The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 120

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120

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

» that I may get in touch with every one of the con-
stantly changing audience. It often happens that
not one of the adults who was there when the service
started is still there when it ends.

“When the sermon is ended, I point to a large
poster pinned to the wall behind me. Then I have
about a ten-minute address concerning the picture
— visual evangelism. At the same time, beginning
in the rear, we distribute tracts on which the picture
on the poster is reproduced in miniature together
with a short explanation. When that is all done,
I once more refer to the Bible lying before me,
showing that all I have said are not my own
thoughts, but is taken from the Bible, which is
God’s inspired Word. Then I hold up a number of
Bible portions and ask them to buy one to take
home to read. Often we sell from ten to twenty
copies in one evening.

“(ast year I dreaded to preach at this place on
account of the audience of hard-boiled coolies.
this year my student returned to the seminary, and
I had to do it, and now it is a distinct pleasure,
especially also since now we have gathered a small
group of more than ten who are taking instruction,
whereas in the first two years we garnered no fruits
at all.”

The White Mother of Calabar.

It.is a pleasure and an inspiration to read the
story of a life so unselfish, so devoted to the service
of the Master, and so successful in unremitting
efforts for the uplift of the degraded African tribes
among whom the greater part of it was spent.

The first twenty-eight years of Mary Slessor’s
life (1848—1876) were spent in the mills as a
Scotch factory girl. These early years gave little
indication of the energy and mental power which
later made her such a successful pioneer missionary.

She was the daughter of a shoemaker and was
born in Aberdeen, Scotland, December 2, 1848. Her
father became intemperate, and after the removal
of the family to Dundee there was a long period of
struggle and hardship. At the early age of eleven
Mary was sent to the mills to earn her living as a
' Weaver during half a day, while the other half she
spent in school. She soon became an expert and
well-paid worker and eventually was the mainstay
of the family.

For fourteen years, the freshest years of her life,
Mary toiled for ten hours a day in a factory; yet
all this time her interest in the Church and in mis-

i

But .

sions was keen and constantly grew. She read the
best books she could find, and her bright intellect
expanded under the influence of master minds.
Constant study of the Bible gave her style a Biblical
tone, which it never lost. In her young girlhood she
became interested in the mission at Calabar, Africa,
of which she heard from returned missionaries.

It was intended that her brother John should go
to Calabar as a missionary, and when he died in
early boyhood, Mary immediately conceived the de-
sire to take his place. She longed to go to that
difficult field, where conditions were formidable and
where the natives were said to be the most degraded:
of any in Africa. The missionaries described them
with such words as “bloody,” “savage,” “crafty,”
“cruel,” “cannibals,” and “murderers.” Yet it was
to these people that Mary Slessor’s heart turned.
In 1875 she offered her services to the Foreign Mis-
sion Board of the Free Church of Scotland and was
immediately accepted. After some months of spe-
cial preparation she sailed for Africa on August 5,
1876, and began the long period of strenuous ser-
vice which lasted until her death, thirty-nine years
later.

The second period of Miss Slessor’s life covers
the twelve years of her work at Duketown (1876
to 1888). On her arrival in Calabar she entered
with enthusiasm into the work which she had al-
ready begun at Duketown, close to the coast. She
was appalled at the ignorance and superstition of
the natives among whom three or four missionaries.
were laboring with slight success.

Calabar has one of the worst climates in the
world, combining tropical heat with great humidity.
Diseases of all kinds are prevalent, and the land has
been fatal to many Europeans who have gone there.
As Mary Slessor seems from the first to have dis-
regarded the rules of health, it is a wonder that her
life was spared so long. She felt the necessity of
sending a large share of her meager salary to sup-
port her mother and sister in Scotland, and in order
to do this, she lived on native food in the most
frugal way. She wore her hair short, always went
bareheaded, even in the intense heat of a tropical
sun, and never wore shoes or stockings, except as.
a concession to the conventions when among [uro-
peans. She refused even the protection of a mos-
quito net, and we are not surprised to find that she
soon began to suffer from malaria and other
troubles, which made it necessary for her to return
to Scotland for a short furlough in 1879.

When she was well enough to go back to Africa,.