68 
GOD'S BLACK DIAMONDS. 
catechumen or preparation class; eventually his 
application to be examined as to his manner o'f 
life, his knowledge of God's Word, and his reason 
for accepting the Christian faith, has been granted. 
The examination having proved satisfactory, his 
attendance before a meeting of the Church members 
had followed. Enquiries had been also made in the 
compound where he lived as to his honesty, purity, 
good temper and truthful speech. An interview 
with the missionary based upon the report of the 
Church Meeting proved the climax. All having 
been successfully passed through, he is to be pub- 
licly admitted to-day as a member of the Christian 
Church by baptism. It is such a special occasion 
he must have a special dress, all of w^hite. (Their 
idea of holiness is cleanness, whiteness.) When 
the first bell rings half an hour before the morning 
service, he is visited bv two Church members who 
act as his proud escort through the town to 
the church. In the church he, along with others 
maybe, occupy a seat on the front bench facing 
the pulpit. To him in very direct fashion the 
preacher preaches about the duties and privileges 
and responsibilities of the Christian life. He is 
never allow^ed for so much as a moment to imagine 
that he can be carried to the skies on flowery beds 
of ease.'* Then come the heart-searching questions 
about past, present and future, and these having 
been publicly put, and as publicly replied to, he is 
sprinkled with water, and in the name of God, and 
with the right hand of fellowship, admitted into a 
society greater and better than any Egbo^ — the 
Society of Jesus. After the singing of Happy 
Day,*' and the Benediction, all the church and con- 
