OF the several committees who had worked with e) Paton on his tour to raise funds for the purchase of a mission steamer, all were unanimous in their expressed wish that he should visit Scotland, chiefly to secure, if possible, a fresh contingent of missionaries for the New Hebrides. But there was something beyond all this. There was that lying under the surface, of which they were not cognizant. It was this. Soon after Paton started upon his Australian tour, the funds rolled in so rapidly that a resolution was formed to build a ship three times the size of the one originally proposed. The sum raised up to this time was ₤3000. So full of thankfulness and gratitude to Almighty God for the abundant manner in which He had blessed his labors, he vowed in secret, if the Lord in His great goodness would send him an additional £800 within a given time, that should warrant him in re-visiting Scotland to secure more missionaries for the Islands. Paton says, "I alone, north of Aneityum, was now left to tell the story of the planting of the standard on Tanna. Our mission numbered then only four agents in the field, and the thought arose, Why keep a mission vessel for so few? The resolution was therefore taken in God's name to get more missionaries too. But this as yet was betwixt my own soul and the Lord." And yet, notwithstanding the request of his committees and his own resolve, Paton had some doubts respecting the steps he should take. He was in a strait betwixt two-the wail of the perishing heathen of the Islands on one hand, and the desire to augment the missionary forces on the other.
At last, after much anxious thought and agonized prayer, he felt that the Lord's leading was that he should "go home." Accordingly, due preparations were made, and he took ship for London May 16th, 1863, arriving in Glasgow, on the evening of the 26th of August following. The meeting with his saintly parents may be conceived, but cannot be described. Only five years since he left that dear old home, but how much had occurred in the interim! What suffering, trial, and hardship had fallen to the lot of that firstborn son! Only five years since he had presented to those dear old folks his bonnie bride, and now the lonely grave on Tanna was the receptacle of her whom they had all loved.
Paton's reception in his mother country was of a most gratifying and enthusiastic character. The Reformed Presbyterian Church sheaved their appreciation of his arduous service to the cause of missions by unanimously electing him to the position of Moderator of their Supreme 'Court. The honor thus conferred upon Paton was the highest that they could bestow; hence it significantly shows how high he stood in their esteem. And what did Paton think about and say of all this unexpected and generous kindness? He accepted with great humility the position to which he had been so courteously elected.
But what was the object, what the motive power that constrained him to accept this high office at the hands of his brethren? That the heathen might be benefited by the position he would temporarily occupy. Here we have the one idea of the man brought prominently to the front. Honor or dishonor, success or defeat, affluence or poverty, anything, subject to God's will, in order that the cause of his beloved heathen should be espoused.
In relation to various resolutions that were passed relative to Paton and his work, the one most pleasing to himself was that wherein the Church "legally and formally bound itself to maintain the New Hebrides Mission staff, and also the mission ship Dayspring." The Dayspring scheme was so heartily taken up by the Sabbath Schools throughout the country that the returns from that source alone have been ever since that time £250 per annum. Another marked success of this Scottish tour was the volunteer. ing of four new missionaries, so that the posts that had for lack of help necessarily been abandoned were reclaimed, and other stations in the New Hebrides opened up.
It was during this remarkable tour that Paton met with one, who is still living as the partner of his joys and sorrows. The finding of this wife was evidently directed by the Lord, as prior to their being brought together they were comparative strangers to each other. Mrs. Paton herself not only took a deep interest in missionary work, but belonging to a missionary family she was peculiarly fitted for her future work in the New Hebrides. In 1864 Mr. Paton was united in marriage to Margaret Whitecross (the daughter of the popular author of "Whitecross's Anecdotes"), and the family with which God has blessed that union have been dedicated to the Master's use and service.
One more scene in this Scottish tour must be noticed, ere we leave it for other matter—the last visit to the home. We prefer, for various reasons, to give an account of that farewell visit in Paton's own words, He says: " 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, along with their precious blessing, might rest upon us in all the way that we had to go.... 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 Savior.”
Comment on such a testimony, and from such a source, would indeed be out of place. We can only thank God for such Christ-like parents, and praise Him for such God-given sons and daughters. May their numbers be multiplied yet more and more.