THE SUDAN UNITED MISSION.

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1918, Page 5

THE SUDAN UNITED MISSION.

AX KnTEI'UvJi'I-n'G LLC! L ;>..ij. There was a crowded audience in Wesley Hall last evening, when l-'iss EoniwJ.l delivered ;i r..ost interesting and eloquent lecture ou the work or the Sudan United Mission. The lecturer began by sketching thehistory of the Sudan in its relation to the British Empire. The story oi Mahdism, of- General Gordon's wont and heroic death, and of the reconquest of the Sudan by Lord Kitchener were graphically narrated. In the minds of most people Africa was still a Dark Con tinent. The Sudan was an area of -country twenty times as large as New Zealand, containing from 50 to 70 millions of people. The rise and character of Mohammedanism were then described. I>s teaching was the more insidious and difficult to counteract because of the fact that, notwithstanding its vicious practices, it was one with Christianity in. it's fundamental teaching of Monotheism. Like a tidal wave it had swept away the early Christian churches in Northern Africa, and was now steadily and surely spreading its baneful influence southwards. It had nlreadv extended 300 miles beyond Khartum, and was threatening,to neutralise lire Christian Mission in Uganda. Br. Samuel Zwemer, the greatest authority of the day on Mohammedanism, had "j-aid that the spread of this religion in Africa was one of the great world problems of the present day, and that the next ten years would decide whether Ihis great continent, consecrated by the memory of Livingstone and Gordon, would belong to the Cross or the Crescent In this conflict Mohammedanism had already secured the advantage '»f priority in many _ instances. Powerful Pagan .tribes, weary of their own srririt worship, and hungering for something better, had embraced Mohammedanism as the first thing offered. Already one in three of the population of Africa was Mohammedan. The propagation of this creed was facilitated bv the penetration of commerce Which had resulted from the British conquest of the Sudan. Every Mohammedan trader was a zealous missionary. While keen on commercial bargains and successful sometimes to the extent of 1000 percent., his main concern was to secure converts to his Faith. The rapid spread of the teaching of the Prophet was also largely due to the strict impartiality of the British Government. It forbids the institution of Christian schools where Mohammedan schools were already established. In order to stem the steady Southern flow of the tide of Isiamism', the Christian Churches had formed in 1904 what is known as the Sudan United Mission. On a line of latitude some 400 miles south of Khartum, it proposed to establish a chain of Christian Mission stations beyond the present frontiers of the Mohammedan influence; and across the entire breath of the Continent. The Churches of England, America, Denmark and South "Africa had estalished stations .from the West to Yola. The Colonial Church had undertaken to begin in the East, and in 1913 the first band of Colonial volunteers, including several New Zealanders, had established a station at Malut,. But there was a gap between these two stations of Yola and Malut, of about 1500 miles, still to oe filled. It was for the filling of_ this gap. and thus completing the chain of stat ; ons across Africa., that the lecturer was now appealing for funds. She had undertaken to raise in New Zealand the sum of £I2OO a year for three years. She had already secured £6OO 'in the North Island and had almost, completed £6OO in the South Island. Some of Miss Boniwell's statements were quite startling in their significance-! The Damascus —Mecca, rairway had been promoted by the Sultan of Turkey for the express purpose of f.' cilitat.rng the pilgrimage to the latter city. The Golden College in Khartum, though erected as a Christian institution, "is virtually Mohammedan. The largest religious university in the world, with '2so.professors for the special training of missionaries was Mohammedan. ' There were 67 million Mohammedans in India, with a powerful Press and the free distribution of propagandist literature. These facts all had a political, as well as a religions, significance, as there was always the possibility, of a Holy War being started in tire British Empire. The possibility of this had been illustrated during the present war in the rising of the Senu'-si, a Mohammedan sect dwelling in the oi.ses of North Africa. The lecturer's description of the meat neoples of tiro Sudan was particularly interesting—the Dinlcas, men of an average statue of over 6 feet —the Fuzzy Wnzzles, who made such snlencV<6 sold'Vs —I he Kansas, a tribe of ancient civilisation, and of whose lanroia.<re there is a lectureship in Cambridge University. Altogether the lecture was one of absorlvnr' Merest. The chair was taken bv Rev. T. .f. Wallis. and Rev. Sogers proposed >'l Vrt te of thanks. A loc-i.l committer wis formed to organise the work of the Mission in Greymouth.