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
... “To spend such a day as we did a few Sabbaths ago when our little
Church of God on Aniwa was formally constituted, we felt to be worth
more than all the sacrifices connected with our isolated life. We had
a very good attendance, 180 being present, and an unusual solemnity
and interest pervaded the Church throughout the whole Services. The
Communicants, twelve in number, were arranged in rows from the platform
to my seat, so that they occupied the space in the centre; and, as
they stood up to answer the form of questions Mr. Paton put to them
before receiving Baptism, you could scarcely have conceived a more
interesting group. Vasi, our eldest member, must we think be near to
ninety; but, aged and infirm as he is, he came every day to School with
his spectacles on, and is one of Mr. Paton’s best writers as well as
readers. Our old chief, Namakei, was there, with his daughter Litsi.
She is his only child living, and is almost as great a comfort to me
as to her father. She was the first girl who came to live with us,
and, being the eldest on our Premises, she sets a good example to the
others. Her devotion to Mr. Paton amounts almost to idolatry. She seems
as if she never could be grateful enough to him for being the means
of her conversion. But the one I felt most interest in was Namakei’s
sister, a very gentle and delicate-looking woman. I knew what it had
cost her to profess her faith in Jesus, and how her husband and son
were even then jeering and laughing at her. If I had time, I could tell
you something interesting about each of them, for of course it was our
knowing all their little histories that made it so intensely gratifying
a sight to us. I can remember when one began to wear clothing, when
another cut off his long hair, and when one whom we had thought a
very hardened character came one day with the last of his idols,
saying,—‘Now, Missi, these are the very last. I have no more.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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