John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 1 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brotherPaton, John Gibson
Religion
John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 1 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brother
Paton, John Gibson
Missionaries -- Vanuatu -- Biography; Paton, John Gibson, 1824-1907
The Rev. John Geddie and his wife, from Nova Scotia, were landed on
Aneityum, the most southerly island of the New Hebrides, in 1848; and
the Rev. John Inglis and his wife, from Scotland, were landed on the
other side of the same island, in 1852. An agent for the London
Missionary Society, the Rev. T. Powell, accompanied Dr. Geddie for about
a year, to advise as to his settlement and to assist in opening up the
work. Marvellous as it may seem, the Natives on Aneityum showed interest
in the missionaries from the very first, and listened to their
teachings; so that in a few years Dr. Inglis and Dr. Geddie saw about
3,500 savages throwing away their idols, renouncing their heathen
customs, and avowing themselves to be worshippers of the true Jehovah
God. Slowly, yet progressively, they unlearned their Heathenism; surely
and hopefully they learned Christianity and civilization. In course of
time a simple form of family worship was introduced into and observed by
every household on the island; God’s blessing was asked on every meal;
peace and public order were secured; and property was perfectly safe
under the sanctifying and civilizing Gospel of Christ. And by-and-by
these Missionaries lived to see the whole Bible, which they and Mr.
Copeland had so painfully translated, placed in the hands of the
Aneityumese by the aid of the British and Foreign Bible Society—that
noblest handmaid of every Missionary enterprise. But how was this
accomplished? As a boon of charity? Listen!
These poor Aneityumese, having glimpses of this Word of God, determined
to have a Holy Bible in their own mother tongue, wherein before no book
or page ever had been written in the history of their race. The
consecrated brain and hand of their Missionaries kept toiling day and
night in translating the book of God; and the willing hands and feet of
the Natives kept toiling through fifteen long but unwearying years,
planting and preparing arrowroot to pay the £1,200 required to be laid
out in the printing and publishing of the book. Year after year the
arrowroot, too sacred to be used for their daily food, was set apart as
the Lord’s portion; the Missionaries sent it to Australia and Scotland,
where it was sold by private friends, and the whole proceeds consecrated
to this purpose. On the completion of the great undertaking by the Bible
Society, it was found that the Natives had earned as much as to pay
every penny of the outlay; and their first Bibles went out to them,
purchased with the consecrated toils of fifteen years! Some of our
friends may think that the sum was large; but I know, from experience,
that if such a difficult job had been carried through the press and so
bound by any other printing establishment, the expense would have been
greater far. One book of Scripture, printed by me in Melbourne for the
Aniwans, under the auspices of the Bible Society too, cost eight
shillings per leaf, and that was the cheapest style; and this the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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