Hui was a Maori boy who lived in New Zealand. He had lived with his tribe nearly all his life, but some of his relatives had wandered away and camped near a European settlement in Wellington. Hui went along with them, and often wished that he could learn the language of the white people.
One day a big tent was set up right near Hui’s camp, and that very evening he saw crowds of people going in. Young Hui was curious and wanted to know what was going on. He went in and took a seat at the back of the tent, and looked all about. He couldn’t understand a word that was said, but how he did enjoy the singing. He caught the words—
“Happy day, happy day,
When Jesus washed my sins away.”
On account of these words being repeated several times, he actually learned them then and there. He went back to his camp and kept saying the words over and over again, feeling quite important that he had learned some of the white man’s language. Day after day he could be heard singing those two lines over and over, although he didn’t know what they meant.
Some months afterward he went to work on a farm, and there he picked up English very quickly, and from his employer he learned about God. He learned too what “sins” meant, and as he knew that he had many, many sins he wondered more than ever just what those two lines could mean.
Once again a gospel tent was set up, and the very first time Hui went to listen, he heard the grand story of God’s love in giving His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, to die for sinners. When the meeting was over, that hymn was sung, “O Happy Day.”
Hui was delighted, and joined with a full heart and a loud voice in singing those two lines which had so often been on his lips before. Now he knew for the very first time just what they meant, and he knew they were for him, for as he had listened to the message, he had accepted the Lord Jesus as his own Saviour.
Can you also join in that glorious hymn?—
ML 06/05/1951