The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-01-11

Two HUNDRED PATIENTS
| IN TWO HOURS TINE
missionary in India Tells of How Poo
pie Flock Around Christian
Physician.
by Southern Missionary News Bureau.
Miss Ella C. Hoxie, a missionary OF
the American Board in India, tells this
interesting and striking incident:
"One day went out to o native
village. with DR.. Elenor Stephenson
and her native nurse. to one of her
dispensaries. A schoolhouse was her
1 distributing center, and the people
| floeked around 1t by scores. We Wis
I tied the sick in their homes, going
| first to the home OF O high caste
| Brahman. In a dark room we found
a man half paralyzed, and DIR. Steph-
enson told him to come to the hos-
pitaL There were people with every
| imaginable disease, and as the doctor
! went from one house to another, fol-
| lowed by dozens of pitiable natives
hearing their tales of hardship and
| giving them medicine, II seemed u
mission such as Christ performed
Babies drugged with opium swung In
/ baskets from the ceilings, while the
unsanitary surroundings OF the place
seemed q veritabie breeding-place for
| disease. There were two hundred pa
! ticnts in two hours time. and the
| gratitude of the people was very
touching. When they learn to know
| the Christians. and through the doc
i tors learn that the missionaries are
their friends, 1t is much easier to reach
them. How much their women need
to be taught that their women have
| souls
! The Menace of Accommodation.
| One Of the greatest enemies of
Christianity liz Mohammedanism, and
! the following facts taken from the
World Outlook will be Of interest:
I Every eighth person In the world
| is a Mohammedan.
/ From one to five times a day two
/ hundred million of the human race
turn their faces toward Mecca and
repeat the prayer: There is but one
/ God and Mahommet is his prophet"
! The slogan of the Moslem today is
africa for Islam"
/ Each Moslem trader Is a missionary
| of his faith. Penetrating to every
nook and corner of the dark CONT
nent, he Is enlisting new adherents by
the hundreds of thousands. Moham-
! mechanism is spreading three times
/ more rapidly In Africa than Is Chris
! tianity. For every thirtt-three ma
/ tives who become Christian. one hum
bred become Mohammedans.
Slavery. polygamy and the democrat
1 ization of character during the twelve
! centuries of Moslem control have made
| North Africa a moral desart
/ Lying is a fine art In Mosiem lands.
/ Mohammed declares "A lie is allow
able in three cases--to women, to
reconcile friends, and In war"
Mosiem holy cities" are centers OF
immortality.
This Is the challenge the Christian
| churches face. not only in Africa. but
1 in Southern Europe. Arabia. Persia,
India Malaysia and China.
Moral Reform In China.
| A concrete instance of agg: essive
! land comes from Chinese magis-
ltrate. Lau Ing-ceng. an anti-opium
I commissioner In South China. In
writing to one OF the great Christian
\ mission boards Mr.. Lau says:
Opium Is an evil. as eve-y one
! knows. ] was appointed by the gov
eminent anti-opium commissioner to
| investigate the planting and growing
| of poppy. i understand that last year g
poppy was destroyed altogether. The
opium planting season for this year Is
now at hand, and we must put more
! effort in preventing the growing of
| the poppy. Opium Is planted in the
autumn and raised during the winter.
i The people are very ignorant. so
they only see the profits they can get
I out of this evil. If we do not have
men investigating its planting all over
/ the country we cannot expect to be
! successful in stamping 1t out.
I II know that your preachers are
very anxious to destroy the opium
evil and to prevent its planting. A
few years ago, when we were stamp
/ Ing out the poppy growing, we re-
.ceived q great deal of help from the
/ church.
Because the church people have
/ succeeded in planting stations every
where. your eyes and ears are many.
So please have your preachers, when
they see poppy growing first exhort
the farmer to destroy his plants. And
IL he refuses. secretly report to US
and we will see to 1t that 1t Is de-
i stroyed." =
/ Items OF Interest.
1T is proposed to enlarge the indus
trial courses for prisoners in China"
writes a missionary THE Minister
of Justice has recently summoned for
] conference in Shanghai auDsrihtend-
ents of all the chief prisons Ia the
country. AT this gathering emphasis
was placed on the necessity Of making
every convict an Independent money
Garner. Tailoring. weaving. printing,
paper-mak.ng. laundry work. carpen-
try, gardening, rice threshinK and
/ cooking are some of the subjects
| which will hereafter receive full in
struction."
Bishop j. w. Bashford. Of the Meth
odist Episcopal Church. writes: "Col-