UNKNOWN CHRISTIANS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 13 August 1925, Page 6

UNKNOWN CHRISTIANS.

VAST BLACK COMMUNITY. ENGLISHMAN’S DISCOVERY. A vast community of black Christians who had never seen a white preacher, but were converted It) years ago by a native “prophet” wiho “heard voices,” has been discovered in a little, known part of West Africa by the Rev. W. J. Platt, a Lancashire missionary. Led by their “Black Elijah,” as he is called, they have built 150 churches, procured Bibles, which they cannot read, and hold services every Sunday, singing hymns of which they do not know the meaning. Mr. Platt was received by them with great rejoicing, the “Black Elijah” having told them that he was but a forerunner. Africa has supplied a wealth of romance for the novelist, but not even the lato Sir Rider Haggard conceived a more startling story than that which was related recently in England by Mr. Platt, who is chairman of the West African Mission District in the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the young, cst man to hold such an office. Mr. Platt went out to West Africa a little over nine years ago from Diets, bury College. His discovery of a zealous native community of Christians in a heathen land, and the explanation of the seeming miracle, is, more like lictiou than simple fact. It is like a revised version of “King Solomon’s Mines.”

No white man can claim th© credit tor the conversion, of these people. It was the work of one of Africa’s greatest evangelists variously described as “Prophet Harris,” “The Modern John the Baptist,” and “The Black Elijah.” “Personally,” states Mr. Platt. “1 have never had the pleasure of meeting him, but his present whereabouts are known, and I hope to meet him soon after I return to West Africa in the autumn.

CONGREGATION OF 12,000 PEOPLE. In 1923 Mr. Platt was stationed at Porto Novo, then a mission circuit in tlie Lagos district. In consequence oi a. new ordinance of the French Colonial Government forbidding the use of the Fanti dialect in. the Grand Baasam country, :he went up there to make inquiries.

“In village alter village,” Mr. Platt said, “along the Great Lagoon and npcountry, I found isolated companies, of avowed Christians, eager to receive and' welcome a teacher. I was met everwhere with almost delirious joy, waving flags, brass bands, and great crowds of men, women, and children. “In all the' villages of the coast- and the Great Lagoon, and for a distance yet unknown in th© interior, there are groups of men and women who have wholly abandoned the fetishism in which they were reared. They meet at least twice each Sunday to sing hymns, to pray, and to encourage each other in the worship of God as best they can, for their knowledge of the faith which they have adopted in such a wonderful way is. of course, very primitive. “It is extraordinary that these untaught people have set apart a Sabbath Day,' and, without any help from outside, ar© striving to retain their glimmerings of Christian truths. They are really thirsting: for religious teaching, and I. preached to a remarkable congregation of over 12,000 at a great open-air service.” The state of things found by Mr. Platt is a remarkable tribute to Mr. William Wade Harris. Mr. Harris was a Kruman, and went to Lagos first as a labourer for the Elder-Dempster Company. He there came under the influence of Christian teaching, and on his return to Liberia felt himself called upon to denounce the superstition and idolatry of his own race and of the kindred races of the Ivory Coast. FAITH STILL STB ON G. Like Joan of Arc, Mr. Harris saw visions and heard voices. In an incredibly short space of time, as Mr. Platt says, lie established an amazing influence among the natives. At his com. mand the fetishes, idols, charms, and ju-jus worshipped by these people and their ancestors for thousands of years were thrown down and abandoned. Wherever his voice was heard, wherever his fierce denunciation of superstition, witchcraft, and cannibalism—which still exists, it is said, in out-of-tbe way places —was heard, the heathen were converted. He established a new and better era in West Africa.

More surprising than all, however, is the fact that Mr Harris’s influence has been permanent. It is 10 years since be swept the country on bis fiery crusade, but Mr. Platt found Ills converts still staunch and steadfast in the new faith, although unaided and untaught. With tenacity and pntienc© well-nigh miraculous they have struggled on alone, believing always that others would come, .as “Prophet” Harris told them, to carry on the work where lie left off. One of the most extraordinary features of the struggle of these simple folk is the fact that with their own hands they have built 50 churches. Every church has its own large Bible,

though, pathetically enough, not- a man 'or woman among them can read it. These Bibles were procured for them through the good offices of the principal English and European trading firms. Little wonder that these people made carnival when Mr. Platt discovered them. For 10 years they had prayed and yearned for the promised teacher, and stood true till he came. Speaking of Mr. Harris, Mr. Platt said - “Ills work was wonderfully disinterested. He made not one penny piece out of it all. He influenced and baptised tens of thousands, but asked only his food and a resting-place for the* night. Hardship, ridicule, and imprisonment failed to turn him a hair s breadth from his purpose. Tirelessly he preached and thundered liis way from Cape Palmas to the Ivory Coast. A YEAR’S GREAT CHANGE. “In 1913, before Mr. Harris passed that way, th 6 people of the Ivory Coast were sunk in the deepest fetishism, and cannibalism was not unknown. A year later the Ivory Coast had become nominally Christian. Mr. Harris told them he* was only the forerunner and bade them get Bibles and build churches. , , , , “Very literally they _ have obeyed. They bought Bibles, which they could not* read, and they built churches, some of them of granite and cement, existing as much as £2OOO. And h e f e they have met to sing hymns in pnlgin English, the meaning of which they have not eren understood. They waited trustingly for the missionaries and teachers to lead them further into the truth and they had to wait 10 years. ’ Thanks to Mr. Platt, the Wesleyan Missionary Society now stands commit, ted to a great work and a great enterprise Already 21,900 have been received as catechumens, converts under instruction, all enrolled as contributing members of the Church. The Coast has a population of a million and a quarter” so that the possibilities tor missionary enterprise are vast. _ Three new missionaries are going out, to the district to help in the work and as soon as possible two women workers will go to take charge of a girls’ boarding school. One mission house is practically com. pie ted. and another will be ready for the autumn. This year will also see the opening of a training college in Porto* Novo which has cost £o<J(JU, where Ivory Coast hoys will be equipped as evangelists. An evangelistic college is to he erected also at Dabou.