MISSIONS IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
At the recent anniversary of the London Missionary Society, the Rev. W. F. Clarkson, B. A., of Birmingham, made the following remarks upon Missions in Central Africa:
“And now, turning to Central Africa, what a solemn responsibility has been thrown upon the Church of Christ in connection with that vast continent! True it is that the North of Africa has been connected with European history ever since Europe had a history, and Egypt, especially, is rich in associations of the most remote antiquity. South Africa has been colonized by modern European nations, and the East and the West Coasts have furnished the material for that iniquitous slave trade in which Christian nations have not been ashamed to join hands with Mohammedans in order to rob their fellow-men of their liberties.
“But all this has touched only the fringe of this vast continent, and the interior has been practically unknown. Look at the maps of a few years ago and you will see blank spaces, relieved only by imaginary rivers and unverified mountains, and the letterpress of the geography books was just as meagre and as unsatisfactory. I chanced to light upon a school geography, the other day, published in 1847, in which this was the description given: ‘The interior of Africa is little known. The climate is so bad that the few Europeans who travel there generally die before they return.’ And it concluded by saying: ‘Most of the inhabitants are negroes.’ I think that the young people of to-day may congratulate themselves that they have not to study the text-books of thirty years ago—at any rate, on this question. I need not remind this meeting how, by the labors of eminent geographers and explorers and, not the least, missionaries, this reproach has been rolled away, and Africa promises to be as widely known as is Asia. But it is more to the purpose of this meeting to express the admiration and the thankfulness with which we witness the Church of Christ, of divers denominations, taking up the solemn responsibilities thrown upon her, and addressing herself to the evangelization of Africa.
“The Church Missionary Society advancing to Lake Nyanza, the Scotch Church taking possession of Lake Nyassa, the Baptist Missionary Society establishing itself on the banks of the Congo; and, not to mention other kindred societies, our own London Missionary Society advancing to Lake Tanganyika—are so many distinct columns of the great invading army which has gone forth to rescue Africa from the power of the prince of this world, and to bring it into subjection unto Christ. Surely this is the dawning of the day which David Livingstone rejoiced to see and was glad. And I hope that I may take upon myself, in your name, respectfully to congratulate our venerable father and apostle, Dr. Moffat, upon the advent of a time so rich in promise, and so glowing with hope, for that Africa which he has so long and so lovingly served. The report has spoken to us in forcible terms of the anxieties of the directors concerning the establishment of this Central African Mission, and I think you will feel that nothing shows that anxiety more clearly than the action of the directors in regard to the offer of Dr. Mullens, that they should have accepted that offer and dispatched him, if not to the front, at any rate to the base of operations for this new campaign; and he will carry with him to Zanzibar our best wishes and our most earnest prayers in the enterprise which he has so promptly and so generously undertaken.
“I think nothing can exaggerate the seriousness of the enterprise to which we, as a society, have committed ourselves in connection with Central Africa. To have to travel 600 or 700 miles, every mile of it measured out by the weary tread of human feet, and to be accompanied by 200 or 300 porters, not simply to carry your luggage, but even to carry the very money with which you have to pay your way, is no holiday excursion; and to have to deal with native chiefs of difficult and capricious tempers, with differing and oftentimes opposing interests, demands qualities of the highest statesmanship. To establish a mission like that of Lake Tanganyika, the lake itself being of the length of the distance, say from London to Carlisle, and twenty miles broad, with all its shores lined with populous villages—to establish a mission in such a centre of such a district demands an energy and a zeal and a patience equal to those of the greatest missionaries that have ever lived; and to do this, with the certain loss of the comforts and conveniences of civilized life, and with the equally certain risk of losing life itself, demands a heroism equal to that of the ancient martyr. All honor to the brethren who have responded to the demands of Christ, and have given themselves to this sacred work. We sympathize with those that are living and working, and we shall never forget those that have laid down their lives in this blessed service. Dr. Black in the South, Lieut. Smith in the North, and our own J. B. Thomson, and others who have fallen with them in this warfare—shall not the Church of Christ register them, each one, in the roll of heroes and of martyrs, by whose immortal example she will seek to stimulate the generations to come?”