Up the ladder in foreign missions

Contents

PAGET.

reface v . 5

Stepping- Stones in Missions. ./:... :..?"..! 15

Preface

Who knows Homer? Who knows the birthplace of Shakespeare and his life? From w T hat source can we get the facts to paint in rich oratory the achievements of Napoleon, Cromwell, L'Ouverture, Washington, Lincoln, Grant and the matchless Maceo?

History alone records the deeds and sayings of these great men. And though the inscriptions may have long since mouldered on the tablets, the columns and arches which mark the spots where remain all that was mortal of them may be heaps of sand, and the epitaphs but characters written in the dust, yet these men live and the foot prints marking the way they went are clearly seen, as history lights up the pathway a]l down the march of time.

As in the secular, so in the religious world. The lives of such men as William Carey, Judson, Lott Carey, William J. Simmons, Cosby, Spurgeon, Coles, Luke and scores of others who were matchless heroes in the development of Christianity in this and other centuries illumining the pages of missionary history, are an inspiration to the churches for ages to come.

It is not my purpose to multiply books, for I am only a novice at the profession, and could not add an atom to

v the world of letters, but it is my highest aim to record in this little volume facts, as I know them, searched for them and gleaned them from reliable sources.

I have been pained to notice, in my five years ' experience as Secretary of Missions, the woeful ignorance of the thousands of our laymen, and even the ministry, on this great question of missions.

It is therefore my aim to furnish reliable information to the Negro Baptist churches of this and other countries on this question.

Again, I write because no history of missions records impartially and fully the deeds of Negroes who have gone to heathen lands and delivered, amid persecution ap.d thrilling circumstances, the Story of the Cross. It was after great research that we have snatched from obscurity Negro pioneers in missions, for men blinded by prejudice never saw the black martyrs of early missions, nor even those knowing of their efforts have written fully of them. Since we are counted in the religious census of the world it is strange that our achievements in the same history are unwritten.

Knowing therefore, if our children are to know the facts, we must write them, or, like us, they must glean them from the reluctant testimony of partial historians.

Again I write this book and send it out on the wings of a prayer that it may be an instrument in God's hands, stimulating a new interest in missions throughout this country, and serving as a beacon light to many who shall venture forth in the service of God in African Missions.

The sordid idea of pecuniary gain is far from being the actuating motive, but if not a dollar of profit comes

vi to me from this humble effort it will serve my purpose if any good is done, in inspiring those who shall eome after me in the work of missions to which I have willingly dedicated the remainder of my life.

We gratefully acknowledge the help gotten from The New Acts of the Apostles, Crisis of Missions, Thd Miracles of Missions, by Dr. A. T. Pierson; also to Rev. Mr. Moss, M. A., D. D., of Canada, for the use of his booklet, One Hundred Years in Modern Missions; American Baptists and Missions, by Rev. E. F. Merriam; Gist of Missions, and the Reports of the Ecumenical Conference of 1900, The Author.

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