Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-23
ion which il IN Christ Jesus With

the salvation which IL IN Christ Jesus with
ii. It Is q faithful saying: Fer II we be
dead with him. we shall also live with him:
IL II we suffer. we shall also reign with
him: II we deny him. he also will deny US.
ID II we believe not, yet he absdeth faith
full; he cannot deny himself.
The Lesson.
1t would seem az If John Eliot must have
taken these same. strong words of advice
to his heart when he gave himself to
Christ and set out upon his CHEEKY. hardy.
earnest. painstaking, enduring, glorious
mission
His story is too full of interest to lay
down when one has once begun to read. He
was born when Professionalism was not a
century old in 1904. in a little village TWEEN
ty-hve miles north of London-Widford,
county of Herford. The reformers had
been terribly prosecuted by the Catholics,
especially during the reign of Bloody Mary.
A non-conformist must either leave his
country or expect persecutions-being whip
ped, branded. pilloried or having the nose
and ears slit and mutiated. 1t WAS not
easy at that time to be a Protestant.
John Eliot was educated at Cambridge.
distinguished himself in philoiogy-strange,
isn't it, that the man who was to write the
Indian Bible and grammar should have a
gift at language, yet not strang either. Tor
God was preparing His servant for HIS
N,
mechanics before He sent him to the South
Sea islands te build ships and preach the
Gospel. He took his A. B. at Jesus College
in 1922. He served as an usher in the school
of Rev. Thomas Hooker. and while there
was converted and decided to give his life
to the ministry. AT that time it would have
been impossible for him to do any work In
England great was the persecution. and
so God made the wrath of man to praise
Him by sending His good workers to the
new land to preach to the Indians
Eliot landed in Boston eleven years after
the Pilgrims, and occupied the pulpit there
for a year in the absence of Pastor VIII
son in England after which he went to a
church in Roxbury, Mass, organized by
people who had followed him to the new
world, engaging his services before he LETT
England. In this church he continued ms
ministration for ffty-nine years, until his
death. 1t is noticeable that his church did
not grumble at sharing their wonderful
pastor with the wild natives of the coun-
try. They paid him his salary or Sixty
pounds sterling, and when he had to be
absent occasionally on his missionary
tours his pulpit was supplied by neighbor-
ing pastors. They seemed to have heartily
approved of his work.
There were, ten or twelve thousand IN
dams in the colony and John Eliots heart
was interested at once for their salvation
He took into his family an Indian and pro-
ceeded to Systematically study the Indian
language with the help of this poor I'M
himself able to speak to the Indians in their
own language, and taking three English
companions he went to an Indian village
near by called Momentum and conducted a
service which lasted three hours, the IN
terest of the audience never tagging for
an instant, and preached the first Protes-
tant sermon ever preached in a North
American language. He offered prayer in
English, as he I'D not yet leel sufficiently
at home in the Indian language to venture
to pray in it. This gave rise to the natural
question from his Indian audience whether
the great God could understand prayers in
the Indian tongue. One poor woman be-
came deeply interested in her salvation
and supposing God could only understand
English was greatly troubled. AT last she
fell upon her face, uttering with heartfelt
earnestness the only English word she
knew, which was Broom! Broomi Broom"
It may be that that prayer seemed more
beautiful In Gods ears than many of our
finished, fowery prayers, for He answered
1t and sent the Door woman heart fun OF
joy over the love of Jesus for her poor self.
The Indians received the gospel gladly.
Another and another visit was called for,
until the services became regular. and more
and more praying Indians began to be
numbered among Eliot's followers He was
extremely cautious. more than perhaps
necessary. about taking them into the
church until he had proved their sincerity,
but they came to be numbered by the hum
dreds. John Eliot took them into his care
as though they had been his children. He
showed them how to build villages for