Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Jan. 10, 1913, edition 1 / Page 3
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January 10^ 1913. in T’LON COLLEGE WEEKLY 3 MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION Wednesday night was time for oiir reg ular busines meeting, therefore the regu lar exercises were shorter than usual. Tho’ there were not very many of the members j)resent, but more tlian usually attend, we had a good spiritual meeting. Hev. B. J. Earp was leader, reading for our consideration tlie twelfth chapter of Acts. After impressing upon our minds what real prayer, prayer that comes from those that have real faith in God, can dOj the religious meeting was closed and the transaction of business was begun. By motion a committee of two was ap" pointed to talk to those that do not at tend and try to get them interested in their association. Mr. Snrratt is leader for next Wednes day evening. We are sure we will have a good meeting. Come and you will enjoy it. Corresponding Secretary. r. ir. ('. j. Our first meeting this year was led by iss Viola Frazier, who conducted it in a reverential manner. The subject for study was “Glory.” The scripture les son was taken from the third chapter of first ('orintliians. The leader had a well prepared paper in which she dis cussed glory in several phases. There are those who glory in fashion, (in) so ciety, (in) polities, wealth, art, eloquence, and literature. She showed us where these earthly things would not stand un less they were sought with reference to heavenly things. The consequence is that no permanent _l)liss is foundj Thii is tlie result of all those who seek their chief eujoyment in the things of this world. Tn the end it proves them a broken cist ern which can hold no water. Such is the result of all attempts to find pleasure in I he things of this world apart from the ('reator. God is the fountain of living water at which man may supply all his wants, while still the supply is inexhaust ed. His gospel meets the cravings of the heart for happinesss. Faith in the great atoning sacrifico of Clirist gives grace to the troubled conscience. Let each one of us ask ourselves “what is the great ob ject of our life.” What ever it may be let us seek it with reference to the glory of God, otherwise^ sooner or later in eternity if not in time, they will be found to have been but vanity and vexation of sjiirit. A selection entitled “The Man of Lit" erature’’ was read by r.Iiss T'iunie Rie- dpll, which was taken from the life of Xir Walter Scott, who sought "lory alone iu literature and in the end he found that his life was lacking iu that which count ed most in life. Xow at the beginning of the year let us put more vigor into our meetings, and strive earnestly to make these five months the most helpful that have ever been known in the organization. It has been said that we never get more of any thing than we put into it. The subject next Sunday is “anger.” Lillian ,Tohnson. Education should lead and guide man to clearness concerning himself and in himself, to peace with nature and to unity 'vith God; hence it should lift him to a knowledge of himself and of mankind, to a knowledge of God and of nature^ and to the pure and holy life to whicn such knowledge leads,—Froebel. PROGRESS OF THE PUBLISHING HOUSE. Mr. C. W. Montgomery^ Troy, Ohio, the superintendent of the otfice work for the Christian Publishing Association, has just arrived in town to take up his' duties in the above mentioned capacity. The new superintendent has had abun dant experience in this line and comes highly recommended and assurance is universally felt for the success of the concern. The new plant, a handsome $15,000.00 equipment, is being rapidly rounded into shape and the management hope to have their press running and the plant in full operation within the next ninety days. The printing equipment will include i-esses of the most moddrn type^ with lino type machines and such other improved machinery and accessories as are found in well-managed institutions of the sort. This project is backed principally by local capital and while representing the constituency of the Southern Christian Convention is at the same time a distinct ly home institution and hopes for patron age as such. After the formal opening, rates for work will be gladly given and prices quoted cheerfully on any matter which may be handled by a modern, up- to-date print-shop. CHANGES I HAVE SEEN. By Mary E. Andrews. Tlie result of (uir missionary work in file uplift of womanhood in .Vorth China is a large one. it would fill a \duine to U'll ot what I have •^een of such u]>Iifi, of the changes in homes ami li\ es when the light of God’s love shines into these dark heart.s. Their faces show the change. One of the things which most imi)ressed me when first 1 came to China was the vacant look on the faces of so many of the women; and the reason was soon manifest. Living a liife of 'utjter ignorancei, never from childhood having been taught anything beyond the common duties of home, to pre pare food and make the clothes and to embroider her shoes, how could any wo man’s mind aiul heart be otherwise than emj)ty? Ignorant mothers had nothing to teach their little children. The boys might later go to school and a somewhat larger iife be open for /iiem, but for the girls tliere was no outlook beyond the same narrow li\es which th«r mothers and grandmothers had lived before them. To be well married was the one thing to which to look forward; but marriage brought no broadening of the life. No man thought of his wife as a helpmeet. Love and companionship had no place in married life. How could they have, when husband and wife had never seen each other until after the marriage ceremony? Of course a man must have a wife to care for the home and bear children. That was what all women were good for. No man, even though educated himself, would for a moment think of teaching his wife to read. Why shoid he? I remember well the joy with which I learned, during my first year in China, that my personal teacher who had just become a Christian, had begun to teach his wife. It seemed to me a long step upward, as indeed it was. As for the women themselves, for the most part they simply accepted their position as something from which there was no escape. Never having known a different state of things, they had no de sire to leam to read or to have their lit tle girls taught. W'e w'ere continually met by tlie question, “What is to be gained by it? Women cannot hold office. Why should they learn to read?” If a woman had a husband who did not beat her, if she had enough to eat and to wear, esi>e- cially if she were the mother of sons, what more could a woman ask? Living in the narrow circle of her home, for, only under exceptional circumstances would any respectable woman be seen in the streets, knowing nothing outside, how could a woman have anything to think of or talk of, except the veriest trifles? No wonder that minds were vacant or that faces showed the vacancy. The change came only gradually and slowly, but it has been a very great change. As the gospel found its way in to hearts, those who received it felt a new desire stirring within. They began to want to learn to read and especially to sing, “but” they say “we are so stupid we can never learn.” And indeeil it was no light task for an old woman, or even one in middle life, who never had tried to learn anything, to attempt to recognize and remember enough of these complicated Chinese characters to be able to read even the simplest book. However, we always encouraged every woman, no matter how old or how stupid, to make the attempt and often the success far exceeded their brightest hopes. It was such a delightful experience to find that they could learn to read. ?.!uny were the hours we s|)€nl in tho.se early days, when we had no Bible women to help, sitting beside some old woman on her “kang,” going patiently over and o\er and over again some Bible verse or line of a hynui, until at last the words found lodgmeiit in her mind, and something of truth, a place in her heart. It was the \ery drudgery of missionary work, if anything in such work could be calledl drudgery, but it paid. 1 think of one woman,' Mrs. Chang, Mrs. Chapin's nurse, with whom I worked daily, week after week and month after month, won dering many times whether she would ev er learn to read. But later she became one of our Bible readers and for years did faithful work in many homes. But many of the Chinese women are verv bright and (|uick to learn. One of the first women whom 1 taught in Tung- chou was Mrs. T., a woman who came into Mrs. Chapin’s home occasionally to sew or help with the housework, and so had learn ed something of Christian truth. Her home adjoined ours, and I used to go ev ery day to teach her and her son’s wife. Both were bright women and eager to learn, and iu their hearts the gospel seed found fertile soil. The elder woman seem ed a lovable woman even before she be came a Christian and she brought all that was lovable into her Christian life. She was the first woman received by our Tung- chou church, aud our first Bible reader. I gave a good deal of time for several years to teaching and training her for that work, and she became a very dear and valued helper. Notwithstanding her closely bound feet, (for in those days no respec- HOTIi;l. HUFFINE Near Passouger Station Greensboro* N. C. Rates $2 up. Cafe in connection. table women in Tung-chou had unbound feet), she went here and there, into all the homes that were open to her, telling of the Savior’s love and everywhere her re fined face and winning ways and loving spirit won a way for the truth she taught. Later she became matron of the boys’ boarding school, bringing the same faith ful loving spirit to this new work, and liaving a strong influence for good over all the boys she mothered. It is interesting to see the eager desire of the mothers, who have not had the op portunity themselves for school training, that their children should have what they have missed. The consequence is that our jirimary schools are crowded, and many of the girls look forward to the higher education of the Bridgman Academy and Woman’s Union College. In these prima ry and preparatory schools, some of our best educated young women find scope for their powers. One of these, Mrs. Si, is the daughter of a serving woman in one of our missionary families. The moeher, a Christian woman, but with little education herself, wanted her children educated, and this daughter, Shu Shan, after passing through the lower schools, went to Peking, took the full course of study and was graduated, but before the school had reach ed a complete college grade Shu Shan came home and was married and now makes a happy home for her husband, his old mother, and her own little one, and at the same time occupies the responsible ]iosition of head teacher in our girls’ boarding school, of which Miss Browne has chaige, her husband occupying the same position in the boys' boarding school. Miss Brow'iie finds her a faithful and ef ficient helper, one in whom she has the utmost confidence. All of our Christian women can read, more or less, though some of them were too old when the truth first reached them, to make large advances in learning. Many are quite equal to the work of teaching others, and of leading meetings, and some can conduct station classes in the country, with very little superintendence or help from the missionary women. And it is not only those who are in our employ as teachers or Bible women, but many of our other women, besides making happy Chris tian homes, are doing some kind of Chris tian work. Our little Missionary Society, which first opened the eyes of our women to a world outside of themselves, develop ed later into a Woman’s Christian Asso ciation, and still later became a Chris tian Endeavor Society in which all of the offices are held by the native women, and most of the work is done by them, though we have a place on some of the committees. They visit the hospital and dispensary to teach the women there; they go out on Sabbath afternoon to visit our “shut-ins” and hold little nieeling-s with them, or to heathen homes to tell the Glad Tidings; they have charge of their own and of the children’s meetings; they teach Sunday- school classes; and some of the older ones go out, now and then, at the invitation of
Elon University Student Newspaper
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Jan. 10, 1913, edition 1
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