The American Missionary — Volume 34, No. 09, September, 1880Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 34, No. 09, September, 1880
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
I asked the man what it was there for. He could speak English, but did
not want to tell me; however, when he saw that I could not be put off,
he said that it was there to keep away sickness and death from their
facki; that they put their trust in it as their God. I said, “Would
you like me to put you on the ground, walk on you myself, and let
other people do the same, too? Would you think that I liked you very
much?” He said “No.” I said, “Now you say that you put your trust in
this cloth to keep away sickness and death: if a person has anything,
as silver or gold, which he values, he will keep it in a secure place,
because he values it. Now you show how you value what you put trust
in; you are walking on it yourself, and others are, too; the rains
will soon come, which will cause it to rot, and then it will be thrown
away.” The head woman of the facki was there, (they were without a head
man, as he died only a few weeks before this,) as I spoke to this
man, and another one who would explain what I said to her. I asked if
this cloth was here when their head man was alive. They said it was. I
added, “Then, you see, he got sick and died; this cloth was not able
to save him.” They admitted it. I said, “There is nothing man can make
that can be worshiped as God, neither silver nor gold, nor anything;
God made all, and has made man. If you worship a tree, and say that man
has not made that, God made it. He lives in Heaven, and has made man,
and there is nothing that man can take in place of Him, and if you will
believe that, and put your trust in Him, He will save you through His
Son. If at any time you believe what I have told you, but are afraid to
take away the cloth yourselves, send for me, and I will come and take
it up.” They explained it to the head woman, and while I was there,
they took the cloth up and threw it away. I thought it was best to have
it at the Mission, as a memorial. I asked one of the men to bring it to
the yard some time when he was coming that way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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