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
Dr. Inglis, my brother Missionary on Aneityum, wrote to the Reformed
Presbyterian Magazine:--"I trust all those who shed tears of sorrow on
account of her early death will be enabled in the exercise of faith and
resignation to say, 'The Will of the Lord be done; the Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord!' I need not say
how deeply we sympathize with her bereaved parents, as well as with her
sorrowing husband. By her death the Mission has sustained a heavy loss.
We were greatly pleased with Mrs. Paton during the period of our short
intercourse with her. Her mind, naturally vigorous, had been cultivated
by a superior education. She was full of Missionary spirit, and took a
deep interest in the Native women. This was seen further, when she went
to Tanna, where, in less than three months, she had collected a class of
eight females, who came regularly to her to receive instruction. There
was about her a maturity of thought, a solidity of character, a
loftiness of aim and purpose, rarely found in one so young. Trained up
in the fear of the Lord from childhood, like another Mary she had
evidently chosen that good part, which is never taken away from those
possessed of it. When she left this island, she had to all human
appearance a long career of usefulness and happiness on Earth before
her, but the Lord has appointed otherwise. She has gone, as we trust, to
her rest and her reward. The Lord has said to her as He said to David,
'Thou didst well in that it was in thine heart to build a House for My
Name.' Let us watch and pray, for our Lord cometh as a thief in the
night."
Soon after her death, the good Bishop Selwyn called at Port Resolution,
Tanna, in his Mission Ship. He came on shore to visit me, accompanied by
the Rev. J. O. Patteson. They had met Mrs. Paton on Aneityum in the
previous year soon after our arrival, and, as she was then the picture
of perfect health, they also felt her loss very keenly. Standing with me
beside the grave of mother and child, I weeping aloud on his one hand,
and Patteson--afterward the Martyr Bishop of Kakupu--sobbing silently on
the other, the godly Bishop Selwyn poured out his heart to God amidst
sobs and tears, during which he laid his hands on my head, and invoked
Heaven's richest consolations and blessings on me and my trying labors.
Sorrow and love constrain me to linger over her last words. She cried,
"Oh, that my dear mother were here! She is a good woman, my mother, a
jewel of a woman."
Then, observing Mr. Copeland near by, she said, "Oh, Mr. Copeland, I did
not know you were there! You must not think that I regret coming here,
and leaving my mother. If I had the same thing to do over again, I would
do it with far more pleasure, yes, with all my heart. Oh no! I do not
regret leaving home and friends, though at the time I felt it keenly."
Soon after this, looking up and putting her hand in mine, she said--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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