THE CHANGING EAST

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 25 November 1927, Page 7

THE CHANGING EAST

FROM IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION. WORK OF THE EGYPT GENERAL MISSION. An interesting lantern lecture was given in the Hastings Assembly Hall last night by Mr. Alex Mill, representative of the Egypt General Mission. Beautifully coloured views of famous places in Palestine as well as of scenes in Egypt and the work of the Egypt General Mission were shown. Mr. R. L. Price presided over a good attendance and in introducing the speaker, stated Mr. Mill had a firsthand knowledge of the places portrayed on the screen. The lecturer outlined the changes now in process among Eastern peoples owing to the tremendous influence of the war and the spread of Western education and the circulation of the Bible in Arabic. Millions ta-day were feeling a trob of new aspirations and the growth of a spirit of nationalism among these people was disruptive of the old conditions of life. The Egypt General Mission was founded 30 vears ago by seven Belfast young men. explained the lecturer, and had now a staff of over 50 missionaries with a fine equipment. A largo hospital was maintained and a Moslem mazagine was published, having a wide circulation in the East. Work was done among the villages, and excellent schools were carried on. The work was entirely among the 13.000,000 Moslems of the Nile delta nt Cairo. Suez, Ismailia. Alexandria etc. Cairo was now the intellectual centre of the whole Mohammedan religion and the great EL Azhar University had an average of over 9,000 students. Over 70 Moslem newspapers were published in Cairo alone. If the Christian Missions could make an adequate imnact with the Gospel, upon the Moslem leaders in Cairo, the whole of North Africa, right through Turkey. Arabia, Persia. India and China would feel the influence. There was a great need for cultured Christian women, especially nurses to go to the degraded and down-trodden womanhood in Egypt with the gifts of a woman’s loving ministry and help to uplift these poor creatures out of the mire of superstition and ignorance, appalling in its dimensions. IGNORANCE OF WOMANHOOD. The ignorance of womanhood, continued the speaker, re-acted terribly upon the child life, up to 75 per cent, of the children in some Moslem lands dying in infancy. To teach these women home-keeping and child welfare would be. a great contribution by Christian nurses, and most of the ladies now going to the hospital work in Egypt were including a course of child welfare in their training. The mission was inviting the prayerful and practical co-operation of all Christian people and especially were keen to obtain the services of cultured and qualified young men and women to seize the splendid opportunities now presenting themselves, for the propagation of the enobling nrmciples and ethics of Christianity There was a magnificent field of Christian endeavour in nil Eastern lands to-dav for men and women of a consecrated and heroic type, in seeking to present to the masses the standards of nobler living and cultured character. Mr Mill wps heartily thanked at the close of his lecture.