Chapter XIX
"the best of all"

In my association with the people of the south-west Pacific I have frequently observed that the more religiously inclined among them have a lively sense of the interposition of Providence. It was put most vividly before me on Norfolk Island one day in a conversation with Mr Cornish Quintal who was then the oldest surviving Pitcairner. He was telling me of some of his experiences as a whaler. On one occasion when they were twelve miles out at sea a whale upset their boat, and they had to swim for it. "I knew I could reach the shore," said the old man, "but what agitated my mind was the number of sharks that kept close to me as I swam." "That was a terrifying experience," I remarked. "Yes," he replied "it was—for a time; but I prayed. I said 'Please, God, do not let them bite me,' and then my fear passed away." The story was told in such a simple, unaffected way that there could be no question of the old man's sincerity. His belief in the interposition of divine Providence was an essential part of his mental and spiritual equipment. I have no doubt that the conviction not only banished fear, it also put vim into his strokes and contributed in no small measure to his success in reaching the shore.

In my study of the evidence furnished by the missionaries of this period I have been brought face to face with the same conviction hundreds of times. There was not one of them in Fiji, Protestant or Roman Catholic, who did not cherish this belief. Of all the articles of their faith it seems page break

Cornish Quintal of Norfolk Island in 1927

page 303 to have been the one most deeply rooted, and it gathered strength from every danger passed and every obstacle overcome. In the most spiritually minded of them the plant grew into a tree so robust that the hurricane winds of adversity, disaster and failure could not uproot it, though for the time they might shake it severely. It bore fruit in heroic deeds that will not fail to elicit the admiration of fairminded men whether they are able to accept the belief or not.

Of the earliest Roman Catholic missionaries Father Bréhéret would seem to have been the one most powerfully and consistently influenced by this conviction. No duty was menial that was performed in the service of his Master; and no danger unnerved him because of the ever-present sense of His guidance and protection. Ploughing his way through stormy seas, with the billows thundering on the reef not far away, and the darkness of the night coming on, his companions aboard the little cutter would turn to him with anxious eyes. "Fear not," he was wont to say at such times, "no mischance can befall, not a hair of your head can be injured unless the good God permit of it." Notwithstanding all their differences of creed, ceremony and discipline here was one fundamental conviction that possessed the heart and mind of Roman Catholic and Methodist missionary alike, and should have made them feel that they were brothers differing in nothing but opinion.

The reader of the Journal of Thomas Williams will not fail to detect the power of this conviction over his life; it irradiates the darkest passages of his correspondence in Fiji. Somosomo was a trying station and in his letters to the Society in London he was often quite frank about the disappointments and failures of their work. Dark was the picture that he felt obliged to paint in a letter of 16 August 1844 twelve months after his appointment to that centre; "But," he adds, "as I feel satisfied that the watchful eye of a divine page 304Providence surveys the path I take, nay more, directs my feet in that path I would resign every wish to His gracious will and learn to believe Him—'God when he gives supremely good, nor less when he denies;' the more so as recent experience has taught me that e'en crosses from His sovereign hands are blessings in disguise."

Williams was to be tried in a more fiery furnace in the next few years when grim-visaged war overtook him and his flock at Mbua Bay. He had to contemplate the pitiful condition of his followers, despoiled and murdered; back-sliding under duress to their old faith; the work of years threatened with ruin. But never in the worst of his mental suffering does he abandon the belief that somehow or other, and in His own time, God will carry on His work to a successful issue.

And so John Watsford, having passed through this ordeal, sits down to count his blessings, and to bless the name of the Lord for all His mercies! That was noble.

But the price they paid was heavy. On Monday the 31st Watsford's little girl died. On the same day news came that a canoe had been wrecked in the storm, and that Abraham, one of their native teachers, three Tonguese and four or five Fijians who were members of the Church Society at Nandy had been drowned. Mrs Watsford had collapsed after the death of her child. On 17 February she was very weak, and had to be sent to Mbua Bay for a change. Mrs Ford, who had given birth to a child on 20 February, was stricken with inflammation of the throat on 10 March and was dangerously ill with dysentery on the 17th. Mrs Watsford on her return from Mbua had a severe attack of hemorrhage from the womb and could get no relief. In the begin-page 308ning of April she was so ill that Watsford sent to Vewa entreating Dr Lyth to come over and tend her if he possibly could.¹

Since the first hurricane in the middle of January John Watsford had encountered a succession of calamities which-would have plunged most men into a sea of bemaddening sorrow; but now after the second hurricane with desolation all around him, instead of giving way to plaints he sits down and writes: "We feel very thankful to God for His goodness to us," and "Praise the Lord!" Well done, John Wats-ford! That shows human nature at its best. It makes the layman reflect and ask: What was there in the religion of these old Methodist missionaries that moved them to expressions of gratitude in the face of such trials and devastation as these?

The answer brings us back to the title of this chapter.

In Westminster Abbey there is a mural tablet in honour of John and Charles Wesley, and on it are inscribed the words by which John Wesley on his death-bed took leave of his followers standing round: "The best of all is God is with us"² The committee responsible for placing that inscription on the tablet must have felt that no other words could express so well the truth that lives at the heart of Methodism. At the conclusion of my study of the history of Fiji from 1835 to 1856 I am inclined to think so too. The conditions of life in those tropical cannibal islands were severe enough to force the old missionaries back on the most sustaining conviction that was in them, and here, I believe, it is. Many of the articles of their belief were similar to those of other Protestants, though they laid special emphasis on justification by faith and a sort of supernatural illumination at the moment of conversion. But deeper than any other conviction, and most important in its influence over their daily lives, was the abiding sense of the presence of God in all their enterprises and afflictions directing and sustaining them.

The student of missionary records is reminded of this over and over and over again. The conviction lay close to the heart and deep in the mind of every one of the early missionaries. It is hardly ever put of the minds of Dr Lyth, John Hunt, John Watsford and William Moore. All of them, especially sensitive Lyth, had their seasons of depression; but the sense of God's abiding presence in their souls—controlling, guiding and protecting them—carried them through trials, disappointments and dangers that would have crushed men of more robust health who had no such conviction to sustain them.

The old childlike trust in divine interposition, beautiful as it was, and powerful for good in its influence on the lives of those who cherished it, can no longer be defended in its simple and direct form. Scientific investigation has proved that there is no nook or corner in this great universe in which law does not prevail; and the man who violates it can no longer rely upon this simple faith for his safety and salvation, so far at least as his life in this world is concerned. He who drops inadvertently over a precipice will be dashed to pieces at its base, and no amount of faith will save him from the effects of the law of gravitation. A man may drive water uphill, it is true; but only within limits which can be measured and foreseen. The law of gravitation is not destroyed, it is only resisted to a slight extent by the application of power from another source, and that power can be measured too. The good result is not achieved by ignoring law, but by recognizing it and making due allowance for the power exerted by it. There are laws by which man's moral and spiritual nature is regulated and governed. We are not clear about them yet; but men are earnestly striving to find them out and define them. Until they are more clearly explained men and women will scarce know how to put themselves into a line with the will of God much as they may desire to do so. But we are on the way to knowledge here as elsewhere, and every advance in science, physical as well as mental, enables us to see a little more clearly how we may save our bodies and souls by adjusting our own wills to the will of Providence.

The age of simple faith has passed for those who have tried to look at human life as Shakespeare did, and have realized from a study of the characters of Cordelia, Desdemona and Ophelia what a frightful disproportion there may be in this world between moral transgression and page 311suffering. Where divine laws are violated or broken there will be suffering, whether the individual who breaks them or is involved in the consequences of their violation is strong or weak, moral or immoral, innocent or guilty. There is no adequate reason to suppose now that Providence will suspend any law physical or moral for the immediate benefit of any individual or nation.

Is it necessary then to conclude that the old simple faith of the missionaries in divine interposition was all wrong? Must we abandon altogether the belief that Providence watches over the lives of His children guiding their steps and preserving them from danger? I think not. In all that Science has yet revealed I find nothing that makes it impossible for me to believe still that the sovereign Power of this universe can exert a direct influence on the minds and souls of human beings both to restrain and to stimulate; and in that belief there is hope for a survival of the old simple faith in a higher and more spiritual form.

In the lives of the mystics who believed so profoundly in revelation there is plenty of evidence to indicate, if not to prove, that spirit with spirit can meet. But there is no need to rely solely upon them. Some of the clearest and strongest intellects that have moulded this world's thought have borne testimony to the possibility of communication between the human and the divine. In his edition of Plato's Apology of Socrates and Crito Louis Dyer says: "Socrates himself was singularly favoured in that he possessed a gift sent of God—a heavenly voice of warning. Whenever this voice spoke within him he knew that what he was about to do would result in harm, and that therefore he must abstain from it. When the voice was silent he was the stronger in his purpose and strengthened others in theirs."³ page 312John Milton face to face with an alternative: dereliction of a duty or loss of eyesight chose the latter and defended himself in a statement that his biographer, Mr Mark Pattison, has rendered from the Latin original of the Second Defence of the English People thus: "I could not but obey that inward monitor I know not what that spoke to me from Heaven."^* Is this merely the figurative language of a poet, or must it be interpreted more literally?

The Quakers of John Milton's day believed in the "inward light," and those of their successors who belong to the old school believe in it yet. What is this inward light, so real and so important for them? Let those who profess to believe in it give as clear a definition as they can. To the historical student it would seem that the most important contribution to religious thought by these Seekers after truth has been made by insisting on the reality and supreme value of divine intimation and leading.

Granted the existence of a Universal Mind and the possibility of its direct influence on the mind of man the belief in a guiding and protecting Providence may still rest on sure foundations; and reviewing the effects of that belief, not only on the character and work of the early missionaries, but also on thousands of men in history who have been inspired by it, its loss would be one of the gravest misfortunes that could overtake mankind. But it is not at all likely that it will be lost. In one form or another belief in a Power not ourselves that works in and through human life has been held by men from the beginnings of recorded history. It would seem to be one of those primal sympathies which having been must ever be. In the history of primitive races the conviction can be detected in forms that are crude page 313and superstitious. It was a great reality in the religion of the old Fijians; and when the people of Ono-i-lau turned to the Christian faith it was the belief that found expression in language of extraordinary clarity considering their intellectual limitations. There was, indeed, nothing more remarkable or essential in the religion of the heathen Fijians than this belief in the controlling, guiding and protecting power of their gods. The very fact that the heathen Fijian, the Wesleyan Methodist and the Roman Catholic priest held this belief in common, notwithstanding all their diffeences, may be taken as pretty good evidence that in one form or another it is one of the great and enduring realities of religion.

Had John Malvern been at the helm the language used in the passages underlined might have been regarded as a tribute to his modesty and piety; but since he was not, a few additional words of praise for the captain and his crew would have shown due regard to the claims of common sense and fair play. The omission was typical. So strongly were the missionaries convinced that the Almighty was ever at hand to interpose directly on their behalf, that they were inclined to overlook the fact that in this workaday world He achieves His purposes by means of human agents; and whether they do well or ill in such circumstances will depend largely on their own skill and courage. We have already seen what captains of men-of-war did time after time to extricate the missionaries from difficult and dangerous situations, and that they were inclined to forget; nor did they ever give the Tongans the credit that was due to them for rendering similar services. As to the assistance rendered by naval officers and settlers in the christianization of the natives they very rarely acknowledge it. In this as in other ways they were narrow-minded men. These few criticisms do not detract from the value of their conviction; rather they enable us to see that the missionaries were not sufficiently well-equipped on other sides of their nature to use such an inspiring and ennobling idea to the best advantage. Striving ever to attain the best they marred much that was harmless and good for want of common sense and practical wisdom. They had the defects of their qualities.

But it would be a mistake to dwell at length on those defects. They were by no means the only people in this world whom the heavenly light has sometimes led astray; and there is infinitely more to be said in favour of the good page break

River and Harbour at Tumbou, Lakemba

page 315 than the harm it did them. It was a light that not only made their countenances to shine, but also cast its beams on many a rugged and dangerous path along which they were forced to travel; and under its radiance they marched on hopefully and courageously. We may deplore their narrow-mindedness; but we must admire their fortitude, and give them full credit for doing their duty faithfully according to the light that was in them. They made mistakes, some of them serious; but they were nearly all the mistakes of the age in which they lived. They were deficient in knowledge; but they acquitted themselves like men, and have left behind them records that go far to prove that no man will ever sink irretrievably into the abyss of despondency, or travel hopelessly over the rough and wild ways of this world who can retain in his heart the conviction that "the best of all is God is with us."

If this is the conviction that lives and works at the heart of Methodism, the followers of John Wesley need have no fear of spiritual decline so long as it exerts power over them. Human beings are rarely called upon in this world to pass through a more severe discipline than that to which the early missionaries in Fiji were committed; and few who have studied their records will deny that under the influence of this conviction they proved that they were masters of their fate. It is hardly possible that there can be one intelligent man in all the world who would challenge the worth of a religion that moved John Watsford to pour out his soul in gratitude to his Maker situated as he was after the devastating hurricanes of 1848.

But if the Methodists wish the dying words of John Wesley to have their fullest and best effect they must get rid of their Hell. The references in the missionary records to that murky underworld make repulsive reading. It cannot be denied that the threat of Hell did make an impression on page 316the minds of some of the Fijians trained as they had been under the discipline of fear; but every right-minded man will regret that the missionaries made use of such a blasphemous doctrine to secure "converts." Some excuse can be found for them by people who are willing and able to use their historic sense. In the middle of last century it was part of the stock-in-trade of nearly all religious instructors. But there can be no justification for retaining such a doctrine now. Apart from its inherent incredibility there is no real support for it in the teaching of Christ. It runs counter to the whole trend of his instruction about God, and the passage in the Gospels in which he was supposed to have made reference to Hell is corrupt. It is high time that the doctrine was relegated to oblivion. People who have attained to the belief that God is a kind Father who disciplines His children by means of salutary laws cannot be expected to listen, without feelings of suppressed indignation, to instruction that represents Him as a cruel monster capable of inflicting torture on His children from which there is no hope of escape this side of eternity. The doctrine of hell-fire is a blasphemous detraction of the character of the Almighty, and stultifies the most comforting, inspiring and ennobling conviction that John Wesley bequeathed to his followers—"The best of all is God is with us."