Transcription
John Gibson Patton was a missionary to the New Hebrides, today called Vanuatu, located in the South Pacific Ocean. It is made up of 12 larger islands and 70 smaller islands.
John Patton was the eldest among the 11 children born to James and Janet Betten. He was born on 24th May 1824 in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. John and his siblings were among the many privileged children who were born to godly parents. Until the age of 12, John attended the village school, and his early years were marked by struggle against poverty.
Even as a young man, he felt that Jesus was calling him to the missionary work. In his spare time, he studied these books, especially Greek and Latin, which were necessary for anyone planning to enter the ministry. Looking back at church history, it is not difficult to find many instances where the godly upbringing of children had tremendous effects on them, which shaped their priorities and directed the course of their lives. John Patton's family was one such.
He had a great privilege of having parents, both of whom fear the Lord. When John was born, his parents, James and Janet, spent time in prayer, thanking God for their son and solemnly giving him back to God. They prayed that the day would come when John would serve the Lord in the mission field. They had a three-roomed house with an attached roof, and it was in the middle room that his father would spend the time reading the word of God and praying. Everyone in the family knew that when the door was closed, they were to be quiet.
There was a time when a parent's crops had failed and the prices of food spiked very high. John's father had gone away to sell the stockings in order to buy the expensive food, while the mother was left alone to care for the children. There was no food that night, and the youngest ones were crying for food. John's mother gathered the children before going to bed and prayed that God would give them food for the table. The next morning, God miraculously supplied food for them. His mother told the children, "All my children, love your heavenly Father, tell him in faith and prayer all your needs, and he will supply your wants, so far as shall be for your good and his glory."
When the time came that John was accepted as a missionary to the cannibals and his own decision to go, his parents were overjoyed. The faith and prayers of John's parents had a great impact on his life. As John was working in his father's business, he saved all the money he could so that he could continue his studies. Soon, he had worked with the government department that was surveying Scotland. After some time, the department offered him some special training and promotion. If he accepted the offer, he would be obliged to work in the position for seven years. John refused the offer, saying, "My life is given to another master, so I cannot bind myself to this work for seven years." John was dismissed from the work after this refusal.
He applied for work in a place called Glasgow with the West Campbell Street Reform Presbyterian Church. He was to face many new challenges there. Though the challenges facing New Hebrides were huge, Glasgow was not an easy place either. There were times when all his money was almost gone, and he would soon be in need, but the Lord was mindful of his needs and providentially led him so that his needs were supplied. He was being taught of the Lord to trust in him.
The city was filled with drunkards, and John would forcefully tell them to overcome the power that alcohol had over them by looking to God in true repentance. But as more drunkards were converted and stopped drinking, the hotels were going down in business, and so the hotel owners decided to act and disturb John's open-air evangelistic meetings. John also had to deal with nominal Christians in the area. Many wrote hateful letters to him; others threw stones and boiling water over him as he walked along the streets. He also had to face criticisms from respected elders on his decision to go to the New Hebrides. An old man told him, "The cannibals! You'll be eaten by cannibals." John responded to him, saying, "I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms, and in a great day my resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of a risen Redeemer."
John was in Glasgow for 10 years as a city missionary and so many converts during this period of time. He also continued his studies and also spent time studying medicine, knowing that one day he would be able to use all of his God-given skills serving the Lord Jesus Christ on the mission field.
John and his friend Joseph Copeland offered themselves as missionaries to the New Hebrides. They passed their examinations and both were ordained as ministers of the Gospel. To date, March 1858, John had married a godly woman named Mary Ann Robson. She also had a desire to serve the Lord on the mission field and was overjoyed that she and her husband would soon be on one of the islands of the New Hebrides.
So, John, Mary, and Joseph sailed for Australia on 16th April 1858. They gradually saw the shoreline of Scotland disappear, and on 30th August 1858, they stepped onto the soil of the New Hebrides for the first time. They were not the only missionaries on the New Hebrides. John Geddie and John Inglis were already laboring in some islands, and they saw amazing fruit of their labors. Around 3,500 services threw away their idols, renouncing their hidden customs and dedicating themselves to be worshippers of the true Jehovah God. It is said that when Geddie died in 1872, all the population of Aneityum was said to be Christian. These fruits were also a great source of encouragement for John Patton to go as a missionary himself to the New Hebrides.
The reality of the challenges and the painful trials were soon to come into the lives of these missionaries. The first sight of the cannibals horrified John. The men were naked with brightly painted faces. They carried an axe or a spear or a club wherever they went and were ready to fight at a moment's notice. The women only wore grass skirts with necklaces and earrings made from shells. John even wondered if he should have stayed in Scotland and served the Lord in Glasgow. However, he knew that his poor natives urgently needed the gospel of salvation. Tanna was the island in which John wanted to establish a settled work, and so he went ahead with other missionaries for necessary preparations, leaving his wife Mary behind.
Mary joined John on Tanna on 5th November 1858. She was with a baby in her womb. After she reached Tanna, she wrote to her parents, saying, "I have never seen such a lovely spot." Dear son Peter was born on 12th February 1859, three months after Mary came to Tanna. But sadly, Mary fell ill and after suffering for two weeks, died on 3rd March 1859, just four months after she reached Tanna. Before she died, she confessed to Joseph Conner, "You must not think that I regret coming here. If I had the same thing to do over again, I would do it. I do not regret leaving home and friends."
So, John dug his wife's grave and led her to rest. Two weeks later, their son Peter also died. John led his little body to rest beside that of his mother. John wrote the following words of this heart-rending experience in his diary: "Then, in a moment altogether unexpectedly, she died on March 3rd. To crown my sorrows and complete my loneliness, the dear baby boy whom we had named after our father, Peter Robert Robson, was taken from me after one week's sickness on the 20th of March. Let those who have ever passed through any similar darkness as of midnight feel for me, as for all others, it would be more than vain to try to paint my sorrows."
John also writes in his diary that his reason seemed to fall apart, but that the Lord sustained him. He said, "My God and my Father is too wise and loving to make any mistakes in what he does." He often came to the grave and there prayed that God will bless his work and bring the warring natives of Tanna to faith in Christ.
These were not the only difficulties that John had to face in Tanna. The natives wanted nothing to do with John's God and the sinner's Savior Jesus Christ. John and his God were always blamed for anything wrong that happened. An old chief named Noah left Tanna for his home, but he fell ill and died. The chief's brother returned to Tanna and accused John of being responsible. The chief's brother also fell ill, and the natives blamed John's God for that sickness. Also, many meetings were often held where they decided to kill John. John also had to face the painful experience of losing his missionary friends, and also natives were converted. Some of the missionaries were killed by the natives, while others died of disease. One of John's Christian friends named Namori was attacked by the tribals twice. In the first attack, John could treat him, but in a second attack, he died. Also, there are countless other challenges that John always faced in the missionary station. Such were the harsh realities for John as a missionary.
The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 through 5, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too." The challenges and sufferings in the life of John Patton were manifold, but even so were the comforts with which he was confronted with. The warmth of God's love and his continuing assurance of his love and protection enabled him to joyfully endure the great trials and commit the work into his Father's loving hands.
One night, as John and another missionary, Mr. Mathewson, were sleeping, they were woken up by his dog, Gluta. The natives had come to kill them and had already set the fence on fire. Soon there came a roaring sound of tornado. The flames were blown away from the buildings, and the heavens opened, and the rain began to fall. The natives were quiet. They called out, "This is Jehovah's reign! Truly their God is fighting for them and helping them. Let us all get away from this place."
There was another night when John was being chased by hundreds of angry natives hunting for his life. The chiefs advised him to climb a tree and to hide, and though he was perplexed, he felt it best to obey. So, John climbed up and hid himself in the tree, at the mercy of unreliable chiefs. He wrote of this experience in his diary in the following words: "The hours I spent there live all before me as if it were but yesterday. I heard the frequent discharging of muskets and the yells of the savages, yet I sat there among the branches as safe in the arms of Jesus. Never in all my sorrows did my Lord draw nearer to me and speak more soothingly in my soul than when the moonlight flickered among those chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus alone, yet not alone."
One of the promises that was very dear to John Patton was a promise in Hebrews 13:5: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." There came a point where it was too dangerous to stay in Tanna for his own life and the life of others with him. He wanted to stay in Aneityum and continue translating the Bible to the native language, but friends urged him to go to Australia. During this period, he raised support for local missionaries and islands. He also went to Scotland and had many preaching tours, encouraged many, and raised support for the work in New York cities. He was also invited to preach by the great preacher Charles Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Charles Spurgeon introduced him to the congregation as "King of the Cannibals."
During his time in Scotland, he met Miss Margaret Withercross, a fine Christian lady who, with her family, had great interest in mission work. John and Margaret were married in Edinburgh in 1864. John and Margaret returned to the New Hebrides on an island called Aniwa. One of the most joyful days was when, on 24th October 1869, about 180 attended a worship where the Lord's Supper was dispensed to 12 islanders. John was overjoyed to see people who once had been murderers and cannibals sitting at the Lord's table and taking communion. It made all the missionaries' hard work worthwhile.
John and Margaret continued to labor for the Lord in Aniwa. John learned the language and reduced it to writing. Margaret taught a class of about 50 women and girls who became experts at sewing, singing, and plaiting heads and reading. They trained the teachers, translated and printed and expounded the scriptures, ministered to the sick and dying, dispensed medicines every day, taught them the use of tools, held worship services every Lord's Day, and sent native teachers to all the villages to preach the gospel. After 15 years of service in Aniwa, there came a time for John and Margaret to leave the island and become roving ambassadors for the mission. John traveled in Great Britain to encourage support for the work in New Hebrides. He also continued the translation of the scriptures for the people of Aniwa and made several visits. He and Margaret settled down in Melbourne, Australia.
Looking back over his life, he wrote, "Oh, that I had my life to begin again! I would consecrate it anew to Jesus in seeking the conversion of the remaining cannibals in the New Hebrides, but since that cannot be, may He help me every moment to carry on that beloved work." Margaret died in 1905, and John passed away in 1907. He was 83 years old when he died.