Not only have the Rhenish missionaries won a large harvest from among the Bataks, but they are winning also many converts from among the Mohammedans, a much more difficult task. The effect of the Christian religion is described in a letter from a Rhenish missionary in Sumatra. [Sidenote: A Land Transformed.] “What a difference between now and thirteen years ago! Then everything was unsafe; no one dared to go half an hour’s distance from his village; war, robbery, piracy and slavery reigned everywhere. Now there is a free, active Christian life, and churches full of attentive hearers. The faith of our young Christians is seen in their deeds. They have renounced idolatrous customs; they visit the sick, and pray with them; they go to their enemies and make conciliation with them. This has often made a powerful impression on the heathen, because they saw that the Christians could do what was impossible to heathen--they could forgive injuries. Many heathen have been so overcome by this conduct of the Christians that they came to us and said: ‘The Lord Jesus has conquered.’” The failure of Mohammedanism to meet the deep need of the human soul is shown in another letter from a Rhenish missionary in the same field. [Sidenote: In the Last Hour.] “Here I must make mention of the faithful Asenath, whom on the last day of the old year we committed to the bosom of the earth. After an illness patiently endured for two years she felt her end approaching. As the last provision for her way she wished yet once more to enjoy the Holy Supper. I administered it to her in her roomy house before a large assemblage. As I was about to give her the bread she said, ‘Let me first pray.’ And now the woman, who for weeks had not been able to sit upright, straightened herself up, and prayed for fully ten minutes, as if she would fain pray away every earthly care out of her heart. I have seldom heard a woman pray in such wise. Thereupon she received the sacred elements. The next day I found with her a Mohammedan chieftain, who on taking leave wished her health and long life. ‘What say you?’ she replied, ‘after that I have no further longing. My wish is now to go to heaven, to my Lord. Death has no longer any terrors for me.’ Astonished, the Mohammedan replied: ‘Such language is strange to us. We shrink and cower before death, and therefore use every means possible to recover and live long.’