He came to the house every night for two weeks. When we opened our class in English he attended. We always had a lesson from the Bible, and the scholars had to learn scripture verses. One day this man came out boldly and said, “I am coming to the meetings.” By this time we had several of the leading citizens of the city attending our meetings. This young man has since been called to preach the Gospel to his people. Pray for him. The following is a copy of a note he wrote us when we left Leon.
“I am returning your book. I thank you so much for it. It has been a great blessing to me. Please pray for me, as I feel a call to preach the Gospel. Send me Bibles and tracts from your land for my people.”
Others came to the class, being anxious to learn English. The judge of the city, doctors, lawyers, and many others heard the Gospel preached. To one young man who came to the class we gave a Bible in English, and one day he came to ask us some questions. The priests had told the natives we were nice people but were teaching error, for we taught people to read the Bible and the Bible was a very bad book, and they must not read it. But this precious boy was convicted of sin, and was seeking God. We asked him to pray the Lord to forgive his sins, and then to believe that God did it. He asked for a prayer-book, so he could pray. We told him we never used prayer-books; we simply asked God to forgive us and save us from our sins. He was sweetly saved and went away to bring a cousin to the meetings. This cousin was also saved. These two were among our brightest pupils. They could read and speak English quite well in a few months.
One morning, very early, before we were up, there came a knock on our door and a little brown-faced Indian girl appeared. She was about thirteen years old, and very pretty. She asked us to take her as a servant. She had nowhere to go, and had been sleeping in the market. As I looked at that dear little brown face and heard her story I looked up to my Heavenly Father and breathed a prayer that He would remember the thousands who, like her, had no home and were perishing. We told her we would take her, and I wish my readers might have seen that dear little face light up with joy because she would have a home with the missionaries. She was a very bright girl, and very quick to learn. Soon she could play the organ and sing the Gospel hymns. How she did love to go to the meetings and to read her Bible!
Carl’s Ball and Bat
Carl had a ball and a bat which had been brought from the homeland, and in the daytime he would go out into the small park near the house, gather all the boys from the streets, and play ball with them. They had never seen a ball or a bat before, and it was all very wonderful to them. Carl’s face would become very red from the heat, and the children thought it queer to see a red-faced boy with such white hair, and such peculiar things as the ball and bat. He would play with them until lunch-time, then they would come home with him, and he would get his Bible, read from it, and tell them of Jesus, and numbers of them were brought to God in this way.
Carl, with his boys