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A Prayer from A Converted Choctaw Indian
From Rev. Mr. Williams, the Missionary
The Baptist Magazine, 1829
      Y. stayed with us last night. This morning, at our family worship, I requested him to pray, after I had prayed in English; which he did in a most feeling manner, much as follows. "O my Father! O Jehovah! This morning thou has lent us; yesterday was thy day, not ours; but it is past, and ours has returned. On thy beloved day I was in thy beloved house, and heard thy word. I slept here last night, and this morning I am here, in the midst of thy messengers, kneeling down here to make supplication unto thee. O my Father, hear me, pity me, help me. I am a poor ignorant red man, and know nothing. I have broken thy law and profaned thy sabbaths very much. I am a poor lost man. O Jehovah, pity me. O my Father! thou of thine own mind, in love to souls, didst give up thine only Son Jesus Christ, to die for lost sinners. Jesus surely is the Saviour of such. O Jehovah, thou hast pitied us, thy poor red children, so that thou hast sent us thy word, by thy servants that are in the midst of us. We praise thee, O Jehovah, my Father above! When I hear of Jesus suffering and dying for poor sinners, it gives me sorrow of heart. O Jesus! thy blood was spilt, (or poured out) and thou didst in agony die for sinners. With thine own blood thou hast sought my soul. Thy blood can cleanse from sin: nothing else can. O that thou wouldst pity me, and, wash my filthy heart with thy precious blood. (Tears almost forbade his utterance.) I am thine; we are all thine, by the purchase of thy own blood. Do not cast off one of us. Do pity us, we are helpless. If we say we will cleanse our own hearts, and try to do it, we cannot. O Jesus, thy blood alone is our hope, we will trust in thee for salvation. We want to be thy good and faithful children, but if thou do not help us continually, we can never get to heaven. O Jesus, take hold of us, and hold us fast, and never let go thy hold of us, till thou hast carried us far beyond the skies, to thine own blessed abode; and we much desire that thou wouldst come quickly, and take us there. Do hear this short supplication for Jesus' sake, O Jehovah, my Father above. This is all. Amen."

      Mr. Williams the missionary, remarks, "The pathos with which this was uttered made it truly affecting. I confess I was previously dull, but it sharpened the sensibilities of my soul to hear this son of the forest, who had never heard the gospel, till about two months ago, thus confess his guilt, and thus plead the efficacy of Christ's all-atoning blood - Who, but the Holy Spirit has taught him this, and made him so much to excel in true knowledge, thousands who have been born, brought up, and ever lived under the full blaze of gospel light? This poor Indian is an object of more real worth, in the estimation of the King of kings, than all that is in the world, which comes short of a simple, humble, but full confidence in Jesus' all-atoning blood. God speed thee, my red brother! Be comforted, Jesus will soon wipe away thy tears, and fill thy thirsty soul with his fulness."

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[From The Baptist Magazine, 1829, p. 564; via Google Books On-line. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]



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