Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian IslandsYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Religion
Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Missions -- Melanesia; Patteson, John Coleridge, 1827-1871
'Henri has been for an hour or more this morning asking me questions
which you would seldom hear from farmers or tradesmen at home, showing a
real acquaintance with the Bible, and such a desire, hunger and thirst,
for knowledge. What was the manna in the wilderness? he began. He
thought it was food that angels actually lived upon, and quoted the
verse in the Psalm readily, "So man did eat angel's food." So I took
him into the whole question of the spiritual body; the various passages,
"meats for the belly," etc., our Lord's answer to the Sadducees, and so
on to 1 Cor. xv. Very interesting to watch the earnestness of the man
and his real pleasure in assenting to the general conclusion expressed
in 1 John iii. 2 concerning our ignorance of what we shall be, not
implying want of power on God's part to explain, but His divine will in
not withdrawing the veil wholly from so great a mystery. "E marama ana,"
(I see it clearly now): "He mea ngaro!" (a mystery). His mind had wholly
passed from the carnal material view of life in heaven, and the idea
of food for the support of the spiritual body, and the capacity for
receiving the higher truths (as it were) of Christianity showed itself
more clearly in the young New Zealander than you would find perhaps
in the whole extent of a country parish. I think that when I know
the language well enough to catechize freely, it will be far more
interesting, and I shall have a far more intelligent set of catechumens,
than in England. They seem especially fond of it, ask questions
constantly, and will get to the bottom of the thing, and when the
catechist is up to the mark and quick and wily in both question and
illustration, they get so eager and animated, all answering together,
quoting texts, etc. I think that their knowledge of the Bible is in some
sense attributable to its being almost the only book printed that they
care much about.'
The 11th of September produced another long letter full of home feeling,
drawn forth in response to his sister. Here are some extracts:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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