THE LONDON UNION MISSIONARY CONFERENCE.
The London Union Missionary Conference was held in November. The Congregational churches of America were represented by Dr. Clark of the American Board, and Dr. O. H. White of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, of London, who also represented the American Missionary Association, to which the F. A. Society is auxiliary. The last gathering of the kind in England was in 1860, at which one hundred and twenty-six delegates assembled. The sessions were mainly private, the societies represented were chiefly British, and plans were discussed rather than achievements reported. This later meeting was somewhat different in its character. Six hundred delegates were in attendance from various lands and denominations of Christians. It was not so much a conference on methods as a comparison of results. The sessions of the week were apportioned to the work in the various lands. A great mass of information was collected, which will doubtless be more impressive and complete in the volume of proceedings to be published, than it could have been in the hearing.
The character of the meetings may be inferred from the following sketch of the time devoted to the “Dark Continent,” in which we are especially interested. We copy from the correspondent of the Christian Union: “Two sessions on Tuesday were devoted to Africa and its many tribes. An Irish peer, the Earl of Cavan, presided, and the attendance of delegates and friends was large. Dr. Underhill, of the Baptist Missionary Society, discoursed on the benefits of emancipation, and showed what an important bearing the evangelizing of the negro race must have on the conversion of all West Africa. Sir Fowell Buxton, the son of the great advocate of emancipation forty years ago, described the three schemes now being carried out for planting new missions on the three great lakes of Central Africa. Dr. Stewart, of the Free Church Mission at Livingstonia, on Lake Nyassa, described the principle and the plan of the missionary institution at Lovedale, in the Cape Colony, which he has managed for several years. This is a model institution, with industrial as well as educational and theological departments; and is just the thing which the native tribes of South Africa need for their enlightenment. Dr. Lowe, the Secretary of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, also read an admirable paper on the work, methods and usefulness of medical missions generally. Several of the medical missionaries who have recently gone out to Africa were Dr. Lowe’s pupils.
“Among the effective speakers on these African missions were Dr. Waugemann, of Berlin, who described the work of the Berlin Society, especially in the Transvaal; Dr. White, of the Freedmen’s Aid Mission; the Rev. E. Schrenck, of Basle, who spoke of work in Ashantee; and the Rev. Dr. Moffat, who told the Conference about his Bechuanas, and of course with his strong gray hair and his eighty-three years of age and sixty-two years of service for Christ, received an ovation at its hands. The noble presence and the stirring words of the grand old man on the African day were a striking feature in the meetings of the Conference.”
Such gatherings must help on the cause of Christian comity in missions, as well as broaden the views of all who are engaged in working the field under their hands. It is well to look up sometimes from our own furrow, even if we have to stop ploughing for a little, that we may realize that the field is the world, and that the harvest belongs to one Master.