“I said, with a view to learning how this severe tribulation had affected his trust in Christ—for he is but a young disciple—‘some people, when great trouble is permitted to come upon them, feel that the Lord has deserted them.’ He responded at once, ‘I don’t feel that way. I think the Lord must have been very near me when I was dodging through the young corn, neither high enough nor thick enough to hide me in the bright morning light, and they all shooting at me as if I had been a deer, or they would certainly have killed me.’
“In answer to some remarks of mine, he said: ‘You needn’t be afraid of my taking to any meanness on account of this. I never can find it in my heart to be mean to anybody. I feel too sorry for people.’ His only anxiety was to find work and make enough to get the rest of his people away from there.
“When I went into my school room after hearing of this heart-rending affair, a horror of great darkness came over me for an instant, and a sound was in my ears as of a knell; then the students’ plaintive song seemed to vibrate through the air—How long, Master, how long? These distressful experiences weigh heavily on the hearts and nerves of our missionaries, who are here so nearly all the year around and have such a care for everything that affects the school or its members.”
A Teacher.
DEATH OF REV. WILLIS POLK.
Died, at his home in Fayetteville, Ark., after a lingering illness, Rev. Willis Polk, pastor of the Colored Congregational Church of that place. He came to Fayetteville in the fall of 1884, and took charge of the public school for the colored people; and up until the time he was disabled by sickness, he labored in the school-room during the week, and preached in the little church, which he had organized, on the Sabbath. His education and his gifts as a preacher were above the average of his race. He met death calmly and peacefully, and died in the blessed hope of a home in heaven. He was kindly nursed and provided for by the members of his little flock and others, during his long sickness, and his mortal remains were reverently laid in the tomb by the same kind hands. He leaves a wife and four small children to mourn his loss, and the little flock to which he ministered without a shepherd.
J. N.