Sermon Central
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Joy Davidman Tells The Story Of An Old Missionary ...
Contributed by Sermon Central on Sep 8, 2003 (message contributor)
Joy Davidman tells the story of an old missionary ministering among a tribe of cannibals. The missionary was hard at work trying to convert the native chief. The chief listened patiently but at last said to the missionary, "I do not understand. You tell me that I must not take my neighbor’s wife. Or his ivory, or his oxen."
"That’s right," said the missionary.
The chief continued, "And I must not dance the war dance and then ambush him on the trail and kill him."
"Absolutely right!" exclaimed the missionary.
"But I cannot do any of these things!" the man replied, "I am too old. To be old and to be Christian, they are the same thing."
Smoke on the Mountain (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954), 13 from A Slice of Infinity newsletter.