Into the Heart of Africa
By William A. Spicer
It was but a few weeks ago that the call came to enter Nyassaland. Our mission funds were low, and work was already planned to the extent of the resources. But the time has come for quick work. When the trumpet sounds the charge, we must go forward. The Lord laid the burden upon the conferences, and now a well-equipped party is ready to sail for Africa, and a mission station awaits them, so that there will be no long, expensive, and wearing delay of months in seeking a place and building suitable quarters in which to open work. It has been a quick work, even as that in Hezekiah’s day, of which we read: “And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the whole people: for the thing was done suddenly.” 2 Chron. 29:36. The details of our Nyassaland arrangements are told in another department of this paper. This move is a token of good cheer to this people. God knows the path into all the dark fields. He is preparing his workmen to lead us into every corner of this earth. As we rise to the high plane of heaven’s own missionary enthusiasm, so that every resource is devoted to the finishing of this work, do you not believe that we shall see the work of years done in a few short weeks? We certainly shall. It is an inspiring view that we get of the dark continent just now. In the British colonial fields to the southward, strong conference interests are being built up, so that in the near future splendid resources for pushing the work into the interior will be available. Already a strong mission committee has been formed in South Africa, in whose hands the home board has placed the advisory direction of the work for the interior. From Matabeleland, northward, our brethren are pushing their stations, having already reached the Zambezi, not far from Victoria Falls. On the Gold Coast we have still a foothold, and the work begun there years ago must be revived and pushed eastward. From Egypt our brethren are looking southward toward the Sudan and the head waters of the Nile. Now, in Nyassaland, our workers will push northward toward the same point. We lack only an Abyssinian contingent, to operate from the east to the westward, and Africa would be surrounded. The thought is enough to fire every heart. It may sound like big talk to speak of surrounding Africa with the few workers we have in the field. But we may count the angels on our side. Africa is a vast continent. Its numerous tribes speak over seven hundred dialects. But a few score of leading languages will reach most of the people. We need not be at all dismayed. The Lord knows all the tongues, and his angels have threaded every one of those thousands of beaten paths that run from the coast away toward the heart of Africa, where sin has reigned so cruelly. The slave trade, the drink traffic, the white man’s greed, have wrought ruin these many years. Now the time has come for the blessed message of Christ’s coming to be carried to those who are waiting for it. That multitudes are even now prepared to receive it is evident from what has been done in Matabeleland, the Gold Coast, Egypt, and now Nyassaland, to which we have but just been introduced. Pushing in from all sides toward the heart of the continent, it need take but a few years till even darkest Africa is lighted up with this blessed message that is now sent to lighten the whole world with its glory.