The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1899, Page 7

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 7
a

The Old Bible.

fresh, living water! Thank God!’ Filling
his jug, he was drawn up by the natives, and
poured out some for them to drink. The old
chief tasted first, and shouted, ‘‘Rain! rain!
But how did you get it?”

‘My God Jehovah gave it out of the earth,”’
said the missionary. ‘‘Go down and see for
yourselves.”’

Not one had the courage to go, but placing
themselves in line, holding firmly each one the
hand of the one next to him, the foremost went
near enough to take a peep, then passed back
to do his part in holding safely the others.
The well was to them a miracle.

‘No god of Aniwa ever helped us this way,”’
said Namakei; and at last, after the well was
finished, his joy and wonder grew until he
asked,

‘*Missi, will you let me preach a sermon on
the well?”’ ;

‘*Yes, if you try to bring all your people to
hear you,’’ replied the missionary. The chief
promised, and the next Sunday a great crowd
assembled to hear him.

He was there promptly, dressed in shirt and
kilt, more clothing than he had ever worn be-
fore, and put on now in honor of the occasion.
Of course, he had his tomahawk—no chief
ever appeared without one—and in his ex-
citement flourished it wildly. After a prayer,
Namakei arose and began, saying,

“Friends of Namakei, listen to my words.
Since Missi came, he has talked many strange
things. Of some we said, ‘They are lies;
white people may believe them, but the black
fellows know better.’ Of all the wonderful
stories, we thought the strangest was this sink-
ing down through the earth to get rain. But
the Missi prayed on and worked. We mocked
him, but the water was there. We have
laughed at other things the Missi has told us
because we could not see them. From this
day I believe all he tells me about his Jeho-
vah God.”

Then the old man stamped the floor, mak-
ing the broken coral fly as he exclaimed,

“My people of Aniwa, the world is turned
upside down since the word of Jehovah came
to this land. Wonderful is the work of Jeho-
vah! No god of Aniwa ever answered prayers
as the Missi’s God has done. Friends of Na-
makei, by the help of Jehovah God Missi has
prought the unseen rain to view. Something
here in my heart tells me that Jehovah God,
the unseen One, does exist. The coral has
been removed, the land cleared away, and lo!
the water rises! So I, your chief, do believe
that when I die, when the bits of earth are
taken from my blind eyes, I shall see the un-
seen Jehovah God with my soul, just as I see
to-day the rain from below. The gods of
Aniwa can not hear, can not help us like the
God of Missi. Henceforth I am a follower
of Jehovah God. Let every man that thinks
with me go now and fetch the idols of Aniwa j s
and cast them down at Missi’s feet. Let us| pray and strive, for the word of faith and the
burn and bury and destroy these things of | prayer of the just are the mightiest weapons.

PRITZLAFF MEMORIAL LIBRARY
CONCORDIA SEMINARY

wood and stone. Let Missi teach us how to
serve Jehovah God, who gave us the well.
He will give us every other blessing, for He
sent His Son Jesus to die for us and bring us
to heaven. This is what the Missi has been
telling us every day. We laughed; now we
believe him. Namakei stands up for Jehovah.’

That was the old chief’s sermon; and he
practiced what he preached, for that very
afternoon he came with his family, bringing
their idols and casting them down at the mis-
sionary’s door. During the weeks that fol-
lowed, company after company brought their
gods, shouting as they walked, ‘‘Jehovah!
Jehovah !’’

Some idols were burned, some thrown into
the sea, yet some natives clung to their gods,
the gods of their fathers; but from that day
the Aniwan church grew. The old chief's
sermon was a message from God.

The well is still a joy and comfort. Visitors
are taken to see it as one of the wonders of
Aniwa; for, although the natives have since
tried a number of times to sink wells, they
have found only salt water or flinty rock, and
they say to each other, ‘‘Missi not only used
pick and spade, but he prayed and cried unto
God. We have learned to dig, but we have
not learned to pray, and therefore Jehovah
will not give us rain from below.’’

Adapted from Paton's ‘‘New Hebrides.”

_—_— ~~ oo

“(J opened the old, old Bible,

And looked at a page of Psalms,

Till the wintry sea of my trouble
Was soothed by its summer calms:

For the words that have helped so many,
And that ages have made more dear,

Seemed new in their power to comfort
As they brought me my word of cheer.”

——(,(,71 <> >

Namakei’s Sermon.

Namakei lived in Aniwa, a coral island in
the far-off Pacific. The sea roared and thun-
dered and rushed about the little island, scarce
* allowing a vessel to rest in its harbor. But
the sea was not so cruel as the islanders, who
killed and ate their enemies, and would have
eaten their missionary for supper as readily
as they did one of their pigs. Many times a
club or an axe was lifted against him, yet the
blow never fell. God was on the side of the
missionary.

Yet Aniwa was a lovely island, where good
things grew without work.’ Were the natives
hungry, they ate of the luscious bananas or
cocoanuts, or found bread ready-made on
their bread-fruit trees. One thing was want-
ing: in all the island there was no stream of
water. Each village had its rain-pool, and
this stagnant, dirty water was all the natives
drank. They spent much of their time frolick-
ing in the sea, which helped to quench their
thirst, and so they got on very well; but the
missionary’s family suffered, and the mission-
ary determined to dig a well.

“What!’’ said the Aniwas, ‘‘get rain from
the ground! That is foolish; rain comes from
the clouds. The Missi is mad; his head is
wrong. Let him go to our sacred men if he
wants water; they can bring rain.’

Their old chief, Namakei, had been con-
verted, had learned to love the missionary,
and he also came to see what all this meant,
but went away, saying sadly, ‘‘Poor Missi;
that is the way with all who go mad; there is
no driving a notion out of their heads.”’

Digging the well was hard work. In con-
sideration of a generous supply of fish-hooks,
some of the natives were induced to draw up
and empty the buckets of earth, but not one
would go down into the well. Alone, day
after day, the missionary kept digging, until
thirty feet down he found the earth growing
damp. ‘Then he said to the old chief,

“Namakei, I think that Jehovah God will
to-morrow give us water.’’

“No, Missi,’’ he answered, ‘‘you will never
See rain coming up through the earth on this
island. If you reach water, you will drop
through into the sea; the sharks will eat you,
and that will be the end of it.”” Then he went
home.

Daylight found them both at the well again.
Down the missionary went, jug in hand, and
Soon his glad cry rang out, ‘‘Water! water!

Did not know it was there.

A well-to-do deacon in Connecticut was one
morning accosted by his pastor, who said:
‘Poor Widow Green’s wood is out. Can you
not take her a cord?’

‘Well,’ answered the deacon, ‘‘I have the
wood and I have the team, but who is to pay
me for it?”’

The pastor replied: ‘‘I will pay you for it,
on condition that you read the first three verses
of the forty-first Psalm before you go to bed
to-night.’”

The deacon consented, delivered the wood,
and at night opened the Word of God and
read the passage: ‘Blessed is he that con-
sidereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him
in time of trouble. ‘The Lord will preserve
him, and keep him alive, and he shall be blest
upon the earth, and thou wilt not deliver him
unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will
strengthen him upon the bed of languishing ;
thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.”’

A few days afterward the pastor met him
again.

“‘How much do I owe you, deacon, for that
cord of wood?”’

“Oh,” said the now enlightened man, ‘‘do
not speak of payment; I did not know those
promises were in the Bible. I would not take
money for supplying the widow’s wants.””

Prayer is the Christian’s business. Let us

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