Heathen Agents of Delivering Providence by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 9, 1914

Heathen Agents of Delivering Providence

By W. A. S.

When Ahab’s wrath drove Elijah into hiding in time of famine, the Lord commanded first the ravens, then the poor widow, to supply the prophet’s daily food. In the course of the missionary advance among fierce peoples, the same divine command has many times been heard by hearts in heathen darkness, so that even at the risk of life itself these agents of a delivering Providence have succored the servants of God.

In his "Sketches From the Dark Continent," Willis R. Hotchkiss tells of such an experience that came to him in British East Africa. The Friends’ Society had sent him with others to open work in that land, in 1895. The region was then a wilderness, and the people were embittered by fear of European aggression. Mr. Hotchkiss settled in a certain place, two Swahili boys being his only companions. A great crowd had gathered one day on the hillside near his house to determine what should be done with the stranger. After long counsel, word was sent him that he must leave within three days or he would certainly be killed. Mr. Hotchkiss says:—

I sent word back that I was there to tell them about God, and I intended to stay; they would find me at the end of three days if they wanted me. Throughout this time they threatened all manner of things, but did not resort to actual violence. Seeing that they did not frighten me, they resorted to the plan of starving me out, issuing an order that any one found bringing food to me was to be put to death. For over a month this was rigidly enforced.

But mark the hand of God. It would have fared ill with me had it not been for a divine supply to meet my need. An old woman frequently passed my hut going to and from her work in the fields. I had seen her but two or three times. But every time she passed she managed in some way to drop a root of cassava in the path before my door. This I roasted, and it enabled me to eke out my slender supply of provision through this trying period.

What prompted this old heathen woman, under penalty of death if caught, to drop that food before the despised and then-hated white man’s door?—The very same power that caused the ravens to bring meat to the famished prophet by the brook Cherith. Is God changed? Depend upon it, he has his ravens for every Cherith still.

A similar story of deliverance at the hands of an unknown heathen agent appears in the history of early missions among the South Sea islands. Two Samoan teachers had been left on the cannibal island of Erromanga, in 1840. Only the year before, John Williams had been killed as he landed on those shores. But now a chief in another district had promised to protect the teachers, and a new effort was to be made for the island. This chief, however, quickly turned against the workers when he saw that their teaching rebuked his vicious practices. He gave orders that none should have dealings with the teachers or go near their hut. They fell ill with privations, and expected nothing but a lingering death unless God specially intervened to save them. And the intervention came:—

At the time of their deepest extremity, the providence of him in whom they trusted appeared for their deliverance. The same God who in ancient days was with the prophet, who guided him to the brook, and who commanded the ravens to feed him, was the teachers’ God. In the day of their distress, a native, quite a stranger to them, had his heart stirred up with compassion toward them; and day by day for the space of five months this stranger came secretly to their hut, and, lifting up the thatch, gave them necessary supplies of daily food, and in this way was the means of saving alive the men whom his savage brethren had designed should die of starvation. Under the influence of what motives this kind heathen man acted, it is impossible to conjecture, but in what he did we recognize the hand of God.

We see in these things not only the Lord’s deliverance of his servants, but his loving call to darkened hearts to follow on to know him unto life eternal. "In the depths of heathenism," says the book "Christ’s Object Lessons," "men who have had no knowledge of the written law of God, who have never even heard the name of Christ, have been kind to his servants, protecting them at the risk of their own lives. Their acts show the working of a divine power. The Holy Spirit has implanted the grace of Christ in the heart of the savage, quickening his sympathies contrary to his nature, contrary to his education. The 'Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,' is shining in his soul; and this light, if heeded, will guide his feet to the kingdom of God."

W. A. S.