Good Words for Today: October 10
In 1839 two men from the London Missionary Society landed in the New Hebrides, a chain of eighty islands in the South Pacific. Those two missionaries were killed and eaten by cannibals in November of that year. Eventually other missionaries came and the gospel began to take root on some of the islands. Nineteen years later a young man named John Paton set sail for the New Hebrides. When he announced his desire to go, a Mr. Dickson exploded, “The cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!” But to this Paton responded:
“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 honoring 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.”
“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 honoring 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.”
October 10, 2018