RUM AMONG THE HEATHEN

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 9, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 23.

RUM AMONG THE HEATHEN.

REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, one of the earlier missionaries to the Pacific islands, once wrote to a friend:—

“I dread the arrival of an American ship, for, though she may have more missionaries in her cabin, she brings in her hold the death waters of damnation.”

Rev. D. A. Day, a missionary in Africa, says:—

“I tell you candidly that unless something is done soon the rum traffic will wipe out the population of Africa. The huge crime now being perpetrated on this country in the name of commerce is terrible. God help us.”

Sir Richard Burton, of England, after long observation, expresses his opinion as follows:

“It is my sincere belief that if the slave

trade were revived, with all its horrors, and Africa could get rid of the white man, with the gunpowder and rum which he has introduced, Africa would be a gainer in happiness by the exchange.”

Archdeacon Jeffries, after thirty-one years' service in India, says:—

“For one really converted Christian as the fruit of missionary labor, the drinking practices of the English have made 1,000 drunkards. This is a sad thought, but it is the solemn truth. If the English were driven out of India to-morrow, the chief trace of their having been there would be the number of drunkards left behind.”