At length one Sunday morning who should come to my Bible-class but Tito
and Lucy!—half an hour before the time. I felt something must have
happened, and probably something wrong. For I knew that my invitation had
not brought them; still less their promise. That same afternoon I was
passing through their town and I stopped to ask them why in the world
they had come to Bible-class. Then Tito explained that she had not had
any intention of coming and that she had promised me just because “it be
proper fashion to say Yes, more than No,” but on Saturday night she had a
dream in which an angel had appeared to her or at least had spoken to her
from the next room and had told her that she and Lucy “must go to-morrow
to Mr. Milligan’s Bible-class.” In the morning she told Lucy the dream
and they both decided at once that they would come to the class. Without
scruple they could disobey from week to week the mandate of normal
conscience, and the moral law of truth, but they rendered absolute
obedience to the invalid experience of a dream. Afterwards, however, Tito
became a regular attendant and finally she was received into the Gaboon
Church and became a faithful Christian. She was by nature generous and
she was especially skillful and kind in caring for the sick.
Another woman, Ayenwa, lived in Tito’s town, who had been educated in
the mission school but was now living as the mistress of a white man.
Ayenwa was a good-looking woman and she had the soft, pleasant voice that
is characteristic of the cultivated Mpongwe woman and distinguishes her
from other African women. I had talked to Ayenwa more than once and had
remonstrated with her in regard to the life she was living. But although
she was troubled about it, she had made no change. At length a brother of
hers died, and she was greatly afflicted by his death. He was a devout
Christian, and before he died he had pleaded with Ayenwa to abandon her
present way of living. Much as she loved him she did not yield to his
desire and counsel. But not long after his death she came to me and said
that she had left the white man and had renounced forever that kind of
life; although she was friendless since her brother’s death and did not
know how she would get a living. It was owing to a dream.
She told me very earnestly and in beautiful language how that she had
seen her brother in a dream. She had seen him in a forest, but the forest
was very beautiful and it was like a great church. He smiled when he saw
her and he called her by her name. She cried when she saw him and she
told him how she missed him. He told her not to weep for he was very
happy and was never sick any more. But he told her to remember his dying
words to her, and so to live that when she died she would come to him and
then they would never be separated any more. For several days the dream
was always in her mind. Then she resolved that at any cost she would
forsake evil and do right. And surely God would take care of her.