The American Missionary — Vol. 33, No. 3, March, 1879Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Vol. 33, No. 3, March, 1879
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
This thought pleased little Sallie. Soon after she put on her hat, took
her Bible, and went out, Christ’s little missionary. She stood erect,
she stepped light, she looked happy; she was going out to do good for
Jesus. No doubt His love was warm in her heart just then. We always
feel love to God when for His sake we try to do good to men.
She did not know it, but the teacher who suggested her mission followed
to see what she would do. When she turned a street corner, he turned it
soon after her. At last she entered a little house, such as many of the
colored people live in. It was made of boards, one story high, and had
only one room. The day was warm. The door was open. He went to it and
looked in. I will try to tell you what he saw.
Sallie sat in a chair with her Bible in her lap, reading. One colored
woman was, seemingly, busy at a table, ironing clothes. But her
iron went back and forth nearly in the same place, while she looked
away, eyes and mouth open, to little Sallie, to whom she listened
attentively. Another had ceased from her work, and, leaning against
the wall, looked down upon our little missionary in a most loving,
motherly way. A third was sitting at her feet and gazing with her
great, dark face into the face of Sallie, who, in a low, sweet voice,
was reading: “He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for
our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with
His stripes we are healed.” Was it not beautiful? You know this is a
prophesy of Christ, written many hundred years, before the sufferings
it describes, which Jesus bore for us. Find the fifty-third chapter of
Isaiah and read it for yourselves, my young friends, and think that
Sallie read it to those poor colored women; and as you go over these
verses, may the same love and joy fill your hearts as filled hers.
* * * * *
Remember, also, that you, too, may be workers for Christ in some way.
It may not be in Sallie’s way. She used to sing “There’ll be something
in Heaven for children to do.” There is something for them to do on
earth, too. Seek God’s guidance and He will show you what. Christ says
that if we give even a cup of water to any one, for His sake, we shall
not lose our reward. Sallie did not work for pay, but she had her
reward in the consciousness that she was pleasing Jesus and doing good
to those women.
* * * * *
Many years have passed since the time of this narrative. Little Sallie
is now a young woman. Through the aid of kind friends she completed
the course of studies in the Normal department of Fisk University, and
is now teaching colored children in the far-off State of Texas. The
freed people of the South need such teachers; they need also ministers
of their own race; and many missionaries are needed for Africa.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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