CHAPTER XXIII.

BIBLE-READERS-ZENANA-TEACHERS.

house to house to

ACH of the Woman's For

EACH

eign Missionary Societies gives employment to a very efficient class of laborers called Biblereaders. These are native women who have been taught the very rare accomplishment of reading, and, becoming converts to the Christian faith, are willing to brave the superstitions and prejudices of their country-women, and spend at least a portion of their time in going from read the Bible, and teach Christ

to such as will listen. In this manner the influence of one foreign Christian lady, who teaches several Bible-readers, is endlessly multiplied; through this agency the doctrines of the Book of books are quietly but surely overthrowing error, and establishing the truth.

These Bible-readers have the advantage of speaking in their mother tongue, and being familiar with the life and methods of thought of those to whom they are sent. Nothing can take the place of a living teacher inspired by a deep interest in the subject

under consideration, and these godly, self-sacrificing women are accomplishing a thousand-fold more good than could be expected from the scattering of any amount of tracts and good books unmixed with explanation or verbal instruction. Even those listeners who are not converted are purified and elevated by that which they hear. Says a writer on missions:

"There is profound truth in what the simple Tamul woman said to the missionary at Madras. She went to the lady for her weekly Bible lesson; her teacher found that she remembered but little of what she had taught her the week before, and she said, 'It is of no use teaching you; you forget every thing; your mind is just like a sieve: as fast as I pour knowledge in, it runs out again.' The woman looked up at her teacher, and said, 'Yes, it is very true what you tell me; my my mind is just like a sieve; I am very sorry I forget so much; but then, you know, when you pour clean water into a sieve, though it all runs out again, it makes the sieve clean. I am sorry I have forgotten so much of what you told me last week, but what you did tell me made my mind clean, and I have come again to-day.' The Bible is the great social purifier, and the missionaries go on pouring the water into the sieve, and, though it runs away and seems to be unprofitably spilt upon the ground, yet the private, the domestic, the public, and the national life of the people is all the cleaner for it."

Sometimes the Bible-readers are not welcomed by the people, and are driven away from the houses they seek to enter; but more frequently they gain admittance, and succeed in scattering the good seed of truth where no other agency would be tolerated. They sometimes visit the homes of the better classes, and instruct the secluded inmates; but more frequently they gather the laboring women around them, and in a field, or under a way-side tree, or in some lowly hut they pour the truth into the ears

of ten or fifteen eager listeners, who have not been accustomed to such loving attention. In this manner they each year read and talk and pray with hundreds of poor wives and mothers who would not listen to a gentleman, or even to a foreign lady, but from these Christian women of their own race hear the Word of Life gladly.

One Bible-reader in India says of these poor laboring women who thirst for knowledge:

"We are much interested in their welfare. The women rise at dawn, and, after cooking the morning meal, go to the fields. At dusk they return, and before breaking their long fast must grind the wheat and prepare the vegetables. When supper is cooked and eaten it is eight or nine o'clock. This was the only time we could find them at leisure. We held a service with them each evening, but could not wonder that some of them seemed too dull and tired to listen well. One evening the women gathered about me as they came in from the fields. After talking and singing with them awhile, I said, 'Now go and cook your supper, I know you are hungry!' They replied, 'No, no, talk to us more; we are only hungry for a sight of your face!' They look up with simple confidence to us for teaching, and accept all our words as true. We hope they may be so enlightened by the good Spirit as to be as leaven amid the dense population around them."

I shall never forget the large company of Biblewomen who came up from all parts of the vast and promising field, to the Annual Meeting of the Methodist Episcopal Mission at Foochow, China, in October, 1873. Such devotion, such zeal, and such good sound sense as they displayed in conversing upon their work and the methods they employed, and in giving their reports for the year, find a parallel in but few departments of our Church work.*

*See Frontispiece.

A letter written by Mrs. S. M. Sites from Foochow in 1872 gives some interesting information in regard to the beginning of this particular kind of effort in that mission.

"The introduction of 'deaconesses,' or Bible-women, was a novel feature of missionary work to our native Church in China; and it will still require some length of time to get the idea fully before our people. In beginning this work, we have not only to instruct these women more clearly in their knowledge of Christian doctrines, but often to teach them to read, beginning with the catechism, the Gospels, and the hymns, as translated in their own Chinese characters.' We have now ten Bible-women employed and under instruction, four of whom have domestic cares which require half their time, and hence they receive only half-pay. Of one of the latter class, allow me to quote from a note from my husband, written at Sieng-Yu, one hundred and ten miles from Foochow, Sunday, 28th of last April: 'Mrs. Ting, our deaconess in this place, is a bright, intelligent-looking woman. In three months she has learned to read all the catechism, and recite part of it; also eight chapters of Matthew's Gospel, and sixteen hymns. She teaches the sisters on Sundays, and already visits some, in company with older women. Toward evening, as she sat in her room with her babe on her lap, I heard her voice in clear, happy tones, as she studied and repeated her catechism. Do you not think she gives promise of being useful?'

"Mrs. Wong, of Hing Hwa City, seventy-five miles from Foochow, was one of the first to enter upon the work of deaconess. She was under the special instruction of Elder Hü Po Mi in that city. She devoted most of her time, the first year, to learning to read and understand more fully the doctrines of salvation. In the mean time she acted as class-leader for the female class, took her place in quarterly conferences, and reported quite as satisfactorily as did her brother classleaders. Since the beginning of the present year she has been more active in outside work. During the first month, when the people have holiday and visit much, Mrs. Wong expressed her desire to visit among her friends and embrace the opportunity thus afforded to tell them of the religion of Jesus. This she did, and on one occasion went with her friends to