Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

KAJARNAK'S LAST SICKNESS.

111. can illustrate them to others better than we, which we often hear them do to our surprise. Samuel has been twice abroad, to tell the heathen something of Jesus, the Friend of sinners. They would not hear him the first time, but turned his discourse into ridicule. He came home with grief, and prayed our Saviour with tears, to look in mercy upon his, and his country people's misery. Soon after, he went to Kangek, and found some hearers full of desire, to whom he told, with alacrity, how good it was to belong to Jesus. We rejoiced with him, at the grace our Saviour had bestowed on him. On the 18th, he was uncommonly affected, in a conversation about the blood of Jesus, and his love to sinners. The 21st, he was taken sick of a cough, attended with pleuritic stitches. We spoke with him of the transitoriness of this momentary life, which should induce us to resign ourselves daily into our Saviour's hands. During our discourse he grew so faint, that he could neither hear nor see. We prayed with him, and during the prayer he came again to himself, and directly began himself to pray, in the midst of the most acute pains, so heartily and confidently, that we and all the Greenlanders standing about him were amazed. After that he found some mitigation. The 25th, it seized him again so violently, that his breath was often quite stopped. Yet amidst the greatest agonies, his carriage and mien were composed and solid, and when his domestics would talk to him about earthly affairs, he desired them not to encumber his heart with such things, for he had our Saviour constantly in his heart and mind. When they once began to weep, he said, 'Do not be grieved about me: have you not often heard that believers, when they die, go to our Saviour, and partake of his eternal joy? You know that I am the first of you that was converted by our Saviour, and now it is his will that I shall be the first to go to him. If you are faithful to the end, we shall see one another again before the throne of the Lamb, and rejoice for ever at the grace he has conferred upon us. In the mean time, he will know how to provide food for you all, and particularly for my wife. Then he intreated us to take the charge of her, and the rest that he left behind, both spiritually and temporally, and especially of his son

Matthew, who was not yet returned from the South, and of one of the two little sons that were born to him the 1st of last January; he desired us to look upon these two as our own children, and to keep them here in case his wife should remove from us. Then we prayed with him, and sung some hymns, and he could join sometimes in singing.

"The 26th, we spoke to him about the Lamb of God, how he had borne our sins, and the sins of the whole world, and that he prayed and sweated blood in the great anguish of his soul, to redeem us from everlasting pain and anguish. He said, he knew very well that his pain was nothing to what our Saviour had endured for him, and he believed too that he had not only deserved much greater bodily pain for his wicked life, but eternal damnation besides; yet he firmly believed that the Son of God became man, and shed his blood to deliver him from all sin, and to procure eternal life for him. The 27th, we spoke to him on Matt. x. 22, ‹ He that endureth to the end, shall be saved.' He was very much cheered by it, and told us that every thing he had heard, in the days of his health, was now much clearer to his heart. He was much weaker in the afternoon; all the six days he had constantly sat upright, because he could not move for excessive pain. The Danish Missionary visited him to-day, as indeed he had done every day, and spoke to him, because he acknowledged the grace our Saviour had endowed him with, and loved him very much. Now, just as we were speaking with him of the goodness of the Lord, he bowed his head, and rested it upon his hands, as if he had a mind to sleep. But we soon perceived that he was near his departure: therefore we kneeled down, and committed his soul to the arms of Jesus. His wife Anna, and his brother Kuyayak were very resigned, quite contrary to the custom of the Greenlanders, and desired us to bury him according to the manner of believers. Accordingly, we carried his corpse into our house, dressed it in white, and laid it in a coffin. The 28th, the Missionaries, factors, boatmen, and Greenlanders of the colony came hither to his interment. First we sung some hymns, that used to make a particular impression upon the deceased. After a discourse on John v. 24-29, four

INTERMENT OF KAJARNAK.

113

Greenland boys carried his remains to our new burying-place, which was at the same time consecrated with this transaction. At the grave, one of the Danish Missionaries gave a short exhortation to the company present, on the words, 'I am the resurrection and the life,' &c. and told them that a believer does not die, but at his departure begins truly to live, and lives for evermore. Then we kneeled down upon the snow, under the canopy of the firmament, and gave back to our Saviour this our firstling, with our bounden thanks for the grace he had imparted to us, and this our happily departed brother, since we had been acquainted together. The Greenlanders wondered at all they saw and heard, because it is perfectly contrary to their way for people to be so willing, active, and affectionate in the last offices to a corpse, except it is their nearest relation.

"Now, tenderly beloved brethren, you may easily imagine how it was with us at this event. Should we consult our reason about it, we should certainly not know what to think. For we know best what a jewel, and what a help our late brother has been to us, espe cially in translating; for we needed but to tell him a verse with half Greenland words, and he knew directly how to model it according to the Greenland idiom. We have visibly perceived this winter, that our Saviour accelerated his consummation. He was a lively, active witness among his people, and anointed, serious, and solid both in his discourses and prayers. We have seen that his testimony has been a blessing to many souls, and have perceived by the sequel, that, even through his going home to our Saviour, more stirring and life takes place among the Greenlanders."

The removal of this individual at the commencement of a career of usefulness, is one of those mysterious dispensations of Providence which leads us to exclaim, "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out;" but as it pleased the Lord to lay the foundation of His Church in the great mystery of Godliness, which could not have entered into the heart of man to conceive, so it pleases Him still to carry up the building to its appointed perfection, according to the dictates of a wisdom not less at variance with the preconceived thoughts of our narrow understanding.

How sensibly must the Missionaries, in the midst of their sorrow, have felt in the consideration of the happy departure of Samuel, the precious consolation contained in this exquisite passage of Holy Scripture; "He that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto etérnal life; that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, may rejoice together." In the consideration of the misery from which this poor Heathen had been rescued, the happiness upon which he had entered, and the glory brought to the Saviour, the benevolent hearts of these faithful men received a rich reward, and now, when death had come in at their windows, they could pause and consider the nature of the work for which country, home, and friends had been abandoned, and their hearts, yet sore from the painful experience of the fleeting nature of all earthly things, would approve the work of gathering fruit unto eternal life in the midst of a dying world, while hope pointed to the coming day, when, in the unclouded light of the Divine glory, "he that soweth, and he that reapeth," the whole of the redeemed family, should rejoice together for ever and ever."

EFFECTS OF KAJARNAK'S DEATH.

115

CHAPTER VI.

Good effects of Samuel's happy departure-Kuyayak-Awakening among the children—Arrival of assistants from EuropeGrowth of the congregation-An Angekok confounded-Greenland school-Piety of children-General awakening-A melancholy accident-Happy deaths of believers-Wickedness of Angekoks-Growth of believers-Falsehoods of the AngekoksThe Capelin-fishery--Arrival of more assistants-A church erected at New Herrnhuth-The Lord's Supper administered— Celebration of Christmas and the new year.

THE powerful influence of Samuel's happy death, in commending the Gospel to the survivors, was soon discernible in his widow, who often recollected the words of her husband with profit to her own soul, and gave real proofs that she was not like the other heathen, who have no hope. But as she had now no one on whom to depend for support, the Brethren took her and her children under their care, that want might not drive her to her heathenish relations, before she could be stationed in some pious Greenland family again.

Samuel's departure had also some good effect on his brother Kuyayak, who had hitherto halted between two opinions. "It is true,” said he to the Missionaries, "I have been as yet undetermined whether I would remain with you or not. But since I have seen how faithfully my brother adhered to the Saviour, and how joyous his end was, I very much regret my negligence, that I have not taken better notice of the words of our Saviour; but now I am come to a resolution to follow my brother's example, that I may die with cheerfulness when it shall please God." But this purpose was soon after shaken, by the death of his wife. Her end was very different from Samuel's, for as she was not endowed with the same spirit in her life, her death-bed scene was marked by a far different character; which

« VorigeDoorgaan »