The Story of Erromanga and Its Martyrs.
THE island of Erromanga is one of a group of about twenty lying in the South Pacific, and now known as the New Hebrides. They are all of volcanic formation, and it will be remembered that one of the most fertile of the group, Aurora, thirty-six miles long by five miles broad, disappeared in 1871. The story of the introduction of Christianity into these islands, and especially into Erromanga, will always be full of tragic interest. It is a story full of sublime heroism, patient endurance, and Christian martyrdom, crowned with the sublimest exhibition of Christian love and triumph. The first attempt to introduce Christianity into Erromanga was made by the noted missionary, John Williams, in 1839, and he paid for it with his life, having been clubbed to death as soon as he landed upon the island. For eighteen years thereafter no further effort was made to introduce Christianity, except by native teachers from other islands, and these were in such mortal peril that they had at last to be withdrawn. Then, a young Presbyterian minister, Rev. George N. Gordon, went from Nova Scotia, and settled with his brave wife on the island. It was a grand piece of moral courage on the part of each. For four years this brave, Christian pair did much missionary work of an elementary character; but their usefulness was cut off in a moment by the tomahawk of the savage. Then followed an act of forgiveness and Christian love which can only be described as sublime. The brother of the martyred missionary, then a student at Halifax, resolved to continue the work in which his brother had fallen. James Gordon, as soon as his studies were completed, went to Erromanga, and labored faithfully among the natives for eight years, when he too had his skull cleft by a tomahawk and fell dead. In the same year, 1872, ignorant of James Gordon's death, Rev. H. A. Robertson, a third Nova Scotian, landed on the same "habitation of horrid cruelty." The sad news which he received had no power to turn him from his purpose. Calmly he built a hut and began to proclaim the gospel of divine good will. Eleven years have since passed, and he recently returned to Canada on a visit, to report progress—the first white missionary who has ever left Erromanga alive. Such heroic Christian persistence never fails, and Mr. Robertson's report is ample proof and confirmation of this. The mission has now ten churches on the island, one of them standing on the very spot where Captain Cook was murdered one hundred and twelve years ago, and another in memory of the martyrs. The cornerstone of the latter was laid three years ago by the grandson of the very man who killed John Williams. There are also on the island thirty-three Christian schools. In some respects the Erromanga Christians may already teach a lesson to many nearer home, as Mr. Robertson assures us that "church was attended regularly, and there were few instances of one absentee." A story of similar heroism might easily be told regarding the Wesleyan missionaries who landed in Fiji in the year 1835, and persisted, at the constant peril of their lives, in preaching Christ to ferocious cannibals. There, too, the heroism, though undescored on earth, has been rewarded from Heaven. Surely the record of such trials, self-sacrifice and triumphs, must stir our hearts to renewed earnestness in holding up the hands and encouraging the hearts of such brave Christian workers.—Christian at Work.