It is a great call to us who know Christ our Saviour to spread abroad into all heathen lands our knowledge of Him who came down from heaven and died to save mankind. And nobly has the call been responded to. The Christian Churches have sent forth messengers into all the ends of the earth to preach the “glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all people” in obedience to the command of their risen Lord who said, “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.” So in our own day we find that Christ’s ambassadors have gone into every continent and penetrated into the most distant lands; that the Bible, or some part of it at least, has been translated into many different languages; and that the lives of countless numbers of native peoples have been made purer and holier and happier by their knowledge of Him who loves them. As you all know one of the continents of the earth is called Africa--the dark Continent; and it is about Africa and its children I want to write to you. CHAPTER II THE DARK CONTINENT Africa has been called the Dark Continent, and the name is suitable in more ways than one. To the European people it was for ages a dark continent, because it was unknown, that is, unexplored by them. The name is also appropriate because Africa is the home of millions of dark-skinned people. But from a Christian point of view Africa is the dark continent, because over most of its inhabitants there still hangs a black cloud of heathen darkness that shuts out the glorious rays of the Gospel of Light and Love. Of course you must know that Africa has not all been an unknown land. The northern part of it, which borders the Mediterranean Sea, has been known from ancient times. And is not Egypt the land of the Nile and the home of the Pharaohs in Africa, although we sometimes do not realise it? But it is not so much of these northern lands that I want to tell you as about the far greater portion that stretches away south over the Equator right down to the Cape. This part was until not so long ago the dark unknown continent, the land of those teeming millions of dark-skinned people who lived out their lives without ever hearing the Gospel story and without knowing the love of God for the children of men.