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
'May 10.--It is, I find, quite settled, and was indeed always, that I am
to go always with the Bishop, roving about the Melanesian department, so
that for some years, if I live, I shall be generally six months at sea.
And not little to my delight, I find that the six winter months (i.e.
your summer months) are the ones that we shall spend in sailing about
the islands within or near the tropics, so that I shall have little more
shivering limbs or blue hands, though I may feel in the long run
the effect of a migratory swallow-like life. But the sea itself is a
perpetual tonic, and when I am thoroughly accustomed to a sea life, I
think I shall be better almost on board ship.'
This seems the place for Bishop Selwyn's impression, as written to a
friend at this very time. 'Coley Patteson is a treasure which I humbly
set down as a Divine recompense for our own boys*. He is a good fellow,
and the tone of his mind is one which I can thoroughly enjoy, content
with the 'to aei' present, yet always aiming at a brighter and better
future.'
*(Footnote: Left at home for education.)
'June 18.--You must think of us at 8 P.M. on Sundays--just at 8.20 A.M.
before you come down to prayers. The Bishop has a service in the College
chapel; then, after all the "runners" (clergy who have district chapels)
have returned, chanting Psalms, and reading collects, which bear
especially on the subject of unity, introducing the special Communion
thanksgiving for Whitsunday, and the Sanctus, and the Prayer for Unity
in the Accession Service. I feel that it must be an impressive and very
happy way of ending the Sunday, and you will be at Sunday prayers at the
other end of the world praying with us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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