The Story Of John G Paton

'Few books are more inspiring to the Christian reader than a compelling missionary biography. This book is no exception. Paul Schlehlein has given us a heart-moving, soul-stirring survey of the life and labours of the famed missionary to the flesh-eating cannibals of the South Sea Islands, John G. Paton. Paton's zeal for reaching this remote people group with the good news of the gospel will both encourage and motivate you in your own Christian walk. These pages will challenge your commitment to Jesus Christ and intensify your zeal to live for the glory of God. You simply must read this book and, by God's grace, learn the lessons Paton's extraordinary life sets forth.' STEVEN J. LAWSON

John G. Paton's accounts of evangelism among the South Sea Cannibals are extraordinary, but what sets this book apart is that it contains one of the finest testimonies of multi-generational love and devotion between a father and son found outside the Scriptures. In this autobiographical account, Paton describes how his father's love and training prepared him to endure bitter hardship, to persevere against unspeakably difficult circumstances, and to resist sin. Because of his father's faithful example, Paton was able to love and lead to Christ the very people who tried to eat his wife and child.

Religious change is at its core a material as much as a spiritual process. Beliefs related to intangible spirits, ghosts, or gods were enacted through material relationships between people, places, and objects. The archaeology of mission sites from Tanna and Erromango islands, southern Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides), offer an informative case study for understanding the material dimensions of religious change. One of the primary ways that cultural difference was thrown into relief in the Presbyterian New Hebrides missions was in the realm of objects. Christian Protestant missionaries believed that religious conversion had to be accompanied by changes in the material conditions of everyday life. Results of field archaeology and museum research on Tanna and Erromango, southern Vanuatu, show that the process of material transformation was not unidirectional. Just as Melanesian people changed religious beliefs and integrated some imported objects into everyday life, missionaries integrated local elements into their daily lives. Attempts to produce ‘civilised Christian natives’, or to change some elements of native life relating purely to ‘religion’ but not others, resulted instead in a proliferation of ‘hybrid’ forms. This is visible in the continuity of a variety of traditional practices subsumed under the umbrella term ‘kastom’ through to the present alongside Christianity. Melanesians didn’t become Christian, Christianity became Melanesian. The material basis of religious change was integral to this process.

John MacArthur says, "This engrossing account of Paton's life and ministry will make him live again for a whole new generation. Cromarty's lively writing style makes this a book that is hard to put down." Stuart Olycott simply predicts, "No one can read this book and remain the same." A To Think About section concluding each chapter makes this perfect for Family Worship. First published in 1997.

John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides is a missionary classic. In this companion volume, Margaret Whitecross Paton gives an enthralling account of missionary life in the New Hebrides from the 1860s to the 1890s. The steady advance of the gospel in the islands is vividly described, and the whole account is set against the background of the joys and sorrows of family life. Margaret Paton writes with rare grace, humour and pathos. Letters from the South Seas is an inspiring story, full of the triumphs of Christian faith and love, and a missionary classic in its own right- a book to prize. Margaret Whitecross Paton was the second wife of the pioneer missionary to the New Hebrides, John G. Paton. She was the daughter of the Rev. John Whitecross whose work The Shorter Catechism Illustrated was republished by the Trust. A gifted writer, musician and artist, she died in 1905.