Children -- Africa -- Juvenile literature; Missions -- Africa -- Juvenile literature
There is another enemy of Christ in Africa that I do not care to write
to you about, because it comes from our own race, but it would not be
fair to make no mention of it whatever. The force of example goes a
long long way in Africa, and often does a great deal more than words.
It is what you _do_ rather than what you _say_ that first attracts the
heathen. Now if a careless white man forgets this and like the prodigal
son in the far-off country gives himself up to the evil ways of living,
he is doing a great deal of harm to Christ’s Kingdom in Africa, and is
putting a serious stumbling block in the way of the poor black people.
If such white men would but remember that they come from a Christian
land and behave towards their ignorant black neighbours as Christian
gentlemen this enemy of the Gospel would soon be laid low.
Let me now tell you a little how missionary work among the heathen
Africans is carried on. In different missions the work is carried on
in different ways, but the end is always the same--that the Gospel be
preached to the heathen.
Many of the missions divide their work into four parts. One is called
Evangelistic--that is the part of the work in which the Gospel is
preached to the people. Another is called Medical because doctors and
nurses join in the mission work to heal the sick and help the helpless.
Another part is Educational--the teaching of the people in school, so
that they may be able to read the Word of God. The last part is called
Industrial, for in it the African Christians are taught trades to show
them that work is not for slaves only, and to make them useful members
of the community.
Of course in every mission you may not find all those four departments
of work. Some missions are mainly Evangelistic, others Industrial,
but in all large missions in Africa you generally find the four.
In the evangelistic work the missionary, fresh from home, is at a
great disadvantage till he has mastered the native language. Then
this difficulty over, he finds the way open to the black man’s heart.
Experience however is showing us more and more that it is not the white
man who will evangelise Africa, but the African, and the work of the
white missionary is more and more being reduced to the training of the
native evangelists who will carry the message of love to the people.
Hospital, School, and Industrial work have, in Africa, been practically
forced upon the missionaries. The native of Africa sick is most
helpless, and the native of Africa well is most indifferent to sickness
in others. Hence the constant ministration to his own sick folks by
white doctors and nurses fills him with astonishment, and causes him to
think why this should be done. It is a magnificent object lesson to the
native of the practice in our lives of the Gospel of Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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