South and South Central Africa / A record of fifteen years' missionary labors among primitive peoples

by Hannah Frances Davidson

The Church has come up nobly to the help of the Lord's work, both by their prayers and means, so that all have been generously supported and all the stations of white workers have good, substantial brick houses and churches, and the workers have been well cared for. May the Lord abundantly reward the donors and the Foreign Mission Board, who have given the work their undivided support.

We rejoice that a beginning has been made, but it is only a beginning. Only a very small portion of the great continent of Africa is covered by these pages, and that only imperfectly covered. The Lord has condescended to bless the work ever since its inception. It has never gone by leaps and bounds, but what was done has been solid and we hope lasting. We rejoice that we have been permitted to see natives emerge from the dense darkness of heathendom—how dark that is none but those who have lived among them can realize—and become beacon lights in their neighborhood, living witnesses of the truth that the Gospel of Christ "is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," to the pagan African as well as to the enlightened European or American.

Many a time people have said to me, "The people in Africa are more eager to become Christians than those in America, are they not?" It seems to me that there is little difference in the people; if there is any difference in the results it is because of the difference in the methods employed. The missionary, as he goes to his field of labor, is after souls. That is his business; it is not a side issue. It is his business and he makes a business of it and uses business methods. He must begin at the bottom and learn to know his people and enter as far as he is able into their surroundings and their lives. He makes a study of them. He knows from experience that the salvation of these precious ones has meant much travail of soul and deaths oft. He knows that some one has "filled up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ," in behalf of this part of the body of Christ. He knows they have been followed with anxious, solicitous eyes from the very first when they were infants in Christ, puny perhaps, and his heart was made glad, but with exceeding trembling lest the many pitfalls should entrap them before their eyes were really open to see or understand the danger. He knows some one has shed many bitter tears over the stumbling of some of these babies. He may now rejoice to see some grown to manhood, as it were, in Christ and being divinely used of Him in saving others.

Mr. and Mrs. Isaac O. Lehman and Family and Some of Our Workers, Members and Enquirers. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Are Satisfactorily Engaged in Work and in Preparation for the Work as Evangelists.

The true missionary keeps at it. It is his central thought day after day as he teaches these dirty, careless ones about him to become cleanly and do their work properly, how he can lead them on to desire a clean life and seek for it. His last thought and prayer at night, as he lays his head on the pillow, is for guidance as to how to win these precious souls, and sometimes he is led, like his Master, to spend much of the night in prayer.

Some people, looking on from a distance, think there is a great deal of romance connected with mission work; that it is full of striking incidents and delightful adventures, and that it is a grand opportunity to see something of the world. On my first furlough home, ten years ago, a little niece gave a glowing account of a friend of her mother, and of the countries that friend had visited. In conclusion the child naively added, "She has traveled almost as much as a missionary." This child unwittingly voiced the opinion of many a grownup; for to some would-be missionaries the prospect of foreign travel occupies a large space in their field of vision, but to the genuine missionary foreign travel is but incidental to mission life; it is the bridge over which he passes to some obscure corner of the earth where he is hid away from the world's gaze and surrounded by an entirely different class of people, of strange language and uncouth ways, often repulsive to the natural eye and to refined tastes. For months he may never see a white face, save those of his colleagues. He does not go with the expectation of finding a house already made to order and everything else he needs, but he is ready to go into the wilds, if needs be, and make a home for himself. He does not go just because he is willing to do certain things in the mission field; but he is willing and ready to do whatever he finds to do, and to go wherever the Lord tells him to go, and to stay as long as the Lord bids him stay.

There is, however, a fascination about mission work, as every one who is in the field will testify. Furloughs are taken because it is an absolute necessity for the missionary to go away for a time from the unhealthy climate and from the absorbing labors which sap the very vitality. But, when he is in his native land, the missionary feels that he is out of his element. He is out of touch with the business and interests which seem to engross the heart and soul of every one about him; and he is homesick to be back again to his field of labor and to see those dear dark faces. He feels that there is only one thing worth living for, and that is to lift up Christ among the heathen so that He may draw all men unto Himself. He feels that the time is short and that the "King's business requires haste," and that our Lord's return is imminent.

Again, as long as a person thinks he is making a great sacrifice in leaving home, friends, and his business, and going as the Lord's messenger among the benighted of earth, he would better remain at home. If he is really God-called, the day will come when he will realize something of the inestimable privilege of being His ambassador to nations in darkness without any knowledge of the Light of Life. All earthly things will be lost sight of and his heart will burn within him to lift up Christ among the heathen. He will gladly go through anything, that the blessed Gospel may be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.