ZEAL FOR STUDY.
A good deal has been said, from time to time, of the abatement among the colored people of that eagerness to learn, which marked the days immediately following their emancipation. Of course, much of it is true; many found by trial that it was not so easy or instantaneous a process to learn to read as they had supposed; the pressure of self-support drew away the attention of others from their aspirations after an education; unduly excited ambitions and crude hopes were seen to be unfounded, and in the disappointment many were discouraged. But all of it is not true. There are many instances yet of the early eagerness to learn among the young, and even among the old; we give an instance from a teacher’s letter: “One woman, 39 years old, lives in the country, and walks six miles to school, and six miles again after school to her home. Her seat has been vacant only on one or two of the rainiest days since the school opened, September 1st. At home, she has all her household affairs to look after, and finds time to study at night even then; and if, on account of helping her husband to pick cotton in the fall, she would go late to bed without ‘knowing her lesson,’ it ‘worried’ her so, she said, that she ‘could not get a wink of sleep,’ and her husband would waken to find her up and studying. She is gaining slowly in rudimentary knowledge, and is very much pleased, or, as she would say, ‘proud’ of her success. Several such ones, eager to learn, I have under my care, and though they can learn but slowly, it is really better than that they should never know anything, though I think we would count it hardly worth while to take such pains so late in life; yet, better to get upon the first round of the ladder than not to rise at all.”
TROPICAL AFRICA.
The Three Lake Missions.
Among the great movements of this stirring age, none are, perhaps, more far-reaching than those for the exploration and evangelization of Tropical Africa. The splendid achievements of Livingstone and Stanley crown and complete the efforts of their heroic predecessors. Africa’s three great central lakes and her two great rivers—the mysteries of the ages—are now explored and mapped.
The missionary efforts that have followed these discoveries reveal an enthusiasm, and a consecration of talent and life, worthy of the vast field thus opened. In the promptness of the response, the money and the lives devoted and the number of missions founded or projected, the last five years give a history that probably has no parallel in the records of Christian missions. The story of these adventures in discovery and evangelization has the fascination of romance, and is pathetic in the piety and the sufferings of both travellers and missionaries.
We select as illustrations the three Lake Missions of Tropical Africa.
1. The Victoria Nyanza Mission.
On the northern shores of this greatest of Africa’s central lakes is the dominion of King Mtesa—a name now familiar to the civilized world. He rules over two millions of people, has a navy of 300 war canoes and an army of 150,000 warriors. In 1875, Stanley reached his capital. The welcome was cordial, and for two months the traveller taught the King the principles of Christianity with such happy results that the Bible was studied, and in obedience to its teachings, an enemy and rebel, conquered in battle and doomed to death in accordance with African morals and invariable practice, was spared! Stanley appreciated the true value of the King’s “conversion,” and saw the need of having his own incipient teaching followed up by steady missionary labors. His appeal for such labors was written in Africa and appeared in a London paper Nov. 15, 1875. The prompt response should be noticed. Three days after it appeared, came an anonymous offer of $25,000 for the founding of the mission, and soon another equal sum was proffered. The venerable and efficient Church Missionary Society undertook the work. The consecrated money was soon followed by the consecrated men. In 1876, the company of missionaries landed at Zanzibar, and travelling the 800 miles of jungle in six months, and marking their first disaster in the death of one of their party, reached Mtesa’s capital. They were welcomed with enthusiasm, and when the name of Jesus was uttered, a salute was fired. The work was begun immediately, but soon the second great disaster came—two of the company, Lieutenant Smith and Mr. O’Neill, were murdered at no great distance from the capital. But instead of discouragement, these disasters called forth new enthusiasm. Three young men were promptly sent out by the Church Missionary Society. They took the Nile route, but a journey that should have taken three or four months was protracted to nine by the floating islands in the Upper Nile and the ignorance of the Arab captain. One of the missionaries received a sunstroke and was obliged to return. At length they reached Uganda and were joyfully received, but soon came the greatest calamity—a week after their arrival two French Jesuit priests came also, and succeeded in so disaffecting the mind of the King as to arrest the work, and lead to the withdrawment of most of the missionaries. The summary at the latest dates is: Sixteen missionaries in all have been sent, of whom six have died and three have returned sick. Of the seven still in Africa, four have been permitted to go on various duties and three remain at Uganda without the facilities either to carry on their work or to withdraw.
2. Tanganika Mission.
Ujiji, the location of the Tanganika Mission is endeared to the friends of Livingstone. Here he made his temporary home, and here, almost ready to die, he was discovered by Stanley, to be restored to vigor and to toil still longer for Africa, till at last he was found dead upon his knees. The plan for a mission here was formed by the London Missionary Society, scarcely less venerable than the Church Missionary Society.
Mr. Arthington of Leeds, Eng., one of the generous and prompt donors of $25,000 for the Nyassa Mission, gave a like sum for this. Four ordained missionaries, one scientific man and one builder, left London in March, 1877. Their journey from the coast of Africa was protracted over thirteen months in consequence of the many obstacles and vexatious delays. Added to these trials, death did its fearful work. Under these discouraging circumstances, Dr. Mullen, the intrepid and beloved Secretary of the Society, obtained the reluctant consent of the Directors to lead in person an additional force, and to hasten the progress of the supplies. But he had gone only 200 miles from the coast when death closed his useful career. No event in the last five years has cast such a gloom over mission circles in Great Britain as the sad fate of this noble man.
3. Nyassa Mission.
Again is the stimulus of Livingstone’s labors seen, and his name and memory honored in the founding of another mission: the Livingstonia on Lake Nyassa. It was a labor of love for the Free Church of Scotland, aided by sister communions to undertake this mission. In the Spring of 1875, the expedition started, having been furnished with all needed supplies, including a beautiful steel steamer and two boats for the use of the mission on the Lake. After a tedious journey up the Zambesi and Shiré and a toilsome land journey of 60 miles, around the Murchison Falls, the Lake was at length reached.
After a brief search, a site was selected that held out unusual hopes of coveted advantages—there were no mosquitos and a favoring lake breeze gave promise of health. But alas for the unforeseen and insignificant difficulties that sometimes defeat the greatest undertakings—the fatal tsetse fly compelled the choice of a new location. But we cannot give space for the subsequent details.
The disasters and deaths in these missions have had a depressing effect upon the hearts of Christians in Great Britain, and we fear that the discouragements will to some extent be felt in this country. But we must guard ourselves against hasty inferences and unwarranted fears. We should remember:—
1. That trials at the outset are often God’s means of arousing a deeper faith. The history of missions, modern and Apostolic, is full of examples. The Teloogoo Mission where such an unusual work of Divine grace has recently been experienced and the converts have been numbered by thousands, was for a long time the scene of unfruitful labors. Bishop Crowther’s Mission in West Africa, now so strong and growing, had an early experience of toils and persecutions. The Apostles themselves encountered imprisonments and death not only, but their labors were sometimes followed by defections, perversions of doctrine and scandals in life.
2. We should take courage from the fact that the slave-trade, the worst foe to missionary labors in Africa, is feeling the effects of the earnest efforts of Great Britain for its overthrow. Sir Samuel Baker, and after him Col. Gordon, the stout old Covenanter—the Havelock of Africa—have crippled its power on the Upper Nile, while the labors of Sir Bartle Frere, and subsequently of Dr. Kirk at Zanzibar, have been equally effective along the coast, so that the Church Missionary Intelligencer feels authorized to say that “the slave-trade if not killed, is scotched.” The missions themselves, though hindered in many respects, have had a salutary influence in shaming and arresting this fiendish traffic.
3. Finally, the church of God must bear in mind that the Saviour’s last and great command, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel,” is accompanied by that all-comprehensive and all-sufficient promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” God will redeem the whole world, and in the Saviour’s heart and plan, Africa is not forgotten.