FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA BISHOP JOSEPH C. HARTZELL tz: •• ■ •; -, • > . 1 ■ i *■■ > . .•\v.^ iiWrF'-*^ *&*&■*&**» » ?V«b. • ■:•■-•>■• MSI • ' %s*&% ‘ '■ if •!'• . -v v.•■' S., -• v '; v ’ ?» \ ■>•;* • ' -r -.- •’• ' . V’ -'• >:. -,•, “ • ’ '• '■ ■ '.&< ?%, ;V--' r ''V ■ -tr'i ^ v-'^- < / ' v ’■ *•? •• • '..-V'*. '*/* ' '■ £ , '.'fo $ v ii S..::T.4;; ‘ :*$■ ■ -.V-Vi? . Forward Movements in Africa By BISHOP JOSEPH G. HARTZELL The Quadrennial Report to the General Conference of 1908 Price, Five Cents AFRICA DIAMOND JUBILEE COMMISSION BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 150 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK PRINTED DECEMBER, 1908 FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA The past quadrennium has been, in several respects, the most remarkable in the history of our missionary work in Africa. From 1832, when Melville B. Cox, our first foreign missionary, sailed from Norfolk, up to 1884, our only attempt at work on the continent was in Liberia. For half a century the varying results of success and failure were such that thirty years ago our Board of Missions earnestly discussed the proposal to withdraw from our work in that country, and thus abandon the continent. Since then a new Africa has appeared—vast in extent and won¬ derful in possibilities of wealth—a continent where already the diplomacy of Europe has mapped out colonial empires and established governments, under which the vast millions of the continent, now either in barbaric heathenism, or under the blight of fanatical Mohammedanism, are rising to new life and destiny. The Church did not abandon Liberia, but, with steady faith and purpose, has sought to follow the command of our Divine Lord, to go “teach all nations” of the vast continent. THE FIELDS WE OCCUPY The fields we occupy, and where permanent success is assured, aggregate fully half a million square miles, and contain probably ten millions of heathen, who will never have the gospel of Christ unless given to them by the Methodist Episcopal Church. On the west coast, north of the equator, we have the Negro republic of Liberia, with a coast line of three hundred and fifty miles, and extending far into the interior, over which Bishop Isaiah Scott has jurisdiction. South of Liberia and below the equator, in the Portuguese colony of Angola, our mission sta¬ tions extend three hundred and fifty miles from the coast, those farthest inland being on a plateau six thousand feet above the 3 4 FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA sea. We are well established on the Madeira Islands west of Gib¬ raltar. Here we have a strategic location as to other groups of African islands, as well as the continent. A journey of more than four thousand miles eastward across the continent, as peo¬ ple will travel by rail in the near future, or twice as far by steamship around Cape Agulhas, on the south, brings us into the midst of our great field in Portuguese East Africa. Here is a territory extending northward from the Limpopo River, on the south, nearly six hundred miles to the Zambezi River, with its marvelous Victoria Falls, to the north, and into the interior from one hundred to three hundred miles, with a native Negro population of over two and a half millions. By an agreement with other American and European Mission Boards, this vast field is left, with few exceptions, to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Going from Beira, on the east coast, into the interior two hundred miles by rail, we enter Rhodesia, a British colony of six hundred thousand square miles. By an agreement with the Wesleyan Methodist Foreign Board of London, so far as Methodism is concerned, a large part of this territory is left to us. These East Africa fields are rich in historic lore. It is quite certain that to this coast came the ships of Solomon and Hiram, and secured many millions of gold with which the temple at Jerusalem was adorned. Last, and of great significance, we have entered North Africa, and accepted the challenge of Moham¬ medanism for the conquest of the continent. Every center of our work in these widely separated sections has a record of divine leadership in its beginnings and growth. Our largest opportunities, as to numbers, immediate success, and future growth, are among the native black populations. These number one hundred millions, chiefly in Central and South Africa. Here the issue is between barbaric heathenism and the cross of Christ. Next in point of numbers are the fifty-nine millions of Mo¬ hammedans, nearly all north of the equator. Among these the greatest battles are to be fought in deciding whether Christ or Moha mm ed shall rule the continent. Then there are white populations, either natives of Africa, or who are migrating to the continent, and in some sections estab- REPORT OF BISHOP HARTZELL 5 lishing large colonies. These number probably two million five hundred thousand, few as compared with the black and brown races; but they represent government and commerce, and, for the Church, protection and opportunity. In India a comparatively small contingent of English white foreigners gives government, religious liberty, and opportunity to four hundred millions. So in Africa. In the providence of God the destiny of the con¬ tinent and its peoples, except Liberia and Abyssinia, is in the hands of white governments, whose representatives, outside of South Africa, are very few in numbers compared with the vast multitudes they govern. The vision of faith respecting the triumphs of the gospel in India and China have come to pass, and thousands are bowing at the cross. That day is coming rapidly to Africa. He who, a few years hence, reports to General Conference the work of God under the Methodist Episcopal Church on that continent, will tell of several Annual Conferences; many hundreds of na¬ tive preachers and teachers; of colleges equipped and endowed, and crowded with those being trained as teachers and ministers; of hospitals and Deaconess Homes, and of multitudes hastening to give allegiance to our Lord. EPISCOPAL SUPERVISION With two resident Bishops in Africa, it has been possible to carefully superintend the work at every one of our widely sep¬ arated centers. The Episcopal residence of Bishop Scott is at Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. He has had supervision of the work in that republic during the quadrennium, and was also present in 1906 at the session of the West Central Africa Mission Conference. It has been my work to have charge of the other Conferences on the west and east coasts, and to lead the way in the opening of our mission in North Africa among the Mohammedans. Bishop Burt was present at the sessions of all the Africa Conferences in 1907, and, as the Discipline directs, exercised coordinate authority with the Missionary Bishops in administra¬ tion. The Bishop’s presence was a benediction; his public minis¬ trations were instructive and inspiring, and his counsels timely and excellent. 6 FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA WORK IN MADEIRA ISLANDS The Madeira Islands, because of their beauty of situation, and salubrious climate, are called the “Pearl in the Portuguese Crown.” Here our work is among Portuguese who have left or propose to forsake Romanism for Protestant liberty and spiritual life. The center of our work is in Funchal, a city of forty thousand people. Over one thousand two hundred ships are in the harbor each year. We have a good work among the sailors, afloat and ashore. In this we have the cooperation of the British and Foreign Seamen’s Society. Our three churches have a growing membership and a large number of adherents. Two of our missions are in the mountains, with combined prop¬ erty worth $7,000. In Funchal we have recently purchased a large building, located in the heart of the city and opposite the principal public park, at a cost of $21,000. In perfecting the title of this property I had the aid, without expense, of three prominent men, all Roman Catholics. One said: “I am a Cath¬ olic, but we want you here. When left alone our priests get too bad.” Our three Sunday schools and three day schools are well attended. With the cooperation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, we have plans for the systematic distribution of the Scriptures throughout the islands. We have had four pub¬ lic burnings of Protestant Bibles within a year, three of them by Roman Catholic priests, one of whom, in the public prints, thanked God that he could do so holy a service. WHY PROTESTANT MISSIONS WHERE ROMANISM IS DOMINANT? There are those who ask, “Why Protestant missions where Roman Catholicism is the dominant faith?” The answer is plain. The Roman Catholic papacy is paganistic in much of its teachings and in many of its forms of worship. In our day, grown arrogant by age and powerful by world¬ wide organization, it is an aggressive conspiracy against civil and religious liberty wherever it exists. Wherever its power has been supreme for centuries, we have the blight of ignorance, immorality, and superstition among the masses, a corrupt and immoral priesthood, an insidious and persistent enemy to free government, and the Word of God is denied to people in their REPORT OF BISHOP HARTZELL 7 own tongue, while the rights of individual conscience are forbid¬ den under pains of eternal anathemas. In Protestant countries, such as the United States and England, Protestant liberty and republican institutions modify the methods of Rome, but her laws and purposes never change. In 1907 the World’s Evangelical Alliance held its diamond jubilee in London. As one of the delegates I was appointed to speak on religious liberty. My plea was that the time had fully come when all Protestant governments should unite in demand¬ ing the same religious liberty for Protestants in Roman Catholic countries, which the people of that church enjoy in Protestant countries. The response was instant and enthusiastic. That sentiment, with an earnest appeal, was formulated and signed by representatives of every section of the Protestant world, and is now in the hands of the foreign secretaries of all Protestant governments. THE WORK IN WEST AFRICA, SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR Our mission fields in West Africa, south of the equator, are included in the West Central Africa Mission Conference. The difficulties of missionary work here are many and serious. Be¬ ing under the Portuguese flag, all religions, except the Roman Catholic, are legally classed as "tolerated religions.” The Gov¬ ernment officials are often inefficient and vicious in the treat¬ ment of the natives as to lands, labor, and protection; there is Jesuitical interference, under laws framed to prevent Protestant work; and the sleeping sickness, that appalling menace to popu¬ lation in many parts of the continent, threatens the destruction of the people in large areas. Only recently have we succeeded in securing the proper registration of births and marriages among our people, and legal recognition for our school work. Still there has been a steady advance. Native workers have been raised up, and, besides maintaining our several central stations, new places have each year been occupied among the heathen. Our Sunday and day schools grow in numbers and attendance. The total amount of property is valued at $64,500, being an increase for the quadrennium of $29,500. There have been many genuine and well attested conversions among the natives. The work has steadily grown in favor among the 8 FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA Portuguese, and some of their number have accepted Christ. Recently a systematic evangelistic campaign has been inaugu¬ rated, and already gracious results are reported. In the interior, two hundred and seventy-five miles from the coast, we have a mission press valued at $2,500. The Kimbundu language of this section is one of the best in Africa, and capable of express¬ ing the finest shades of thought. Years ago our missionaries reduced the language to writing, and a large amount of litera¬ ture has already been published. So well pleased was the British and Foreign Bible Society with the work of our superintendent of the press that they asked the privilege of supporting him for two years and a half, that he might complete the translation of the New Testament. When finished it will be printed by that Society. God led Bishop Taylor into Angola with his band of mission¬ aries, and no foreign fields show a record of more heroic and self-sacrificing service. With reinforcement in workers, and better equipment of our central stations, rapid enlargement is certain to come in the near future in the fields we occupy, and a great advance through the wide-open doors, among multitudes of heathen in the regions beyond. THE WORK IN EAST AFRICA The work in Portuguese East Africa and Rhodesia is included in the East Central Africa Mission Conference. Ten years ago in this part of the continent we had but one missionary and a few native workers, and no property in lands or buildings. But the day of great things has begun. It is impossible, for lack of sufficient missionaries and native workers, even to take care of the many who are coming to us and accepting Christ in the centers we occupy, to say nothing of the scores of openings in places where there are from ten thousand to thirty thousand native heathen, where the gospel has not been preached, and who call us to give them the word of life. Four years ago the membership was four hundred and fifty-seven; now it is two thousand seven hundred and twenty-two, an increase of over fivefold. In four years our Sunday schools have grown from twelve to fifty-three, and the attendance from five hundred and fifty-four to three thousand three hundred and fifty-three. REPORT OF BISHOP HARTZELL 9 Fifty-four new day schools have been opened, with an increased attendance of two thousand five hundred and thirty. There are fifty-one churches, an increase of thirty-nine; and the total valuation of church property is $147,555, which is a large in¬ crease during the past four years. Twenty-eight thousand dol¬ lars have been raised for self-support, and the number of our native workers has grown from sixteen to one hundred and twenty-two. This phenomenal advance seems just begun. In a single circuit northward toward the Zambezi River there has been an additional increase of nearly one thousand pupils in the day and Sunday schools since the last Conference, which met six months ago. The day of pentecostal power has come to our east Africa fields, and to God be the glory. If half a dozen efficient workers could be added to our force in this Confer¬ ence, the coming quadrennium would see many more thousands brought to Christ than would be otherwise possible. INDUSTRIAL TRAINING Industrial training is an important factor of our work in Africa among the native races. Everywhere it is sought to prepare them for the largest usefulness, by not only giving them moral character and such education as they may acquire, but by teaching them the dignity of labor and giving practical instruction in farming, mechanics, and domestic service. The results already achieved have been very remarkable. Our largest industrial center is at Old Umtali. We have a farm of three thousand acres and several buildings, which, with the equip¬ ments in farm and mechanical implements and stock, is worth fully $75,000. We have here one hundred and twenty boys, and, under the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, over fifty girls. Half the day is given to the school and the other half to various forms of industrial work, in the home, on the farm, or in the shops. The widespread and blessed influences which have already gone out from this center on industrial lines dur¬ ing the few years since the work was begun have been remark¬ able. Wherever our native stations have been established the same methods are carried out by the native leaders, whom we have trained, and the improvement is wonderful in the methods of gardening and farming and of building homes. FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA 1 © WORK AMONG THE WHITE PEOPLE In Rhodesia we have a well organized and successful work among the white people. Methodism everywhere the world over extends the benefits of its ministrations to people of different languages and races. The cooperation of the Rhodesian govern¬ ment has been cordial and helpful. It has made large con¬ cessions in lands and given us the buildings of the Old Umtali Industrial Mission. On the principal street of Umtali we have a beautiful brick church, well furnished, the property being worth $25,000. Ten miles away, in a great mining center, we also have a well-furnished brick church, costing $5,000, and we are about to build a good parsonage. Mr. Andrew Carnegie gave us half the cost of our church organ. My prayer is that that little rivulet may enlarge into a mountain stream of gifts for foreign missions from the same source. At the request and with the assistance of the government we secured a large building and lots for our school among the white people. This property, with added equipment, is w'orth $25,000. As is the custom in British colonies, annual grants in aid are made, and these, with the tuition paid by the pupils, have made the school nearly self-supporting. The relations of our work in Rhodesia among the white and native black peoples is illustrated at Penhalonga. Four years ago we had only occasional services. Now we have the beauti¬ ful $5,000 church opened for the whites, and two good churches and parsonages for the natives worth $2,500. One of the hap¬ piest days spent in Africa by Bishop Burt and myself was the Sunday on which we dedicated these three houses of worship. The day was perfect, the mountain air bracing, the audiences large, and the people happy. Now we have the three churches and Sunday school in that important center, and two native day schools. The pastor of the white church is supported by the people and will also superintend the work of the native churches. PRINTING PRESSES At Inhambane we have a printing house and equipment valued at $5,000, where, during the quadrennium, fully six hundred thousand pages of Christian literature have been published. REPORT OF BISHOP HARTZELL 11 nearly all in native languages. We also publish two papers, one in English, for use in America, and in another two native lan¬ guages are represented. Besides this we have had printed in America a large edition of a hymn and tune book in one native language, and a dictionary in another. A few years ago, in this same mission, an edition of the New Testament was translated into two native tongues and published by the American Bible Society. The manuscript for the entire Old Testament is now ready for the press. The Conference in Sweden has given two trained young men for this work, and provides for their support. Besides this five European Conferences are supporting native stations in Africa. Thus our Methodism in Europe unites in saving that continent. In Rhodesia another printing press has recently been installed, and already has begun its beneficent work. In the very near future, from our printing presses in Angola, Inhambane, and Rhodesia, in East and West Africa, there will go annually mil¬ lions of pages of religious literature, printed in several lan¬ guages. Some of the marvelous things in the awakening of the races of that continent are the hunger for learning, the rapidity with which they learn to read and write, and the clamor for books, especially for the Word of God, for which they gladly pay. In Johannesburg alone the Holy Scriptures are sold in sixty different native African languages. WORK OF THE WOMAN’S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, pressed with its vast and growing work in other fields, has not been able to do all that it desired in Africa. But beginnings have been made and plans for enlarged work are being considered. In Rho¬ desia they have property worth $6,500, and a girls’ school which numbers over fifty. In Angola they have property consisting of thirty-five acres of land, with good buildings worth $4,000, and a well-attended girls’ school. Appeals are being made for a teacher and money to open work at Saint Paul de Loanda, where a fine location of several acres in the city has already been pro¬ vided. Everywhere the law T is the same. There can be perma¬ nent success in the work of God in any land only in proportion as woman is given the gospel. 12 FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA STATISTICS FOR THE QUADRENNIUM The following are the principal summaries of the work for the quadrennium on the continent. They indicate a remarkable advance. There has been an increase in church membership of three thousand three hundred and eighty-four, making a total of seven thousand three hundred and forty-eight. The number of churches is one hundred and nine, being an increase of forty-six, while the value of church property is over $350,000, being an increase of more than $100,000. The number of Sun¬ day schools is one hundred and thirty-seven, an increase of fifty-five, with an attendance of seven thousand three hundred and sixteen, while the day schools number ninety-one, being an increase of fifty-six, with an attendance of four thousand three hundred and sixty. Great advance has been made in the matter of self-help, the attempt being everywhere made to have indigenous resources developed. The past four years our peo¬ ple in Africa have raised $63,273 for the support of the work. It has been a part of the policy to secure lands in strategic, healthful centers. This has been especially true of the new work in East Africa, where we now have fully twenty thousand acres of land scattered in widely separated centers. THREE-QUARTER CENTENNIAL JUBILEE It is now seventy-five years since the beginning of our work in Africa, and it is proposed to celebrate this event by holding a three-quarter centennial jubilee and asking the Church for at least $300,000. This is to be a thank-offering in recognition of the marvelous preparation of the whole continent for the kingdom of Christ in recent years, and of the success which our missions have already achieved, and especially of the fact that the responsibility of the Church to the continent cannot be met without a large increase in financial resources. By the joint action of the General Missionary Committee and the Board of Managers the year 1909 has been set apart for this important celebration, and the Church is asked to do for Africa what it has done for India and China, and thus make it possible for us, in part at least, to meet the vast responsibilities before us. REPORT OF BISHOP HARTZELL 13 THE CALL TO NORTH AFRICA The most remarkable event in the quadrennium has been the call of the Methodist Church to mission work among the Mo¬ hammedans in North Africa. The succession of providential steps leading to this has been remarkable. My wife and I were made the guests of the World’s Sunday School Convention, which met at Rome in May, 1907. There were more than one thousand delegates. Of these, over five hundred were from America, among whom were nearly one hundred Methodists. It was a great missionary convention, having for its motto, “The Sunday School and the Great Commission.” The stories of mission work from many lands thrilled the great audiences which packed the auditorium of our own magnificent building, which stands on the very street where Garibaldi, thirty years ago, passed with his army to make Rome the capital of united Italy. It had been planned that the ships bearing the delegates from America should stop a few hours at Gibraltar and Algiers, and it had also been previously arranged that there should be held a union meeting of the missionaries and Christian workers at each place, to meet as many delegates as desired to attend. At Algiers, on the eighth of May, these Christian tourists were brought face to face, most of them for the first time, with the degradation and fanaticism incident to Mohammedan countries. They mingled their prayers and tears with the few faithful and heroic workers who were cheerfully giving their lives in mission work under most trying conditions. Many who had never been especially drawn to foreign missions were profoundly moved, and wider visions and definite calls to duty came to them. In the evening, after leaving Algiers, a meeting was held on the steamer Romanic. The great saloon was crowded with earnest Christians representing different denominations. The scenes of the day, intensified by subsequent conversations, inspired all and made the assembly one of true Christian unity. One of the speakers, Mrs. Hartzell, who had spent two months in Algiers studying mission work, emphasized the call of God for an organized Church in North Africa. But which section of the Church should lead the way? Finally, at Rome, after further days of prayerful consultations, leading members of 14 FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA all the other churches united in the conviction that the Metho¬ dist Episcopal Church ought to enter that field at once. Being appealed to, I said it would require at least $25,000 a year for five years as a beginning, and that our Mission Board could not assume any additional responsibility with the overwhelming needs of its many fields, and that if the money was provided, I could give no final answer without the approval of the General Missionary Committee. Several meetings were held, and God was present in gracious power. Amid evidence of profound conviction $50,000, to be paid in five annual installments, was subscribed and plans inaugurated to insure the raising of the full $125,000. The General Missionary Committee, at its meeting held at Seattle, November, 1907, approved the opening of the mission, without making an appropriation. Already the work has begun, and the Methodist Episcopal Church has planted its standard before the ramparts of the Mohammedan strongholds in North Africa, where for twelve centuries they have stood defying the followers of Christ. After visiting several of the European Conferences with Bishop Burt in the interests of missions, and before returning to East and South Africa, I visited several of the principal cities along the Mediterranean, including Tunis, Constantine, and Algiers. The visit served to make still more clear and positive the conviction that God was leading. Return¬ ing to Paris, an interview with the Prime Minister of France was arranged by our American Ambassador, Mr. Henry White. I was received very cordially and, far beyond the accustomed time for such interviews, was asked to remain, and questions re¬ lating to the separation of state and church, religious liberty, and the importance of Protestant churches and missions to France and her colonies were discussed. I was assured by the Prime Minister that our work in North Africa, under the French flag, should enjoy liberty and protection, and that he desired to be informed as to the progress of our work. Germany gives the first missionary to our Mohammedan field. He was raised in a Methodist parsonage, is a genius in lan¬ guages, trained in the Strasburg University, and has conse¬ crated his life to giving Christian literature to the followers of Mohammed. Our two Germany Conferences give the money REPORT OF BISHOP HARTZELL 15 to found a mission press in Algiers, where we shall soon be pub¬ lishing tracts and books in the Arabic, native Kabyle, and other languages. Drew Theological Seminary gives the second man, who is now teaching among the Mohammedans at Ramallah near Jerusalem. In Algiers two experienced and successful missionaries have been accepted, and they bring with them a well-organized work among women and girls. They have two hundred and fifty under their care, of whom seventy-five girls and thirty-one women are from Mohammedan homes. At the great capital of Tunisia, in the suburbs of which are the ruins of old Carthage, we have already three missionaries at work, who also have the Arabic and native languages and years of experience. We have rented a good house in the heart of the city as headquarters. In Tripoli, next to Egypt, the way is opened for us, and in Morocco, far to the west touching the Atlantic, the doors are wide open. Surely our going into North Africa is of the Lord. NORTH AFRICA AS A MISSION FIELD Few countries in the world are more remarkable for memor¬ able events in history or in ruins of ancient civilizations than North Africa, even if we do not include Egypt. During the six hundred years of Roman rule that section of the continent reached its greatest prosperity. Scores of cities were built, some of them great in population, wealth, and commerce; and the agricultural resources were very great. The climate is among the finest in the world, and North Africa was a source of Rome’s greatest wealth. There are partially unearthed ruins at Car¬ thage and many other cities, where there were palaces, amphi¬ theaters, triumphal arches, baths, temples, many of them equal to similar structures in the imperial city itself. The aborigines were the Berbers, or barbarians of history. Their descendants are still the largest part of the population, and number from twelve millions to fifteen millions. They are light brown in color, with shadings to black as they have mixed with the Negroes from the south, or to almost white as they have mixed with races of a lighter color from Europe. Twelve hundred years before Christ they had a fair civilization. They are an agricultural people, brave, and loving their homes. 16 FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA They helped the Romans conquer the Phoenicians, and in suc¬ ceeding centuries, when oppressed by their rulers, aided in their overthrow. They have been vanquished, but never conquered, and they are the chief hope of North Africa, provided they can be reached by the gospel of Christ. They are Mohammedan, but are accessible. Their ancestors were Christians, and they still have legends among them of the cross of Christ and its power to save. CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN NORTH AFRICA Christianity entered North Africa soon after Pentecost, and spread rapidly among the Berbers and other natives. Within a hundred years of the death of Saint John the evangelist, with Carthage as the center, half the people in the cities were Christian. In the fourth century there were five hundred and eighty sees with their Bishops. In the first four centuries after the apostles, of twenty great names in the history of Chris¬ tianity, more than half came from North Africa. The first foreign missionaries after the apostles were from Africa. One of them, Pantsenus, founder of a Christian school, went to India to preach the gospel, so that the first missionary to India was from Africa. For two hundred and fifty years North Africa led Latin Christianity, and in the work of evangelization trans¬ lated the Scriptures for the first time into a Western tongue. That Latin Bible was the foundation of the Vulgate and came to be the common version of Western Christianity. The indebt¬ edness of the Christian world to the North African Church is beyond estimation. One half of the Antenicene library was African in origin. For fifty years it grew, and during those centuries several of the most important questions of doctrine were settled under the leadership of African scholars. After Rome had overwhelmed the armies of Hannibal and conquered Carthage it received its laws from Africa. In the latter part of the second century Tertullian, the first great name in Western Christianity, flourished. “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church,” is a paraphrase of his sublime words in bidding defiance to the rulers who were persecuting Christians. Then came Cyprian, who also gave his life as a martyr. After him Arnobius, and later Augustine, whose thought next to Paul has REPORT OF BISHOP HARTZELL 17 dominated Christian thought and doctrine. Over the portals of Trinity Church, Boston, are carved, after the names of the four evangelists, those of Paul and Augustine. The third stone in the series remains uncut. There is no man yet who has wielded so wide a scepter, both intellectual and ecclesiastical, as Augustine. THE SWORD OF MOHAMMED In the middle of the seventh century the armies of Mohammed entered North Africa, and with the aid of the Berbers, who felt the oppression of Roman rule, began the work of subjugation. The first victory was the wiping out of an army of one hundred thousand men, after which the rule of Islam under the Arabs began. Army after army of Moslem soldiers from western Asia and Egypt carried death and destruction along the Medi¬ terranean “like a desert simoon, fierce, irresistible, impetuous, destructive.” When they had passed Gibraltar and reached the Atlantic, Akbar, the Moslem leader, rode into the water and said: “Great God, if I were not stopped by this raging sea, I would go on to the nations of the West and preach the unity of thy name and put to the sword those who would not submit.” Following the sword was the missionary. It took two hundred years to conquer the Barbary States in matters of doctrine and eight hundred years to completely displace Christianity. The North African Christian Church was wiped out, except a few hundred thousand Copts in Egypt and the Church among the heroic mountaineers in Abyssinia. The lost ground has never been regained. During all of these centuries that beautiful land has felt the withering curse of a religion that knows no Christ, and makes salvation depend upon the belief in a God who knows no love, daily prayer, giving of alms, keeping the fast, and mak¬ ing pilgrimages—a religion which degrades womanhood, makes the execution of laws and government impossible, and permits its followers to practice every crime known to humanity without compunctions of conscience. But the day of redemption has come. The world has lost its patience over the barbarisms of Mohammedan rule. The sword has been taken from the Mohammedan grip, and to-day three fourths of the two hundred and thirty-three millions of that faith throughout the world are under Christian flags. 18 FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA Among the followers of Mohammed there is a wonderful awaken¬ ing, and the leaders are alarmed. In different parts of the world there are many converts to Christianity. The Christian Church has come to understand that the one world-wide and aggressive power opposed to Christ is Mohammedanism. Two years ago there met at Cairo a conference of missionary workers among Mohammedans, where this momentous fact was discussed. Cairo is the intellectual center, while Constantinople is the political center of the Mohammedan world. The greatest Moslem university, with ten thousand students, is in Cairo. The discussions of that convention have been published and should have wide circulation. METHODISM AND NORTH AFRICA Methodism is the only great Church that has not made a frontal attack upon Mohammedan strongholds. This opening in North Africa is her opportunity, and is the call of God. West of Egypt for more than two thousand miles to Gibraltar, there is no fully organized church work. Raymond Lull, the first missionary to go to North Africa, was stoned to death in the city of Tunis in 1315. Nearly six hundred years passed before another missionary was sent by the Christian Church. Begin¬ ning with twenty-one years ago, there have been a few, either independent missionaries, or under undenominational societies, who have been doing excellent work as pioneers, but that vast field has scarcely been touched, and has been waiting for the incoming of some great branch of the organized Church. Algiers, where the mission will have its headquarters, is a city of one hundred and fifty thousand and the capital of Algeria, which is an organic part of the republic of France. France, thank God, has discarded the rule of Jesuitism and stands for religious liberty. Morocco will soon be under the rule of law and order, and probably will also come under the French flag. Tripoli is a French regency, and old Egypt, under the British flag, is rising from the depths of its poverty and ignorance and Mohammedan fanaticism, to be a great nation where religious liberty will abide. For the first time in twelve hundred years religious liberty and protection are guaranteed, and the doors REPORT OF BISHOP HARTZELL 19 are opened, or soon will be, in that vast region where more than twenty millions of people dwell who know not Christ. Africa's day has come Africa's day has long been delayed, but it has come at last. The silent and mysterious Sphinx of Egypt is no longer the symbol of Africa. For long millenniums the whole continent, except a little part along the Mediterranean, some fringes along the coasts and in extreme South Africa, was veiled in mystery. But that veil has been lifted. Not simply has a nation been born in a day but a continent! The explorer has traversed nearly every part of her vast domain; modern science is master¬ ing its tropical diseases, developing its agriculture, making the mines of gold and other minerals of untold value. Diplomacy has parceled out the continent, and everywhere there will soon be protection and opportunity for all races; hundreds of steam¬ ships belt its coasts and float on its lakes and rivers, taking to the continent hundreds of thousands of tons of merchandise, and, in turn, bringing away the products of African fields and forests and mines and mechanical ingenuity. The barbaric and Mohammedan millions of Africa are sharing in the world-wide awakening that has come to all people. They are anxiously waiting for something better. They may not know what it is, but they do know it is in the possession of nations outside them¬ selves, and we know that civilizations are never indigenous. The heathen of the world will never have Christ unless taken to them by the missionaries of the cross. WHAT SHALL THE ANSWER BE? What shall be the answer of the Church to this call of God? During twelve years I have gone around and across that conti¬ nent and have grown larger and better in my understandings of God’s providence as I have witnessed the development of rail¬ roads and mines and agriculture, the building of cities, and the organization of hundreds of companies for exploiting the riches of vast areas. I have met many men who in the interests of secular things could command millions for any scheme which promised a fair profit. The only thing in all the continent of 20 FORWARD MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA Africa which seems to fail in realizing the call of God is the Christian Church. But that day will pass. The problems of Africa are coming to be better known, and the Christian Church will rise to its duty. Near Khartoum, on the Nile, there is a monument to Gordon. He sits on a camel, dressed in the garb of a Soudanese, and is looking with steady gaze toward the heart of the continent. A traveler was studying the monument, and asked a resident why they had not placed it in the city, and why his face was toward the desert. The reply was that the purpose had been to give expression to the longing faith of that man of God for the salvation not only of the Soudan but of all Africa. So to-day my plea is that the Church of God may turn its face, as never before, toward that continent, and, hearing the command of our Divine Master, plan largely and wisely for the redemption of its millions. ■