Philip and the Eunuch
THERE is no people, except the Hebrews and other ancient inhabitants of Palestine, more frequently mentioned in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments than the Ethiopians; and there is no country more frequently referred to than Ethiopia; and the record of no people, whether in sacred history or in ancient secular history, has less of the discreditable than the record of the Ethiopians.
Let us see what is said of them in sacred history.
The first time that we meet with any distinct mention of the Ethiopian is in the account given in the twelfth chapter of Numbers, of the disagreement between Moses and his brother and sister in the matter of his marriage with an Ethiopian woman. The next mention of this people is in 2 Chron. xiv, where we read of Zerah, the Ethiopian general, who commanded an army of a thousand thousand men and three hundred chariots. The next mention is in Jeremiah xxxviii, where we learn of Ebedmelech, who, having deeper spiritual insight, and understanding more the ways of the Lord than the king and all the other Hebrew inhabitants of Jerusalem, believed the unpopular utterances of the prophet Jeremiah, and rescued him from his unpleasant and perilous condition in the dungeon of Zedekiah. For his faith and spiritual perception he was rewarded, in the time of trouble.
A singular passage in 1 Chron. iv, 40, gives an important clue to the opinions entertained in those days, and by the sacred writers, of the character of the descendants of Ham. Describing a certain district to which the children of Simeon had migrated, the chronicler says: “They found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide and quiet and peaceable, for they of Ham had dwelt there of old.”
The secular poets and historians of those times also bear witness to the excellence of the Ethiopian character. Homer, the prince of poets, and Herodotus, the father of history, both speak in praise of them.
In the earliest traditions of nearly all the more civilised nations of antiquity, the name of this distant people is found. The annals of the Egyptian priests were full of them; the nations of inner Asia, on the Euphrates and Tigris, have interwoven the fictions of the Ethiopians with their own traditions of the conquests and wars of their heroes; and, at a period equally remote, they glimmer in Greek mythology. When the Greeks scarcely knew Italy and Sicily by name, the Ethiopians were celebrated in the verses of their poets; they spoke of them as the “remotest nation,” the “most just of men,” the “favourites of the gods.” The lofty inhabitants of Olympus journey to them, and take part in their feasts; their sacrifices are the most agreeable of all that mortals can offer them. And when the faint gleam of tradition and fable gives way to the clear light of history, the lustre of the Ethiopians is not diminished. They still continue the object of curiosity and admiration; and the pen of cautious, clear-sighted historians often places them in the highest rank of knowledge and civilisation.[1]
When Cambyses, the Persian monarch, had spread his conquests over Egypt, had gratified the impulses of national envy and jealousy in the destruction of the magnificent city of Memphis, had disfigured the Sphinx with his battering-rams; and had failed, after two years’ effort, to demolish the mysterious Pyramids, he turned his covetous eyes to Ethiopia, and was anxious to pluck and wear the inaccessible laurels, never before nor since his day worn by European or Asiatic brow, as the conqueror of Ethiopia. Before entering upon this dazzling enterprise, he took the precaution of sending his spies to examine the country and report to him. The account which Herodotus gives, of the interview between the spies and the Ethiopian monarch, has forever embalmed Ethiopian character in history. The fragrance of the name, despite the distance of time and the counter-currents in the literary atmosphere, has floated over the fields of history, triumphantly lingering in the hostile air, and has come down unimpaired to us.
When the spies of Cambyses arrived before the king of Ethiopia, they offered the treacherous gifts from their master of which they, were the bearers, and delivered the following address:--
Cambyses, king of the Persians, desirous of becoming your friend and ally, has sent us, bidding us confer with you; and he presents you with these gifts, which are such as he himself most delights in.
But the Ethiopian, knowing that they came as spies, spoke thus to them:--
Neither has the king of the Persians sent you with presents to me because he valued my alliance, nor do you speak the truth; for ye are come as spies of my kingdom. Nor is he a just man; for if he were just, he would not desire any other territory than his own, nor would he reduce people into servitude who have done him no injury. However, give him this bow, and say these words to him: “The king of the Ethiopians advises the king of the Persians, when the Persians can thus easily draw a bow of this size, then to make war on the Macrobian Ethiopians with more numerous forces; but, until that time let him thank the gods, who have not inspired the sons of the Ethiopians with a desire of adding another land to theiir’own.”[2]
This reply of the Ethiopian monarch expresses the characteristic of the African as seen even to this day. In a recent account, given of some European missionaries in East Africa, it is said: “They are much respected by the people, who say of them, ‘These are men who do not covet other people’s goods;’ the highest praise in their eyes, as the other white men they had seen
came among them only to enrich themselves at their expense.”[3]
Let us see what is said of them in sacred history.
The first time that we meet with any distinct mention of the Ethiopian is in the account given in the twelfth chapter of Numbers, of the disagreement between Moses and his brother and sister in the matter of his marriage with an Ethiopian woman. The next mention of this people is in 2 Chron. xiv, where we read of Zerah, the Ethiopian general, who commanded an army of a thousand thousand men and three hundred chariots. The next mention is in Jeremiah xxxviii, where we learn of Ebedmelech, who, having deeper spiritual insight, and understanding more the ways of the Lord than the king and all the other Hebrew inhabitants of Jerusalem, believed the unpopular utterances of the prophet Jeremiah, and rescued him from his unpleasant and perilous condition in the dungeon of Zedekiah. For his faith and spiritual perception he was rewarded, in the time of trouble.
A singular passage in 1 Chron. iv, 40, gives an important clue to the opinions entertained in those days, and by the sacred writers, of the character of the descendants of Ham. Describing a certain district to which the children of Simeon had migrated, the chronicler says: “They found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide and quiet and peaceable, for they of Ham had dwelt there of old.”
The secular poets and historians of those times also bear witness to the excellence of the Ethiopian character. Homer, the prince of poets, and Herodotus, the father of history, both speak in praise of them.
In the earliest traditions of nearly all the more civilised nations of antiquity, the name of this distant people is found. The annals of the Egyptian priests were full of them; the nations of inner Asia, on the Euphrates and Tigris, have interwoven the fictions of the Ethiopians with their own traditions of the conquests and wars of their heroes; and, at a period equally remote, they glimmer in Greek mythology. When the Greeks scarcely knew Italy and Sicily by name, the Ethiopians were celebrated in the verses of their poets; they spoke of them as the “remotest nation,” the “most just of men,” the “favourites of the gods.” The lofty inhabitants of Olympus journey to them, and take part in their feasts; their sacrifices are the most agreeable of all that mortals can offer them. And when the faint gleam of tradition and fable gives way to the clear light of history, the lustre of the Ethiopians is not diminished. They still continue the object of curiosity and admiration; and the pen of cautious, clear-sighted historians often places them in the highest rank of knowledge and civilisation.[1]
When Cambyses, the Persian monarch, had spread his conquests over Egypt, had gratified the impulses of national envy and jealousy in the destruction of the magnificent city of Memphis, had disfigured the Sphinx with his battering-rams; and had failed, after two years’ effort, to demolish the mysterious Pyramids, he turned his covetous eyes to Ethiopia, and was anxious to pluck and wear the inaccessible laurels, never before nor since his day worn by European or Asiatic brow, as the conqueror of Ethiopia. Before entering upon this dazzling enterprise, he took the precaution of sending his spies to examine the country and report to him. The account which Herodotus gives, of the interview between the spies and the Ethiopian monarch, has forever embalmed Ethiopian character in history. The fragrance of the name, despite the distance of time and the counter-currents in the literary atmosphere, has floated over the fields of history, triumphantly lingering in the hostile air, and has come down unimpaired to us.
When the spies of Cambyses arrived before the king of Ethiopia, they offered the treacherous gifts from their master of which they, were the bearers, and delivered the following address:--
Cambyses, king of the Persians, desirous of becoming your friend and ally, has sent us, bidding us confer with you; and he presents you with these gifts, which are such as he himself most delights in.
But the Ethiopian, knowing that they came as spies, spoke thus to them:--
Neither has the king of the Persians sent you with presents to me because he valued my alliance, nor do you speak the truth; for ye are come as spies of my kingdom. Nor is he a just man; for if he were just, he would not desire any other territory than his own, nor would he reduce people into servitude who have done him no injury. However, give him this bow, and say these words to him: “The king of the Ethiopians advises the king of the Persians, when the Persians can thus easily draw a bow of this size, then to make war on the Macrobian Ethiopians with more numerous forces; but, until that time let him thank the gods, who have not inspired the sons of the Ethiopians with a desire of adding another land to theiir’own.”[2]
This reply of the Ethiopian monarch expresses the characteristic of the African as seen even to this day. In a recent account, given of some European missionaries in East Africa, it is said: “They are much respected by the people, who say of them, ‘These are men who do not covet other people’s goods;’ the highest praise in their eyes, as the other white men they had seen
came among them only to enrich themselves at their expense.”[3]
Footnotes:
1 Hceren’s Historical Researches, vol. i, pp. 293, 294.
2 Dr. George Ebers, the German novelist, has woven this incident into one of his popular romances, entitled An Egyptian Princess. A superficial criticism, guided by local and temporary prejudices, has attempted to deny the intimate relations of the Negro with the great historic races of Egypt and Ethiopia. But no one who has travelled in North-eastern Africa, or among the ruins on the banks of the Nile, will for a moment doubt that there was the connection, not of accident or of adventitious circumstances, but of consanguinity between the races of inner Africa of the present day, and the ancient Egyptians and Ethiopians. To got rid of the responsibility of brotherhood to the Negro, an American professor, in an elaborate work, claims for the tropical African a pre-Adamite origin, and ignores his relation with Ham. His arguments, however, are, as yet, beneath the level of scientific criticism. Stat pro ratione voluntas. The impressions of Volney, the great French traveller, after visiting the magnificent ruins of Egypt, are expressed as follows: “ When I visited the Sphinx, I could not help thinking the figure of that monster furnished the true solution of the enigma; when I saw its features precisely those of a Negro, I recollected the remarkable passage of Herodotus, in which he says: For my part, I believe the Colchi to be a colony of Egyptians, because, like them, they have black skins and frizzled hair (lib. ii); that is, that the ancient Egyptians were real Negroes, of the Bame species with all the natives of Africa This historical fact affords to philosophy an interesting subject of reflection. How are we astonished when we reflect that to the race of Negroes, at present our slaves, and the objects of our extreme contempt, we owe our arts, sciences, and even the very use of speech!”(Volney’s Travels, vol. i, oh. iii.) Catafago, n his Arabic and English Dictionary, under the word Kusur (palaces), says:--
“ The ruins of Thebes, that ancient and celebrated town, deserve to be visited, as just these heaps of ruins, laved by the Nile, are all that remain of the opulent cities that gave lustre to Ethiopia. It was there that a people, since forgotten, discovered the elements of Science and Art at a time when all other men were barbarous, and when a race, now regarded as the refuse of society, explored among the phenomena of Nature those civil and religious systems which have since held mankind in awe.” A more recent investigator, Dr. Hartmann, in an Encyclopædic Work on Nigritia' (Saturday Review, June 17, 187C), contends for the strictly African extraction of the Egyptians, who, he seems to consider, may have dwelt upon the shores of the inner African sea, whose desiccation has formed the existing Sahara.
3 Dublin Review, April, 1881.
1 Hceren’s Historical Researches, vol. i, pp. 293, 294.
2 Dr. George Ebers, the German novelist, has woven this incident into one of his popular romances, entitled An Egyptian Princess. A superficial criticism, guided by local and temporary prejudices, has attempted to deny the intimate relations of the Negro with the great historic races of Egypt and Ethiopia. But no one who has travelled in North-eastern Africa, or among the ruins on the banks of the Nile, will for a moment doubt that there was the connection, not of accident or of adventitious circumstances, but of consanguinity between the races of inner Africa of the present day, and the ancient Egyptians and Ethiopians. To got rid of the responsibility of brotherhood to the Negro, an American professor, in an elaborate work, claims for the tropical African a pre-Adamite origin, and ignores his relation with Ham. His arguments, however, are, as yet, beneath the level of scientific criticism. Stat pro ratione voluntas. The impressions of Volney, the great French traveller, after visiting the magnificent ruins of Egypt, are expressed as follows: “ When I visited the Sphinx, I could not help thinking the figure of that monster furnished the true solution of the enigma; when I saw its features precisely those of a Negro, I recollected the remarkable passage of Herodotus, in which he says: For my part, I believe the Colchi to be a colony of Egyptians, because, like them, they have black skins and frizzled hair (lib. ii); that is, that the ancient Egyptians were real Negroes, of the Bame species with all the natives of Africa This historical fact affords to philosophy an interesting subject of reflection. How are we astonished when we reflect that to the race of Negroes, at present our slaves, and the objects of our extreme contempt, we owe our arts, sciences, and even the very use of speech!”(Volney’s Travels, vol. i, oh. iii.) Catafago, n his Arabic and English Dictionary, under the word Kusur (palaces), says:--
“ The ruins of Thebes, that ancient and celebrated town, deserve to be visited, as just these heaps of ruins, laved by the Nile, are all that remain of the opulent cities that gave lustre to Ethiopia. It was there that a people, since forgotten, discovered the elements of Science and Art at a time when all other men were barbarous, and when a race, now regarded as the refuse of society, explored among the phenomena of Nature those civil and religious systems which have since held mankind in awe.” A more recent investigator, Dr. Hartmann, in an Encyclopædic Work on Nigritia' (Saturday Review, June 17, 187C), contends for the strictly African extraction of the Egyptians, who, he seems to consider, may have dwelt upon the shores of the inner African sea, whose desiccation has formed the existing Sahara.
3 Dublin Review, April, 1881.
If we come down to New Testament times, we find, again, Africans and their country appearing in honourable connections. When the Saviour of mankind, born in lowly circumstances, was the persecuted babe of Bethlehem, Africa furnished the refuge for his threatened and helpless infancy. African hands ministered to the comfort of Mary and Joseph while they sojourned as homeless and hunted strangers in that land. In the final hours of the Man of Sorrows, when His disciples had forsaken Him and fled, and only the tears of sympathising women, following in the distance, showed that His sorrows touched any human heart; when Asia, in the person of the Jew, clamoured for His blood, and Europe, in the Roman soldier, was dragging Him to execution, and afterwards nailed those sinless hands to the cross, and pierced that sacred side—what was the part that Africa took then? She furnished the man to share the burden of the cross with the suffering Redeemer. Simon, the Cyrenian, bore the cross after Jesus. “Fleecy locks and dark complexion” thus enjoyed a privilege and an honour, and was invested with a glory in which kings and potentates, martyrs and confessors in the long roll of ages, would have been proud to participate.
But what of the country of the Africans? What of Ethiopia itself? It has always worn a forbidding aspect to foreigners. Although the ancients, on account of the amiable qualities of the inhabitants, made the country frequently the scene of Olympic festivities, with Jupiter as the presiding genius, yet they had the most curious notions of the country. And it may be that, in keeping with a well-known instinct of human nature, to surround sacred things with mystery, the land was invested with repellent characteristics because it was the occasional abode of the gods. Herodotus (iv, 91), in describing the interior of Africa, says:--
This is the region in which the huge serpents are found, and the lions, the elephants, the bears, the aspicks, and the horned asses. Here, too, are the dog-faced creatures, and the creatures without heads, whom the Lybians declaro to have their eyes in their breasts; and also the wild men, and the wild women, and many other far less fabulous beasts.
And from that day onwards, the ideas of Africa, entertained by the outside world, were calculated to produce only fear and abhorrence. Dante, the classic poet of Italy, has preserved the opinions of his day in one of the cantos of the Inferno, in the comparison he makes of an indescribable region, which he saw in Malebolge, with Africa. After picturing the horrors of the place, that master of Italian song says:--
I saw within a fearful throng of serpents, and of so strange a look that even now the recollection scares my blood. Let Libya boast no longer with its sand; for though it engenders chelydri, jaculi and pareæ, and cenchres with amphisbæna, plagues so numorous or so dire it never showed, with all Ethiopia, nor with the land that lies by the Red Sea.[4]
Shakespeare makes Othello win Desdemona by the horrible tales he tells of interior Africa:--
Of antres vast and deserts idle,
* * * * *
And of the cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.
And these notions cannot be said to have been entirely dispelled until within our own day—within the last five-and-twenty years. Those who dealt, even forty years ago, with African geography, are now proved to have been wrong in every detail. They denied the existence of great lakes and broad rivers flowing from the centre to the coast. They spoke of the great mass of Central Africa as consisting of vast deserts, bare of vegetation, bare of animal life, and, above all, bare of men. There was so much of uncertainty and indefiniteness in the maps constructed by those writers on Africa as to justify the witty lines of Swift:--
Geographers in Afric’s maps
With savage pictures fill their gaps;
And o’er unhabitable downs
Place elephants, for want of towns.
But what physical glories, what mountains and lakes, and rivers, and what a wealth of population have been unfolded to the astonished gaze of the present generation! In the former years all was gloomy and mysterious and forbidding. The country seemed to the ancients to have been created only as the scene of the happy residence of the gods and of the native races. And it is a noticeable fact that no other race than the Ethiopian, in its different varieties, has ever had permanent or extensive foothold in that land. To-day, whether in its northern or southern extremities, the tenure of foreigners might be described simply as an “armed occupation.”
Let us, for a moment, glance at the history of foreign efforts in Africa. Of the secular agencies which have operated from abroad, the Egyptian power— if we take for granted the modern notion that the Egyptians were an alien race —has been, perhaps, the most important. But even this has been subject to such vicissitudes and changes as to have left no distinct or wide-spread impression upon the country. Dynasty after dynasty has arisen and disappeared; and these, while they lasted, have prospered only when in alliance with the undoubtedly indigenous and interior races. And even with these alliances, they have not been able to push their power beyond the alluvial regions—the country called, from its geological origin, “The gift of the Nile.” The natives beyond have always held their own; and, even to this day, the indigenous power neighbouring to Egypt is a source of constant anxiety and concern to the Albanian rulers of that “house of bondage.” Recent intelligence informs us that King John of Abyssinia is using the present crisis in Egypt to take possession again of those provinces which Egypt had taken away from Abyssinia, i.e., Mensa and Bagos. The so-called False Prophet of the Soudan, emerging with uncounted warriors from the regions of the Sahara, has been lately spreading alarm among the adherents of the Khedive.
But what of the country of the Africans? What of Ethiopia itself? It has always worn a forbidding aspect to foreigners. Although the ancients, on account of the amiable qualities of the inhabitants, made the country frequently the scene of Olympic festivities, with Jupiter as the presiding genius, yet they had the most curious notions of the country. And it may be that, in keeping with a well-known instinct of human nature, to surround sacred things with mystery, the land was invested with repellent characteristics because it was the occasional abode of the gods. Herodotus (iv, 91), in describing the interior of Africa, says:--
This is the region in which the huge serpents are found, and the lions, the elephants, the bears, the aspicks, and the horned asses. Here, too, are the dog-faced creatures, and the creatures without heads, whom the Lybians declaro to have their eyes in their breasts; and also the wild men, and the wild women, and many other far less fabulous beasts.
And from that day onwards, the ideas of Africa, entertained by the outside world, were calculated to produce only fear and abhorrence. Dante, the classic poet of Italy, has preserved the opinions of his day in one of the cantos of the Inferno, in the comparison he makes of an indescribable region, which he saw in Malebolge, with Africa. After picturing the horrors of the place, that master of Italian song says:--
I saw within a fearful throng of serpents, and of so strange a look that even now the recollection scares my blood. Let Libya boast no longer with its sand; for though it engenders chelydri, jaculi and pareæ, and cenchres with amphisbæna, plagues so numorous or so dire it never showed, with all Ethiopia, nor with the land that lies by the Red Sea.[4]
Shakespeare makes Othello win Desdemona by the horrible tales he tells of interior Africa:--
Of antres vast and deserts idle,
* * * * *
And of the cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.
And these notions cannot be said to have been entirely dispelled until within our own day—within the last five-and-twenty years. Those who dealt, even forty years ago, with African geography, are now proved to have been wrong in every detail. They denied the existence of great lakes and broad rivers flowing from the centre to the coast. They spoke of the great mass of Central Africa as consisting of vast deserts, bare of vegetation, bare of animal life, and, above all, bare of men. There was so much of uncertainty and indefiniteness in the maps constructed by those writers on Africa as to justify the witty lines of Swift:--
Geographers in Afric’s maps
With savage pictures fill their gaps;
And o’er unhabitable downs
Place elephants, for want of towns.
But what physical glories, what mountains and lakes, and rivers, and what a wealth of population have been unfolded to the astonished gaze of the present generation! In the former years all was gloomy and mysterious and forbidding. The country seemed to the ancients to have been created only as the scene of the happy residence of the gods and of the native races. And it is a noticeable fact that no other race than the Ethiopian, in its different varieties, has ever had permanent or extensive foothold in that land. To-day, whether in its northern or southern extremities, the tenure of foreigners might be described simply as an “armed occupation.”
Let us, for a moment, glance at the history of foreign efforts in Africa. Of the secular agencies which have operated from abroad, the Egyptian power— if we take for granted the modern notion that the Egyptians were an alien race —has been, perhaps, the most important. But even this has been subject to such vicissitudes and changes as to have left no distinct or wide-spread impression upon the country. Dynasty after dynasty has arisen and disappeared; and these, while they lasted, have prospered only when in alliance with the undoubtedly indigenous and interior races. And even with these alliances, they have not been able to push their power beyond the alluvial regions—the country called, from its geological origin, “The gift of the Nile.” The natives beyond have always held their own; and, even to this day, the indigenous power neighbouring to Egypt is a source of constant anxiety and concern to the Albanian rulers of that “house of bondage.” Recent intelligence informs us that King John of Abyssinia is using the present crisis in Egypt to take possession again of those provinces which Egypt had taken away from Abyssinia, i.e., Mensa and Bagos. The so-called False Prophet of the Soudan, emerging with uncounted warriors from the regions of the Sahara, has been lately spreading alarm among the adherents of the Khedive.
Footnotes:
4 E vidivi entro terribile stipa
Di serpenti, e di si diversa mena,
Che la memoria il sangue ancor mi scipa. Più non si vanti Libia con sua rena:
Che, se chelidri, jaculi, e faree Produce, e cencri con anfesibena;
Nè tante pestilenzio, nè sì
ree Mostrò giammai con tutta 1’ Etiopia,
Nè con ciò che di sopra '1 mar Rosso ee.
(Inferno, Canto xxiv., lines 85-90.)
4 E vidivi entro terribile stipa
Di serpenti, e di si diversa mena,
Che la memoria il sangue ancor mi scipa. Più non si vanti Libia con sua rena:
Che, se chelidri, jaculi, e faree Produce, e cencri con anfesibena;
Nè tante pestilenzio, nè sì
ree Mostrò giammai con tutta 1’ Etiopia,
Nè con ciò che di sopra '1 mar Rosso ee.
(Inferno, Canto xxiv., lines 85-90.)
The next important secular influence, planted by foreigners in Africa, was the Carthaginian Empire. That empire flourished for seven hundred years, and its people were the most enterprising of the nations of their day. They sent out exploring expeditions by sea and by land. They circumnavigated the continent and penetrated its interior. Their sway extended from the coast of the Mediterranean down towards the Niger. They collected by traffic the valuable products of the Soudan; the elephants and their ivory answered their purposes for war and for commerce; but with all these advantages, they disappeared without having produced any impression upon the inner portions of the continent. It is certain that when their cities fell before the military energy of the Romans, many of them fled to the regions south of their country, but they were soon lost in the boundless forests of the Soudan and in the oblivion of the Desert.
The Romans next essayed to colonise and conquer Africa. They could overpower Carthage, after years and even generations of persistent warfare; they could destroy her cities, overthrow her monuments, and, with the wanton indifference of a cruel jealousy, scatter her literary treasures; but they could construct no lasting power in that land. They could not even rival the African glories of Carthage. Their boasted power, and the weight of their crushing influence, availed them little here. They disappeared from the continent like a shadow and a dream; and one of their rulers, in the last moments of his life, solemnly deprecated the invasion of Africa by the Romans.[5]
A modern European power, of great military reputation, has been recently, and is now, endeavouring to force its way inward by arms, by railways, by commercial expeditions, by diplomatic finesse; but its successes so far warn us that what the conquerors of ancient Gaul could not accomplish, there is no evidence that the descendants of the conquered will ever achieve. In spite of all the efforts made in that quarter, the state of things at the head-waters of the Niger, around Lake Chad, and throughout the Western Soudan, is not very different from what it was when Hannibal marshalled his legions against Rome, and drew many of his warriors, with their trained elephants, from the regions south of the Great Desert. Many have been the plans adopted, both in ancient and modern times, for taking possession of that continent; and all, whether military, commercial, or philanthropic, as conducted by Europeans or Asiatics, have had but temporary success. “With regard to all, history has been obliged to write, sooner or later, the words with which Herodotus closes his account of the disastrous expedition of Cambyses into Ethiopia: “Thus ended the expedition.”
Among the foreign Christian agencies which have operated in Africa, may be noticed: first, the Church in Egypt, with its ten thousand anchorites; the Church of North Africa, with its three thousand towns and villages, and its five hundred and sixty episcopal sees—the Church that produced Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine. These, after flourishing for a time, fell away without affecting the continent—like the morning cloud and the early dew.
Later on in history came the extensive missionary efforts of the Roman Catholic Church. The great missionary movement set in with the Portuguese conquests in the fifteenth century, and it continued during the sixteenth and into the seventeenth, with great success. In the Portuguese possessions in Africa, and their neighbourhood, such were the zeal and energy of the Roman Catholic missionaries, that the conversion of all Africa seemed at one time to be at hand. The Rev. H. Rowley, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, pays the following tribute to the zeal and earnestness of the first Catholic missionaries to Africa:--
As the Portuguese were, at first, as zealous for the extension of God’s kingdom as for their own aggrandisement, it seemed as though they would be equal to their opportunity, and build up great Christian empires on either side of the continent. The missionary zeal of the Portuguese at this, the best period of their history, was great. No ship was permitted to leave their coasts without being accompanied by one or more priests, and no nation ever had more devoted missionaries. They made the kingdom of Congo the field of their principal efforts, but they also laboured zealously to convert the natives of Loango and Angola. For a time it appeared as though nothing could withstand the religious energy of the good men who strove for the conversion of Congo. The King was among the first of their converts. No danger appalled them; they shrank from no suffering; and they died willingly in the performance of their duty. This, indeed, may be said of almost all the missionaries who, for nearly one hundred years, laboured amongst the Heathen in those parts of Africa which were brought under the power and influence of Portugal. Though many of them quickly succumbed to fatigue, privation, and disease—others, nothing daunted, filled their places. Within fifty years of its discovery, the population of Congo had become nominally Christian. The success obtained in Loango and Angola was almost as great.
The Romans next essayed to colonise and conquer Africa. They could overpower Carthage, after years and even generations of persistent warfare; they could destroy her cities, overthrow her monuments, and, with the wanton indifference of a cruel jealousy, scatter her literary treasures; but they could construct no lasting power in that land. They could not even rival the African glories of Carthage. Their boasted power, and the weight of their crushing influence, availed them little here. They disappeared from the continent like a shadow and a dream; and one of their rulers, in the last moments of his life, solemnly deprecated the invasion of Africa by the Romans.[5]
A modern European power, of great military reputation, has been recently, and is now, endeavouring to force its way inward by arms, by railways, by commercial expeditions, by diplomatic finesse; but its successes so far warn us that what the conquerors of ancient Gaul could not accomplish, there is no evidence that the descendants of the conquered will ever achieve. In spite of all the efforts made in that quarter, the state of things at the head-waters of the Niger, around Lake Chad, and throughout the Western Soudan, is not very different from what it was when Hannibal marshalled his legions against Rome, and drew many of his warriors, with their trained elephants, from the regions south of the Great Desert. Many have been the plans adopted, both in ancient and modern times, for taking possession of that continent; and all, whether military, commercial, or philanthropic, as conducted by Europeans or Asiatics, have had but temporary success. “With regard to all, history has been obliged to write, sooner or later, the words with which Herodotus closes his account of the disastrous expedition of Cambyses into Ethiopia: “Thus ended the expedition.”
Among the foreign Christian agencies which have operated in Africa, may be noticed: first, the Church in Egypt, with its ten thousand anchorites; the Church of North Africa, with its three thousand towns and villages, and its five hundred and sixty episcopal sees—the Church that produced Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine. These, after flourishing for a time, fell away without affecting the continent—like the morning cloud and the early dew.
Later on in history came the extensive missionary efforts of the Roman Catholic Church. The great missionary movement set in with the Portuguese conquests in the fifteenth century, and it continued during the sixteenth and into the seventeenth, with great success. In the Portuguese possessions in Africa, and their neighbourhood, such were the zeal and energy of the Roman Catholic missionaries, that the conversion of all Africa seemed at one time to be at hand. The Rev. H. Rowley, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, pays the following tribute to the zeal and earnestness of the first Catholic missionaries to Africa:--
As the Portuguese were, at first, as zealous for the extension of God’s kingdom as for their own aggrandisement, it seemed as though they would be equal to their opportunity, and build up great Christian empires on either side of the continent. The missionary zeal of the Portuguese at this, the best period of their history, was great. No ship was permitted to leave their coasts without being accompanied by one or more priests, and no nation ever had more devoted missionaries. They made the kingdom of Congo the field of their principal efforts, but they also laboured zealously to convert the natives of Loango and Angola. For a time it appeared as though nothing could withstand the religious energy of the good men who strove for the conversion of Congo. The King was among the first of their converts. No danger appalled them; they shrank from no suffering; and they died willingly in the performance of their duty. This, indeed, may be said of almost all the missionaries who, for nearly one hundred years, laboured amongst the Heathen in those parts of Africa which were brought under the power and influence of Portugal. Though many of them quickly succumbed to fatigue, privation, and disease—others, nothing daunted, filled their places. Within fifty years of its discovery, the population of Congo had become nominally Christian. The success obtained in Loango and Angola was almost as great.
Footnotes:
5 The Romans appear to have penetrated to the Niger; for Pliny mentions that, like the Nile, it swelled periodically, and at the same season, and that its productions were also the same. He likewise relates that Suetonius Paulinus, the first of the Romans who crossed Mount Atlas, made an expedition during winter into the interior parts of Africa, and marched through deserts of black dust and places uninhabitable from excessive heat, where the very rocks seemed to be scorched. (I saw such rocks in the neighbourhood of Timbo and Falaba, about three hundred miles north-east of Sierra Leone; but their appearance has not been caused by heat.) It does not appear, however, that the Romans formed any settlements among the aboriginal tribes.
5 The Romans appear to have penetrated to the Niger; for Pliny mentions that, like the Nile, it swelled periodically, and at the same season, and that its productions were also the same. He likewise relates that Suetonius Paulinus, the first of the Romans who crossed Mount Atlas, made an expedition during winter into the interior parts of Africa, and marched through deserts of black dust and places uninhabitable from excessive heat, where the very rocks seemed to be scorched. (I saw such rocks in the neighbourhood of Timbo and Falaba, about three hundred miles north-east of Sierra Leone; but their appearance has not been caused by heat.) It does not appear, however, that the Romans formed any settlements among the aboriginal tribes.
But there is very little trace now of the results of the great missionary work done by those zealous and self-denying men. We have it, on the testimony of Roman Catholic writers, that “At present, not only are the Portuguese settlements in the lowest state of degradation, but that they are positively hostile to the missionary operations of the Church, whose presence they will not tolerate within their frontiers.” [6]
It is not yet one hundred and fifty years since the first Protestant missionary efforts commenced in Africa, and while a great deal has been accomplished within European colonies, and in their neighbourhood on the coast, very little indeed has been effected among the aborigines of the country away from the settlements. Protestant missionary efforts, in purely native regions, have been undertaken, on anything like a large scale, only within the last twenty years. They are the Universities’ Mission, established between Lake Nyassa and the East Coast; the Mission of the London Missionary Society, near Lake Tanganyika; the Church Missionary Society’s Mission, near the Victoria Nyanza; and the Missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, recently opened in “West Central Africa. These missions, excepting that of the American Board, are all manned by white men, and the usual mortality has prevailed. The nineteenth death among the missionaries of the Universities’ Mission at Lake Nyassa was, a few months ago, reported, and, very recently, the death of Bishop Steere has been announced.
In view of the serious obstacles which have so far confronted the work of African evangelisation and civilisation through European agency, it is a matter of serious concern among Christian workers as to how the work should be done. There is, perhaps, not one of the members of missionary boards or committees, whose experience in the African work extends over ten years, who does not feel a measure of discouragement.
Now, in view of these melancholy experiences, what is to be inferred as to the will of Providence? It is evident that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is designed for all countries and climes—for all races and nations; but it is also evident that we have this “treasure in earthern vessels,” which subjects it to human conditions and limitations. The constitutions of mortal men, who are to be instruments of proclaiming the glad tidings, are not adapted to all countries and climates; yet the command is, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” This was the parting injunction of the Saviour to His disciples. But He had told them before, that the Spirit of Truth, whom He would send to them after His departure, would explain what He had said unto them, and guide them into all truth. Now, after the Spirit had come, and had filled the disciples with power for their mission, and they began to organise for aggressive work, it was found necessary to add to the number of evangelistic agents. Accordingly, under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, seven men were chosen as evangelists, among whom was Philip. This man, after the murder of Stephen, went away from Jerusalem, and preached with great success in the city of Samaria. The injunction not to enter into any city of the Samaritans had been withdrawn, and the whole world was now opened to the preachers of the gospel. They went over into Europe, penetrated farther eastward into Asia, went south to Arabia. But there lay Ethiopia, with its inhospitable climate and difficulty of access. What was to be done? The Spirit which was to guide them into all truth met the emergency. An African had come up in search of truth to Jerusalem, and, having completed his mission, was returning to his home, and was so far on his journey as to have reached the southern confines of the Holy Land, when Philip the Evangelist received a message from Heaven concerning him: “The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning; and, sitting in his chariot, read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot.”
Now, this incident I take to be a symbolic one, indicating the instruments and the methods of Africa’s evangelisation. The method, the simple holding up of Jesus Christ; the instrument, the African himself. This was the Spirit’s application and explication of the command, “Go ye into all the world,” &c. —giving the gospel to a man of Ethiopia to take back to the people of Ethiopia.
It is not yet one hundred and fifty years since the first Protestant missionary efforts commenced in Africa, and while a great deal has been accomplished within European colonies, and in their neighbourhood on the coast, very little indeed has been effected among the aborigines of the country away from the settlements. Protestant missionary efforts, in purely native regions, have been undertaken, on anything like a large scale, only within the last twenty years. They are the Universities’ Mission, established between Lake Nyassa and the East Coast; the Mission of the London Missionary Society, near Lake Tanganyika; the Church Missionary Society’s Mission, near the Victoria Nyanza; and the Missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, recently opened in “West Central Africa. These missions, excepting that of the American Board, are all manned by white men, and the usual mortality has prevailed. The nineteenth death among the missionaries of the Universities’ Mission at Lake Nyassa was, a few months ago, reported, and, very recently, the death of Bishop Steere has been announced.
In view of the serious obstacles which have so far confronted the work of African evangelisation and civilisation through European agency, it is a matter of serious concern among Christian workers as to how the work should be done. There is, perhaps, not one of the members of missionary boards or committees, whose experience in the African work extends over ten years, who does not feel a measure of discouragement.
Now, in view of these melancholy experiences, what is to be inferred as to the will of Providence? It is evident that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is designed for all countries and climes—for all races and nations; but it is also evident that we have this “treasure in earthern vessels,” which subjects it to human conditions and limitations. The constitutions of mortal men, who are to be instruments of proclaiming the glad tidings, are not adapted to all countries and climates; yet the command is, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” This was the parting injunction of the Saviour to His disciples. But He had told them before, that the Spirit of Truth, whom He would send to them after His departure, would explain what He had said unto them, and guide them into all truth. Now, after the Spirit had come, and had filled the disciples with power for their mission, and they began to organise for aggressive work, it was found necessary to add to the number of evangelistic agents. Accordingly, under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, seven men were chosen as evangelists, among whom was Philip. This man, after the murder of Stephen, went away from Jerusalem, and preached with great success in the city of Samaria. The injunction not to enter into any city of the Samaritans had been withdrawn, and the whole world was now opened to the preachers of the gospel. They went over into Europe, penetrated farther eastward into Asia, went south to Arabia. But there lay Ethiopia, with its inhospitable climate and difficulty of access. What was to be done? The Spirit which was to guide them into all truth met the emergency. An African had come up in search of truth to Jerusalem, and, having completed his mission, was returning to his home, and was so far on his journey as to have reached the southern confines of the Holy Land, when Philip the Evangelist received a message from Heaven concerning him: “The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning; and, sitting in his chariot, read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot.”
Now, this incident I take to be a symbolic one, indicating the instruments and the methods of Africa’s evangelisation. The method, the simple holding up of Jesus Christ; the instrument, the African himself. This was the Spirit’s application and explication of the command, “Go ye into all the world,” &c. —giving the gospel to a man of Ethiopia to take back to the people of Ethiopia.
Footnotes:
6 Dublin Review, January, 1879.
6 Dublin Review, January, 1879.
We are told that after the singular and interesting ceremony, “the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.” Philip was not to accompany the eunuch, to water the seed he had planted, to cherish and supervise the incipient work. If he desired to do so— and perhaps he did—the Spirit suffered him not, for he caught him away.”
The eunuch “went on his way rejoicing.” Strange must have been his delight as he listened to the wonderful words which fell from the lips of Philip. Strange must have been his joy—strange the exulting rush of his heart, in this, his first communion with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. A member of a race separated by indelible physical characteristics from the people among whom he had been to worship, and thinking of the millions, like himself, who would be blest by the new revelation, who can tell the dreams of the future which he cherished in his soul, kindling the hope of a total revolution in his country through the words he had heard? The vision of communities regenerated and saved, through the sufferings and death of Him whom the prophet had described, loomed up before him and filled his soul with joy.
And there was something symbolic, also, of the future sad experience of his race—and at the same time full of consolation—in the passage which he read. It was holding up Christ as the “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” as if in anticipation of the great and unsurpassed trials of the African. These were to be the words of comfort and uplifting to these people in their exile and captivity. They were to remember that if they were despised and scorned, a far greater than themselves had had a similar experience. Christ was to be held up to the suffering African not only as a propitiation for sin, and as a Mediator between God and man, but as a blessed illustration of the glorious fact that persecution and suffering and contempt are no proof that God is not the loving Father of a people—but may be rather an evidence of nearness to God, seeing that they have been chosen to tread in the footsteps of the first-born of the creation, suffering for the welfare of others.[7]
Tell me, now, ye descendants of Africa, tell me whether there is anything in the ancient history of your African ancestors, in their relation to other races, of which you need to be ashamed. Tell me, if there is anything in the modern history of your people, in their dealings with foreign races, whether at home or in exile, of which you need be ashamed? Is there anything, when you compare yourselves with others, to disturb your equanimity, except the universal oppression of which you have been the victims? And what are suffering and sorrow but necessary elements in the progress of humanity? Your suffering has contributed to the welfare of others. It is a part of the constitution of the universe, that out of death should come life. All the advancement made to a better future, by individuals or races, has been made through paths marked by suffering. This great law is written not only in the Bible, but upon all history. “Without the shedding blood there is no remission.” We may say, then, in the language of the poet--
In all the ills we bore,
We grieved, wo sighed, we wept--
We never blushed.
We could not blush physically, and we had no need to blush mentally or morally.
Among the beautiful legends which are scattered throughout ancient Jewish literature is the following, which is not less applicable to us than to the Hebrew race.
When the Decalogue was given, the Israelites said to the Lord; “Thou for biddest us to attempt the life, the honour, or the interest, of our fellow-man. Thou forbiddest us to lie, to covet, to return evil for evil, blow for blow. But if this prohibition is not addressed also to the other nations of the earth, we shall become, alas! their victim.” The Lord answered: “My children, when I created the lamb it came to me and said, ‘O, Lord! Thou hast given me neither claws to tear with, nor teeth to bite with, nor horns to strike with, nor even swift feet with which to flee away. What will become of me in the midst of other animals if I am thus weak and defenceless? And I answered the lamb, ‘Would’st thou, then, prefer to thy feebleness the cruelty of the tiger or the venom of the serpent?’ ‘No, Lord,’ answered Me the lamb; ‘I prefer my feebleness and my innocence, and I thank Thee that Thou hast made me rather the persecuted than the persecutor.’ So thou, O my people Israel. Thou shalt be a lamb in the midst of the nations. Let them tear thee; let them sacrifice thee; thy triumph shall be in thy calmness, in thy resignation, in thine innocence.”
Two characteristics of the African are brought out in the narrative before us. Firstly his teachableness. The eunuch was reading with an earnest desire to understand—to arrive at the knowledge of the truth—but, at the same time, with a dim consciousness that he was only imperfectly apprehending it. “How can I, except some one should guide me?” Secondly, his courtesy and hospitality. “He desired Philip that he would come and sit with him.” Though a man of great power and influence, he did not distain to invite the wandering pedestrian to a seat in his chariot; giving him a real and unaffected welcome, and placing himself at his feet; becoming the guest and pupil, and giving the stranger the place of host and instructor. All truthful travellers in Africa testify to the courteous disposition of the interior natives— those who have never been tampered with by either Arabs or Europeans. They are confiding, unsuspicious, childlike, hospitable, honest, peaceable, and anxious to learn. Thomson, the youthful explorer, who has written one of the best of the recent books on Africa, says; “Of the natives, I have for the most part nothing but good to say. In the majority of places I found them peaceable. Barely did they attempt to throw any obstacles in my way. Almost everywhere, I was received with genuine hospitality and friendship.”[8]
The eunuch “went on his way rejoicing.” Strange must have been his delight as he listened to the wonderful words which fell from the lips of Philip. Strange must have been his joy—strange the exulting rush of his heart, in this, his first communion with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. A member of a race separated by indelible physical characteristics from the people among whom he had been to worship, and thinking of the millions, like himself, who would be blest by the new revelation, who can tell the dreams of the future which he cherished in his soul, kindling the hope of a total revolution in his country through the words he had heard? The vision of communities regenerated and saved, through the sufferings and death of Him whom the prophet had described, loomed up before him and filled his soul with joy.
And there was something symbolic, also, of the future sad experience of his race—and at the same time full of consolation—in the passage which he read. It was holding up Christ as the “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” as if in anticipation of the great and unsurpassed trials of the African. These were to be the words of comfort and uplifting to these people in their exile and captivity. They were to remember that if they were despised and scorned, a far greater than themselves had had a similar experience. Christ was to be held up to the suffering African not only as a propitiation for sin, and as a Mediator between God and man, but as a blessed illustration of the glorious fact that persecution and suffering and contempt are no proof that God is not the loving Father of a people—but may be rather an evidence of nearness to God, seeing that they have been chosen to tread in the footsteps of the first-born of the creation, suffering for the welfare of others.[7]
Tell me, now, ye descendants of Africa, tell me whether there is anything in the ancient history of your African ancestors, in their relation to other races, of which you need to be ashamed. Tell me, if there is anything in the modern history of your people, in their dealings with foreign races, whether at home or in exile, of which you need be ashamed? Is there anything, when you compare yourselves with others, to disturb your equanimity, except the universal oppression of which you have been the victims? And what are suffering and sorrow but necessary elements in the progress of humanity? Your suffering has contributed to the welfare of others. It is a part of the constitution of the universe, that out of death should come life. All the advancement made to a better future, by individuals or races, has been made through paths marked by suffering. This great law is written not only in the Bible, but upon all history. “Without the shedding blood there is no remission.” We may say, then, in the language of the poet--
In all the ills we bore,
We grieved, wo sighed, we wept--
We never blushed.
We could not blush physically, and we had no need to blush mentally or morally.
Among the beautiful legends which are scattered throughout ancient Jewish literature is the following, which is not less applicable to us than to the Hebrew race.
When the Decalogue was given, the Israelites said to the Lord; “Thou for biddest us to attempt the life, the honour, or the interest, of our fellow-man. Thou forbiddest us to lie, to covet, to return evil for evil, blow for blow. But if this prohibition is not addressed also to the other nations of the earth, we shall become, alas! their victim.” The Lord answered: “My children, when I created the lamb it came to me and said, ‘O, Lord! Thou hast given me neither claws to tear with, nor teeth to bite with, nor horns to strike with, nor even swift feet with which to flee away. What will become of me in the midst of other animals if I am thus weak and defenceless? And I answered the lamb, ‘Would’st thou, then, prefer to thy feebleness the cruelty of the tiger or the venom of the serpent?’ ‘No, Lord,’ answered Me the lamb; ‘I prefer my feebleness and my innocence, and I thank Thee that Thou hast made me rather the persecuted than the persecutor.’ So thou, O my people Israel. Thou shalt be a lamb in the midst of the nations. Let them tear thee; let them sacrifice thee; thy triumph shall be in thy calmness, in thy resignation, in thine innocence.”
Two characteristics of the African are brought out in the narrative before us. Firstly his teachableness. The eunuch was reading with an earnest desire to understand—to arrive at the knowledge of the truth—but, at the same time, with a dim consciousness that he was only imperfectly apprehending it. “How can I, except some one should guide me?” Secondly, his courtesy and hospitality. “He desired Philip that he would come and sit with him.” Though a man of great power and influence, he did not distain to invite the wandering pedestrian to a seat in his chariot; giving him a real and unaffected welcome, and placing himself at his feet; becoming the guest and pupil, and giving the stranger the place of host and instructor. All truthful travellers in Africa testify to the courteous disposition of the interior natives— those who have never been tampered with by either Arabs or Europeans. They are confiding, unsuspicious, childlike, hospitable, honest, peaceable, and anxious to learn. Thomson, the youthful explorer, who has written one of the best of the recent books on Africa, says; “Of the natives, I have for the most part nothing but good to say. In the majority of places I found them peaceable. Barely did they attempt to throw any obstacles in my way. Almost everywhere, I was received with genuine hospitality and friendship.”[8]
Footnotes:
7 In Mrs. Stowe's inimitable novel we read the following, It was after her principal character had suffered most unjust and brutal treatment: “I saw’em,” said Uncle Tom, “throw my coat in that ar corner, and in my coatpocket is my Bible; if Missis would please get it for me.”
Cassy went and got it. Tom opened it at once, to a heavily-marked passage, much worn, of the last scenes in the life of Him by whose stripes we are healed.
“If Missis would only be so good as to read that ar'—it's better than water."—Uncle Tom's Cabin, ch. xxxiv.
8 In the ‘Annals of the Propagation of the Faith,’ a Eoman Catholic missionary describes his reception by the natives of Southern Kordofan as follows; “On the evening of the 21st September, 1875, I was extremely surprised to find, at half a day's journey from the station of Delen, the great chief of the Noubas coming to meet me, followed by fifty Noubas armed with firearms and lances. He had scarcely seen me, when he dismounted, approached my camel, kissed my hand, saluted me profoundly several times, and said to me in good Arabic, in the dialect of Kordofan, ‘God has sent you amongst us; and behold— we, our little children, our wives, our young daughters, our oxen, cows, sheep and goats, our houses and lands, all are now placed at your disposal. You are our father, and we are your children; we will do all you command us, and we shall be happy.’”—Dublin Review, April, 1881, p. 413.
7 In Mrs. Stowe's inimitable novel we read the following, It was after her principal character had suffered most unjust and brutal treatment: “I saw’em,” said Uncle Tom, “throw my coat in that ar corner, and in my coatpocket is my Bible; if Missis would please get it for me.”
Cassy went and got it. Tom opened it at once, to a heavily-marked passage, much worn, of the last scenes in the life of Him by whose stripes we are healed.
“If Missis would only be so good as to read that ar'—it's better than water."—Uncle Tom's Cabin, ch. xxxiv.
8 In the ‘Annals of the Propagation of the Faith,’ a Eoman Catholic missionary describes his reception by the natives of Southern Kordofan as follows; “On the evening of the 21st September, 1875, I was extremely surprised to find, at half a day's journey from the station of Delen, the great chief of the Noubas coming to meet me, followed by fifty Noubas armed with firearms and lances. He had scarcely seen me, when he dismounted, approached my camel, kissed my hand, saluted me profoundly several times, and said to me in good Arabic, in the dialect of Kordofan, ‘God has sent you amongst us; and behold— we, our little children, our wives, our young daughters, our oxen, cows, sheep and goats, our houses and lands, all are now placed at your disposal. You are our father, and we are your children; we will do all you command us, and we shall be happy.’”—Dublin Review, April, 1881, p. 413.
The eunuch returned to his country with his heart full of joy and peace and love—with a new-born and unquenchable enthusiasm, and became the founder, it is believed, of the Abyssinian Church, which, through various trying vicissitudes, continues to this day. It has resisted all attacks from Paganism on the one hand, and Mohammedanism on the other. In one hundred and fifty years after the death of Mohammed, the victorious banners of Islam had been carried from Arabia into Judea and Palestine; had wrested Egypt and North-western Africa out of the hands of Christians; had pushed its conquering way to Constantinople, and had taken possession of Spain; but it was unable to transcend the limits of Abyssinia. The Abyssinian Church is the only real African Church yet founded whose priests and people are all of the African race.[9]
It is a curious fact that historians, in speaking of the African Church, seldom meant by that phrase the Abyssinian Church, which is far more entitled to that description than any other. Some mean the Church of North- eastern Africa—the Church of Clement of Alexandria, and Origen; others mean the Church of Northwestern Africa—the Church of Tertullian and Cyprian.
And here I cannot avoid pointing out the fact that the continent of Africa comes into view again, in the case of these two Churches, as contributing to. the enlightenment and welfare of humanity. The two most wonderful and productive of all the primitive Christian Churches were both located in Africa, namely, the Greek-speaking Church in North-eastern Africa, and the Latin-speaking Church in North-western Africa. The Latin-speaking Church produced those three great Latin-Africans—Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine. Through them the north-western African Church has permanently affected all Western Christendom—Protestant as well as Roman Catholic, the New World as well as the Old World. The African Tertullian Latinised the theological and ecclesiastical language of the West; and in all controversies on the constitution of the Church, the appeal has been by Western Christians to the African Cyprian; while no one has contributed so much to Western theology as the African Angustine. “Africa, not Rome,” Dean Milman has said, “gave birth to Latin Christianity.”
Yet this Church was extinguished before the energy of the Saracens. Why? It is sometimes said that these Greek and Latin Churches fell away because they were not missionary churches— because they were not aggressive. But the reason lies more on the surface than that. They withered away because they had not much depth of earth. They had not taken root among the people of the country. Neither the Western Church of Carthage, nor the Eastern Church of Alexandria, was ever a national Church— had ever become indigenous. The Church of Tertullian and St. Augustine was Latin, not Punic; the Church of Origen and St. Athanasius was Greek, and not Egyptian.
The case has been far different with the third African Church— the Abyssinian or Ethiopian. Founded by a native, it took hold of the inhabitants of the country, and struck its roots deep into the soil. And we have had very recent illustrations of the vigour and activity of that Church. Only last year the Abyssinian monarch told certain Catholic and Protestant missionaries, who sought to establish themselves in this territory, that he did not want either of them, because the Ethiopians were already Christians, and had held fast their faith under a strain which had destroyed that of more prosperous and civilised peoples. He boasted that his own community was the only African Church which had held fast its Christian faith, century after century, against the successive onslaughts of Heathenism and Mohammedanism. Even the Mohammedans believe in the irrepressible and aggressive vigour of the Abyssinian Church. There is an old prediction among them that from Abyssinia—not from Russia, or any part of Europe—will come the conquerors of Arabia and the destroyers of the Holy City of Mecca. This may be taken as representing the idea that the power of Islam will disappear in Africa, under the influence of African Christians led by African teachers.
It is a curious fact that historians, in speaking of the African Church, seldom meant by that phrase the Abyssinian Church, which is far more entitled to that description than any other. Some mean the Church of North- eastern Africa—the Church of Clement of Alexandria, and Origen; others mean the Church of Northwestern Africa—the Church of Tertullian and Cyprian.
And here I cannot avoid pointing out the fact that the continent of Africa comes into view again, in the case of these two Churches, as contributing to. the enlightenment and welfare of humanity. The two most wonderful and productive of all the primitive Christian Churches were both located in Africa, namely, the Greek-speaking Church in North-eastern Africa, and the Latin-speaking Church in North-western Africa. The Latin-speaking Church produced those three great Latin-Africans—Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine. Through them the north-western African Church has permanently affected all Western Christendom—Protestant as well as Roman Catholic, the New World as well as the Old World. The African Tertullian Latinised the theological and ecclesiastical language of the West; and in all controversies on the constitution of the Church, the appeal has been by Western Christians to the African Cyprian; while no one has contributed so much to Western theology as the African Angustine. “Africa, not Rome,” Dean Milman has said, “gave birth to Latin Christianity.”
Yet this Church was extinguished before the energy of the Saracens. Why? It is sometimes said that these Greek and Latin Churches fell away because they were not missionary churches— because they were not aggressive. But the reason lies more on the surface than that. They withered away because they had not much depth of earth. They had not taken root among the people of the country. Neither the Western Church of Carthage, nor the Eastern Church of Alexandria, was ever a national Church— had ever become indigenous. The Church of Tertullian and St. Augustine was Latin, not Punic; the Church of Origen and St. Athanasius was Greek, and not Egyptian.
The case has been far different with the third African Church— the Abyssinian or Ethiopian. Founded by a native, it took hold of the inhabitants of the country, and struck its roots deep into the soil. And we have had very recent illustrations of the vigour and activity of that Church. Only last year the Abyssinian monarch told certain Catholic and Protestant missionaries, who sought to establish themselves in this territory, that he did not want either of them, because the Ethiopians were already Christians, and had held fast their faith under a strain which had destroyed that of more prosperous and civilised peoples. He boasted that his own community was the only African Church which had held fast its Christian faith, century after century, against the successive onslaughts of Heathenism and Mohammedanism. Even the Mohammedans believe in the irrepressible and aggressive vigour of the Abyssinian Church. There is an old prediction among them that from Abyssinia—not from Russia, or any part of Europe—will come the conquerors of Arabia and the destroyers of the Holy City of Mecca. This may be taken as representing the idea that the power of Islam will disappear in Africa, under the influence of African Christians led by African teachers.
Footnotes:
9 The growing system of indigenous missionary work under Bishop Crowther —the nascent Church of the Niger—if left to struggle through the difficulties incident to youthful life, without the hampering influence of unsympathetic alien oversight, and the injury of misplaced praise or censure, will, in the next generation, be a second Abyssinian Church in aboriginal vigour and permanence.
9 The growing system of indigenous missionary work under Bishop Crowther —the nascent Church of the Niger—if left to struggle through the difficulties incident to youthful life, without the hampering influence of unsympathetic alien oversight, and the injury of misplaced praise or censure, will, in the next generation, be a second Abyssinian Church in aboriginal vigour and permanence.
The 105th chapter of the Koran is devoted to celebrating the deliverance of Mecca from the Christian king of Abyssinia, who, in the year that Mohammed was born, with a large army and some elephants, marched upon Mecca for the purpose of destroying the Kaaba. And yet it was Abyssinia that afforded shelter to the persecuted Muslims, who, in the early days of Islam, had to fly from Arabia for their lives. When Mohammed found that his few followers were likely to be crushed by the opposition at Mecca, he advised their flight into Abyssinia; and there, when the refugees proved to the king, from the Koran, that they were worshippers of the true God and believed in Jesus, they were protected from the destruction which would have extinguished Islam.[10] If then, the two principal religions had not their origin in Africa, yet Africa was the cradle which cherished their helpless infancy.
Now, what are the lessons to be gathered from the preceding discussion? I conceive that they are: First, That Ethiopia and Ethiopians have ever been connected with the Divine administration and manifestations, and that that great country and its people are not left out of the beneficent purposes of the Almighty. Second, That the Gospel, to be successfully carried into Africa, must be carried by Africans. To “a man of Ethiopia” must be entrusted the message to Ethiopians. This truth, I believe, is being recognised now by all foreign workers in Africa. The Mohammedans have acted upon it from the beginning, and this is the chief secret of their widespread and increasing influence on that continent. The finest University for training the propagators of their faith is in Africa. This is established at Cairo, in Egypt. Ten thousand students are to-day gathered under its roof, preparing to go out as missionaries of the Muslim faith. A celebrated traveller has given the following description of this great institution, the educational pride and glory of Islam:--
This University is nine hundred years old (older than Oxford), and still flourishes with as much vigour as in the palmy days of the Arabian conquest. There I saw collected ten thousand students. As one expressed it, “There were two acres of turbans” assembled in a vast enclosure, with no floor but a pavement, and with a roof over it supported by four hundred columns, and at the foot of every column a teacher surrounded by his pupils. As we entered, there rose a hum of thousands of voices reciting the Koran. These students are not only from Egypt, but from all parts of Africa—from Morocco to Zanzibar. They come from far up the Nile, from Nubia and the Soudan, and from Darfour, beyond the Great Desert, and from the Western Coast of Africa. . . . . They live on the charities of the faithful; and when their studies are ended, those who are to be missionaries mount their camels, and, joining a caravan, cross the desert and are lost in the far interior of Africa,
where they become the effective propagators of Islam.[11]
And this plan of propagating religion in Africa, through indigenous agency, is followed by no Christian Church with greater zeal and determination than the Church of Rome. That Church, ever ready to recognise and utilise those elements in human nature which can be made subservient to her interests, is now everywhere educating Africans for the African work. The Dublin Review, an able exponent of Roman Catholic thought, said not long since:--
We are convinced that the only hopeful, promising, and effective way of procedure in respect to Africa is that which may be summed up in the words, the conversion of Africa by the Africans. Christian black settlements ought to be attempted—all over Africa, even, if need be, as among the Mohammedans— after the difficult and costly manner followed by Monsignore Comboni. The task is full of hardship, but no other system will avail. . . . Whether it will be practically possible to organise bands of the Catholic Africano-Americans for the settlement and conversion of Africa—as their Protestant brethren, who sail to Liberia in numbers varying annually from two hundred to five hundred, are organised for that very purpose—remains to be proved. Largo funds are required—hard heads and generous hearts to direct and carry out such an enterprise; but genuine Faith, Hope and Charity are Divine and creative forces, and we must look for great results where they exist and are brought into energetic action.[12]
The Roman Catholic Church now possesses a number of native black priests; other natives are pursuing their theological studies under the auspices of that Church, in Africa; and a community of over thirty Sisters is rendering immense service to the cause of religion on the West Coast.
A third lesson which we gather from the narrative of the text is that, in carrying the Gospel into Africa, the favour of men of influence is not to be despised. While it is true that “not many noble are called,” it is also true that, in all ages, the nobles of the earth have been pillars of the Church. The “man of Ethiopia “was” an eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure.” Christianity in Africa, so far as brought by Europeans, has only to a very limited extent affected the higher classes; and this is why, wherever it seems to have been established, its hold has been so precarious. It is true that Jesus Christ humbled himself, and took upon himself the form of a servant, but he did not spring from the servile classes. He came of the ruling tribe of Judah, and of David’s royal line. No great reforms can be effected without enlisting members of “the household of Cæsar.” Reforms, after all, come from above. “The conversion of the Russian nation,” says Dean Stanley, “was effected, not by the preaching of the Byzantine clergy, but by the marriage of a Byzantine Princess.”[13] Notwithstanding the violent persecutions suffered by the Church in her earlier history, it still remains true that “kings have been her nursing fathers and queens her nursing mothers,” sitting at her cradle and fostering her helpless infancy,
Now, what are the lessons to be gathered from the preceding discussion? I conceive that they are: First, That Ethiopia and Ethiopians have ever been connected with the Divine administration and manifestations, and that that great country and its people are not left out of the beneficent purposes of the Almighty. Second, That the Gospel, to be successfully carried into Africa, must be carried by Africans. To “a man of Ethiopia” must be entrusted the message to Ethiopians. This truth, I believe, is being recognised now by all foreign workers in Africa. The Mohammedans have acted upon it from the beginning, and this is the chief secret of their widespread and increasing influence on that continent. The finest University for training the propagators of their faith is in Africa. This is established at Cairo, in Egypt. Ten thousand students are to-day gathered under its roof, preparing to go out as missionaries of the Muslim faith. A celebrated traveller has given the following description of this great institution, the educational pride and glory of Islam:--
This University is nine hundred years old (older than Oxford), and still flourishes with as much vigour as in the palmy days of the Arabian conquest. There I saw collected ten thousand students. As one expressed it, “There were two acres of turbans” assembled in a vast enclosure, with no floor but a pavement, and with a roof over it supported by four hundred columns, and at the foot of every column a teacher surrounded by his pupils. As we entered, there rose a hum of thousands of voices reciting the Koran. These students are not only from Egypt, but from all parts of Africa—from Morocco to Zanzibar. They come from far up the Nile, from Nubia and the Soudan, and from Darfour, beyond the Great Desert, and from the Western Coast of Africa. . . . . They live on the charities of the faithful; and when their studies are ended, those who are to be missionaries mount their camels, and, joining a caravan, cross the desert and are lost in the far interior of Africa,
where they become the effective propagators of Islam.[11]
And this plan of propagating religion in Africa, through indigenous agency, is followed by no Christian Church with greater zeal and determination than the Church of Rome. That Church, ever ready to recognise and utilise those elements in human nature which can be made subservient to her interests, is now everywhere educating Africans for the African work. The Dublin Review, an able exponent of Roman Catholic thought, said not long since:--
We are convinced that the only hopeful, promising, and effective way of procedure in respect to Africa is that which may be summed up in the words, the conversion of Africa by the Africans. Christian black settlements ought to be attempted—all over Africa, even, if need be, as among the Mohammedans— after the difficult and costly manner followed by Monsignore Comboni. The task is full of hardship, but no other system will avail. . . . Whether it will be practically possible to organise bands of the Catholic Africano-Americans for the settlement and conversion of Africa—as their Protestant brethren, who sail to Liberia in numbers varying annually from two hundred to five hundred, are organised for that very purpose—remains to be proved. Largo funds are required—hard heads and generous hearts to direct and carry out such an enterprise; but genuine Faith, Hope and Charity are Divine and creative forces, and we must look for great results where they exist and are brought into energetic action.[12]
The Roman Catholic Church now possesses a number of native black priests; other natives are pursuing their theological studies under the auspices of that Church, in Africa; and a community of over thirty Sisters is rendering immense service to the cause of religion on the West Coast.
A third lesson which we gather from the narrative of the text is that, in carrying the Gospel into Africa, the favour of men of influence is not to be despised. While it is true that “not many noble are called,” it is also true that, in all ages, the nobles of the earth have been pillars of the Church. The “man of Ethiopia “was” an eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure.” Christianity in Africa, so far as brought by Europeans, has only to a very limited extent affected the higher classes; and this is why, wherever it seems to have been established, its hold has been so precarious. It is true that Jesus Christ humbled himself, and took upon himself the form of a servant, but he did not spring from the servile classes. He came of the ruling tribe of Judah, and of David’s royal line. No great reforms can be effected without enlisting members of “the household of Cæsar.” Reforms, after all, come from above. “The conversion of the Russian nation,” says Dean Stanley, “was effected, not by the preaching of the Byzantine clergy, but by the marriage of a Byzantine Princess.”[13] Notwithstanding the violent persecutions suffered by the Church in her earlier history, it still remains true that “kings have been her nursing fathers and queens her nursing mothers,” sitting at her cradle and fostering her helpless infancy,
Footnotes:
10 This was the first Hijra, or Flight. Abu’l Feda, the Mohammedan historian, gives the following account of it: “In the year 626, when Mohammed was forty-five years old, the Koreish became more severe in their persecutions. Mohammed therefore gave permission to those who had no family, to betake themselves to the land of the Ethiopians. The first who went forth were twelve men and four women. Amongst these, Othman, the son of Allan, and his wife Rakia, the daughter of the Apostle of God; and Zobeir, the son of Awami; and Othman, the son of Matani; and Abdullahi, the son of Masadi; and Abdul Rahman, the son of Awsi. All those betook themselves to the Nagashi, sailing across the sea, and dwelt with him. Then Iafar, the son of Abu Talib, went forth an exile, whom other Muslims followed, one after another. All who took flight into the country of the Ethiopians were eighty-three men and eighteen women, besides children and those who were born there. The Koreish sent two men to demand them—Abdu Mahun, son of Abu Rabia, Amru, son of Al-Asi. They both came, therefore, to Ai-Nagashi, and demanded of him the fugitives. But he did not yield them. Then Amru, son of Al-Asi, said, ‘Ask them what they have to say about Jesus.’ And Nagashi asked them. And they replied with the words which God the Exalted told them, among which is the address which God, through Gabriel, addressed to the Virgin Mary.”—Koran, iii, 40-45.
11 It is a mistake to suppose that Mohammedanism is conquering Africa merely or mainly by arms. The school and the mosque are the most common agencies. Richardson, the African traveller, says: “I was generally called a marabout (i.e., a religious teacher) in the Desert. This arose from the people seeing me without arms, and occupied in reading and writing.”
12 The regions in the vicinity of the Congo River, now about to be occupied by De Brazza, under the auspices of the French government, would be a capital field for the settlement and energies of “Catholic Africano-Americans.”
13 Eastern Church, p. 34.
10 This was the first Hijra, or Flight. Abu’l Feda, the Mohammedan historian, gives the following account of it: “In the year 626, when Mohammed was forty-five years old, the Koreish became more severe in their persecutions. Mohammed therefore gave permission to those who had no family, to betake themselves to the land of the Ethiopians. The first who went forth were twelve men and four women. Amongst these, Othman, the son of Allan, and his wife Rakia, the daughter of the Apostle of God; and Zobeir, the son of Awami; and Othman, the son of Matani; and Abdullahi, the son of Masadi; and Abdul Rahman, the son of Awsi. All those betook themselves to the Nagashi, sailing across the sea, and dwelt with him. Then Iafar, the son of Abu Talib, went forth an exile, whom other Muslims followed, one after another. All who took flight into the country of the Ethiopians were eighty-three men and eighteen women, besides children and those who were born there. The Koreish sent two men to demand them—Abdu Mahun, son of Abu Rabia, Amru, son of Al-Asi. They both came, therefore, to Ai-Nagashi, and demanded of him the fugitives. But he did not yield them. Then Amru, son of Al-Asi, said, ‘Ask them what they have to say about Jesus.’ And Nagashi asked them. And they replied with the words which God the Exalted told them, among which is the address which God, through Gabriel, addressed to the Virgin Mary.”—Koran, iii, 40-45.
11 It is a mistake to suppose that Mohammedanism is conquering Africa merely or mainly by arms. The school and the mosque are the most common agencies. Richardson, the African traveller, says: “I was generally called a marabout (i.e., a religious teacher) in the Desert. This arose from the people seeing me without arms, and occupied in reading and writing.”
12 The regions in the vicinity of the Congo River, now about to be occupied by De Brazza, under the auspices of the French government, would be a capital field for the settlement and energies of “Catholic Africano-Americans.”
13 Eastern Church, p. 34.
A fourth point to be noticed in the narrative is the fact that the teacher received patronage from the taught. The evangelist was offered, and accepted, the hospitality of the eunuch. The first preachers of the gospel were received as guests, and were taken care of by those to whom they ministered. They were the labourers worthy of their hire. They were not the dispensers of worldly patronage. They imparted of their spiritual things, while they received of the temporal things of those among whom they laboured.
When Stanley wrote his famous letter from Uganda, which appeared in the London Daily Telegraph for November, 1875, asking for missionaries to be sent to Mtesa, he suggested such an outfit for the missionary as would suit a trading expedition. It may be that everything he recommended was necessary for Europeans going to a new, difficult, and unhealthy country; but many of the articles hardly seemed in keeping with that spirit which enjoined it upon the first missionaries to take “neither purse nor scrip.”
It is possible that where the gospel has taken root, and the Church has been established, it is not incompatible with its spirit, or with the service of God, that outward magnificence should be an accompaniment of worship. It may be, at times, a duty to bring of our best, and lay it in that form at the feet of our Maker. David would not offer unto the Lord of that which cost him nothing. It was among the excellent qualities of the early Romans, as noted by one of their historians, that they were magnificent in the worship of their gods (magnifici suppliciis deorum). And when the stranger from distant and primitive countries visits this land, he cannot help admiring the wonderful triumphs of architecture as displayed in the splendid and costly structures you have erected for the worship of God.
But these are not the conditions of the spread of eternal truth among a primitive people. We must go practically without purse or scrip; and, after the truth pure and simple has made its way, then, in the process of its growth, and in the course of its development, it may take to itself aesthetic forms according to the genius of its recipients.
The true principle is simplicity in those who bring the glad tidings. Herein lies another secret of the success of the Mohammedan missionaries in Africa. In going from town to town and village to village, they go simply as the bearers of God’s truth. They take their mats or their skins, and their manuscripts, and are followed by their pupils, who, in every new Pagan town, form the nucleus of a school and congregation. These preachers are the receivers, not the dispensers, of charity. I have met, in my travels in the interior of Liberia and Sierra Leone, missionaries from Kairwan, Cairo, Morocco, with nothing—dependent for their daily food upon those whom they instructed; and I have had the humiliating privilege of being benefactor to some of these self-denying men, as missionary to missionary.
The other system—that now pursued by foreign Christian missionaries, and which is perhaps unavoidable—of being the patrons of their disciples, is beset with dangers and temptations. There is the danger on the one hand, of injudiciously patronising —not in the sense of assisting, simply, but in the sense of pauperising—the native converts, and begetting in them a spirit of dependence and servility; and there is, on the other hand, the temptation to the missionary to become proud, supercilious and dictatorial. There was sound philosophy, founded upon an absolute knowledge of human nature, in the direction given by Christ to the first, missionaries, when he commanded them to take “neither purse nor scrip.” But how is it possible for the European missionary to practise this sort of self-denial, when, to keep his health, energy and life on that continent, he must not be too far from his base of supplies?
This, again, shows the necessity of “the man of Ethiopia” for the working the country of the Ethiopians. The Negro missionary, born and brought up in foreign countries, is, to a large extent, in the position of the foreigner; but he has the advantage of physical adaptation, which gives the opportunity for protracted labour; and, from the unfailing and indelible instincts of race, he can more fully enter into sympathy with the people; and, meeting with an unsuppressed and untrammelled response, can arrive at effective methods of dealing with novel questions, as, from time to time, they arise. Thus he is enabled to train the thoroughly indigenous elements which will rise up, and lay deeper foundations, and give more continuous impulse to the truth which he has introduced. It is in this way that American Negroes, who have gone to Africa from this country, have been able to do a great and permanent work there; and it is in this way, and even more effectively, that the thousands now being trained in this country—at Lincoln, Fisk, Hampton, Atlanta, Biddle, and other institutions—will accomplish wonders for the evangelisation and civilisation of the land of their fathers.
When Stanley wrote his famous letter from Uganda, which appeared in the London Daily Telegraph for November, 1875, asking for missionaries to be sent to Mtesa, he suggested such an outfit for the missionary as would suit a trading expedition. It may be that everything he recommended was necessary for Europeans going to a new, difficult, and unhealthy country; but many of the articles hardly seemed in keeping with that spirit which enjoined it upon the first missionaries to take “neither purse nor scrip.”
It is possible that where the gospel has taken root, and the Church has been established, it is not incompatible with its spirit, or with the service of God, that outward magnificence should be an accompaniment of worship. It may be, at times, a duty to bring of our best, and lay it in that form at the feet of our Maker. David would not offer unto the Lord of that which cost him nothing. It was among the excellent qualities of the early Romans, as noted by one of their historians, that they were magnificent in the worship of their gods (magnifici suppliciis deorum). And when the stranger from distant and primitive countries visits this land, he cannot help admiring the wonderful triumphs of architecture as displayed in the splendid and costly structures you have erected for the worship of God.
But these are not the conditions of the spread of eternal truth among a primitive people. We must go practically without purse or scrip; and, after the truth pure and simple has made its way, then, in the process of its growth, and in the course of its development, it may take to itself aesthetic forms according to the genius of its recipients.
The true principle is simplicity in those who bring the glad tidings. Herein lies another secret of the success of the Mohammedan missionaries in Africa. In going from town to town and village to village, they go simply as the bearers of God’s truth. They take their mats or their skins, and their manuscripts, and are followed by their pupils, who, in every new Pagan town, form the nucleus of a school and congregation. These preachers are the receivers, not the dispensers, of charity. I have met, in my travels in the interior of Liberia and Sierra Leone, missionaries from Kairwan, Cairo, Morocco, with nothing—dependent for their daily food upon those whom they instructed; and I have had the humiliating privilege of being benefactor to some of these self-denying men, as missionary to missionary.
The other system—that now pursued by foreign Christian missionaries, and which is perhaps unavoidable—of being the patrons of their disciples, is beset with dangers and temptations. There is the danger on the one hand, of injudiciously patronising —not in the sense of assisting, simply, but in the sense of pauperising—the native converts, and begetting in them a spirit of dependence and servility; and there is, on the other hand, the temptation to the missionary to become proud, supercilious and dictatorial. There was sound philosophy, founded upon an absolute knowledge of human nature, in the direction given by Christ to the first, missionaries, when he commanded them to take “neither purse nor scrip.” But how is it possible for the European missionary to practise this sort of self-denial, when, to keep his health, energy and life on that continent, he must not be too far from his base of supplies?
This, again, shows the necessity of “the man of Ethiopia” for the working the country of the Ethiopians. The Negro missionary, born and brought up in foreign countries, is, to a large extent, in the position of the foreigner; but he has the advantage of physical adaptation, which gives the opportunity for protracted labour; and, from the unfailing and indelible instincts of race, he can more fully enter into sympathy with the people; and, meeting with an unsuppressed and untrammelled response, can arrive at effective methods of dealing with novel questions, as, from time to time, they arise. Thus he is enabled to train the thoroughly indigenous elements which will rise up, and lay deeper foundations, and give more continuous impulse to the truth which he has introduced. It is in this way that American Negroes, who have gone to Africa from this country, have been able to do a great and permanent work there; and it is in this way, and even more effectively, that the thousands now being trained in this country—at Lincoln, Fisk, Hampton, Atlanta, Biddle, and other institutions—will accomplish wonders for the evangelisation and civilisation of the land of their fathers.
A fifth point, to be observed in the narrative, is the absence of all forms, the freedom from pomp and circumstance, which attended the conversion of the eunuch. He had been up to Jerusalem, the city of sacred associations, and was probably there during the exciting times of the crucifixion, of the Pentecostal manifestation, and of the accusation and murder of Stephen; but his attention was not drawn to the new revelation. He was, perhaps, too much engrossed by the novel sights he was daily witnessing in the metropolis of Judea, to pay any attention to the execution of felons, the demonstrations of fanatics, or the stoning of a blasphemer. Or, perhaps, his earnest and enquiring mind had been perplexed by the endless discussions of the Sadducees and Scribes: the one denying the existence of everything spiritual, of everything which could not be demonstrated by the senses—the agnostics of their day; the other spending their time in investigating the letter of the Scripture, and failing to catch its spirit; while another party made broad their phylacteries, lengthened their prayers, and multiplied their fasts, insisting that that was the true religion. And, no doubt, bearing in mind the disputations he had heard concerning the Law and the Prophets, he availed himself of those hours of silence, while passing through the desert, to read for himself the sacred pages, and “he read the prophet Esaias.” Here was a mind anxiously seeking the truth, and his effort was not to be in vain. “Wherever a great problem of the human spirit is growing towards its solution, and the soil of humanity is prepared for new seed from heaven, God sends his chosen creature to proclaim the truth which brings the light.” Philip was directed to “arise and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert” And there, in that solitude, the truth was revealed to the inquiring eunuch. There was nothing to distract the mind or distort the impression received. When he reached his home there would be only the three things to remember—the Word, the Evangelist, the Desert. With nothing but the air around them, the freedom of whose motion represented the Spirit’s influence, blowing where it listeth—and the sunlight, emblem of the Sun of Righteousness, which was rising to illumine the new way on which the eunuch was entering—Philip “preached unto him Jesus.” There was no form, no ritual, no liturgy, no action, no rites. A new spirit was coming upon Ethiopia, and it would create new forms for itself. This I take to be the significance of the peculiar circumstances of the eunuch’s admission into the Christian Church; and the incident furnishes a most instructive commentary on the words of Christ, that the Kingdom of God “cometh not with observation” or outward show. The hour had come when the worship of the Father was to be confined neither to holy mountain nor holy city; therefore the new religion was imparted to him, who was to represent it in a new country, divested of forms and elaborate ceremony, in the freedom and silence of the desert.
The next lesson we gather from this interesting narrative is that the preaching of Christ, and Him crucified, is the regenerating power by which Africa is to be reclaimed—the simple story of the Cross.
Observe now, in conclusion, the simplicity of the confession required of the eunuch. “What doth hinder me to be baptized?” he asked, in his anxiety to take upon himself the obligation of membership in the new Church. The reply of the evangelist was, “If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest.” We have no hard condition there, no insisting upon difficult dogmas. Well, what was he to believe? We have it in the prompt answer of the eunuch: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” This is the sum and substance of the requirements of the Gospel. This is the faith which, Jesus said to Peter, flesh and blood do not reveal, and upon which the Church is founded. This was the one essential article of faith in the Apostolic Church. It is the radical idea, the central truth, of the Christian system; and it is the only influence that has power to reform the world.
I need not pause here to remark that one of the chief hindrances to the progress of the truth in Africa has been the constant desire to give prominence to deductions made by men from the great facts of revelation, instead of lifting up Christ, and believing the words that He spake unto His disciples; “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me;” “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls;” “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” These are the words that bring light and beauty and encouragement and strength to the benighted. Instruct them by the simple teachings of Christ— the Sermon on the Mount, and the Lord’s Prayer. Instruct them by the simple method of Christ. He moved through the ordinary life of men, and drew His teachings from everything He saw—the sower and the seed, the field, the fisherman, the boat, the rain that fell, the ways of the sheep, the vine and the branches. Through all these He taught His disciples, and brought instruction and refreshment to their souls, illustrating by His surroundings—by the birds of the air and the lilies of the field—the tender care of God the Father over all His children. This is the teaching that will save men of all races and climes— adapted to men in the lowest stages of society, and adapted to men in the highest walks of life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The next lesson we gather from this interesting narrative is that the preaching of Christ, and Him crucified, is the regenerating power by which Africa is to be reclaimed—the simple story of the Cross.
Observe now, in conclusion, the simplicity of the confession required of the eunuch. “What doth hinder me to be baptized?” he asked, in his anxiety to take upon himself the obligation of membership in the new Church. The reply of the evangelist was, “If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest.” We have no hard condition there, no insisting upon difficult dogmas. Well, what was he to believe? We have it in the prompt answer of the eunuch: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” This is the sum and substance of the requirements of the Gospel. This is the faith which, Jesus said to Peter, flesh and blood do not reveal, and upon which the Church is founded. This was the one essential article of faith in the Apostolic Church. It is the radical idea, the central truth, of the Christian system; and it is the only influence that has power to reform the world.
I need not pause here to remark that one of the chief hindrances to the progress of the truth in Africa has been the constant desire to give prominence to deductions made by men from the great facts of revelation, instead of lifting up Christ, and believing the words that He spake unto His disciples; “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me;” “Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls;” “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” These are the words that bring light and beauty and encouragement and strength to the benighted. Instruct them by the simple teachings of Christ— the Sermon on the Mount, and the Lord’s Prayer. Instruct them by the simple method of Christ. He moved through the ordinary life of men, and drew His teachings from everything He saw—the sower and the seed, the field, the fisherman, the boat, the rain that fell, the ways of the sheep, the vine and the branches. Through all these He taught His disciples, and brought instruction and refreshment to their souls, illustrating by His surroundings—by the birds of the air and the lilies of the field—the tender care of God the Father over all His children. This is the teaching that will save men of all races and climes— adapted to men in the lowest stages of society, and adapted to men in the highest walks of life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
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