on ’Change for twenty years, and feel justified in saying that I am respected at my pillar. So listen to my exhortations, Frits, and be good, and now get your hat, and put on your coat: and come with me to the prayer-service, that will do you good!”
That’s how I talked to him, and I’m convinced that I made an impression on him, especially as the Reverend Twaddler had chosen for the subject of his address: the love of God manifested to Saul: I Sam. xv: 33b.
In listening to that sermon I kept thinking what a difference as of day and night there is between human and divine wisdom. I have already said that in Shawlman’s parcel, among a lot of trash, there certainly are one or two things that stand out by their soundness of reasoning. But, dear me, what a poor show these things make when compared with such language as that of the Reverend Twaddler! And that is not by his own power—for I know Twaddler, and look upon him as a man who really does not soar high—no, by the power that comes from above. This difference came out the more clearly because he touched upon certain matters that were also dealt with by Shawlman, for, as you have seen, there was much in his parcel about the Javanese and other heathens. Frits says the Javanese are not heathens, but I call anyone a heathen who has a wrong faith. For I hold on to Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and I feel sure so will every respectable reader.
As I have drawn from Twaddler’s address my conclusion with regard to the wrongfulness of abandoning the coffee-culture in Lebak, to which I shall again refer presently, and also because as an honest man I do not wish that the reader shall receive nothing for his money, I shall here give a few fragments of the sermon which were most particularly striking.
He had briefly proved God’s love from the words of the text quoted, and had quite rapidly passed on to the point that was really the issue, namely the conversion of the Javanese, Malays, and whatever other names those peoples may have. And this is what he said about that subject:
