ALBANIA.
OUR colporteur started on March 4th for a tour in South Albania. He proceeded first to Philiates, where he sold forty copies, and had daily conversation with the people in the streets and the shops. After visiting four villages in the neighborhood and selling a few copies, he proceeded to Paramythia, where he stayed several days, was kindly received, sold fifty copies, and found a pleasing spirit of inquiry.
He had daily talks with the people, and found much interest to ascertain what the Scriptures really taught, whilst all acknowledged the urgent need for the preaching of the gospel as the only remedy, under the teachings of the Divine Spirit, for mankind.
The people are thirsting for the Word of God, and there is none to preach it to them.
In one town the bishop endeavored, but happily in vain, to induce the governor to drive the colporteur away, but attained his object more effectually by sending out everywhere an encyclical, warning the people against speaking to him or buying the Scriptures. In Leskovik, a large Albanian village, he found a great desire to hear the gospel, and stayed ten days, reading one evening and conversing upon Matt. 13 in a cafe, to the great joy of the people. Premet, which he next visited, he describes as superior to most other towns for intelligence and moral earnestness, for the people received him kindly and invited him daily to their shops for information as to how a sinner could be saved. He sold there forty copies, and left with joy for a cluster of six villages named Zagoreion, hitherto unvisited by any colporteur. In the first, Séperi, he found the teacher a most excellent man, loving Christ and His work, and longing for the coming of the kingdom of God with power. He sold there thirty copies. In the next village he was barbarously treated, mocked, spit upon, and could not even get bread. He endured this for two days, and proceeded to Topovon, where he found the teacher friendly, and sold eight copies. In the next village he was treated worse than ever, and was struck, and thrice refused bread, till a stranger kindly relieved his wants. In the next village he met with cold indifference and neglect, while in the sixth and last he met still greater difficulties, the people meeting together one day to beat him and drive him away with disgrace. He quieted them, however, a good deal by reading to them Matt. 5 in Albanian, in consequence o' which the priest bought an Albanian New Testament.—The Bible Society Reporter.
BEAS.
BEAS, the latest child of the Medical Mission, is in some ways the most interesting. Here there is neither town nor village, but a railway station, the centre for a densely populated district.
The field is a most interesting one. The villages are not only those of Sikhs, but of the flower of the Sikh people. The friendliness of the people is something wonderful; they welcome the preacher as a dear friend, listen with intelligent interest to his message, and treat him with considerate kindness because of the hospital which has brought "life even into this wilderness," as they say.
A curious feature of the work here is that while the low caste people will, in matters religious, as a rule, have nothing to say to us, though friendly in the extreme, the landowners, farmers, and people of the higher classes welcome us and gladly receive our message. “Stop!" said a stalwart Sikh in a village one clay, as the preacher began, “we have that book of Christ's, but we do not understand it, do not preach but read it with us." They ran to their houses, and returned with several New Testaments, and the preaching in that heathen village resolved itself into a Bible-reading.
In another village, after some very happy preaching, a fine Sikh said, “Look here, brothers, we must know about these things; there is a lad here who can read. We will get this book of Christ, and in the evenings he shall read to us, when the day's work is done."
Short as has been the time this branch has been at work, Beas has already given its first fruits to the harvest of the Lord. A “holy man " has been baptized with his wife and family, five souls in all. We found him outside his village, sitting, as "holy men" sometimes do, in ashes—greatly respected. He had dived into Pantheistic philosophy, and believed himself to be God. He was almost naked, he had not washed, it seemed, for ten years—a proof of his extreme sanctity. The poor weary heart had, nevertheless, never found rest. After some talks, the “holy man “became a disciple.
We washed him; after repeated scrubbings we reached the real man through the accretions of years —no bad type this of what was going on in the inner man—the darkness of Pantheism melted away, in due time he saw himself as a sinner, and he accepted as his Lord and God Him who came to save the lost. He and his are now happy in the light. Beas stands by the river, on the highway to the South.— The Church Missionary Gleaner.
ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER HO-NAN.
ONE old woman who must have been quite seventy years of age followed us all day long from one little group to another, and listened most attentively. In the afternoon the meaning of what was said seemed to dawn upon her, and she interrupted us and leaned forward and said, “But do you say that it is for me—that this wonderful SAVIOUR can forgive my sins? am an old woman of seventy, and I never heard about it before. Is it really for me?”
I shall never forget watching that old woman's face. She stood a little apart from the rest of the crowd who were saying good-bye to us with effusive kindness. I heard her say a little prayer that we had been teaching them that day—a few words, just a little sentence. She repeated it many times while I listened before I had to go away. "JESUS SAVIOUR, dear JESUS, I pray Thee to forgive my sins, and take me to heaven.”—China's Millions.