Extract of a letter from Bro. John Day, circa 1849

Bexley Station Extract of a Letter from Bro. John Day After referring to various items of business, brother Day remarks: “Shall I close this letter without an appeal for Africa? Shall the heathen of other countries be more cared for because their missionaries are better able to plead for them! Are they on that account nearer a Saviour’s heart? No. - “Though black, in his eyes, these Bassas are comely.” For them he left the courts of heaven, for them he died, for them he rose, for them in heaven he intercedes. For them a special prophecy goes forth: ‘Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. Behold Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia.’ I do not object to what is doing for other heathen; no, I rejoice in it. But look also on poor benighted Africa. Sunk into the deepest degradation, I know they are a most discouraging people. But shall they for that be given up? No. - Let us re-double our efforts. The greater the difficulty, the greater the triumph. Can you not send a faithful missionary a hundred miles into the interior, among a people not so corrupt as those near the beach? These have been sipping the poison of a corrupt civilization for two hundred years. ‘The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint.’ Every faculty of the mind is a ‘putrifying sore.’ What better other heathen may be, I cannot tell. But this is a ruined race; gone forever, unless God and his people lay to a helping hand. Africa! Bleeding, dying, ready to be buried, I leave thee in hands more able to plead thy cause.” Southern Baptist Missionary Journal February 1850 p. 227