Page:The future of Africa.djvu/315

Rh discovery, or of startling incident; how that now there is every probability that soon the very heart of that continent, and all its centuries of mystery, will be revealed .to the gaze and scrutiny of the civilized world; and then, that by the common road, by trade, by commerce, by the flying wings of steamers, by caravans, by converted Africans, by civilized and pious Negroes, from the West Indies or America, the Bible, the Prayer-Book, and Tracts, and the Church in all her functions and holy offices, will almost at once be introduced among the mighty masses of its population;—when I see these things, my heart is filled with confident assurance—I cannot but believe that the day of Africa's redemption fast draweth nigh! And vast and extensive as the work may be, it seems that it will be a most rapid one; every thing gives this indication: for first, you will notice, that since the abolition of the slave trade, this race, in all its homes, has been going forward: it has had nowhere any retrograde movements. And next, you will notice, that the improvement of this race, social, civil, and religious, has been remarkably quick, and has been, almost all, included in a very brief period; and therefore I think that the work of evangelization in this race will be a rapid one. So God, at times, takes "the staff of accomplishment" into His own hand, and fulfils His ends with speed. The children of Israel were thirty-nine years performing a journey, which could have been accomplished in a few days: but in the fortieth year they marched a longer distance than all the years preceding, and entered, in a few weeks, at once, into the Promised