THE OLD CHIEF'S SERMON.
THE well was now finished. The place was neatly fenced in. And the old
Chief said, "Missi, I think I could help you next Sabbath. Will you let
me preach a sermon on the well?"
"Yes," I at once replied, "if you will try to bring all the people to
hear you."
"Missi, I will try," he eagerly promised. The news spread like wildfire
that the Chief Namakei was to be Missionary on the next day for the
Worship, and the people, under great expectancy, urged each other to
come and hear what he had to say.
Sabbath came round. Aniwa assembled in what was for that island a great
crowd. Namakei appeared dressed in shirt and kilt. He was so excited,
and flourished his tomahawk about at such a rate, that it was rather
lively work to be near him. I conducted short opening devotions, and
then called upon Namakei. He rose at once, with eye flashing wildly, and
his limbs twitching with emotion. He spoke to the following effect,
swinging his tomahawk to enforce every eloquent gesticulation:--
"Friends of Namakei, men and women and children of Aniwa, listen to my
words! Since Missi came here he has talked many strange things we could
not understand--things things all too wonderful; and we said regarding
many of them that they must be lies. White people might believe such
nonsense, but we said that the black fellow knew better than to receive
it. But of all his wonderful stories, we thought the strangest was about
sinking down through the earth to get rain! Then we said to each other,
The man's head is turned; he's gone mad. But the Missi prayed on and
wrought on, telling us that Jehovah God heard and saw, and that his God
would give him rain. Was he mad? Has he not got the rain deep down in
the earth? We mocked at him; but the water was there all the same. We
have laughed at other things which the Missi told us, because we could
not see them. But from this day I believe that all he tells us about his
Jehovah God is true. Some day our eyes will see it. For to-day we have
seen the rain from the earth."
Then rising to a climax, first the one foot and then the other making
the broken coral on the floor fly behind like a war-horse pawing the
ground, he cried with great eloquence:--
"My people, the people of Aniwa, the world is turned upside down since
the word of Jehovah came to this land! Who ever expected to see rain
coming up through the earth? It has always come from the clouds!
Wonderful is the work of this Jehovah God. No god of Aniwa ever answered
prayers as the Missi's God has done. Friends of Namakei, all the powers
of the world could not have forced us to believe that rain could be
given from the depths of the earth, if we had not seen it with our eyes,
felt it and tasted it as we here do. Now, by the help of Jehovah God the
Missi brought that invisible rain to view, which we never before heard
of or saw, and"--(beating his hand on his breast, he exclaimed):--
"Something here in my heart tells me that the Jehovah God does exist,
the Invisible One, whom we never heard of nor saw till the Missi brought
Him to our knowledge. The coral has been removed, the land has been
cleared away, and lo! the water rises. Invisible till this day, yet all
the same it was there, though our eyes were too weak. So I, your Chief,
do now firmly believe that when I die, when the bits of coral and the
heaps of dust are removed which now blind my old eyes, I shall then see
the Invisible Jehovah God with my soul, as Missi tells me, not less
surely than I have seen the rain from the earth below. From this day, my
people, I must worship the God who has opened for us the well, and who
fills us with rain from below. The gods of Aniwa cannot hear, cannot
help us, like the God of Missi. Henceforth I am a follower of Jehovah
God. Let every man that thinks with me go now and fetch the idols of
Aniwa, the gods which our fathers feared, and cast them down at Missi's
feet. Let us burn and bury and destroy these things of wood and stone,
and let us be taught by the Missi how to serve God who can hear, the
Jehovah who gave us the well, and who will give us every other blessing,
for He sent His Son Jesus to die for us and bring us to Heaven. This is
what the Missi has been telling us every day since he landed on Aniwa.
We laughed at him, but now we believe him. The Jehovah God has sent us
rain from the earth. Why should He not also send us His Son from Heaven?
Namakei stands up for Jehovah!"
This address, and the Sinking of the Well, broke the back of Heathenism
on Aniwa. That very afternoon, the old Chief and several of his people
brought their idols and cast them down at my feet beside the door of our
house. Oh, the intense excitement of the weeks that followed! Company
after company came to the spot, loaded with their gods of wood and
stone, and piled them up in heaps, amid the tears and sobs of some, and
the shoutings of others, in which was heard the oft-repeated word,
"Jehovah! Jehovah!" What could be burned, we cast into the flames;
others we buried in pits twelve or fifteen feet deep; and some few, more
likely than the rest to feed or awaken superstition, we sank far out
into the deep sea. Let no Heathen eyes ever gaze on them again!
One of the very first steps in Christian discipline to which they
readily and almost unanimously took was the asking of God's blessing on
every meal and praising the great Jehovah for their daily bread.
Whosoever did not do so was regarded as a Heathen. (Query: how many
white Heathens are there?) The next step, and it was taken in a manner
as if by some common consent that was not less surprising than joyful,
was a form of Family Worship every morning and evening. Doubtless the
prayers were often very queer, and mixed up with many remaining
superstitions; but they were prayers to the great Jehovah, the
compassionate Father, the Invisible One--no longer to gods of stone!
Necessarily these were the conspicuous features of our life as
Christians in their midst--morning and evening Family Prayer, and Grace
at Meat; and hence, most naturally, their instinctive adoption and
imitation of the same as the first outward tokens of Christian
discipline. Every house in which there was not Prayer to God in the
family was known thereby to be Heathen. This was a direct and practical
evidence of the New Religion; and, so far as it goes (and that is very
far indeed, where there is any sincerity beneath it), the test was one
about which there could be no mistake on either side.
A third conspicuous feature stood out distinctly and at once,--the
change as to the Lord's Day. Village after village followed in this also
the example of the Mission House. All ordinary occupation ceased.
Sabbath was spoken of as the Day for Jehovah. Saturday came to be called
"Cooking Day," referring to the extra preparations for the coming day of
rest and worship. They believed that it was Jehovah's will to keep the
first day holy. The reverse was a distinctive mark of Heathenism.
The first traces of a new Social Order began to rise visibly on the
delighted eye. The whole inhabitants, young and old, now attended
School,--three generations sometimes at the one copy or A B C book!
Thefts, quarrels, crimes, etc., were settled now, not by club law, but
by fine or bonds or lash, as agreed upon by the Chiefs and their people.
Everything was rapidly and surely becoming "New" under the influence of
the leaven of Jesus. Industry increased. Huts and plantations were safe.
Formerly every man, in traveling, carried with him all his valuables;
now they were secure, left at home.
Even a brood of fowls or a litter of pigs would be carried in bags on
their person in Heathen days. Hence at Church we had sometimes lively
episodes, the chirruping of chicks, the squealing of piggies, and the
barking of puppies, one gaily responding to the other, as we sang, or
prayed, or preached the Gospel! Being glad to see the Natives there,
even with all their belongings, we carefully refrained from finding
fault; but the thread of devotion was sometimes apt to slip through
one's fingers, especially when the conflict of the owner to silence a
baby pig inspired the little wretch to drown everything in a
long-sustained and high-pitched scream.
The natives, finding this state of matters troublesome to themselves and
disagreeable all round, called a General Assembly, unanimously condemned
dishonesty, agreed upon severe fines and punishments for every act of
theft, and covenanted to stand by each other in putting it down. The
chiefs, however found this a long and difficult task, but they held at
it under the inspiration of the gospel and prevailed. Even the trials
and difficulties with which they met were overruled by God, in assisting
them to form by the light of their own experience a simple code of
Social Laws, fitted to repress the crimes there prevailing, and to
encourage the virtues specially needing to be cultivated there. Heathen
Worship was gradually extinguished; and, though no one was compelled to
come to Church, every person on Aniwa, without exception, became ere
many years an avowed worshipper of Jehovah God. Again, "O Galilean, Thou
hast conquered!"