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
'In our pleasures at Dresden there was a mixture of the utile with the
dulce. Our constant visits to the theatre were strong incentives to a
preparatory study of the plays of Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing. What
noble acting we saw in that Dresden theatre!
'With regard to the opera, I have never seen Weber or Meyerbeer's works
given so perfectly and conscientiously as at Dresden. Patteson's chief
delight was the Midsummer Night's Dream, with Mendelssohn's music. He
had a tuneful baritone voice and a correct ear for music. We hired
a piano for our sitting-room; and, though I failed to induce him to
cultivate his voice, and join me in taking lessons, he sang some of
Mendelssohn's Lieder very pleasingly, and knew most of the bass music
from the Messiah by heart. He began to play a few scales on the piano,
and hoped to surprise his sisters on his return to England by playing
chants, but the Arabic and Hebrew studies proved too absorbing;
he grudged the time, and thought the result disproportioned to the
sacrifice.
'In our daily walks we talked constantly of Church matters. Some sharp
and sad experiences in the loss of more than one of his Eton and Oxford
friends, who had abandoned the Church of England, failed to shake his
confidence in the Church he was to serve so faithfully and to die for
so gloriously. His faith and daily practice seem to me a protest
and warning against the folly, if not the falsehood, of extremes.
Moderation, quiet consistency of life, and unswerving loyalty to a faith
which had been the joy and comfort of his dear mother, whose loveable
nature he inherited and reflected, a blameless life and unfailing
charity enabled him when the time came to live a life of incessant toil,
and face a martyr's death. I remember the present Bishop of Carlisle
inciting Cambridge undergraduates to become, by virtue of earnestness,
gentleness, and toleration, "guides not judges, lights not firebrands."
He drew a perfect description of Patteson, who came more completely up
to that ideal than anyone I ever knew. Here was a man capable of the
purest and most tender friendship, with an exquisite appreciation of all
that is noblest in life, and he was ready to give up all, and content to
lead the forlorn hope of Christianity, and perish in the front ranks
of the noble army. "And having been a little tried he shall be greatly
rewarded, for God proved him, and found him worthy for Himself."'
I have given this letter almost entire, because it shows the impression
Coley made on one, little his junior, in the intimate associations of
cousin, neighbour, and schoolfellow, as well as travelling companion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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