Untitled article by C. H. Parker

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Aug 2, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 31.

FROM FIJI.

By C. H. Parker

As CONSIDERABLE has passed through your columns as to the size, position, and population of these islands, I need not recapitulate. But as one gets better acquainted with their inhabitants, his ideas broaden. The Lord, through Wesleyanism of the past, has done a great deal for this people, but alas! to-day it stands as a barrier to advance light. But thanks be to God, we fight not with carnal weapons, but with the Word of God, which is mighty in tearing down strongholds, and bringing to light the hidden things of error.

The language of some, if not many, of the white missionaries here is, that these people are only niggers, and that they do not possess much intellect.

A kind of caste relation exists. An ordained minister (native) is not allowed the full title of preacher, but only, "a helping preacher." How glad I am for a truth that makes us all brethren, with no exceptions as to color, race, or intellect, and that we can by faith see in the vilest a son of God in glory.

This people are by no means low in intellect; they may seem at times childish to us who have had an education in higher schools of learning, but they are the children of nature, and as such have a clearer and purer conception of truth, which is evidenced by their regard for the Word of God, and a teachable spirit.

They are hospitable above the average, and as the old saying goes, "The latch-string hangs at all times on the outside of their humble dwellings," thus fulfilling, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Suva Vou, May 28, 1899. C. H. PARKER.