The Story of John G. Paton; Or, Thirty Years Among South Sea CannibalsPaton, John Gibson
Religion
The Story of John G. Paton; Or, Thirty Years Among South Sea Cannibals
Paton, John Gibson
Missions -- Vanuatu; Paton, John Gibson, 1824-1907
The Churches to which I had access did nobly indeed, and the Ministers
treated me as a very brother. Dr. Dykes most affectionately supported my
Appeal, and made himself recipient of donations that might be sent for
our Mission Ship. Dr. Donald Fraser, and Messrs. Taylor and Mathieson,
with their Congregations, generously contributed to the Fund. And so did
the Mission Church in Drury Lane--the excellent and consecrated Rev. W.
B. Alexander, the pastor thereof, and his wife, becoming my devoted
personal friends and continuing to remember in their work-parties ever
since the needs of the Natives on the New Hebrides. Others also, whom I
cannot wait to specify, showed a warm interest in us and in our
department of the Lord's work. But my heart had been foolishly set upon
adding a large sum to the fund for the Mission Ship, and when only about
L150 came from all the Churches in London to which I could get access,
no doubt I was sensible of cherishing a little guilty disappointment.
That was very unworthy in me, considering all my previous experiences;
and God deserved to be trusted by me far differently, as the sequel will
immediately show.
That widely-known and deeply-beloved servant of God, Mr. J. E.
Mathieson, of the Mildmay Conference Hall, had invited me to address one
of their annual meetings on behalf of Foreign Missions, and also to be
his guest while the Conference lasted. Thereby I met and heard many
godly and noble disciples of the Lord, whom I could not otherwise have
reached though every Church I had asked in London had been freely opened
to me. These devout and faithful and generous people, belonging to every
branch of the Church of Christ, and drawn from every rank and class in
society, from the humblest to the highest, were certainly amongst the
most open-hearted and the most responsive of all whom I ever had the
privilege to address. One felt there, in a higher degree than almost
anywhere else, that every soul was on fire with love to Jesus and with
genuine devotion to His Cause in every corner of the Earth. There it was
a privilege and a gladness to speak; and though no collection was asked,
or could be expected, my heart was uplifted and strengthened by these
happy meetings, and by all that Heavenly intercourse.
But see how the Lord leads us by a way we know not! Next morning after
my address, a gentleman who had heard me, the Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer,
handed me a cheque from his father-in-law for L300, by far the largest
single donation at that time towards our Mission Ship; and immediately
thereafter I received from one of the Mildmay lady Missionaries L50,
from a venerable friend of the founder L20, from "Friends at Mildmay"
L30; and through my dear friend and brother, Mr. Mathieson, many other
donations were in due course forwarded to me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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