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
“Some of the Church members came to ask what was to be done with him.
Tieing only made him worse; confining or shooting were the only other
alternatives. To confine him was impossible. Were they to shoot him?
John, of course, would not hear of that, and they asked if there
was no sort of medicine to cure madness! A near friend got him away
to his village, where they had a long talk, and warned him of the
consequences. The moment he went, I ran off to sit awhile with Litsi.
We feared she would sink under her trials, and wished she had access to
the rich consolations with which we were upheld every day in our little
readings both of the Bible and other books. It seemed as if the Words
were printed for our express circumstances and comfort. My own morning
Reading was in the Psalms, and I never felt them so suitable. The very
ones I used to think David had written in a fit of indigestion were
fraught with the deepest comfort and meaning, and favourite passages
were more precious than ever. I never noticed before that the passage,
‘Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I,’ begins with ‘From _the end
of the Earth_ will I cry unto Thee,’—so applicable to us! John and I
have often remarked to each other that we had to come all the way to
the South Seas to understand some bits of the Bible; and I see Bowen in
his ‘Daily Meditations’ says the same in reference to India, where he
laboured so devotedly as a Missionary. We have another precious book
which we were reading aloud and enjoyed next to the Bible,—Boardman’s
‘In the Power of the Spirit,’ given us also before leaving Australia.
“How we wished poor Litsi could share all these privileges, and
wondered if her faith were keeping alive at all, but her spirit was
beautifully submissive. When I told her that, however difficult it
might be for her to believe it, her Saviour God was tenderly caring
for her every moment and would not let her have one more trial than
she could bear, and that it would relieve her to take all her sorrows
to Him, she replied, ‘Oh, I know it, Missi; my whole words now are
prayer; for I have no one else to speak to, and would have gone mad if
I could not have told my Saviour! I tell Him everything, and know that
it is all right even if Mungaw should kill me, for he can’t harm me
beyond the grave.’ I told her not a single night passed that we were
not engaging in prayer for her, and she said,—‘These prayers have been
answered; for he has had the wish to kill me and burn your house, and
he could easily have done both had not God prevented.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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