Part 13 (1/2)
Mathieson's property; but my earthly all perished, except the Bible and the translations into Tannese Along with the goods pertaining to the Mission, the property which I had to leave behind would be under-estimated at 600, besides the value of the Mission House, etc
Often since have I thought that the Lord stripped ht with undistracted y to the special work soon to be carved out for me, and of which at this moment neither I nor any one had ever dreah doubtless costingsorrow like that which sprang froht that the Lord's as now broken up at both Stations, and that the Gospel was for the time driven from Tanna
In the darkest moment I never doubted that ultimately the victory there, as elsewhere, would be on the side of Jesus, believing that the whole Earth would yet be filled with the glory of the Lord But I soht never live to see or hear of that happy day!
By the goodness of the Ever-merciful One I have lived to see and hear of a Gospel Church on Tanna, and to read aboutthe Holy Supper to a Native Congregation of Tannese, amid the very scenes and people where the seeds of faith and hope were planted not only in tears, but tears of blood,--”in deaths oft”
My own intention was to re the Gospels, and watch the earliest opportunity, as God opened up ot very weak and thin; my health was undoubtedly h which we had passed; and therefore, as Dr and Mrs
Inglis were at hoe of Aneityum, and as Tanna was closed for a season--Dr Geddie, the Rev Joseph Copeland, and Mr Mathieson all urged o to Australia by a vessel then in the Harbor and leaving in a few days My co the Presbyterian Churches of our Colonies in this New Hebrides Mission which lay at their doors, up till this time sustained by Scotland and Nova Scotia alone And further, and very specially, to raise money there, if possible, to purchase a new Mission shi+p for the work of God in the New Hebrides,--a clamant necessity which would save all future Missionaries some of the more terrible of the privations and risks of which a few exaes already been recorded
With regrets, and yet with unquenchable hope for these Islands, I embarked for Australia But I had only spoken to one man in Sydney; all the doors to influence had therefore to be unlocked; and I had no helper, no leader, but the Spirit of h the perils and defeats of my first four years in the Mission field on Tanna, I wondered, and perhaps the reader hereof has wondered, why God per back now, I already clearly perceive, and the reader of es will, I think, perceive, that the Lord was thereby preparingme materials ith to acco of the heart of Australian Presbyterianis affection for these Islanders of their own Southern Seas--the binding of all their children into a happy league of shareholders, first in one Mission shi+p, and finally in a larger andthe instru out Missionary after Missionary to the New Hebrides, to claim another island and still another for Jesus That work, and all thatfrom it in Time and Eternity, never could have been accos and then the story of my Tanna days!
Never for one ret the step then taken
The Lord has so usedthe five-and-twenty years that have passed over me since my farewell to Tanna, as to staracious approval Oh, to see a Missionary, and Christian Teachers, planted on every island of the New Hebrides! For this I labor, and wait, and pray To help on the fulfillment thereof is the sacred work of my life, under God When I see that accoanization that will provide the money and call forth the ratefully as ever warrior did, with the shout of victory in his ears--”Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace!”
(_For ”Good News from Tanna,” see Supplementary Chapter by the Editor,_ p393)
CHAPTER XLIV
THE FLOATING OF THE ”DAYSPRING”
RESCUED fro of 1869, I was landed on Aneityu behind me all that I owned on Earth, save the clothes upon my back, my precious Bible, and a few translations that I had e The Missionaries on Aneityo to Australia in the interests of our Mission A Mission shi+p was sorely needed--was absolutely required--to prevent the needless sacrifice of devoted lives More Missionaries were called for, and ht into the field, unless the hope of clai these fair Islands for Jesus was to be forever abandoned
With unaffected reluctance, I at last felt constrained to undertake this unwelco of my dear Islanders for a season; but it eain, with perhaps every power of blessing ast the at Aneityue was secured for 10 And, as if to make me realize how bare the Lord had strippedthat occupiedwith my own hands, from a piece of cloth obtained on Aneityue with that which I wore--the only one that had been left to me
The Captain proved to be a profane and brutal fellow And how my heart bled for some poor Islanders wholish, and no one in the vessel knew a sound of their language
They were made to work, and to understand as expected of the pushed and pulled hither and thither They were kept quite naked on the voyage up; but, when nearing Sydney, each received two yards of calico to be twisted as a kilt around his loins A most pathetic spectacle it was to watch these poor Natives,--when they had leisure to sit on deck,--gazing, gazing, intently and ily, upon the face of the Sun! This they did every day, and at all hours, and I wept much to look on theht of the world, for I kneord of their language Perhaps they orshi+pers of the Sun; and perhaps, amid all their reat Father of Lights may have streamed into those darkened souls!
When we arrived at Sydney the Inspecting Officer of the Govern on board, asked how these Islanders came to be there The Captain iers” No further question was put No other evidence was sought Yet all who knew anything of our South-Sea Island Traders were perfectly aware that the moral certainty was that these Natives were there practically as Slaves They would be privately disposed of by the Captain to the-highest bidder; and that, forsooth, is to be called the _Labor_ Traffic,--_Free_ Labor! I will, tobreath, denounce and curse this _Kanaka_ traffic as the worst of Slavery
As we caht, in Sydney Harbor, I anxiously paced the deck, gazing towards the gas-lighted city, and pleading with God to open up ive success in the work before ht depend Still I saw the cry on the Islands behind reat city; though I had a note of introduction to one person, which, as experience proved, I would have been better without
That friend, however, did his best He kindly called with me on a number of Ministers and others They heard my story, sympathized with h, so th I felt so disappointed, so rave with my dear departed, and my brethren on the Islands, who had fallen around me, in order that the work on which so ht have been entrusted to some one better fitted to acco, ”All these things are against thee”
Finding out at last the Rev A Buzacott, then retired, but formerly the successful and honored representative of the London Missionary Society on Rarotonga, considerable light was let in upon the mystery of hly-estee me all round, was at that moment immersed in a keen Newspaper ith Presbyterians and Independents This made it painfully manifest that, in order to succeed, I must strike out a new course for leht in advance, I withdrew even fro I had taken, and turned to the Lord ht enerous-souled servants of His, the open-hearted Mr and Mrs Foss Though entire strangers, they kindly invitedme that I would meet with many Ministers and other Christians at their house who could help rateful heart; they will not miss their recompense
A letter and appeal had been already printed on behalf of our Mission I now re-cast and reprinted it, adding a postscript, and appendingMinisters and others engaged in Christian work; and by thisin my power to make our Mission known But one week had passed, and no response caone by, and no pulpit had been opened to regations and Sabbath Schools; though a so deep in my soul assured me, that if once my lips were opened, the Word of the Lord would not return void
On reat yearning at heart to get telling e to any soul that would listen It was the afternoon; and children were flocking into a Church that I passed I followed theer every uided thus to the Chalmers Presbyterian Church