Quotes and Notes from the Autobiography of John Paton, Part 3

If you have not read the first 2 installments, please search the archives in order to do so now.

As we continue considering the early years of John Paton and the way his father shaped him as a man and missionary we must recognize that John’s father’s ministry was not only to his family.  He was a stocking maker (he ran a very small factory from his home).  He was not a pastor or elder in his church.  Yet, he was a faithful churchman and evangelist.

Paton wrote that, “Dumfries was four miles fully from our Torthorwald home; but the tradition is that during all these forty years my father was only thrice prevented from attending the worship of God—once by snow, so deep that he was baffled and had to return; once by ice on the road so dangerous that he was forced to crawl back up the Roucan Brae on his hands and knees, after having descended it so far with many falls; and once by the terrible outbreak of cholera at Dumfries.  All intercourse betwixt the town and the surrounding villages, during that awful visitation was publicly prohibited; and the farmers and villagers, suspecting that no cholera would make my father stay at home on Sabbath, sent a deputation to my mother on the Saturday evening, and urged her to restrain his devotions for once!”  15

Paton’s father was so faithful to attend Sunday worship he only missed three times in 40 years!  Not even a cholera outbreak could keep him away from worshipping together with the family of God.  Can you imagine how he would feel about missing church for a soccer tournament, baseball game, or even vacation!? 

Paton’s father was a faithful evangelist to his community.  He wrote, 

“For the last twelve years or so of his life, he became by appointment a sort of Rural Missionary for the four contiguous parishes and spent his autumn in literally sowing the good seed of the Kingdom for the Tract and Book Society of Scotland.  His success in this work, for a rural locality, was beyond all belief.  Within a radius of five miles, he was known in every home, welcomed by the children, respected by the servants, longed for eagerly by the sick and aged.”  18

Surely part of what shaped Paton as a man and a missionary was his father’s leadership in the home.  However, his clear devotion to the local church and to spreading the gospel in the area was an influence as well.  Next time we will begin to see Paton’s missionary strategy unfold as he begins his work at the Glasgow City Mission.

Until next time….