CHAPTER X.
_LAST VISIT TO BRITAIN._
“Wanted a Steam Auxiliary.”—Commissioned Home to Britain.—English Presbyterian Synod.—United Presbyterian Synod.—The “Veto” from the Sydney Board.—Dr. J. Hood Wilson.—The Free Church Assembly.—Neutrality of Foreign Mission Committee.—The Church of Scotland.—At Holyrood and Alva House.—The Irish Presbyterian Assembly.—The Pan-Presbyterian Council.—My “Plan of Campaign.”— Old Ireland’s Response.—Operations in Scotland.—Seventy Letters in a Day.—Beautiful Type of Merchant.—My First 100 at Dundee.—Peculiar Gifts and Offerings.—Approach to London.—Mildmay’s Open Door.—Largest Single Donation.—Personal Memories of London.—Garden-Party at Mr. Spurgeon’s.—The Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer.—Three New Missionaries.—“Restitution-Money.”—The Farewell at Mildmay.—Welcome to Victoria.—The Dream of my Life.—The New Mission Ship Delayed.—Welcome back to Aniwa.—Parting Testimony.—Fare-thee-well.
In December 1883, I brought a pressing and vital matter before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. It pertained to the New Hebrides Mission, to the vastly increased requirements of the Missionaries and their families there, and to the fact that the _Dayspring_ was no longer capable of meeting the necessities of the case,—thereby incurring loss of time, loss of property, and risk and even loss of precious lives. The Missionaries on the spot had long felt this, and had loudly and earnestly pled for a new and larger Vessel, or a Vessel with Steam Auxiliary power, or some arrangement whereby the work of God on these Islands might be overtaken, without unnecessary exposure of life, and without the dreaded perils that accrue to a small sailing Vessel such as the _Dayspring_, alike from deadly calms and from treacherous gales.
The Victorian General Assembly, heartily at one with the Missionaries, commissioned me to go home to Britain in 1884, making me at the same time their Missionary delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Council at Belfast, and also their representative to the General Assemblies of the several Presbyterian Churches in Great Britain and Ireland. And they empowered and authorized me to lay our proposals about a new Steam-Auxiliary Mission Ship before all these Churches, and to ask and receive from God’s people whatever contributions they felt disposed to give towards the sum of £6,000, without which this great undertaking could not be faced.
At Suez, I forwarded a copy of my commissions from Victoria, from South Australia, and from the Islands Synod, to the Clerks of the various Church Courts, accompanied by a note specifying my home-address, and expressing the hope that an opportunity would be given me of pleading this special cause on behalf of our New Hebrides Mission. On reaching my brother’s residence in Glasgow, I found to my deep amazement that replies awaited me from all the Churches, except our own,—_i.e._, the Free Church, which I call our own, as having taken over our South Seas Mission when it entered into Union with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, to which I originally belonged, though now I was supported by the Church of Victoria. This fact pained me. It is noted here. An explanation will come in due course.
A few days after my arrival, I was called upon to appear before the Supreme Court of the English Presbyterian Church, then assembled at Liverpool. While a hymn was being sung, I took my seat in the pulpit under great depression. But light broke around, when my dear friend and fellow-student, Dr. Oswald Dykes, came up from the body of the Church, shook me warmly by the hand, whispered a few encouraging words in my ear, and returned to his seat. God helped me to tell my story, and the audience were manifestly interested. Again, however, another indication of a rift somewhere, unknown to me, was consciously or otherwise given, when both the Moderator and Professor Graham, in addressing the Deputies and referring to their Churches and speeches individually, conspicuously omitted all reference to the New Hebrides and the special proposal which I had brought before them. Again I made a note, and my wonder deepened.
Next, by kind invitation I visited and addressed the United Presbyterian Synod of Scotland, assembled in Edinburgh. My reception there was not only cordial,—it was enthusiastic. Though as a Church they had no denominational interest in our Mission, the Moderator, amidst the cheers of all the Ministers and Elders, recommended that I should have free access to every Congregation and Sabbath School which I found it possible to visit, and hoped that their generous-hearted people would contribute freely to so needful and noble a cause. My soul rose in praise; and I may here say, in passing, that every Minister of that Church whom I wrote to or visited treated me in the same spirit through all my tour.
Having been invited by Mr. Dickson, an Elder of the Free Church, to address a mid-day meeting of children in the Free Assembly Hall,—and the Saturday before the Meeting of Assembly having now arrived without bringing any reply to my note to be received and heard, I determined to call at the Free Church Offices, and make inquiries at least. They treated me with all possible kindness and sympathy, but explained to me the strange perplexity that had been introduced into my case. A letter had been forwarded to them from the _Dayspring_ Board at Sydney, intimating that the Victorian Church had no right to commission me to raise a new Steam-Auxiliary Ship without consulting them, and that they placed their direct veto upon the Free Church Authorities in any way sanctioning that proposal or authorizing me to raise the money. Here, then, was the rift; and many things that had recently perplexed me were explained thereby.
Here is not the place to discuss our differences, nor shall I take advantage of my book to criticize those who have no similar opportunity of answering me. But the facts I must relate, and exactly as they occurred, to show how the Lord over-ruled everything for the accomplishment of His own blessed purposes. Doubtless the friends at Sydney had their own way of looking at and explaining everything; and the best of friends must sometimes differ, even in the Mission field, and yet learn to respect each other and work so far as they can agree towards common ends in the service of the Divine Lord and Master.
My commission was publicly intimated. Communication had also been made to the Church of New South Wales as to appointing me their second representative to the Pan-Presbyterian Council, in connection with my mission to Britain, but they replied that one would serve their purpose. And South Australia and Tasmania were both written to regarding the object of my visit to the home countries. But no note of dissent, no hint of disapproval from any quarter, was intimated to the Victorian Church, or in any sense, directly or indirectly, reached me till I heard of that so-called _veto_ in the Free Church Offices at Edinburgh.
This intimation, just as I was entering the Assembly Hall to address a great congregation of children and their friends, staggered me beyond all description. The Free Church alone, in Scotland, now supported our New Hebrides Mission. From it I expected the principal contributions for the sorely-needed new Mission Ship. And now, by the action of the _Dayspring_ Board at Sydney, the Free Church was debarred from acknowledging my three-fold commission or in any direct way sanctioning my appeals. No sorer wound had ever been inflicted on me; and when I sat down on the platform beside Mr. Dickson, my head swam for several minutes, and faintishness almost overpowered me. But, by the time my name was called, the Lord my Helper enabled me to pull myself together; I committed this cause also with unfailing assurance to Him; and by all appearances I was able greatly to interest and impress the Children. At the close, my dear and noble friend, Professor Cairns, warmly welcomed and cheered me, and that counted for much amid the depressions of the day. But when all were gone and we two were left, Mr. Dickson under deep emotion said,—
“Mr. Paton, that veto has spoiled your mission home. The Free Church cannot take you by the hand in face of the _veto_ from Sydney!”
Having letters from Andrew Scott, Esquire, Carrugal, my very dear friend and helper in Australia, to Dr. J. Hood Wilson, Barclay Free Church, Edinburgh, I resolved to deliver them that evening; and I prayed the Lord to open up all my path, as I was thus thrown solely on Him for guidance and bereft of the aid of man. Dr. Wilson and his lady, neither of whom I had ever seen before, received me as kindly as if I had been an old friend. He read my letters of introduction, conversed with me as to plans and wishes (chiefly through Mrs. Wilson, for he was suffering from sore throat), and then he said with great warmth and kindliness,—
“God has surely sent you here to-night! I feel myself unable to preach to-morrow. Occupy my pulpit in the forenoon and address my Sabbath School, and you shall have a collection for your Ship.”
Thereafter, I was with equal kindness received by Mr. Balfour, having a letter of introduction from his brother, and he offered me his pulpit for the evening of the day. I lay down blessing and praising Him, the Angel of whose Presence was thus going before me and opening up my way. That Lord’s Day I had great blessing and joy; there was an extraordinary response financially to my appeals; and my proposal was thus fairly launched in the Metropolis of our Scottish Church life. I remembered an old saying, Difficulties are made just to be vanquished. And I thought in my deeper soul,—Thus our God throws us back upon Himself; and if these £6,000 ever come to me, to the Lord God alone, and not to man, shall be all the glory!
On the Monday following, after a long conversation and every possible explanation, Colonel Young, of the Free Church Foreign Missions Committee, said,—
“We must have you to address the Assembly on the evening devoted to Missions.”
But the rest insisted that, to keep straight with the Board at Sydney, no formal approval should be given of my proposals. This I agreed to, on condition that the Committee did not publish the Sydney veto, but allowed it simply to lie on their table or in their minutes. Thus I had the pleasure and honour of addressing that great Assembly; and though no notice was taken of my proposals in any “finding” of the Court, yet many were thereby interested deeply in our work, and requests now poured in upon me from every quarter to occupy pulpits and receive collections for the new Ship.
Still I had occasional trouble and misunderstanding through that veto during all my tour in Britain and Ireland. It prevented me particularly from getting access to the Free Church Foreign Missions Committee, or addressing them on one single occasion, though I pled hard to be allowed to do so and to explain my position. This I felt all the more keenly, as I laboured freely and for weeks, along with their noble Missionaries then at home on furlough, in addressing meetings in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Greenock, etc., chiefly for Sabbath Scholars, but from which I received no help directly in the matter of the Mission Ship. Doubtless they were trying to do their duty, and refusing to take either side; and that they thought they had succeeded appears from the following fact. When rumour reached Australia that my Mission home had been under God a great success, a letter came to them from their Committee’s agent in Sydney as to the “application” of the sum that had been raised by me, to which they replied,—
“The Foreign Missions’ Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, in accordance with the action of the _Dayspring_ Committee at Sydney, have from the first abstained from assisting Mr. Paton in this movement, believing that the question is one entirely for the Australian Churches.”
At the meeting in the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, which, along with others, I was cordially invited to address, the good and noble Lord Polwarth occupied the chair. That was the beginning of a friendship in Christ which will last and deepen as long as we live. From that night he took the warmest personal interest, not only by generously contributing to my fund, but by organizing meetings at his own Mansion House, and introducing me to a wide circle of influential friends. Every member of his family took “shares” in the new Steam-Auxiliary Mission Ship, and by Collecting Cards and otherwise most liberally aided me; and that not at the start only, but to the day of my departure,—one of the last things put into my hand on leaving Britain being a most handsome donation from Lord and Lady Polwarth to our Mission Fund,—“a thankoffering to the Lord Jesus for precious health restored in answer to the prayer of faith.”
Nor, whilst the pen leads on my mind to recall these Border memories, must I fail to record how John Scott Dudgeon, Esq., Longnewton, a greatly esteemed Elder of the Church, went from town to town in all that region, and from Minister to Minister arranging for me a series of happy meetings. I shared also the hospitality of his beautiful Home, and added himself and his much-beloved wife to the precious roll of those who are dear for the Gospel’s sake and for their own.
Her Majesty’s Commissioner to the General Assembly for the year was that distinguished Christian as well as nobleman, the Earl of Aberdeen. He graciously invited me to meet the Countess and himself at ancient Holyrood. After dinner he withdrew himself for a lengthened time from the general company and entered into a close and interested conversation about our Mission, and especially about the threatened annexation of the New Hebrides by the French.
There also I had the memorable pleasure of meeting, and for a long while conversing with, that truly noble and large-hearted lady, his mother, the much-beloved Dowager Countess, well known for her life-long devotion to so many schemes of Christian philanthropy. At her own home, Alva House, she afterwards arranged meetings for me, as well as in Halls and Churches in the immediately surrounding district; and not only contributed most generously of her own means, but interested many besides and incited them to vie with each other in helping on our cause. I was her guest during those days, and never either in high or in humble station felt the ties of true fellowship in Christ more closely drawn. Despite frost and snow, she accompanied me to almost every meeting; and her letters of interest in the work, of sympathy, and of helpfulness, from time to time received, were amongst the sustaining forces of my spiritual life. When one sees noble rank thus consecrating itself in humble and faithful service to Jesus, there dawns upon the mind a glimpse of what the prophet means, and of what the world will be like, when it can be said regarding the Church of God on Earth,—“Kings _have become_ thy nursing fathers, and their Queens thy nursing mothers.”
My steps were next directed towards Ireland, immediately after the Church meetings at Edinburgh; first to ’Derry, where the Presbyterian Assembly was met in annual conclave, and thereafter to Belfast, where the Pan-Presbyterian Council was shortly to sit. The eloquent fervour of the Brethren at ’Derry was like a refreshing breeze to my spirit; I never met Ministers anywhere, in all my travels, who seemed more whole-hearted in their devotion to the work which the Lord had given them to do.
But the excitement over the Organ and Hymn question was too intense for me; the debate threatened to degenerate into a wrangle, and the marvellous way in which a stick or an umbrella was flourished occasionally by an impulsive speaker, to give action to his eloquence, was not a little suggestive of blows and broken heads. All ended quietly, however, and the decision, though not final, gave hope of an early settlement, which will secure alike the liberty and the peace of the Church. A trip to the South Seas, and a revelation of how God used the Harmonium and the Hymn, as wings on which the Gospel was borne into the homes and hearts of Cannibals, would have opened the eyes of many dear fathers and brethren, as it had opened mine! No one was once more opposed, especially to instrumental music in the worship of God, than I had been; but the Lord who made us, and who knows the nature He has given us, had long ago taught me otherwise.
I addressed the Assembly at ’Derry and also the Council at Belfast. The memory of seeing all those great and learned and famous men—for many of the leaders were literally such—so deeply interested in the work of God, and particularly in the Evangelizing of the Heathen World and bringing thereto the knowledge of Jesus, was to me, so long exiled from all such influences, one of the great inspirations of my life. I listened with humble thankfulness, and blessed the Lord who had brought me to sit at their feet.
On the rising of the Council, I entered upon a tour of six weeks among the Presbyterian Congregations and Sabbath Schools of Ireland. It had often been said to me, after my addresses in the Assemblies and elsewhere,—
“How do you ever expect to raise £6,000? It can never be accomplished, unless you call upon the rich individually, and get their larger subscriptions. Our ordinary Church people have more than enough to do with themselves. Trade is dull,” etc.
I explained to them, and also announced publicly, that in all similar efforts I had never called on or solicited any one privately, and that I would not do so now. I would make my appeal, but leave everything else to be settled betwixt the individual conscience and the Saviour,—I gladly receiving whatsoever was given or sent, acknowledging it by letter, and duly forwarding it to my own Church in Victoria. Again and again did generous souls offer to go with me, introduce me, and give me opportunity of soliciting subscriptions; but I steadily refused,—going, indeed, wherever an occasion was afforded me of telling my story and setting forth the claims of the Mission, but asking no one personally for anything, having fixed my soul in the conviction that one part of the work was laid upon me, but that the other lay betwixt the Master and His servants exclusively.
“On what then do you really rely, looking at it from a business point of view?”—they would somewhat appealingly ask me.
I answered,—“I will tell my story; I will set forth the claims of the Lord Jesus on the people; I will expect the surplus collection, or a retiring collection, on Sabbaths; I will ask the whole collection, less expenses, at week night meetings; I will issue Collecting Cards for Sabbath Scholars; I will make known my Home-Address, to which everything may be forwarded, either from Congregations or from private donors; and I will go on, to my utmost strength, in the faith that the Lord will send me the £6,000 required. If He does not so send it, then I shall expect that He will send me grace to be reconciled to the disappointment, and I shall go back to my work without the Ship.”
This, in substance, I had to repeat hundreds of times; and as often had I to witness the half-pitying or incredulous smile with which it was received, or to hear the blunt and emphatic retort,—
“You’ll never succeed! Money cannot be got in that unbusiness-like way.”
I generally added nothing further to such conversations; but a Voice, deep, sweet, and clear, kept sounding through my soul,—“The silver and the gold are Mine.”
During the year 1884, as is well known, Ireland was the scene of many commotions and of great distress. Yet at the end of my little tour, amongst the Presbyterian people of the North principally, though not exclusively, a sum of more than £600 had been contributed to our Mission Fund. And there was not, so far as my knowledge went, one single large subscription; there were, of course, many bits of gold from those well-to-do, but the ordinary collection was made up of the shillings and pence of the masses of the people. Nor had I ever in all my travels a warmer response, nor ever mingled with any Ministers more earnestly devoted to their Congregations or more generally and deservedly beloved.
No man, however dissevered from the party politics of the day, can see and live amongst the Irish of the North, without having forced on his soul the conviction that the Protestant faith and life, with its grit and backbone and self-dependence, has made them what they are. Romanism, on the other hand, with its blind faith and its peculiar type of life, has been at least _one_, if not the main, degrading influence amongst the Irish of the South and West, who are naturally a warm-hearted and generous and gifted people. And let Christian Churches, and our Statesmen who love Christ, remember—that no mere outward changes of Government or Order, however good and defensible in themselves, can ever heal the miseries of the people, without a change of Religion. Ireland needs the pure and true Gospel, proclaimed, taught, and received, in the South as it now is in the North; and no other gift, that Britain ever can bestow, will make up for the lack of Christ’s Evangel. Jesus holds the Key to all problems, in this as in every land.
Returning to Scotland, I settled down at my headquarters, the house of my brother James in Glasgow; and thence began to open up the main line of my operations, as the Lord day by day guided me. Having the aid of no Committee, I cast myself on Minister after Minister and Church after Church, calling here, writing there, and arranging for three meetings every Sabbath, and one, if possible, every week-day, and drawing-room meetings wherever practicable in the afternoons. My correspondence grew to oppressive proportions, and kept me toiling at it every spare moment from early morn till bedtime. Indeed, I never could have overtaken it, had not my brother devoted many days and hours of precious time, answering letters regarding arrangements, issuing the “Share” receipts for all moneys the moment they arrived, managing all my transactions through the bank, and generally tackling and reducing the heap of communications and preventing me falling into hopeless arrears.
I represented a Church in which all Presbyterians are happily united; and so, wherever possible, I occupied on the same Sabbath day, an Established Church pulpit in the morning, a Free Church in the afternoon, and a United Presbyterian Church in the evening, or in any order in which the thing could be arranged to suit the exigences of every town or village that was visited. In all my addresses, for I nowhere attempted ordinary sermonizing, I strove to combine the Evangelist with the Missionary, applying every incident in my story to the conscience of the hearer, and seeking to win the sinner to Christ, and the believer to a more consecrated life. For I knew that if I succeeded in these higher aims, their money would be freely laid upon the altar too.
I printed, and circulated by post and otherwise, ten thousand copies of a booklet, “Statement and Appeal,”—containing, besides my Victorian Commission and my Glasgow address, a condensed epitome of the results of the New Hebrides Mission and of the reasons for asking a new Steam Auxiliary Ship. To this chiefly is due the fact (as well as to my refusing to call for subscriptions), that the far greater portion of all the money came to me by letter. On one day, though no doubt a little exceptional, as many as seventy communications reached me by post; and every one of these contained something for our fund,—ranging from “a few stamps” and “the widow’s mite,” through every variety of figure up to the wealthy man’s fifty or hundred pounds. I was particularly struck with the number of times that I received £1, with such a note as, “From a servant-girl that loves the Lord Jesus”; or “From a servant-girl that prays for the conversion of the Heathen.” Again and again I received sums of five and ten shillings, with notes such as,—“From a working-man who loves his Bible”; or “From a working-man who prays for God’s blessing on you and work like yours, every day in Family Worship.” I sometimes regret that the graphic, varied, and intensely interesting notes and letters were not preserved; for by the close of my tour they would have formed a wonderful volume of leaves from the human heart.
I also addressed every Religious Convention to which I was invited, or to which I could secure access. The Perth Conference was made memorable to me by my receiving the first large subscription for our Ship, and by my making the acquaintance of a beautiful type of Christian merchant. At the close of the meeting, at which I had the privilege of speaking, an American gentleman introduced himself to me. We talked and entered into each other’s confidence, as brothers in the Lord’s service. He had made a competency for himself and his family, though only in the prime of life; and he still carried on a large and flourishing business—but why? to devote _the whole profits_, year after year, to the direct service of God and His cause among men! He gave me a cheque for the largest single contribution with which the Lord had yet cheered me. God, who knows me, sees that I have never coveted money for myself or my family; but I did envy that Christian merchant the joy that he had in having money, and having the heart to use it as a steward of the Lord Jesus! Oh, when will men of wealth learn this blessed secret, and, instead of hoarding up gold till death forces it from their clutches, put it out to usury now in the service of their Master, and see the fruits and share the joy thereof, before they go hence to give in their account to God? One of the most appalling features in the modern Christian World, considering the needs of men and the claims of Jesus, is this same practice of either spending all for self, or hoarding all for self, alone or chiefly. Christians who do so seem to stand in need of a great deal of converting still!
Thereafter I was invited to the annual Christian Conference at Dundee. A most peculiar experience befell me there. Being asked to close the forenoon meeting with prayer and the benediction, I offered prayer, and then began—“May the love of God the Father——” but not another word would come in English; everything was blank except the words in Aniwan, for I had long begun to _think_ in the Native tongue, and after a dead pause, and a painful silence, I had to wind up with a simple “Amen!” I sat down wet with perspiration. It might have been wiser, as the Chairman afterwards suggested, to have given them the blessing in Aniwan, but I feared to set them a-laughing by so strange a manifestation of the “tongues.” Worst of all, it had been announced that I was to address them in the afternoon; but who would come to hear a Missionary that stuck in the benediction? The event had its semi-comical aspect, but it sent me to my knees during the interval in a very fever of prayerful anxiety. A vast audience assembled, and if the Lord ever manifestly used me in interesting His people in Missions, it was certainly then and there. As I sat down, a devoted Free Church Elder from Glasgow handed me his card, with “I.O.U. £100.” This was my first donation of a hundred pounds, and my heart was greatly cheered. I praised the Lord, and warmly thanked His servant. A Something kept sounding these words in my ears, “My thoughts are not as your thoughts;” and also, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee.”
During my address at that meeting three coloured girls, not unlike our Island girls, sat near the platform, and eagerly listened to me. At the close, the youngest, apparently about twelve years of age, rose, salaamed to me in Indian fashion, took four silver bangles from her arm, and presented them to me, saying,—
“Padre, I want to take shares in your Mission Ship by these bangles, for I have no money, and may the Lord ever bless you!”
I replied,—“Thank you, my dear child; I will not take your bangles, but Jesus will accept your offering, and bless and reward you all the same.”
As she still held them up to me, saying, “Padre, do receive them from me, and may God ever bless you!” a lady, who had been seated beside her, came up to me, and said,—
“Please, do take them, or the dear girl will break her heart. She has offered them up to Jesus for your Mission Ship.”
I afterwards learned that the girls were orphans, whose parents died in the famine; that the lady and her sister, daughters of a Missionary, had adopted them to be trained as Zenana Missionaries, and that they intended to return with them, and live and die to aid them in that blessed work amongst the daughters of India. Oh, what a reward and joy might many a lady who reads this page easily reap for herself in Time and Eternity by a similar simple yet far-reaching service! Take action when and where God points the way; wait for no one’s guidance.
The most amazing variety characterized the gifts and the givers. In Glasgow a lady sent me an anonymous note to this effect:—
“I have been curtailing my expenses. The first £5 saved I enclose, that you may invest it for me in the Bank of Jesus. I am sure He gives the best interest, and the most certain returns.”
From Edinburgh a lawyer wrote, saying,—“I herewith send you £5. Take out for me two hundred shares in the Mission Ship. I never made any investment with more genuine satisfaction in all my life.”
A gentleman, whose children had zealously collected a considerable sum for me by the Cards, at length sent me his own subscription, saying,—“I enclose you £25, because you have so interested my children in Missions to the Heathen.” The same friend, after hearing me plead the cause in Free St. George’s, Edinburgh, sent me a most encouraging letter, and another contribution of £100.
In Glasgow a lady called at my brother’s house, saying,—“Is the Missionary at home? Can I see him alone? If not, I will call again.” Being asked into my room, she declined to be seated, but said,—“I heard you tell the story of your Mission in the City Hall, and I have been praying for you ever since. I have called to give you my mite, but not my name. God bless you. We shall meet in Heaven!” She handed me an envelope, and was off almost before I could thank her. It was £49 in bank notes.
Another dear Christian lady came to see me, and at the close of a delightful conversation, said: “I have been thinking much about you since I heard you in the Clark Hall, Paisley. I have come to give a little bit of dirty paper for your Ship. God sent it to me, and I return it to God through you with great pleasure.” I thanked her warmly, thinking it a pound, or five at the most; on opening it, after she was gone, it turned out to be £100. I felt bowed down in humble thankfulness, and pressed forward in the service of the Lord.
Another lady, who sent for me to call, said to me:—“I have heard of the sufferings and losses of the Missionaries on your Islands through the smallness of the Sailing Vessel. I am glad to have the opportunity of giving you £50 to assist in getting a Steam Auxiliary.”
Many articles of jewellery, silver and gold ornaments, rings and chains, were also sent to me, or dropped into the Collecting plate. With the assistance of Christian gentlemen, and by the kindness of a merchant at once interested in our work and in the gold and silver trade, these were turned into cash on the most advantageous possible terms, and added to the Mission Fund.
Having an introduction to a London lady, then living in Edinburgh, I called and was most kindly received because of our dear mutual friend Mrs. Cameron, of St. Kilda. After delightful Christian conversation, she retired for a minute, and returned, saying,—“I have kept this for twelve months, asking the Lord to direct me as to its disposal. God claims it now for the Mission Ship, and I have great joy in handing it to you.” It was another £100. I had been praying all that afternoon for some token of encouragement, especially as I went to that lady’s house, and God’s extraordinary answer, even while the prayer was still being uttered, struck me so forcibly that I could not speak. I received her gift in tears, and my soul looked up to the Giver of all.
The time now arrived for my attempting something amongst the Presbyterians of England. But my heart sank within me; I was a stranger to all except Dr. Dykes, and the New Hebrides Mission had no special claims on them. Casting myself upon the Lord, I wrote to all the Presbyterian Ministers in and around London, enclosing my “Statement and Appeal,” and asking a Service, with a retiring collection, or the surplus above the usual collection on behalf of our Mission Ship. All declined, except two. I learned that the London Presbytery had resolved that no claim beyond their own Church was to be admitted into any of its pulpits for a period of months, under some special financial emergency. My dear friend, Dr. J. Hood Wilson, kindly wrote also to a number of them on my behalf, but with nearly similar result; though at last other two Services were arranged for with a collection, and one without. Being required at London, in any case, in connection with the threatened Annexation of the New Hebrides by the French, I resolved to take these five Services by the way, and immediately return to Scotland, where engagements and opportunities were now pressed upon me, far more than I could overtake. But the Lord Himself opened before me a larger door, and more effectual, than any that I had tried in vain to open up for myself.
The Churches to which I had access did nobly indeed, and the Ministers treated me as a very brother. Dr. Dykes most affectionately supported my Appeal, and made himself recipient of donations that might be sent for our Mission Ship. Dr. Donald Fraser, and Messrs. Taylor and Mathieson, with their Congregations, generously contributed to the fund. And so did the Mission Church in Drury Lane—the excellent and consecrated Rev. W. B. Alexander, the pastor thereof, and his wife, becoming my devoted personal friends, and continuing to remember in their work-parties every year since the needs of the Natives on the New Hebrides. Others also, whom I cannot wait to specify, showed a warm interest in us and in our department of the Lord’s work. But my heart had been foolishly set upon adding a large sum to the fund for the Mission Ship, and when only about £150 came from all the Churches in London to which I could get access, no doubt I was sensible of cherishing a little guilty disappointment. That was very unworthy in me, considering all my previous experiences, and God deserved to be trusted by me far differently, as the sequel will immediately show.
That widely-known and deeply-beloved servant of God, J. E. Mathieson, Esq., of the Mildmay Conference Hall, had invited me to address one of their annual meetings on behalf of Foreign Missions, and also to be his guest while the Conference lasted. Thereby I met and heard many godly and noble disciples of the Lord, whom I could not otherwise have reached though every Church I had asked in London had been freely opened to me. These devout and faithful and generous people, belonging to every branch of the Church of Christ, and drawn from every rank and class in Society, from the humblest to the highest, were certainly amongst the most open-hearted and the most responsive of all whom I ever had the privilege to address. One felt there, in a higher degree than almost anywhere else, that every soul was on fire with love to Jesus and with genuine devotion to His Cause in every corner of the Earth. There it was a privilege and a gladness to speak; and though no collection was asked or could be expected, my heart was uplifted and strengthened by these happy meetings and by all that Heavenly intercourse.
But see how the Lord leads us by a way we know not! Next morning after my address, a gentleman who had heard me handed me a cheque for £300, by far the largest single donation towards our Mission Ship; and immediately thereafter I received, from one of the Mildmay lady-Missionaries £50, from a venerable friend of the founder £20, from “Friends at Mildmay” £30; and through my dear friend and brother, J. E. Mathieson, many other donations were in due course forwarded to me.
My introduction, however, to the Conference at Mildmay did far more for me than even this; it opened up for me a series of drawing-room meetings in and around London, where I told the story of our Mission and preached the Gospel to many in the higher walks of life, and received most liberal support for the Mission Ship. It also brought me invitations from many quarters of England, to Churches, to Halls, and to County Houses and Mansions.
Lord Radstock got up a special meeting, inviting by private card a large number of his most influential friends; and there I met for the first time one whom I have since learned to regard as a very precious personal friend, Rev. Sholto D. C. Douglas, clergyman of the Church of England, who then, and afterwards at his seat in Scotland, not only most liberally supported our fund, but took me by the hand as a brother and promoted my work by every means in his power.
The Earl and Countess of Tankerville also invited me to Chillingham Castle, and gave me an opportunity of addressing a great assembly there, then gathered together from all parts of the County. The British and Foreign Bible Society received me in a special meeting of the Directors; and I was able to tell them how all we the Missionaries of these Islands, whose language had never before been reduced to writing, looked to them and leant upon them and prayed for them and their work—without whom our Native Bibles never could have been published. After the meeting, the Chairman gave me £5, and one of the Directors a cheque for £25 for our Mission Ship.
I was also invited to Leicester, and made the acquaintanceship of a godly and gifted servant of the Lord Jesus, the Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A. (now of London), whose books and booklets on the higher aspects of the Christian Life are read by tens of thousands, and have been fruitful of blessing. There I addressed great meetings of devoted workers in the vineyard; and the dear friend who was my host on that occasion, a Christian merchant, has since contributed £10 per annum for the support of a Native Teacher on the New Hebrides.
It was my privilege also to visit and address the Müller Orphanages at Bristol, and to see that saintly man of faith and prayer moving about as a wise and loving father amongst the hundreds, even thousands, that look to him for their daily bread and for the bread of Life Eternal. At the close of my address, the venerable founder thanked me warmly and said,—
“Here are £50, which God has sent to me for your Mission.”
I replied, saying,—“Dear friend, how can I take it? If I could, I would rather give you £500 for your Orphans, for I am sure you need it all!”
He replied, with sweetness and great dignity,—“God provides for His own Orphans. This money cannot be used for them. I must send it after you by letter. It is the Lord’s gift.”
Often, as I have looked at the doings of men and Churches, and tried to bring all to the test as if in Christ’s very presence,—it has appeared to me that such work as Müller’s, and Barnardo’s, and that of my own fellow-countryman, William Quarrier, must be peculiarly dear to the heart of our blessed Lord. And were He to visit this world again, and seek a place where His very Spirit had most fully wrought itself out into deeds, I fear that many of our so-called Churches would deserve to be passed by, and that His holy, tender, helpful, divinely-human love would find its most perfect reflex in these Orphan Homes. Still and for ever, amidst all changes of creed and of climate, this, _this_ is “pure and undefiled Religion” before God and the Father!
Upper Norwood, London, is ever fresh in my memory, in connection with my first and subsequent visits, chiefly because of the faithful guidance and help amidst all the perplexities of that Great Babylon, so ungrudgingly bestowed upon me by my old Australian friends, then resident there, William Storrie, Esq., and his most excellent wife, both devoted workers in the cause of Missions abroad and at home. Great kindness was shown to me also by their Minister there; and by T. W. Stoughton, Esq., at whose Mission Hall there was a memorable and joyful meeting; and, amongst many others whom I cannot here name, by Messrs. Morgan & Scott, of the _Christian_,—all of whom I rejoiced to find actively engaged in personal service to the Lord Jesus.
But in this connection I must not omit to mention that the noble and world-famous servant of God, the Minister of the Tabernacle, invited me to a garden-party at his home, and asked me to address his students and other Christian workers. When I arrived I found a goodly company assembled under the shade of lovely trees, and felt the touch of that genial humour, so mighty a gift when sanctified, which has so often given wings to Mr. Spurgeon’s words, when he introduced me to the audience as “the King of the Cannibals!” On my leaving, Mrs. Spurgeon presented me with her husband’s “Treasury of David,” and also “£5 from the Lord’s cows,” which I learned was part of the profits from certain cows kept by the good lady, and that everything produced thereby was dedicated to the work of the Lord. I praised God that He had privileged me to meet this extraordinarily endowed man, to whom the whole Christian World is so specially indebted, and who has consecrated all his gifts and opportunities to the proclamation of the pure and precious Gospel.
But of all my London associations, the deepest and the most imperishable is that which weaves itself around the Honourable Ion Keith-Falconer, who has already passed to what may truly be called a Martyr’s crown. At that time I met him at his father-in-law’s house at Trent; and on another occasion spent a whole day with him at the house of his noble mother, the Countess-Dowager of Kintore. His soul was then full of his projected Mission to the Arabs, being himself one of the most distinguished Orientalists of the day; and as we talked together, and exchanged experiences, I felt that never before had I visibly marked the fire of God, the holy passion to seek and to save the lost, burning more steadily or brightly on the altar of any human heart. The heroic founding of the Mission at Aden is already one of the precious annals of the Church of Christ. His young and devoted wife survives, to mourn indeed, but also to cherish his noble memory; and, with the aid of others, and under the banner of the Free Church of Scotland, to see the “Keith-Falconer Mission” rising up amidst the darkness of blood-stained Africa, as at once a harbour of refuge for the slave, and a beacon-light to those who are without God and without hope. The servant does his day’s work, and passes on through the gates of sleep to the Happy Dawn; but the Divine Master lives and works and reigns, and by our death, as surely as by our life, His holy purposes shall be fulfilled.
On returning to Scotland, every day was crowded with engagements for the weeks that remained, and almost every mail brought me contributions from all conceivable corners of the land. My heart was set upon taking out two or three Missionaries with me to claim more and still more of the Islands for Christ; and with that view I had addressed Divinity Students at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. Again and again, by conversation and correspondence, consecrated young men were just on the point of volunteering; but again and again the larger and better known fields of labour turned the scale, and they finally decided for China or Africa or India. Deeply disappointed at this, and thinking that God directed us to look to our own Australia alone for Missionaries for the New Hebrides, I resolved to return, and took steps towards securing a passage by the Orient Line to Melbourne. But just then two able and devoted students, Messrs. Morton and Leggatt, offered themselves as Missionaries for our Islands; and shortly thereafter a third, Mr. Landells, also an excellent man; and all, being on the eve of their Licence, were approved of, accepted, and set to special preparations for the Mission field, particularly in acquiring practical medical knowledge.
On this turn of affairs, I managed to have my passage delayed for six weeks, and resolved to cast myself on the Lord that He might enable me in that time to raise at least £500, in order to furnish the necessary outfit and equipment for three new Mission Stations, and to pay the passage money of the Missionaries and their wives, that there might be no difficulty on this score amongst the Foreign Missions Committees on the other side. And then the idea came forcibly, and for a little unmanned me, that it was wrong in me to speak of these limits as to time and money in my prayers to God. But I reflected, again, how it was for the Lord’s own glory alone in the salvation of the Heathen, and for no personal aims of mine; and so I fell back on His promise,—“Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name,”—and believingly asked it in His Name, and for His praise and service alone. I think it due to my Lord, and for the encouragement of all His servants, that I should briefly outline what occurred in answer to these prayers.
Having gone to the centre of one of the great ship-building districts of Scotland, and held a series of meetings, and raised a sum of about £55 only after nine services and many Sabbath School collecting cards, my heart was beginning to sink, as I did not think my health would stand another six weeks of incessant strain; when at the close of my last meeting in a Free Church, an Elder and his wife entered the vestry and said,—
“We are deeply interested in you and in all your work and plans. You say that you have asked £500 more. We gave you the first £100 at the Dundee Conference; and it is a joy to us to give you this £100 too, towards the making up of your final sum. We pray that you may speedily realize your wish, and that God’s richest blessing may ever rest upon your head.”
Glasgow readers will at once recognise the generous giver, J. Campbell White, Esq., who rejoices, along with his dear wife, to regard himself as a steward of the Lord Jesus. My prayer is that they, and all such, may feel more and more “blessed in their deeds.”
Another week passed by, and at the close of it a lady called upon me, and, after delightful conversation about the Mission, said,—
“How near are you to the sum required?” I explained to her what is recorded above, and she continued, “I gave you one little piece of paper, at the beginning of your efforts. I have prayed for you every day since. God has prospered me, and this is one of the happiest moments of my life, when I am now able to give you another little bit of paper.”
So saying, she put into my hand £100. I protested,—“You are surely too generous. Can you afford a second £100?”
She replied to this effect, and very joyfully, as one who had genuine gladness in the deed,—“My Lord has been very kind to me, in my health and in my business. My wants are simple and are safe in His hands. I wait not till death forces me, but give back whatever I am able to the Lord now, and hope to live to see much blessing thereby through you in the conversion of the Heathen.”
The name of that dear friend from Paisley rises often in my prayers and meditations before God. “Verily I say unto you, the Father that seeth in secret shall reward openly.”
My last week had come, and I was in the midst of preparations for departure, when amongst the letters delivered to me was one to this effect,—
“Restitution money which never now can be returned to its owner. Since my Conversion I have laboured hard to save it. I now make my only possible amends by returning it to God through you. Pray for me and mine, and may God bless you in your work!” I rather startled my brother and his wife at our breakfast table by shouting out in unwontedly excited tones,—“Hallelujah! The Lord has done it! Hallelujah!” But my tones softened down into intense reverence, and my words broke at last into tears, when I found that this, the second largest subscription ever received by me, came from a converted tradesman, who had now consecrated his all to the Lord Jesus, and whose whole leisure was now centred upon seeking to bless and save those of his own rank and class, amongst whom he had spent his early and unconverted days. Jesus saith unto him, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”
Bidding farewell to dear old Glasgow, so closely intertwined with all my earlier and later experiences I started for London, accompanied by my brother James. We were sitting at breakfast at Mrs. Mathieson’s table, Mildmay, when a telegram was put into my hands announcing the “thank-offering” from Lord and Lady Polwarth, received since our departure from Glasgow, and referred to on an earlier page. The Lord had now literally exceeded my prayers. With other gifts, repeated again by friends at Mildmay, the special fund for outfit and travelling expenses for new Missionaries had risen above the £500, and now approached £650.
In a Farewell Meeting at Mildmay the Lord’s servants assembled in great numbers from all quarters of London, dedicated me and my work very solemnly to God, amid songs of praise and many prayers and touching “last” words. And when at length Mr. Mathieson, intimating that I must go, as another company of Christian workers were elsewhere waiting also to say Goodbye, suggested that the whole audience should stand up, and, instead of hand shaking, quietly breathe their benedictory Farewell as I passed from the platform down through their great Hall, a perfect flood of emotion overwhelmed me. I never felt a humbler man, nor more anxious to hide my head in the dust, than when all these noble, gifted, and beloved followers of Jesus Christ and consecrated workers in His service, stood up and with one heart said, “God speed” and “God bless you,” as I passed on through the Hall. To one who had striven and suffered less, or who less appreciated how little we can do for others compared with what Jesus had done for us, this scene might have ministered to spiritual pride; but long ere I reached the door of that Hall, my soul was already prostrated at the feet of my Lord in sorrow and in shame that I had done so little for Him, and I bowed my head and could have gladly bowed my knees to cry, “Not unto us, Lord, not unto us!”
On the 28th October, 1885, I sailed for Melbourne, and in due course safely arrived there by the goodness of God. The Church and people of my own beloved Victoria gave me a right joyful welcome, and in public assembly presented me with a testimonial, which I shrank from receiving, but which all the same was the highly-prized expression of their confidence and esteem.
In my absence at the Islands, they thereafter elected me Moderator of their Supreme Court, and called me back to fill that highest Chair of honour in the Presbyterian Church. God is my witness how very little any or all of these things in themselves ever have been coveted by me; but how, when they have come in my way, I have embraced them with a single desire thereby to promote the Church’s interest in that Cause to which my whole life and all my opportunities are consecrated,—the Conversion of the Heathen World.
My Mission to Britain was to raise £6,000, in order to enable the Australian Churches to provide a Steam Auxiliary Mission Ship, for the enlarged and constantly enlarging requirements of the New Hebrides. I spent exactly eighteen months at home; and when I returned, I was enabled to hand over to the Church that had commissioned and authorized me no less a sum than £9,000. And all this had been forwarded to me, as the free-will offerings of the Lord’s stewards, in the manner illustrated by the preceding pages. “Behold! what God hath wrought!”
Of this sum £6,000 are set apart to build or acquire the new Mission Ship. The remainder is added to what we call our Number II. Fund, for the maintenance and equipment of additional Missionaries. It has been the dream of my life to see one Missionary at least planted on every Island of the New Hebrides, and then I could lie down and whisper gladly, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace!”
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!
* * * * *
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.
In these, as well as in my own direct labours as a Missionary, I probably have had my full share of “abuse” from the enemies of the Cross, and a not inconsiderable burden of trials and afflictions in the service of my Lord; yet here, as I lay down my pen, let me record my immovable conviction that this is the noblest service in which any human being can spend or be spent; and that, if God gave me back my life to be lived over again, I would without one quiver of hesitation lay it on the altar to Christ, that He might use it as before in similar ministries of love, especially amongst those who have never yet heard the Name of Jesus. Nothing that has been endured, and nothing that can now befall me, makes me tremble—on the contrary, I deeply rejoice—when I breathe the prayer that it may please the blessed Lord to turn the hearts of all my children to the Mission field; and that He may open up their way and make it their pride and joy to live and die in carrying Jesus and His Gospel into the heart of the Heathen World! God gave His best, His Son, to me; and I give back my best, my All, to Him.
Reader, Fare-thee-well! Thou hast companied with me,—not without some little profit, I trust; and not without noting many things that led thee to bless the Lord God, in whose honour these pages have been written. In your life and in mine, there is at least one _last_ Chapter, one final Scene, awaiting us,—God our Father knows where and how! By His grace, I will live out that Chapter, I will pass through that Scene, in the faith and in the hope of Jesus, who has sustained me from childhood till now. As you close this book, go before your Saviour, and pledge yourself upon your knees by His help and sympathy to do the same. And let me meet you, and let us commune with each other again, in the presence and glory of the Redeemer. Fare-thee-well!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See the whole context in “Sermons on National Subjects,” (_Macmillan & Co._, 1880) pp. 414 to 417, where it is numbered as Sermon XLI.; particularly this regulative declaration regarding “what Original Sin may bring man to”:—“What is to my mind the most awful part of the matter remains to be told—that man may actually fall by Original Sin too low to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be recovered again by it.”—(_Editor_).
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. All place names and proper nouns have been retained as spelled in the original publication.
Page iv. “Ariwan” replaced by “Aniwan”. Page xvii. “LISTI” replaced by “LITSI”. Page 1. “Brutal Captain” replaced by “Brutal Captain.”. Page 67. “now see them” replaced by “now see them.”. Page 116. “accomodation” replaced by “accommodation”. Page 119. “Rev. J” replaced by “Rev. J.”. Page 132. “not of ourselves” replaced by “not of ourselves.”. Page 158. “inhabit ants” replaced by “inhabitants”. Page 160. “dead and buried” replaced by “dead and buried.”. Page 169. “tomakawk” replaced by “tomahawk”. Page 171. “among the Natives” replaced by “among the Natives.”. Page 178. “‘It is” replaced by ““It is”. Page 183. “through the earth.” replaced by “through the earth.””. Page 222. “baptize you?” replaced by “baptize you?””. Page 230. ““Society,’” replaced by ““Society,””. Page 230. “your fill!’” replaced by “your fill!””. Page 230. “happy as squirrels” replaced by “happy as squirrels.”. Page 254. “this?’ Cocoa-nuts” replaced by “this?’ ‘Cocoa-nuts”. Page 273. “home on Aniwa” replaced by “home on Aniwa.”. Page 289. “symphony of Ocean” replaced by “symphony of Ocean’”. Page 304. “She had, out” replaced by ““She had, out”. Page 305. “spilt!’” replaced by “spilt!””. Page 305. “you ill?’” replaced by “you ill?””. Page 309. “broken Eglish” replaced by “broken English”. Page 311. “eel the very” replaced by “feel the very”. Page 314. “any other” replaced by “any other.”. Page 321. “he returned?” replaced by “he returned?’”. Page 329. “to Tanna.” replaced by “to Tanna,”. Page 332. ““That’s Mungaw” replaced by “‘That’s Mungaw”. Page 338. “But Noopooraw” replaced by “but Noopooraw”. Page 339. “O Yomit” replaced by “‘O Yomit”. Page 343. “acrue” replaced by “accrue”. Page 343. “treacherous gales” replaced by “treacherous gales.”. Page 363. “Steam Auxiliary.” replaced by “Steam Auxiliary.””. Page 369. “‘God provides for” replaced by ““God provides for”. Page 376. “accompained” replaced by “accompanied”.