OUR people at home and abroad are interested in this Mission. The little ones in our schools will be in the good providence of God, the future mothers and fathers in this part of Africa; and no doubt many of them will migrate to other parts of this vast continent. These will carry the seed of the Kingdom at least in their minds, which may develop, by the blessing of the Holy Ghost, into everlasting life. “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth” (Jo. xvii. 17). The sower must sow in hope. He cannot make one grain of seed grow; yet he ploughs, sows the seed and harrows it as if all depended on his efforts, conscious all the time that he cannot cause one grain to germinate. That is the way with the Church of God, and the servants of Christ. They are commanded to sow—”Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass” (Isa. xxxii. 20). It would be folly to sow any kind or sort of seed on the surface of the land not duly prepared for it. The land must be prepared before the seed is sown. So the people must be prepared for the sowing of the seed of the Kingdom. John the Baptist was sent to prepare the people; Luther, Calvin and Knox were raised up to prepare the people to receive the Gospel. “And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandman and they shall go forth with flocks” (Jer. xxxi. 24). One of the first things that our Reformer, Knox, turned his mind to was the education of the young people of Scotland. He was a master-builder. “I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon.” If Luther and Calvin had paid similar attention to this aspect of their great work in the continent it might possibly have prevented the evil work of men like Voltaire and the German Rationalists. The other numerous religions of the world breed and thrive in the marshy ground of human illiteracy.
It is very obvious that where Episcopacy developed and gained ground, the aim and object of the Church rulers were to keep the people illiterate. On the other hand the aim of the Presbyterian Church, wherever planted and settled, is to educate the people—young and old. This is the most scriptural form of church government ever known in the history of our race. Learned scholars of the Episcopal Theory of Church Government have spent much time and learning to justify their untenable position, but all failed, and all must fail, who attempt the impossible. Lord’s spiritual, pride of place, pomp and ancient custom will never justify Episcopacy as a method of Church government, whether in Rome, Canterbury, or Moscow!
The policy of the Episcopal rulers was to educate the favoured few for ceremonial occasions and State functions, as anointing kings and attending Courts; while the religious side of the work is carried on by minor officials. Under this regime the masses of common people were for manual labour—servants to Dukes, Lords spiritual and temporal. In recent years the tables have been turned and the people have demanded that the humblest boy and girl should be educated, and that the same opportunity should be accorded to them as to the rich. In Britain to-day the son of the nobleman, the blacksmith, the joiner and grocer can rise to the highest position in the state in spite of his humble birth. In the sight of God there is no difference between boys and girls in any nation; let their colour be what it may—brown, red or white. All human beings are possessed of a soul that must exist for ever. The soul of the black boy of Africa can no more cease to exist than the soul of the Archbishop of Canterbury or of the Pope of Rome. As we believe that the soul must be saved from sin, the wrath which is to come, and from eternal death, our aim is to educate the thousands of boys and girls under our care in Rhodesia. We have been doing this for over forty years. It was a small beginning when the Rev. John B. Radasi began to preach, teach and instruct old and young in the ways of the Lord. To-day the Mission Schools are crowded with small boys and girls. The Rev. J. S. Fraser has over one thousand three hundred children under his care in the Shangani Reserve. If he had more teachers, schools and helpers to extend the work no doubt the numbers would increase. We trust that as helpers become available the numbers will increase. The African is eager to learn. This eagerness is not confined to the young; as Mr. Fraser informs us in his Annual Report, many of the older folk are learning to read. What is the meaning of this? This was not known among Africans before. It may appear to us to be a mere human desire to “get on in the world.” That may be one side of the movement, but what is God’s side of it?
We see in the Word of God what extraordinary preparation was made before the Children of Israel left the bondage of Egypt; and again in the return of the Children of Israel from Babylon, the re-building of the Temple, and the setting up of the worship of God in Jerusalem according to the law of Moses. “Behold, I will send my messenger. And he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Mal. iii. 17). The messenger was first sent to prepare the way of the Lord. We believe that our Mission in Rhodesia is a messenger of the Lord, preparing the way before him to gather in the elect for whom He died and rose again. If the Free Presbyterian Church were not that “messenger,” the Lord would prepare another “messenger” to go before Him. Surely then, this is a great honour and privilege to educate the children, to fit a people to read the Word of God, to put that holy Word into their hands in the sure hope that it will not return void of blessed results. No doubt there will be disappointments—in this the natives of Rhodesia are no different from people at home. The minister often preaches hundreds of sermons and yet at the end of a whole year’s labour it may be that in a congregation consisting of scores of people, not one is found who turns to the Lord. In Africa the teacher will notice some progress as the child learns to read and write. In time the child comes to own a Bible—the very Word of God—which it may be his father never possessed. We believe the devil is very angry with this work, and that by any means he would like to stop it. “But Elymas, the Sorcerer, withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Saul (who is also called Paul), filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, ‘O full of all subtlety, and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?'” (Acts xii. 8, 9, 10). Here was a man full of all subtlety, a child of the devil, actively engaged to turn the deputy away from the faith of the Gospel. This is Satan’s aim, to turn sinners away from the Gospel, from the Word of God, from true religion and the means of God’s appointment. If the poor heathens of Africa are left without God, without hope, without the Gospel, without education, without morality—Satan is well pleased, so are the witch-doctors; so are all atheists, Pharisees and hypocrites. The Gospel spirit is the very opposite of that vile spirit, “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God,” (Col. i. 9.)
What then, is the aim of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in Africa? The everlasting salvation of souls. That is the essence of the Gospel. The aim and meaning of the Gospel is salvation through the knowledge of God in Christ. Our Mission is purely a Gospel Mission to the heathen. Many of them may be saved listening to the Word of God preached while our own people at home listen to the same Gospel, from year to year, and instead of repenting and melting under the glorious message, rather harden themselves, as cast iron.
The Revs. J. B. Radasi, J. R. MacKay, N. Cameron, J. Tallach and J. S. Fraser had and have wonderful things to tell the Church at home of the Mission. There were signs and fruits of the Spirit and His work evident among the people from the beginning. Many that sat at the Lord’s Table when Mr. Cameron was there are away to eternity to enjoy the divine presence for ever. There are a few of those first fruits left, but evidently very few. However, there are others who show by their life, walk and conversation that the Lord our God is merciful, and gracious, and that the Holy Spirit is still calling sinners out of darkness to the light of the Gospel. While others that have been under the Gospel for years, educated to read the Word, and privileged to hear the Word preached, have turned their backs on all Gospel privileges. Human nature is the same the world over! It needs the power of God to convince man of his lost state, and that apart from Christ he must perish. It is the knowledge of this that is needed in Africa, Scotland, Moscow and London. The power of God to call the sinner to life, repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We feel thankful to the Lord that our Church is able to help thousands of children who may yet shine as lights in the world. Can the reader pass our own public schools without praying for the dear young children being taught in them, be they Protestants or Roman Catholics? If you feel no desire and longing for their eternal salvation, examine your conscience before God to see what kind of religion you have for eternity. Let our people pray for our teachers, Missionaries, and the children in the schools of our Missions in Southern Rhodesia. It is a wonderful and growing Mission. We would like if some kind friends would get the pamphlet written by Stephen Merritt, on Samuel Morris, the Kru boy, published by Zonderman, Grand Rapids, U.S.A., and broadcast it among those who profess much love to Christ, but show little enough evidence of love to His little ones. The reading of it might soften the hearts of some who are indifferent to the claims of the African. “So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord: and the angel did wonderfully; and Manoah and his wife looked on” (Judges xiii. 19).