IN an early number we gave a little information respecting Dr. Paton’s glorious work, or rather the glorious work of God through His servant Dr, Paton. The following incident will charm the reader, and it may teach him the better to trust in the Lord.
It seems that for a long time no equivalent could be found by Dr. Paton in the language of Aniwa for faith, and the work of Bible translation was paralyzed for the want of so fundamental and oft-recurring a term. The natives apparently regarded the verb “to hear” as equivalent to belief. For instance, suppose a native were asked whether he heard a certain statement. Should he credit the statement he would reply, “Yes, I heard it,” but should he disbelieve it he would answer, “No, I did not hear it,” meaning not that his ears had failed to catch the words, but that he did not regard them as true. This definition of faith was obviously insufficient—many passages such as “faith cometh by hearing’ would be impossible of translation through so meager a channel; and prayer was made continually that God would supply the missing link. No effort had been spared in interrogating the most intelligent native pundits, but all in vain, none caught the hidden meaning of the word sought by the missionary. One day Dr. Paton was sitting in his room anxiously pondering. He sat on an ordinary chair, his feet resting on the floor; just then an intelligent native entered the room and the thought flashed to the missionary to ask the all-absorbing question yet once again in a new light. Was he not resting on that chair? would that attitude lend itself to the discovery?
“Taea,” said Dr. Paton,” what am I doing now?” “You’re sitting down, Missi,” the native replied.
Then the missionary drew up his feet and placed them upon the bar of the chair just above the floor, and leaning back upon the chair in an attitude of repose, asked, “What am I doing now?” “You are leaning wholly,” or “You have lifted yourself from every other support,”
“That’s it,” shouted the missionary, with an exultant cry; and a sense of holy joy awed him as he realized that his prayer had been so fully answered. To lean on Jesus wholly, and only is surely the true meaning of appropriating or saving faith. And now “Fakarongrongo Iesu ea anea moure.” “Leaning on Jesus unto eternal life,” or “for all things of eternal life,” is the happy experience of those Christian islanders, as it is of all who thus cast themselves unreservedly on the Saviour of the world for salvation.
The following fine testimonies of the aged missionary should be treasured by all.
“They tell me,” Dr. Paton often remarked, “that the gospel has become antiquated and lost its power―NEVER!”
“If those who would destroy your confidence in the blessed Book of God, would only go down to our islands and trace there the marvelous effect of the gospel in turning savages into saints, they would no longer lean on such broken reeds, and waste their time, and worse, in useless hair splitting over non-proven positions.”
“Dear young friends, let me plead with you not to neglect the House of God―let me implore you not to break God’s Holy Day by indulging in worldly amusements. You would never see such things down in our islands―our young men are eager for the Lord’s Day to keep it holy―you would never see them come in late, even to church;” and he humorously added, “there is no pulling out of watches to see if the sermon is not too long.”
Oh! that amongst us in England there were more life and power in the declaration of the Word of God, and men preached as if they indeed believed what they said.
As men write travels, and illustrate what other parts of the world are like by the aid of pictures, so hath God explained unseen things to us, and illustrated them by types and shadows.