JOHN G. PATON.
=An Autobiography.=
_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 box, 12mo, cloth, gilt top net $2.00.
=Ministerial Commendation.=
“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. Everybody
ought to read it.”—_Arthur T. Pierson, D.D._
=Missionary Praise.=
“I have never read a romance that was half so thrilling.”—_Lucius C.
Smith, Guanajuato, Mexico._
“I have never read a more inspiring biography.”—_Thomas C. Winn,
Yokohama, Japan._
“The Lord’s work will not go back while there are such men as he in the
church.”—_James A. Heal, Sing Kong, Cheh Kiang, China._
“I think I have never had greater pleasure in reading any book.”—_R.
Thacksweil, Dehra, North India._
=Press Notices.=
“Perhaps the most important addition for many years to the library of
missionary literature is the autobiography of John G. Paton.”—_The
Christian 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
Intelligencer._
Fleming H. Revell Company,
{ NEW YORK, 30 Union Square, E.
{ CHICAGO, 148 & 150 Madison Street.
[Illustration: John G. Paton.]
JOHN G. PATON,
MISSIONARY TO THE
NEW HEBRIDES.
=An Autobiography.=
EDITED BY HIS BROTHER.
_FIRST PART._
=New Illustrated Edition.=
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK CHICAGO
30 UNION SQUARE, EAST. 148–150 MADISON STREET.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D.
Love is omnipotent. Wherever true passion for souls burns, there we may
find a new Mount of Transfiguration where the earthly takes on the
complexion 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, and helpful narrative, by any
existing story of missionary 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 expectant of what is promised as
the sequel.
He who doubts whether there is a supernatural factor in missions, should
carefully read this narrative. What but the power of God could turn the
demon of drink into a ministering angel, or the blasphemer into a
praying saint, or out of the mouth of hell withdraw the half-devoured
wretch who was desperately 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 estrangement of the masses from the church, follow this heroic city
missionary as he dives into the depths of all this depravity and
degradation, and demonstrates 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
ceaseless 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 experience, 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 sections 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 circumstances 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 acknowledge 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._
PAGE
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 16
A Consecrated Father 19
Accepted Vows 21
Happy Sabbath Days 22
Golden Autumn of Life 26