there in the service of Christ, and that he would
take rank in the glorious Army of the Martyrs. I made for him a coffin,
and dug his grave near the Mission House. With prayers, and many tears,
we consigned his remains to the dust in the certainty of a happy
resurrection. Even one such convert was surely a triumphant reward for
the Missionaries, whom God had honored in bringing him to Jesus. May
they have many like Namuri for their crown of joy and rejoicing in the
great day!

CHAPTER XXIII.
BUILDING AND PRINTING FOR GOD.

FOR fully three months, all our available time, with all the native help
which I could hire, was spent in erecting a building to serve for Church
and School. It was fifty feet long, by twenty-one feet six inches broad.
The studs were three feet apart, and all fixed by tenon and mortise into
upper and lower wall plates. The beautiful roof of iron-wood and
sugar-cane leaf was supported by three massive pillars of wood, sunk
deeply into the ground. The roof extended about three feet over the wall
plates, both to form a verandah and to carry the raindrops free beyond
the walls. It was made of sugar-cane leaf and cocoanut leaves all
around. The floor was laid with white coral, broken small, and covered
with cocoanut leaf mats, such as those on which the Natives sat. Indeed,
it was as comfortable a House of Prayer as any man need wish for in the
tropics, though having only open spaces for doors and windows! I bought
the heavy wood for it on Aneityum--price, fifty pairs of trousers for
Natives; and these again were the gift of my Bible Class in Glasgow, all
cut and sewed by their own hands. I gave also one hundred and thirty
yards of cloth, along with other things, for other needful wood.

As we were preparing a foundation for the Church, a huge and
singular-looking round stone was dug up, at sight of which the Tannese
stood aghast. The eldest Chief said, "Missi, that stone was either
brought there by Karapanamun (the Evil Spirit), or hid there by our
great Chief who is dead. That is the Stone God to which our forefathers
offered human sacrifices; these holes held the blood of the victim till
drunk up by the Spirit. The Spirit of that stone eats up men and women
and drinks their blood, as our fathers taught us. We are in greatest
fear!"

A Sacred Man claimed possession, and was exceedingly desirous to carry
it off; but I managed to keep it, and did everything in my power to show
them the absurdity o