At North Santo, we see Mr. Noble Mackenzie and his wife with hope and faith unfurling the Banner of the Cross; and Dr. and Mrs. Sandilands at Port Philip, Big Bay, on the same great Island, by healing and by teaching, pioneering for Jesus. Mr. Bowie and his wife, from the Free Church of Scotland, are taking possession of South Santo in the name of Christ; and if the Mission Synod agrees to plant his brother, Dr. Bowie, along with his wife, sent out this year by my British Committee, on East Santo, as seems desired—this, the largest and most northerly island of the Group, with its many languages and its unknown thousands of inhabitants, will at last be ringed round with fire,—the fire of love to Jesus and to the souls of the Heathen.
Another great Island, with several languages, has in recent years been surrounded by the soldiers of the Cross, and claimed for Christ—Mr. Watt Leggatt and his devoted wife at Aulua, Mr. Frederick J. Paton at Pangkumu, and Mr. Boyd at South West Bay—uniting their threefold forces to bring vast and populous Malekula to the feet of Jesus. Already most hopeful beginnings have been made. Christian Churches, with a few Converts, have been planted at these three Stations—the nucleus, we trust, of living branches on Earth of the Living Body of our Living Lord in the Heavenly World.
Tanna, also, has been afresh assaulted, in the name of God. Mr. Gillies and his wife are on their way to assist and to succeed Mr. Watt at Kwamera and Port Resolution; Mr. Thomson Macmillan has entered upon the field at Wiasisi, from which Mr. Gray had to retire; and Mr. Frank H. L. Paton and his devoted wife, along with their Lay Assistant, Mr. Hume, have opened a Pioneering Mission at Lenukel, on the Western coast, entirely supported by the funds of my British Committee. And our hopes beat high that Tanna, often described as the hardest Mission field in the Heathen World, is on the eve of surrendering to the Gospel of Jesus, which the fierce Tannese have so long and so savagely resisted.
To join the noble band of younger Missionaries, Dr. Agnew has also gone to the New Hebrides, an experienced and gifted and most attractive Missionary at Home, and destined, we believe, to be a fruitful worker for Jesus in the Foreign field. The preliminary expenses connected with several of these, such as Medical and other outfit, passage money to Australia, and the like, have been gladly borne by my British Committee, thereby relieving the Churches of all initial outlays, and encouraging them to undertake their permanent support. We press forward still, never thinking we can lawfully rest till every Tribe on the New Hebrides shall have heard, each in their own language, in their Mother Tongue, the old and ever new and deathless story of Redeeming Love.
These, however, are but beginnings. Our older Stations showed, in 1895, a record of work done and sufferings borne for Jesus that might well make all Christians thrill with praise. Take a few examples only.
During the year, Mr. Michelsen of Tongoa, one of the most successful Missionaries in the field, baptized and admitted to the Lord’s Table 200 Converts; while 200 more under his tuition and that of Mrs. Michelsen were being prepared for the same holy privileges. God has given them in all nearly 2,000 Converts from amongst these Cannibals, who are being built up into the faith and service of Jesus Christ. Alas, since the Queensland Government, in defiance of the solemn Protest of the Chiefs, opened this Island to the Labor-recruiting Ships, hundreds of their best and most hopeful Native Helpers have been seduced as Kanakas to the Sugar Plantations—and the Missionary and the Islanders alike regard them as virtually dead; so very few will ever return! Mr. Michelsen has thirty Native Teachers or Evangelists, with 1,850 pupils attending the Mission Schools. During the same year, the Converts collected from amongst themselves £25, and handed it over for the promotion of the Gospel of Christ; so that the labors of this devoted servant of God, for sixteen years, are being crowned with many tokens of blessing.
It is believed amongst us that few Missions in the World show more interesting fruits of Evangelistic enterprise than Nguna and its Islets, under the fostering pastorate of Mr. Milne and his most devoted and gifted wife. There are 750 Communicants on the Church’s Roll, 1,700 regularly attending the Worship of God, and at least 2,000 in all who have turned from Heathenism and adopted the habits of Christian Civilization. There are thirty Native Teachers, for whose support the Native Church raised £155, 8s. 11d. in 1895, besides giving Arrowroot for Mission purposes valued at £120. They had thirty-seven Christian Marriages during the year, and 100 Candidates for Membership in the Communicants’ Class. Nay, most marvellous of all, the Church of Nguna has thirty-eight of its married couples who have gone forth as Native Teachers and Mission Helpers to other Islands—a Missionary Church called out of Heathenism, thus joyfully and instinctively sending forth from its own bosom Missionaries into the Heathenism beyond. Surely I am warranted in saying, to the praise of Jesus and of His servants, that this is a glorious record for five and twenty years!
On Epi, Mr. Fraser, having labored fourteen years, had 137 Members on his Communion Roll, and 128 Candidates in his Communicants’ Class; 27 Native Teachers, with 1,000 at the Day Schools, and 1,250 at the Sabbath Schools; and his people collected amongst themselves £34 for Mission purposes. Since then, and every day, the tide of prosperity is rising on the side of Christianity, and all these figures are steadily increasing. Mr. Smail is on the other side of the same Island, and has, as the result of six years’ devotion to his work, 36 Communicants in his Church, 13 Candidates for Membership, 14 Native Teachers, and 500 daily attending their Schools. They gave £7 for the work of the Mission.
Erromanga, where five Missionaries were murdered, and two of them devoured by the Cannibals, is now a Christian Island. There are 300 Communicants, 12 Elders, 40 Native Teachers, and 1,750 attending the Schools—practically the whole population. Mr. Robertson and his devoted wife have been honored of God, in completing this grand work, during the last four and twenty years.
And so on all round the Group, Island after Island being brought by patient, devoted, and rational expenditure of time, and affection, and all Gospel influences, to the knowledge of the Christian life, and thereby to Civilization. There are still four or five great Centres of Heathenism untouched. When God sends us Missionaries for these, it will then only be a question of time coupled with pains and prayer, till all the New Hebrides in all their Babel tongues, shall be heard singing the praises of Redeeming Love. May my blessed Saviour spare me to see the full Dawn, if not the perfect Noon, of that happy Day!