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
'You see,' writes Patteson on June 10, on the voyage, 'that our
difficulty is in training and organising nations, raising them from
heathenism to the life, morally and socially, of a Christian. This is
what I find so hard. The communication of religious truth by word of
mouth is but a small part of the work. The real difficulty is to do for
them what parents do for their children, assist them to--nay, almost
force upon them--the practical application of Christian doctrine. This
descends to the smallest matters, washing, scrubbing, sweeping, all
actions of personal cleanliness, introducing method and order, habits
of industry, regularity, giving just notions of exchange, barter, trade,
management of criminals, division of labour. To do all this and yet not
interfere with the offices of the chief, and to be the model and pattern
of it, who is sufficient for it?'
On June 16, Mr. Patteson was landed at Lifu, for his residence there,
with the five chiefs, his twelve boys, and was hospitably welcomed to
the large new house by the Samoan. He and four boys slept in one of the
corner rooms, the other eight lads in another, the Rarotongan teacher,
Tutoo, and his wife in a third. The central room was parlour, school,
and hall, and as it had four unglazed windows, and two doors opposite
to each other, and the trade-wind always blowing, the state of affairs
after daylight was much like that which prevailed in England when King
Alfred invented lanterns, while in the latter end of June the days were,
of course, as short as they could be on the tropic of Capricorn, so that
Patteson got up in the dark at 5-30 in the morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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