“When faint and weary, Father, I'll repair
To some green, sheltered nook, where Thou wilt close
With tender hands, my eyes in sleep; and where
Thou'lt keep Thy loving watch o'er my repose,
Patient and trustful. Oh, a murmuring heart
Would be a thankless one! With such a Friend
Privations make me rich—great griefs impart
Great gladness—trials fierce in blessings end.
Yes, all is well! The mysteries of life
And death shall raise my reverence, and revive
My faith. Through all the stern and solemn strife
Awaiting me, great God, to Thee I'll cleave.
Nought from my faith and hope shall sever me,
I'll wend my way to Heaven, my hand in Thine;
My wisdom, comfort, triumph, all from Thee;
Thy will, Thy peace, Thy habitation mine."
ON the 23rd of March, 1858, Paton and his Jr., coadjutors were solemnly set apart to their great work: It was a memorable and never-to-be-forgotten service to those who witnessed it. The delivery of the thrilling charge, the breathless multitude, the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit, was to make memorable in after days a scene that would be indelibly stamped upon the minds of all present. On the 16th of April following, this devoted band of workers left the Clyde and set sail for the foreign mission field.
At that time our ocean steamers had not arrived at the model of perfection which, they now possess, consequently the voyage was more lengthy and tedious than it would be now, with all our modern and unique steam appliances. Nevertheless, "all is well that ends well;" and so our voyagers gratefully acknowledged when, after many battles with storms and adverse winds, they all landed safely at Melbourne. A warm greeting and hearty welcome here awaited the godly company from some Reformed Presbyterian friends, who had traveled from Geelong to wish them God-speed.
It is at this juncture that we receive the first intimation that Mr. Paton had found for himself an help meet. Looking into the future, it is inexpressibly sad and touching the reference he makes to his young wife and himself during a few days' visit to Geelong. After being exposed to many and great dangers, Mr. and Mrs. Paton were safely landed at Aneityum, New Hebrides, on the 30th of August. It was with thankful hearts that they praised the God who had surrounded them with so many mercies, and had at last brought them to their desired haven. Around them lay the islands of the New Hebrides, to which they had looked forward with so great expectancy and so much hope, and into which they now entered with so much joy and gladness. Ah, well was it that the near future was so mercifully hid from the view of these servants of the Most High.
A committee of "ways and means" having been called together, it was unanimously decided that Mr. and Mrs. Paton should take up their residence at Port Resolution, Tanna. With the aid of energetic natives, preparation was speedily made for a mission house and church, likewise a dwelling-house for themselves. The outlook was not a promising one for the young missionary and his wife. They were surrounded by a people who were all savages and cannibals. Speaking of the bad specimen of diplomacy respecting the chiefs affording or guaranteeing any protection to the missionaries, Mr. Paton gives a scathing rebuke to the same tactics as practiced by the civilized nations in making and breaking their treaties in peace and in war. We need not wonder at Paton feeling somewhat depressed as he gazes at the work before him. Crafty, cunning, deceitful, cruel and bloodthirsty were many of the chiefs of these natives of Tanna. Paton says, "The depths of Satan, outlined in the first chapter of the Romans, were uncovered there before our eyes, in the daily life of the people, without veil and without excuse. On beholding these natives in their paint and nakedness and misery, my heart was as full of horror as of pity." Oh, what a harvest field for him to enter upon I Where shall he begin? Whither shall he direct his steps? Cruelty, oppression, slavery, licentiousness in its most hideous forms, morality, even in its initial stages, unknown, vice and degradation rampant, covering as a plague the hearts of the people. Who is to stem this torrent of iniquity? Who is to raise the backwater to stem this seething current of cruelty in this dark place of the earth? Who is to lock the floodgates, and check the surging of their human passions and thirst for their brother's blood? Who is to lift up the cry of warning and the voice of mercy to these New Hebrides natives? "Who is sufficient for these things?" The Spirit of the living God I Realizing this, depending and leaning upon the arm of Jeshurun's God, Paton goes forth to work, as the "strong man armed," determining by the grace of God to lift these people of Tanna out of their savagery and set them at the feet of Him who died to redeem them from all sin.
A great and, as the sequel proved, a fatal mistake had been made by Paton in the choosing of a site for his dwelling place. They had built their house near the shore, which proved to be a hot-bed for fever and ague. Much misery and untold suffering might have been avoided had Mr. Paton possessed more knowledge of the country. When this great mistake was discovered a resolve was made to build upon higher ground, but this resolution was formed too late to save the life of the one that Paton held so sacred and so dear. Before four months had passed, since taking up their residence in Tanna, the young wife had passed away.
It was a day of joy and gladness in that New Hebrides home when, on the 12th of February, 1859, Mrs. Paton presented her husband with the first pledge of her affection. For a little time, mother and child appeared to be doing well, but the attacks of fever and ague, to which she had been previously subjected, returned with increased severity, the result being that the already weakened frame succumbed, and in a very few days Paton was left to his labor and work—alone. Those whom only a few months previously God had joined together, death had now parted asunder. But the cup of sorrow was not yet filled. Scarcely had he felt that the wife of his youth was taken from him, when the baby-boy, after a very brief illness, was taken away "from the evil to come.”
These were indeed "dark days." No tongue can ever tell, no pen can depict, the anguish and sorrow which flooded Paton's heart in those sad, lonely, bereaved days. "Persecuted but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed," was the experience of the sorrowing disciple in those dark days. Despite his breaking heart and agonized soul, the strength so much needed was given to the bereaved husband and father. Necessity itself laid upon him the sad task of burying his dead from his sight. It was his hands that prepared the last receptacle for her who had so short time before been adorned as a bride. There, close by the ill-fated homestead, he laid the precious dust of his beloved ones in the same quiet grave, not sorrowing as those without hope. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even they also which sleep in Jesus will He bring with Him." That lonely grave in the future months and years became a "sacred and much frequented shrine to him who had been left to carry on his work alone." At this time, in the severest trial of his life, looking forward to the harvest he yet hoped to reap in that mission field, Paton says: "Whensoever Tanna turns to the Lord, and is won for Christ, men in after days will find the memory of that spot still green—where, with ceaseless prayers and tears, I claimed that land for God in which I had buried my dead' with faith and hope. But for Jesus, and the fellowship He vouchsafed me there, I must have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave.”
And so another life had been given for the Master's sake in this heathen land. It was here that those heroic pioneers, Williams and Harris, of missionary enterprise, were murdered for Jesus' sake. "Thus were the New Hebrides baptized with the blood of martyrs. Surely the blood of these noble martyrs teaches the whole of Christendom that He shall have the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.”