I want to speak this afternoon on the
pioneer evangelism which took place in the new
suburbies in the South Pacific between the years
1848 and 1862.
And I take this as an example of
the application and illustration of the theology, Reformed,
Puritan, Calvinistic theology which planted the gospel in
these islands in the last century.
It seems to me that it was a
very remarkable period of history when the New
Testament faith was introduced into a situation of
the most complete darkness when some of the
finest Christian lives came into contact with, I
suppose, some of the most brutalized and degraded
human beings that have ever lived.
And for the sake of clarity I am
trying to particularize to these two islands in
the New Hebrides, the islands of Aniton and
Cana.
And in each instance the lives of men
who served on these two islands.
On the island of Aniton, John Debbie.
And on the island of Cana, John G.
Paton.
Now something by way of background for the
introduction of missions to the South Pacific.
You will remember that in the 18th century
in the United Kingdom and also here on
this side of the Atlantic two things took
place simultaneously.
One was that in the secular world there
was a great preference of the exploration of
the earth.
The extent of the population of the world.
An understanding of the geography of the world.
This made great advances of course during the
18th century.
And in the Pacific, in particular the voyages
of Captain Cook who died in the Pacific
in 1779.
The voyages of Captain Cook did a great
deal to open up an understanding of that
part of the world.
That was one thing.
Then simultaneously with that interest in the secular
world there was of course the great evangelical
revival and the great awakening in this country.
And there was therefore a number of men
and women whose hearts were burdened with a
concern that these remote corners of the earth
should be reached with the gospel of Christ.
It was William Carey's original hope that he
might be able to preach in the Pacific.
It was said of him by one of
his friends that even pinpoint dockings of the
oceans were precious in his sight.
The Baptist Missionary Society was formed in 1792.
A committee of five men and Carey and
Thomas went as I'm sure you know two
years later to India.
To Bengal and not to the Pacific.
But in 1795 another missionary society was formed,
the London Missionary Society.
And that society made as its first objective
the establishing of the gospel in the South
Pacific.
And so in 1796 this missionary society chartered
a vessel, the dock.
And with thirty missionaries on board the dock
set sail for the island of Tahiti.
Tahiti about half way between the continent of
South America and Australia.
And after a voyage of 208 days round
Cape Horn the dock reached Tahiti.
These thirty missionaries then were counted on different
islands.
There were seventeen on Tahiti, three, four, five
on other islands in the near vicinity.
The result of this missionary endeavour, sad to
say, was total failure.
The missionaries left on Tahiti within about two
years were reduced in number to seven men
and one woman.
Of which two had abandoned their profession of
Christianity.
On the island of Kanga three of the
missionaries were murdered and the rest fled.
Altogether in the year 1806 the report from
these missionaries was, the ones who had remained,
was that there was no success and in
1809 they were all withdrawn.
And when this was discussed in London it
was urged that the possibility of missionary endeavour
in this part of the world should be
abandoned and attention should be paid elsewhere.
But there was one member of the committee
who pleaded most earnestly that prayer should be
continued before a final decision was made.
And in 1814 two missionaries were sent back
to this area.
The next year in 1814 on January the
30th something happened in London which was to
change the whole course of future events.
There was a road in London called Tottenham
Court Road and it was well known at
that date because on that road was situated
the tabernacle that was built for the preaching
of George Whitfield.
And in 1814 of course many years after
Whitfield's death the gospel was still being preached
in that building and a young man by
the name of John Williams was invited to
a service that took place that evening.
He had not intended to be found in
such a place, he was invited by somebody
walking down Tottenham Court Road.
He went in, he was spiritually awakened, he
was in due time soundly converted and he
was called inwardly constrained to the work of
the gospel in the Southern Pacific.
So John Williams sailed for Tahiti in the
year 1817.
I think he said, I think and hope
that I have no other desire in my
soul than to be the means of winning
souls to Christ.
And he remained there for the next 18
years, not exactly in Tahiti because he was
continually on the move.
He discovered new islands, he moved westwards from
Tahiti towards, in the direction of New Guinea.
He was reprimanded by the London committee for
moving about too much, to which he sent
a memorable reply.
He said, I cannot content myself within the
narrow limits of a single reef.
And the preaching of John Williams was greatly
owned and used by God.
There are no figures in existence that I
know of, but it is quite evident that
scores and probably hundreds of people in this
part of the world were then converted.
And he laid deep foundations for churches, he
took a strong stand against quick professions of
faith.
And in particular he was outstanding in training
natives, the Moens in particular, for the work
of the gospel themselves.
After 18 years he came back to England
in 1834, published a book called Missionary Enterprises.
And then in 1838 he returned to Samoa
with the hope and prayer that he might
be able to carry the gospel further westwards
to the islands of the new Hebrides.
He then sailed from Samoa, leaving his wife
in Samoa, he sailed for the new Hebrides
in the winter of 1839.
And in the third week of November they
were off the coast of the new Hebrides.
He says in his last letter, I have
just heard from Captain Morgan that we are
60 miles off the new Hebrides.
So that we shall be there early tomorrow
morning.
This evening we are to have a special
prayer meeting.
Oh how much depends upon the efforts of
tomorrow.
Will the savages receive us or not?
The approaching week is to me the most
important of my life.
Well in fact John Williams was on the
very verge of his martyrdom.
He landed on the island of Eremanga with
a friend called Harris.
The natives at first seemed friendly, but after
they had gone a little way up the
beach they were suddenly set upon.
Both were killed before they could return to
the boat, the rowing boat that had brought
them from the vessel.
They were died and their bodies taken by
these cannibals of the island of Eremanga.
When the vessel returned to Samoa, John Williams'
wife met the party from the boat and
she said, Is all well?
And a friend answered in a quiet tone,
Yes, all is well.
And on the island of Samoa there is
a monument to the memory of John Williams
and it reads, Sacred to the memory of
the Reverend John Williams, father of the Samoan
and other missions.
Aged 43 years and 5 months, he was
killed by the cruel natives of Eremanga on
the 20th of November 1849 while endeavouring to
plant the gospel of peace on its shores.
The death of John Williams had a two
-fold effect.
One was that as news of it carried
to different parts of the world, there was
a great upsurge of prayer and of intercession.
And secondly, on the island of Samoa and
these other islands which John Williams had been
used to evangelize, there was an upsurge of
deep Christian compassion by the Christians on these
islands.
So that men and women volunteered themselves to
go to the new hebrides.
And in the next 15 years about 100
Samoan Christians went to these islands.
As far as I know their story has
not been recorded.
There are just fragments of it.
But it is known of these 100 native
Christians that over 50 died in these 50
years.
Some died from disease.
They were visiting islands that had infections that
were quite new to them and to which
they had no resistance.
Others were killed and murdered.
On the island of Lalita where there were
two missionaries landed, one married, they were killed
by the natives after 19 days and their
child was drowned.
On the island of Cochina, two men landed
and after one year they were still holding
their ground and apparently making some contacts and
friendships with the natives.
One of their wives, the wife of one
of them joined them and his daughter, but
within a short time after all four were
murdered.
On the little island of Nali the son
of one of the chiefs from Samoa had
settled.
He said when he went to this island,
my father has agreed to this.
He said to me when I left Rarotonga,
I and my fathers before me have done
much service for Satan.
Go my son, I give you up, go
and may you be a good warrior of
Jesus Christ.
This Christian man died of malaria, leaving his
wife alone.
One of the native chiefs said that her
life could be preserved if she would become
one of his wives.
She refused and in attempting to swim the
channel of water between this island and the
next, this Christian woman was drowned.
Well these men and women were spiritual giants
and the blood that they shed was certainly
the seed of the church in the New
Hebrides.
In 1848 the first missionary returned.
The first missionary after John Williams death and
his name was John Beddy.
A Presbyterian from Canada who came to the
New Hebrides with his wife.
If you look at an atlas, you will
see that the islands of the Southern Pacific
are like the stars of the Milky Way,
they are endless.
And of course many of them aren't even
marked in our atlases.
The New Hebrides is quite a considerable group
and in the southern part of that group
there are these three main islands.
To the north Aramanga, where Williams died.
In the middle the island of Pana with
a population of about 15,000.
And then the southern most island is the
island of the Onetim.
40 miles in circumference with a population then
of 4,000 people.
Beautiful islands, mountainous, well vegetated.
Average temperature throughout the year of about 76
degrees.
Inhabited by people who spoke different languages on
every island.
And people who were utterly without the light
of the gospel of Christ.
Indeed the only way to describe them is
to say as the missionaries often said that
the depths of Satan as depicted in the
first chapter of the epistle of Romans stood
open and unveiled on these islands.
The people were filled with enmity one to
another.
No man went around without being armed, hateful
and hating one another.
On these islands there were different tribes, they
were constantly in a state of warfare.
Human life was of no consequence.
They were all cannibals.
And some of the things which one reads
give some conception of the appalling need of
these poor people.
It was said that a human being was
valued at about the same price as a
large pig.
Abortion was commonly practiced.
Women were commonly strangled when their husbands died.
Nobody was buried unless he was a chief.
People were simply thrown into the sea.
They worshipped spirits.
Their deities, says one of the missionaries, their
deities were like themselves.
Selfish and malignant.
They breathed no spirit of benevolence.
And the rewards and punishment for the future
state were connected more with ritual observance than
with moral character.
Their religion contained no principle that could lead
to a holy life.
They certainly thought their gods were like themselves.
And that they approved of their sins.
It would have been morally impossible on an
item for any man to have conceived of
such a character morally and religiously as that
of the man Christ Jesus.
To have done so would have been a
miracle as great as that of his resurrection.
John Geddy then landed in 1748 and the
first text of scripture that he wrote in
his diary was the verse from Ezekiel Can
these dry bones live?
I should say in case I forget later
on that the diary of John Geddy was
published a year or two ago in Australia
called Missy Geddy, the native name of John
Geddy.
It's been edited by R.S. Miller and
it was published by the Presbyterian Church of
Tasmania in 1975.
It's a very moving account and it's the
first publication of this man's diary.
Well, he put with him to a meeting
some of these native Samoan Christians.
I think about 12 of them.
And before they spread out to different parts
of the island they held a communion service
together.
John Geddy preached in the Samoan language on
the text If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathema or
anatha.
And then these different Christians, natives from Samoa
went to their different stations on the island.
The whole season, says Geddy, the communion season
is one of the deepest interests to me
and I hope to others also.
Oh, when will the benighted natives of this
island unite with us in this ordinance of
love?
Well, the first thing was to establish some
kind of contact and friendship with these natives.
The chief was a man called Merot and
although he gave them permission to land he
promised them no encouragement whatsoever as far as
religion was concerned.
And so through 1848 and through 1849 there
were no tokens of real encouragement.
There were many objections.
I should have said perhaps that those first
missionaries that went to Tahiti they had laboured
under the great mistake of assuming that the
natives in this part of the world would
be poor innocent creatures almost waiting for the
gospel.
And of course they found no such thing.
They found strong resistance and demonic power and
that is what Geddy found on a Newton.
They were full of objections.
If these things were true, said somebody how
is it that we never heard of them
before?
One of the first encouragements was in the
year 1850 when a man called Warwick came
to John Geddy and asked that his hair
might be cut.
Now that may not mean a great deal
to us but if I had taken the
time to describe the appearance of these people
you would understand.
The men were entirely naked, utterly repulsive, painted.
They wore their hair at great length and
spent inordinate time in twisting it and curling
it.
It was part of their, I suppose you
would say their whole outlook.
And without John Geddy saying anything about hair
this man Warwick who had listened to Geddy
speaking had come under conviction and had reached
the point where he wanted to sever himself.
He said, come these dark customs.
Missy he said, you have told us that
all who join the family of Jesus must
give up their dark customs.
Now I know it is a dark custom
to wear my hair as it is will
you cut it off?
Well Geddy was reluctant to do so and
spoke to him at more length but at
length this man did make a stand and
it was a beginning.
A little after that difficulties increased.
One difficulty was that one of the Samoan
Christians who had come died.
And one of the men on the island
who was showing interest his wife had an
accident, she fell out of a tree and
she was killed.
The natives used these two deaths as proof
that this new religion was bad.
This chief, Mayot, met John Geddy on the
road one day and this is what he
said.
He said to me, the new religion is
a lie.
He was much excited and out of temper.
I told him that the new religion was
true and every other system of religion false.
He asked me then, if it was true
how had when were the Samoan Christian died
and this woman died also?
I said that the religion did not save
people from death but taught them to be
happy after death.
He charged me and the Samoan teachers with
being the cause of sickness and death among
them and said that they had none of
these things until we came on their island.
I asked him where their forefathers were.
At any event he said none died until
their heads were covered with grey hair.
They announced this Mayot in 1850.
A little after this there was the conversion
of a man to pale.
Before I tell you of that can I
just add a note on this man Mayot
whose hair was cut off.
This same year the son of Mayot, a
young infant died.
And Mayot came to Geddy much distressed about
the death of his son.
He wished to know if I could tell
him anything out of the Bible that would
comfort him in his distress.
I told him many things as Geddy which
I thought suited to his case and among
others I mentioned the experience of David.
When he lost a beloved child he said
I shall go to him but he shall
not return to me.
This passage arrested his attention and he requested
me to repeat it until he could say
it himself.
The idea of a happy meeting with his
dear child in heaven seemed to moderate his
grief.
A little later Geddy says I called at
his house and I found him sitting quite
composed amongst his heathen friends and telling them
of the consolations which the gospel affords.
If anyone ventured to say anything to shake
his faith he would repeat the words I
shall go to him but he shall not
return to me.
And this was a sufficient answer to them.
That passage says Geddy, that passage shed a
new light on the prospects which Christianity holds
out beyond the grave which had never occurred
to them before.
Well the congression of Capello he was related
to the chief and had been one of
the most hostile of the people in the
vicinity.
Indeed he was so hostile that on one
occasion he hid himself in the garden of
Geddy's house at night intending to club Geddy
to death when he came out.
Though Geddy did come out he walked past
the very bush where this man was hidden
with his club.
The cannibals raised his club to hit Geddy
and he said afterwards that he felt a
strange sensation which hindered him from moving.
Capello watched Geddy and his wife.
He said afterwards that he believed that they
were liars and that he along with others
had stolen our property and molested us in
various ways.
But he said later, he watched our conduct
and when he found that our lives agreed
with our teaching he began to think that
our religion was true.
And John Geddy adds to that Missionaries above
all should be living epistles of Christ.
A godly life often wins sinners when other
arguments fail to impress them.
This was in 1851.
Later on in 1851 as Geddy and his
wife and I didn't mention that they had
two infant daughters as they were sleeping one
night the house was set on fire by
the natives.
They managed to escape.
The house was almost a ruin and the
chief Mallot was called.
Well I told you how opposed he was.
On one occasion Mallot was about to go
to war with some other parties on another
part of the island and Geddy had told
him not to do it.
And Mallot had pointed to his heart he
said I know that my heart is bad
and he said I know that if I
die I will burn in a great fire
but I don't care and he went to
his battle.
Well when the house was fired Mallot was
called.
And this old cannibal chief who was nearly
60 years of age he was deeply touched
to see the misery of the missionaries and
the near escape of these little children.
And for the next two months Mallot himself
slept with the missionaries every night and that
was the beginning of his conversion.
A man who had spent his life in
utter wretchedness in his old age came to
embrace and then to have drawn the gospel
of Christ.
And in the month of May 1852 the
first church was formed in the New Hebrides
made up of 14 natives.
By the end of the year the number
had grown to 24.
John Geddy said that so great was the
change in the community not simply amongst those
who had come under the power of the
gospel but others who had come under the
influence of the truth he said that the
locks that they had previously used they were
able to disuse on their home by the
end of 1852.
I wonder if I can put my hand
on this notice of a communion service that
took place at the end of that year.
I think I've lost it and I won't
search for it.
But it's to the effect that when they
these natives, 24 of them by the end
of 1852 sat down at the Lord's table
those who had fought each other and hated
each other Geddy said what a marvellous thing
it was to see them sitting together at
the Lord's table.
12 years later the numbers of members of
the church had grown to about 176 and
a strong church was established on this island
of Anetum.
Now I want to leave John Geddy and
move about 40 miles north to this second
island of Tanner.
Now the name of John G.
Payton I think is better known than John
Geddy.
John G.
Payton was 34 years of age when he
went to Tanner with his wife in 1858.
They used the island of Anetum as a
springboard and following the usual practice they took
with them Christians from Anetum to the island
of Tanner.
Now in the case of Tanner there was
an invitation from the natives to come.
One of the canoes from Tanner had been
blown a long way off its course a
few years earlier and had landed on Anetum.
In terror of their lives these Tannid natives
had thought they would be attacked by the
Anetumese.
Instead they were met with hospitality they were
welcomed, they were given food and when they
asked the meaning of what was happening they
were taken around the island and they were
told that the gospel of Christ had made
so many of them new creatures.
Well these Tannibals from Tanner had seen nothing
like it and they said it must be
a good religion which can make people so
happy.
And they had asked that someone would come
to Tanner and so Paton came in 1858
landing on the 5th of November with I
think three other European missionaries who went to
the other side of the island and these
Anetumese Christians.
Now I wanted to bring in Paton on
Tanner because here we have a very striking
contrast.
He labored preaching, praying, befriending the natives doing
the same thing as John Geddy did but
after four to five years he was forced
to flee the island barely escaping with his
life.
It's a contrast then to Anetum and I
think it helps to give us the total
picture.
As soon as John G.
Paton landed he said my first impressions drove
me I must confess to the verge of
utter dismay on beholding these natives in their
pain and nakedness and misery my own heart
was as full of horror as as full
of horror as a pity.
Was it possible to teach them right and
wrong, to Christianize them or even to civilize
them?
Well he said that was a passing temptation
but the first few days on Tanner were
indeed very difficult.
The second night they were there they wanted
some water to boil some tea they sent
a boy to fetch the water he came
back and said there was no water to
be had because there had been a cannibal
feast a few hours earlier the water was
completely polluted with the blood of the victims
the people who had been slain and eaten
and this was the first few days on
Tanner.
John G.
Paton says that talking to Dr. Ingalls who
was with him Dr. Ingalls said the walls
of Jerusalem were built in troubled times and
why not the mission house on Tanner?
Well Paton continued to labor as best he
could sometimes natives simply observed them at family
worship sometimes they came in and listened sometimes
people came at night and knocked on the
door and Paton would bring them in and
when they came in they would look round
and make sure the shutters were tight and
then they could make sure nobody could look
in then they would speak to Paton a
little about spiritual things one man said I
would become a Christian he said but my
friends would laugh at me and Paton was
struck how universal are the temptations of the
human heart well in 1859 Paton suffered his
hardest blow his wife bore a little son
Peter Robert and not long after her confinement
and the birth of the child she took
fever and she died and a week after
her death the little boy also died the
last words of Mrs. Paton as she died
were these not lost she said not lost
only gone before to be forever with the
Lord John G.
Paton says our short united life had been
cloudless and happy I felt her loss beyond
all conception or description in that dark land
it was very difficult to be resigned left
alone and in sorrowful circumstances but feeling immovably
assured that my God and Father was too
wise and loving to err in anything that
he does or commits and if you've read
the life of Paton you'll remember I'm sure
that very moving passage where he describes how
he dug the grave for his wife and
little son and I built it round he
said with coral blocks and covered the top
with beautiful white coral broken small as gravel
and that spot became my sacred and much
frequented shrine during the following months and years
when I laboured for the salvation of these
savage islanders and he says when so ever
Tanner turns to the Lord and is one
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 and he
adds but for Jesus and the fellowship he
granted me there I must have gone mad
and died beside that lonely grave but Paton's
difficulties increased the chiefs were altogether implacably hostile
one of them said to Paton one day
and this was a man who had been
across to Australia and who had visited Sydney
he spoke English he said to Paton Missy
our fathers loved and worshipped whom you call
the devil the evil spirit and we are
determined to do the same for we love
the conduct of our fathers and then speaking
of what had happened in previous years he
said we murdered the Anitomies teachers and burned
down their houses and after these acts Tanner
was good and we live like our fathers
now our people are determined to kill you
and if you do not leave this island
for you are changing our customs and destroying
our worship and we hate the worship of
Jehovah well later that week Paton was followed
by one of these men with a gun
and describes how narrowly he escaped from death
the first martyrdom was of a man called
Namuri a Christian from Anitom he came over
with Paton and he settled in a village
little way from Paton tried to speak and
help with the people and one day he
came to Paton and Paton could see from
injuries on his head that he had been
badly wounded he had been cut by a
killing stone small sharp stone that they could
cling with great accuracy and this had struck
him and severely wounded him Paton nursed this
man for a week or more and then
the man begged to go back to his
village and this is what he said to
Paton this he said when I see them
thirsting for my blood I just see myself
when the missionary first came to my island
I desire to murder him as they now
desire to kill me had he stayed away
from such danger I would have remained a
heathen but he came and continued coming to
teach us till by the grace of God
I was changed to what I am now
now the same God that changed me that
changed me to this this can change them
to love and serve him I cannot stay
away from them and he nearly went back
to his village within a matter of days
he was murdered before he died he said
to Paton or rather he was praying that
Paton was trying to nurse him Paton said
his pain and suffering were great but he
bore them quietly and as he died he
kept saying for the sake of Jesus he
was constantly praying for his persecutors Lord Jesus
forgive them for they know not what they
do take not away thy servants from Cana
take not away thy worship from this dark
island O God bring all the Canese to
love and follow Jesus and so Namuri died
and Paton says to him Jesus was all
in all there were no bands in his
death he passed hummus in the assured hope
of entering into the glory of his Lord
humble though he may appear in the world's
esteem I knew that a great man had
fallen there in the service of Christ and
that he would take rank in the glorious
army of the martyrs there shortly after this
the persecution increased so greatly that Paton sent
back all the Anitomese teachers to their own
island I call them teachers that's really what
they were called they were all sent back
but one old man refused to go again
I urge you to look at the passages
in Paton's life the old man's name was
Abraham and he stood by Paton to thicken
things one day Paton was overcome with illness
he tried to climb a hill on the
island to get into the cooler air stream
he collapsed half way up and it was
Abraham who found him lifted him took him
to the top of the hill and Abraham
literally lived with Paton they had family prayer
together every day that noble old soul Abraham
stood by me says Paton as an angel
of God he went at my side wherever
I had to go he helped me willingly
to the last inch of strength it was
perfectly manifest that he was doing all this
not for mere human love but for the
sake of Jesus that man had been a
cannibal in his heathen days but by the
grace of God there he stood verily a
new creature in Christ Jesus any trust however
sacred or valuable could be absolutely reposed in
him then Paton adds when I have read
the shallow objections of irreligious scribblers and talkers
hinting that there is no reality in conversion
and that mission effort is a waste oh
how my heart has yearned to bring them
for one week to Cana with the natural
man all around in the person of cannibal
and heathen and then the one spiritual man
in the person of the converted Abraham nursing
them feeding them saving them for the love
of Jesus well Paton continued with Abraham on
Cana until 1862 then matters came to a
final crisis Paton's own house was burned to
ashes one night he spent a night up
a tree then at last he is compelled
to flee across the island to another missionary's
home Abraham at his side when they arrive
there they find that these other missionaries are
in similar difficulties within a few nights the
church beside the mission house was set on
fire the wind and blowing the flames down
upon the house in which they were shut
John G.
Paton went outside spoke to the natives that
were surrounding them warned them that the great
God Jehovah would punish them for their sins
if they did not resist their persecution and
as he was face to face with these
cannibals he spoke of how a sudden tornado
of wind and rain blew in from the
sea blowing in the opposite direction to the
flames and within minutes the flames were put
out and these poor cannibals cried it is
Jehovah's reign well the next day a ship
unexpectedly appeared and Paton and those who still
survived were taken off the island well these
things end by way of narrative just a
few words of comment and application as we
close I need not underline to you in
the first place what a glorious example we
have here of the power of the gospel
of Christ as we were thinking last evening
of the invincible power of the grace of
God this is the certain record which illuminates
such text of scripture here were men and
women truly transformed and yet you see the
sovereignty of that grace hundreds converted on a
meeting just a little handful on ten the
same message the same faith different results it
reminds us my friends that we are called
not in the first instance to be successful
but we are called to be faithful faith
can do great things subdue kingdoms quench the
violence of fire stop the moths of lions
but also Hebrews 11 tells us faith can
suffer great things others were tortured not accepting
deliverance that they might receive a better resurrection
let us remember that God calls us to
be faithful and then in these missionaries I
haven't had time to go into their church
connections they were mostly Presbyterians they were almost
all Presbyterians they were to a man and
to a woman Calvinists they were those who
preached the whole counsel of God there was
no superficial evangelicalism in the New Hebrides they
preached the law of God they preached the
attributes of God they preached that God punishes
sin but above all else as these records
show they preached the glorious privileges and happiness
which comes to those who embrace the gospel
the grace of God in all its fullness
they set forth there is a great deal
in their records which I have not time
to read to you which show how they
went about their evangelism how careful they were
against anything superficial R.S. Miller writing or
rather this is Graham Miller writing he says
no method of public call to decision was
used public appeals were hardly in use in
the Presbyterian churches anywhere in the world at
that time he says that the purpose of
their care in preparing those who showed interest
and they took about a year in preparing
them before they allowed any to come to
communion the purpose of this long period of
preparation was an object lesson to the heathen
that Christianity was no easy road Jesus words
were spelled out month after month he says
strive to enter in at the straight gate
I say if you read these records you'll
see true examples of Puritan biblical evangelism and
then I think we should notice what a
consciousness of God these missionaries had and how
they needed it Jesus said fear not them
that kill the body and after that have
no more that they can do but I
will forewarn you whom ye shall fear and
they did fear God and it was because
they feared God that they were able to
stand in the midst of such appalling hostility
and cruelty and savagery and the fear of
God kept them from the fear of men
it seems to me that that also is
something of great importance and then something could
be said on the spirit of joyfulness that
these Christians possessed not simply the white missionaries
but these men like Abraham and Ymir there
was a Samoan hymn that was very popular
with them all and it began our home
is in heaven our home is not here
and it was so often the deaths of
these men and women too that were used
by God to open the eyes of the
savages to make them realize that there was
an eternity and that men could enter it
with hope and joy and then just a
word on the books that they printed in
these half cannibal islands one of the first
things they did was to produce literature and
of the first books need I tell you
the shorter catechisms John G.
Paton says how he taught it constantly and
then of Puritan books the first of course
John Bunyan's Children's Progress printed on a metum
in a somewhat abbreviated form but they brought
these things very soon in the early years
to the natives but they didn't make it
easy even there the Bible took some 15
years the New Testament in preparation the natives
paid for every page by saving up their
arrow root and the arrow root was saved
in Australia and from money that was raised
the Bible was produced and my very last
point is this I want to read you
again some words from John Brady here he
is on the island of Onetum February the
26th and he's just finished reading a biography
it's the biography of Edward Payson the New
England Congregational Minister he says what a valuable
piece of Christian biography it records the history
of one of the excellent ones of the
earth some people dislike to read the experience
of Christians but my feelings are the reverse
I always rise from such reading humbled and
resolved to aim at higher degrees of grace
what God has done for others he can
do for me how different have been my
labours in the Saviour's cause from those of
the excellent Payson what zeal what devotedness what
love for the souls of men did he
manifest what a great work might have been
done here by a Payson or a Machaine
I know it is God alone who can
save souls but his blessing is usually given
to the labours of faithful and devoted servants
my point is we need a high ambition
we need to read the records of God's
grace in his people so that we too
will feel humbled and so that we will
realise what we may be by God's grace
let us then from this record of the
work of the Holy Spirit take courage and
let us be faithful in serving God in
our day and generation shall we pray O
Lord our gracious God we give thanks to
thee for thine abundant grace given to thy
church in all generations we know that thou
alone dost keep thy people we thank thee
that thou dost build thy church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it
we pray thee O Lord that we may
be faithful to thee that thou wouldst give
to each one of us gathered here this
afternoon that spirit which thou didst give to
our fathers that we may love thee that
we may serve thee that we may be
obedient to thy holy word and Lord grant
that in this day the gospel may go
forth again to every land and nation that
those that sit in darkness may see a
great light hear our cry and receive our
thanks for Jesus' sake Amen