“Because God says it,” answered Peter; “what He says must be true.”
“In that book you read?” asked the black.
“Yes, that book contains God’s messages and promises to man. It is through this alone, and the leading of the Holy Spirit, that we know anything about God. Without that we should be worshipping blocks of stone, just as Owen Bell was telling me the other day your countrymen do.”
“Yes, and many other people in the world, and in the countries we are going to,” observed Emery. “But I can’t stop to listen longer; another day you tell me more of this.”
Peter gladly promised that he would do so.
To his surprise one evening, after he had cleaned up the pots and pans, the cook asked him to come and sit in the caboose, and begged him to read a chapter or two in the Bible. Peter did so, and explained it to the best of his power, and frequently after that he spent an hour in the evening in the same way.
The ship had now rounded the Cape of Good Hope. The wind was fair, the weather continued fine. Peter had determined to try again to get Hixon to let him read to him. It seemed so sad that an old man should continue to refuse listening to God’s message of love. One Sunday he found him sitting by himself, as he usually did, stitching away on the sleeve of a jacket. Peter sat down near him and began to read to himself. Hixon eyed him, but not with that angry look which he generally cast when Peter was reading.
“Would you like to hear some of it while you are at your work?” asked Peter at length.
“Well, boy, as you are a good sort of chap after all, and axes me so often, I don’t mind hearing one of your yarns out of your book;
