_LAST VISIT TO BRITAIN._
“Wanted a Steam Auxiliary.”—Commissioned Home to Britain.—English
Presbyterian Synod.—United Presbyterian Synod.—The “Veto”
from the Sydney Board.—Dr. J. Hood Wilson.—The Free Church
Assembly.—Neutrality of Foreign Mission Committee.—The Church
of Scotland.—At Holyrood and Alva House.—The Irish Presbyterian
Assembly.—The Pan-Presbyterian Council.—My “Plan of Campaign.”— Old
Ireland’s Response.—Operations in Scotland.—Seventy Letters in a
Day.—Beautiful Type of Merchant.—My First 100 at Dundee.—Peculiar
Gifts and Offerings.—Approach to London.—Mildmay’s Open Door.—Largest
Single Donation.—Personal Memories of London.—Garden-Party
at Mr. Spurgeon’s.—The Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer.—Three New
Missionaries.—“Restitution-Money.”—The Farewell at Mildmay.—Welcome
to Victoria.—The Dream of my Life.—The New Mission Ship
Delayed.—Welcome back to Aniwa.—Parting Testimony.—Fare-thee-well.
In December 1883, I brought a pressing and vital matter before the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. It pertained
to the New Hebrides Mission, to the vastly increased requirements of
the Missionaries and their families there, and to the fact that the
_Dayspring_ was no longer capable of meeting the necessities of the
case,—thereby incurring loss of time, loss of property, and risk and
even loss of precious lives. The Missionaries on the spot had long felt
this, and had loudly and earnestly pled for a new and larger Vessel, or
a Vessel with Steam Auxiliary power, or some arrangement whereby the
work of God on these Islands might be overtaken, without unnecessary
exposure of life, and without the dreaded perils that accrue to a small
sailing Vessel such as the _Dayspring_, alike from deadly calms and
from treacherous gales.
The Victorian General Assembly, heartily at one with the Missionaries,
commissioned me to go home to Britain in 1884, making me at the same
time their Missionary delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Council at
Belfast, and also their representative to the General Assemblies of
the several Presbyterian Churches in Great Britain and Ireland. And
they empowered and authorized me to lay our proposals about a new
Steam-Auxiliary Mission Ship before all these Churches, and to ask and
receive from God’s people whatever contributions they felt disposed to
give towards the sum of £6,000, without which this great undertaking
could not be faced.
At Suez, I forwarded a copy of my commissions from Victoria, from South
Australia, and from the Islands Synod, to the Clerks of the various
Church Courts, accompanied by a note specifying my home-address, and
expressing the hope that an opportunity would be given me of pleading
this special cause on behalf of our New Hebrides Mission. On reaching
my brother’s residence in Glasgow, I found to my deep amazement that
replies awaited me from all the Churches, except our own,—_i.e._, the
Free Church, which I call our own, as having taken over our South Seas
Mission when it entered into Union with the Reformed Presbyterian
Church, to which I originally belonged, though now I was supported
by the Church of Victoria. This fact pained me. It is noted here. An
explanation will come in due course.
A few days after my arrival, I was called upon to appear before the
Supreme Court of the English Presbyterian Church, then assembled at
Liverpool. While a hymn was being sung, I took my seat in the pulpit
under great depression. But light broke around, when my dear friend and
fellow-student, Dr. Oswald Dykes, came up from the body of the Church,
shook me warmly by the hand, whispered a few encouraging words in my
ear, and returned to his seat. God helped me to tell my story, and the
audience were manifestly interested. Again, however, another indication
of a rift somewhere, unknown to me, was consciously or otherwise
given, when both the Moderator and Professor Graham, in addressing the
Deputies and referring to their Churches and speeches individually,
conspicuously omitted all reference to the New Hebrides and the special
proposal which I had brought before them. Again I made a note, and my
wonder deepened.
Next, by kind invitation I visited and addressed the United
Presbyterian Synod of Scotland, assembled in Edinburgh. My reception
there was not only cordial,—it was enthusiastic. Though as a Church
they had no denominational interest in our Mission, the Moderator,
amidst the cheers of all the Ministers and Elders, recommended that I
should have free access to every Congregation and Sabbath School which
I found it possible to visit, and hoped that their generous-hearted
people would contribute freely to so needful and noble a cause. My soul
rose in praise; and I may here say, in passing, that every Minister of
that Church whom I wrote to or visited treated me in the same spirit
through all my tour.
Having been invited by Mr. Dickson, an Elder of the Free Church, to
address a mid-day meeting of children in the Free Assembly Hall,—and
the Saturday before the Meeting of Assembly having now arrived without
bringing any reply to my note to be received and heard, I determined
to call at the Free Church Offices, and make inquiries at least. They
treated me with all possible kindness and sympathy, but explained to
me the strange perplexity that had been introduced into my case. A
letter had been forwarded to them from the _Dayspring_ Board at Sydney,
intimating that the Victorian Church had no right to commission me to
raise a new Steam-Auxiliary Ship without consulting them, and that they
placed their direct veto upon the Free Church Authorities in any way
sanctioning that proposal or authorizing me to raise the money. Here,
then, was the rift; and many things that had recently perplexed me
were explained thereby.
Here is not the place to discuss our differences, nor shall I
take advantage of my book to criticize those who have no similar
opportunity of answering me. But the facts I must relate, and exactly
as they occurred, to show how the Lord over-ruled everything for the
accomplishment of His own blessed purposes. Doubtless the friends at
Sydney had their own way of looking at and explaining everything; and
the best of friends must sometimes differ, even in the Mission field,
and yet learn to respect each other and work so far as they can agree
towards common ends in the service of the Divine Lord and Master.
My commission was publicly intimated. Communication had also been
made to the Church of New South Wales as to appointing me their
second representative to the Pan-Presbyterian Council, in connection
with my mission to Britain, but they replied that one would serve
their purpose. And South Australia and Tasmania were both written to
regarding the object of my visit to the home countries. But no note of
dissent, no hint of disapproval from any quarter, was intimated to the
Victorian Church, or in any sense, directly or indirectly, reached me
till I heard of that so-called _veto_ in the Free Church Offices at
Edinburgh.
This intimation, just as I was entering the Assembly Hall to address a
great congregation of children and their friends, staggered me beyond
all description. The Free Church alone, in Scotland, now supported our
New Hebrides Mission. From it I expected the principal contributions
for the sorely-needed new Mission Ship. And now, by the action of
the _Dayspring_ Board at Sydney, the Free Church was debarred from
acknowledging my three-fold commission or in any direct way sanctioning
my appeals. No sorer wound had ever been inflicted on me; and when I
sat down on the platform beside Mr. Dickson, my head swam for several
minutes, and faintishness almost overpowered me. But, by the time my
name was called, the Lord my Helper enabled me to pull myself together;
I committed this cause also with unfailing assurance to Him; and by all
appearances I was able greatly to interest and impress the Children. At
the close, my dear and noble friend, Professor Cairns, warmly welcomed
and cheered me, and that counted for much amid the depressions of the
day. But when all were gone and we two were left, Mr. Dickson under
deep emotion said,—
“Mr. Paton, that veto has spoiled your mission home. The Free Church
cannot take you by the hand in face of the _veto_ from Sydney!”
Having letters from Andrew Scott, Esquire, Carrugal, my very dear
friend and helper in Australia, to Dr. J. Hood Wilson, Barclay Free
Church, Edinburgh, I resolved to deliver them that evening; and I
prayed the Lord to open up all my path, as I was thus thrown solely on
Him for guidance and bereft of the aid of man. Dr. Wilson and his lady,
neither of whom I had ever seen before, received me as kindly as if I
had been an old friend. He read my letters of introduction, conversed
with me as to plans and wishes (chiefly through Mrs. Wilson, for he was
suffering from sore throat), and then he said with great warmth and
kindliness,—
“God has surely sent you here to-night! I feel myself unable to preach
to-morrow. Occupy my pulpit in the forenoon and address my Sabbath
School, and you shall have a collection for your Ship.”
Thereafter, I was with equal kindness received by Mr. Balfour, having
a letter of introduction from his brother, and he offered me his
pulpit for the evening of the day. I lay down blessing and praising
Him, the Angel of whose Presence was thus going before me and opening
up my way. That Lord’s Day I had great blessing and joy; there was an
extraordinary response financially to my appeals; and my proposal was
thus fairly launched in the Metropolis of our Scottish Church life. I
remembered an old saying, Difficulties are made just to be vanquished.
And I thought in my deeper soul,—Thus our God throws us back upon
Himself; and if these £6,000 ever come to me, to the Lord God alone,
and not to man, shall be all the glory!
On the Monday following, after a long conversation and every possible
explanation, Colonel Young, of the Free Church Foreign Missions
Committee, said,—
“We must have you to address the Assembly on the evening devoted to
Missions.”
But the rest insisted that, to keep straight with the Board at Sydney,
no formal approval should be given of my proposals. This I agreed to,
on condition that the Committee did not publish the Sydney veto, but
allowed it simply to lie on their table or in their minutes. Thus I had
the pleasure and honour of addressing that great Assembly; and though
no notice was taken of my proposals in any “finding” of the Court,
yet many were thereby interested deeply in our work, and requests now
poured in upon me from every quarter to occupy pulpits and receive
collections for the new Ship.
Still I had occasional trouble and misunderstanding through that veto
during all my tour in Britain and Ireland. It prevented me particularly
from getting access to the Free Church Foreign Missions Committee,
or addressing them on one single occasion, though I pled hard to be
allowed to do so and to explain my position. This I felt all the more
keenly, as I laboured freely and for weeks, along with their noble
Missionaries then at home on furlough, in addressing meetings in
Glasgow, Aberdeen, Greenock, etc., chiefly for Sabbath Scholars, but
from which I received no help directly in the matter of the Mission
Ship. Doubtless they were trying to do their duty, and refusing to take
either side; and that they thought they had succeeded appears from the
following fact. When rumour reached Australia that my Mission home
had been under God a great success, a letter came to them from their
Committee’s agent in Sydney as to the “application” of the sum that had
been raised by me, to which they replied,—
“The Foreign Missions’ Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, in
accordance with the action of the _Dayspring_ Committee at Sydney, have
from the first abstained from assisting Mr. Paton in this movement,
believing that the question is one entirely for the Australian
Churches.”
At the meeting in the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, which,
along with others, I was cordially invited to address, the good and
noble Lord Polwarth occupied the chair. That was the beginning of a
friendship in Christ which will last and deepen as long as we live.
From that night he took the warmest personal interest, not only
by generously contributing to my fund, but by organizing meetings
at his own Mansion House, and introducing me to a wide circle of
influential friends. Every member of his family took “shares” in the
new Steam-Auxiliary Mission Ship, and by Collecting Cards and otherwise
most liberally aided me; and that not at the start only, but to the day
of my departure,—one of the last things put into my hand on leaving
Britain being a most handsome donation from Lord and Lady Polwarth
to our Mission Fund,—“a thankoffering to the Lord Jesus for precious
health restored in answer to the prayer of faith.”
Nor, whilst the pen leads on my mind to recall these Border memories,
must I fail to record how John Scott Dudgeon, Esq., Longnewton, a
greatly esteemed Elder of the Church, went from town to town in all
that region, and from Minister to Minister arranging for me a series of
happy meetings. I shared also the hospitality of his beautiful Home,
and added himself and his much-beloved wife to the precious roll of
those who are dear for the Gospel’s sake and for their own.
Her Majesty’s Commissioner to the General Assembly for the year
was that distinguished Christian as well as nobleman, the Earl of
Aberdeen. He graciously invited me to meet the Countess and himself at
ancient Holyrood. After dinner he withdrew himself for a lengthened
time from the general company and entered into a close and interested
conversation about our Mission, and especially about the threatened
annexation of the New Hebrides by the French.
There also I had the memorable pleasure of meeting, and for a long
while conversing with, that truly noble and large-hearted lady, his
mother, the much-beloved Dowager Countess, well known for her life-long
devotion to so many schemes of Christian philanthropy. At her own home,
Alva House, she afterwards arranged meetings for me, as well as in
Halls and Churches in the immediately surrounding district; and not
only contributed most generously of her own means, but interested many
besides and incited them to vie with each other in helping on our
cause. I was her guest during those days, and never either in high
or in humble station felt the ties of true fellowship in Christ more
closely drawn. Despite frost and snow, she accompanied me to almost
every meeting; and her letters of interest in the work, of sympathy,
and of helpfulness, from time to time received, were amongst the
sustaining forces of my spiritual life. When one sees noble rank thus
consecrating itself in humble and faithful service to Jesus, there
dawns upon the mind a glimpse of what the prophet means, and of what
the world will be like, when it can be said regarding the Church of God
on Earth,—“Kings _have become_ thy nursing fathers, and their Queens
thy nursing mothers.”
My steps were next directed towards Ireland, immediately after the
Church meetings at Edinburgh; first to ’Derry, where the Presbyterian
Assembly was met in annual conclave, and thereafter to Belfast, where
the Pan-Presbyterian Council was shortly to sit. The eloquent fervour
of the Brethren at ’Derry was like a refreshing breeze to my spirit;
I never met Ministers anywhere, in all my travels, who seemed more
whole-hearted in their devotion to the work which the Lord had given
them to do.
But the excitement over the Organ and Hymn question was too intense
for me; the debate threatened to degenerate into a wrangle, and
the marvellous way in which a stick or an umbrella was flourished
occasionally by an impulsive speaker, to give action to his eloquence,
was not a little suggestive of blows and broken heads. All ended
quietly, however, and the decision, though not final, gave hope of an
early settlement, which will secure alike the liberty and the peace of
the Church. A trip to the South Seas, and a revelation of how God used
the Harmonium and the Hymn, as wings on which the Gospel was borne into
the homes and hearts of Cannibals, would have opened the eyes of many
dear fathers and brethren, as it had opened mine! No one was once more
opposed, especially to instrumental music in the worship of God, than
I had been; but the Lord who made us, and who knows the nature He has
given us, had long ago taught me otherwise.
I addressed the Assembly at ’Derry and also the Council at Belfast.
The memory of seeing all those great and learned and famous men—for
many of the leaders were literally such—so deeply interested in the
work of God, and particularly in the Evangelizing of the Heathen World
and bringing thereto the knowledge of Jesus, was to me, so long exiled
from all such influences, one of the great inspirations of my life. I
listened with humble thankfulness, and blessed the Lord who had brought
me to sit at their feet.
On the rising of the Council, I entered upon a tour of six weeks among
the Presbyterian Congregations and Sabbath Schools of Ireland. It
had often been said to me, after my addresses in the Assemblies and
elsewhere,—
“How do you ever expect to raise £6,000? It can never be accomplished,
unless you call upon the rich individually, and get their larger
subscriptions. Our ordinary Church people have more than enough to do
with themselves. Trade is dull,” etc.
I explained to them, and also announced publicly, that in all similar
efforts I had never called on or solicited any one privately, and that
I would not do so now. I would make my appeal, but leave everything
else to be settled betwixt the individual conscience and the Saviour,—I
gladly receiving whatsoever was given or sent, acknowledging it by
letter, and duly forwarding it to my own Church in Victoria. Again and
again did generous souls offer to go with me, introduce me, and give me
opportunity of soliciting subscriptions; but I steadily refused,—going,
indeed, wherever an occasion was afforded me of telling my story and
setting forth the claims of the Mission, but asking no one personally
for anything, having fixed my soul in the conviction that one part of
the work was laid upon me, but that the other lay betwixt the Master
and His servants exclusively.
“On what then do you really rely, looking at it from a business point
of view?”—they would somewhat appealingly ask me.
I answered,—“I will tell my story; I will set forth the claims of the
Lord Jesus on the people; I will expect the surplus collection, or a
retiring collection, on Sabbaths; I will ask the whole collection,
less expenses, at week night meetings; I will issue Collecting Cards
for Sabbath Scholars; I will make known my Home-Address, to which
everything may be forwarded, either from Congregations or from private
donors; and I will go on, to my utmost strength, in the faith that
the Lord will send me the £6,000 required. If He does not so send it,
then I shall expect that He will send me grace to be reconciled to the
disappointment, and I shall go back to my work without the Ship.”
This, in substance, I had to repeat hundreds of times; and as often had
I to witness the half-pitying or incredulous smile with which it was
received, or to hear the blunt and emphatic retort,—
“You’ll never succeed! Money cannot be got in that unbusiness-like way.”
I generally added nothing further to such conversations; but a Voice,
deep, sweet, and clear, kept sounding through my soul,—“The silver and
the gold are Mine.”
During the year 1884, as is well known, Ireland was the scene of many
commotions and of great distress. Yet at the end of my little tour,
amongst the Presbyterian people of the North principally, though not
exclusively, a sum of more than £600 had been contributed to our
Mission Fund. And there was not, so far as my knowledge went, one
single large subscription; there were, of course, many bits of gold
from those well-to-do, but the ordinary collection was made up of the
shillings and pence of the masses of the people. Nor had I ever in
all my travels a warmer response, nor ever mingled with any Ministers
more earnestly devoted to their Congregations or more generally and
deservedly beloved.
No man, however dissevered from the party politics of the day, can
see and live amongst the Irish of the North, without having forced on
his soul the conviction that the Protestant faith and life, with its
grit and backbone and self-dependence, has made them what they are.
Romanism, on the other hand, with its blind faith and its peculiar
type of life, has been at least _one_, if not the main, degrading
influence amongst the Irish of the South and West, who are naturally
a warm-hearted and generous and gifted people. And let Christian
Churches, and our Statesmen who love Christ, remember—that no mere
outward changes of Government or Order, however good and defensible
in themselves, can ever heal the miseries of the people, without a
change of Religion. Ireland needs the pure and true Gospel, proclaimed,
taught, and received, in the South as it now is in the North; and no
other gift, that Britain ever can bestow, will make up for the lack of
Christ’s Evangel. Jesus holds the Key to all problems, in this as in
every land.
Returning to Scotland, I settled down at my headquarters, the house
of my brother James in Glasgow; and thence began to open up the main
line of my operations, as the Lord day by day guided me. Having the
aid of no Committee, I cast myself on Minister after Minister and
Church after Church, calling here, writing there, and arranging for
three meetings every Sabbath, and one, if possible, every week-day,
and drawing-room meetings wherever practicable in the afternoons. My
correspondence grew to oppressive proportions, and kept me toiling at
it every spare moment from early morn till bedtime. Indeed, I never
could have overtaken it, had not my brother devoted many days and hours
of precious time, answering letters regarding arrangements, issuing the
“Share” receipts for all moneys the moment they arrived, managing all
my transactions through the bank, and generally tackling and reducing
the heap of communications and preventing me falling into hopeless
arrears.
I represented a Church in which all Presbyterians are happily united;
and so, wherever possible, I occupied on the same Sabbath day, an
Established Church pulpit in the morning, a Free Church in the
afternoon, and a United Presbyterian Church in the evening, or in
any order in which the thing could be arranged to suit the exigences
of every town or village that was visited. In all my addresses, for
I nowhere attempted ordinary sermonizing, I strove to combine the
Evangelist with the Missionary, applying every incident in my story to
the conscience of the hearer, and seeking to win the sinner to Christ,
and the believer to a more consecrated life. For I knew that if I
succeeded in these higher aims, their money would be freely laid upon
the altar too.
I printed, and circulated by post and otherwise, ten thousand copies
of a booklet, “Statement and Appeal,”—containing, besides my Victorian
Commission and my Glasgow address, a condensed epitome of the results
of the New Hebrides Mission and of the reasons for asking a new Steam
Auxiliary Ship. To this chiefly is due the fact (as well as to my
refusing to call for subscriptions), that the far greater portion of
all the money came to me by letter. On one day, though no doubt a
little exceptional, as many as seventy communications reached me by
post; and every one of these contained something for our fund,—ranging
from “a few stamps” and “the widow’s mite,” through every variety
of figure up to the wealthy man’s fifty or hundred pounds. I was
particularly struck with the number of times that I received £1, with
such a note as, “From a servant-girl that loves the Lord Jesus”; or
“From a servant-girl that prays for the conversion of the Heathen.”
Again and again I received sums of five and ten shillings, with
notes such as,—“From a working-man who loves his Bible”; or “From a
working-man who prays for God’s blessing on you and work like yours,
every day in Family Worship.” I sometimes regret that the graphic,
varied, and intensely interesting notes and letters were not preserved;
for by the close of my tour they would have formed a wonderful volume
of leaves from the human heart.
I also addressed every Religious Convention to which I was invited, or
to which I could secure access. The Perth Conference was made memorable
to me by my receiving the first large subscription for our Ship, and by
my making the acquaintance of a beautiful type of Christian merchant.
At the close of the meeting, at which I had the privilege of speaking,
an American gentleman introduced himself to me. We talked and entered
into each other’s confidence, as brothers in the Lord’s service. He had
made a competency for himself and his family, though only in the prime
of life; and he still carried on a large and flourishing business—but
why? to devote _the whole profits_, year after year, to the direct
service of God and His cause among men! He gave me a cheque for the
largest single contribution with which the Lord had yet cheered me.
God, who knows me, sees that I have never coveted money for myself or
my family; but I did envy that Christian merchant the joy that he had
in having money, and having the heart to use it as a steward of the
Lord Jesus! Oh, when will men of wealth learn this blessed secret, and,
instead of hoarding up gold till death forces it from their clutches,
put it out to usury now in the service of their Master, and see the
fruits and share the joy thereof, before they go hence to give in
their account to God? One of the most appalling features in the modern
Christian World, considering the needs of men and the claims of Jesus,
is this same practice of either spending all for self, or hoarding all
for self, alone or chiefly. Christians who do so seem to stand in need
of a great deal of converting still!
Thereafter I was invited to the annual Christian Conference at Dundee.
A most peculiar experience befell me there. Being asked to close the
forenoon meeting with prayer and the benediction, I offered prayer,
and then began—“May the love of God the Father——” but not another
word would come in English; everything was blank except the words in
Aniwan, for I had long begun to _think_ in the Native tongue, and
after a dead pause, and a painful silence, I had to wind up with a
simple “Amen!” I sat down wet with perspiration. It might have been
wiser, as the Chairman afterwards suggested, to have given them the
blessing in Aniwan, but I feared to set them a-laughing by so strange
a manifestation of the “tongues.” Worst of all, it had been announced
that I was to address them in the afternoon; but who would come to
hear a Missionary that stuck in the benediction? The event had its
semi-comical aspect, but it sent me to my knees during the interval in
a very fever of prayerful anxiety. A vast audience assembled, and if
the Lord ever manifestly used me in interesting His people in Missions,
it was certainly then and there. As I sat down, a devoted Free Church
Elder from Glasgow handed me his card, with “I.O.U. £100.” This was my
first donation of a hundred pounds, and my heart was greatly cheered.
I praised the Lord, and warmly thanked His servant. A Something
kept sounding these words in my ears, “My thoughts are not as your
thoughts;” and also, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will
sustain thee.”
During my address at that meeting three coloured girls, not unlike our
Island girls, sat near the platform, and eagerly listened to me. At
the close, the youngest, apparently about twelve years of age, rose,
salaamed to me in Indian fashion, took four silver bangles from her
arm, and presented them to me, saying,—
“Padre, I want to take shares in your Mission Ship by these bangles,
for I have no money, and may the Lord ever bless you!”
I replied,—“Thank you, my dear child; I will not take your bangles, but
Jesus will accept your offering, and bless and reward you all the same.”
As she still held them up to me, saying, “Padre, do receive them from
me, and may God ever bless you!” a lady, who had been seated beside
her, came up to me, and said,—
“Please, do take them, or the dear girl will break her heart. She has
offered them up to Jesus for your Mission Ship.”
I afterwards learned that the girls were orphans, whose parents died in
the famine; that the lady and her sister, daughters of a Missionary,
had adopted them to be trained as Zenana Missionaries, and that they
intended to return with them, and live and die to aid them in that
blessed work amongst the daughters of India. Oh, what a reward and joy
might many a lady who reads this page easily reap for herself in Time
and Eternity by a similar simple yet far-reaching service! Take action
when and where God points the way; wait for no one’s guidance.
The most amazing variety characterized the gifts and the givers. In
Glasgow a lady sent me an anonymous note to this effect:—
“I have been curtailing my expenses. The first £5 saved I enclose, that
you may invest it for me in the Bank of Jesus. I am sure He gives the
best interest, and the most certain returns.”
From Edinburgh a lawyer wrote, saying,—“I herewith send you £5. Take
out for me two hundred shares in the Mission Ship. I never made any
investment with more genuine satisfaction in all my life.”
A gentleman, whose children had zealously collected a considerable sum
for me by the Cards, at length sent me his own subscription, saying,—“I
enclose you £25, because you have so interested my children in Missions
to the Heathen.” The same friend, after hearing me plead the cause in
Free St. George’s, Edinburgh, sent me a most encouraging letter, and
another contribution of £100.
In Glasgow a lady called at my brother’s house, saying,—“Is the
Missionary at home? Can I see him alone? If not, I will call again.”
Being asked into my room, she declined to be seated, but said,—“I heard
you tell the story of your Mission in the City Hall, and I have been
praying for you ever since. I have called to give you my mite, but
not my name. God bless you. We shall meet in Heaven!” She handed me an
envelope, and was off almost before I could thank her. It was £49 in
bank notes.
Another dear Christian lady came to see me, and at the close of a
delightful conversation, said: “I have been thinking much about you
since I heard you in the Clark Hall, Paisley. I have come to give
a little bit of dirty paper for your Ship. God sent it to me, and
I return it to God through you with great pleasure.” I thanked her
warmly, thinking it a pound, or five at the most; on opening it, after
she was gone, it turned out to be £100. I felt bowed down in humble
thankfulness, and pressed forward in the service of the Lord.
Another lady, who sent for me to call, said to me:—“I have heard of the
sufferings and losses of the Missionaries on your Islands through the
smallness of the Sailing Vessel. I am glad to have the opportunity of
giving you £50 to assist in getting a Steam Auxiliary.”
Many articles of jewellery, silver and gold ornaments, rings and
chains, were also sent to me, or dropped into the Collecting plate.
With the assistance of Christian gentlemen, and by the kindness of a
merchant at once interested in our work and in the gold and silver
trade, these were turned into cash on the most advantageous possible
terms, and added to the Mission Fund.
Having an introduction to a London lady, then living in Edinburgh, I
called and was most kindly received because of our dear mutual friend
Mrs. Cameron, of St. Kilda. After delightful Christian conversation,
she retired for a minute, and returned, saying,—“I have kept this for
twelve months, asking the Lord to direct me as to its disposal. God
claims it now for the Mission Ship, and I have great joy in handing it
to you.” It was another £100. I had been praying all that afternoon for
some token of encouragement, especially as I went to that lady’s house,
and God’s extraordinary answer, even while the prayer was still being
uttered, struck me so forcibly that I could not speak. I received her
gift in tears, and my soul looked up to the Giver of all.
The time now arrived for my attempting something amongst the
Presbyterians of England. But my heart sank within me; I was a stranger
to all except Dr. Dykes, and the New Hebrides Mission had no special
claims on them. Casting myself upon the Lord, I wrote to all the
Presbyterian Ministers in and around London, enclosing my “Statement
and Appeal,” and asking a Service, with a retiring collection, or the
surplus above the usual collection on behalf of our Mission Ship. All
declined, except two. I learned that the London Presbytery had resolved
that no claim beyond their own Church was to be admitted into any
of its pulpits for a period of months, under some special financial
emergency. My dear friend, Dr. J. Hood Wilson, kindly wrote also to a
number of them on my behalf, but with nearly similar result; though at
last other two Services were arranged for with a collection, and one
without. Being required at London, in any case, in connection with the
threatened Annexation of the New Hebrides by the French, I resolved
to take these five Services by the way, and immediately return to
Scotland, where engagements and opportunities were now pressed upon me,
far more than I could overtake. But the Lord Himself opened before me a
larger door, and more effectual, than any that I had tried in vain to
open up for myself.
The Churches to which I had access did nobly indeed, and the Ministers
treated me as a very brother. Dr. Dykes most affectionately supported
my Appeal, and made himself recipient of donations that might be
sent for our Mission Ship. Dr. Donald Fraser, and Messrs. Taylor and
Mathieson, with their Congregations, generously contributed to the
fund. And so did the Mission Church in Drury Lane—the excellent and
consecrated Rev. W. B. Alexander, the pastor thereof, and his wife,
becoming my devoted personal friends, and continuing to remember in
their work-parties every year since the needs of the Natives on the
New Hebrides. Others also, whom I cannot wait to specify, showed a
warm interest in us and in our department of the Lord’s work. But my
heart had been foolishly set upon adding a large sum to the fund for
the Mission Ship, and when only about £150 came from all the Churches
in London to which I could get access, no doubt I was sensible of
cherishing a little guilty disappointment. That was very unworthy in
me, considering all my previous experiences, and God deserved to be
trusted by me far differently, as the sequel will immediately show.
That widely-known and deeply-beloved servant of God, J. E. Mathieson,
Esq., of the Mildmay Conference Hall, had invited me to address one of
their annual meetings on behalf of Foreign Missions, and also to be
his guest while the Conference lasted. Thereby I met and heard many
godly and noble disciples of the Lord, whom I could not otherwise have
reached though every Church I had asked in London had been freely
opened to me. These devout and faithful and generous people, belonging
to every branch of the Church of Christ, and drawn from every rank and
class in Society, from the humblest to the highest, were certainly
amongst the most open-hearted and the most responsive of all whom I
ever had the privilege to address. One felt there, in a higher degree
than almost anywhere else, that every soul was on fire with love to
Jesus and with genuine devotion to His Cause in every corner of the
Earth. There it was a privilege and a gladness to speak; and though
no collection was asked or could be expected, my heart was uplifted
and strengthened by these happy meetings and by all that Heavenly
intercourse.
But see how the Lord leads us by a way we know not! Next morning
after my address, a gentleman who had heard me handed me a cheque
for £300, by far the largest single donation towards our Mission
Ship; and immediately thereafter I received, from one of the Mildmay
lady-Missionaries £50, from a venerable friend of the founder £20, from
“Friends at Mildmay” £30; and through my dear friend and brother, J. E.
Mathieson, many other donations were in due course forwarded to me.
My introduction, however, to the Conference at Mildmay did far more
for me than even this; it opened up for me a series of drawing-room
meetings in and around London, where I told the story of our Mission
and preached the Gospel to many in the higher walks of life, and
received most liberal support for the Mission Ship. It also brought me
invitations from many quarters of England, to Churches, to Halls, and
to County Houses and Mansions.
Lord Radstock got up a special meeting, inviting by private card a
large number of his most influential friends; and there I met for the
first time one whom I have since learned to regard as a very precious
personal friend, Rev. Sholto D. C. Douglas, clergyman of the Church of
England, who then, and afterwards at his seat in Scotland, not only
most liberally supported our fund, but took me by the hand as a brother
and promoted my work by every means in his power.
The Earl and Countess of Tankerville also invited me to Chillingham
Castle, and gave me an opportunity of addressing a great assembly
there, then gathered together from all parts of the County. The
British and Foreign Bible Society received me in a special meeting of
the Directors; and I was able to tell them how all we the Missionaries
of these Islands, whose language had never before been reduced to
writing, looked to them and leant upon them and prayed for them and
their work—without whom our Native Bibles never could have been
published. After the meeting, the Chairman gave me £5, and one of the
Directors a cheque for £25 for our Mission Ship.
I was also invited to Leicester, and made the acquaintanceship of a
godly and gifted servant of the Lord Jesus, the Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A.
(now of London), whose books and booklets on the higher aspects of the
Christian Life are read by tens of thousands, and have been fruitful
of blessing. There I addressed great meetings of devoted workers in
the vineyard; and the dear friend who was my host on that occasion, a
Christian merchant, has since contributed £10 per annum for the support
of a Native Teacher on the New Hebrides.
It was my privilege also to visit and address the Müller Orphanages at
Bristol, and to see that saintly man of faith and prayer moving about
as a wise and loving father amongst the hundreds, even thousands, that
look to him for their daily bread and for the bread of Life Eternal. At
the close of my address, the venerable founder thanked me warmly and
said,—
“Here are £50, which God has sent to me for your Mission.”
I replied, saying,—“Dear friend, how can I take it? If I could, I would
rather give you £500 for your Orphans, for I am sure you need it all!”
He replied, with sweetness and great dignity,—“God provides for His own
Orphans. This money cannot be used for them. I must send it after you
by letter. It is the Lord’s gift.”
Often, as I have looked at the doings of men and Churches, and tried to
bring all to the test as if in Christ’s very presence,—it has appeared
to me that such work as Müller’s, and Barnardo’s, and that of my own
fellow-countryman, William Quarrier, must be peculiarly dear to the
heart of our blessed Lord. And were He to visit this world again, and
seek a place where His very Spirit had most fully wrought itself out
into deeds, I fear that many of our so-called Churches would deserve to
be passed by, and that His holy, tender, helpful, divinely-human love
would find its most perfect reflex in these Orphan Homes. Still and for
ever, amidst all changes of creed and of climate, this, _this_ is “pure
and undefiled Religion” before God and the Father!
Upper Norwood, London, is ever fresh in my memory, in connection
with my first and subsequent visits, chiefly because of the faithful
guidance and help amidst all the perplexities of that Great Babylon,
so ungrudgingly bestowed upon me by my old Australian friends, then
resident there, William Storrie, Esq., and his most excellent wife,
both devoted workers in the cause of Missions abroad and at home. Great
kindness was shown to me also by their Minister there; and by T. W.
Stoughton, Esq., at whose Mission Hall there was a memorable and joyful
meeting; and, amongst many others whom I cannot here name, by Messrs.
Morgan & Scott, of the _Christian_,—all of whom I rejoiced to find
actively engaged in personal service to the Lord Jesus.
But in this connection I must not omit to mention that the noble and
world-famous servant of God, the Minister of the Tabernacle, invited
me to a garden-party at his home, and asked me to address his students
and other Christian workers. When I arrived I found a goodly company
assembled under the shade of lovely trees, and felt the touch of that
genial humour, so mighty a gift when sanctified, which has so often
given wings to Mr. Spurgeon’s words, when he introduced me to the
audience as “the King of the Cannibals!” On my leaving, Mrs. Spurgeon
presented me with her husband’s “Treasury of David,” and also “£5
from the Lord’s cows,” which I learned was part of the profits from
certain cows kept by the good lady, and that everything produced
thereby was dedicated to the work of the Lord. I praised God that He
had privileged me to meet this extraordinarily endowed man, to whom the
whole Christian World is so specially indebted, and who has consecrated
all his gifts and opportunities to the proclamation of the pure and
precious Gospel.
But of all my London associations, the deepest and the most
imperishable is that which weaves itself around the Honourable Ion
Keith-Falconer, who has already passed to what may truly be called a
Martyr’s crown. At that time I met him at his father-in-law’s house at
Trent; and on another occasion spent a whole day with him at the house
of his noble mother, the Countess-Dowager of Kintore. His soul was then
full of his projected Mission to the Arabs, being himself one of the
most distinguished Orientalists of the day; and as we talked together,
and exchanged experiences, I felt that never before had I visibly
marked the fire of God, the holy passion to seek and to save the lost,
burning more steadily or brightly on the altar of any human heart. The
heroic founding of the Mission at Aden is already one of the precious
annals of the Church of Christ. His young and devoted wife survives,
to mourn indeed, but also to cherish his noble memory; and, with the
aid of others, and under the banner of the Free Church of Scotland,
to see the “Keith-Falconer Mission” rising up amidst the darkness of
blood-stained Africa, as at once a harbour of refuge for the slave,
and a beacon-light to those who are without God and without hope. The
servant does his day’s work, and passes on through the gates of sleep
to the Happy Dawn; but the Divine Master lives and works and reigns,
and by our death, as surely as by our life, His holy purposes shall be
fulfilled.
On returning to Scotland, every day was crowded with engagements for
the weeks that remained, and almost every mail brought me contributions
from all conceivable corners of the land. My heart was set upon taking
out two or three Missionaries with me to claim more and still more of
the Islands for Christ; and with that view I had addressed Divinity
Students at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. Again and again, by
conversation and correspondence, consecrated young men were just on the
point of volunteering; but again and again the larger and better known
fields of labour turned the scale, and they finally decided for China
or Africa or India. Deeply disappointed at this, and thinking that God
directed us to look to our own Australia alone for Missionaries for the
New Hebrides, I resolved to return, and took steps towards securing
a passage by the Orient Line to Melbourne. But just then two able
and devoted students, Messrs. Morton and Leggatt, offered themselves
as Missionaries for our Islands; and shortly thereafter a third, Mr.
Landells, also an excellent man; and all, being on the eve of their
Licence, were approved of, accepted, and set to special preparations
for the Mission field, particularly in acquiring practical medical
knowledge.
On this turn of affairs, I managed to have my passage delayed for six
weeks, and resolved to cast myself on the Lord that He might enable
me in that time to raise at least £500, in order to furnish the
necessary outfit and equipment for three new Mission Stations, and to
pay the passage money of the Missionaries and their wives, that there
might be no difficulty on this score amongst the Foreign Missions
Committees on the other side. And then the idea came forcibly, and for
a little unmanned me, that it was wrong in me to speak of these limits
as to time and money in my prayers to God. But I reflected, again,
how it was for the Lord’s own glory alone in the salvation of the
Heathen, and for no personal aims of mine; and so I fell back on His
promise,—“Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name,”—and believingly asked it
in His Name, and for His praise and service alone. I think it due to
my Lord, and for the encouragement of all His servants, that I should
briefly outline what occurred in answer to these prayers.
Having gone to the centre of one of the great ship-building districts
of Scotland, and held a series of meetings, and raised a sum of about
£55 only after nine services and many Sabbath School collecting cards,
my heart was beginning to sink, as I did not think my health would
stand another six weeks of incessant strain; when at the close of my
last meeting in a Free Church, an Elder and his wife entered the vestry
and said,—
“We are deeply interested in you and in all your work and plans. You
say that you have asked £500 more. We gave you the first £100 at the
Dundee Conference; and it is a joy to us to give you this £100 too,
towards the making up of your final sum. We pray that you may speedily
realize your wish, and that God’s richest blessing may ever rest upon
your head.”
Glasgow readers will at once recognise the generous giver, J. Campbell
White, Esq., who rejoices, along with his dear wife, to regard himself
as a steward of the Lord Jesus. My prayer is that they, and all such,
may feel more and more “blessed in their deeds.”
Another week passed by, and at the close of it a lady called upon me,
and, after delightful conversation about the Mission, said,—
“How near are you to the sum required?” I explained to her what is
recorded above, and she continued, “I gave you one little piece of
paper, at the beginning of your efforts. I have prayed for you every
day since. God has prospered me, and this is one of the happiest
moments of my life, when I am now able to give you another little bit
of paper.”
So saying, she put into my hand £100. I protested,—“You are surely too
generous. Can you afford a second £100?”
She replied to this effect, and very joyfully, as one who had genuine
gladness in the deed,—“My Lord has been very kind to me, in my health
and in my business. My wants are simple and are safe in His hands. I
wait not till death forces me, but give back whatever I am able to the
Lord now, and hope to live to see much blessing thereby through you in
the conversion of the Heathen.”
The name of that dear friend from Paisley rises often in my prayers and
meditations before God. “Verily I say unto you, the Father that seeth
in secret shall reward openly.”
My last week had come, and I was in the midst of preparations for
departure, when amongst the letters delivered to me was one to this
effect,—
“Restitution money which never now can be returned to its owner. Since
my Conversion I have laboured hard to save it. I now make my only
possible amends by returning it to God through you. Pray for me and
mine, and may God bless you in your work!” I rather startled my brother
and his wife at our breakfast table by shouting out in unwontedly
excited tones,—“Hallelujah! The Lord has done it! Hallelujah!” But my
tones softened down into intense reverence, and my words broke at last
into tears, when I found that this, the second largest subscription
ever received by me, came from a converted tradesman, who had now
consecrated his all to the Lord Jesus, and whose whole leisure was now
centred upon seeking to bless and save those of his own rank and class,
amongst whom he had spent his early and unconverted days. Jesus saith
unto him, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the
Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”
Bidding farewell to dear old Glasgow, so closely intertwined with all
my earlier and later experiences I started for London, accompanied by
my brother James. We were sitting at breakfast at Mrs. Mathieson’s
table, Mildmay, when a telegram was put into my hands announcing the
“thank-offering” from Lord and Lady Polwarth, received since our
departure from Glasgow, and referred to on an earlier page. The Lord
had now literally exceeded my prayers. With other gifts, repeated again
by friends at Mildmay, the special fund for outfit and travelling
expenses for new Missionaries had risen above the £500, and now
approached £650.
In a Farewell Meeting at Mildmay the Lord’s servants assembled in great
numbers from all quarters of London, dedicated me and my work very
solemnly to God, amid songs of praise and many prayers and touching
“last” words. And when at length Mr. Mathieson, intimating that I must
go, as another company of Christian workers were elsewhere waiting also
to say Goodbye, suggested that the whole audience should stand up, and,
instead of hand shaking, quietly breathe their benedictory Farewell as
I passed from the platform down through their great Hall, a perfect
flood of emotion overwhelmed me. I never felt a humbler man, nor
more anxious to hide my head in the dust, than when all these noble,
gifted, and beloved followers of Jesus Christ and consecrated workers
in His service, stood up and with one heart said, “God speed” and “God
bless you,” as I passed on through the Hall. To one who had striven
and suffered less, or who less appreciated how little we can do for
others compared with what Jesus had done for us, this scene might have
ministered to spiritual pride; but long ere I reached the door of that
Hall, my soul was already prostrated at the feet of my Lord in sorrow
and in shame that I had done so little for Him, and I bowed my head and
could have gladly bowed my knees to cry, “Not unto us, Lord, not unto
us!”
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.
In my absence at the Islands, they thereafter elected me Moderator of
their Supreme Court, and called me back to fill that highest Chair of
honour 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 £6,000, 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 £9,000. And all this had been forwarded to me,
as the free-will offerings of the Lord’s stewards, in the manner
illustrated by the preceding pages. “Behold! what God hath wrought!”
Of this sum £6,000 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 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, delay has arisen—owing to a difference of
opinion about the best way of carrying out the proposal. Negotiations
are progressing betwixt New South Wales and Victoria and the other
Colonies as to the additional annual expenditure for the maintenance
of a Steam-Auxiliary, and how the same is to be allocated. Also, an
element of doubt and perplexity has been introduced into the scheme
by the possibility of the Government running Mails regularly from
Australia to Fiji, and calling at one or other of the New Hebrides
harbours,—in which case some think the Missionaries would need only an
_inter-island_ Steamer, of a comparatively moderate tonnage. Meantime,
let all friends who are interested in us and our work understand—that
the money so generously entrusted to me has been safely handed over to
my Victorian Church, and has been deposited by them at good interest in
the bank, pending the settlement of these business details.
To me personally, this delay is confessedly a keen and deep
disappointment,—feeling strongly as I do, and seeing more clearly every
day, the waste and suffering caused to our beloved Missionaries and
their families, by the uncertainties of a Sailing Ship, and by the
utter inability of our present _Dayspring_ to overtake all that is now
required. But this is not the place to discuss that matter in detail.
The work laid upon me has been accomplished. The Colonial Churches have
all the responsibility of the further steps. In this, as in many a
harder trouble of my chequered 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 the ordained white 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!
* * * * *
When pleading the cause of the Heathen and the claims of Jesus on His
followers, I have often been taunted with being “a man of one idea.”
Sometimes I have thought that this came from the lips of those who had
not even one idea!—unless it were how to kill time or to save their own
skin. But seriously speaking, is it not better to have one good idea
and to live for that and succeed in it, than to scatter one’s life away
on many things and leave a mark on none?
And, besides, you cannot live for one good idea supremely without
thereby helping forward many other collateral causes. My life has
been dominated by one sacred purpose; but in pursuing it the Lord has
enabled me to be Evangelist as well as Missionary, and whilst seeking
for needed money to seek for and save and bless many souls,—has enabled
me to defend the Holy Sabbath in many lands, as the God-given and
precious birthright of the toiling millions, to be bartered away for
no price or bribe that men can offer,—has enabled me to maintain the
right of every child in Christian lands, or in Heathen, to be taught to
read the blessed Bible and to understand it, as the Divine foundation
of all Social Order and the sole guarantee of individual freedom as
well as of national greatness,—and has enabled me also to do battle
against the infernal _Kanaka_ or Labour Traffic, one of the most cruel
and blood-stained forms of slavery on the face of the Earth, and to
rouse the holy passion of Human Brotherhood in the Colonies and at Home
against those who trafficked in the bodies and souls of men.
In these, as well as in my own direct labours as a Missionary, I
probably have had my full share of “abuse” from the enemies of the
Cross, and a not inconsiderable burden of trials and afflictions in
the service of my Lord; yet here, as I lay down my pen, let me record
my immovable conviction that this is the noblest service in which any
human being can spend or be spent; and that, if God gave me back my
life to be lived over again, I would without one quiver of hesitation
lay it on the altar to Christ, that He might use it as before in
similar ministries of love, especially amongst those who have never yet
heard the Name of Jesus. Nothing that has been endured, and nothing
that can now befall me, makes me tremble—on the contrary, I deeply
rejoice—when I breathe the prayer that it may please the blessed Lord
to turn the hearts of all my children to the Mission field; and that He
may open up their way and make it their pride and joy to live and die
in carrying Jesus and His Gospel into the heart of the Heathen World!
God gave His best, His Son, to me; and I give back my best, my All, to
Him.
Reader, Fare-thee-well! Thou hast companied with me,—not without
some little profit, I trust; and not without noting many things that
led thee to bless the Lord God, in whose honour these pages have
been written. In your life and in mine, there is at least one _last_
Chapter, one final Scene, awaiting us,—God our Father knows where and
how! By His grace, I will live out that Chapter, I will pass through
that Scene, in the faith and in the hope of Jesus, who has sustained
me from childhood till now. As you close this book, go before your
Saviour, and pledge yourself upon your knees by His help and sympathy
to do the same. And let me meet you, and let us commune with each other
again, in the presence and glory of the Redeemer. Fare-thee-well!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See the whole context in “Sermons on National Subjects,”
(_Macmillan & Co._, 1880) pp. 414 to 417, where it is numbered as
Sermon XLI.; particularly this regulative declaration regarding “what
Original Sin may bring man to”:—“What is to my mind the most awful part
of the matter remains to be told—that man may actually fall by Original
Sin too low to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be recovered
again by it.”—(_Editor_).
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added,
when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and
inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. All place names and
proper nouns have been retained as spelled in the original publication.
Page iv. “Ariwan” replaced by “Aniwan”.
Page xvii. “LISTI” replaced by “LITSI”.
Page 1. “Brutal Captain” replaced by “Brutal Captain.”.
Page 67. “now see them” replaced by “now see them.”.
Page 116. “accomodation” replaced by “accommodation”.
Page 119. “Rev. J” replaced by “Rev. J.”.
Page 132. “not of ourselves” replaced by “not of ourselves.”.
Page 158. “inhabit ants” replaced by “inhabitants”.
Page 160. “dead and buried” replaced by “dead and buried.”.
Page 169. “tomakawk” replaced by “tomahawk”.
Page 171. “among the Natives” replaced by “among the Natives.”.
Page 178. “‘It is” replaced by ““It is”.
Page 183. “through the earth.” replaced by “through the earth.””.
Page 222. “baptize you?” replaced by “baptize you?””.
Page 230. ““Society,’” replaced by ““Society,””.
Page 230. “your fill!’” replaced by “your fill!””.
Page 230. “happy as squirrels” replaced by “happy as squirrels.”.
Page 254. “this?’ Cocoa-nuts” replaced by “this?’ ‘Cocoa-nuts”.
Page 273. “home on Aniwa” replaced by “home on Aniwa.”.
Page 289. “symphony of Ocean” replaced by “symphony of Ocean’”.
Page 304. “She had, out” replaced by ““She had, out”.
Page 305. “spilt!’” replaced by “spilt!””.
Page 305. “you ill?’” replaced by “you ill?””.
Page 309. “broken Eglish” replaced by “broken English”.
Page 311. “eel the very” replaced by “feel the very”.
Page 314. “any other” replaced by “any other.”.
Page 321. “he returned?” replaced by “he returned?’”.
Page 329. “to Tanna.” replaced by “to Tanna,”.
Page 332. ““That’s Mungaw” replaced by “‘That’s Mungaw”.
Page 338. “But Noopooraw” replaced by “but Noopooraw”.
Page 339. “O Yomit” replaced by “‘O Yomit”.
Page 343. “acrue” replaced by “accrue”.
Page 343. “treacherous gales” replaced by “treacherous gales.”.
Page 363. “Steam Auxiliary.” replaced by “Steam Auxiliary.””.
Page 369. “‘God provides for” replaced by ““God provides for”.
Page 376. “accompained” replaced by “accompanied”.