John Williams

What are we looking at? And I would also provide the examples of some of the greatest missionaries that were on the front side of taking the gospel to the far reaches of the world.

John Williams comes to my mind.

Mentioned, by the way, in this book, Adventures in Missionary Heroism, as well as John G. Payton, who risked his life so many, many times in the New Hebrides.

But John Williams built his own ships.

He was incredibly talented.

dedicated, committed guide to the vision of worldwide missions, but eventually was martyred in the New Hebrides.

Livingston is the coeur de lion of our great crusade.

John Williams, who, in his own words, could never be content with the limits of a single reef, built with his own hands, and almost without any tools, on a cannibal island, the wonderful little ship, the Messenger of Peace, in which he sailed many thousands of miles from island to island across the Pacific Ocean.

These are only two examples of the men whose adventures are more thrilling than those of our storybooks, and yet are absolutely true, and we find them in every country and in each of the centuries.

So, as we look across the ages, we see the race of hero spirits pass the torch from hand to hand.

They were searching for an island of which they had heard, but which they had never seen.

The captain searched the horizon again, but he saw nothing except that ahead of him, on the skyline to the southwest, great clouds had gathered.

He turned round and went to the master missionary, the hero and explorer and shipbuilder, John Williams, saying, "We must give up the search, or we shall all be starved." John Williams knew that this was true, yet he hated the thought of going back.

He was a scout, exploring at the head of God's navy.

And we'll get straight into it.

Having buried two dear children and given birth to another little girl, Lucy, Charlotte and her newborn accompanied her husband and their oldest child, six-year-old Charlotte Anne, from Prince Edward Island to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

where they would officially begin their voyage to the little island of Anishim, New Hebrides.

Though the particular location in the South Seas was yet unknown to them, they trusted God's leading.

Charlotte sought to love both her children and the perishing.

No matter where or when we live, there is a cost.

While she acknowledged that sending children away was her greatest trial on the mission field, remarkable considering the harrowing experiences she faced, she did not see it as conflicting with her husband's calling to preach to the nations, nor with her responsibility to support that calling.

She could say, it is a sad thing to be a heathen.

There's a missionary... who sailed across the South Pacific.

His name was John Williams.

John Williams was a really significant figure across the Pacific Islands.

He came from England and was part of the London Missionary Society.

He was saved in his teenage years, I believe, and he had this fervor to want to share the gospel.

Nursed her back to health, just looked after her because her English body was not used to the Pacific Islands anymore.

So they wanted to look after her.

John Williams started to hear this story from other people that the Tahitian people would kill their babies.

And there's a very significant footnote here.

It must be noted that Charlotte and John would have known of the well-loved London Missionary Society missionary John Williams, called the Apostle of Polynesia, and his fellow servant James Harris, who were martyred and cannibalised on a New Hebrides island in 1839.

The island would become known as the Martyr Island, since other men and women would die for their testimony there.

Including some sent from the Nova Scotia Synod.

Precisely.

And Spurgeon illustrates this tragedy by looking at a contemporary event from his own 19th century era, which is the murder of John Williams.

John Williams.

He was a very famous figure at the time, right? Like they called him the Apostle of the South Seas.

Highly famous.

Yeah.

So John Williams was a British missionary who traveled extensively throughout the South Pacific.

And in 1839, he landed on the shores of Aramanga.