls were
buried with Christ in baptism and
with the exception of two, after months
OF testing, and such testing as we know
nothing of here, they all stood firm"