BOOK REVIEW: JOHN PATON, MISSIONARY TO THE NEW HEBRIDES (His dates: 1824- 1907)
SONG:
“Give me one pure and holy passion.
And give me one magnificent obsession.
Father, give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after you.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I17edLkBDCo
If John Paton had written the final line of this modern worship chorus, it would read something like this:
“To be owned and used by You for the salvation of perishing men.”1
The validity of that burning passion in this Scotsman’s heart is manifest through his life-long persistence in advancing Christ’s message against discouraging hardships. His efforts triumphed in the end.
Paton describes his years of toil for his Master in his excellent autobiography, John G. Paton – Missionary to the New Hebrides. These South Pacific islands (modern Vanuatu where a “Survivor” episode has been filmed) was home to cannibals who had eaten earlier missionaries. John Piper’s audio presentation cited below and a Wikipedia article both chronicle well Paton’s history. Here I will attempt to capture traces of his one pure, holy, magnificent, glorious obsession and ambition for his life. Sample the following words from his pen recorded in his autobiography.
Concern for the Lost
p. 51 – “I was sustained by the lofty aim which burned all these years bright within my soul, namely—to be owned and used by Him for the salvation of perishing men.”
p. 52-53 – (Before leaving Scotland, he was busy with missions work in Glasgow, but heard a call of God to men far away.) “Happy in my work…yet I continually heard…the wail of the perishing Heathen in the South Seas…. The wail and the claims of the Heathen were constantly sounding in my ears.”
p. 74 – (Converting the heathen is a painstaking task.) “…But it could be done—that we believed because they were men, not beasts; it had been done…and our hearts rose to the task with a quenchless hope!”
p. 232 - (Even on his furlough for rest in Sidney, Australia, he tried to interest the Presbyterians there to get involved with missions so near them – by sending missionaries & providing a ship to bring supplies and even help them escape for their lives if necessary.)
Still I saw them [the heathen] perishing, still heard their wailing cry on the islands behind me. I saw them groaning under blinding superstitions, and imbruing their hands in each other’s blood, and I felt as if crushed by the awful responsibility of my work and by the thought of all that hung upon its success or failure.
p. 308 – “My heart bleeds for the Heathen, and I long to see a Teacher for every tribe and a Missionary for every island of the New Hebrides. The hope still burns that I may witness it; and then I could gladly rest.”
p. 412 - Life, any life, would be well spent, under any conceivable conditions, in bringing one human soul to know and love and serve God and His son, and thereby securing for yourself at least one temple where your name and memory would be held for ever and for ever in affectionate praise,--a regenerated Heart in Heaven. That fame will prove immortal, when all the poems and monuments and pyramids of Earth have gone into dust.
pp. 435-436 – (While doing a speaking tour in England, Paton was invited to Charles Spurgeon’s home for a garden-party and was saluted by him [Spurgeon] as “King of the Cannibals.” But of all his London contacts, Paton cherished most the memory of being with Ion Keith-Falconer, a fellow soul winner who was later martyred in missions.) “…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.”
p. 440 – “I have embraced them [opportunities] 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.”
p. 443 – “…I have often been taunted with being ‘a man of one idea.’”
“My life has been dominated by one sacred purpose….”
p. 444 – “…this is the noblest service in which any human being can spend or be spent….”
“…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.”
p. 473 – “I did passionately desire to tell every human being the story of the Gospel on the New Hebrides, that other and still other souls might be won thereby for Jesus my Lord.”
p. 496 – “Oh that I had my life to begin again! I would consecrate it anew to Jesus in seeking the conversion of the remaining Cannibals on the New Hebrides.”
Joy of the Harvest
John Paton labored on the island of Tanna from November 1858, until early 1862. There he buried his first wife and newborn son. He was in constant danger for his life and was forced to leave.
Then, he spent time in Australia and Scotland promoting missions to the New Hebrides.
In November 1866, he and his new wife began work on the island of Aniwa. There he saw wonderful success. After 3 years of toil, October 24, 1869, he held the first baptism and communion service on the island; there were twelve converts. He describes the exquisite joy he felt:
…the Church of Christ on Aniwa was formally constituted. I addressed them…administered the Lord’s Supper, --the first time since the Island of Aniwa was heaved out of its coral depths!...For 3 years we had toiled and prayed and taught for this. At the moment when I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of Cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer’s love, I had a foretaste of the joy of Glory that well-nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus Himself. …My heart was so full of joy that I could do little else but weep. p. 376
On another occasion, Paton’s ears were rewarded with hearing the heart-felt prayer of a convert and shared God’s joy at what he was hearing:
The old Chief led them in prayer-- a strange, dark, groping prayer, with streaks of Heathenism colouring every thought and sentence; but still a heart-breaking prayer, as the cry of a soul once Cannibal, but now being thrilled through and through with the first conscious pulsations of the Christ-Spirit throbbing into the words—“Father, Father; our Father.”
When these poor creatures began to wear a bit of calico or a kilt, it was an outward sign of a change, though yet far from civilization. And when they began to look up and pray to One whom they called “Father, our Father,” though they might be far, very far, from the type of Christian that dubs itself “respectable,” my heart broke over them in tears of joy; and nothing will ever persuade me that there was not a Divine Heart in the Heavens rejoicing too. p. 325
DEATH OF THE FIRST CONVERT
Paul knew his first convert in one region. Romans 16:5 “…Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.” (KJV) Paton’s first convert was Namakei; the touching account of his death is recorded below.
pp. 391-393 “The death of Namakei had in it many streaks of Christian romance. [Old chief’s last desire was to attend the annual meeting of the missionaries on another island.] …When he heard of the prosperity of the Lord’s work, and how island after island was learning to sing the praises of Jesus, his heart glowed, and he said, ‘Missi, I am lifting up my head like a tree. I am growing tall with joy!’ [“Missi” was what natives called missionaries.]
“On the 4th or 5th day, however, he sent for me out of the Synod, and when I came to him, he said, eagerly, ‘Missi, I am near to die! I have asked you to come and say farewell. Tell my daughter, my brother, and my people to go on pleasing Jesus, and I will meet them again in the fair World.’
“I tried to encourage him…but he faintly whispered, ‘O, Missi, death is already touching me! I feel my feet going away from under me. Help me to lie down under the shade of that banyan tree.’
“So saying, he seized my arm, we staggered near to the tree, and he lay down under its cool shade. He whispered again, ‘I am going! O Missi, let me hear your words rising up in prayer, and then my Soul will be strong to go.’
“Amidst many choking sobs, I tried to pray. At last he took my hand, pressed it to his heart, and said in a stronger and clearer tone, ‘O my Missi, my dear Missi, I go before you, but I will meet you again in the Home of Jesus. Farewell!’
That was the last effort of dissolving strength; he immediately became unconscious and fell asleep. My heart felt like to break over him. He was my first Aniwan Convert—the first who ever on that island of love and tears opened his heart to Jesus; and as he lay there on the leaves and grass, my soul soared upward after his, and all the harps of God seemed to thrill with song as Jesus presented to the Father this trophy of redeeming love. He had been our true and devoted friend and fellow-helper in the Gospel; and next morning all the members of our Synod followed his remains to the grave. There we stood, the White missionaries of the cross from far distant lands, mingling our tears with Christian natives of Aneityum, and letting them fall over one who only a few years before was a blood-stained cannibal, and whom now we mourned as a brother, a saint, an Apostle amongst his people. Ye ask an explanation? The Christ entered into his heart, and Namakei became a new creature. “Behold, I make all things new.”
In his autobiography, John Paton raises the question, “…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?” (p. 443) His devoted life answers a resounding “yes” to that question. He had one glorious ambition that he pursued in the face of death, loss, danger, discomfort, and ultimately accomplishment. We would do well to lift up our own prayer for one pure and holy passion.
1John G. Paton – Missionary to the New Hebrides, An Autobiography edited by his brother James Paton 1889, 1994, 2002 The Banner of Truth Trust, p. 51.
RESOURCES:
(1) For children, see Child Evangelism Fellowship Press for a picture missionary book and CD of Power Point on Paton’s life.
http://cefpress.com/search.php?mode=search&page=1
(2) Various YouTube videos. Search “John Paton.”
(3) John Piper’s audio summary of Paton’s book and life at
http://www.desiringgod.org/biographies/you-will-be-eaten-by-cannibals-lessons-from-the-life-of-john-g-paton
John Piper chooses a different book each year to highlight at his annual teaching conference. This year he chose Paton's book, and states that it is well worth the purchase for the account of Paton's dad alone. That dad was a prince of a man who yielded his children for God's purposes without selfish clinging to them.
(4) Vanautu today – See Youtube video of native reconciliation with [martyr] John Williams’ descendants. Vanautu Christians today ask for Williams’ family to forgive them for killing their great-grandfather.
Wikipedia says that about one third of the population today is Presbyterian, Paton’s denomination.
(See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanuatu#Religion.)