Article December 4, 1926 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Thurlow Fraser, Walter W. Van Kirk, M. D. Kennedy

[From the Middlesex County Times, London, England]

"We have come from our forest home to see you and speak to you, O White Man. We have heard that you teach men about God, and that He is a God of love. We ask you to tell the people of Europe to send us teachers, for we also are men." These words, taken down by Archdeacon Lloyd as they were said to him eighteen months ago in the heart of Stanley's Forest, Central Africa, by the spokesman-chief of a cannibal tribe, which had traveled far in order to give the message, were read by the Archdeacon in St. George's Hall, Ealing, during the course of his address upon "Our Responsibility in Africa," given at a well-attended meeting of the Ealing Ruri-decanal Conference. . . . He wished, continued Archdeacon Lloyd, to speak to his audience that night upon three aspects of Africa—Africa coming to life, Africa unprepared, and Africa seeking. Africa was coming to life for the first time in its history; it had previously been as one dead, held in the grip of unhindered evil. But to-day a great change was taking place all over that huge continent. The African was beginning to realize that he was a man, and that he possessed a glorious country, rich with possibilities. That country was being developed, wealth was flowing into it, but the African was as yet unprepared to meet these vast changes. The African knew he was unprepared, and he eagerly thirsted for knowledge. For instance, he was willing to spend lavishly on purchasing the Word of God. A man selling Bibles for one or two shillings each, and New Testaments for four-pence or sixpence each, had sold two hundred and forty pounds worth of such books in one day alone. . . . Educational work was the grandest means of evangelizing Africa, but there must be a Christian basis for the work. Education was not a by-product; it was an essential in the work of the church of Christ. "The African, in common with the natives of India and China," he concluded, "is asking, 'Is the claim of Christ to be the world's Saviour true?' and you Christians are called as witnesses in the greatest case ever tried. What is to be your answer?"

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