service?" he inquired of his genial host. "Here you are, boss, right here. Get in behind that bar and here's your crowd. Give it to 'em. God knows they need it."
Mr. Robertson caught the wink intended for the boys only. Behind the bar were bottles and kegs and other implements of the trade; before it men standing up for their drinks, chaffing, laughing, swearing. The atmosphere could hardly be called congenial, but the missionary was "on to his job," as the boys afterward admiringly said. He gave out a hymn. Some of the men took off their hats and joined in the singing, one or two whistling the accompaniment. As he was getting into his sermon one of the men, evidently the smart one of the company, broke in:
"Say, boss," he drawled, "I like yer nerve, but I don't believe yer talk." "All right," replied Mr. Robertson, "give me a chance. When I get through you can ask any questions you like. If I can I will answer them; if I can't I'll do my best."
The reply appealed to the sense of fair play in the crowd. They speedily shut up their companion and told the missionary to "fire ahead," which he did, and to such good purpose that when he had finished there was no one ready to gibe or question. After the service was closed, however, one of them observed earnestly: "I believe every word you said, sir. I haven't heard anything like that since I was a kid, from my Sunday-*school teacher. I guess I gave her a pretty hard time. But look here, can't you send us a missionary for ourselves? We'll chip in, won't we, boys?"—Robert E. Speer, "Servants of the King."
(2049)
Missionary Beginnings—See One, Winning.
MISSIONARY CALL
Friends were trying to dissuade one whose
ancestors were not three generations out of
cannibalism from going as a missionary to
one of the savage islands of Polynesia. They
recounted all the hardships and dangers to
be encountered. "Are there men there?"
asked the volunteer.
"Men? Yes; horrible cannibals, who will probably kill you and eat you."
"That settles it!" was the sublime rejoinder. "That settles it! Wherever there are men, there missionaries are bound to go!"
(2050)
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE
On October 15, 1819, in the Park Street
Church, Boston, a mission to the Hawaiian
Islands was organized with the following
members: Messrs. Bingham and Thurston,
ministers; Messrs. Whitney and Ruddles,
teachers; Thomas Holman, physician; Elisha
Loomis, printer; Daniel Chamberlain,
farmer, together with their wives, and three
Hawaiian young men from the Cornwall
Missionary School. These seventeen went
forth to erect a Christian civilization upon
pagan shores, for they represented the
Church, the common school, the printing-*press,
the medicine-chest, and the implements
of agriculture. They set sail from Boston
October 23, 1819, and reached the Hawaiian
coast March 31, 1820, after somewhat more
than five months.—Pierson, "The Miracles
of Missions."
(2051)
Missionary Giving—See Crowning Christ.
Missionary Good Sense—See Diplomat,
A, and Missions.
MISSIONARY LITERATURE
There came into our office the other day
a man who had only recently closed a very
successful missionary pastorate of several
years to become the minister of a large
church which was not so strongly missionary.
He ignored that fact, however, and began
to employ his former methods, which included
the observance of the monthly concert
of prayer for missions. He made out
his program, based on the missionary magazine
of his denomination, and as he met one
after another of those whom he had assigned
to help him, he gave them their parts. One
of the prominent members of the church he
called to his study and said to him, "I want
you to read such and such an article in
your magazine and give us the gist of it at
the next missionary meeting." "My magazine,"
replied the man. "I haven't—I don't
take any magazine with that article in it."
"What, don't you take the missionary magazine?
Just look at it," said he, laying it out
before him. "Oh, is that it? Never saw it
before. How much is it? Thirty-five cents?
I guess if you are going to have this concert
business every month, I might as well subscribe
for it and have my own copy. Looks
pretty good, too, doesn't it? Didn't know
missions could be drest up so well. Cover
looks like one of our regular magazines."
