The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1871-07-05

through the instrumentality of our Church,
through the missionaries whom we have al
ready sent forth-that at this early period and
during the past year God has honored that IN
strumentahty in gathering such host as
this from such darkness and degradation
/ desire TO leave the time to our mission
ary brother who will speak this evining, but
there is one point to which | would call the
attention of this audience, and one impress
sion which | would make upon their minds;
and that is that these times in which we live
are most extraordinary times. God is put
ting forth His power in the redemption of
His people in the heather world to an extent
of which but few of US, except those who
have made it the subject of special study,
have any right conceptions. The most re-
markable feature of these times which claims
our attention is that remarkable providence
which has laid open all these heather nations
for the reception of the gospel. Many in
this Assembly can revert to the time when
these nations were virtually sealed up
Africa, India and China, within the recollec-
ton of many of US, were thoroughly closed
to Christianity. Why these nations were
left 50 long in heathenish darkness, is one
of those mysteries of divine providence which
we cannot possibly solve. But He has now
opened up all these nations for the reception
of the gospel, and at the same time has
bestowed upon His people all the resources
necessary to carry the gospel to them
Africa, which was so imperfectly explored,
has within the last half century been opened
up so that we have become almost as famil-
lar with its geography as with any other
portion of the world. The source of the
Nile, and the outlet of the Niger, which had
bafled the explorations of the world for
three thousand years, have in this century
been discovered, and missionaries are now
vending their way into the very heart of the
two great divisions of that continent. India,
so inaccessible to US, except to very limited
extent, now has a network of railroads of
more than 5000 milestone of them extend
ing from Calcutta to the Southern border of
Affghanistan, distance of 1,500 miles; so
that the herald of the cross may now in three
days travel as great distance as could for
merly be travelled in three months. So in
relation to China and Japan: God is open
ing up all these countries, and is giving the
Christian Church facilities for reaching them,
and has bestowed all the resources necessary
to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to every
portion of the habitable earth.
And not only are the countries opened up,
but the results of missionary labor, especially
to those who have not made this matter of
special study, is absolutely astounding. l
say it deliberately, though | may not have
time to detail the facts in illustration, that
the Gospel is making vastly more rapid pro-
gress among these nations than it has In any
part of the Christian world. Look, for ex-
ample at the Sandwich Islands. Fifty years
ago that people were sunk in brutal igno-
rance and heathenism. They were among
the most degraded people upon the face of
the earth. To-day that whole people are
under the influence of Christianity. You
viii find there large churches, supporting
native ministers Of the gospel, and institu-
tions Of education. Their thirty or forty
churches contribute for the spread of the
gospel among their more benighted fellow
men, more than the whole of our Southern
churches put together. Look again on the
coast of Africa. Look at Sierra Leone,
place where the refuse of the most degraded
people upon the earth were brought together.
The gospel has been preached there for fifty
years, and to-day that people have taken the
position Of Christian people, not only main
tanning the preaching of the gospel among
themselves and their institutions of learning,
without any help from the Christian world,
but sending their missionaries into the darker
regions of the interior. Look again at the
great island of Madagascar Here, in the
language of Scripture, nation is born al
most in day. Although twenty years ago
that people were stepped in heathenism, to-
day they deserve to claim the name of a
people. There is really nothing to be COM
pared to the progress of the gospel on that
island, since the times of the Apostles
There never have been such prosecutions,
but God has brought His Church out of
them. On the spot where thirty-fve years
ago the first convert to Christianity, beau
tiful and accomplished young woman, was
seized and spearod to death, last year an
other woman more notable than she, was
seen kneeling to be baptized in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost That woman was none other than
Rauavallamanjaka, the Queen of Madagas-
car. Then look to the FIJI Islands-yes,
the FIJI Islands la name synonymous with
all that is barbarous in mankind. Twenty
FIVE years ago they were cannibals-all can
nibals, and the most degraded of cannibals.
l remember crossing the ocean with seamen
who had sailed in those waters, and who
would have decidedly rather be swallowed
up by the Maelstrom, than even be wrecked
on the shores Of those islands, because they
were sure that they would not only be put
to death, but devoured. And yet moro than
a hundred thousand of these people have
been, less or more, under the influence of
Christianity. 1t is stated upon reliable au-
thority that there are at this present time
as many as hundred FIJI preachers of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, the majority of
whom perhaps are men who in former years
imbued their hands in the blood of their fell
low men. And the strangest of all things
that | have heard for long time is, that on
the FIJI Islands they have Theological
Seminary, and in that Seminary such books as
Hodges Outlines of Theology" are studied !
And so, if l had time 1 might point to
India, to Burmah, the Karens and the bor-
ders of the Mediterranean Sea, where we
should find churches larger perhaps than ex