Page:The future of Africa.djvu/190

184 Here, then, is a new principle introduced into this world, which comes to us with the claim that it can heal all the wounds and bruises and lacerations which sin has bred in this world for the ruin of the souls and bodies of men; and, on examination, we find that its great Author adapted it exactly to our nature, and, conversely, fitted the nature of man everywhere to it; and this, we cannot but feel, is "the tree, the leaves whereof are for the healing of the nation."

3. All this, however, is but a theory of the fitness of the Gospel. The facts of Church history and missionary enterprise give full confirmation of it. The past, at least, is certain. Everywhere in the world where the Gospel has secured permanent residence, it has worked a marvellous transformation; and often, where it has but in passing been casually proclaimed, it has left behind a lingering odor, at once healing and sanctifying. We sit down and brood over the evils of Christian countries, forgetful that those evils are in no way whatever the fault or fruit of Christianity, but only show the quarters where devils have not been cast out, where evil spirits still linger, and show the needed power of Christ's Church. By this short-sightedness, moreover, we lose the full impression of the wonderful work the Gospel has done, and fail to see the conquering might inherent in the religion of Jesus. It was four thousand years before Jesus came into the world; but the nineteen hundred years of the Christian era are more than a match for those old four thousand years in beneficence, in brotherhood, in love, and in purity. What great