CHAPTER III.

_TO SCOTLAND AND BACK._

Dr. Inglis on the Mission Crisis.—Casting Lots before the Lord.—Struck by Lightning.—A Peep at London.—A Heavenly Welcome.—The Moderator’s Chair.—Reformed Presbyterian Church and Free Church.— Tour through Scotland.—A Frosted Foot.—The Children’s Holy League.—Missionary Volunteers.—A God-provided Help-Mate.—Farewell to the Old Family Altar.—First Peep at the _Dayspring_.—The _Dayspring_ in a Dead-Lock.— Tokens of Deliverance.—The _John Williams_ and the _Dayspring_.—Australia’s Special Call.

Each of my Australian Committees strongly urged my return to Scotland, chiefly to secure, if possible, more Missionaries for the New Hebrides. Dr. Inglis, just arrived from Britain, where he had the Aneityumese New Testament carried through the press, zealously enforced this appeal. “Before I left home,” he wrote back to the Church in Scotland, “I thought this would be inexpedient; but since I returned here, and have seen the sympathy, interest, and liberality displayed through the blessing of God on Mr. Paton’s instrumentality, and the altered aspect of the Mission, I feel that a crisis has been reached when a special effort must be made to procure more men, for which I had neither the time, nor had I the means to employ them, but which may now be appropriately done by Mr. Paton; and my prayer and hope are that he may be as successful in securing men at home as he has been in securing money in these Colonies.”

Yet my path was far from clear, notwithstanding my Gideon’s fleece referred to already. To lose time in going home to do work that others ought to do, while I still heard the wail of the perishing Heathen on the Islands, could scarcely be my duty. Amidst overwhelming perplexity, and finding no light from any human counsel, I took a step, to which only once before in all my chequered career I have felt constrained. Some will mock when they read it, but others will perhaps more profoundly say: “To whomsoever this faith is given, let him obey it.” After many prayers, and wrestlings, and tears, I went alone before the Lord, and, on my knees, cast lots with a solemn appeal to God, and the answer came, “Go home!” In my heart, I sincerely believe that on both these occasions the Lord condescended to decide for me the path of duty, otherwise unknown; and I believe it the more truly now, in view of the after-come of thirty years of service to Christ that flowed out of the steps then deliberately and devoutly taken. In this, and in many other matters, I am no law to others, though I obeyed my then highest light. Nor can I refrain from adding that, for the very reasons indicated above, I regard so-called “lotteries” and “raffles” as a mockery of God, and little if at all short of blasphemy. “Ye cannot drink at the Lord’s Table, and at the table of devils.”

I sailed for London in the _Kosciusko_, an Aberdeen clipper, on 16th May, 1863. Captain Stewart made the voyage most enjoyable to all. The son of my old friend Bishop Selwyn and I conducted alternately a Presbyterian and an Anglican Service. We passed through a memorable thunder-burst in rounding the Cape. Our good ship was perilously struck by lightning. The men on deck were thrown violently down. The copper on the bulwarks was twisted and melted—a specimen of which the Captain gave me and I still retain. When the ball of fire struck the ship, those of us sitting on chairs, screwed to the floor around the Cabin table, felt as if she were plunging to the bottom. When she sprang aloft again, a military man and a medical officer were thrown heavily into the back passage between the Cabins, the screws that held their seats having snapped asunder. I, in grasping the table, got my leg severely bruised, being jammed betwixt the seat and the table, and had to be carried to my berth. All the men were attended to, and quickly recovered consciousness; and immediately the good Captain, an elder of the Church, came to me, and said,—

“Lead us in prayer, and let us thank the Lord for this most merciful deliverance; the ship is not on fire, and no one is seriously injured!”

Poor fellow! whether hastened on by this event I know not, but he struggled for three weeks thereafter in a fever, and it took our united care and love to pull him through. The Lord, however, restored him; and we cast anchor safely in the East India Docks, at London, on 26th August, 1863, having been three months and ten days at sea from port to port.

It was 5.30 p.m. when we cast anchor, and the gates closed at six o’clock. My little box was ready on deck. The Custom House officers kindly passed me, and I was immediately on my way to Euston Square. Never before had I been within the Great City, and doubtless I could have enjoyed its palaces and memorials. But the King’s business, entrusted to me, “required haste,” and I felt constrained to press forward, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left. The streets through which I was driven seemed to be dirty and narrow; many of the people had a squalid and vicious look; and, fresh from Australia, my disappointment was keen as to the smoky and miserable appearance of what I saw. No doubt other visitors will behold only the grandeur and the wealth; they will see exactly what they come to see, and London will shine before them accordingly.

At nine o’clock, that evening, I left for Scotland by train. Next morning, about the same hour, I reported myself at the manse of the Rev. John Kay, Castle Douglas, the Convener of the Foreign Missions Committee of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, to which I belonged. We arranged for a meeting of said Committee, at earliest practicable date, that my scheme and plans might at once be laid before them.

By the next train I was on my way to Dumfries, and thence by conveyance to my dear old home at Torthorwald. There I had a Heavenly Welcome from my saintly parents, yet not unmixed with many fast-falling tears. Five brief years only had elapsed, since I went forth from their Sanctuary, with my young bride; and now, alas! alas! that grave on Tanna held mother and son locked in each other’s embrace till the Resurrection Day.

Not less glowing, but more terribly agonizing, was my reception, a few days thereafter, at Coldstream, when I first gazed on the bereaved father and mother of my beloved; who, though godly people, were conscious of a heart-break under that stroke, from which through their remaining years they never fully rallied. They murmured not against the Lord; but all the same, heart and flesh began to faint and fail, even as our Divine Example Himself fainted under the Cross, which yet He so uncomplainingly bore.

The Foreign Mission Committee of the Reformed Presbyterian Church met in Edinburgh, and welcomed me kindly, nay, warmly. A full report of all my doings for the past, and of all my plans and hopes, was laid before them. They at once agreed to my visiting and addressing every Sabbath School in the Church. They opened to me their Divinity Hall, that I might appeal to the Students. My Address there was published and largely circulated, under the motto: “Come over and help us.” It was used of God to deepen vastly the interest in our Mission.

The Committee generously and enthusiastically did everything in their power to help me. By their influence, the Church in 1864 conferred on me the undesired and undeserved honour, the highest which they could confer—the honour of being the Moderator of their Supreme Court. No one can understand how much I shrank from all this; but, in hope of the Lord’s using it and me to promote His work amongst the Heathen, I accepted the Chair, though, I fear, only to occupy it most unworthily, for Tanna gave me little training for work like that!

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.

“One of the surest signs of life,” wrote the Victorian _Christian Review_, “is the effort of a Church to spread the Gospel beyond its own bounds, and especially to send the knowledge of Jesus amongst the Heathen. The Missions to the Aborigines, to the Chinese in this Colony, and to the New Hebrides, came to this Church from God. In a great crisis of the New Hebrides, they sent one of their number to Australia for help, and his appeal was largely owned by the Head of the Church. The Children, and especially the Sabbath Scholars of the Presbyterian Churches, became alive with Missionary enthusiasm. Large sums were raised for a Mission Ship. The Congregations were roused to see their duty to God and their fellow-men beyond these Colonies, and a new Missionary Spirit took possession of the whole Church. Their deputy from the Islands agreed to become the Missionary from this Church. Many circumstances indeed combined to show that it was the will of the Master, that this Church should join the other Presbyterian Churches in taking possession of this field of usefulness; and already the results are very important both to the Church and to the Mission. The Missionaries feel much encouraged in receiving substantial support from the largest Presbyterian Church in the Australian Colonies; while the Presbyterian Church in Victoria is largely blessed in her own spirit through the Missionary zeal awakened in her midst. Thus, there is that scattereth and yet increaseth; bringing out anew the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

But, in all this, I am rather anticipating. My tour through Scotland brought me into contact with every Minister, Congregation, and Sabbath School in the Church of my fathers. They were never at any time a rich people, but they were always liberal. At this time they contributed beyond all previous experience, both in money and in boxes of useful articles for the Islanders.

Unfortunately, my visit to the far North, to our Congregations at Wick and Stromness, had been arranged for the month of January; and thereby a sore trial befell me in my pilgrimages. The roads were covered with snow and ice. I reached Aberdeen and Wick by steamer from Edinburgh, and had to find my way thence to Thurso. The inside seats on the Mail Coach being all occupied, I had to take my place outside. The cold was intense, and one of my feet got bitten by the frost. The storm detained me nearly a week at Thurso, but feeling did not return to the foot.

We started, in a lull, by steamer for Stromness; but the storm burst again, all were ordered below, and hatches and doors made fast. The passengers were mostly very rough, the place was foul with whisky and tobacco. I appealed to the Captain to let me crouch somewhere on deck, and hold on as best I could. He shouted,—

“I dare not! You’ll be washed overboard.”

On seeing my appealing look, he relented, directed his men to fasten a tarpaulin over me, and lash it and me to the mast, and there I lay till we reached Stromness. The sea broke heavily and dangerously over the vessel. But the Captain, finding shelter for several hours under the lee of a headland, saved both the ship and the passengers. When at last we landed, my foot was so benumbed and painful that I could move a step only with greatest agony. Two meetings, however, were in some kind of way conducted; but the projected visit to Dingwall and other places had to be renounced, the snow lying too deep for any conveyance to carry me, and my foot crying aloud for treatment and skill.

On returning Southwards, I was confined for about two months, and placed under the best medical advice. All feeling seemed gradually to have departed from my foot; and amputation was seriously proposed both in Edinburgh and in Glasgow. Having somehow managed to reach Liverpool, my dear friend, the Rev. Dr. Graham, took me there to a Doctor who had wrought many wonderful recoveries by galvanism. Time after time he applied the battery, but I felt nothing. He declared that the power used would almost have killed an ordinary man, and that he had never seen any part of the human body so dead to feeling on a live and healthy person. Finally, he covered it all over with a dark plaster, and told me to return in three days. But next day, the throbbing feeling of insufferable coldness in the foot compelled me to return at once. After my persistent appeals, he removed the plaster; and, to his great astonishment, the whole of the frosted part adhered to it! Again dressing the remaining parts, he covered it with plaster as before, and assured me that with care and rest it would now completely recover. By the blessing of the Lord it did, though it was a bitter trial to me amidst all these growing plans to be thus crippled by the way; and to this day I am sometimes warned in over-walking that the part is capable of many a painful twinge. And humbly I feel myself crooning over the graphic words of the Greatest Missionary, “I bear about in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

On that tour, the Sabbath Schools joyfully adopted my scheme, and became “shareholders” in the Mission Ship. It was thereafter ably developed by an elder of the Church. A _Dayspring_ collecting box has found its way into almost every family; and the returns from Scotland have yielded ever since about £250 per annum, as their proportion for the expenses of the Children’s Mission Ship to the New Hebrides. The Church in Nova Scotia heartily accepted the same idea, and their Sabbath School children have regularly contributed their £250 per annum too. The Colonial children have contributed the rest, throughout all these years, with unfailing interest. And whensoever the true and full history of the South Sea Islands Mission is written for the edification of the Universal Church, let it not be forgotten that the children of Australasia, and Nova Scotia, and Scotland did by their united pennies keep the _Dayspring_ floating in the New Hebrides; that the Missionaries and their families were thereby supplied with the necessaries of life, and that the Islanders were thus taught to clothe themselves and to sit at the feet of Jesus. This was the Children’s Holy League, erewhile referred to; and one knows that on such a Union the Divine Master smiles well pleased.

The Lord also crowned this tour with another precious fruit of blessing, though not all by any means due to my influence. Four new Missionaries volunteered from Scotland, and three from Nova Scotia. By their aid we not only reclaimed for Jesus the posts that had been abandoned, but we took possession of other Islands in His most blessed Name. But I did not wait and take them out with me. They had matters to look into and to learn about, that would be infinitely helpful to them in the Mission field. Especially, and far above everything else, in addition to their regular clerical course, some Medical instruction was an almost absolute prerequisite. I myself had attended several Medical Classes at the Andersonian College, when a student in Glasgow, and had had personal training from an experienced physician. This had proved invaluable, not only on the Islands, but in the remote bush during Australian tours, and indeed on many private occasions, when other medical help was unavailable. Every future Missionary was therefore urged to obtain all insight and instruction that was practicable at Medical Missions and otherwise, especially on lines known to be most requisite for these Islands. For this, and similar objects, all that I raised over and above what was required for the _Dayspring_ was entrusted to the Foreign Mission Committee, that the new Missionaries might be fully equipped, and their outfit and travelling expenses be provided for without burdening the Church at home. Her responsibilities were already large enough for her resources. But she could give men, God’s own greatest gift, and His people elsewhere gave the money,—the Colonies and the Home Country thus binding themselves to each other in this Holy Mission of the Cross.

But I did not return alone. The dear Lord had brought to me one prepared, all unknown to either of us, by special culture, by godly training, by many gifts and accomplishments, and even by family associations, to share my lot on the New Hebrides. Her heart was stirred with a yearning to aid and teach those who were sitting in darkness; her brother had been an honoured Missionary in the foreign field, and had fallen asleep while the dew of youth was yet upon him; her sister was the wife of a devoted Minister of our Church in Adelaide, both she and her husband being zealous promoters of our work; and her father had left behind him a fragrant memory through his many Christian works in all the Stirling district, and not unknown to fame as the author of the still popular books of _Anecdotes_, illustrative of the Shorter Catechism and of the Holy Scriptures. Ere I left Scotland in 1864, I was married to Margaret Whitecross, and God spares us to each other still; and the family which He has been pleased in His love to grant unto us we have dedicated to His service, with the prayer and hope that He may use every one of them in spreading the Gospel throughout the Heathen World.

Our marriage was celebrated at her sister’s house in Edinburgh; and I may be pardoned for recalling a little event that characterized the occasion. My youngest brother, then tutor to a gentleman studying at the University, stepped forth at the close of the ceremony and recited an _Epithalamium_ composed for the day. For many a month and year the refrain, a play upon the Bride’s name, kept singing itself through my memory:—

“Long may the Whitecross banner wave By the battle blasts unriven; Long may our Brother and Sister brave Rejoice in the light of Heaven.”

He described the Bride as hearing a “Voice from the far Pacific Seas”; and turning to us both, he sang of an Angel beckoning us to the Tanna-land, to gather a harvest of souls:—

“The warfare is brief, the crown is bright, The pledge is the souls of men; Go, may the Lord defend the Right, And restore you safe again!”

But the verse which my dear wife thought most beautiful for a bridal day, and which her memory cherishes still, was this:—

“May the ruddy Joys, and the Graces fair, Wait fondly around you now; Sweet angel Hopes and young Loves repair To your home and bless your vow!”

My last scene in Scotland was kneeling at the family altar in the old Sanctuary Cottage at Torthorwald, while my venerable father, with his high-priestly locks of snow-white hair streaming over his shoulders, commended us once again to “the care and keeping of the Lord God of the families of Israel.” It was the last time that ever on this Earth those accents of intercession, loaded with a pathos of deathless love, would fall upon my ears. I knew to a certainty that when we rose from our knees and said farewell, our eyes would never meet again till they were flooded with the lights of the Resurrection Day. But he and my darling mother gave us away once again with a free heart, not unpierced with the sword of human anguish, to the service of our common Lord and to the Salvation of the Heathen. And we went forth, praying that a double portion of their spirit, with their precious blessing, might rest upon us in all the way that we had to go.

Our beloved mother, always more self-restrained, and less demonstrative in the presence of others, held back her heart till we were fairly gone from the door; and then, as my dear brother afterwards informed me, she fell back into his arms with a great cry, as if all the heart-strings had broken, and lay for long in a death-like swoon. Oh, all ye that read this page, think most tenderly of the cries of Nature, even where Grace and Faith are in perfect triumph. Read, through scenes like these, a fuller meaning into the words addressed to that blessed Mother, whose Son was given for us all, “Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also.”

Here, in passing, I may mention that my mother, ever beloved, “fell on sleep,” after a short agony of affliction, in 1865; and my “priest-like father” passed peacefully and joyfully into the presence of his Lord in 1868; both cradled and cherished to the last in the arms of their own affectionate children, and both in the assured hope of a blessed immortality, where all their sons and daughters firmly expect to meet them again in the Home prepared by their blessed Saviour.

We embarked at Liverpool for Australia in _The Crest of the Wave_, Captain Ellis; and after what was then considered a fast passage of ninety-five days, we landed at Sydney on 17th January, 1865. Within an hour we had to grapple with a new and amazing perplexity. The Captain of our _Dayspring_ came to inform me that his ship had arrived three days ago and now lay in the stream,—that she had been to the Islands, and had settled the Gordons, McCullaghs, and Goodwills on their several Stations,—that she had left Halifax in Nova Scotia fourteen months ago, and that now, on arriving at Sydney, he could not get one penny of money, and that the crew were clamouring for their pay, etc., etc. He continued, “Where shall I get money for current expenses? No one will lend unless we mortgage the _Dayspring_. I fear there is nothing before us but to sell her!” I gave him £50 of my own to meet clamant demands, and besought him to secure me a day or two of delay that something might be done.

Having landed, and been heartily welcomed by dear Dr. and Mrs. Moon and other friends, I went with a kind of trembling joy to have my first look at the _Dayspring_, like a sailor getting a first peep at the child born to him whilst far away on the sea. Some of the irritated ship’s company stopped us by the way, and threatened prosecution and all sorts of annoyance. I could only urge again for a few days’ patience. I found her to be a beautiful two-masted Brig, with a deck-house (added when she first arrived at Melbourne), and every way suitable for our necessities,—a thing of beauty, a white-winged Angel set a-floating by the pennies of the children to bear the Gospel to these sin-darkened but sun-lit Southern Isles. To me she became a sort of living thing, the impersonation of a living and throbbing love in the heart of thousands of “shareholders”; and I said, with a deep, indestructible faith,—“The Lord _has_ provided—the Lord _will_ provide.”

For present liabilities at least £700 were instantly required; and, at any rate, as large a sum to pay her way and meet expenses of next trip to the Islands. Having laid our perplexing circumstances before our dear Lord Jesus, having “spread out” all the details in His sympathetic presence, pleading that the Ship itself and the new Missionaries were all His own, not mine, I told Him that this money was needed to do His own blessed work.

On Friday morning, I consulted friends of the Mission, but no help was visible. I tried to borrow, but found that the lender demanded twenty per cent. for interest, besides the title deeds of the ship for security. I applied for a loan from the agent of the London Missionary Society (then agent for us too) on the credit of the Reformed Presbyterian Church’s Foreign Committee, but he could not give it without a written order from Scotland. There were some who seemed rather to enjoy our perplexity!

Driven thus to the wall, I advertised for a meeting of Ministers and other friends, next morning at 11 o’clock, to receive my report and to consult _re_ the _Dayspring_. I related my journeyings since leaving them, and the results, and then asked for advice about the ship.

“Sell her,” said some, “and have done with it.”

“What,” said others, “have the Sabbath Schools given you the _Dayspring_, and can you not support her yourselves?”

I pointed out to them that the salary of each Missionary was only £120 per annum, that they gave their lives for the Heathen, and that surely the Colonial Christians would undertake the up-keep of the Ship, which was necessary to the very existence of the Mission. I appealed to them that, as my own Church in Scotland had now one Missionary abroad for every six Ministers at home, and the small Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia had actually three Missionaries now on our Islands, it would be a blessed privilege for the Australian Churches and Sabbath Schools to keep the _Dayspring_ afloat, without whose services the Missionaries could not live nor the Islanders be evangelized.

Being Saturday, the morning Services for Sabbath were all arranged for, or advertised; but Dr. McGibbon offered me a meeting for the evening, and Dr. Steel an afternoon Service at three o’clock, combined with his Sabbath School. Rev. Mr. Patterson, of Piermont, offered me a morning Service; but, as his was only a Mission Church, he could not give me a collection. These openings I accepted, as from the Lord, however much they fell short of what I desired.

At the morning Service I informed the Congregation how we were situated, and expressed the hope that under God and their devoted pastor they would greatly prosper, and would yet be able to help in supporting our Mission to their South Sea neighbours. Returning to the vestry, a lady and gentleman waited to be introduced to me. They were from Launceston, Tasmania.

“I am,” said he, “Captain and owner of that vessel lying at anchor opposite the _Dayspring_. My wife and I, being too late to get on shore to attend any Church in the city, heard this little Chapel bell ringing, and followed, when we saw you going up the stairs. We have so enjoyed the Service. We do heartily sympathize with you. This cheque for £50 will be a beginning to help you out of your difficulties.”

The reader knows how warmly I would thank them; and how in my own heart I knew _Who_ it was that made them arrive too late for _their_ plans, but not for _His_, and guided them up that Chapel stair, and opened their hearts. Jehovah-Jireh!

At three o’clock, Dr. Steel’s Church was filled with children and others. I told them in my appeal what had happened in the Mission Chapel, and how God had led Captain Frith and his wife, entire strangers, to sound the first note of our deliverance. One man stood up and said, “I will give £10.” Another, “I will give £5.” A third, “I shall send you £20 to-morrow morning.” Several others followed their example, and the general collection was greatly encouraging.

In the evening, I had a very large as well as sympathetic Congregation. I fully explained the difficulty about the _Dayspring_, and told them what God had already done for us, announcing an address to which contributions might be sent. Almost every Mail brought me the free-will offerings of God’s people; and on Wednesday, when the adjourned meeting was held, the sum had reached in all £456. Believing that the Lord thus intervened at a vital crisis in our Mission, I dwell on it to the praise of His blessed Name. Trust in Him, obey Him, and He will not suffer you to be put to shame.

At a public meeting, held immediately thereafter, an attempt was made to organize the _first_ Australian Mission Auxiliary to the New Hebrides; but it needed an enthusiastic secretary, and for lack thereof came to nothing at that time. At another meeting, the first elements of a brooding strife appeared. The then Agent of the noble and generous London Missionary Society intimated that he had just issued Collecting Cards for the _John Williams_, and that it would be unbrotherly to urge collections for the _Dayspring_ at the same time throughout New South Wales. He suggested that I should first visit Tasmania and South Australia, and that, on our return, they would help us as we would now help them. The most cordial feelings had always prevailed betwixt the Societies, and we accepted the proposal, though our circumstances were peculiarly trying, and I personally believed that no harm, but good, would come from both of us doing everything possible to fan the Missionary spirit.

Clearing out from her sister ships, then in harbour, the _John Williams_ and the _John Wesley_, our little _Dayspring_ sailed for Tasmania. At Hobart we were visited by thousands of children and parents, and afterwards at Launceston, who were proud to see their own ship, in which they were “shareholders” for Jesus. Daily, all over the Colony, I preached in Churches and addressed public meetings, and got collections, and gave out Collecting Cards to be returned within two weeks. But here also the little rift began to show itself. At a public meeting in Hobart, the Congregational Minister said,—

“We support the _John Williams_ for the London Missionary Society. Let the Presbyterians do as much for the _Dayspring_!”

I replied, that I was there by special invitation from those who had called the meeting, and that, rather than have any unseemly wrangling, my friend, Dr. Nicolson, and I would quietly retire. But the Chairman intervened, and insisted that the meeting should go forward in a Christian spirit, and without any word of recrimination. To find ourselves, even by a misunderstanding, regarded as inimical to the London Missionary Society, one of the most Catholic-spirited and Christlike Societies in the world, was peculiarly painful. Still the little rift seemed to widen at every turn, and we found ourselves thrown more and more exclusively on Presbyterians alone. But thus also the hearts of _two_ great Communions were concentrated on Heathendom, where one only or chiefly had been bearing the burden heretofore. And the Lord hath need of all.

We received many tokens of interest and sympathy. The steam tug was granted to us free, and the harbour dues were remitted. Many presents were also sent on board the _Dayspring_. Still, after meeting all necessary outlays, the trip to Tasmania gave us only £227 8_s._ 11_d._ clear for the Mission fund.

Sailing now for South Australia, we arrived at Adelaide. Many friends there showed the deepest interest in our plans. Thousands of children and parents came to visit their own Mission Ship by several special trips. Daily and nightly I addressed meetings, and God’s people were moved greatly in the cause. After meeting all expenses while in port, there remained a sum of £634 9_s._ 2_d._ for the up-keep of the vessel. The Honourable George Fife Angus gave me £241—a dear friend belonging to the Baptist Church. But there was still a deficit of £400 before the _Dayspring_ could sail free of debt, and my heart was sore as I cried for it to the Lord.

Leaving the ship to sail direct for Sydney, I took steamer to Melbourne; but, on arriving there, sickness and anxiety laid me aside for three days. Under great weakness, I crept along to my dear friends at the Scotch College, Dr. and Mrs. Morrison, and Miss Fraser, and threw myself on their advice.

“Come along,” said the Doctor cheerily, “and I’ll introduce you to Mr. Butchart and one or two friends in East Melbourne, and we’ll see what can be done!”

I gave all information, being led on in conversation by the Doctor, and tried to interest them in our work, but no subscriptions were asked or received. Ere I sailed for Sydney, however, the whole deficiency was sent to me. I received in all, on this tour, the sum of £1,726 9_s._ 10_d._ Our _Dayspring_ once more sailed free, and our hearts overflowed with gratitude to the Lord and to His stewards!

On my return to Sydney, and before sailing to the Islands, I called, by advertisement, a public meeting of Ministers and other friends to report success, and to take counsel for the future.

My report was received with hearty thanksgiving to Almighty God. And a resolution was unanimously adopted, in view of all that had transpired, urging that a scheme must be organized, whereby the Presbyterian Churches and Sabbath Schools of Australia should be banded together for the support of the _Dayspring_, and so prevent the necessity of such spasmodic efforts for all future time.

From that day, practically, the _Dayspring_ was supported by the Presbyterians alone. At the first, all helped in the original purchase of the Mission Ship, and she was to do all needful work on the Loyalty Islands for the London Society’s Missionaries, as well as on the New Hebrides for us. This was the agreement; and, despite little misunderstandings with the Agents, the _Dayspring_ was for some years placed heartily at their service. When the _John Williams_ was wrecked, our ship, at great loss and expense, accompanied her to Sydney, and spent four months of the following year for them entirely amongst the Eastern Islands. The brethren on the Loyalty Islands sent up their Mr. Macfarland to the Colonies to secure that the promised support should be given by their friends to the _Dayspring_; but, this failing, they in 1870 declined finally to have her doing their work, when no longer paid for by their Churches. This little rift, however, amongst the contributing Churches never affected us in the Mission field; they and we have ever wrought together there in most perfect cordiality of brotherhood.

Perhaps the true way to look upon the whole series of events is this: the Australian Presbyterian Churches had been led to hear from God a special call, and must necessarily organize themselves to answer it. In this blessed work of converting the Heathen, we can all loyally rejoice, whether the instruments in the Lord’s hand be Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Congregational! I glory in the success of every Protestant Mission, and daily pray for them all. It was God’s own wise providence, and not my zeal, wise or intrusive, that matured these arrangements, and gave the Australian Presbyterian Churches a Mission Ship of their own, and a Mission field at their doors. The Ministers and the Sabbath Schools felt constrained as by one impulse to undertake this gracious work. The Presbyterian Churches in all these Colonies received this duty as from God; and the organizing of Missionary Societies in Congregations and Sabbath Schools, for the effective accomplishment of the same, has been a principal means in the hands of the Lord of promoting and uplifting the cause of Christ throughout Australasia. It is worth while to re-travel that old road once again, were it for no other purpose than to show how, despite apparent checks and reverses, the mighty tide of Divine Love moves resistlessly onward, covers up temporary obstructions, and claims everything for Jesus.