As to the new Mission Ship, delay has arisen—owing to a difference of opinion about the best way of carrying out the proposal. Negotiations are progressing betwixt New South Wales and Victoria and the other Colonies as to the additional annual expenditure for the maintenance of a Steam-Auxiliary, and how the same is to be allocated. Also, an element of doubt and perplexity has been introduced into the scheme by the possibility of the Government running Mails regularly from Australia to Fiji, and calling at one or other of the New Hebrides harbours,—in which case some think the Missionaries would need only an _inter-island_ Steamer, of a comparatively moderate tonnage. Meantime, let all friends who are interested in us and our work understand—that the money so generously entrusted to me has been safely handed over to my Victorian Church, and has been deposited by them at good interest in the bank, pending the settlement of these business details.
To me personally, this delay is confessedly a keen and deep disappointment,—feeling strongly as I do, and seeing more clearly every day, the waste and suffering caused to our beloved Missionaries and their families, by the uncertainties of a Sailing Ship, and by the utter inability of our present _Dayspring_ to overtake all that is now required. But this is not the place to discuss that matter in detail. The work laid upon me has been accomplished. The Colonial Churches have all the responsibility of the further steps. In this, as in many a harder trouble of my chequered life, I calmly roll all my burden upon the Lord. I await with quietness and confidence His wise disposal of events. His hand is on the helm; and whither He steers us, all shall be well.
But let me not close this chapter, till I have struck another and a Diviner note. I have been to the Islands again, since my return from Britain. The whole inhabitants of Aniwa were there to welcome me, and my procession to the old Mission House was more like the triumphal march of a Conqueror than that of a humble Missionary. Everything was kept in beautiful and perfect order. Every Service of the Church, as previously described in this book, was fully sustained by the Native Teachers, the Elders, and the occasional visit, once or twice a year, of the ordained white Missionary from one of the other Islands. Aniwa, like Aneityum, is a _Christian_ land. Jesus has taken possession, never again to quit those shores. Glory, _glory_ to His blessed Name!
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When pleading the cause of the Heathen and the claims of Jesus on His followers, I have often been taunted with being “a man of one idea.” Sometimes I have thought that this came from the lips of those who had not even one idea!—unless it were how to kill time or to save their own skin. But seriously speaking, is it not better to have one good idea and to live for that and succeed in it, than to scatter one’s life away on many things and leave a mark on none?
And, besides, you cannot live for one good idea supremely without thereby helping forward many other collateral causes. My life has been dominated by one sacred purpose; but in pursuing it the Lord has enabled me to be Evangelist as well as Missionary, and whilst seeking for needed money to seek for and save and bless many souls,—has enabled me to defend the Holy Sabbath in many lands, as the God-given and precious birthright of the toiling millions, to be bartered away for no price or bribe that men can offer,—has enabled me to maintain the right of every child in Christian lands, or in Heathen, to be taught to read the blessed Bible and to understand it, as the Divine foundation of all Social Order and the sole guarantee of individual freedom as well as of national greatness,—and has enabled me also to do battle against the infernal _Kanaka_ or Labour Traffic, one of the most cruel and blood-stained forms of slavery on the face of the Earth, and to rouse the holy passion of Human Brotherhood in the Colonies and at Home against those who trafficked in the bodies and souls of men.