John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 2 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brotherPaton, John Gibson
Religion
John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 2 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brother
Paton, John Gibson
Missionaries -- Vanuatu -- Biography; Paton, John Gibson, 1824-1907
The well was now finished. The place was neatly fenced in. And the old
Chief said,—
“Missi, now that this is the water for all, we must take care and keep
it pure.”
I was so thankful that all were to use it. Had we alone drawn water
therefrom, they could so easily have poisoned it, as they do the
fish-pools, in caverns among the rocks by the shore, with their
nuts and runners, and killed us all. But there was no fear, if they
themselves were to use it daily. The Chief continued,—
“Missi, I think I could help you next Sabbath. Will you let me preach a
sermon on the well?”
“Yes,” I at once replied, “if you will try to bring all the people to
hear you.”
“Missi, I will try,” he eagerly promised. The news spread like wildfire
that the Chief Namakei was to be the Missionary on the next day for the
Worship, and the people, under great expectancy, urged each other to
come and hear what he had to say.
Sabbath came round. Aniwa assembled in what was for that island a great
crowd. Namakei appeared dressed in shirt and kilt. He was so excited,
and flourished his tomahawk about at such a rate, that it was rather
lively work to be near him. I conducted short opening devotions, and
then called upon Namakei. He rose at once, with eye flashing wildly,
and his limbs twitching with emotion. He spoke to the following effect,
swinging his tomahawk to enforce every eloquent gesticulation,—
“Friends of Namakei, men and women and children of Aniwa, listen to my
words! Since Missi came here he has talked many strange things we could
not understand—things all too wonderful; and we said regarding many of
them that they must be lies. White people might believe such nonsense,
but we said that the black fellow knew better than to receive it.
But of all his wonderful stories, we thought the strangest was about
sinking down through the earth to get rain! Then we said to each other,
The man’s head is turned; he’s gone mad. But the Missi prayed on and
wrought on, telling us that Jehovah God heard and saw, and that his God
would give him rain. Was he mad? Has he not got the rain deep down in
the earth? We mocked at him; but the water was there all the same. We
have laughed at other things which the Missi told us, because we could
not see them. But from this day I believe that all he tells us about
his Jehovah God is true. Some day our eyes will see it. For to-day we
have seen the rain from the earth.”
Then, rising to a climax, first the one foot and then the other making
the broken coral on the floor fly behind like a war-horse pawing the
ground, he cried with great eloquence,—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account