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
'Viewed indeed from that position which was occupied by ancient
philosophers, the existing contrarieties between nations might well
appear inexplicable, and intellectual powers might seem to be the
exclusive heritage of particular nations. But Christianity leads us to
distinguish between the nature of man as he came fresh from the hands of
his Creator, and that natural propensity to sin which he has inherited
in consequence of his fall from original innocence. It teaches that as
God has "made of one blood all nations to dwell together on the face
of the whole earth," and has given in virtue of this common origin one
common nature destined to be pure and holy and divine, so, by virtue of
Redemption and Regeneration, the image of God may be restored in all,
and whatever is the result of his depravity therefore may be overcome.
And this seems to be the answer to all statements relating to the want
of capacity in certain nations of the earth for the reception of Divine
Truth, that every man, because he is a man, because he is a partaker of
that very nature which has been taken into the Person of the Son of God,
may by the grace of God be awakened to the sense of his true life, of
his real dignity as a redeemed brother of Christ.
'The spark of heavenly fire may indeed have been all but quenched by
the unbridled indulgence of his passions; the natural wickedness of the
heart of man may have exhibited itself with greater fearfulness where no
laws and customs have introduced restraints against at least the outward
expression of vice; but the capacity for the Christian life is there;
though overlaid, it may be, with monstrous forms of superstition or
cruelty or ignorance, the conscience can still respond to the voice of
the Gospel of Truth.'
And one who so entirely believed and acted upon these words found them
true. The man who verily treated the lads he had gathered round him with
a perfectly genuine sympathy, a love and a self-denial--nay more, an
identification of self with them--awoke all that was best in their
characters, and met with full response. Enthusiastic partiality of
course there was in his estimate of them; but is it not one of the
absolute requisites of a good educator to feel that enthusiasm, like
the parent for the child? And is it always the blind admiration at which
outsiders smile; is it not rather indifference which is blind, and love
which sees the truth?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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