A BISHOP AMONG THE HEATHEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 79

A BISHOP AMONG THE HEATHEN.

WONDERFUL RECORD OF MISSIONARY SACRIFICE. Miracles, it has been said, are happening every day. if only we could open our eyres to g^c th*>m. And among modern miracles nope are so impressive perhaps as the jjiauting aaid growth of Christianity in thoes centres of heathendom where th-3 lamp -of the Gospel has never before shed Ai&- tight; ■■ Bishop Tucker's " Eighteen Years fii Uganda and East Africa " (Edward Arnold, 2 vols.), is a wonderful story of miracles and martyrdom and effort and fruition. In a sense it is the story of the primitive Church all iver again. Th« mind is transported back to those early days whun from the cradle of Christianity tbe unquenchable Light shone forth for the firso time, and the patient " fishers ol men " went to death and conquest. Td many, indeed, the miiacles of the "Acts'? will not stem more wonderful than the miracles accomplished by faith among th« Bagnnda and their fellow-men. One can only touch in a d&sultoTy wat upon a few of t*ie aspects of thi.« grea&j missionary enterprise. When Bishon J Tucker fir.-t arrived in the country, irf 1890, the number of baptised Christiana ] was probably 200. Now this little band hai grown into a great host of 62,867. Oh these, more than 36,000 have been baptise*, within the la.«t five years — over 7000 *' year. %And the proportion of the com-' municanls to baptised members is about* one in three. — The First Grave.— It was in 1844 that the first missionary of the C.M.S landed in East Africa, and fcix months later the sods were heaped on, the fii^t mi-nonary grave; but it was not until Stanley, th'rongh the newspapers, challenged England to evangelise Uganda that an organised attempt wps made to tarry Cluistianity permanently into th© far interior. Missionaries died — some were martyred; but as the grave closed on one courageous nian another left home to fill the breach.. The seed germinated. Natives were converted in spite of the jealousy of the savag* King Mwanga, who tried to stay 'the progress of the faith by imprisoning and flog-* ging, then by dismembering and torturing. One native boy with two others had nja arms cut off, and then, bound to a scaffold*, was slowly burnt to death. Bishop Hanningtop, the first bi&hop, -was martyred, " bidding his murderers tell the king that he died for tiie Baganda, and that he haA purchased the road to Uganda with bis life." When Bishop Tucber started on his firat long march into the interior there \rete enemies on ©very hand — fever, robbers, »ava.ge tribes, even water was not alwayi to be had. The vcenc o« the arrival of

4Jie caravan at the Uturu Wells, he writes, ** is one that will never fade frorr my Memory. "There were three wells to supply 2500 men. — The Struggle at the Well. — " The struggle for the water was terrible : not that the men fought — they did pot do that. But the crowding the well tops and the eager pressing into vacant places almost amounted to a fierce struggle, terrible to witness. "In the course of the day three lives were lost by men losing their foothold and falling headlong down the well. All night long the crowding- continued, and when Wi 3ming dawned there were yet men with ih«ir thirst unquenched." The missionaries at the capital soon made reading a popular passion : "The demand for books was incessant," we are told later on, and this is what happened when the Scriptures in the native tongue arrived : ' ' Talk about sieges — if ever there was a siege it was yesterday, and this morning it seemed likely to be renewed tenfold. I gave out on Sunday that the Gospels of St. Matthew would be sold on Monday morning. I was roused up before it was light by the roar of voices, and after dressing hurriedly sallied out to the — I had almost said fight. — Fighting for Bibles. — " Close to my house is a slight shed used for the cows to stand in during the heat of the day. This was barricaded, keeping the people outside ; but barricades were ueeTees — ip. oame the door, and we thought the whole place would have fallen. "Li ten minutes all the hundred Gospels were sold. We now returned for some breakfast. I had just opened another box. which I strongly suspected to be ibooks, about 800 in all. " iieie war a find ! I had barricaded my hou»e front window, and we sold through it — the doctor selling to the women ir another place. Now was a scrimmage, and shells came pouring in. I fcave in the house six or seven loads of cowries. ... I should think a thousand or more people are waiting about, each with shells wherewith to buy a book, •foal w< lu'.ve none to sell." Id ras a living Christianity which seized upon these native peoples. They proved it. giving up life for tlr new faith *rhen the sacrifice was demanded. The vhite missionaries were too few to cope xr. Jh the harvest that lay before them. Native* beeav.ie evangelists, then deacons, and then priests, and went off into the far-off places pf the huge diocre io carry the message cf the Gospel. The bishop, during his ce^jseless journeying-, through thousands of miles of territory, w.ts constantly finding' evidence of the giowth of Christianity in everyday life. Thus when in one remote spot© he writes : "I spent the night in the house of a Christian man name Luka. He w\i.- not at home, but the members oi his family received me with the utmost cordiality and entertained me with lavish hospitality. "It was a very touching and significant tight to one who. like myself. was anxiously watching foi signs of the upsprlngiu^ of anything at all approaching family lr? — which in our own country !«• such a migMy power for good — to see how at eventide- the household wos gathered together by brat of drum for family worship. The absence of the master of the house in'-'e r.o difference. His sons too!; hie pbc-c Ln reading prayeie. ■ — I'a:i'!\ Pipjer in a Native Home. — "yVunj, men and maieka.-, old men. ■women, and children came trooping in from ail sides and joined both in pr.tyt-r and praise. At eailiest dawn it was the tame ; the prater drum beat, and then the hum of voices, the hush, the one voice

leading, the many lesponding, and then the loud ' Amen p.' "' Native customs regaidmg slavery, marriage, and divorce wive problems which piessed urgently for solution as Christianity began to take hold in tlie country. , The bishop tells the story of a service ' held in one re mo to place where some t 300 women "belonging to the chief and I called by the sacred name of 'wife,' but knowing nothing of its high and holy ties, I came to listen. > "A singularly solemnising, and touching sight it was to see them — their eager at- , tontion, their intelligent apprehension of : point after point. j "A prayer was taught them, short and pointed in its petition, and then a hymn j was sung over and over again, so that i many, I doubt not, will never forget it. 1 And' then, without a moment's warning, ' came- a most dramatic close to our service. I Moved as by a common impulse, probably fear, the whole mass rose up, and, like 1 hunted deer, the women darted hither and . thither, seeking the shelter of the homes j round about, and in 20 seconds not a 1 6oul of our audience was left. "At first we thought that some wild beast had made its appearance. But no ! All this abject fear, this wild terror, was ! due not to a creeping leopard or a crouch- | ing lion, but to a man. It was the chief. "Unexpectedly he had returned, and | those poor women, many of them victims ; of his luat and cruelty, dreading his v.ratli — more terrible to them than the tOCth or claws of a wild beast — had sought ! to escape identification by his searching '• glance m the dark recesses of their , wietched huts. i "[do not know that any incident in the whole of my missionary experience I has ever stirred and touched me more , than the sight of that fleeing mass ot womanhood." There is no space in which to tell the story of the many troubles that befell the Church, but something more must be said of individual missionaries. There was J. C. Price, "a truer hero never lived." In the midst of a persecution and rebellion, with the country 1 aflame around him, he would not leave his little flock. He pi-efeired to share the • fate of his people. —Shared Their Fate.— And at the time of the great famine he would not listen to any proposal for personal relief. "How can I for.'l:e them':" he Raid — and so he died in the m lcl&t of his work. Here, too_, is the death scene of Ccorge Pilkington, the great linguist and tv, n-geli-t, to whom the Church in Uganda owes so much. During that terribly anxious time ot the mutiny of the Sudanese soldieiy he was with the military ' foiies, and was .■hot by a man who had filed at him several timc-s. "He cried out, 'Hanison, I am hit. nrd i.it down on the ground. . . . Aloni (his native boy) knelt down by his .-.^te and said. 'Scbo hakukubye' (Sir, have they shot you?). Pilkington replied, 'Yes, my* child, they ha\e shot me.' "•'lhon ho -eemed to get euddenly very weJi, and Aloni &a.d to him. 'My master, , you are dying; death has come,' to which ha implied", 'Ye?, my child, it is a? you s a \ . ' i "Then Aloni said, 'Sebo, he that beIn^ eth in Christ, although he dk: yet sluJi h? live.' To this Pilkington replied, j 'Yes. my child, it is as you say, thall ncv^r die.' i "Then they carried him some little de- ' lance to the rear of tho battle, which was i now i aging most furiously. When they ! had put him do.vn again he turned to ( those who had carried him and s-aid, •■ 'Thank yon. my friends, you have done . well. , , . Now give me reet,' and

almost immediately he became insensible and rested from his pain." —What One Man Did.— Not one item in that programme of work which had been entrusted to Pilkington on reaching Uganda was left unfinished or : undone when he died. A grammar of the 1 language, a book of Common Prayer, the I whole Bible translated into vernacular — I the latter a stupendous work indeed — all had been completed.