AUGU.--MY FATHER IS
SUMMONED TO VISIT A SICK MISSIONARY AT ANOTHER ISLAND, AND WE ARE LEFT
UNDER THE CHARGE OF NANARI, THE NATIVE MISSIONARY.--MY MOTHER'S SUDDEN
DEATH.--A VESSEL APPEARS OFF THE COAST, AND AT KANARI'S SUGGESTION I
SEND OFF A NOTE, WARNING THE CAPTAIN OF THE DANGER TO WHICH HE IS
EXPOSED FROM THE NATIVES.
We rejoiced to find that Lisele was allowed to remain with her aunt at
the settlement. She had tried, even before her return to the
settlement, to persuade her father to abandon his intentions of going to
war. The tribe he intended to attack inhabited an island some leagues
away to the south, and as we stood on the shore we could see its blue
outline rising out of the ocean. Lisele had reminded her father that he
had professed to wish us well, and that by going away he would leave us
exposed to the attacks of other heathen tribes, who would now venture
without hesitation through his territory, to attack us. He replied that
they would not dare to do so, as he had threatened them with punishment
on his return should they molest them.
"Alas!" said Lisele, who told us this when we went to see her at her
aunt's house. "Suppose he is defeated, what protection shall we then
have from our enemies?"
"We must trust in Jehovah, my child," said Abela. "Or, if he thinks fit
to allow us to be afflicted, we must submit without murmur to His will.
We know that we can but suffer here for a short season, and that He has
prepared a glorious and happy home for those who love Jesus, and obey
His commandments down on earth. Oh yes! since I have known the truth, I
have learned to understand that this world is a place of trial, and that
we must not look for peace and happiness and rest while we are in it.
God indeed made the world beautiful, and intended it to be happy, but
Satan persuaded man to sin, and sin has caused man to depart from God,
and brought all the disorder and misery and suffering which we see
around us. Faith in Jesus Christ can alone remedy all these evils, and
I am sure that they will exist till all the world learns to love and
obey Him."
These remarks of Abela will show that she had made great advances in
Christian knowledge, and was well able to instruct her young niece.
Lisele came back with us to the school, which my mother, although weak
and suffering still, insisted on superintending. I think that she
herself was not aware how ill she really was.
We used to go down every morning t
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