In the mid 1850s, a call went out to the ministers of the Scottish Reformed Presbyterian Church for a new missionary to be sent to a chain of islands off the coast of Australia. John Inglis pleaded for another to be sent to help him, claiming that on his island alone “3,500 savages [had thrown] away their idols, renouncing their heathen customs and avowing themselves to be worshippers of the true Jehovah God.” None was found to answer the call. Their hesitation was understandable. Just a few years before, John Williams and James Harris, the first two missionaries to the New Hebrides Islands, had been eaten by cannibals only minutes after coming ashore.
News of the missionary call came to a young inner city church planter in Glasgow by the name of John G. Paton…
Resources:
- Piper, John, “You Will Be Eaten By Cannibals! Lessons from the Life of John G. Paton“, Desiring God, 2000, accessed 12 May 2019.
- Paton, John G., John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides, Fleming H. Revel Company, 1907.