John G. Paton Quotes on Prayer, Courage, Suffering and Missions
John Gibson Paton (1824–1907) left the slums of Glasgow for the cannibal islands of the New Hebrides in 1858. He lost his wife and son on Tanna, lived for years under threat of death, and later saw the island of Aniwa turn to Christ. He told the whole story in his autobiography, and it's full of lines that Christians have copied out ever since.
Many Paton quotes online come without a source, and some are paraphrases. Every quotation below is copied exactly from his books in TheWay Library, with the volume and chapter it comes from, so you can read each one in its setting. Words spoken by the islanders and others in his books aren't included here. The books keep Paton's old spelling and his capital letters on words like Heathen and Mission. For his life story, see who was John G. Paton. For a guide to his books, see John G. Paton books.
On a praying home
Paton traced everything back to his father's prayers in the little room of their cottage that the family called the closet.
Never, in temple or cathedral, on mountain or in glen, can I hope to feel that the Lord God is more near, more visibly walking and talking with men, than under that humble cottage roof of thatch and oaken wattles.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Earlier Days
My soul would wander back to those early scenes, and shut itself up once again in that Sanctuary Closet, and, hearing still the echoes of those cries to God, would hurl back all doubt with the victorious appeal, "He walked with God, why may not I?"
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Earlier Days
On the Sunday evenings when the children went through the Shorter Catechism with their parents:
It laid the solid rock-foundations of our religious life.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Earlier Days
On the call to go
When an older man warned him that he'd be eaten by cannibals, Paton gave the answer he's best known for.
I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Foreign Mission Claims
My heart bleeds for the Heathen, and I long to see a Teacher for every tribe and a Missionary for every island of the New Hebrides.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, Concerning Friends and Foes
On grief
His wife Mary and their baby son died within months of landing on Tanna. He buried them himself.
But for Jesus, and the fellowship He vouchsafed me there, I must have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Life and Death on Tanna
Whensoever Tanna turns to the Lord, and is won for Christ, men in after-days will find the memory of that spot still green, — where with ceaseless prayers and tears I claimed that land for God in which I had "buried my dead" with faith and hope.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Life and Death on Tanna
On danger and the presence of Jesus
For years on Tanna, men followed him with loaded muskets and raised clubs over his head. These lines tell how he lived through it.
Looking up in unceasing prayer to our dear Lord Jesus, I left all in His hands, and felt immortal till my work was done.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, More Mission Leaves from Tanna
It is the sober truth, and it comes back to me sweetly after twenty years, that I had my nearest and dearest glimpses of the face and smile of my blessed Lord in those dread moments when musket, club, or spear was being levelled at my life.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, More Mission Leaves from Tanna
I had gone to save, and not to destroy. It would be easier for me at any time to die than to kill one of them.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, More Mission Leaves from Tanna
This is strength; this is peace: — to feel, in entering on every day, that all its duties and trials have been committed to the Lord Jesus, — that, come what may, He will use us for His own glory and our real good!
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, More Mission Leaves from Tanna
One night near the end he hid in a chestnut tree while armed men searched the bush for him:
Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe in the arms of Jesus! Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among these chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone!
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Farewell Scenes
If thus thrown back upon your own soul, alone, all, all alone, in the midnight, in the bush, in the very embrace of death itself, have you a Friend that will not fail you then?
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Farewell Scenes
In the darkest moment, I never doubted that ultimately the victory there, as elsewhere, would be on the side of Jesus, believing that the whole Earth would yet be filled with the glory of the Lord.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Farewell Scenes
God knows that I did not refuse to die; for I stood at the post of duty, amid difficulty and danger, till all hope had fled, till everything I had was lost, and till God, in answer to prayer, sent a means of escape.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Farewell Scenes
On the gospel changing hearts
Paton saw men who had been cannibals become gentle, faithful followers of Christ, and he had no patience with people at home who doubted that conversion was real.
All the scepticism of Europe would hide its head in foolish shame; and all its doubts would dissolve under one glance of the new light that Jesus, and Jesus alone, pours from the converted Cannibal's eye.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Mission Leaves from Tanna
Nothing known to men under Heaven could have produced their new character and disposition, except only the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, More Mission Leaves from Tanna
After the prayer of Abraham, the island teacher who stood by him on Tanna:
In this manner his great simple soul poured itself out to God, and my heart melted within me as it had never done under any prayer poured from the lips of cultured Christian men!
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Deepening Shadows
And on the death of Kowia, a chief who had come to Christ:
Thus died a man who had been a cannibal Chief, but by the grace of God and the love of Jesus changed, transfigured into a character of light and beauty.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Deepening Shadows
On Aniwa
I claimed Aniwa for Jesus, and by the Grace of God Aniwa now worships at the Saviour's feet.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, Settlement on Aniwa
They were but children, and full of superstition; and we had to win them by kindly patience, never losing faith in them and hope for them, any more than the Lord did with us!
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, Settlement on Aniwa
The islanders laughed when he began to dig for water, because they believed rain only came from the sky.
But I must here record the story of the Sinking of the Well, which broke the back of Heathenism on Aniwa.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, Face to Face with Heathenism
My soul had a faith that God would open a spring for us; but side by side with this faith was a strange terror that the water would be salt.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, Face to Face with Heathenism
On missions and giving
Paton spent his later years raising money and missionaries for the islands, and he spoke plainly to the churches at home.
For it is a fixed point in the faith of every Missionary, that the more any Church or Congregation interests itself in the Heathen, the more will it be blessed and prospered at Home.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, To Scotland and Back
To one who realizes that he is a fellow-labourer with Jesus, every yoke that He lays on becomes easy and every burden light.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, The Floating of the "Dayspring."
Of a man who gave up tobacco and sent the money to missions instead:
I wonder which soul is the richer at the end of a year — he who lays his money, saved from a selfish indulgence, at the feet of Jesus, or he who blows it away in filthy smoke?
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, The Light That Shineth More and More
His advice to missions, from the way the New Hebrides were won one island and one language at a time:
Kindle not your lights so far apart, amid the millions and the wastes of Heathendom, that every lamp may be extinguished without any of the others knowing, and so leave the blackness of their Night blacker than ever.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 3, The Home-Lands and the Islands
Dayspring, or no Dayspring, these souls must be won for Jesus!
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 3, The Home-Lands and the Islands
On trusting God to the end
When the mission ship Dayspring was lost, Paton wrote:
Whatever trials have befallen me in my Earthly Pilgrimage, I have never had the trial of doubting that perhaps, after all, Jesus had made some mistake. No! my blessed Lord Jesus makes no mistakes!
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 3, The Home-Lands and the Islands
He became famous, and crowds came to hear him around the world. He said it only humbled him:
Fame and influence laid me lower and lower yet, at the feet of Jesus, to whose grace alone everything was due.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 3, The Home-Lands and the Islands
And at the close of the second part of his story, he summed up his life and spoke to his reader:
God gave His best, His Son, to me; and I give back my best, my All, to Him.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, Last Visit to Britain
By His grace, I will live out that Chapter, I will pass through that Scene, in the faith and in the hope of Jesus, who has sustained me from childhood till now.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 2, Last Visit to Britain
Read Paton for yourself
These lines are even better in their place in the story. Start with Volume 1 of his autobiography, then go on to Volume 2 and Volume 3. For young readers, try The Story of John G. Paton. For more lives like his, see our list of the best missionary biographies. All four books are on the John Gibson Paton author page.