Come Up, King George

A missionary brought with her from India a little Indian girl, six years old, and they both came to stay in my home. On the Saturday after the lamented death of the good King George the Fifth, the missionary and the little girl accompanied my wife and myself to our Church. After we had been there a little while the Indian girlie asked me if she could go into the pulpit. She spoke very little English, but made herself understood. I gave my permission, and up she went. At first she imitated my actions, as she had seen them on the previous Sunday, then she began to look very serious and prattled away in Hindustani, and I noticed that she repeated the word "Tick" six times, and then went on talking in her native tongue. I looked at the missionary and saw that she had her eyes fastened very intently on the child. When the little one had finished she very quietly and solemnly came out of the pulpit. I then asked the missionary what the girl had said, and she told me that they had listened to the wireless reports before the King died, and that the child had been repeating, in the pulpit, what she remembered of these reports. The six "ticks" represented the time signal, and after, the girlie had said solemnly, in Hindustani, "No change, no change," and then, "The King is dead." She then added, quite her own thought, "Jesus said, King George, come up, and King George went." How lovely was this from a little Indian girlie, only six years old! When the missionary had told us all that the little one had said, we became quite silent, and I think tears came to our eyes. The little one knew in her own heart that those who love Jesus go to be with Him when their time on earth is over. In her prayers at night time she spoke as if Jesus was just beside her, and she would often sing most earnestly in broken English, "Jesus loves me, this I know."

I wonder if all the boys and girls listening to me sing this as earnestly as she did—yes, and as she still does, for I hear about her now. She sings this hymn to the children of India. I pray that she may be the mea' of leading them, many of them, to love Jesus too. A missionary six years old! What a wonderful exam* to her little English brothers and sisters.

Let us all imitate her and become little missionaries amongst our own schoolmates and chums.