Cast thy Bread Upon the Waters; for Thou Shalt Find it After Many Days by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 16, 1882

"Cast thy Bread Upon the Waters; for Thou Shalt Find it After Many Days."

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.

As we near the closing scenes of this world's history we shall see the fruit of missionary efforts breaking out here and there in different parts of the world, where the seed has been sown.

A late number of The Church Missionary Gleaner, published in London, England, contains a short sketch of the life and death of the late Dr. John Ludwig Krapf, the pioneer missionary to East and Central Africa, who died very suddenly the twenty-sixth of last November. At the age of twenty-seven years he gave himself to the missionary cause, and although he lived to be seventy-one years of age, and his life was filled up with hardships and privations, as the result of which very little immediate fruit was seen, he never took back the sacrifice. Death found him at his post, and even while in the act of devotion laid his icy hand upon him. Retiring at night quite well as usual, he was found dead in the morning kneeling at his bedside.

Dr. Krapf's first experience as a missionary was in Abyssinia from whence he was driven by the Jesuits. He then labored, it seems unsuccessfully, in the neighboring kingdom of Shoa for three years. Following this he and his wife spent some considerable time in journeying from one place to another, during which they suffered great privations. A child born to them at this time was significantly named Eneba, which means a tear.

At length every door in that part of Africa seemed closed, and proceeding down the coast of Zanzibar he visited Mombasa on his way. Here his wife was taken from him, but still his brave spirit quailed not. In writing home to the committee he spoke of her lonely grave as a pledge and token of the possession of East Africa for Christ. Near by this spot is the now flourishing settlement of Frese Town. This first visit to Mombasa was the precursor of all the discoveries which have been made in Central Africa during the last twenty-five years. By his example, and as a pioneer he accomplished great things, but in the success most cheering to a missionary heart, that which he himself could see and appreciate, he had very little to encourage him. Only one convert for those long years of toil, self-denial, and suffering was all that he had knowledge of. His last years were occupied in preparing dictionaries in several African languages, and the translation of the Scriptures.

There is something for contemplation in such a life which is grand and noble, yet in the narrative as substantially given above there was an incidental clause which still more than this attracted our attention. The writer quotes the language of another missionary respecting his conversation with the deceased the day before he died, in which he says, "In the afternoon I spent an hour with him in his study, talking of the approaching Second Advent of Christ." That Dr. Krapf and his friend believed this event to be near is evident from the expression. The query at once arises, how was their attention called to this subject. Whether God by his Holy Spirit was leading their minds in this direction, or whether publications treating upon it, had fallen into their hands, the matter is a source of encouragement, for it shows that the truth is finding its way to the remote parts of the world. That reading matter from our publishing houses may have reached these missionaries, is not impossible. About four years ago quite a supply was put on board a vessel bound for some port along the coast of Zanzibar, by the General Tract and Missionary Society, to say nothing of the large quantities which have been sent out by our ship missionaries to all parts of the world. We know not to how many hearts the rays of light have been communicated by this means. But we do know that this is the legitimate work of our publications, and we may therefore expect to see persons embracing the truth in every civilized portion of the globe.