You would no doubt think it very nice if you could be here for a time to run about on these hard, white roads, where you would find at every turn, almost, something new to interest you; or to climb up the green hills and look down upon the pretty scene lying all about you. You would see the islands dotted all over with houses—some on the hilltops, some on the sides of the hills, some on the top of rocks that go straight up and down for many feet, some in the pretty dales—scattered here and there in romantic spots and cozy nooks, and such quaint little houses, they are! If you could be set down on this far away sea-girt isle, perhaps your first thought would be, oh, the houses are all covered with snow! But no! take time to think. If you go inside the houses there are no fires to warm you, for it never gets cold enough to make fires necessary—not even in mid-winter. The great Gulf Stream in its northward course, half circles these islands, and the cold, northern blasts are tempered by its waters, and by the time they have reached sunny Bermuda they have lost all their frost and most of their, coldness; so it cannot be snow that makes the houses so white. No, it is because they are built of the coral rock, and then cemented over with a hard, white cement to keep them from crumbling with the weather, that they look white. Sometimes the cement used on the walls is a light brown, but the roof is always white; and it slopes four ways, instead of two like the roofs on most of the houses that you have seen.
But we were taking a look from the hill-top! We can see not only the picturesque houses, the winding roads, the beautiful foliage, and woods and hills and vales, but, turning about, we can see the great ocean that stretches far, far away, until it reaches the horizon, and sea and sky seem to mingle.
But we must not linger too long on the hill-top. What about the people who live on these favored islands? I say favored because they are not only beautiful, but they are a very healthy place in which to live, and some of the people on them live to a very old age. Not only are they sheltered from the cold blasts of winter, but they are preserved also from the intense heat of summer, by the cool breezes from the sea.
The number of inhabitants on the island is 15,000; about two-thirds of these are colored, and they are an intelligent, quiet and reliable class of people. All are made to attend school until they are thirteen years old, and in this way all have some education. This is very good, and the good effects are seen on every hand, and what is still better, many of these dear people have learned to love the Lord Jesus and to serve and follow Him.
And this is the one thing of great importance, for no matter how fine the climate may be, or how beautiful the scenery, the blight of sin is found the wide world over. There is no spot so favored that “the trail of the serpent” may not be seen. In a better climate, people may live a little longer than in a place where it is more trying, but at last they die, and the little longer time they may have had here upon earth will avail them nothing in the unending eternity upon which they have entered, unless they have found Jesus as their Saviour, and have lived for Him.
Eternity, and not time, should be the great question that occupies every one of us. “For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Someday, if the Lord will, I may tell you something of how the Lord has led, and is leading, some of these dear, colored people of Bermuda.
R.
ML 03/11/1900