iv.] MISSION FIELD. 173 



natural and spiritual desert. The glory is thence departed, 

 but is not to be forgotten. Time hath written lchahod upon 

 its shattered escutcheon in characters which even the dust of 

 centuries has not effaced. Still some faint spiritual splendour 

 flickers around it, phosphorescent though it be. The light is 

 all but put out in the north, and must now advance from 

 the other three quarters. 



Travellers, voyagers, men of science and missionaries are 

 by degrees telling us their wondrous stories of this land of 

 mystery. It is now for the Christian to go in and possess it. 

 The way is open and opening. The Apostles who go must be 

 those of Christ ; not those of mammon, of mere adventure, or 

 proud ambition. In too many cases the white man's look on 

 the poor negro has been that of the fascination of the basilisk, 

 leading to harm and destruction. His breath has been that 

 of moral and spiritual pestilence, his feet have been swift to 

 shed blood, and his very presence has been like that of the 

 baleful upas tree. Let not this be the case in central Africa- 

 It is for the Christian Church to occupy this field first with 

 her faithful ambassadors of Christ. Let these speak first of 

 the white man's God ; not of mammon, not of reason, not of 

 pleasure, or of this world, but his God — the Trinity in Unity, 

 reconciled by the sacrifice of a suffering Saviour. Let these 

 shew the beauty of holiness by living that Gospel which the 

 Church professes, teaches and believes. Then, if Satan's serv- 

 ants come afterwards, these keen clear-sighted savages will at 

 once discern the wheat from the chaff, and, by God's grace 

 cling to the white man's good and eschew his blighting evil. 



Dr Livingstone says most decidedly that the interior is the 

 most promising sphere for missionary labours. Not only are 

 the people less savage, but such operations may have great in- 

 fluence on the slave-trade. He has presented this odious 

 traffic to the world in a new aspect ; enabling us now to know 

 both its real sources and principal abettors in the interior, as 

 well as its probable cure. 



