Part 7 (2/2)
The services were barely concluded when Mr. Kit-ze came to ask questions. Gladness was in Mr. Reid's heart as he saw the moved, wondering look upon the boatman's face. He wanted to know if this Jesus, who could do so much for men, who wanted to be their friend, was very rich and powerful? Could he bestow honor and wealth as well as friends.h.i.+p?
Mr. Kit-ze was told that the provisions of honor and wealth did not enter into Jesus' plans for the happiness of his people. He himself had shown his condemnation of the grasping hand, the covetous heart, by declaring that he who desired to be the greatest should be the least of all and servant to all.
”But he gives that to us which is better than all the honor and riches of earth,” continued Mr. Reid; ”he gives us contentment of life and peace of heart. Would not you think these far better than money or land, my friend?”
Mr. Kit-ze did not know. He had thought that it would indeed be a very fine thing to possess land and cattle and so comfortable a home as that of Mr. Ko.
This, then, had been the thought uppermost with Mr. Kit-ze when contemplating the character of Jesus, the Divine Friend, and the thought of the possible worldly elevation the friends.h.i.+p might bring him. The missionary felt a deep pain at his heart as he realized whither Mr.
Kit-ze's thoughts had led him. But at the same time there was something in his att.i.tude to inspire hope. Mr. Kit-ze had been impressed. That was plainly evident. His mind was in a deep whirl of thought. Other and better things would surely be evolved from it in the end. Many times during that day he made fervent pet.i.tion for Mr. Kit-ze.
Mr. Kit-ze's perplexity increased as one thought after another came to him. The exalted teacher had not answered as he had hoped. All was still so uncertain, so unsatisfactory. Ah, now he knew what he would do! He would go to the daughter of the honorable teacher, to her who had the soft voice, the gentle ways, the kind heart. She could make it plain, she would tell it so that it would reach his understanding.
Helen's heart leaped as Mr. Kit-ze asked her the questions. She could see how deeply in earnest he was. Oh, could it be that he was at last awakened, that he would search until he had found the truth, would accept Jesus as the one faithful Friend? His first and second questions aroused these thoughts; but the third, how it disturbed her, as it had also disturbed her father. It was the same question about earthly honor and wealth.
”Dear Mr. Kit-ze,” said Helen, taking his hand, and at that moment he felt that he would have done anything for her, ”those who truly love Jesus, who have taken him as their Friend, do not think of such things in connection with what Jesus does for them. They know that whatever is best for them he will send, that whatever of good gifts they will use happily, he will bestow. But further than this they do not go, for, Mr.
Kit-ze, when once we have taken Jesus, we must trust him for everything.
We must not question or ask him for this thing or the other. Thus, Mr.
Kit-ze, if you had a worldly friend, one in whom you believed with all the mind, in whom you trusted with all the heart, would you not willingly follow that friend wherever he bade you go and take everything from him as meant for your good?”
”Oh, yes,” said Mr. Kit-ze, ”oh, yes.”
”Well, thus it is with Jesus. When we take him for our Friend, truly take him, we do not require anything of him. We leave all that to him and only trust him. He loves us. Oh, how he loves, Mr. Kit-ze! He is the truest lover in all the world. Could he, or would he, then, do aught else but what is best for the one beloved?”
”Oh, daughter of the exalted teacher,” said the boatman, his voice tremulous with some new-found emotion, ”you have put that into Mr.
Kit-ze's heart which will make him think, think!” He went away with his hand still pressed upon his heart and murmuring to himself.
Helen had told her father of the presence of the stowaway in Mr. Ko's kitchen, and of her great surprise at finding him there.
”Oh, I suppose there isn't anything mysterious about it, Helen,” her father made answer; ”nothing to be dreaded from him, I know. He looked inoffensive enough, though sullen, and you remember we didn't find anything on his person. I am only astonished at the rapidity with which he has made his way up the river; but from what you have since learned and have told me, that too is clear.”
Helen was glad her father took the man's presence in this way. She really felt sorry for the poor fellow. He had looked at her so pathetically the evening before ere she left the kitchen with Mr. Ko, and had murmured something in which she caught the words, ”No harm, no harm.” His eyes had not then the burning look she had noticed when they were fixed upon Mr. Kit-ze. Instead, they were soft and pleading.
She was ready now to tell Clarence and Dorothy. They had walked down to the bluff for a view of the river and of the track of the setting sun as it moved across the water like some golden-freighted craft.
Clarence, boylike, whistled his astonishment at the communication. ”Why, Helen, how did he ever manage to get here so far ahead of us?” he asked at length. ”It seems almost incredible.”
”On a sampan, as I have told you Mr. Ko informed me. There isn't anything so strange about that. What troubles me is the feeling that he is following us.”
”I think this time we followed him,” observed Clarence trying to be a little witty.
”But he was evidently awaiting us here.”
”Then we'll ask him his business,” declared Clarence.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”THEN, EXTENDING HIS HANDS, ENTREATED.”]
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