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
There is much, too, of his brother's marriage; and in a separate letter
to the sisters there are individual acknowledgments of each article of
the equipment, gratifying the donor by informing her that the 'cutaway'
coat was actually to be worn that very evening at a dinner party at the
Chief Justice's, and admiring the 'gambroon,' which turned out to be the
material of the cassock, so much as to wish for a coat made of it for
the islands. Apropos of the hat:-- 'You know my forehead is square, so
that an oval hat does not fit; it would hang on by the temples, which
form a kind of right angle with the forehead.'
Another letter of that 26th was from the Bishop of Wellington to Dr.
Goodford respecting this much-loved old pupil:--
'Anything more conscientious and painstaking cannot be conceived than
the way he has steadily directed every talent, every hour or minute
of his life, to the one work he had set before him. However small
or uncongenial or drumdrudgery-like his occupation, however hard, or
dangerous, or difficult, it seemed to be always met in the same calm,
gentle, self-possessed spirit of love and duty, which I should fancy
that those who well knew his good and large-minded, large-hearted
father, and his mother, whom I have always heard spoken of as saintly,
could best understand. Perhaps the most marked feature in his character
is his genuine simplicity and humility. I never saw it equalled in one
so gifted and so honoured and beloved.
'It is really creditable to the community to see how universal is the
admiration for his character, for he is so very good, so exceedingly
unworldly, and therefore such a living rebuke to the selfishness of the
world; and though so gentle, yet so firm and uncompromising that you
would have supposed he would hardly be popular outside the circle
of friends who know him and understand him. Certainly he is the most
perfect character I ever met.'
The last day of February was that of the Installation.
Again Mrs. Abraham must speak:--
'On Thursday last we had another happy day at Kohimarama, where Bishop
Patteson was duly installed in the temporary chapel of St. Andrew's
College, as we hope to call it, after the church at Cocksmoor, in "The
Daisy Chain." The morning was grey, and we feared rain would keep our
ladies away, but we made the venture with our willing squire, Mr. M----,
in the "Iris" boat to help us. The pity was, that after all Lady Martin
could not go, as she had an invalid among her Maori flock, whom she
could not trust all day by herself. The day lightened, and our sail was
pleasant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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