John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 2 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brotherPaton, John Gibson
Religion
John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 2 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brother
Paton, John Gibson
Missionaries -- Vanuatu -- Biography; Paton, John Gibson, 1824-1907
A Heathen has been all his days groping after peace of soul in dark
superstition and degrading rites. You pour into his soul the light of
Revelation. He learns that God is love, that God sent His Son to die
for him, and that he is the heir of Life Eternal in and through Jesus
Christ. By the blessed enlightenment of the Spirit of the Lord he
believes all this. He passes into a third heaven of joy, and he burns
to tell every one of this Glad Tidings. Others see the change in his
disposition, in his character, in his whole life and actions; and, amid
such surroundings, every Convert is a burning and a shining light. Even
whole populations are thus brought into the Outer Court of the Temple;
and Islands, still Heathen and Cannibal, are positively eager for the
Missionary to live amongst them and would guard his life and property
now in complete security, where a very few years ago everything would
have been instantly sacrificed on touching their shores! They are not
Christianized, neither are they Civilized, but the light has been
kindled all around them, and though still only shining afar, they
cannot but rejoice in its beams.
But even where the path is not so smooth, nor any welcome awaiting
them, Native Converts show amazing zeal. For instance, one of our
Chiefs, full of the Christ-kindled desire to seek and to save, sent
a message to an inland Chief, that he and four attendants would come
on Sabbath and tell them the Gospel of Jehovah God. The reply came
back sternly forbidding their visit, and threatening with death any
Christian that approached their village. Our Chief sent in response a
loving message, telling them that Jehovah had taught the Christians to
return good for evil, and that they would come unarmed to tell them
the story of how the Son of God came into the world and died in order
to bless and save His enemies. The Heathen Chief sent back a stern and
prompt reply once more:—“If you come, you will be killed.” On Sabbath
morning, the Christian Chief and his four companions were met outside
the village by the Heathen Chief, who implored and threatened them once
more. But the former said,—
“We come to you without weapons of war! We come only to tell you about
Jesus. We believe that He will protect us to-day.”
As they steadily pressed forward towards the village, spears began
to be thrown at them. Some they evaded, being all except one most
dexterous warriors; and others they literally received with their bare
hands, and turned them aside in an incredible manner. The Heathen,
apparently thunderstruck at these men thus approaching them without
weapons of war, and not even flinging back their own spears which they
had caught, after having thrown what the old Chief called “a shower of
spears,” desisted from mere surprise. Our Christian Chief called out,
as he and his companions drew up in the midst of them on the village
Public Ground,—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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