Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society | Page 9

their souls in patience, and with
their chapels burnt, their plantations desolated, and their companions
beaten, they hold on to the truth as it is in Jesus, and refuse to bow the
knee to the Baal of Rome. In the Calcutta Mission last year, as
heretofore, converts have been found to bear reproach and shame for
Christ rather than be numbered among idolaters. Still do the tried
Christians of POKLO show how grace reigns in China.
The great Christian virtues, the fruits of the Spirit, are developed in
these churches as in the older realms of Christendom. In them
enlightened conscience makes war with sin; Christian love casts out
fear; the eye of faith sees heaven in a dying hour. Scarcely a report is
written that does not illustrate these excellencies. We must not
undervalue what here we have gained. It is not only that so many
individual souls have been saved. We have rescued them from
heathenism, from false religion, from the advocacy of error, from the
practice of error, from open, unchecked vice and crime. We have drawn
them from the world's disorders and cruelty, from wrong and misery. In
the great warfare with vice, they have changed sides, and are now
valiant for the truth. We have drawn not only them but their children;
we have drawn them, not as isolated individuals, but as families, as
neighbours, as fellow citizens, as nations. We have drawn into the
church, for man's happiness, and the Lord's glory, all the influences of
their private, social, and public life. We have won their intelligence,
their moral life, their literature, their material resources, their public
law. Henceforth heathenism has lost them, and Christ has placed His
sanctifying hand on all they have and all they are. These Christians are

all His; their children His, and generations as they succeed each other
shall be more completely His, to give Him all the glory of their
growing love, and add their contribution of immortal souls to His
Millennial reign.
"For to His triumph soon, He shall descend, who rules above, And the
pure language of His love All tongues of men shall tune."
Our earliest mission in Polynesia is constantly offering evidence of the
power of the Gospel. The Rev. J. King of Savaii, gives the following
striking illustration:--
"PENIAMINA (Benjamin), was one of the first converts in Samoa, and
for thirty years he has maintained an unblemished character. A short
time ago I took down from his own lips the story of his life, or I might
rather say of his two lives; so great a contrast does the latter half of his
life present to the former. The one is the life of the ignorant and corrupt
Pagan, the other that of the humble follower and devoted disciple of the
Lord Jesus. All who know Peniamina would concur in this testimony
that he is one of the brightest gems that has been won for Christ in
Samoa. His praise is in all the churches. As a pastor he has done good
service. For a number of years he has had the oversight of one of our
churches in the out-stations, and so beloved was he by his people, that
when, through age, his eyesight failed, and he could no longer read the
Scriptures in public, they begged that he would still preach to them, and
asked that a young man might be appointed to read the Scriptures for
him. This he did for some time, until he became so infirm, that he was
compelled to resign. But when he proposed to return to his native
village, that he might die amongst his kindred, according to the
invariable custom in Samoa, his people begged that he would not leave
them; and that, as he had devoted so much of his strength to their good,
they might be allowed to 'nurse' him in his old age, and to have the
honour of burying him in their own village. But the national custom
prevailed over their entreaties. A few days after he had taken farewell
of his Church, he called on me, and gave me a few steel pens, the
remainder of some I had given him for writing his sermons. As he gave
them to me, he said, 'I have finished my work: I shall write no more

sermons; and that nothing may be wasted that is useful in the work of
God, let these pens be given to a younger man, who is still able to write
sermons.' This incident is characteristic of the man, and will illustrate
his simple uprightness, and his concern for the work of God. He is now
very infirm, but strong in faith; he is calmly waiting to be summoned to
his reward."
Much more might be written on this