IN WESTERN AFRICA. 
273 
boy, is now Thomas, the enlightened Christian 
'man. He is a home evangelist, a kind of local 
preacher, without quarterly or annual conference 
license. He speaks the Sherbro dialect. 
^^A SIDE-DOOR.” 
We have also entered at a small side-door, so to 
speak. This door was unlocked in 1857, and for 
more than twenty years it has been standing open 
night and day. It opens to us a field — not a har- 
vest-field of ripe grain ready for the reaper, but a 
field all covered wuth a dense growth of the vilest 
passions, the darkest deeds, and the grossest su- 
perstitions of w'hich the low^est order of mind is 
capable — ^waiting for the sharp-edged sword of 
the Spirit to clear the ground and prepare it for 
the seed of the 'word of God. 
Sherbro Mission has already assumed propor- 
tions of no mean dimensions. Twenty-two years 
ago a little fire was kindled on the western shores 
of upper Sherbro. At first it burned slowly, and 
threw^ a very faint light against the dark back- 
ground of heathen life. At one time the fire 
came very near going out; and but for an over- 
ruling Providence it would have gone out. Deep 
and important interests were placed in the bal- 
ances at the sixteenth session of this Board, and 
at the General Conference at Lebanon, Peimsyl- 
18 
