SUDAN UNITED MISSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18349, 13 September 1921, Page 7

SUDAN UNITED MISSION

THE MOSLEM MENACE ADDRESS BY MR J, TtILLOCH, A meeting of those interested in the work of the Sudan United Mission was held in First Church Hall last night, when Pro-, feasor Davies, president of the local branch',, presided over a fair attendance. Professor Davies, in introductory remarks/ explained that the mission was a comparatively young one. The Christian world had recently been shocked to find that there waa a danger

of the whole continent of Africa being .converted to Islamism. None of the existing missionary societies had been able to takeup the task of stemming this tide, and .so it came about that a united society .had been formed, representing all the "free, churches. _ The first party of missionaries under this Sudan United Mission who 'sent out in 1804. The address of the evening was given by Mr J. Tulloch, a native of the Milton, district, who, with Mrs Tulloch, is now revisiting his old home after some eighf; y_ears’_ service under the Sudan United Mission in Northern Nigeria. By the use of , a large map he showed where the vast field of the operations of the mission ’ layThe Sudan, right from east to west, contained some 40,000,000 people, and, roughly speaking, the northern half of these,werp' Mohammedan and the . southern pagan. He_ told of the great Mohammedan invasions of Northern Africa from the sixth

century onwards. Some of these great movements blotted out the early Christian churches of North Africa, but the Mohammedans were held; up by the great ■ and also by the fierce resistance of the pagan tribes, from whom the Mohammedans sought slaves. About the beginning of this century the whole .of ,the. °*man was taken over by* the three Powers Britain, Germany, and France. As-, far as possible the tribes were still ruled. by. their own native rulers, but the old *glar-. lug enormities of cannibalism and tbo slave trade were put an end to. The coun- • wy was made peaceable, and the result was that the door was opened for the Mohammedans, who had been held up for hundreds of years. It was this situation that had brought the Sudan United Mission into being, and it sought to plant a chain of mission stations, right from east to-west

of the _ cofatinent. The mission had now some' 60 missionaries on its staff.. One. of the chief difficulties of missionaries arose ■ from the : great, variety of languages. ,in the different tribes. The Australian and New Zealand'branch of the mission- hod become ■ responsible for mission - stations' down the Nile at the eastern border of-the Sudan. To .got at the heart of the natives a man must speak to them in their own language, and that meant years of hard work. Another difficulty was the climate.

it wag'hot air the year round, and very ennervating. The _ missionaries were thinned by death and sickness, and frequent furloughs were essential. This meant that * , 0 was very little continuity in the work. Then there were, further the difficulties of self-satisfied paganism.' The, natives, to begin with, did not wont 'the-; missionaries, and did not believe that they" knew anything about their needs.- They' sought to reach the natives through medical. ■ worn _ and Through simple preaching ■ and* teaching. The results had been slow.•.incoming, and only in the Yergum tribe could the results so far be called encoorag- • »ng. He gave some instances of the faith- '' f “ ln ess, liberality, and endurance of some ’ of the Yergum converts, and described a. typical Sunday’s work among them. Spooking of the progress of the Mohammedan

menace, he said that the tribe in which ho , ■ bad been working was now permeated! with Mpslems, though only 25 years ago _they.would have been killed and eatem there. ■ The next tribe, also, the Hurun, was-.per-,;. meated with Moslems, and the head than, ’ was a Mohammedan. So it was with - all- " the tribes, except a few of the most- fierce..* The Moslem menace was a very real-thing.' The pagan 'beliefs were going quickly, and i unless Christianity was brought to them at once it would bo too late. Indeed, in many cases the opportunity had already passed. Men and women were needed to' go quickly, but the greatest way of all to/ help was by prayer. The doctors wquldnot again pass Mrs Tullboh to return, to the field, and he. greatly desired that others should go out to take their iplacds. .1' Mr G. W. Gibson, chairman of th’e~ local branch of the mission, explained what the branch was doing, and, read interesting 'ex- ■ tracts from letters recently received from 1 missionaries in tho Eastern Sudan, referring to their needs and describing their work.