II.
BY THE REV. JOHN G. PATON, D.D.
(Continued from p. 346.)
AT the moment I knew I was risking much, and probably incurring sorrowful consequences, had no water been given; but I had faith that the Lord was leading me on, and I knew that I sought His glory, not my own.
Next morning, I went down again at daybreak and sank a narrow hole in the centre, about two feet deep. The perspiration broke over me with uncontrollable excitement, and I trembled through every limb, when the water rushed up and began to fill the hole. Muddy though it was, I eagerly tasted it, lapping it with my trembling hand, and then I almost fell upon my knees in that muddy bottom as my heart burst up in praise to the Lord. It was water! It was fresh water! It was living water from Jehovah’s well! True, it was a little brackish, but nothing to speak of; and no spring in the desert, cooling the parched lips of a fevered pilgrim, ever appeared more worthy of being called a Well of God than did that water to me.
The Chiefs had assembled with their men nearby. They waited on in eager expectancy. It was a rehearsal in a small way of the Israelites coming round, while Moses struck the rock and called for water. By-and-bye, when I had praised the Lord, and my excitement was a little calmed, the mud being also greatly settled, I filled a jug, which I had taken down empty in the sight of them all, and ascending to the top, called for them to come and see the rain which Jehovah God had given us through the well. They closed round me in haste, and gazed on it in superstitious fear. The old Chief shook it to see if it would spill, and then touched it to see if it felt like water. At last he tasted it, and rolling it in his mouth with joy for a moment, he swallowed it, and shouted—”Rain ! Rain ! Yes, it is Rain ! But how did you get it ?”
I repeated, “Jehovah, my God, gave it out of His own earth in answer to our labours and prayers. Go and see it springing up for yourselves !”
Now, though every man there could climb the highest tree as swiftly and fearlessly as a squirrel or an opossum, not one of them had courage to walk to the side and gaze down into that well. To them this was miraculous ! But they were not without a resource that met the emergency. They agreed to take firm hold of each other by the hand, to place themselves in a long line, the foremost man to lean cautiously forward, gaze into the well, and then pass to the rear, and so on till all had seen “Jehovah’s rain” far below. It was somewhat comical, yet far more pathetic, to stand by and watch their faces, as man after man peered down into the mystery, and then looked up at me in blank bewilderment ! When all had seen it with their own eyes, and were “weak with wonder,” the old Chief exclaimed—
“Missi, wonderful, wonderful is the work of your Jehovah God ! No god of Aniwa ever helped us in this way. The world is turned upside down, since Jehovah came to Aniwa ! But, Missi,” continued he, after a pause that looked like silent worship, “will it always rain up through the earth ? or will it come and go like the rain from the clouds ?”
I told them that I believed it would always continue there for our use, as a good gift from Jehovah.
“Well, but, Missi,” replied the Chief, some glimmering of self-interest beginning to strike his brain, “will you or your family drink it all, or shall we also have some ?”
“You and all your people,” I answered, “and all the people of the island, may come and drink and carry away as much of it as you wish. I believe there will always be plenty for us all, and the more of it we can use the fresher it will be. That is the way with many of our Jehovah’s best gifts to men, and for it and for all we praise His Name !”
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I intimated that I would rest a week or two, and finish the building then. But the Chief advanced, and said—
“ Missi, you have been strong to work. Your strength has fled. But rest here beside us ; and just point where each block is to be laid. We will lay them there, we will build them solidly behind like you. And no man will sleep until it is done.”
With all their will and heart they started on the job ; some carrying, some cutting and squaring the blocks, till the wall rose like magic, and a row of the hugest rocks lay round the top, bound all together, and formed the mouth of the well. Women, boys, and all wished to have a hand in it, and it remains to this day, a solid wall of masonry, the circle being thirty-four feet deep, eight feet wide at the top, and six at the bottom. I floored it over with wood above all, and fixed the windlass and bucket, and there it stands as one of the greatest material blessings which the Lord has given to Aniwa. It rises and falls with the tide, though a third of a mile distant from the sea ; and when, after using it, we tasted the pure fresh water on board the “ Dayspring,” the latter seemed so insipid that I had to slip a little salt into my tea along with the sugar before I could enjoy it ! All visitors are taken to see the well, as one of the wonders of Aniwa ; and an elder of the native church said to me lately—“ But for that water, during the last two years of drought, we would all have been dead !”
Very strangely, though the natives themselves have since tried to sink six or seven wells in the most likely places near their different villages, they have either come to coral rock, which they could not pierce, or found only water that was salt. And they say among themselves, “ Missi not only used pick and spade, but he prayed and cried to his God. We have learned to dig, but not how to pray, and therefore Jehovah will not give us the rain from below !”
The well was now finished. The place was neatly faced in. And the old Chief said—“ Missi, now that this is the water for all, we must take care and keep it pure.”
I was thankful that all were to use it. Had we alone drawn water therefrom, they could so easily have poisoned it, as they do the fish-pools, in caverns among the rocks by the shore, with their nuts and runners, and killed us all. But there was no fear, if they themselves were to use it daily. The Chief continued—“ Missi, I think I could help you next Sabbath. Will you let me preach a sermon on the well ?”
“Yes,” I at once replied, “if you will try to bring all the people to hear you.”
“Missi, I will try,” he eagerly promised. The news spread like wildfire that the Chief Namakei was to be the missionary on the next day for the worship, and the people, under great expectancy, urged each other to come and hear what he had to say.