AFRICA 
 
 VOLUME 3 
 
 NUMBER 8 
 
 TICAX- X X "" ' 
 
 BULLETIN 
 
 of the 
 
 Training School for Missionaries 
 
 393 Third Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 OCTOBER 1920 
 
 The land dark as midnight 
 The land of the shadow o 
 Without amj orde/., 
 
 And where the light is as 
 midnight’ Job IQ.'ZZ 
 
AFRICA APPEALS 
 
 There are tribes to-day still in the darkness of savagery (shame 
 to the Christian Church be it said), who have only heard the Gospel 
 once and that from the lips of Livingstone 50 to 60 years ago. He 
 might still cry as he wrote in one of his letters, “Oh! when shall the 
 time come in which every man that feels the heat of the sun shall be 
 freed from all other fetters but bonds of loi?e to our Savior.” 
 
 Next to Palestine, Africa is the land most closely connected with 
 the Hebrew race. It was the valley of the Nile that cradled that 
 race in its infancy and in a peculiar way befriended Jacob, Joseph, 
 Moses and Jeremiah. 
 
 It is interesting to remember that Africa sheltered our Lord in His 
 infancy. That it was an African who carried His cross when He 
 fell beneath its weight on the way to Calvary. 
 
 Two Africans, Simeon and Lucius, were prominent amongst the 
 prophets and teachers in the first missionary church. In the church 
 at Antioch, Appollos, mighty in the Scriptures and well recommended 
 by the apostle Paul, was a man of Alexandria. Dwellers in Egypt 
 and parts about Cyrene were present at Pentecost. No doubt many 
 of them carried back to Africa the news of God visiting His people 
 and the descent of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Within 200 } r ears after Pentecost, 900 churches flourished in North 
 Africa. For some centuries Christianity spread over North Africa 
 going down the Nile into the Soudan. 
 
 How little you knew of the African puzzle is seen when it leaks 
 out that the very name {“Africa”) is utterly unknown to the negro. 
 Africa! He never heard such a hideous rvord. It is a mere tag, a 
 mere ticket stuck on the back of this poor Continent, by outsiders. A 
 straw indicates the current, and if we know not the name, then we 
 know less of the nature of black place and black person, of black man 
 and blacker manners. A perfect parable this of Africa, the land, and 
 
 the African, the man. -"Thinking Black." 
 
 Africa is the second largest continent on the globe, Asia alone 
 being greater. It is three times larger than Europe and one and one- 
 half times larger than either North or South America. 
 
 It has been called the “dark continent” and we may suggest three 
 reasons for this. 1st—Africa until the 19th century was the one 
 continent whose vast interior as far as geographical certainties were 
 concerned lay in impenetrable darkness. It is difficult for us to real¬ 
 ize that the opening up of this land lies just a brief decade or so 
 away. Stanley’s journey down the Nile only being completed in 1877. 
 Livingstone’s great work was also about this time. 
 
 It is the dark continent because further its native population con¬ 
 sists almost entirely of dark skinned peoples. It has a population of 
 over 130 millions, 40 millions of whom are pure negroes. 
 
 But the saddest reason for calling Africa the “dark continent” lies 
 in the fact that it is the only continent whose native religion is with¬ 
 out sacred writings of any kind, and no definite knowledge of God and 
 the true religion. Religions are found there but their adherents are 
 wandering in the blackness of darkness of heathendom such as is 
 found nowhere else in the world. 
 
 As a result of missionary activity there are possibly a million and 
 a half adherents of Christianity, but as we consider the large population 
 
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of this continent we deem it would be true to say that Africa is still 
 the dark continent and practically untouched by the gospel. 
 
 Africa can well be called “the spoiled child of nature’’ for through¬ 
 out much of the continent nature has been lavishly kind to the 
 African. She feeds him without much effort—she clothes him with 
 tropical sunshine and if necessity needed clothes she would dress him 
 with leaves and bark which lie at hand to provide this for him. 
 
 What Captain Rendel Short says of Central Africa is true to a 
 large extent of the whole of Africa. “Central Africa at the beginning 
 of the last quarter of the 19th century was very little known in 
 spite of the journeys of Dr. Livingstone and others. It was divided 
 up into areas varying in size from a mere village with its fields to a 
 great Empire as large as Ireland, under the absolute rule of a chief, 
 small or large. The people would be partly free, partly slaves. The 
 men fought and hunted; the women did the hard work in the village 
 and in the fields. It is a curious thing that nearly all the cultivated 
 foodstuff's had been introduced by Europeans such as Maize, sweet 
 potatoes, pineapples, tomatoes, oranges and lemons, chilli, pepper, etc. 
 There was considerable trade to and from the Coast in guns, rum, 
 powder, ivory, slaves and cloth. There was no money, cloth, salt and 
 the above mentioned articles fulfilled the purpose. The languages 
 were not reduced to writing. 
 
 War was the natural state of the country. One savage tribe after 
 another had risen against its neighbors and all but exterminated them. 
 The villages were hung ’round with human skulls on poles. A man’s 
 reputation in his country depended on the number of persons he had 
 put to death. Another custom that took a frightful toll of human 
 life depended on the belief that there is no such thing as natural 
 sickness and that illness and death are always somebody’s fault, 
 brought about bv witchcraft. When anyone became ill or died, the 
 fetish doctor would be called in and he would indicate by divining 
 the guilty party. The accused would then be compelled-to thrust his 
 hands into a pot of boiling water; if the skin came off he was con¬ 
 demned to a cruel death; if it did not, he was adjudged innocent. 
 
 Polygamy, immorality and drunkenness were rife. Though there 
 was a dim belief in a far-away God—the native who had barely es¬ 
 caped from the jaws of a crocodile would utter the time honored 
 prayer, “O Lord God, the crocodiles nearlv made a meal of me, but 
 Thou, O Lord didst deliver me”—in practice, the religion was a wor¬ 
 ship of spirits and demons inhabiting every conspicuous natural 
 object.” 
 
 THE VOICE 
 
 “The toms-toms thudded straight on all night, and the darkness 
 shuddered round me as a living, feeling thing. I could not go to 
 sleep so lay awake and looked; and this is what I seemed to see: 
 
 “That I stood on a grassy sward, and at my feet a precipice broke 
 sheer down into infinite space. J looked, but saw no bottom, only 
 great cloud shapes black and furious, coiled and great shadoxv-shrouded 
 hollows and unfathomable depths. Back J drew, dizzy at the devth. 
 Then I saw forms of people moving single file along the grass. They 
 xvere making for the edge. There xvas a woman with a baby in her 
 arms and another child holding on to her dress. She xvas on the 
 very verge. Then J saw she was blind. She lifted her foot for the 
 next step—it trod air. She xeias over and the children with her. 
 
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OH! THE CRY AS THEY WENT OVER 
 
 ”Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. 
 All were blind, stone blind; all made straight for the precipice’s edge. 
 Then 1 wondered with a wonder that was simply agony why no one 
 stopped them at the edge. Then I saw that along the edge there 
 were sentries at intervals; but the intervals were far too great; there 
 were wide, unguarded gaps between, and through these gaps the people 
 fell in blindness, quite unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood- 
 red to me and the great gulf yatoned like the mouth of hell. 
 
 “Then I saw like a little picture of peace, a group of people 
 under some trees, with their backs turned towards the gulf. They were 
 making some daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut 
 the quiet air and reached them it disturbed them and they thought 
 it rather a vulgar sound. If one of their number started up and 
 wanted to go and do something to help, then all the others would pull 
 that one down. 
 
 “Why should YOU get so excited about it? You must wait for a 
 definite call to go! You have not finished your daisy chain yet. ‘It 
 would be really selfish’ they said, ‘to leave us to finish the work 
 alone 
 
 “Then came another sound like the pain of a million hearts wrung 
 out in one full drop, one sob, and a horror of great darkness was upon 
 me, for I knew ivhat it was—the cry of blood. 
 
 “Then thundered a voice, the voice of the Lord; and He said, ‘What 
 hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me 
 from the ground.’ ” 
 
 — Selected. 
 
 THE SOUDAN 
 
 The vast Soudan, three thousand miles from Abbysinia to the 
 Atlantic and containing a population of possibly 25,000,000 of people 
 untouched by European civilization and but until recently containing 
 not a single mission station. 
 
 This vast territory is throughout in almost utter darkness. These 
 millions are now being evangelized by Mohammedan teachers and 
 preachers and unless some effort is made to stop the onrush of Islam 
 they will all become Mohammedans. 
 
 The menace which broods over Soudan is one that threatens the 
 whole of Africa as a thunder cloud the sunlight over a summer land¬ 
 scape. The Mohammedan trader protected by European powers may 
 now travel anywhere in safety. His coming; brings to the natives, 
 undreamed of prosperity of wealth by profitable exchange. To the 
 men comes beads and implements, to the women cotton goods and 
 trinkets. 
 
 When we remember that every Mohammedan trader is a missionarv 
 and that close on his heels comes a Mohammedan teacher, we will 
 be able to measure the peril which threatens the Soudan and through 
 the Soudan the whole of Africa. 
 
 To many ignorant of the real character of Mohammedanism, con¬ 
 version from paganism to Islam may seem a step forward. It is said 
 to be a substitution of belief in God for worship of evil spirits. It 
 is true it is a worship of a erod—Allah, they call him, but he is not 
 Jehovah of the Bible, or the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Moham¬ 
 medanism is not merely non-Christian, it is anti-Christian, A Pagan 
 
 4 
 
accepting Islam is practically lost to Christ, his mind is poisoned and 
 his heart is closed to the gospel. 
 
 It has been said that for every Moslem accepting Christ there 
 are at least 100 Pagans becoming Mohammedans. 
 
 This is a situation we may well notice and it may not be out of 
 place to insert here a recent letter from Mr. Hewstone who is our 
 only representative in the Soudan and who has only recently entered 
 one of the provinces in that great territory. “Bagana is a riverine 
 town with a very mixed population, all speaking Hausa, and to a 
 large extent Moslem. We do not expect to stay very long, but hope 
 to meet the Resident there for he has offered to come two days’ 
 journey to see us as soon as we arrive. Ten miles inland is the head 
 town of the Amara District of Igaras, 30 miles further is Ankpa, the 
 head town of the Igaras Province or Division. This Province has 
 been a source of trouble to the Government for a long time back. 
 It looks as though they were going to make a test case of whether 
 or not the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to the 
 Igaras, Okpotos and Moslems. It makes us feel our weakness and 
 insufficiency but praise God, He is strong and He is sufficient. The 
 Secretary of the Missionarv Societv at Ibi says, “Upon the success 
 of your mission lies the fate of Missions in general in the Western 
 Soudan. There is more closed territory in Nigeria today than there was 
 ten years ago, and who knows if it may be God’s way of opening this 
 whole land to the gospel before the Lord comes?’’ 
 
 “While vast continents are shrouded in almost utter darkness and 
 hundreds of millions suffer the horrors of Heathenism or of Islam, 
 the burden of proof lies upon you to shore that the circumstances in 
 which God has placed you, were meant by Him to keep you out of 
 the Foreign Mission Field.” 
 
 —Ion Keith Falconer. 
 CENTRAL AFRICA 
 
 This stretch of inland Africa has well been named “The Beloved 
 Strip.” Beloved because of the precious dust that lies in it. We 
 with others have given our best to Africa that she may see the truth 
 of our Lord’s word “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
 die it abideth alone.” Freely and lavishly has life been laid down 
 that Africa may live. Those graves-mute appeals of love-giving until 
 love dies, gives us a mortgage on Africa, for our dead lie there and 
 we must continue the work so nobly begun. 
 
 Nothing can better describe conditions that have been met and 
 conquered by the heroic band of our missionaries than to quote from 
 a recent writer some of the experiences of F. S. Arnot who was the 
 pioneer worker in Central Africa. 
 
 “He stayed at chief Liwanika’s from December, 1882, to May, 
 1884, and a very trying time it was. The Barotse valley was thorough¬ 
 ly unhealthy and much of the time he was prostrated with fezwrs or 
 blinded by eye troubles. Supplies were very short — indeed, it is diffi¬ 
 cult to understand what he did live on. The people were horribly 
 cruel; just opposite his hut the boiling pot use to be set up almost 
 daily for trials of witchcraft. Every now and then he was flooded 
 out. ' The people were not at all anxious to hear the gospel and 
 Liwanika was changeable, nozv friendly, now hostile. The diary, 
 nevertheless, is full of hope and confidence in God. ‘Though the in- 
 
 5 
 
strument and means be the feeblest blessing will come.’ It was at 
 this period that Sir Ralph Williams met him first at Victoria Falls, 
 and wrote the following tribute: ‘Mr. Arnot, the missionary, teas a 
 remarkable man, I met him some weeks later and had many talks with 
 him. He was the simplest and most earnest of men. He lived a life 
 of great hardship under the care of the King of the Barotse and 
 taught his children. I remember his telling me with some pride that 
 his pupils mastered the alphabet. I have seen many missionaries 
 under varied circumstances, but such an absolutely forlorn man, exist¬ 
 ing on from day to day, almost homeless, without any of the ap¬ 
 pliances which make life bearable, I have never seen. He was im¬ 
 bued with one desire, and that was to do God sendee, and I have 
 honored the recollections of him ever since as being as near his Master 
 as anyone I ever saw.” 
 
 There are now 19 stations manned by 80 workers in this beloved 
 strip of Central Africa. Dr. Fischer writing recently in the “Witness” 
 very clearly presents the needs of this great mission field. 
 
 “In a stretch of country a thousand miles long by five hundred 
 broad, six different languages have been reduced to writing and the 
 gospel preached and to-day most of those won for Christ are saved 
 through the instrumentality of the native Christian. But these “lambs” 
 need feeding and tending, and how best to meet this need is the 
 problem of our mission work to-day. 
 
 SPIRITUALLY— 
 
 The Christian can never be strong and evangelize these countries 
 until the whole Word of God is translated into these six languages— 
 Umbundu, Chokwe, Lwena, Lunda, Luba and Vemba; and our sta¬ 
 tions need more workers so that those specially fitted may be set 
 free for this all-important work. Those manifesting special gifts 
 among the native Christians need special instruction; and to meet this 
 need a Bible School is a necessity in each of these six languages. 
 
 IN TELLECTUALLY— 
 
 To meet the growing demand of Christians in isolated districts 
 out-schools are a necessity and godly married Christian natives must 
 be trained for this important work and visited constantly in their 
 out-schools. 
 
 The printing of the Scriptures and school books as well as the 
 editing of Bible stories and monthly magazines for the Christians, 
 demand at least one gifted worker in each of the above mentioned 
 languages. 
 
 MEDICALLY— 
 
 Isolated Christians, having given up their fetish practices, are in 
 a dilemma how to act in times of sickness, and their medical needs 
 must be met. 
 
 The establishment of a hospital, with two doctors and two nurses 
 in each country—Bie, Chokwe, Lwena, Lunda, Luba and Vemba— 
 would meet this need, for it would then be possible for native Chris¬ 
 tians to be trained as nurses and dispensers, who when qualified could 
 be sent into outlying districts to open dispensaries which would be 
 periodically visited bv one.of the doctors. 
 
 The need is great but “with God nothing is impossible.” 
 
 “Christ and Christ alone reaches the centre of African needs.” 
 
 6 
 
To pass oA r er this part of the country without a reference to the 
 slave trade would be to ignore a question that ought to stir every 
 Christian heart into earnest definite prayer that this, the world’s great 
 open sore may be healed. 
 
 One of our missionaries writes as follows: 
 
 “An hour ago I could not have trusted myself to write of harrow¬ 
 ing sights. A monster caravan, eight hundred all told, drawing near 
 the close of its long journey from the far-off Luba country. This 
 travelling mass had been months on the road and was just emerging 
 from the ten days’ hungry march. There were aged men and women, 
 poor, shrivelled forms told of a welcome release soon for them from 
 the mortal coil; mothers with babes on their backs (one just born that 
 morning) and tall, strong-looking young women and girls, some of 
 them with fine features, carrying heavy loads. One of these had fallen 
 behind, seemingly quite helpless with no more strength left for her 
 load, I just appeared on the scene to see her inhuman owner beat her 
 unmercifully on the head with a club. Saddest sight of all were the 
 scores of little children crawling along naked, many of them not above 
 four years of age. No wonder they flee when one would smile at them, 
 for after all it is the white man who buys the slaves.” 
 
 OUR WORKERS THERE— 
 
 Out from us have gone into that needy field twenty six workers, 
 five of whom we have had the privilege of having in the school. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs from the Austin assembly in Chicago, are at 
 work in Natal at Izingolweni station. Mr. Gibbs writes recently that 
 at one of their conventions held a month ago or so 20 or more young 
 people confessed Christ. They have completed a new hall holding 
 200 people. They have six out stations and a growing aggressive 
 work is being carried on. 
 
 Mrs. McLaren now settled with her husband at Kasai is hard at 
 work with the language helping in the work of that station in 
 Chokweland. 
 
 Mr. McJannet has at last reached his station also in Chokweland 
 and we await word with interest from him as to his progress with the 
 language. 
 
 Our sister. Miss Edith Howell has written most interesting letters 
 of her journey to her station. We commend her to the prayers of the 
 Lord’s people. 
 
 SPECIAL MATTERS FOR PRAYER FOR OCTOBER— 
 
 Pray definitely that a berth may be secured for our brother, Mr. 
 G. A. Rainey permitting him to go to his work in China. Matters 
 entirely out of his control caused him to lose the August boat and 
 difficulty is being met with regarding future sailings. 
 
 Pray for our brother and sister Mr. and Mrs. Rowland H. C. Hill 
 who hope to sail D. V. October 20th for India. 
 
 Pray for our sister Mrs. A. C. Moore who accompanied by Mr. 
 Moore owing to ill health was forced by doctor’s orders to go for 
 some months to the Barbados. They are keenly anxious to get back 
 to their work in British Guiana as they are so badly needed owing 
 to the absence of Mr. Nichols. 
 
 Pray for our brother Mr. Lamb recently left for Venezuela, that 
 he may be helped in the language. 
 
 Pray for our brother and sister Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Wilson who 
 
 7 
 
are exercised about the erection of a gospel hall where they are 
 working. The one they have been using has been condemned and a 
 new one is essential. 
 
 Pray for our sister Miss J. Dorling who has left the school for 
 England en route for India. 
 
 THANKSGIVING— 
 
 For great blessing on the convention held in Digne, France, where 
 our brother Mr. J. C. Wilson is working. Ten professed conversion, 
 three of them the children of brother Wilson. 
 
 For blessing on the work in Nassau. Mr. Thos. Busby working 
 with the Bertrams reports a number of conversions there. 
 
 For definite blessing on the convention for Christians, held by our 
 brother Gibbs in Natal. Over twenty young people accepted Christ. 
 
 “BE STRONG!” 
 
 “We are not here to play, to dream to drift! 
 
 W e have hard work to do and loads to lift; 
 
 Shun not the struggle—face it, ’tis God’s gift.” 
 
 “BE STRONG!” 
 
 “Say not the days are evil,—who’s to blame? 
 
 And fold the hands and acquiesce—O! Shame; 
 
 Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s name!” 
 
 “BE STRONG!” 
 
 “It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong, 
 
 How hard the battle goes,—the day how long,— 
 
 Faint not! Fight on! To-morrow comes the song!” 
 
 — Selected. 
 
 This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 
 (1 John 5:4.) 
 
 RICHARD HILL, 
 
 393 Third Street, 
 Brooklyn, N. Y.