Obituary notices of Native converts.
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OBITUARY NOTICES OF NATIVE CONVERTS, IN CONNECTION WITH THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
FROM the Journals and Reports of the Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society we extract some notices of Native Converts who have departed, as we trust, in the faith of Christ.
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NEW ZEALAND.
Mr. Charles Baker's Journal contains the following notices of Natives who died in the district connected with the Uawa Station--
March 7, 1850 --I arrived at Tokomaru last evening. I hope the people here are going on steadily. I received a note from the Whareponga Teacher to say that Ruka te Nohoiritai is dead, and that his end was peace. He had been a worthy character for some years. He was formerly Teacher of the infant-school at Rangitukia: afterward he removed to Reporua, also in the character of Teacher. He came on two occasions to Uawa, with other Native Teachers, to School. He gave me much satisfaction, and I have felt persuaded that the root of the matter was in him. At Reporua he had great trials from the untoward behaviour of the people. He was, so far as I could ascertain, faithful, but his faithfulness made it necessary to leave the people. He was in November last appointed to Pukemairi, with a fair prospect of being very useful; but it hath pleased the Great Head of the Church to dispense with his services. Doubtless he is with the Church triumphant in glory.
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Aug. 10, 1850 --At Maraea I found one of my old Monitors in a dying state. He had been a great sufferer several years from rheumatism, but had derived much benefit from medicine, which had been supplied to him from time to time. I was apprehensive last winter that he would not survive the season; but he recovered, and was pretty well through the summer. When the last cold weather came on he was again laid aside, and he has now become so ill as to leave no hope of his recovery. He knew me, and exchanged a few words with me. He appeared peaceful, saying that all his trust was on the Saviour of sinners. I feel much for him, and have long had great respect for him. The Natives, too, have held him in high respect.
Mr. Baker afterward heard that the poor fellow died on the very day of his visit to him.
The Rev. James Hamlin, resident Missionary at Wairoa, records in his Journal an account of the death of Martha Ngarara.
May 24, 1850 --Martha Ngarara, George Ngarara's wife, was brought to the Station yesterday, from the Whakaki, near death. She is the wife of the Native Teacher at the Station, but bad been taken to the Whakaki at her own request, during her illness, to see what a change of air would do for her. I went to see her today, but did not think she had been so near her end. I asked her on whom she depended for the pardon of her sins, and for her salvation. "Upon Christ alone," was her reply." -- "Do you not think," I asked, "you can do something toward the atonement for your sins?" "No," she returned: "Christ has atoned for my sins." -- "Do you not think," continued I, "that your faith merits for you some part of your justification before God, and that a part may be attributed to the blood and righteousness of Christ?" "No," she rejoined, "Christ is all to me: He has done all for me and in me." -- "Do you feel the love of Christ shed abroad in your heart, and can you rest your all upon Him?" "Yes," was her reply. -- "Having done so much for you," I observed, "He will complete His work; He will be with you when you pass through the waters of Jordan; He will never leave you till He has safely landed you on Canaan's happy shore." I thought I should have had another opportunity or two of having some further conversation with her, not thinking her so near death as she really was; but her spirit left its earthly tenement this evening, and she no doubt stands accepted before God. Being clothed in the spotless robe of her Saviour's righteousness, no spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, is found in her.
Mr. Archdeacon A. N. Brown, of Tauranga, writes in his Journal--
April 2, 1850 --Samuel, who has been lying ill at the Station for a long time past, had a severe haemorrhage from the lungs this morning, and it is probable he will not long survive. When a little recovered from exhaustion I said to him, "How do you feel, Samuel, in prospect of that death which appears coming so near to you?" "My heart is not dark," he replied, "but light." -- "What gives you joy?" "That Christ has died for my sins," laying a particular emphasis on the pronoun. "When the Natives are in health," he said afterward, "their whole thoughts are occupied about the riches of this world: they want horses, and ships, and mills. When a man is dying, as I am now, he feels that horses, and ships, and mills, are of no value to him--that nothing can satisfy him but a crown of glory."
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