Few people in these lands can realize how longingly the unreached heathen look for some substantial revelation from God. The casual observer, who has had opportunity only to see the native bubbling over with exuberant merriment and hysteric glee in the moonlight dance, can have no idea of the unutterable aspirations after God, which in calmer and more thoughtful moments spread through his mind.
There is in the heart of every native not only a belief in God, but for many an unutterable craving to know Him: the inmost desire of his being is in accordance with the expressed wish of Job, "Oh that I might come even unto His seat." That intuitive desire of the soul can only be satisfied in a knowledge of the revelation of God in Christ Jesus, and of the pardon and reconciliation which Christ has purchased for mankind. The countless tribes of Africa are thoughtfully seeking that Message which Christ has entrusted to His Saints, and which He has definitely commanded them to deliver unto the utmost limits of the earth.
If God's people were, but for a single decade, earnestly and intently devoted to the fulfillment of our Lord's last command, astounding results would follow, and the tribes of Africa would flock to Christ as doves to their windows. The present is an extremely critical time in the history of Christian Missions in the heart of the Great Continent. Never, since Moffat and Livingstone entered its southern border, has such an important point in time arisen as that which now confronts the Messenger of the Cross in the Equatorial Regions. Iron rails are quickly opening avenues into the very heart of the Continent, and thither are trooping the followers of Islam in large and ever-increasing numbers.
Wherever they go these Muslims take with them their vain and ostentatious forms of prayer and superficial ablutions. These pedantic ceremonies easily commend themselves to the more simple tribes of Pagan Africa, and especially so as they are totally unaccompanied by any clear moral claims of purity of heart and life.
The more robust warrior tribes of the East Equatorial Belt have remained for ages invincible against all the attempted advances of armed Moslem caravans. Due however, to the recent ramifying influences of European Governments, the way has been opened for the Muslims to enter the secret chambers of every tribe in Central Africa. How long these noble clans may now remain unensnared by Islam no one can tell. Already a number of the women have fallen victims to their insatiable licentiousness, while in some cases youths have been entrapped and initiated into the lecherous life of the Cities of the Plain.
If, in this crucial hour, the followers of Jesus in the homelands fail to give to the benighted sons of Africa that regenerating Gospel which would transform their lives and satisfy the deepest cravings of their hearts, then may it not be expected that our lampstand will be removed from its place, and that leanness will come into our own souls? To leave these tribes to the destructive and soul-enslaving influence of Islam is to betray the trust that our loving and ascended Lord has given to us.
A few well-known (but foolish) Christian men, some of whom are loved and honored for their work, have lauded Islam as if it were a handmaiden to Christianity, or, as it has been expressed, to "a sublimer, purer faith." Christian tourists, who have passed through Moslem lands and have seen the adherents of Islam bowing their faces to the earth several times a day, have been charmed and enchanted with their public devotions. "How earnest are these people in the worship of the one true God!" say the travelers, as they return to Europe the victims of a absolute delusion. If these men knew the language and could get in touch with the inner life of the Muslim high priests, and live for the short period of a few months in the vicinity of Islamic debauchery, they would no doubt come to a very different conclusion regarding the debasing cult on which they pass such glowing statements.
When the British Government imported from India several thousand Muslim coolies, for the building of the Uganda railway in East Equatorial Africa, the native inhabitants of the interior of the continent, like other races of fallen man, were living in a state of opposition to the laws of God. Noble traits of character and devout aspirations were attached to a life of animalism and certain forms of tribal impurity.
But across that fair native land the followers of the false prophet have left behind them a pestilential trail, which can only be purged by Him who maketh all things new. These devotees of Mohammed, over whom delirious eulogies have been pronounced, have introduced among the native tribes of Equatorial Africa crimes which to them were unknown, and for which, be it said, they had no name. We have seen those natives of the jungle put their hand upon their mouth, and in woeful terms bewail the day that a Muslim entered their country.
In the minds of some men the great virtue of Islam lies in the fact that its adherents prostrate themselves at fixed intervals, in open field or contracted highway, and cry out, "La Elah ilia Allah wa Mohammed rasul Allah'" ("There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God.") Many people fail to understand that no native has ever been found in the depths of the African continent, nor for that matter in any country in the world, who does not in his primitive condition believe in the truth of the first part of this oft-repeated Moslem formula, while they do not recognize the false assertion regarding the self-constituted prophet who was a predatory murderer.
There is neither worth nor merit nor moral excellence in perceiving the existence of God: that ability is instinctive to man, and wherever a conscious being of the human race exists, the living soul is consciously dwelling in the presence of the Great Creator in whom he lives and moves and has his being. It is only the fool who says in his heart there is no God. The faith of the untutored native of Africa in the one Almighty God is more pure, sincere, and more simply and ardently devout, than that of the pretentious followers of Moslem ritual.
It has often been suggested, and at times emphatically pronounced, by those who assume much wisdom, that these African races of men are so low in the scale of human intelligence that they are beyond the uplifting power of Christianity.
Such fools know nothing of that which they so confidently affirm. In former days the same statements were made regarding the Asian people of the East, but men would blush to make such assertions today. Those who have had the longest experience in the depths of Africa will, without hesitation, agree with me when I say that many of the tribes of East Equatorial Africa are possessed of greater natural intelligence than some of the inhabitants of our own land. These shrewd and discerning sons of the wilderness are as agreeable to the claims of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as were our ancestors in Britain.
Often, while we were pursuing our work in Africa, we have been very forcibly reminded of the similarity between many of the customs of the natives and those of the Celtic and British people who roamed the English islands in distant centuries. At the beginning of the so called Christian era, cannibalism and the offering of human sacrifices were as common in these British Isles as they are today in some parts of Africa. Like the behavior of the African native, our ancestors ranged the woods in a coat of paint, and during severe weather covered their shoulders with the skins of animals.
Just as the Masai avoid the cultivation of the ground and live on flesh and milk, so did the Britons in the time of Christ, and in the year a.d. 800 a cow was with them the unit of value, as it is today with some of the tribes of Africa.
In the depths of the Great Continent the wild woodsmen rear their little beehive grass huts in which to dwell, and, even at the advanced period of a.d. 900, the Britons and Celts lived in small round huts made with wattles and daubed with clay.
Our forefathers in those days lay down to rest on rushes which they laid upon the floor, while the Africans go to sleep stretched on skins which they have taken in the hunt. Those doughty ancestors kindled their fire in the center of the hut, and the smoke slowly made its exit through the roof or by the diminutive doorway, just as it does today in the wilds of Africa.
We are inclined to forget that many of our modern conveniences which we now look upon as vital requirements, in the shape of chimneys, windows, etc., are of but very recent introduction. Today the African drinks out of a gourd shell, while our ancestors used an ox horn or a hollow piece of wood, and this latter is still found in Wales and in the west of Ireland under the name of "piggin."
Just as the cereal-eating native of the jungle pours the stone-ground grain into boiling water, stirring it with a stick into the consistency of dough, and eats it without further cooking, so did our robust ancestors; and the custom is still in existence in some districts of the northern part of Scotland where brose is considered a healthy, bone-forming food. The wild sons of the tropical forest, when resting on their return from plundering expeditions, drink potions of fermented honey after the manner of our long-winded fathers, who sat quaffing their mead, which was brewed in a similar way.
In their festivities the Britons used the timpano or drum, just as the Equatorial native brings into use his hollow section of wood over which he has stretched the tightly-drawn goatskin; while around his muscular limbs there dangle tinkling bells which closely resemble those worn by the Celts. They are made in the form of a half-open bivalve shell, in which there is room for a round ball of metal to move.
Our ancestors were much given to nighttime dancing parties, as indeed are some nominal Christians of today. Throughout heathendom these orgies of the night are similarly practiced, but under more healthy conditions, as they are always held in the open air under the starlit sky. The African also strictly adheres to the modern fashionable lines of continuing the party till the early hours of the morning.
Even in the custom of marriage, there has been considerable harmony between the customs of the inhabitants of these lands and those of the natives who are hidden away in the gloomy depths of the Dark Continent. The similarities have gradually disappeared, due to the sanctity which, in the homelands, has been imparted to this important role by the Gospel of Christ. Nevertheless, there still remain some traces of the similarity which formerly existed. In the jungle, when the man has handed over the last head of cattle for the woman which is to be his wife, she hides herself under the pretense that she is unwilling to leave her father's care. The bridegroom immediately begins a careful search, and eventually the maiden is forcibly carried away by strong natives to her new surroundings. How little we are distant from this wild African lifestyle is seen by the fact that, in some parts of the south-west of Ireland, the peasants still carry on "the dragging home of the bride."
Among the wild woodsmen of the continent of Africa, ordeal by fire and water has been in vogue throughout the past ages, to determine the guilt or innocence of one suspected of crime. In Britain the trial of a culprit was carried out in a precisely similar manner, by plunging the bare arm into boiling water or taking in the hand a piece of red-hot iron. If the person were not severely injured he was judged innocent, but if serious results followed was condemned as guilty. This custom led to the proverbial English phrase "to go through fire and water."
If there is one thing in the world with which the African native has less to do with than another, it is the keeping of accounts. Once or twice in a lifetime it may be necessary for him to take note of a transaction, when selling his daughters for flocks and herds on the installment principle. He then preserves the record by the system known as "tally," or the cutting of notches in a stick. When the rod is notched it is split in two, and one half is retained by the debtor, while the other is handed to the creditor, after the same fashion as the English kept their accounts up till the time of the Norman conquest in the eleventh century. Indeed, this mode of reckoning was not ended in the English Exchequer until the year 1826.
Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones! There is very little room for us to crow or even to cackle. The noble native who ranges the depths of Africa is our equal in natural intelligence and, as we have seen, the points of contact between him and the European are many. The correspondences and relationships are great. The likeness is beyond question. Both alike recognize the same Eternal God. Whatever importance the African gives to amulets or fetishes is not any more than our ancestors have, for centuries, attributed to the charms they have worn, and which many individuals of supposed intelligence still carry upon their person, or hang above their door. The African no more associates his amulet with the Supreme Being than does the Roman Catholic.
Where the naked native of the interior of Africa and the European exactly and precisely correspond is in the fact that both alike are fallen men: they have missed the mark; they are all under sin: "there is none righteous, no not one." They need the same Savior. The all-powerful Redeemer, who raised the inhabitants of the British Isles from their painted nudity, cannibalism and degraded witchcraft, is able to accomplish the same miraculous results among the dark-skinned inhabitants of the bush. That Gospel proclaimed by the humble Galilean fishermen, which wrought such potent spiritual upheavals at the commencement of the era, and which in more recent years, through the instrumentality of consecrated men like Luther and Knox, Wesley and Whitfield, Moody and Torrey, has regenerated the hearts of millions of the human race, is able to save the tribes of Darkest Africa and transform the individuals into the image of the Son of God.
If the followers of Christ are faithful in obeying His command at this momentous period in the history of Christian Missions, there is every reason to believe that, in our day, the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will be extended with overwhelming speed. While some nominal Christians in the homelands are caviling and criticizing; and captious biblical disputants are tearing to pieces one another's conclusions and sophisticated arguments, millions of heathen are eagerly and wearily looking with longing expectation for that Message of reconciliation which a loving God has trusted to us to take to them.
Great and unexpected developments are following one another in rapid succession in heathen lands, and all favorable towards the publishing of the Glad Tidings to the uttermost bounds of the everlasting hills.
It would seem that the next few years should witness marvelous conquests in the name of Jesus. Where men have gone forward weeping, bearing precious seed, a joyous harvest is now being reaped. "Behold I say unto you," Christ says, "lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are white already unto harvest. He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life, that he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."
Our blessed Savior sends not forth His messengers with any room for doubt regarding the ultimate goal. "ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH; GO YE THEREFORE.'' This is His assurance and His mandate. It is ours to rest in the one and to obey the other.
In the fulfillment of Christ's last command our Master expects sacrifice, nay He demands it. Life, talents, wealth, all must be laid upon the altar. Jesus commended the sacrifice of His disciples who had left home and kindred for His sake and the Gospel's, and His glowing approval of the whole-hearted offering of the poor widow has come down to us through twenty centuries. He, who weighed not the gift but the motive and love which prompted it, assures us that she gave more than all they that cast into the treasury; for they gave of their excess, but she of her poverty did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
Such was the intense devotion that actuated Paul in making an absolute offering of himself. His fervent love led him to renounce every worldly prospect and balm, counting them but dung that he might be privileged to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. The distribution of the Gospel was to him more dear than even life itself. He was willing to be persecuted and to die for the Lord Jesus. Our Master seeks from us a similar living sacrifice, and if that offering is made, then over the Mission field far-reaching results will follow. God challenges us to bring in our gifts, and show if He "will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
Never since Christ was raised upon the Cross of Calvary did Christians spend so much money on dwellings, furnishings, travel and pleasure, and never so much on clothing and things. As grieving to Christ as Peter's denial must be the unfaithfulness of His friends, who would thoughtlessly and extravagantly engage in unprofitable and useless expense, more than they would offer to carry to lost humanity the Gospel of Jesus. Even though they know that "there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved."
If the untold millions of money which are spent yearly on fruitless pleasure, extravagant things, and excessive and unnecessary costly clothing, by men and women who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, were dedicated to the extension of the Gospel, what glorious harvests might not be reaped! The interior of China, the plains of India, the depths of Africa and the pampas of South America would ring with the joyful news of reconciliation to God; and from out the Gentiles there would arise a redeemed host prepared to meet the Bridegroom.
God will assuredly hold Christians responsible for their stewardship, and if wealth be not dedicated to Him a grinding poverty must of necessity result, bringing with it indigence and emptiness of soul. The church at Laodicea said that she was rich and had need of nothing, while in reality she was miserable and poor and blind and naked. The Christian world has yet to learn the full meaning of those pregnant words of Jesus, "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things he possesseth."
If, on behalf of those who are longingly seeking light and yet passing away in midnight gloom, we fail to make the necessary sacrifice, and our interest fails and our love grows cold, let us remember that we are thus separating ourselves from fellowship with Christ. Towards the lost His heart ever burns. To seek and save the lost He came to earth. "Other sheep," He says, "I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring." If every blood-bought soul would only consider, for one short hour, the thrilling sorrow and tender concern pervading those words of the Master, there would be many an alabaster jar of ointment laid broken at His feet.
It is incumbent upon every Christian to realize fully the claims that their Savior has upon them for service. It requires them to ponder over their indebtedness to His precious Gospel, which roused them from their stupor of sin, interrupted their downward career, enlightened their mind, changed their heart and put a new song into their mouth; which, in truth, made them fit to live and prepared to die.
For the freedom giving benefits of that all-powerful Gospel, myriads of enthralled souls call out in an unending heart-rending cry, the strength of which it is impossible to describe. Would that their Macedonian cry might pierce the gloom of their surroundings, and, with lightning stroke, reach the homes and hearts of those who could send the Glad News that would fill the aching emptiness of their soul.
If, through the sleepy influences of money, we so lose our spiritual sensitiveness that we respond not to Christ's command, God may with one mighty stroke sweep away our privileges and opportunities, and raise up in Korea, China or India more obedient followers to be His honored messengers in publishing to the unreached tribes the news of redeeming love.
In any case our Savior's purpose will be accomplished. Signs of Christ's near return are plainly obvious on all hands. The "grievous times" seem to be already upon us, for "men are lovers of self... holding a form of godliness and denying the power thereof," while "evil men and impostors grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."
Whether we fall into this defection or not, Christ's Kingdom will be victorious. Though the withering blight of unbelief and error sweep over the American continent from east to west, choking every avenue of God's grace; and though apostasy pervade Christian England and “Ichabod" be inscribed upon her flag, yet Christ shall ride on in triumph. He is a mighty conquering Savior. The tribes of the earth belong to Him by sovereign right. "The uttermost parts of the earth are His possession." The dwellers in the wilderness shall listen to His name and rejoice in His salvation. He whose name is The Word of God shall march forward on His glorious conquest, and "The kingdom of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign tor ever and ever." The coming millennium will bring much of this to fruition, but in the mean time, in the gospel age in which we live, how desperate is the need to GO!
If, perhaps, one who reads these lines is yet unsaved, I plead with such to join the Army of Victory, and accept from God His free, yet priceless, gift of everlasting life. To those who are already enrolled, whose "names are written in Heaven," what shall I say? They themselves know full well what their Master expects from them. I beg of them to be satisfied with nothing less than a definite, living, loving interest in the extension of the Savior's Kingdom among the lost tribes of Earth, and a full surrender of all that they have, and are, to their glorious Lord.
He is waiting with long patience
For His crowning day,
For that Kingdom which shall never
Pass away.
And till every tribe and nation
Bow before His throne,
lie expecteth loyal service
From His own.
He expecteth—but He careth
Still the bitter cry
From earth's millions, " Come and help us,
For we die."
He expecteth—doth He sees us
Busy here and there,
Heedless of those pleading accents
Of despair?
Shall we—dare we disappoint Him?
Brethren, let us rise!
He who died for us is watching
From the skies.
Watching till His royal banner
Floateth far and wide.
Till He seeth of His travail
Satisfied!
Revelation 5:99And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9)...and they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation...
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