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The Story of John G. Paton: Chapter 88 - England's Open Book


      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 afterwards 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 a 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 ever 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 L150 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, Mr. J. E. Mathieson, 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, the Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer, handed me a cheque from his father-in-law for L300, by far the largest single donation at that time towards our Mission Ship; and immediately thereafter I received from one of the Mildmay lady Missionaries L50, from a venerable friend of the founder L20, from "Friends at Mildmay" L30; and through my dear friend and brother, Mr. 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 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 Douglas-Support 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 L5, and one of the Directors a check for L25 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 Lord's vineyard; and the dear friend who was my host on that occasion, a Christian merchant, has since contributed L10 per annum for the support of a Native Teacher on the New Hebrides.

      It was my privilege also to visit and address the Mueller 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 L50, which God has sent to me for your Mission." I replied saying, "Dear friend, how can I take it? I would rather give you L500 for your Orphans if I could, 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 Mueller'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 forever, amidst all changes of creed and of climate, this, this is "pure and undefiled Religion" before God and the Father!

      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 humor, so mighty a gift when sanctified, which has so often given wings to C. H. Spurgeon's words, when he saluted me as "The King of the Cannibals!" On my leaving, Mrs. Spurgeon presented me with her husband's Treasury of David, and also "L5 from the Lord's cows"--which I afterwards 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 had been so specially indebted, and who had consecrated all his gifts and opportunities to the proclamation of the pure and precious Gospel.

      Of all my London associations, however, the deepest and the most imperishable is that which weaves itself around the Honorable 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 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 harbor 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.

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See Also:
   Preface
   Chapter 1 - Our Cottage Home
   Chapter 2 - Our Forebears
   Chapter 3 - Consecrated Parents
   Chapter 4 - School Days
   Chapter 5 - Leaving the Old Home
   Chapter 6 - Early Struggles
   Chapter 7 - A City Missionary
   Chapter 8 - Glasgow Experiences
   Chapter 9 - A Foreign Missionary
   Chapter 10 - To the New Hebrides
   Chapter 11 - First Impressions of Heathendom
   Chapter 12 - Breaking Ground on Tanna
   Chapter 13 - Pioneers in the New Hebrides
   Chapter 14 - The Great Bereavement
   Chapter 15 - At Home With Cannibals
   Chapter 16 - Superstitions and Cruelties
   Chapter 17 - Streaks of Dawn Amidst Deeds of Darkness
   Chapter 18 - The Visit Of H. M. S. "Cordelia"
   Chapter 19 - "Noble Old Abraham"
   Chapter 20 - A Typical South Sea Trader
   Chapter 21 - Under Ax And Musket
   Chapter 22 - A Native Saint and Martyr
   Chapter 23 - Building and Printing for God
   Chapter 24 - Heathen Dance and Sham Fight
   Chapter 25 - Cannibals at Work
   Chapter 26 - The Defying of Nahak
   Chapter 27 - A Perilous Pilgrimage
   Chapter 28 - The Plague of Measles
   Chapter 29 - Attacked with Clubs
   Chapter 30 - Kowia
   Chapter 31 - Martyrdom of the Gordons
   Chapter 32 - Shadows Deepening on Tanna
   Chapter 33 - The Visit of the Commodore
   Chapter 34 - The War Chiefs in Council
   Chapter 35 - Under Knife and Tomahawk
   Chapter 36 - The Beginning of the End
   Chapter 37 - Five Hours in a Canoe
   Chapter 38 - A Race for Life
   Chapter 39 - Faint Yet Pursuing
   Chapter 40 - Waiting at Kwamera
   Chapter 41 - The Last Awful Night
   Chapter 42 - "Sail O! Sail O!"
   Chapter 43 - Farewell to Tanna
   Chapter 44 - The Floating of the "Dayspring"
   Chapter 45 - A Shipping Company for Jesus
   Chapter 46 - Australian Incidents
   Chapter 47 - Amongst Squatters and Diggers
   Chapter 48 - John Gilpin in the Bush
   Chapter 49 - The Aborigines of Australia
   Chapter 50 - Nora
   Chapter 51 - Back to Scotland
   Chapter 52 - Tour Through the Old Country
   Chapter 53 - Marriage and Farewell
   Chapter 54 - First Peep at the "Dayspring"
   Chapter 55 - The French in the Pacific
   Chapter 56 - The Gospel and Gunpowder
   Chapter 57 - A Plea for Tanna
   Chapter 58 - Our New Home on Aniwa
   Chapter 59 - House-Building for God
   Chapter 60 - A City of God
   Chapter 61 - The Religion of Revenge
   Chapter 62 - First Fruits on Aniwa
   Chapter 63 - Traditions and Customs
   Chapter 64 - Nelwang's Elopement
   Chapter 65 - The Christ-Spirit at Work
   Chapter 66 - The Sinking of the Well
   Chapter 67 - Rain from Below
   Chapter 68 - The Old Chief's Sermon
   Chapter 69 - The First Book and the New Eyes
   Chapter 70 - A Roof-Tree for Jesus
   Chapter 71 - "Knock The Tevil Out!"
   Chapter 72 - The Conversion of Youwili
   Chapter 73 - First Communion on Aniwa
   Chapter 74 - The New Social Order
   Chapter 75 - The Orphans and Their Biscuits
   Chapter 76 - The Finger-Posts of God
   Chapter 77 - The Gospel in Living Capitals
   Chapter 78 - The Death Of Namakei
   Chapter 79 - Christianity and Cocoanuts
   Chapter 80 - Nerwa's Beautiful Farewell
   Chapter 81 - Ruwawa
   Chapter 82 - Litsi Sore and Mungaw
   Chapter 83 - The Conversion of Nasi
   Chapter 84 - The Appeal of Lamu
   Chapter 85 - Wanted! A Steam Auxiliary
   Chapter 86 - My Campaign in Ireland
   Chapter 87 - Scotland's Free-Will Offerings
   Chapter 88 - England's Open Book
   Chapter 89 - Farewell Scenes
   Chapter 90 - Welcome to Victoria and Aniwa
   Chapter 91 - Good News From Tanna, 1891

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