October 1936
The Missionary Review of the World — October 1936
VOL. LIX OCT., 1936 No. 10
Country and person tags, and the article breakdown below, are all detected automatically from OCR text and may be incomplete or inaccurate.
OCTOBER, 1936 THE AFRICA NUMBER Progress and Challenge in Africa Alexander Mcleish An African View of Indigenous African Religions Donald G. S. M'Timkulu The Gospel Among Primitive Peoples John S. Hall Revival in Central Africa Andrew MacBeath The Gospel and the Women of West Africa Jewel H. Schwab The Church of Christ in Uganda J. J. Willis Material Progress and the Africans John M. Springer The PrintedWord Among the Bantu Robert H. W. Shepherd A Medical Missionary on Tour Albert D. Helser The Unoccupied Fields John Steytler Africans on the Witness Stand Various Authors 25 Cents a Copy $2.50
Read the original scan (PDF) on cafis.org
1936
THE AFRICA NUMBER Progress and Challenge in Africa Alexander Mcleish An African View of Indigenous African Religions Donald G. S. M'Timkulu The Gospel Among Primitive Peoples John S. Hall Revival in Central Africa Andrew MacBeath The Gospel and the Women of West Africa Jewel H. Schwab The Church of Christ in Uganda J. J. Willis Material Progress and the Africans John M. Springer The PrintedWord Among the Bantu Robert H. W. Shepherd A Medical Missionary on Tour Albert D. Helser The Unoccupied Fields John Steytler Africans on the Witness Stand Various Authors 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Year
to Remember executive secretary of promotion. He International Dollar
will serve as chairman of the joint October 12-18–International Con- staff of the missions council and pro- Approved by Women's Boards of For- vention of the Disciples of Christ. motional units of the American Board eign Missions to meet the Grave Emer- Kansas City, Mo. and the Home Boards in the Congre- gency caused by decreased appropriations gational Church. for Vellore Missionary Medical College October 14-15 – Annual Meeting, for Women. Unless friends will help American Mission to Lepers, New The Rev. Gr*ant* K*. Lewis, Secre- quickly through the York City. tary of the Home Department of the Good Samaritan Dollar Bonds October 21-24–National Council of United Christian Missionary Society Young Men's Christian Associa- of the Disciples Church, has resigned. Dr. Scudder must close some of the work tions, Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. G. Orissa*Ta*ylo*r, born in India, and turn away eager Indian Christian stu- November 17-19 – National Confer- dents who long for training as doctors. ence on the Rural Church, Ames, has been appointed deputation travel- Already one Roadside Clinic is closed. Iowa. ing secretary of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. Dr. Taylor worked One Hundred Million Indian November 23-24 – United Steward- at Chittagong Hill, India, as a B. M. Women ship Council Meeting, Dayton, Ohio. S. medical missionary, was invalided ho~e, and for twenty years was su- will die without medical or spiritual aid CONFEREI'TCES AND SCHOOLS permtendent of the Islington Medical unless we meet the need quickly. Send OF MISSIONS Mission. Then, five years ago, he and for free literature and Bonds to Mrs. Mrs. Taylor went back to India again Henry W. Peabody, Chairman, Beverly, Affiliated with the Council of Women to work with the Nilgiri Medical Mis- Massachusetts. She will also send Prize for Home Missions and the Com- sion. Offer for those who will sell Bonds. mittee on Women's Work, For- eign Missions Conference Dr. Harold A*. M* oo*dy, of London, A Superior Education Houston, Te~a8 – September 28 – Oc- a Jamaican Negro, took office last Offered by Calvert Courses tober 2. month as president of the British Dean – Mrs. A. B. Hynes, 618 Christian Endeavor Un ion. Dr. FOR CHILDREN Highland, Houston, Texas. Moody is a practicing physician and founder and president of tbe League More than 50,000 children have ac- Warren, Okio–October 6-7. for Colored People of England. quired a superior elementary education Mrs. George Konold, 814 Scott . . . in their own homes • . . in this St., N. E., Warren, Ohio. Obituary Note. interesting and simple way. Recommended by Mission Boards, Edu- Baltimore, Md.-October 19-21. Fred B. Smith, author and former cators, State Department, and Army Mrs. David D. Baker, 410 N. Cal- moderator of the National Council of and Navy Officials. houn St., Baltimore, Md. Congregational Churches, died at his Daily lessons, selected books, stationery, home in White Plains, New York, on special materials and personal guidance Personal Items September 3d, at the age of seventy … by mail … from our prominent years. He was born in Lone Tree, and successful private day school in Dr. C. T. Wang, former Foreign Iowa, and spent one year at the State Baltimore. Minister, has been named Ambas- University of Iowa. After his con- Write today for illustrated catalog. sador to Washington to succeed Dr. version at the age of twenty-five he Sao-Ke Alfred Sze. Mr. Wang is a entered Y. M. C. A. work. He was M~!.~~~~~.!i~~~~~me , graduate of Yale, and was at one chairman of the World Alliance for Instruction time a Y. M. C. A. secretary. He is International Friendship and chair- 1810Tuscany Road, Baltimore, Md. now a member of the ruling Kuomin- man of the religious committee of the tang party's central executive commit- Y. M. C. A. during the World War. Planned along ad. tee. He is fifty-four years old. He is survived by his wife, two sons vanced peda;ogical Unes and three daughters. to provide both Home and Cia.. *** for the pupil. Varied (Continued on page 449.) such as Quizzes, Reading Tests, True Mr. John H. Reisner is spending False Test.. and Completion Tests, eight months in Africa under the LET YOUR GIFT the pupil to work out each lesson from auspices of the Agricultural Missions PAY YOU Bible for himself. Foundation and the Rural Missions Cooperating Committee. His itinerary A LIFE INCOME Interesting -:- Inspirational -:- In.hu"H",. includes Gold Coast, Nigeria, French Cameroons, Belgian Congo, Angola, I YOAUNR~UGJITfTY OPLNANTHE ~ SeM 8c in .bmp' lor curr_t in". Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rho- – will provide b you Sample. oj Oour S,.II'1d..y School pubhc.Uon••nd desia, Nyasaland, Portuguese East lind your dependeab Africa, Union of South Africa, Kenya Bible CO&rae.lor YCNRV People', Societi.. and Uganda. He expects to reach I.~' UlIChAanSau{unr8e aInd~ Mnt ft.. Oon ,,,,,,,••t. New York about January first. fully guaranteed by ~ serve funds required by EST.ISBS The Rev. W.*Y.*Ch*en has been ap- – New anYnourikt·ie"sjiIta.p.teromlaWptllloy All CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS.lN<! pointed General Secretary of the Na- paid "Inee 1876. tional Christian Council of China, By your CIft 700 Wlll 1502 N. Third St., Harrisburg, Pa. succeeding Dr. Cheng Ching-yi, who stiare tn world-wide resigned in 1984 to become General Christian work of the Secretary of the Church of Christ in ChurCh•. China. I'Dr ",,1 ialDriuIloII fWIu *** ~….:t~1~~ The Rev. Leonard M. Outerbridge, formerly a missionary of the American Board in North China and recently Associate Secretary of the American Board, has been appointed
MISSIONARY How African Evangelists are
REVIEW OF THE WORLD Trained, by L. Paul Moore, Jr. High Speed DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor What Christ Has Done for Afri- at Low Cost cans, by Bernard Molaba. VOL. LIX OCT., 1936 No. 10 Speed is often so important when Pioneering for Christ in Africa, crossing to the Orient. That's why Publication and Business Office– by Herbert Smith. busy travellers go by Empress. You Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. go faster … in maximum comfort The Greatest Need of Africa To- . .. and at surprisingly low cost. Editorial and Executive Office– day, by S. S. Tema. 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Only lQ days to Yokohama by Entered as second-class matter at We deeply appreciate the general Empress of Asia or Empress of cooperation of missionaries and other Russia. Or via Honolulu in just 3 Post Office, Harrisburg, Pa., unde, friends of Africa in the preparation days more by Empress of Japan Act of March 3, 1879. of this special number. Busy workers (largest, fastest liner on the Pa<:ific) have freely given of their valuable or Empress of Canada. 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. time to record the progress and prob- Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. lems of missions in Africa as they Low round-trip fares . . . First, Published monthly. except AUghst. have seen them. They throw much Tourist and Third Class. All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1935. light on the Africans themselves, both British agents – Marshall, Morgan Christian and non-Christian and de- Regular sailings from Vancouver scribe the methods and difficulties met and Victoria in Canada's Evergreen t~~d~~~t~. 1~. p~te~~~~~~~ ~~;ld~~;:: in the work. Weare especially glad Playground. Orient fares include to have a large number of African passage from and to Seattle. If you 10 shillings a year. Christians contribute articles on what sail from California, connect with an Christ has done for them and for Empress at Honolulu. Orient ports- MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- Africa. This is a most fascinating of-call: Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, LISHING CO" INC. field, immense and varied in its ex- Shanghai, Hong Kong and Manila. BOARD OF DIRECTORS tent but very fruitful in the results • World Tours . .. $579.90 up, that have followed the faithful wit- Combination of Classes. Write for ROUERT E. SPEER. l'r" .•ident nessing for Christ. folder of six most popular routes. A. L. WARNBHUIB. Vi06-Pre8ident Vv· ALTl<~R MCDOUGALL, '1'rew.;urer Obituary Notes Booklets, information from YOUR DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary AGENT or Canadian Pacific: New (Continued from second cover.) York, 344 Madison Ave.; Chicago, SAMUEl. MCCREA CAVERT 71 E. Jackson Blvd.; San Francisco, Mrs. Calvin Mateer, who, fifty- 152 Geary St.; and 38 other cities WILLIAM I. CHAMBERLAIN seven years ago, as Miss Haven, vol- in the United States and Canada. D. J. FANT unteered for missionary service in MRS, OHI<lN R. JUDD China, died in Peiping on August by WM. B. LIPPHARD first. She was born in Brookline, Mass., in 1850, and later married Dr. ~(fa4c ERIC M. NOR'fH Calvin Mateer, a missionary of the SAMUEL M. ZWEMER Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- EMPRESSES sions. Mrs. Mateer taught in mission Editorial Chat high schools, prepared textbooks, and translated a numoer of volumes into We would express our sincere grati- Chinese. Later she taught in the tude to Mr. Robert M. Kurtz for Women's Bible Training School in kindly undertaking to put through the Peiping, and after her honorary relast of the September number and for tirement in 1924 continued teaching his effective editorial work on the and writing. present issue of THE REVIEW. This is especially important as it is the mis- *** sion study number on Africa and will be widely used in mission study Missionary Muller, of the Hercircles. Already our extra edition of mannsburg Mission in Gallaland, the June American Negro Number West Abyssinia, lost his life at the has been entirely sold out. It will be hands of rioters and robbers who inwell for those who desire extra copies fest that section. He thus becomes the of the October REVIEW to send in their first martyr of this mission in that orders immediately so that they will area, which, because of its remoteness not be disappointed. from the capital, has not yet been placed under military law. *** *** Owing to limited space and to the failure of some promised articles to Miss Grace Stephens, Anglo-Indian reach us on time, a number of articles missionary, who began work among planned for the October number must the women and girls of India fifty be held over until later. Some of these years ago, passed away May 30, in the are very important and we expect to Ellen Thoburn COWen Hospital, Kolar, print them in November and Decem- India, at the age of eighty-five. At ber. They include the following: one of her zenana parties in 1892, where four hundred women had gath- Roman Catholic Activity in Pa- ered and were seated about on the gan Africa, by Kenneth G. floor, she stealthily sent for Bishop Grubb. Thoburn. When he appeared, many of them, purdah women and Brah- Hindrances to Christianity in mans, looked askance, but after a Africa, by C. S. Jenkins. time more than a dozen women pushed through the crowd at Miss Stephens' The Influence of White Men in invitation and shook hands with the Africa, by Oscar Emil Eman- bishop. It was a considered a great uelson. triumph and no unhappy results fol- lowed. The Progress of Islam in Africa, by Samuel M. Zwemer. (Concluded on page 512.) Missionary Work as Seen by an [449 ] African, by John L. Dube.
Achievements in West Africa, by R. S. Roseberry.
Some Results in Central Africa, by Virginia M. Clarke.
Missions in the Congo BeIge, by Thomas Moody.
q l ' "fJ~ ." ~~"- M8eizD erli f 2- ~
T&Il&,ie ..R.ut:i.j..a Or ~~ ..f '" s asta ane"tt& -.— usa f' ' ,. Casablan 0 SF.. '~A Con&ta"oBiskra I UNI _,,. eo <f A • M.kirl!l • L G E R I A. l.'T Sf" .~"..•'.'-''.y ", ._.thardaia,.. 0 MOROCCO Gabes • Morocro .r;' .. .' Agadlr – – -) Colomb • • ___ – Bechar ~:hadames ,._.J RlODEOJ !' . LIB Y A , . o Murzuk I Kh"gaO ) , .J. ,'— ~ ~. "' . , L'.-._.-.A-sw.a~,.. W.dyH,lfa ( " Oongof,o Port Sudan FRENCH WE S T AFRICA < "("'> Dakar Timbuklu O JI..::U "Kayes °Sinder • ."- "'."……–..~ ~< EIObel Kuka aBamako I i oW.gadugu 0 Abeshr. SUDAN Ko . " ,. _ . ,• J.:.. I. anD .Yakuba ( ..: 1 Kon~o i !? ,,' N I G E R I A " 0:: ·1-..I. JS ,.)' r I /GOLD . 🙁 IOHesha @B K l a . ~ …… /Kumassi Q • "'fbada" '.. '. (ETEI1 J'IA) • Cd'AST • oAsaba , "'sagmo _ _ _'!"'oo&..;A;;;k",k~~~~ ; ; Bangui . ___~ ~ ·(Bra~n·o~'~.~r<?~!¥' ~ .' 0 Upolo ~~.. ir '"– ._., .-) '·…. :~4J Ynd 0' ~ au ~~DA) " (.:.' ._. ~nteb~{>"~BRITISH ~" ,! StanleyvilleO * – Vir/orio ~ 4. J'/ BELGIAN . 'E'A0~ °l am, oKindu '
B"Z"'~ CON G O . TAGANYlKA ' I N DI A N ~a CABIXDAl • .wl~ A T LA N T I c ,'-'-''l Kongotoo • oc EA N EAN 0 0 ' ( . ~ ••…1•…, "-·'~.1 ~ loand. Cassani' j • ~ Matanle '> ' – – . "flit"ab.!.~Y/~eo · A No G 0 L A ,….,I' ~. ~E v ;''I f~.;z. 4J Bihe . 'l or-:: I NORTHEll~', "-c-~ .0;.. …B.la.nt~ yr,~.olombal).'" Mossamed •__. _ ~ . i il2M ' " , "" ~ I • .-…… …..,lSOUTHERN . v r ' – ' , RHODESIA ~ G,.,gtfont.in j " 'r' ' SOUTH WEST BECHUANALAND' 0 Bulawayo. 0"'l 01" r-s '!@.dh~ Palapye '~. o I O ~./ ;;; /. ~,{TRANSVAA~ I loh/a'n;l..l.e'.iy?~JI,'~~: '. ouren'" nhambane I" ~ ~q~ II ~ &..,.,," t… " _/'Gf.~"'r."'.p '",•..,' B..Kciomnbsefrt"eyl~~,~"~~"~.:N;" oLJdysm,ih oPrelirmantzbu'g o Paas,i o0~~Be~au'fco-rt"~.~~~~~'a/s.t;Londonurban ~~ CLEARTYPE ~oo,~ .., '1A/f'fd i'lizabeth II.. u.s. " •. 0#.
Principal Cities Map of *KEY TO POPULATION NOTICE Over 100,000 nlth ……¥~h.od_… n.. …. ~"" …. AFRICA S 20,000 to 100,000 ;::-:::::::::'COZ'"::t.":i.i;!;~ o Less than 20,000 MAP No. 966 Capitals of Countries (underscored) Scale of Miles COfJ)Tialu 200 Amuican Mao Company. '"e.• N .Y ..- 8392. . ORLD VOLUME LIX AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 10 OCTOBER, 1936 Topics of the Times WHY STUDY AFRICA One answer, or rectification rather, to that question is that no great human agency is any There appears to be a special opportunity and longer justified in attempting to maintain bounduty before the Christian Church to study Africa. daries between "home" and "foreign" needs. What is done about American race relations will In a sense, not true of any other great world profoundly affect Africa. What is done about unit, human or geographical, there is no one, any- African economic questions will continue greatly where, effectively to think and plan for Africa as to influence American living. And so throughout a whole. Africans cannot do it yet. Eight hun- the earth. dred languages, as many tribes, a millennium of almost complete tribal isolations prevent. The six But the basic reply to that question is that the European powers governing in Africa, and the problems in many of their aspects are universal, one striving to return there, will not do it. One and that Christianity has the answers to them need only name them-Britain, France, Italy, wherever they occur. They are by no means con- Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Germany-to make fined to America or to Africa and those nations clear the improbability of their presently agree- which have given themselves burdens in Africa. ing on anything, much less on the future of the They are universal. And the Church, by its very Africa which is so rich in raw materials and claim to universality, or better, by its very unihuman power as nearly to have precipitated an- versality, finds itself sharing those burdens. other great war this past year, when the world was crying out against all war. The "gratuitousness" of the Church's continued and increased intervention in African affairs is No, there is no prospect of unity of thinking thus also answered, with the added observation about Africa-unless it be that the Church shall that, in practical human relations, mere political do it. Therein lies a great challenge and oppor- control of a territory has seldom operated to pretunity, not only for performing a beneficent serv- vent ideas and pressures from nations other than ice for Africa and the world, but for exercising the one in authority entering and influencing the and strengthening within the Church those quali- country, sometimes very deeply indeed. ties of spiritual and moral leadership which remain so often latent and are. yet so sorely needed In the case of Africa, for example, where the in the world. United States has not a mile of territory and but relatively small financial investment, American Many American Christians may feel that it is education, American philanthropy, American gratuitous, even impossible for the Church, of medicine and methods of public sanitation, Amerwhich they are a part, to project its thinking and ican agricultural experience, American transporideals concerning a future Africa into those quar- tation material, American accounting devices, ters within and without Africa where that future American mineralogical engineering, Americanwill be determined. the list could be continued in a well-nigh exhaus- tive enumeration of human experience-have al- How can a church, some will ask, which has not ready affected fundamentally nearly every part yet achieved a common front on such "domestic" of Africa. The precedent is abundantly fixed for fields as race relations, cooperatives, public own- American participation in African matters. As ership, economic security, armaments, class ex- for the Christian Church, probably no single inploitations, hope to attain such on a "foreign" field?
[451 ]
fluence has thus far been greater in transforming strengthened. And, beyond the slightest doubt, the internal life of Africa. the animistic Africa of today can be transformed into the Christian Africa of tomorrow. What is now needed, besides the continuance of that internal transformation, and what is posted EMORY Ross. as a great challenge to the Christian international, is the forming and directing of world policy THE GODLESS MOVEMENT concerning Africa, and in Africa, so as best to aid Africa and the African to develop in both in- In this country until lately many remembered ternal and external relationships. World policy the atheist as one of the local "characters" of their is certainly not so directed now. Correctly speak- home town. He might make a professed convert ing, there is no world policy regarding Africa, now and then, but he seldom greatly disturbed the unless indeed it be expressed as universal white religious life of the community. But now atheism, domination. like all sorts of propaganda, has become an or- ganized and aggressive foree, not only national, In some respects it would be ruinous for Afri- but international, in scope, another of the world's ca, and in other respects it might well prove dis- great evil forces that challenge the right of the astrous in world relationships, for the sum of Church of Christ to live. One wonders at the present policies toward Africa to continue. singular mentality that can become so hostile to the preaching of the Gospel-which no one is Within Africa, they have already set up in many obliged to accept or even to consider-as to make places such strains, racially, economically, social- of him a monomaniac. Indeed, whether one bely and in some cases religiously, that the structure lieves in a personal devil or not, when he exbeing creakingly reared threatens even now to amines the activities and sacrifices of organized fall. anti-Christianity and hears or reads its blasphe- mous utterances, it seems as if the idea of Satanic Outside Africa, the world's attitude and actions leadership is the simplest and most logical. extouching Africa have on at least four occasions planation of these manifestations. The Presbybetween 1897 and 1935 nearly resulted in armed terian has republished this item, credited to I. C. European clash, plus the tragic African events of P. I. S., Geneva, which gives some idea of the zeal 1936 which appear to have resulted in the post- that is going into international atheistic work: ponement and increased preparation for war, rather than in averting it – just as in 1911 the The periodical, Antircligio'snik, published in the U. S. Agadir crisis was adjourned to 1914. . . . S. R. by the Central Council of the League of the Fight- ing Godless, includes in a recent issue an article on the There is in all this need the possibility of an then impending international congress held in Prague. unique and inestimable service to be rendered by In this article, the task of the Free Thinkers' Internathe Christian Church to Africa and the world. tional is put forward as that of fighting for democratic To render that service, or even intelligently to rights and freedom of conscience, for economic and culargue against the possibility of its being rendered, tural progress against clerical reaction, and for the cothe Church must study Africa. ordination of the godless all over the world. The article further states that in regard to the colla'Joration of the In America not without reason is Africa various Free Thinkers' Associations with the Godless thought of, more than any other continent, as Movement, and in relation to the struggle against Fascism, "mysterious," "darkest," "remotest," "unknown." war and clericalism, fundamental agreement has already It is unknown in many of its elements. We are been reached. Similar views have been expressed by the generally quite unaware of how profoundly Africa League of the Fighting Godless, in the A'pril issue (page already affects our life. Still less are we conscious 2) of Bcsbcschnik, published by the Soviet Union. In the of the inevitability with which it will continue meantime, the fusion of the Brussels Free Thinkers' Inand increase its influence in the whole range of ternational with the Proletarian Free Thinkers' Internahuman affairs. How widely is it realized, for ex- tional has taken place, thanks, not least (according to ample, that in certain important and real senses, "International Correspondence" of May), to the active Africa is the richest continent, the most produc- collaboration of the Soviet delegation, which was composed tive continent, the coming continent? of Professor Lutaschewsky, representing the League of the Fighting Godless in the U. S. S. R., and Professor Let us study this continent, not only during the Savadowsky, President of the Ukrainian Godless League. months just ahead of what we call mission study, The reports of these members of the congress "made an but in the days beyond that when Africa and its essential contribution to the clarifying of the basic quesneeds will continue to grow and its influence con- tions of the Free Thinkers' Movement." Professor Savatinue to mount, voluntarily and involuntarily, for dowsky, it is further stated, declared in his address that good or for evil in world relationships. "it is only today that it is possible, with the union of the two Internationals of Free Thinkers, to estimate the whole If we study, and are convinced, and act, the value of the assistance rendered by the liberated science "African problem" can be solved, and with it will of the U. S. S. R., to the ideological struggle of the Free be solved many other problems, now fearfully con- Thinkers against Fascism and clericalism." The merging fronting individuals, nations and the world. Our of the two Internationals of Free Thinkers is not to be own Christianity can thus be expanded and regarded as an aim in itself, but as a means of coordinat-
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
ing "the best forces Qf progress and of science in the after commenting on harvest conditions as he had noticed them when crossing the country: struggle for Socialism." R. M. K.
MILLIONS OF SHEPHERDLESS SHEEP May r remind you of another kind of harvest which seems to have been shunted into the background? r am The anxious demand for economic security is speaking to you as a fellow American who during the at the bottom of the prevailing social unrest. This social conflict differs notably from the age-old last two decades has spent most of his time outside the struggle for political freedom. The latter was the concern of citizens within a nation. In one coun- borders of our country on duty in Europe and the Far try they might enjoy a high degree of political liberty, while those of a neighboring state were East. Each return to America reveals marked changes greatly oppressed. But now the world has been so brought into communication that the strife not only in the physical appearance of the country but over social and economic theories has overflowed boundaries between nations, and great interna- in the mental and moral climate which show now and tional groups are beginning to overshadow the old national parties. When the masses come to think, again a spiritual drought of wide areas of American life. and act, internationally the world has reached a critical point in its history, and one which the r find myself especially impressed by the fact that you Church cannot ignore. and others, who are my countrymen, are placing undue But the Christian Church will not meet its op- portunity and accomplish its appointed work by emphasis upon the lifting of the standards of economic entering any heated secular debate. It can fulfill its Great Commission only by bringing men to life. Weare being told on every hand that we need to realize that they live not by bread alone. It is quite evident, from the present emphasis upon the seek economic security and that when that is achieved all "social gospel," that the central Christian message . of redemption through the Cross is not very popu- will be well. I find myself definitely calling in question lar, but that is no reason for neglecting to press it upon men's attention. Rev. Dr. D: E. Hart- that conclusion. Davies, of Edinburgh, Scotland, in a sermon re- cently delivered in New York, put the situation in We have lifted the standard of economic security very these words: much in the last few decades, but we definitely lack ·that something which can bring peace, prosperity and happi- ness. There is need for much further planting of spiritual seed in the hearts of men so that along with the harvest in the fields there may be likewise the harvest of cultural and spiritual gifts and graces. This, and this only, will lead the people of America intQ that quest of real life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. R. M. K.
The world of humanity may be likened to a vast Oriental THE CHURCH AND THE YOUTH wilderness upon which millions of shepherdless sheep are MOVEMENT grazing. One of the phenomena-perhaps, rather, one of the symptoms-of our times is the prominence of I never go into a big city like London, Glasgow, Bir- youth, to the extent of almost making them a dis- tinct social class. This is very naturally leading mingham, Chicago or New York without feeling my own youth to take itself with exceptional seriousness, so that in its mass expression it is inclined to put helplessness as I look upon the masses of the people close in "a very large order." An instance is this stateup. Though their aims are manifold, there is an intensive ment from a declaration of rights adopted at the passion for leadership. Meanwhile, the Son of God has third American Youth Congress, held last July in Cleveland: appeared and made the great claim of the ages, "I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk "Our generation is rightfully entitled to a use- ful, creative, and happy life, the guarantees of in the darkness but shall have the light of life." which are full educational opportunities, steady employment at adequate wages, security in time Your eternal salvation and mine depend ultimately upon of need, civil rights, and peace."
this one simple thing: the personal appropriation of the Excepting infants, people of any age are right- fully entitled to much the same things. The sad Son of God as the shepherd of the soul. R. M. K. thing about this rather complacent claim upon life is, that it is stained with the blood and tears of OVEREMPHASIS ON ECONOMIC many generations of men who have demanded of STANDARDS life just such benefits, only to find that, taken to- gether, these boons spell Utopia, the undiscovered One who visits a country at intervals of years country. What life really gives is discipline, now has unusual opportunities to observe and appreci- more severe, now less, but discipline always. Beate various changes. They are presented to him cause youth is proverbially hopeful and the dewith a vividness that the citizen who has seen the pression has so blighted youthful hopes and gradual progress of things fails to sense. Such thwarted youthful ambition they need all the an observer is Bishop Edwin F. Lee, of the Meth- sympathy and help that their elders can offer. odist Episcopal Church, who has charge of its However, that does not mean that sound judgment work in Malaysia and the Philippines. In a ser- should give way to an emotional attitude that may mon delivered in New York last August he said, mislead considerable numbers of young people into thinking that somehow the working of eco-
nomic laws can be modified to suit their very real everywhere else, it will seek to win the youth, we needs. Of course, this is a weakness not confined to the young, but marks people of all ages who have an added incentive to bring young people the have never become mature enough mentally to save themselves from social and political dream- world over, as well as at home, to know their ers and false prophets. The truth is, that unnumbered thousands of youth, unknown and unsung, Lord and to see human life in all its interest as have always had to face such difficulties in their individual lives as trouble millions today who find He would have them see it. R. M. K. a bond in their common sorrows and their united efforts for betterment. NO MERE ACADEMIC MATTER The problems of these millions will be met much There is a disheartening amount of adverse as those of the thousands before them have been. Faith in God, patience, perseverance and the criticism of the present condition of the Churcn, other virtues can win comfort and peace-though some hopes will fade. But unsound theories, even from within, and it is to be feared that much radical mass movements and ill-advised revolutions are not going to change human nature or the of it is well founded. How can things be made underlying principles of things. Of course, we must recognize the evidence of a changing social right? They say that one of the best ways to order, apparent at home and abroad. To natures that are well-balanced this means a time for cau- learn is to teach, and that one of the best ways to tion and careful study. But it also means the great opportunity for the social and political ex- keep one's body in trim is to engage in active tremist, who finds valuable allies in discontent, discouragement, and despair. work. Teach and work. So, then, how can the But another serious factor is beginning to be Church renew her life and power in any better noticed among the more than six million unemployed Americans under twenty-five years of age, ways than by teaching-and so relearning-the and that is a disposition to refuse the responsibility for improving things. More than this, much basic truths of her faith, and by energetically radical propaganda that appeals powerfully to young people of unfavorable background, does not working to put them within reach of all men seriously seek real improvement of the economic order. Instead, it proposes the appropriation of everywhere who have never heard them? the best material advantages in the present order for the less fortunate. Hence the demands for In our generation there is an appalling lack the confiscation and redistribution of wealth. These disturbing tendencies are becoming more of knowledge, or else only the vaguest knowledge, and more evident in America, but they are present the world over wherever youth finds it~ way of the meaning of such mighty terms as "incarnablocked by general conditions. tKiionn~daotmonoefmGeondt,." redemption, regeneration and The Church cannot settle the economic prob': But knowledge of thel'le things lems the times present for youth. But it can and must boldly urge the high moral claims of Chris- will never come by sermons and study cOurses tianity which include the cultivation of that very sense of responsibility just referred to. It was and programs that deal with everything save the intended in the moral economy of God that men should regard themselves as their brothers' keep- Church's supreme concerns. If the Church has ~rs. It is this moral responsibility that is to be laid upon the hearts of youth. But the particular any great service to render to the world it is to political or social systems or methods or schemes by which this obligation is to manifest itself is deliver to all men everywhere the good news not the burden of the Church. the Lord has given her for them. What is more Now, since we are finding that such anti- Christian agencies as communism are invading necessary for the Church than to be made to realeven the great mission field of Africa, where, as ize her responsibility for obeying Him in this matter? How men can be lifted out of the selfish- ness that is threatening civilization is shown by contributions to this issue of THE REVIEW.
But the Church's lessened vitality, serious though it be, does not reveal how critical the situ- ation really is. Weare not experiencing merely an ecclesiastical depression; the Church is ap- proaching a great religious crisis, of profound im- portance to civilization itself. Dr. Samuel Henry Prince, Professor of Sociology at King Univer- sity, Halifax, N. S., while preaching in this coun- try last summer, observed that religion had "con- tributed mightily to the survival of the individual and the human race, and a failing Christianity will presage a decline of the West." And he con- tinued: "The decline of the West is no longer a matter of mere academic consideration, of interest to the followers of a Spengler. It raises the whole question of the factor of religion in social con- tinuity. Whether Christianity shall be allowed to collapse or shall reconquer the Western mind and redeem it of its secularism, megalomania and self- complacency is a greater issue than an American labor schism or a Spanish civil war." R. M. K.
and Challenge in
By REV. ALEXANDER McLEISH, London, England Survey Editor, World Dominion Movement T HE hope of the Church in Africa lies in its and medical work missions have also pioneered becoming a truly indigenous African Church. the way for governments which are rapidly tak- Let us glance at the Protestant occupation ing over these responsibilities. Evangelistic work of Africa in its main geographical divisions. carried on for more than fifty years has resulted Ohristians in the creation of the largest Christian community Mission- Per in any mission land, now numbering, according Population aries Ohristians Million 676 48,150 1,528 to the latest computation, 7,904,514.3 North Africa .. 31,503,298 East Africa … 25,935,548 824 172,302 6,643 The Moslem infiltration from the north con- West Africa .. , 44,463,884 1,140 1,130,529' 25,425 tinues, but has been held up by the Coptic Church Central or Equa- of Abyssinia, by the great progress of missions in 24,439,048 1,479 739,379 30,254 Uganda, and by the chain of mission stations torial Africa. 20,460,759 3,473 4,000,000' 173,408 stretching across the Sudan. Along the old slave South Africa ..
146,802,537 7,592 6,090,3612 38,448 route in Tanganyika, however, Islam is extending The slow progress in Moslem North Africa is its influence again as well as along the coast as far south as Lourenco Marques. at once apparent, and becomes more striking when Roman Catholicism has launched a new and it is remembered the Christians are drawn mainly vigorous campaign for the conquest of Equatorial Africa. The ambition of Cardinal Lavigerie has from the Copts of Egypt. been largely realized and one of the greatest con- solidated spheres of Catholic missions has been If this occupation be distributed under the vari- built up, stretching south from Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to Northern Rhodesia, and west from ous governments it appears as follows: Tanganyika through the Belgian Congo to French West Africa. Rome claims over four million Cath- Ohristians olics in Africa, more than half of whom are in Equatorial Africa. Mission- Per aries Christians Million Africa, however, has proved the most respon- Population sive to Protestant missions of the great world British …….. 4,820 4,564,602 ' 73,347 French …….. 56,225,671 720 933,930 24,359 38,351,128 Portuguese …. 342 285,000 33,290 Belgian ……. 8,561,545 Spanish …… . 13,328,601 1,012 221,000 16,582 .. Italian …….. 1,678,846 22 1,399 834 2,534,814 International 33 3,110 1,226 51,000 Independent … 26,070,932 16 20 392 627 81,300 3,310 fields. David Livingstone, dying upon his knees, 146,802,537 7,592 6,090,361 2 38,448 is forever the symbol of a church sustained in The impact of the European powers has had many an hour of persecution and difficulty by tremendous repercussions in Africa. The recent divine power. Madagascar, Nigeria, Uganda and centenary (1933) of the abolition of slavery in South Africa show the most remarkable progress. the British dominions is a reminder of a hundred The tragedy of North Africa is its vanished years of steady transformation. Native opinion Church. That Church was without an equal in in the south has been profoundly stirred over the Christendom from the second century to the fifth.
color bar legislation. In other parts of the conti- Even in the fifth century, though already in denent the years since the War have seen an increas- cline, it still numbered over 500 dioceses. Its decay ing sense of trusteeship among foreign govern- was due to three significant things: The Scrip- ments, which, however, has received a severe blow tures were never given to the great Berber nation in recent days. Governments have dealt more ade- in their own tongue, the missionary spirit graduquately with educational and social problems. ally faded away, and the Church itself ceased to Four-fifths, however, of the education of the Afri- be truly indigenous and became dominated by can is still in the hlmds of missions. In social Greek and Latin theologians. Therefore it de- clined, and the Moslem invasion of the seventh 1 The British (and the Dutch) have been the only Protestant colo- century completely destroyed it. The Coptic nizing powers in the continent, and it may be seen how predominantly the Protestant Church is established in those territories where 3 This does not include the Coptic Church of Abyssinia and Egypt they have held or still hold sway. Comment is needless. or European Christians scattered over Africa.
2 This number (1936) is now 7,904,514.
[ 455]
Church of Egypt, however, which had given the does the evangelization of the land of Simon of people the Bible, survives to this day. Cyrene hang!
Throughout the Dark Ages and until today the A few years ago, out of the population of thir- Moslem has been the religious dictator of North teen million in Egypt there were nearly a million Africa. The Crusades did not shake him, and Coptic Christians, 66,000 Protestants, and 117,000 almost the only missionary was the lonely but un- Roman Catholic and Uniat Christians. The daunted Raymond Lull, martyred in Algeria in Christian population chiefly resides in upper 1315, and who ever was true to his own motto, Egypt. Between Cairo and the Mediterranean, "He who loves not, lives not." The millions of among six million people, there are only one-quarthese regions still unevangelized remain a per- ter of the Protestant Christians. The Coptic petual challenge to the Christian Church. If to Church is one of the ancient Christian churches, this be added the other Moslem populations of very similar to the Greek Orthodox. Since the Africa, we are faced with almost half the total British occupation of Egypt (1914) the Copts population for the most part still unreached by have mingled much more freely with the Mosthe Evangel. lems, and not a few have gone over to Islam. The Coptic Church does not view with favor the work The partition of North Africa 4 began in 1830, of Protestant missionaries. The Moslems number when Algiers fell to the French, who today govern ninety-one per cent of the population of Egypt. Tunis and the Protectorate of Morocco also. Spanish Morocco is relatively small. Italian Trip- There are about 440 missionaires and 20 misoli and Cyrenaica are vast, but sparsely populated. sionary societies in the country. Forty per cent French administration has been enlightened and of the missionary force is in Cairo, and there are thorough, but it has not helped to solve the reli- 33 other missionary residential centers. Much gious problem. Illiteracy throughout North Africa evangelism' has been carried on among the Copts amounts to about ninety per cent among the men, since 1859, and a very large part of the Protestant and is almost universal among the women. Church has been built up from among them. Progress among Moslems' has been exceedingly Roman Catholic Christianity in North Africa slow, but the present situation is viewed hopefully. does not really assist the Moslem to accept Christ; Many social and educational reforms are being its ceremonies and images are foreign to him. carried out in the country today, but there are Protestant missions, most of which are interde- powerful elements which view with apprehension nominational, were started about fifty years ago. any weakening of the traditional Moslem position Their work is threefold: that among the Jews, and prestige. of whom in Tunis and Algiers alone there are over 200,000; that among the European colonists, Turning to East Africa,5 let us consider the French, Spanish and Italian, in some cases also situation in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.6 The numerous; and, finally, that among Moslems. River Nile is the unifying highway of the Sudan. The tribes have no affinity, either racially or tem- Work among Moslems has been, and is extraor- peramentally, with the peoples of Egypt. The dinarily difficult. The number of missionaries country is today experiencing a new development. considerably outnumber the number of converts. The future, in the material sense, would seem In Morocco, for example, out of six and one-half promising for the Sudanese. As for the Christian million persons, five and one-quarter million live Church, there are about 100 missionaries and sevoutside the centers of missionary occupation. eral thousand communicants. Six provinces with Evangelization does not really depend upon more a population of over 1,200,000 are practically unforeign missionaries, but upon the sacrificial touched. There has recently been considerable prayer of Christians everywhere and the emer- progress in numbers and influence, and in Bible gence of Spirit-filled indigenous evangelists. The translation, and in the pagan parts of the south work must be largely that of men, but at present many have been pressing into the Kingdom. Conwomen workers predominate. Of the total work- siderably more than half the population is pagan, ers in Morocco, three-quarters are women. For and only the few mission stations oppose the onthose who know the constitution of Moslem society ward march of Islam. The southern Sudan may this needs no comment. well be one of the desperate battlegrounds of the future between Christianity and Islam. The occupation of the field, too, is unequal. In all Tripoli and Cyrenaica there is only one medi- Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, has a population of from cal missionary-in Tripoli city. The Italian gov- eight to ten millions, of which probably one-half ernment had put severe restrictions on religious are pagan and the remainder equally divided beliberty. Two very small groups of Italian believers have been organized. On such small threads 6 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Abyssinia, Somaliland, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanganyika (area, 2,267,708 square miles; population, 25,727,684; 4 Modern Populations: Tangier, 51,000; Spanish Morocco, 720,273 ; density, 11.3). French Morocco, 4,500,000; Algeria, 6,553,451; Tunis, 2,410,692; Lybia, 719,663; E'gypt, 14,217,864. • Area, 1,008,100 square miles; population, 5,728,551.
PROGRESS AND CHALLENGE IN AFRICA
tween Islam and the Abyssinian Church. The over two million Moslems, but many think that the last few years saw a great advance in the work number of real disciples is not more than 300,000. of Protestant missions. A new spirit among the What is certain, however, is the rapid superficial priesthood, a general readiness to hear the Gos- increase. Roman Catholicism is represented by pel, and the printing and publishing of the New about 700 workers and 200,000 Catholics. It is Testament by the government press were out- pursuing an active and aggressive policy, greatly standing facts. This progress has been arrested hampering the work of Protestant missions. meanwhile, and it is not known what the future of Protestant missions will be. Missionary work There are 13 Protestant missions and a Chrisdates from 1830, and before the recent war there tian community of 125,826. The German miswere eight societies, with a staff of about 200 sions, excluded in the Great War, were permitted missionaries. to return in 1925. Probably the areas of least progress are in the Eastern and Western prov- This will remain for long a very needy area and inces. The former borders the Indian Ocean, must be included in the unevangelized area of and among its half million people there are under Africa. Missions may be able to continue their 1,500 Protestant Christians. The latter lies along work in cooperation with the Waldensian Prot- Lake Tanganyika. The Lake Province, the most estant Church of Italy, which views with sym- populous, contains a large number of unevangelpathy and concern the condition of the Evangeli- ized tribes. It is important to note that no defical Christian communities in Ethiopia today. nite steps have yet been taken for the evangeliza- tion of the Moslem populations. Eritrea (Italian) and the SomaIilands (British, French, and Italian) are grouped around Abys- The history of West Africa 10 has been marred sinia in the "horn" of Africa. The population, by slavery. Slavery is still said to survive in which is Moslem, is small.7 Moslem bigotry pre- Liberia. Missions and governments are now desents special difficulties in the way of missionary voting all their energies to native interests. Islam work. Only in Italian territory has evangelism has made great inroads from the North. In many actually been carried on by the National Evan- villages, formerly pagan, the call of the muezzin gelical Missionary Society of Sweden. This work floats from the minaret. Yet the Church has has now been suspended. made much progress, particularly in British ter- ritory. In British West African colonies there are Kenya 8 is a young country. Thirty years ago some 252,000 Christians, and in Nigeria nearly a Nairobi, the capital, was an experiment in tin million. All this ground has been won at great shacks; today it is an up-to-date city. Its high- sacrifice, in the loss of missionaries by sickness lands are suitable for white settlers. The difficul- and in the sufferings and persecutions of the naties between them and the natives have been tive Christians in the past. greatly exaggerated, and even the trouble with the natives over the discovery of gold in 1932-33 has The task of Africa's evangelization is not only been satisfactorily settled. There are eleven mis- that of the foreign missionary. The Church has sionary societies in the colony, and much progress not been without its own leaders, and in more rehas been made. The territory is fairly divided cent times "prophets" have arisen here and there. between these bodies, and the unoccupied fields Some of these have been men of little worth, but are to be found mainly in the north where, how- one deserves more than a passing reference. The ever, the population is not dense. Work has re- "prophet" Harris was a Liberian of the Grebo cently been begun in these regions. The unhealthy tribe. As a young man of twenty-one he felt the regions of the coast have still many neglected call of the Holy Spirit. Of his early years of groups. In the west the influence of the great ministry little is known; but in 1913, when he work that has been done among the tribes of was about sixty, he came to the Ivory Coast, and Uganda has been strongly felt. God began then to use him in a remarkable way. His message was simple, his life apostolic, and he Since 1920 Tanganyika Territory 9 has been ad- was undoubtedly taught of God. A Bible and a ministered by Great Britain under a mandate of bamboo cross were the insignia of his mission. the League. The administrative reconstruction of His converts on the Ivory Coast are variously the region has been carried out with special ref- reckoned up to a 100,000. Persecution fell on the erence to the welfare of the native peoples, and Christians, but the majority refused to comproseeks to stimulate native authority. A living issue mise. Harris himself was deported in 1915 to in the religious field is the progress of Islam. Liberia, where he later died. Zanzibar and the East African coast are almost completely Islamized. The last census records Nothing was known of this to the missionaries at this time. Strange stories came to them of a 7 Eritrea, 621,776; Somalilands: British, 344,70'0; French, 68,965; Italian, 1,010,815; Island of Socotra (British), 12,000, 10 French, British (InclUding Nigeria), Spanish and Portuguese territory and Liberia: Area, 2,458,745 square miles; population, 8 Area, 224,960 square miles; population, 3,091,064; density, 13,5. 42,432,017; density, 17.3.
o Area, 366,632 square miles; population, 5,022,640; density, 13.7.
work in the interior which passed human analysis, are only one or two stations. Most of the mission- of fetishes destroyed by thousands, of churches ary effort in the vast stretches of the interior is which had never seen a missionary. When in- very recent. The Christian and Missionary Alli- quiry was made it became clear "that right along ance has taken a considerable share in pioneering, the Ivory Coast, and up into the interior, there but the six societies in this large region today had been such a mass movement as had never been have only 30 stations. French West Africa is, to heard of in the history of modern missions." a large extent, still spiritually destitute.
With all its inadequacies-and they were many- Of the population of the interior fully forty per here was a stirring in the African soul which cent are Moslems. The most important tribes are came from God. In recent years the Methodist probably the Fulani and the Mosai, numbering Missionary Society has taken over the care of about two million. In the past the Fulani influ- large numbers of the "Harris Christians." ence has been the stronger, and they were the A few figures must suffice to describe the situa- chief bearers of Islamic culture. On the great tion in West Africa today. Let us take British bend of the Niger stands Timbuktu, long since territory first.ll Nigeria ranks third in popula- shorn of her former glories. West and north in tion in the Empire, after India and Great Britain. the desert live the Veiled Folk, the Tuaregs, once Of the 899,000 12 Christians of Nigeria, 188,000 perhaps a Christian people. Wide indeed is the are Roman Catholics. The enormous majority of field here and vast the task to be undertaken!
the Christian community is in the Southern prov- In Spanish 14 and Portuguese15 territory in inces, nearly 700,000 coming from the lbo, West Africa there is a small work on the Cape Yoruba, and Ibibio groups alone. The north is Verde Islands and a station is projected in Portu- less occupied, and here Islam is strong. Christian guese Guinea.
schools in the south enroll 176,886 scholars and The independent state of Liberia is about the in the north, 5,969. Moslem school enrollment in size of England, and is a member of the League the north is 183,374, and in the south nil. of Nations. It was founded in 1822 by liberated The Northern provinces are of great interest. slaves from the United States, who were assisted Roughly seven and one-half millions are Moslems by American philanthropists. Today there are and about four millions pagans. Up to 1901 there about 10,000 Americo-Liberians, 60,000 others was only one mission station established; now who are civilized and also use English, and about ten societies are at work, reaching over 160 tribes, 200,000 who are partly civilized. The remainder totaling some 3,000,000 souls. What is needed is of the estimated population of a million are il- not so much the advent of new bodies, but the ex- literate. Many missions, mostly American, have tension of existing work. The unreached popula- worked in the republic, and the Christian commu- tion is mostly in the Mohammedan emirates. For nity is over 30,000. This is practically confined a long time, evangelization was prohibited in these to the English-speaking population. Very little is areas by the government, but this prohibition is being done to reach the population of the interior, now removed. On the whole the outlook is en- and the state of many of the existing churches is couraging; in 1932 the whole Bible was published very low. One authority writes: "There is no in Hausa, one of the most widely spoken languages vision, no discipline, no authority in the churches."
of West Africa. Four stations have recently been opened in the As for other British territories: In Gambia hinterland, and the churches are being encour- there are some 2,000 Christians; in Sierra Leone, aged to support themselves and to evangelize their about 40,000; in the Gold Coast, 200,000; and in fellow countrymen.
British Togoland, about 10,000. The hinterlands The Union of South Africa presents many prob- of all these territories are still largely unoccupied lems. In the provisional census of 1936 there by missions. were over 6,529,784 Bantu, 755,282 "colored," and French West Africa 13 is an immense territory, 215,529 Asiatics. Europeans numbered 1,979,390.
equal in area to India. Of the 60,000 Christians, The native population has increased by thirty-nine 45,000 are in the Ivory Coast, the fruits of the per cent since 1921. Afrikaans has become the long unknown labors of the "prophet" Harris. common language.
Nearly all the remainder are in the coastal ter- The Bantu are unquestionably a people with a ritory of French Togoland and Dahomey. In great future, and today they are combining with.
Mauretania there is no work, and in Senegal there the "colored" folk in defense of their rights.
About 2,000,000 are still living the tribal life. The 11 Nigeria, 91,928,171; Gambia, 20'0,000; Sierra Leone, 1,768,479; present land policy, as seen in the allocation of re- Gold Coast, 3,040,446; Togoland, 293,714. 12 Census, 1931. serves to the natives, has not given very satisfac- 13 Population: Mauretania, 323,819; Senegal, 1,584,273; French 14 Rio de Oro and Adrar, 495,000; Ifni, 20,000. Sudan, 2,853,655; Upper Volta, 3,000,243; Niger Territory 15 Portuguese Guinea, 364,929; Cape Verde Islands, 153,70'0. 1.542,714; French Guinea, 2,236,968; Ivory Coast, 1,866,316: Togoland, 750,065; Dahomey, 1,112,000.
PROGRESS AND CHALLENGE IN AFRICA
tory results. Of the acute race problem and the of missions followed, and today there is a Protescolor bar legislation all that can be said here is, tant Christian community of over 120,000. The that nothing would so much contribute to its solu- Presbyterian work has grown steadily and has retion as a deep and widespread revival movement. sulted in the formation of a Central African Na- tive Presbyterian Synod. It is interesting to note The leading church among the whites is the that, in contrast with Rhodesia, Islam has spread Dutch Reformed, with nearly a million adherents. widely in Nyasaland, the Moslem population being A very large number of denominations and mis- reckoned at 73,000. sions work among the Bantu and colored peoples; and this "fragmentation" from abroad is outdone Portuguese East Africa 20 lies adjacent to by native enthusiasm. "Separatist" movements Nyasaland and South Africa. There are large are many and frequent. In Johannesburg alone stretches of entirely unoccupied territory in the there are said to be 121 denominations among North, for the missions are almost all in the South. African Christians, and in 1932 Professor Brookes Special conditions attend missionary work in these compiled a list of 326 native sects. Notwithstand- Portuguese colonies which need careful study being this, there has been much real progress. About fore new work is begun. There are about 20,000 2,500,000 Bantus are Christians, and there are Protestant Christians in the colony. some 40,000 Bantu workers. In some churches Bantus have a large share in church government.16 In the history of African missions few stories are so stirring as that of Madagascar. The Lon- A,r,eain Popula- Density Protes- don Missionary Society founded a station there in tion 1818, and the witness rapidly spread. By 1834 Sq. Miles 48.8 tants there were 30,000 pupils in its schools. Then ter- 571,600 0.5 rible persecutions fell upon the Christians. Mis- Basutoland ….. 11,716 160,000 140,000 sionaries were driven out. Men and women were Bechuanaland … 275,000 123,320 18.3 16,000 slain by the spear, hurled over precipices, sawn Swaziland …… 6,704 27,000 asunder, burned in the fire, or sold to slavery. And yet persecution stimulated the growth in Basutoland and Swaziland are, relatively speak- numbers, so that by 1861, on the death of the cruel ing, the most occupied regions of Africa, while queen, the Christians had increased tenfold. At substantial progress has been made in Bechuana- last in that year freedom was proclaimed.
land. The reconstruction began in 1861, and the work Southwest Africa 11 is administered by the has continued ever since. Difficulties have been many, but the triumphs have been an abundant Union under a mandate of the League of Nations. reward. Widespread and rapid church building Of vast size, but very sparsely populated, it is one has been a keynote of the work. In one period of of the most fully occupied mission fields of Africa. ten years since the war over a thousand new Christians number 85,000, of whom about 10,000 churches were organized. Today there are some are Roman Catholics. There are 381 missionaries 720,000 Protestant Christians.21 More than oneper million people, or 910 when Roman Catholics third of the total number of churches in Africa are found in this island. are included. Rhodesia 18 is a vast territory, as yet thinly Any reference to Central Africa may well begin with Uganda.22 A long line of remarkable names populated. The pacification and evangelization of marks the progress of the Gospel there. H. M. the natives, together with the colonization of the Stanley, the explorer; Alexander Mackay, the country, forms one of the romances of African pioneer; Hannington, the martyred bishop; Pildevelopment. Today the administration faces kington, the brilliant linguist; and many others questions of land, color, and industrialization, but are among them. When King M'tesa heard from it has the experiences of South Africa from which the first Church Missionary Society missionaries to learn. The number of African Christians in the name of Jesus, of whom Stanley had previ- Southern Rhodesia is only 86,000, of whom nearly ously spoken to him, he caused a salute to be fired 30,000 are Roman Catholics. In N·orthern Rhodesia the total is 142,000, and of these somewhat .0 Portuguese East Africa: Area, 297,657 square miles; populamore than half adhere to the Roman communion. As there are 14 missionary societies in the North tion, 3,995,831. and 15 in the South, there is no call for additional organizations. The evangelization of the country ., Roman Catholic adherents number 460,000. It is worth noting awaits the extension of the e~isting work and the that the Comoro Islands (population, 130,253), adjacent to Madagasgrowth of the missionary spirit among the Afri- car, are unoccupied.
can Christians. Reunion (French): Population, 197,933. The population Is Roman The land around Lake Nyasa 19 :was first ex- Catholic. There is no Protestant work.
plored by David Livingstone. The establishment Seychelles (British): Population, 27,786. Two missions are at work. 16 Basutoland, Bechuanaland and .swaziland are native protectorates. Mauritius (British): Population, 400,904. Christians number 122,836, of whom only 5,345 are Protestant. 11 Area, 322,394 square miles; population, 273,876; density, 0.8. 22 Uganda: Area, 94,204 square miles; population, 3,584,758. 18 Northern and Southern Rhodesia: Area, 438,744 square miles; 1.population, 2,502,340; denSity, 5.6. Nyasaland: Area, 37,596 square miles; population, 1,609,915.
for joy. Under M'wanga, his son, the Church was spiritual desert, and around them a thirsty land baptized with fire, but stood firm. The threat of where many tribes know nothing of the Light.26 Islam and tbe strife with Roman Catholicism were challenges she was called on increasingly to meet. Remarkable progress has been made in Angola27 But today the Church of Uganda is a mighty (Portuguese West Africa) jn the face of many Church. There are well over half a million Chris- difficulties. One mission alone witnessed 900 tians today, and, although there is some discrep- church members increase to 9,000 between 1921 ancy in statistics from different sources, they seem and 1931, and there are today eleven missions to be about equally divided between Evangelicals with 240 missionaries at work in 51 centers. and Roman Catholics. Catholics in the same decade increased from 77,000 to nearly 300,000. Yet both in the North- Belgian Congo23 is a vast territory, nearly east and South of the colony there are populous eighty times the area of the home country, but tribes and large areas still untouched. The Protwith a relatively small population. Its past has estant Christian community numbers 240,000, of been melancholy, but today roads traverse its ter- whom nearly 3,000 are Christian workers. ritory, mines penetrate its ground, and the government is making increasing provision for the The whole situation today in Africa may be welfare of its native peoples. The jubilee of Prot- summed up briefly. The Roman Catholic populaestant missions in the Congo was celebrated in tion of Africa amounts to about 4,304,222, in the 1928, and the picture was a very different one proportion of 4 to North Africa, 22 to Central from that of the days when George Grenfell con- and West, 8 to East, and 9 to South. The Protstructed his little steamer, the Peace, with his own estant population is 5,638,252, in the proportion hands, the two Scotch engineers having died be- of 0.5 to the North, 18 to Central and West, 2.5 fore reaching Kinshasa. Today there are some to East, and 35 to South Africa. From this it 43 societies with about 900 missionaires in this will be seen that the Catholics are strongest in the field, and between 1920 and 1930 church members Central, East and West, and the Protestants in increased from 55,000 to over 200,000. Many un- the South. The Christians number 10,000,000 or evangelized regions still remain, but they consti- about 7 per cent of the total population. This is tute a challenge to existing bodies rather than a 1 to every 14 people, which may be compared with call for new missions. Catholics are variously China proper, where there is 1 to 500 people, or estimated from half a million to two million, and India, where there is 1 to every 56 people. There the sudden growth and influence of Catholic mis- are over three times as many missionaries to every sions is seriously embarrassing the evangelization million people in Africa as compared with India, of the colony. but, owing to its large area, only one-seventh the number to each 1,000 square miles. Out of Ruanda Urundi/4 with its small area and dense Africa's 65 territories, 42 are inadequately occupopulation, became a mandated territory of Bel- pied, 23 are adequately occupied, but 15 of these gium after the War. A Belgian mission has taken are excessively occupied if 1 missionary to 20,000 up part of the former work of the German mis- people per 1,000 square miles be taken as the sions, and the Church Missionary Society has been standard. extending its work southwards from Uganda. With the addition of two or three small Protestant Whereas there are 15 missionaries to the milmissions this is the extent of Protestant effort in lion people north of 10° N., there are 148 south one of the least occupied areas of Africa. The of 10° S., and between 10° N. and 10° S. there Roman Catholic missions are making great prog- are 50. The missionary occupation is, therefore, ress and aim to capture the whole area. very unequal, being three times more in the South than in Equatorial Africa, about 10 times more in French Equatorial Africa and Cameroon 25 to- the South than in the North. gether comprise an enormous area of over a million square miles with a scattered population. It The same is true of the distribution of the stretches from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to Lake Christians, who are in the proportion of 146 in the Chad, from Libya to the Belgian Congo. Only South to 28 in equatorial regions and 1 in North in the south (Gabon and Cameroon) are missions Africa. at all well established, and even there much remains to be done. For the rest a few lonely pio- These facts reveal at a glance the regions of neer stations appear on the map as oases in the greatest need, and should determine all plans for the evangelizafion of Africa. 23 Belgian Congo: Area, 918;000 square miles; population, 9,485,091. 2. Rio Muni and F'ernando Po are Spanish colonies. Rio Muni: Area, 10,036 square miles; population, 140,000; 2< Ruanda Urundi: Area, 20,550 square miles; population, density, 13.9. 3,500,000. Fernando Po: Area, 795 square miles; population, 23,846; density, 29.9. 2r. Area, 1,078,538 square miles; population, 5,477,236. The Methodist mission works in Fernando Po and a live develop- ing work exists in Rio Muni under the American Presbyterians.
27 Angola: Area, 323,295 square miles; population, 4,141,730,
PROGRESS AND CHALLENGE IN AFRICA
South Africa is fully occupied, and for our pur- Sudan call for reinforcements, and on the West, pose has ceased to be a foreign mission field. The Belgian Congo and French West Africa, owing to activities of its 3,547,892 Christians should cover their large areas, are still very needy. the unreached sections of the population, which should be regarded as their home mission field. The great Moslem countries of North Africa must still be considered as the most needy part Basutoland and Swaziland, which fall within of Africa. this area, are excessively occupied as mission fields. The first has 67 missionaries to 571,600 British territory, owing to greater facilities people, of whom 136,332 are Christians; the sec- available, is now probably adequately occupied, ond has 80 missionaries to 123,320, of whom and attention should increasingly be given to the 25,818 are Christians. Southwest Africa is in territories of the French, Portuguese and Belgian much the same position with 105 missionaries to colonies till these also are evangelized. 267,905 people, of whom 73,412 are Christians. Bechuanaland, with 17 missionaries to 160,000, This in a word is a bird's-eye view of that great and 15,200 Christians is too well provided for. continent which only sixty years ago was indeed the Dark Continent, but which today is well on A move northwards of a large number of the its way to becoming the most enlightened of all. foreign missionaries to the unoccupied regions of The great cleavage at the heart of the enterprise Portuguese territory, East and West, to Ruanda between Roman Catholics and Protestants casts a Urundi seems called for. The Rhodesias, Mada- dark shadow over the landscape, but the virility gascar, and Nyasaland are probably as well occu- of African Christianity and its power to organize pied as the situatian calls for. On the East, itself along its own indigenous lines promises well Tanganyika, Abyssinia, and the Anglo-Egyptian for the future when Africa shall have become, as it certainly will, a Christian continent.
ST. PAUL'S CATHE'DRAL. MENGO, UGANDA, LOOKING EAST (See page 478)
African View of Indigenous
Religions * By DONALD G. S. M'TIMKULU New Haven, Conn.
To THE ordinary man who has heard about same way as I would behave to my own brothers . Africa the phrase, "African religions," con- and sisters. In this way the family circle is ex- jures up a confused mass of superstitions and ceedingly increased, and the kindred are bound curious beliefs which seem to him very childish, together in a very close and intimate way. In if not entirely foolish. To some it might even most African societies, however, preference is seem like straining the connotation of the term given to one set of kin at the expense of another; unduly to call this hotchpotch religion. It is not L e., either to the mother's people or to the fa- necessary here to prove that suclJ. opinions are ther's people. This is the basis of the clan, or sib, the results of generalizations based on very inade- which is a strong group of people claiming to be quate data. Those who have tried to understand intimately related either on the mother's side or the Africans and to see life as they see it have on the father's side.
found that they possess not only well developed The clan is not only the most important group religious systems, but a religion which enters far in the African kinship system, but also the pri- more into their day by day conduct than is the mary religious group. Since all members of the case among the peoples of the West. clan are linked together through their ancestors, In spite of the vast expanse of Africa and the the ancestors come to take a most important place variation in cultural features presented by its peo- in the life of the group. They founded the clan, pIes, it is still possible to speak of the country as gave it life and made it what it is. The present a whole, on account of a number of fundamental generation, therefore, owes all that it has to those principles which underlie the social structure of who have gone beyond. The ancestors are thus the whole of tribal Africa. This is particularly as much a part of the clan as the living; they. are true of the Bantu tribes, and it is with the religion as interested in its welfare as those who still walk of these peoples that I mean to concern myself in thIs earth. For, according to African belief, "the this paper. dead are not lost to society, they are merely in- A great part of the religious life of the African itiated into another part of the society, the spir- centers round the worship of ancestors, but such itual unseen part." Thus the clan with its begin- a statement needs some elucidation. To under- nings far in the dim past can only make secure stand truly what the cult of ancestors means to provision for the future by consulting and work- the African we must probe deeper into his social ing in harmony with those whose wisdom is un- background. The social and economic unit in doubted, and who now can tap sources of power Africa is the individual family. To bind the fami- which are not available to mortal man. The es- lies together in a larger social unit, the intimate sence of ancestor worship lies in the effort on the and binding family ties are extended outside the part of the living, by various acts of remem- immediate family. .For instance, my father's brance, to maintain friendly relations with those brothers are my fathers; I call them so, and I, who are now of the spirit world, and thus to se- behave to them in the same general way that I dq cure their help and guidance.
to my own father. Similarly, my mother's sisters True enough, fear enters into the worship of are my mothers, and their children are my sisters ancestors, the fear of consequences that will fol- and brothers; I behave to them in exactly tlie low any failure_ on the part of the living to per- • Donald G. S. M'Timkulu Is the son of a well-known Methodl'st form their pious duties. But we would be greatly' in error if we assumed that the religious motive in pastor in Durban, South Africa. He received his high school education at Adams Mission and at Lovedale before proceeding to Fort faenacre.stoTrhewoArfsrhicipanisreaallll ysupmutm' s ehdIS up in the word Hare College, where he received his B.A. in 1927, securing a "double trust in the anfirst" In English and ethics. On the strength of this he was awarded cest ors, and h"IS f al"th I"S a 1IV""lng everyday fal"th" a university scholarship (the first of his race) to read for his M.A. The Afr"Ican a1so be1 lev"es"In a great "Sp"lrItua1 (English), which he received in 1931. Since then he has been power, a Supreme Being, more or less personified, teaching at the Healdtown Missionary Institution in the Cape Province and at Adams College in Natal, where he is now head of the high school department. He was editor of the (Jape African Teach– e,rs' Association Journal until his resignation to come over to Yale University, where he now holds a FellOWShip in Race Relations.
[462 ] who made the world and created all living things, illness by manipulating the all pervasive "Pobut has since had no direct dealings with man. tence" against him. For the African believes that Now and again one may hear his angry mutter- some people are able by long training to make use ings in the roar of the thunderstorm, as he hurls of this spiritual power in the universe either for forth his thunderbolts at some individual who has good or for evil. This is the basis of the Afriangered him. can's belief in witchcraft and the efficacy of charms. For to protect myself against the machi- Among some of the southeastern tribes, how- nations of the wizard, I must have some object in ever, he is regarded as a great chief of the spirit which is concentrated a stronger power than that world, Unkulunkulu (the greatest of the great), which the wizard can direct against me. Without who is so great that ordinary men cannot ap- this I am at the mercy of my enemies. Thus the proach him for any favors. Amongst these tribes African has ever haunting him this fear of unseen the ancestral spirits have come to be regarded as powers working around him, and perhaps against mediators at the court of the Great Chief. Those him; for this reason he clings tenaciously to his who were great in this life, the chiefs, are much witch doctor, who is the only man who can give more likely to be in the inner circles of the Great him sufficient protection to make life worth living. One, and thus can do more for the people by pleading with the Great One in the traditional manner Let us next consider how far these beliefs and that marks the successful and polished councillor. practices are influencing the lives of native Chris- In times of calamity, therefore, the spirits of the tians in Africa. While it is no doubt true that the greatest chiefs of the tribe are invoked to help form that the Christian Church in Africa will ultheir children and save them from disaster. These timately take depends, in the last analysis, on ceremonies are always conducted by the para- what the Africans themselves make of it, it is mount chief of the tribe, in whom, by reason of none the less also true that Christian Africans his birth, is concentrated the highest spiritual must accept the fundamentals of Christianity unpower man can have, and who is the recognized diluted, as it were, if they are going to live Christintermediary between the people and their most like lives. As Archbishop Temple says, it is futile powerful spirits. The power of the chief, there- to consider whether the message of the Gospel fore, is based ultimately on religious sanctions. suits the African or not. If the Gospel is true, He is not merely the political head but the high then it is true for all men, be they black or white. priest of the tribe, and thus the dependence of the If one, however, is thinking of Christianity mere- African on his chief is a very real one. ly as a drug for the curing of social diseases, then one might well ask if it suits the African. If, on Apart, however, from this belief in a first cause, the other hand, Christianity is a Way of Life for the Africans believe in a Potence, an Energy, that all men, then we must recognize the fact that is imminent in all things, intangible and yet all- there are certain fundamental beliefs and points pervasive. While drawing itself into a focus in of view in African religion which are incompatible certain objects, it is, at the same time, sensitive with the Christian spirit. These must be shed, if to human conduct, so that irregularities in the Christianity is to mean anything for the African. world of men react immediately on the world of nature. In African societies, as Mrs. Hoernle While thousands of true and fervent Christians says, "events in the world of nature are inter- are to be found in most parts of Africa, it is neverpreted entirely from the point of view of their in- theless a fact that for many other thousands fluence on the life of the society; the world of Christianity is no more than a veneer, a top dressnature and the world of man are one, changes in ing, which peals off just when it is most needed. the world of man are inevitably accompanied by In the real crises of life they turn to their beloved changes in the world of nature, and vice versa, ancestors in whom they still have the utmost faith, and the laws governing the one world are con- although outwardly adopting the forms of the ceived of as being the same in the other." If, for Christian religion. Many a Christian family when instance, the harvest is poor, it is because the in trouble will secretly sacrifice a beast to appease proper rites have not been performed, or because the injured spirits, so that they may remove the someone has sinned or done wrong, and his wrong curse and establish friendly relations once more actions are somehow preventing things from tak- between the dead and the living. ing their proper course. There are other Christians, however, who have Because of this firm belief the African can definitely set their faces against the old tribal rites hardly conceive of anything happening naturally, and ceremonies; but this is about all they have i. e., uninfluenced by the actions of men, either liv- done. In these lives Christianity has only replaced ing or dead. If a man gets sick, for instance, his one set of taboos by another. This attitude has sickness is either the result of his neglect of some not been a little encouraged by the numerous customary ritual or some duty to the ancestors, "don'ts" which have formed the greater part of or else some evilly disposed person has caused the the "Christian message" of some missionaries.
The Christian in Africa has thus become a man the machinery of Western civilization, whose ex- who does not do a great number of things. The ponents are out to get as much as they can from African can understand such a religion, for it is the dark races.
just his old religion with the dire consequences On this account they have dubbed Christianity made a little less immediate. "the white man's religion," and they will have But the real persistent evil in the African Chris- none of it. This conviction is not lessened by the tian Church is that old belief in the powerful fact that many white missionaries identify their mystic forces of the universe which are ever ready strait-laced Christianity with Western civilization.
to do men harm at every turn. Accusations of The African is continually being told how lovely witchcraft and sorcery are not uncommon even in and beautiful everything is in the white man's our oldest mission stations. Venerable old preach- garden, and how weedy and ugly his own is in ers or deacons will tell you of one of their number comparison. The disillusionment that follows, of who keeps a baboon on which he rides out every course, is not very pleasant either for the mission- night to do his nefarious work. Many a fond ary or the African.
mother, for instance, will not dare to bring her The criticism of the unbrotherly attitude of the child to church for baptism, unless he has been white Christian gains more point when it is lev- thoroughly "doctored," lest the influence of some elled against the missionary himself. It is no other child who has been "doctored" cause a fis- doubt true that the spirit of Christian brother- sure in her child's skull which inevitably brings hood which characterized the life of the early mis- about his death. sionaries is slowly dying out. Social snobbery The old beliefs in witchcraft, therefore, are not and a certain irritating aloofness is not uncom- only still with us, but the practice of witchcraft mon among modern missionaries. In traveling is thriving under new forms showing an excellent round the mission stations one hears such signifi- adaptability to new conditions. Witch doctors cant remarks as this from the old people: "Oh, are doing a better trade today in the towns than we do not knock at the front door of the mission they ever did before. The old technique of try- house now, we have to go to the kitchen door."
ing to pooh-pooh these ideas and laugh them out One hears also of missionary teachers who fail to of court is futile. These beliefs are deep rooted recognize their fellow African teachers as soon as in the African, and now he not only feels he has they are outside the bounds of the mission station.
Biblical authority to support him, but also a fund These may seem like trivial considerations, but of anecdotes in which Christian ministers have they are just full of meaning for the African- been worsted in the fight against the wizard. The they are the straws in the wind. Is it any sur-, missionary, therefore, must concentrate on chang- prise, then, to find that the African in the older ing the African's unscientific view of the world. missionary fields is gradually losing his confidence "Nothing less will do than the gradual revelation in the white missionary?
of the complexity of the universe. Let the Afri- And yet all thinking Africans deplore this can once realize that the universe runs its course tendency; first, because it does not take into ac- by immutable laws which he cannot alter, and he count the great contribution that missionaries will be relieved of an incalculable burden of the have made and are making to African welfare.
spirit." Without this changed outlook the Chris- Second, and perhaps more important, is the fact tian missionary will be building his house on sand. that there is a danger that, with this loss of con- There is a new threat to the life of the Christian fidence in the white missionary, the African may Church in Africa, to which we now turn. In those also lose his hold on Christianity. For, as we parts of Africa where the natives come into very have sought to show, Christianity is still very close contact with the whites there is growing up, much of an exotic plant in Africa.
among some of the leaders of the people, a spirit The present tendency, therefore, among some of revolt against the Church. These men feel that missions to root Christianity in true native soil the Church is not living up to the spirit of Christ's has great possibilities for the future. For, it teaching in its attitude towards the race question. seems to me, the very highest ideal that missions They declare that color bars are rigidly enforced can hold for the future of Christianity in Africa even within the very precincts of God's house; in is the creation of a truly native church, "whose many churches the African clergy are merely the motivation will be emotional rather than mainly "boys" of their fellow white clergymen; some of intellectual, which will take cognizance of native the white men who stand high in the Church are psychic and mystic experience, whose forms and in no way different in their treatment of Afri- functions will be rooted in native life, background cans than any other white man. In these and in and environment, and whose leaders will be true many other ways, they declare, the Church has natives, integrally a part of the community and shown that even within its fold there is no broth- not mere preachers cut in the image of white mis- erhood for the black man. It is merely part of sionaries."
Gospel Among Primitive
By REV. JOHN S. HALL, I Sudan Interior Mission, Kaltungo, Nigeria 1)1- ~==========================~ THE country of the 40,000 Tangale-speaking to another man, that we may feast upon another people is in Nigeria, West Africa, inland one goat." Farthest reaching of baneful practices thousand miles northeast of Lagos, chief sea- was that of the parents, who threw the children of port of Nigeria, which is an important Protector- both sexes together for immoral purposes, all with ate of Great Britain and boasts a population of a view to enlisting the boys for labor on the farms twenty millions. The Tangales had their first of the girls' parents.
sight of the white man only thirty years ago, and A corresponding situation was to be found in their first contact with the Christian missionary the religious sphere. The Tangales' spiritual ten years later. The white ruler's advent ended heritage is cumbrous. Recognition is made of the a strange age-long cycle of seven years of inter- Supreme Being, Yamba, but no worship offered to tribal war alternating with seven years of peace, him. All shrines and altars are dedicated to other and ensured the gradual extirpation of cannibal- spiritual beings-demons, ancestors and haunting ism. Cloth was rare. Leaves sufficed for cover- human spirits. The primitives may not be so ing for the women, while the men used little cov- lacking in many things as superficial observers ering beyond occasionally wearing tanned hides say, claiming that they are without this, that and of animals hung by forelegs from the neck. the other, but omitting to observe that they have Their story is interesting, especially regarding powers that with us are dormant or dead. They Christian missions, and the fact that the condi- are, however, without the most satisfying and en- tions obtaining among them are typical of those nobling of human wants. For they have no hope among all primitive peoples. Illiteracy prevailed, and are "without God in the world." With no with the absence of books and the arts of reading books, they have not the Book, with its Messianic and writing. Their difficult and wonderful lan- light and life in prophecy and history. They are guage had only oral use. The world for them did without the dynamic of the preaching of the cross not exist beyond the extremities ofa fifty-mile and of the Spirit. The emotional reactions to the line, where heaven met earth and was upborne by spiritual environment are those of uncertainty strange, conveniently dwarfed beings around the and dread.
meeting line, holding sky-supporting sticks aloft. Sent by the Sudan Interior Mission, C. G.
With limited horizons of knowledge, the tribe Beacham and the writer settled among the Tan- moved as one man in a narrow orbit, unprogres- gales in February, 1917, and began to learn their sive, static. language. Three years later the Gospel of Luke There was that in their "moral" codes which, in Tangale was in print, published by the British without elevating or quickening the tribe, pre- and Foreign Bible Society. Successively, till served it as a unity, with a sturdy sense of iden- 1930, ten more books of the Old and New Testa- tity and independence. Marriage by uniform pur- ments were translated and in use in print, to- chase was recognized and was made honorable gether with the complete New Testament in by laws of legitimacy and inheritance. Laws ap- Tangale in manuscript. The British and Foreign plying to consanguinity and incest assisted in up- Bible Society undertook the cost of an edition of holding marriage and maintaining purity of tribal 2,000, so that the complete printed New Testa- stock. Over against these helpful things lay many ment in Tangale was in circulation in 1932. To antisocial habits. The bonds of marriage were date half of the edition has been sold, and as only uncertain, owing to the polygamous tendencies of readers, professing Christians, buy the book the men and women, and from easy temporary unions reading public in that once totally illiterate tribe and prevalent promiscuity. Illuminating is the amounts to a thousand, and the Lord's following prayer always made when the large goat from the reaches the same number.
bride-price payment was being eaten by the men School work, simply the teaching of reading of the maiden's hamlet in the sacred grove: "We and writing in the vernacular and of the Scrip- have just begun to eat her [i. e., the woman was tures, was begun only after two years. The en- an occasion of feasting]. Incline her soon to run rollment for a year thereafter was two. The next [465 ]
year it increased to three, and the following year by the young people themselves, who follow them. to eight. The enrollment now is 2,000. The first The Gospel was made for that kind of situation, seven years passed before any girls of the tribe where it can be trusted to be God's power unto came to school. Now the enrolled women and salvation. Moreover, the Africans can be trusted, girls nearly in number equal the men and boys. having "received Christ Jesus the Lord, to walk Of necessity at the first the teachers were the mis- in him, rooted and built up in him, and stablished sionaries. Now the teaching of reading and writ- in the faith, as … taught." To withhold from ing is left to the Christian natives, of whom one them that confidence or to make concessions to . hundred are 'under regular appointment to super- supposed weakness or peculiar wants injures and vise, in thirty-eight "schools," without remunera- slanders them and dishonors Christ and His Gos- tion. With a speeded-up farming schedule and a pel. The privilege and duty rather are, to uphold great saving of time formerly given to growing the New Testament demand and standard as re- much grain for beer, they follow their accus- gards purity and spirituality, together with an in- tomed farming, devote certain time to systematic tensive New Testament indoctrination. It is a Bible study and, with regulated substituting ar- senseless, heartless procedure to ask monogamy rangements, see to the manning of these teaching or one-until-death unions from people whose codes posts. . To evangelize farther outposts, ten mar- never included these conceptions, unless New ried couples in fellowship standing in the churches Testament doctrine and dynamic are intensively gave up home and farm and went where taking imparted and fully conveyed. Hence the Bible root afresh would be slow and toilsome, where schools, with their whole-church enrollment and privation would sometimes be their lot, and where systematic opening of the Scriptures. Hence the their only, but most glorious, reward would be magnifying of the church, the local assembly, as souls won for Christ. the school, the home of the saved community as a community, the sphere of mighty movings of God R. J. Campbell, in his Life of David Living- and the birthplace of saving outward movements stone, mentions the attraction his lantern lecture of wide reach. Hence, too, the simple and ex- was to the Africans, and adds that that was the clusive character of the mission's principles re- only Christian propaganda Livingstone was ever specting "education," with a nonsecular program asked to repeat. The Tangales have not yet seen and curriculum best fitting and generally lantern views. God's Word has been put into strengthening the believers for every spiritual their hands, and they have built two Bible schools and secular contact. where they gather to study the Scriptures. When we saw these buildings rise and asked, "What To an extent not always realized social pressure time will you give to the study?" the whole read- and safeguarding rules assist straight living any- ing, godly community of men and women enrolled where. In Tangale teaching is shaped and rules for regular attendance through nine months of framed to induce the right social pressure in the the year, every Monday and Tuesday mornings Christian society. Some of these rules are, that from 9 to 11, with daily sessions through a period boys may not meet with girls anywhere at night of four weeks twice a year. or in enclosed places, as huts, through the day; and that every Christian is responsible for rebuk- This spring we had the third of these four-week ing and reporting breaches of that rule and will periods in the two Bible schools, the average daily be held by the church as culpable as the offenders attendance being 525. The Epistle to the Hebrews if he does not meet this duty. Sense of personal was taught, with analytical outline, careful exe- and mutual responsibility and keenness of pergesis and application. Blackboard and notebooks sonal and social conscience are developed in this were used, and examinations given. The enthu- way. siasm and the mental and spiritual growth accom- panying that daily work within the cool, spacious In Tangale, as has been mentioned, the girls did grass-roofed buildings, with the high sun's heat not come to services or school until the seventh outside, cannot be computed or verbally conveyed. year of the work. The young men who came, Under what a spell the mystical Melchizedek held besides adjuring the practice of early sexual rela- these black students until, as they gave earnest tions, were taught to wait for domestic partners heed to argument, warning and entreaty, he to until they and the partners-to-be were baptized. their view dissolved into the Divine Prophet- Some did not wait; others did, and gave a noble Priest and they were strengthened and rejoiced lead. One of these first ones waited seven years to follow Him! "The Word to us is mother's from his first confessing Christ to gain a girl nurse," they cried. "Give us more; you stop too baptized one week before their marriage. An- soon! Hurry back!" other, a big muscular fellow who had waited five years from his first testimony, was similarly I have already alluded to the moral situation united then to a baptized Christian maiden. These created by parents in their handling of youth and
THE GOSPEL AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
weddings had profound effects; as from that time tian lives and their own Heaven-blessed home. the marrying age among believers advanced con- Then there is Shebu, who was living with an siderably, and the stability, security and satisfaction of marriages of baptized to baptized became unmarried woman and had a child by her. Both manifest. began to confess Christ through the testimony of a volunteer teacher. We said they should sepa- The case of one Shombo is interesting. He had rate and prove Christ singly, looking forward to two wives. They all heard the Gospel from an their Christian marriage duly. They stayed apart early convert. Shombo and his second wife, whom twenty months, were instructed and grew in grace he liked the better, came under conviction and and knowledge of Christ, then were baptized and began to confess Christ. They rightly reasoned came together through a Christian marriage. Shombo should have just one wife, and she the one first wedded, no matter that she seemed the THREE COUPLES IN CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE ON THEIR least attractive and had no heart for Christ. It WEDDING DAY. LAYUNGDUNG AND HER HUSBAND took a struggle, but they parted, and the young AT LEFT woman, Layungdung, went to live with her "problem" and her testimony at her brother's. After Glorious results followed in the domestic sphere. some days, finding her brother's wife vexatious, Shebu's mother, sister, two brothers, an aunt and she quarrelled with her, and she, her brother and a cousin all sought the Lord and were baptized. sister-in-law came together to us with their trou- The cousin and the sister have married Christian ble. We were from 7 p. m. till 1 a. m. smoothing men; the two brothers remain unmarried until it out. We counselled forbearance and forgive- they can be suited with baptized wives; Shebu's ness, which Layungdung thought too hard, but at boy, happily named Paul, is choosing wisdom's 12 : 45 a. m. we knelt together and praised God ways; a considerable group in Shebu's hamlet, for victorious grace. Layungdung returned and old and young, and among them an old blind lived with her brother and sister-in-law, till she woman, have been baptized. And Shebu and his saw them confessing Christ and, with herself, wife also serve Christ freely now in a needy out- post. baptized. Pagan men, who could not endure seeing a young woman unattached, pestered her for Christ's Gospel has given to a multitude in marriage, until all attempts ceased because it was Tangale newness of life, a new orientation of publicly known that they had failed. She was mind, soul, spirit and social life and habit. waiting God's time and for a baptized companion. God's time-though after two years-came, and also the companion, a young widower faithful in witness. And these two are one of the couples who, with their family, have sacrificially migrated with the Gospel to an outpost.
Shombo himself now loves his first little wife, who has received salvation and baptism. Both his mother, a former spiritist medium, and his influential seventy-five-year-old father are baptized and in the Church, as is also his younger brother. His children, also, two dear girls, are readers of the Word and happy confessors of Jesus. And in Shombo and his wife we have another couple who have given up all and have gone to an outpost, 20 miles distant, to serve souls with their Chris- A NATIVE EVANGELIST'S APPRECIATION "There are many things that tempt a servant have good chairs to sit on, not just boxes. As a of the Lord," said a native evangelist one Sunday rule they have good looking wives and children. in his preaching to the other evangelists. "For Often they have a horse or a bicycle, too, and yet us black people the spirit of pride is a great dan- with all this you cannot find any pride among ger. However, when I look at the white mission- them on this account. They are just as pleasant aries, then I can't help but thank God for them. and friendly. Yes, I have noticed that the more They may have two or three coats to put on and they have of such things, the more kind they are more than one pair of shoes. Sometimes they to share with us black natives."-Reported by L. have both a sun hat and an ordinary hat. They A. Tweiten, in The Missionary Broadcaster.
in Central
By REV. ANDREW MacBEATH, B.D. I Ii- Baptist Missionary Society, Bolobo, Belgian Congo THEY say that the darkest hour is just before locusts. We turned once again to the Book of the dawn. When things are at their very Joel and read of the locust hordes, and our read- worst we have the more reason to expect a ing took us on to the promise of the outpoured change for the better. January, 1935, certainly Spirit. Little did we realize how near the fulfilwas a dreary, almost a desperate, month in Bo- ment of the latter promise was. The floodtide of lobo, Belgian Congo. Our deacons had sought to blessing began to come in February. resign in a body, and the monthly communion service was suspended until some better under- A young carpenter in mission employ read a standing and confidence was established between little booklet, in the middle of 1934, which told of Sammy Morris, a Kru boy from Liberia, who the church members and their missionaries. Sus- traveled to America with a hungry, overmastering picion and bitter criticism were rife. How was desire to taste the full life that God offers in the it that things had reached this point of strain? Holy Spirit. The story of that boy's hunger for For several years our hearts were burdened the living God, and the brief but glorious course with the low spiritual level of our church fellow- he ran as a fervent evangelist to others, fired our ship. There were twelve hundred communicants, young carpenter's heart. He saw that God does but we felt that very little of sterling quality could not need to wait for worldly advantages of breedbe claimed for their Christian faith. Every ing, wealth or education. Wherever He finds a month a saddening list of names was read out, man ready to concentrate on God and give Him a the names of church members being suspended highway through his life, God has His chance. from fellowship because of some serious moral Our young carpenter brooded over giving God lapse. The white missionary who sought to know such a chance in his life.
the inner side of village life came to feel that there At Christmas a missionary pageant was prewas an impenetrable wall of secrecy which dea- pared by the school children, showing the condicons and deaconesses made it their business to tion of children in many lands. The lads from maintain in front of their white missionaries. At the Pastoral Traini:ng School represented scenes last, in October, 1934, a conference with native from the life of William Carey, showing his paschurch leaders was arranged. It was hoped that sion to take the Gospel to India. The theme song the frank interchange of opinion about the exist- around which the action was grouped was the ing state of things in the church would arouse missionary hymn, "Far, far away, in heathen them to a sense of their responsibility and fur- darkness dwelling." The effect of this missionary ther the cause of cooperation. From the very pageant on the soul of the young artisan dreaming beginning of that conference, the indigenous lead- dreams of serving God with all his powers was to ers met their missionaries in a spirit of antago- bring him to the point of crisis. During the weeks nism. A questionnaire had been prepared to of January an intense inward conflict developed.
stimulate their reflection on some of the unsatis- He dreamed of making Christ known to the farfactory elements in our church life, elements of off heathen, but God told him first to be reconciled evil which quite paralyzed the effectiveness of our to his own father. The struggle robbed him of witness among the heathen. Instead of giving sleep, but he could get no peace until, down on his calm or prayerful thought to the questions at face with tears he promised to buy his father a issue, church leaders and church members turned blanket as a reconciliation present as soon as dayround and told their missionaries some of their light came. The flood of joy that burst over the outstanding failings. young man's heart, once he had given up his con- After that conference three more months troversy with God, knew no bounds. passed, the road winding "uphill all the way." Meanwhile the situation in the church had been Then in January came the ultimatum of resignation from the deacons in a body. And in the end growing almost desperate. To make confusion worse confounded, swarms of locusts were all of January our district was invaded by hordes of around us, wearing us out with the effort to keep [468 ] them from alighting on our gardens. And then The preacher, exhibiting the dinner knives and the young carpenter asked permission to speak in later showing the absurdity of toiling away with public. He was given permission, but the experi- a mere ax head in the hands, showing too the long ence of which he tried to tell was too great for wooden handle inserted in the ax head that enhim. He could not articulate the story. At his sures swift and powerful strokes, was that mornsecond telling of it, he began an exposure of the ing convincing the reason and firing the imaginasecret sins that were destroying the church's life tion of his audience. They saw the truth. And and sapping the vitality of the community. the climax came when he used a pictorial phrase which put his closing appeal in a nutshell. "God A few young men gathered round him in pri- gave each of us two legs," he said, "but we have vate to learn more of what had happened to him. been stupid enough to suppose that with two legs Older men were skeptical and superior. They de- we could travel at the same time on two roads. rided him, especially because his new walk with We church members have had one leg on the way God made it necessary for him to do his daily Heavenward, and with the other leg we have been work conscientiously. Many declared that his traveling the world's way." brain was decaying or that sleeping sickness had him in its grip. Long ingrained habits of secrecy One could almost hear the strokes of a scythe and deceit made our people construe as madness that was gathering in golden sheaves for God's any willingness to admit a fault and confess it. granary. There were over thirty young people One deacon thought he had effectively vanquished who went forward at the close to occupy these the young man's crusade when he showed, as a empty forms on the platform, to signify that they stalwart Protestant, that confession of sin was a were out for the consecrated life that has given peculiarly Roman error! up half-measures and hypocrisy.
But the ferment had been thrown into Bolobo's From that moment we knew that harvest time life. The unheard of began to happen. People had come. We had heard the sound of a going in were disturbed in their dreams or kept from the tops of the mulberry trees, and we knew to sleep by the accusing voices of their sins. Young bestir ourselves. When the men gathered in large men, gathering round our splendid native pastor, numbers in their afternoon service, the appeal were looking up in the New Testament what God was made to the older men and deacons to range had to say about their sins, and the way of release themselves alongside the eager young men who that He offers. On February 24, the church was were pressing forward, and the question was put packed when the morning service began, and we in this form: "Shall the Isaacs offer themselves noticed that the native pastor had arranged some willingly and go up the Moriah road, but shall forms behind him on the platform. These forms Abraham hold back?" The older men explain that remained vacant during the service, and we real- the putting of that question roused them from ized that they were not placed there simply for sleep. At first it puzzled them. What more reuse in case of overcrowding. We had never dared mained for them to do? Were they not church to try an upstanding appeal amid an African members? Had they not been baptized? audience, nor had they ever seen a penitent form. Yet the pastor's inner ear had been prepared to They remained to an aftermeeting, and after hear, and he had come to preach that morning that the group went to the preacher's house, resure of results. Had he himself not come through questing that it be made plain to them what furthe Holy Spirit's searching scrutiny, and found ther gift God was offering them and what further how He burns up all our refuges of lies? Never claim He was making on them. At last hearts did anyone wield more effectively the rapier of were open and ready to take in the truth. God's the Spirit than he did that day. It pierced to the gift of fulness of life in the Holy Spirit was set dividing asunder of joints and marrow. It dis- forth. From that time onward never a day passed cerned the thoughts and intents of many hearts. but souls were coming through crises and conflict to freedom and fulness of joy. Their faces told Showing in one hand a rust-corroded knife and the story before they reached the missionary's' in the other a shining knife of stainless make, the presence. Going to the hospital that night, one pastor asked his audience what kind of Christians heard the sound of weeping in the doctor's private they wanted to be. Bringing out an ax head from room. One of the native male nurses had come under his table, he asked the woodcutters present to confess that he had pilfered medicines from the if, when they felled giants of the forest, they dispensary, and he had brought 25 francs in paywent at their work merely clutching the iron ax ment. People who had been living in enmity were head between their hands; "Hasn't God in His humbling themselves in seeking reconciliation and Holy Spirit offered us a helve for our ax head forgiveness. Stolen articles began to come back which will put force into all our labor in the in a stream. tangled forest of sin that we are to clear away?" A testimony meeting was held Monda.y evening,
and there the thoughts of many hearts were re- transformed by the love of Christ and sitting bevealed. The truth was out, told by black people fore His table to partake of their first communion, themselves. Their sins were finding them out. was to feel that Heaven had come down to earth, Meanwhile prayer and supplication became a and that grace had swallowed up sin and death mighty stream. All who had realized the ending in victory. One could not but think of the aged of life's discord began to pour out their hearts in Simeon and his satisfied request for removal; he intercession for their friends. One knew at last could depart in peace, for his eyes had seen God's what God-inspired prayer is, and how irresistible salvation. With a score of such new-born souls in its sweep. Two missionaries had met with the before us, we realized anew what it means to "denative pastor every morning for two years to pray part in peace." For them Jesus has robbed death for revival, but they were amazed to see how, of its darkness and robbed it of its sting. when revival came, they themselves were carried along as on a mighty stream of prayer. Much more remains to be told. Other mission- aries would learn much if one told of the prob- The evangelistic and missionary passion of the lems and difficulties that the revival created, as young carpenter's heart was communicated to all well as of the marvelous doors it opened and the who tasted the Heavenly gift, and folks in the opportunities it brought. Yet mention must be villages of the hinterland became aware that made of one result which will prove of far-reachsomething had happened because, as they them- ing importance. The revival brought out the censelves put it, young fellows who had formerly trality of the cross as the core of our message. been chiefly interested in swaggering about town It made prayer and Bible study the very breath on a Sunday afternoon in showy clothes and were and daily nourishment of Christians. It brought quite incapacitated for'life by their own conceit, the promise of the Holy Spirit out of the dim and suddenly seemed to feel concern for other people hazy background of truth right into the center of and took the trouble to walk through the forest life as a throbbing reality. And, quite decisively, to other villages to proclaim the good tidings..The it made the triumph of the Resurrection stand out impression was immediate and widespread. There as the corner stone of a Christian message that is was a common impulse to relieve the burdened to win Africa. conscience and the uneasy mind by public confession, and the crowds frequenting the services In the early days of the revival a Christian made it necessary everywhere to enlarge the vil- died, and the way in which the Christians made lage chapels. that funeral a triumph will never be effaced from memory. The problem had hitherto been to per- One of the most wonderful events of all has just suade church members to cut adrift the old had its sequel, a year later. Once the church heathen mourning customs, and we had failed. members cleared their lives of deceit and sham, Wailing and noise and confusion seemed inevitathe heathen became uneasy and stirred in their ble, till on one glorious day the Christians rose sleep, and awoke. The old people, the people most as one man and said, "Never again." That tristeeped in heathenism, began to "ask the way to umphant funeral of a believer has set its seal on Zion with their faces thitherward." Once they the community's life. Now the women gather in had seen fellow villagers who had been reputed to their, brightest clothes, sit in rows around the be Christians really making a clean break with house and sing hymns. Some stay to uphold the witchcraft by bringing out and casting away their chief mourner when the corpse is removed, and secret fetishes, the heathen opened their eyes and all the others follow to the place of burial singing opened their hearts. The story of their awaken- hymns. Who told them to do this? "They shall ing is a constant source of wonder to us. It was be all taught of God." Things we had labored marvelous to see great-grandfathers and great- to .instill into public opinion by preaching and grandmothers in inquirers' classes where the teaching became a public possession overnight. story of Jesus was told to them "simply as to a We who had formerly felt so conscious of labor little child." and sorrow, who had called ourselves workers for God, realized that we were but spectators. "What On Sunday, March 1, the first of these aged hath God wrought!" folks from the town of Bolobo itself were baptized and received into the fellowship of the Into Africa went the Christ twenty centuries ago, when' Church. They numbered twenty. A great crowd gathered on the beach when they were baptized, his own folk sought to slay him. for it was a wonder of wonders to the natives. To see the women who had been most prominent Out of Africa came the Christ, sheltered and safe, to at all heathen funerals and the most adept in all mourning orgies and dances, and well acquainted live his mission and die his death, that the world might with palm wine or sugar cane beer drinking, be saved.
Into Africa may he go again, proclaimed by eager and impelling disciples.
Out of Africa-may Christ come, with a continent fol- lowing after. EMORY Ross.
on the Witness
WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR ME are set forth on a new path of righteousness and By REV. JAMES J. R. JOLOBE, B.A., devotion to higher things.
A survey of the influence of Christ in Africa Presbyterian Church of South Africa cannot, however, be complete without mentioning PERHAPS to one born in a Christian home it education. We owe a debt of gratitude to the may be a little difficult to appreciate fully missionary enterprise for the enlightenment what Christ has done for one; but the life which is rapidly helping us adjust ourselves to from which the Christian religion has helped us modern conditions and to civilized standards of to emerge may help one to realize in some meas- living. It is true there are some who would have us develop along our own lines. If this means ure the gains brought to Africans by embracing preserving all that is good in our past we welcome the Gospel. In the primitive stage of our exist- it. But if it means that we should be content with ence, neutralizing the good things which were a the old primitive life, in other words to be misfits blessing and should be preserved, were attendant in an advancing world, inefficient in an efficient evils ingrained in the social system which, though in a way supporting it, threatened to undermine the vitality of the race mentally and morally.
Among these was superstition. It is only when one actually comes into contact with those en- thralled by this evil that he can appreciate fully what Christ has done and is doing for our people in connection with superstition. The constant fear of imaginary harm, the suspicion engendered against innocent people, and the unwarranted hate against supposed agents of witchcraftthese and many others were the things which were not conducive to the growth of personality.
Christ has liberated us from this bondage and set Africa free to develop to the highest degree with- in her reach.
Again, Christianity has enhanced the value of human personality. On the whole, among our peo- ple life was sacred and the individual had a cer- tain amount of value as a member of a tribe, but REV. JAMES J. R. JOLOBE, B.A. this new religion intensified and widened this conception. In a practical way this was achieved by denouncing polygamy and proclaiming in no un- society-if it means this, we emphatically refuse certain voice that a man should have only one to accept the idea of developing on our own lines. wife. With us, in some cases, several women We feel we have benefited by the assistance of were permitted to one man. This new teaching Christianity, which has helped us, through edu- not only raised the status of woman, but it was cation, to emerge from primitive ideas to a civi- also a blessing to a people who were soon to be lized outlook. We are told, and we see it for ourlaunched into a whirl of economic conditions selves, that it is the fittest that survive under under which a man with a very large family, as modern conditions, and to be fit our race must in polygamous society, would succumb. avail itself of all the best, materially, mentally Africans are human, and being so have their and morally, which mankind has gained down the full quota of the frailties which bring guilt to the ages. Education is doing this for the African, soul, which guilt can only be removed by the for- and we thank the missionaries upon whom this giveness offered man by God, in giving His Son duty devolved for many years past. Even if the to be a propitiation for our sins. Christ has met idea of developing in our own lines were taken in the supreme need of Africa-a Saviour. By the its best sense, we claim that we have a right to cross many are being raised from a low life and know first the universal standards in order that [471 ]
even what is distinctly African may be governed ences, and most unfortunately Africa has im. by them in order to be recognized by the world. proved upon the original. This has resulted in arresting the real work of evangelization, while a I believe the summary of the influence of Christ great deal of energy is being wasted in petty camin Africa is after all a summary of individual ex- paigns of mutual proselyting. Church loyalties periences. If there is an indigenous church grow- are taking the place of loyalty to the Founder of ing up in Africa it is because individual souls the Church. A united church would, I believe, have been touched by the healing hand of Christ. eliminate this, and besides would have greater May I give this witness? I recognize Christ as power and prestige in the eyes of the still nonmy Saviour. He has given me a purpose in life Christian Africa. Moreover, by pooling its reand strength to struggle towards the attainment sources it would be better able to meet the extenof that purpose. Moreover, I am of that class of sion of the rule of Christ. our people which is in the transition stage. These people have inevitably severed their connection But, great as is the need for extensive work, I with many of the old customs and traditions and think the need is greatest for intensive cultivation consequently have lost the salutary restraints de- in church work. The victories won must be solidirived from these, because they were upheld by fied. It grieves one to find that sometimes in old unconvincing sanctions. It was therefore oppor- mission stations, after the second or third gentune that, when these restraints were beginning eration of Christians, a reaction to the old life to be shaken, Christ came and furnished us with sets in. This seems to point to the need of more restraints supported by higher and better sanc- intensive work. To gain this end I think Sunday tions. This saved us from drifting aimlessly. school facilities must be exploited to the full in The best of our people realize more than ever to- Africa. The preparation of candidates for the day that our only salvation as a race and our only full membership of the Church must be long and condition of progress lies in accepting the new thorough, and in the services the preaching must restraint-Christ. In one word, therefore, Christ be more instructive in tone. When people have is my anchor, and not only that, but also my been converted their question naturally is, "What haven, and the wind to help me sail toward that must we do?" The preaching in the churches haven. must seek to answer these questions intelligently and convincingly. From this we can see that, But when we have mentioned all that Christ though it is true that Africa must be evangelized has done for Africa, we find that a great deal still by Africans, she needs a fully trained and well remains to be done. It is true that in Africa educated ministry. Christianity has produced some men of sterling Christian character and women of outstanding In closing may I say that the period we are witness, but the gains registered must be multi- passing through as a people is a difficult one, and plied throughout the whole race. Vast numbers it will take a strong and efficient church to tide of our people live and die without Christ, and this us over it. Our people are rapidly leaving behind points to the need of more extensive evangeliza- the old primitive life. Christianity, education, tion. As the result of missionary activities in- and contact with civilized races are responsible digenous churches are rising up in Africa, but the for this change, and we welcome it. We, however, work still to be done is greater than these bodies regret that with the old order go also the recan accomplish without outside assistance. I be- straints which were furnished by old customs and lieve there is still room for the mother churches traditions. Under these circumstances, therefore, to work among us by guiding the infant churches our hope lies with the Church of Christ. The and by continuing financial help to maintain full- task is big, but we believe that if she addresses time workers in heathen areas. It is just here that herself to it with faith, courage and intelligence our indigenous churches fail. Their funds are she can cope with it. Christ, the Redeemer of the sufficient only to keep going what has already world, is equal to any situation, in any race, and been done, and that with difficulty. They lack the in any age, as He is the same yesterday, today surplus funds for launching aggressive campaigns and forever. of evangelization. Whatever work of this nature is done by them is only on the fringes of their WHAT CHRIST MEANS TO ME pastoral charges. – By BOKARI SABA, However, even with sufficient funds, I believe that the task of evangelizing Africa is beyond a Sangha pres Bandiagara, French Sudan, divided church. The need for union is urgent in French West Africa this country. Europe has rendered us great service by bringing us the Gospel, and we are thankful I AM a fisherman. For years I walked in darkfor this; but with this she has bequeathed to us ness, offering sacrifices to the Water God and a bitter legacy in the form of religious differ- praying Mohammedan prayers, but that did not help me to get rid of my load of sin. One day
AFRICANS ON THE WITNESS STAND
I heard the Word of God-one cannot accept Saviour of the world. Whosoever believeth in God's Word until he hears. I believed that Jesus Him shall not be destroyed, but whosoever does Christ was my Saviour. My load of sin fell off, not believe Him the wrath of God abideth upon and I entered into light. During the first year, him." however, I did not have much strength and still continued to fight with people. Because of this I The commander asked me who was my witness. fasted and prayed. God filled me with the Holy I did not have anyone with me, so I replied, "Com- Spirit and gave me power in my life. mander, I am doing the will of God. I have no witness here, but God is my witness. He sees my I returned to my father's house, and my people work." The commander bowed his head for a wanted me to join in sacrificing a black goat to time and then replied: "I do not see any lie in the Water God as is their custom. I told them you, but I cannot let you go as you have two witthat Jesus gave His life for the world and we nesses against you. I will give you five days in should not offer sacrifices any more. They said I prison." I prayed to God that He might give me would not gain any fish. I replied that I knew wisdom to look to Jesus, and He helped me in a that He whom I follow would help me. However, wonderful way. Good food was sent in for me, my heart was burdened as I had been away from and He caused the guard to trust me, putting me my country for some time and was no longer over several other men during the working hours. skilled in spearing fish and drawing in the net. But best of all I was able to preach to the other We began to fish. I fell into the water three times, prisoners, and two accepted Christ. I was reand they all laughed. I prayed to God and asked leased after five days, but returned once more to Him to give me sense. I did not fall into the the prison to further testify about Jesus to those water again, and before morning my boat was full who had accepted Him. of fish. Everybody was astonished, as I had gained more than they all. I went back to my father's house during the rice harvesting season, and while there received a My arm became swollen, and everybody said it letter asking me to come to Sangha. From the was because I had not made a sacrifice. I said, beginning of my life I had always been near the "Jesus, Thou art my doctor. Here is my arm." water and now I was asked to go away from the It healed quickly and did not hinder me from river, to the rocks of Sangha. I said, "God, let working at all. Thus God strengthened my faith Thy will be done," but Satan tempted me, saying, in Him. "How will you, a fisherman, live if you do not get any fresh fish." When I prayed, God said to me, One day I received a letter requesting me to go "Look at the cross of Jesus, how He died for you." to the San district to tell others about Jesus. I At that time I worshiped God for thus showing prayed for three days and God showed me that me the love of Jesus, and my heart was at rest. He had work for me there. With my wife, Pali, Here at Sangha I do not get any fresh fish, but and two children I went to San, about 250 miles joy is in my heart always. God has blessed me from my home. There my little boy, Mousa, be- among the rocks and in the plains. In numbers came very ill. I prayed and said, "Lord, let Thy of villages there are those who have now heard will be done, not mine." We took the child to the the message of salvation and have repented, burndoctor and he treated him, but the third day the ing their Mohammedan and fetish charms. I child died. The tears flowed, but God lifted the thank God that He helped me, in the Name of the burden so that I could say, "Thank God, Thou Lord Jesus. who has given hast taken away. Bernde am woyi konno bernde am dyalli." (My heart cried, but At Sangha, too, we have had our testings, but my heart laughed). I knew that my Lord had God has given deliverance time after time. One given His life for me. My heart was sweet for I day a Mohammedan teacher from Mecca, and knew God was the rewarder. To this day the greatly revered, passed by our house. When he Lord is blessing mightily in that district, and saw that my wife was pregnant he said, "Take s,cores of souls have found Christ as their Sav- out a sacrifice and give it to me or your wife will iour. I know it was not by my power or thought, 'die." I replied, "I will never take out a sacrifice but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before I again, for the Lord Jesus is my sacrifice." Anleft this place God had given me another child. other Mohammedan teacher came, and in my ab- sence gave a charm and holy water to PalL When Later I was sent to the Dedougou Circle to I came home she showed them to me and I said, testify. Here Satan caused two men to tell lies "This is Satan's work." I tore the writing and about me to the French commander. One Sunday broke the bottle. I prayed to God to give me while I was preaching a guard came and seized power over Satan. I called the Mohammedan and me. I did not know what I had done and was talked with him, and the next day he left the coundeeply burdened, but I was conscious that Jesus try. One Sunday morning while I was preaching was with me. The commander asked me what I I asked the people to pray for PalL Before the was teaching, and I said: "Jesus is the Lord, the
service closed a Christian woman came with the At the time of my birth my father and mother news, "Praise God, Pali is delivered." All were were in the Catholic religion. I was also baptized surprised, saying, "Even before we finished in that faith and received the name Augustine.
speaking God worked." All the town who knew When I grew up and saw their works I perceived about the prophecy of the big Mohammedan that they had very many objects of worship, teacher marveled and came to greet Pali. Thank Jesus, Mary, Peter and many like them. They do God, I know that His blessing is with me at not give God's Word to men. And also, I was Sangha, and this increased our faith in Him. taught that one can give money to "the father,"
The Habbe people of Sangha as a tribe are who is able to grant him a period of time in fetish worshipers, and they too tempt us. Last which he may commit any sin he likes and he will month, as their big yearly celebration drew near, pray for him. A religion like that does not save their representative, Antando, met me on the one. I forsook that forever.
path. He said, "Bokari Saba, I have come to ask After that I entered Mohammedanism and re- you something hard, but something easy." mained in it for seven years. I saw in that also I said, "Is it peace?" that one could commit any sin he liked, just as He replied: "Peace. We have inquired from long as he was faithful in doing the salaams five the sacred fox, and he says that a fisherman is times a day, facing the East. Why? Because to open our celebration this year. If you will kill there is a stone in Mecca which is the big Moham- the chicken as a sacrifice and walk around our medan object of worship, and Mohammed's grave.
idol three times we will give you grain and They give one a charm called lisimoun, to put on chickens. " for a protection. When I heard the Word of Light I said: "Antando, if I could I would break and took account of my ways, I saw that we wor- down your idol to say nothing of worshiping it. shiped nothing less than Satan and idols, and bur- Do not talk to me again about this matter. I am dened ourselves with much we could not carry.
a fisherman, you a Habbe. Weare sister tribes. Mohammedan teachers also say that we must not Anything in my house that you want you can observe their works, but believe the word of the come and take, but do not speak to me about hon- Koran only. Why? Because their works are evil.
oring your idol. If I have my way, I will destroy There is no end to secret matters with them in it." such a religion of deception. I forsook that for- Praise God, I will not approach a fetish again ever. It does not save one.
with a sacrifice, for I know that Jesus Christ, I saw truth and love in Jesus, which are not in whom I love, is my sacrifice. I need chickens any other road. What is God's will? "And this and grain, but God gave me strength to refuse is the will of my Father, that everyone that be- them when offered in this manner. holdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should Pray much for me that I may not look at the have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the things of the world. I do not have any strength last day" (John 6: 40). I also saw that trouble of myself, but I know God will give it to me as I and persecution were with Jesus on earth.
pray to Him. He has given me His promise that "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep whatsoever I ask in the Name of the Lord Jesus and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye I shall gain. The promise stands true. God has shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be given me the witness in my heart. Praise God turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail because of the blood of Jesus, for the blood of hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when Jesus took off the old garment of sin from my she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no neck and gave me a new garment of righteous- more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born ness. I want to go forward doing His will till into the world" (John 16: 20-21).
He come. Amen. I saw another thing on the Jesus road which is not in any other road. If a person says to you, WHY I ACCEPTED CHRIST "Throwaway your coat," but does not give you By JEAN KEITA, a new one, will you not take the old one again? But if he gives you a new one, you will have no Siguiri, French West Africa use for the old one. Praise the Lord because He THE first thing I saw in Jesus was a revela- gives His own a new spirit and helps him to con- tion of myself. I saw that Jesus is the light, quer himself, Satan and the world, and enables· myself a sinner. The works of darkness him to walk with God. Otherwise none of us filled my heart; I did not know that I was so could walk God's road. "But ye are not in the wicked until Jesus showed me myself. After I flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of saw His love and goodness I earnestly desired God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not Him, but I could not have Him until I forsook my the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans own will and the love of the world. 8: 9). SOME TYPES OF WEST AFRICAN WOMEN The Gospel and the Women of West Africa By JEWEL H. SCHWAB Presbyterian Mission, Cameroun, West Africa I N ORDER to appreciate the changes the Gos- fear of malignant spirits always hovering about pel has wrought in the lives of the women of at the stream or in the forest at sundown, or at that part of West Africa with which we are midnight in the hamlet, waiting to seize her or familiar, a brief survey of their state before the her children; fear of childlessness, that she be "Words of God" came to them is essential. without anyone to care for her in her advancing years-fear might be said to have been the Zeit Significant are these words spoken by the at- motif of their lives. Also significant is the sobritendants when a girl child is born, U tan u tora, quet applied to a girl child in contrast to that of ba koba we u hemle, which translated means, a boy. The latter is known kek Ii njok, the molar "Deny, deceive, but if they catch you in the act, confess." A woman must always be on the de- tooth of an elephant-a prized possession; a girl, fensive, and so as one of her weapons she is ad- kop ba sem-a fowl to be sold or sacrificed.
vised by her sex from birth to admit nothing un- Thus was bred in Basa womankind an inferior- less actually found out. Fear of what might fol- ity complex, a secretiveness and a suspicion mak- Iowa confession of being the host of a witch, thus ing for a conservatism that has in the past acted unwittingly causing the sickness or death of hus- as a barrier to their acceptance of the Gospel. It band, relative or child; fear of consequences, such was youth, their sons, those prized possessions as wounds inflicted, being hung over the fire by who attended mission schools, who first success- the thumbs, if angering her husband; fear of be- fully broke down the barriers and won them to ing killed or buried alive if her husband died; the hearing of the Gospel and later the surrender- [475 ] ing of their hearts. A Basa boy's best friend is stretched, preventing them from going on. Her his mother; as the Basa proverb has it, "A son husband said to the apparition, "Are you blocking does not exchange his mother for the most beauti- the path because of my sins? If so, then let my ful girl," and so he wishes to share his "pearl of wife pass; her heart is cleaner." She went on, great price" with her particularly. As the "Good and the beauty of that better life was unfolded to News of the Words of God" became more widely her and the time when she would inherit it was known and accepted, women of their own volition revealed. Some time later Ngo Tjomp's husband began to follow the "path of God," making their died and was given a Christian burial, but the choice deliberately, confessing their sins openly fact that both she and her husband had been and fearlessly that they might begin their jour- Christians for many years did not prevent some ney with a clean heart, putting their trust in God of his relatives and friends from taunting her. that He would sustain them. A friend came to sit with her one day, as is cus- One such woman was cruelly beaten by her hus- tom during the nine-day period immediately folband. "Are you sorry you confessed?" she was lowing death, but instead of speaking words of asked. She replied, "My body is sorry because it comfort she accused Ngo Tjomp of desiring the is full of pain, but my heart is glad because for death of her husband, and even of being the cause the first time I have found peace." Her husband of it. Ngo Tjomp sat with bowed head, silent continued for a month or more to beat her each under the abuse, missing her husband, who altime she returned from attending service in the ways had been her helpmeet on the farm, and little chapel built on the outskirts of their village. shared the burden of carrying firewood and food over the long narrow path back to their hamlet. AFRICAN WOMEN ON THEIR WAY TO MARKET Months passed; then late one afternoon Ngo Tjomp appeared, her face radiating a new-found Daily he picked up the earthen pot containing tid- peace. "0 mother," she said, addressing her misbits she had prepared for him and smashed it to sionary friend, "Christ says, 'Bless those who perbits on the floor. He expected her to become secute you'; He has given me strength to follow angry, to refuse to bring him his daily food, but this teaching. Ngo Ngaga [the one who had she was silent and respectful always, each day taunted her] has an ulcer on her foot. She canbringing another pot or dish of well cooked food not leave her house. I gave her a copper to buy for him. Finally he succumbed. If her Christ medicine for it and prayed with her that God was able to· inspire such endurance and love in would bless and heal her." His disciples He must be worth knowing. Today this man may be seen coming out from under the Tjega stood tall beside his buxom little wife at overhanging eaves of his little brown hut, when the altar, each with a child in arm, a boy and a the call drum's clipped tones break the hushed girl, to consecrate the twins to the Lord. "We silence of grey dawn, together with his wife and have named the boy Moses," beamed the mother, children, to join the line of worshipers filing along "for we are giving him to God that he may lead the path on their way to morning prayers. Woman his people on the path that goes to our Father's is not only becoming emancipated from her fears town." Eight years previously Ngo MbOt had and developing a will and ideas of her own, but mothered another little lad, not her own, but a in this new freedom that is hers the heart of the weazened six-month-old starveling that had been Christian woman, bathed in the warm sunshine nourished on palm wine since the death of its of Divine love, is slowly unfolding, developing into mother. When he was brought to the mission staa sweet scented flower of wondrous beauty. tion a wet nurse was sought for the child in vain. Noone was willing to risk illness or death for her- Ngo Tjomp had a dream. She and her husband self or children, which is believed to be meted out were walking along a lovely level, grassy clearing to the foster mother by the angered spirit of the in the forest when suddenly an arm appeared, out- dead mother. Finally Ngo MbOt was approached. She replied, "I am in the Lord's hands. I do not fear. With His help I will care for the child as my own," and she took the child. A few months after this she became quite ill. Her neighbors predicted her death, and it was ,suggested that she return the child or refuse to nurse it. To all this. advice she merely said with unshaken faith, "God has put this child in my care. He will take care of all of us." And He did.
"I am going down to my son's town to die," as she hobbled along the forest path under giant trees, meaning she would stay for the rest of her
THE GOSPEL AND THE WOMEN OF WEST AFRICA
life. Her only child, a boy, she had left many girls sell food they have raised and prepare and years ago in the town to which she was now so carry palm oil and palm kernels to trading cen- eagerly hastening, when she ran off with another ters. man to his hamlet. So many years had rolled by since then that she had forgotten her misdeed and This new found freedom for women is a bless- thought only of the fact that she had a son, flesh ing only in so far as it is a controlled freedom, of her flesh and bone of her bone, who would care consecrated to the Lord. Only those whose lives for her in her last years. How her heart sang as have been given direction and an ideal for which she thought of the greeting awaiting her after to strive are going to be benefited by it. A girl this long separation! In anticipation she was from one of our Eastern colleges remarked that warming her stiffening joints at the comfortable she would like to go to Africa to do welfare work fire under the roof of her boy's home. How she among the women and girls, but it must be solely strained her eyes as she neared the town for a welfare work entirely divorced from religion. possible glimpse of him! At last she saw him in There has been a tendency to consider social servthe court of his hamlet. "0 my heart, my son, my son, your mother has come! Your own Courtesy of The Missionary Herald. mother who bore you, she has come! Myself, it is she !" Her son, grown to manhood, made sure he ice as sufficient to raise a people to a higher level had heard aright and then turned his back on the of living; but it has been our experience, and the approaching woman and entered his palaver experience of others who have lived and worked house. She had deserted him when he needed with African women, that it is the woman who her, now let her suffer. has been won for Christ first who is susceptible to suggestions and willing to improve her living Heartbroken, she threw her old wrinkled body conditions. Without the stimulation which comes on the ground and sobbed forth her disappoint- from a changed and purified inner spiritual life ment and humiliation. Soon a crowd gathered. she is not willing to defy age old customs and The son forbade anyone to take her home to care habits, be they ever so unhygienic. The African for her, threatening them with a heavy fine if they woman must first be led to the feet of the Master, did so. The Christian women in the community who alone can set all captives free, before she can tried to intercede for her. He was deaf to all en- help to win Africa for Christ. treaties. Finally they told him that, if he refused to care for her, they as Christians could not let her suffer. Suiting action to word they built a little house for her, carried firewood and food to her daily, succeeding at length in lighting the fires of another love, a greater love, in this African woman's heart.
Economically there have also been great changes. Laws governing marriage and divorce, the opening up of roads giving free communication and the establishing of courts with the final appeal to the European officer, who tries to decide cases justly, has made for a measure of freedom for womankind. But this freedom, unless controlled by inner promptings of the heart, is not entirely beneficial, as is indicated by the flocking of girls and young women to trade centers to become "company women"-prostitutes now licensed and inspected by the government. The young woman running away from home and husband, who greeted Miss Mackenize on the path one day with, "Mornin' Matches, I am flee!" was one of the many who are turning this freedom into license-freedom to flee from home and responsibilities. As women must pay a government tax as well as men, those whose husbands do not provide for them-and they are manymust earn money to pay it, as well as buy the clothes necessary for themselves and sometimes for their children. To do this the women and
Church of Christ in
By RT. REV. J. J. WILLIS Recently Bishop of Uganda; Assistant Bishop of Leicester THE story of Christian missions in Uganda is It was through the influence of Stanley that one of the best known of all the romances of Mutesa's famous appeal to Christian England the mission field. Few missions have, in their came to be written. The appeal, published in the early days, come nearer to disastrous failure; few Daily Telegraph in 1876, led to the sending out by have, in so short a time, achieved a more con- the Church Missionary Society, in 1877, of the spicuous success; few have exhibited on so large first missionary party, to be followed two years a scale the perils of an easy triumph; and none, later by the first representatives of the Roman perhaps, have shown more clearly the hand of God Catholic White Fathers' Mission. Himself guiding, preserving, and out of weakness making strong. The early effort came perilously near to dis- aster. Of the eight men who formed the original To Krapf and the pioneer German missionaries party at one time only one was left in Uganda. in East Africa, in the early half of last century, Under pressure from the Arab traders and his must betraced the impetus which led to the dis- own pagan and Moslem chiefs, Mutesa again and covery of the Victoria Nyanza, and, on its north- again wavered in his loyalty to the mission which western shores, the kingdom of Buganda. The had come to the country on his invitation and as first European traveler to enter Buganda was his guests; he remained on the whole friendly, Speke, in 1861. He was followed in 1875 by H. but never himself joined the Christian Church. M. Stanley. Both men were impressed with the When he died, and his son, Mwanga, reversed his outstanding qualities of the people of Buganda father's policy, and turned savagely on the deand the possibilities of their country. Brave, in- fenseless infant Church, when the missionaries telligent, highly organized and disciplined, they were expelled from the country, and the Chrishad long since passed from the patriarchal stage tians scattered and in hiding, it looked as if the to the monarchical. Clothed from head to foot, Christian effort were doomed to failure. If the clean, and with perfect manners, they presented hand of God may be seen in the discovery of a striking contrast to the surrounding tribes. Uganda and in the visit, at the critical moment Speke saw at once the possibilities of such a peo- of Stanley, it is seen even more clearly in the surple from the point of view of civilization; but vival of the Church, when, without European Stanley realized the possibilities of this dominant leaders, and with nothing more than a single Gosrace, led by a progressive and all-powerful king, pel, St. Matthew, to inspire, it passed through the from the point of view of the Kingdom of God. fires of persecution, and emerged a larger and a Such a people, brought under the obedience of stronger Church than at the beginning. "The Christ, would, he saw, be an incalculable influence bush burned with fire, and the bush was not conthroughout central Africa. sumed," because God Himself was in it.
Buganda, or in its Anglicized form, Uganda, Since those early days of persecution the was at heart pagan. But at the time of Stanley's Church in Uganda has passed through many vavisit a thin veneer of Mohammedanism had been ried experiences. Three religions have struggled, laid :<,)Ver the country. Arab traders had influenced as in so many parts of Africa, for supremacy, and the King, or Kabaka, Mutesa, and under his the victory of Christianity over its rivals has, to orders chiefs and people had hastened to declare all appearances, been complete. In Buganda today themselves Moslem. But all was as yet superficial; paganism is almost out of sight, and Moham- Uganda was still malleable, and had not yet hard- medans are a small minority. Christianity has ened into the bigoted hostility of a Moslem state; been divided as-a house against itself; Protestants but had Stanley come later, or had he been a man and Roman Catholics have fought one another in of a different type, the whole future of the coun- a war which was at least as much political as retry would have been strangely different. Stanley ligious. Again the "French" party, the Roman arrived at the right psychological moment, and, Catholics, have combined with the "English" by sheer personal influence turned the tide and set party, the Protestants, in common hostility to the it in the direction of Christianity. Mohammedan and pagan parties. At one time a [478 ] Moslem king, at another a pagan and at another missions are working independently over the same a Christian, has sat on the throne. ground. There are three strong Roman Catholic But steadily and increasingly Christianity has missions, a French mission, an English mission, won its way, and no one could question the domi- and an Italian mission. These divide up the coun- nant position it now occupies in the thought and try between them; but the native Anglican life of the people, not only of Buganda but of all Church organization covers the whole area, and the surrounding tribes, for a radius of hundreds the Synod of the Church is representative of every of miles. The first two bishops of Eastern Equa- part of the Protectorate.
torial Africa died before reaching Uganda. Bishop Hannington was murdered, in the time of the per- secution, in 1885, within sight of Uganda; Bishop Parker died of fever on his way to the country.
When the third bishop, Tucker, reached Uganda, in 1890, the adherents of the Church Missionary Society mission numbered a bare 200; when he retired in 1911 they numbered 70,000.
For years the work was confined to the imme- diate vicinity of the capital, Mengo (or Kam- pala) ; today the furthest occupied stations lie 600 miles away, in Belgian Ruanda and Urundi, and the whole intervening country is covered with a network of churches, schools, hospitals, dispen- saries and welfare centers. Great cathedrals, Anglican and Roman Catholic, crown the hill tops in the capital; Christian teaching permeates the thousands of schools which have brought educa- tion within the reach of practically every child in the country; Christian homes are beginning to make their influence felt in the new world which has been created. It is difficult to realize that Christianity is still such a new thing in Uganda and that men and women are still living who themselves passed through the furnace of perse- cution in the days of Mwanga.
It is worth while considering what it is to which, under God, this very remarkable change is due, for to Uganda has been given a success out- ward and visible not ordinarily given to missions.
1. The Kingdom of Uganda occupies a strategic position in Africa. Its people are a people of out- standing natural intelligence, a dominant race.
The seed was sown on fertile ground. TEACHING CHILDREN IN AFRICA 2. Christianity in Uganda was first in the field.
Western civilization, with its more materialistic 5. British rule, again, has created conditions al- outlook, followed later. European and African most ideally favorable to missionary work. Doubt- first met on the higher spiritual plane, a fact less Christians missions would have survived and which has colored all their subsequent relation- in the end would have won their way, but it would ships. have been impossible for the Gospel to advance 3. The Christian appeal was first made, as in with anything like the same rapidity had there England, to the king and chiefs. Missions en- been no British administration in the country.
tered Uganda on the invitation of Mutesa, and the Law and order, communications with the outside missionaries were there as his guests. Christian world by railway, internal communications by chiefs have been from the first the acknowledged road, active cooperation in education, the sympa- leaders and whole-hearted supporters of the thetic attitude of officials, general prosperity and Church in Uganda. Their influence among their industrial development have all contributed to- people has been a decisive factor in evangeliza- wards the progress of the Gospel. What the Ro- tion, in education and in medical development. man government meant to Christianity in the first 4. Uganda has been kept from those difficult century, as it swept along the highways of com- problems which arise when a variety of different merce and captured the strategic centers of civi-
lization, that, and much more, has British admin- of the Church. Indeed the whole history of that istration meant to the Church in Uganda. Church might be written around the names of its 6. The Bible has from the first held a pre-emi- leaders, some of them men of outstanding ability, nent place in the life of the native Church. It some men of no obvious importance, yet made was Stanley who first brought before Mutesa the great by the Spirit who dwelt in and inspired Book on which his own faith rested. Mutesa's them. And in that succession of leaders not the first question to the first missionary party to ar- least have been those saints and humble men of rive was, "Have you brought the Book?" Chris- God, as Apolo Kivebulaya, of the Pygmy Forest, tian converts have always been known in Uganda whose simple faith and utter devotion have been as "readers." From the time of Pilkington, in the very life blood of the Church.
1897, the Baganda have had the whole Bible in The natural advantages of the country, the con- their own vernacular. It has been translated in ditions created by a strong and sympathetic gov- whole or in part into at least ten languages in the ernment, the personality of the leaders, the policy Protectorate. No adult convert may be baptized adopted, all these have had their place in the prog- (unless manifestly too old to learn) unless he is ress of the Gospel in Uganda, but above all there able to read the Gospels in his own language. The has been the hand of God Himself, and few mis- Bible, read in the homes and taught in all the sions in the world have called forth more interest schools, is molding the character of the rising and sympathy and prayer than has Uganda; to generation. The voluntary abolition of slavery, that prayer is due whatever of the seeming suc- the social uplift of the women, the eager evangel- cess proves to be real and permanent.
ization of hitherto hostile tribes, the devotion and But rapid success carries with it inevitably its self-sacrifice shown in medical service, have all own dangers. An East African Bishop, visiting been inspired directly by the study of the Book. Uganda, summed up his impressions in the words The place given to the Bible goes far to explain of the Queen of Sheba: "'The half was not told the decisive influence of the Church Missionary me'; the best and the worst exceed all that I had Society in Uganda. heard." It is fatally easy, in our appreciation of 7. The Church in Uganda is essentially a native the success, to lose sight of the other side of the church. Very early in its history, when it was account. But when Christianity has become popu- still in its infancy, European leadership was per- lar, when a mass movement, led by Christian force withdrawn, and all through the dark days chiefs, is sweeping over the country like a prairie of persecution the Church had to depend, under fire, when a Christian name is almost necessary to God, on itself. Church councils have played a con- any social status; and Christian education is the spicuous part all through its history-parochial highway to promotion, it would be strange indeed councils, diocesan councils, synods, in all of which if Christianity kept pure. Like weeds, springing natives form an overwhelming majority. The al- up with the first rains, old superstitions and old ready existing native political organization, with immoral practices that had seemed dead spring its system of native courts and native chiefs, made again to life. Converts who have endured without the organization of a self-governing church a com- flinching the ordeal of persecution fail and dis- paratively easy matter; and Bishop Tucker's,,·su- appoint under the harder test of popularity and preme contribution was the organization of a prosperity. Familiarity with holy things may Church which was entrusted with real responsi- easily breed contempt, and a generation arises bility and was, to a marked degree, "self-sup- which is Christian not by conviction but by birth.
porting, self-governing, and self-extending." The further the boundaries of the Church are 8. The Uganda Mission has been blessed with a extended the more difficult becomes the task of succession of missionary leaders whose names effective shepherding. And, with the introduction have become household words; Bishop Hanning- of Western civilization, counter attractions mul- ton, the martyr bishop, who by his tragic death tiply, and temptations become inevitably greater.
on the threshold of his life work accomplished A church in its adolescent stage needs perhaps more perhaps than might have been effected in a not less, but more, care than a church in its early long life; Alexander Mackay, the Scottish mis- childhood; it is less interesting, but its position sionary, who was the life and inspiration of the is more dangerous.
Church in the days of its martyrdom, who worked A great work has been done in Uganda. The for fourteen years without once returning home Gospel has proyed its power in the face of bitter and died at his post; George Pilkington, who in opposition; it is left to us, in our day and genera-'
seven short years gave the Baganda the Bible in tion, to see that the ground so hardly won is not their own language, and when his life work was lost, and that the Church in Uganda is so trained done was killed in his thirty-third year; and many and equipped that it may fulfill in Africa the great another lesser known man and woman whose per- task that now lies before it, that the purpose of sonalities inspired and molded the growing life God in it and through it may be realized.
Progress and the
By REV. JOHN M. SPRINGER, D.D.
Bishop for Africa of the Methodist Episcopal Church I s MODERN material progress a bane or a into cloth, and molded clay into pots for cooking blessing to the African? Like so many other and for containers. The more skilful blacksmiths questions, the answer cannot be a mere un- attained the making of razors, needles and other qualified yes or no. Losses of one sort are bal- fine tools. Cotton was quite widely found and was anced by gains of another, and gains are balanced spun into thread, and here and there looms were by losses. A brief consideration of the typical vil- fashioned to make cotton cloth. Many different lage and economic life of the African is necessary musical instruments were made to express the inin order to come to a right judgment of the ques- nate melody of African souls to while away the tedium of the journey or of idle hours and to give tion. rhythm to the dance. But, nevertheless, the life The African maintained a fairly uniform and of the African was simple in the extreme. He sat on the ground, he slept on the ground, he ate from unchanged status of existence for undetermined the ground. His cattle, when he had any, were of generations. His was a self-contained economic little or no industrial use. They supplied meat for order; he needed no intercontinental or international commerce to supply his few necessities; they were obtained locally. The neighboring tribe in most cases was as far as he needed to go to barter for things he required. If no trader from outside his own community came his way, it usually did not matter much. His necessary tools were few, a hoe, an axe, a knife, the latter length- ened to a spear. His ancestors had come to a continent where iron ore is found in nearly all parts and in high and low grades. If some tribe chanced to settle where not even the low grade iron was to be found, necessity for tools would drive them to a tribe more fortunately situated. Or members of that more fortunate tribe or else professional traders would be stirred by the commercial in- stinct to wander afield with their wares. In the NATIVE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS village spaces. or at the recognized market centers Three primitive "pianGs" – marimbas with wooden keys and or by the wayside there would be dickering and gourds of various sizes bargaining, and the trader in due time would depart with a few goats or chickens, or with mats, his feasts and constituted units of value for marpots, and so on, made by local artisans. But to riage portions, to pay fines or to purchase articles. affect this exchange it was necessary as a rule to contact only a neighboring tribe. Was the African content with his mode of Africa is widely and, as a whole, abundantly existence? To many a passing visitor who saw supplied with raw materials, thus constituting a him in his casual, lighter moods and chanting in rich prize that Europe covets, has sought for and his moonlight dances he has seemed to be happy. is still haggling over. The African, though more But to those that have penetrated below the sur- or less belated in industrial development, has the face and have seen his response to a fuller life, rudiments of all the arts and industries in his ele- it has been revealed that deep down there was a mentary life. With his primitive tools, hoe, axe great restlessness and discontent. As a result, and knife, he has gotten his food from the ground with the early trader who penetrated Africa, bear- -not forgetting that in Africa it is the woman ing articles of trade – cloth, blankets, beads for with the hoe-his meat from the veldt, his honey ornament, mirrors, soaps, scents, modern hoes and from the hollow tree; he constructed his home, guns of wonderful power – there came to the vil- • prepared grass and other fibers and wove them lagers an urge to possess these things that started [481 ]
a procession of youths out from the villages. This grass or harsh bark cloth, and wanting clothing, change has come to be so widespread that it is the not only for comfort and utility, but for ornament rare village that has not contributed its quota to as well. The supporters of the second thesis of the modern army of industrial workers in Africa. the old time debate as to whether man first wore And it was not merely to secure these new articles clothing for utility or for ornament would in that Africans left the old life. In the cases of Africa find much to sustain his contention that very many there was an attraction and a holding the vanity of man has more than a little to do with power in the employment he found with the Euro- determining his attire. pean, in kitchen, on trek, on farm, in shop, that So there has been an enlarging number and held him through years of service. The dull and variety of articles of foreign manufacture de- nonprogressive round of village life had no fur- manded by the African, and notably by his wife, ther fascination for him. until today they are customers, not only in the Has the new day brought with it more of bane "Kaffir Store," the store for natives, but also in or of blessing? We need to consider this subject the stores kept primarily for Europeans, and the as it concerns not only the stay-at-home villager range, quality and extent of their purchases of arand the village life, but also the natives, including ticles of world production are limited only by the the women, that join the urban mining and indus- amount of cash in hand or by the credit they can obtain. As to tools, from using almost exclusively crude homemade ones, today in many villages it is hard to find any homemade tools, and the sub- stitution of imported ones is extending across the continent.
The sons of the Lomani blacksmiths who used to win their iron from bog deposits, transform it into steel in their crude furnaces and turn out from their very simply equipped smithies well wrought tools and implements are mainly the ones who are tending the blast furnaces at Lubumbashi and Panda. They are skilled in handling daily hundreds of tons of ore, instead of making the few simple articles that rewarded their labor of many OLD POTTERY, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE BASIN, days as they toiled with their fathers. The clay IN WHICH THE DAMP POT RESTS cooking pot has given way to the aluminum one, the earthen water jar is superseded by the enamel trial group. The two cannot be wholly separated bucket or pitcher, the grass basket is being rebecause of the constant movement back and forth placed by the wide enamel basin. And so has disof the individuals and of groups. appeared the demand for one native article after another. A missionary living close to the people Consider the village life first of all. The articles and who was keenly alive to what was happening of daily use have changed almost completely with- in village life stated that one art and industry in a generation. Europe not only wants raw ma- after another was rapidly being dropped and disterials for the factories manned by her teeming appearing entirely from the life of the people. populations, but she wants markets, and she seeks these markets keenly. To have these markets dis- Dame Fashion also steps in and holds sway in turbed and lost brings consternation, and some- Africa as among all other humans. When one times decisive action. For decades Italy supplied woman in a village becomes possessed of one of the larger portion of the fabrics purchased by these new and more desirable articles, a spirit of Abyssinians. A few years ago Japan invaded that envy is at once awakened in that community and market and largely captured it, as she has done continues until everyone has the same article. in other parts of Africa, to go no farther afield. Blue beads of a certain sort once ruled the day. Who will say to what extent the loss of this There was a change of style, and we not only market may have been a factor leading to Italy's found our stock useless for barter, but the dames recent decision and policy and the course she pur- and damsels of those interior villages, so remote sued? Think of a market such as Africa offers, that they were-"back of beyond," disdained to do' a hundred million and more people scantily more than glance at them and refused to accept clothed at best, many not clothed at all, but all them even as gifts. wanting clothing and blankets, and a goodly supply of all, and preferring to purchase the imported Not only in the industrial realm has life changed, but also in the tribal and social. The article as against the homemade fabric of coarse old primitive life was not wholly bad by a good
MATERIAL PROGRESS AND THE AFRICANS
deal. It is the rare tribe that has not had some edge and by the experiential mastery of forces good traditions and customs which were definitely and causes, will not do it. The instance is known taught to the youth, male and female. There was of a native who, unchanged as many are from an initiation which took place usually no later their old animistic beliefs, but skilled in detecting than during the age of puberty. Some features faults and frictions in very complicated machinof it were good, some decidedly bad. During re- ery and used to applying scientific tests all day cent decades it has been the rare youth who was to locate the trouble, returned to his hut one night in his village during this period, so, on his return to find his wife ill. What was causing her sickfrom industrial centers, he has been in no small ness? Not having accepted the Christian faith sense a stranger, unrelated to the community life he was stilI gripped by the old idea of spirit posand interests. So he has often made light of the session and, disregarding the medical service proold ways and customs and displayed his knowl- vided by his company, he sought out a witch docedge of the new ways of the town to advertise his tor, practicing secretly now, to smell out the witch own self-importance. In the old life there were that was causing the trouble. That is but a typirestraints generated by the fear of evil spirits, it cal case. is true. With those fears lessened or eliminated by new associations the individuals violated old The native woman joining the industrial group customs and codes. So was lost, in measure, re- is placed in particular temptation through the spect for elders, devotion to tribal affairs and in- transition from an economic order, in which she terest in tradition. Formerly thieving from strangers was approved, particularly if done so OLD S TAMPING MORTARS AND BASKETS. NOTE BICYCLE cleverly that the thief was not caught; but fear AND MODERN CLOTHES of known charms of alleged potency used by neighbors and the desire to live at peace in the was the main tiller of the soil, needing to grow home village largely worked for the protection of food for herself, for her children, and more or less property in the community. for her husband according to the number of wives he had, to the conditions obtaining in the Euro- As regards material blessings of this new age pean centers. Here, if married, she needs only to of industrial penetration of Africa, until the de- cook the meal, meat and other food rationed out . pression took away so largely, at least for a time, for her husband and his family. The firewood, the markets for labor and for produce, the Afri- formerly gathered mostly by herself, is generally cans were moving steadily toward a more abun- provided. Water is piped to near-by faucets, and dant life. The people, even the children, were she has a minimum of general work to do. "Satan being clothed quite generally, some of them elabo- still finds mischief for idle hands to do." And rately. There was developed a sense of ability mischief aplenty abounds in these centers. As for to do things, as the rawest villagers became with- the unmarried girl or woman, tired of the monotin a few years chauffeurs and machinists, clerks ony of village life, especially with so many of and telegraphers, engineers and medical assist- the men gone, and attracted to the garish centers, ants. That Divine discontent that drives men on where she becomes the concubine of a white man, to better and greater things has taken hold on with usually every want supplied, or plies her Africa. There is a growing and intense desire trade among men of her own color, she is a sad for education, and, on the part of many, for the object, at best, especially after a few short years highest. The educational value of work, of learn- when her charms are gone and venereal diseases ing to do skilled and more highly paid work, is have left their marks on her body. The natural seen to be a stimulus to general education. heart of the African man, and woman, as of un- The dead level of native life is being broken up and individuals no longer need fear to go ahead, to emerge above the crowd. The intermingling, through industrial life and wider travel, of the different cultures developed in the various tribes is producing new standards. Evil, too, travels and spreads as well as good and creates new problems. While lessening the old tribal control, the total process is .gradually cementing the different tribes into a new oneness and into a consciousness of being a common African people.
What will eliminate the gripping fear that controls so generally in native life? The scientific factor alone, as represented by the greater knowl-
regenerated man generally, is desperately wicked, control of enlightened, well disposed government, whether in the isolated village of the backwoods as in most parts of Africa today, and accompanied or in the pulsing industrial centers. Changes of by a presentation of the Gospel of God's love and geography do not effect changes of heart and life salvation from sin, it can be and actually is a great in Africa any more than elsewhere. benefit to the African.
What modern industry does to the African de- But it is not a case now whether modern induspends not a little on what sort of African is in- try shall invade Africa. That decision, whether volved, whether he is still gripped by the fears for good or for bad, was taken decades ago, and that have ruled society there for generations, or such a development was inevitable in a rapidly whether, having been delivered from that thrall- shrinking world. The entire continent of Africa dom by the new birth, he has now gained a knowl- is in the process of industrial transformation. edge of the Great Good Spirit that made the world Governmental activities control well nigh the full as being love, a faith in Jesus Christ and a heart one hundred per cent of the peoples of the contiso filled with love that fear has been cast out. If nent, all but the one million people of Liberia behe has had this new spiritual experience he faces ing under European governments. Industry dithe world and life with confidence and with a rectly or indirectly reaches on toward approxikeener outreach for increased knowledge. Indus- mating the same percentage. The Christian try in and of itself is not a spiritually transform- Church has enrolled approximately five per cent ing agency. It never was the Divine intent that only of the population and constantly or occasionit should operate alone. It is but one of the three ally contacts perhaps up to twenty-five per cent. major factors of religion, government and indus- When we shall discharge our obligation in reachtry found in every group of people the world ing effectively anywhere near the total group we around. Conducted alone, modern industry may believe that the modern industrial penetration of be and undoubtedly would be more a bane than a Africa, instead of being a bane, may and will be blessing to the African. Carried on under the a real blessing to the Africans.
The Printed Word Among the Bantu By ROBERT H. W. SHEPHERD Director of Publications, Lovedale, South Africa JUST over one hundred years ago the eastern nothing could be done, and after a stay of a little portion of Cape Colony in South Africa was in more than a year he withdrew. Some fifteen years a ferment. The Bantu tribes had pushed down later there arrived, as Vanderkemp's successor, from Central Africa, had ousted the original in- Joseph Williams, who is notable as the first man habitants of the south, the Bushmen and Hotten- to give his life for the evangelization of the native tots, and had advanced as far as the southern sea- peoples of South Africa. Following two brief board of the continent on its eastern side. Being years of labor Williams died through ill-health stopped by the sea they turned to go west, but and disheartenment. When, however, some five soon found their progress blocked by the advance years after, the first converts among the Bantu guard of European civilization spreading over were baptized it was found that they had been from the Cape. War succeeded war. It'is inter- won for God through the instrumentality of Wilesting now to note that the two races faced each liams. Few pieces of Bantu literature existing other in territory which includes the land on today are more noteworthy than a hymn composed which the Lovedale Missionary Institution now by one of Williams' converts. It is perhaps the stands. noblest of all Xosa (Kaffir) hymns and has been sung for more than a century by Bantu congre- . Early Missionaries gations. A translation may be of interest: Toward the close of the eighteenth century Dr. He is the great God in heaven. John Vanderkemp, a Hollander, acting as a mis- Thou alone art the Shield of truth. sionary of the London Missionary Society, came Thou alone art the Refuge of truth. as the first bearer of the Gospel to the Bantu. So Thou alone art the Hiding-place of truth. unsettled were the tribes, however, that he felt Thou alone dwellest in the highest.
THE PRINTED WORD AMONG THE BANTU
THE BOOK STORE', LOVEDALE INSTITUTION He is the Creator of life, He created above. few days after Ross' arrival, December 16, 1823, This is the Creator Who created, He created the Heaven. "On the 17th we got our press together; on the This is the Maker of the stars and of the Pleiades. 18th the alphabet was set up; and yesterday The star shot forth. It spoke to us. (19th) we threw off fifty copies." It was inevita- This is the Maker of the blind also; He did it of purpose. ble that the missionaries should begin with the The trumpet spoke, it summoned us. alphabet, for the Amaxosa tribe of the Bantu, He is the Hunter, hunting for souls. among whom they had settled, although speaking He gathers together the flocks that do not agree. a wonderfully flexible and expressive language, He is the Leader; He led us. had absolutely no knowledge of writing. He is the great robe which covers us. Thy hands are wounded. This early determination to provide the printed Thy feet are wounded. Word has been a marked feature of South African Why didst Thy blood gush out? history. Soon after the setting up of the press at Thy blood wast shed for us. Gwali, later known as the Lovedale Press, the This great price have we called for it? Methodists were operating a press at Mount Coke, This village here have we summoned it? about fifty miles to the east. The Paris Evan- gelical Society, which entered Basutoland in 1833, The Fi'rst Printing Press has made a special feature of its publication work. Other societies, such as the American Board, have In the early twenties of last century the London shown similar diligence. Dr. Westermann has de- Missionary Society, the Engli-sh Methodist clared that the literature of many African tribes Church, and the Glasgow Missionary Society of can be carried in a lady's pocket handkerchief! Scotland almost simultaneously placed mission- The charge cannot be levelled at South African aries in the field. The coming of the third of the missions. In the valuable "Bibliography of Chris- Scottish band is one of the romances of modern tian African Literature," published in 1923, with missionary work on the literary side. The Rev. its supplement of 1927, something like one hun- John Ross brought with him a printing press dred publications each are listed in the Xosa, which, after the voyage of 6,000 miles by sea, he Zulu and Suto languages, and about fifty in conveyed by ox wagon a journey of 600 miles Chuana. These are the principal languages of the more from Cape Town to Gwali, ten miles from southern end of the continent. . the present site of Lovedale. John Bennie, a catechist, who had arrived two years before, wrote a
The Bible Translated ants; wherever they lead he must follow. If my son is willing to go, I make no objection, for no The aim of the pioneers was not merely to pro- harm can befall him even across the sea; he is as vide as soon as possible some printed word, but much in God's keeping there as near to me." Tiyo the printed Word. Rev. J. W. Appleyard, a Soga, one of thirty-nine children of a polygamist Methodist minister, early translated the Bible headman, afterwards became the earliest ordained single-handed into Xosa, and his translation is missionary to his own race and did magnificent popular even today. A board composed chiefly of work. His translation of the first part of "Pil- Scottish and German missionaries produced a grim's Progress" is acknowledged to be a masterscholarly version in the same language. As to the piece of Xosa prose. The second part of the same other South African languages a similar story can book was translated into Xosa a few years ago be told. The work of the American and British by one of Tiyo Soga's sons, who has followed in Bible Societies deserves hearty acknowledgment. his father's footsteps by devoting a large part of Largely because of this determination to put first his missionary service to the production of literathings first the Bible remains the best seller in ture for the Bantu. the various South African vernacular tongues. The Position Today It is also the best evangelist, for it carries within its covers the very Gospel message and brings Today the tide of literacy is rising among the Christ to men and men to Christ. The British Bantu, and with it have come increased opportuand Foreign Bible Society and the Scottish Na- nities for the ministry of the printed page. Untional Bible Society have in recent years made it fortunately literacy is bringing also increased oppossible for a book caravan to itinerate through- portunities for appeals of a different kind, so that out the district which was formerly the scene of the situation is becoming critical. For example, the wars between the Bantu and colonists. The to the writer's desk there comes every month the driver-colporteur is not content merely to sell magazine of the Communist party directed to the books, but conducts services in three languages. educated classes among the Bantu, a pUblication The Scripture Gift Mission of London and the altogether true to type. While the Christian Lovedale Press have also been publishing tracts agencies are teaching vast numbers to read, it is in South African vernaculars, solely in the words our duty also to see that it is not left to the nonof Scripture. Christian and even anti-Christian elements to sup- ply the reading matter. We must supply more Religious Classics and better books.
As in many other parts of Africa, Bunyan's Thousands of Christians would find their faith "Pilgrim's Progress" was early translated, and deepened, love increased, and service made more the spiritual life of multitudes of Bantu Chris- effective if wholesome reading became part of tians has been nourished on this book. The Xosa their daily life. And beyond these stand hundreds version was admirably rendered by the Rev. Tiyo of thousands still unwon. The day has dawned Soga, the first ordained minister among the Bantu, for a forward movement in good literature whose history has more than usual interest. In throughout southern Africa. The situation calls 1846 war once more broke out between the Bantu for action and not merely resolutions. The Jeand the colonists. The missions lost heavily in rusalem meeting of 1928 said of the production, property, and Lovedale Institution, which had publication and circulation of Christian literabeen opened five years before, was turned into a ture : "It is generally recognized and admitted fort. Among the Christian refugees at another that this is the most neglected part of the missionfort was a godly native woman named Nosutu, ary enterprise. There is possibly no other miswho came with her son, Tiyo Soga, a pupil at sionary subject on which so many resolutions have Lovedale when the war broke out. In the dreary been passed and so few put into effect." The prosurroundings of the fort the lad contrived to pur- duction and distribution of books must have an sue his studies. Since he had no means of pur- increasing place in the thought and work of the chasing even a taper his mother daily collected missionary forces, especially in view of the rising sneezewood splinters to burn so that her boy tide of education and the anti-Christian propamight see to read his books during the long win- ganda being c!irected towards the Bantu. ter nights. This fact has been realized in recent years and Later it was proposed to Nosutu that Tiyo ac- some steps taken to meet the new situation. Those company Rev. Williams Govan, the first principal leading in the movement have been greatly heartof Lovedale, to Scotland and there complete his ened by the visit of Dr. John R. Mott, under education. To this the mother replied, "My son whose leadership the subject received considerable is the property of God; wherever he goes God attention. A South African Christian Council is goes with him. He is the property of God's serv-
being brought into being, one of the secretaries and in the day of his extremity this man was forof which will have this matter as his special saken by kindred and friends. By means of a charge. Missionary societies, American, British trick he was finally cast into prison, but through and Continental, will be urged to cooperate and all his faith 'remained undimmed and his deterto make arrangements to assure the production of mination unshaken. Today, some ten years later, the best literary work. Meantime several presses he remains a flaming evangelist among his people, are seeking to cope with the situation. One mis- adorning the doctrine of God, his Saviour, by his sion press last year published and sold 70,000 daily life. The significant fact is, that when encopies of vernacular books, besides innumerable quiry was made as to what led him to be at the pamphlets and books in English. church door on that first Sabbath morning it was learned that it was the Book. At school a brother Pressing Needs had been presented with a Bible as a prize. The reading aloud of the sacred page in the dark, mud- Some of the most pressing needs of today are walled hut at home became for the elder brother vernacular commentaries, Bible dictionaries, daily a life-giving ministry of the Word. readings, and other helps to the study of the Scriptures, including helps for preachers, Sunday In the press we have one of the most powerful school teachers and other Christian workers, at- of Christian agencies; and as education spreads tractive Biblical literature for the young, tracts that agency will become mightier. The missionary and pamphlets for evangelistic work, translations as a personal factor, the living voice, must always of religious classics, the wider use of newspaper be a dominant influence, but the printed word has evangelism, good recreational literature, such as its peculiar power and function. As Dr. J. H. inspiring stories, high class pictures, literature Ritson has declared: "It can be read and reread suitable for youth movements and a Christian and pondered over; it can reach a vastly greater newspaper. congregation than is to be found within the sanc- tuary; it can accompany the hospital patient to One of the encouraging present-day features is his home; … it can travel forth as the pioneer that many Africans are offering manuscripts for where the climate is deadly and the population is publication. These deserve encouragement, and sparse and conditions are unfriendly and hostile. advantage should be taken of their efforts to pro- The printed page alone is the ubiquitous missionvide facilities whereby they may influence their ary." fellow Africans for God. A BLACK FISHER OF MEN The Supreme Need In one of our conferences a young man stood But in all efforts to carry out a more masterly up to testify to the saving grace of God, saying, and united plan we must never lose sight of the "I am not as well educated as some of the rest of fact that our dependence is on the Holy Spirit you, but I can read that Jesus Christ died for my working in the individual heart. The Saviour's sins. I can also read that Jesus said, 'If you folhope for a redeemed world is through individual low me, I will make you fishers of men.' By God's men and women. A printing office becomes trans- grace I will be a fisher of men." figured only when we see its products owned and used by the Spirit of God. One Lord's Day morn- One March evening in 1927, I stood before a ing the writer went to deClare the Word of God group of people with this young man by my side. at an outstation in a remote part of Tembuland. The spokesman for the group said, "We believe Sometimes it was difficult to prevail on two or the words you have spoken to us, but where shall three to enter the little church building in that we find Christ? Show us the way and we will district. On the morning iIi question a man, clad follow." only in a blanket, the badge of heathenism, was lying at the church door waiting for it to be Turning to the fisher of men I said, "This is to opened. As the service proceeded no listener be your work. Can you lead these people to could have been more eager than this man on Christ?" whose countenance was stamped generations of paganism. Within a few weeks he confessed a "By God's grace I can try," was the simple desire to follow Christ, and thereafter every Sun- reply. day morning, and on many week days, he could be seen coming down the valley and entering the Five years later, March, 1932, I was back in little church that he might, sometimes all alone, this same village and with me again was this same converse with God. black son of God. He had called me to dedicate their first church, only a thatched roof mud-build- So complete a break with the customs of a ing, but nevertheless a house built for God by grossly heathen district could not pass unnoticed. those that he had led to Christ.-Clarence E. Carl- Persecution sprang up as if out of the ground, son, in Gems of Cheer.
A Medical Missionary
By REV. ALBERT D. HELSER, Ph.D. Kano, Nigeria, British West Africa, Missionary in West Africa Since 1922 W E ARE just back from a medical preach- rotting flesh and dead bone she groaned and called ing tour, on which Mrs. Helser and David, on God to help her bear the pain. Several men aged four, accompanied me. We went by who had followed me urged me to leave her and Ford, horseback and on foot. A man named said repeatedly, "Save us from the curse of a liv- Dankandi had invited us to visit him and to sleep ing death." As I told of Christ's love for her and in his house. The way was longer than we had of His power to help, a smile softened her tight thought, and it was dark when we reached the mouth and she said, "Will He not help me?" As home of this seeker after God. We had never I was on my knees dressing the foot the mother seen him, but the Eternal Spirit had been working knelt by me and said, "If you will be patient and in his heart and he wanted to be in his house with help my child, I will give her to you that where God's messenger. Before the camp beds and our you go she may go so that she may be like you." few belongings were put away, he whispered to Each week I go to this area some twenty miles his new friend, "Come with me into the stable, I away and as the great open sore heals her little have something to tell you." At first I was tempted heart thrills to the story of Christ's love for helpto say that we could talk the next day, but when less children.
I thought of the great first work of the Church We would like to enlist prayer helpers in the and saw Dankandi's eager face, I went with him. battle for souls here in North Central Africa. We saluted one another, and then ever so· tenderly Hundreds of men, women and young people are this bearded African told me of his love for Jesus, dying every day who have never had a chance to his Saviour. All he knew was that Jesus died for hear the glorious message of redeeming love. They him, and his face was aglow even in that dark have never had a chance to hear how God's own stable as he pressed closer to me and told of how Son went to Calvary's cruel tree in their stead. a great peace had surged through him every day Somehow more and more we feel that God would since he surrendered his all to Christ. This simple have more prayer power brought to bear on sinblack man was not only himself at the gate of ners who have no consciousness of sin. We need Heaven, but he took me with him. prayer helpers who will pray that a consciousness of sin may come into these pagan hearts and make As I sat on the seat provided for the chief's them cry out for mercy. We need some friends guest in Gun Dutse, a child's voice kept calling, who know what Christ has done for them to give "Let me in, let me in." Friends were being greeted and medicines were being prepared for themselves to prayer. various ailments, and no one had time to pay any Kussari is a young man about seventeen. He attention to the slip of a girl though she was sick was desperately sick some weeks ago. Nobody unto death. Then as she was being ordered to be knew what was wrong with him. Some said that quiet and to hide herself, I caught these words, he had an evil spirit. Others said one thing and "Will he not help me?" My first thought was, another. We went to our knees for Kussari. As another beggar or another insane child, but I prayed a pagan nearby cursed and scoffed. Just Christ's love would not let it rest at that. The as surely as God brought down fire on Carmel He least of these need Him most. I left the impor- heard our prayer, and those wild eyes became tant men about me and went out and found a little steady, and that twitching body found rest and girl about eleven who needed loving care for her peace under God's mighty power. Praise God broken body, and especially as a great ulcer was with us for Kussari. rotting away her left ankle. She trembled as I examined her, and my mind went to our own little Take the case of a leper family. The father's girl, who is now eleven, and I loved this helpless hands are both off at the wrists, and his feet off one all the more. Her eyes kept asking, Will God's at the ankles. Leprosy has actually eaten them messenger help me? The mother said, "She is as away. The mother's hands and feet are partly gone already. The little girl, about seven years good as dead." When I began to pull away the old, seems well, but two leper spots show already.
[488 ] courtesy of Missions A BELGIAN CONGO BABY CLINIC AT LEOPOLDVILLE When she was born she was perfect, for leprosy noon and night. The Spirit of God moved on the is not inherited, but by living with her leprous people of Shapa. A man named Audu was saved, parents she has contracted this awful disease. A and the miracle God wrought on his body brought little girl about two and a half, with pearly teeth, others to their Saviour. Audu was left to die; is almost sure, unless we can do something soon, his body was swollen and his eyes would not close to get this same disease. Pray that some way may even when he seemed to sleep. The first four to be found to heal the father's painful, open sores, confess Christ, and other interested friends, went and not only help him to find Christ but also ren- with me to his lone hut. All other friends had der him noninfectious. Pray that some way may deserted him. As we prayed and administered be found to save what the mother has left of her medicine we felt Heaven's power in answer to our hands and feet before they slough off. (I can prayer-helpers' earnest intercession on our behalf. hardly bear to see those filthy hands taking up A prayer-helper had provided for the medicine that precious child.) Pray that some way may be and had backed each tablet and each drop of medifound to treat the seven-year-old girl, who some- cine with prayer. Each morning we went to the how tells me by her eager eyes that she expects us sick one for prayer, and many times during the to save her from the fate of her parents, who have day medicines were sent. Some of the believers given way to despair. Pray that some way may made chicken soup for the forsaken one. He said be found to rear the tiny tot for Jesus and away on the fourth day, after declaring each day that from the danger of contamination. he could not live another day, that he had found a new world with new pe.ople in it. What a change Our hearts overflow as we write. A policeman Christ makes when He saves a lost sinner. When by the name of Ali, who gladly testified both in we left Shapa he came to say good-bye. Several public and private and was baptized some time villagers said, "Under the power of Christ and ago, has since been dismissed from the service be- His servants' medicine the hopeless are given new cause of his stand for Christ. He goes on rejoic- hope, new bodies, new minds and new souls." ing. He laughs and says: "Christ is enough for "Born again" is what Christ says about such as me. Since He has taken possession of me I lack these. God has now given us a new post in Kano, nothing. He is my all in all." in the midst of 3,000,000 souls. Less than a hun- dred natives have accepted Christ. What a par- During a recent village preaching campaign we ish? By His grace and your help many of these held fifty-four services in fifteen days. God honored your prayers by saving twenty-seven souls. shall experience the power of the blood. We lived in their midst and preached morning,
Unoccupied
-<!III By JOHN STEYTLER* IIll- HISTORY tells us that the Christian Church, trade and the practices of the witch doctors. He established in North Africa during the first was followed later by Stanley, who also opened century, flourished until the sixth century, up fresh trails to the interior. Missionaries rewhen disaster overtook it, and it was destroyed by sponded to their appeal and followed them. Pio- Islam. These North African churches have lost neer missionaries moved into Nyasaland, Uganda, their vitality, some think, because they were more Congo, Kenya and Rhodesia. Gradually the mis- concerned with theological discussions than evan- sion movement gained momentum, and numerous gelizing the pagans. Whatever the reason may other mission stations were opened in the interior.
have been, the natural expansion of Christianity, These missions can be compared to shafts of radiating from its source, Palestine, through light penetrating far into the domain of darkness, North Africa southward, was cut short before it superstition and fear as they penetrated deeper penetrated far inland. and deeper, ever expanding and spreading their Afterward nothing was done for evangelizing influence over wider and wider areas, building Africa till the time of Henry the Navigator, when churches, schools, hospitals and trying to bind up the early Portuguese explorers began to feel their the terrible wounds of Africa. Today it is esti- way south along the African coasts. They car- mated that there are nearly 11,000 organized ried with them the cross, the emblem of Christian- Protestant churches and about 2,000,000 profess- ity, and planted it at various points on Africa's ing Christians. The achievement has been im- inhospitable shores, but no attempt at mission mense, considering the time in which it has been work was made. The Dutch colonists were the accomplished; and on the face of it, it would first to try to introduce the Gospel to the natives seem as if Africa has been occupied.
of southern Africa (1665). They were followed But if achievement be appraised from the by the Moravians (1737) and the London Mission- standpoint of the numbers of profes;ing Chris- ary Society (1789). In central Africa the Roman tians, it is very insignificant, for the Christian Catholics opened a mission near Tete on the communicants only form two per cent of the total Zambesi River (1750), but for the rest the in- population of the whole continent. It would there- digenous peoples of equatorial and southern fore appear that missions are only in their youth, Africa remained untouched by Christian influence. and have taken only a step, the first step. Though With the opening years of the nineteenth cen- millions live in the areas that can be considered tury there was a great awakening of missionary virtually occupied, there are still millions that are zeal in European countries, many mission societies as yet untouched by the Christian message. If were established, and pioneer missionaries were Christian missions and their spheres of influence sent in increasing numbers to all parts of the could be thought of as points of light, then view- globe, including Africa, but for half a century ing the map of Africa, it would resemble the pat- little beyond the coastline on the west and south tern of light and shade, which a leafy tree, stand- was reached. The unexplored hinterland, tribal ing in bright sunshine, might throw on the wars, the gloomy forests, the malarial swamps ground. The darker areas would represent those and the sun-scorched plains discouraged attempts areas where populations are still held in the thrall at occupation. of witchcraft and superstition, where disease is In 1852 the intrepid explorer, David Living- rampant and Jesus Christ is not known.
stone, braved the dangers of Africa and laid bare Even in the areas which are considered occu- the wounds of the Dark Continent. What he saw pied, the Christian influence is often very limited.
filled him with profound pity, especially the ter- In the northern parts of Nigeria there is one rible suffering and iniquity caused by the slave Christian to 20,000 people; in the southern dis- • Mr. John G. Steytler graduated from the University of Stellen- tricts of the same country, one Christian to 31,000 people; in French West Africa there are less than bosch, South Africa, in 1917. After teaching in the Cape Province a thousand Christians to 14,000,000 people; in for five years, he joined the staff of the Dutch Reformed Church the Provl·nce of Khartoum there are less than Mission in Nyasaland, East Africa., where he has been head of the twenty missionaries to 1,000,000 inhabitants; in yDeeapras.rtmTenhte ogfenEedruocsiattyionof wtihtheinCathrneegMieissCioonrpfoorratitohne hlaasst mthaidrteeeint ~f:~!b~~/~~llh~'r 1t~3~:Udy at the Graduate School, Yale University, [490 ] Tripoli one missionary to 1,000,000 people. These In the Tete district of Portuguese East Africa were the estimates in 1926, but the position would which adjoins Nyasaland, till 1907 no Christian be more or less the same today. work was done among the 150,000 people living in that area. There was one Roman Catholic mis- Leaving out of account these areas where there sion, which had been established on the Zambesi is definitely some Christian work being carried River about 300 years ago, but it did not try to on, however inadequate, there are others where extend its work beyond the borders of the mission nothi.ng is done at all. Mr. W. J. W. Roome, that station. The Dutch Reformed Church, which had indefatigable traveler, who has on behalf of the a mission in Nyasaland, just across the border, British and Foreign Bible Society traveled tens was repeatedly asked by the natives to extend its of thousands of miles in Africa, gives a list of work among them too, and attempts were made to these fields in his book, "Can Africa Be Won?" secure the permission of the Portuguese officials. From this I select the largest areas mentioned: Permission was consistently refused for several years, but constant dropping can wear away even 1. Abyssinia, which is largely an unreached land with the stony hardness of a Portuguese official, and eight to ten millions of people. permission was eventually given. While these ne- gotiations were proceeding, the government urged 2. Tanganyika, west of longitude 32 east to the shores the Roman Catholics to forestall the Dutch misof Lake Tanganyika, a distance of about 300 miles. sion, and survey parties were sent out to choose a site for a mission in the area where the Dutch 3. A very large area confined between the following mission intended going. The latter managed to boundaries: From the River Tana in Kenya to the Abys- secure from the Roman missionaires a written sinian border, west to Mount Eglon and then north as far agreement as to the boundaries of the spheres of as the Sobat River, a tributary of the White Nile, the field influence, and for a time all went well. lying between Abyssinia and the Nile. Then suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, all the 4. West of Uganda between Lake Albert and Lake Ed- teacher-evangelists of the Dutch mission, totaling ward and stretching 400 miles into the Congo. sixty-five, were arrested by the authorities on the grounds that they did not know Portuguese. Of 5. Another is to be found from the point where the three these teachers seventeen were already in possescQuntries, French Congo, Belgian Congo and Anglo-Sudan sion of Portuguese certificates, and all the others meet, northwards into the Umbangi Province in French were studying the language. Protests were of no territory. This area lies between 20° and 25° east longi- avail, and all were deported to Mozambique and tude and approximately 5° to 10° north latitude. This part were forced to work on sugar plantations. Some is aptly called the "heart of Africa." Its situation justi- managed to escape, others died of hardship, it is fies the title. said, and a few were deported to the Portuguese islands of Panjim and Timor in the West Indies. 6. The middle part of eastern Congo between 20° and After many years some returned to their waiting 24 ° east longitude and 1° to 4 ° south latitude. families, but in 1925 four were still missing, and in 1934 one returned from Panjim Island. 7. From the Lualaba River in the southeast corner of Belgian Congo northward and west of Lake Mweru to the It seemed as if the promising work was ruined shores of Lake Tanganyika. because churches, schools and dwelling houses were left to fall into ruins, but the natives who 8. Portuguese West Africa, especially the southern and had accepted Christianity during the short time northeastern regions. the mission operated, carried on the work of Christianizing their fellow tribesmen in secret. 9. All Portuguese East Africa excepting near the coast. Meetings were held, and are still being held, in 10. The Cameroons, all east of 12° longitude. secret in the leaders' huts at night, or during the 11. The northern territories of the Gold Coast, Togo- day in the bush. One leader was discovered, arland, Dahomey, including the bend of the Niger River. rested and jailed. His Bible and hymn book were 12. The northern section of Liberia, Portuguese Guinea destroyed and he was threatened with more severe and all the French territories of the Ivory Coast, French punishment if he continued his work as Christian Guinea, Senegal and south of that river and the Niger. teacher. This has had the effect of stimulating Christian endeavor, as is evidenced by the fact Within these areas there are 30,000,000 people that every few months scores of Portuguese naabsolutely beyond the reach of the effort of exist- tives who have been taught as described above, ing mission societies. The question arises, Why come across the border into Nyasaland to be exhave these areas not yet been occupied? There amined and taken up into the churches there. are to my mind four main reasons: A more or less similar experience has been the 1. Governments often restrain missions from entering certain fields. In northern Nigeria, for instance, missions have not been allowed to enter the emirates of Kano and Sokoto on the ground that the Mohammedan emirs were told that, when their countries were brought under administration, there would be no interference with their religion by the government. Such restrictions, probably for political reasons, apply with added force to the Portuguese territories. The writer has personal knowledge of the extreme and unreasonable lengths to which such restrictions have been pushed in Portuguese East Africa. The following bit of history will serve to illustrate this.
lot of the mission of the Church of Scotland work- formed which holds regular meetings, and plans ing among the Lomwe tribe in the Quelimane are being discussed for the occupation of Portudistrict further north. Since the European mis- guese East Africa through African evangelists. sionary· has been made to suffer all manner of Two Africans who have offered themselves for hardships and indignities and his work has been "foreign" service are at present studying Portuhampered as much as was possible within the law, guese at Lourenco Marques. One of them, Paulo the mission has been withdrawn temporarily. MiIoto, is a chief in Portuguese East Africa, and There are other missions working near the coast, he has voluntarily given up his chieftianship and and they seem to be less harried, but always they is going to devote his life to the evangelization of are confronted with a hostile government. The his fellow tribesmen in the present unoccupied result of all this has been that Portuguese Africa field of the Tete District. is today still a virtually unoccoupied field. The population is about 3,500,000. The writer does not know whether or not this has already been done in other parts of Africa. 2. Another reason why fields are often unoccu- He, however, feels convinced that that is the evenpied is malarial climate or the prevalence of sleep- tual solution of the problem of spreading the ing sickness. The European missionary is not as Gospel of Christ into areas which are today out resistant to these diseases as the native African. of reach of existing societies. If the history of Thousands of graves remind us of men and wom- the Church in Africa has a lesson to teach, it is en who have, in spite of the danger to which that the church that has no missionary zeal is they exposed themselves, consistently put service doomed to unfertility and eventual stagnation. before self and have given their lives for the The churches in the home lands have to be on Cause. This difficulty is being gradually overcome their guard against this danger, so have the inby the enormous advances made by medical sci- digenous churches in Africa. The ideal of all the ence. The medical missionary more than anybody churches of Christ, in America, Europe and in else has opened up Africa and has made it pos- Africa, is to spend themselves for the cause of sible for the white man to live where it would have making Christ known and regnant in the hearts, been impossible twenty to twenty-five years ago. not only of civilized peoples, but also of the mil- lions of Africa in the occupied as well as the un- 3. Opposition from the natives themselves has occupied fields. until recently kept missions from certain areas. This opposition is still active where Mohammedan CHANGING RACE DIRECTIONS influence is predominant. But this, too, is breaking down. Missionaries from all territories testify Once the missionary to Africa faced chiefly that the doors are open wider today than they pure native problems-superstition, sin, disease, have ever been before. ignorance. The coming of modern industry is so changing great regions that he faces a different 4. Lack of funds is increasingly becoming the race, struggling with the old adverse influences main reason why missions cannot extend their in- still and many new and complicated ones. Rose fluence in the areas where they already exist and Henderson, writing upon the subject, "Modern over the borders into the unoccupied fields. The Industry Changes Africa," in The Southern W orkserious reduction in the budgets of the home boards is endangering the mission enterprise in man, gives this glimpse of new conditions in the field after field. One wonders what the reason for this may be. To the writer it seems like an great copper mining region: act of Providence for bringing the missions to the situation where they will be forced to look more Lying 2,300 miles north of the Cape of Good Hope and to Africa than to Europe and America for help. at about equal distance uetween the Atlantic and Pacific The time has not yet come when the Africans can Oceans, the copper mines employ some 35,000 native workcarryon the work alone, and they will need th~ men and supply a third of the world's copper. Here in help and advice of the white missionary for many the midst of the bush jungle which, two 'or three decades many years. Yet the center of gravity must grad- ago, was hardly inhabited, millions of dollars have been ually shift to the indigenous church, and missions expended by white capitalists and thousands of Negroes will increasingly have to follow the policy of dev- have stepped from primitive jungle huts to modern mines olution. and machinery. Native villages have sprung up, along with hospitals, schools and recreation centers of the mine An encouraging beginning has been made by owners. Black men from ninety different tribes, speaking the Presbytery of Mkhoma, Nyasaland, where the ninety different languages and representing as many difindigenous church has begun its own foreign mis- ferent cultures have been brought together in the employ sion, which is organized, controlled and financed of white capitalists. The result of this industrial developby the Africans, with the help and advice of the ment, as complete as any of its kind in Europe or Amerwhite missionaries. A "home" board has been ica, is a realignment of peoples, a transformation of the continent. The balance of native life has been upset. The direction of human races has been changed. Roads and villages have shifted, customs and beliefs have been up- rooted, ancient cultures and ideals are being destroyed.
CALL
The Drums of Congo and the Gospel By VIRGINIA M. CLARKE, Bolenge, Africa A MONG the Bantu people living in theequa- In many mission stations a special house has .r.. torial forest of the Belgian Congo the been erected to hold a number of these drums signal drum is now being used as an aid which are used regularly to call the people to the to the spread of the Gospel. In a land where it Sunday school, the church services, elders' meetis impossible to see for long distances the only ings and mission school classes. Often it is the way to send a message without a messenger is by special pride and joy of the young boys in the sound. Formerly the chief purpose of the drum boys' boarding schools to beat the message on the was to call people together for fighting. What a big drums which will start old and young hurry- triumph for Christ is this new, peaceful use of ing along the village paths leading to God's the drum! house.
When a missionary is itinerating through the Among the Bankundo, who are found along the tropical forest his heart is gladdened as he wearily equator where the Congo River crosses it for the approaches a village to meet a band of villagers second time, a particular group of phrases is used singing Christian hymns. They come joyfully to to call people to a Protestant church service. In . greet him and to make him welcome. Usually the their language (Lonkundo) it is: "Ikongo ifonge evangelist is in the lead, followed by the Chris- kukola baseka enganbe ea njambola, lotakana, tians and inquirers seeking baptism. On asking lotakana. Tokende bonteke bolosambo bole nda the evangelist how he knew of his coming, the ikongo ifonge kukola." Translated rather freely missionary is told that the drum in the village this means: "Protestants, come together, come which he visited the preceding night had boomed together. Let us go to the church service which through several miles of jungle and swamp to ap- is where the white man is found." prise them of the arrival of the "man of God." Perhaps in the near future the Christian lead- While the missionary is resting before his hut the ers of Congo will find new ways to use their won- evangelist is beating out the call to all the Chris- derful drum language in telling the story of tians to gather for the evening service. Christ's love for all men.
[493 ]
Ways of
'rested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA S. AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO ~'=I======================~==~ A CLIMBING RACE of missionary interest and en- nominational headquarters. The deavor. value of united, sequential study Slow moves the pageant of a climb- need hardly be dwelt upon, with ing race; Toward this end your Depart- the abundance of helps and sug- ment Editor has striven earnest- gestions available in magazines Their footsteps drag far, far below ly to assemble worthful material in correlation with the themes. the height, from· many sources to supply If the world is ever to be won leaders of the several group in- for Christ it will be by united, And, unprevailing by their utmost terests with plans and sugges- synchronized effort, not random, might, tions for shaping up programs, individualistic attempts to obey studies, discussions and projects. the Great Commission. Seem faltering downward from each Space will admit of little more hard won place. than citations for these; but it INFORMATIVE MATERIAL may be taken for granted that No strange, swift-sprung exception although a number of different The volume of this is almost we; we trace denominations are involved, unlimited. Your Department nothing is mentioned herein Editor can mention only such A devious way thro' dim, uncertain which is specifically denomina- helps as have been sent in for light. tional. Such details as do appear her personal inspection, as fol- in a few may easily be elimi- lows: Our hope through the long vistaed nated or replaced with the de- years, a sight sired data. As classification ac- "A Course on Africa for Young cording to type of subject matter People" (P), 25c. Of that our Captain's soul sees face is most efficient and saves space, to face. please note that (B) stands for "West Africa Mission" (P), lOco Baptist, (C) for United Chris- "The Road to God's Town" (P), lOco Who, faithless, faltering that the road tian, (L) for Lutheran, (LE) "Africa Journey" (P), lOco is steep, for Miss Leavis, who is litera- "To Africa! To Africa" (for chil- ture secretary for the Central dren) (P), lOco Now raiseth up his drear, insistent Committee on the study of For- "The Pageant of a Climbing Race" cry? eign Missions, (M) for Meth- (C)-yearbook of Home and Foreign odist Episcopal, (P) for Pres- Programs, 5c; packet of activating Who stoppeth here to spend awhile in byterian, and (M.E.M) for material. 50c for either, or 75c for set. sleep Missionary Education Move- Not ready until January. The studies ment, all of whose headquarters for young people alone have been Or curseth that the storm obscures addresses appear at the close of changed to include only the foreign the sky? this article. Nearly all publica- theme. Packets covel' not only infor- tions from nondenominational mative material but dramatizations, Heed not the darkness round you, dull sources may be obtained from poetrv, discussions, etc. and deep; your denominational literature "Missionary Facts on Africa" (B) headquarters, as the "tools in -story material for use in opening The clouds grow thickest when the type" are in reciprocal, neigh- and closinl; exercises of S. S., 15c. summit's nigh. Ready in December. -Paul Laurence Dunbar. borly use. Booklet of Leader's Helps accom- panying each textbook, 15c. The current year's study of THE STUDY BOOKS "Africa View"-book by Julian "the climbing race," particularly Huxley, $2.50. in its foreign aspects, affords an It will not be necessary to take "Education of Primitive People," unusual opportunity to attract space to enumerate these, as by Albert D. Helser, $3.00. the uninterested and enlist the they have been mentioned many "The Remaking of Man in Africa," indifferent. The subject matter times in this and other mission- by J. H. Oldham and B. D. Gibson, is rarely colorful with its appeal ary magazines, and free cata- $1.25. to the exploring impulse; the logues inclusive of descriptive Other auxiliary material will qe universal use of the narrative material are available at de- listed later. form which is indigenous to the African whether in argument, [494 ] PROGRAMS description or instruction-the story is always dominant; the "African Palavers" – a program vivid settings and background plan book (M.), 20c. For young peomaterial; the warm human in- ple but easily adaptable for women's terest; the profound problems organizations. A complete year's outpertaining to development of lines beginning with "The Assembling primitive minds and native leadership, the raising of standards; and most of all the adj ustment of races in a perfect maze of conflicting interests, temperaments and political manipulations. Every wideawake church has its paramount chance to use Africa as a lure into the realm
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
of the Tribes" in September, continu- "Consider Africa" (M.E.M.), 25c. "How to Make an African Village" ing through chapter-by-chapter stud- ies of Margaret Wrong's "~he L~nd A course on Africa by Mrs. Margaret -patterns and directions for making and Life of Africa" and mcludI!lg and setting up; to be used by leaders "The Tribute Festival"-a specIal Holly Tuck. , of boys' and girls' groups (M.E.M.), thank offering program, "Jungle Jam- 25c. boree" for a missionary party, rally "'the Story of the American Negro' or banquet a special "June Palaver," "Pattern Sheets"-African wood an "Intern'ational Program" in July (M.E.M.), 25c. Young People's course carvings; flags of African prote~tor and an "Outdoor Safari" (expedition and mealie roast) for August. The by Ina C. Brown. ates; map of Africa for enlargmg; colorful programs are reple~e with African call drum sketch; nut or native nomenClature and storIes, cos- "A Preface to Racial Understand- tumes, rituals in African fashion, of- candy holders like African hl:1ts; ficial titles such as "keepers of the ing" (B), 15c. Programs by Mrs. wooden articles received from AfrIca; fires," "story tellers," etc., use of util- elephant; hibiscus; dance drum, etc. ities such as the call drum, games, Augusta Comstock. demonstrations, dramatizations etc. (M) 10c. Has the true African atmosphere. Other program s.eries, as s~nt in~o "The Healer"–colored poster, 21 x this Department, wIll ,oe mentIOned m "Six Missionary Programs and 28, showing doctor working with s0l!le Eight Teaching Outlines" (Anna Can- later numoers. native Africans with a shadowy PICada Swain) (B), 15c. Based on ture of Christ standing in the back- "Omwa? Are You Awake?" Pro- DRAMATICS ground. Very beautiful and impresgrams excellently adapted for both sive. (St. Philip's Society, 1664 Glenyounger and older folk and c.over the "Africa Gives Thanks" (L), 10c. worship period, abundant mforma- Pageant for thank offering meeting or mount Ave., Akron, Ohio), 85c, but a tional matter, visualization~ and oth~r study class; 11 characters;. simple work of art. entertaining features, natIve musIC, setting and costumes; symbohc. Very special set of 10 English postdiscussion topics, poetry etc. Topics "Robert and Mary" (M.E.M.), 25c. are: "A Treasure Hunt," "Listening Thirteen characters; true story of ers of African life in choice, natural Ears" "Bridges," "Call a Doctor," Moffats; one hour. colors size 15 x 20. These rc'l'ltarkable "Buiiders " and "Studies in Black and pictu';es are used in the schools in the White." 'The study outlines are for "Through the Dark" (M.E.M.), 15c. Congo and 'Were seen by Miss Marlocal church groups using the text- One-act play; 4 characters; medical garet Wong, who had them printedJri mission setting. book. They analyze the subject mat- quantity in England. .An expl.anattqn ter comprehensively. "Ordered South" (M.E.M.), 15c. written by Dr. Cathertne Mabte (mw- Project for enlistment for African sionary) will accompany the set. En- Six Programs on "Congo Crosses," mission work; 3 scenes; 6 adults-4 tire set $1.00, or 5 (not selected but by the same author (B), 15c. For men and 2 women. taken by rote) for 50c. Counting women's missionary societies, business postage, this is actual cost, as all and professional women's groups and "Kanjunda" (M.E.M.), 25c. Shows orders requiring more than 15c postsenior young women's societies. Titles: waning of witch doctor's power; 15 age will be sent at a loss. (LE) "Stop Look, Listen"; "Always Prob- characters; one hour. lems—-'-Even in Primitive Congo"; Attention is called again to the long "Do You Care?"; "Here Comes the "Livingstone Hero Plays" (M.E.M.), Bride"· "Fact Finders of 1937"; 15c. Four dramatizations of Living- list of African program materials aI?-d "On Their Knees." The discussion stone stories which may be used sepa- novelties given in this Department m topics are particularly suggestive and rately or consecutively; for juniors; heart-searching. 40-50 minutes. the July issue of THE REVIEw.a!ld ob- tainaule from LE. In addItIOn to "Lights Aglow in Congo"–outline "Alexander Mackay's Han d s" those mentioned previously, Miss for young people's programs (ready (M.E.M), 10c. Leavis adds a choice leaflet, "The in January) (C) . Titles: "ABo, Glowing Ember of Prayer," by Jea,n Congo!" – showing the importance, "In Our Land It Is Very Dark" position and potentialities of Africa Kenyon Mackenzie, priced at 2c. ThIS in the world today; "Paths in the (L")A,2ncn.a InspI.res a M"IssIOnary C·Irc1e" is a wonderful devotional reading. Dark"-presenting problems crea~ed (Powell and White, 528 Walnut St., by the industrial conquest of AfrIca Cincinnati, Ohio), 15c. Maps and charts, particularly the and the need for education; "Sinister picture maps of Africa with shee~s of Shadows" – social problems which "In Congo Land" (B), 15c. cut-outs to be pasted on progressIvely grow out of impact of Western civi- "Livingstone and Stanley Meet and as different features and regions are lization upon age-old customs; shows Part" 15c. that there must be a give-and-take or "Robert Moffat Returns with Afri- studied, may be purchased at pracsharing as a new world is built; caner," 10c. tically all the denominational head- "Lamplighters"-picture of mission- quarters. The usual price is 50c f.or ary work in Congo, showi~g. ~h~t the "The Teeth That Did Not Drop the map and 10c for the separate PIC- African has all the posslblhtles of Out" (L), 2c. tures. other human beings as well as a passion for developing them; "Around "Our Husband" (C), 25c. Don't try to teach with words only. the Camp Fire"-intended to create a "An African Village Trial" (P), 5c. Visualizations and project work are bond of fellowship between young peo- Sketch presenting the African Chr~s particularly fitted to elucidate African ple here and in Africa who have had tian Church and the problems of ItS studies. like experiences through summer con- young members. Six principals and ferences and "akitelos," and to im- 10 or 15 secondary characters. press others as to what that experience can mean to them; "Lights STORIES ADDRESSES FOR MATERIALS Aglow"-to help the young people see "Peter, the Chief's Son"; "A Li?,u Baptist: Baptist Board of Educatheir responsibility in industrial and Hunt"· "Captain John's Mother ; social relationships with their own "Malin'da"; "The Lamp in the Des- tioLn~t1h5e2raMn:adiWsoonmAenv'es.,MNiesswioYnaorryk.Soand other races and countries; to cast ert"; "Just Like Women"; "The Boy ciety, 723 Muhlenberg Bldg., Philadelout greed and prejudice and to pat- Who Won a Town"; "The House of tern their actions after Christ's. Their Hands"; "The Verses That phia, Pa. , Made Livingstone Brave" (L)-2c Methodist Episcopal: Women s For- each. eign Missionary Society, 420 Plum "Even Unto Death" (P), free. "The Congo Woman's Way" (B), 2c. St., Cincinnati, Ohio. .. A wealth of other narrative mate- rial may be obtained from denomina- Christian: The United ChrIstIan tional literature headquarters, some of which will be listed in our later Missionary Society, Missions Bldg., issues. Indianapolis, Ind. . VISUALIZATIONS AND Missionary EducatIOn M~vement: PROJECTS 150 Fifth Ave., New York CIty.
Picture Sheet of Africa, for use in Miss M. H. Leavis (designated scrap books, posters, and to paste on maps of Africa (M.E.M.), 25c. previously as LE) : 186 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, Mass. . Presbyterian: Board ?f ForeIgn Missions of the PresbyterIan Church, 156 Fifth Ave., New York.
Gleanings from the Editor's "Costumes – How to Make and New York, has been experiment- Notebook Wear Them" is a cover-all pamphlet ing with a new program which inclusive of detail from many foreign has some most attractive fea- Spending the entire summer fields, obtainable at the BaptIst Board tures. It is designed for chap- at Lakeside, Ohio, with its of Education at 25c. ters who wish to meet weekly wealth of summer conferences, instead of monthly. It extends the Department Editor's note- This board also handles a "Catalog the Hero Courses into projects book overflowed with sugges- of Plays and Pageants," which is a and is built on a Four Point tions for making current studies selected, classified list according to Project basis. The following ex- attractive and forcible. These country and subject, with names of ample using Livingstone as a will be doled out from issue to authors and publIshers. Its 24 pages subject is illustrative: issue during the year, but a few cover more than 400 plays and pagitems of miscellaneous but help- eants, lOco 1st week (Skill Meeting): ful character may be given here- Map-making project. with. Look these over, for you The play listed previously as "An may find just the methods African Village TrIal" illustrates the 2d week (Study Meeting): "gadget" that you need. way in whiCh an ordinary Sunday Hero Program – Life story of school class may change itself in a one whose success depended on Mrs. Kellersberger, author of moment into an African village by ability in map-making. "Congo Crosses," is giving her ~nt,ire shift of furnishings and play of honorarium to the Protestant MIssIon imagination, with no properties or cos- 3d week (Service Meeting): Council with headquarters at Leopold- tUming. Making map of Paul's journeys, ville, Africa, for work among the of missionary fields, of local women and children. She keeps not a Poetry and Music: Both ~re invalu- community, etc. single cent for herself. Isn't this an able in presenting essentIal Negro object lesson in devotion? character both in our land and Africa. 4th week (Inspirational Meet- While more expensive song books may ing): Ceremony of Maps, us- Incidents easy to dramatize are not be practical for the average ing Livingstone and Africa; found in abundance in the study group, "Southland Spirituals," ar- Paul and the Inland Sea; Chris- books "Consider Africa," "Christ in ranged by the Rodeheaver Co., and tianity and world map. the Great Forest," "We Sing Amer- sold by all denominational literature ica " and other Friendship Press books headquarters at 25c will serve the pur- With each missionary hero a on 'current studies. You may get help pose admirably. An abundance of in making your dramatizations in Negro poetry-mostly concerning th,e different project is introduced. "Meet Your United States," by Mary American Negro but true to the UnI- For example: Chalmers-Proj- J ennes (cloth, $1.00; pa~er,. 60c ~ ; versal type – may be found in, pal- ect in swimming and life-saving. and in "Informal DramatIzatIOn III verton's "Anthology of AmerIcan (He was a swimmer and saved Missionary Education," by Elizabeth Negro Literature," 95c; "Singers in boys from drowning); Grenfell Miller Lobingier (paper, 10c)-both the Dawn," compiled by R. E. Eleazor, – Boating and shipbuilding. from the Friendship Press. Scribner'S and sold at the Conference on Educa- (He was a builder); Ian Keith have a more ambitious work entitled tion and Race Relations, Atlanta, Ga., Falconer – Cycling. Paton- "Ventures in Dramatization," by for lOCi James Weldon Johnson's Farming. Whitman-First aid. Hulda Neibuhr ($1.75). "Book of American Negro Poetry," Morrison-Woodworking. $2.00; and "Caroling Dusk," edited Bear in mind a few pointers in pre- by Countee Cullen and sold at $2.5.0. -Missions Magazine. senting Negro dramatizations, how- Your own publishing company WIll ever. usually secure for you standard, books A Circulating Library like the expensive ones above CIted. Rigidly avoid caricature in costume, For a number of years the manner or "blacking up." Negroes Manner and Motivation of Negro Women's Department of the may be brown, their impersonatio~s Presentations: A leaflet by the M.E.M. Baptist State Convention has being taken by brunettes, or the skm of the United States and Canada says: operated a circulating library. may be left white rather than to elicit The work of circulating the the merriment caused by the "black- A program on the Negro should be books has been under the direct face." what any program should be. It supervision of the State Reading should tell something that is worth Contest Secretary. A definite Is it fair to show only the illiterate, passing on; something that one group amount is allowed each year for superstitious, ignorant types, the wants other people to know; some- the purchase of new books and "savages," as representative of Afri- thing that makes them think and feel postage incurred in mailing can population when picturing com- the way they wish them to feel. If them to the various churches. munities that have educational and the members of any group have The rule is that the church using intelligent industrial types also? drawn inspiration from Negro poetry the books should pay return and music, and have come to respect postage. There is no time limit While Negro spirituals are invalua- and admire Negroes as a race and as for keeping the books, as it has ble for atmosphere both with Ameri- indivduals, then it will be easy to pass been found by experience th~t can and African Negro studies, should on those facts and inspirations and at- it is better to allow each church they not be sung with true devotional titudes. . . . You may decide that the privilege of keeping the spirit, as they were originally sung, Negroes will fill Negro roles more ef- books as long as they are being rather than to create laughter by fectively than white persons made up. read. When no longer in cir~ "acting up"? And you will be right about this. , , . culation they are returned to the If your group has no Negro members State Secretary. An attempt at Negro dialect may but has Negro friends who would like lead to the same serious error. Never to help out, it would be wise to invite -Missions Magazine. betray your programs into the hands them to do so. But do not ask any of the "Amos and Andy" type of per- Negro to participate unless .you a!"e formers. If you do you will lose all sure that he will be treated WIth courmissionary effect. tesy and respect not only by the mem- bers of the group but also by the Dramatic Helps: Reasonable brown audience. skin effects may be obtained from Steain's Preparation for Theatrical ANew Educational Program Work available at drug stores or in mail order houses. Rev. Theodore L. Conklin, High Counsellor for Eastern
~~======~~~==========~~11
BULLETIN OF The Council of Women for Home Missions ANNE SEESHOLTZ, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK "WHERE MY POOR LIVE"
"Once, a long, long time ago, God feelin' tired, went to sleep an' had a nice wee nap on His throne. His head was in His han's an' a wee white cloud came down and covered Him up.'
Purty soon He wakes up an' says He: "'Where's Michael?'
"'Here 1 am, Father!' said Michael.
" 'Michael, me boy,' says God, '1 want a chariot and a chariot- eer!'
" 'Right ye are!' says he, and up comes the purtiest chariot in By courtesy of Art Exten&ion Press, Inc., Westport, Conn. the city of Heaven an' the finest charioteer. CRElATION OF FLOWERS – DRAWN BY AN AUST R I AN CHILD " 'Me boy,' says God, 'take a Prayer for Slum Clearance* the special strains and irritations, and million tons of th' choicest seeds the moral exposures of crowded quar- of th' flowers of Heaven an' take Father of all mankind, who hast ters; by our pleasure in the joyous signally blessed the human family as play of our happy children in God's a trip around th' world wi' them. the cradle of divinity, and hast out-of-doors, do Thou lay upon our Scatther them,' says He, 'be th' granted to us the security and conscience the plight of countless roadsides an' th' wild places of strength, the joy and comfort, and the families whose lives are cramped and th' earth where my poor live.' supporting goodness of our homes, do thwarted for lack of space and air in Thou forgive us that we have been which to live, and play, and grow in " 'Aye,' says the charioteer, content to accept these precious gifts stature and in favor with God and of life but have taken little thought man. 'that's just like ye, Father. It's th' purtiest job of m' afther life of those whose lot confines them to the By the anguish of our prayers for slums of our cities. our own children, that they may be an' I'll do it finely.' saved from sin and may grow in grace "'It's just come t' me in a Give us, we pray Thee, a vivid sense and goodness, do Thou make us ashamed of our toleration of the dream,' says th' Father, 'that of the little children condemned to live slums, which in disproportionate in crowded tenements and to play measure continue to make criminals th' rich have all th' flowers down amidst the traffic of the streets, de- and prostitutes of many boys and there and th' poor have none at prived of the simplest elements of girls who never had a chance. 0 God all. If a million tons isn't human health and happiness, rojbed of love and justice, we acknowledge even of the common heritage of pure before Thee our personal and !orpoenough, take a billion tons!' " air and sunshine. Make us conscious rate responsibility for the sins of At this point I got in some of the preventable disease which such perverted lives. breeds in the narrow alleys, and in questions about God's language the dark inner rooms where sunlight Grant us grace at this time to gird and the kind of flowers. never comes. "Well, dear," she said, "He ourselves for action. May our city spakes Irish t' Irish people. . . . By our hope of Thy mercy as we sit and the nation put their hand to the "Th' flowers," she said, "were concerned by the sickbeds of our own clearance of the slums and to the little ones, may we be willing in love building of homes more fit for the primroses, buttercups an'daisies, to share the anxiety, the anguish, and children of God. Vouchsafe to us in . . . an' from that day to this the grief of the parents of the poor this task of Thy kingdom a special there's been flowers a-plenty for as they watch by their sick or mourn sense of Thy nearness and Thy love, the death of those who need not have inasmuch as we would do it unto Thee. us all everywhere." sickened or died but for the conditions For Jesus' sake, Amen. Thus, "My Lady of the Chim- in which they are oJliged to live. • F rom "Prayers for Self a nd Societ y, " by ney Corner" told her ninth child, In the measure of our longing for James Myers ; As sociation Press, N. Y.; 15c. Alexander Irvine, of the crea- a happy home for our dear ones, with space for gracious living, free from tion of the flowers.
[497 ]
ARE YOU PRAYING? "A LIFE TO GIVE" Missions, on the theme, "The Negro in America." Even the For the observance of the In "God's Candlelights," writ- catalogue is good reading.
World Day of Prayer on the first ten by Miss Mabel Shaw, and "Glimpses of Negro Ameri- Friday in Lent, February 12, available for one dollar in cloth, cans" is a 24-page illustrated 1937, the program was written Friendship Press, New York, booklet giving in concise form by Miss Mabel Shaw, founder of the Livingstone Memorial Girls' the author relates: facts about eight areas of Negro Boarding School at Mbereshi, Kawamba, Northern Rhodesia, One clear evening I went life today: Where Are They? Africa. down to the leper camp at the Who Are They? Where Do end of our village. There were They Live? How Do They Sup- very few of them there. It was port Themselves? Where Do In accepting the invitation to not a pleasant place. . . . And They Get Their Education? prepare the world program, yet they gave me a glad wel- What About Their Health? Do Miss Shaw wrote, "You will be come. They had many needs to They Go to Church? Are They interested to hear that Mbereshi make known: not enough fire- Citizens? The booklet closes 'kept' the Day of Prayer this wood, no salt had been given with a section asking, "Where year. There was prayer in the with last week's rations, they Do You and I Come In?" in school chapel, unceasing from were naked, could I not see? . .. which the interracial movement dawn till set of sun. The girls were there in small groups; even They told me a lion had been is described and the opportunity the little children took their part. At sunset there was a about. . . . before the churches is pointed gathering of all the Christian women in the village church." At last I rose to go. I gave a • out. 6 cents a copy.. $4.00 a When it is ten o'clock, morn- last word and greeting, promised hundred.
ing, in New York, the .tiI?e of I'd remember all their needs, The Department of Race Relations, day in Northern RhodeSIa IS five and was just about to mount my Federal Council of Churches, has colo'clock in the afternoon. bicycle, when out of one of the lected pamphlets from various sources. There are two packets. Packet No. 1 A CALL TO PRAYER little houses came, the old leper contains the pamphlet described above, head-man. He held a spear be- "Amer ica's Tenth Man," and "School tween the stumps that once were Money in Black and White." 15 cents hands, and he went h0bblI' ng a single packet. along the path in front of me. I called to him, and he stopped and Packet No.2 is supplementary ma- looked round. terial for leaders of groups; for ex- Together let us "Where are you going?" ample, a 43-page booklet on cotton- growing communities in rural Amer- Thank God and praise Him for the ica. 30 cents a single pack et. manifestation of Himself in Jesus Christ, and in the abundant life; "I am going to escort you to ……;==::::;] Thank God and praise Him for fol- Mbereshi Village, you can't go alone with lions about/' lowers of Jesus Christ who have made Him known; I smiled at him. "But on my Thank God and praise Him for the world f ellowship of prayer-and bicycle I'll be there in a minute." let each seek a new consecration to Jesus Christ. He would not have it, it was not fitting for me to go alone. I Together let us pray looked at him, a feeble old man, That the church be strong and cou- rageous; handless, feet half-eaten, his whole body covered with marks That the missionary zeal of Chris- of disease, and his face most tians be purified and spread pitiful. through all the world; That the community in which we I said to him half-banteringly, live be recreated through the con- secrated service of God's children; and with a smile, "Now what That our nation measure all activi- could you do if a lion came?"
ties by Christ's law of love and He drew himself up, and with universal brotherhood; a quiet dignity said, "Have I not That the whole earth be filled even a life to give?" in this our day with the knowl- I was silent, seeing a Cross. I edge of the living God, and of His followed him to the village, Son, Jesus Christ.
The World Day of Prayer is thanked him and came home, sponsored by the Council of having met with God face to Women for Home Missions, 105 face. . ..
East Twenty-second St., New ARE YOU STUDYING? York, and the Foreign Missions Conference, 156 Fifth Ave., New Good reading, as well as edu- J. R . S oo tlord York. The Day is observed in cational in content, are the new DOR CH EST E:R AC AD E MY SCHOOLGIRL. more than fifty countries. books published by the Mission- ary Education Movement and McI NTOSH, GEORGIA The program material for F ebruary 12, 1937, is ready. the Council of Women for Home
i OuJM!:~r~~~:~feCu~~~?Ok I '~II=.======================================
.it EDITED BY MRS. HENRIETTA H. FERGUSON, XENIA, OHIO "
~11=========~==========I$ii)§i AFRICA back to Ethiopia after furlough ment. Twice follow-up meet- in America, have been able to ings have been held with the re- One By One Work in Egypt continue their interrupted jour- sult that hundreds of the rather Missionaries in Egypt deplore ney. -The Life of Faith. wild mountain Bakiga are flock- ing to the churches. Large the lack of desire to win "other Christian Police Association bands are going out teaching. sheep," even on the part of born- One outcome has been that na- About a thousand new mem- tive church collections increased again Christians. Words flow bers joined the International by about half during the last easily, but there is little definite Christian Police Association in three months of the year. It is praying for the conversion of South Africa last year. About expected that the Diamond J ubisouls. A few years ago a coun- ninety police stations and depots lee may be celebrated in 1937. terpart of the English "One By at different places in the Union were visited by the Traveling -C. M. S. Outlook. One Band" was started, and the call to individual work was p:r:e- sented. It was urged that it Secretary, and the most encour- The March of Progress would be a help to be definite in aging feature is that so many prayer if answers were recorded men have accepted Christ as A significant evidence of in the little book "Throne of their Saviour. change in West Africa is seen Grace"; many have now joined The membership of the I. C. in the attendance of the native the Band and some have had an- P. A. in South Africa is now King of Oyo at the reunion of swers to prayer for individuals. about 3,800. During the year old students of St. Andrew's 1,000 New Testaments have been College, Oyo. In all the years of A little group of Egyptian' circulated, besides thousands of the college's history it has never "One by One" members now ex- tracts and leaflets, and many let- been visited by a king. He is ists at almost all the stations of ters of thanks have been re- regarded as too sacred to be the Egypt General Mission, com- ceived from those who have re- looked upon by the common peoposed of teachers, Biblewomen ceived blessing through these. ple, and always when giving auand a few Christian women in The strength of the European the districts. At a testimony force of the South African police dience his face would be hidden meeting of members among the is between 7,000 and 8,000, plus by a veil of coral beads suswomen in Zeitoun last October, the native police, which is be- pended from his crown or coral one told how she had long prayed tween 3,000 and 4,000. headgear. But even the most for a brother who had been ter- strongly entrenched customs of ribly opposed to even the men- -The Life of Faith. the old days are giving way betion of Christ or religion, and fore the march of progress. To- how her prayer had been an- The C. M. S. in Uganda day the theory is gaining ground swered by the brother's conver- that as a king is supported from sion. Dr. J. E. Church of the C. M. the taxes paid by his people, the S. tells how one and another of people should both see and know -Egypt General Mission News. the Christians in Uganda and the man whom they support as Missionaries May Remain in Ruanda have been led during their ruler. Ethiopia the past six years into a new and -C. M. S. Outlook. deeper knowledge of Christ, and Dr. T. A. Lambie, Director of have a keen desire to bring oth- Open Doors in Nigeria the Sudan Interior Mission in ers to Him. "Those who had The Northern Provinces of Addis Ababa, writes that he has this new experience returned to Nigeria-Kano, Sokoto, Katsina obtained permission from Gen- their homes or to visit friends and Bornu, with some other Mo- eral Graziani, the Viceroy, for at other stations, and caused a hammedan sections-have been the missionaries of the Society stir by their obvious joy and en- strictly closed against the misto remain and carryon their thusiasm. Following a conven- sionary and his message. Ef- work. As a result of this news, tion at Kabale last year a move- forts have been made to secure Mr. Eric Horn, a New Zealand- ment of individual conviction religious toleration, and in 1933 er, and his wife and three-year- and repentance began, and in and 1934 sites were given the old son, who were held up in the 250 out-schools this became Sudan Interior Mission in Kano London last April on their way in some places a mass move- and at Garko, thirty-six miles [499 ]
from Kano City. This year the Cameroun Churches WESTERN ASIA Mission has been granted further openings into the once There has been a gain of about Keith-Falconer Mission Jubilee closed areas, and sites are prom- 1,000 in the communicant memised in each of the provinces bership of Pre s by t e ria n The Keith-Falconer Mission above named. One site has been churches in the Cameroun, in South Arabia completed 50 selected at Roni, seventy miles bringing the number to 37,935, years of service in 1935. Today, northwest of Kano City. with a gain of nearly 2,000 in the mission station at Sheikh the number of catechumens, who Othman is many times the size Recently, one of Northern number 52,782. The average of the small grass hut in which Nigeria's leading Emirs said; Sunday attendance for the sixty- Ion Keith-Falconer started his "I would welcome missionaries four churches with their 1,230 work; but it has approximately anywhere in my territory, even outposts is 115,000. Christian the same site. The medical staff in this town where I live, and work is harder than in earlier comprises two male doctors and any of my people who wish to days, due partly to the contact one woman doctor, two nursing become followers of your faith with a civilization shot through sisters, and an Arab staff of sixwill not be hindered in so do- with evil, the deplorable fact teen. The boys' school has fifty ing." Negotiations are under that second generation Chris- boys and four teachers; and way for missions to take over tians are in general less depend- there is a small girls' school. the provincial leper camps, now able than first and the large The influence of the mission is under government supervision, number who make a start then felt throughout the Aden Prowhich will mean a further open- leave the Christian way. tectorate and beyond; patients ing of the Moslem areas to mis- come by the hundred for treatsions. Nearly 7,000,000 people But over against this is the ment from the mountainous and are now brought within the pos- splendid force of native Chris- fertile Yemen. They carry back sible hearing of the Gospel. tian assistants, many of whom to their homes the example of are as earnest and as loyal to the Christian service and the seeds -The Christian. cause as the missionaries them- of Christian truth. There are at selves. These native workers least three small dispensaries Sleeping Sickness Problem are not confined to the evangel- staffed by mission-trained boys. istic force, but are in the educa- The Nlong River with its tional, the medical, the indus- Literacy is rare in South Arabranches is literally the valley of trial, and all lines of missionary bia, so that as yet Gospel distrithe shadow of death because it work, w h i I e throughout the bution cannot be a hopeful way is thickly infested with the tset- churches are many men and of Christ's entry. The simplest se fly-carrier of trypanosomi- women giving much time and possible primary schools are a asis, or sleeping sickness. Be- effort to Christian work. Mis- crying need. fore treatment by Europeans sionary societies organized by began, every infected person the Africans themselves send Arabia Goes Modern succumbed. The French medical catechists to unoccupied fields, service has many doctors in the carryon their support, and in Arabia, in company with all field giving their whole time to some cases have built chapels to Near East countries, is being diagnosis and treatment of this care for the groups thus col- rapidly modernized, and harddisease; they have healed many. lected. ship is resulting to many who have not yet reacted to the There are three large centers Medical Work in Tripoli change. Usages of almost sacwhere the principle part of their rosanct significance are being work is to care for and treat the The medical mission in Tripo. put aside. In the sacred sanctupatients. In some of the camps li, of the North Africa Mission, ary electric light has been inas many as 500 patients take a which has been running for stalled, and the men who tended three months course of treat- nearly fifty years, was in dan- the hundreds of olive oil lamps ment. Several remedies are ger of being closed by the Italian are no longer needed. Motor cars used, nearly all forms of arsenic, authorities. Dr. James Liley, now carry the pilgrims to the which seems to be most effec- who is in charge, has, however, holy cities of Mecca and Medina, tive. These are injected at in- been duly recognized and regis- and the thousands of camels and tervals of from five to ten days. tered in Rome, which carries their attendant army of camel- The treatment sometimes causes permission to practice in Italian men, formerly employed, are not blindness, but it is either blind- colonies. A hampering regula- now required. The Hejaz Govness or·death, for without treat- tion is one which does not per- ernment is reported to have 300 ment there is only one outcome. mit a doctor to compound medi- cars in use, and King Ibn Evangelists throughout this re- cines even for his own patients. Saoud's own procession of cars gion live with, and minister to This must be done by a chemist, may be anything up to 150. the people. Missions have a and consequently adds to the share in combatting the disease, cost of treating the crowds of Diminution of the number of but government forces are well indigent sufferers who come for pilgrims is so great that the organized, so that no place is help. thousands of Arabs in sacred uncared for. cities who lived by serving them -World Survey Service. are now destitute. Medina -The Drum Call.
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTOOK
which before the War may have ic institutions, such as schools agricultural impleme~ts and other rural acceSSOrIes. Mr. had a population of 80,000 is and hospitals." Such in brief is Case led the group in prayer and the cavalcade moved on. The now estimated to have 8,000. the summary of a significant band came early into action and we dashed through the town to Such is the etfect of electricity statement made to Bishop Moore the unexpected but inspiring strains of 'Marching Through and motor cars. of the C. M. S., by some of the Georgia.' Citizens said: 'There -The Indian Witness. leaders of the Ezhavas, a com- goes Padre Case to build a new Burma.' When the band tired munity numbering well over two playing, it took to singing, 'Counting Its Blessings" and Situation in Palestine million who reside in Travan- 'Gathering at the River,' in hopeful mood. Arriving at the There appears to be no appre- core and the surrounding dis- village the group resolved itself tricts. They are described as a into Boy Scouts, Sunday school ciable improvement in the sit- virile people, with a strong com- teachers, Passion players and uation in .t'alestine. More troops . munal consciousness, and a de- friends of everybody. Games have been brought in and thus termination to rise. Many have were organized and the village tar authorities have been un- education, good houses and children entered in shoals. Mr. able to establish order. The fear lands; and there have been Case busied himself visiting continues among Jews that Brit- among them lawyers, poets, doc- school gardens, where some ain may yield to the Arab de- amazing triumphs of agriculturmand for the setting aside of tors and religious leaders. al ingenuity were on view, inthe Balfouy declaration which specting his 'Christian pigs,' promises to facilitate "the es- Early in the year their execu- giving a blessing here and a tives, by a vote of twenty-six out warning there. The day ended Lablishment in Palestine of a of thirty resolved on the Ezha- with a religious play, very well National Home for the Jewish vas embracing Christianity. A done by the members of the People" (this being followed by band, in which the foes of rural the words, "it being clearly un- referendum reveals that in most progress and the way to overderstood that nothing shall be localities from 60 to 90 per cent come them were depicted in favor the proposal. ways familiar alike to the resi- dent peasant and the wandering done which may prejudice the If the decisive step of adopt- secretary." ing Christianity is taken, the civil and religious rights of ex- task of imparting adequate in- Significant Event isting non-Jewish communities struction to multitudes of conin Palestine"). The Arabs de- verts will tax to the uttermost The Watchman-Examiner reclare that they will die rather ports an event of extraordinary than give up the battle. The the resources of the missions significance for India. A young which are carrying on work Brahman, a graduate of Madras Government recently decided to there. The Christian congrega- Christian College, was stationed appoint a royal commission for tions in those parts are small at J anumpet as the new postthe study of the whole situation master. After watching and in Palestine as soon as order is and weak, and not well fitted to talking with the Christians of cope with such a situation. Hap- that section he came forward established. The Arabs declare pily some help is available from for baptism. This was adminthat they have· already had istered by one of the pastors, a the stronger Christian commu- Mr. Paul who is an outcaste. enough of commissions and will nity in the Tamil country far- Then this young man became indo nothing to cooperate in sus- terested in Mr. Sunkiah's daughpending the "strike" in order ther south; and parties of vol- ter, a young widow living with that the proposed commission untary workers, such as school her parents. The marriage ceremay look into things. Wide- teachers on holiday, have been money was performed by Mr. spread anti-Semitism partly ex- already coming at their own ex- Paul :-a convert from the high- pense to render assistance for a est caste baptized by a convert plains the deadlock. from the outcastes and married short period in this great work. to an outcaste, and a widow! B ish 0 p Freeman, of the -Original Secession Magazine. American Episcopal Church, Argument for Unity and others have petitioned the Rural Reconstruction Recent events in India have British Government to stand brought into sharp relief the fact that the attractiveness of firm in its policy respecting Pal- In 1917 American Baptist estine and the Jews. Christian missionaries took to farming Arabs, with a representation of and acquired five acres of land Roman Catholics, have sent a for demonstration. The venture protest urging more accurate ac- prospered and in 1922 the govquaintance with Arab griev- ernment leased 180 acres to the ances. -United Presbyterian. Mission, enabling them to open INDIA-BURMA a school which has proved a hap- py instance of cooperation. In the Baptist Missionary Review, The Ezhavas Look Toward J. Z. Hodge describes a weekly Christ rural pilgr1image in which he "Weare dissatisfied with Hin- joined.
duism; we admire Jesus Christ; "We started early, and in we appreciate the lives of the state. A trailer attached to the Christian missionaries; we ad- car contained the school brass mire the Christian philanthrop- band, distributed among various
Christ and His Gospel depend ing murder sentences. The one chow, for up to about three very largely upon the conduct who at first was chief objector years ago it was forbidden by and character of the Christian to Christian teaching is now the the Government. Today there Church. When, eight months most diligent learner. She can is an up-to-date broadcasting ago, Dr. Ambedkar called upon repeat from memory the fif- station in Foochow itself, and the 60,000,000 untouchables of teenth Psalm, the Lord's Prayer practically every other house in India to give up Hinduism and and other Bible verses given her. this crowded city has its own embrace some other religion that In addition, she has assumed the wireless. The programs include will give them opportunities for responsibility of teaching the educational lectures, top i c a I a fuller life, a leader of the de- other women who cannot read. talks, Chi n e s e music, the pressed classes said that his peo- When one of the prisoners was weather and news. Mission ple hesitated to adopt the Chris- released, she took with her schools are asked from time to tian religion, because, whereas copies of hymns, verses. and time to put on a musical pro- they were one solid, united com- tracts, promising to carry the gram, and no obj ection to sacred munity under Hinduism, they light to others. . music is raised. Last Christmas feared they would be divided and – Watchman-Examiner. a sermon was put on.
scattered among numerous sects -C. M. S. Outlook.
when they became Christians. Siamese Church Progresses Poverty Increases Opium The force of this argument must Consumption The two years' history of the be admitted when one sees the Church of Christ in Siam is The secretary for Chinese af- Christian Church split into 163 proving it capable of self-gov- fairs in Straits Settlements in units in India, in America 250 ernment and self-support. In reporting on the opium situation most of the ten stations, new to the International Labor Office or more, some serious rivals, fields have been opened, or new at Geneva, maintains that the others claiming exclusive pos- church buildings erected to care harder and more killing the la- for growing congregations. In session of the truth. -The Living Church.
Gandhi's Son Embraces Islam Kiulungkiang Station, Dr. Cur- bor, and the more beastly the tis Galt lists himself as "straw conditions in which the laborer Mahatma Gandhi seems to boss," with the work of the hos- lives, the greater the temptation sense no religious conviction be- pital and the responsibility for to become an addict. A similar hind his son Harilal's conversion the local church on the shoulders report was made for workmen to Islam, and says that "those of his associate, Dr. Kateya, and t h r 0 ugh 0 u t the Far East.
responsible for his acceptance of Siamese-trained colleagues. The "There can indeed be little doubt Islam did not take the most or- dedication of the new Cantonese that the opium problem would dinary precautions as to the Church in Bangkok took place lose much of its intensity," the genuineness of his profession. during the winter, and Chieng- committee declared, "if the con- Surely conversion is a matter mai reports four new chapels ditions of work and life of the between man and his Maker who dedicated and four others under workers affected were improved alone knows His creatures' construction. Most of these are by such means as the adj ustment hearts; and conversion without permanent buildings. The Pet- of hours of work to the normal a clean heart is, in my opinion, chaburi Churches collaborated physical possibilities of human a denial of God and religion." with the government in holding labor, a medical organization He asks his Moslem friends to an agricultural fair which drew capable of insuring adequate examine Harilal in the light of some 20,000 people. In only one treatment of illness, the adjusthis immediate past, and if they town has there been any definite ment of wages to a level suffind that his conversion is a soul- persecution of Christians. In ficient to allow a standard of livless matter, to tell him so plainly six of the stations there are ing consistent wit h normal and disown him, and if they dis- either groups of lepers, or sep- health and comfort, the estabcover sincerity in him, to see arate leper churches. In Srita- lishment of facilities for lathat he is protected against marat, fully half of the lepers borers to be accompanied by temptations so that his sincerity are not Siamese, but Mohamme- their wives and families when results in his becoming a God- dan Malays, who have a vigor- employment involves protracted fearing member of society. For ous prejudice against Christian- absence from their homes, the many years the son has led a ity; or Chinese who do not settlement wherever possible of profligate, dissipated life. understand Siamese, so that op- such laborers on land in which -Dnyanodaya. portunities·:.for evangelism are they would cultivate food sup- Women Prisoners in Assam limited, tho ugh persistently nlies, and the provision of in- used. -Foreign Missions. creased facilities for the utiliza- A group of Bible women have CHINA tion of spare time." been going regularly to the Gau- -Christian Advocate.
hati jail in Assam to carry the Broadcasts from Foochow Rural Projects Christian message to women prisoners, numbering from five Broadcasting is a compara- In a letter from the field to to eight, some of whom are serv- tively recent innovation in Foo- World Call is reported some of
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTOOK
the work being done by Mr. To Teachers: of the pupils were such little Wang Chi-tien who was sent The disciplinary influence of a girls that the Religious Educato Hofei to undertake a work of teacher is great, but seldom of value tion secretary said: "How can reconstruction from the Chris- if exerted through corporal punish- these children get anything? tian point of view. He has se- ment. Sympathetic guidance will do This is a class to train leaders, far more to mold a child's character lected one village near enough to than force can ever hope to do. not a children's meeting!" But Luchowfu to make pos3ible the Tactful cultivatio_n of good habits there they were, apparently abuse of the various institutional sorbing very little. Later, a resources and specialists of the will greatly strengthen a developing school was asked for by the peo- character.
Children whose mentality is below city, and some of the steps al- normal need special understanding ple in Wang Family Village and ready taken are: and sympathy. Every effort should be made to develop in them the will the "too little" girls scrubbed 1. An improved school for the boys to study and persevere. and made ready a room. They and girls of the village has been began by having a daily Bible A good teacher's pride is in the started with a Christian teacher in mental development of his pupils class, to learn how to be Christcharge. The school is practically self- rather than in their scholastic success. like. supporting. To Socia·l Workers: -Woman's Missionary Friend. 2. For the many poor children who cannot pay even the small fees of this The social worker's first aim should Baptist Centennial school, two hour classes are taught by be to provide for children who are the pupils of the regular classes, thus homeless or whose homes do not offer Canton extends a special welmaking education possible for even the necessities for their moral and come Oct. 13-18, 1936, to all visthe poorest child in the village. physical development. itors for the Centennial pro- gram, commemorating the first 3. Medical service, medicine and There is ample scope for the estab- hundred years of American, health education are provided at a cost lishment of welfare centers, children's British and Swedish Baptist within the reach of all at the clinic refuges and hospitals, healthy play- Mission work. In Canton one established by the Luchowfu Christian ground and recreation centers, etc. may see the fruits of the labors Hospital. of I. J. Roberts of Tennessee, In many places effective measures who was the first foreigner to 4. The young men of the village are are not yet in force for prevention of live outside of the restricted organized into a class in the evening. the ill-treatment or neglect, kidnap- area. One of the strongest ping or selling of children. churches in Canton, the begin- 5. Women's classes are held twice nings of the printing of Chriseach week to teach better home-mak- The task of caring for and educat- tian literature and indigenous ing. ing the thousands of underprivileged medical work eventually de- children in this country, training them 6. Means are provided for economic to loyal and useful citizenship, is a improvement through the service of tremendous one, but on it depends the the government reconstruction unit. future strength and vitality of China. Improved seed and improved stock may be obtained by the simple means -China Bookman. of exchanging their poor seed for the Radiating Knowledge improved, and breeding their own One of China's outstanding veloped from his labors. stock to the improved stock without educationalists, T'ao H sin g – Watchman-Examiner. cost. Many hundreds of new trees are made available for the village, Chih, started the idea of pupils Opium Slaves Set Free and will be planted at Arbor Day festivities. in school teaching other people. The Salvation Army main- As a teacher your success he Sequel to "Children's Year" thinks, is measured not by what tains a refuge for opium addicts you have taught your pupil but in China. Since last September "Children's Year" began in by what he has taught another twenty-four men have passed August, 1935, but political un- and what that second has taught through the refuge, and twelve rest and illiteracy have ham- a third and what the third has have been perfectly cured. The pered the movement. Never be- taught the fourth; in short by War Cry tells of one who had fore has such a campaign been the number of generations of traveled many miles to take the launched. The government, in pupils that you have to your cure. Returning entirely free giving its support to this phys- from the curse he showed hi3 ical, intellectual and moral up- credit. Five years ago Old friends the copy of the Scriplift movement, enumerates some Grandfather Yang helped his tures which had been given him, essential points: daughter to teach a class of and had become well marked To Parents: thirty-five in their own front through use. This was his testi- room, till fifteen had finished the mony: "On arriving home, my The influence of home and environ- advanced course. They had paid ment is stronger than that of educa- no fees, the teacher received no friends and neighbors all retion. salary. Then these fifteen were marked about the great change, ready to be teachers for others. commenting on my healthy color Hygienic and healthy surroundings aid the growth of sound minds as well W hen Religious Education and fat face. They were asking Training Institutes were held in what had happened to me, as not· as strong bodies. Changli, Grandfather Ya n g on'lywas my appearance changed, Control of a child's will and guid- hitched up the family donkey but my nature and disposition- ance in the formation of his moral conceptions are among a parent's first duties. and brought these teacher-girls in fact I appeared a new man. A child's personal observation of his along with his daughter to the Then I told them that it was Je- institute. One of them started a sus who had wrought the parents' words and conduct influences class in her home village and two change." his sense of moral values more than any amount of teaching can do.
JAPAN-CHOSEN courses in literature, philosophy The Overseas Evangelistic theology, pedagogy and other Association, an indigenous so- Christian Prospects subjects, according to need and ciety working among Japanese circumstances. emigrants, has fixed a budget of Dr. E. E. Helms gives this Y4300 for its work in 1936. estimate of the prospects Chris- -International Christian Press. tianity has in the Sunrise King- -International Review of dom: Nation-Wide Evangelistic Missions. Movement Because there are but 350,000 Chris- Nationalism, or Loyalty tians in Japan out of a population of Practically all denominations to God? 65,000,000, many count the work of have decided to participate in Christianity in the Empire a failure. the nation-wide evangelistic St. Paul's University, Tokyo, One of Japan's leading dailies recent- movement and to provide the is the most recent target for the ly said editorially: "The question is funds tentatively apportioned Nationalist marksmen. It is remoral rather than numerical. Chris- among them for financing it. ported that the dean of the tianity is giving to the nation a new university read the imperial reconscience." A high official said The committee planning the script on education with some- Christianity has rendered a service movement has issued a state- thing less than the decorum far out of proportion to the number ment to the nation, which, after desired by certain reactionary of its adherents. sketching the present situation students and alumni, and a pro~ in Japan, states: test strike from classrooms wa~ In 1873 there were signs on the the result. That the strike came roads running out of Tokio, "Death "In this crisis we firmly be- just before the term examinatQ All Christians," "Death to Christ lieve that only the Gospel of tions and that the students in Himself If He Comes This Way." Christ can be the safe guiding addition to asking the dean's Now Christianity, by Imperial edict, star for the people's thinking resignation are expecting to be is one of the three official religions of and bring eternal welfare to the excused from the exams until Japan- Shintoism, Buddhism and fatherland. autumn indicates that patriot- Christianity. Last year a Christian ism may not be the only element daily was launched at Tokio, named, "Zealously therefore we bestir in the situation. It definitely ourselves, and. emphasizing the shows also the levels to which The Christ Religion Newspaper. love of God and the grace of nationalism will stoop to win its Christ we proclaim this Gospel point. A compromise will prob- The Christmas story is told each to our fellow-nationals. In so ably be effected to save face all Christmas Eve over a national hQok- doing we would correct the pres- around, but this will only postup, and last year this was climaxed by ent perilous thought – currents pone the head-on collision bethe singing of the "Hallelujah Chorus" and provide a basis for foster- tween loyalty to God and duty by a trained choir of 1,000. The ing a devout and unalloyed senti- to national policy which Chris- Mikado is a total abstainer, and each ment among the people." tians are anticipating and which of his personal bodyguard of 300 will probably occur first in the picked soldiers mnst take a total ab- The movement 0 pen e d on Christian and private schools of stinence pledge. Thomas Carlyle said: April 28 with a mass evangel- the land. "Christianity cannot be counted, it istic meeting in Tokyo. must be weighed." This is the leaven -The Christian Century. that will leaven the whole Japanese In connection with the movelump. ment, a conference for educators Islam in Favor was held in May in Osaka, to -Evangelical-Messenger. consider the place of religion in A writer in The Indian Re- the training of youth, and the view thinks that the conquest of Proposed Union Christian means of inculcating religious China is not the only goal that University truth and developing the reli- Japan has in mind. He says: gious life in schools and colleges. Last April the presidents and In June a special conference for "One of the things that struck representatives of the various factory owners and managers me when I was in Japan at the Christian schools of higher edu- was held, to study the question beginning of this year was the cation in Japan met at Atami of evangelism among factory great interest that the Japanese for a two days' conference under workers. A union Christian were taking in Mohammedanthe auspices of the Executive of training conference is planned ism and building mosques in difthe Christian Educational Asso- for October and a union service ferent parts of their Empire. In ciation of Japan. Considerable of worship for November. pre-war days when I was there time was devoted to the often I came across hardly any J apadiscussed question of the need The Kingdom of God Weekly nese Moslems, but this time I to form a Union Christian Uni- is still sponsored by a committe~ met quite a good number of versity. A proposal was made chosen by the National Chris- them. A fine Moslem seminary for the establishment of a tian Council, the Kyo Bun Kwan has been established in Tokyo, Scholastic Center for the whole and the Kagawa Group. In under the guidance of Imam Christian Movement in Japan, order, however, to cut down Khurbangali, who enjoys the to be devoted to the investiga- overhead expenses and avoid tion and study of subjects per- deficits, the National Christian taining to man's spiritual, moral Council office has assumed the and social welfare. The plans entire work of pUblication. for the development of such a scheme would include the institution in Japan's capital city of a one department University of Literature and graduate
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTOOK
confidence of both the Moslem be put out; it is an original then village, he is overpowered and non-Moslem Japanese offi- work, not a translation and with the prevailing filth. His cials. From this center Islamic therefore closer to Japanese life first act, then, is to line up all literature is circulated all over and thought. the children and march them off the world. In pre-war days it to a clear mountain stream was difficult to come across any -Japan Christian Quarterly. where he scrubs them thorough- Japanese who knew Arabic, Per- ly with a coconut brush. Next sian or Turkish, and there were ISLANDS OF THE SEA he puts the men through a simhardly any chairs for these Is- ilar laundering. The women are lamic languages in Japanese Visiting the New Hebrides doubtless advised to a like universities. But now one meets course. Then his audience being quite a number of Japanese who Rev. Fred Paton of the John outwardly clean he proceeds to are intimate with those lan- G. Paton Mission, New He- preach a cleansing Gospel for guages, and chairs for them brides, writes in The Life of the inner man. Villages thus have been founded in a great Faith: transformed outwardly and inmany J a pan e s e universities. wardly are "living epistles." Why?" A contingent of natives came from Not uncommonly a stranger will Southwest Bay, and when I told them come to a missionary home in "Dry" Experiments a new missionary had been appointed Papua with the remark: "I have their faces lit up with happiness. heard that you live a Christian The number of "bone dry" They have had a hard, lonely time, life. I want to stay with you a villages has reached twenty. and it is a great relief, as they need few days to witness it." A strik- Tomi Oka village in Miyagi pre- help. Once a quarter I see little, ing contrast was afforded those fecture put the scheme to test for lonely villages for a few hours, and present at the mission's Christone year. So good were the re- the people welcome me. mas celebration, when a group sults that the villagers voted to of heathen were asked by some go dry for five years. Nagoya When the seas are rough, it is im- thoughtless person to give the village in Saga completed its first possible to land, but the teacher and Keveri war cry. It was a bloodperiod of three years and has a few natives scramble aboard. We curdling yell which rose in clivoted to extend the dry regime try to give a little bit of tea and sugar max and then· passed into the for another three years. This is and a few matches, and perhaps a few distance. A moment of silence a fishing village, and in spite of sweets and a ball to the children; then and then the Kwato Mission great poverty used to spend yen we back out and they are left three choir, which happened to be 20,000 a year on alcohol. Miho months alone. near, burst out with Gounod's, village in Nagano has completed "Send out thy light and thy three years of a dry experiment The teachers and their wives do not truth, let them lead me." and has extended the period for think they are heroic. They have another five years. heard of Jesus, and some of them vol- -Sunday School Times. unteer to go to the training institute -The Chronicle. for four years, then to return-not to Some Impressions of Australia their homes, but in many cases to an Spread of Christian Literature out-station and occasionally to die Mr. J. Edwin Orr, evangelist there. We have medicines, but if in New Zealand and Australia, General prosperity has caused there is an epidemic the supply runs gives some of his impressions in a rise in the sales of Christian out. The Christian. literature. During 1935, the Christian Literature Society New Christian Oollege in The twin sins of Australia are gampublished 1,046,100 books and Manila bling and pleasure-craze. Australians periodicals. Over 12,500,000 gamble all the time-it is heartbreakpages of Christian literature It is announced from Manila ing. Gambling pervades the air, and went out. Magazines carry the that the Christian college in taints even churches. Well-known Gospel into nearly a million that city has now been organ- church leaders are seen at the races. homes. They go into every cor- ized under Filipino auspices. Many ministers ignore the gambling ner of Japan, to the South Seas, All the boards concerned have menace: in some churches raffles are to the Malay Peninsula, to advised against the organizing a form of church support. America, to Europe, taking the of the college, and have intiword of God to Japanese scat- mated that they will not be pre- The average Australian is not retered all over the world and link- pared to make appropriations ligious: he is not antireligious either: ing all together. Christians are for it. The mission has granted he is just indifferent. The Commonbeginning to use Bible notes and to the college the use of the wealth of Australia seems to be far commentaries. rooms in the Theological Sem- behind New Zealand in religious in- inary building which have been terest. The worst condition of all is Daily Strength for Children heretofore used by the seminary displayed by the outback-isolated has texts for every day in the for its college work. The new communities growing up without the year with a simple, charmingly institution is now under way Gospel. The Gospel is preached by written talk upon each one. This with Dr. Enrique Sobrepena as some societies to the aborigines: but is the first book of this type to its president. their problem is nothing compared to -Presbyterian Board News. the scattered settlements. The atti- tude of denominational leaders to A Preface to Preaching evangelism is encouraging. There is remarkably good feeling between Bap- A recent report of the Kwato tist, Presbyterian, Churches of Christ, Mission describes evangelist Methodists and the rest. All over Davida's preliminaries to his preaching. Going into a hea-
Australia are found prayer groups for The church is on the eve of its home of the medicine man. revival. The Evangelicals know their greatest period of prosperity." What a difference in the recepneed. The subject of revival is dis- This prediction is based upon tion! "Come in," invited the cussed everywhere, and there is in- Mr. Babson's studies of both man cordially. As they entered creasing desire for blessing. economic and religious move- the home, the woman placed ments of the.past three centuries chairs for them and listened at- The younger generation is making of American life. tentively while the missionaries its influence felt. Several of my best sang two gospel hymns in the campaigns were run by younger – Watchman-Examiner. Indian tongue, then to the Christians. The generation born since prayer, and later to a sermon by 1900 means business; a hunger and Forward Step for-Chinese each missionary. The evangelthirst for revival is evident. Christian Community istic meetings were attended by Endeavor is encouragingly progres- such crowds that each evening sive in most states. Campaigners for The Presbyterian Board of many could not get into the Christ are beginning to make their National Missions has approved church. In all, forty conversions weight felt. the sale of the property of Ming were reported. Other villages Quong Home, Oakland, Calif., wanted the evangelists to hold NORTH AMERICA to Mills College for a sum suffi- services there, but time and cient to provide for the reestab- funds would not permit. To Promote Paganism lishment of the home in two -Presbyterian Board News. units, one for the older girls in The Moody Institute Monthly the Chinese section of Oakland, Alaskans Make Progress wonders whether the evident at- and another for the younger tempt of the office of Commis- girls at Los Gatos, a rural com- As already noted, the Presbysioner of Indian Affairs to pre- munity where the home's special terian Hospital at Point Barrow, serve, and even revive, the health work for the children who Alaska, was turned over to the heathen religious beliefs and are under par physically is now government on July 1. Plans practices of our Indian popula- carried on. provide for an enlarged medical tion, particularly in the western program: a resident physician and southern states, means that Ming Quong, or "Home of Ra- and nursing staff at the hospital; the United States government:.is diant Light," came into being in a field nurse who will travel by . going to violate the first amend- 1925, on a site given for the pur- dog team with an Eskimo guide ment to the Constitution by em- pose by Captain Robert Dollar. to the coast villages east of barking upon a program involv- A suburban white community Point Barrow; rehabilitation of ing the teaching of religion, and has grown up around the home, the hospital building and addia debased heathen religion at the inmates are the only Chinese tion of modern surgical equipthat. children in the public schools, ment. The transfer of the medi- while the Chinese church is six cal work makes possible the ex- It appears that certain gov- miles away. The new set-up, tension of the Board's evangelernment officials profess a deep providing an Oakland and a Los istic program, with a full-time interest in the quaint customs Gatos unit, will remedy this service of itinerant evangelism and practices of primitive peo- handicap to the development of among the Eskimos in the negples, and evince a concern to an effective program. The Oak- lected area east of Point Barrow cater to the curiosity of the rap- land unit will be located in the to Barter Island and Demarcaidly increasing army of tourists Chinese community, wit hi n tion Point at the Canadian borwho desire to see Indian life in walking distance of the Chinese der, in addition to regular its original state and setting, church. preaching and pastoral service and witness snake dances, war -Presbyterian Publicity Sheet. at Barrow and Wainwright. The dances, etc., with all the paint entire evangelistic program will and feathers. To carry out such The Scene Changes be under the supervision of Rev. aprogram would involve the em- Fred Klerekoper, who succeeds ployment of government schools, A year ago a missionary called Dr. Henry W. Greist, recently as agents in reviving and per- at a Papago medicine man's retired on account of broken petuating the old tribal life, with home in San Miguel, Arizona, health. the use of federal money. On on the Mexican border, and the whole, the government's con- asked to be allowed to tell the Rev. Russell Pederson says tribution toward making the In- Gospel story. The Indian's wife that Alaskans have made mardian an intelligent and decent went into the house and brought velous progress in the past deccitizen has been nothing to boast out a gun. "Now, go away!" ade. Most communities now of. she said. And the missionary have up-to-date libraries and went, but not without stopping reading rooms. Radios are con- Is A Revival Coming? at the gate for a word of prayer stantly being installed, and pro- for the man and his wife. grams in English help to edu- Roger Babson, noted statis- cate and entertain. The day is tician, makes a confident predic- Some months later a series of practically past when an intertion in his recent book, "A Re- evangelistic meetings were held preter must be used in giving vival Is Coming," that a great for the Papago Indians scattered spiritual awakening is jus t all over that vast desert. The ahead. He says: "All signs in- missionaries again called at the dicate that America will soon again be swept by a spiritual revival. Nothing can stop it. . . .
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTOOK
the Gospel in Alaska. Seldom paintings depicting the history too small already. A lot has been does one find an Alaskan who of the English Bible from the given in a good location and does not understand English. time of Caedmon. plans for a building are under Alaskans are also seeking to end way. Work is progressing at the sale of intoxicating liquor to -The Christian. several branch stations; at most their people. of them plans are going forward -Presbyterian Board News. Better Movie Campaign for enlarged, or additional build- ings. , Invite Government Employees Dr. Fred Eastman, one of the to Church editors of the Christian Cen- Hopeful Signs in Mexico tury, is still campaigning to im- The Committee on Religious prove American movies. Film The Presbyterian Board re- Life in the nation's capital an- producers consider him their ports that its Mexican Mission nounces that, in cooperation "Public Enemy No. 1." Motion is reduced to the smallest terms with the United States Civil picture magnates have insisted in numbers, but is undiminished Service Commission, welcoming they are entertainers, not edu- in activity. While tension on re- letters will be sent to all new cators, but Dr. Eastman has con- ligious questions has relaxed un- employees in the classified serv- fronted them with the fact that der the more liberal attitude of ices of the government. This they are educators whether they President Cardenas, the Mission will mean about 8,000 letters a know it or not; and that in this has been obliged to spend many year. country we are maintaining two months of anxiety and parleying educational system in conflict- over property questions. It is expected to develop this the public school system and the service of making strangers in motion picture industry. In reorganizing to meet pres- Washington feel at home in some ent conditions, the mission has place of worship of their own "Roman Catholics, it will be followed two general principles: denomination or preference and remembered, took the initiative All work is to be considered as of supplying information re- in cleaning up the movies about a project, with definite aims and garding the location of churches, five years ago; Protestants and goals; and no missionary is to church schools, Bible classes, and Jews joined them, so that in one assume responsibility which can other religious activities; and year the film industry lost $10,- be carried by a Mexican col- to extend it to include employees 000,000. The result is that much league. These principles have in the larger nongovernmental debasing stuff has been elimi- worked out, thus far, not only agencies, such as the American nated from films shown in to the extension of established Federati~n of Labor, the Na- America. But the producers work, but even to the opening of tional Educational Association, have not had a change of heart. some new fields. Two years ago, the United States Chamber of They have only been spanked." the progress of missions in Mex- Commerce, and any other new- Meanwhile the problem is being ico seemed blocked at every turn. comers to Washington. approached from another angle. Today, "mission" as an organ- Some hundreds of high schools ized and foreign-controlled en- -The Living Church. in America now have classes in terprise is still blocked, but the motion pictures appreciation, Christians have found their way Texas Bible Exhibit and this idea will probably de- to the hearts of others. velop. The American Bible Society Work among young people in is showing a remarkable collec- LATIN AMERICA Mexico is taking on increasing tion of Texas pioneer Bibles at importance, from babies on the Dallas Centennial Exposi- The Brethren Mission in through college age. Group tion. Copies of a "Breeches" Bi- Argentina training in music, especially ble, published in 1615, and a hymns, has been the service of Czech Bible, published in 1613, The Foreign Mission Society one missionary as she has con- are of particular interest. The of the Brethren Church assumes ducted these classes for young latter was buried in a field for responsibility for evangelizing a people in churches within reach safety during the persecutions strip of Argentina about 200 of the capital. Another new ven- in BoHemia, and was later miles in width and between ture is a church camp for girls brought to Texas by Moravian three and four hundred miles in and still another is student evan- settlers. Other exhibits of note length. Of the hundreds of gelism among young men at- include old photographs and thousands only a few hundred tending colleges in Mexico City. documents which tell the story have a saving knowledge of of the Society's work in Texas Christ. Rio Cuarto is the logical Christianapolis-Model during the last 102 years, por- and geographical center of this Village traits of the first agents and field. It is a growing city, with workers, colored slides showing a promising future. At Hernan- Mr. F. C. Glass recently made the processes of translation, do is the largest congregation. a long trip alone through a sec- publication, and distribution of Some remarkable conversions tion of Brazil, several hundred the Scriptures, more than 7,000,- have taken place, the testimony miles northeast of Garanhuns, 000 volumes of which are sent given is genuine, and the work and found a large and wide- out annually, and a frieze of is growing rapidly. The hall is spread community of Christians
living under conditions that re- made a grant of 18,000 marks the Church Mission to Jews in mind one of the life of the early toward the building. Upon the Poland. A writer in The Chris- Puritan fathers. He says that site a "dignified place of wor- tian tells of seeing this work, a happier, healthier or cleaner ship" will be erected by the State and of being deeply impressed lot of folk would be difficult to building administration aided by the sane methods used by the find. by church members, the Reich missionaries. Their English Government of Prussia, and the class, ostensibly for teaching In another state in the distant National Trades Union. It ap- English, is also used as a means south is a large village called pears that the Prussian Ministry of preaching the Gospel. Those Christianopolis, built in a forest of State recently conferred upon who come are all told very plainclearing and laid out as Faith the Russian Orthodox diocese ly that the missionaries are not Street, Joy Lane, Con cor d the legal rights of a constitution- taking this class only to teach Square, etc., and where only al body in which the Orthodox English, but to introduce to Christians may dwell. They churches in Germany "retain a them the claims of Christ, and have their own shops and little state-recognized and state-pro- the response is gratifying. trades, and possess a church tected form in which the followseating 500 people which is al- ers of this faith can live in close "In personal talks with one ready far too small for their re- communion with their fellow be- and another," says this writer, quirements. They do not smoke, lievers from other countries, es- "I could see how the Spirit of drink, dance, nor is a cinema pecially from the Balkan coun- God was working – breaking allowed to corrupt their morals tries, now living in Germany." down prejudice, and awakening and lure them back to the world. a desire for Christ as their Sav- They hold an annual convention Church Union in France iour, as well as their Messiah. of a Keswick character, when There is no doubt that among huge crowds gather for °a week, French Protestant Churches, their number there are some to study God's Word. chiefly represented by the Re- who are secret believers, and formed and the Reformed Evan- who are weighing up the conse- -The Christian. gelical bodies, have practically quences of baptism. Mr. Par- agreed to unite. By-gone causes sons ought to have fifty aggres- Tent Campaign in Puerto Rico of division are no longer under- sive evangelists and colporteurs stood or appreciated. It is ex- A Sunday school missionary pected that National Synods among the millions of Jews in Puerto Rico tells this story in will shortly reach a definite there." the Presbyterian Banner: agreement. Jews Going to Spain Near Bartolo a Christian brother A financial forward movement began to hold meetings in a large is in progress, and French gen- The legend of "The Wandering farmhouse. Many people gathered, so erosity is open handed. Before Jew" is no myth. From many a a request was sent for the Sunday the fiscal year of the Society of land Jews have had to flee from school missionary to come with his bus Missions closed in March, a mil- persecution. Strangely enough, and gospel tent equipment. We lion francs were received, which one of the lands that is opening packed our bus to the very top with closed the year without a deficit its doors to persecuted Jews is canvas, poles, boards for seats, baby -an experience known only once the land where four and a half organ, literature, stereoptican ma- before in thirty years. Mission- centuries ago their forefathers chine, military cots, gasoline lanterns, aries are returning to their sta- endured the indescribable crueland the hundred and one things neces- tions and no fields are to be ties of the Spanish Inquisition. sary for a fifteen-day campaign. abandoned. The 800,000 francs It is said that government of- accumulated deficits of the Soci- ficials and the people of influ- Those sturdy-headed, reckless peo- ety of Missions will, it is con- ence in general regret the part ple came in crowds to the tent; they fidently hoped, soon be cleared were respectful and interested, they off. The Reformed Evangelical taken by their country in the exwere stirred to the depths, and 103 Churches have launched an ap- pulsion of Jews in the fifteenth confessed Christ as their Saviour. A peal for 3,000,000 francs and in century, and in every way are desire for a chapel grew in their three months have received seeking to convey the impreshearts. A prominent man gave the nearly one-third of it. site and a group of young people from sion that today there exists no the Marina church in Mayaquez -World Survey Service. prejudice against the Jews or helped launch the campaign for rais- any other race. Within the past ing money. Enthusiasm grew, and Poland and the Jewish two years a considerable numout of their great poverty, with plan- Problem ber of Jews from Nazi Germany ning and sacrifice, the Bartolo people are finding their way into Spain, are building a house of worship. A The largest number of Jews large class of candidates is being pre- in the world is found in Poland, a perhaps the largest groups gopared for church membership. which is largely the fountain head of world Jewry. Jews ing to the south. Seville has EUROPE form one-seventh of the popula- growing Jewish population, with tion in Poland. Rev. Martin scattered communities through- A German-Russian Church Parsons is directing the work of out Andalusia.
The Living Church reports As a people, Jews are not that the Nazi ~overnment on identified wit h communism. July 3d placed a building site at Their traditions are all to the the disposal of the Russian Or- contrary. thodox diocese of Berlin for the reconstruction of the Russian Orthodox cathedral, and has Our· Missionary Bookshelf Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information BOOKS WORTH READING Omwa? Are You Awake? By P. H. Black and White in East Africa. ON AFRICA J. Lerrigo. 175 pp. $1.25. Revell. By Richard C. Thurnwald, with New York. 1936. chapter on "Women" by Hilde By REV. EMORY Ross Thurnwald. 218. Geo. Routledge Intimate, human and discern- & Sons. London. Western Civilization and the Natives ing sketches of the life of Afri- of South Africa: Studies in Cul- cans and foreigners in Congo- Detailed study of perplexing ture Contact. By I. Schapera. 158. industry, government, religion, problems emerging from the Routledge. London. 1934. medicine, education, folk-tales- contact between black and white by a man who has both knowl- in Africa. An important reference work. edge and insight. Some conception of the cultural The School in the Bush. By Victor shock now being experienced by The Golden Stool. By Edwin W. Murray. $5.00. Longmans Green Africa is necessary for proper Smith. $1.50. Harpers. New & Co. New York. 1929. understanding of that continent. York. 1928. A qualified outsider's view of Christ in the Great Forest. Felix Not to be missed by one who African education. Comprehen- Faure. 181 pp. $1.00, cloth; 60 would have, in a very readable sive. Provocative. cents, paper. Friendship Press. form, an introduction to the New York. 1936. African of today against the The Gospel and the African. By background of yesterday. Alexander Hetherwick. 176 pp. Fifteen case histories that 48. 6d. T. & T. Clark. Edinburgh. show Christianity's impact upon God's Candlelights. By Mable Shaw. 1932. Africans in the Gabun. M. 197 pp. 28. 6d. Edinburgh House Faure has been for thirty years Press. London. Friendship Press, Half a century of missionary a French Protestant missionary New York. $1.00. 1936. experience was the preparation in West Africa. for this study of African reli- A discerning teacher's story gious life and the changes African Bridge Builders. William C. of how Christ helped the African brought by Christianity. Bell. 168 pp. $1.00, cloth; 60 girls build God's village – the cents, paper. Friendship Press. girls' boarding school at Mbere- Literature for the South African New York. 1936. shi, Northern Rhodesia. Bantu. By R. H. W. Shepherd. 81 pp. 18. The Carnegie Corporation A collection, skilfully and The Life of Dr. Donald Fraser. By Visitors' Grants Committee. Precompactly edited, of stories by Agnes R. Fraser. 326 pp. 78. 6d. toria, South Africa. 1936. and about Africans, taken from Hodder and Stoughton. London. that splendid series, "Little 1934. A comparative study of Negro Book for Africa." literary achievements – in Af- rica and the United States.
Modern Industry and the African. The life story of one great Apolo of the Pygmy Forest. New By J. Merle Davis. $2.50. Inter- African missionary written by and Enlarged Edition. 82 pp. national Missionary Council, New another-his wife. C. M. S. London. 1936. York. 1932. Sons of Africa. By Georgina A. Gol- The fascinating story of an The most comprehensive study lock. 241 pp. Map. 75 cents, African missionary to Africans. yet made of that baffling tri- boards; 50 cents, paper. Friendangle: Church – industry – ship Press. New York. 1928. Among Congo Pygmies. By P. Sche- Africa. Relates particularly to bester. 188. Hutchinson. London. the world's largest mines – of Life stories of great Africans, 1933. diamonds, gold and copper, in more than a score of them, from Africa. the Askia (Usurper) of the 15th About the only full-length century, who founded a great book yet written dealing scien- tifically with those shy people, The African Today. By Diedrich dynasty, to Aggrey of the 20th, among the world's most primi- Westermann. $3.00. 343 pp. Ox- 'Yho did more. tive, the pygmies of the Ituri ford University Press. New York. forest. Aggrey of Africa. By Edwin W. 1934.
Able survey of African condi- Smith. $1.00. Friendship Press. Liberia Old and New. J. L. Sibley tions by one of the directors of New York. 1929. the International Institute of and D. Westermann. $3.00. Smith.
Best modern biography of an New York. 1928.
African Languages and Cul- African. Aggrey was remark- Good short treatment of the tures. able; the book is excellent. Negro Republic. Mr. Sibley Any of the books noted in these columns wi11 be sent by the ReVIew publishers on receipt of price.
[509 ] died in service as the govern- portunity. Mr. Ross, for twenty ciety describes in popular form ment's educational adviser. years a missionary in Africa and recently secretary of the Congo the romance and reality of pro- Forest Hospital at Lambarene. By Protestant Mission Council, here Albert Schweitzer. 191 pp. $2.00. describes the land, its people, ducing Christian literature and Holt & Co. New York. 1931. problems, mission work and fu- Bible translations in new lan- A medical mission to Africans ture – not by a recital of dry discussed by a well-known medi- statements but by picturesque guages that have never been re- cal missionary philosopher. facts, descriptions and incidents. The colored map and reading duced to writing. This is one of Surveys Made by World Dominion list add to its value as the senior Movement. London and New York. study book for the year. the most important parts of the A valuable series of books on D. L. P. missionaries' task. Mr. Smith various African areas, dealing with missionary occupation, sta- tells how men who have gone to tistics, government problems, education, medicine, the Church. Central Africa, the Islands of Africa View. By J. Huxley. $3.50. the Sea and elsewhere, without Harpers. New York. 1931. any knowledge of the language A leading British scientist ex- amines Africa. Stimulating. of the people, have patiently and The Partition and Colonization of Congo Crosses. By Julia Lake KeI'- with ingenuity learned to speak Africa. By C. P. Lucas. $4.20. Oxford University Press. New lersbergeT. $1.00, cloth; 50 cents, with the natives, have reduced York. 1932. paper. Friendship Press. New the languages to writing and A well told story of the Euro- pean grab of Africa. York. 1936. have finally translated the Bible.
Boomba Lives in Africa. By Caro- Mrs. Kellersberger is already Many humorous experiences are line Singer and Cyrus LeRoy Bald- ridge. Holiday House, London. widely known in America for recorded due to mistakes in pro- 1935. her stirring addresess on the nunciation or to misunderstand- Story of a ten-year-old West African boy. For children. Congo, her missionary field. ings. In Uganda the word for Full page drawings by Mr. Bald- ridge. Here she describes the land on "wizard" (forbidden in the Bi- Haile Selassie Emperor of Ethiopia. which s hi n e s the Southern ble) was used for medical mis- By The Princess Asfa Yilma. 305 pp. $4.00. Illus. and maps. D. Cross; the trails and landscapes sionary and added to the diffi- Appleton-Century Co. New York. 1936. of the Africans – heathen cus- culties. Among the Shans of An excellent volume on Ethio- toms, slavery, climate, wars, Burma the same word, with dif- pia, with all its aspects discern- ingly discussed up to early part witchcrafts, hard labor, and pov- ferent tones, means man y of 1936. The writer is a half- British Ethiopian p r inc e s s, erty, which constitute their in- things. "Ma rna rna rna rna" European educated. dividual and tribal crosses, and may be translated, "Help the The Golden Legend of Ethiopia. By Post Wheeler. 183 pp. $2.00. D. finally the Cross of Christ by horse, a mad dog comes." Appleton-Century Co. New York. 1936. which Africans are being re- The book is exceedingly inter- The traditional romantic story deemed for time and eternity. esting and shows the great im- of Makeda, Queen of Sheba, and King Solomon, told by an Amer- This book, especially for women, portance of accurate language ican career diplomat, recently minister to Albania. How the is unique, well illustrated and work in order to get at a peo- ark came to Ethiopia, and other . Ethiopic traditions which have informIng. D. L. P. ple's soul and to give them the greatly helped to mold the Ethiopian nation. The Land and Life of Africa. By Gospel so that they will under- Margaret Wrong. IlIus. Map. Out of Africa. By Emory Ross. 12mo. 144 pp. 28. The Living- stand. D. L. P. $1.00, cloth; 60 cents, paper. 216 stone Press. London. 1935. pp.; map. Friendship Press. New Consider Africa. By Basil Mathews. York. 1936. Here is an excellent introduc- Maps. 12 mo. 181 pp. $1.00 cloth, tion to the study of Africa. Miss 60 cents paper. Friendship Press. Noone will wish to miss this Wrong is a well-informed, a New York. 1936. graphically written volume on clear, illuminating writer. She Africa, the continent of adven- pictures vividly the town and Weare debtors to Africa for ture, romance, tragedy and op- village life, not by an array of the gold, the ivory, the dia- impersonal facts, but by describ- monds, the copper, coffee and ing the experiences of individual cotton, palm oil and cocoa, and Africans. She tells also of the skins of all kinds that have journeys through the bush on come from that rich continent; foot, by rail and motor car and we are debtors to the Africans, airplane. African races and even more because of past ex- history, governments and edu- ploitation of these primitive peo- cation are treated in separate ples – an exploitation and op- chapters. It is not a report of pression that is still going on. missionary w 0 r k but gives It is a country of romance and graphic glimpses of the influence adventure of vast variety and of Christianity and reveals the far-reaching possibilities. The background in which missiQn African is a deeply interesting character, of many tribes and work is conducted. D. L. P. races, of varied characteristics, customs and beliefs. But Africa The Shrine of a People's Soul. By and the Africans are changing. Edwin W. Smith. 208 pp. 28. As a rule they are still primitive Edinburgh House Press. London. and childlike but multitudes are 1929. seeing new light and hope and are becoming leaders of their The Editorial Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible So-
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
people. This is the country and of the interesting stations vis- terial, including African games, people, south of the Sudan, that ited was that of Dan Crawford, stories, proverbs, music, sugges- form the foreign mission study so that we have an independent tions for dramatization, refresh- topic for the coming year. Basil view of the work of this mighty ments, etc.
Mathews has given us a most missionary. The whole diary Thinking with Africa. Edited by interesting introduction to the and the photographs enable us Milton Stauffer. Boards, 50 cents; subject. It is less a study book to travel with Miss Dunkel- paper, 25 cents. New York. 1927.
than a popular description of the berger, to see with her eyes, feel African thought interpretea African, his country and char- with her heart and sympathize by Christian nationals and misacteristics. Here we see him with her spiritual reactions. sionaries. with his shining body and ready D. L. P. The Moffats. By Ethel Daniels Hublaugh, his expressive dance and BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEO- bard. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 75 cents. PLE AND CHILDREN New York. drum; his bondage to supersti- Camp Fires in the Congo. By Mrs. Popular life of Robert and tion and fear. We read of the John M. Springer. 128 pp. 75 Mary Moffat, pioneer mission- cents, cloth; 50 cents, paper. The aries in South Africa. African labor problem-so dif- Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. Bos- Livingstone the Pathfinder. By Basil ferent from American and Eu- ton. 1936. Mathews. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 75 cents. rope – the native moral weak- This is one of those books, os- tensibly written for children The most popular biography nesses and imported white man's which their elders will not read- of Livingstone. ily lay aside, if they once begin vices; the cruelty and oppres- it. But a narrative skillfully Uganda's White Man of Work. By told is one of the best ways to Sophia Lyon Fahs. Cloth, 50 cents; sion of European. conquerors carry important truth. Mrs. paper, 25 cents. Springer's style is direct and and the changes that are taking vivid. Few words are wasted The life of Mackay of Uganda. in abstractions or generalities. place. Finally we read of the That is, it is the style most at- In the African Bush. By Jewel tractive to young people. The Huelster Schwab. coming of the Christian mission- six chapters cover a great num- ber of incidents, which give one Stories of African life for ary and the results of the Gos- juniors.
pel. It is a book worth reading FOR PRIMARY CHILDREN AND BEGINNERS -one that whets the appetite for a better acquaintance with marvelous Africa and the fas- cinating people. A valuable bib- liography and index,· and a good colored map are included. . D. L. P.
Crossing Africa. By Stella C. Dunkelberger. Illus. 8vo. 105 pp. an intimate view of the thoughts Children of the Chief. By Mary $1.00. Mission Office. 147 W. and customs of the Congo peo- School Lane, Germantown, Pa. Entwistle. Cloth, 50 cents; paper, ple. In fact the book contains a 25 cents.
The D. M. Stearn's Fund has surprising amount of informa- The Red Friendly Book. By Muriel ministered to missionaries all tion on the people of the Congo. R. Wray. Boards, 40 cents. over the world for some forty years. After serving for twenty- There are many excellent illus- Kembo: A Little Girl of Africa. five years as home secretary, trations, printed on paper best By Winifred E. Barnard. Boards, Miss Dunkelberger decided to adapted to bring them out. This 50 cents.
visit some of the African mis- book is a fine addition to mis- Efiong: A Little Boy of Africa. By sionary literature, and, indeed, Ella B. Floyer. Boards, 40 <'ents.
sions she had helped, and trav- to popular literature u p 0 n SUPPLEMENTARY eled across Africa by way of the Africa. Congo River and Elizabethville R. M. K. MATERIAL to Portuguese East Africa. These diary letters, with over OTHER FRIENDSHIP Africa Picture Sheet. 25 cents. one hundred pictures, tell the PRESS BOOKS story. It is very enlightening A folder of pictures for class- The Land and Life of Africa. By to share her many interesting room use. experiences, by boat and car- Margaret Wrong. 138 pp. 50 riers of various kinds, as she cents, paper. 1936. Africa Picture Stories. Spedal price, visited the missions in out-ofthe-way stations, saw the na- An accurate account of daily 25 cents the set. tives in the raw and as trans- life and thought, religion and formed by the power of Christ. work in Africa. Recommended Five pictures and a story Some of the photographs are especially for young people and clear and instructive. It is a adults, including leaders of all about each picture. personal narrative, in which age groups. many unimportant items are in- Boys and Girls of Africa. 15 cents. Fun and Festival from Africa. By Catherine Miller Balm. 25 cents, Six sheets of African pictures paper. New York. to be colored.
Directions for Making an African Village. 25 cents.
A set of drawings to be cut out and assembled.
Loose-Leaf Series No. i-Africa. 15 cents. .
cluded and some details of value Pamphlet, by the author of An illustrated pamphlet of are omitted – including the ex- Chinese Ginger and Joy from games, songs, handcraft sugges- act names of workers met. One Jap(m, contains a wealth of ma- tions and folk tales from Africa.
New Books Obituary Notes Mrs. Carrie Ballah Harrell, writer and missionary, said to have been the Lights and Shades of Christendom to (Concluded from page 449.) first white child born in Japan, died A. D. 1000. H. Pakenham-Walsh. July 13th, in Baltimore, Maryland, at Maps. 368 pp. $4.00. Oxford Uni- Miss Jean Kenyon Mackenzie, for the home of her daughter, Mrs. H. versity Press. New York. Donovan Swann at the age of seventy- twelve years a missionary of the Pres- four. The History of the Universities' byterian Church to the Bantu tribes Mission to Central Africa. G. Her- of southern Cameroun, Africa, died Mrs. Harrell was the daughter of bert Wilson. Illus. 278 pp. 2s. 6d. the Rev. James H. Harrell, who es· U. M. C. A. London. September 2d in New York. A native tablished the first Protestant church in Japan, on the treaty ground es- Christian Materialism: Inquiries In- of Elgin, Ohio, and the daughter of ta',Jlished by Admiral Matthew C. to the Getting and Spending and Perry, at Yokohama. Giving of Money. F. J. McConnell. Scottish parents, Miss Mackenzie at- 167 pp. $1.25. Friendship Press. tended school in San Francisco and Mrs. Harrell's introduction of the New York. Braille system into Japan, and her later studied at the Sorbonne, in Par- work among blind and deaf mutes The Social System of the Zulus. E. is. When her father became pastor won her the honor of being received J. Krige. Illus. 420 pp. 25s. Long- by the late Emperor. mans. London. of the Rutgers church, she volun- teered for missionary work and in PROMISE Papuan Wonderland. J. G. Hides. 204 pp. 8s. 6d. Blackie. London. 1904 was sent to what was then the To Read German colony of Kamerun. During The History of Jewish Christianity: and Keep From the First to the Twentieth the next ten years Miss Mackenzie Century. H. J. Schonfeld. Illus. Circulating 256 pp. 7s. 6d. Duckworth. Lon- saw service in four outposts, all but don. one of them ",.lush" towns in the in- Dr. R. A. Torrey's "HOW TO The Way of the Witnesses: A New terior. An internal injury-suffered PRAY," a notable 128-page Testament Study in Missionary Motive. Edward Shillito. 158 pp. one day while riding in a one-wheeled book, and receive copy for 2s. Edinburgh House Press. Lon- African cart-compelled her retire- don. this purpose FREE. ment in 1916. Interpreters: A Study in Contempo- In 1923 Miss Mackenzie attended • rary Evangelism. Max Warren. 142 pp. 2s. 6d. Highway Press. Lon- the Le Zoute Conference to discuss BIBLE INSTITUTE COLPORTAGE don. the future of mission work in Africa. ASSOCIATION Report on the Religious Life in the Here her long friendship with French, 849m N. Wells St., Chicago, Illinois Christian Colleges in China. 45 pp. China Christian Educational Swiss and German mission forces was Assn. Shanghai. brought into play to help the confer- Christian Union in South India: An ence avoid misunderstandings at a Adventure in Fellowship. W. J. Noble. 94 pp. 2s. Student Chris- time when the World War was still tian Movement Press. London. only five years past.
The Encyclopredia of Islam. Edited Miss Mackenzie wrote many books by M. Th. Houtsma, A. J. Wen- sinck, H. A. R. Gi',Jb, W. Heffening about Africa. Among them are, and E. Levi-Provencal. No. 53: Panguli-Rabb. 1025-1088 pp. Sup- "Black Sheep," "The Trader's Wife," plement No.2: Djughrafiya-Kas- sala. Plates. 65-112 pp. Each "An African Trail," "African Adven- 7s. 6d. Luzac. London. tures" "Friends of wAasfraic~ae"mb"eErxi0l1e Is Christianity Unique? A Compara- and Postman." She tive Study of the Religions. Nicol the editorial staff of Listen which M'acmicol. 222 pp. 6s. S. C. M. Press. London. provides news and interpretation of Apollo of the Pigmy Forest. New and international affairs in simplified Enlarged Edition. A. B. Lloyd. Is. 82 pp. C. M. S. London. English for children and those un- African Bridge Builders. Edited by familiar with the language. Wm. C. Bell. 168 pp. Friendship Press. New York. Surviving are her mother, Mrs. Robert Mackenzie, and two sisters. Across the Years-An Autobiog- raphy. Chas. Stedman Macfarland. gorging the (!]hain of 367 pp. $2.75. Macmillan. New York. CHRISTIAN LOVE The Bible Triumphant. C. Urquhart. encircling the C@orld 144 pp. 2s. 6d. Pickering & In- glis. London. Consecrated Missionaries of the Congregational and Chris- Jacob Burkhard. Mary Yoder Burk- tian Churches serving in home and foreign fields are hard. 214 pp. $1.00 cloth, 60 cents paper. Published by author. Gosh- golden links in the chain of International Friendship. So en, Ind. are the thousands who read the MISSIONARY HERALD at Home and Ahroad — the magazine that has worked ceaselessly for 132 years in hehalf of greater tolerance, more kindly understanding, and for the spirit of true hrotherhood inspired hy Jesus Christ. , We earnestly solicit your subscription, believing that it is your desire to be well-informed concerning world conditions.
The rate is $1.25 a year for a single subscription; $1.00 a year in groups of five.
A sample copy will be sent gladly upon request.
THE MISSIONARY HERALD 14 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts
NEW BOOKS ON
OMWA? AN IRISHMAN IN THE (ARE YOU AWAKE 1) JUNGLES OF AFRICA P. H. J. LERRIGO, M.D. Edited by RUTH BURNS MAGUIRE ttOmwa ? Are you awake?" is a native The wonderful career of Gabriel Reid salutation used in Central Africa. The author has utilized this expression as a Maguire, who was a missionary, preacher thread to bind together thIs study deal- ing with the major problems, religious, and pastor, for nearly forty years. "A political, social and mdustrial, confront- mg the great emerging continent today. great and unusual contributIon to the Human interest stories and folk tales illuminate the themes. Illustrated $1.25 missionary literature in which our churches are interested just at this time."-Watchman-Examiner. With an introduction by President Austen K.
deBlois. Illustrated $1.25 OTHER IMPORTANT WORKS ON MISSION LANDS REBECCA PARRISH, M.D. HERBERT H. GOWEN, D.D. GEORGE P. and IDA G. PIERSON ORIENT SEAS AND FIVE FOREIGNERS FORTY HAPPY YEARS LANDS AFAR IN JAPAN IN JAPAN Dr. Parrish is an experienced travel· The Western influences that have This stirring recital of successful ler who has the unique ability of get- brought about Japan's rise is told in missionary work is written with pas- ting behind the scenes and interpreting these historical biographies of five sionate enthusiasm by two mission- the ways of the peoples. It includes men who, more than any others, had aries. Their evangelistic activities Palestine, India, Africa, China, Japan., much to do with her growth in strat- brought them into contact with all Arabia, Philippines, and Egypt, Persia, etc. $1.50 egic power. $2.00 classes of people in Japan. $1.25 At All Booksellers FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 158 Fifth Ave., New York Exalted Partnership with Assured Income You may enter into Permanent Partnership with the missionaries of this Society in the United States and Latin America.
Funds devoted to the missionary work of The American Baptist Home Mission Society yield a return in terms of character huilding that should hearten every donor.
By securing an Annuity of The American Baptist Home Mission Society today, you will assure a continuous income for yourself, I'elative or friend, and help to provide funds for the future maintenance of mission churches, schools and missionaries for less privileged groups in your own land, Mexico, Central America and the West Indies.
For information concerning A GUARANTEED INCOME FOR LIFE that remains constant while returns from other investments may fluctuate, address: Samuel Bryant, Treasurer THE AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY 23 East 26th Street New York City
'('But What Am I to Do?"
~ (EW YEAR'S DAY. The gateway of the Metet Leper Colony, Cameroun, Africa· '-a'l9 Clustered about it a pitiful crowd. Some sit, some lie down, some crouch.
Those nearest the gate take an attitude of supplication–dumb, passive, resigned, enduring. Suppliant—but only as a dog is suppliant when he has been beaten and begs, with his eyes open, for the passing of your anger.
The gate opens. A stir among those who wait, like a very faint puff of wind over dead leaves. An American man and woman and an African come out. Very gently, as if trying to say by their motions what they could not speak.
The African stops near one, then another, then another, of the waiting forms. He touches them, speaks a word. They rise with hardly a change of expression and pass inside the gate. Too dazed even to be happy! Six, eight, twelve, fifteen go in like that.
"That is enough, Mfe'e," says the doctor. "There is no more room. We are sorry, Mfe'e. Oh, tell them we are sorry!"
Mfe'e, his hand on the shoulder of an old, old woman, stops and turns toward the gate. Slowly the missionaries walk down the road.
Suddenly there is a cry. They turn.
It is the old woman. She is half standing, half crouching. Her hands are stretched out.
"But what am 1 to do? What am I to do?"
So long as they live, the missionaries can never forget that cry.
CAN YOU?
—————————————– THE AMERICAN MISSION TO LEPERS, Inc. Room 1119-R, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York o Because I too do not forget, I enclose $40 for the admission and one year's care of the old woman at Metet or some one like her o o $15 for a small house for four lepers $10 for medicines for two years–some- o $1 for a month's food times enough for a cure o Name _____________________________________________________________________ Address____________________________________________________________________ City________________________________________________ Staw__________________