ON, STANLEY, ON! | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 23, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 49.

"ON, STANLEY, ON!"

BRILLIANTLY shines this name in the resplendent list of great explorers. To America, to newspaper enterprise, and to the New York Herald in particular, belongs the credit, while to the whole world accrues the benefit, and to the human race the glory.

Christianity is the indirect cause of it all. What sent Stanley to Africa?—The uncertainty of the fate of Dr. David Livingstone. What sent him there from Scotland?—The love of Christ constrained him; his motive in exploration was not primarily his own glory or that of the British Empire, but Christian civilization. In searching for the intrepid missionary, Stanley displayed heroism, sagacity, and genius, which attracted the notice, elicited the admiration, and won the confidence of the world.

His subsequent hardships, labors, and discoveries have made him more famous than any of his predecessors. They have opened the richest portions of the continent to commerce, revealed the extent, and led to what it is hoped will prove effectual measures for the suppression of the slave-trade, and thrown open avenues for the entrance of Christianity.

After Stanley went William Taylor, not less courageous, if possible more enthusiastic, without the patronage of earthly kings, but endeavoring to possess the land in the name of the King of kings—Stanley young and virile, Taylor having reached the age when nature longs for repose. The sovereign ties which have patronized Stanley seek commercial gain and territorial expansion; Taylor goes with the apostolic proclamation, "I seek not yours, but you."

A special glory of Stanley's career is that after discovering Livingstone he has rescued Emin Pasha; but its most far-reaching result will be its relation to the overthrow of the slave-trade, and that he has "made a breach through which can shine the only Light that ever lightened the world."—The (N. Y.) Christian Advocate.