Even if the horror of French Annexation were to overtake us, it might be rationally contended that our Mission, instead of being implicated with the existence of a rival Trading Company, would receive more favorable consideration, if we had a Steam Auxiliary Ship devoted entirely to spiritual services, ministering to, say, twenty-four Mission Families, with their Lay Assistants and all belongings and dependents.
But, after all, such reasonings do not even touch the very heart of the matter; and men who never go deeper than these cannot understand our aims, and are in no position to criticise them, however loudly they may abuse or oppose us. It is the spiritual and eternal welfare of our poor Islanders that is at stake, in the question of Dayspring or no Dayspring; at least that is my immovable conviction, and, apart from that, no argument on the other side has or can have much consideration at my hands. With a Mission Ship of our own, for the New Hebrides, as for every other Mission in these Pacific seas, we can visit our Stations, as the interests of God’s work may require; we can visit and cheer the Native Teachers at their lonely outposts amongst Heathen Villages; we can deliberately visit and open up Pioneer Stations, where Heathenism still reigns, and plant there our young Missionaries and their Helpers; we can dissociate our Ship and her crew from the drunkenness, profligacy, and profanity of the ordinary crews of Trading Vessels; we can prevent the sale of Fire-Arms and Intoxicants, in barter with the Natives; and, in a single word, we can make the Mission Ship, in all her ways and surroundings, an adjunct to the work of the Missionary, and a herald of the Kingdom of God among the Islanders, alike on God’s Day of Rest, and on every day of the week—and all this in a manner and to a degree, that is not within human possibility if we be deprived of our own Dayspring, and thrown back upon ordinary Trading Ships. This, and this alone, goes to the bottom of the whole controversy.
Consequently, the men who opposed us never seriously denied what we here affirm, or attempted to answer our arguments. On the contrary, they practically gave away the whole case by perilling everything on the question of expense. All we urged might be unassailably true, but the cost was prohibitory! The money could not be raised, or, if it could, it would be positively sinful to spend so much on such a Mission! My blood often tingled to my finger tips, to hear this urged by self-indulgent and purse-proud men, who spent every year, on the pleasures of this perishing life, more than all that was required for the Dayspring and the four and twenty Mission Families, and the hundred thousand New Hebrideans, to whom she was to minister as the white-winged Servant of the Gospel of Jesus. Nor was my mood much calmer when this same thing was urged by Ministers and Office-Bearers of the Church, at Home and in the Colonies, who carry on their labors amidst the inspiring surroundings and associations of their happier lot; who criticise Missions and their management from the safe and cozy retreat of their libraries and armchairs; who by post and telegraph are in touch with those most dear to them every day, yea, every hour; and many of whom never denied themselves one of the necessities of life, nor one of their own perhaps foolish luxuries, for the sake of the Lord Jesus and His cause,—never allowed themselves to suffer, even to the extent of one poor pennyworth, even for the length of one passing day, for the love they bore to God or to their fellows. I fear that I am an impatient reasoner, when creatures of this type cross my path. Alas, they too much abound, to the shame of the Church, and for the scorn of the World!
Coming back, therefore, to Britain, with these ten years of delay to be accounted for, I did in all my Addresses frankly avow, that, in my judgment the main obstacle, if not the only one, was the lack of this extra £1,000 per annum for Maintenance. Friends on every side started up, and thrust upon me the proposal, that those who had subscribed the money to build the ship were quite willing to subscribe yearly to assist in maintaining her. I took the whole matter to my Lord in special prayer. It was borne in upon me to let the proposal be fully known, and I felt myself bound to conclude that if, in a spontaneous way, the sum of £1,000 were provided, with any hope of permanent interest, to renew it from year to year, that would be to me at least the demonstration of the Gideon’s Fleece, that God, who had through His people presented the Ship to our Mission, was opening up a way for her yearly Maintenance.
A Circular Letter on the Dayspring Maintenance Fund was accordingly drawn up, and issued to all correspondents and supporters by my British Committee. Certificates for Three-Penny Shares in the Dayspring, to be renewed annually, were widely circulated in Sabbath Schools. And, without further organization or appeal, the answer to our prayers was almost instantaneously forthcoming. My Honorary Treasurer had the needed £1,000 already paid, and sufficient promises for the immediate future. We were empowered to promise this for Maintenance, if the Dayspring were duly placed on the scene. If not, the money was to be returned to the donors, or by them allocated to other departments of the Mission enterprise. If, in all this, we had not the guidance of God, I know not how to trace His hand!
Other Providential signs were not awanting. I called one day, at Liverpool, on a generous Christian gentleman, to thank him personally for a sum of £50 sent to the Mission. The thought or purpose of seeking more money from him had never once entered my brain! He questioned me carefully about the needs of the Mission, the accommodation of the proposed Ship, and all our plans. Then he closed our interview thus: “I am convinced that you cannot buy or build a sufficient Mission Vessel for £6,000, and I wish you to add this in order to secure a larger and a better Ship.” He handed me his check for £1,000! In tears of joy, I thanked God and His dear servant, but hinted something about preferring it rather for the first year’s Maintenance Fund, but he repeated that this was to secure a larger and better Ship, adding: “Receive this as from God, and the other will come also.”
Again, my dear friend Lord Overtoun, who had presided over two Meetings that were addressed by me, entered one morning into a Railway Car by which I was travelling, and sat down beside me. At the close of a happy and very friendly conversation, he added: “Lady Overtoun and I gave you £200 toward the building of the Mission Ship; and now, after talking the matter over, we have resolved to give you £100 per annum for five years to help to pay for her Maintenance.”
My soul overflowed with praise to God, and with thanks to those whose hearts were thus in His keeping. To me, and to all my fellow Helpers, it seemed to be plainly the will of the Lord. We reverently believed that this was God’s doing, and no mere plan of ours. He had given the Dayspring in a present to the New Hebrides; and now He had provided for her Maintenance. We were convinced at that time, and, despite all that has happened since, we are still convinced, that the Divine voice was infallibly saying, Go forward!
I returned to Victoria in the autumn of 1894. To the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Melbourne I gave my first public account of my Tour Round the World as their Missionary and Representative. At the close of my address, I handed to the Moderator a check for £12,527, 4s. 2d., as the fruit of the Collections and Donations at my Public Meetings—the offerings of the people of God from all these lands, to be used for completing the evangelization of the New Hebrides. To this I added a deposit of £1,000,—part of the profits of my book, but for the time locked up in our Australian Banks. As this money all came to me through those Congregations and Assemblies which I addressed as Missionary Representative of the Church in Victoria, I regarded it as belonging to my Church and as placed entirely under their control. I had no right to exercise any further authority over it, save only thus far, that it could not honorably be spent in any other way than on the New Hebrides Mission. The donors had again and again protested that they wanted to hear me on that Mission and on nothing else—that they had many other opportunities of giving to the other great Missions in India, China, and Africa, and that what they gave through me was for the New Hebrides. I handed over the money; I delivered their message; and there, so far, my responsibility ceased.
But that sum, vast as it may seem, represented only half the generosity of the Churches of Britain and America during these three fruitful years. Side by side with Public Collections and the like, another stream of liberality had been constantly flowing. The readers of my Autobiography responded liberally to the appeal of my British Committee, and poured donations into their hands or mine, almost entirely by post, till, from readers of my book alone, The John G. Paton Mission Fund, gave me on leaving a check for £12,000. These donations were placed entirely at my personal disposal, under one condition only—that I must use them for the extension of Mission work on the New Hebrides. For the management of this sum, I obtained the sanction of the General Assembly to the preparation of a legal Deed. It is held by the Finance Committee of the Victorian Church, under those conditions,—that I only can operate on it for the extension of the work of God on the New Hebrides, while I live; and that after my decease they can use it, but only for these same purposes; thus fulfilling, as faithfully as may be, the wishes of those Christian souls who sent this money to me from all corners of the world.