WELCOME TO VICTORIA AND ANIWA.
ON the 28th October, 1885, I sailed for Melbourne, and in due course
safely arrived there by the goodness of God. The Church and people of my
own beloved Victoria gave me a right joyful welcome, and in public
assembly presented me with a testimonial, which I shrank from receiving,
but which all the same was the highly-prized expression of their
confidence and esteem.
During my absence at the Islands, to which I immediately proceeded, they
unanimously elected me Moderator of their Supreme Court, and called me
back to fill that highest Chair of honor in the Presbyterian Church. God
is my witness how very little any or all of these things in themselves
ever have been coveted by me; but how, when they have come in my way, I
have embraced them with a single desire thereby to promote the Church's
interest in that Cause to which my whole life and all my opportunities
are consecrated--the Conversion of the Heathen World.
My Mission to Britain was to raise £6000, in order to enable the
Australian Churches to provide a Steam Auxiliary Mission Ship, for the
enlarged and constantly enlarging requirements of the New Hebrides. I
spent exactly eighteen months at home; and when I returned, I was
enabled to hand over to the Church that had commissioned and authorized
me no less a sum than £9000. And all this had been forwarded to me, as
the freewill offerings of the Lord's stewards, in the manner illustrated
by the preceding pages. "Behold! What God hath wrought!"
Of this sum £6000 are set apart to build or acquire the new Mission
Ship. The remainder is added to what we call our Number II. Fund, for
the maintenance and equipment of additional Missionaries. It has been
the dream of my life to see one Missionary at least, with trained Native
Teachers, planted on every Island of the New Hebrides, and then I could
lie down and whisper gladly, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart
in peace!"
As to the new Mission Ship, unexpected delay has arisen. There are
differences of opinion about the best way of carrying out the proposal.
There must be an understanding betwixt New South Wales and Victoria and
the other Colonies, as to the additional annual expenditure. And the
perplexity as to the wisest course has deepened, since the Colonial
Government began to run Mail Ships regularly from Australia to Fiji,
willing on certain terms of subsidy, to call at one or other harbor in
the New Hebrides. Meantime, let all friends who are interested in us and
our work understand--that the money so generously intrusted to me has
been safely handed over to my own Victorian Church, and is deposited at
good interest in the bank, to be spent at their discretion in due time,
when all details are settled, and, as nearly as possible in the altered
circumstances, exclusively for the purposes for which it was asked and
bestowed.
To me personally, this delay is confessedly a keen and deep
disappointment. But the special work laid upon me has, however, been
accomplished. The Colonial Churches have now all the responsibility of
the further steps. In this, as in many a harder trouble of my checkered
life, I calmly roll all my burden upon the Lord. I await with quietness
and confidence His wise disposal of events. His hand is on the helm; and
whither He steers us, all shall be well.
But let me not close this chapter, till I have struck another and a
Diviner note. I have been to the Islands again, since my return from
Britain. The whole inhabitants of Aniwa were there to welcome me, and my
procession to the old Mission House was more like the triumphal march of
a Conqueror than that of a humble Missionary. Everything was kept in
beautiful and perfect order. Every Service of the Church, as previously
described in this book, was fully sustained by the Native Teachers, the
Elders, and the occasional visit, once or twice a year, of an ordained
Missionary from one of the other Islands. Aniwa, like Aneityum, is a
Christian land. Jesus has taken possession, never again to quit those
shores. GLORY, GLORY TO HIS BLESSED NAME!
My Home has since been at Melbourne. My life-work now (1892), and
probably during the remainder of my active days, will be to visit and
address the Congregations and Sabbath Schools of the Presbyterian
Churches of Australasia, telling them, as in this book, the story of my
experiences, and inspiring the Christian people of these Colonies to
support the New Hebrides Mission, and to claim all these Islands for the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Reader, in your life, as in mine, one last Chapter still awaits us. By
His grace, who has sustained me from childhood till now, I would work
out that Chapter, and live through these closing scenes. With this book
still open before you, I implore you to go alone before your blessed
Saviour, and pledge yourself so to live, and so to die, in the service
and fellowship of the Lord Jesus, that you and I, who have companied
with each other through these pages, may meet again and renew our happy
intercourse in our FATHER'S HOUSE.