The Church, as there represented, passed a Resolution, declaring:—
“It is with feelings of no ordinary pleasure that we behold present at this meeting one of our most devoted Missionaries. The result of Mr. Paton’s appeals in Australia has been unprecedented in the history of this Mission. It appears in the shape of £4,500 added to the funds of the New Hebrides Mission, besides over £300 for Native Teachers, to be paid yearly in £5 contributions, and all expenses met. The Spirit of God must have been poured out upon the inhabitants of the Colonies, in leading them to make such a noble offering as this to the cause of Missions, and in making our Missionary the honoured instrument God employed in drawing forth the sympathy and liberality of the Colonists. Now, by the good hand of God upon him, he holds the most honoured position of Moderator of the Church, etc., etc.”
The Synod also placed on record its gratitude for what God had thus done; and its cordial recognition of the many and fruitful services rendered by Ministers and Sabbath Schools, both in Scotland and Australia, in standing by me and helping on the _Floating of the Dayspring_.
I have ever regarded it as a privilege and honour that I was born and trained within the old covenanting Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland. As a separate Communion, that Church is small amongst the thousands of Israel; but the principles of Civil and Religious Liberty for which her founders suffered and died are, at this moment, the heart and soul of all that is best and divinest in the Constitution of our British Empire. I am more proud that the blood of Martyrs is in my veins, and their truths in my heart, than other men can be of noble pedigree or royal names. And I was,—in that day of the Church’s honour so distinguished for her Missionary zeal,—filled with a high passion of gratitude to be able to proclaim, at the close of my tour, and after the addition of new names to our staff, that of all her ordained Ministers, one in every six was a Missionary of the Cross.
Nor did the dear old Church thus cripple herself; on the contrary, her zeal for Missions accompanied, if not caused, unwonted prosperity at home. New waves of liberality passed over the heart of her people. Debts that had burdened many of the Churches and Manses were swept away. Additional Congregations were organized. And in May, 1876, the Reformed Presbyterian Church entered into an honourable and independent Union with her larger, wealthier, and more progressive sister, the Free Church of Scotland,—only a few of the brethren, doubtless with perfect loyalty to what they regarded as duty to Christ, still holding aloof and standing firmly in the old paths, as they appeared to them.
In the Deed of Union the incorporating Church took itself bound legally and formally to maintain the New Hebrides Mission staff, and also the _Dayspring_, committing herself never to withdraw, as it were, till these Islands were all occupied for Jesus. Now that the French have been constrained to abandon the scene, the field is open, and the Islands wail aloud for eight or ten Missionaries more than we at present have (1889); and then the Standard of the Cross might speedily be planted on every separate isle, and a true sense might at last come into the foolish name given to these regions by their Spanish discoverer, when he called the part at which he touched, thinking it the fabled Southern Continent, _the Land of the Holy Ghost_.
When the aforesaid Union took place, all the Missionaries of their own free accord cast in their lot with the incorporating Church; not only those directly supported by the old Reformed Presbyterians themselves, but also the several Missionaries sent forth by them, though supported by one or other of the Australian Colonies. And, beyond question, one feature in the Free Church that drew them and bound them to her heart was her noble zeal for and sacrifices in connection with the work of Missions, both at home and abroad. For it is a fixed point in the faith of every Missionary, that the more any Church or Congregation interests itself in the Heathen, the more will it be blessed and prospered at Home.