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CONTENTS
Family Background / My father: the able man / My father: the lay preacher / School days / Dangerous Occupations / Going to Sea I / Going to Sea II / Going to Sea III / Passage to America / First Steps / The Great Lakes / Return to England / A Narrow Escape / Passage to New Zealand / Auckland / Finding a Mission / Fit for Mission Work? / A Suitable Helpmeet / A Bush Honeymoon / Our Worst Night / Missionary Heroes / Sydney to Samoa
Acknowledgments & Links
I cannot give the account of the quarterly meeting at which I was recommended as a candidate better than by telling the story as told by Mr. Harding, at a Sydney conference many years afterwards, when I had returned from the New Britain mission. He said at that meeting : ÒMr. President, I claim the privilege of saying a few words on this occasionÓ (the annual missionary meeting), Òbecause I think that I have done something for mission-work in my lifetime. I well remember that many years ago I had a great fight with a quarterly meeting in another colony. My work, sir, was to convince that quarterly meeting that my young friend, sitting over in the corner thereÓ (pointing to me) Òwas fit to be a missionary. They said he was not : I said he was ; and so we discussed the point. I only succeeded in obtaining the recommendation of that quarterly meeting by a very small majority. Mr. President, do you know what was the objection which they persistently urged against my nomination? They had no objection against his character, or against his ability as a preacher; but I will give you, in their own words, the objection which they persistently urged. They said : ÔMr. Harding, he is a good young man, but he is such a meek, mild, young lady-like person that we are sure he has no spirit whatever that would make a missionary. He is utterly devoid, sir, of any self-assertion, and we, therefore, do not think that he is fit for the mission-work.' I need not say that when Father Harding gave that speech there was some laughter in old York Street Church ; but I myself have always thought that the members of the Auckland quarterly meeting were very good judges of character. I was accepted at the conference of 1860, being first appointed to Fiji, as I wished ; but this was changed during the conference to Samoa, as another missionary had arrived from England, and it was thought better that he should go on by the first vessel, whilst I could wait until the second voyage in the end of the year.
Family Background / My father: the able man / My father: the lay preacher / School days / Dangerous Occupations / Going to Sea I / Going to Sea II / Going to Sea III / Passage to America / First Steps / The Great Lakes / Return to England / A Narrow Escape / Passage to New Zealand / Auckland / Finding a Mission / Fit for Mission Work? / A Suitable Helpmeet / A Bush Honeymoon / Our Worst Night / Missionary Heroes / Sydney to Samoa
Acknowledgments & Links