RAIN FROM BELOW.
AT this depth the earth and coral began to be soaked with damp. I felt
that we were nearing water. My soul had a faith that God would open a
spring for us; but side by side with this faith was a strange terror
that the water would be salt. So perplexing and mixed are even the
highest experiences of the soul; the rose-flower of a perfect faith, set
round and round with prickly thorns. One evening I said to the old
Chief, "I think that Jehovah God will give us water to-morrow from that
hole!"
The Chief said, "No, Missi; you will never see rain coming up from the
earth on this Island. We wonder what is to be the end of this mad work
of yours. We expect daily, if you reach water, to see you drop through
into the sea and the sharks will eat you! That will be the end of it;
death to you, and danger to us all."
I still answered, "Come to-morrow. I hope and believe that Jehovah God
will send you the rain water up through the earth."
At the moment I knew I was risking much, and probably incurring
sorrowful consequences, had no water been given; but I had faith that
the Lord was leading me on, and I knew that I sought His glory, not my
own.
Next morning, I went down again at daybreak and sank a narrow hole in
the center about two feet deep. The perspiration broke over me with
uncontrollable excitement, and I trembled through every limb, when the
water rushed up and began to fill the hole. Muddy though it was, I
eagerly tasted it, lapping it with my trembling hand, and then I almost
fell upon my knees in that muddy bottom as my heart burst up in praise
to the Lord. It was water! It was fresh water. It was living water from
Jehovah's well! True, it was a little brackish, but nothing to speak of;
and no spring in the desert, cooling the parched lips of a fevered
pilgrim, ever appeared more worthy of being called a Well of God than
did that water to me!
The Chiefs had assembled with their men near by. They waited on in eager
expectancy. It was a rehearsal, in a small way, of the Israelites coming
round, while Moses struck the rock and called for water. By and by, when
I had praised the Lord, and my excitement was a little calmed, the mud
being also greatly settled, I filled a jug, which I had taken down empty
in the sight of them all, and ascending to the top called for them to
come and see the rain which Jehovah God had given us through the well.
They closed around me in haste, and gazed on it in superstitious fear.
The old Chief shook it to see if it would spill, and then touched it to
see if it felt like water. At last he tasted it, and rolling it in his
mouth with joy for a moment, he swallowed it, and shouted, "Rain! Rain!
Yes, it is Rain! But how did you get it?"
I repeated, "Jehovah my God gave it out of His own Earth in answer to
our labors and prayers. Go and see it springing up for yourselves!"
Now, though every man there could climb the highest tree as swiftly and
as fearlessly as a squirrel or an opossum, not one of them had courage
to walk to the side and gaze down into that well. To them this was
miraculous! But they were not without a resource that met the emergency.
They agreed to take firm hold of each other by the hand, to place
themselves in a long line, the foremost man to lean cautiously forward,
gaze into the well, and then pass to the rear, and so on till all had
seen "Jehovah's rain" far below. It was somewhat comical, yet far more
pathetic, to stand by and watch their faces, as man after man peered
down into the mystery, and then looked up at me in blank bewilderment!
When all had seen it with their own very eyes, and were "weak with
wonder," the old Chief exclaimed--
"Missi, wonderful, wonderful is the work of your Jehovah God! No god of
Aniwa ever helped us in this way. The world is turned upside down since
Jehovah came to Aniwa! But, Missi," continued he, after a pause that
looked liked silent worship, "will it always rain up through the earth?
or will it come and go like the rain from the clouds?"
I told them that I believed it would always continue there for our use,
as a good gift from Jehovah.
"Well, but, Missi," replied the Chief some glimmering of self-interest
beginning to strike his brain, "will you or your family drink it all, or
shall we also have some?"
"You and all your people," I answered, "and all the people of the
Island, may come and drink and carry away as much of it as you wish. I
believe there will always be plenty for us all, and the more of it we
can use the fresher it will be. That is the way with many of our
Jehovah's best gifts to men, and for it and for all we praise His Name!"
"Then, Missi," said the Chief, "it will be our water, and we may all use
it as our very own."
"Yes," I answered, "whenever you wish it, and as much as you need, both
here and at your own houses, as far as it can possibly be made to go."
The Chief looked at me eagerly, fully convinced at length that the well
contained a treasure, and exclaimed, "Missi, what can we do to help you
now?"
I was thankful, indeed, to accept of the Chief's assistance, now sorely
needed, and I said, "You have seen it fall in once already. If it falls
again, it will conceal the rain from below which our God has given us.
In order to preserve it for us and for our children in all time, we must
build it round and round with great coral blocks from the bottom to the
very top. I will now clear it out, and prepare the foundation for this
wall of coral. Let every man and woman carry from the shore the largest
block they can bring. It is well worth all the toil thus to preserve our
great Jehovah's gift!"
Scarcely were my words uttered, when they rushed to the shore, with
shoutings and songs of gladness; and soon every one was seen struggling
under the biggest block of coral with which he dared to tackle. They lay
like limestone rocks, broken up by the hurricanes, and rolled ashore in
the arms of mighty billows; and in an incredibly short time scores of
them were tumbled down for my use at the mouth of the well. Having
prepared a foundation, I made ready a sort of bag-basket, into which
every block was firmly tied and then let down to me by the pulley--a
Native Teacher, a faithful fellow, cautiously guiding it. I received and
placed each stone in its position, doing my poor best to wedge them one
against the other, building circularly, and cutting them to the needed
shape with my American ax. The wall is about three feet thick, and the
masonry may be guaranteed to stand till the coral itself decays. I
wrought incessantly, for fear of any further collapse, till I had it
raised about twenty feet; and now, feeling secure, and my hands being
dreadfully cut up, I intimated that I would rest a week or two, and
finish the building then. But the Chief advanced and said--
"Missi, you have been strong to work. Your strength has fled. But rest
here beside us; and just point out where each block is to be laid. We
will lay them there, we will build them solidly behind like you. And no
man will sleep till it is done."
With all their will and heart they started on the job; some carrying,
some cutting and squaring the blocks, till the wall rose like magic, and
a row of the hugest rocks laid round the top, bound all together, and
formed the mouth of the well. Women, boys, and all wished to have a hand
in building it, and it remains to this day, a solid wall of masonry, the
circle being thirty-four feet deep, eight feet wide at the top, and six
at the bottom. I floored it over with wood above all, and fixed the
windlass and bucket, and there it stands as one of the greatest material
blessings which the Lord has given to Aniwa. It rises and falls with the
tide, though a third of a mile distant from the sea; and when, after
using it, we tasted the pure fresh water on board the _Dayspring_, the
latter seemed so insipid that I had to slip a little salt into my tea
along with the sugar before I could enjoy it! All visitors are taken to
see the well, as one of the wonders of Aniwa; and an Elder of the Native
Church said to me, on a recent visit, "But for that water, during the
last two years of drought, we would have all been dead!"
Very strangely, though the Natives themselves have since tried to sink
six or seven wells in the most likely places near their different
villages, they have either come to coral rock which they could not
pierce, or found only water that was salt. And they say amongst
themselves, "Missi not only used pick and spade, but he prayed and cried
to his God. We have learned to dig, but not how to pray, and therefore
Jehovah will not give us the rain, from below!"