THE LIFE OF JOHN G. PATON

(Continued)

On the next Sunday Namakei asked permission to preach, and gave them a sermon on the well, ending: ‘The Jehovah God has sent us rain from the earth. Why should He not also send us His Son from Heaven? Namakei stands up for Jehovah.’ That very afternoon he and several others brought their idols to Paton and during the days that followed the missionaries ‘stood still and saw the salvation of the Lord’. Idols were burned, or buried, or sunk in the depths of the sea. Thus in time every inhabitant of Aniwa became an avowed worshipper of Jehovah, only two remaining unbaptized — both of whom manifested clearly that they had new hearts, shyness and infirmity alone holding them back. A change so sudden and so complete may lead some to question whether this was a real work of the Holy Spirit, and not a merely external turning from idolatry to nominal Christianity. However, the evidence is quite plain; the entire life of Aniwa was influenced by the new faith. They unitedly resolved to ask God’s blessing on every meal and, by some sort of common consent, family prayer began to be offered morning and evening, not to gods of stone but to the Heavenly Father. The Lord’s Day was immediately recognized and observed and soon the chiefs met to improve discipline and law on the island. We have already seen some evidence of a true work of God in the lives of the converted murderers; more will appear as we trace the progress of the Gospel on the island.

Paton was careful to train the Aniwans to do things for themselves, including the construction of their church. They decided what was needed, divided the responsibility, and set to work. Soon the building was completed. That same year a hurricane razed it to the ground, but immediately they commenced rebuilding. Shortly, the work was halted through the lack of a large tree, none big enough remaining on the island. At this point a chief whom Paton had only just persuaded to take his share of the work supplied the need, giving the central roof-tree from his own house.

It was in 1869, nearly three years after settling on the island, that Paton held his first Aniwan communion. It was preceded by the baptism of the twelve Aniwans who were to partake of the Lord’s Supper with the missionaries and the six Aneityumese teachers. These twelve had been approved for baptism out of the original twenty who had been allowed to attend the communicants’ classes; they were headed by the old chief Namakei. Paton’s heart was full to overflowing as the islanders, in unusual silence, watched the service. ‘At the moment when I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer’s love, I had a foretaste of the joy of Glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus Himself.’ In the afternoon an open-air prayer-meeting was held, in which seven of the new church members led the people in prayer.

Instruction went on throughout the island, by the roadside, under a tree, or anywhere else where the people would listen. Reading, naturally occupied first place, with sewing, dressmaking, and singing also receiving attention. Each village later built its own school which served as church on Sundays, and to these schools Paton sent his Aneityumese teachers or the best of the Aniwan teachers trained in his own school. Thus the Gospel produced a new society, based on Scriptural principles, applied, as closely as the chiefs could manage, to their own circumstances. Paton translated, printed, and above all, expounded the Scriptures — and the work progressed.

Later on a Sabbath would be spent as follows: services would begin soon after dawn, the worshippers being summoned by the church bell; in each service an elder or one of the members would lead in prayer. Immediately after the second service comes Paton’s communicants’ class, based on the Shorter Catechism, proved from Scripture and applied to conscience and life. At the same time an informal prayer-meeting is being held by the church-members — their own idea. After Sunday School come the village tours, with Paton and an experienced elder each taking half the island. As the day closes the people in every village assemble for evening prayers, together with hymns. Paton comments: ‘When I returned to so called civilization and saw how the Lord’s Day is abused in white Christendom, my soul longed after the holy Sabbaths of Aniwa.’

The converts rejoiced in the newly-discovered love of God, their lives shining by contrast with their former state. Many showed amazing zeal to spread the Gospel and so it penetrated to every part of Aniwa and to many of the neighboring islands. Some of them wanted to preach the Gospel to an inland tribe and sent a message that they would come and do so on the following Sunday. The reply was: ‘If you come, you will be killed.’ They went, unarmed. Spears began to be thrown at them, which they dodged or struck aside, not even throwing them back. The inland people stopped their attack out of sheer surprise and listened in awe to the believers’s message. Chief and tribe later confessed Christ for themselves. Such sacrificial efforts for the salvation of others argue well for the reality of Paton’s achievements. Another evidence that the Holy Spirit made the change is the way in which the converted Aniwans died. Naswai, an island chief, who was both teacher in his own village school and an elder in the church, died during Paton’s absence. Before his death he pleaded with his own people, many of whom had long resisted the Gospel, to love and serve Christ, assuring them with his last breath that he had been a new creature since he gave his heart to Christ and that he was perfectly happy in going to be with his Saviour.

After 1881 Paton visited the island only rarely, but the Aniwan elders carried on the work faithfully, for here was a truly indigenous church, notwithstanding their love and reverence for their Missi. Visiting them in 1886, he was awakened early on the Sunday by the sound of singing. He jumped up and inquired what was happening, receiving the reply: ‘Missi, since you left we have found it very hard to live near to God, so the Chief and the teachers and a few others met when daylight comes on every Sabbath morning and spend the first hour of every Lord’s Day in prayer and praise. They are met to pray for you now, that God may help you in your preaching, and that all hearts may bear fruit to the glory of Jesus this day.’ The same elders had conducted communicants’ classes and presented to Paton many candidates for church membership. Paton Was moved to compare the faithfulness of these Aniwan elders with that of those in lands long supposed to be Christian. If we do the same, we shall surely be humbled. Here was a true church, in which elders and people all played their part, a church ruled by the Holy Spirit. Paton could well be satisfied with the results of his labors, but his service was by no means finished yet.

(To Be Continued)

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