and
much-frequented shrine, during all the following months and years when I
labored on for the salvation of these savage Islanders amidst
difficulties, dangers, and deaths. Whensoever Tanna turns to the Lord,
and is won for Christ, men in after-days will find the memory of that
spot still green,--where with ceaseless prayers and tears I claimed that
land for God in which I had "buried my dead" with faith and hope. But
for Jesus, and the fellowship He vouchsafed me there, I must have gone
mad and died beside that lonely grave!

Dr. Inglis, my brother Missionary on Aneityum, wrote to the Reformed
Presbyterian Magazine:--"I trust all those who shed tears of sorrow on
account of her early death will be enabled in the exercise of faith and
resignation to say, 'The Will of the Lord be done; the Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord!' I need not say
how deeply we sympathize with her bereaved parents, as well as with her
sorrowing husband. By her death the Mission has sustained a heavy loss.
We were greatly pleased with Mrs. Paton during the period of our short
intercourse with her. Her mind, naturally vigorous, had been cultivated
by a superior education. She was full of Missionary spirit, and took a
deep interest in the Native women. This was seen further, when she went
to Tanna, where, in less than three months, she had collected a class of
eight females, who came regularly to her to receive instruction. There
was about her a maturity of thought, a solidity of character, a
loftiness of aim and purpose, rarely found in one so young. Trained up
in the fear of the Lord from childhood, like another Mary she had
evidently chosen that good part, which is never taken away from those
possessed of it. When she left this island, she had to all human
appearance a long career of usefulness and happiness on Earth before
her, but the Lord has appointed otherwise. She has gone, as we trust, to
her rest and her reward. The Lord has said to her as He said to David,
'Thou didst well in that it was in thine heart to build a House for My
Name.' Let us watch and pray, for our Lord cometh as a thief in the
night."

Soon after her death, the good Bishop Selwyn called at Port Resolution,
Tanna, in his Mission Ship. He came on shore to visit me, accompanied by
the Rev. J. O. Patteson. They had met Mrs. Paton on Aneityum in the
previous year soon after our arrival, and, as she was then the picture
of perfect heal