Anders Ohlsson, God's Letter-ca.rrier

Extraordinary Missionary Zeal. - When one of the Moravian mis~ionaries who bad been sent to the West Indies, tbe1·e to work among the slaves, found that he could not reach them as a free man, he became a slave himself, went with them to their work, bore with them all their hai·dsbips, and thus gained their confidence and their willingness to hear his message of God's love. - We have in this example of self-sacrifice a faint reflection of that infinite love of Jesus who, to save the world, left His heavenly throne and glory and took upon Himself the form of a servant, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Work Among the Blind in Egypt. - The Church Missionary Society has received from Gindi Effendi Ibrahim, himself blind, an account of the efforts to help the blind of Egypt. The number of those in the country who are blind or who have only one eye is no less than half a million. Since 1923 Gindi Effendi has been in charge of this work. In 1925 be opened a school near the Azhar University, the great center of Moslem learning. Not only did be teach the sheiks who came to him to read the Bible in Braille, but he also taught the.m some handicraft to enable them to gain a living. Many of these sheiks afterwards visited him to ask questions relating to Christianity. Much success is hoped from this work, as the sheiks in turn go out as teachers to the ·blind all over the country.

How . True! -

"If we give our religion and church 'the leavings' of our time and strength, then they will indeed become things 'left.' If we give our religion our best, it will be the most exalt~d and blessed presence in our life."

Unprecedented Wealth. - Despite the prevailing. depression no nation in the world's history has ever controlled such enormous wealth of food, gold, and material resources as America has to-day. . With only one-fifteenth of the world's population the United States has nearly one half the world's gold; $28,485,000,000 in savings deposits; more than 2,000,000,000 bushels of corn and nearly 1,000,000,000 bushels of wheat in elevators and granaries; 8,000,000,000 pounds of cotton; 62 per cent. of the world's petrole~, 70 pei: cent. of the world's life insurance, and 75 per cent. of the world's automobiles. Conditions may be bad in our country, but they are almost incomparably better than they are in other parts of the world, both as to prevailing unemployment and adverse economic conditions. Anders Ohlsson, God's Letter-Carrier.

The following remarkable narrative is condensed from an article which appeared in the Bible Society R ecord several years ago : · Although he had been in the country only a few hours and could not yet speak a word of Turkish, Anders Ohlsson did not hesitate to lay a gospel on the desk of each of the Turkish officials before whom, he appeared in the tedious business of securing his residence permit. His guide and translator, better versed in the customs of Turkey, rather gasped at his boldness. But there ,vas such a manifest light of simple earnestness and love in his eyes that even the crustiest o:f officials accepted Anders's debatable gift with politeness. So began the work for which, in a few months, he was to lay down his life.

Bit by bit I came to understand something of how he had come to Turkey. He bad sold his little farm in Sweden and set out into the world as a distributor of Bibles and gospels, buying Scriptures with his own money and giving them away to all whom he met. He had been on the road :five years or more when he reached Constantinople. In some countries he bad been well received; in others, notably in Roumania, he had suffered over a dozen imprisonments. But if was all one to Anders;· for he never seemed to think of bodily comfort, ·and: his prison audiences were more heedful than those of the street-corner and market-place.

After such experiences in Christian countries he came to Turkey, quietly prepared to suffer death at the hands of the Mohammedans, of whom he had heard so many savage tales. But as he went up and down the streets of Constantinople week after week, distributing gospels and being met only with kindness, he formed a landlier estimate of the Turks. "How I love the Turkish people I" he often used to exclaim. ''How kind they are 1 How much they need to be loved !"

Nothing could have been simpler than his method of work. He would stop in front of each shop, which was seldom inore than a cubby-hole opening on the street, and discover by a word or two what language the proprietor spoke. Taking from his satchel a gospel in that language, he would present it with the words, "A letter from God." As he passed down a street distributing these "letters'' to every one, there were quiet smiles at his simplicity; but they were kindly smiles. The utter childlike sincerity of the man made its impression

even when no worcl wns spoken. In those warrens of old streets thnt line both shores o.f the Golden Horn, the memory o.f the bloncl stranger who gave out "letters from Goel" wiJl not soon be forgotten.

I remember a sunny morning when Anders had been cajoled into joining a Bible-society picnic, ancl we were leisurely dressing and enjoying that sense of well-being which follows a clip and a sun-bath. Three Turks, who had finished their swim, passed the time o.f day with us as they went by. "What are they?" asked Anders, hurrying into his shirt.

I did not understand bis question. "What do they speak?" he repeated, almost impatiently.

In a second he had taken three Turkish gospels from his satchel and was running after the Turks,

A Bible Colporteur.

his long white legs making great play in the sun, his untrammeled shirt-tails streaming in the wind of his progress. It was a situation perilously near to laughter, yet redeemed and transfigured by the _ white-hot spirit of the man, which made him more concerned. about the spiritual ,velfare of passing strangers than with his1 own want of trousers.

Aiier some months the Constantinople police picked him up and questioned him as -to his work. He had already informed them fully of what he had proposed to do at the time of his arrival.· One of the three officers examining him began to use · rough m~thods and threatened him with immediate expulsion from Turkey. "I say that's too bad," interposed one of the others with a smile. "This gentleman has just been kind enough to bring me a letter from God." ".And one to me," said the third. 'Tiie fact, is/'· -they expostulated, "in the whole of Turkey God has only one nostman, and him you arc threatening to expel!"

Anders finally agreed not to give away Scriptures, which was regarded as illegal "religious propaganda," but to sell them instead. "As long as you sell your books, you are the guest of Turkey and can go where you please and remain as long as you like," he was told.

Shortly after this he set out to see what could be done since the American Bible Society colporteur had left with the rest of the nati , 1e Christian population five years ago. He found that he could easily sell quite a number of New Testaments every day and that no one interfered. The door that had appeared so fast shut had opened at his first touch, and he entered unhesitatingly.

There came a day in December, 1926, when an anxious friend sbo,ved me a letter in which Anders stated that be was at death's door with :fever and was writing in an interval of lucidity between spells when the :fever mounted to his brain. On coming to, he found himself lying on a wet mattress spread on the mud floor of some poor, ignorant folk with whom he had taken lodging. He had asked for some dry straw into which to crawl hoping that he might recover. This alarming lette1· was then over three weeks old, and no further word could be obtained :from him. Fortunately there is an American school for girls in that city, and the ladies in charge were told about him. They found him in the isolation ward of the Turkish hospital, recovering from an attack of the deadly typhus, which was so severe that the doctors were astonished that he had not succumbed. In a short time he came out and settled in a cheap rooming-house. He was ,,ery much emaciated and weakened; but the desire to be at work again drove him out into the streets despite the pleadings of his new friends.

One day a messenger came to the school to say that 'Mr. Ohlsson was very ill. '11hey found him stretched on a springless sofa, breathing very hard and plainly suffering with penumonia. Before arrangements could be made for his admission to the hospital, night had fallen, and his transfer had to . be postponed till the next day. But while the . teachers were still at break--fast, word came that hewas dead.

There is no Christian church nor pastor in that city, and the ladies decided to ship tl}.e body to Constantinople. As the coffin was about to be sealed, the school servant said to the peering crowd of spectators and officials ,who crowded the room, "Everybody has his own customs at a tim~ like this. Please