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
“It was a blessing the Natives were so kind, and oh, how we experienced
that ‘God stayeth His rough wind in the day of His east wind’; for
except the trouble with Mungaw, we had no other serious ones to contend
with, and He gave us to realize as I at least never did in the same
way how entirely the work was His. It looked so mysterious, that after
we had come down at such a sacrifice to health and family ties to
devote our whole time to the work, it should be so retarded by one
individual; for often, at his worst, only eight or ten had the courage
to come to School, and we could as well have taught fifty. But we could
leave it trustingly to the Lord, feeling that all we had to do was the
work He laid to our hands from day to day. What a restful feeling it
gives one to be ‘only an instrument in His hand.’...
“Litsi was the one most in danger, her house standing a little below
ours, and I having been roused at three o’clock to attend her only the
morning before, John was very averse to my going, in the circumstances;
and I fain would have contented myself with sending her comforts, but
I could not think to leave her with her mad husband, who had still
sternly refused to let any one go near her; so I hurriedly dressed,
roused the cook to boil the kettle, and took one of my girls with
a lamp. We found to my intense relief the baby already born, and
Mungaw so delighted at having another _son_ that he was inclined to
be tolerably kind. I took advantage of his mood—as it was through
him I could reach Litsi—praised him for being such a clever doctor,
and advised him to get her into the house out of the raw cold air,
and offered him the services of my girl to light a fire, which he
graciously condescended to accept! When I went back with some tea and
things for the baby, they looked much more comfortable, Litsi sitting
in the house by a bright fire, with the lamp beside her. Urging her to
lie down, I returned home and looked into the girls’ house to see how
it was faring with my other invalid,—for dear Yawaci had been carried
to us at her own request in a dying state.”...
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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