- W. L. Watkinson, "The Transfigured Sackcloth."
(137O)
HEART, THE SINGING
Frank L. Stanton writes of the man who has a song in the heart thus:
There is never a sky of winter
To the heart that sings alway;
Never a night but hath stars to light,
And dreams of a rosy day.
The world is ever a garden
Red with the bloom of May;
And never a stormy morning
To the heart that sings alway!
(1371)
Heart versus Head—See Death Compelling Sincerity; Experience the Best Argument.
Heartless Custom—See Barbarism.
HEARTLESS PAGANS
There is an essential difference between the attitude of heathenism and of Christianity toward human suffering. Sir Frederick Lely said:
The ordinary native of India who has been
untouched by the Light is utterly devoid of
pity. In West India a man will be taxed for
killing a dog, but not for killing a man.
During famine times it is an every-day
sight to see men feeding monkeys with unleavened
cakes and refusing to give a crust
to their fellow men who are lying within a
few yards of them dying with hunger. The
great merchants and moneyed men of India
spent thousands upon food for decrepid and
worthless animals, but left it to the British
Government to feed the men and women. In
a famine hospital, Sir Frederick saw a little
lad whose flesh was torn in many places.
That morning an agent of one of the merchant
gilds had visited his village with a
supply of food for the village pariah dogs.
The poor boy asked for some for himself
but was refused, and in desperation he ran
in among the dogs to try and get a piece,
and they turned upon him and bit him. A
Bunnia Hindu, in Ankleshwer, has recently
given 15,000 rupees to found an animal hospital.
The enclosure is to be in the midst
of the town—a commodious structure, where
worn-out cattle and worthless animals will be
brought as a matter of religion. Around the
outside of these same walls will walk crippled,
diseased, poor and hungry men and
women and children, but their pleading
voices will fall on deaf ears.
(1372)
Heat—See Enthusiasm.
Heathen at Home and Abroad—See
Missions Approved.
HEATHEN RECEPTIVENESS
The heathen seldom express a longing for the gospel as clearly as in the following petition to the missionaries of the Swedish Missionary Society in the Kongo State from a number of black heathen chiefs in 1887. They said:
We, Makayi, Nsinki, Kibundu, and Mukayi
Makuta Ntoko, chiefs in Kibunzi, and our
people, desire that the missionaries of the
Swedish Missionary Society come and make
their home with us, and teach us and our
people. We gladly give them the right to
erect their buildings upon the high hill southeast
from the village of Kibunzi in any convenient
spot. We transfer to them all our
claims to that hill. Of course, they have the
right to use the forests, the rivers, the roads,
and the fields for plantations within our
boundaries in the same manner as ourselves.
We have invited them to come, and we are
glad to see them with us, and our one desire
is that they remain with us and erect
buildings.
(1373)
HEATHENDOM
An experience of my own in connection
with the Kiang-peh famine in China illustrates
the situation on most mission fields
to-day. Tarrying in Chinkiang for a few
days before proceeding up the canal, I saw
considerable of the refugee camp outside
the city wall. Altho one of the smaller
camps, this one held perhaps forty thousand
refugees from up country, all living on the
bare and frozen ground, and the most comfortable
of them having only an improvised
hut of straw matting to shelter them. The
tide of relief had not yet begun to flow from
America and Europe. Moved by compassion
for the suffering ones, Mrs. John W. Paxton
made daily rounds to administer what
medical relief was possible. One day I accompanied
her, and she translated the words
of the people. The commonest complaint we
heard that morning from these starving Chinese
was that they had lost their appetites!
On their faces was the unmistakable famine
pallor; hunger had driven them hither from
