' 'Well,' I added, 'we
will ask them.' Addressing the first, I said to her, 'Friend, how many
children have you destroyed?' She was startled at my question, and at
first charged me with unkindness, in harrowing up her feelings, by
bringing the destruction of her babes to her remembrance; but upon
learning the object of my inquiry, she replied, with a faltering voice,
'I have destroyed _nine_.' The second, with eyes suffused with tears,
said, 'I have destroyed _seven_;' and the third informed us that she had
destroyed _five_. Had the missionaries gone there but a few years
before, with the blessing of God, they would have prevented all this.
These mothers were all Christians at the time this conversation was
held."
"On another occasion," says Mr. Williams, "I was called to visit the
wife of a chief in dying circumstances. She had professed Christianity
for many years, had learned to read when about sixty, and was a very
active teacher in our adult school. In the prospect of death, she sent a
pressing request that I would visit her immediately; and on my entering
her apartment she exclaimed, 'O, servant of God, come and tell me what I
must do.' Perceiving that she suffered great mental distress, I
inquired the cause of it, when she replied, 'I am about to die.
Pages:
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144