登陆注册
15319600000022

第22章 WHEN ALICE TOLD HER SOUL(4)

So successful was his preaching that night, that he reconverted many of his converts, who fell and moaned about the penitent form and crowded for room amongst scores of new converts burnt by the pentecostal fire, including half a company of negro soldiers from the garrisoned Twenty- Fifth Infantry, a dozen troopers from the Fourth Cavalry on its way to the Philippines, as many drunken man- of-war's men, divers ladies from Iwilei, and half the riff-raff of the beach.

Abel Ah Yo, subtly sympathetic himself by virtue of his racial admixture, knowing human nature like a book and Alice Akana even more so, knew just what he was doing when he arose that memorable night and exposited God, hell, and eternity in terms of Alice Akana's comprehension.For, quite by chance, he had discovered her cardinal weakness.First of all, like all Polynesians, an ardent lover of nature, he found thatearthquake and volcanic eruption were the things of which Alice lived in terror.She had been, in the past, on the Big Island, through cataclysms that had slacken grass houses down upon her while she slept, and she had beheld Madame Pele (the Fire or Volcano Goddess) fling red-fluxing lava down the long slopes of Mauna Loa, destroying fish-ponds on the sea- brim and licking up droves of beef cattle, villages, and humans on her fiery way.

The night before, a slight earthquake had shaken Honolulu and given Alice Akana insomnia.And the morning papers had stated that Mauna Kea had broken into eruption, while the lava was rising rapidly in the great pit of Kilauea.So, at the meeting, her mind vexed between the terrors of this world and the delights of the eternal world to come, Alice sat down in a front seat in a very definite state of the "jumps."And Abel Ah Yo arose and put his finger on the sorest part of her soul.Sketching the nature of God in the stereotyped way, but making the stereotyped alive again with his gift of tongues in Pidgin-English and Pidgin-Hawaiian, Abel Ah Yo described the day when the Lord, even His infinite patience at an end, would tell Peter to close his day book and ledgers, command Gabriel to summon all souls to Judgment, and cry out with a voice of thunder: "Welakahao!"This anthromorphic deity of Abel Ah Yo thundering the modern Hawaiian-English slang of welakahao at the end of the world, is a fair sample of the revivalist's speech-tools of discourse.Welakahao means literally "hot iron." It was coined in the Honolulu Iron-works by the hundreds of Hawaiian men there employed, who meant by it "to hustle," "to get a move on," the iron being hot meaning that the time had come to strike.

"And the Lord cried 'Welakahao,' and the Day of Judgment began and was over wiki-wiki" (quickly) "just like that; for Peter was a better bookkeeper than any on the Waterhouse Trust Company Limited, and, further, Peter's books were true."Swiftly Abel Ah Yo divided the sheep from the goats, and hastened the latter down into hell.

"And now," he demanded, perforce his language on these pages beingproperly Englished, "what is hell like? Oh, my friends, let me describe to you, in a little way, what I have beheld with my own eves on earth of the possibilities of hell.I was a young man, a boy, and I was at Hilo.Morning began with earthquakes.Throughout the day the mighty land continued to shake and tremble, till strong men became seasick, and women clung to trees to escape falling, and cattle were thrown down off their feet.I beheld myself a young calf so thrown.A night of terror indescribable followed.The land was in motion like a canoe in a Kona gale.There was an infant crushed to death by its fond mother stepping upon it whilst fleeing her falling house.

"The heavens were on fire above us.We read our Bibles by the light of the heavens, and the print was fine, even for young eyes.Those missionary Bibles were always too small of print.Forty miles away from us, the heart of hell burst from the lofty mountains and gushed red-blood of fire-melted rock toward the sea.With the heavens in vast conflagration and the earth hulaing beneath our feet, was a scene too awful and too majestic to be enjoyed.We could think only of the thin bubble-skin of earth between us and the everlasting lake of fire and brimstone, and of God to whom we prayed to save us.There were earnest and devout souls who there and then promised their pastors to give not their shaved tithes, but five-tenths of their all to the church, if only the Lord would let them live to contribute.

"Oh, my friends, God saved us.But first he showed us a foretaste of that hell that will yawn for us on the last day, when he cries 'Welakahao!' in a voice of thunder.When the iron is hot! Think of it! When the iron is hot for sinners!

"By the third day, things being much quieter, my friend the preacher and I, being calm in the hand of God, journeyed up Mauna Loa and gazed into the awful pit of Kilauea.We gazed down into the fathomless abyss to the lake of fire far below, roaring and dashing its fiery spray into billows and fountaining hundreds of feet into the air like Fourth of July fireworks you have all seen, and all the while we were suffocating and made dizzy by the immense volumes of smoke and brimstone ascending.

"And I say unto you, no pious person could gaze down upon that scenewithout recognizing fully the Bible picture of the Pit of Hell.Believe me, the writers of the New Testament had nothing on us.As for me, my eyes were fixed upon the exhibition before me, and I stood mute and trembling under a sense never before so fully realized of the power, the majesty, and terror of Almighty God--the resources of His wrath, and the untold horrors of the finally impenitent who do not tell their souls and make their peace with the Creator.{1}

同类推荐
  • 佛说诸行有为经

    佛说诸行有为经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 国初事迹

    国初事迹

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 胜鬘经记

    胜鬘经记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 大方广佛华严经金师子章

    大方广佛华严经金师子章

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 题松江驿

    题松江驿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 樱是草色恋

    樱是草色恋

    妙妙第一次写,多包容哈~妙妙属于那种想到啥就写啥的~
  • 寻找友谊的千金

    寻找友谊的千金

    章紫璇最的有权力,最神秘的公司千金,什么都不缺的她,却缺了友谊。朋友的背叛使他不再相信友谊......
  • 吃回忆的老头

    吃回忆的老头

    在闲聊时,我们总会忆谈往事,长大后的人心险恶,世界伤人,让我们喘不过气,也许在某个深夜,我们发呆良久,最后叹口气缓缓的说一句“回不去了。”记忆中的难过,感动和泪水等等,终究只是记忆。22岁的刘毅凡,经历人生变故,6年后的聚会,更是让他自卑,在他浑浑噩噩深夜买醉时,一个老者开着出租车微笑着对他说“有遗憾吗?我们去你自己的世界里看看。”至此刘毅凡层层伤痕的心,慢慢结痂。
  • 小小矿工末日行

    小小矿工末日行

    一个年轻的煤矿工人,在井下刨坑时刨出一个史前文明遗留下来的时空穿梭器。不小心穿越到了末世。从此,YY开始了。争霸末世,金钱,美女,修真,科技,一样不少。培育神兽当坐骑当小弟,带着无敌舰队争霸宇宙,领着美女军团横少各个位面,传说中的五爪金龙,神兽麒麟,金翅大鹏,浴火凤凰,一样不差!神奇的史前科技,幻化大美女,前凸后翘,会撒娇,会卖萌,还能^!本书是位面+争霸+修真+科幻+神兽+丧尸+美女的无限yy文。新人新书,求点击!求推荐!求收藏!每天更新1~3章。绝不烂尾!喜欢的朋友多多支持!谢谢!
  • 草桥

    草桥

    完美音符飘到琉璃城堡,遇到了甜心公主,回到了阳光的童年,耳畔萦绕花语精灵,慢慢翻开咖啡日记,美丽的心情却落雪成白。
  • 穿书之舌灿莲花

    穿书之舌灿莲花

    海棠穿成了齐王府的小小丫鬟一枚,更坑爹的是,不久的将来,身为全书大反派、冷血狠厉的齐王世子会因滥杀无辜树敌众多以及招惹男女主而落得个满门抄斩的下场——对的这个“门”就包括她这个齐王府的丫鬟。为了自己的小命,海棠决定全力阻止齐王世子的作死之路,而她能靠的,不过就是自己那三寸不烂之舌。【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 不死魔宗

    不死魔宗

    不死魔宗新进弟子是太白剑宗的卧底,而地球孟山穿越而来顶替了他,一切还能顺利玩下去吗?
  • 篮筐之上

    篮筐之上

    “教练,我想打球!”三分线外,齐铭已经连续投中了八个球……但是最后一个球,他开始紧张了!教练同意他加入了篮球队,却遭到了父亲的强烈反对!父亲失去理智的愤怒目光中,是否另有隐情……
  • 仙魔之城

    仙魔之城

    少年洪拓一心向道追寻仙人的足迹踏上仙魔之城仙界沉沦天道不公我洪拓要打破天道开创新的纪元
  • 遇见霸道总裁王俊凯

    遇见霸道总裁王俊凯

    先保持神秘,才不告诉你们...........................