THE RETURN OF THE EXILES AND THE WEST AFRICAN CHURCH. A LECTURE Delivered at the Breadfruit School House, Lagos, West Africa, Jani ary 2, 1891, EDWARD W. BLYDEN, LL.D. Author of "Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race," "From West Africa to Palestine," " Liberia's Offering," &c., &c. London : ^l^fFNGHAM & Co., 91, GrACECHURCH StREET, E.C. lyoi. DT 513 .B5 1891 Blyden, Edward Wilmot, 18321 1912. 1 The return of the exiles an 1- h p. Wp. t A f r i r ^ c. h ii r ch ill 9 ?: AND THE RETURN OF THE EXILES THE WEST AFRICAN CHURCH. -m A LECTURE Delivered at the Breadfruit School House, Lagos, West Africa, January 2, 1891, EDWARD W. BLYDEN, LL.D., athor ot "Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race," "From West Africa to Palestine,'" " Liberia's Offering," &c., &c. London : W. B. Whittingham & Co., 91, Gracechurch Street, E.C. 1891. EEQUEST FOR PUBLICATION. The following Resolution, moved by Hon. and Rev. Jams still suggested by the large population of unmixed Africans. The cities of Charleston and Jacksonville, from the colour of the people who throng their streets, may be called African cities in America ; and from its business-like appearance, as well as the novelty of everything — the newness of its improve- ments — Lagos might be called an American city in Africa. But I was very much struck by the difference in the general bearing of the people here. They resembled their brethren across the sea in nothing but their colour. While it is true that the only original thing produced in the Southern States— that w^hich may be said to be most distinctly American — is the music of the exiles, still, there is, in spite of their inexhaustible melody, an evident air of depression and unrest about them — a sullen acquiescence in their surroundings. Although they have charmed the ears and melted the hearts of nobles and crowned heads in Europe by their unparalleled gift of song, yet for them the key-note of their music is degradation and despair. They are exiles kept in perpetual dread, carrying about with them the marks of their besetting and obtrusive infirmities. Their constant and pervading feeling is that of the character in Wordsworth : — My apprehensions come in crowds ; I dread the rustling of the grass ; The very shadow of the clouds Have power to shake me as they pass : I question things and do not find, One that will answer to my mind ; And all the world appears unkind. 5 On the other hand, the visitor to Lagos sees in the people — in the openness of their countenance, the brightness of their eyes, the freedom of their movement — afuhiess of hfe. We see men, and women, and children, living in the •joys of home ; and there is not a breathing of the common wind that blows which does not inspire them with the love of that home. The trees and the clouds, the sluggish rivers, the quiet waters of the lagoon, the boisterous and perilous bar, are all their own. And for the exiles who have returned, Lagos has all the elements of a genuine patriotism. The natural beauty and fertility of the country, the increasing development of its material resources — the noble names among their ancestors — the lives of kings and warriors of their own blood, of whom they have heard — the great deeds these heroes have performed — the legendary and historical songs and ancient dances of the tribes — all become in- spirations. No suspicion haunts them that the country will ever be taken from them. They rest, not only in the conviction, but in the consciousness that it is theirs by divine right, preserved for them by di^ane interposi- tion, however for temporary pm'poses, and in small localities, it may be ruled by foreigners. Despite of every yoke she bears, This land of gloiy still is theirs. I have visited the quarter of the Brazihan Kepatriates, and I have been deeply impressed by the results of their labours and enterprise, under the impulse of the spirit of freedom. They are drinking in the healing and invigo- rating influences of their new surroundings. They are taking advantage of the unquestionable advantages they enjoy in the land of their fathers. The use of their ow^n language, which the people of Lagos have not only retained, but are sedulously culti- 6 vating, is another element of joy, of safety, and of strength. In their rehgious gatherings, in their secular meetings, the use of their mother-tongue must give, for the majority, clearness, precision and vigour to their expressions, and carry force to the mind of the hearer, of which the English language, even in its simplest form, must always be shorn. But we must remember that it has not always been so in Lagos. Less than fifty years ago the place now occupied by this beautiful Settlement was the scene of all the horrors which have ever marked the track of the piratical monsters who disgraced humanity by their atrocious deeds ; good government was unknown, and utterly impossible under the fiendish proceedings of those enemies of the human race who infested the coast. Agriculture and honest trade were constantly interrupted by raiding from within, and rapine from without. Spoli- ation and bloodshed was the order of the day. What a change has been wrought even within the short life of a generation ! English Christianity and philanthropy, as well as English statesmanship and commercial enterprise, have brought about the present promising state of things ; and wherever England holds sway on this coast, and indeed where she does not hold sway, the prayer of the natives constantly is, " God save the Queen." Africa's relation to the rest of the world has always been strange and peculiar. Her people have not mingled with the rest of mankind, exce^Dt to render service — to give help in times of emergency ; while there seems to have hung over the country the unalterable decree of prohibition against the incursion of foreigners. The nations of antiquity all tried their hands — Phoe- nicia, Greece, Carthage, Eome. The Mediterranean 7 nations vied with each other in endeavours to occupy the country ; but they could hold only the northern margin, and for only brief periods. As we read the Providential purpose in the events of history, past and contemporary, we see that God's plan is against the extensive occupa- tion of this Continent by foreigners. This the statesmen of antiquity found out after repeated and disastrous failures. Caesar Augustus, during whose reign Kome was mistress of the world — whose decree that all the world should be taxed brought about the fulfilment of a won- derful prophecy which Christendom has recently been celebrating, and who, like the poets of his day, believed in the destiny of Eome to sway universal empire — yet left earnest counsel and direction in his will that the Eomans should never invade Africa. And England, which, in her colonising genius, and in the extent of her empire, is the modern antitype of Eome, has until very lately been acting in the spirit of the advice of Augustus. She has been unwilling to take up lands in the vast equatorial regions of this country ; but recently she has been forced to depart from her policy by the intermeddling activity of others, whose enterprises, however, whatever promise they may now present, must give way to the inexorable destiny which guards the continent. Lord Salisbury, in his speech in the Guildhall a few weeks ago (November 9th, 1890), informed the world that England's departure from her traditional policy with regard to Africa was an intervention to prevent such an inter- vention as would interfere with the interests of Great Britain, and therefore with the interests of civilisation and humanity. His lordship vindicated his desire to acquire " large stretches of African territory and to place them under the British flag," by reference to the impor- tant fact that every bit of the world's surface that is 8 not under the British flag is a country which may be, and probably will be, closed to England by a hostile tariff." If this had been thought of thirty years ago, Sierra Leone would not now be hampered on the north in its com- mercial growth ; and considering how much England has done to open up that region, the whole of the territory between the Niger and the Atlantic, with the exception of small strips, would now be under British rule. The ancients, who were at the beginning of things, saw many truths, which, forgotten in the course of time, men are only now^ recovering. The Greeks looked upon the interior of Africa as a place for the abode of the gods, not for ordinary men. They made their divinities leave the summits of Olympus, and betake themselves annually to the country of the Ethiopians. It is now certain that, forty centuries ago, Homer knew of those mountain kings wdth their mantle of cloud and snow- — Kuwenzori and Kilmanjaro. Perhaps it was upon the inaccessible summits of these African Alps that they planted the seat of the gods. And what is significant is, that not only could the great men of antiquity — warriors and kings and statesmen — make no impression upon Africa, but even their gods failed to leave any mark. No writer has told us that these periodical visits left any trace of their having occurred. To Ethiopia came Jupiter with his thunderbolts ; Juno ) with her arts and sciences ; Apollo with his brightness and music ; Venus with her beauty and love ; Mars w^ith his war — the w^hole Olympian circle, but they produced no impression upon the country ; at least, even the fertile imagination of their worshippers could invent none. Africa has always resisted and thrown off foreign influences, because those influences, even of the highest character, have come modified w^ith elements injurious to the country.. 9 Jupiter came with his incest and adultery ; Saturn with his cannibaHsm ; Venus with her profligacy ; Apollo with his cruelty ; Mars w^ith his sanguinary disposition. Europe then, even in the days of her heathenism, though the very best of her productions, according to her highest conceptions, were in constant intercourse with Africa, had no influence upon her. There was nothing in the mythology of Greece or Eome, in the military prowess of Cambyses or Alexander, in the commercial greed and enterprise of Carthage, to make any permanent impression upon the Continent. Now let us see whether in the days of her Christianity she has been able to do any permanent work. Every- body knows the fate of the Christian Church established in North Africa. This Church had possession of three thousand towns and villages, and five hundred and sixty Episcopal sees — the Church that produced Tertullian, Cyrprian, and Augustine. After flourishing for centuries, it was driven out by the Saracens who have now held the place formerly occupied by Christians, for more than a thousand years. France holds the Government of portions of North Africa, but the people are Mohammedans, who enforce the laws of their religion w^ith the assistance or connivance of their foreign rulers. In modern times, since the revival of the missionary spirit, Christian Missions have striven to penetrate the continent, but they have had to contend, and are still contending, with insuperable difliculties. Very little has been effected upon the Aborigines aw^ay from European Settlements ; and indeed it may be stated that the world has yet to witness the example of a single community, large or small, of free and independent Negroes in the interior, who have embraced Christianity as brought to them from Europe. It would seem that neither the 10 climate nor the circumstances of the people will admit of the introduction of Christianity into this 'country by members of a foreign race. Experience everywhere shows the extreme difficulty and impossibility of the enterprise. As examples of the uniform experience of missionary operations in Africa, and of the general effect of the climate even in the most healthy regions, Twill quote first from Professor Drummond's book on Tropical Africa, and then from Mr. Stanley's recent book, In Darkest Africa, Two missionary regions were visited by Mr. Drummond. The first he thus describes : — '* Our next stoppage was to pay another homage — truly this is a tragic region— at another white man's grave. A few years ago Bishop Mackenzie and some other missionaries were sent to Africa by the English Universities, with instructions to try to establish a Mission in the footsteps of Livingstone. They came here ; the climate overpowered them ; one by one they sickened and died. With the death of the Bishop himself the site was abandoned, and the few survivors returned home. Among the hippopotamus-trampled reeds on the banks of the Shire, under a rough iron cross, lies the first of three brave bishops who have already made their graves in Equatorial Africa." The second missionary station on the shore of the upland lake tells a similar tale : — A neat path through a small garden led up to the Settlement, and I approached the largest house and entered. It was the Livingstonia manse — the head missionary's house. It was spotlessly clean ; English furniture was in the room, a medicine chest, familiar-looking dishes were in the cupboards, books lying about, but there was no missionary in it. I went to the next house — it was the School ; the benches were there and the black-board, but there were no scholars, and no teacher. I passed to the n^t — it was the blacksmith's shop ; there were the tools and anvil, but there was no blacksmith. And so on to the next, and the next, all in perfect order, and all empty. Then a native approached and led me a few yards into the forest. And there, among the mimosa trees, under a huge granite mountain, were four or five graves. These were the missionaries. 11 " I spent a day or two in the solemn shadow of that deserted manse. It is one of the loveliest spots in the world ; and it was hard to believe, sitting under the tamarind trees by the quiet lake shore, that the pestilence which wasteth at midnight had made this beautiful spot its home. A hundred and fifty miles north, on the same lake-coast, the remnant of the missionaries have begun their task again, and there, slowly, against fearful odds, they are carrying on their work." Notice again the following : — " Malarial fever is the one sad certainty w^hich every African traveller must face. Fon months he may escape, but its finger is upon him, and well for him if he has a friend near when it finally overtakes him. It is preceded for weeks, or even for a month or two, by unaccountable irritability, depression and weariness. This goes on day after day till the crash comes — first cold and pain, then heat and pain, then every kind of pain, and every degree of heat, then delirium, then the life-and- death struggle. He rises, if he does rise, a shadow ; and slowly accumu- lates strength for the next attack, which he knows too well will not disappoint him. No one has ever yet got to the bottom of African fever. Its geographical distribution is still unmapped, but generally it prevails over the whole east and west coasts within the tropical limit, along all the river courses, on the shores of the inland lakes, and in all low-lying and marshy districts. The higher plateaux, presumably, are compara- tively free from it, but in order to reach these, malarious districts of greater or smaller area have to be traversed. There the system becomes saturated with fever, which often develops long after the infected region is left behind. " The really appalling mortality of Europeans is a fact with which all who have any idea of casting in their lot with Africa should seriously reckon. None but those who have been on the spot, or have followed closely the inner history of African exploration and missionary work, can appreciate the gravity of the situation. The malaria spares no man ; the strong falls as the weak ; no number of precautions can provide against it; no kind of care can do more than make the attacks less frequent ; no prediction can be made beforehand as to which regions are haunted by it and which are safe. It is not the least ghastly feature of this invisible plague that the only known scientific test for it at present is a human life. That test has been applied in the Congo region already with a recklessness which the sober judgment can only characterise as ■criminal. It is a small matter that men should throw away their lives, in hundreds if need be, for a holy cause ; but it is not a small matter that man after man, in long and in fatal succession, should seek to overleap 12 what is plainly a barrier of Nature. And science has a duty in pointing out that no devotion or enthusiasm can give any man a charmed life, and that those who work for the highest ends will best attain them in humble obedience to the common laws. Transcendentally, this may be denied ; the warning finger may be despised as the hand of the coward and the profane. But the fact remains — the fact of an awful chain of English graves stretching across Africa." Mr. Stanley's experience on the upland plains is not unlike that of Mr. Drummond. At pp. 31-2, Vol. II., of Darkest Africa, he summarises his own experience: — " On the plateau of Kavalli and Undussuma, Messrs. Jephson, Parke, and myself were successively prostrated by fever, and the average level of the land was over 4,500 feet above the sea. " On descending to the Nyanza plain, 2,500 feet lower, we were again laid up with fierce attacks. " At Banana Point, which is at sea level, ague is only too common. *' At Boma, 80 feet higher, the ague is more common still. " At Vivi there were more cases than elsewhere, and the station was about 250 feet higher than Boma, and not a swamp near it. " At Stanley Pool, aboutl,100 feet above sea level, fever of a pernicious form was prevalent. " While ascending the Congo with the wind astern we were unusually exempted from ague ; but descending the Upper Congo, facing the wind, we were smitten with most severe forms of it." Mr. Stanley concludes his reference to the Central African climate thus : — *' Therefore it is proved that from 0 to 5,000 feet above the sea there is no immunity from fever and ague ; that over forty miles of lake water between a camp and the other shore are no positive protection ; that a thousand miles of river course may serve as a flue te convey malaria in a concentrated form ; that if there is a thick screen of primeval forest, or a grove of plantains between the dwelling place and a large clearing or open country, there is only danger of the local malaria around the dwelling, which might be rendered harmless by the slightest attention to the system ; but in the open country neither a house nor a tent is a sufficient protection, since the air enters by the doors of the house and under the flaps, and through the ventilators, to poison the inmates." 13 With regard to the general effect of missionary work in this country, we cannot shut our eyes to the facts all around us. The native missionaries on the Niger have been recently censured for not achieving greater spiritual results under what must be regarded as impossible cir- cumstances. The success of Christianity in apostolic times cannot be taken as a standard by which to judge of its progress in unevangelized lands at the present day. Primitive Christianity had this negative advantage, that it was not theoretically presented and practically misrepresented at the same time. The Apostles were not confronted on mission ground by their own countrymen of the same creed, doing openly and with indifference the very things they were commissioned to denounce. Modern commerce in its agents is a most potent drawback to all the ideas held up by the missionary. The natives have the example of the white and black missionary preaching on the one hand against the very things which the w^hite Christian trader and the black Christian trader are practising on the other. And the native cannot discriminate between the mere professor of religion and its possessor. Wherever it is thought desirable to plant a Mission Station as a centre of influence, there it is also considered profitable to establish the trading factory ; and, as "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light," the trader becomes the controlling influence in that region, demanding and securing the services of the proteges of the Mission, both male and female, as soon as they have acquired enough training to be serviceable for domestic and other purposes. The missionary is helpless to deal wdth this e\dl, wdiile, with tears in his eyes, he sees his work continually neutrahsed. 14 The Church Missionary Intelligencer for April, 1887, contained a most pathetic example of these trials, as given in a Keport by Bishop Crowther : ''When we come," says the Bishop, '' to consider the want of suitable agents for the Mission, either from Sierra Leone or Lagos, now keenly felt, it might appear as if no efforts had been made at the early part of the Mission to train up promis- ing youths from our schools, who might be hereafter employed as teachers in due time. This was not at all neglected. Since the commencement of this Mission, I have sent no less than fourteen promising youths to Sierra Leone and Lagos Grammar Schools and Training Institutions to be educated, with the intention of employ- ing them as teachers in course of time ; but out of this number there are no more than four who remain to be thus employed. All the rest have resigned connection with the Society, and are now employed in the service of the National Company as agents in the trading factories, or as stokers or engine drivers in their steamers, with the exception of one in our employ as a young carpenter." When Europe must send out her traders and her missionaries together, holding the present world in one hand and trying to point to the next with the other, Missionary Societies must not expect to realise those large results which their theory requires. Apostolic results must have apostolic circumstances. The exigencies of trade — and they are increasing daily — are imperious, and the demands of Christianity are equally so ; human nature being what it is, it needs no prophet to foretell which of the two will prevail, where commerce is allowed a free hand to regulate its own operations. The agents of trade feel that their first duty is to promote iheir business, which is purely worldly and secular. They cannot be expected to look after the spiritual or intel- 15 lectual interests of their customers. To give support and currency to Christian ideas, as Europeans understand those ideas, it is thought by some that the European colony, with its administrative and executive machinery, is necessary ; but the effect in favour of the rehgion of Christ at Sierra Leone, the oldest and the most important of the English colonies, is not considered encouraging even by Missionary Societies, who deprecate the influence of that Colony upon their Missions away from the coast.* Sierra Leone is not only a sea-port, but a garrison town, with its drinking saloons and other disreputable houses, the inevitable concomitants, it would appear, of civilisa- tion, but entirely unknown in the regions beyond. Chris- tianity cannot be said to be m the ascendancy at the other colonies of Gambia, Cape Coast, or Lagos. In the efforts to spread Christianity in Africa, mission- aries generally lose sight of the fact — if, indeed, they are aware of it — that no large number of Africans, in freedom, have as yet accepted Christianity. No African tribe, no African chief of influence, has ever become Christian. In the early days of missionarj^ operations in the Congo, some four centuries ago, the natives were baptised as Charlemagne baptised the Saxons — "by platoons"; but no such wholesale conversions have since taken place in Africa, and the region where these exceptional scenes were witnessed, has long since relapsed into heathenism. The American and West Indian Negroes, and the Negroes in European Colonies in West and East Africa accepted Christianity either by force of circumstances, or through gratitude for deliverance from their enslavers. But very few free and independent men in Africa * One of the charges against a Native Missionary in the Niger is that he introduced into his school a Sierra Leone boy. 16 submit to the religion brought to them from Europe. Canon Taylor says it is too high for them. Perhaps this is true. It has been lifted above Christ by the compli- cations of Europe, from Gospel freeness and universality to theological dogmas and metaphysics ; and, as I have just suggested, the progress of European commerce is making matters worse. The problem of introducing Christianity into Africa without the aid of independent colonies of Negroes from the Western Hemipphere, with the experience and discipline of the house of bondage, is impossible of solution. Well, now the question might occur. Is there to be no foreign missionary work in Africa ? If not, what is the meaning of the command, **Go ye into all the world," &c. The meaning of God's word is often to be arrived at by the light of His Providence. He has declared that in Christ all the nations shall be blessed," — that ''He will give to Him the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." This promise it is His purpose to carry out ; but, so far at least as Africa is concerned, not by the methods now cherished by the great missionary bodies in Europe and America. We cannot but entertain feelings of the deepest gratitude to the missionary societies and to the missionaries who have so nobly expended, and are still expending, their lives and treasure in a work in which they are following their very highest convictions of duty. But I think if they would study the two books which lie open before them — the book of revelation, and the book of providence — they might be led to consider whether there are not other and more efficient agents who should be introduced to carry on the work. They have attempted to do, and have succeeded in doing, in roiany respects, a magnificent work for God and humanity. They have poured out money 17 like water, and "have not counted their lives dear unto themselves." I hope that the African will never say a word or think a thought incompatible with the deepest gratitude and admiration for all the sacrifices and expendi- tures, all the sufferings and trials endured, all the good work accomplished by the band of self-denying men of all Christian denominations who have come and are still coming from Europe and America to evangelize Africa. But I repeat, that all the experience of the past, and all the experience of the present, assures us that no wide- spread or permanent work can be done by these means. Nor is it any better with the secular agencies which are attempting to deal with the African problem. About two years ago we heard of the extensive commercial enterprise in East Africa, carried on by Germans ; but the difficulties in the way of success seemed too great to be overcome by the money or men at command. We now hear nothing of that great effort. We have just witnessed the downfall of the " Province of Equatoria," over which for thirteen years Emin Pasha presided, which cost so much money, and of which such large expectations were entertained — pulled down by European hands. "Though I pitied Emin deeply," says Mr. Jephson, "for the disappointment he experienced at seeing his work of thirteen years tumbling in ruins, I could never regret the downfall of the last of the Soudan provinces, with its corrupt Egyptian rule." The King of the Belgians, with a heroic philanthropy, has gone on year after year spending an enormous fortune in the endeavour to establish the Congo Free State. Kecent intelligence informs us that that State is now on * Bmin Pasha and the Rebellion at the Equator, &c. By A. J. Mouuteney-Jephson. London, 1890. 18 the eve of bankruptcy, its expenditure exceeding its income, after allowing for the subsidies of the King, by £25,000 a-year. The operations of the Niger Company do not offer the most brilliant promise. The traders, scattered in factories along the coast, lead a gloomy and most forbidding existence while turning over their goods at enormous profits in a trade between the sea-coast and the interior; but as to any impression, good, bad, or indifferent, made upon the country beyond its margin, the descriptive word must be nil. Mr. Edward Dicey, in a recent number of the Nine- teenth Century (Sept., 1890), after a serious and eloquent survey of the difficulties attending the efforts of Europeans in Central Africa, recommends to the English nation " a policy of masterly inactivity." This would indeed be a very simple, not to say cowardly, method of confronting the grave responsibilities which rest upon Europe w^ith regard to Africa. The slave trade was begun by England in 1562, when Sir John Hawkins, one of the most renowned naval captains of his time, seized three hundred slaves near Sierra Leone, and sold them to the Spaniards in Hayti. In 1713 was concluded the famous Assiento Contract., by which the trade was placed in the hands of a Company of English merchants for thirty years. From this time the share taken by Great Britain in the slave trade became greater than that of any other nation. The annual importation under the British flag amounted to 60,000 souls, and included two-thirds of the whole annual importation from Africa. The men who carried on this trade were sometimes good men, like the excellent John Newton, the author of the Olney Hymns, who was for 19 several years commander of a slave ship, and who made more than one Guinea voyage after his conversion. Sometimes, perhaps generally, the slave traders were demons in human form. They belonged to all the European nations. Their trade was carried on under Providential control. An inscrutable Providence allowed the Africans to be carried away for a two-fold purpose — to assist in building up a home for the overflow of Europe, and for their own training and discipline. For two hundred years He allowed the traffic, with all its horrors, to go on, unchecked by any public protest, until near the close of the eighteenth century a man was raised up to be the prophet of the Lord, to denounce the nefarious trade, and lead to its abolition on the part of England and subsequently of other nations. It was on the 18th of April, 1791, that Mr. Wilberforce moved in the House of Commons for leave to bring in a Bill to prevent the further importation of slaves into the West Indies. After years of conflict, the Bill was passed, and the trade received from the British Government the coup de grace which led up to the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions. God — knowing how He has made the climate, how impossible it is for foreigners to live here and introduce their improvements, and how strong the antagonism of race — provided for the deportation of large numbers of Africans to a distant land, where, as in a severe school, they might be fitted for the work of building up and pro- tecting their ancestral home. That educational training, intense in its almost fabulous bitterness, has lasted now for three hundred years. Now the time has come for the return of the exiles, and they are the only agency which, whether for religious or secular work, can effect any w^idespread changes for 20 good. Providence demands restoration. Masterly in- activity is impossible. " Rachel weeps for her children, and refuses to be comforted because they are not." Her cry is, " Give me back my children ! " The world at large seems as yet deaf to the wailings of the bereaved at home, and to the ciies for relief of the exiles beyond the sea. They have poured out thousands for the rescue from Africa of two individuals only who did not wish to be rescued — men who loved the people and the scenes amid w^hich they lived and were devoted to the work in which they were engaged. The twenty thousand pounds spent for the rescue of Emin Pasha could have planted on this coast, or in the interior, a flourishing settlement of indus- trious Negro agriculturists from the United States or the West Indies who in a few years would have redeemed a large district for civilisation and made important additions to the valuable articles of commerce. Surely "blood is thicker than water"; and "to him that hath shall be given," even when he says, " I do not want." But the final ground of judgment will be, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least," &c. In the mysterious work to be done in this mysterious land, we have two types of the agencies thus far employed — both English. Sir John Hawkins, who represents the inauguration of the trade, or the despoiler, and Mr. William Wilberforce, who represents the extinguisher of the evil. Who shall represent the Restorer ? I may be allowed to say that the name of Moloney /\,\ill in years to come be cited as that character. He is the only repre- sentative of Great Britain, in official position, who has announced it as a public policy to repatriate the exiles. He is the only British officer who has as yet practically recognised the gravity of the African situation, and the grandeur and glory of the work of restoring to their 21 country the ioiig-lost exiles. In the annals of the future, Hawkins, Wilberforce, Moloney, will stand for the three great facts or agencies in the work of African develop- ment. I must confess that I feel something of indigna- tion as well as regret to be obliged to couple the two last n&mes with the first. But in history such incongruous associations sometimes occur. We have Jesus of Nazareth and Judas Iscariot. Their names are often mentioned together in the gospel histor}\ With regard to Lagos itself, there have been other Goverjiors who have done much and noble work for the improvement of the Settlement. The name of John Hawdey Glover will never be forgotten for his self-denying and important labours ; and it is interesting to see that a magnificent structure , now in course of erection, will soon adorn and beautify your City as a fitting memorial of his work and achievements. So, in the history of West African Governments, the names of Sir Charles M'Carth}^ Sir Arthur Kennedy, and Sir John Pope Heunessy will for ever stand prominent. They, however, had pre- decessors in their line ; but the place of the pioneer in any great movement must always be unique. Columbus discovered America. He w^ill always occupy that un- approachable eminence, however others may have utilised his discovery in a way far beyond his most enchanting dreams. Bishop Crowther must always stand first in the history of any Native Church, whatever form it may take. That name must for ever be honourably identified w^ith the history of West African Christianity. So, in the history of Kepatriation under British auspices, the name of Sir Alfred Moloney must lead the train of successors in that line that must come after him ; some, perhaps, to do in larger measure the work he has inaugurated. The time is now ripe for the return. The American 22 Colonisation Society has been for more than two genera- tions pointing out the Repatriation of the Exiles as the only Providential plan for Africa's regeneration, and sending home from time to time Repatriates in small nmnbers. But the world generally, especially England, has not been ready for this work. Philanthropic and commercial associations still think that their methods for the regeneration of Africa are the most promising. But after a few more decades of exhaustive expenditure, the whole civilised world, secular and rehgious, will turn to the only Heaven-ordained agency for the great work — viz., the Africans in exile. I must not omit to mention here, and to put on record, the expression of my admiration and gratitude for the important part which the British and African Steam Navigation Company and the African Steamship Com- pany have taken in forwarding the work of Repatriation ; indeed, those Companies and their enterprising agents have done more within the last forty years than any other single agency to promote and develop African civilisation in all its most healthful phases ; and to them Africans owe a great and inextinguishable debt. The S.S. " Biafra " left here a few days ago on her second voyage in the work of the restoration. It will send a thrill of deepest joy throughout the ranks of thousands of anxious and expectant Negroes in North America when they learn that steam communication has been established between West Africa and South America for the especial purpose of aiding the return of the exiles. And not only is there a preparation going on for this work in the hearts and minds of the exiles, but men of influence in England and America are being stirred up to take interest in the question. A copy of a letter was sent to me a few days ago., written by an English clergyman, 23 Kev. Francis P. Flemynge, LL.D., F.E.G.S., on the subject, to G. W. Neville, Esq., who has taken so active a part in bringing steam to the aid of v^ould-be repatriates in Brazil. The letter is dated September 25, and is as follows : — " That over one million of Negroes should be anxious to return to their native land, and be prevented by poverty alone, has so stirred my compassion that I have resolved to try at once and form an ' African Repatriation Relief Society ' for the purpose of collecting funds to give free and assisted passages to these poor creatures from Brazils and tiavana to Africa. " I have already written to several friends who I hope will assist me, and I have laid the matter before Lord Salisbury and other authorities. " I propose to form a Society totally irrespective of all religions or political differences of opinion, and purely based on philanthropic prin- ciples, to try and carry out this laudable object. I hope I do not overrate the generosity of Britain, but I cannot but believe that there are thou- sands who will be glad to help us. "I propose returning to England next Spring. Between this and then I shall hope to have all afloat, and then I would undertake a Crusade, holding meetings in all the large towns and manufacturing centres." It is hardly necessary for me to stop here to recomit the advantages which would flow from the return of experi- enced agriculturists and skilled mechanics ; the influence they would exert upon the tribes in reconciling their • differences, settling their wars as disinterested mediators and arbitrators, and the lessons they would impart in the various elements and appliances of civilised life. Imagine the result of one hundred thousand Negroes from America settled in the Xoruba* country, with their knowledge of, and practice in, the use not only of the implements of peace,, but of the instruments of war. What would become of the King of Dahomey, with his sanguinary customs and his murderous periodical raids ? And what 24 should we not witness in that glorious country as the result of a few years of uninterrupted peace ! This is a work you must at once see that no other agency can accomphsh. Our brethren then will return. What is the part of those of us who are at home ? We are to prepare to welcome them (as I am glad to see you *are already welcoming them), and make them feel the abounding and overflowing joy of the return. But I must now turn to another question of the day, viz. : — THE NATIVE CHUKCH. Events now transpiring have roused thinking minds among the Christian natives along the coast to establish a Church of their own, so as to be able to deal with their own problems, with which strangers cannot safely or profitably intermeddle. The present state of things must remind every thinking African who has been abroad, of those notices on tickets sometimes issued by Bailway Companies or Exhibitions — " Good for this trip only," or " Not transferable." So this present ecclesiastical arrange- ment, with its foreign props and supports, its foreign stimulus and restraints, might be labelled — Good for this generation only." It can neither be transmitted nor transferred. We cannot transfer or transmit that which is alien to us, however by assiduous or protracted imita- tion it may seem to be ours. *' From him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have." The time will come, and not in any distant future, when our foreign patrons will withhold their patronage — remove the props which have supported us ; then, do you think our children will be able to maintain these alien and artificial arrangements ? Will they care to keep up a 25 complicated foreign system in which they have no ex- traneous assistance? Of course, in the new movement, there will be among the more conservative here, as elsewhere, apprehensions as to the results of a change. How it will strike foreigners ! How it will affect ourselves ! Well, the fact is, we shall never learn to swim unless we venture into the water. Let us launch out into the deep and try the vast ocean of life, with its sweeping gales and dashing waves. If our tiny bark should be battered by storms, and we return to port with broken spars and tattered sails, we should be learning by experience. We should learn to be careful not to spread too wide a sail before we are sure of the strength of the gale. And what if we should founder? Many a gallant ship, with able commander, has suffered that fate ; but we shall not founder, if we are careful to take Him into the ship with us, whose power can calm the boisterous sea, and say to the raging waves, Peace, be still." But to leave the figurative. I have not the slightest doubt that, in forming an independent Church, there will be at first much that is unsatisfactory. We shall probably be misgoverned ; the work will be at times neglected ; our finances will be mismanaged. Some Vv^ho watch on the walls may go to sleep when the hour demands un- sleeping vigilance ; but here again we should be learning by experience. We might be often hampered by the thought of the clumsy and blundering figure we present to the world. We might be worried by the suspicion that our enemies are marking and recording all our shortcomings. We should be certain to go through a period of difficulties, of failures, when sympathy would be with our enemies, not with us ; but we should be gaining patience and experience, and acquiring by labour. 26 by trial, by suffering, by self-denial, a possession which we can transmit as our own to our children. We should also be able to recognise those who may be to blame for our misfortunes, and be able to deal with them as we have not the power to do now with delinquents and those whose defects and vices trouble the Church and hinder her prosperity. But in this new enterprise we shall not be taking a leap altogether in the dark. There are hghts and landmarks to encourage and stimulate us. Bishop ' Crowther and his able and persistent fellow-workers on the Niger have laid the foundation of an African Church, and have inspired throughout the Christian world the belief and hope that such a Church is possible. That institution of loftiest promise — the Native Pastorate — the Apostolic fervour and zeal and abundant labours of your own James Johnson, show you the possibilities of the Native for indigenous and independent work. But while the Church should be Native, we do not mean that it should be local. We want to drop the con- ventional trammels of Europe, but we do not wish to localise religion. I mean to say that we do not wish to give it any tribal colouring or bias. We want to hold up the simple teaching of Christ, and go out into the high- ways and hedges of our country and bring the people in, believing that there are those who are in earnest in their worship of God, needing only to have the way of salvation taught them more perfectly. The Christian world has not yet fully grasped the teachings nor understood the example of Him who was found not only among the doctors in the Temple, but among publicans and sinners, eating and drinking with them, and who said, " Other sheep I have, w^hich are not of this fold ; them also I must bring, and they shall 27 hear my voice ; and they shall become one flock, one shepherd." (John x. 16.) Nor has the world yet reached the conviction of Peter, who, even after years of association with the Great Master, continued to grope in darkness on the subject of God's universal love, until, after that remarkable vision, he stood before Cornelius, the Gentile Centurion, and heard his words. " Of a truth," he then exclaimed, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him." The best and most enlightened men in the Christian world to-day have caught something of the light which suddenly streamed upon Peter, and joining in the song of Longfellow — — believe that in all ages Every human heart is human — That in even savage bosoms There are longings, yearnings, strivings For the good they comprehend not ; That the feeble hands and helpless, Groping blindly in the darkness, Touch God's r>ght hand in that darkness, And are lifted up and strengthened. These "longings," " yeamings," strivings," are more than mere human instinct. We must see in them the working of the Divine Spirit, and should not, by unsympathetic treatment, quench that Spirit. We must seek to bring into the Native Church the Chiefs and other men of influence. Do not expect of them the perfection which a narrow philanthropy exacts. Consider the conditions under which Europe received the Gospel. Had the hard conditions now imposed upon African Chiefs been required of European sovereigns and chiefs, Christianity might never have been permanently established on the west of the Bosphorus. 28 The first Christian Emperor, Constantine, was half a pagan to the end. He erected in his new capital, Con- stantinople, a statue of himself. At the base of this statue, it is said, he x^laced a fragment of what he beheved to be the true Cross. In the same place he deposited the palladium, the cherished rehc of Pagan Kome, which ^neas was said to have rescued from the flames of Troy, and which Constantine himself stealthily removed to his new capital. This was his fetish, brought over from heathenism. It was the same with his legislation. Thus we find, almost side by side, promulgated within two months of each other, two Imperial decrees— the one enjoming that Sunday shall be set apart as a day of rest ; the other providing that when the palace or any other pubhc building is struck by lightning, the soothsayers shall be consulted as to the meaning of the prodigy, according to ancient custom, and the answer reported to the Emperor himself. Constantine was at one and the same time the summoner of the Nicene Council, and the chief priest of heathenism. At one moment he was preaching sermons to his courtiers, and discussing dogmas with his bishops ; and at the next, he was issuing orders for the regulation of some Pagan ritual. "The same fountain/' Bishop Lightfoot says, "did send forth sweet waters and bitter." - If we knew more of the history of the Church in Europe, of the compromises that had to be effected before it could gain a footing there, we should be less exacting and more charitable to our brethren in the interior, whose condition is that of Europe in her primitive times. Not the least among the drawbacks in the influence of the agencies, secular and religious, which have operated * Lightfoot's Sermons. 29 on the coast, has been the persistent effort to ignore the pecuharities here of race and chmate — to make a history for the people, and get them to enact it. The endeavour has been to introduce social forces from abroad — to allow as little as possible to racial and traditional bias, or to individual genius, forgetting that these forces in Europe were a growth, requiring time, and not a sudden inspira- tion ; not the work of a year or a generation. The con- sequence is just what ought to have been expected, viz., that whatever the cleverness or industry of these foreign teachers, " the stars in their courses " fight against them, and no learning or money or valour can overcome these celestial antagonists No ; history in Africa is to be made as history everywhere else. You cannot reduce histor}^ to social formulas. The business of the foreign teacher is to impart principles which are of universal application, as all the teachings of Christ are, and to interfere as little as possible with the form they will take among the people. To pursue any other method is to rack, or mutilate, the poor objects of their teaching, on the bed of Procrustes. What is essential is growth, not organisation. In one of your churches, a few sabbaths ago, a foreign missionary called attention to the unsatisfactory state of things among the Christian natives, without, however, animadverting upon the crude and unphilosophical methods which have conduced to the unfruitful results. Institutions and customs are observed among the people which strike the foreigner as incongruous and ridiculous, because they are not due to any native or spontaneous development, or even adaptation, but are rigid and slavish copies of what exists in Europe and America. As time goes on, the philanthropic spirit which now seeks to reduce all races to a dead uniformity will find 30 out, under the deeper teachings of science, that if they could succeed in their enterprise they would destroy elements of culture, and of their own culture, as a part of humanity, and possibly the most important elements of it, without whose full play humanity must always be lame and imperfect. The first principle of true growth is truthfulness. Now imitation often produces outward conformity without any inward agreement. Truthfulness of character hes in what we are, not in what we appear, or in what we say. A man may do an act or speak a word which agrees with certain facts, but himself may be false. Truth in the inward parts is the first necessity of growth. Simply outward conformity is pretence ; pretence is unreality, and unreality is barren. Pretence never has produced, and never can produce, any permanent result. The West African Church should be an African, not an English production. With Bible in hand, its framers should arrange for the suppression of whatever has hindered truthfulness in the people. The great incubus upon our development has been unreasoning imitation. This we must try to avoid. But do not run to the other extreme of avoiding what is foreign simply because it is foreign. There are many good things in foreign customs — many useful things, many precious things, not only conducive and helpful, but indispensable to a healthy Christian growth. These we must find out and cherish. We must have a Church which will have the affection of the people and the reverence of generations — in which we may feel communion with all God's saints of old, at present and to come. So that with all His people we can embody in song, whether in English or Yoruba, in Ibo or Nupe, those beautiful sentiments, sung always with grateful delight in all parts of the Christian world : — j 31 I love Thy Church, O God ! Her walls before Thee stand, Dear as the apple of Thine eye, And graven on Thy hand. For her my tears shall fall, For her my prayers ascend ; To her my cares and toils be given, Till toils and cares shall end. Beyond my highest joy I prize her heav'nly ways, Her sweet communion, solemn vows, Her hymns of love and praise. In the establishment of your Church or schools there will be no danger of exciting jealousy or opposition on the part of the foreigner. Africa is not like India. It does not offer even the slender possibilities of life which India affords to Enghshmen, and there are, consequently, in connection with mission work on the part of English- men in Africa, no schemes of social or political aggrandisement. If there are any material fruits of mission work looked forward to they are mainly com- mercial and industrial. The life, then, of the two races must ever be apart. There can never be any social or political identity. But you must expect opposition, and even conflict. These are no sign or cause of weakness. Did you ever notice that when a bird flies against the wind, it flies with its feathers all gracefully smoothed down, and this enables it to sail aloft. When it flies with the wind, it flies with ruffled feathers, and hence it flaps about and cannot rise. West African Christianity has been too long sailing with the wind. Then, as Browning exhorts : — Then welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit, nor stand, but go. 32 God has given to every living creature, from the highest to the lowest, the means of defence and attack, showing that the intention of the Creator was that there should be war. " Blessed be the Lord, my strength," says David, " who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight" (Ps. cxliv., 10). No individual or race can give to another the results of its own struggles. The struggle in order to success is inevitable. The theory or system, then, by which one people seeks to transfer or communicate to another the results of its own endeavours and battles, is far from wholesome. Therefore, what to us in the recent events on the Niger seems a strange and calamitous proceeding, is in reality the unfolding of the mighty purpose of God for Africa, and His purposes, we knov/, are always wise and beneficent. It is The spirit of the years to come Yearning to mix itself with life 33 APPENDIX. Dr. Blyden arrived at Lagos December 20th, 1890, and on the 24:th was waited on with an address by the Committee of gentlemen who had invited him to visit the Colony, viz.: — James Johnson, Pastor of St. Paul's Church, and Member of the Legislative Council. J. S. Leigh, Merchant, E. B. Blaize, Merchant. N. H. Williams, Barrister-at-Law. J. A. Otomba Payne, F.K.G.S., Chief Registrar. John Randle, M.B., CM. J. A. Savage, Merchant. T. A. King, Druggist. J. O. George, Agent, Radcliffe and Durrant. C. J. George, J. P., Member of the Legislative Council. J. B. Williauis, Merchant. H. W. George, Importer. Z. A. Williams, Merchant. J. W. Cole, Merchant. The Address was read by the Hon. and Eev. J. Johnson : — Rev. and dear Sir, — As Members of the Committee whose in- vitation to visit Lagos you have so kindly accepted, and of the several professions of the Christian Ministry, Law, Medicine, and Commerce, we respectfully bid you a right hearty wel- come to our shores. We have often heard and read with much real interest, pleasure and thankfulness of your zealous and devoted labours on behalf of our common race ; and of your desire and efforts to impress the Negro in exile in America and in European pos- sessions on the Coast with a strong and clear sense of his race 34 individuality, his close connection with and relations to the independent Native States and their numerous inhabitants in the interior of Africa, his grave responsibility both in regard to himself and in regard to the whole country and people which his long residence in and connection with a foreign country and government as a subject, the loyalty he owes to it, his adoption and use of a foreign language, customs and habits, and even his education, are apt to make him think little of, neg- lect or forget ; and the European with a strong conviction of the great possibilities that lie before the Negro in Africa, and of his obligation to him to promote his return from exile to his fatherland, and fit him for work in it by an education that will not hamper or destroy, but tend to conserve his distinctiveness and confer on him true freedom, and by the simple teaching of Christianity which is designed for, and is so well fitted to promote a people's proper growth and true welfare for time and for eternity. We are thankful to notice that these labours have met with no small a measure of success at home and abroad, and that your late visit to America has greaoly helped to diffuse or strengthen among the Negro population there a desire to expatriate themselves from the land of their former bondage, and of their present doubtful freedom, and settle themselves in a country they can truly call their own. We rejoice over and are most thankful for the gifts and graces which our gracious God has endowed you with ; the line of work which he has evidently marked out for you ; the patience and perseverance you have manifested under difficul- ties and discouragements, not the least of which has often been the misapprehension of your aims and motives by your own people, and the facility with which many of them too often lend themselves to the ill will of those who, while they profess to be friends, are indeed enemies to the race ; and over the fact that all you have been enabled to do has reflected no small credit and honour upon the race of which you are a member and representative. 35 We hope and trust your visit to Lagos may serve as an object lesson to many a Negro, and especially the youthful Negro, teaching him how much he may do for himself in any sphere of life which it may please God to call him to occupy, contribute much to inspire in us and in our people generally a greater interest in ourselves as a people ; a greater love for and devotion to our country ; a greater desire to labour each one in his own measure to promote its advancement, and a more diligent, appreciative and thankful use of every suitable help which a beneficent Providence may place in our way, and cause Lagos and the Yoruba country generally to be m^bre widely known to our brethren in America who are sighing for full freedom and desire to return to their fatherland, and whose fund of knowledge and experience may help much in building up our waste places and regenerating the country ; and to the European there and elsewhere who may desire to forward their wish. EEPLY. Gentlemen, — I cannot convey to you in words at the present moment the thoughts and feelings with which I am impressed. I thank you for your kind and generous* utterances. My history has been a peculiar one. My experience has been somewhat diversified. I was born in the West Indies ; but it has been my lot to travel in all parts of the world where Negroes exist in large numbers in civilized communities. I have seen them in the Northern and Southern portions of the United States, in South America, in Egypt, and various portions of the Turkish Empire. I have seen them under Christian and Mohammedan rule ; but nowhere in Africa or out of it have I seen them existing under conditions more favourable to racial growth and development than in Lagos. I need not describe to you their condition in the United States ; you have referred to it in your address. For purposes of comparison I will come Lo the Coast. 36 Take Sierra Leone, which is the oldest of the civiHzed and Christian settlements on the Coast, founded by philanthropists in the closing years of the last century, for the purpose of affording to the Negro not only a refuge from his persecutors in those slave-trading times, but a field for self-government and independent grov^th. But vs^hat has been the result? The exigences of the situation have prevented anything like a normal development. The civilized element which laid the foundation of the settle- ment were from America — from Nova- Scotia, with views and feelings perverted in the house of bondage. Though of African extraction they had lost complete sympathy with their people at home — and lived separate from the aborigines whom they found in the country. They were followed as settlers by the Maroons from Jamaica, who, embittered by contests with their masters in their insular home, had lived in armed isolation in the mountain fastnesses. They came to Africa soured and sen- sitive. They soon got into antagonism with their predecessors in the Colony ; and these two elements, though living without sympathy w^ith each other, were both out of harmony with the aborigines, whom they despised and treated with scorn as heathen and strangers, inferior and degraded. Then came a third element, the recaptives, who, coming from various parts of the continent, speaking a different language, increased the complications ; for, landing in their distress and incapable of making themselves understood to the foreign settlers, they ex- cited their aversion. This thing went on uutil in the course of time no fewer than one hundred different African languages were heard in the streets of Freetown. It is easy to see that under such circumstances it was impossible for the people to have any common ideas or to develop such a thing as a public sentiment, or for any section of them to feel safe or to look for- ward to independence. These new comers to the country were not only out of harmony among themselves, but were sep- arate from the aborigines. 37 But still it is interesting to know that notwithstanding these disadvantages, Sierra Leone has produced not a few able men who have achieved distinction and made an important im- pression upon the history of their race. But what might not have been done had not Sierra Leoneans found themselves living on an Island ? I mean so far as each of its elements was con- cerned, they lived separate from each other in insular ignor- ance and indifference. The next settlement of civilised blacks on the coast is Liberia, which from a Colony has grown into an independent Kepublic. But this too has had its drawbacks. Its founders and their successors, in spite of themselves, brought from the countries, of their exile the prejudices which had taken possession of them in that bitter school, and for many years of their history they did not understand how to take ad- vantage of their heritage of race and blood in the land of their fathers. They are now beginning to understand, and are striv- ing to bring in the aborigines to share with them their privi- leges and assist in building up a common home. When we come to Lagos, which is the youngest of the three Christian Negro Settlements, we find a different state of things. The Christian Negroes who came hither, chiefly from Sierra Leone, to settle, were members of the tribe into whose country they came. They had a common language and common traditions. They had not hved here as islanders, but as part of a great continent, surrounded by their own people and connected with the more distant interior tribes, with whom they are in constant and unbroken intercourse. Since my arrival here, and going about the town and seeing the close proximity and intimacy in w^hich the aborigines, Pagans, Mohammedans and Christians live, I feel that it is impossible for the returned exile ever to lose sight of the rock whence he was hewn, or the hole of the pit whence he was digged. You are at home here, gentlemen, connected by tribe and language and instinct with the great mass of people around and beyond you. If anything happens to you 38 from beyond the sea, you can fly, not to strangers, but to your own people. This is an element of strength and a guarantee of independence which no other Christian Negro community possesses. I am glad, therefore, to have the privilege of visiting you, and I feel grateful to you for not only inviting me to visit you, but for providing the facilities to enable me to do so. This is one of the evidences of your self-reliance, independence and practical interest in the work of the race which will disprove the asser- tions, in which our enemies are fond of indulging, that the African has no self-respect — no pride of race — no interest in the progress of his people. But nothing can be done before its time. We live in an age of vast movements. Humanity is everywhere restless, and attention is being directed to Africa by foreigners as never before. The honour you have done me in inviting me to visit you is not an isolated event. It is a link in the great chain of cir- cumstances which are leading up to results for Africa the nature of which no man can venture to predict. The Negro race in exile is everywhere restless. He is feeling after some- thing which he believes is coming. You here in Lagos have been in great measure at ease. But Providence has recently roused you into thoughtfulness and anxiety. He has caused things to happen at your own doors and to your own brethren which have startled you into thought and broken up your indifference. The events in connection with the Mission on the Niger are providential. They have produced a profound impression all along the Coast. Sierra Leone was or is still in a state of anxiety and expectation. Thinking men have come to the conclusion that the call of God has now become distinct and clear that they should form an African Church, and take upon themselves the responsibility 39 not only of supporting the Gospel among themselves, but of extending it to the regions beyond. But they are looking to Lagos as possessing far greater advantages for indigenous and independent work of that kind to take if not the lead, at least a prominent part in such an organization. The elements exist here in a greater degree for such a church than elsev^rhere on the Coast. It is the only place v^here so many native Christians Hsten to the wonderful works of God in their ov^n tongue, and where it would be so easy for them to be separate and distinct, and have a church that shall not be composed of foreigners on the one hand who support it and of parasites on the other who are supported. Under such circumstances there can be no real or permanent growth, as is seen by the sudden collapse of the church on the Niger. Thanking you again, gentlemen, for your kindness in calling upon me to-day, I will conclude by saying that there is no other place in the world possessing like Lagos the advantages not only for indigenous, healthful, independent and permanent Christian work, but for the establishment of a civilization upon the basis of Negro idiosyncracies. W. B. Whittingham & Co., Printers, 91, Gracechurch Street, London, E C. BW9331 .B66 The return of the exiles and the West Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00019 0605