THE CHRIST-SPIRIT AT WORK.
THE progress of God's work was most conspicuous in, relation to wars and
revenges among the Natives. The two high Chiefs, Namakei and Naswai,
frequently declared, "We are the men of Christ now. We must not fight.
We must put down murders and crimes among our people."
Two young fools, returning from Tanna with muskets, attempted twice to
shoot a man in sheer wantonness and display of malice. The Islanders
met, and informed them that if man or woman was injured by them, the
other men would load their muskets and shoot them dead in general
council. This was a mighty step towards public order, and I greatly
rejoiced before the Lord. His Spirit, like leaven, was at work!
My constant custom was, in order to prevent war, to run right in between
the contending parties. My faith enabled me to grasp and realize the
promise, "Lo, I am with you always." In Jesus I felt invulnerable and
immortal, so long as I was doing His work. And I can truly say that
these were the moments when I felt my Saviour to be most truly and
sensibly present, inspiring and empowering me.
Another scheme had an excellent educative and religious influence. I
tried to interest all the villages, and to treat all the Chiefs equally.
In our early days, after getting into my two-roomed house, I engaged the
Chief, or representative man of each district, to put up one or other at
the many outhouses required at the Station. One, along with his people,
built the cookhouse; another, the store; another, the banana and
yam-house; another, the washing-house; another, the boys and girls'
house; the houses for servants and teachers, the Schoolhouse, and the
large shed, a kind of shelter where Natives sat and talked when not at
work about the premises. Of course these all were at first only Native
huts, of larger or smaller dimensions. But they were all built by
contract for articles which they highly valued, such as axes, knives,
yards of prints and calico, strings of beads, blankets, etc. They served
our purpose for the time, and when another party, by contract also, had
fenced around our premises, the Mission Station was really a beautiful,
little, lively, and orderly village, and in itself no bad emblem of
Christian and civilized life. The payments, made to all irrespectively,
but only for work duly done and according to reasonable bargain,
distributed property and gifts amongst them on wholesome principles, and
encouraged a well-conditioned rivalry which had many happy effects.
Heathenism made many desperate and some strange efforts to stamp out our
Cause on Aniwa, but the Lord held the helm. One old Chief, formerly
friendly, turned against us. He ostentatiously set himself to make a
canoe, working at it very openly and defiantly on Sabbaths. He, becoming
sick and dying, his brother started, on a Sabbath morning and in
contempt of the Worship, with an armed company to provoke our people to
war. They refused to fight; and one man, whom he struck with his club,
said, "I will leave my revenge to Jehovah."
A few days thereafter, this brother also fell sick and suddenly died.
The Heathen party made much of these incidents, and some clamored for
our death in revenge, but most feared to murder us; so they withdrew and
lived apart from our friends, as far away as they could get. By and by,
however, they set fire to a large district belonging to our supporters
burning cocoanut and breadfruit trees and plantations. Still our people
refused to fight, and kept near to protect us. Then all the leading men
assembled to talk it over. Most were for peace, but some insisted upon
burning our house and driving us away or killing us, that they might be
left to live as they had hitherto done. At last a Sacred Man, a Chief
who had been on Tanna when the Curaçoa punished the murderers and
robbers, but protected the villages of the friendly Natives there, stood
up and spoke in our defense, and warned them what might happen; and
other three, who had been under my instruction on Tanna, declared
themselves to be the friends of Jehovah and of His Missionary. Finally,
the Sacred Man rose again, and showed them rows of beautiful white
shells strung round his left arm, saying--
"Nowar, the great Chief at Port Resolution on Tanna, when he saw that
Missi and his wife could not be kept there, took me to his heart, and
pledged me by these, the shells of his office as Chief, taken from his
own arm and bound on mine, to protect them from all harm. He told me to
declare to the men of Aniwa that if the Missi be injured or slain, he
and his warriors will come from Tanna and take the full revenge in
blood." This turned the scale. The meeting closed in our favor.
Close on the heels of this, another and a rather perplexing incident
befell us. A party of Heathens assembled and made a great display of
fishing on the Lord's Day, in contempt of the practice of the men on
Jehovah's side, threatening also to waylay the Teachers and myself in
our village circuits. A meeting was held by the Christian party, at the
close of the Sabbath Services. All who wished to serve Jehovah were to
come to my house next morning, unarmed, and accompany me on a visit to
our enemies, that we might talk and reason together with them. By
daybreak, the Chiefs and nearly eighty men assembled at the Mission
House, declaring that they were on Jehovah's side, and wished to go with
me. But, alas! they refused to lay down their arms, or leave them
behind; nor would they either refrain from going or suffer me to go
alone. Pledging them to peace, I was reluctantly placed at their head,
and we marched off to the village of the unfriendly party.
The villagers were greatly alarmed. The Chief's two sons came forth with
every available man to meet us. That whole day was consumed in talking
and speechifying, sometimes chanting their replies--the Natives are all
inveterate talkers! To me the day was utterly wearisome; but it had one
redeeming feature,--their rage found vent in hours of palaver, instead
of blows and blood. It ended in peace. The Heathen were amazed at the
number of Jehovah's friends; and they pledged themselves henceforth to
leave the Worship alone, and that every one who pleased might come to it
unmolested. For this, worn out and weary, we returned, praising the
Lord.