A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lāo: An AutobiographyMcGilvary, Daniel
History
A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lāo: An Autobiography
McGilvary, Daniel
Lao (Tai people); Missions -- Lao (Tai people); Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. -- Missions
The last communion season of that year was one of more than usual
interest. The meetings began on Friday. Since the minds of the
congregation were already on the subject of foreign missions, and since
Dr. McKay, from my home church, had been appointed by the Synod to
preach on that subject at its coming session in Charlotte, I prevailed
upon him to preach to us the sermon that he had prepared. The text was
from Romans x:14, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” No subject
could have been more appropriate to the occasion. It produced a profound
impression. Some were affected to tears.
The sermon was a good preparation for the communion service that
followed. At the night service there was deep seriousness throughout the
congregation, and a general desire to have the meetings continued. On
Monday there was an unexpectedly large congregation. At the busiest
season of the year farmers had left their crops to come. The meetings
soon grew to be one protracted prayer-meeting, with occasional short
applications of Scripture to the questions which were already pressing
upon our minds.
Finally, after the meetings had been continued from Friday until
Wednesday week, they were reluctantly brought to a close; both because
it seemed unwise to interrupt longer the regular life of the community,
and also because the leaders no longer had the voice to carry them on.
As a result of the meetings, there were about eighty accessions to the
two Presbyterian churches, as well as a number to other churches. Many
asked if I did not see in the revival reason to change my mind and
remain. But the effect on me was just the opposite. It was surely the
best preparation I could have had for the long test of faith while
waiting for results in Siam.
Inasmuch as my certificate of dismissal had never been formally
presented to the Fayetteville Presbytery, I preferred to return it to my
old Orange Presbytery, and to receive my ordination at its hands. On
December 11th, the Presbytery met at my old home in Pittsboro. The
installation of a foreign missionary was new to the Presbytery, as well
as to the church and the community. When the ordaining prayer was ended,
there seemed to be but few dry eyes in the congregation. It was a day I
had little dreamed of sixteen years before, when I first came to
Pittsboro an orphan boy and an apprentice. I felt very small for the
great work so solemnly committed to me. Missionary fields were further
off in those days than they are now, and the undertaking seemed greater.
The future was unknown; but in God was my trust—and He has led me.
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III
BANGKOK
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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