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
Fanny Patteson and Arthur Coleridge were sitting with the Judge, and
were equally overcome. When the service was over, and the congregation
dispersed, Coley joined these three in the porch, holding out his hands,
taking theirs and shedding tears, and they with him--tears of warm
emotion too deep for words. He was evidently surprised at the effect
produced. In fact, on looking at the sermon, it does not seem to have
been in itself remarkable, but as his cousin Arthur says: 'I suppose
the deep spirituality of the man, and the love we bore him for years,
touched the emotional part of us.' The text was significant: 'We preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake' (2 Cor. iv. 5).
The services that the newly-ordained Deacon undertook were the ordinary
Sunday ones, and Wednesday and Friday Matins and Litany, Saints'-day
prayers and lecture, and an Advent and Lent Evensong and lecture on
Wednesdays and Fridays. These last had that great popularity which
attends late services. Dr. Cornish used to come on one Sunday in the
month to celebrate the Holy Communion (which is given weekly in the
mother Church); and when Mr. Grardiner was able to be at Sidmouth,
recovering from his illness, he used to come over on the second Sunday
in the month for the same purpose; and the next Lent, the Matins were
daily, and followed by a lecture.
At this time Patteson's constitutional shrinking from general society
was in full force, and he also had that dislike to 'speaking to' people
in the way of censure, which so often goes with tender and refined
natures, however strong; so that if his housekeeper needed a reproof, he
would make his sister administer it, and creep out of reach himself; but
this was one of the deficiencies with which he was struggling all his
life, and fortunately it is a fact that the most effective lectures
usually come from those to whom they cost the most.
This was the hardest part of his ministry. Where kindness and attention
were needed, nothing could be more spontaneous, sweet, or winning than
his ways. One of his parishioners, a farmer's daughter, writes:--
'Our personal knowledge of him began some months before his Ordination,
owing, I suppose, to Mr. Gardiner's severe illness; and as he was
very much respected, Mr. Patteson's attentions won from the first our
admiration and gratitude, which went on and on until it deepened
into that love which I do not think could have been surpassed by the
Galatians for their beloved St. Paul, which he records in his Epistle to
them (chap. iv. 15). All were waiting for him at his Ordination, and a
happy delusion seemed to have come over the minds of most, if not all,
that he was as completely ours as if he had been ordained expressly for
us.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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