James Zimmerhoff

John G. Paton

Preface EVER since the story of my brother's life first appeared (January 1889) it has been constantly pressed upon me that a YOUNG FOLKS' EDITION would be highly prized. The Autobiography has therefore been re-cast and illustrated, in the hope and prayer that the Lord will use it to inspire the Boys and Girls of Christendom with a wholehearted enthusiasm for the Conversion of the Heathen World to Jesus Christ. A few fresh incidents have been introduced; the whole contents have been rearranged to suit a new class of readers; and the service of a gifted Artist has been employed, to make the book every way attractive to the young. For full details as to the Missionary's work and life, the COMPLETE EDITION must still of course be referred to. JAMES PATON. Chapter I Our Cottage Home MY early days were all spent in the beautiful county of Dumfries, which Scotch folks call the Queen of the South. There, in a small cottage, on the farm of Braehead, in the parish of Kirkmahoe, I was born on the 24th May, 1824. My father, James Paton, was a stocking manufacturer in a small way; and he and his young wife, Janet Jardine Rogerson, lived on terms of warm personal friendship with the "gentleman farmer," so they gave me his son's name, John Gibson; and the curly-haired child of the cottage was soon able to toddle across to the mansion, and became a great pet of the lady there. On my visit to Scotland in 1884 I drove out to Braehead; but we found no cottage, nor trace of a cottage, and amused ourselves by supposing that we could discover by the rising of the grassy mound, the outline where the foundations once had been! While yet a mere child, five years or so of age, my parents took me to a new home in the ancient village of Torthorwald, about four and a quarter miles from Dumfries, on the road to Lockerbie. At that time, say 1830, Torthorwald was a busy and thriving village, and comparatively populous, with its cottars and crofters, large farmers and small farmers, weavers and shoemakers, doggers and coopers, blacksmiths and tailors. Fifty-five years later, when I visited the scenes of my youth, the village proper was extinct, except for five thatched cottages where the lingering patriarchs were permitted to die slowly away, -soon they too would be swept into the large farms, and their garden plots plowed over, like sixty or seventy others that had been blotted out! From the Bank Hill, close above our village, and accessible in a walk of fifteen minutes, a view opens to the eye which, despite several easily understood prejudices of mine that may discount any opinion that I offer, still appears to me well worth seeing amongst all the beauties of Scotland. At your feet lay a thriving village, every cottage sitting in its own plot of garden, and sending up its blue cloud of "peat reek," which never somehow seemed to pollute the blessed air; and after all has been said or sung, a beautifully situated village of healthy and happy homes for God's children is surely the finest feature in every landscape! Looking from the Bank Hill on a summer day, Dumfries with its spires shone so conspicuous that you could have believed it not more than two miles away; the splendid sweeping vale through which Nith rolls to Solway, lay all before the naked eye, beautiful with village spires, mansion houses, and white shining farms; the Galloway hills, gloomy and far-tumbling, bounded the forward view, while to the left rose Criffel, cloud-capped and majestic; then the white sands of Solway, with tides swifter than horsemen; and finally the eye rested joyfully upon the hills of Cumberland, and noticed with glee the blue curling smoke from its villages on the southern Solway shores.

Or Thirty Years Among South Sea Cannibals

The Story of John G. Paton

John G. Paton's thrilling autobiography relates a life spent as a missionary among the cannibal peoples of the South Sea Islands, and the education and development he helped bring to those remote isles. Born in Scotland to a religious family of rural Dumfriesshire, Paton was seemingly destined to live a life amid his traditional culture. However, as a studious young man Paton felt a calling from God and visited the city of Glasgow. He became versed in both theology and medicine and, in 1858 mere weeks after being ordained as a Presbyterian priest, Paton and his first wife Mary Ann Robson set sail for the South Sea Islands. Christened the New Hebribes, the isles which the missionary Paton settled upon are today part of the nation of Vanuatu. On arrival in early 1859, the primitive conditions of the natives - the fact they were generally naked, lived in simple huts, and would occasionally practice cannibalism - was a shock to Paton and his young wife.

Or Thirty Years as a Missionary Among South Sea Island Cannibal Tribes, An Autobiography (Hardcover)

The story of missionary John G. Paton has fascinated and inspired readers for generations. With its thrilling accounts of life among cannibals and its glorious portrayal of the mercy and faithfulness of God in the direst of circumstances, Paton's autobiography of missionary life and Biblical living is a shining example to the coming generations.'John Paton for Young Folks' is a young person's edition of this classic autobiography.

Missionary Life Among South Sea Cannibals

John Paton for Young Folks

In John G. Paton's thrilling autobiography he relates his life spent as a missionary among the cannibal peoples of the South Sea Islands, and the education and development he helped bring to those remote isles. Born in Scotland to a religious family of rural Dumfriesshire, Paton was seemingly destined to live a life amid his traditional culture. However, as a studious young man Paton felt a calling from God and visited the city of Glasgow. He became versed in both theology and medicine and, in 1858 mere weeks after being ordained as a Presbytarian priest, Paton and his first wife Mary Ann Robson set sail for the South Sea Islands. Christened the New Hebribes, the isles which the missionary Paton settled upon are today part of the nation of Vanuatu. On arrival in early 1859, the primitive conditions of the natives - the fact they were generally naked, lived in simple huts, and would occasionally practice cannibalism - was a shock to Paton and his young wife. Tragically, a tropical fever soon claimed the life of Paton's spouse and his newborn son, Peter. Undeterred by the misfortune of losing his companions, Paton began what became a decades-long quest in educating the native peoples. He promoted various cottage industries among them, such as printing and hat making. In his three decades in the New Hebrides, Paton took one hiatus in which he met and married his second wife Maggie, who boldly accompanied him back to the isles. After overcoming the islanders' initial suspicions, Paton became respected as a man of great practical knowledge. He went far beyond his calling as a missionary by teaching the natives the use of various tools, and how to read and write. He would - island by island - convert the natives to Christianity and in 1899 oversee the printing of the Aniwa New Testament. Maggie meanwhile taught the women and girls of the isles, many of whom learned how to sow, sing and read with her help.

The autobiography of John G. Paton contains everything necessary to make it a missionary classic. Born into a Christian family near Dumfries in 1824, Paton's early years were marked by a struggle against poverty. He was self-educated, and the training ground for his life's work was the slums of Glasgow where he laboured with success as a city missionary. With 'the wail of the perishing heathen in the South Seas' continually sounding in his ears, he prepared himself to serve overseas and was ordained as a missionary to the New Hebrides in 1858. This group of thirty mountainous islands, so named by Captain Cook, with its unhealthy climate, was then inhabited by savages and cannibals. The first attempt to introduce Christianity to them resulted in John Williams and James Harris being clubbed to death within a few minutes of landing in 1839. The difficulties that confronted Paton were accentuated by the sudden death of his wife and child within months of their arrival. Against the savagery and the superstition, despite the trials and the tragedies, Paton persevered and witnessed the triumph of the gospel in two of these South Sea islands. His life is almost without parallel in missionary annals and his account of it is moving and gripping.

James Paton

John G. Paton's accounts of evangelism among the South Sea Cannibals are extraordinary, but what sets this book apart is that it contains one of the finest testimonies of multi-generational love and devotion between a father and son found outside the Scriptures. In this autobiographical account, Paton describes how his father's love and training prepared him to endure bitter hardship, to persevere against unspeakably difficult circumstances, and to resist sin. Because of his father's faithful example, Paton was able to love and lead to Christ the very people who tried to eat his wife and child.

John G. Paton

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