MRS. GEO. E. HILL.
Sundays are our grand working days. As we have services morning and night, the afternoon is left free to meet the people in other ways.
Sometimes the women come to the “Home” for a prayer-meeting, or the little children come in to hear Bible-stories told or read. Sometimes I have a Bible-reading for boys. They come, bringing their Bibles, and pencil and paper, and I read them some of the precious verses marked in my own Bible, or choose some story like that of the Shunamite, which they are not familiar with.
Many of them read imperfectly, and so lose the full meaning of the words, and we find that the “old, old story” becomes new and strangely sweet as we read it aloud to them, with fresh emphasis and expression.
An old man once said to me, “If I had a hundred dollar bill, I’d give it in a minute if I could read the Bible.”
Last Sunday, I invited several boys to come and see me. I seated them round a table, and gave them eight or ten copies of “Life and Light” and “Missionary Herald” to look over. Choosing for my text the pictures, I talked an hour with them, and selected an interesting fact or incident for each one to give that night at our monthly missionary meeting.
A fine, large missionary map has been donated to the church by the Sunday school in Weymouth, Mass., which is very useful in showing the people the great world, about which they know so little.
The girls’ sewing-class has sent $38 to the Mendi Mission.
Our Sunday-school numbers about eighty, and is the pleasantest and most orderly school I have seen at the South. The children come to their classes neatly dressed, after the Saturday’s washing and ironing, and give quiet attention during the hour. We find blackboard illustrations helpful in fixing the thoughts of the lesson. One Sunday, twenty maps of Palestine were handed in, in connection with the lesson.
The Sunday-school concerts are a special attraction, and are attended by many from other churches. At our last, several prominent white citizens were present.