LIBERIA AND MENDI MISSIONS.
By Stephen N. Haskell
THOSE who have followed us thus far through the northern and central portions of Africa, will be prepared to follow to the west coast—Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Senegal, where the gospel has been planted many years, and with most encouraging results. From the coast to the eastern boundary is about 100 miles. Liberia contains about 14,300 square miles, and has 400 miles of coast line. It is estimated that there are 18,000 Americo-Liberians, and 1,050,000 aboriginal inhabitants. The government is republican in form, and the constitution is on the model of that of the United States. This is not a country of wealth, but rather of poverty. The Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, have had manual labor missions that have given a healthful mould to the work. They have taught the people to build houses, etc. The Methodist missionaries are also at work in this place. In former times our publications have gone to this place from New York. Considering the relation between the United States and Liberia, and the many negroes that have emigrated from the former to the latter place, and the nature of the government, it should be one of the best mission fields in all Africa. Senator Morgan, of Alabama, has written much to show that Liberia, as a distributing point, possesses advantages over any other portion of Africa. He argues that it might be a country of wealth and power, and has recommended the establishment of a steam line to the west coast, and especially to Liberia, from the United States. But the alcoholic drinks shipped there ruin the people. This has been the greatest evil that the missionaries have had to contend with. They find it even more difficult to cope with than any one evil that existed among the heathen themselves. Certainly Christian nations will have an account to render to God in the day of judgment, for the liquor that has been sent to Africa. On those tribes of heathen who have never experienced the blessings of civilization, and who have never learned to control their appetites, the effect of intoxicating liquors is fearful. In Sierra Leone, Gambia, Gold Coast, and Lagos, the Wesleyan Methodists and other missions are at work. Including their native and foreign preachers, they have nearly 800 at work. They have numerous schools and chapels, and many thousand members. The Gold Coast has an area of 15,000 square miles, and 400,000 inhabitants. Sierra Leone has 468 square miles, and 60,548 inhabitants. Lagos is an island of 73 square miles, and has a population of 75,270. Senegal is a French colony on the Senegal River. Many of the readers of the Signs are familiar with the name of Hannah More, who embraced the Sabbath while a missionary in Africa. She afterwards returned to America, was baptized, and fully identified herself with our people. She visited the church at Battle Creek, Mich., and then went to the house of a missionary friend, a Mr. Thompson, who lived in the northern part of the State, where she died. It was in 1861 when she first heard the subject of the prophecies, and the Sabbath question explained. At the beginning of the American Rebellion, General Lion was killed in Missouri, but was taken to Eastford, Conn., to be buried. At this time we were holding meetings in a school-house at the place, and Sister Hannah More, having attended the funeral, came to our meetings. Providentially, we stopped at the house where she was visiting, and she became deeply interested in the Sabbath, the prophecies, and other truths connected therewith. Not long after, she returned to Africa, and held a prominent position in the Mendi mission. Our correspondence continued, and we sent her publications from time to time. About this time many missionaries left the mission on account of a contagious disease that seemed to be fatal in that section of country. She was advised to leave, but her reply was that the providence of God had placed her there, and she would trust him to care for her while she continued about the work he assigned to her. A few years subsequent to this she embraced the Sabbath. The mission was carried on by friends in England. They learned of her change of views, and wished to be informed why she had adopted such a strange belief. The books she had received she forwarded to these friends in England, but they did not have the same effect on them that they had had on her. The result was that others were sent to take charge of the mission, and she left. She visited other missions on the coast, and finding among them no place to work, returned to the States. Here she was healed, in answer to prayer, of a disease that had been preying on her for many years, and at the same time sight was restored to one of her eyes, in which she had been blind a long time. During the time that she was in Africa we had sent her a small paper pictorial chart; this she had given to a friend who was going to Senegal; there was another who embraced the message through her influence, a Mr. Dickenson, by birth an Australian. He also was excluded from the mission and returned to his home in Melbourne. We afterwards found him in San Francisco, and whilst relating his experience he said that he had published the Sabbath truth all through the colony of Victoria, but had failed to interest others in it. Discouraged in this attempt, he renounced his views, and embraced those held by Swedenborgen. When we went to Australia, some years ago, we learned the effect of his work. While holding meetings among the French in Illinois, Elder D. T. Bourdeau came across a young man who offered himself as a candidate for baptism. His story was something as follows: During the war between France and Germany, some years before, a part of the French territory fell under the German rule. The French offered transportation to the colony of Senegal to those who wished to go. He went among the number, and there he found a small company observing the Sabbath, who had a pictorial chart similar to that which Elder Bourdeau used. It was here that he received the light of the Third Angel's Message. He left Senegal for France, but was shipwrecked, picked up by an American vessel, and landed in New York. From there he worked his way to Illinois, where he met Elder Bourdeau. He said that he wanted to join the church, and learn all that he could about the doctrines held by the Seventh-day Adventist people, that he might return to Senegal and better instruct those whom he had left there. From this point, we are sorry to say, we lost all trace of him, and whether he ever returned to Senegal or not we cannot tell. In Africa there are between thirty and forty different missionary societies, with over 732 foreign workers, and over 9,293 natives. Then there are other missionaries who are doing an independent work, and are not connected with these societies. With some of these we have a personal acquaintance. They have left home, friends, and, to all outward appearances, have sacrificed all for Christ.761Is there not a providence of God in all this? Is it not partly by this means that the Lord intends to have the earth lightened with his glory? Oh, that we had hearts capable of taking in more of God's wondrous power to work! If God has honored us to fill some little place in his cause, praise and gratitude should fill our hearts for the privilege. The Lord has a world-wide work, and that portion which has been committed to our care to perform, is only to give the finishing touches. It is our duty to put them on with care, but we must never discard the efforts that others are putting forth; for they too are instruments in the hand of the Master.