The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1899, Page 15

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

15

A Mission Story.

When John Williams went to live in Raiatea,
in the Hervey Islands, he found the people
scattered all over the island in separate vil-
lages, so far apart that there was no chance
of helping the inhabitants to work together in
leaving off their old ways and forming new
ones, and everybody was jealous and sus-
picious of everybody else. The first thing
that he did, therefore, was to form a settle-
ment where they might live together in com-
fort, peace and fellowship. He began by
building a house for himself, so that he might
show the natives what a good home should be
like and how it was to be made. This house
was sixty feet long and thirty feet broad, and
had seven rooms, four of which were in front
and three behind. He made also all the fur-
niture of his new dwelling. The men were
quick in catching his ideas, and clever in
carrying them out, and at the end of twelve
months the houses extended two miles along
the seashore, and altogether there were about
one thousand people living in them.

Having finished the task, John Williams
made up his mind that he must have a boat,
and he soon had one put together, formed of
planks held in place by the native cord. The
natives, though naturally very lazy, set to
work to imitate his example; and while their
hands were busy, this new comrade of theirs
lost no opportunity for teaching them other
things besides boat-building, and in his pleas-
ant, friendly way he dropped many a word of
that good gospel that would do so much more
for them than any other kind of learning.
They listened to him, and tried to put this
part of his teaching into practice. One man
used to pray earnestly: ‘‘Oh, Jehovah, give
Thy word into my heart, all Thy word, and
cover it up there, that it may not be forgotten
by me.’”

There was, too, a poor old cripple who used
to sit by the wayside, and when the people
were going home from church he would beg
' them to tell him a little of what they had
heard there. ‘‘One gives me one piece,’
he said, ‘‘and another another, and I gather
them together in my heart; and thinking over
what I thus obtain, and praying God to make
me know, I get to understand.’’ When he
first saw Mr. Williams he said, in greeting,
‘Welcome, servant of God, who brought light
into this dark island. To you we are in-
debted for the word of heaven.’’

Some Bibles were sent to the people and
they were all anxious to Jearn to read. Then
they wished to have their neighbors share
some of the blessings that had come to them.
A missionary society was started, which in
one year gave about $1500 for the purpose of
“causing the word of God to grow,”’ as they
said themselves. Iven the king and queen
prepared arrow-root with their own hands, as
a contribution to this object. ‘‘Why,’’ said
Tamatoa, the king,.‘‘we would not give that

to God upon which we bestowed no labor.’’
For some reason these new Christians go far
ahead of the old ones sometimes. Perhaps
these people had caught the spirit of their
leader, John Williams. ‘Our hearts take in
all the ends of the earth,’ he said, and he
found it hard to content himself within the
limits of a single reef when there was so much
to be done outside of his own little island.

But he did not neglect the work close at
hand, in spite of the pulling of his heart-
strings in another direction. ‘‘I have given
myself wholly to the Lord,’’ said he; and his
Master’s work he could find anywhere.

He built a new chapel for his congrega-
tion, setting off part of it for a court-house.
Everything about the building astonished the
natives, but that which was a special matter
for wonder and admiration was that he had
contrived a sort of chandelier in which cocoa-
nut shells were used as lamps. The opening
day two thousand four hundred persons were
present, and the next day a code of laws was
adopted and the king’s brother was made
chief judge of the island. Then Mr. Williams
provided honest employment for the people
by beginning the cultivation of the sugar-
cane, which grows on the island, and he also
put up a sugar-mill for their use.

It was in the spring of the year 1821 that
a pestilence broke out in the Austral Islands,
about three hundred miles away, south of the
Society Islands. Two chiefs of Rurutu, one
of these islands, each built himself a canoe,
and then crowding their boats with as many
persons as they would hold they set sail upon
the broad ocean, not knowing whither they
were going. They landed at Raiatea at last,
and were much interested in all the new and
surprising things that they saw there; and
when they thought it safe to venture back to
their own country they begged two of the
native teachers to go with them and teach
them how to live as Christians. ‘‘We can not
go home to our land of darkness without a
light in our hands,”’ they said touchingly, and
were made very happy by having their peti-
tion granted and being able besides to take
with them several copies of the gospel in Ta-
hitian, a language something like their own.

“The priests have deceived us,’’ they told
their friends on their return; and in order to
prove the truth of their words they made a
feast at which they allowed the women to
eat some of the things that were usually for-
bidden to them. As these women did not fall
down and die on the spot, or have any other
dreadful thing happen to them, the people be-
lieved what had been told them, and lost no
time in pulling down their temples and burn-
ing their altars. In a few weeks Christianity
became the religion of the island; the con-
yerts sent a load of idols over to Raiatea, to
tell their own story, and then hastened to
spread the light among the other islands of
the same group. ‘hese idols were publicly
exhibited in the church at Raiatea. The na-

tional god of Rurutu was called Aa, and he
was the most interesting of all the images,
for he was decked all over outside with little
gods, and in his back was a door, which
was opened and twenty-four small idols were
found hidden away inside of him.

‘*Ah,’’ said one of the converts at Raiatea,
‘tangels would rejoice to be employed by God
to teach the world this gospel of Christ.’’

The missionary society at Raiatea was so
much encouraged by this good piece of work
that its contributions grew to the sum of
$9000. ‘‘A little property given with the
heart becomes big property in the sight of
God,”’ one of the members had said, and all
the collections of this society must have been
especially blessed, because all were offered
out of pure love and gratitude.

A Christian church was formed at Raiates
now, and about this time five hundred per-
sons were baptized. :

————~- <0

Of such is the Kingdom.

A little Jewish boy attended a mission school
in New York. His mother was glad of the two
hours’ rest it gave her from the care of the
restless, inquiring mind. He became en-
grossed with the story of Jesus Christ, so
surpassing strange and new to him, and never
tired of looking at pictures of the ‘‘One who
seeks the lost.”’ The Bible lesson pictures
were of great value to him, and when he was
told he could select one for himself, his joy
knew no bounds.

‘*O, I will take the shepherd one. He knows
Iam Hislamb!’’ And the large, lustrous eyes
filled with tears.

The dread diphtheria was in the tenement
where he lived. The beloved picture was
pinned up by his cot, where hé could always
see it.

‘‘Mamma, I’m going to die, and go to the
Shepherd of Israel; won’t you put the picture
in the coffin when I’m carried out?”

One night the Good Shepherd gathered this

| little lamb to His bosom, and little Jacob was

at rest.
—————~<—~+ oo +

The Favorite Text.

A lady had a favorite text which she fre-
quently repeated and which was included in
a collection she used for daily help: ‘‘Fear
thou not; for I am with thee: be not dis-)
mayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen’
thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will up-
hold thee with the right hand of my righteous-
ness.’’ On the morning of the day she died
it was repeated at her bedside, with the re-

mark that it was the text for the day, when _

she looked up amid her pain and said: ‘Ig
that the text for to-day?”? and on being in-
formed that it was, she replied, ‘‘Oh, ‘then,
I will just go home on that.’’