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PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY
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PRESENTED BY
Dr. Donald Roberts BV 3680 7N6 T>37 1889 v . 1 | Paton, John Gibson, 1824-
1907. John G. Paton, missionary t(
the New Hebrides
s.
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^-^xn^^ ., (J^HyU-/ .
JOHN G. PATON
gin 9lutDl)ia5rapI)p»
FIRST PART.
NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION ILLUSTRATED.
JOHN G. PATON,
MISSIONARY TO THE NEW HEBRIDES. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
EDITED BY HIS BROTHER.
With an Introduction by ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D, Two vols, in bo.x, i2mo, cloth, gilt top net J2.00.
flDinfstcrial Commcn6at(on.
" I have just laid down the most robust and the most fascinating piece of autobiography that I have met with in many a day. . . . John G. Paton was made of the same stuff with Livingstone." — Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D.
" I consider it unsurpassed in missionary biography. In the whole course of my extensive reading on these topics, a more stimulating, inspiring, and every way first-class book has not fallen into my hands. Every- body ought to read it.' —^r/A«r T. Piersotiy D.D. flDisstonars Ipraise.
" I have never read a romance that was half so thrilling." — Lucius C. Stnitk, Guanajuato, Mexico.
" I have ne~er read a more inspiring biography." — Thomas C. IVinn, Yokohatna, Japan.
" The Lord's work will not go back while there are such men as he in the church?'— ^/aw^J ^. Heal, Sing Kong, Cheh Kiang, China.
" I thii.k I have never had greater pleasure in read- ing any book." — R. Thacksweil, Dehra, North India.
ff»rc6S motfccs.
" Perhaps the most important addition _ for many years to the library of missionary literature is the auto- biography of John G. Paton." — TheChristian Advocate.
" We commend to all who would advance the cause of Foreign Missions this remarkable autobiography. It stands with such books as those Dr. Livingstone gave the world, and shows to men that the heroes of the cross are not merely to be sought in past ages." — The Christian Intelligeficer.
Fleming H. Revell Company,
New York, 30 Union Scjuare, E. Chicago, 148 & 150 Madison Street.
^%ferr
JOHN
^TON,
an 0urouiograp^t\
EDITED BY HIS BROTHER
r/ASrPAJir
il^vt SfiMftt*trt ^Sbitien.
FlEM;,
.OMPAS
NEW YORK
30 Union Square, East
CHICAGO ! 50 Maoison Street.
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JOHN
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JOHN G. PATON,
MISSIONARY TO THE
NEW HEBRIDES.
0n 0utobiograpl)^,
EDITED BY HIS BROTHER.
FIRST PART.
jFlcw fHuBtrateti »«Bbttion.
Fleming H. Revell Company
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CHICAGO
30 Union Square, East. 148-150 Madison Street.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D.
T OVE is omnipotent. Wherever true passion for -^ — * souls burns, there we may find a new Mount of Transfiguration where the earthly takes on the com- plexion of the heavenly.
This book presents an example of the power of such love and holy enthusiasm, alike in one of the great cities of Scotland and in the isles of the sea.
Even among the riches of missionary biography few such volumes as this are to be found, and the most apathetic reader will find himself fascinated by this charming romance of real life. It has been well said that he who is not ready to preach the gospel everywhere and anywhere is fit to preach it nowhere. Should every candidate for the office of the ministry be first tried in some such field as the wynds of Glasgow, it would prove a training in its way more profitable than any discipline in the class-room ; and it might so shake the " napkin " at the four corners as to disclose whether or not there were in it even one "talent" for winning souls.
We calmly affirm, after careful perusal, that this biography is not surpassed, for stimulating, inspiring,
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
and helpful narrative, by any existing story of mis- sionary heroism. Its peculiar value is twofold : it shows how the most neglected and degraded masses of our cities may be reached by Christian effort, and it illustrates the spirit of missions on the wider field of south-sea cannibalism. Our only regret is that this story of missionary labor is not carried on to its successful issue. This volume leaves us eagerly ex- pectant of what is promised as the sequel.
He who doubts whether there is a supernatural factor in missions, should carefully read this narra- tive. What but the power of God could turn the demon of drink into a ministering angel, or the blas- phemer into a praying saint, or out of the mouth of hell withdraw the half-devoured wretch who was des- perately bent on suicide }
Let those who sit quietly at home in their easy- chairs, or who make rousing addresses or write stirring articles on city evangelization and the es- trangement of the masses from the church, follow this heroic city missionary as he dives into the depths of all this depravity and degradation, and demon- strates what the love of souls and the gospel of life can do to rescue those who are drowning in the abyss of perdition.
PREFACE.
THE Manuscript of this Volume, put together in a rough draft amid cease- less and exacting toils, was placed in my hands and left absolutely to my disposal by my beloved brother, the Missionary.
It has been to me a labour of perfect love to re-write and revise the same, pruning here and expanding there, and preparing the whole for the press. In the incidents of personal experi- ence, constituting the larger part of the book, the reader peruses in an almost unaltered form the graphic and simple narrative as it came from my brother's pen. But, as many sec- tions have been re-cast and largely modified, especially in those Chapters of whose events I was myself an eye-witness, or regarding which I had information at first hand from the parties concerned therein, — and as circum-
VI PREFACE,
Stances make it impossible to submit these in their present shape to my brother before publication, — I must request the Public to lay upon me, and not on him, all responsibility for the final shape in which the Autobiography appears.
I publish it, because Something tells me there is a blessing in it
January, 1889. James Paton.
NOTE TO SECOND EDITION.
The Editor desires very gratefully to acknow- ledge his joy in receiving, not only through Press Notices, but from Correspondents in every rank, most ample confirmation of the assurance expressed by him in the last sentence of the Original Preface — " There is a blessing in it."
He has been urging his Brother to complete, as soon as he possibly can, Part Second of the Autobiography ; and he hopes that the call for this Second Edition of Part First at so early a date will successfully enforce his appeal
February, 1889.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. EARLIER DAYS.
FACE
Introductory Note ....«■• 3 Kirkmahoe 4
Torthorwald Village 5
Our Villagers ........ 6
Nithsdale Scenes . 7
Our Cottage Home 9
Our Forebears 12
An Idyll of the Heart t6
A Consecrated Father 19
Accepted Vows 21
Happy Sabbath Days .22
Golden Autumn of Life . . . . . .26
CHAPTER II.
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
A Typical Scottish School 3'
An Unacknowledged Prize 32
A Wayward Master 33
Learning a Trade •33
My Father's Prayers 34
"Jehovah Jireh" 34
With Sappers and Miners 36
The Harvest Field . 3^
CONTENTS.
PAGE
On the Road to Glasgow .,.•.. 39
A Memorable Parting •••••• 40
Before the Examiners • • • • • .42
Killing Work 43
Deep Waters ., 44
Maryhill School 45
Rough School Scenes 46
"Aut Caesar Aut Nullus" 48
My Wages 49
CHAPTER III. IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION.
"He Leadeth Me" 53
A Degraded District . . . , , , .55
The Gospel in a Hay-Loft . . . , , 56
New Mission Premises ...... 58
At Work for Jesus ....... 59
At War with Hell 62
Sowing Gospel Seed 64
Publicans on the War Path ..... 65
Marched to the Police Office ..... 67
Papists and Infidels 69
An Infidel Saved . 70
An Infidel in Despair 71
A Brand from the Burning 72
A Saintly Child 75
Papists in Anns 77
Elder and Student 81
CHAPTER IV.
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.
The Wail of the Heathen 85
A Missionary Wanted 85
Two Souls on the Altar 87
Lions in the Path 89
CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Old Folks at Home 92
Successors in Green Street Mission .... 95
Old Green Street Hands 97
A Father in God 97
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CHAPTER |
V. |
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THE NEW HEBRIDES. |
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License and Ordination loi |
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At Sea |
, |
102 |
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From Melbourne to Aneityum , |
102 |
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Settlement on Tanna . |
, IDS |
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Our Mission Stations . |
io6 |
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Diplomatic Chiefs |
107 |
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Painful First Impressions , |
. 108 |
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Bloody Scenes . |
. 109 |
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The Widow's Doom . |
> III |
CHAPTER VI.
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Our Island Home . , . |
• • |
. 115 |
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Learning the Language |
, |
. 116 |
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A Religion of Fear . |
1 ♦ |
. 118 |
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With or Without a God . |
• |
. 119 |
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Ideas of the Invisible , |
• . |
, 120 |
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Gods and Demons |
, , |
, 121 |
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My Companion Missionary |
. |
♦ 122 |
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Pioneers in New Hebrides |
, |
123 |
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Missionaries of Aneityum . |
1 • • |
125 |
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The Lord's Arrowroot , |
126 |
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Unhealthy Sites . |
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. 127 |
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The Great Bereavement . |
• • 4 |
. 129 |
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Memorial Tributes |
, . |
. 131 |
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Selwyn and Patteson at a Tanr |
la Grave |
. 133 |
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Her Last Letter . . . |
• • 1 |
. 134 |
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Last Words . . , |
• • |
. . 137 |
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Presentiment and Mystery |
• • |
. . 138 |
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII. MISSION LEA VES FROM TANNA.
fAGE
Tannese Natives ••••••, 141
"Tabooed" , , , 142
Jehovah's Rain 143
"Big Hays" 144
War and Cannibalism , 145
The Lot of Woman , 146
Sacred Days 148
Preaching in Villages . . , , , .149
Native Teachers 150
The War Shell . . . . . . . .151
Deadly Superstitions . , , , , , ,152
A League of Blood ...,.,. 154
Chiefs in Council 155
Defence of Women 157
A League of Peace 157
Secret Disciples 159
A Christo-Heathen Funeral 159
Clever Thieves 160
Ships of Fire .... ... 164
H.M.S. Cordelia 166
Captain Vernon and Miaki 167
The Captain and the Chiefs 168
The John Williams 169
Evanescent Impressions ...... 170
A House on the Hill 171
In Fever Grips 171
"Noble Old Abraham" .... . 1*^2
Critics in Easy Chairs 174
CHAPTER VIII.
MORE MISSION LEA VES FROM 7 ANNA.
The Blood Fiend Unleashed 179
In the Camp of the Enemy , . , . . 180
A Typical South Sea Trader 182
Young Rarip's Death 183
CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Trader's Retribution ^^5
Worship and War . , ^^^
Saved from Strangling ^^7
Wrath Restrained ^^^
Under the Axe *9i
The Clubbing of Namuri 193
A Native Saint and Martyr I95
Bribes Refused . . . . . • • .197
Widows Rescued ^97
The Sinking of a Well 198
Church-Building on Tanna ^99
Ancient Stone God 201
Printing First Tannese Book 201
A Christian Captain 203
Levelled Muskets 204
A French Refugee 205
A Villainous Captain 208
Like Master— Like Men 209
Wrecked on Purpose 212
The Kanaka Traffic 213
A Heathen Festival 215
Sacrifices to Idols 218
Heathen Dance and Sham Fight . . . .219
Six Native Teachers 221
A Homeric Episode 222
Victims for Cannibal Feast 223
The Jaws of Death 224
Nahak or Sorcery 226
Killing me by Nahak 227
Nahak Defied 229
Protected by Jehovah 230
"Almost Persuaded" 231
Escorted to the Battle-Field 232
Praying for Enemies 233
Our Canoe on the Reef ..... 233
A Perilous Pilgrimage 236
Rocks and Waters = • 237
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX. DEEPENING SHADOWS,
PAGB
Welcome Guests , . 243
A Fiendish Deed 244
The Plague of Measles ...... 245
A Heroic Soul 246
Horrors of Epidemic 247
A Memorable New Year 248
A Missionary Attacked 249
In the Valley of the Shadow 251
Blow from an Adze ....... 252
A Missionary's Death 253
Mrs. Johnston's Letter 255
A Heavy Loss 256
The Story of Kowia 256
Kowia's Soliloquy 258
The Passing of Kowia 259
Mortality of Measles 261
Fuel to the Fire 262
Hurricanes 262
A Spate of Blood and Terror 263
No war Vacillates 265
The Anger of the Gods 265
Not Afraid to Die 266
Martyrs of Erromanga ...... 267
Visit to the Gordons 268
Their Martyrdom ....... 269
Vindication of the Gordons . . . . . 270
Gordon's Last Letter 272
Plots of Murder 273
Death by Nahak 275
Nowar Halting Again . . . . . . 275
Old Abraham's Prayer 277
Miaki and the Mission House 278
Satanic Influences 280
Perplexity Deepening 280
Bishop Selwyn's Testimony . , . . .281
CONTENTS.
PACK
Rotten Tracts 283
Captain and Mate of Blue Bell .... 285
My Precious Dog ....... 287
Fishing-Nets and Kawases 288
The Taro Plant 290
The Kava Drink 290
Katasian and the Club Scene . . . . .291
The Yams 292
Sunshine and Shadow ...... 292
Teachers Demoralized 293
The Chief's Alphabet ...... 294
Our Evil Genius ....,,. 295
Ships of Fire Again ....... 295
Commodore Seymour's Visit 296
Nouka and Queen 'Toria 297
The Dog to his Vomit Again . , , , , 298
CHAPTER X.
FAREWELL SCENES.
The War Fever .
Forced to the War Council
A Truce Among the Chiefs
Chiefs and People
The Kiss of Judas . .
The Death of Ian
The Quivering Knife
A War of Revenge .
In the Thick of the Battle
Tender Mercies of the Wicked
Escape for Life . .
The Loss of All . .
Under the Tomahawk .
Jehovah is Hearing .
The Host Turned Back .
The War Against Manuman
303 305 306 308 309 309 31C 312
315 316
Z^l 318 318 320 320
CONTENTS.
Traps Laid . . . House Broken Up . War Against Our Friends A Treacherous Murderer On the Chestnut Tree Bargaining for Life . Five Hours in a Canoe Kneeling on the Sands Faimungo's Farewell . "Follow! Follow!" . A Race for Life Ringed Round with Death Faint yet Pursuing Out of the Lion's Jaws Brothers in Distress . Intervening Events A Cannibal's Taste , Pillars of Cloud and Fire Passing by on the Other Side Kapuku and the Idol Gods A Devil Chief . " In Perils Oft " . Through Fire and Water "Sail O! Sail 01" . "Let Me Die" . In Perils on the Sea . Tannese Visitors The Devil Chief Again Speckled and Spotted Their Desired Haven "I am Left Alone" . My Earthly All . Eternal Hope Australia to the Rescue For My Brethren's Sake A New Holy League . The Uses of Adversity
PAGK
321
322 322 323 324
325 328
329 330 331 332
334 336 337 339 341 341 342 344 344 344 345 345 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 355 356 356 357 358 358 359
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Arm-chair Critics Again •,,,.. 360 Concluding Note . . . • t • • 361 Prospectus of Part Second. . . . . • 36^
APPENDIX.
A The Prayer of the Chiefs of Tanna , B. Notes on the New Hebrides
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
-o-
PORTRAIT OF JOHN G. Paton Frontispiece.
"The Man That Kills Missi Must First Kill Me" To face p. 156
Natives Stealing Property " 160
Natives Returning Stolen Property . . . " 165
" There They Lay Me on Cocoanut Leaves on the »
Ground" " j-j
"At Daybreak I Found My House Surrounded" " 188
The Dangerous Landing Through the Surf . . " 235
" Suddenly He Drew A Large Butcher Like Knife" " 311
Springing Forward He Caught The Club . . " 343
Map of the New Hebrides
Tor
EARLIER DAYS,
P.
CHAPTER I.
EARLIER DAYS.
Introductory Note. — Kirkmahoe. — Torthorwald Village. — Our Villagers. — Nithsdale Scenes. — Our Cottage Home. — Our Forebears. — An Idyll of the Heart. - A Consecrated Father. — Accepted Vows. — Happy Sabbath Days. — Golden Autumn of Life.
WHAT I write here is for the glory of God. For more than twenty years have I been urged to record my story as a missionary of the Cross ; but always till now, in my sixty-fourth year, my heart has shrunk from the task, as savouring too much of self. Latterly the conviction has been borne home to me that if there be much in my ex- perience which the Church of God ought to know, it would be pride on my part, and not humility, to let it die with me. I lift my pen, therefore, with that motive supreme in my heart ; and, so far as memory and entries in my note-books and letters of my own and of other friends serve or help my sincere desire to be truthful and fair, the following chapters will present a faithful picture of the life through which the Lord has led me. If it bows any of my readers
EARLIER DAYS.
under as deep and certain a confidence as mine, that in " God's hand our breath is, and His are all our ways," my task will not be fruitless in the Great Day.
On the 24th May, 1824, I was born in a cottage on the farm of Braehead, in the parish of Kirkmahoe, near Dumfries, in the south of Scotland. My father, James Paton, was a stocking manufacturer in a small way ; and he and his young wife, Janet Jardine Rogerson, lived on terms of warm personal friendship with the " gentleman farmer," so they gave me his name, John Gibson; and the curly -haired child of the cottage was soon able to toddle across to the mansion, and became a great pet of the lady there. More than once, in my many journeyings, have I met with one or another, in some way connected with that family, and heard little incidents not needing to be repeated here, showing how beautiful and tender and altogether human was the relation- ship in those days betwixt the landlord and the cottars on his estate. On my last visit to Scot- land, sixty years after, I drove to Braehead in com- pany with my youngest brother James and my cousin David, — the latter born the same week as I, and the former nearly twenty years my junior ; and we found no cottage, nor trace of a cottage, but amused ourselves by supposing that we could dis- cover by the rising of the grassy mound, the outline where the foundations once had been ! Of ten thousand homes in Scotland, once sweet and beau-
EARLIER DAYS.
tiful, each a little possible Paradise in its own well- cultivated plot, this is true to-day ; and where are the healthy, happy peasant boys and girls that such homes bred and reared ? They are sweltering and struggling for existence in our towns and cities. I am told that this must be — that it is all the result of economic laws ; but I confess to a deepening con- viction that it need not be, and that the loss to the nation as a whole is vital, if not irreparable.
While yet a mere child, five years or so of age, my parents took me to a new home in the ancient village of Torthorwald, about four and a quarter miles north from Dumfries, on the road to Lockerbie. At that time, about 1830, Torthorwald was a busy and thriving village, and comparatively populous, with its cottars and crofters, large farmers and small farmers, weavers and shoemakers, doggers and coop- ers, blacksmiths and tailors. Fifty-five years later, when I last visited the scenes of my youth, the village proper was literally extinct, except for five thatched cottages where the lingering patriarchs were permitted to die slowly away, — when they too would be swept into the large farms, and their garden plots ploughed over, like sixty or seventy others that had been obliterated ! Of course the Village Smithy still survives, but its sparks are ^q^n and fading, — the great cultivators patronizing rather the towns. The Meal Mill. still grinds away, — but nothing like what it did when every villager bought or cultivated his few acres of corn, and every crofter and farmer m
EARLIER DAYS.
the parish sent all his grist to the mill. The Grocer's Shop still recalls the well-known name of Robert Henderson ; but so few are the mouths now to be fed, that his warm-hearted wife and universal favour- ite, the very heroine of our village life, " Jean Grier," is retiring from it in disgust, and leaving it to her son-in-law, declaring that " these Tory landlords and their big farms hae driven our folks a' awa', and spoiled the Schule and the Shop, the Kirk and the Mill." And verily the School is robbed of its children, and the Parish Church of its worshippers, when five families only are reared where twenty once flourished! Political economy may curse me, if it will ; but I heard with grim satisfaction that this system of large farming, which extinguishes our village homes, and sends our peasantry to rear their children in lanes and alleys, in attics and cellars of populous towns, was proving ruinous at length to the landlords and factors, who had in many cases cruelly forced it on an unwilling people for mere selfish gain.
The Villagers of my early days— the agricultural servants, or occasional labourers, the tradesmen, the small farmers — were, generally speaking, a very in- dustrious and thoroughly independent race of people. Hard workers they had to be, else they would starve ; yet they were keen debaters on all affairs both in Church and State, and sometimes in the "smiddy" or the "kiln," sometimes in a happy knot on the " village green," or on the road to the " kirk " or the " market," the questions that were tearing the mighty
EARLIER DAYS.
world beyond were fought over again by secluded peasants with amazing passion and bright intelligence. From the Bank Hill, close above our village, and accessible in a walk of fifteen minutes, a view opens to the eye which, despite several easily understood prejudices of mine that may discount any opinion that I offer, still appears to me well worth seeing amongst all the beauties of Scotland. At your feet lay a thriving village, every cottage sitting in its own plot of garden, and sending up its blue cloud of "peat reek," which never somehow seemed to pollute the blessed air ; and after all has been said or sung, a beautifully situated village of healthy and happy homes for God's children is surely the finest feature in every landscape! There nestled the Manse amongst its ancient trees, sometimes wisely, some- times foolishly tenanted, but still the " man's-house," the man of God's house, when such can be found for it. There, close by, the Parish School, where rich and poor met together on equal terms, as God's children ; and we learned that brains and character make the only aristocracy worth mentioning. Yonder, amid its graves, that date back on crumbling stone five hundred years, stands the Village Church ; and there, on its little natural hill, at the end of the village, rises the old tower of Torthorwald, frowning over all the far-sweeping valley of the Nith, and telling of days of blood and Border foray. It was one of the many castles of the Kirkpatricks, and its enormous and imperishable walls seem worthy of
EARLIER DAYS.
him who wrote the legend of his family in the blood of the Red Comyn, stabbed in the Greyfriars Church of Dumfries, when he smote an extra blow to that of Bruce, and cried, " I mak' siccar," Beyond, betwixt you and the Nith, crawls the slow-creeping Lochar towards the Sol way, through miles and miles of moss and heather, — the nearest realization that I ever be- held of a "stagnant stream." Looking from the Bank Hill on a summer day, Dumfries with its spires shone so conspicuous that you could have believed it not more than two miles away ; the splendid sweeping vale through which Nith rolls to Solway, lay all before the naked eye, beautiful with village spires, mansion houses, and white shining farms ; the Galloway hills, gloomy and far-tumbling, bounded the forward view, while to the left rose Criffel, cloud-capped and majestic ; then the white sands of Solway, with tides swifter than horsemen ; and finally the eye rested joyfully upon the hills of Cumberland, and noticed with glee the blue curling smoke from its villages on the southern Solway shores. Four miles behind you lie the ruins of the Castle of the Bruce, within the domains of his own Royal Burgh of Lochmaben ; a few miles in front, the still beautiful and amazing remains of Caerlave- rock Castle, famous in many a Border story ; all around you, scattered throughout the dale of Nith, memories or ruins of other baronial " keeps," rich in suggestion to the peasant fancy ! Traditions lost nothing in bulk, or in graphic force, as they were
EARLIER DAYS.
retold for the thousandth time by village patriarchs around the kindly peat fire, with the younger rustics gaping round. A high spirit of patriotism, and a certain glorious delight in daring enterprises, was part of our common heritage.
There, amid this wholesome and breezy village life, our dear parents found their home for the long period of forty years. There were born to them eight additional children, making in all a family of five sons and six daughters. Theirs was the first of the thatched cottages on the left, past the " miller's house," going up the "village gate," with a small garden in front of it, and a large garden across the road ; and it is one of the few still lingering to show to a new generation what the homes of their fathers were. The architect who planned it had no ideas of art, but a fine eye for durability ! It consists at present of three, but originally of four, pairs of "oak couples " (Scottic^ kipples), planted like solid trees in the ground at equal intervals, and gently sloped inwards till they meet or are " coupled " at the ridge, this coupling being managed not by rusty iron, but by great solid pins of oak. A roof of oaken wattles was laid across these, till within eleven or twelve feet of the ground, and from the ground upwards a stone wall was raised, as perpendicular as was found practi- cable, towards these overhanging wattles, this wall being roughly " pointed " with sand and clay and lime. Now into and upon the roof was woven and intertwisted a covering of thatch, that defied all
EARLIER DAYS,
winds and weathers, and that made the cottage marvellously cosey, — being renewed year by year, and never allowed to remain in disrepair at any season. But the beauty of the construction was and is its durability, or rather the permanence of its oaken ribs ! There they stand, after probably not less than four centuries, japanned with " peat reek " till they are literally shining, so hard that no ordinary nail can be driven into them, and perfectly capable for service for four centuries more on the same conditions. The walls are quite modern, having all been rebuilt in my father's time, except only the few great foundation boulders, piled around the oaken couples ; and parts of the roofing also may plead guilty to having found its way thither only in recent days ; but the architect's one idea survives, baffling time and change — the ribs and rafters of oak. Our home consisted of a " but " and a " ben " and a " mid room," or chamber, called the " closet." The one end was my mother's domain, and served all the purposes of dining-room and kitchen and parlour, besides containing two large wooden erec- tions, called by our Scotch peasantry " box-beds " ; not holes in the wall, as in cities, but grand, big, airy beds, adorned with many-coloured counterpanes, and hung with natty curtains, showing the skill of the mistress of the house. The other end was my father's workshop, filled with five or six "stocking frames," whirring with the constant action of five or six pairs of busy hands and feet, and producing right
EARLIER DAYS. II
genuine hosiery for the merchants at Hawick and Dumfries. The " closet " was a very small apartment betwixt the other two, having room only for a bed, a little table, and a chair, with a diminutive window shedding diminutive light on the scene. This was the Sanctuary of that cottage home. Thither daily, and oftentimes a day, generally after each meal, we saw our father retire, and "shut to the door"; and we children got to understand by a sort of spiritual instinct (for the thing was too sacred to be talked about) that prayers were being poured out there for us, as of old by the High Priest within the veil in the Most Holy Place. We occasionally heard the pathetic echoes of a trembling voice pleading as if for life, and we learned to slip out and in past that door on tiptoe, not to disturb the holy colloquy. The outside world might not know, but we knew, whence came that happy light as of a new-born smile that always was dawning on my father's face : it was a reflection from the Divine Presence, in the consciousness of which he lived. Never, in temple or cathedral, on mountain or in glen, can I hope to feel that the Lord God is more near, more visibly walking and talking with men, than under that humble cottage roof of thatch and oaken wattles. Though everything else in religion were by some unthinkable catastrophe to be swept out of memory, or blotted from my under- standing, my soul would wander back to those early scenes, and shut itself up once again in that Sanctuary Closet, and, hearing still the echoes of those cries to
12 EARLIER DAYS.
God, would hurl back all doubt with the victorious appeal, " He walked with God, why may not I ? "
A few notes had better here be given as to our " Forebears," the kind of stock from which my father and mother sprang. My father's mother, Janet Murray, claimed to be descended from a Galloway family that fought and suffered for Christ's Crown and Covenant in Scotland's " killing time," and was herself a woman of a pronouncedly religious deve- lopment. Her husband, our grandfather, William Paton, had passed through a roving and romantic career, before he settled down to a douce deacon of the weavers of Dumfries, like his father before him.
Forced by a press-gang to serve on board a British man-of-war, he was taken prisoner by the French, and thereafter placed under Paul Jones, the pirate of the seas, and bore to his dying day the mark of a slash from the captain's sword across his shoulder for some slight disrespect or offence. Determining with two others to escape, the three were hotly pursued by Paul Jones's men. One, who could swim but little, was shot, and had to be cut adrift by the other two, who in the darkness swam into a cave and managed to evade for two nights and a day the rage of their pursuers. My grandfather, being young and gentle and yellow-haired, persuaded some kind heart to rig him out in female attire, and in this costume escaped the attentions of the press-gang more than once ; till, after many hardships, he bargained with the captain of a coal sloop to stow him away amongst his black
EARLIER DAYS. 13
diamonds, and thus, in due time, he found his way home to Dumfries, where he tackled bravely and wisely the duties of husband, father, and citizen for the remainder of his days. The smack of the sea about the stories of his youth gave zest to the talks round their quiet fireside, and that, again, was seasoned by the warm evangelical spirit of his Covenanting wife, her lips " dropping grace."
Of their children, two reproduced the disposition of their father, and two that of their mother. William took to the soldier's career, and died in Spain ; May, the only daughter, gave her heart and hand to John Wood, a jolly and gallant Englishman, who fought at Waterloo, and lived to see his hundredth birthday. John and James, the latter being my father, both learned the stocking manufacturing business of their fathers, and both followed their mother's piety and became from their early teens very pronounced and consistent disciples of the Lord.
On the other side, my mother, Janet Rogerson, had for parents a father and mother of the Annandale stock. William Rogerson, her father, was one of many brothers, all men of uncommon strength and great force of character, quite worthy of the Border rievers of an earlier day. Indeed, it was in some such way that he secured his wife, though the dear old lady in after-days was chary about telling the story. She was a girl of good position, the ward of two un- scrupulous uncles who had charge of her small estate, near Langholm ; and while attending some boarding
14 EARLIER DAYS.
school she fell devotedly in love with the tall, fair- haired, gallant young blacksmith, William Rogerson. Her guardians, doubtless very properly, objected to the "connection " ; but our young Lochinvar, with his six or seven stalwart brothers and other trusty "lads," all mounted, and with some ready tool in case of need, went boldly and claimed his bride, and she, willingly mounting at his side, was borne off in the light of open day, joyously married, and took possession of her " but and ben," as the mistress of the blacksmith's abode.
The uncles had it out with him, however, in an- other way. While he was enjoying his honeymoon, and careless of mere mundane affairs, they managed to dispose of all the property of their ward, and make good their escape with the proceeds to the New World. Having heard a rumour of some such sale, our young blacksmith on horseback just reached the scene in time to see the last article — a Family Bible — put up for auction. This he claimed, or purchased, or seized, in name of the heiress — but that was all that she ever inherited. It was used devoutly by her till her dying day, and was adorned with the record of her own marriage and of the birth of a large and happy family, whom by-and-by God gave to her.
Janet Jardine bowed her neck to the self-chosen yoke, with the light of a supreme affection in her heart, and showed in her gentler ways, her love of books, her fine accomplishments with the needle
EARLIER DAYS. \%
and her general air of ladyhood, that her lot had once been cast in easier, but not necessarily happier, ways. Her blacksmith lover proved not unworthy of his lady bride, and in her old days found a quiet and modest home, the fruit of years of toil and hope- ful thrift, their own little property, in which they rested and waited a happy end. Amongst those who at last wept by her grave stood, amidst many sons and daughters, her son the Rev. James J. Rogerson, clergyman of the Church of England, who, for many years thereafter, and till quite recently, was spared to occupy a distinguished position at ancient Shrewsbury, and has left behind him there an honoured and beloved name.
One thing else, beautiful in its pathos, I must re- cord of that dear old lady. Her son, Walter, had gone forth from her, in prosecution of his calling, had cor- responded with her from various counties in England, and then had suddenly disappeared ; and no sign came to her, whether he was dead or alive. The mother-heart in her clung to the hope of his return ; every night she prayed for that happy event, and be- fore closing the door, threw it wide open, and peered into the darkness with a cry, " Come hame, my boy Walter, your mither wearies sair ; " and every morning, at early break of day, for a period of more than twenty years, she toddled up from her cot- tage door, at Johnsfield, Lockerbie, to a little round hill, called the " Corbie Dykes," and, gazing with tear-filled eyes towards the south for the form
l6 EARLIER DAYS.
of her returning boy, prayed the Lord God to keep him safe and restore him to her yet again. Always, as I think upon that scene, my heart finds conso- lation in reflecting that if not here, then for certain there^ such deathless longing love will be rewarded, and, rushing into long-delayed embrace, will exclaim, " Was lost and is found."
From such a home came our mother, Janet Jardine - Rogerson, a bright-hearted, high-spirited, patient- toiling, and altogether heroic little woman ; who, for about forty-three years, made and kept such a whole- some, independent, God-fearing, and self-reliant life for her family of five sons and six daughters, as con- strains me, when I look back on it now, in the light of all I have since seen and known of others far differ- ently situated, almost to worship her memory. She had gone with her high spirits and breezy disposition to gladden, as their companion, the quiet abode of some grand or great-grand-uncle and aunt, familiarly named in all that Dalswinton neighbourhood, " Old Adam and Eve." Their house was on the outskirts of the moor, and life for the young girl there had not probably too much excitement But one thing had arrested her attention. She had noticed that a young stocking maker from the " Brig End," James Baton, the son of William and Janet there, was in the habit of stealing alone into the quiet wood, book in hand, day after day, at certain hours, as if for private study and meditation. It was a very excusable curiosity that led the young bright heart of the girl to watch
EARLIER DAYS. I?
him devoutly reading and hear him reverently reciting (though she knew not then, it was Ralph Erskine's " Gospel Sonnets," which he could say by heart sixty years afterwards, as he lay on his bed of death) ; and finally that curiosity awed itself into a holy respect, when she saw him lay aside his broad Scotch bonnet, kneel down under the sheltering wings of some tree, and pour out all his soul in daily prayers to God. As yet they had never spoken. What spirit moved her, let lovers tell — was it all devotion, or was it a touch of unconscious love kindling in her towards the yellow-haired and thoughtful youth ? Or was there a stroke of mischief, of that teasing, which so often opens up the door to the most serious step in all our lives } Anyhow, one day she slipped in quietly, stole away his bonnet, and hung it on a branch near by, while his trance of devotion made him oblivious of all around ; then, from a safe retreat she watched and enjoyed his perplexity in seeking for and finding it ! A second day this was repeated ; but his manifest disturbance of mind, and his long pondering with the bonnet in hand, as if almost alarmed, seemed to touch another chord in her heart — that chord of pity which is so often the prelude of love, that finer pity that grieves to wound anything nobler or tenderer than ourselves. Next day, when he came to his accustomed place of prayer, a little card was pinned against the tree just where he knelt, and on it these words : —
" She who stole away your bonnet is ashamed of
p. 2
i8 Earlier days.
what she did ; she has a great respect for you, and asks you to pray for her, that she may become as good a Christian as you."
Staring long at that writing, he forgot Ralph Erskine for one day ; taking down the card, and won- dering who the writer could be, he was abusing him- self for his stupidity in not suspecting that some one had discovered his retreat, and removed his bonnet, instead of wondering whether angels had been there during his prayer, — when, suddealy raising his eyes, he saw in front of old Adam's cottage, through a lane amongst the trees, the passing of another kind of angel, swinging a milk-pail in her hand and merrily singing some snatch of old Scottish song. He knew, in that moment, by a Divine instinct, as infallible as any voice that ever came to seer of old, that she was the angel visitor that had stolen in upon his retreat — that bright-faced, clcver-witted niece of old Adam and Eve, to whom he had never yet spoken, but whose praises he had often heard said and sung — "Wee Jen." I am afraid he did pray "for her," in more senses than one, that afternoon ; at any rate, more than a Scotch bonnet was very effectually stolen ; a good heart and true was there bestowed, and the trust was never regretted on either side, and never betrayed.
Often and often, in the genial and beautiful hours of the autumntide of their long life, have I heard my dear father tease " Jen " about her maidenly intentions in the stealing of that bonnet; and often
EARLIER DAYS. 19
with quick mother wit have heard her happy retort, that had his motives for coming to that retreat been altogether and exclusively pious, he would probably have found his way to the other side of the wood, but that men who prowled about the Garden of Eden ran the risk of meeting some day with a daughter of Eve !
Somewhere in or about his seventeenth year, my^ father passed through a crisis of religious experience, and from that day he openly and very decidedly followed the Lord Jesus. His parents had belonged to one of the older branches of what now we call the United Presbyterian Church ; but my father, having made an independent study of the Scotch Worthies, the Cloud of Witnesses, the Testimonies^ and the Confession of Faith, resolved to cast in his lot with the oldest of all the Scotch Churches, the Reformed Presbyterian, as most nearly representing the Covenanters and the attainments of both the first and second Reformations in Scotland. This choice he deliberately made, and sincerely and in- telligently adhered to ; and was able at all times to give strong and clear reasons from Bible and from history for the principles he upheld. Still his sym- pathies and votes always went with the more pro- gressive party in that ancient Church. He held it to be right that Cameronians, like other citizens, should exercise the municipal and political franchise, and he adhered to the " Majority Synod," which has since been incorporated with the Free Church of Scotland.
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While glorying in the Psalms, he rejoiced to sing other hymns and spiritual songs (thanks to Ralph Erskine's "Sonnets," perhaps, for that !) from his earli- est days, at least everywhere except in the ordinary Public Worship ; and long before he died, though he still held the Psalms to be supreme, he had learned to hear with glowing delight vast congregations sing- ing the hymns of modern days, had learned joyfully to join in these songs of Zion, and was heard often to confess his belief that God had greatly owned and blessed the ministry of song in the service of the Gospel,
Besides his independent choice of a Church for himself, there was one other mark and fruit of his early religious decision, which looks even fairer through all these years. Family Worship had here- tofore been held only on Sabbath day in his father's house ; but the young Christian, entering into con- ference with his sympathising mother, managed to get the household persuaded that there ought to be daily morning and evening prayer and reading of the Bible and holy singing. This the more readily, as he himself agreed to take part regularly in the same and so relieve the old warrior of what might have proved for him too arduous spiritual toils. And so began in his seventeenth year that blessed custom of Family Prayer, morning and evening, which my father practised probably without one single omission till he lay on his deathbed, seventy-seven years of age ; when, even to the last day of his life, a portion
EARLIER DAYS.
of Scripture was read, and his voice was heard softly joining in the Psalm, and his hps breathed the morn- ing and evening Prayer, — falling in sweet benediction on the heads of all his children, far away many of them over all the earth, but all meeting him there at the Throne of Grace. None of us can remember that any day ever passed unhallowed thus ; no hurry for market, no rush to business, no arrival of friends or guests, no trouble or sorrow, no joy or excitement, ever prevented at least our kneeling around the family altar, while the High Priest led our prayers to God, and offered himself and his children there. And blessed to others, as well as to ourselves, was the light of such example ! I have heard that, in long after years, the worst woman in the village of Torthorwald, then leading an immoral life, but since changed by the grace of God, was known to declare, that the only thing that kept her from despair and from the hell of the suicide, was when in the dark winter nights she crept close up underneath my father's window, and heard him pleading in family worship that God would convert " the sinner from the error of wicked ways and polish him as a jewel for the Redeemer's crown." " I felt," said she, " that I was a burden on that good man's heart, and I knew that God would not disappoint Jiiin. That thought kept me out of Hell, and at last led me to the only Saviour."
My father had a strong desire to be a minister of the Gospel ; but when he finally saw that God's
24 EARLIER DAYS.
will had marked out for him another lot, he reconciled himself by entering with his own soul into this solemn vow, — that if God gave him sons, he would consecrate them unreservedly to the ministry of Christ, if the Lord saw fit to accept the offering, and open up their way. It may be enough here to say that he lived to see three of us entering upon and not unblessed in the Holy Office ; — myself, the eldest born ; my brother Walter, several years my junior ; and my brother James, the youngest of eleven, the Benjamin of the flock.
Our place of worship was the Reformed Presby- terian Church at Dumfries, under the ministry, during most of these days, of Rev. John McDiarmid — a genuine, solemn, lovable Covenanter, who cherished towards my father a warm respect, that deepened into apostolic affection when the yellow hair turned snow-white and both of them grew patriarchal i.. their years. The minister, indeed, was translated to a Glasgow charge ; but that rather exalted than suspended their mutual love. Dumfries was four miles fully from our Torthorwald home ; but the tradition is that during all these forty years my father was only thrice prevented from attending the worship of God — once by snow so deep that he was baffled and had to return ; once by ice on the road, so dan- gerous that he was forced to crawl back up the Roucan. Brae on his hands and knees, after having descended it so far with many falls ; and once by the terrible outbreak of cholera at Dumfries All inter-
EARLIER DAYS. i3
course betwixt the town and the surrounding villages was publicly prohibited ; and the farmers and vil- lagers, suspecting that no cholera would make my father stay at home on Sabbath, sent a deputation to my mother on the Saturday evening, and urged her to restrain his devotions for once ! That, how- ever, was needless ; as, where the life of others was at stake, his very devotion came to their aid. Each of us, from very early days, considered it no penalty, but a great joy, to go with our father to the church ; the four miles were a treat to our young spirits, the company by the way was a fresh incitement, and occasionally some of the wonders of city-life rewarded our eager eyes. A few other pious men and women of the best evangelical type, went from the same parish to one or other favourite minister at Dumfries, — the parish church during all those years being rather miserably served ; and when these God-fearing peas- ants " forgathered " in the way to or from the House of God, we youngsters had sometimes rare glimpses of what Christian talk may be and ought to be. They went to the church, full of beautiful expectancy of spirit — their souls were on the outlook for God ; they returned from the church, ready and even anxi- ous to exchange ideas as to what they had heard and received of the things of life. I have to bear my testimony that religion was presented to us with a great deal of intellectual freshness, and that it did not repel us but kindled our spiritual interest. The talks which we heard were, hovv^ever, genuine ; not
24 EARLIER DAYS.
the make-believe of religious conversation, but the sincere outcome of their own personalities. That, perhaps, makes all the difference betwixt talk that attracts and talk that drives away.
We had, too, special Bible Readings on the Lord's Day evening, — mother and children and visitors reading in turns, with fresh and interesting question, answer, and exposition, all tending to impress us with the infinite grace of a God of love and mercy in the' great gift of His dear Son Jesus, our Saviour. The Shorter Catechism was gone through regularly, each answering the question asked, till the whole had been explained, and its foundation in Scripture shown by the proof-texts adduced. It has been an amazing thing to me, occasionally to meet with men who blamed this " catechizing " for giving them a dis- taste to religion ; every one in all our circle thinks and feels exactly the opposite. It laid the solid rock- foundations of our religious life. After-years have given to these questions and their answers a deeper or a modified meaning, but none of us have ever once even dreamed of wishing that we had been otherwise trained. Of course, if the parents are not devout, sincere, and affectionate, — if the whole affair on both sides is taskwork, or worse, hypocritical and false, — results must be very different indeed I Oh, I can remember those happy Sabbath evenings ; no blinds drawn, and shutters up, to keep out the sun from us, as some scandalously affirm ; but a holy, happy, entirely human day, for a Christian father,
EARLIER DAYS, aS
mother, and children to spend. How my father would parade across and across our flag-floor, telling over the substance of the day's sermons to our dear mother, who, because of the great distance and be- cause of her many living " encumbrances," got very seldom indeed to the church, but gladly embraced every chance, when there was prospect or promise of a " lift " either way from some friendly gig ! How he would entice us to help him to recall some idea or other, rewarding us when we got the length of " taking notes " and reading them over on our return ; how he would turn the talk ever so naturally to some Bible story, or some martyr reminiscence, or some happy allusion to the "Pilgrim's Progress"! And then it was quite a contest, which of us would get reading aloud, while all the rest listened, and father added here and there a happy thought, or illustration, or anecdote. Others must write and say what they will, and as they feel ; but so must I. There were eleven of us brought up in a home like that ; and never one of the eleven, boy or girl, man or woman, has been heard, or ever will be heard, saying that Sabbath was dull or wearisome for us, or suggesting that we have heard of or seen any way more likely than that for making the Day of the Lord bright and blessed alike for parents and for children. But God help the homes where these things are done by force and not by love ! The very discipline through which our father passed us was a kind of religion in itself. If anything really serious required to be punished, he
26 EARLIER DAYS.
retired first to his closet for prayer, and we boys got to understand that he was laying the whole matter before God ; and that was the severest part of the punishment for me to bear ! I could have defied any amount of mere penalty, but this spoke to my conscience as a message from God. We loved him all the more, when we saw how much it cost him to punish us ; and, in truth, he had never very much' of that kind of work to do upon any one of all the eleven — we were ruled by love far more than by fear. As I must, however, leave the story of my father's life — much more worthy, in many ways, of being written than my own — I may here mention that his long and upright life made him a great favourite in all religious circles far and near within the neigh- bourhood, that at sick-beds and at funerals he was constantly sent for and much appreciated, and that this appreciation greatly increased, instead of diminishing, when years whitened his long, flowing locks and gave him an apostolic beauty ; till finally, for the last twelve years or so of his life, he became by appointment a sort of Rural Missionary for the four contiguous parishes, and spent his autumn in literally sowing the good seed of the Kingdom as a Colporteur of the Tract and Book Society. His success in this work, for a rural locality, was beyond all belief. Within a radius of five miles, he was known in every home, welcomed by the children, respected by the servants, longed for eagerly by the sick and aged. He gloried in showing off the beauti-
EARLIER DAYS. 27
ful Bibles and other precious books, which he sold in amazing numbers. He sang sweet Psalms beside the sick, and prayed like the voice of God at their dying beds. He went cheerily from farm to farm, from cot to cot ; and when he wearied on the moor- land roads, he refreshed his soul by reciting aloud one of Ralph Erskine's " Sonnets," or crooning to the birds one of David's Psalms. His happy partner, "Wee Jen," died in 1865, and he himself in 1868, having reached his seventy-seventh year, — an alto- gether beautiful and noble episode of human existence having been enacted, amid the humblest surround- ings of a Scottish peasant's home, through the influ- ence of their united love by the grace of God ; and in this world, or in any world, all their children will rise up at mention of their names and call them blessed I
IL
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE,
CHAPTER II.
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
A Typical Scottish School. — A School Prize. — A Wayward Master. — Learning a Trade. — My Father's Prayers. — Jeho- vah Jireh. — With Sappers and Miners. — Harvest Field. — On the Road to Glasgow. — A Memorable Parting. — Before the Examiners. — Killing Work. — Deep Waters. — Maryhill School. — Rough School Scenes. — Aut Ceesar, Aut Nullus. — My Wages.
IN my boyhood Torthorwald had one of the grand old typical Parish Schools of Scotland, where the rich and the poor met together in perfect equality, where Bible and Catechism were taught as zealously as grammar and geography, and where capable lads from the humblest of cottages were prepared in Latin and Mathematics and Greek to go straight from their village class to the University bench. Besides, at that time, an accomplished pedagogue of the name of Smith, a learned man of more than local fame, had added a Boarding House to the ordinary School, and had attracted some of the better class gentlemen and farmers' sons from the surrounding county, so that Torthorv/ald, under his regime, reached the zenith
32 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
of its educational fame. In this School I was initi- ated into the mystery of letters, and all my brothers and sisters after me, though some of them under other masters than mine ; — my youngest brother James, trained there under a master named Lithgow, going direct from the Village School to the Uni- versity of Glasgow in his fourteenth year !
My teacher punished severely — rather, I should, say, savagely — especially for lessons badly prepared. Yet, that he was in some respects kindly and tender- hearted, I had the best of reasons to know. Seeing me not so " braw " as the well-to-do fellows of my year, and taking a warm interest in me as a pupil, he, concluding probably that new suits were not so easily got in my home as in some of the rest, planned a happy and kind-hearted surprise — a sort of un- acknovv'ledged school prize. One evening, when my father was "taking the books," and pouring out his heart in family worship, the door of our house gently opened on the latch, and gently closed again. After prayer, on rushing to the door, I found a parcel con- taining a new suit of warm and excellent clothes, — seeing which my mother said that " God had sent them to me, and I should thankfully receive them as from His hand, whoever might have brought them." Appearing in them at school next morning, the teacher cheerily saluted and complimented me on my " braws." I innocently told him how they came and what my mother said ; and he laughingly replied, —
"John, whenever you need anything after this, just
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 33
tell your father to * tak' the Book/ and God will send it in answer to prayer ! "
Years passed by before I came to know, what the reader has already guessed, that the good-hearted schoolmaster's hand lifted the latch that evening during my father's prayer.
All his influence, however, was marred by occa- sional bursts of fierce and ungovernable temper, amounting to savagery. His favouritism, too, was sometirnes disheartening, — as when I won a Latin prize for an exercise by the verdict of the second master, yet it was withheld from me, and prizes were bestowed without merit on other and especially wealthier boys ; so at least I imagined, and it cooled my ambition to excel. Favouritism might be borne, but not mere brutality when passion mastered him. Once, after having flogged me unjustly, on my return only at my mother's entreaty, he ran at me again, kicked me, and I fled in pain and terror from his presence, rushing home. When his passion subsided, he came to my parents, apologized, and pled with me to return ; but all in vain, — nothing would induce me to resume my studies there. Undoubtedly at that time I had a great thirst for education, and a retentive memory, which made all lessons compara- tively easy ; and, as no other school was within my reach, it was a great loss that my heart shrank from this teacher.
Though under twelve years of age, I started to learn my father's trade in which I made surprising
P- 3
34 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
progress. We wrought from six in the morning till ten at night, with an hour at dinner-time and half an hour at breakfast and again at supper. These spare moments every day I devoutly spent on my books, chiefly in the rudiments of Latin and Greek ; for I had given my soul to God, and was resolved to aim at being a missionary of the Cross, or a minister of the Gospel. Yet I gladly testify that what I learned of the stocking frame was not thrown away ; the facility of using tools, and of watching and keeping the machinery in order, came to be of great value to me in the Foreign Mission field.
How much my father's prayers at this time im- pressed me I can never explain, nor could any stranger understand. When, on his knees and all of us kneeling around him in Family Worship, he poured out his whole soul with tears for the conver- sion of the heathen world to the service of Jesus, and for every personal and domestic need, we all felt as if in the presence of the living Saviour, and learned to know and love Him as our Divine Friend. As we rose from our knees, I used to look at the light on my father's face, and wish I were like him in spirit, — hoping that, in answer to his prayerSj I might be privileged and prepared to carry the blessed Gos- pel to some portion of the heathen world.
One incident of this time I must record here, because of the lasting impression made upon my religious life. Our family, like all others of peasant rank in the land, were plunged into deep distress,
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 35
and felt the pinch severely, through the failure of the potato, the badness of other crops, and the ransom- price of food. Our father had gone off with work to Hawick, and would return next evening with money and supplies ; but meantime the meal barrel ran empty, and our dear mother, too proud and too sensitive to let any one know, or to ask aid from any quarter, coaxed us all to rest, assuring us that she had told God everything, and that He would send us plenty in the morning. Next day, with the carrier from. Lockerbie came a present from her father, who, knowing nothing of her circumstances or of this special trial, had been moved of God to send at that particular nick of time a love-offering to his daughter, such as they still send to each other in those kindly Scottish shires — a bag of new potatoes, a stone of the first ground meal or flour, or the earliest home- made cheese of the season — which largely supplied all our need. My mother, seeing our surprise at such an answer to her prayers, took us around her knees, thanked God for His goodness, and said to us, —
" O my children, love your heavenly Father, tell Him in faith and prayer all your needs, and He will supply your wants so far as it shall be for your good and His glory."
Perhaps, amidst all their struggles in rearing a family of eleven, this was the hardest time they ever had, and the only time they ever felt the actual pinch of hunger ; for the little that they had was mar-
36 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
vellously blessed of God, and was not less marvel- lously utilized by that noble mother of ours, whose high spirit, side by side with her humble and gracious piety, made us, under God, what we are to-day.
I saved as much at my trade as enabled me to go six weeks to Dumfries Academy ; this awoke in me again the hunger for learning, and I resolved to give up that trade and turn to something that might be made helpful to the prosecution of my education. An engagement was secured with the sappers and miners, who were mapping and measuring the county of Dumfries in connection with the Ordnance Survey of Scotland. The office hours were from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. ; and though my walk from home was above four miles every morning, and the same by return in the evening, I found much spare time for private study, both on the way to and from my work and also after hours. Instead of spending the mid-day hour with the rest, at football and other games, I stole away to a quiet spot on the banks of the Nith, and there pored over my book, all alone. Our lieu- tenant, unknown to me, had observed this from his house on the other side of the stream, and after a time called me into his office and inquired what I was studying. I told him the whole truth as to my position and my desires. After conferring with some of the other officials there, he summoned me again, and in their presence promised me promotion in the service, and special training in Woolwich at the Government's expense, on condition that I would sign
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 37
an engagement for seven years. Thanking him most gratefully for his kind offer, I agreed to bind myself for three years or four, but not for seven.
Excitedly he said, " Why } Will you refuse an offer that many gentlemen's sons would be proud of?"
I said, " My life is given to another Master, so I cannot engage for seven years."
He asked sharply, " To whom ? "
I replied, " To the Lord Jesus, and I want to pre- pare as soon as possible for His service in the pro- claiming of the Gospel."
In great anger he sprang across the room, called the paymaster, and exclaimed, "Accept my offer, or you are dismissed on the spot 1 "
I answered, " I am extremely sorry if you do so, but to bind myself for seven years would probably frustrate the purpose of my life ; and though I am greatly obliged to you, I cannot make such an en- gagement."
His anger made him unwilling or unable to com- prehend my difficulty ; the drawing instruments were delivered up, I received my pay, and departed without further parley. The men, both over me and beside me, were mostly Roman Catholics, and their talk was the most profane I had ever heard. Few of them spoke at any time without larding their language with oaths, and I was thankful to get away from hearing their shocking speech. But to me personally both officers and men had been extremely kind, for
38 AT SCHOOi. iND COLLEGE,.
which, on leaving, I thanked them all very cordially, and they looked not a little surprised, — as if unused to such recognitions !
Hearing how I had been treated, and why, Mr Maxwell, the Rector of Dumfries Academy, offered to let me attend all classes there, free of charge, so long as I cared to remain ; but that, in lack of means of support, was for the time impossible, as I would not and could not be a burden on my dear father, but was determined rather to help him in educating the rest. I went therefore to what was known as the Lamb Fair at Lockerbie, and for the first time in my life took a " fee " for the harvest. On arriving at the field when shearing and mowing began, the far- mer asked me to bind a sheaf; when I had done so, he lifted it by the band, and it fell to pieces ! In- stead of disheartening me, however, he gave me a careful lesson how to bind, and the second that I bound did not collapse when shaken, and the third he pitched across the field, and on finding that it still remained firm, he cried to me cheerily, —
" Right now, my lad ; go ahead ! "
It was hard work for me at first, and my hands got very sore ; but, being willing and determined, I soon got into the way of it, and kept up with the best of them. The harvesters, seeing I was not one of their own workers, had an eager dispute as to what I was, some holding that I .was a painter, and some a tailor ; but the more 'cute observers denied me the rank of tailor from the lack of "jaggings" on my
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 39
thumb and finger, so I suppose they credited me with the brush. The male harvesters were told off to sleep in a large hay-loft, the beds being arranged all along the side, like barracks. Many of the fellows were rough and boisterous, and I suppose my look showed that I hesitated in mingling with them, for the quick eye and kind heart of the farmer's wife prompted her to suggest that I, being so much younger than the rest, might sleep with her son George in the house, — an offer, oh, how gratefully ac- cepted ! A beautiful new steading had recently been built for them; and during certain days, or portions of .days, while waiting for the grain to ripen or to dry. I planned and laid out an ornamental garden in front of it, which gave great satisfaction — a taste inherited from my mother, with her joy in flowers and garden plots. They gave me, on leaving, a handsome pre- sent, as well as my fee, for I had got on very plea- santly with them all. This experience, too, came to be valuable to me, when, in long-after days, and far other lands, Mission buildings had to be erected, and garden and field cropped and cultivated without the aid of a single European hand.
Before going to my first harvesting, I had applied for a situation in Glasgow, apparently exactly suited for my case ; but I had little or no hope of ever hear- ing of it further. An offer of ;^50 per annum was made by the West Campbell Street Reformed Pres- byterian Congregation, then under the good and noble Dr. Bates, for a young man to act as district
40 A7 SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
visitor and tract distributor, especially amongst the absentees from the Sabbath school ; with the privilege of receiving one year's training at the Free Church Normal Seminary, that he might qualify himself for teaching, and thereby push forward to the Holy Ministry. The candidates, along with their applica- tion and certificates, were to send an essay on some subject, of their own composition, and in their own handwriting. I sent in two long poems on the Covenanters, which must have exceedingly amused them, as I had not learned to write decent prose ! But, much to my surprise, immediately on the close of the harvesting experience, a letter arrived, inti- mating that I, along with another young man, had been put upon the short leet, and that both were requested to appear in Glasgow on a given day and compete for the appointment. Two days thereafter I started out from my quiet country home on the road to Glasgow. Literally on the road, for from Torthorwald to Kilmarnock — about forty miles — had to be done on foot, and thence to Glasgow by rail Railways in those days were as yet (qw, and coach travelling was far beyond my purse. A small bundle, tied up in my pocket handkerchief, contained my Bible and all my personal belongings. Thus was 1 launched upon the ocean of life. " I know thy poverty, but thou art rich."
My dear father walked with me the first six miles of the way. His counsels and tears and heavenly conversation on that parting journey are fresh in my
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 41
heart as if it had been yesterday ; and tears are on my cheeks as freely now as then, whenever memory steals me away to the scene. For the last half-mile or so we walked on together in almost unbroken silence, — my father, as was often his custom, carrying hat in hand, while his long, flowing yellow hair (then yellow, but in later years white as snow) streamed like a girl's down his shoulders. His lips kept moving in silent prayers for me, and his tears fell fast when our eyes met each other in looks for which all speech was vain. We halted on reaching the appointed parting place ; he grasped my hand firmly for a minute in silence, and then solemnly and affection- ately said, —
" God bless you, my son 1 Your father's God prosper you, and keep you from all evil ! "
Unable to say more, his lips kept moving in silent piayer ; in tears we embraced, and parted. I ran off as fast as I could, and, when about to turn a corner in the road where he would lose sight of me, I looked back and saw him still standing with head uncovered where I had left him. Waving my hat in adieu, I was round the corner and out of sight in an instant. But my heart was too full and sore to carry me further, so I darted into the side of the road and wept for a time. Then, rising up cautiously, I climbed the dyke to see if he yet stood where I had left him, and just at that moment I caught a glimpse of him climbing the dyke and looking out for me I He did not see me, and after he had gazed eagerly in
42 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
my direction for a while, he got down, turned his face towards home, and began to return — his head still uncovered, and his heart, I felt sure, still rising in prayers for me. I watched through blinding tears, till his form faded from my gaze ; and then, hasten- ing on my way, vowed deeply and oft, by the help of God, to live and act so as never to grieve or dishonour such a father and mother as He had given me. The appearance of my father, when we parted, — his advice, prayers and tears, — the road, the dyke, the climbing up on it and then walking away, head uncovered, have often, often, all through life, risen vividly before my mind, — and do so now while I am writing, as if it had been but an hour ago. In my earlier years particularly, when exposed to many temptations, his parting form rose before me as that of a guardian Angel. It is no Pharisaism, but deep gratitude, which makes me here testify that the memory of that scene not only helped, by God's grace, to keep me pure from the prevailing sins, but also stimulated me in all my studies, that I might not fall short of his hopes, and in all my Christian duties, that I might faithfully follow his shining example.
I reached Glasgow on the third day, having slept one night at Thornhill, and another at New Cum- nock ; and having needed, owing to the kindness of acquaintances upon whom I called by the way, to spend only three half-pence of my modest funds. Safely arrived, but weary, I secured a humble room for my lodging, for which I had to pay one shilling
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
43
and sixpence per week. Buoyant and fuU of hope and looking up to God for guidance, I appeared at the appointed hour oeiore tne examiners, as did also the other candidate ; and they, having carefully gone through their work, asked us to retire. When re- called, they informed us that they had great difficulty in choosing, and suggested that the one of us might withdraw in favour of the other, or that both might submit to a more testing examination. Neither seemed inclined to give it up, both were willing for a second examination, but the patrons made another suggestion. They had only ^50 per annum to give ; but if we would agree to divide it betwixt us, and go into one lodging, we might both be able to struggle t'irough ; they would pay our entrance fees at the Fiee Normal Seminary, and provide us with the books required ; and perhaps they might be able to add a little to the sum promised to each of us. By dividing the mission work appointed, and each taking only the half, more time also might be secured for our studies. Though the two candidates had never seen each other before, we at once accepted this proposal, and got on famously together, never having had a dispute on anything of common interest throughout our whole career.
As our fellow-students at the Normal were all far advanced beyond us in their education, we found it killing work, ?.nd had to grind away incessantly, late and early. B ^th of us, before the year closed, broke down in healt'i, partly by hard study, but principally,
♦4 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
perhaps, for lack of nourishing diet. A severe cough seized upon me ; I began spitting blood, and a doctor ordered me at once home to the country and forbad all attempts at study. My heart sank ; it was a dreadful disappointment, and to me a bitter trial. Soon after, my companion, though apparently much stronger than I, was similarly seized. He, however, never entirely recovered, though for some years he taught in a humble school ; and long ago he fell asleep in Jesus, a devoted and honoured Christian man.
I, on the other hand, after a short rest, nourished by the hill air of Torthorwald and by the new milk of our family cow, was ere long at work again, and got an appointment to teach a small school at Girvan. There I received the greatest kindness from Rev. Matthew G. Easton of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, now Dr. Easton of the Free Church, Darvel, and gradually but completely recovered my health.
Having saved ;^io by my teaching, I returned to Glasgow, and was enrolled as a student at the College ; but before the session was finished my money was exhausted — I had lent some to a poor student who failed to repay me — and only nine shillings remained in my purse. There was no one from whom to borrow, had I been willing ; I had been disappointed in securing private tuition ; and no course seemed open for me, except to pay what little I owed, give up my College career, and seek for teaching or other work in the country. I wrote a letter to my father and mother, informing them of
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 45
my circumstances ; that I was leaving Glasgow in quest of work, and that they would not hear from me again till I had found a suitable situation. I told them that if otherwise unsuccessful, I should fall back on my own trade, though I shrank from that as not tending to advance my education ; but that they might rest assured I would do nothing to dis- honour them or my Christian profession. Having read that letter over again through many tears, I said, — L cannot send that, for it will grieve my darling parents ; and therefore, leaving it on the table, I locked my room door and ran out to find a place where I might sell my few precious books, and hold on a few weeks longer. But, as I stood on the opposite side and wondered whether these folks in a shop with the three golden balls would care to have a poor student's books, and as I hesitated, knowing how much I needed them for my studies, conscience smote me for doing a guilty thing ; I imagined that the people were watching me as if I were about to commit a theft, and I made off from the scene at full speed, with a feeling of intense shame at having dreamed of such a thing ! Passing through one short street into another, I marched on mechanically ; but the Lord God of my father was guiding my steps, all unknown to me.
A certain notice in a window, into which I had probably never in my life looked before, here caught my eye, to this effect — " Teacher wanted, Maryhill Free Church School ; apply at the Manse." A coach
46 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
or 'bus was just passing, when I turned round ; I leapt into it, saw the minister, arranged to undertake the school, returned to Glasgow, paid my landlady's lodging score, tore up the letter to my parents and wrote another full of cheer and hope, and early next morning entered the school and began a tough and trying job. The minister warned me that the school was a wreck, and had been broken up chiefly by coarse and bad characters from mills and coal-pits, who attended the evening classes. They had abused several masters in succession ; and, laying a thick and heavy cane on the desk, he said, —
" Use that freely, or you will never keep order here ! "
I put it aside into the drawer of my desk, saying, —
" That will be my last resource."
There were very few scholars for the first week — about eighteen in the day school and twenty in the night school. The clerk of the mill, a good young fellow, came to the evening classes, avowedly to learn book-keeping, but privately he said he had come to save me from personal injury.
The following week, a young man and a young woman began to attend the night school, who showed from the first moment that they were bent on mis- chief. By talking aloud, joking, telling stories, and laughing, they stopped the work of the school. On my repeated appeals for quiet and order, they be- came the more boisterous, and gave great merriment to a few of the scholars present. I finally urged the
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 47
young man, a tall, powerful fellow, to be quiet or at once to leave, declaring that at all hazards I must and would have perfect order ; but he only mocked at me, and assumed a fighting attitude. Quietly locking the door and putting the key in my pocket, I turned to my desk, armed myself with the cane, and dared any one at his peril to interfere betwixt us. It was a rough struggle, he smashing at me clumsily with his fists, I with quick movements evading and dealing him blow after blow with the heavy cane for several rounds, till at length he crouched down at his desk, exhausted and beaten, and I ordered him to turn to his book, which he did in sulky silence. Going to my desk, I addressed them and asked them to inform all who wished to come to the school, " that if they came for education, everything would be heartily done that it was in my power to do ; but that any who wished for mischief had better stay away, as I was determined to conquer, not to be conquered, and to secure order and silence, whatever it might cost. Further, I as- sured them that that cane would not again be lifted by me, if kindness and forbearance on my part could possibly gain the day, as I wished to rule by love and not by terror. But this young man knew he was in the wrong, and it was that which had made him weak against me, though every way stronger far than I. Yet I would be his friend and helper, if he was willing to be friendly with me, the same as if this night had never been."
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
A dead silence fell on the school ; every one buried face diligently in book ; and the evening closed in uncommon quiet and order.
Next morning, two of the bigger boys at the day school, instead of taking their seats like the rest, got in under the gallery where coals and lumber were kept, and made a great noise as if dog and cat were worrying each other. Pleading with them only in- creased the uproar ; so I locked the doors, laid past the keys, and proceeded with the morning's work. Half an hour before the mid-day rest, I began sing- ing a hymn, and marched the children round as if to leave ; then the two young rascals came out, and, walking in front, sang boisterously. Seizing the first by the collar, I made him stagger into the middle of the floor, and dragging the other beside him, I raised my heavy cane and dared them to move. Ordering the children to resume their seats, I appointed them a jury to hear the case and to pass sentence. The two were found guilty, and awarded a severe lashing. I proposed, as this was their first offence, and as I only used the cane for a last resource, to forego all punishment, if they apologized and promised to be attentive and obedient in the future. They both heartily did so, and became my favourite scholars. Next evening I had little difficulty, as the worst characters did not at once return, guessing that they had got a bit of lion in the new dominie, that was more likely to subdue than to be subdued.
On the following day, the parents of some children,
AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 49
getting alarmed by the rumours of these exploits, waited on me with the minister, and said their children were terrified to come. I said that no child had been beaten by me, but that I insisted upon order and obedience ; I reminded the minister that of my im- mediate predecessors three had suffered from these rowdies in the evening class — one actually going wrong in the mind over the worry, another losing his health and dying, and the third leaving in disgust ; and finally I declared that I must either be master, at whatever cost, or leave the school. From that time perfect order was established, and the school flour- ished apace. During next week, many of the worst characters returned to their class work in the evening; but thenceforward the behaviour of all towards me was admirable. The attendance grew, till the school became crowded, both during the day and at night. During the mid-day hour even, I had a large class of young women who came to improve themselves in writing and arithmetic. By-and-by the cane be- came a forgotten implement ; the sorrow and pain which I showed as to badly done lessons, or anything blameworthy, proved the far more effectual penalty.
The School Committee had promised me at least ten shillings per week, and guaranteed to make up any deficit if the fees fell short of that sum ; but if the income from fees exceeded that sum, all was to be mine. Affairs went on prosperously for a season ; indeed, too much so for my selfish interest. The committee, regarding the arrangement with me as
P. 4
^6 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
only temporary, took advantage of the larger attend- ance and better repute of the school, to secure the services of a master of the highest grade. The parents of many of the children, resenting this, offered to take and seat a hall if I would remain and carry on an opposition school ; but, besides regarding this as scarcely fair to the committee, however unhandsomely they had treated me, I knew too well that I had neither education nor experience to compete with an accomplished teacher, and so declined the proposal, though grateful for their kind appreciation. Their children, however, got up a testimonial and subscrip- tion, in token of their gratitude and esteem, which was presented to me on the day before I left ; and this I valued chiefly because the presentation was made by the young fellows who at first behaved so badly, but were now my warm friends.
Once more I committed my future to the Lord God of my father, assured that in my very heart I was willing and anxious to serve Him and to follow the blessed Saviour, yet feeling keenly that intense darkness had once again enclosed my path.
III.
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION.
CHAPTER III.
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION.
" He leadeth me." — A Degraded District. — The Gospel in a Hay-Loft. — New Mission Premises. — At Work for Jesus. — At War with Hell. — Sowing Gospel Seeds. — Publicans on the War Path. — Marched to the Police Office. — Papists and Infidels. — An Infidel Saved. — An Infidel in Despair. — A Brand from the Burning. — A Saintly Child. — Papists in Arms. — Elder and Student.
BEFORE undertaking the Maryhill school, I had applied to be taken on as an agent in the Glasgow City Mission ; and the night before I had to leave Maryhill, I received a letter from Rev. Thomas Caie, the superintendent of the said Mission, saying that the directors had kept their eyes on me ever since my application, and requesting, as they understood I was leaving the school, that I would appear before them the next morning, and have my qualifications for becoming a Missionary examined into. Praising God, I went off at once, passed the examination successfully, and was appointed to spend two hours that afternoon and the following Monday in visitation with two of the directors, calling at every house in a low district of the town, and conversing
54 IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION.
with all the characters encountered there on their eter- nal welfare. I had also to preach a " trial " discourse in a Mission meeting, where a deputation of directors would be present, the following evening being Sun- day ; and on Wednesday evening, they met again to hear their reports and to accept or reject me. All this had come upon me so unexpectedly, that I al- most anticipated failure ; but looking up for help I went through with it, and on the fifth day after leav- ing the school they called me before a meeting of directors, and informed me that 1 had passed my trials most successfully, and that the reports were so favourable that they had unanimously resolved to receive me at once as one of their City Missionaries. It was further explained that one of their number, Matthew Fairley, Esq., an elder in Dr. Symington's congregation, had guaranteed the half of my salary for two years, the other half to be met by the resources of the Mission voluntarily contributed, — the whole salary at that time amounting to £^0 per annum. The district allocated to me was one especially needful and trying, that had never been occupied, in and around the Green Street of Calton, and I was enjoined to enter upon my duties at once. After receiving many good and kind counsels from these good and kind men, one of them in prayer very solemnly dedi- cated me and my v/ork to the Lord ; and several of them were appointed to introduce me to my district, taking a day each by turns, and to assist me in making arrangements for the on-carrying of the work.
m GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 55
Deeply solemnized with the responsibilities of my new office, I left that meeting praising God for all His undeserved mercies, and seeing most clearly His gracious hand in all the way by which He had led me, and the trials by which He had prepared me for the sphere of service. Man proposes — God disposes. Most of these directors were men of God, adapted and qualified for this special work, and very helpful in counsel as they went with me from day to day, in- troducing me to my district, and seeing the character and position of the people dwelling there. Looking back upon these Mission experiences, I have ever felt that they were, to me and many others, a good and profitable training of students for the office of the Ministry, preparing us to deal with men of every shade of thought and of character, and try to lead them to the knowledge and service of the Lord Jesus. I found the district a very degraded one. Many families said they had never been visited by any minister; and many were lapsed professors of religion who had attended no church for ten, sixteen, or twenty years, and said they had never been called upon by any minister, nor by any Christian visitor. In it were congregated many avowed infidels, Romanists, and drunkards, — living together, and associated for evil, but apparently without any effec- tive counteracting influence. In many of its closes and courts sin and vice walked about openly — naked and not ashamed.
We were expected to spend four hours daily in
56 IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION.
visiting from house to house, holding small prayer meetings amongst those visited, calling them together also in evening meetings, and trying by all means to do whatever good was possible amongst them. The only place in the whole district available for a Sab- bath evening Evangelistic Service was a hay-loft, under which a cow-feeder kept a large number of cows, and which was reached by an outside rickety wooden stair. After nearly a year's hard work, I had only six or seven non-church-goers, who had been led to attend regularly there, besides about the same number who met on a week evening in the ground- floor of a house kindly granted for the purpose by a poor and industrious but ill-used Irishwoman. She supported her family by keeping a little shop, and selling coals. Her husband was a powerful man — a good worker, but a hard drinker, and, like too many others addicted to intemperance, he abused and beat her, and pawned and drank everything he could get hold of. She, amid many prayers and tears, bore everything patiently, and strove to bring up her only daughter in the fear of God. We exerted, by God's blessing, a good influence upon him through our meetings. He became a total abstainer, gave up his evil ways, and attended church regularly with his wife. As his interest increased, he tried to bring others also to the meeting, and urged them to be- come abstainers. His wife became a centre of help and of good influence in all the district, as she kindly invited all and welcomed them to the meeting
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 57
in her house, and my work grew every day more hopeful.
Seeing, however, that one year's hard work showed s-ach small results, the directors proposed to remove me to another district, as in their estimation the non- church-goers in Green Street were unassailable by ordinary means. I pleaded for six months' longer trial, as I had gained the confidence of many of the poor people there, and had an invincible faith that the good seed sown would soon bear blessed fruit. To this the directors kindly agreed. At our next meeting I informed those present that, if we could not draw out more of the non-church-goers to attend the services, I should be removed to another part of the city. Each one there and then agreed to bring another to our next meeting. Both our meetings at once doubled their attendance. My interest in them and their interest in me now grew apace, and, for fear I might be taken away from them, they made another effort, and again doubled our attendance. Henceforth meeting and class were both too large for any house that was available for us in the whole of our district. We instituted a Bible Class, a Singing Class, a Communicants' Class, and a Total Abstinence Society ; and, in addition to the usual meetings, we opened two prayer meetings specially for the Calton division of the Glasgow Police — one at a suitable hour for the men on day duty, and another for those on night duty. The men got up a Mutual Improve- ment Society and Singing Class also amongst them-
58 IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION.
selves, weekly, on another evening. My work now occupied every evening in the week ; and I had two meetings every Sabbath. By God's blessing they all prospered, and gave evidence of such fruits as showed that the Lord was working there for good by our humble instrumentality.
The kind cow-feeder had to inform us — and he did it with much genuine sorrow — that at a given date he would require the hay- loft, which was our place of meeting ; and as no other suitable house or hall could be got, the poor people and I feared the extinction of our work. On hearing this the ostlers and other ser- vants of Menzies, the coach-hirer, who had extensive premises near our place of meeting, of their own accord asked and obtained liberty to clear out a hay-loft of theirs that was seldom in use, and resolved, at their own expense, to erect an outside wooden stair for the convenience of the people. This becoming known, and being much talked of, caused great joy in the district, arrested general attention, and increased the interest of our work. But I saw that, however gene- rous, it could be at the best only another temporary arrangement, and that the premises might again at any moment be required. After prayer I therefore laid the whole case before my good and great-hearted friend, Thomas Binnie, Esq., Monteith Row, and he, after inquiring into all the circumstances, secured a good site for a Mission Hall in a piece of unoccupied ground near our old hay-loft, on which he proposed to build suitable premises at his own expense. At
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 59
that verj'' time, however, a commodious block of buildings, that had been Church, Schools, Manse, etc., came into the market. Mr. Binnie persuaded Dr. Symington's congregation, Great Hamilton Street, in connection with which my Mission was carried on, to purchase the whole property for Mission purposes. Its situation at the foot of Green Street gave it a control of the whole district where my work lay ; and so the Church was given to me in which to conduct all my meetings, while the other halls were adapted as Schools for poor girls and boys, where they were educated by a proper master, and were largely supplied with books, clothing, and even food, by the ladies of the congregation. The purchasing and using of these buildings for an evangelistic and educational Mission became a blessing — a very con- spicuous blessing — to that district in the Calton of Glasgow ; and the blessing still perpetuates itself, not only in the old premises, now used for an Indus- trial School, but still more in the beautiful and spacious Mission Halls, erected immediately in front of the old, and consecrated to the work of the Lord in that poor and crowded and clamant portion of the city.
Availing myself of the increased facilities, my work was all re-organized. On Sabbath morning, at seven o'clock, I had one of the most deeply interesting and fruitful of all my Classes for the study of the Bible. It was attended by from seventy to a hundred of the very poorest young women and grown-up lads of the
6o IN GLASGOW CITY MJSSION.
whole district. They had nothing to put on except their ordinary work-day clothes, — all without bonnets some without shoes. Beautiful was it to mark how the poorest began to improve in personal appearance immediately after they came to our class ; how they gradually got shoes and one bit of clothing after another, to enable them to attend our other meet- ings, and then to go to church ; and, above all, how eagerly they sought to bring others with them, taking a deep personal interest in all the work of the Mis- sion. Long after they themselves could appear in ex- cellent dress, many of them still continued to attend in their working clothes, and to bring other and poorer girls with them to that morning class, and thereby helped to improve and elevate their com- panions.
My delight in that Bible Class was among the purest joys in all my life, and the results were amongst the most certain and precious of all my ministry. Yet it was not made successful without unceasing pains and prayers. What would my younger brethren in the Ministry, or in the Mission, think of starting out at six o'clock every Sunday morning, running from street to street for an hour, knocking at the doors and rousing the careless, and thus getting together, and keeping together, their Bible Class ? This was what I did at first ; but, in course of time, a band of voluntary visitors belonging to the class took charge of all the irregulars, the in- differents, and the new-comers, and thereby not only
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 6l
relieved and assisted me, but vastly increased their own personal interest, and became warmly attached to each other.
I had also a very large Bible Class — a sort of Bible-reading — on Monday night, attended by all, of both sexes and of any age, who cared to come or had any interest in the work. Wednesday even- ing, again, was devoted to a Prayer Meeting for all, and the attendance often more than half-filled the Church. There I usually took up some book of Holy Scripture, and read and lectured right through, prac- tically expounding and applying it. On Thursday I held a Communicants' Class, intended for the more careful instruction of all who wished to become full members of the Church. Our constant text-book was "Patterson on the Shorter Catechism," than which I have never seen a better compendium of the doc- trines of Holy Scripture. Each being thus trained for a season, received from me, if found worthy, a letter to the minister of any Protestant Church which he or she inclined to join. In this way great num- bers became active and useful communicants in the surrounding congregations, and eight young lads of humble circumstances educated themselves for the ministry of the Church, — most of them getting their first lessons in Latin and Greek from my very poor stock of the same ! Friday evening was occupied with a Singing Class, teaching Church music, and practis- ing for our Sabbath meetings. On Saturday evening we held our Total Abstinence meeting, at which the
62 IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION.
members themselves took a principal part, in read- ings, addresses, recitations, singing hymns, etc.
Great good resulted from this Total Abstinence work. Many adults took and kept the pledge, there- by greatly increasing the comfort and happiness of their homes. Many were led to attend the church on the Lord's Day, who had formerly spent it in rioting and drinking. But, above all, it trained the young to fear the very name of intoxicating drink, and to hate and keep far away from everything that led to intemperance. From observation, at an early age I became convinced that mere Temperance Societies were a failure, and that Total Abstinence, by the grace of God, was the only sure preventive as well as remedy. What was temperance in one man was drunkenness in another ; and all the drunkards came not from those who practised total abstinence, but from those who practised or tried to practise temper- ance. I had seen temperance men drinking wine in the presence of others who drank to excess, and never could see how they felt clear of blame ; and I had known ministers and others, once strong temperance advocates, fall through their "modera- tion " and become drunkards. Therefore it has all my life appeared to me beyond dispute, in reference to intoxicants of every kind, that the only rational temperance is total abstinence from them as bever- ages, and the use of them only as drugs, and then only with extreme caution, as they are deceptive and deleterious poisons of the most debasing and demo-
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 63
falizing kind. I found also, that when I tried to reclaim a drunkard, or caution any one as to intem- perate habits, one of the first questions was, — "Are you a pledged Abstainer yourself?" By being enabled to reply decidedly, " Yes, I am," the mouth of the objector was closed ; and that gave me a hundred-fold more influence with him than if I had had to confess that I was only " temperate." For the good of others, and for the increase of their personal influence as the servants of Christ, I would plead with every Minister and Missionary, every ofiice- bearer and Sabbath school teacher, every one who wishes to work for the Lord Jesus in the family, the Church, and the world, to be a Total Abstainer from all intoxicating drinks.
I would add my testimony also against the use of tobacco, which injures and leads many astray, especi- ally the very young, and which never can be required by any person in ordinary health. But I would not be understood to regard the evils that flow from it as deserving to be mentioned in comparison with the unutterable woes and miseries of intemperance. To be protected, however, from suspicion and from evil, all the followers of Jesus should, in self-denial (how small !) and consecration to His service, be pledged Abstainers from both of these selfish indulgences, which are certainly injurious to many, which are n« ornament to any character, and which can be no help In well-doing. Praise God for the many who are now so pledged ! Happy day for poor Humanity, when
64 IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION.
all the Lord's people adopt this self-denying ordi- nance for the good of the race !
Not boastfully, but gratefully, let me record that my Classes and Meetings were now attended by such numbers that they were amongst the largest and most successful that the City Mission had ever known ; and by God's blessing I was enabled to develop them into a regular, warmly attached, and intelligent Congregation. My work, however exact- ing, was full of joy to me. From five to six hundred people were in usual weekly attendance ; consisting exclusively of poor working persons, and largely of the humbler class of mill-workers. So soon as their circumstances improved, they were constantly re- moving to more respectable and healthy localities, and got to be scattered over all the city. But wher- ever they went, I visited them regularly to prevent their falling away, and held by them till I got them interested in some Church near where they had gone to live. On my return, many years after, from the Foreign Mission field, there was scarcely a con- gregation in any part of the city where some one did not warmly salute me with the cry, " Don't you remember me ? " And then, after greetings, came the well-remembered name of one or other member of my old Bible Class.
Such toils left me but small time for private studies. The City Missionary was required to spend four hours daily in his work ; but often had I to spend double that time, day after day, in order to overtake what was
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 65
laid upon me. About eight or ten of my most devoted young men, and double that number of young women, whom I had trained to become visitors and tract dis- tributors, greatly strengthened my hands. Each of the young men by himself, and the young women two by two, had charge of a portion of a street, which was visited by them regularly twice every month. At a monthly meeting of all our Workers, reports were given in, changes were noted, and all matters brought under notice were attended to. Be- sides, if any note or message were left at my lodging, or any case of sickness or want reported, it was looked after by me without delay. Several Christian gentlemen, mill-owners and other employers in the Calton, Mile-end, and Bridgeton of Glasgow, were so interested in my work that they kindly offered to give employment to every deserving person recom- mended by me, and that relieved much distress and greatly increased my influence for good.
Almost the only enemies I had were the keepers of Public- Houses, whose trade had been injured by my Total Abstinence Society. Besides the Satur- day night meetings all the year round, we held, in summer evenings and on Saturday afternoons. Evan- gelistic and Total Abstinence services in the open air. We met in Thomson's Lane, a short, broad street, not open for the traffic of conveyances, and admirably situated for our purposes. Our pulpit was formed by the top of an outside stair, leading to the second flat pf a house in the middle of the lane. Prominent
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Christian workers took part with us in delivering addresses ; an intimation through my classes usually secured good audiences ; and the hearty singing of hymns by my Mission Choir gave zest and joy to the whole proceedings. Of other so-called " attractions " we had none, and needed none, save the sincere pro- clamation of the Good Tidings from God to men !
On one occasion, it becoming known that we had arranged for a special Saturday afternoon de- monstration, a deputation of Publicans complained beforehand to the Captain of the Police that our meetings were interfering with their legitimate trade. He heard their complaints and promised to send officers to watch the meeting, prevent any disturb- ance, and take in charge all offenders, but declined to prohibit the meetings till he received their reports. The Captain, a pious Wesleyan, who was in full sym- pathy with us and our work, informed me of the complaints made and intimated that his men would be present, but I was just to conduct the meeting as usual, and he would guarantee that strict justice would be done. The Publicans, having announced amongst their sympathisers that the Police were to break up and prevent our meeting and take the con- ductors in charge, a very large crowd assembled, both friendly and unfriendly, for the Publicans and their hangers-on were there "to see the fun," and to help in baiting the Missionary. Punctually, I ascended the stone stair, accompanied by another Missionary who was tlso to deliver an address, and announced
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 67
our opening hymn. As we sang, a company of Police appeared, and were quietly located here and there among the crowd, the Serjeant himself taking his post close by the platform, whence the whole assembly could be scanned. Our enemies were jubilant, and signals were passed betwixt them and their friends, as if the time had come to provoke a row. Before the hymn was finished, Captain Baker himself, to the infinite surprise of friend and foe alike, joined us on the platform, devoutly listened to all that was said, and waited till the close. The Publi- cans could not for very shame leave, while he was there at their suggestion and request, though they had wit enough to perceive that his presence had frustrated all their sinister plans. They had to heai our addresses and prayers and hynms ; they had to listen to the intimation of our future meetings. When all had quietly dispersed, the Captain warmly congratulated us on our large and well-conducted congregation, and hoped that great good would result from our efforts. This opposition, also, the Lord over- ruled to increase our influence, and to give point and publicity to our assaults upon the kingdom of Satan. Though disappointed thus, some of the Publicans resolved to have revenge. On the following Saturday evening, when a large meeting was being addressed in our Green Street Church, which had to be entered by a great iron gateway, a spirit merchant ran his van in front of the gate, so that the people could not leave the Church without its removal. Hearing this.
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I sent two of my young men to draw it aside and clear the way. The Publican, watching near by in league with two policemen, pounced upon the young men whenever they seized the shafts, and gave them in charge for removing his property. On hearing that the young men were being marched to the Police Office, I ran after them and asked what was their offence ? They replied that they were prisoners for injuring the spirit merchant's property ; and the officers tartly informed me that if I further interfered I would be taken too. I replied, that as the young men only did what was necessary, and at my request, I would go with them to the Office. The cry now went through the street, that the Publicans were sending the Missionary and his young men to the Police Office, and a huge mob rushed together to rescue us ; but I earnestly entreated them not to raise disturbance, but allow us quietly to pass on. At the Office, it appeared as if the lieutenant on duty and the men under him were all in sympathy with the Publicans. He took down in writing all their allegations, but would not listen to us. At this stage a handsomely dressed and dignified gentleman came forward and said, —
*• What bail is required ? "
A few sharp words passed ; another, and appa- rently higher, officer entered, and took part in the colloquy. I could only hear the gentleman protest, in authoritative tones, the policemen having been quietly asked some questions, —
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 69
"I know this whole case, I will expose it to the bottom ; expect me here to stand by the Missionary and these young men on Monday morning."
Before I could collect my wits to thank him, and before I quite understood what was going on, he had disappeared ; and the superior officer turned to us and intimated in a very respectful manner that the charge had been withdrawn, and that I and my friends were at liberty. I never found out exactly who the gentle- man was that befriended us ; but from the manner in which he asserted himself and was listened to, I saw that he was well known in official quarters. From that day our work progressed without further open opposition, and many who had been slaves of intemperance were not only reformed, but became fervent workers in the Total Abstinence cause.
Though intemperance was the main cause of poverty, suffering, misery, and vice in that district of Glasgow, I had also considerable opposition from Romanists and Infidels, many of whom met in clubs, where they drank together and gloried in their wickedness and in leading other young men astray. Against these I prepared and delivered lectures, at the close of which discussion was allowed ; but I fear they did little good. These men embraced the opportunity of airing their absurdities, or sowing the seeds of corruption in those whom otherwise they could never have reached, while their own hearts and minds were fast shut against all conviction or light.
One infidel Lecturer in the district became very ill
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His wife called me in to visit him. I found him possessed of a circulating library of infidel books, by which he sought to pervert unwary minds. Though he had talked and lectured much against the Gospel, he did not at all really understand its message. He had read the Bible, but only to find food there for ridicule. Now supposed to be dying, he confessed that his mind was full of terror as to the Future. After several visits and frequent conversations and prayers, he became genuinely and deeply interested, drank in God's message of salvation, and cried aloud with many tears for pardon and peace. He bitterly lamented the evil he had done, and called in all the infidel literature that he had in circulation, with the purpose of destroying it. He began to speak solemnly to any of his old companions that came to see him, telling them what he had found in the Lord Jesus. At his request I bought and brought to him a Bible, which he received with great joy, saying, " This is the book for me now ; " and add- ing, " Since you were here last, I gathered together all my infidel books ; my wife locked the door, till she and my daughter tore them to pieces, and I struck the light that reduced the pile to ashes."
As long as he lived, this man was unwearied and unflinching in testifying, to all -that crossed his path, how much Jesus Christ had been to his heart and soul ; and he died in the possession of a full and blessed hope
Another Infidel, wnose wife was a Roman Catholic,
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 7\
also became unwell, and gradually sank under great suffering and agony. His blasphemies against God weie known and shuddered at by all the neighbours. His wife pled with me to visit him. She refused, at my suggestion, to call her own priest, so I accom- panied her at last The man refused to hear one word about spiritual things, and foamed with rage. He even spat at me, when I mentioned the name of Jesus. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him !" There is a wisdom which is at best earthly, and at worst "sensual and devilish." His wife asked me to take care of the little money they had, as she would not entrust it to her own priest. I visited the poor man daily, but his enmity to God and his sufferings, together seemed to drive him mad. His yells gathered crowds on the streets. He tore to pieces his very bed-clothes, till they had to bind him on the iron bed where he lay, foaming and blaspheming. Towards the end I pled with him even then to look to the Lord Jesus, and asked if I might pray with him ? With all his remaining strength, he shouted at me, —
" Pray for me to the devil ! "
Reminding him how he had always denied that there was any devil, I suggested that he must surely believe in one now, else he would scarcely make such a request, even in mockery. In great rage he cried, —
"Yes, I believe there is a devil, and a God, and a just God, too; but I have hated Him in life, and I hate Him in death I "
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With these awful words, he wriggled into Eternity ; but his shocking death produced a very serious im- pression for good, especially amongst young men, in the district where his character was known.
How different was the case of that Doctor who also had been an unbeliever as well as a drunkard ! Highly educated, skilful, and gifted above most in his pro- fession, he was taken into consultation for specially dangerous cases, whenever they could find him toler- ably sober. After one of his excessive " bouts," he had a dreadful attack of delirium tremens. At one time, wife and watchers had a fierce struggle to dash from his lips a draught of prussic acid ; at another, they detected the silver-hafted lancet concealed in the band of his shirt, as he lay down, to bleed himself to death. His aunt came and pled with me to visit him. My heart bled for his poor young wife and two beauti- ful little children. Visiting him twice daily, and some- times even more frequently, I found the way somehow into his heart, and he would do almost anything for me and longed for my visits. When again the fit of self-destruction seized him, they sent for me ; he held out his hand eagerly, and grasping mine, said, —
" Put all these people out of the room, remain you with me; I will be quiet, I will do everything you ask!"
I got them all to leave, but whispered to one in passing to " keep near the door."
Alone I sat beside him, my hand in his, and kept up a quiet conversation for several hours. After we
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had talked of everything that I could think of, and it was now far into the morning, I said, —
" If you had a Bible here, we might read a chapter, verse about."
He said dreamily, "There was once a Bible above yon press ; if you can get up to it, you might find it there yet."
Getting it, dusting it, and laying it on a small iable which I drew near to the sofa on which we sat, we read there and then a chapter together. After this, I said, " Now, shall we pray ? "
He replied heartily, " Yes."
I having removed the little table, we kneeled down together at the sofa ; and after a solemn pause, I whispered, " You pray first."
He replied, " I curse, I cannot pray ; would you have me curse God to His face ? "
I answered, " You promised to do all that I asked ; you must pray, or try to pray, and let me hear that you cannot."
He said, " I cannot curse God on my knees ; let me stand, and I will curse Him ; I cannot pray."
I gently held him on his knees, saying, " Just try to pray, and let me hear you cannot."
Instantly he cried out, " O Lord, Thou knowest I cannot pray," and was going to say something dreadful as he strove to rise up. But I just took the words he had uttered as if they had been my own, and continued the prayer, pleading for him and his dear ones as we knelt there together, till he showed
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that he was completely subdued and lying low at the feet of God. On rising from our knees he was mani- festly greatly impressed, and I said, —
" Now, as I must be at College by daybreak and must return to my lodging for my books and an hour's rest, will you do one thing more for me before I go?"
" Yes," was his reply.
" Then," said I, " it is long since you had a re- freshing sleep ; now, will you He down, and I will sit by you till you fall asleep ? "
He lay down, and was soon fast asleep. After com- mending him to the care and blessing of the Lord, I quietly slipped out, and his wife returned to watch by his side. When I came back later in the day, after my classes were over, he, on hearing my foot and voice, came running to meet me, and clasping me in his arms, cried, —
" Thank God, I can pray now ! I rose this morning refreshed from sleep, and prayed with my wife and children for the first time in my life ; and now I shall do so every day, and serve God while I live, who hath dealt in so great mercy with me ! "
After delightful conversation, he promised to go with me to Dr. Symington's church on Sabbath Day ; there he took sittings beside me ; at next half-yearly communion he and his wife were received into mem- bership, and their children were baptized ; and from that day till his death he led a devoted and most useful Christian life. Henceforth, as a medical man
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he delighted to attend all poor and destitute cases which we brought under his care ; he ministered to them for Jesus' sake, and spoke to them of their blessed Saviour. When he came across cases that were hopeless, he sent for me to visit them too, being as anxious for their souls as for their bodies. He died, years after this, of consumption, partly at least the fruit of early excesses ; but he was serenely pre- pared for death, and happy in the assured hope of eternal blessedness with Christ. He sleeps in Jesus ; and I do believe that I shall meet him in Glory as a trophy of redeeming grace and love !
In my Mission district, I was the witness of many joyful departures to be with Jesus, — I do not like to name them " deaths " at all. Even now, at the dis- tance of nearly forty years, many instances, especially amongst the young men and women who attended my classes, rise up before my mind. They left us, rejoicing in the bright assurance that nothing present or to come "could ever separate them or us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Several of them, by their conversation even on their death-bed, were known to have done much good. Many examples might be given ; but I can find room for only one. John Sim, a dear little boy, was carried away by consumption. His childish heart seemed to be filled with joy about seeing Jesus. His simple prattle, mingled with deep questionings, arrested not only his young companions, but pierced the hearts of some careless sinners who heard him, and greatly
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refreshed the faith of God's dear people. It was the
very pathos of song incarnated to hear the weak
quaver of his dying voice sing out, —
•* I lay my sins on Jesus,
The spotless Lamb of God."
Shortly before his decease he said to his parents, "I am going soon to be with Jesus; but I some- times fear that I may not see you there."
" Why so, my child ? " said his weeping mother.
" Because," he answered, " if you were set upon going to heaven and seeing Jesus there, you would pray about it, and sing about it ; you would talk about Jesus to others, and tell them of that happy meeting with Him in Glory. All this my dear Sabbath school teacher taught me, and she Vvill meet me there. Now why did not you, my father and mother, tell me all these things about Jesus, if you are going to meet Him too ? "
Their tears fell fast over their dying child ; and he little knew, in his unthinking eighth year, what a message from God had pierced their souls through his innocent words. One day an aunt from the country visited his mother, and their talk had run in channels for which the child no longer felt any interest. On my sitting down beside him, he said, —
" Sit you down and talk with me about Jesus ; 1 am tired hearing so much talk about everything else but Jesus ; I am going soon to be with Him. Oh, do tell me everything you know or have ever heard about Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God ! "
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At last the child literally longed to be away, not for rest, or freedom from pain — for of that he had very little — but, as he himself always put it, " to see Jesus." And, after all, that was the wisdom of the heart, however he learned it. Eternal life, here or hereafter, is just the vision of Jesus.
Amongst many of the Roman Catholics in my Mission district, also, I was very kindly received, and allowed even to read the Scriptures and to pray. At length, however, a young woman who professed to be converted by my classes and meetings brought things to a crisis betwixt them and me. She had renounced her former faith, was living in a Protestant family, and looked to me as her pastor and teacher. One night, a closed carriage, with two men and women, was sent from a Nunnery in Clyde Street, to take her and her little sister with them. She refused, and declined all authority on their part, de- claring that she was now a Protestant by her own free choice. During this altercation, a message had been sent for me. On arriving, I found the house filled with a noisy crowd. Before them all, she appealed to me for protection from these her enemies. The Romanists, becoming enraged, jostled me into a corner of the room, and there enclosed me. The two women pulled her out of bed by force, for the girl had been sick, and began to dress her, but she fainted among their hands.
I called out, — Do not murder the poor girl ! Get her water,
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quick, quick ! " and leaving my hat on the table, I rushed through amongst them, as if in search of water, and they let me pass. Knowing that the house had only one door, I quickly slipped the key from within, shut and locked the door outside, and with the key in my hand ran to the Police Office. Having secured two constables to protect the girl and take the would-be captors into custody, I re- turned, opened the door, and found, alas ! that these constables were themselves Roman Catholics, and at once set about frustrating me and assisting their own friends. The poor sick girl was supported by the arms into the carriage ; the policemen cleared the way through the crowd ; and before I could force my way through the obstructives in the house, the conveyance was already starting. I appealed and shouted to the crowds to protect the girl, and seize and take the whole party to the Police Office. A gentleman in the crowd took my part, and said to a big Highland policeman in the street, —
" Mac, I commit that conveyance and party to you on a criminal charge, before witnesses ; you will suffer, if they escape."
The driver lashing at his horse to get away, Mac drew his baton and struck, when the driver leapt down to the street on the opposite side, and threw the reins in the policeman's face. Thereupon our stalwart friend at once mounted the box, and drove straight for the Police Office. On arriving there, we discovered that only the women were inside with the
IN GLASGOW CITY MISSION. 79
sick girl — the men having escaped in the scuffle and the crush. What proved more disappointing was that the lieutenant on duty happened to be a Papist, who, after hearing our statement and conferring with the parties in the conveyance, returned, and said, —
"Her friends are taking her to a comfortable home ; you have no right to interfere, and I have let them go." He further refused to hear the grounds of our complaint, and ordered the police to clear the Office.
Next morning, a false and foolish account of the whole affair appeared in the Newspapers, con- demnatory of the Mission and of myself; a meeting of the directors was summoned, and the Superin- tendent came to my lodging to take me before them. Having heard all, and questioned and cross-questioned me, they resolved to prosecute the abductors of the girl. The Nunnery authorities confessed that the little sister was with them, but denied that she had been taken in there, or that they knew anything of her case. Though the girl was sought for carefully by the Police, and by all the members of my class, for nearly a fortnight, no trace of her or of the coach- man or of any of the parties could be discovered ; till one day from a cellar, through a grated window, she called to one of my class girls passing by, and begged her to run and let me know that she was confined there. At once, the directors of the City Mission were informed by me, and Police were sent to rescue her ; but on examining that house they found that she had been again removed. The occupiers denied
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all knowledge of where she had gone, or who had taken her away from their lodging. All other efforts failed to find her, till she was left at the Poor House door, far gone in dropsy, and soon after died in that last refuge of the destitute and forsaken.
Anonymous letters were now sent, threatening my life ; and I was publicly cursed from the altar by the priests in Abercromby Street Chapel. The directors of the Mission, fearing violence, advised me to leave Glasgow for a short holiday, and even offered to ar- range for my being taken for work in Edinburgh for a year, that the fanatical passions of the Irish Papists might have time to subside. But I refused to leave my work. I went on conducting it all as in the past. The worst thing that happened was, that on rushing one day past a row of houses occupied exclusively by Papists, a stone thrown from one of them cut me severely above the eye, and I fell stunned and bleed- ing. When I recovered and scrambled to my feet, no person of course that could be suspected was to be seen ! The doctor having dressed the wound, it rapidly healed, and after a short confinement I re- sumed my work and my studies without any further serious annoyance. Attempts were made more than once, in these Papist closes, and I believe by the Papists themselves, to pour pails of boiling water on my head, over windows and down dark stairs, but in every case I marvellously escaped ; and as I would not turn coward, their malice tired itself out, and they ultimately left me entirely at peace. Is not this
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a feature of the lower Irish, and especially Popish population ? Let them see that bullying makes you afraid, and they will brutally and cruelly misuse you ; but defy them fearlessly, or take them by the nose, and they will crouch like whelps beneath your feet. Is there anything in their Religion that accounts for this ? Is it not a system of alternating tyranny on the one part, and terror, abject terror, on the other ?
About this same time there was an election of elders for Dr. Symington's congregation, and I was by an almost unanimous vote chosen for that office. For years now I had been attached to them as City Missionary for their district, and many friends urged me to accept the eldership, as likely to increase my usefulness, and give me varied experience for my future work. My dear father, also, himself an elder in the congregation at Dumfries, advised me simi- larly ; and though very young, comparatively, for such a post, I did accept the office, and continued to act as an elder and member of Dr. Symington's kirk session, till by-and-by I was ordained as a Missionary to the New Hebrides, where the great lot of my life had been cast by the Lord, as yet unknown to me.
All through my City Mission period, I was pain- fully carrying on my studies, first at the University of Glasgow, and thereafter at the Reformed Pres- byterian Divinity Hall ; and also medical classes at the Andersonian College. With the exception of one session, when failure of health broke me down, I struggled patiently on through ten years. The
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work was hard and most exacting ; and if I never attained the scholarship for which I thirsted — being but poorly grounded in my younger days — I yet had much of the blessed Master's presence in all my efforts, which many better scholars sorely lacked ; and I was sustained by the lofty aim which burned all these years bright within my soul, namely, — to be qualified as a preacher of the Gospel of Christ, to be owned and used by Him for the salvation of perishing men.
IV.
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS,
CHAPTER IV.
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.
The Wail of the Heathen. — A Missionary Wanted. — Two Souls on the Altar.— Lions in the Path.— The Old Folks at Home. — Successors in Green Street Mission. — Old Green Street Hands. — A Father in God.
HAPPY in my work as I felt, and successful by the blessing of God, yet I continually heard, and chiefly during my last years in the Divinity Hall, the wail of the perishing Heathen in the South Seas ; and I saw that few were caring for them, while I well knew that many would be ready to take up my work in Calton, and carry it forward perhaps with more efficiency than myself Without revealing the state of my mind to any person, this was the supreme subject of my daily meditation and prayer ; and this also led me to enter upon those medical studies, in which I purposed taking the full course ; but at the close of my third year, an incident occurred, which led me at once to offer myself for the Foreign Mis- sion field.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, in which I had been brought up, had been advertising
85
86 FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.
for another Missionary to join the Rev. John Inglis in his grand work in the New Hebrides. Dr. Bates, the excellent convener of the Heathen Missions Com- mittee, was deeply grieved, because for two years their appeal had failed. At length, the Synod, after much prayer and consultation, felt the claims of the Heathen so urgently pressed upon them by the Lord's repeated calls, that they resolved to cast lots, to dis- cover whether God would thus select any Minister to be relieved from his home-charge, and designated as a Missionary to the South Seas. Each member of Synod, .as I was informed, agreed to hand in, after solemn appeal to God, the names of the three best qualified in his esteem for such a work, and he who had the clear majority was to be loosed from his congregation, and to proceed to the Mission field — or the first and second highest, if two could be se- cured. Hearing this debate, and feeling an intense interest in these most unusual proceedings, I remem- ber yet the hushed solemnity of the prayer before the names were handed in. I remember the strained silence that held the Assembly while the scrutinizers retired to examine the papers ; and I remember how tears blinded my eyes when they returned to an- nounce that the result was so indecisive, that it was clear that the Lord had not in that way provided a Missionary. The cause was once again solemnly laid before God in prayer, and a cloud of sadness ap- peared to fall over all the Synod.
The Lord kept saying within me, "Since none better
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS. 87
qualified can be got, rise and offer yourself!" Almost overpowering was the impulse to answer aloud, *' Here am I, send me." But I was dreadfully afraid of mis- taking my own emotions for the will of God. So I resolved to make it a subject of close deliberation and prayer for a few days longer, and to look at the proposal from every possible aspect. Besides, I was keenly solicitous about the effect upon the hundreds of young people and others, now attached to all my classes and meetings ; and yet I felt a growing assur- ance that this was the call of God to His servant, and that He who was willing to employ me in the work abroad, was both able and willing to provide for the on-carrying of my work at home. The wail and the claims of the Heathen were constantly sound- ing in my ears. I saw them perishing for lack of the knowledge of the true God and His Son Jesus, while my Green Street people had the open Bible, and all the means of grace within easy reach, which, if they rejected, they did so wilfully, and at their own peril. None seemed prepared for the Heathen field ; many were capable and ready for the Calton service. My medical studies^ as well as my literary and divinity training, had specially qualified me in some ways for the Foreign field, and from every aspect at which I could look the whole facts in the face, the voice with- in me sounded like a voice from God.
It was under good Dr. Bates of West Campbell Street that I had begun my career in Glasgow — receiv- ing £2^ per annum for district visitation in connection
88 FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.
with his congregation, along with instruction under Mr. Hislop and his staflf in the Free Church Normal Seminary — and oh, how Dr. Bates did rejoice, and even weep for joy, when I called on him, and offered myself for the New Hebrides Mission 1 I returned to my lodging with a lighter heart than I had for some time enjoyed, feeling that nothing so clears the vision, and lifts up the life, as a decision to move forward in what you know to be entirely the will of the Lord. I said to my fellow-student, who had chummed with me all through our course at college, —
"I have been away signing my banishment" (a rather trifling way of talk for such an occasion). " I have offered myself as a Missionary for the New Hebrides."
After a long and silent meditation, in which he seemed lost in far-wandering thoughts, his answer was, —
"If they will accept of me, I also am resolved to go!"
I said, ** Will you write the convener to that effect, or let me do so ? "
He replied, " You may."
A few minutes later his letter of offer was in the post office. Next morning, Dr. Bates called upon us early, and after a long conversation, commended us and our future work to the Lord God in fervent prayer.
My fellow-student, Mr. Joseph CopelaTid, had also for some time been a very successful City Missionary
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS. 89
in the Camlachie district, while attending along with me at the Divinity Hall. This leading of God, where- by we both resolved at the same time to give ourselves to the Foreign Mission field, was wholly unexpected by us, as we had never once spoken to each other about going abroad. At a meeting of the Heathen Missions Committee, held immediately thereafter, both were, after due deliberation, formally accepted, on condition that we passed successfully the usual examinations required of candidates for the Ministry. And for the next twelve months we were placed under the special committee for advice as to medical experience, acquaintance with the rudiments of trades, and anything else which might be thought useful to us in the Foreign field.
When it became known that I was preparing to go abroad as Missionary, nearly all were dead against the proposal, except Dr. Bates and my fellow-student. My dear father and mother, however, when I con- sulted them, characteristically replied, " that they had long since given me away to the Lord, and in this matter also would leave me to God's disposal." From other quarters we were besieged with the strongest opposition on all sides. Even Dr. Syming- ton, one of my professors in divinity, and the beloved Minister in connection with whose congregation I had wrought so long as a City Missionary, and in whose kirk session I had for years sat as an elder, repeat- edly urged me to remain at home. He argued, " that Green Street Church was doubtless the sphere for
90 FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.
which God had given me peculiar quahfications, and in which He had so largely blessed my labours ; that if I left those now attending my classes and meet- ings, they might be scattered, and many of them would probably fall away ; that I was leaving cer- tainty for uncertainty — work in which God had made me greatly useful, for work in which I might fail to be useful, and only throw away my life amongst Cannibals."
I replied, " that my mind was finally resolved ; that, though I loved my work and my people, yet I felt that I could leave them to the care of Jesus, who would soon provide them a better pastor than I ; and that, with regard to my life amongst the Cannibals, as I had only once to die, I was content to leave the time and place and means in the hand of God, who had already marvellously preserved me when visiting cholera patients and the fever-stricken poor ; on that score I had positively no further concern, having left it all absolutely to the Lord, whom I sought to serve and honour, whether in life or by death."
The house connected with my Green Street Church, was now offered to me for a Manse, and any reason- able salary that I cared to ask (as against the pro- mised ;^I20 per annum for the far-off and dangerous New Hebrides), on condition that I would remain at home. I cannot honestly say that such offers or opposing influences proved a heavy trial to me ; they rather tended to confirm my determination that the path of duty was to go abroad. Amongst many who
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS. 91
sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gen- tleman, whose crowning argument always was, — " The Cannibals ! you will be eaten by Cannibals ! ' At last I replied, " Mr. Dickson, you are advanced In years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms ; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no differ- ence to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms ; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer."
The old gentleman, raising his hands in a depre- cating attitude, left the room exclaiming,— " After that I have nothing more to say ! " My dear Green Street people grieved excessively at the thought of my leaving them, and daily pled with me to remain. Indeed, the opposition was so strong from nearly all, and many of them warm Christian friends, that I was sorely tempted to question whether I was carrying out the Divine will, or only some headstrong wish of my own. This also caused me much anxiety, and drove me close to God in prayer. But again every doubt would vanish, when I clearly saw that all at home had free access to the Bible and the means of grace, with Gospel light shining all around them, while the poor Heathen were perishing, without even the chance of knowing all God's love and mercy to men. Conscience said louder and clearer every day, " Leave all these results with Jesus your
92 FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.
Lord, who said, ' Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, and lo ! I am with you alway.' " These words kept ringing in my ears ; these were our marching orders.
Some retorted upon me, "There are Heathen at home ; let us seek and save, first of all, the lost ones perishing at our doors." This I felt to be most true, and an appalling fact ; but I unfailingly observed that those who made this retort neglected these home Heathen themselves ; and so the objection, as from them, lost all its power. They would ungrudgingly spend more on a fashionable party at dinner or tea, on concert or ball or theatre, or on some ostentatious display, or worldly and selfish indulgence, ten times more, perhaps in a single day, than they would give in a year, or in half a lifetime, for the conversion of the whole Heathen World, either at home or abroad. Objections from all such people must, of course, al- ways count for nothing among men to whom spiritual things are realities. For these people themselves, — I do, and always did, only pity them, as God's stewards, making such a miserable use of time and money entrusted to their care.
On meeting with so many obstructing influences, I again laid the whole matter before my dear patents, and their reply was to this effect : — " Here- tofore we feared to bias you, but now we must tell you why we praise God for the decision to which you have been led. Your father's heart was set upon being a Minister, but other claims forced him to give
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS. 93
it up. When you were given to them, your father and mother laid you upon the altar, their first-born, to be consecrated, if God saw fit, as a Missionary of the Cross ; and it has been their constant prayer that you might be prepared, qualified, and led to this very decision ; and we pray with all our heart that the Lord may accept your offering, long spare you, and give you many souls from the Heathen World for your hire." From that moment, every doubt as to my path of duty for ever vanished. I saw the hand of God very visibly, not only preparing me for, but now leading me to, the Foreign Mission field.
Well did I know that the sympathy and prayers of my dear parents were warmly with me in all my studies and in all my Mission work ; but for my education they could, of course, give me no money help. All through, on the contrary, it was my pride and joy to help them, being the eldest in a family of eleven. First, I assisted them to purchase the family cow, without whose invaluable aid my ever- memorable mother never could have reared and fed her numerous flock ; then, I paid for them the house- rent and the cow's grass on the Bank Hill, till some of the others grew up and relieved me by paying these in my stead j and finally, I helped to pay the school-fees, to provide clothing — in short I gave, and gladly, what could possibly be saved out of my City Mission salary of ;^40, ultimately advanced to £Af^ per annum. Self-educated thus, and without the help of one shilling from any other
94 FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.
source, readers will easily imagine that I had many a staggering difficulty to overcome in my long cur- riculum in Arts, Divinity, and Medicine ; but God so guided me, and blessed all my little arrangements, that I never incurred one farthing of personal debt. There was, however, a heavy burden always pressing upon me, and crushing my spirit from the day I left my home, which had been thus incurred.
The late owner of the Dalswinton estate allowed, as a prize, the cottager who had the tidiest house and most beautiful flower-garden to sit rent free. For several years in succession, my old sea-faring grand- father won this prize, partly by his own handy skill, partly by his wife's joy in flowers. Unfortunately no clearance-receipt had been asked or given for these rents— the proprietor and his cottars treating each other as friends rather than as men of business. The new heir, unexpectedly succeeding, found him- self in need of money, and threatened prosecution for such rents as arrears. The money had to be borrowed. A money-lending lawyer gave it at usu- rious interest, on condition of my father also becom- ing responsible for interest and principal. This burden hung like a millstone around my grand- father's neck till the day of his death; and it then became suspended round my father's neck alone. The lawyer, on hearing of my giving up trade and entering upon study, threatened to prosecute my father for the capital, unless my name were given along with his for security. Every shilling that I or
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS. 95
any of us could save, all through these ten years of my preparatory classes, went to pay off that interest and gradually to reduce the capital ; and this burden we managed, amongst us, to extinguish just on the eve of my departure for the South Seas. Indeed, one of the purest joys connected with that time was that I received my first Foreign Mission salary and outfit money in advance, and could send home a sum sufficient to wipe out the last penny of a claim by that money-lender or by any one else against my beloved parents, in connection with the noble struggle they had made in rearing so large a family in thorough Scottish independence. And that joy was hallowed by the knowledge that my other brothers and sisters were now all willing and able to do what I had been doing — for we stuck to each other and to the old folks like burs, and had all things *' in common," as a family in Christ — and I knew that never again, howsoever long they might be spared through a peaceful autumn of life, would the dear old father and mother lack any joy or comfort that the willing hands and loving hearts of all their children could singly or unitedly pro- vide. For all this I did praise the Lord. It con- soled me, beyond description, in parting from them, probably for ever in this world at least.
The Directors of Glasgow City Mission along with the Great Hamilton Street congregation, had made every effort to find a suitable successor to me in my Green Street work, but in vain. Des-
96 FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.
pairing of success, as no inexperienced worker could with any hope undertake it, Rev. Mr. Caie, the su- perintendent, felt moved to appeal to my brother Walter, — then in a good business situation in the city, who had been of late closely associated with me in all my undertakings, — if he would not come to the rescue, devote himself to the Mission, and pre- pare for the Holy Ministry. My brother resigned a good position and excellent prospects in the busi- ness world, set himself to carry forward the Green Street Mission and did so with abundant energy and manifest blessing, persevered in his studies, despite a long-continued illness through injury to his foot, and became an honoured Minister of the Gospel, in the Reformed Presbyterian Church first of all, and now in the Free Church of Scotland, at Chapelton, near Hamilton.
On my brother withdrawing from Green Street, God provided for the district a devoted young Minister, ad- mirably adapted for the work. Rev. John Edgar, M.A., who succeeded in drawing together such a body of people that they hived off and built a new church in Landressy Street, which is now, by amalgamation, known as the Barrowfield Free Church of Glasgow. For that fruit too, while giving all praise to other de- voted workers, we bless God as we trace the history of our Green Street Mission. Let him that soweth and him that reapeth rejoice unfeignedly together! The spirit of the old Green Street workers lives on too, as I have already said, in the new premises erected
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS. 97
close thereby ; and in none more conspicuously than in the son of my staunch patron and friend, another Thomas Binnie, Esq., who in Foundry Boy meetings and otherwise devotes the consecrated leisure of a busy and prosperous life to the direct personal ser- vice of his Lord and Master. The blessing of Jehovah God be ever upon that place, and upon all who there seek to win their fellows to the love and service of Jesus Christ !
When I left Glasgow, many of the young men and women of my classes would, if it had been possible, have gone with me, to live and die among .the Heathen. Though chiefly working girls and lads in trades and mills, their deep interest led them to unite their pence and sixpences and to buy web after web of calico, print, and woollen stuffs, which they themselves shaped and sewed into dresses for the women, and kilts and pants for men, on the New Hebrides. This continued to be repeated year by year, long after I had left them ; and to this day no box from Glasgow goes to the New Hebrides Mis- sion which does not contain article after article from one or other of the old Green Street hands. I do certainly anticipate that, when they and I meet in Glory, those days in which we learned the joy of Christian service in the Green Street Mission Halls will form no unwelcome theme of holy and happy converse !
That able and devoted Minister of the Gospel, Dr. Bates, the Convener of the Heathen Missions,
P. 7
98 FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.
had taken the deepest and most fatherly interest in all our preparations. But on the morning of our final examinations he was confined to bed with sick- ness ; yet could not be content without sending his daughter to wait in an adjoining room near the Pres- bytery House, to learn the result, and instantly to carry him word. When she, hurrying home, in- formed him that we both had passed successfully, and that the day of our ordination as Missionaries to the New Hebrides had been appointed, the apostolic old man praised God for the glad tidings, and said his work was now done, and that he could depart in peace, — having seen two devoted men set apart to preach the Gospel to these dark and bloody Islands in answer to his prayers and tears for many a day. Thereafter he rapidly sank, and soon fell asleep in Jesus. He was from the first a very precious friend to me, one of the ablest Ministers our Church ever had, by far the warmest advocate of her Foreign Missions, and altogether a most attractive, white- souled, and noble specimen of an ambassador for Christ, beseeching men to be reconciled to God.
V.
THE NEW HEBRIDES.
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CHAPTER V.
THE NEW HEBRIDES.
License and Ordination. — At Sea. — From Melbourne to Anei- tyum. — Settlement on Tanna. — Our Mission Stations. — Diplomatic Chiefs. — Painful First Impressions. — Bloody Scenes. — The Widow's Doom.
ON the first of December, 1857, the other Mis sionary-designate and I were " licensed " as preachers of the Gospel. Thereafter we spent four months in visiting and addressing nearly every con- gregation and Sabbath school in the Reformed Pres- byterian Chuich of Scotland, that the people might see us and know us, and thereby take a personal interest in our work. That idea was certainly ex- cellent, and might well be adapted to the larger Churches, by allocating one Missionary to each pro- vince or to so many presbyteries, sending him to address these, and training them to regard him as their Missionary and his work as theirs. On the 23rd March, 1858, in Dr. Symington's church, Glas- gow, in presence of a mighty crowd, and after a magnificent sermon on "Come over and help us," we were solemnly ordained as Ministers of the Gos-
I02 THE NEW HEBRIDES.
pel, and set apart as Missionaries to the New Heb- rides. On the 1 6th April, 1858, we left the Tail of the Bank at Greenock, and set sail in the Clutha for the Foreign Mission field.
Our voyage to Melbourne was rather tedious, but ended prosperously, under Captain Broadfoot, a kindly, brave-hearted Scot, who did everything that was possible for our comfort. He himself led the singing on board at worship, which was always charming to me, and was always regularly conducted — on deck when the weather was fair, below when it was rough. I was also permitted to conduct Bible classes amongst the crew and amongst the pas- sengers, at times and places approved of by the Captain — in which there was great joy. Nearly thirty years after, when I returned the second time to Scotland, a gentleman of good position, and the father of a large family in the West, saluted me warmly at the close of one of my meetings, and re- minded me that he was my precentor in the Bible class on board the Clutha! He was kind enough to say that he had never forgotten the scene and the lessons there.
Arriving at Melbourne, we were welcomed by Rev. Mr. Moor, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Wilson, and Mr. Wright, all Reformed Presbyterians from Geelong. Mr. Wilson's two children, Jessie and Donald, had been under our care during the voyage ; and my young wife and I went with them for a few days on a visit to Geelong, while Mr. Copeland remained
THE NEW HEBRIDES. 103
on board the Clutha to look after our boxes and to watch for any opportunity of reaching our destina- tion on the Islands. He heard that an American ship, the Francis P. Sage, was sailing from Mel- bourne to Penang ; and the Captain agreed to land us on Aneityum, New Hebrides, with our two boats and fifty boxes, for ;^ioo. We got on board on the 1 2th August, but such a gale blew that we did not sail till the 17th. On the Clutha all was quiet, and good order prevailed; in the i^ '/*. Sage all was noise and profanity. The Captain said he kept his second mate for the purpose of swearing at the men and knocking them about. The voyage was most disagreeable to all of us, but fortunately it lasted only twelve days. On the 29th we were close up to Aneityum ; but the Captain refused to land us, even in his boats ; some of us suspecting that his men were so badly used, that had they got on shore they would never have returned to him I In any case he had beforehand secured his ;^ioo.
He lay off the island till a trader's boat came off to see what we wanted, and by it we sent a note to Dr. Geddie, one of the Missionaries there. Early next morning, Monday, he came off to us in his boat, accompanied by Mr. Mathieson, a newly-arrived Mis- sionary from Nova Scotia ; bringing also Captain Anderson in the small mission schooner, the John Knox, and a large mission boat called the Columbia^ well manned with crews of able and willing Natives. Our fifty boxes were soon on board the John Knox^
104 THE NEW HEBRIDES.
the Columbia, and our own boats — all being heavily loaded and built up, except those that had to be used in pulling the others ashore. Dr. Geddie, Mr. Mathieson, Mrs. Paton, and I, were perched among the boxes on the John Knox, and had to hold on as best we could. On sheering off from the F. P. Sage, one of her davits caught and broke the main- mast of the little jfohn Knox by the deck, and I saved my wife from being crushed to death by its fall through managing to swing her instantaneously aside in an apparently impossible manner. It did graze Mr. Mathieson, but he was not hurt The yokn Knox, already overloaded, was thus quite dis- abled J we were about ten miles at sea, and in imminent danger ; but the Captain of the F. P. Sage heartlessly sailed away and left us to struggle with our fate.
We drifted steadily towards Tanna, an island of Cannibals, where our goods would have been plundered and all of us cooked and eaten. Dr. Geddie's boat and mine had the Jokn Knox in tow ; and Mr. Copeland, with a crew of Natives, was struggling hard with his boat to pull the Co- lumbia and her load towards Aneityum. As God mercifully ordered it, though we had a stiff trade wind to pull against, we had a comparatively calm sea ; yet we drifted still to leeward, till Dr. Inglis going round to the harbour in his boat, as he had heard of our arrival, saw us far at sea, and hastened to our rescue. All the boats now, with their willing
THE NEW HEBRIDES. 105
native crews, got fastened to our schooner, and to our great joy she began to move ahead. After pulling for hours and hours, under the scorching rays of an almost tropical sun, we were all safely landed on shore at Aneityum about six o'clock in the evening of August 30th, just four months and fourteen days since we sailed from Greenock. We got a hearty welcome from the Missionaries' wives on the shore, Mrs. Geddie, Mrs. Inglis, and Mrs. Mathieson, and from all our new friends, the Chris- tian Natives of Aneityum ; and the great danger in which both life and property had been placed at the close of our voyage, made us praise God all the more, that He had brought us to this quiet resting-place, around which lay the Islands of the New Hebrides, to which our eager hearts had looked forward, and into which we entered now in the name of the Lord.
Mr. Copeland, Mrs. Paton, and I went round the island to Dr. Inglis's Station, where we were most cordially received and entertained by his dear lady, and by the Christian Natives there. As he was making several additions to his house at that time, we received for the next few weeks our first practical and valuable training in Mission house-building, as well as in higher matters. Soon after, a meeting was called to consult about our settlement, and, by the advice and with the concurrence of all, Mr. and Mrs. Mathieson from Nova Scotia were located on the south side of Tanna, at Umairarekar, and Mrs.
ro6 THE NEW HEBRIDES,
Paton and I at Port Resolution, on the same island. At first it was agreed that Mr. Copeland should be placed along with us ; but owing to the weakly state of Mrs. Mathieson's health, it was afterwards resolved that, for a time at least, Mr. Copeland should live at either Station, as might seem most suitable or most requisite. Till the close of the sailing season, his time was spent chiefly in 'Cc\& John KnoXy helping Captain Anderson in loading and disloading the wood and house-building materials betwixt Aneityum and Tanna ; while I was occupied chiefly with the house-building and preparatory arrangements.
Dr. Inglis and a number of his most energetic Natives accompanied us to Kwamera, Tanna. There we purchased a site for Mission House and Church, and laid a stone foundation, and advanced as far as practicable the erection of a dwelling for Mr. and Mrs. Mathieson. Thence we proceeded to Port Resolution, Tanna, and similarly purchased a site, and advanced, to a forward stage, the house which Mrs. Paton and I were to occupy on our settlement there. Lime, for plastering, had to be burned in kilns from the coral rocks ; and thatch, for roofing with sugar-cane leaf, had to be prepared by the Natives at both stations before our return ; for which, as for all else, a price was duly agreed upon and was scrupulously paid. Unfortunately we learned, when too late, that both houses were too near the shore, exposed to unwholesome miasma, and pro-
THE NEW HEBRIDES. 107
ductive of the dreaded fever and ague, — the most virulent and insidious enemy to all Europeans in those Southern Seas.
At both Stations, but especially at Port Resolution, we found the Natives in a very excited and unsettled state. Threatened wars kept them in constant terror — war betwixt distant tribes, or adjoining villages, or nearest neighbours. The Chiefs, at both Stations, willingly sold sites for houses, and appeared to desire Missionaries to live amongst them ; but perhaps it was with an eye to the axes, knives, fishhooks, blankets, and clothing, which they got in payment, or hoped for in plunder, rather than from any thirst for the Gospel, as they were all savages and cannibals. They warily declined to promise protection to the Mission families and the Teachers ; but they said they would not themselves do them any harm, though they could not say what the Inland people might do ;— not a bad specimen of diplomacy, leaving an open door for any future emergency, and neither better nor worse than the methods by which the civilized European nations make and break their treaties in peace and in war ! Such promises meant and were intended to mean nothing. The Natives, both on Tanna, and on my second home at Aniwa, believed that they had kept their promise, if they inflicted no injury with their own hands, even though they had hired others to do so. No Heathen there could be trusted one step beyond what appeared to be his own self-interest for the
lo8 THE NEW HEBRIDES,
nonce ; and nothing conceivable was too base or cruel to be done, if only it served his turn. The depths of Satan, outlined in the first chapter of the Romans, were uncovered there before our eyes in the daily life of the people, without veil and without excuse.
My first impressions drove me to the verge of utter dismay. On beholding these Natives in their paint and nakedness and misery, my heart was as full of horror as of pity. Had I given up my much-beloved work and my dear people in Glasgow, with so many delightful associations, to consecrate my life to these degraded creatures? Was it possible to teach them right and wrong, to Christianize, or even to civilize them ? But that was only a passing feeling! I soon got as deeply interested in them, and in all that tended to advance them, and to lead them to the knowledge and love of Jesus, as ever I had been in my work at Glasgow. We were surprised and delighted at the remarkable change produced on the natives of Aneityum through the instrumentality of Drs. Geddie and Inglis in so short a time; and we hoped, by prayerful perseverance in the use of similar means, to see the same work of God repeated on Tanna. Besides, the wonderful and blessed work done by Mrs. Inglis and Mrs. Geddie, at their Stations, filled our wives with the buoyant hope of being instruments in the hand of God to produce an equally beneficent change amongst the savage women of Tanna. Mrs. Paton had been
THE NEW HEBRIDES. 109
left with Mrs. Inglis to learn all she could from her of Mission work on the Islands, till I returned with Dr. Inglis from the house-building operations on Tanna; during which period Mr. and Mrs. Mathieson were also being instructed by Dr. and Mrs. Geddie. To the Tannese, Dr. Inglis and I were objects of curiosity and fear ; they came crowding to gaze on our wooden and lime-plastered house, they chattered incessantly with each other, and left the scene day after day with undisguised and increasing wonderment. Possibly they thought us rather mad than wise !
Party after party of armed men, going and coming in a state of great excitement, we were informed that war was on foot ; but our Aneityumese Teachers were told to assure us that the Harbour people would only act on the defensive, and that no one would molest us at our work. One day two hostile tribes met near our Station ; high words arose, and old feuds were revived. The Inland people with- drew ; but the Harbour people, false to their pro- mises, flew to arms and rushed past us in pursuit of their enemies. The discharge of muskets in the adjoining bush, and the horrid yells of the savages, soon informed us that they were engaged in deadly fights. Excitement and terror were on every counte- nance ; armed men rushed about in every direction, with feathers in their twisted hair, — with faces painted red, black, and white, and some, one cheek black, the other red, others, the brow white, the chin
THE NEW HEBRIDES.
blue — in fact, any colour and on any part, — the more grotesque and savage looking, the higher the art ! Some of the women ran with their children to places of safety ; but even then we saw other girls and women, on the shore close by, chewing sugar-cane and chaffering and laughing, as if their fathers and brothers had been engaged in a country dance, instead of a bloody conflict. In the afternoon, as the sounds of the muskets and the yelling of the warriors came unpleasantly near to us, Dr. Inglis, leaning against a post for a little while in silent prayer, looked on us and said, —
" The walls of Jerusalem were built in troublous times, and why not the Mission House on Tanna } But let us rest for this day, and pray for these poor Heathen."
We retired to a native house, that had been temporarily granted to us for rest, and there pled before God for them all. The noise and the dis- charge of muskets gradually receded, as if the Inland people were retiring ; and towards evening the people around us returned to their villages. We were after- wards informed that five or six men had been shot dead ; that their bodies had been carried by the conquerors from the field of battle, and cooked and eaten that vjery night by the savages at a boiling spring near the head of the bay, less than a mile from the spot where my house was being built. We had also a more graphic illustration of the surround- ings into which we had come, through Dr. Inglis's
THE NEW HEBRIDES.
Aneityum boy, who accompanied us as cook. When our tea was wanted that evening, the boy could not be found. After a while of great anxiety on our part, he returned, saying, —
" Missi, this is a dark land. The people of this land do dark works. At the boiling spring they have cooked and feasted upon the slain. They have washed the blood into the stream ; they have bathed there till all the waters are red. I cannot get water to make your tea. What shall I do ?"
Dr. Inglis told him that he must try for water elsewhere, till the rains came and cleansed the polluted stream ; and that, meanwhile, instead of tea, we would drink from the cocoa-nut, as they had often done before. The lad was quite relieved. It not a little astonished us, however, to see that his mind regarded their killing and eating each other as a thing scarcely to be noticed, but that it was horrible that they should spoil the water ! How much are even our deepest instincts the creatures of mere circumstances ! I, if trained like him, would probably have felt like him.
Next evening, as we sat talking about the people and the dark scenes around us, the quiet of the night was broken by a wild wailing cry from the villages around, long-continued and unearthly. We were informed that one of the wounded men, carried home from the battle, had just died ; and that they had strangled his widow to death, that her spirit might accompany him to the other world, and be
THE NEW HEBRIDES.
his servant there, as she had been here. Now their dead bodies were laid side by side, ready to be buried in the sea. Our hearts sank to think of all this happening within ear-shot, and that we knew it not ! Every new scene, every fresh incident, set more clearly before us the benighted condition and shocking cruelties of these heathen people, and we longed to be able to speak to them of Jesus and the love of God. We eagerly tried to pick up every word of their language, that we might, in their own tongue, unfold to them the knowledge of the true God and the salvation from all these sins through Jesus Christ.
Dr. Inglis and I, with the help of the Natives from Aneityum, having accomplished all that could be done for lack of lime and sawn wood to finish the new Mission House on Tanna, made an agreement with the Natives for knives, calico, and axes, to burn lime and prepare other things for our return. We then hastened back to Aneityum, that we might, if possible, get ready for settling on Tanna before the Rainy Season set in. That was rapidly approach- ing, and it brings with it discomfort and unhealth to Europeans throughout all these Pacific Isles.
VI.
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
CHAPTER VI.
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
Our Island Home. — Learning the Language. — A Religion of Fear. — With or Without a God. — Ideas of the Invisible. — Gods and Demons. — My Companion Missionary. — Pioneers in the New Hebrides — Missionaries of Aneityum. — The Lord's Arrowroot. — Unhealthy Sites. — The Great Bereave- ment.— Memorial Tributes. — Selwyn and Patteson at a Tannese Grave. — Her Last Letter. — Last Words. — Pre- sentiment and Mystery.
OUR little missionary ship, the John Knox, having no accommodation for lady passengers, and little for anybody else, except the discomfort of lying on deck, we took advantage of a trader to convey us from Aneityum to Tanna. The captain kindly offered to take us and about thirty casks and boxes to Port Resolution for £$, which we gladly accepted. After a few hours' sailing we were all safely landed on Tanna on the 5th November, 1858. Dr. Geddie went for a fortnight to Umairarekar, on the south side of Tanna, to assist in the settlement of Mr. and Mrs. Mathieson, and to help in making their house habitable and comfortable. Mr. Cope- land, Mrs. Paton, and I were left at Port Resolution,
"5
Il6 LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA
to finish the building of our house there, and work our way into the goodwill of the Natives as best we could. On landing there, we found the people to be literally naked and painted savages ; they A-ere at least as destitute of clothing as Adam and Eve after the fall, when they sewed fig-leaves for a girdle ; and even more so, for the women wore only a tiny apron of grass, in some cases shaped like a skirt or girdle, the men an indescribable affair, like a pouch or bag, and the children absolutely nothing whatever !
At first they came in crowds to look at us, and at everything we did or had. We knew nothing of their language ; we could not speak a single word to them, nor they to us. We looked at them, they at us ; we smiled, and nodded, and made signs to each other ; this was our first meeting and parting. One day I observed two men, the one lifting up one of our articles to the other, and saying, —
"Nunksi nari enu ?"
I concluded that he was asking, " What is this ?" Instantly, lifting a piece of wood, I said, —
"Nunksi nari enu ?"
They smiled and spoke to each other. I under- stood them to be saying, " He has got hold of our language now." Then they told me their name for the thing which I had pointed to. I found that they understood my question. What is this ? or. What is that .'' and that I could now get from them the name of every visible or tangible thing around us ! We carefully noted down every
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA. I17
name they gave us, spelling all phonetically, and also every strange sound we heard from them ; thereafter, by painstaking comparison of different circumstances, we tried to ascertain their meanings, testing our own guess by again cross-questioning the Natives. One day I saw two males approaching, when one, who was a stranger, pointed to me with his finger, and said,^
"Se nangin ?"
Concluding that he was asking my name, I pointed to one of them with my finger, and looking at the other, inquired, —
"Se nangin?"
They smiled, and gave me their names. We were now able to get the names of persons and things, and so our ears got familiarized with the distinctive sounds of their language ; and being always keenly on the alert, we made extraordinary progress in at- tempting bits of conversation and in reducing their speech for the first time to a written form — for the New Hebrideans had no literature, and not even the rudiments of an alphabet. I used to hire some of the more intelligent lads and men to sit and talk with us, and answer our questions about names and sounds ; but they so often deceived us, and we, doubtless, misunderstood them so often, that this course was not satisfactory, till after we had gained some knowledge of their language and its construc- tion, and they themselves had become interested in helping us. Amongst our most interested helpers,
n8 LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
and most trustworthy, were two aged chiefs — Nowar and Nouka — in many respects two of Nature's noblest gentlemen, kind at heart to all, and distinguished by a certain native dignity of bearing. But they were both under the leadership of the war-chief Miaki, a kind of devil-king over many villages and tribes. He and his brother were the recognised leaders in all deeds of darkness ; they gloried in bloodshedding, and in war, and in cannibalism ; and they could always command a following of desperate men, who lived in or about their own village, and who were prepared to go anywhere and do anything at Miaki's will.
The Tannese had hosts of stone idols, charms, and sacred objects, which they abjectly feared, and in which they devoutly believed. They were given up to countless superstitions, and firmly glued to their dark heathen practices. Their worship was entirely a service of fear, its aim being to propitiate this or that Evil Spirit, to prevent calamity or to secure re- venge. They deified their chiefs, like the Romans of old, so that almost every village or tribe had its own sacred man, and some of them had many. They exercised an extraordinary influence for evil, these village or tribal priests, and were believed to have the disposal of life and death through their sacred ceremonies, not only in their own tribe, but over all the Islands. Sacred men and women, wizards and witches, received presents regularly to influence the gods, and to remove sickness, or to cause it by the
LIPE AND DEATH ON TANNA. tl9
Nahak, i.e., incantation over remains of food, or the skin of fruit, such as banana, which the person has eaten, on whom they wish to operate. They also worshipped the spirits of departed ancestors and heroes, through their material idols of wood and stone, but chiefly of stone. They feared these spirits and sought their aid ; especially seeking to propitiate those who presided over war and peace, famine and plenty, health and sickness, destruction and pros- perity, life and death. Their whole worship was one of slavish fear ; and, so far as ever I could learn, they had no idea of a God of mercy or grace. • Let me here give my testimony on a matter of some importance — that among these Islands, if any- where, men might be found destitute of the faculty of worship, men absolutely without idols, if such men exist under the face of the sky. Everything seemed to favour such a discovery ; but the New Hebrides, on the contrary, are full of gods. The Natives, des- titute of the knowledge of the true God, are cease- lessly groping after Him, if perchance they may find Him. Not finding Him, and not being able to live without some sort of god, they have made idols of almost everything; trees and groves, rocks and stones, springs aiid streams, insects and other beasts, men and departed spirits, relics such as hair and finger nails, the heavenly bodies and the volcanoes ; in fact, every being and everything within the range of vision or of knowledge has been appealed to by them as God, — clearly proving that the instincts of
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
Humanity, however degraded, prompt man to worship and lean upon some Being or Power outside himself, and greater than himself, in whom he lives and moves and has his being, and without the knowledge of whom his soul cannot find its true rest or its eternal life. Imperfect acquaintance with the lan- guage and customs of certain tribes may easily lead early discoverers to proclaim that they have no sense of worship and no idols, because nothing of the kind is visible on the surface ; but there is a sort of free- masonry in Heathen Religions ; they have mysterious customs and symbols, which none, even amongst themselves, understand, except the priests and sacred men. It pays these men to keep their devotees in the dark — and how much more to deceive a passing inquirer ! Nor need we hold up our hands in surprise at this ; it pays also nearer home, to pretend and to perpetuate a mystery about beads and crucifixes, holy water and relics — a state of mind not so very far removed from that of the South Sea islander, not disproving but rather strongly proving that, whether savage or civilized, man must either know the true God, or must find an idol to put in His place.
Further, these very facts — that they did worship, that they believed in spirits of ancestors and heroes, and that they cherished many legends regarding those whom they had never seen, and handed these down to their children — and the fact that they had ideas about the invisible world and its inhabitants, made it not so hard as some might suppose to convey
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
to their minds, once their language and modes of thought were understood, some clear idea of Jehovah God as the great uncreated Spirit Father, who Him- self created and sustains all that is. But it could not be done off-hand, or by a few airy lessons. The whole heart and soul and life had to be put into the enterprise. The idea that man disobeyed God, and was a fallen and sinful creature, — the idea that God, as a Father, so loved man that He seiat His only Son Jesus to this earth to seek and to save him, — the idea that this Jesus so lived and died and rose from the dead as to take away man's sin, and make it possible for men to return to God, and to be made into the very likeness of His Son Jesus, — and the idea that this Jesus will at death receive to the mansions of Glory every creature under heaven that loves and tries to follow Him, — these ideas had to be woven into their spiritual consciousness, had to become the very warp and woof of their religion. But it could be done — that we believed because they were men, not beasts ; it had been done — that we saw in the con- verts on Aneityum ; and our hearts rose to the task with a quenchless hope !
The Tannese called Heaven by the name Aneai ; and we afterwards discovered that this was the name of the highest and most beautifully situated village on the island. Their best bit of Earth was to them the symbol and type of Heaven ; their Canaan, too, was a kind of prophecy of another country, even a heavenly Canaan. The fact that they had an Aneai,
12a LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
a promised land, opened their minds naturally to ouf idea of the promised land of the future, the Aneai of the Gospel hope and faith. The universal craving to know the greater and more powerful gods, and to have them on their side, led them, whenever we could speak their language, to listen eagerly to all our stories about the Jehovah God and His Son Jesus, and all the mighty works recorded in the Bible, But when we began to teach them that, in order to serve this Almighty and living Jehovah God, they must cast aside all their idols and leave off every heathen custom and vice, they rose in anger and cruelty against us, they persecuted every one that was friendly to the Mission, and passed us through the dreadful experiences to be hereafter recorded. It was the old battle of History ; light had attacked darkness in its very stronghold, and it almost seemed for a season that the light would be finally eclipsed, and that God's Day would never dawn on Tanna !
My companion Missionary, Mr. Copeland, had to go to Aneityum and take charge of Dr. Inglis's Station, during the absence of that distinguished Mis- sionary and his devoted wife, while carrying through the press at home the first complete Aneityumese New Testament. He succeeded admirably in taking up and carrying forward all their work, and gave vital assistance in translating the Old Testament into the language of Aneityum, for his was an exact and scholarly mind. After their return, iie similarly occupied the Station of Dr. Geddie on another part
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA. 123
of the same island, while he sought re-invigoration in Nova Scotia on a well-merited furlough. Thereafter, he was placed on the island of Fotuna; and there, with Mrs, Copeland, he laboured devotedly and zealously, till at last she died and his own health gave way to such an extent as compelled him to retire from the Mission field. He found congenial employment in editing, with great acceptance, the Sydney Presby- terian Witness, and thereby still furthering the cause of the Gospel and of Missions.
A glance backwards over the story of the Gospel in the New Hebrides may help to bring my readers into touch with the events that are to follow. The ever-famous names of Williams and Harris are asso- ciated with the earliest efforts to introduce Chris- tianity amongst this group of islands in the South Pacific Seas. John Williams and his young mission- ary companion Harris, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, landed on Erromanga on the 30th of November, 1839. Instantly, within a few minutes of their touching land, both were clubbed to death ; and the savages proceeded to cook and feast upon their bodies. Thus were the New Hebrides baptized with the blood of martyrs; and Christ there- by told the whole Christian world that He claimed these Islands as His own. His cross must yet be lifted up, where the blood of His saints has been poured forth in His name 1 The poor Heathen knew not that they had slain their best friends ; but tears and prayers ascended for them from all Christian
124 LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
souls, wherever the story of the martyrdom on Erro- manga was read or heard.
Again, therefore, in 1842, the London Missionary Society sent out Messrs. Turner and Nisbet to pierce this kingdom of Satan. They placed their standard on this same island of Tanna, the nearest to Erromanga. In less than seven months, how- ever, their persecution by the savages became so dreadful, that we see them in a boat trying to escape by night with bare life. Out on that dan- gerous sea they would certainly have been lost, but the Ever-Merciful drove them back to land, and sent next morning a trading vessel, which, contrary to custom, called there and just in the nick of time. They, with all goods that could be rescued, were got safely on board, and sailed for Samoa. Say not their plans and prayers were baffled ; for God heard and abundantly blessed them there, beyond all their dreams. Dr. Turner has been specially used of God for educating many native teachers and missionaries and in translating and publishing edition after edition of the Bible, besides giving them many other educa- tional and religious books in their own language ; — blessed work, in which, while I am writing these words, he and his gifted wife are still honourably and fruitfully engaged in the holy autumn of their days.
After these things, the London Missionary Society again and again placed Samoan native teachers on one or other island of the New Hebrides ; but their unhealthiness, compared with their own happier
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA. 125
Samoa or Rarotonga,so afflicted them with the dreaded ague and fever, besides what they endured from the inhospitable savages themselves, that no effective mission work had been accomplished there till at last the Presbyterian Missionaries were led to enter upon the scene. Christianity had no foothold anywhere on the New Hebrides, unless it were in the memory and the blood of the martyrs of Erromanga.
The Rev. John Geddie and his wife, from Nova Scotia, were landed on Aneityum, the most southerly island of the New Hebrides, in 1848 ; and the Rev. John Inglis and his wife, from Scotland, were landed on the other side of the same island, in 1852. An agent for the London Missionary Society, the Rev. T. Powell, accompanied Dr. Geddie for about a year, to advise as to his settlement and to assist in open- ing up the work. Marvellous as it may seem, the Natives on Aneityum showed interest in the mission- aries from the very first, and listened to their teach- ings ; so that in a (ew years Dr. Inglis and Dr. Geddie saw about 3,500 savages throwing away their idols, renouncing their heathen customs, and avowing themselves to be worshippers of the true Jehovah God. Slowly, yet progressively, they unlearned their Heathenism ; surely and hopefully they learned Chris- tianity and civilization. In course of time a simple form of family worship was introduced into and ob- served by every household on the island ; God's blessing was asked on every meal ; peace and public order were secured ; and property was perfectly safe
126 LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
under the sanctifying and civilizing Gospel of Christ And by-and-by these Missionaries lived to see the whole Bible, which they and Mr. Copeland had so painfully translated, placed in the hands of the Aneityumese by the aid of the British and Foreign Bible Society — that noblest handmaid of every Mis- sionary enterprise. But how was this accomplished ? As a boon of charity ? Listen !
These poor Aneityumese, having glimpses of this Word of God, determined to have a Holy Bible in their own mother tongue, wherein before no book or page ever had been written in the history of their race. The consecrated brain and hand of their Missionaries kept toiling day and night in translating the book of God ; and the willing hands and feet of the Natives kept toiling through fifteen long but un- wearying years, planting and preparing arrowroot to pay the ;^i,200 required to be laid out in the printing and publishing of the book. Year after year the arrowroot, too sacred to be used for their daily food, was set apart as the Lord's portion ; the Mis- sionaries sent it to Australia and Scotland, where it was sold by private friends, and the whole proceeds consecrated to this purpose. On the completion of the great undertaking by the Bible Society, it was found that the Natives had earned as much as to pay every penny of the outlay ; and their first Bibles went out to them, purchased with the consecrated toils of fifteen years ! Some of our friends may think that the sum was large ; but I know, from experience, that
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA. 127
if such a difficult job had been carried through the press and so bound by any other printing establish- ment, the expense would have been greater far. One book of Scripture, printed by me in Melbourne for the Aniwans, under the auspices of the Bible Society too, cost eight shillings per leaf, and that was the cheapest style ; and this the Aniwans also paid for by dedicating their arrowroot to God.
Let those who lightly esteem their Bibles think on these things. Eight shillings for every leaf, or the labour and proceeds of fifteen years for the Bible entire, did not appear to these poor converted savages too much to pay for that Word of God, which had sent to them the Missionaries, which had revealed to them the grace of God in Christ, and which had opened their eyes to the wonders and glories of re- deeming love ! They had felt, and we had observed, that in all lands and amongst all branches of the human family, the Holy Bible is, wheresoever received and obeyed, the power of God unto salvation ; it had lifted them out of savagery, and set them at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Oh, that the pleasure-seeking men and women of the world could only taste and feel the real joy of those who know and love the true God — a heritage which the world and all that pertains thereto cannot give to them, but which the poorest and humblest followers of Jesus inherit and enjoy !
My first house on Tanna was on the old site occupied by Turner and Nisbet, near the shore for obvious reasons, and only a few feet above tide-mark.
128 LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
So was that of Mr. Mathieson, handy for materials and goods being landed, and close to the healthy breezes of the sea. Alas ! we had to learn by sad experience, like our brethren in all untried Mission fields. The sites proved to be hot-beds for Fever and Ague, mine especially ; and much of this might have been escaped by building on the higher ground, and in the sweep of the refreshing trade-winds. For all this, however, no one was to blame ; everything was done for the best, according to the knowledge then possessed. Our house was sheltered behind by an abrupt hill from three to four hundred feet high, which gave the site a feeling of cosiness. It was sur- rounded, and much shaded, by beautiful breadfruit trees, and very large cocoanut trees ; too largely beautiful, indeed, for they shut out many a healthy breeze that we sorely needed ! There was a long swamp all round the head of the bay, and, the ground at the other end on which our house stood being scarcely raised perceptibly higher, the malaria almost constantly enveloped us. Once, after a smart attack of the fever, an intelligent Chief said to me, —
" Missi, if you stay here, you will soon die ! No Tanna-man sleeps so low down as you do, in this damp weather, or he too would die. We sleep on the high ground, and the trade-wind keeps us well. You must go and sleep on the hill, and then you will have better health."
I at once resolved to remove my house to higher ground, at the earliest practicable moment ; heavy
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA. 129
though the undertaking would necessarily be, it seemed my only hope of being able to live on the island.
My dear young wife, Mary Ann Robson, and I were landed on Tanna on the 5th November, 1858, in excellent health and full of all tender and holy hopes. On the 12th February, 1859, she was confined of a son ; for two days or so both mother and child seemed to prosper, and our island-exile thrilled with joy ! But the greatest of sorrows was treading hard upon the heels of that joy ! My darling's strength showed no signs of rallying. She had an attack of ague and fever, a few days before her confinement ; on the third day or so thereafter, it returned, and attacked her every second day with increasing severity for a fortnight Diarrhoea ensued, and symptoms of pneumonia, with slight delirium at intervals; and then in a moment, altogether unex- pectedly, she died on the 3rd March, To crown my sorrows, and complete my loneliness, the dear baby- boy, whom we had named after her father, Peter Robert Robson, was taken from me after one week's sickness, on the 20th March. Let those who have ever passed through any similar darkness as of mid- night feel for me ; as for all others, it would be more than vain to try to paint my sorrows !
I knew then, when too late, that our work had been entered on too near the beginning of the Rainy Season, We were both, however, healthy and hearty ; and I daily pushed on with the house, making things hourly more comfortable, in the hope that long
P, 9
I30 LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
lives were before us both, to be spent for Jesus in seeking the salvation of the perishing Heathen. Oh, the vain yet bitter regrets, that my dear wife had not been left on Aneityum till after the unhealthy Rainy Season ! But no one advised this course ; and she, high-spirited, full of buoyant hope, and afraid of being left behind me, or of me being left without her on Tanna, refused to allow the thing to be suggested. In our mutual inexperience, and with our hearts aglow for the work of our lives, we incurred this risk which should never have been incurred ; and I only refer to the matter thus, in the hope that others may take warning.
Stunned by that dreadful loss, in entering upon this field of labour to which the Lord had Himself so evidently led me, my reason seemed for a time almost to give way. Ague and fever, too, laid a depressing and weakening hand upon me, continu- ously recurring, and reaching oftentimes the very height of its worst burning stages. But I was never altogether forsaken. The ever-merciful Lord sus- tained me, to lay the precious dust of my beloved Ones in the same quiet grave, dug for them close by at the end of the house ; in all of which last offices my own hands, despite breaking heart, had to take the principal share ! I built the grave round and round with coral blocks, and covered the top with beautiful white coral, broken small as gravel ; and that spot became my sacred and much-frequented shrine, during all the following months and years
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA. 131
when I laboured on for the salvation of these savage Islanders amidst difficulties, dangers, and deaths. Whensoever Tanna turns to the Lord, and is won for Christ, men in after-days will find the memory of that spot still green, — where with ceaseless prayers and tears I claimed that land for God in which I had " buried my dead " with faith and hope. But for Jesus, and the fellowship He vouchsafed me there, I must have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave:
The organ of the Church to which we belonged, The Reformed Presbyterian Magazine, published the follow- ing words of condolence : — " In regard to the death of Mrs. Paton, one feeling of grief and regret will fill the hearts of all who knew her. To add a sentence to the singularly just and graceful tribute Mr. Inglis pays to the memory of the deceased, would only mar its pathos and effect. Such language, from one ac- customed to weigh carefully every word he pens, bespeaks at once the rare excellences of her that is gone, as well as the heavy loss our Mission and our Church have sustained in her death. Her parents, who gave her by a double baptism to the Lord, have this consolation, that her death may exert a more elevating and sanctifying influence for good, than the longest life of many ordinary Christians. Deep sym- pathy with Mr. Paton will pervade the Church, in the sore trial with which he has been visited."
Dr. Inglis, my brother Missionary on Aneityum, wrote to the same Magazine : — " I trust all those who
132 LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
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 sym- pathise 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 inter- course 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 cha- racter, 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."
LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA. 133
The Mission Synod at Tanna, on April 27th, 1859, passed the following resolution : — "That this meeting deeply and sincerely sympathises with Mr. Paton in the heavy and trying bereavement with which the Lord has seen meet to visit him in the death of his beloved wife and child ; and the Missionaries record their sense of the loss this Mission has sustained, in the early, sudden, and unexpected death of Mrs. Paton. Her earnest Christian character, her devoted Mission- ary spirit, her excellent education, her kind and obliging disposition, and the influence she was fast acquiring over the Natives excited expectations of great future usefulness. That they express their heart-felt sympathy with the parents and other relatives of the deceased ; that they recommend Mr. Paton to pay a visit to Aneityum for the benefit of his health ; that they commend him to the tender mercies of Him who was sent to comfort all who mourn ; and that they regard this striking dispensa- sation of God's providence as a loud call to them- selves, to be more in earnest in attending to the state of their own souls, and more diligent in pressing the concerns of Eternity on the minds of others."
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. C. 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
134 LIFE AND DEATH ON TANNA.
me beside the grave of mother and child, I weeping aloud on his one hand, and Patteson — afterwards the Martyr Bishop of Nakupu — 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 labours. The virtue of that kind of Episcopal consecration I did and do most warmly appreciate ! They