A CHAMPION WITH MANY TROPHIES
1834-1838
“The dearest offering He can crave,
His portion in our souls to prove,
What is it to the gift He gave,
The only Son of His dear love?”
KEBLE.
“Every one should strive to be like to them in grace that they strive to be equal with in glory."—BROOKS.
DR. CAMPBELL assured Mr. Williams that the years he spent in England were "the most productive and important in his life." Wherever he went he aroused immense enthusiasm; and although the romance of missions has now in some sense departed, yet the effects of his advocacy arc perceptible even to-day.
During his missionary tours, he visited Bristol, and there met with Mary Carpenter, who thus records her opinion of him:—" He seems exactly cut out for such a life, having, as far as we could judge, deep and enlarged religious convictions, great benevolence, a gift of tongues, handicraft skill, and some of brother Martin's homely wisdom and simplicity. He breakfasted with us, and made all the young ladies wish to go out to the Society Islands; if I had no tie to England, I should like it very much; now I think that we have enough to do at home, and am very thankful that there are some to do the good work”
Lest Mr. Williams may be suspected of sympathy with some of Mary Carpenter's opinions, it may be well to notice here that in his unpublished journal he says, "If there is a people against which true Christians may exercise a holy indignation, surely Socinians are that people.”
Among other towns, John Williams visited Leeds, and while there he took part in a missionary meeting held in Queen Street Chapel. It is related that there were then two servants residing in Leeds, one of them a Wesleyan and the other a careless indifferent girl. The Wesleyan said to her fellow-servant, "Mr. Williams is coming to Leeds.”
“Williams, who is he? I never heard about him before.”
“Oh, he is a famous missionary. He is coming to preach and hold a meeting in Queen Street Chapel. Let us ask for leave to attend the meeting.”
“Will there be a collection?”
“Oh, of course.”
“Well I will give a penny.”
“And I intend to give sixpence.”
The two servants attended the meeting, and in the course of Mr. Williams' speech the careless girl whispered to her companion, "Isn't he a wonderful man! Isn't he a wonderful man! I must give half-a-crown to the collection." Not only was she moved to this great liberality, but she was so impressed by Mr. Williams' appeals that she was converted, and became a member of the church, meeting at Queen Street Chapel.
Another incident may also be quoted as an instance of unsuspected harvests. Mr. Williams' son, the Rev. S. T. Williams, was for some years co-pastor with the Rev. Thomas Caig at Bocking, Essex. A very charitable lady, Miss Ridley, one day asked the Rev. S. T. Williams to visit a poor man who lived at Felstcad Common. He consented to do so, and went to the cottage upon the common. As he was shown into the sick man's room, the cottager's wife said, "Here is Mr. Williams come to see you." The sick man started up, stretched out his arms, and said, "Are you come, sir? Are you the son of that blessed man? I shall never forget him.”
“How so? why do you remember my father?”
“Why, sir, a many years ago, I was a little boy in Bocking Sunday School. One Sunday afternoon your father came and gave an address to the scholars. I especially remember that he spoke to us little children in the gallery. He taught us a prayer, and made us repeat it twice after him to make quite sure that we knew it. The prayer was this, 'O Lord, convert my soul, for Jesus' sake.' I repeated that prayer morning and night as he bade me. The prayer made me thoughtful, and eventually led to my conversion. I shall never forget him, that blessed man!" The great day will probably disclose many similar instances of saving good accomplished by John Williams' missionary speeches.
One consequence of his successful meetings was the publication of his charming "Missionary Enterprises in the South Seas," a book as interesting as "Robinson Crusoe," and rich with the fervor of his own beautiful spirit. Dr. Campbell said of it, “One Williams does more to confound infidelity than a thousand Paleys. One chapter of the ' Missionary Enterprises in the South Seas' is of more worth for the purposes of conviction than the whole mass of the ponderous volumes of Lardner." The book was dedicated, by permission, to King William IV., and met with such general approval that, within five years, 38,000 copies had been sold.
In one richly bound copy, prepared for his wife, Mr. Williams wrote:—
“MY DEAREST MARY,—More than twenty eventful years have rolled away since we were united in the closest and dearest earthly bonds, during which time we have circumnavigated the globe; we have experienced many trials and privations, while we have been honored to communicate the best of blessings to multitudes of our fellow creatures. I present this faithful record of our mutual labors and successes as a testimony of my unabated affection, and I sincerely pray that, if we are spared twenty years longer, the retrospect may afford equal, if not greater, cause for grateful satisfaction.
JOHN WILLIAMS.
July, 1837.”
He now appealed to the Christian public to provide him with a ship, and in a short time the contributions sent in for this purpose amounted to the sum of £2400. On the 15th of March, 1838, he appeared before the Common Council of the City of London, and pleaded for their help on behalf of the South Seas Mission. The Council voted Mr. Williams. £500, a grant which, with other offerings, soon raised the total amount collected by him to £4000. Of this amount £2600 was devoted to the purchase and equipment of a vessel called the Camden; the balance was devoted to the establishment of a Polynesian College and other missionary purposes. The repairs of the Camden cost £400, but this amount the ship-builder presented as his contribution to the mission. A man whose business it was to supply vessels with fresh filtered water, sent twenty tons on board the Camden as a gift; and the pilot, whose fee generally amounted to £20 or £25 , took the missionary ship down the river, and refused to accept payment for his services.
On Wednesday, the 4th of April, 1838, a public meeting was held in The Tabernacle, near City Road, London, to bid Mr. Williams farewell. He was returning in the Camden to the South Seas. The meeting was announced to commence at six o'clock, but, three hours before the appointed time, the people began to assemble. Hundreds were unable to obtain admission. Dr. Campbell, in the name of the church worshipping in the Tabernacle, presented Mrs. Williams with the six volumes of Scott's Commentary upon the Holy Scriptures, bound in Russia gilt, and a hymnbook. To Mr. Williams he presented, on behalf of the same friends, a copy of an encyclopædia in twenty volumes.
The chief interest of the meeting centered, however, in Mr. Williams' own speech, which, as unconsciously descriptive of himself and his aims, is wonderfully significant in the light of his tragic death. The speech, though well worthy of being quoted in its entirety, is too long for insertion here. A few extracts may, however, serve to show its general character. Mr. Williams said:—" I feel, still, that the work of Christian Missions is the greatest, noblest, and the sublimest to which the energies of the human mind can be devoted. I think, Christian friends, that no labor we can bestow, no sacrifice that we can make, no journeys that we can undertake, are too great to be undertaken for the glorious purpose of illuminating the dark world with the light of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. There is something, to my mind, transcendently sublime in the comprehensive character of Christian missions. I think, that Scripture statements are confirmed in a most striking manner, that Scripture predictions are most beautifully illustrated, and that Scripture promises have been most remarkably fulfilled, by facts in connection with the mission of which I am now speaking.”
After alluding to the cost of the vessel, he continued:—"If we were to go into the matter of mere expense, we could show that this would be the most economical method which could be adopted. However, when we contemplate engaging in any undertaking for the cause of our God, a trifling matter of expense ought never to stand in the way.”
In reference to the subject Of his preaching, he said:—" We feel that we have something worth carrying: we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ; we have the great truth that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; we have the great doctrine of the Atonement to carry!... We believe it, and therefore we go round the world to tell it; and the great story which we have to tell is, God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' My dear friends, the very first sermon I preached in the native tongue was from this text: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.' It does appear to me, when I meditate upon the wondrous scheme of human redemption, that the great doctrine of the Atonement is the most powerful and wonderful of all the doctrines in all the creeds of the human race.... In comparison with the great truth of salvation by the death of Jesus Christ, the universe itself appears a bauble. I love the doctrine, and I determine never to preach a sermon in any language where the great doctrine of salvation through the blood of Christ is not the sum and substance of the sermon. We think that this is a truth worth carrying round the world; it is the soul of religious effort.”
In conclusion, Mr. Williams said:—"Whatever infirmities may attend me, I do feel this, that my integrity will I hold fast. I have but one object in view, and that is, to carry the knowledge of Jesus, Christ to those who are perishing for lack of that knowledge. This is my sole, my simple object. I can with confidence unite with you in supplicating that God's blessing may rest upon us. I cannot do better than conclude with the prayer of one of the natives, on the day that we embarked from his island: O Lord, tell the winds about them, that they may not blow fiercely upon them; command the ocean concerning them, that it may not swallow them up; conduct them safely to a far-distant country, and give them a happy meeting with long-lost relatives, and bring them back again to us. But if we should never meet again around the throne of grace below, may we all meet around the throne of God above. Amen and amen.”
In his parting published address to the British Churches, Mr. Williams said:—" Great, of course, are the perils that await me. I may not again come back to repose at the first sight of the lofty cliffs and lovely plains of Old England; well, the will of the Lord be done! I shall be entombed in the ocean, or sleep in a foreign land, in the Isles of the South, in the field of my labors, and among the graves of my children!... Time alone can reveal the will of Heaven. I would wait that revelation in the spirit of holy submission, love, and obedience.”
On Wednesday, the 11th of April, he embarked on board the Camden, which lay off Gravesend. A steamer had been chartered to convey the mission party from London Bridge to the Camden, and about 370 persons went in her. When off Erith, the company filed past Mr. Williams, who sat in the stern of the vessel, to say farewell. An eye-witness says:" At this moment Mr. Williams was a striking spectacle of real moral greatness. On his right hand sat a beloved weeping sister; and on his left, a still more beloved weeping wife, whose case constrained especial sympathy from such as knew it. With a constitution apparently broken, health but very imperfectly established, spirits naturally far from high, she was leaving behind her a darling child, and a venerated mother, whom it is not probable she will ever see again. Thus circumstanced, the veteran missionary appeared to great advantage. There he sat, with a countenance as placid and a heart as tranquil as those of the lovely little one on his knee!... Throughout the morning he appeared to be in a very solemn frame, but deeply thoughtful; he did not mix extensively with the multitude, nor indulge in any protracted conversation. One would have said, That man sighs for solitude.' He sat till the whole company had passed, with a word, a wish, or a request suited for everybody."
Mr. Williams left his son Samuel in England; and upon the morning of his embarkation, he wrote the following letter in his son's album. The book was passed from hand to hand among the company on the steamer, and the letter was copied by many on board. As an exhibition of his affectionate solicitude, it deserves insertion in these pages.
An Affectionate Father's Parting Wish.
“My dear and much loved Samuel,—You wish me to write a few lines in your album, and I comply with your dear wish on the morning of our embarkation for the far-distant isles of the Pacific, whither I and your dear mother are again going to spread the knowledge of a. precious Savior, whom we wish you to love more fervently and serve more faithfully than we have done. We both unite in assuring you, my dear, dear boy, that Jesus is the most affectionate friend, and the best of all masters. The caresses of a dear doting mother, the counsel and instruction of a tender-hearted father, will avail you nothing without the friendship of Jesus Christ! We love Him ourselves, and the united wish of your dear mother and myself is, that you may love him too.
“We feel very keenly the pang of separation. We love our country, we love our affectionate relatives, we love, with an intensity of feeling which parents only know, our dear, very dear Samuel. Why, then, do we go? We go, because Jesus Christ has said, 'He that loveth father or mother, sister or brother, wife or children or lands more than Me, is not worthy of Me.' We shall pray for you, my dear boy, every day of our lives, and trust, in answer to these prayers, that God by His grace, will take possession of your young and tender heart, so that when we return to England, which we hope to do in a few years, we shall find our beloved boy not only an intelligent and amiable, but also g pious and devoted youth, enjoying the good opinion and affection of all who know you, and living in the fear of God. This, my very dear boy, will enhance the pleasure of meeting beyond the power of description.
“But my dear, dear son must pray for himself, and he has God's own declaration for his encouragement: ' When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.' We have forsaken you, my dear boy, under very peculiar circumstances. It is for the cause of God that we have made this sacrifice. Plead this with God when you pray, and beseech God to be a father to you.
‘The Lord bless thee, my dear boy, and keep thee;
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee;
The Lord be gracious unto thee;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.'
“These are the wishes and fervent prayers of your affectionate father
JOHN WILLIAMS.
11th April, 1838.”
Mr. Williams' son felt so keenly the separation! that for some time he could not be comforted. But at length he regained his composure, and helped to cheer his father. When from the deck of the Camden Mr. Williams called out, "Where is Sam?" some friend held him up, and Sam clapped his hands.
After a brief farewell service on board the steamer, the missionaries went on board the Camden. The steamer accompanied her for some nine or ten miles down the river before they parted, Mr. Williams called out to them, referring to the Camden, "Is not she a beauty?" At three o'clock in the afternoon the vessels parted company, and the Camden proceeded down the river, followed by the ringing cheers of friends.