Untitled article by Stephen Nelson Haskell

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 4, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 42.

SOUTH AFRICA AS A MISSION FIELD. NO. 1.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

IN speaking of South Africa as a mission field it may be proper to say a word respecting the closing work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In many ways it is the same as the opening work, the task that was allotted to the apostles and their co-laborers. They came in contact with every phase of life and creeds, ranging from the bigotry of the Jews to the idolatrous practices of the Greeks and Romans. As great differences as these have to be encountered to-day, and, added to these difficulties, the facts that the world is more extensively populated, and that population more settled in their ways and hardened by the rejection of the light which God in his mercy has sent them from time to time. But if the closing work is to be attended with more trial and persecution than was the opening work, so God in his love and kindness to his servants now upon the earth will clothe them with greater power, and the grace of Christ will be more manifest.

Wonderful works were wrought by those who received the early rain when the Spirit of God rested on the believers on the day of Pentecost, and yet these works are not to be compared to those which will be performed by the children of God in the last days, when the showers of the latter rain shall have been poured upon them. The work accomplished at that time prefigured the closing work. It brought to maturity the seed that had been sown during the three and a half years of our Lord's ministry by Christ and his disciples in the conversion of thousands of souls. We have been laboring many years, and just as soon as the latter rain is poured forth and the loud cry of the Third Angel's Message goes with power, many will take their stand for the truth that have been convinced of it for a long time.

As a people we will have to guard against the idea that we are the only ones to whom God has intrusted the closing work. As there were many other agencies besides the disciples heralding the glad tidings of the first advent of the Redeemer, so there will be many in the last days. Looking back to Bible times it can be seen that the apostles themselves did not at the time appreciate these agents that God was using. Mark 9:38-42. Then there was the work of John the Baptist even after the Saviour and his disciples had commenced to teach. These were still engaged in fulfilling the prophecy, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Nor was the work confined to those who had a full knowledge of the prophecy; the wise men from the East, as well as the disciples, came to worship him. Matt. 2:1, 2.

God weighs moral worth more than intellect, learning, or even a theoretical knowledge of the truth. God works in a wonderful and a marvelous way, which many of his professed people will not believe, though it be declared unto them. Isa. 29:13, 14. At the present time the Lord is sending missionaries of every denomination to the heathen nations of the world, to prepare the way for this message to follow. These are all agents in the hands of God to bring about the closing work, and should be regarded as such. The eighteen different nationalities who shared in the outpouring of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, prefigure the time when the message will go to every kindred, nation, tongue, and people, and the earth be lighted with the glory of the Lord.

In less than forty years after the Saviour had called the twelve disciples, the apostle Paul writes, making the statement that the gospel was preached to every creature under Heaven. Col. 1:23. Africa during this period must have heard the gospel; some of the earliest Christians must have been natives of this continent. However, in Rom. 1:21-32, we have the sad picture of how the Lord cast off the heathen because they obeyed not his voice. But are they any more hopelessly cast off than the Jews who crucified their divine Lord? Will there not be a remnant of the 200,000,000 natives of this land saved in the kingdom of God? Will there not be a few of these teeming millions inhabiting African soil who will help to swell the number of the redeemed? Yes, indeed, there are as precious souls in Africa as there are in all other places on the earth.

Let us consider a few events which have been taking place in this dark continent for more than a century in time past, and see if in them we cannot discern the providence of God preparing the way for the Third Angel's Message. It was in the year of our Lord 1737 that George Schmidt, who, "for conscience' sake," had suffered six years in prison, and who bore, till the day of his death, the marks of the cruel treatment he had undergone whilst there, began to tell the story of the cross to a company of dark-minded Hottentots, in a little nook 130 miles north of the spot where Cape Town now stands, and which afterwards took the beautiful and appropriate name of the "Vale of Grace."

For six long and weary years this lone Moravian missionary strove to enlighten the inhabitants of benighted Africa, and it was not until the seventh year that he began to see fruit of his labor. However, after the first encouraging sign, converts multiplied rapidly. But the whites disapproved of his work, and he was forbidden to baptize, and finally was compelled to leave the country. Nevertheless, the good seed he sowed was far too precious for the Lord of the harvest to permit it to wither and die; it has borne good fruit, and by its influence tens of thousands have been enlightened in South Africa by the story of Calvary's cross. Even when obliged to leave his field he did not relinquish his burden for it, but, like Livingstone, his follower, died on his knees, pleading with God that "Ethiopia might soon stretch out her hands to him."

The seed which the Lord used his servant to plant, although it lay dormant for half a century, has taken deep root and sent up a vigorous stem, from which many of the natives have been enabled to draw of the sap of the love of God. At the present day there is scarcely a Christian nation on the face of the earth which has not missionaries on this continent. Shall we ignore all the work that these men are doing, and say that the hand of the Lord is not in it? No; the Lord has indeed a providence in it.

Fifty years after Schmidt had been driven away, the providence of God opened up the way for others to take up the neglected work. The same spot was visited, and here they found, to their great joy, a few remains of the walls of the mission that he had built, a few fruit-trees bearing fruit, but what was still more precious, some fruit of the spiritual seeds that had been sown so many years before. Among others was an aged Hottentot woman whom Schmidt had taught to read her Bible; she was still preserving the precious treasure which he had given her, and welcomed the missionaries as the brethren of her former instructor. For a time the mission was greatly opposed by the Dutch, but the hand of the Lord has prospered it, and, at the present time, the "Vale of Grace" is able to show a goodly settlement, with a congregation of 3,000 souls. From this center the Moravian mission work has extended, till they are now established in two provinces, with sixteen stations, sixty missionaries, and more that 12,000 converts to the Christian faith.

About the same time that these successors of Schmidt commenced their work, Theodosius Vanderkemp, of Holland, established a mission in

one of the darkest places on all the continent. For thirteen years he labored untiringly, till he fell asleep in Jesus. But the good work has gone forward until the mission has sent out more than 100 native preachers, and brought 6,000 souls into the church.

Soon after, the London Missionary Society and the Wesleyan Society commenced their work. The latter at first located in the southern portion of the continent, and by degrees has extended its operations from Cape Colony to Kaffraria, Natal, and Bechuana. At present they have in their employ sixty missionaries, and these and their predecessors have led to the light of the gospel 6,000 souls. The American Board took the field in 1834, and has now three missions, the Zulu, the West African, and the East African. It has thirty stations, and forty-eight laborers from America, besides forty native assistants. Its church members number 2,000, and there are also, as a result of its labors, 7,000 adherents to the Christian faith. Many other societies might be mentioned, such as the French, the Berlin, the Rhenish, and others, but space will not permit to tell of the faithful work which they are doing. Suffice to say that it is estimated that in South Africa there are more than a dozen societies, occupying two hundred stations, and employing over five hundred laborers, besides a much larger force of native laborers. It is further stated that there are in all 40,000 converts to Christianity, and 50,000 children gathered into the Christian schools.

Nothing has been said of Central Africa and the Congo, where the truth of God is also being promulgated, as it is in many other far-off districts from which we hear but little. An interesting description of this work is given by Mr. Arnot in his work entitled "Gareenganze." From this we can also obtain some idea of the privations and hardships which others are undergoing in order that souls may be saved from African soil to wield the palm branch of victory, and sing redemption's song around the great white throne.

It is a limited idea of the magnitude of the closing work for any one people to think that they, and they alone, are the only instruments in the hands of God to prepare people for the kingdom. Such an idea would not coincide with the plans of the God of the Bible. If God has intrusted to us as a people a special work, it becomes us to carry it forward with all the powers of mind and body that he has bestowed upon us, that at his coming the talents lent may be returned with usury. Ever must we remember that the Lord of the harvest is using other agents in the closing work, that the way may be prepared for the special message. We who are so unworthy in the sight of God should consider that it is the greatest honor that could be conferred upon us to have any part in a work so great and important. When we try to contemplate the infinity of "our Father's" plans we are overcome with their greatness, and our finite understanding sinks powerless, unable to perform such a task. Only with the apostle can we say: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out? For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen."

S. N. H.