The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1899, Page 6

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4

6 The Lutheran Pioneer.

People of the Philippines.

The well dressed people presented in our
picture evidently belong to the better class
of Philippinos. The Jarger number of the in-
habitants of those islands are not educated.

They have suffered for centuries under the bar- |

barian rule of Spain and the spiritual bond-
age of the Roman church. Since Spain’s rule

has come to an end, there is hope that the’

islands will be opened to the light of the Gos-
pel preached by Protestant missionaries.

The Philippinos are said to take life easy.
Their requirements are few. The sum of $25
will provide a native household with a dwell-
ing of its own and ample furniture.

Under a genial climate on a soil lavishly
grateful for the slightest tending; by waters

Dying, especially in the Niger Delta, is made
| very terrible.
insensible, violent means are taken to restore
| the spirit to the body.
}the nose and into the eyes.
propped open with a stick.
The shredded fibres of the outside of the
| oil-nut are set alight and held under the nose,
and the whole crowd of friends and relations
—with whom the stifling hot hut is tightly
| packed—yell the dying man’s name at the
'top of their voices, in a way that makes them
|hoarse for days, just as if they were calling
!for a person lost in the bush, or to a person

The mouth is

| struggling and being torn or lured away from |

them.

}back. See here. This is your place,’’ etc.

teeming with fish; they know naught of|If a2 woman dies, leaving a child over six
hunger, and have much time left for amuse- | months old, special care is taken to pacify

ments. They are fond of dancing,
of public rejoicings on the smallest
occasion, and of music (for which
they have a natural talent, so that
there is scarcely a commune without
a fairly-trained brass band), and of
gambling. Cock-fighting is the na-
tional sport, and no mean source of
revenue to the authorities. Almost
every native owns a fighting fowl,
which is as dear to him as her lap
dog to a European lady. He carries
it about with him, and bets his last
j dollar on its performance in the
arena.

The native is an intermittent
rather than a steady worker; and
his delight in feasts and holidays,
and his content, which passes him
off as rich in his own mind with $10
in his purse, make him, as a laborer
—docile as he is, and willing to
please—a source of frequent annoyance to
his employers.

The bulk of the natives are of a race akin
tothe Malays. Pure Malays are settled only
on the coasts of certain islands, where at times
they give the authorities some trouble. In the
interior of Luzon and some of the other islands
the remnants of a race of natives of Papuan
origin are found, still as untamed and given
to roving through the forests as the Spaniards
found them 800 years ago. Like their Aus-
tralian kinsmen, they fly from civilization and

succumb when forced into contact with it.
i

Dying in West Africa.

Miss Mary H. Kingsley, who in 1895 made
explorations in West Africa, and later stepped
at once into the front rank among travelers
and writers, by her description of her remark-
“able experiences, tells about the superstitions
and customs of the natives, who are chiefly
uw ce rule of the witch doctor. Concern-

People of the Philippine Islands.

her, lest her spirit should come back for the
little one.

The child is brought in and held just in
front of the dead mother. Then it is gradu-
ally smuggled out of the hut while a bundle of
plantains is put in with the body. Very young
children they do not attempt to keep, but throw
them away in bush alive.

The under-world to which the spirit goes
after death, is regarded by Negroes and Ban-
tus as just the same as this world, only dim-
mer. ‘‘One day in this world is worth a year
in Srahmandazi.’” ;

——_s +e
How she knew it was God’s Book.

——.

She sat behind her neatly-arranged fruit
stand—a girl of fourteen — absorbed in read-
ing her Bible. She did not hear the footsteps
of a gentleman who was passing by, and was
startled by his question:

*“‘What are you reading that interests you
so much???

“The Word of God, sir,’? she timidly re-
plied.

When the patient has become |

Pepper is forced up.

“Hi, hi, don’t you hear? come back, come |

““Who told you that the Bible is the Word of
God ?’’ he inquired.

‘God told me Himself,’’ she replied with
childlike innocence.

“‘God told you? Impossible! How did He
tell you? You have never seen Him, nor talked
with Him. How, then, could He tell you that
the Bible is His Word?”’

For a few seconds the girl seemed confused,
but she very soon recovered herself, and her
| ready wit came to her aid. ‘There was a flash
in her dark eyes as she asked:

‘Sir, who told you there is a sun yonder in
the blue sky above us?"’

‘*Who told me?’’ said the man, smiling some-
| what contemptuously ; for he fancied that the
girl was trying to hide her ignorance under an
irrelevant question. ‘‘Who told me? Nobody,
|Idid not need to be told. The sun tells me
| this about itself. It warms me, and I love its
light. That is telling me plain
enough.”’

‘‘Sir,’’ said the girl with intense
earnestness, as she stood before
him with clasped hands, ‘‘you have
put it right for both Bible and sun.
That is the way God tells me this
is His book, I read it, and it warms
my heart and gives me light. I love
its light, and no one but God can
give such light and warmth through
the pages of a book. It must be
His. I do not want more telling;
that is telling enough, sir. As sure
as the sun is in heaven, so sure is
God shining through this book.’’

The skeptic was abashed. The
earnest faith of the young fruit-
seller amazed him. He could
adroitly insinuate doubts into the
minds of those who have only given
an intellectual assent to the truth
that the Bible is God’s book, but the girl’s
heart experience of the power of God’s Word
was an evidence he could not shake. —M. H.

| ——s- +e or

| Sir Isaac Newton and Dr. Halley.

The noted naturalist, Newton, was as a
youth a decided unbeliever, but in later years
he investigated the witnesses of Holy Scripture
carefully and became as decided a Christian.
When the similarly famous astronomer, Dr.
Edmund Halley, expressed his unbelief before
|him, Newton said to him: ‘‘Dr. Halley, I
| always like to hear you, when you talk on

astronomy, mathematics and such things, for
these you have studied and understand. But
you should not speak on the Bible, for you do
not understand it, because you have not care-
fully investigated it. I have examined it, and
am certain that you know nothing of the
matter.”? This admonition suits to the un-
believers of to-day. ‘They speak of things

of which they know nothing.
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