The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1922-09-30
SAYS LIBERIAN HINTERL, AND WILL
PROVE GARDEN SPOT OF AFRICA

partakes more readily Of Mohamme-
danism than he does of Christianity,
for the reason the Christian creed is
boring to hint requires too great a
sacrifice-It makes too drastic de-
mands on his former life and habits,
mits him to carry into his new faith
all of the moral aggregation which
had chung to him in his pagan life of
superstition and sensuality For ex-
ample-the convert to the Mohamme-
dan religions may still enjoy his
plurality of wives, he may steal, cheat
his neighbor. and be as immoral
still be member in good standing in
his temple. In many instan ces the
acceptance of this faith degrades them
to level much longer than was the
case in his pagan state. In many
cases the native habits are far be-
yond the ethics in Christian lands
in he matter of actual practice. There
is found among them most rigid
morality the girls are fully protected
until they are married. among some
of the tribes 1t would Just cost a
man his life to destroy one of hem
i'm many other ways they are guile
less-I was talking with a man on
board the ship who had made the
tribe life a study for years, and he
said there were those whom you
could not induce to lie under any
kind of pressure. With the pagan's
sense of right il the Christian re-
ligion could be carried to him by
those who did not only teach by word
of mouth. but by actual example won
derful would be the response toward
holy living, but too often where the
missionary has sowed the good seed
of the kingdom in its original purity
the traders have come along with
hot yat Na1 Of do
wearing Tia Christians garb and by
his acts of gloss Immortality selfish
greed and general brutality destroyed
the good that would otherwise take
deep root in that virgin soil. He is
Christian and yet in the name of
commerce he has brought his rum
a source of evil wholly unknown to the
African but once he gets a taste of
it he is swept from his feet with it's
strange effects and after that Will
give any thing he has for strong
drink. One sees at a glance the sit
uation--these commercial forces are
in control and in many cases they
do not want the natives to have en-
lightment beyond what is necessary
to serve them, the denser the ignor-
ance the more satisfied he is with
his lot in life. IL is claimed by a
writer that the only hope Of prevent
ing the natives from this lapse into
pdBdHlSI Is lpI a european naAlOn TO
make Christianity the religion NJ tie
state for a long period of year. This
claim would be Just as necessary
of any other branch of the human
family as it is of pagan Africa-any
people who had for ages lived In a
pagan atmosphere could not be ex-
pected to be transformed in gem
Grafton or so into Christians beyond
the possibility of lapse. The Jewish
race which had thrown around them
every safeguard Divine wisdom could
provide even to transferring them to a
new environment and DISCRIMINATING
the native races whose example they
might be tempted to follow, yet It
was the giant task Of God and his
prophets for more than thousand
years to prevent them from lapsing
into idolatry and finally he suffered
them to become dismembered becau' 2
of their apostasy This being true, It
should cause no unfavorable COM
ment If after the conversion of a
few savages they are left in q few
years in daily contact with their old