SHERBRO MISSION. 
49 
labor at Sliaingay, while all have suffered more 
or less from sickness, Mr. Hadley was the only 
one that had died. Instead of regarding his death, 
therefore, as a token of Grod’s displeasure, the 
Church ought, and did finally, consider it as a 
mark of favor and approval, that the lives and 
health of our missionaries, taken together, had 
been so precious in his sight. 
But facts are stubborn things. Only a few souls 
had been converted during all the years we had 
labored in Africa; the first chapel built had been 
devoured by the ^^bug-a-bug;’’ our faithful mis- 
sionaries had returned, and one of them died, 
and there was no body to take their places. The 
Church, in many localities, was restless, and in 
some instances censorious. With this unsettled 
state of things the Board of Missions was itself 
inclined to waver. Happily their annual session, 
just after Mr. Hadley’s death, was held the day 
before the General Conference convened. At this 
session the Board did little more than take a re- 
trospective view of their work. The secretary 
and treasurer made their reports. Of the African 
mission the secretary said, sorrowfully: 
^^Though the prospect is not very flattering, I 
can not but believe that a glorious harvest of souls 
will yet be gathered among that people, and that 
before long, by that church that will sustain la- 
