A Covenant by Sacrifice by S. M. KONIGMACHER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 4, 1913

A Covenant by Sacrifice

By S. M. KONIGMACHER

THE show is lying six inches deep on my window here in Pittsburgh as I am writing, and my friends say the storm came for our especial benefit, for it has been over five years since we saw the snow cover the ground, making everything look so pure and clean. It reminds me of the glorious gospel, which makes the different nations and tribes one, washed in the blood of the Lamb.

It is a great privilege to be permitted to enjoy the bracing atmosphere of the home land and to meet friends and loved ones again; but we are also glad that the time is drawing near when we can return to our home in Africa, and help push the work in that vast country where workers are so badly needed. We sail December 11, from New York, on the “Celtic.”

Since coming to this country our time has been filled up by trying to get others interested in missions. Some have manifested their interest in a very substantial way, which causes us to rejoice; but our hearts are saddened when we see the waste on every side, knowing how much good could be accomplished if we had only a fraction of it with which to spread the gospel among a most needy people.

With the comforts of our pleasant homes and the knowledge of a Saviour from sin, it is hard for us to feel the great need of the poor African bound by his heathen customs and medicine-men. The people resort to the witch-doctor or medicine-man for everything, and as he is a keen student of human nature, he has little trouble in deceiving his people. Years ago, before the advent of the white man, if this witch-doctor thought it advisable he would say that there was witchcraft, and then he would call all his villages together for a poison drink. Those who drank and died of the effect of the poison were possessed of the evil spirit. Those who threw off the poison were all right. Those who lingered between life and death for a time in their huts, received no assistance; all forsook them, not even giving them a cup of cold water. When they died, they were cast out into the bush for the hyenas to eat, and became to their people as if they had never been born. This cannot be done on a large scale now, for fear of the government, for death by this means is considered murder.

So, dear friends, we ought to be glad to be trusted with such a gospel of peace, and do all in our power to carry it to those who need it so much. Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in a very short time the work will be finished, and Jesus will come and gather his people from the east, and from the west, and from all parts of the earth, and there will be no more parting. What a glad reunion that will be!

From word received from time to time, we are rejoiced that the work is going steadily forward.

I have just returned from a very profitable trip to Ohio, where two persons pledged to support a teacher in one of the little schools which we are establishing in the jungle; and by occupying the pulpit of the Congregational church at one service, I received cash and pledges amounting to sixty-five dollars. The small sum of fifteen dollars will open one of these schools and support a teacher for one year.

I wish I had the time and means to visit all our churches and tell them what their money is doing in that far-off land. Some say that they are doing all they can, for the calls are so many and the needs so great in all the fields. Let me say, Some are truly making a covenant by sacrifice, but I have been in some homes where the price of a single piece of furniture would more than open an out-school in Central Africa, and the piece of furniture would not be missed from the room either. So while some are doing all they can, others might do more if they realized the times in which we are living.

Let us take new courage and consecrate our all to the finishing of the work in our generation. Pray for the work and workers in British Central Africa.

S. M. KONIGMACHER.