The American Missionary — Volume 42, No. 03, March, 1888Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 42, No. 03, March, 1888
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
On the same day that he died, we trust that there passed through the
gates with him one of our Indian boys, whose cause Dr. Powell had so
eloquently pleaded. Harry Little-Eagle died like a hero. No one ever
suffered more for four months than he, and not once did his faith fail. He
prayed and sang, and talked for Jesus as long as his strength held out.
The night before he died his voice returned, and he said: "God gave it back
to me and told me to talk to the people." He did. He said: "I am
going home, God will give me a greater work there to do. Do not cry.
You must keep a stout heart and give my message to all the people."
Then he prayed, "O Father, keep a big work for me. I have not lived
here long. I have only known thee a short time, and I have been a great
sufferer. I have done nothing for thee. Keep some work up there for
me. I want to help you." Then he said: "Tell Winona to be brave;
tell her to have a strong will; tell her to seek out the lost; some will
believe and be saved. Tell her to continue to work for the people." I
asked, "Are you afraid now, when you are so near the water?" "No," he
replied, "I am in a hurry to go home." To his father he said: "God will
send you a comforter. I will help prepare a home for you, and my mother
and sister and brother. I shall wait for you."
His father, Little-Eagle, seems inspired. New Year's Day he stood up
before some Teton Indians and said: "I am one of you. You all know me.
You all see me. You see the same body that has been on the war-path
with you many times; the same body that has been rigged out in paint
and feathers and rattlers, and has danced with you in the dance. The
body is the same, but that is all. The part of me that your eyes cannot
see is not the same. I am not the same. I think differently; I feel
differently; I plan differently. I like different things; I am a new man.
My heart is made clean in Christ. When I first tried to follow Christ, I
was satisfied. I tried to do right and I thought God would own me. When
my boy died he said: 'Tell the people that God has said, "Thou shalt
have no God but me. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou
shalt not commit adultery. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy."'
Then my heart was heavy. All day and night I sat mute. I said: 'I have
done all these things and my boy never did any of them. He will be
saved and I shall be lost.' I went to Winona and told her. She told me:
'My friend, if we never had sinned, Christ would not have died. Because
you sinned and broke God's laws, Christ died for you. His death makes
you his.' Then light came. Yes, I am a sinner, just like the rest of you.
We have all done the same things. Now I stand here acquitted. Come
to Christ. Come to God. You seek after food for the body; that is all
your thought. I sought God, and when I sowed my seed in the spring, I
prayed to God and attended to my soul, and God has taken care of my
body. I wished, and he made my field flourish when all yours dried up
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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