Who Was John G. Paton? Missionary to the New Hebrides
John Gibson Paton was a Scottish Presbyterian missionary who lived from 1824 to 1907. He grew up in a stocking-maker's cottage in Dumfriesshire, worked for ten years as a city missionary in the slums of Glasgow, and in 1858 sailed for the New Hebrides, the islands in the South Pacific now called Vanuatu. On Tanna he buried his young wife and baby son within months of landing, lived for years among warring tribes who often tried to kill him, and finally had to flee. Later, on the small island of Aniwa, he saw nearly the whole population turn to Christ. His autobiography, edited by his brother James, became one of the most loved missionary books ever written.
Here's a fuller look at his life and which of his books to read first.
A praying father
Paton was born on May 24, 1824, at Braehead in the parish of Kirkmahoe, near Dumfries in southwest Scotland. While he was still small the family moved to Torthorwald, a nearby village, where his father made stockings on hand frames in one end of their three-room cottage. The family belonged to the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the small Scottish church descended from the Covenanters.
The room between the kitchen and the workshop was called the "closet," and it shaped Paton's whole life. His father went there after meals to pray, and the children learned to tiptoe past the door. Paton wrote decades later:
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
If every other argument for the faith were lost, he said, he would remember that room and answer all doubt with one question: "He walked with God, why may not I?"
Glasgow
Paton left school young to work, and he paid his own way through years of on-and-off study. He went to Glasgow, studied at the university, the Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall and in medical classes, and joined the Glasgow City Mission. For ten years he worked in a poor district of the city, visiting homes, holding meetings and running classes.
When his church asked for a missionary to join its work in the New Hebrides, no one offered. Paton did. Friends tried to talk him out of it, and one older man warned him he'd be eaten by cannibals. Paton's answer has become famous:
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
Tanna
He was ordained in March 1858, married Mary Ann Robson in April, and sailed with her that year. They landed on Tanna in November 1858. In February 1859 their son Peter was born. Within weeks Mary died of fever, and the baby soon followed. Paton dug their grave with his own hands and built it round with coral:
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
He stayed more than three years. The islanders blamed the missionaries for sickness, drought and storms, and he was threatened again and again with muskets, clubs and spears. A few came to faith, among them a man from another island Paton called "Noble Old Abraham," whose faithfulness moved him deeply. In 1862, with his house plundered and the tribes set on killing him, he escaped from Tanna with little more than his Bible. One night during those last days he hid in a tree in the bush while men searched for him:
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.
John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, Vol. 1, Farewell Scenes
The Dayspring and Aniwa
Paton went to Australia and spoke in church after church about the New Hebrides. Children gave their pennies, and the mission bought a ship, the Dayspring, to carry missionaries and supplies among the islands. He went home to Scotland, was elected Moderator of his church's synod, recruited new missionaries, and in 1864 married Margaret Whitecross. In 1866 they settled on Aniwa, a small coral island near Tanna.
On Aniwa the islanders believed rain came only from above. Paton set out to dig a well, and they thought he'd gone mad. He admitted his own fear:
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
At about thirty feet down, fresh water came up. The old chief Namakei preached to his people about the God who sends "rain from below," and the islanders began bringing their idols to be destroyed. Over the following years the Patons printed the first books in the Aniwan language, built a church, held the first communion and saw the whole island profess faith in Christ. Six of their children were born there, and their son Frank later became a missionary in the New Hebrides himself.
Round the world for Jesus
The Patons later made their home in Melbourne, and John spent most of his remaining years traveling for the mission. He spoke across Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, raised money for more missionaries and a new mission ship, and campaigned to stop traders from selling guns and liquor to the islanders. His autobiography appeared in two parts in 1889, and a third part in 1898; a version for young readers came out in 1892. Margaret died in 1905, and John died in Melbourne on January 28, 1907, at eighty-two.
Why he's still read
Paton's story has everything: danger, grief, courage and answered prayer. But what readers remember most is his simple trust in Jesus, and his conviction that the gospel changes the hardest hearts. He ends the second part of his life story with a sentence that sums up why he went:
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
Where to start
TheWay Library has all three volumes of his autobiography and the young readers' edition, free to read. Start with Volume 1, which tells of his home, his Glasgow years and his time on Tanna. Then read Volume 2, with the Dayspring and the well on Aniwa, and Volume 3, on his later travels. For children or a quicker read, try The Story of John G. Paton.
Our guide to John G. Paton's books explains each one, and our collection of John G. Paton quotes gathers his best lines. For more stories like his, see our list of the best missionary biographies. You'll find all his books on the John Gibson Paton author page.