They Worship The Invisible
One, Whom They Can See Even With Closely Shut Eyes.
To watch the men
and women, with erect bearing, and each walking in the other's
footsteps, enter the church, is a sight well worth the seeing.
They
bow themselves, not before some fetish, as one might suppose, but to
the One whom, having not seen, some of them are learning to love.
One of the missionaries translated my simple address to the dusky
congregation, who listened with wondering awe to the ever-new story
of Jesus. As the Lengua language contains no word for God, the
Indians have adopted our English word, and both that name and Jesus
came out in striking distinctness during the service, and in the
fervent prayer of the old ex-witch-doctor which followed. With the
familiar hymn, "There is a green hill far away," the meeting
concluded. The women with nervous air silently retired, but the men
saluted me, and some even went so far as to shake hands - with the
left hand. Would that similar stations were established all over this
neglected land! While churches and mission buildings crowd each other
in the home lands, the Chaco, with an estimated population of three
millions, must be content with this one ray of light in the dense
night.
On that far-off "green hill" we shall meet some even from the Lengua
tribe. Christ said: "I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he
shall be saved." But oh, "Painted Face," you spoke truth; the white
"thing" is selfish, and keeps this wondrous knowledge to himself.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 239 of 313
Words from 63609 to 63877
of 83353
