catechumens were ready to be baptized. Then the church was organized at
Ayol, with fourteen members. They were not likely to confound the church
of Christ with any mere building made with hands; for as yet there was no
building. We organized the church and held the first communion service in
the street. The second communion service was held in another town called
Makwena, Ndong Koni’s town, where his uncle was chief. The Christians of
Makwena had built a beautiful chapel of bamboo, with doors and windows on
hinges. Ndong Koni had worked in the yard at Baraka in order to buy those
doors and windows for the church.
[Illustration: THREE FANG BOYS.
_After several years in the school; also among the first Christians._]
On the occasion of this second communion service I spent the preceding
Saturday in going to Ayol and several other widely separated towns
with the _Dorothy_, gathering the people for the service. Early Sunday
morning I pulled into Makwena with sixty people in the launch, on top
of it, and in a big canoe behind. They were singing hymns, and singing
them beautifully, for there were enough of my schoolboys there to take
the parts. Between the hymns they occupied the time with the praises
of _Dorothy_, the like of which, for comfort and for speed, they had
never dreamed of. Upon our arrival a large number of people came down to
welcome their fellow Christians. They wore more clothing than the whole
town had formerly possessed. These Christians were of various tribes who
in former times had been continually at war with each other. And I could
imagine such a company coming together and making the little river run
red like crimson with each other’s blood. But now they were all saluting
each other as, “Brother” and “Sister”; and there was such hand-shaking
and social palaver that it scarcely seemed possible there could be so
much happiness in that land of cruelty and tears. And as I reflected that
these were but the first-fruits of a great harvest, all the labour, the
trials, the perils, the sickness of the years that had passed seemed as
nothing.
Among those who were baptized that day I distinctly recall a certain old
woman who had probably lived long enough to have experienced all the
evils and the suffering of heathenism. Her face was almost beautiful
with the light of joy that shone in her eyes. Her paltry garment was so
scrappy and so scanty that I wondered whether there was enough of it to
meet the requirements of propriety. But when she came into the service
she was dressed in a pure white robe that came up to her shoulders and
reached to her feet, and was held with a black sash.
I baptized thirty-seven persons and received several whom I had already
baptized at Baraka, making in all fifty-five members in the Ayol church
at the end of that year; and besides there were nearly two hundred
catechumens. All those whom I baptized had been on probation and under
instruction for two years or more. It was a long service, but the time
passed quickly for us all, and more so because we sang many hymns. At
length we closed the service by repeating all together the Lord’s Prayer:
“Tate wa a n’ eyô, e jui die e boñ éki. Ayoñ die nzak. Mam w’ a nyege,
be boñe mo e si ene, ane b’ a be eyô. Vage bie biji bi a kôge bie emu.
Zamege bie mam abé bi a bo, ane bi a zam abé bôt b’ a bo bie. Ke lète bie
nzèn mekoñ. Kamege ne bie môt a n’ a bé. Togo na, ô ne y’ ayoñ, ye ki, y’
éwôge, mbè mbè, Amen.”
A few mouths later I held a communion service in one of the up-river
towns, in which were gathered all the Christians from the upper towns.
There I baptized sixty-five persons, making in all one hundred and twenty
members in the Ayol Church. And, besides, there were nearly three hundred
catechumens.
When I reflect on the kind of men and women that these Christians are,
and consider the savages they might have been; when I realize the
surroundings of darkest ignorance, revolting degradation and horrible
cruelty in the midst of which they walk in ways of righteousness and
truth; when I think how rough that way is and how very dark the night of
Africa, my heart goes out to them all in eager sympathy and solicitude.
May the “kindly light” of God’s love, seen in the face of His Son, shine
more and more upon their path, and lead them on “o’er crag and torrent
till the night be gone.”
THE END
Printed in the United States of America
LIGHT ON THE GREAT WAR
_JAMES A. MACDONALD, LL.D._
_Editor Toronto Globe_
The North American Idea
The Cole Lectures for 1917. 12mo, cloth, net $1.25.
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MISSIONS
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TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION
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