We read with unfeigned regret of the disasters and delays which the English and Scotch missionaries have met with, in attempting to begin their new work in Central Africa. The expedition of the London Missionary Society was, from July to January last, trying to push its way with its supplies to its destination on Lake Tanganyika, but was obliged to encamp for the rainy season at Kirasa, only about one-third of the way. It is hoped that during the present year they may reach the lake, and establish themselves there. The mission of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches is in danger of being driven from its station at Livingstonia, on Lake Nyanza, by so insignificant an enemy as a fly. The bite of the tsetse, deadly to all domestic animals, has sadly impoverished them, impeded their industrial operations, and curtailed their usefulness in advancing the civilization of Africa. The station may have to be moved. A new site must be sought with great care, which will not be liable to this pest.
In South Africa another missionary institution has been endangered by the Caffre War, three English officials having been murdered not far away; while missionaries Smith and O’Neill, of the Church Missionary Society in Central Africa, have been killed by hostile natives, on their way back to Uganda, the capital of King M’tesa. We believe that our forces at Good Hope and Avery are not liable to any of these perils. The station is accessible and reached; no deadly venom is in the insect life around them, nor are there unfriendly nations near. Only the dangers common to such regions are there to threaten them. And yet we must not set our hopes too high, or base them too confidently on any of the uncertainties which the future still holds. In a land of delays we know not what may hinder; amid a thousand possibilities, we cannot tell what peril lurks. Our hope is in the Lord—that He will suffer no evil to befall them, but give them strength for patient continuance in well-doing.
Our friends at Talladega College miss their names from the Institutions we mentioned in the May Missionary, as needing greatly, and at once, enlarged accommodations. We did not mention their wants, as indeed we did not other important needs; and perhaps the reason was, as they suggest, because, appreciating the strain laid upon our resources this year, they have considerately refrained from pressing the case which, last year, they laid before us. They say “It is difficult for us to see how any institutions in the South can be in more pressing need than we of a new dormitory.”
Mr. Whidby’s fears that a colored delegate to the Atlanta Sunday-school Convention would be either “lionized or snubbed” to that extent that it would be better for him not to come, proved to be not well grounded. The warned man did not come; but, fortunately, another did, of similar complexion, and that from Texas. He was received and treated just as the others were, and he behaved as well. The fact is, they were much busier devising for Sunday-school work than applying a color metre to each other’s faces. We are very glad the Texas brother was there.
PRINCIPLES AND PLANS.
—This Association does not affirm that races, any more than individuals, are equal in physical or mental fibre and development. Some races, as well as individuals, are manifestly below others in some respects. All that we claim is, that all men shall be regarded as equal before God and the Law; and that hence, in all churches of Christ, no distinction be made, on account of race or color; and also that, in the enactment and administration of the laws of the land, all races be equally protected in person and property, and that whatever immunities or privileges are granted to one, be extended to all.