IN the large playground of a Christian school in Beirut is an arbor where several girls of the school were accustomed to meet just at sunset for a prayer meeting. They had organized this meeting by themselves, and one day the teacher asked, “What do you call your meeting?”
“Oh! we call it the ‘Evening Star,’ because when the sun sets the evening star comes out, and so, when the sun sets our little meeting is held, and we have named it the Evening Star.”
“And what do you pray for at the ‘Evening Star’?” asked the teacher.
“Oh! we pray for our teachers; but especially we pray for a new heart.”
GOWAHATIS.
IN the western part of the State of New York there is a territory known as the “Cattaraugas Reservation.” This is the home of the Senecas, one of the tribes of the Iroquois, or Six Nations of Indians of Western New York. There were six tribes that in the early history of our country formed a confederacy or union, and were sometimes called the Huron-Iroquois; one tribe was called by the Dutch “Sinnekaas,” which at length became “Senecas.” A secretary of the board of missions connected with one of the leading religious denominations visited the Reservation a year or so ago, and he tells us many interesting facts connected with these Indians and concerning the work of the missionaries among them. Fifty years ago most of these people were benighted Pagans worshiping false gods, but to-day there is probably not a dozen persons among the four thousand who have any veneration for heathen worship. This does not mean that all love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. When you say that you live in a Christian land or in a Christian community, you do not mean that all the people in the land or in the community are real Christians, but you mean that all or at least the most of the people believe in Christianity.
Now how did it come about that these ignorant worshipers of false gods have become a Christian nation? You are not surprised to learn that it has been brought about through the efforts of a few earnest and faithful missionaries who have given their lives to the work of lifting up this people. But it is the story of Gowahatis that I started to tell you. She was the step-daughter of Red Jacket, a noted Seneca chief, who received his name from wearing a scarlet coat given him, during the Revolutionary War, by a British officer. Red Jacket was bitterly opposed to the Christian religion, to missionaries, schools and teachers. This step-daughter, Gowahatis, was called “Aunt Ruth” by the missionaries.