THE martyr missionary, John Williams, with undaunted courage planted the banner of the gospel in the South Sea Islands with glorious results. Idols were broken, the temples in which they were worshipped destroyed. Instead of spending their days in fighting, men began to cultivate the ground and live industrious and peaceful lives. Instead of assembling for cannibal feasts they came together to hear the word of God. The darksome huts, in which they dwelt among lizards and rats, gave place to bright and healthy dwellings.
A chief on one occasion made this interesting speech: “Formerly there were two captivities among us; one was to our gods, the other to the servants of our king. What the former of these was we all know. I know the very cave in which one person, now at this meeting, hid himself several times, when sought after to be offered up as a sacrifice to the gods. The other captivity was to the servants of our chiefs. These would enter our houses and take whatever they wanted. The master of the house would sit, like a poor captive, without daring to speak, while they would seize his rolls of cloth, kill his fattest pigs, pluck the best of his breadfruit, and take the very posts of his house for firewood with which to cook them. But now, through the gospel of Jesus, all these customs are done away, we do not hide our pigs under our beds, nor use our rolls of cloth for pillows to secure them. Our pigs may now run about where they please, and our property may now hang in our houses, and no one touches it.”
As a sample of the subduing, saving power of the gospel which wrought in thousands of others, there was one man of whom we will speak. On the island of Raiatea there lived an old chief whose name was Nile. During the course of his wild and reckless life he had been a great warrior. Many battles had he fought, and oftentimes had feasted on the flesh of his enemies. In his last battle he received a wound which left him totally blind, and thus his active life was suddenly ended.
When the gospel was proclaimed on his native island, this man was one of the first to come under its enlightening power, and through believing in Jesus he became a forgiven man.
Should not this fact arouse and exercise any, who are still undecided as to Christ? Possibly, up to this time, you, dear friend, have been content to hear about Jesus without bowing at His feet as a sinner and believing in Him as your Savior. It should greatly shame those who live in Christian lands, where the gospel is valued so little by the many, when we see the heathen in China, Japan, Africa and the islands of the far-off Southern Seas embracing it, and coming under its healing and life-giving power. Surely it shall be more tolerable, in the Day of Judgment, for the nations who have heard little, or nothing, of Christ, than for those nations who, having heard of Him, refuse to come under His influence and love.
The blind chief, Me, as soon as he was converted, became very earnest to hear and learn all that he could about the Bible. Whenever the gospel was preached, or when the more youthful part of the community came to the Sunday School, he rarely missed being present. In this way, by his perseverance and diligence, he stored his mind with many of the exceeding great and precious promises of God's word. Thus he lived a Christian, happy and consistent, for many years.
At length the old chief was missed from his accustomed place, where he so often heard God's word. Have you, by the by, seriously considered this, reader, that your place at business, your wonted seat at home, will one day be vacant? As a friend said recently, referring to his father's funeral, " The old armchair was empty, the hat and stick were gone, the familiar face, the greeting voice were seen and heard no more!" The solemn stillness of death was supreme, and they mourned for the dead. You, too, must go to your "long home, and the mourners go about the streets.... Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God, who gave it." (Ecc. 12:5, 7.) ARE YOU READY?
The aged and dying chief was ready, and yet there were exercises passing through his soul about departing from this world.
The missionary, hearing he was ill, went to see him, and exclaimed as he entered the blind man's, dwelling, "Me, I'm sorry to find you so ill.”
The sick man replied, "Is that you? Do I really hear your voice again before I die? Now I shall die happy.”
He was then told he had not long to live, and was asked how he felt at the thought of dying. In reply he said: "I have been in great trouble this morning, but I am happy now. I thought I saw an immense mountain with steep sides. I tried to climb it, but when I got up some distance I lost my hold, and fell to the bottom. Wearied with toil and sad with disappointment, I went a distance and sat down to weep; but as I was weeping I saw a drop of blood fall on that mountain, and in a moment it vanished." Here he paused.
The visitor asked him what he meant by this. "That mountain," said he, "was my sins. The drop which fell on it was one drop of the precious blood of Christ, by which the mountain of my guilt has been melted away." Two things, at least, had been learned; these everyone must learn if they would enjoy the grace of God.
1. The magnitude of guilt.
2. The efficacy of Christ's blood.
How clear and simple was his confession; how comforting to one so near the end of life's journey!
At length the last visit to the sick man came. He had been repeating some of the sweet passages of scripture, which had been treasured up in his memory. At last he exclaimed, with energy, "O death, where is thy sting?" His voice then faltered, his sightless eyes became fixed, his hands dropped and his spirit fled away to be with the Savior whose precious blood had melted away the mountain of his guilt.
In conclusion, may I ask if you will not let this man's conversion and testimony serve as an example to you? Do not be content with a correct creed, church membership, or an active life in Christian work. By nature you are lost, by practice you are guilty. Do not be self-deceived, you cannot earn heaven, when by sin you have forfeited your place on earth.
It is of all importance that you should repent. Yet repentance is not salvation, neither is it a payment of sin's debt. Repentance is the owning at Jesus' feet, “God is good, whilst I am bad." God in Christ offers salvation to us as a gift. Believe in Jesus, whom God has raised from the dead, take salvation, and you will know that the mountain of your guilt, by His precious blood, has been melted away.
On the other hand, what encouragement the blind chief affords to any who are seeking the Lord. None need despair of obtaining forgiveness and peace with God. Not one has gone too far for Jesus to save, and bring home to God.
“For sooner all the hills shall flee,
And hide themselves beneath the sea—
The ocean, starting front its bed,
Rise o'er the snow-capped mountain's head—
The sun, bedimmed of all its light,
Become the source of endless night:
And ruin spread from pole to pole,
Than JESUS fail a TRUSTING soul.”
A. F. M.