_TO SCOTLAND AND BACK._
Dr. Inglis on the Mission Crisis.—Casting Lots before the
Lord.—Struck by Lightning.—A Peep at London.—A Heavenly Welcome.—The
Moderator’s Chair.—Reformed Presbyterian Church and Free Church.—
Tour through Scotland.—A Frosted Foot.—The Children’s Holy
League.—Missionary Volunteers.—A God-provided Help-Mate.—Farewell to
the Old Family Altar.—First Peep at the _Dayspring_.—The _Dayspring_
in a Dead-Lock.— Tokens of Deliverance.—The _John Williams_ and the
_Dayspring_.—Australia’s Special Call.
Each of my Australian Committees strongly urged my return to Scotland,
chiefly to secure, if possible, more Missionaries for the New Hebrides.
Dr. Inglis, just arrived from Britain, where he had the Aneityumese
New Testament carried through the press, zealously enforced this
appeal. “Before I left home,” he wrote back to the Church in Scotland,
“I thought this would be inexpedient; but since I returned here, and
have seen the sympathy, interest, and liberality displayed through
the blessing of God on Mr. Paton’s instrumentality, and the altered
aspect of the Mission, I feel that a crisis has been reached when
a special effort must be made to procure more men, for which I had
neither the time, nor had I the means to employ them, but which may now
be appropriately done by Mr. Paton; and my prayer and hope are that he
may be as successful in securing men at home as he has been in securing
money in these Colonies.”
Yet my path was far from clear, notwithstanding my Gideon’s fleece
referred to already. To lose time in going home to do work that others
ought to do, while I still heard the wail of the perishing Heathen on
the Islands, could scarcely be my duty. Amidst overwhelming perplexity,
and finding no light from any human counsel, I took a step, to which
only once before in all my chequered career I have felt constrained.
Some will mock when they read it, but others will perhaps more
profoundly say: “To whomsoever this faith is given, let him obey it.”
After many prayers, and wrestlings, and tears, I went alone before the
Lord, and, on my knees, cast lots with a solemn appeal to God, and the
answer came, “Go home!” In my heart, I sincerely believe that on both
these occasions the Lord condescended to decide for me the path of
duty, otherwise unknown; and I believe it the more truly now, in view
of the after-come of thirty years of service to Christ that flowed out
of the steps then deliberately and devoutly taken. In this, and in many
other matters, I am no law to others, though I obeyed my then highest
light. Nor can I refrain from adding that, for the very reasons
indicated above, I regard so-called “lotteries” and “raffles” as a
mockery of God, and little if at all short of blasphemy. “Ye cannot
drink at the Lord’s Table, and at the table of devils.”
I sailed for London in the _Kosciusko_, an Aberdeen clipper, on 16th
May, 1863. Captain Stewart made the voyage most enjoyable to all.
The son of my old friend Bishop Selwyn and I conducted alternately a
Presbyterian and an Anglican Service. We passed through a memorable
thunder-burst in rounding the Cape. Our good ship was perilously struck
by lightning. The men on deck were thrown violently down. The copper
on the bulwarks was twisted and melted—a specimen of which the Captain
gave me and I still retain. When the ball of fire struck the ship,
those of us sitting on chairs, screwed to the floor around the Cabin
table, felt as if she were plunging to the bottom. When she sprang
aloft again, a military man and a medical officer were thrown heavily
into the back passage between the Cabins, the screws that held their
seats having snapped asunder. I, in grasping the table, got my leg
severely bruised, being jammed betwixt the seat and the table, and had
to be carried to my berth. All the men were attended to, and quickly
recovered consciousness; and immediately the good Captain, an elder of
the Church, came to me, and said,—
“Lead us in prayer, and let us thank the Lord for this most merciful
deliverance; the ship is not on fire, and no one is seriously injured!”
Poor fellow! whether hastened on by this event I know not, but he
struggled for three weeks thereafter in a fever, and it took our united
care and love to pull him through. The Lord, however, restored him;
and we cast anchor safely in the East India Docks, at London, on 26th
August, 1863, having been three months and ten days at sea from port to
port.
It was 5.30 p.m. when we cast anchor, and the gates closed at six
o’clock. My little box was ready on deck. The Custom House officers
kindly passed me, and I was immediately on my way to Euston Square.
Never before had I been within the Great City, and doubtless I could
have enjoyed its palaces and memorials. But the King’s business,
entrusted to me, “required haste,” and I felt constrained to press
forward, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left. The streets
through which I was driven seemed to be dirty and narrow; many of the
people had a squalid and vicious look; and, fresh from Australia, my
disappointment was keen as to the smoky and miserable appearance of
what I saw. No doubt other visitors will behold only the grandeur and
the wealth; they will see exactly what they come to see, and London
will shine before them accordingly.
At nine o’clock, that evening, I left for Scotland by train. Next
morning, about the same hour, I reported myself at the manse of the
Rev. John Kay, Castle Douglas, the Convener of the Foreign Missions
Committee of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, to which I belonged. We
arranged for a meeting of said Committee, at earliest practicable date,
that my scheme and plans might at once be laid before them.
By the next train I was on my way to Dumfries, and thence by conveyance
to my dear old home at Torthorwald. There I had a Heavenly Welcome from
my saintly parents, yet not unmixed with many fast-falling tears. Five
brief years only had elapsed, since I went forth from their Sanctuary,
with my young bride; and now, alas! alas! that grave on Tanna held
mother and son locked in each other’s embrace till the Resurrection Day.
Not less glowing, but more terribly agonizing, was my reception, a few
days thereafter, at Coldstream, when I first gazed on the bereaved
father and mother of my beloved; who, though godly people, were
conscious of a heart-break under that stroke, from which through their
remaining years they never fully rallied. They murmured not against the
Lord; but all the same, heart and flesh began to faint and fail, even
as our Divine Example Himself fainted under the Cross, which yet He so
uncomplainingly bore.
The Foreign Mission Committee of the Reformed Presbyterian Church met
in Edinburgh, and welcomed me kindly, nay, warmly. A full report of all
my doings for the past, and of all my plans and hopes, was laid before
them. They at once agreed to my visiting and addressing every Sabbath
School in the Church. They opened to me their Divinity Hall, that I
might appeal to the Students. My Address there was published and
largely circulated, under the motto: “Come over and help us.” It was
used of God to deepen vastly the interest in our Mission.
The Committee generously and enthusiastically did everything in their
power to help me. By their influence, the Church in 1864 conferred on
me the undesired and undeserved honour, the highest which they could
confer—the honour of being the Moderator of their Supreme Court. No
one can understand how much I shrank from all this; but, in hope of
the Lord’s using it and me to promote His work amongst the Heathen, I
accepted the Chair, though, I fear, only to occupy it most unworthily,
for Tanna gave me little training for work like that!
The Church, as there represented, passed a Resolution, declaring:—
“It is with feelings of no ordinary pleasure that we behold present at
this meeting one of our most devoted Missionaries. The result of Mr.
Paton’s appeals in Australia has been unprecedented in the history of
this Mission. It appears in the shape of £4,500 added to the funds of
the New Hebrides Mission, besides over £300 for Native Teachers, to be
paid yearly in £5 contributions, and all expenses met. The Spirit of
God must have been poured out upon the inhabitants of the Colonies,
in leading them to make such a noble offering as this to the cause of
Missions, and in making our Missionary the honoured instrument God
employed in drawing forth the sympathy and liberality of the Colonists.
Now, by the good hand of God upon him, he holds the most honoured
position of Moderator of the Church, etc., etc.”
The Synod also placed on record its gratitude for what God had thus
done; and its cordial recognition of the many and fruitful services
rendered by Ministers and Sabbath Schools, both in Scotland and
Australia, in standing by me and helping on the _Floating of the
Dayspring_.
I have ever regarded it as a privilege and honour that I was born and
trained within the old covenanting Reformed Presbyterian Church of
Scotland. As a separate Communion, that Church is small amongst the
thousands of Israel; but the principles of Civil and Religious Liberty
for which her founders suffered and died are, at this moment, the heart
and soul of all that is best and divinest in the Constitution of our
British Empire. I am more proud that the blood of Martyrs is in my
veins, and their truths in my heart, than other men can be of noble
pedigree or royal names. And I was,—in that day of the Church’s honour
so distinguished for her Missionary zeal,—filled with a high passion
of gratitude to be able to proclaim, at the close of my tour, and
after the addition of new names to our staff, that of all her ordained
Ministers, one in every six was a Missionary of the Cross.
Nor did the dear old Church thus cripple herself; on the contrary, her
zeal for Missions accompanied, if not caused, unwonted prosperity at
home. New waves of liberality passed over the heart of her people.
Debts that had burdened many of the Churches and Manses were swept
away. Additional Congregations were organized. And in May, 1876, the
Reformed Presbyterian Church entered into an honourable and independent
Union with her larger, wealthier, and more progressive sister, the Free
Church of Scotland,—only a few of the brethren, doubtless with perfect
loyalty to what they regarded as duty to Christ, still holding aloof
and standing firmly in the old paths, as they appeared to them.
In the Deed of Union the incorporating Church took itself bound legally
and formally to maintain the New Hebrides Mission staff, and also
the _Dayspring_, committing herself never to withdraw, as it were,
till these Islands were all occupied for Jesus. Now that the French
have been constrained to abandon the scene, the field is open, and
the Islands wail aloud for eight or ten Missionaries more than we at
present have (1889); and then the Standard of the Cross might speedily
be planted on every separate isle, and a true sense might at last
come into the foolish name given to these regions by their Spanish
discoverer, when he called the part at which he touched, thinking it
the fabled Southern Continent, _the Land of the Holy Ghost_.
When the aforesaid Union took place, all the Missionaries of their own
free accord cast in their lot with the incorporating Church; not only
those directly supported by the old Reformed Presbyterians themselves,
but also the several Missionaries sent forth by them, though supported
by one or other of the Australian Colonies. And, beyond question, one
feature in the Free Church that drew them and bound them to her heart
was her noble zeal for and sacrifices in connection with the work of
Missions, both at home and abroad. For it is a fixed point in the faith
of every Missionary, that the more any Church or Congregation interests
itself in the Heathen, the more will it be blessed and prospered at
Home.
“One of the surest signs of life,” wrote the Victorian _Christian
Review_, “is the effort of a Church to spread the Gospel beyond its
own bounds, and especially to send the knowledge of Jesus amongst
the Heathen. The Missions to the Aborigines, to the Chinese in this
Colony, and to the New Hebrides, came to this Church from God. In a
great crisis of the New Hebrides, they sent one of their number to
Australia for help, and his appeal was largely owned by the Head of
the Church. The Children, and especially the Sabbath Scholars of the
Presbyterian Churches, became alive with Missionary enthusiasm. Large
sums were raised for a Mission Ship. The Congregations were roused to
see their duty to God and their fellow-men beyond these Colonies, and a
new Missionary Spirit took possession of the whole Church. Their deputy
from the Islands agreed to become the Missionary from this Church.
Many circumstances indeed combined to show that it was the will of the
Master, that this Church should join the other Presbyterian Churches
in taking possession of this field of usefulness; and already the
results are very important both to the Church and to the Mission. The
Missionaries feel much encouraged in receiving substantial support from
the largest Presbyterian Church in the Australian Colonies; while the
Presbyterian Church in Victoria is largely blessed in her own spirit
through the Missionary zeal awakened in her midst. Thus, there is that
scattereth and yet increaseth; bringing out anew the words of the Lord
Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
But, in all this, I am rather anticipating. My tour through Scotland
brought me into contact with every Minister, Congregation, and Sabbath
School in the Church of my fathers. They were never at any time a rich
people, but they were always liberal. At this time they contributed
beyond all previous experience, both in money and in boxes of useful
articles for the Islanders.
Unfortunately, my visit to the far North, to our Congregations at Wick
and Stromness, had been arranged for the month of January; and thereby
a sore trial befell me in my pilgrimages. The roads were covered with
snow and ice. I reached Aberdeen and Wick by steamer from Edinburgh,
and had to find my way thence to Thurso. The inside seats on the Mail
Coach being all occupied, I had to take my place outside. The cold was
intense, and one of my feet got bitten by the frost. The storm detained
me nearly a week at Thurso, but feeling did not return to the foot.
We started, in a lull, by steamer for Stromness; but the storm burst
again, all were ordered below, and hatches and doors made fast. The
passengers were mostly very rough, the place was foul with whisky and
tobacco. I appealed to the Captain to let me crouch somewhere on deck,
and hold on as best I could. He shouted,—
“I dare not! You’ll be washed overboard.”
On seeing my appealing look, he relented, directed his men to fasten a
tarpaulin over me, and lash it and me to the mast, and there I lay till
we reached Stromness. The sea broke heavily and dangerously over the
vessel. But the Captain, finding shelter for several hours under the
lee of a headland, saved both the ship and the passengers. When at last
we landed, my foot was so benumbed and painful that I could move a step
only with greatest agony. Two meetings, however, were in some kind of
way conducted; but the projected visit to Dingwall and other places had
to be renounced, the snow lying too deep for any conveyance to carry
me, and my foot crying aloud for treatment and skill.
On returning Southwards, I was confined for about two months, and
placed under the best medical advice. All feeling seemed gradually to
have departed from my foot; and amputation was seriously proposed both
in Edinburgh and in Glasgow. Having somehow managed to reach Liverpool,
my dear friend, the Rev. Dr. Graham, took me there to a Doctor who
had wrought many wonderful recoveries by galvanism. Time after time he
applied the battery, but I felt nothing. He declared that the power
used would almost have killed an ordinary man, and that he had never
seen any part of the human body so dead to feeling on a live and
healthy person. Finally, he covered it all over with a dark plaster,
and told me to return in three days. But next day, the throbbing
feeling of insufferable coldness in the foot compelled me to return at
once. After my persistent appeals, he removed the plaster; and, to his
great astonishment, the whole of the frosted part adhered to it! Again
dressing the remaining parts, he covered it with plaster as before, and
assured me that with care and rest it would now completely recover. By
the blessing of the Lord it did, though it was a bitter trial to me
amidst all these growing plans to be thus crippled by the way; and to
this day I am sometimes warned in over-walking that the part is capable
of many a painful twinge. And humbly I feel myself crooning over the
graphic words of the Greatest Missionary, “I bear about in my body the
marks of the Lord Jesus.”
On that tour, the Sabbath Schools joyfully adopted my scheme, and
became “shareholders” in the Mission Ship. It was thereafter ably
developed by an elder of the Church. A _Dayspring_ collecting box has
found its way into almost every family; and the returns from Scotland
have yielded ever since about £250 per annum, as their proportion
for the expenses of the Children’s Mission Ship to the New Hebrides.
The Church in Nova Scotia heartily accepted the same idea, and their
Sabbath School children have regularly contributed their £250 per
annum too. The Colonial children have contributed the rest, throughout
all these years, with unfailing interest. And whensoever the true
and full history of the South Sea Islands Mission is written for the
edification of the Universal Church, let it not be forgotten that the
children of Australasia, and Nova Scotia, and Scotland did by their
united pennies keep the _Dayspring_ floating in the New Hebrides; that
the Missionaries and their families were thereby supplied with the
necessaries of life, and that the Islanders were thus taught to clothe
themselves and to sit at the feet of Jesus. This was the Children’s
Holy League, erewhile referred to; and one knows that on such a Union
the Divine Master smiles well pleased.
The Lord also crowned this tour with another precious fruit of
blessing, though not all by any means due to my influence. Four new
Missionaries volunteered from Scotland, and three from Nova Scotia.
By their aid we not only reclaimed for Jesus the posts that had been
abandoned, but we took possession of other Islands in His most blessed
Name. But I did not wait and take them out with me. They had matters to
look into and to learn about, that would be infinitely helpful to them
in the Mission field. Especially, and far above everything else, in
addition to their regular clerical course, some Medical instruction was
an almost absolute prerequisite. I myself had attended several Medical
Classes at the Andersonian College, when a student in Glasgow, and had
had personal training from an experienced physician. This had proved
invaluable, not only on the Islands, but in the remote bush during
Australian tours, and indeed on many private occasions, when other
medical help was unavailable. Every future Missionary was therefore
urged to obtain all insight and instruction that was practicable at
Medical Missions and otherwise, especially on lines known to be most
requisite for these Islands. For this, and similar objects, all that
I raised over and above what was required for the _Dayspring_ was
entrusted to the Foreign Mission Committee, that the new Missionaries
might be fully equipped, and their outfit and travelling expenses be
provided for without burdening the Church at home. Her responsibilities
were already large enough for her resources. But she could give men,
God’s own greatest gift, and His people elsewhere gave the money,—the
Colonies and the Home Country thus binding themselves to each other in
this Holy Mission of the Cross.
But I did not return alone. The dear Lord had brought to me one
prepared, all unknown to either of us, by special culture, by godly
training, by many gifts and accomplishments, and even by family
associations, to share my lot on the New Hebrides. Her heart was
stirred with a yearning to aid and teach those who were sitting in
darkness; her brother had been an honoured Missionary in the foreign
field, and had fallen asleep while the dew of youth was yet upon
him; her sister was the wife of a devoted Minister of our Church in
Adelaide, both she and her husband being zealous promoters of our work;
and her father had left behind him a fragrant memory through his many
Christian works in all the Stirling district, and not unknown to fame
as the author of the still popular books of _Anecdotes_, illustrative
of the Shorter Catechism and of the Holy Scriptures. Ere I left
Scotland in 1864, I was married to Margaret Whitecross, and God spares
us to each other still; and the family which He has been pleased in His
love to grant unto us we have dedicated to His service, with the prayer
and hope that He may use every one of them in spreading the Gospel
throughout the Heathen World.
Our marriage was celebrated at her sister’s house in Edinburgh; and I
may be pardoned for recalling a little event that characterized the
occasion. My youngest brother, then tutor to a gentleman studying at
the University, stepped forth at the close of the ceremony and recited
an _Epithalamium_ composed for the day. For many a month and year the
refrain, a play upon the Bride’s name, kept singing itself through my
memory:—
“Long may the Whitecross banner wave
By the battle blasts unriven;
Long may our Brother and Sister brave
Rejoice in the light of Heaven.”
He described the Bride as hearing a “Voice from the far Pacific Seas”;
and turning to us both, he sang of an Angel beckoning us to the
Tanna-land, to gather a harvest of souls:—
“The warfare is brief, the crown is bright,
The pledge is the souls of men;
Go, may the Lord defend the Right,
And restore you safe again!”
But the verse which my dear wife thought most beautiful for a bridal
day, and which her memory cherishes still, was this:—
“May the ruddy Joys, and the Graces fair,
Wait fondly around you now;
Sweet angel Hopes and young Loves repair
To your home and bless your vow!”
My last scene in Scotland was kneeling at the family altar in the old
Sanctuary Cottage at Torthorwald, while my venerable father, with his
high-priestly locks of snow-white hair streaming over his shoulders,
commended us once again to “the care and keeping of the Lord God of the
families of Israel.” It was the last time that ever on this Earth those
accents of intercession, loaded with a pathos of deathless love, would
fall upon my ears. I knew to a certainty that when we rose from our
knees and said farewell, our eyes would never meet again till they were
flooded with the lights of the Resurrection Day. But he and my darling
mother gave us away once again with a free heart, not unpierced with
the sword of human anguish, to the service of our common Lord and to
the Salvation of the Heathen. And we went forth, praying that a double
portion of their spirit, with their precious blessing, might rest upon
us in all the way that we had to go.
Our beloved mother, always more self-restrained, and less demonstrative
in the presence of others, held back her heart till we were fairly gone
from the door; and then, as my dear brother afterwards informed me, she
fell back into his arms with a great cry, as if all the heart-strings
had broken, and lay for long in a death-like swoon. Oh, all ye that
read this page, think most tenderly of the cries of Nature, even
where Grace and Faith are in perfect triumph. Read, through scenes
like these, a fuller meaning into the words addressed to that blessed
Mother, whose Son was given for us all, “Yea, a sword shall pierce
through thine own soul also.”
Here, in passing, I may mention that my mother, ever beloved, “fell on
sleep,” after a short agony of affliction, in 1865; and my “priest-like
father” passed peacefully and joyfully into the presence of his Lord
in 1868; both cradled and cherished to the last in the arms of their
own affectionate children, and both in the assured hope of a blessed
immortality, where all their sons and daughters firmly expect to meet
them again in the Home prepared by their blessed Saviour.
We embarked at Liverpool for Australia in _The Crest of the Wave_,
Captain Ellis; and after what was then considered a fast passage of
ninety-five days, we landed at Sydney on 17th January, 1865. Within an
hour we had to grapple with a new and amazing perplexity. The Captain
of our _Dayspring_ came to inform me that his ship had arrived three
days ago and now lay in the stream,—that she had been to the Islands,
and had settled the Gordons, McCullaghs, and Goodwills on their several
Stations,—that she had left Halifax in Nova Scotia fourteen months ago,
and that now, on arriving at Sydney, he could not get one penny of
money, and that the crew were clamouring for their pay, etc., etc. He
continued, “Where shall I get money for current expenses? No one will
lend unless we mortgage the _Dayspring_. I fear there is nothing before
us but to sell her!” I gave him £50 of my own to meet clamant demands,
and besought him to secure me a day or two of delay that something
might be done.
Having landed, and been heartily welcomed by dear Dr. and Mrs. Moon and
other friends, I went with a kind of trembling joy to have my first
look at the _Dayspring_, like a sailor getting a first peep at the
child born to him whilst far away on the sea. Some of the irritated
ship’s company stopped us by the way, and threatened prosecution
and all sorts of annoyance. I could only urge again for a few days’
patience. I found her to be a beautiful two-masted Brig, with a
deck-house (added when she first arrived at Melbourne), and every way
suitable for our necessities,—a thing of beauty, a white-winged Angel
set a-floating by the pennies of the children to bear the Gospel to
these sin-darkened but sun-lit Southern Isles. To me she became a
sort of living thing, the impersonation of a living and throbbing love
in the heart of thousands of “shareholders”; and I said, with a deep,
indestructible faith,—“The Lord _has_ provided—the Lord _will_ provide.”
For present liabilities at least £700 were instantly required; and, at
any rate, as large a sum to pay her way and meet expenses of next trip
to the Islands. Having laid our perplexing circumstances before our
dear Lord Jesus, having “spread out” all the details in His sympathetic
presence, pleading that the Ship itself and the new Missionaries were
all His own, not mine, I told Him that this money was needed to do His
own blessed work.
On Friday morning, I consulted friends of the Mission, but no help
was visible. I tried to borrow, but found that the lender demanded
twenty per cent. for interest, besides the title deeds of the ship
for security. I applied for a loan from the agent of the London
Missionary Society (then agent for us too) on the credit of the
Reformed Presbyterian Church’s Foreign Committee, but he could not give
it without a written order from Scotland. There were some who seemed
rather to enjoy our perplexity!
Driven thus to the wall, I advertised for a meeting of Ministers and
other friends, next morning at 11 o’clock, to receive my report and to
consult _re_ the _Dayspring_. I related my journeyings since leaving
them, and the results, and then asked for advice about the ship.
“Sell her,” said some, “and have done with it.”
“What,” said others, “have the Sabbath Schools given you the
_Dayspring_, and can you not support her yourselves?”
I pointed out to them that the salary of each Missionary was only £120
per annum, that they gave their lives for the Heathen, and that surely
the Colonial Christians would undertake the up-keep of the Ship, which
was necessary to the very existence of the Mission. I appealed to them
that, as my own Church in Scotland had now one Missionary abroad for
every six Ministers at home, and the small Presbyterian Church of Nova
Scotia had actually three Missionaries now on our Islands, it would be
a blessed privilege for the Australian Churches and Sabbath Schools to
keep the _Dayspring_ afloat, without whose services the Missionaries
could not live nor the Islanders be evangelized.
Being Saturday, the morning Services for Sabbath were all arranged for,
or advertised; but Dr. McGibbon offered me a meeting for the evening,
and Dr. Steel an afternoon Service at three o’clock, combined with his
Sabbath School. Rev. Mr. Patterson, of Piermont, offered me a morning
Service; but, as his was only a Mission Church, he could not give me a
collection. These openings I accepted, as from the Lord, however much
they fell short of what I desired.
At the morning Service I informed the Congregation how we were
situated, and expressed the hope that under God and their devoted
pastor they would greatly prosper, and would yet be able to help in
supporting our Mission to their South Sea neighbours. Returning to the
vestry, a lady and gentleman waited to be introduced to me. They were
from Launceston, Tasmania.
“I am,” said he, “Captain and owner of that vessel lying at anchor
opposite the _Dayspring_. My wife and I, being too late to get on
shore to attend any Church in the city, heard this little Chapel bell
ringing, and followed, when we saw you going up the stairs. We have so
enjoyed the Service. We do heartily sympathize with you. This cheque
for £50 will be a beginning to help you out of your difficulties.”
The reader knows how warmly I would thank them; and how in my own heart
I knew _Who_ it was that made them arrive too late for _their_ plans,
but not for _His_, and guided them up that Chapel stair, and opened
their hearts. Jehovah-Jireh!
At three o’clock, Dr. Steel’s Church was filled with children and
others. I told them in my appeal what had happened in the Mission
Chapel, and how God had led Captain Frith and his wife, entire
strangers, to sound the first note of our deliverance. One man stood
up and said, “I will give £10.” Another, “I will give £5.” A third, “I
shall send you £20 to-morrow morning.” Several others followed their
example, and the general collection was greatly encouraging.
In the evening, I had a very large as well as sympathetic Congregation.
I fully explained the difficulty about the _Dayspring_, and told them
what God had already done for us, announcing an address to which
contributions might be sent. Almost every Mail brought me the free-will
offerings of God’s people; and on Wednesday, when the adjourned meeting
was held, the sum had reached in all £456. Believing that the Lord
thus intervened at a vital crisis in our Mission, I dwell on it to the
praise of His blessed Name. Trust in Him, obey Him, and He will not
suffer you to be put to shame.
At a public meeting, held immediately thereafter, an attempt was
made to organize the _first_ Australian Mission Auxiliary to the New
Hebrides; but it needed an enthusiastic secretary, and for lack thereof
came to nothing at that time. At another meeting, the first elements of
a brooding strife appeared. The then Agent of the noble and generous
London Missionary Society intimated that he had just issued Collecting
Cards for the _John Williams_, and that it would be unbrotherly to
urge collections for the _Dayspring_ at the same time throughout New
South Wales. He suggested that I should first visit Tasmania and South
Australia, and that, on our return, they would help us as we would
now help them. The most cordial feelings had always prevailed betwixt
the Societies, and we accepted the proposal, though our circumstances
were peculiarly trying, and I personally believed that no harm, but
good, would come from both of us doing everything possible to fan the
Missionary spirit.
Clearing out from her sister ships, then in harbour, the _John
Williams_ and the _John Wesley_, our little _Dayspring_ sailed for
Tasmania. At Hobart we were visited by thousands of children and
parents, and afterwards at Launceston, who were proud to see their own
ship, in which they were “shareholders” for Jesus. Daily, all over the
Colony, I preached in Churches and addressed public meetings, and got
collections, and gave out Collecting Cards to be returned within two
weeks. But here also the little rift began to show itself. At a public
meeting in Hobart, the Congregational Minister said,—
“We support the _John Williams_ for the London Missionary Society. Let
the Presbyterians do as much for the _Dayspring_!”
I replied, that I was there by special invitation from those who
had called the meeting, and that, rather than have any unseemly
wrangling, my friend, Dr. Nicolson, and I would quietly retire. But
the Chairman intervened, and insisted that the meeting should go
forward in a Christian spirit, and without any word of recrimination.
To find ourselves, even by a misunderstanding, regarded as inimical
to the London Missionary Society, one of the most Catholic-spirited
and Christlike Societies in the world, was peculiarly painful. Still
the little rift seemed to widen at every turn, and we found ourselves
thrown more and more exclusively on Presbyterians alone. But thus also
the hearts of _two_ great Communions were concentrated on Heathendom,
where one only or chiefly had been bearing the burden heretofore. And
the Lord hath need of all.
We received many tokens of interest and sympathy. The steam tug was
granted to us free, and the harbour dues were remitted. Many presents
were also sent on board the _Dayspring_. Still, after meeting all
necessary outlays, the trip to Tasmania gave us only £227 8_s._ 11_d._
clear for the Mission fund.
Sailing now for South Australia, we arrived at Adelaide. Many friends
there showed the deepest interest in our plans. Thousands of children
and parents came to visit their own Mission Ship by several special
trips. Daily and nightly I addressed meetings, and God’s people were
moved greatly in the cause. After meeting all expenses while in port,
there remained a sum of £634 9_s._ 2_d._ for the up-keep of the vessel.
The Honourable George Fife Angus gave me £241—a dear friend belonging
to the Baptist Church. But there was still a deficit of £400 before the
_Dayspring_ could sail free of debt, and my heart was sore as I cried
for it to the Lord.
Leaving the ship to sail direct for Sydney, I took steamer to
Melbourne; but, on arriving there, sickness and anxiety laid me aside
for three days. Under great weakness, I crept along to my dear friends
at the Scotch College, Dr. and Mrs. Morrison, and Miss Fraser, and
threw myself on their advice.
“Come along,” said the Doctor cheerily, “and I’ll introduce you to Mr.
Butchart and one or two friends in East Melbourne, and we’ll see what
can be done!”
I gave all information, being led on in conversation by the Doctor, and
tried to interest them in our work, but no subscriptions were asked or
received. Ere I sailed for Sydney, however, the whole deficiency was
sent to me. I received in all, on this tour, the sum of £1,726 9_s._
10_d._ Our _Dayspring_ once more sailed free, and our hearts overflowed
with gratitude to the Lord and to His stewards!
On my return to Sydney, and before sailing to the Islands, I called,
by advertisement, a public meeting of Ministers and other friends to
report success, and to take counsel for the future.
My report was received with hearty thanksgiving to Almighty God. And a
resolution was unanimously adopted, in view of all that had transpired,
urging that a scheme must be organized, whereby the Presbyterian
Churches and Sabbath Schools of Australia should be banded together for
the support of the _Dayspring_, and so prevent the necessity of such
spasmodic efforts for all future time.
From that day, practically, the _Dayspring_ was supported by the
Presbyterians alone. At the first, all helped in the original
purchase of the Mission Ship, and she was to do all needful work on
the Loyalty Islands for the London Society’s Missionaries, as well
as on the New Hebrides for us. This was the agreement; and, despite
little misunderstandings with the Agents, the _Dayspring_ was for some
years placed heartily at their service. When the _John Williams_
was wrecked, our ship, at great loss and expense, accompanied her to
Sydney, and spent four months of the following year for them entirely
amongst the Eastern Islands. The brethren on the Loyalty Islands sent
up their Mr. Macfarland to the Colonies to secure that the promised
support should be given by their friends to the _Dayspring_; but, this
failing, they in 1870 declined finally to have her doing their work,
when no longer paid for by their Churches. This little rift, however,
amongst the contributing Churches never affected us in the Mission
field; they and we have ever wrought together there in most perfect
cordiality of brotherhood.
Perhaps the true way to look upon the whole series of events is this:
the Australian Presbyterian Churches had been led to hear from God a
special call, and must necessarily organize themselves to answer it.
In this blessed work of converting the Heathen, we can all loyally
rejoice, whether the instruments in the Lord’s hand be Episcopal,
Presbyterian, or Congregational! I glory in the success of every
Protestant Mission, and daily pray for them all. It was God’s own wise
providence, and not my zeal, wise or intrusive, that matured these
arrangements, and gave the Australian Presbyterian Churches a Mission
Ship of their own, and a Mission field at their doors. The Ministers
and the Sabbath Schools felt constrained as by one impulse to undertake
this gracious work. The Presbyterian Churches in all these Colonies
received this duty as from God; and the organizing of Missionary
Societies in Congregations and Sabbath Schools, for the effective
accomplishment of the same, has been a principal means in the hands
of the Lord of promoting and uplifting the cause of Christ throughout
Australasia. It is worth while to re-travel that old road once again,
were it for no other purpose than to show how, despite apparent checks
and reverses, the mighty tide of Divine Love moves resistlessly onward,
covers up temporary obstructions, and claims everything for Jesus.