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
We asked whether he had ever met a missionary before. No, he said, but
his father—since dead—had once met Dr. Bradley, and had received a book
from him. He had begged other books from neighbours who had received
them but did not value them. Neither did he at first, till the great
cholera scourge of 1849, when people were dying all around him. He was
greatly alarmed, and learned from one of the books that Pra Yēsū heard
prayer in trouble, and could save from sin. For a long time he prayed
for light, until, about three years ago, he believed in Jesus, and was
now happy in heart. He had heard once of Dr. Bradley’s coming to
Pechaburī, but not until he was gone again. He preached to his
neighbours, who called him “Kon Pra Yēsū” (Lord Jesus’ man). He had
prayed for Dr. Bradley and the missionaries; he had read the story of
Moses, the Epistle to the Romans, the Gospel of John, a tract on Prayer,
and “The Golden Balance”; and he believed them. He could repeat portions
of Romans and John verbatim; and he had his son repeat the Lord’s
Prayer.
My subject at the afternoon service was Nicodemus and the New Birth. Nāi
Kawn sat spellbound, frequently nodding assent. At the close we asked
him to speak a few words; which he did with great clearness. On being
questioned as to the Trinity, he replied that he was not sure whether he
understood it. He gathered, however, that Jehovah was the Father and
Ruler; that the Son came to save us by dying for us; and that the Holy
Spirit is the Comforter. The difference between Jesus and Buddha is that
the latter entered into Nirvana, and that was the last of him; while
Jesus lives to save. He even insisted that he had seen a vision of Jesus
in heaven. His other experiences were characterized by such marks of
soberness that we wondered whether his faith might not have been
strengthened by a dream or a vision.
This incident, coming so soon after our arrival, greatly cheered us in
our work. His subsequent story is too long to follow out in detail here.
His piety and his sincerity were undoubted. He lived and died a
Christian; yet he never fully identified himself with the church. He
insisted that he had been baptized by the Holy Ghost, and that there was
no need of further baptism. Not long after this Dr. Bradley and Mr.
Mattoon visited Pechaburī, examined the man, and were equally surprised
at his history.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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