PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 1 (of 3) : An autobiography edited by his brother
Paton, John Gibson · 94,839 words · 130 reading sections
With An Introduction By Arthur T. Pierson, D.D.
=An Autobiography.= Two vols. in box, 12mo, cloth, gilt top net $2.00. =Ministerial Commendation.= “I have just laid down the most robust and the most fascinating piece of autobiography that I have met with in many a day.... John G. Paton was made of the same stuff with Livingstone.”—_Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D._ “I c…
283 wordsSECTION 2By Arthur T. Pierson, D.D.
=New Illustrated Edition.= FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CHICAGO 30 UNION SQUARE, EAST. 148–150 MADISON STREET. Love is omnipotent. Wherever true passion for souls burns, there we may find a new Mount of Transfiguration where the earthly takes on the complexion of the heavenly. This book presents …
420 wordsSECTION 3Note To Second Edition.
The Manuscript of this Volume, put together in a rough draft amid ceaseless and exacting toils, was placed in my hands and left absolutely to my disposal by my beloved brother, the Missionary. It has been to me a labour of perfect love to re-write and revise the same, pruning here and expanding there, and preparing th…
280 wordsSECTION 4Contents.
CHAPTER I. _EARLIER DAYS._ PAGE Introductory Note 3 Kirkmahoe 4 Torthorwald Village 5 Our Villagers 6 Nithsdale Scenes 7 Our Cottage Home 9 Our Forebears 12 An Idyll of the Heart 16 A Consecrated Father 19 Accepted Vows 21 Happy Sabbath Days 22 Golden Autumn of Life 26 CHAPTER II. _AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE…
681 wordsSECTION 5Contents.
CHAPTER IX. _DEEPENING SHADOWS._ Welcome Guests 243 A Fiendish Deed 244 The Plague of Measles 245 A Heroic Soul 246 Horrors of Epidemic 247 A Memorable New Year 248 A Missionary Attacked 249 In the Valley of the Shadow 251 Blow from an Adze 252 A Missionary’s Death 253 Mrs. Johnston’s Letter 255 A Heavy Lo…
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PORTRAIT OF JOHN G. PATON _Frontispiece_. “THE MAN THAT KILLS MISSI MUST FIRST KILL ME” _To face p._ 156 NATIVES STEALING PROPERTY „ 160 NATIVES RETURNING STOLEN PROPERTY „ 164 “THERE THEY LAY ME ON COCOA-NUT LEAVES ON THE GROUND” „ 172 “AT DAYBREAK I FOUND MY HOUSE SURROUNDED” „ 188 THE DANGEROUS LANDING THROUGH…
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The Villagers of my early days—the agricultural servants, or occasional labourers, the tradesmen, the small farmers—were, generally speaking, a very industrious and thoroughly independent race of people. Hard workers they had to be, else they would starve; yet they were keen debaters on all affairs both in Church and S…
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Our home consisted of a “but” and a “ben” and a “mid room,” or chamber, called the “closet.” The one end was my mother’s domain, and served all the purposes of dining-room and kitchen and parlour, besides containing two large wooden erections, called by our Scotch peasantry “box-beds”; not holes in the wall, as in citi…
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Of their children, two reproduced the disposition of their father, and two that of their mother. William took to the soldier’s career, and died in Spain; May, the only daughter, gave her heart and hand to John Wood, a jolly and gallant Englishman, who fought at Waterloo, and lived to see his hundredth birthday. John an…
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From such a home came our mother, Janet Jardine Rogerson, a bright-hearted, high-spirited, patient-toiling, and altogether heroic little woman; who, for about forty-three years, made and kept such a wholesome, independent, God-fearing, and self-reliant life for her family of five sons and six daughters, as constrains m…
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Often and often, in the genial and beautiful hours of the autumntide of their long life, have I heard my dear father tease “Jen” about her maidenly intentions in the stealing of that bonnet; and often with quick mother wit have heard her happy retort, that had his motives for coming to that retreat been altogether and …
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My father had a strong desire to be a minister of the Gospel; but when he finally saw that God’s will had marked out for him another lot, he reconciled himself by entering with his own soul into this solemn vow,—that if God gave him sons, he would consecrate them unreservedly to the ministry of Christ, if the Lord saw …
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As I must, however, leave the story of my father’s life—much more worthy, in many ways, of being written than my own—I may here mention that his long and upright life made him a great favourite in all religious circles far and near within the neighbourhood, that at sick-beds and at funerals he was constantly sent for a…
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“John, whenever you need anything after this, just tell your father to ‘tak’ the Book,’ and God will send it in answer to prayer!” Years passed by before I came to know, what the reader has already guessed, that the good-hearted schoolmaster’s hand lifted the latch that evening during my father’s prayer. All his infl…
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“O my children, love your heavenly Father, tell Him in faith and prayer all your needs, and He will supply your wants so far as it shall be for your good and His glory.” Perhaps, amidst all their struggles in rearing a family of eleven, this was the hardest time they ever had, and the only time they ever felt the actu…
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“Right now, my lad; go ahead!” It was hard work for me at first, and my hands got very sore; but, being willing and determined, I soon got into the way of it, and kept up with the best of them. The harvesters, seeing I was not one of their own workers, had an eager dispute as to what I was, some holding that I was a p…
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“God bless you, my son! Your father’s God prosper you, and keep you from all evil!” Unable to say more, his lips kept moving in silent prayer; in tears we embraced, and parted. I ran off as fast as I could, and, when about to turn a corner in the road where he would lose sight of me, I looked back and saw him still st…
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As our fellow-students at the Normal were all far advanced beyond us in their education, we found it killing work, and had to grind away incessantly, late and early. Both of us, before the year closed, broke down in health, partly by hard study, but principally, perhaps, for lack of nourishing diet. A severe cough seiz…
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“Use that freely, or you will never keep order here!” I put it aside into the drawer of my desk, saying,— “That will be my last resource.” There were very few scholars for the first week—about eighteen in the day school and twenty in the night school. The clerk of the mill, a good young fellow, came to the evening c…
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On the following day, the parents of some children, getting alarmed by the rumours of these exploits, waited on me with the minister, and said their children were terrified to come. I said that no _child_ had been beaten by me, but that I insisted upon order and obedience; I reminded the minister that of my immediate p…
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Most of these directors were men of God, adapted and qualified for this special work, and very helpful in counsel as they went with me from day to day, introducing me to my district, and seeing the character and position of the people dwelling there. Looking back upon these Mission experiences, I have ever felt that th…
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The kind cow-feeder had to inform us—and he did it with much genuine sorrow—that at a given date he would require the hay-loft, which was our place of meeting; and as no other suitable house or hall could be got, the poor people and I feared the extinction of our work. On hearing this the ostlers and other servants of …
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I had also a very large Bible Class—a sort of Bible-reading—on Monday night, attended by all, of both sexes and of any age, who cared to come or had any interest in the work. Wednesday evening, again, was devoted to a Prayer Meeting for all, and the attendance often more than half-filled the Church. There I usually too…
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Not boastfully, but gratefully, let me record that my Classes and Meetings were now attended by such numbers that they were amongst the largest and most successful that the City Mission had ever known; and by God’s blessing I was enabled to develop them into a regular, warmly attached, and intelligent Congregation. My …
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Though disappointed thus, some of the Publicans resolved to have revenge. On the following Saturday evening, when a large meeting was being addressed in our Green Street Church, which had to be entered by a great iron gateway, a spirit merchant ran his van in front of the gate, so that the people could not leave the Ch…
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As long as he lived, this man was unwearied and unflinching in testifying, to all that crossed his path, how much Jesus Christ had been to his heart and soul; and he died in the possession of a full and blessed hope. Another Infidel, whose wife was a Roman Catholic, also became unwell, and gradually sank under great s…
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Getting it, dusting it, and laying it on a small table which I drew near to the sofa on which we sat, we read there and then a chapter together. After this, I said, “Now, shall we pray?” He replied heartily, “Yes.” I having removed the little table, we kneeled down together at the sofa; and after a solemn pause, I wh…
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“I lay my sins on Jesus, The spotless Lamb of God.” Shortly before his decease he said to his parents, “I am going soon to be with Jesus; but I sometimes fear that I may not see you there.” “Why so, my child?” said his weeping mother. “Because,” he answered, “if you were set upon going to heaven and seeing Jesus th…
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“Mac, I commit that conveyance and party to you on a criminal charge, before witnesses; you will suffer, if they escape.” The driver lashing at his horse to get away, Mac drew his baton and struck, when the driver leapt down to the street on the opposite side, and threw the reins in the policeman’s face. Thereupon our…
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About this same time there was an election of elders for Dr. Symington’s congregation, and I was by an almost unanimous vote chosen for that office. For years now I had been attached to them as City Missionary for their district, and many friends urged me to accept the eldership, as likely to increase my usefulness, an…
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The Lord kept saying within me, “Since none better qualified can be got, rise and offer yourself!” Almost overpowering was the impulse to answer aloud, “Here am I, send me.” But I was dreadfully afraid of mistaking my own emotions for the will of God. So I resolved to make it a subject of close deliberation and prayer …
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When it became known that I was preparing to go abroad as Missionary, nearly all were dead against the proposal, except Dr. Bates and my fellow-student. My dear father and mother, however, when I consulted them, characteristically replied, “that they had long since given me away to the Lord, and in this matter also wou…
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Some retorted upon me, “There are Heathen at home; let us seek and save, first of all, the lost ones perishing at our doors.” This I felt to be most true, and an appalling fact; but I unfailingly observed that those who made this retort neglected these home Heathen themselves; and so the objection, as from them, lost a…
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The Directors of Glasgow City Mission along with the Great Hamilton Street congregation, had made every effort to find a suitable successor to me in my Green Street work, but in vain. Despairing of success, as no inexperienced worker could with any hope undertake it, Rev. Mr. Caie, the superintendent, felt moved to app…
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[Illustration: _Stanford’s Geog. Estab^t., London._] CHAPTER V. _THE NEW HEBRIDES._ License and Ordination.—At Sea.—From Melbourne to Aneityum.—Settlement on Tanna.—Our Mission Stations.—Diplomatic Chiefs.—Painful First Impressions.—Bloody Scenes.—The Widow’s Doom. On the first of December, 1857, the other Missio…
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We drifted steadily towards Tanna, an island of Cannibals, where our goods would have been plundered and all of us cooked and eaten. Dr. Geddie’s boat and mine had the _John Knox_ in tow; and Mr. Copeland, with a crew of Natives, was struggling hard with his boat to pull the _Columbia_ and her load towards Aneityum. As…
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My first impressions drove me to the verge of utter dismay. On beholding these Natives in their paint and nakedness and misery, my heart was as full of horror as of pity. Had I given up my much-beloved work and my dear people in Glasgow, with so many delightful associations, to consecrate my life to these degraded crea…
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“Missi, this is a dark land. The people of this land do dark works. At the boiling spring they have cooked and feasted upon the slain. They have washed the blood into the stream; they have bathed there till all the waters are red. I cannot get water to make your tea. What shall I do?” Dr. Inglis told him that he must …
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At first they came in crowds to look at us, and at everything we did or had. We knew nothing of their language; we could not speak a single word to them, nor they to us. We looked at them, they at us; we smiled, and nodded, and made signs to each other; this was our first meeting and parting. One day I observed two men…
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Let me here give my testimony on a matter of some importance—that among these Islands, if anywhere, men might be found destitute of the faculty of worship, men absolutely without idols, if such men exist under the face of the sky. Everything seemed to favour such a discovery; but the New Hebrides, on the contrary, are …
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The Tannese called Heaven by the name Aneai; and we afterwards discovered that this was the name of the highest and most beautifully situated village on the island. Their best bit of Earth was to them the symbol and type of Heaven; their Canaan, too, was a kind of prophecy of another country, even a heavenly Canaan. Th…
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After these things, the London Missionary Society again and again placed Samoan native teachers on one or other island of the New Hebrides; but their unhealthiness, compared with their own happier Samoa or Rarotonga, so afflicted them with the dreaded ague and fever, besides what they endured from the inhospitable sava…
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My first house on Tanna was on the old site occupied by Turner and Nisbet, near the shore for obvious reasons, and only a few feet above tide-mark. So was that of Mr. Mathieson, handy for materials and goods being landed, and close to the healthy breezes of the sea. Alas! we had to learn by sad experience, like our bre…
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Stunned by that dreadful loss, in entering upon this field of labour to which the Lord had Himself so evidently led me, my reason seemed for a time almost to give way. Ague and fever, too, laid a depressing and weakening hand upon me, continuously recurring, and reaching oftentimes the very height of its worst burning …
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The Mission Synod at Tanna, on April 27th, 1859, passed the following resolution:—“That this meeting deeply and sincerely sympathises with Mr. Paton in the heavy and trying bereavement with which the Lord has seen meet to visit him in the death of his beloved wife and child; and the Missionaries record their sense of t…
497 wordsSECTION 46“My Dear Father, Mother, And Sisters,—
“When I wrote last, we were just about to leave Aneityum for Tanna, the sphere of our future labours. One can have no idea of the dark and degraded state of these poor Heathen, unless really living amongst them. Still we trust that the cloud which has so long enveloped Tanna will soon be rolled away, and the light …
609 wordsSECTION 47“Mary Ann Paton.”
Her last words were,— “Oh, that my dear mother were here! She is a good woman, my mother, a jewel of a woman.” Then, observing Mr. Copeland near by, she said,— “Oh, Mr. Copeland, I did not know you were there! You must not think that I regret coming here, and leaving my mother. If I had the same thing to do over aga…
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The novelty of our being among them soon passed away, and they began to show their avarice and deceitfulness in every possible way. The Chiefs united and refused to give us the half of the small piece of land which had been purchased, on which to build our Mission House, and when we attempted to fence in the part they …
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The Natives of Tanna were well-nigh constantly at war amongst themselves, every man doing that which was right in his own eyes, and almost every quarrel ending in an appeal to arms. Besides many battles far inland, one was fought closely around our house, and several were fought around the Harbour. In these conflicts, …
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After the Sabbath Morning Service we used to walk many miles, visiting all the villages within reach, even before we had got so much of their language as to be able to speak freely to the people. Sometimes we made a circuit amongst them, ten or twelve miles away and as many back again. We tried to talk a little to all …
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Early next morning, Miaki, the war-chief, despatched his herald to sound the Conch and summon the people to battle. He made the Harbour and all the country resound with it for six miles around, and the savage hordes gathered to the call. Putting our trust in God, we quietly resolved to attend as usual to our work and a…
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Nowhat, an old Chief of the highest rank from Aneityum, who spoke Tannese and was much respected by the Natives all round the south side of Tanna, came on a visit to our island. After returning home, he became very ill and died in a few days. The deluded Tannese, hearing of his death, ascribed it to me and the Worship,…
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Instantaneously, another Chief thundered in with the same declaration; and the great assembly broke up in dismay. All the more remarkable was this deliverance, as these two Chiefs lived nearly four miles inland, and, as reputed disease makers and sacred men, were regarded as amongst our bitterest enemies. It had happen…
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About this time, several men, afraid or ashamed by day, came to me regularly by night for conversation and instruction. Having seen the doors of the Mission House made fast and the windows blinded so that they could not be observed, they continued with me for many hours, asking all strange questions about the new Relig…
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“Missi, come in, quick, quick! I want to tell you something and to get your advice!” He ran into my house, and I followed; but before he had got into his story, we heard the two women crying out,— “Missi, missi, come quick! Miaki’s men are stealing your sheets and blankets!” I ran at once, but all were gone into the…
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One morning, the Tannese, rushing towards me in great excitement, cried,— “Missi, Missi, there is a God, or a ship on fire, or something of fear, coming over the sea! We see no flames, but it smokes like a volcano. Is it a Spirit, God, or a ship on fire? What is it? what is it?” One party after another followed in qu…
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The Captain was talking to me, his men stood in order near by,—to my eyes, oh how charming a glimpse of Home life!—when Miaki marched up and took his place most consequentially at my side. He felt himself the most important personage in the scene, and with an attempt at haughty dignity he began to survey the visitors. …
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Too much, perhaps, had I hoped for from the closely succeeding visits of the good Bishop Selwyn, the gallant Captain Vernon, and the Mission ship _John Williams_. The impressions were undoubtedly good, but evanescent; and things soon went on as they had done before among our benighted Tannese, led by Satan at his will,…
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When I have read or heard the shallow objections of irreligious scribblers and talkers, hinting that there was no reality in conversions, and that Mission effort was but waste, oh, how my heart has yearned to plant them just one week on Tanna, with the “natural” man all around in the person of Cannibal and Heathen, and…
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The Harbour people advised me to remove a mile further away from these warriors; but the Inland tribes sent me word not to desert my house, lest it might be burned and plundered, for that they themselves had no quarrel against me. Early next morning, I, accompanied by Abraham and another Aneityumese, started off to vis…
920 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.