A missionary in New Guinea returned after several years of service. His friends said to him, "Jones, tell us what you found at your station in New Guinea."

"Found! I found something that looked more hopeless than if I had been sent into the jungle to a lot of tigers!"

"What do you mean?"

"Why! Those people were so degraded that they seemed utterly devoid of moral sense. They were worse than beasts. If a mother were carrying her little baby, and the baby began to cry, she would throw it into the ditch and let it die. If a man saw his father break his leg, he would leave him upon the roadside to die. They had no compassion whatever. They did not know what it meant."

"Well, what did you do there? Did you preach to them?"

"Preach? No! I lived."

"Lived? How did you live?"

"When I saw a baby crying, I picked it up and comforted it. When I saw a man with a broken leg, I mended it. When I saw people in distress, I took them in and pitied them. I took care of them. And those people began to come to me and say: ‘what does this mean? What are you doing this for?’ Then I had my chance and preached.

"Did you succeed?"

"When I left, I left a good impression!"