The name of John Williams, the faithful missionary to the South Seas years ago, will not be unfamiliar to many of our young readers. John Williams translated the New Testament for the Raratongans. He was working on a version of the Scriptures in Samoan, when he was murdered by the cannibals of Erromanga.
But his spirit lived on. The name, John Williams, was given to the mission ship purchased chiefly by the gifts of children, and for twenty years that ship sailed the South Seas carrying the gospel to the islands, bearing at its prow the half-length figure of the martyr of Erromanga, with the open Bible in his hand. When the ship struck on the coral reef of Danger island, another children’s ship rose out of the wreck, and the first gifts came from the little brown children of that island.
Sometimes the question would be asked, could those natives be expected to understand a book, which after so many generations, still engages the devout scholarship of Christion lands? Let us hear the testimony of John Williams. He told of how the captain of a ship in the Royal Navy wished to find out if the South Sea Islanders were merely trained like parrots to repeat the words of the missionary. Meeting a number of them one day, he discussed with them the doctrine of the resurrection.
“Do you believe in it?” asked the captain.
“Yes, most certainly,” they replied. “In what body shall we rise?”
They answered: “In a chapter in the Corinthians it is said, ‘It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.’ The captain would not be satisfied; he wanted to know the identical nature of the body which shall be raised. The natives hesitated some time, and at last one said, ‘I have it! We shall see Him as He is, and shall be like Him.’ (1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2).)
The captain said again: “I want to know the precise body with which we shall be raised.” This occasioned considerable consultation among them. At length one said: “It will be like His glorious body...” (Phil. 3:2121Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:21).)
How precious to see the work of the Spirit of God in those dear souls. Taught of Him, they had grown in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. May their testimony stir up each of us, dear young readers, to a greater appreciation of the Bible, and in deeper searching of the Holy Scriptures.
Are you answering the Bible Questions this year? If you would like to start with the beginning, but do not have a copy of May and June Questions, we will be glad to send them to you.
ML 07/25/1965