Topsy-Turvy Land | Page 3

verse from the Koran sewn up in leather or a string
of blue beads, which are supposed to drive away evil influences.
How very thankful girls should be that in all Christian lands they have
a higher place and a better lot than the poor girls and women of Arabia!
For the greatest contrast is the religion of the inhabitants of

Topsy-turvy Land. That is all upside down too. The Lord Jesus teaches
us to pray in secret not to be seen of men; we are to go quietly alone
and tell God everything. But Mohammed, the prophet of Arabia, taught
his followers to pray openly on any street corner, or on the deck of a
ship, in public, just like the Pharisees whom Jesus condemns. And
when these people fast, as they are supposed to for a whole month, they
do not really go without food, but each day at sunset they begin to eat
in larger quantity than usual!--because they think by such fasting to
gain favour with God and do not know that to fast from sin and evil
habits is the fast God wants. Another thing very sad in this land of
Topsy-turvy is that there are no Sunday-schools--they do not observe
our Sabbath--and the boys and girls do not have bright Sunday-school
lesson leaves or a picture-roll. They spend Sunday and every other day
in learning all the evil they see in those that are grown up. Poor
children! They have never heard the sweet words of Jesus, "Suffer little
children to come unto me and forbid them not: for of such is the
kingdom of God." We tell you all this about them that you may pray for
them that God may soon send more missionaries to preach to them
these precious words. We want you all by prayer and offerings to help
put a silver lining in the dark clouds of their lives.
The other chapters in this little book will tell you more about the land
and its people and as you read them do not forget to pray for them.
If you are faithful and true, always shining for Jesus, your bright light
will reach as far as dark Arabia, and will help to turn that land of
Topsy-turvy right side up. When joy and gladness will take the place of
sorrow and sadness, and ignorance give way to the knowledge of the
Truth. In one place in the Bible it tells how to make these topsy-turvy
lands right side up again. Do you know where that is? Acts 17:6-7.
"These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also ...
saying that there is another King, even JESUS."

II
A LESSON IN GEOGRAPHY

In the atlas Arabia looks like a big mail-pouch hung up by the side of
some railway station, pretty empty of everything. But this queer
mail-pouch country is not as empty as people imagine. It is a country
larger than all of the United States east of the Mississippi. It is longer
than the longest mail-pouch and much wider. From north to south you
can ride a camel one thousand miles and from east to west more than
six hundred. But the geography of the country is topsy-turvy altogether
and that is why it has been so long a neglected peninsula. People kept
on wondering at the queer exterior of the mail-pouch and never opened
the lock to its secrets by looking into the interior.
First of all, Arabia is perhaps the only land that has three of its
boundaries fixed and the other always shifting. Such is the case with
the northern boundary of Arabia. It is different on every map and
changes every year because the inhabitants go about as nomads; that is,
they "have no continuing city."
Arabia has no rivers except underground. It has no railroad and very
few roads at all. Some parts of the country are very green and fertile
and in other parts there is not enough grass the year around to give one
square meal to a single grasshopper. Arabia has four thousand miles of
coast and yet only six harbours where steamers call. There are better
maps of the North Pole and of Mars and of the moon than of
southeastern Arabia. The reason is that men have spent millions of
dollars to find the North Pole and telescopes are all the time looking at
the moon; but no one has ever spent time or money to explore this part
of Arabia. The Greek geographers had a better knowledge of Arabia
than we have to-day.
[Illustration: MAP OF ARABIA.]
There are no lakes in Arabia, but there is a large sea of sand called Al
Ahkaf, in which the traveller Von Wrede threw a lead and line