Part 28 (1/2)
CHAPTER Lx.x.xVI.
MY CAMPAIGN IN IRELAND.
MY steps were next directed towards Ireland, immediately after the Church meetings at Edinburgh; first to 'Derry, where the Presbyterian a.s.sembly was met in annual conclave, and thereafter to Belfast, where the Pan-Presbyterian Council was shortly to sit. The eloquent fervor of the Brethren at 'Derry was like a refres.h.i.+ng breeze to my spirit; I never met Ministers anywhere, in all my travels, who seemed more wholehearted in their devotion to the work which the Lord had given them to do.
I addressed the a.s.sembly at 'Derry and also the Council at Belfast. The memory of seeing all those great and learned and famous men--for many of the leaders were eminently such--so deeply interested in the work of G.o.d, and particularly in the Evangelizing of the Heathen World and bringing thereto the knowledge of Jesus, was to me, so long exiled from all such influences, one of the great inspirations of my life. I listened with humble thankfulness, and blessed the Lord who had brought me to sit at their feet.
On the rising of the Council, I entered upon a tour of six weeks among the Presbyterian Congregations and Sabbath Schools of Ireland. It had often been said to me, after my addresses in the a.s.semblies and elsewhere, ”How do you ever expect to raise 6000? It can never be accomplished, unless you call upon the rich individually, and get their larger subscriptions. Our ordinary Church people have more than enough to do with themselves. Trade is dull,” etc.
I explained to them, and also announced publicly, that in all similar efforts I had never called on or solicited any one privately, and that I would not do so now. I would make my appeal, but leave everything else to be settled betwixt the individual conscience and the Saviour--I gladly receiving whatsoever was given or sent, acknowledging it by letter, and duly forwarding it to my own Church in Victoria. Again and again did generous souls offer to go with me, introduce me, and give me opportunity of soliciting subscriptions; but I steadily refused--going, indeed, wherever an occasion was afforded me of telling my story and setting forth the claims of the Missions, but asking no one personally for anything, having fixed my soul in the conviction that one part of the work was laid upon me, but that the other lay betwixt the Master and His servants exclusively.
”On what then do you really rely, looking at it from a business point of view?” they would somewhat appealingly ask me.
I answered, ”I will tell my story; I will set forth the claims of the Lord Jesus on the people; I will expect the surplus collection, or a retiring collection, on Sabbath; I will ask the whole collection, less expenses, at week-night meetings; I will issue Collecting Cards for Sabbath Scholars; I will make known my Home-Address, to which everything may be forwarded, either from Congregations or from private donors; and I will go on, to my utmost strength, in the faith that the Lord will send me the 6000 required. If He does not so send it, then I shall expect He will send me grace to be reconciled to the disappointment, and I shall go back to my work without the s.h.i.+p.”
This, in substance, I had to repeat hundreds of times; and as often had I to witness the half-pitying or incredulous smile with which it was received, or to hear the blunt and emphatic retort, ”You'll never succeed! Money cannot be got in that unbusiness-like way.”
I generally added nothing further to such conversation; but a Voice, deep, sweet, and clear, kept sounding through my soul--”The silver and the gold are Mine.”
During the year 1884, as is well known, Ireland was the scene of many commotions and of great distress. Yet at the end of my little tour amongst the Presbyterian people of the North princ.i.p.ally, though not exclusively, a sum of more than 600 had been contributed to our Mission Fund. And there was not, so far as my knowledge went, one single large subscription; there were, of course, many bits of gold from those well-to-do, but the ordinary collection was made up of the s.h.i.+llings and pence of the ma.s.ses of the people. Nor had I ever in all my travels a warmer response, nor ever mingled with any Ministers more earnestly devoted to their Congregations or more generally and deservedly beloved.
CHAPTER Lx.x.xVII.
SCOTLAND'S FREE-WILL OFFERINGS.
RETURNING to Scotland, I settled down at my headquarters, the house of my brother James in Glasgow; and thence began to open up the main line of my operations, as the Lord day by day guided me. Having the aid of no Committee, I cast myself on Minister after Minister and Church after Church, calling here, writing there, and arranging for three meetings every Sabbath, and one, if possible, every week-day, and drawing-room meetings, wherever practicable, in the afternoons. My correspondence grew to oppressive proportions, and kept me toiling at it every spare moment from early morn till bedtime. Indeed, I never could have overtaken it, had not my brother devoted many days and hours of precious time, answering letters regarding arrangements issuing the ”Share”
receipts for all moneys the moment they arrived, managing all my transactions through the bank, and generally tackling and reducing the heap of communications, and preventing me falling into hopeless arrears.
I printed, and circulated by post and otherwise, ten thousand copies of a booklet, ”Statement and Appeal,”--containing, besides my Victorian Commission and my Glasgow address, a condensed epitome of the results of the New Hebrides Mission and of the reasons for asking a new Steam Auxiliary s.h.i.+p. To this chiefly is due the fact, as well as to my refusing to call for subscriptions, that the far greater portion of all the money came to me by letter. On one day, though no doubt a little exceptional, as many as seventy communications reached me by post; and every one of these contained something for our fund-ranging from ”a few stamps,” and ”the widow's mite,” through every variety of figure up to the wealthy man's fifty or hundred pounds. I was particularly struck with the number of times that I received 1, with such a note as, ”From a servant-girl that loves the Lord Jesus;” or ”From a servant-girl that prays for the conversion of the Heathen.” Again and again I received sums of five and ten s.h.i.+llings, with notes such as--”From a working-man who loves his Bible;” or ”From a working-man who prays for G.o.d's blessing on you and work like yours every day in Family Wors.h.i.+p.” I sometimes regret that the graphic, varied, and intensely interesting notes and letters were not preserved; for by the close of my tour they would have formed a wonderful volume of leaves from the human heart.
I also addressed every Religious Convention to which I was invited, or to which I could secure access. The Perth Conference was made memorable to me by my receiving the first large subscription for our s.h.i.+p, and by my making the acquaintance of a beautiful type of Christian merchant. At the close of the meeting, at which I had the privilege of speaking, an American gentleman introduced himself to me. We at once entered into each other's confidence, as brothers in the Lord's service. I afterwards learned that he had made a competency for himself and his family, though only in the prime of life; and he still carried on a large and flouris.h.i.+ng business--but why? to devote _the whole profits_, year after year, to the direct service of G.o.d and His cause among men? He gave me a cheque for the largest single contribution with which the Lord had yet cheered me. G.o.d, who knows me, sees that I have never coveted money for myself or my family; but I did envy that Christian merchant the joy that he had in having money, and having the heart to use it as a steward of the Lord Jesus!
Thereafter I was invited to the annual Christian Conference at Dundee. A most peculiar experience befell me there. Being asked to close the forenoon meeting with prayer and the benediction, I offered prayer, and then began, ”May the love of G.o.d the Father--” but not another word would come in English; everything was blank except the words in Aniwan, for I had long begun to _think_ in the Native tongue, and after a dead pause, and a painful silence, I had to wind up with a simple ”Amen!” I sat down wet with perspiration. It might have been wiser, as the Chairman afterwards suggested, to have given them the blessing in Aniwan, but I feared to set them alaughing by so strange a manifestation of the ”tongues.” Worst of all, it had been announced that I was to address them in the afternoon; but who would come to hear a Missionary that stuck in the benediction? The event had its semi-comical aspect, but it sent me to my knees during the interval in a very fever of prayerful anxiety. A vast audience a.s.sembled, and if the Lord ever manifestly used me in interesting His people in Missions, it was certainly then and there. As I sat down, a devoted Free Church Elder from Glasgow handed me his card, with ”I. O. U. 100.” This was my first donation of a hundred pounds, and my heart was greatly cheered. I praised the Lord, and warmly thanked His servant. A Something kept sounding these words in my ears, ”My thoughts are not as your thoughts;”
and also, ”Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee.”
During my address at that meeting three colored girls, not unlike our Island girls, sat near the platform, and eagerly listened to me. At the close, the youngest, apparently about twelve years of age, rose, salaamed to me in Indian fas.h.i.+on, took four silver bangles from her arm, and presented them to me, saying, ”Padre, I want to take shares in your Mission s.h.i.+p by these bangles, for I have no money, and may the Lord ever bless you!”
I replied, ”Thank you, my dear child; I will not take your bangles, but Jesus will accept your offering, and bless and reward you all the same.”
As she still held them up to me, saying, ”Padre, do receive them from me, and may G.o.d ever bless you!” a lady, who had been seated beside her, came up to me, and said, ”Please, do take them, or the dear girl will break her heart. She has offered them up to Jesus for your Mission s.h.i.+p.”
I afterwards learned that the girls were orphans, whose parents died in the famine; that the lady and her sister, daughters of a Missionary, had adopted them to be trained as Zenana Missionaries, and that they intended to return with them, and live and die to aid them in that blessed work amongst the daughters of India. Oh, what a reward and joy might many a lady who reads this page easily reap for herself in Time and Eternity by a similar simple yet far-reaching service! Take action when and where G.o.d points the way; wait for no one's guidance.
The most amazing variety characterize the gifts and the givers. One donor sent me an anonymous note to this effect, ”I have been curtailing my expenses. The first 5 saved I enclose that you may invest it for me in the Bank of Jesus. I am sure He gives the best interest, and the most certain returns.”
In Glasgow a lady called at my brother's house, saying, ”Is the Missionary at home? Can I see him alone? If not, I will call again.”
Being asked into my room, she declined to be seated, but said, ”I heard you tell the story of your Mission in the City Hall, and I have been praying for you ever since. I have called to give you my mite, but not my name. G.o.d bless you. We shall meet in Heaven!” She handed me an envelope, and was off almost before I could thank her. It was 49 in bank-notes.
Another dear Christian friend carne to see me, and at the close of a delightful conversation, said: ”I have been thinking much about you since I heard you in the Clark Hall, Paisley. I have come to give a little bit of dirty paper for your s.h.i.+p. G.o.d sent it to me, and I return it to G.o.d through you with great pleasure.” I thanked her warmly, thinking it a pound, or five at the most; on opening it, after she was gone, it turned out to be 100. I felt bowed down in humble thankfulness, and pressed forward in the service of the Lord.