fact that the French possessions are largely without Protestant mission

aries.

The Sudan is unoccupied by Protestant forces, partly, at least, because this region has just been opened to unrestricted foreign communication. Africa, east of the great lakes, is unoccupied partly because of the greater attraction in the lake district beyond. Missionaries have constantly passed by the coast region and to-day find it difficult to reach the natives whom the trader has diligently cultivated, and has corrupted with his debauching wares and example.

But neither the hostility of the natives, nor the deadliness of the climate, nor opposition of the European powers, can be given as fundamental reasons for the fields being unoccupied. The first may have deterred missionaries from entering certain regions for a time, but it has never been a permanent barrier to the opening of any region. The second may prevent some men from entering some sections of Africa, but it does not prevent all men from entering any section. The great fundamental reason for the unoccupied fields of Africa is the lack of men and money to man the field and to expand the work.

New and Projected Missions

Again referring to a map showing the mission stations, it may readily be appreciated that the missionary occupation is strategic so far as it goes. The continent is surrounded, and the races which are the keys to the extension of the Gospel to those beyond are being cultivated and won to an active participation in the work of Christian expansion. Every missionary

society operating in Africa has plans for projecting its work far beyond its present boundaries. The United Presbyterians have recently projected at mission in the Egyptian Sudan, and a large section adjacent is being reserved by the government for occupation by the Church Missionary Society. The latter society is also projecting missions along the Benue branch of the Niger, at the western extremity of the Sudan. The United Sudan Mission likewise is entering this mammoth field from the west. The Southern Presbyterian Board has two principal stations on the Kassai River and is 800 miles distant from any other Protestant mission. Their natural constituency would consist of about six or eight millions of people could they so man the field as adequately to furnish it with Gospel privileges. The Methodist Episcopal Church has strong bases at either side of the continent, in Angola on the west and Rhodesia on the east, and it has long been the hope that the work might so expand as to bridge the stretches of heathendom between these two centers. Bishop Hartzell writes recently that he has just made a trip to the north of Victoria Falls prepatory to the opening of a large industrial mission in that section. This is an important step toward the fulfilment of the dream shared by his coworkers that a line of stations is ultimately to extend across the continent. And so the enumeration of projected missions might be continued. The Baptists on the Kongo, the Congregationalists from South Africa, the Plymouth Brethren in Central Africa, the various British missions in east Central Africa, the

German missions east and west, all missions, everywhere, have what might be called their spheres of influence, or their "hinterland" territory, where they expect under the providence of God and with the gifts of men and money to expand their work. It may not be amiss to suggest that any expansion of missionary work in Africa ought to be through regularly organized missionary agencies. Ephemeral efforts have been so many and have invariably resulted in such a waste of men and money that it would seem almost unnecessary to voice the caution. Certainly there are sufficient phases of Protestant effort operating in Africa to provide for almost every complexion of polity and doctrine. Then, too, the situations of the various societies are so strategic as to provide for the expansion of the work into every race and tribe. It ought, therefore, to be at once conceded that the best and most economical method of helping to make complete conquest of the continent is through those societies which are now on the field and which have experience and prestige in their various sections.

periority and the supposed wealth that is to follow him. They like to have their children taught, for the white man's book and the knowledge that it gives increases the power and influence of a people. Some of them find and accept and love the truth.

Peculiar conditions affect the situation differently, and constitute varying degrees of receptivity in the different sections of the continent. For instance, in the Egyptian Sudan the British government does not permit Protestant teaching in or near Khartum, except under certain restrictions. Such a course is deemed necessary because of the agitated temper of the natives since the fall of Khartum and of the subsequent subjugation of the country by Kitchener, In the Kongo basin the atrocities instigated by the officials of the Kongo Independent State in order to increase the supply of rubber have greatly retarded the spread of the Gospel. Many thousands of the natives of the Kongo basin would be readily accessible to missionary effort were they not rendered unreachable because of the inhumanity of the representatives of the Belgian government. A few years ago the political situation in Rhodesia made it difficult to do missionary work. The British South African Company, as a governing organization, had been at war with the natives in the attempt to suppress an uprising, and it was years before missionaries could win their confidence and make them appreciate that they were not there to govern but to teach and uplift in every possible way. Today in that section the missionary has no difficulty in reaching the native, and every mission has a constituency

beyond its capacity. In the Sudan the receptivity of the native depends upon his degree of loyalty to Mohammedanism.

In any section of Africa where the Roman Catholics are at work Protestant effort is made doubly difficult. The low standard of life allowed by them for acceptance into their fellowship reacts upon the more rigorous demands of Protestants. Some Roman missionaries permit polygamy, slavery, and the possession and use of fetiches. The Protestant missionary ordinarily requires that every applicant for admission into the Protestant fold be put upon long probation and under careful training. Thus the apparent receptivity of the native is greatly modified.

Debauching trade and corrupt civilization from foreign lands also have much to do in preventing the native from appreciating the value of the teaching and training of the missionary.

Still there is ample testimony to the readiness of the African to receive the Gospel if it is presented to him. The missionaries in Nyasaland, in Uganda, in the Kongo basin, in the Kameruns, and in other widely separated sections of the continent have abundant evidence that as soon as the native appreciates a little of the meaning of civilization and before he understands anything definitely about it, except that the white man's superiority is in some way connected with it, he is receptive to the Gospel. Mr. Verner says that if the Southern Presbyterian work on the Kassai River could be properly manned within ten years, the genuinely Christian. membership of the mission would exceed the entire membership of the Presbyte

rian Church of the United States. There are from six to eight millions of people in this section wholly dependent upon fifteen missionaries and their native helpers for Gospel teaching. Almost daily applications come to this little band of workers from representatives of tens and hundreds of thousands of people who are appealing for resident missionaries. This is typical of many sections of Africa.

Two years ago, in company with Bishop Hartzell, I spent my first Sunday in Africa, at Umtali, in eastern Rhodesia. As the company of missionaries proceeded to the native church for service the congregation of a hundred natives who had been converted within two years (a hundred others had been converted, but had gone to other sections in search of labor) came out to meet us, singing a splendid Zulu hymn as a welcome to the Bishop. Upon approaching our column they turned back and preceded us into the church. When we entered they had ceased to sing. Every one was kneeling, doubtless in genuine gratitude that since Bishop's last visit to the station practically all of them had come to know the power of God unto salvation. shall never forget the thrill that came to me as I heard that black congregation respond at the closing of the prayer with a deep-toned, musical "Amen." It seemed that it must be like that sound which John describes a sound as of many waters, low and liquid and rich. Ever since it has rung in my memory as a lost chord that only in heaven I shall hear again. The whole scene is typical of the welcome that Africa accords all those who come to the help of her helpless

I

Keeping Pace With the Work

It is imposible with the present supply of men and money to keep pace with the opening work in Africa. Letters from representatives of many different societies in different sections of the continent emphasize this fact. Almost invariably the writers say that their work absolutely needs double the number of missionaries adequately to man the fields they now occupy. The greatest need, as in all mission fields, is a sufficient force of native Christians trained for the evangelizing work of carrying the Gospel to their own tribesmen. To do this training requires an ever increasing force of missionaries. Thus the need is constantly beyond the utmost ability of the various stations to supply.

From almost every section of the continent the letters of missionaries are full of the importance of immediate and aggressive occupation of fields adjacent to their stations in order that there may not be increasing handicaps, or in order that aggressive work may not be altogether prohibited. In one section there is the importance of keeping pace with the corrupting trade and civilization of degenerate whites, in another the necessity of winning a tribe or a people before such influences have reached them and made them almost impervious to the Gospel message. Particularly in the Sudan it is urged that it is "now or never." Canon Sell writes: "There are times when it is very difficult to balance the competing claims of various parts of the mission field. I see no difficulty now.

Certain

language, the objective, and are the strategical positions of the great mission field. Parts of Africa

in which the Moslem advance is imminent have for the present preeminent claim. The absorption of pagan races into Islam is so rapid and continuous that in a few years' time some may be quite lost to us.

case.

I believe the Church has very little conception of the real state of the The call to immediate and more extended operations is loud and clear. The conscience of the Church needs rousing to the very serious condition of affairs."*

The imminent necessity of haste can not be better expressed than by an old African chief: "Oh, white man! I can not remember when I did not know of your power and your learning. Why did you not come sooner? You have come now, and these eyes are too blind to see you, these ears are too deaf to hear you. If you have any message to give, give it to the young men. You are too late for me!"

Pioneer Missionary Qualities

Above every other quality those of genuine devotion to God and of love. for men of whatever grade or color are the paramount requisites of a missionary to these unoccupied regions. The missionary soon becomes. a kind of king in his community. He is appealed to for decisions upon all sorts of questions. Whether he will or not, his word, in a large degree, is law. If genuine love for men is not very deeply founded, one is likely to

Quoted in a letter from a representative of the United Sudan Mission.