Patteson of Melanesia by Frank H.L. Paton

Frank Paton retells the life story of John Coleridge Patteson [1827-1871] the missionary bishop of Melanesia for a new generation of readers. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy of the book to scan. This title is in the Public Domain.

Frank H.L. Paton [1870-1938], Patteson of Melanesia. A Brief Life of John Coleridge Patteson, Missionary Bishop. London: SPCK, [1930]. Hbk. pp.209. [Download complete book in PDF]

Contents

1. The Lure of the Pacific
2. The Boy and the Man
3. Meeting His Hero
4. The Wide Waste of Melanesia
5. Pioneering with Selwyn
6. Creating a Native Leadership
7. Barrier Reefs
8. The Greatest Thing in the World
9. “Sticking It”
10. Father and Son
11. Selwyn’s Mantle
12. A Skipper in the Pacific
13. A Missionary Sandhurst
14. From Cannibalism to Christianity
15. Brothers All
16. The Scourge of Melanesia
17. “Greater Love Hath No Man Than This”

Epilogue: The Challenge of the Pacific

Preface

The Life of John Coleridge Patteson has been told so well and so fully by Miss Yonge that it requires some courage to tell it again. The only justification for attempting to do so is that this missionary classic has largely passed out of the ken of this generation, and we sorely need the spiritual uplift and inspiration which it never fails to bring to those who read it. Patteson was one of those rare souls who are God’s great gift not to one generation but to all; and, although it is well over fifty years since he laid down his life on the islet of Nukapu, amid the “great wide waste, of Melanesian waters, the message of his life is as living today as it was to the men of his own age. It is a message and an influence which we cannot afford to miss. [Continue Reading]