Page:The future of Africa.djvu/129

Rh section of humanity to manhood, and ofilluminating; them with Christian light and knowledge. Does any one here doubt this providence? Do any of you question the obligation? Just look then at that large portion of Africa which is bounded on the north by the desert, on the west and south by the Atlantic, and on the east by the river Niger; that immense territory which probably contains a population of from 30 to 50,000,000 of people, and which has been the seat of the slave-trade nigh three centuries; and then notice the other fact, that almost the only forts, settlements, colonies, and missions, along the whole line of its coast, are English-speaking, namely Gambia, Pongas, Sierra Leone, Mendi, Liberia, Accra, and Lagos. Can any one doubt that God has thrown the responsibility of evangelizing this people upon the Anglo-Saxon race? Does it not seem manifest that God has laid this people's spiritual burden upon the sensitive Christian heart of England and America? What if this grand cause should prove the agency for neutralizing their national prejudices; or for producing a union, for love and human well-being, such as the world has never before witnessed?

2. Again, I would add, that the evangelization of Africa is manifestly to oe effected contemporaneously with, its civilization. Unlike most of the missionary and evangelizing movements of modern times, God evidently purposes the redemption of Africa, in connection with the use of all the appliances of culture, learning, trade, industry, and commerce. All these are already being used, in West Africa, as