The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1894, Page 23

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

"The Lutheran Pioneer. 23

A Story of the New Hebrides.

By Dr. Parton.

Could I take you down to these islands, and
let you see the triumphs of the Gospel there,
you would be stirred as you have never been
stirred before. One missionary and his wife
labored for thirteen years. He and his wife
sowed the Gospel with tears, amid much per-
secution and opposition. This missionary at
last got heartbroken to see the want of suc-
‘cess, and he came to us and pleaded with
us to let him go to one of the other islands
where the people were crying out for a mis-
sionary. But we said to him, ‘‘You have ac-
quired the language in the island where you
are placed, and translated the New Testament
into it, and we could have no one that weuld
gain your influence there for many years to
come. Hold on, and we will all pray for you
that God's Spirit may be poured out upon our
work, and we hope ere long that you will have
cause to praise God for the triumphs of the
Gospel of His love.’’ The missionary and his
_ Wife returned to their former sphere, but when

they returned a fight had taken place between
the slayers and the natives. The missionaries
were greatly disheartened. Moreover, the old
chief got angry with some of his own people,
and was determined that if they would not
confess some wrong they had done, he would
coerce them by war. One morning the mis-
sionaries heard the yells of savages approach-
ing, and believing their intention was to mur-
der them, they, with their children, entered a
boat at once and set off with all possible speed.
It was told the old warrior, however, that the
missionary and his wife and children were
leaving. He then ran down to the beach and
called out to them, ‘‘Come back; if you do
_not I will send my swiftest canoe after you
and shoot you every one.’’ The missionary’s
wife said in tears to her husband, ‘‘Have we
not risked our lives these many years for them
and suffered much amongst them? That may
be God’s voice that we hear in that old savage.
He cries ‘Come back:’ let us commit ourselves
to God in prayer, and let us turn back and
leave the results entirely to Jesus, and if we
and our children are all murdered, oh, the joy
of getting into heaven at the same moment
with them all!’’? And then they prayed as men
will only pray when on the verge of eternity.
Oh, friends, it is not in the police, or in the
arm of law, that we missionaries trust in the
hour of danger and difficulty, but it is in
throwing ourselves upon the promises of Him
who said, ‘‘Whatever ye shall ask in My name,
I will do it.’’ Therefore, that missionary and
his wife poured out their hearts to God in
prayer. he boat was turned, and the old
chief saw where it was to land on the beach.
He ran down to.the spot, and there stood with
his great club drawn, as if to strike the first
that came ashore. The boat hesitated for a
moment, but the missionary’s wife, picking up

aa

the baby and coming to the front of the boat,
committed her all to Jesus. When she landed,
the old savage swung his club over her head.
But he said to his men, ‘‘Do not strike them ;
we will finish our own work to-day, and we
will close them in their own house, and come
back to-morrow and dispose of them.’’ He
thereupon drove them up to the house, and
left them there for the night. But that was a
night spent in prayer, and when the morning
came they were resigned, in the arms of Jesus.

The old chief came back soon after daylight,
and called, ‘‘Come out, I am prepared for you
now.’’ He looked at the crying children and
sorrowful parents, yet, not sorrowing ‘‘as
those that have no hope.’’ They stood for a
few minutes in silence, and then the chief
said, ‘‘Before I begin, I want to ask you a
question. How could you come on shore as
you did when you saw us there to murder you?
Had we been in the boat in your position we
would have tried to escape. How could you
do as you did? Tell me that before I begin.’’
The missionary’s wife, in tears, said, ‘‘Our
Jehovah God helped us to do what we did.
You called on us to come back. We came back
at your request, and now we are in your hands;
but if you murder us you murder those who
love you and who would die for you; of which
we have given you ample evidence, and who
wish to make you happy.’”’

The old man stood looking at them for a few
minutes, and then he sat down and said, ‘‘Sit
down beside me,’”’ and they sat down. ‘‘Now,’’
he said, ‘‘tell me of that God that so helps you
in your difficulty and danger; our god never
nerves us in that way.’’ ‘They then told the
story of God’s love and mercy, and of Christ
dying for poor sinners, and suddenly the old
man.stopped them and said, ‘‘What! A God
of love and mercy! A God who came to die
for me! Can I be interested in that God’s
death, and that salvation? Make it plain.
Begin again.’’ And so they spent the day in
tears and prayer, while the Holy Spirit wrought
in the poor old savage’s heart. And at last he
said, ‘‘I think I see through it now; I think
I understand it, and the God that nerved you
shall henceforth be my God. I am a wor-
shiper of the Jehovah God, and I will live
with you henceforth, and I will help you,
and we will conquer this island for the dear
Saviour.”’ :

And the work went on, and now, could I
take you down to that island, you would see
there a large church built by these cannibals,
now all Christians, and you would find there
over two thousand worshipers of the living
God.

of the boys was noticed aside from the others,
and apparently very busy with a cast-off gar-
ment. The superintendent stepped up to him,
and found that he was cutting a small piece
out of the patched linings. It proved to be
his old jacket, which, having been replaced
by a new one, had been thrown away. There
was no time to be lost:

‘Come, John, come,”’ said the Superintend-
ent, ‘‘what are you going to do with that old
piece of calico?’’

‘Please, sir,’’ said John, ‘‘I am cutting it
to take with me. My dead mother put the
lining in this old jacket for me. This was a
piece of her dress, and it is all I have to re-
member her by.’’

And as the poor boy thought of that dear
mother’s love, and of the sad death-scene in
the garret where she died, he covered his face
with his hands, and sobbed as if his heart would
break. But the train was about leaving, and
John thrust the little piece of calico into his
bosom to remember his mother by, hurried
into a car, and was soon far away from the
place where he had known so much sorrow.
Little readers, are your mothers still spared
to you? Will you not show your love by obe-
dience? That little boy who loved so well, we
are’sure, obeyed. Bear this in mind, that if
you should one day have to look upon the face
of a dead mother, no thought would be so bit-
ter as to remember that you had given her’
pain by your wilfulness or disobedience.

0. S. P.

——>~+ oo +

A Beautiful Answer.

A happy illustration of the wonderful char-
acter of the Bible was given at an examination
of a deaf-and-dumb institution some years ago
in London. “

A little boy was asked in writing: ‘Who
made the world?’’ He took the chalk and
wrote underneath the words, ‘‘In the begin-
ning God created the heaven and the earth.’’
The clergyman then inquired in a similar
manner, ‘‘Why did Jesus Christ come into
the world?’” A smile of gratitude rested on
the countenance of the little fellow as he
wrote, ‘‘This is a true saying, and worthy of
all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners.’’ A third question
was asked, evidently adapted to call the most

you born deaf and dumb, when I hear and
speak?’? —‘‘Never,’’ says an eye witness,
“shall I forget the look of resignation which
sat upon his countenance as he again took the
chalk and wrote, ‘Even so, Father, for so it
seems good in Thy sight.’’’— Fachange.

————.2 oo

A Touching Incident.

—_—— ~<a ee

Ler not unworthiness scare the children
of God. Parents love their children and do
them good, not because they see that they
are more worthy than others, but because

A company of poor children, who had been
gathered out of the alleys and garrets of a
large city, were preparing for their departure
to new and distant homes in the West. Just
before the time of starting of the cars, one

powerful feelings into exercise: ‘‘Why were _

they are their own. ~ ’ Mey:

WY at Tr saae