General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

MISSIONARY TALK

B. J. CADY

April 9, 9 A.M.

About eight years ago I went to the islands of the sea, going out on the “Pitcairn.” During the time I have spent all my time among the islands until we returned to America a few months ago. We first visited the island of Pitcairn. We then called at the Tuamotu or Lower Archipelago; then at the Society Islands, farther to the west. I have also visited the Gambier Islands, about three hundred miles from the island of Pitcairn. GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.1

I had an idea, when I left for the islands of the sea, that things were quite different from what I found them to be. And I find that my brethren and sisters in general have had the same experience. I remember hearing one of our missionaries, who went with us to the islands, say he supposed that about all that was necessary to do in order to convert the islanders was to point his finger at them. And he supposed, as many others do, that the islands would be a very easy field. As one brother said to me just before I left for the islands, “I wish I could go, too, because I feel that if I were there, I would be appreciated.” This is the opinion of many people who have gone to the islands. They seem to think that if they can only get there, that people, not knowing nearly as much as they do, will appreciate them, and they will be able to do great things for them. While we have had quite a large number of missionaries go to those islands, at the present time we find that most of them have returned. I remember hearing one of them say, “I think that I shall like it real well down there, because I like to travel. I don’t care very much about staying at home, and I am not one of the lonely kind, but I enjoy traveling.” I have found that when these people reach the islands, they want to travel home just about as fast as they can go. The island missionary work is no light thing. There is nothing sentimental about it. It means earnest, hard labor. GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.2

I will give you a little description of the islanders, showing you something of their ways and customs. Only a little over a hundred years ago they were all worshiping devils; they were worshiping idols of stone and wood. Christianity has had its influence upon them; yet many of those who have gone to those fields to labor for the islanders, instead of following the instructions of God, and making it a heart work, have simply tried to get their dark brothers into their ranks, and have not looked after the people more than to see them converted to God. So it is that in the Society Islands, the islands where we have been, it matters not in regard to whether they may belong to the church or not, they all, from the drunkard on the street to the pastor in the church, pray to God. Whenever they go out to sea, they make prayers. I remember of traveling from one island to another, and I think they offered at different times about seven or eight different prayers before they went into the harbor; but as soon as they could get inside the harbor, the chief man of the schooner arose, and said, “Now, friends, be careful that you do not steal anything. Be careful you do not steal;” and we found that there were a great many lost things. Yet all of these men were professed Christians, whose names were on the church book, and they seemed to think that there was no wrong in taking something which belongs to someone else, and keeping it. Of course they do not call it stealing as long as they are the ones who are doing it. GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.3

I doubt if this class of people know or not whether they are Christians. They practice many heathenish rites, and have many heathenish customs. For instance, I remember one time of being in Raiatea, and hearing one of the deacons of a church say that they were going down to a certain district to find all the devils that were in there. I asked him if I might go with him. He said I might go. There were six or seven hundred persons gathered together to see the devil; and as he was, supposedly, found in various stones and shells, they gathered them together to burn them up. So they went here and there in different places looking for shells, and the man who claimed to be at the head of this work would say, “Now this is the shell that has the devil in.” These shells were then gathered together, taken to a fire, and placed upon the wood. As they would snap (you know how stones do snap when they are hot), the people would say, “Hear the devil; hear the devil. He is going out now!” GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.4

And all this is done in the name of Christianity. In fact, the deacon who had charge of this work, offered prayer and read passages of Scripture before he began. GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.5

We have found among the people where we have been, that there are those who walk over hot stones. They claim that they have the power to walk through fire and over hot stones, just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had. They walk over red-hot stones, and then say, “Do you not see that it was done through this power of God? Do you not see that it is a manifestation of the Lord?” We find this right in their every-day experience. They have a great many different practices mixed in with their religion. Before they walk over these red-hot stones, they pray to God to help them; but they pray to the god that has charge of the heavens and the fire to come down and cool those hot stones as they shall pass over them. It is not done in the name of Christ. GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.6

Voice: Do they walk over those stones with their bare feet or with shoes? GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.7

B. J. Cady: They go barefooted. They wear no shoes in that part of the country. I have examined the feet of forty or fifty persons, and find that they were not scorched in the least. Just before they would start to do this, I have taken some green leaves and thrown them on these stones, and they would burn instantly. So there was an abundance of heat there. GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.8

Voice: Would they walk over the stones fast or slowly? GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.9

B. J. Cady: They would walk just as I do now [illustrating], just as deliberately. The only thing I know about it is that it is not done in the name of God, because the men who do these things are not men of God. They are men who are evil in their habits. It has seemed to me as if perhaps this practice were the old heathen custom that was practiced in the days of old, of which the Lord said, “Ye shall not cause your sons and daughters to pass through the fire after the manner of the heathen.” GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.10

Working in a field of this kind is not like working in a field where the people are civilized. We find the people have everything to learn, and instead of a person going there and expecting to be appreciated, he must go with a willingness on his part to be thought nothing of, and to give up all for Christ’s sake and to save these souls. The Lord has precious souls there to be saved just as well as in other parts of the world. GCB April 11, 1901, page 197.11

When we arrived at Raiatea, the people asked us to remain with them to teach them the truth. We began to teach them as best we could. We had to learn the Raiatean language before we could speak to them. We found in a short time many of them saying, “Well, what we want, before we accept your religion, is that you shall write to your uncle, or to the president of the United States, and ask him to send over a number of men-of-war here, and drive away our enemies, and then we will accept your religion. That is how they feel about things of this kind. Their first thought is what they can get that will help them at the present time. GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.1

We began to labor for them. We had a school of about 120 or 125 enrolled upon our list of students, and we found that among these there were many bright boys and girls who seemed to learn as quickly as many of the children do here in America. We found the more we labored for them, the more the children seemed to appreciate, and the more the fathers and mothers seemed to think of it. I remember when I first spoke to them about teaching them, and began to talk about getting books, and about a house where we could teach them, they said, “You do not need any house; you do not need any books. All you need to do is just take a stick, and write out the letters on the sand, and then just teach them from that how to read; and the children can sit down any place outside, and you can teach them in that way.” GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.2

When Brother Gates came to visit us the second time, when we were leaving Tahiti and going to Raiatea, he said, “Brother Cady, I breathe easier now. Every time I come to this island it seems as if the state of morality is such, vice is so prevalent here, that it even has its influence upon the atmosphere. It seems as if it presses one’s soul, and makes one long to get away.” GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.3

A person who goes to the islands of the sea to labor, moving only by impulse, is very liable to find that when he gets down there, the impulse leaves him; and he is liable, to a greater or less extent, to imbibe the ideas of the natives. But the Lord has people there, and he desires to save them. GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.4

After a time we came to the conclusion that it would be better for us to take some of those young people into our homes, and try to educate them in that way. So we began to take some of the children. I remember the second boy that I took. He was about twelve years of age. He had stolen a pig the night before I took him; and I considered that he was one of the best boys there. When I was taking him home, some people said: “What are you going to do with that dog?” That is the expression he used. He said, “It is perfectly useless to try to do anything to help them. Others have tried it, and have found it useless. You can spend time and means, if you wish, upon them, but you will find that it will be with sorrow to your soul at last.” GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.5

Well, we took the boy, and brought him to our home. We began to teach him the English, and how to print. And I can say, to the glory of God, that it was not a great while until one of the men who was finding fault with me about this, said, “Well, Mr. Cady, I think you have got a good boy. I would like to have him come and stay with me now.” It was not a great while until the boy began to speak English quite well. Then we sent him to a French school for a time, trying to give him an education in French, and he became one of our most useful helpers in getting out the printed matter. GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.6

Just before we left Tahiti to come here, people came to me, and said, “Mr. Cady, the children we have sent to Europe to be educated come home, and they seem to lose all their civilization; they go right back to the native ways. But the children you have been teaching seem to be of a different kind. They behave themselves when they walk up and down the streets, and they know how to appear in society; and they are trying to be Christians.” GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.7

One of the near relatives of the former queen of Tahiti said, “Mr. Cady, I like to hear you speak; I like to hear you talk to us in regard to the truth; but of all the meetings, I enjoy those best where the young men and women testify for Christ. If I had had those influences placed around me when I was a girl, how much better off I might have been than I am to-day. How many of these vile habits which I have been practicing never would have been indulged by me. And it makes me long to become a true child of God.” GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.8

God is able to reach the hearts of even the darkest people. He has souls who are down in sin and wickedness, who need to be lifted up; and the question is not, What can we do to have an easy time? but what can we do to help those who most need help? GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.9

At the present time we have four church organizations there. Of course that is not a great many, but I think God has worked for that people; and I believe that the Lord is going to work more for them. We have about eighty church members there, and there are about one hundred and fifty who claim to keep the Sabbath, with their children. I read in Isaiah 42. See what the Lord says here in regard to Christ: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.” GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.10

Brethren, if the Lord is not discouraged, I do not think we have any reason to be. Let us go to work in that way. Let us remember that Christ does not get discouraged; let us take right hold and work individually, and I believe God will give us success. I do not mean by this that we shall see thousands of souls turning to the present truth; but I believe, brethren, we shall see the honest ones brought out, and a people prepared for the coming of the Lord. May the Lord bless us, and give us a real burden for his work in every branch, that when he comes, we may be among those who have faithfully done their duties here, that we may be saved in his kingdom. GCB April 11, 1901, page 198.11