CHAPTER VIII.
A LITTLE LAMP.
ISA DÁS, as has been related, had been much despised and abused after becoming a Christian; and even after the first excitement after his baptism had passed away, when prevailing sickness made even enemies avail themselves of his medical skill, it was not forgotten that he was one who had broken caste. Hindus took his medicines as if they feared pollution, and if they gave in return cowries or pice, they dropped them into the Christian's hand, avoiding oven the touch of one whom they deemed unclean.
But when the rumour spread through the town that Isa Dás was going to quit it, that he was now the confidential Munshi of a grand Government Sahib, in whose service he was sure to make heaps of rupees, a great change came over his neighbours.
"Trust my word for it, Isa Dás will make his fortune at last!" cried the woman who had been the first to bring to him her almost expiring child. "This morning I saw him walk through the bazaar, looking like a fakir, with clothes that would hardly hold together. This evening he is wearing a good turban, and a blanket with a border of red, and looks like a sardar. We did not value him enough while we had him, and now he is going away!"
"Hae! Hae!" sighed her neighbour, who had once been vociferous in abuse of the newly-made Christian. "Who will now come to us in our need? Who will ease our pain, and give back health to the sick, and watch by the dying? Alas! That Isa Dás should leave us!"
Is it not written that "When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him"? (Prov. xvi. 7).
Isa Dás had a good many farewell visits to pay, but his time for preparation was so short that he could only go to a few. Amongst these few was Gopal, the kahar.
"We are never likely to meet again in this world; would that I had any sure hope of a meeting in the next!" said Isa Dás. "I have talked with that man, I have prayed for him, I have tried to lead him to Christ; but I sometimes fear that the seed of the Word has been with him like that sown by the wayside, which the birds of the air carried away."
When Isa Dais reached Copal's door, to his surprise and pleasure, he heard within the mud-built dwelling the familiar voice of his missionary friend. Isa Dás entered through the low doorway, and as he stood in the half-darkened room, he heard the sick man thus answer some question put by the missionary.
"O sir! It was goodness—mercy—love that drew me towards the Saviour. I remember the proverb, 'As the Goru is, so is the disciple;' as is the Deity, so is the worshipper. I thought, 'if all men should follow the examples of Khrishna and Mahadeo, the world would not be fit to live in; if all women were like the goddesses Kali and Doorga, the land would be running with blood. If theft, lying, and murder be crimes in a human being, can they be worthy of gods?'"
"The deities whom you speak of never existed; they are but the creation of men's minds, and those very wicked polluted minds," said the missionary. "He must have been deeply sunk in vice indeed who could even imagine such wickedness as your so-called religious books attribute to the false gods whom you worship."
"I only worship the one true God," replied Gopal faintly. "I cast myself, sinner as I am, at the feet of the Holy One who died for sinners."
"Has this change come from the teaching of your friend Isa Dás?" asked the missionary, who saw the Christian standing within the dwelling.
"Not so much from his teaching as from his life," replied the kahar. "He told me that his Master the Lord Jesus was holy, and I saw that the servant also is holy. He told me that the Blessed One went about doing good, and I saw that His disciple followed in His steps. He told me that the Saviour endured wrong and insult, and in dying prayed for His enemies; I saw Isa Dás bearing persecution in silence, and doing good to them who did evil to him. Then I said in my heart, 'Surely this religion is divine! It is on the good tree that good fruits grow.' From Isa Dás I have learned that from a pure faith comes a holy life, and it is therefore, O Sahib! that I wish to be baptised and confess Christ before all, ere I die."
On hearing this, Isa Dás rejoiced greatly in spirit; he saw that he had neither spoken nor suffered in vain. He knelt down by the charpai of the dying kahar, and pressed his wasted hand, while from the Christian's heart fervent thanksgiving arose that another precious soul had been drawn out of the slavery of sin, into the glorious freedom of God.
"Isa Dás, I see that you have not forgotten that word of the Lord, 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven,'" (Matt. v. 16), said his missionary friend.
"My light; oh, it is unworthy of the name!" exclaimed Isa Dás, shrinking more from praise than he had done from persecution. "My light is as the feeble spark in the earthen lamp, the lamp made of the clay which is in itself so worthless that men trample it under foot! What was I a year ago but a poor idolater, a worshipper of Shiv, with his mark on my forehead!" *
* Natives often draw lines on their foreheads, and from these lines being horizontal or perpendicular may be known which of the false gods they specially adore.
"And now," said his friend, "on that brow the water of baptism has been sprinkled, the sign of the cross has been made. Hereafter, through the merits of Christ, there may the crown of glory shine! God grant that both to you and this new believer may be fulfilled the promise made to Christ's redeemed, 'His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads'" (Rev. xxii. 3, 4).
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