Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1904-04-28
because of the wager and ignorance

existing among its people. But the situ-
alton is changing. Light is streaming into
Africa from all directions. Railroads are
following the missionary's path across its
/ Businesses. Government schools are sup
plementing those planted by the gospel
heralds. The mission press is being re-
enforced by the newspaper. Christianity's
benignant influence Is being everywhere
felt. and at the present time there arc
entire communities in the heart of Africa.
which within the memory of the man and
woman of today massacred the first mis-
Sabbath keeping. Bible reading Than
many parts of New England. That is
what Christ can do for Africa.
What Christ can do. or has done, for
men anywhere. he can do for men in
Africa.
The light of the world is the HOPE OF
the dark continent.
The coolest blood must thrill over the
%triuInphs of Christianity in Africa. Take
this quotation from the address of Rev.
Robert Laws, NJ. D.. r. r.. G. s.. "A mis-
sicnary of the Free Church of Scotland,
before the Ecumenical missionary confer
cnce in New York in 1900:
Let us go back twenty-five years. Sit
ting down on a rock one Sabbath after
noon near the south end of Lake Nyassa.
l looked away across the hills to the west.
l could start from those hills and walk
westward, westward. westward. week aft
er week. meeting thousands of villages.
millions of people. and, until l came to
tho west coast of Africa itself. l would
not meet with a single missionary of the
cross of Christ. nor find one when l ar
rived there. Away to the northwest such
a journey would take a month for every
week that the other one did. before /
could meet Il missionary at old Calabar.
My nearest neighbors TO tho north We're
1880. IL --l
Cairo. To the east the nearest missionary
friend was to be found al Zanzibar on the
equator. Think of all that vast region
with its millions Of inhabitants. with need
of each individual to know Jesus Christ
as a savior. and with no one seeming to
care for their souls. When | goi home
after nine years of work in central
Africa. I was able 10 tell of nine men and
women believing in Jesus Christ. and hap
tized and admitted as members of his
church. Last May 1T was my privilege.
in one day. 10 bnutizc exactly ten times
as many. ninety adults. My three com
panions and myself baptized that day in
all 800 adults. and the following day las
children, and 672 people sat down at the
Lords table at that place. within sight
of a hill. on the other side of which, only
a few years before. these people had
sought our lives when first we took the
gospel To them.
When Stanley reported the existence ci
IA tribe of dwarfs in the interior of Africa
many scientists expressed incrcdulity. But
while the world was still doubling. the
missionaries went ahead and made con-
verts among these pygmies..
A distinguished American newspaper
correspondent who is travelling in the east
has recently borne witness to the remark
able success of the Egyptian missions of
the United Presbyterian church. ccntcring
in Cairo and reaching out through the
country.
A growing tide of Indignation Is sweep
ing over Christcndom because of the Bel
gian atrocities upon the natives of the
Congo Free State. 1t has been the mis-
s!onaries who nave dared to side with the
poor black man. in the fact of govern
mental opposition. The distinguished
British missionary leader. DIR. II. G..
Guinness. has summarized the situation
thus:
Tho Arab slave trade in Africa has
been bad, but I decline to believe that
any worse atrocities We're ever pcrpctrated
ny the Arabs than have been perpctrated
by the Belgian officials in connection with
the India rubber traffic In Africa.
The facts are simply these: The gov
of the Congo Free State was. and
is. "A large trading company. 1t was great
~ 10 their advantage to get as much india
rubber as possible and at as low "A price
as possible. They. therefore,. under the
pretext of taxation, demanded from the
natives an enormous amount of gratuitous
labor. Tho rubber traffic was forced on
the people Mt the point of the rife. IL
the natives did not bring in a stated guam
tity, their villages We're burned. and they
themselves were shot down like dogs: l
know what l am talking about perfectly
well. When "A commissaire of a districi
did not wish personally to superintend the
1.nvL ~ 6ncfr,kto,N tp uvn on ~ rflDnG
to some OF his native soldiers and sent
them out to kill the people. and said:
Now don't waste the cartridges. and to
show me that you have not wasted them.
I shall expect you to bring back a right
hand for every cartridge that you use
AT one OF the stations on the Congo l
rave known eighty hands to be brought
back one day. and seventy hands to be
brought back the next day. One day, at
cnce of our mission stations u poor wom-
an was being driven with a little basket.
on her back. containing hands. and one of
our lady missionaries stopped her and
said: Put down that basket and let me
see what you have there" TIL hands
were counted on the ground. There were
nineteen. In that basket there were the
hands of women and of little children.
The man who was driving the woman
with a strip of hippopotamus hide was
terribly angry because one hand had beer
lost on the way
PREACHING eY TEACHING.
The modern missionary movement Is
planned on broad and permanent lines.
Education has gone hand In hand with
evangelization. The beginnings of eduoa-
ton in the lands like India. China. Japan
and Africa, which have been opened to
civilization within a comparatively recent
period. were made by the Christian mis-
sionaries. In a sense broader than that
inteded by the Psalmist 1t has been found
true that The entrance of thy word
g:veth light"
One Of the leading native statesmen OF
India, prime minister In a native state.
said to DR.. John Henry Barrows: "All
| that l nave and am ! owe to my eluca-
| ton in Dun college. Calcutta"
Korea il today a safe land for mission
aries and for foreigners because 1t has
become permeated with the principles OF
Christianity and of modern civilization.
| as ~incuicated by the noble company Of
missionaries who within an incredibly
short space Of time nav given the land
not only its books mi papers. but also the
| ability and impulse to use them.
Out of Doshisha university, Kfoto, have
come many Of the men who are at the
/ foremost today in the Japanese army.
navy and legisla tive councils.
The school house accompanies the
| church. whether It he the straw matched