John Paton

I've been really challenged reading John Piper's book Filling up the Afflictions of Christ. The Introduction in itself is a feast (more of that later) but for now I want to share some things from the life of John Paton (one of the 3 biographies in the book). 

John Paton took the gospel to the New Hebrides in the 1800s. It was known to be a very dangerous place where previous believers had been killed and eaten. Paton received a lot of criticism for going to the New Hebrides. One man, Mr Dickson exclaimed, "The cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!" This was Paton's response:

Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; 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 rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.

Here, speaking of the dangers he faced:

A wild chief followed me around for four hours with his loaded musket, and, though often directed towards me, God restrained his hand. I spoke kindly to him, and attended to my work as if he had not been there, fully persuaded that my God had placed me there, and would protect me until my allotted task was finished. Looking up in unceasing prayer to our dear Lord Jesus, I left all in his hands, and felt immortal till my work was done. 

This is what he wrote over his wife and child's grave:

Feeling immovably assured that my God and father 

was too wise and loving 

to err in anything that he does or permits,

I looked up to the Lord for help,

and struggled on in his work.

John Piper:

His courage, when he was surrounded by armed natives, came through a kind of praying that claimed the promises under the overarching submission to God's wisdom as to what would work most for God's glory and his good.

I...assured them that I was not afraid to die, for at death my Saviour would take me to be with Himself in Heaven, and to be far happier than I had ever been on Earth. I then lifted up my hands and eyes to the Heavens, and prayed aloud for Jesus...either to protect me or to take me home to Glory as He saw to be for the best.

Piper:

The peace God gave him in these crises was not the peace of sure escape but the peace that God is good and wise and omnipotent and will do all things well. Paton:

Did ever mother run more quickly to protect her crying child in danger's hour, than the Lord Jesus hastens to answer believing prayer and send help to his servants in His own good time and way, so far as it shall be for His glory and their good?