NERWA'S BEAUTIFUL FAREWELL.
THE Chief of next importance on Aniwa was Nerwa, a keen debater, all
whose thoughts ran in the channels of logic. When I could speak a little
of their language I visited and preached at his village; but the moment
he discovered that the teaching about Jehovah was opposed to their
Heathen customs, he sternly forbade us. One day, during my address, he
blossomed out into a full-fledged and pronounced Agnostic (with as much
reason at his back as the European type!), and angrily interrupted me:
"It's all lies you come here to teach us, and you call it worship! You
say your Jehovah God dwells in Heaven. Who ever went up there to hear
Him or see Him? You talk of Jehovah as if you had visited His Heaven.
Why, you cannot climb even to the top of one of our cocoanut trees,
though we can and that with ease! In going up to the roof of your own
Mission House you require the help of a ladder to carry you. And even if
you could make your ladder higher than our highest cocoanut tree, on
what would you lean its top? And when you get to its top, you can only
climb down the other side and end where you began! The thing is
impossible. You never saw that God; you never heard Him speak; don't
come here with any of your white lies, or I'll send my spear through
you."
He drove us from his village, and furiously threatened murder, if we
ever dared to return. But very shortly thereafter the Lord sent us a
little orphan girl from Nerwa's village. She was very clever, and could
soon both read and write, and told over all that we taught her. Her
visits home, or at least amongst the villagers where her home had been,
her changed appearance and her childish talk, produced a very deep
interest in us and in our work.
An orphan boy next was sent from that village to be kept and trained at
the Mission House, and he too took back his little stories of how kind
and good to him were Missi the man and Missi the woman. By this time
Chief and people alike were taking a lively interest in all that was
transpiring. One day the Chief's wife, a quiet and gentle woman, came to
the Worship and said, "Nerwa's opposition dies fast. The story of the
Orphans did it! He has allowed me to attend the Church, and to get the
Christian's book."
We gave her a book and a bit of clothing. She went home and told
everything. Woman after woman followed her from that same village, and
some of the men began to accompany them. The only thing in which they
showed a real interest was the children singing the little hymns which I
had translated into their own Aniwan tongue, and which my wife had
taught them to sing very sweetly and joyfully. Nerwa at last got so
interested that he came himself, and sat within earshot, and drank in
the joyful sound. In a short time he drew so near that he could hear the
preaching, and then began openly and regularly to attend the Church. His
keen reasoning faculty was constantly at work. He weighed and compared
everything he heard, and soon out-distanced nearly all of them in his
grasp of the ideas of the Gospel. He put on clothing, joined our School,
and professed himself a follower of the Lord Jesus. He eagerly set
himself, with all his power, to bring in a neighboring Chief and his
people, and constituted himself at once an energetic and very pronounced
helper to the Missionary.
On the death of Naswai, Nerwa at once took his place in carrying my
Bible to the Church, and seeing that all the people were seated before
the stopping of the bell. I have seen him clasping the Bible like a
living thing to his breast, as if he would cry, "Oh, to have this
treasure in my own words of Aniwa!"
When the Gospels of Matthew and Mark were at last printed in Aniwan, he
studied them incessantly, and soon could read them freely. He became the
Teacher in his own village School, and delighted in instructing others.
He was assisted by Ruwawa, whom he himself had drawn into the circle of
Gospel influence; and at our next election these two friends were
appointed Elders of the Church, and greatly sustained our hands in every
good work on Aniwa.
After years of happy useful service, the time came for Nerwa to die. He
was then so greatly beloved that most of the inhabitants visited him
during his long illness. He read a bit of the Gospels in his own Aniwan,
and prayed with and for every visitor. He sang beautifully, and scarcely
allowed any one to leave his bedside without having a verse of one or
other of his favorite hymns, "Happy Land," and "Nearer, my God, to
Thee."
On my last visit to Nerwa, his strength had gone very low, but he drew
me near his face, and whispered, "Missi, my Missi, I am glad to see you.
You see that group of young men? They came to sympathize with me; but
they have never once spoken the name of Jesus, though they have spoken
about everything else! They could not have weakened me so, if they had
spoken about Jesus! Read me the story of Jesus; pray for me to Jesus.
No! stop, let us call them, and let me speak with them before I go."
I called them all around him, and he strained his dying strength, and
said, "After I am gone, let there be no bad talk, no Heathen ways. Sing
Jehovah's songs, and pray to Jesus, and bury me as a Christian. Take
good care of my Missi, and help him all you can. I am dying happy and
going to be with Jesus, and it was Missi that showed me this way. And
who among you will take my place in the village School and in the
Church? Who amongst you all will stand up for Jesus?"
Many were shedding tears, but there was no reply; after which the dying
Chief proceeded, "Now let my last work on Earth be this--We will read a
chapter of the Book, verse about, and then I will pray for you all, and
the Missi will pray for me, and God will let me go while the song is
still sounding in my heart!"
At the close of this most touching exercise, we gathered the Christians
who were near by close around, and sang very softly in Aniwan, "There is
a Happy Land." As they sang, the old man grasped my hand, and tried hard
to speak, but in vain. His head fell to one side, "the silver cord was
loosed, and the golden bowl was broken."