THESE words were uttered by a middle-aged Maori―a New Zealand aboriginal―about seventy miles up the river Wanganui (the Rhine of New Zealand, as it is often called), where I was visiting a young man whom I had known from his boyhood, and who had been helped into “peace with God” by one of my daughters speaking to him and giving him G. C―’s Tract, “Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment.”
This young man had devoted himself to missionary work among the Maori race. “Taking nothing from the Gentiles”―abandoning his interest even in his late father’s estate―he determined to get away from the sea-coast, and go up into the interior among the people, whose souls he felt the burden of, and live like and with them, and thus acquire their language. He worked among them and helped them plant their maize, pumpkins, potatoes, &c., build their whores (houses), &c., and so he lived among them, learned their tongue, and gained their confidence, respect, and esteem. God honored his faith, and he leased a bit of land from these primitive holders of the soil, built a house for his like-minded wife and himself, and a hospital, and treated all the cases that came to him, whether fevers, burns, or accidents, gratis.
I went up to see him, found “Temittie” (they could not pronounce his name properly), and I preached the gospel in their “whorrepines.” I spoke as simply as I could from Exodus 12, and my friend interpreted sentence by sentence.
He told me some of the encouragements he had received in his life-work among them. One incident especially stuck in my memory.
“A native man, about fifty years of age, he saw lying on the ground in his garden, with his gun in his hand, one Sunday evening. My friend asked him why and what he was doing there at that time with his gun? He replied that he was going to try and shoot some pheasants which had eaten all his crop of young Indian corn. ‘Have they eaten it all?’ ‘Yes, all.’ ‘Well, is it too late to sow it over again?’ ‘Yes, it is too late now to sow it again this year; there is only one good month now to sow; things have changed very much to what they used to be in the days of my forefathers.’ Then after a moment’s reflection, he said, AH, NEVER MIND, JESUS COME SOON!
“ ‘What said my friend, with amazed expression, ‘Jesus come soon?’
“ ‘Yes,’ said the Maori, ‘JESUS COME SOON, AND THEN THINGS WILL BE ALL RIGHT!’
“ ‘I know the Lord Jesus is coming SOON; but it will be a bad job for you, Rahoni, for you are a very wicked man!’
“‘Yes, that is true; I know it; I all over sin; but the blood of Jesus take all my sin away; and when Jesus come and take you, I go too; for I am all the same as you, now.’
“ ‘How do you know that the blood of Jesus has taken all your sins away?’
“‘I hear you read it out of your Bible-book, and then I go and look in my Bible and I know’ (literally, so now I know).
“The same Maori, on being asked on a subsequent occasion what made him such a bad man as to swear, he replied (of course all these conversations were in the Maori language): ‘Oh, the bad dog worry the sheep, and not stop when I call him (figurative language), and the bad man in me sometimes get up (meaning get strong, and manifest itself) and the new man get down.’”
All this, unsaved reader, shows that God, by His Spirit, can teach a poor ignorant, unlettered Maori, far away from the centers of European civilization, the truth, and give him faith in the Scriptures as to the efficacy of the precious blood of Jesus, while you, with all your boasted educational advantages and the facilities for hearing God’s glad tidings of a Saviour-God, and of a full salvation through faith in the “finished” work of Jesus on the cross, yet remain unsaved! You reason about it; the Maori believed it.
Surely the heathen will rise up in the judgment (Luke 11:31, 3231The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. 32The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Luke 11:31‑32)) against you favored people in Christendom and condemn you, for they (many of them) believed the simple testimony of God’s grace brought to them, and you, unsaved readers, have not, and we say to you, as the young Maori missionary said to the dark-skinned Maori― “Jesus is coming soon, and it will be A BAD JOB FOR YOU,” who having heard (often, maybe) of salvation for sinners preached in the only Name given under heaven whereby you might be “saved,” have treated it lightly, yea, neglected it. All gospel-neglecters will go down to hell, and spend a lost eternity, where hope, light, and joy never come!
“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh” (Prov. 1:24-2624Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; (Proverbs 1:24‑26)). Many, in the recent disaster which overwhelmed so many in the West Indies, would surely recall this solemn scripture!
Do not wait till a like calamity overtake you before you seek Christ. “Now is the accepted time.”
G. W. G.