Part 25 (1/2)
In the circ.u.mstances of our baby Lena's death, every form of heartrending tenderness seemed to meet. On Friday, 28th March, at 3 A.M.
she came from G.o.d, and seemed to both of us the Angel-child of all our flock. Alas, on Sat.u.r.day I was seized with sciatica, so dreadful and agonizing, that I had to be borne to my bed, and could not stir a limb any more than if my back had been broken. My dear wife struggled to attend to the baby, with such help as Native girls could give; and I directed the Teachers about the Services in Church next Sunday, the first time as yet that I had been unable to appear and lead them. From the beds where we lay, my wife and I could hear each other's voices, and tried to console one another in our sorrowful and helpless state. On Tuesday, 1st April, the child was bright and vigorous; but the mother's strength had been overtaxed, and she fell back, fainting in her bed, when helping to dress the baby. Next morning, to our dismay, there were symptoms of wheezing and feverishness in the little darling. All due measures were at once taken to check these; and Williag, an experienced Native, now having charge, kept everything warm and cozy. Before tea, when receiving a little food, Lena opened her dark blue eyes, and gazed up peacefully and gladly in her mother's face. But, immediately after tea, within less than an hour, when the nurse brought her and placed her in the mother's arms, the Angel-Soul fled away. Poor Williag, seeing the mother's pathetic look, and as if she herself had been guilty, fell on her knees and cried,--”I knew it, Missi, I knew it! She gave two big sighs, and went! Awai, Missi, Awai!” When the mother called to me something about the child having ”fainted,” I was talking with Koris, but my heart guessed the worst. Alas, all means were seen to be vain! I could not rise, could not move, nor could the mother, but we prayed, in each other's hearing, and in the hearing of our blessed Lord, and He did not leave us without consolation. In such cases, the Heathen usually fly away in terror, but our Teachers were faithful and obedient; and our little boys, Bob and Fred, six and four respectively, followed all our tearful directions. One of their small toy-boxes was readily given up to make the baby's coffin. Yawaci brought calico, and dressed the precious body at the mother's instructions. I then offered a prayer to the clear Lord, whilst the mother clasped the coffin in her arms. The little grave, dug by the Teachers in the Mission plot, was within earshot of where we lay, and there Bob and Fred, kneeling in their snow-white dresses, sang ”There is a Happy Land,” as their sister's dust was laid in the Earth and in the arms of Jesus who is the Resurrection and the Life. G.o.d only can ever know how our hearts were torn by the pathos of that event, as we lay helpless, almost dying, and listened to our children's trembling voices! Johna, the Teacher, then prayed; while the Heathen, in groups of wonder, but holding far aloof, had many strange ideas wakened in their puzzled brains. The mother and I gave ourselves once more away to G.o.d, and to the Service of our dear Lord Jesus, as we parted with our darling Lena; and when, by and by, we were raised up again, and able to move about, often, often, did we find ourselves meeting together at that precious grave.
Being ordered to seek health by change and by higher medical aid, and if possible in the cooler air of New Zealand, we took the first opportunity and arrived at Sydney, anxious to start the new movement to secure the _Paragon_ there, and then to go on to the sister Colony. Being scarcely able to walk without the crutches, we called privately a preliminary meeting of friends for consultation and advice. The conditions were laid before them and discussed. The Insurance Company had paid 2000 on the first _Dayspring_. Of that sum 1000 had been spent on chartering and maintaining the _Paragon;_ so that we required an additional 2000 to purchase her, according to Dr. Steel's bargain with the owners, besides a large sum for alterations and equipment for the Mission. The late Mr.
Learmouth looked across to Mr. Goodlet, and said, ”If you'll join me, we will at once secure this vessel for the Missionaries, that G.o.d's work may not suffer from the wreck of the _Dayspring_.”
Those two servants of G.o.d, excellent Elders of the Presbyterian Church, consulted together, and the vessel was purchased next day. How I did praise G.o.d, and pray Him to bless them and theirs! The late Dr.
Fullarton, our dear friend, said to them, ”But what guarantee do you ask from the Missionaries for your money?”
Mr. Learmouth's n.o.ble reply was, and the other heartily re-echoed it--”G.o.d's work is our guarantee! From them we will ask none. What guarantee have they to give us, except their faith in G.o.d? That guarantee is ours already.”
I answered, ”You take G.o.d and His work for your guarantee. Rest a.s.sured that He will soon repay you, and you will lose nothing by this n.o.ble service.”
Having secured St. Andrew's Church for a public meeting, I advertised it in all the papers. Ministers, Sabbath School Teachers, and other friends came in great numbers. The scheme was fairly launched, and Collecting Cards largely distributed. Committees carried everything out into detail, and all worked for the fund with great goodwill.
I then sailed from Sydney to Victoria, and addressed the General a.s.sembly of the Presbyterian Church in session at Melbourne. The work was easily set agoing there, and willing workers fully and rapidly organized it through Congregations and Sabbath Schools. Under medical advice, I next sailed for New Zealand in the S. S. _Hero_, Captain Logan. Reaching Auckland, I was in time to address the General a.s.sembly of the Church there also. They gave me cordial welcome, and every Congregation and Sabbath School might be visited as far as I possibly could. The Ministers promoted the movement with hearty zeal. The Sabbath Scholars took Collecting Cards for ”shares” in the New Mission s.h.i.+p. A meeting was held every day, and three every Sabbath. Auckland, Nelson, Wellington, Dunedin, and all towns and churches within reach of these were rapidly visited; and I never had greater joy or heartiness in any of my tours than in this happy intercourse with the Ministers and people of the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand.
I arrived in Sydney about the end of March. My health was wonderfully restored, and New Zealand had given me about 1700 for the new s.h.i.+p.
With the 1000 of insurance money, and about 700 from New South Wales, and 400 from Victoria, besides the 500 for her support also from.
Victoria, we were able to pay back the 3000 of purchase money, and about 800 for alterations and repairs, as well as equip and provision her to sail for her next year's work amongst the Islands free of debt. I said to our two good friends at Sydney:
”You took G.o.d and His work for your guarantee. He has soon relieved you from all responsibility. You have suffered no loss, and you have had the honor and privilege of serving your Lord. I envy you the joy you must feel in so using your wealth, and I pray G.o.d's double blessing on all your store.”
Our agent. Dr. Steel, had applied to the Home authorities for power to change the vessel's name from _Paragon_ to _Dayspring_, so that the old a.s.sociations might not be broken. This was cordially granted. And so our second _Dayspring_, owing no man anything, sailed on her annual trip to the New Hebrides, and we returned with her, praising the Lord and reinvigorated alike in spirit and in body.
CHAPTER LXXVII.
THE GOSPEL IN LIVING CAPITALS.
IN Heathendom every true convert becomes at once a Missionary. The changed life, s.h.i.+ning out amid the surrounding darkness, is a Gospel in largest Capitals which all can read. Our Islanders, especially, having little to engage or otherwise distract attention, become intense and devoted workers for the Lord Jesus, if once the Divine Pa.s.sion for souls stirs within them.
A Heathen has been all his days groping after peace of soul in dark superst.i.tion and degrading rites. You pour into his soul the light of Revelation. He learns that G.o.d is love, that G.o.d sent His Son to die for him, and that he is the heir of Life Eternal in and through Jesus Christ. By the blessed enlightenment of the Spirit of the Lord he believes all this. He pa.s.ses into a third heaven of joy, and he burns to tell every one of this Glad Tidings. Others see the change in his disposition in his character in his whole life and actions; and amid such surroundings, every Convert is a burning and a s.h.i.+ning light. Even whole populations are thus brought into the Outer Court of the Temple; and Islands, still Heathen and Cannibal, are positively eager for the Missionary to live amongst them, and would guard his life and property now in complete security, where a very few years ago everything would have been instantly sacrificed on touching their sh.o.r.es! They are not Christianized, neither are they Civilized, but the light has been kindled all round them, and though still only s.h.i.+ning afar, they cannot but rejoice in its beams.
But even where the path is not so smooth, nor any welcome awaiting them, Native Converts show amazing zeal. For instance, one of our Chiefs, full of the Christ-kindled desire to seek and to save, sent a message to an inland Chief, that he and four attendants would come on Sabbath and tell them the Gospel of Jehovah G.o.d. The reply came back sternly forbidding their Visit, and threatening with death any Christian that approached their village. Our Chief sent in response a loving message, telling them that Jehovah had taught the Christians to return good for evil, and that they would come unarmed to tell them the story of how the Son of G.o.d came into the world and died in order to bless and save His enemies. The Heathen Chief sent back a stern and prompt reply once more, ”If you come, you will be killed.”
On Sabbath morning, the Christian Chief and his four companions were met outside the village by the Heathen Chief, who implored and threatened them once more. But the former said, ”We come to you without weapons of war! We come only to tell you about Jesus. We believe that He will protect us to-day.”
As they steadily pressed forward towards the village, spears began to be thrown at them. Some they evaded, being all except one most dexterous warriors; and others they literally received with their bare hands, striking them and turning them aside in an incredible manner. The Heathen, apparently thunderstruck at these men thus approaching them without weapons of war, and not even flinging back their own spears which they had turned aside, desisted from mere surprise, after having thrown what the old Chief called ”a shower of spears.” Our Christian Chief called out, as he and his companions drew up in the midst of them on the village Public Ground:
”Jehovah thus protects us. He has given us all your spears! Once we would have thrown them back at you and killed you. But now we come not to fight, but to tell you about Jesus. He has changed our dark hearts.
He asks you now to lay down all these your other weapons of war, and to hear what we can tell you about the love of G.o.d, our great Father, the only living G.o.d.”
The Heathen were perfectly overawed. They manifestly looked upon these Christians as protected by some Invisible One! They listened for the first time to the story of the Gospel and of the Cross. We lived to see that Chief and all his tribe sitting in the School of Christ. And there is perhaps not an Island in these Southern Seas, amongst all those won for Christ, where similar acts of heroism on the part of Converts cannot be recited by every Missionary to the honor of our poor Natives and to the glory of their Saviour.
Larger and harder tests were sometimes laid upon their new faith. Once the war on Tanna drove about one hundred of them to seek refuge on Aniwa. Not so many years before, their lives would never have been thus intrusted to the inhabitants of another Cannibal Island. But the Christ-Spirit was abroad upon Aniwa. The refugees were kindly cared for, and in process of time were restored to their own lands, by our Missionary s.h.i.+p the _Dayspring_. The Chiefs, however, and the Elders of the Church laid the new laws before them very clearly and decidedly.
They would be helped and sheltered, but Aniwa was now under law to Christ, and if any of the Tannese broke the public rules as to moral conduct, or in any way disturbed the Wors.h.i.+p of Jehovah, they would at once be expelled from the Island and sent back to Tanna. In all this, the Chief of the Tanna party, my old friend Nowar, strongly supported our Christian Chiefs. The Tannese behaved well, and many of them wore clothing and began to attend Church; and the heavy drain upon the poor resources of Aniwa was borne with a n.o.ble and Christian spirit, which greatly impressed the Tannese and commended the Gospel of Christ.
CHAPTER LXXVIII.