A TONGAN PRAYER.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 406, 18 February 1904, Page 6

A TONGAN PRAYER.

Dying;\ Supplication of an Old Native j ffff y^ai^,,bn^ f iatpx, J5 f ; I>resident.... r; In connection wjtb the dying-prayer { uttered by Mr. McKinley, a corre-? spondent is reminded of a st-or-y-once > told hinvby JRevv'Dr. whpwas \ for over 30 years a missionary in the i Tongan. .islands,- .says -the.,, London; Chronicle. , On, pneiof his pefiodic.nl .visjts-.tothe smaller hUandshesland-ed, at oner=aselyi.visited jeven-by: the ; v n>is-i sionaries, and there heard.thatanold. Tongan, who* had some years- before* been converted to Christianity," was« dying. The J doctor. hastened to the b.ut \ of the s'ufferejr,, and there a curicusv sight met his view.. man.,Uadi been propped Jip,by his friends so that; he clung by his two arms to a beam) stretching.across the room.,' There-he; half-hung, half stood, and-with closed, eyes and a face drawn with agony he; remained constantly murmuringsoipe. words. »The doctor drew silently near' to listen, thinking that the dying man; was making some last request. "Judge; of my astonishment." he said, in relat-. ing the incident, "when I heard-these words uttered over a/nd over again- I —in Tongan, of course: 'Nearer, O God, to Thee! Nearer "to 'lliec" In thpsijdays.j almost 40 years aiju," added the doc-? tor, "the hymn.of.the cultured, saintly; English womanak.au 1 .not :reached;;,the Tongan-natives.-byl the some spirit; that inspired the thought inner doubt-i less inspired it in the heart of that; poor, untutored Christian Tongan."