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Book Review: Missionary Patriarch
The True Story of John G. Paton
Autobiography
“At that moment when I put
the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the
blood of Cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake
the emblems and seals of the Redeemer’s love, I had a foretaste
of the joy of Glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces.
I shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified
face of Jesus Himself.” (John G. Patton, pg 376)
There was nothing easy about
it! Young John Patton knew that as he was dumped on the shores
of an island in the Pacific where
his predecessor had been murdered. Hostility and fever
attacked him upon his arrival and not even four months had
past before
he placed his wife and child in their early grave amongst
cannibals who desired his flesh for their food. Patton himself
was nigh
to death with fever as well but said, “ The ever merciful
Lord sustained me to lay the precious dust of my beloved
ones in the
same quiet grave, dug for them close by at the end of my
house….I built the grave round and round with coral blocks
and covered
the top with beautiful white coral… and that spot became
my sacred and much-frequented shrine in the months and years
when I labored
on for the salvation of these savage Islanders amidst difficulties,
dangers and deaths…But for Jesus and the fellowship He
vouchsafed me there, I must have gone mad and died beside
that lonely grave.”
John Patton was from a country
home in Scotland and reared and catechized by godly and devoted
parents. His early
life vividly
portrays providential guidance and preparation for his
great life’s work. As he became directed towards the
foreign fields,
he received much questioning and was often confronted
with the argument, “You are wasting your life to be eaten
by
cannibals.”
 To this he replied, “It makes
no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by
worms.” (John Patton pg.
56)
Years later, light flickered
on leveled muskets and the evilest of faces surrounding the
mission house
where
John Patton and
a fellow missionary stood. The light was a fire.
It had been lighted on their compound fence to burn the
house
and its residents.
Men swarmed around the place with clubs raised and
muskets leveled. All hope of earthly life was lost.
This wasn’t
the first time
John Patton had found himself in the midst of such
a scene. How often the very ones to whom he ministered,
sought his
life. As
the fire approached the house along the fence their
prayers
were fervently ascending. John Patton, with power
only given of God,
walked out of the house with a hatchet into the murderous
gloom and proceeded to cut down the fence, thereby
blocking the path
of the fire. Seven men surrounded him with clubs
held high. “Kill him; Kill him; – Kill him;” they screamed,
men grabbed
for him
and attempted to shoot and club him but nothing could
harm or touch him while he was protected by heaven.
At that
moment a
peal of thunder and roar of approaching tropical
rain
stilled the clubs and guns. Patton quickly drew into
the house
and moments later a drenching rain put out the fire
and caused the would-be
murderers to quickly retreat.
 John Patton’s autobiography is
a book full of dedication and a testimony of the way God
works with and through
His men. The
account above is merely a rendition of the dozens
if not hundreds of challenges and or life-threatening
obstacles that he met and
overcame one by one with only one purpose and only
one Help. This book describes the pitiful and gruesome
life
of the cannibals
of the New Hebrides in which Patton worked. He
tells of
his accounts and struggles against the utter debauchery
of the “civilized”
English and French traders and sailors who hindered
and hurt him continually. He shares the personal
and
hard
issues of missions
and relations of churches and boards. In contrast
the later chapters describe beautiful islands with
the
inhabitants serving and worshiping
The One True God with fervor and zeal, and burning
with a desire for others to know The True God.
This book depicts
the Amazing
Love of God that transformed cannibals into missionaries
and constrained John Patton and his fellow workers
to pour
out their
lives and in some cases even lose their lives for
the salvation of these peoples.
Behind the big picture and excitement
of the story are little amazing things to wonder at and inspire
us. For
example, throughout
the entire book there are native teachers that
work with the missionaries. These teachers are
from only
one island
and that
island was only converted to Christianity a few
years prior to John Patton’s work. But these
teachers
are
as devoted
as the
missionary himself in the work. They are encouraging
and often loyal protectors of the missionary
as well as vital
to the work.
What a challenge to see these new native Christians
bravely carrying on the work even under harsh
persecution and
for some, death.
Throughout the exciting and intriguing
pages we should be rededicated and lifted to a stronger
resolve in
God’s work while constantly
being inspired to greater courage in any and
all
situations, for God is there!
Reviewed by Caleb Leibee
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