NEW VIRGINIA
Extracts from Rev. J.T. Richardson
Rev. James B. Taylor:
Very Dear Brother-l am laboring in this interesting field in
the following way: I have been requested by brother Day to give
three visits during the week to the heathen. I go accordingly, with
the blessed gospel of Christ, from town to town, in this vicinity,
endeavoring to proclaim the news of life and salvation through
Jesus Christ, the Lord, in such a simple and plain manner as is best
calculated to bring them to the knowledge of the truth. I am happy
in the contemplation of the glorious effect the gospel is destined to
have upon the teeming millions of Africa’s lost sons and daughters
at no distant period. They are becoming more and more inclined to
believe the gospel, and to acknowledge it to be the power of God
unto salvation, to every one that believeth, even themselves as well
as others. I am more than pleased at what is being done for this
people, and can truthfully say, that your mission is doing a great
work in this region of darkness. What it has done, and is still
doing, is so encouraging to us Baptists, that we can only say, with
thankful hearts, “The Lord’s name is to be praised!” We could not
have been made to believe that in so short a time the Baptists
would be in Liberia what they are to day. When we cast our minds
back to 1 847, the commencement of your missions, and view the
then condition of the poor Baptists — few in numbers, dejected in
spirits — generally unknown, or known only to be scoffed at, and
compare with this their present condition of prosperity and
prospective usefulness, we can be exclaim, “It is the Lord’s doings
and is marvelous in our eyes.”
I hope you will not regard me as speaking boastingly; but I
mean to say, that the Baptists, as a denomination, stand well in
Liberia, and their course is onward and upward. I am pleased to
see our little churches in so healthy a condition as they are at
present, sending forth, as they do, a healthful influence throughout
Liberia — yes, Africa. No period in the history of your mission, in
Liberia, has been so cheered with sanguine hopes of great success
as the present. I verily believe that Africa will be raised up to
stand upon a level with the civilized and Christianized parts of the
world, and shine forth with such brilliancy that she will be an
astonishment to all her friends as well as her foes.
