Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

480 THINKING BLACK
off the terrible tentacles from his soul. K can only
explain his conversion in the quaintly?' choice words : " I
was startled to find that Christ could speak Chiluba. I
heard Him speak out of the printed page, and what He
!
said was, 'Follow Me '
" And then it was he entered the
new era of reading the Old Book, for was it not a fact
that now God was staring out at him from every page,
and shouting in his ears ? Those rays of light that darted
out of Galilee long ago have lit up these poor dark glens
with gladness. Simply and satisfyingly a soul settles for
eternity on the living Word of God. An old negro chief
from the South end has just sent in a message to his
brethren here, and there is the same ring of assurance as
to the Word of God. "Tell my brethren at Luanza,"
says he, " that Christ keeps me down here all alone by
the Gospel according to Mark." The only portion of the
Bible he has, to him " Mark " equates the whole revelation
of God, and even " Romans " and " Ephesians " are only
portions of the great " Marko," his first and faithful friend.
Sterile though the soil be, the seed is the Word of God :
you may count the apples on the tree, but who can count
the trees in the apple ? You may tell the acorns on the
oak, but not the oaks in the acorn.
Yet such thick lips can drop pearls. It is delightful
to see God taking up these Gentiles, and speaking with
other lips and a stammering tongue, stiff old phrases
going into the melting-pot of negro mouths and being
poured out in fresh fluidity. "The Book of Acts," for
instance, becomes " Words concerning Deeds " ; " the