We ought never to forget the great work which early Christian missionaries did to promote the Gospel in different parts of the world and in different languages. One of these eminent missionaries was John Eliot, who has been called “The Apostle to the Indians,” because he was among the first to dedicate his life to the strenuous task of taking the Gospel to the American Indians in the seventeenth century.
John Eliot lived from 1604 to 1690 and has been referred to as “the morning star of modern Christian missions.” He was born in England and was converted when still young. He sailed with other settlers to America in the summer of 1631 and made his home in New England, which, in those days, was a barren part of the world. He became the pastor of his fellow emigrants and lived in the town of Roxbury, near Boston.
His ministry was blessed by God, and his preaching was like a thunderbolt. He felt called by God to take the Gospel to the ignorant pagan tribes who lived nearby him. He spent over twelve years learning the difficult language of the nearby tribes, and eventually did learn not only to speak their language, but he preached to the American Indians. It is recorded that a stern American Indian chief, when he heard Eliot’s preaching, would bend his head and weep.
His sermons to the native people were about an hour and a quarter long. His method was to teach first, the ten commandments. Then he preached to them Jesus Christ as the only way to escape from God’s punishment for sin. He would emphasize the glories of heaven and the eternal miseries of hell. He made it very clear to his hearers that this universe is the work of God’s almighty power. He loved the people and expressed his affection for them when he met them.
As the Gospel made progress among these formerly pagan American Indians, a wonderful change began to take place. The forest began to be cleared, roads were made, and buildings were erected. Men learned to work at a job; women learned to spin. They now started to wear decent clothing and to behave in a way which reflected that their knowledge of God’s Word was being taken to heart. John Eliot devoted all the time and energy he had to promoting Christian teaching among these native Americans whom he loved and whose eternal salvation he longed for. He had to walk through woodland and forest in wet clothes and exert himself day and night to try to advance the Gospel of Christ. When we think today of the highly sophisticated and advanced society which we associate with skyscrapers, airplanes, and fast traffic, it astonishes the mind to be told how primitive America was until the Gospel of Christ changed men’s hearts and lives. It all happened in God’s providence in about four hundred years!
In the midst of all his labors and journeys, John Eliot found time to translate the Old and New Testaments into the languages of these North American Indians. He also composed catechisms for the young people. Cotton Mather, an eminent Christian, once expressed his delight at the work of John Eliot in these words, “Behold, ye Americans, the greatest honour that ever ye were partakers of! The Bible was printed here in our Cambridge; and it is the only Bible that ever was printed in all America from the very foundation of the world!”1Drew Lopenzina, Red Ink: Native Americans Picking up the Pen in the Colonial Period (New York: SUNY Press, 2012), 87. By “our Cambridge,” he meant the American city of that name, which at that date, was a humble town.
The eminent Puritan preacher in England, Richard Baxter, encouraged John Eliot with these words, “I greatly rejoice in the liberty, help, and success which Christ has so long vouchsafed you in his work. There is no man on earth whose work is more honourable or comfortable than yours!”2Christian Biography (London: J. Nisbet, 1799), Vol. 10, 61. It is good to note that Richard Baxter’s great book, Call to the Unconverted, was translated by John Eliot into the language of the American Indians. The lovely story is told that a young native chief, who had become a Christian believer, was so delighted by Baxter’s book, that he read it on his deathbed. Tears of joy and penitence fell from his eyes until death closed his eyes, and he went to another world.
John Eliot labored for fifty years among his beloved American Indians. He loved to do all he could for these dear people. We are told that one of the last things he did was to teach the alphabet to a little native child!
The generation to whom John Eliot preached and taught the Gospel of Christ has not long since passed away. But doubtless there are those around the throne of God above who are now in glory as a result of Eliot’s faithful labors in those far-off days.
John Eliot never imagined how much God would bless America and use it to promote Christian values at home and abroad, but he did what he did so as to glorify God and to save souls for Christ’s kingdom.
Is there a lesson for us today? Yes, certainly. Surely the lesson is this: As believers, we must do all we can to promote the Gospel among our friends and neighbors. Only Christ’s Gospel can lift poor sinners up to glory at last.
Footnotes
- 1Drew Lopenzina, Red Ink: Native Americans Picking up the Pen in the Colonial Period (New York: SUNY Press, 2012), 87. ↩︎
- 2Christian Biography (London: J. Nisbet, 1799), Vol. 10, 61. ↩︎
