The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 28

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A Useful Life Ended.

The death of the Rev. Dr. Paton at Canterbury,
Australia, on January 29, ended a most useful life
on earth. Dr. Paton was the pioncer missionary
of the New Hebrides islands in the Pacific Ocean.
When he went there in 1858, the inhabitants were
“heathen savages and cannibals, eating the flesh
of human beings.” God so blessed the faithful
labors of this devoted missionary, that he lived to
see a number of these islands almost completely
Christianized: In one of his latest statements he

ing the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference’ to
me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.”
Trusting in the protecting care of God, Paton
entered upon his labors on the island of Tanna.
There he “found the Tannese to be painted savages,
enveloped in all the superstition and wickedness of
heathenism.” As bloodthirsty savages they warred
among themselves, as you see in our picture, in
order to get human flesh, which they as cannibals
delighted to eat. Among these wild heathen the
missionary’s life was in constant danger. ‘Time ~
after time he stood with their guns pointed at his

SAVAGE ISLANDERS AT WAR.

was able to report that nearly 20,000 converts had
been won from heathenism.

In early youth already Paton determined upon
a life service “in the proclaiming of the Gospel.”
As a young man he was employed in city mission
work in Glasgow, Scotland, for about ten years.
When a call was made for some one to go out and
do mission work in the New Hebrides islands, Paton
offered himself for that distant mission field. When
an old Christian gentleman said to him, “You will
be eaten by the cannibals,” Paton, in the true mis-
sionary spirit, replied: “Mr. Dickson, you are ad-
vanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon
to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms.
I confess to you that if I can but live and die sery-

head, each one waiting for the other to fire the first
shot. Time and again he was assailed with clubs.
They also set his house on fire, intending to kill
him as he should come out. But in all dangers and
trials the Lord in whom he trusted protected His
servant.

The Lord sustained him also in the great sor-
row that darkened his lonely home soon after he
had begun his mission work. Of this sorrow he
wrote: “My dear young wife and I were landed
on Tanna on the 5th of November, 1858, in excel-
lent health and full of hopes. On the 12th of
February, 1859, she was confined of a son; for
two days or so both mother and child seemed to
prosper, and our island exile thrilled with joy!