SAN SALVADOR. NEW CHAPEL.
“Meeting Held on Monday Morning.
“The Chairman, the Rev. T. Lewis, said how great a pleasure it was to them to meet in this new house of God. When they began to build, many people thought they would not be able to finish, but by the blessing of God they were meeting there to-day. He wanted to thank all who had helped in this work, the bricklayers and the carpenters, those who had carried stones, and the labourers and children who had carried water. Some had worked very, very slowly, and they knew that sometimes he had had palavers with them about their slowness and carelessness. Now he hoped all these things would be forgotten. The work was finished, and to-day they were meeting to rejoice together.
“They remembered three who had begun the work with them, whom God had called in the middle of it—Makaya, Mponda, and William. But they had hope in their deaths that they believed in Jesus Christ, and trusted they were now with Him. He would say to the workmen just one thing. Let them take care lest any of those who had helped to build this house failed to enter into the house God had built above. The workmen who built the ark perished because of their unbelief. Let them make sure that they had entered into the kingdom now, by faith in Christ, lest they should be left outside the Holy City at last.
“He then introduced Mantu Parkinson, who was the first native baptized. Mantu recalled the time when the old King of Kongo received a letter from Mr. Comber, saying that he and his companions were down at Mosuca. He was a very little boy then, but he remembered the excitement of the day when Mr. Comber arrived with his wife and Messrs. Bentley, Hartland, and Crudgington; how the people wondered what they had come for, whether for rubber or slaves. Then soon after they heard that Mrs. Comber was sick, and the big people went to see her day by day, till one day they saw all the white men crying, and heard that she was dead. There was a great cry in the town, and he was among those who followed her to the grave. And though he could not understand what they said, he and others began to wonder what it might all mean. He spoke of several incidents which occurred in Congo, and then of his visit to England, and of many things he saw there. Especially he recalled a remark made to him by the Rev. Francis Tucker, of Camden Road, that God had remembered Congoland and sent them His Word. When he returned with Mr. Comber he often thought of those words, and he was reminded of them again this morning, when he saw the text on the wall, ‘The Lord hath been mindful of us.’ Those words and the teaching he afterwards received brought him to Christ, and he was baptized.
“Nlekai, teacher in charge of an outstation, was one of the first five who formed the Church, December 2, 1887. He said he was a native of Bangu, Arthington Falls. He was a very little boy and couldn’t understand much when Mr. Comber first came to Congo. But he remembered one day when there was a great noise in his town and Messrs. Comber and Hartland arrived, and all the people gathered together to hear them preach. Some of the other boys went back with them, but he was left. A short time afterwards Mr. Dixon visited his town, and after he had preached, asked the chief for some boys to go back with him. Then Nlekai was sent with others. Soon afterwards Mr. Dixon left San Salvador, and he became Mr. Weeks’s boy. With him he went to England. While there he went about and saw many people, and went every Sunday to a big house where they taught the people (the Metropolitan Tabernacle). And the people were constantly asking Mr. Weeks ‘Is your boy a Christian?’ And Mr. Weeks used to answer, ‘I do not know, perhaps he is!’ And he asked himself what they could mean. ‘Of course I am a Christian. I have not done any bad palavers, I have always washed the dishes properly.’ He thought very much about this till he came back to Congo, when from the words spoken by the teachers there he began to see that a Christian means some one who believes in Christ. Then Mr. Lewis came, and soon after he was baptized, and Mr. Lewis taught them they must join together to work, and they began to go into the other towns and tell the people there about the gospel. He finished by an appeal to all to come to Christ, and then to help in the work.
“The Rev. R. H. C. Graham next spoke. He said that when in England many people tried to dissuade him from returning to Congo. They said the Congos were too lazy to learn to work, and even if they professed to believe in Christ it was only with their mouths. Even many Christian people said, ‘You had better stay at home and teach the people here.’ But when they heard about this house which they were building and saw the photos of it which had been sent home; when they heard that it was being built by native workmen, they said, ‘Truly your work is not in vain.’ He then referred to having seen Mr. Dixon, and said how pleased he and Mr. Crudgington would have been had they been present to-day.
“Wavatidi was the next speaker. She, and another, now dead, were the first women baptized in 1888. She said she remembered the day that Mantu was baptized. She, with some other women, went down to the water to wash and saw Mr. Comber baptize Mantu. They thought to themselves, ‘What is this palaver? What can be the use of it?’ Then she heard many palavers, and soon after that Mrs. Lewis came, and then she began to be taught properly, and learnt to love Christ. When she and Mpuna went to the King, their husband, to ask permission to be baptized, he was very angry and threatened to shoot them. But Padre Barosa interfered, telling the King that baptism was a very good palaver, and he must let his wives be baptized if they wished. She then spoke of how she first went to school and tried to learn to read, and how Mpuna, who had been baptized with her, had been called home.
“Mata, who has been chief capita since the beginning of the Mission, spoke of those who first came to Congo and of the journeys that he took with them, especially of the time when he went to Stanley Pool with Messrs. Bentley and Crudgington, telling some wonderful ‘crocodile’ tales, and also some Congo parables quite incomprehensible to any European.