Can White Missionaries Labor in Africa
No objection is felt to the agency of colored men from
these United States, or from the West Indies, in carrying on this
work, provided men of the right stamp can be found. They have
physical qualifications to labor in that climate which white men
have not; and if colored men of education, intelligence, and of
humble and undoubted piety could be found willing to engage in
this work, we, who are now on the field, would not only give them
a hearty welcome as fellow-laborers, but if they were sufficiently
numerous, we would cheerfully commit the whole work into their
hands, and seek some other sphere of labor for ourselves. But is
inn view of the fact, that so few colored men of suitable
qualifications have come forward to engage in this work, and in
view of the fact likewise, that the future presents no near prospects
in this respect brighter than the past, that we are to inquire what are
our duties to the perishing millions of Africa.
There is a reasonable prospect that white missionaries,
provided they are endowed with the faith, the courage and the
perseverance befitting their high calling, may live in that country
to establish Christian churches there, which will be able, in due
time, not only to sustain themselves, but to communicate their
blessings to the remotest regions of that benighted continent. This
is all we can promise. This is the view of the subject upon which
we base our arguments. We believe that no obstacles lie in the
way of this undertaking as thus stated, except such as have been
pennitted by God, to try the faith and courage of his people. The
bare existence of trials and difficulties, provided they are not
insuperable, is never a sufficient cause for abandoning any great
and good undertaking. No great result, fraught with blessings to
mankind, has ever been achieved in this apostate world of ours,
except by a triumph of patient perseverance over difficulties and
discouragements. Human probabilities have always been arrayed
against the promises of the Bible; and if missionaries were to look
at the former, without regard to the latter, every field of missionary
labor would have been abandoned long ere this. Who needs to be
reminded that the redemption of mankind itself was wrought out
by the patient endurance of unparalleled sufferings? How hopeless
were the prospects of Christianity to human eyes when it was first
ushered into the world! What an endless and unnumbered variety
of sufferings, self-denials and discouragements had the apostles to
pass through in the fulfillment of their mission? If there ever was a
task that appeared hopeless to the judgment of men, it was theirs; if
