List of Illustrations
I hear a clear voice calling, calling,
Calling out of the night,
O, you who live in the Light of Life,
Bring us the Light!
We are bound in the chains of darkness,
Our eyes received no sight,
O, you who have never been bound or blind,
Bring us the Light!
We live amid turmoil and horror,
Where might is the only right,
O, you to whom life is liberty,
Bring us the Light!
We stand in the ashes of ruins,
We are ready to fight the fight,
O, you whose feet are firm on the Rock,
Bring us the Light!
You cannot—you shall not forget us,
Out here in the darkest night,
We are drowning men, we are dying men,
Bring, O, bring us the Light!
John Oxenham.
FOREWORD
This short record of a year’s missionary journey in Africa and Madagascar is written at the request of the Directors of the London Missionary Society, and is based upon a series of Journal Letters written to my family and friends while I have been on my travels. This fact must be my excuse for writing in the first person. This little book has been prepared in the midst of the pressure of Secretarial work.
My visit to South Africa was a Secretarial visit. In Central Africa and Madagascar I formed one of a Deputation from the London Missionary Society. My colleague in Central Africa was the Rev. W. S. Houghton of Birmingham, and in Madagascar the other members of the Deputation were Mr. Houghton and Mr. Talbot E. B. Wilson of Sheffield.
It is not my purpose to attempt to give any description of the three Mission Fields which it has been my privilege to visit during the journey. Details with regard to the countries and the peoples will be found in three Handbooks published by the Society.[1]
Nor does the discussion of questions of missionary policy or any account of the details of the work in the various fields fall within the scope of this book. These matters have been dealt with in Reports prepared for the Directors of the Society. Further information with regard to all the fields can be obtained in the Society’s Annual Report. Some account of Madagascar and the missionary work there will be also found in a book just published, entitled “Madagascar for Christ,” being the Joint Report of the Simultaneous Deputations from the London Missionary Society, The Friends’ Foreign Mission Association, and the Paris Missionary Society, which have recently returned from Madagascar.[2]
The journey has been one of great fascination. From the point of view of the traveller it has been full of interest. From the point of view of a Secretary of a Missionary Society carrying on work in the lands visited, the outstanding impression has been that of the growing Christian Church. In Central Africa that Church is in its infancy, but it is an infancy full of promise. In South Africa and Madagascar the Native Church is nearly a century old. Its foundations have been well and truly laid, and it exhibits all the signs of healthy life and growth. As one travelled from station to station and came into contact with the Native Church in all stages of development and met the Native leaders of that Church, one looked into the future and saw a vision of a Church which would one day become not only self-supporting and self-governing, but so possessed with the missionary spirit that it would be an instrument in God’s hands for evangelising the peoples amongst whom it is now set as a lamp in the night. One hundred years ago and less these lands were in gross darkness; to-day the curtains of the night are being lifted and long closed doors are wide open to the light. The darkness has turned to dawning and the growing Church is becoming “a burning and a shining light” in the lands which aforetime sat “in darkness and in the shadow of death.”