yc-i
Oflt
i tfliaf-cujcji lU
iQ'U-AV,
SEYEN YEAES IN SIERRA LEONE
Seven "Years in Sierra Leone
The Story of the Work of
William A. B. Johnson
Missionary of the Church Missionary Society
from 1816 to 1823 in Regent's Town
Sierra Leone, Africa
By the
Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D,
Author of
"The Crisis of Missions," "The New Acts of the Apostles"
"The One Gospel," etc. etc.
London
James Nisbet & Co., Limited
21 Berners Street
LOAN STACK
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON &> Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
SsJi
TO
MY DEARLY BELOVED FRIEND
THE REV. DONALD ERASER
OP LIVINGSTONIA, SOUTH AFRICA
WHO, WHILE THESE CHAPTERS WERE IN PREPARATION, WAS
ON HIS WAY TO THE DARK CONTINENT; AND TO THE
VAST BAND OP STUDENT VOLUNTEERS, WHOM HE
REPRESENTS, AND WHO ARE LEADING ON THE
MODERN CRUSADE OP MISSIONS FOR "THE
EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD IN
OUR GENERATION," THIS RECORD
OF A PIONEER VOLUNTEER AND
HIS GREAT WORK FOR GOD
IS MOST LOVINGLY
INSCRIBED
PREFACE
THERE is an old story of a reed-lute which,
in its original rude, crude, native simplicity,
gave forth notes of unusual sweetness. Some
one, thinking to improve it, varnished and
gilded it. It henceforth lost its peculiar
power. It shone with the glitter of gold, but
it no longer breathed the sweet purity of
melody as before.
To preserve the simplicity of a little child,
amid the maturity of manhood and the dig-
nity of increasing responsibility and enlarg-
ing usefulness, is of foremost consequence,
but it represents a gem as rare as it is radiant.
It has been said that, while human develop-
ment is from the cradle onward, the highest
Christ-life is from the cross backward to the
cradle : it is the man becoming a babe and, in
a good sense, remaining a babe, never losing
7
8 PREFACE
the childlike spirit; for it is the little ones
that get the caresses, held closest to the bosom
of the Father, cherished and nurtured in fon-
dling arms.
Some twenty or more years ago I came
across an anonymous memoir of William A.
B. Johnson, now out of print. It was a stray
copy, and in more than one sense it was a
rare book. It impressed me then as, on the
whole, the most remarkable story of seven
years of missionary labor that I had ever
read; and now, after a score of years of re-
search into missionary history and biography,
that judgment is unhesitatingly reaffirmed.
Such a narrative should not remain out of
reach of those who delight in the study of
missions. It is one of Grod's witnesses, and
its voice ought not to be silent. Hence this
humble effort to give Mr. Johnson's work and
witness a wider hearing by reproducing the
essential features of the narrative.
The original memoir appears to have been
hastily prepared, and consists almost wholly
of extracts from the missionary's diary. While
there is, therefore, in it the continuity of time
PREFACE 9
and chronological order, there is no logical
arrangement of matter, no grouping of events
in classes, and hence no effective contrasts
such as show at a glance the wonderful re-
sults wrought by the gospel. The aim in this
recasting of the narrative has been so to re-
arrange the matter contained in the memoir
as to enable the reader to see as in a panorama
the progress of the gospel triumphs in the
most disheartening and desperate field which,
eighty years ago, defied missionary conquest.
Much that the original journal of Johnson
and the former memoir contained is here
omitted, as either lacking relevancy or in-
volving repetition. The story must speak for
itself, but it would be incredible were not the
facts too abundantly attested to allow of
doubt. Nothing is more noticeable than the
simple, humble, self -distrustful spirit which
Mr. Johnson preserved to the end of his life.
Perhaps this was the grand secret of his suc-
cess. The lute never took on the fatal varnish
and gilding of self-sufficiency and self -glory.
He never ceased to be a little child ; he waited
to be led, to be taught, to be upheld, uplifted,
10 PREFACE
upborne ; even success never elated or inflated
him ; and the consequence was that God could
be glorified in him as in few others, for he
never himself got in the way of the cross.
Always behind it, never before it, the cruci-
fied Christ was exalted, and proved His words
that if He be lifted up He will draw all men
unto Him.
As J. Hudson Taylor well says, while some
are anxious to be " successors of the apostles,"
it may be well to seek to be successors of the
Samaritan woman, who, while they went for
food, but brought back no inquiring soul, for-
got herself, her wants, and her water-pot, hi
her zeal to lead other sinners to her Saviour's
feet.
The story of these seven years in Sierra
Leone illustrates the great truth that to be
grandly useful we need only to surrender our-
selves wholly to God's hands. Like Mrs.
Stowe in the writing of " Uncle Tom's Cabin,"
Johnson had no thought of doing any great
thing. He did not wish to be famous. A
door opened before him, and he entered it.
A work was before him, and he undertook it
PREFACE 11
for God, or rather he consented to have God
do all the work, feeling himself to be only a
tool, a vessel, in the Master's hand. And, as
God always does when He finds a perfectly
willing instrument, He wrought mightily
through him, and compelled all who saw it
to confess, " Surely this is the finger of God."
It has been well said of another book writ-
ten on Africa that it supplies " a text for a
scoffer." This narrative, on the contrary, fur-
nishes a whole volume of apologetics and evi-
dences for a true believer.
The author of this present volume has no
higher desire than that the perusal of this
pathetic and romantic story of a heroic life
may prompt many to follow in the same path
of consecrated service, and that it may prove
a special encouragement and inspiration to
the great body of Student Volunteers in the
new missionary crusade.
ABTHUR T. PIEKSON.
1127 DEAN STREET, BROOKLYN, N. Y., 1897.
SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
CHAPTER I
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE
THE preparation of the instrument is the
first step in service. Aristotle says in effect
that without some mixture of madness there
is no great genius, and that nothing grand or
superior is ever spoken, except by an agitated
soul.
There is a truth akin to this in spiritual life.
Stagnation is death. Without action and
warmth there is no power. The genius of
goodness, the energy of service, are always ac-
companied with the heart-heat of holy ardor,
fervor, zeal, often with a fanaticism that cold
critics stigmatize as madness ; a passion for
13
14 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
souls that keeps the whole being in a sublime
agitation makes inaction more wearisome
than the most exhausting labors. " "We must
not be afraid," said the lamented Keith Fal-
coner, " of being ridiculed as eccentric. Ec-
centric is out of center, and he who is revolv-
ing about Christ and concentric in center
as to Him, will be eccentric out of center as
to the world."
Of these principles the subject of this sketch
was a unique example and illustration. He
was strangely moved by a mighty passion for
Christ and for men divinely agitated, for
God's angel stirred the pool of his being ; but
the agitation was the sign of healing virtue
in the waters, and the man so moved to his
depths became a Bethesda to those who were
sick and deformed and crippled by sin. Yet
so manifest was it that in him God had chosen
the poor, weak, despised nothing, in human
eyes, to bring to naught the forms and forces
of evil, that no one was either able or disposed
to dispute that the excellency of the power
was of God and not of men. This is a suffi-
cient reason for giving prominence to this
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 15
brief story of seven years: it furnishes so
singularly luminous an example of the readi-
ness of an omnipotent God to display His own
strength and grace through an instrument
manifestly too impotent to work such results
in his own might.
It is now about eighty years ago when a
young man from Hanover, Germany, applied
to the Church Missionary Society for service
in the mission field. He desired, with his
wife, to engage in teaching. The application
led to inquiry about them and an interview
with them. Both applicants impressed the
committee favorably; their personal charac-
ter, views of truth, and singleness of aim com-
mended them to the judgment of the society,
and they were willing to give themselves en-
tirely to the work of God. William Augustine
Bernard Johnson was the name of the man,
whose brief career is now to be outlined ; and
so satisfactory were the results of the commit-
tee's investigations that he and his wife were
at once engaged to go as schoolmaster and
schoolmistress to Africa, so soon as proper
instruction had been given them.
16 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Johnson was then working in a sugar-re-
finery in London, and the prompt acceptance
of him on the part of the wise brethren of the
committee proves that something in the man
must have won for him golden opinions. It
was certainly neither his looks nor his learn-
ing, for he was plain in person and com-
paratively uncultured. But there was a
transparent guilelessness and earnestness of
spirit which revealed itself from the first and
which marked the applicant as no common
man.
Some three years previous to this time he
had been brought to the acceptance of Jesus as
a Saviour by a somewhat remarkable dealing
of God. He had been left to peculiar destitu-
tion, was ill clad and half starved. His wife
was in bed, weak and weeping for hunger, and
this doubled his distress. He cast himself on
the bed and tossed in agony from side to side,
feeling utterly friendless and forsaken, and
not knowing how to get relief.
He had been taught, when a child of eight
years, by his schoolmaster, to repeat on Mon-
day mornings something of the sermon he had
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 17
heard the day before ; and a text which had
thus long been fixed in memory now recurred
to his mind :
" Call upon Me in the day of trouble ;
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me."
That promise had obtained its peculiar fas-
tening in his mind in a somewhat curious way.
When he repeated it to his schoolmaster he
was rebuked because all he could recall was a
verse of Scripture, and so that circumstance
rooted it in his recollection. And now, after
seventeen years, it came forcibly to his mind :
" Call upon Me ! " " Surely," he said, " this is
a ' day of trouble.' Will He deliver me me,
who have sinned so against Him ? And now
may I, indeed, call upon God to deliver me ! "
As though the great white throne were set up
and the " books were opened," he seemed to
read the dark record of all his sins. He was
in despair. No prospect here but want and
woe, and no prospect beyond but a meeting
with an angry God.
The next morning he went to work at the
distillery, where he received the meager pit-
tance of eighteen shillings sterling a week;
18 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
and, as he afterward confessed, he went with
the feelings of a madman. When breakfast-
hour came, and the other workmen left for
home, he did the same, not expecting a meal,
but only because to stay there would cause
suspicion.
His wife met him at the door, smiling, and
led him to an ample morning meal. Judge
his astonishment to learn that a lady from
India, who had taken a house near by, had ap-
plied to his wife for some one to stay with her,
and had given her four shillings, bidding her
put the house in order, and promising her fur-
ther payments for her service.
The hungry man was amazed at the good-
ness of Grod, who had granted so merciful a
deliverance, even in advance of being called
upon ; but his load of sin seemed only heavier,
and he tried to pray, but seemed only to be
adding sin to sin. In a vague hope of finding
help in his despairing state, he went on the
Friday following to a prayer-meeting held
in the Savoy German church. There a Mr.
Lehman, a Moravian missionary, gave an ex-
hortation, telling of Jesus and His love for
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 19
sinners, and how He came into the world to
save them. Like young Spurgeon in the Prim-
itive Methodist meeting-house in Colchester,
when the minister, preaching on the text,
" Look unto Me, and be ye saved," seemed to
be preaching right at him, Johnson felt that
the message was for him, and he cried to
Jesus for mercy. He found he could pray,
and believed that his sins were forgiven, and
joy unspeakable and full of glory seemed to
be pouring a new flood into his soul.
It was a marked conversion, and brought
an assurance and confidence of his own
saved state, that he was a child of G-od, which
is essential for all true work for Christ. No
man is fitted to guide a sinner to Christ who
does not himself know the way, both doc-
trinally and experimentally. In all preaching
the one commanding qualification the very
anointing of divine authority is found in
experience. We are witnesses, and witness is
limited by personal knowledge. The deeper
the hold on Christ, the mightier the grip on
souls. Johnson had this basis of all qualifi-
cations : a clear, unmistakable conversion, an
20 SEYEN YE4RS IN SIERRA LEONE
experience of grace ; and was thus furnished
with what Dr. Judson considered the great,
first, indispensable requisite for a missionary,
namely, a firm conviction and consciousness
of his own conversion. He at once felt, like Dr.
Duff, a great desire to be the means of conver-
sion to his fellow-sinners, which he believed
must be the case with every other true-hearted
disciple. To him the experience of saving
grace impelled and compelled a testimony.
He began with his wife, whom he undertook
to tell of his own renewal and to persuade to
accept Christ ; but he found that only God can
bring a soul out of darkness into light. He
then turned to his fellow- workmen, trying the
same experiment, with the same result, being
met by some of them with scornful laughter
as though he were a fool, or by others with
hateful sneers as though he were a hypocrite.
His first efforts at faithful witnessing for
Christ met only apathy, if not antipathy, yet
even persecution did not drive him to silence.
The demand being made upon him for Sun-
day work, which he could not conscientiously
meet, he left his situation for another, as ware-
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 21
houseman in a sugar-house in Prince's Place,
Cable Street. He then joined the Savoy
church, and was wont to go with his wife on
Sunday evenings to Zion Chapel. By invita-
tion of a young man, he went one Wednesday
evening to Pell Street Chapel, where on the
Sunday evening following he heard a Mr.
Stodhardt preach, whom he was able to un-
derstand better than any other Christian min-
ister whom he had hitherto heard. His text
on that night was, " There is no peace, saith
my God, to the wicked." He had never be-
fore heard so much of the Saviour of sinners,
and was so attracted by this simple gospel
message that henceforth he and his wife reg-
ularly attended at this place of worship. His
half-informed mind staggered much at the
doctrine of free and saving grace, but after-
ward, under the teachings of the Holy Spirit,
these same truths became the staple of his
whole ministry.
About the month of November, 1813, in a
meeting at the chapel in Fetter Lane, where
missionaries were addressed, Johnson was
present ; and there more than ever before he
22 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
realized the high privilege and calling of a
Christian disciple and the misery and wretch-
edness of the benighted heathen, and the
yearning to tell them of Christ burst into a
new flame. At first he felt that he himself
could never go, having no real ability or
education, and encumbered with an uncon-
verted wife ; but the constraint of love was
upon him, and he offered himself to the Lord
just as he was, saying, " Here am I ; send me."
That night he watered his couch with tears,
turning his face to the wall and communing
with the Lord out of the fullness of his heart.
No disciple ever takes his stand for God
without finding Satan at his right hand to
resist him, and it seemed as though the devil
were heaping up damp rubbish and wet earth
to quench the flame of holy desires. All sorts
of discouragements and difficulties were piled
up before him : he feared the society would
not accept a married man, an ignorant man,
a newly converted man. Such suggestions
dragged him down into great darkness, and
he even became careless and prayerless.
Again Mr. Stodhardt was used of God to
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 23
bring him relief. In a sermon he asked, " Are
any of you in darkness 1 If so, search your-
selves, for something is the reason why Grod
hides His face." This remark compelled close
examination, and Johnson saw that ever since
he discouraged the desire for missionary work
he had been sinking into deeper gloom. He
was constrained to cry out, " Yes, that is it,
that is it ! With Thee nothing is impossible.
Lord, send me ! send me ! " Thus the flame
of missionary zeal was rekindled, and he was
brought into closer relations 1 with G-od, and
every Christian grace seemed once more to
flourish.
A new yearning for the conversion of his
wife possessed him, that together they might
join the church in Pell Street, which was
close by his lodgings and had become such
a Pool of Siloam in his spiritual blindness.
Again Mr. Stodhardt's message proved a word
from God. One of his remarks was that if we
continue to pray for any particular blessing,
in faith, it will surely be granted.* This
stimulated more importunate and believing
* 1 John v. 15, 16.
24 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
intercession in his wife's behalf, and strength-
ened his confidence that a prayer-hearing God
would single her out for a special blessing.
Unbelief, always so persistent and subtle, for
a time regained control, and again a horror of
deep darkness seemed upon him. But the
grace of Grod was so exceeding abundant that,
while yet in this unbelieving state, his prayer
for his wife was answered; for, while as a
mere spectator she was looking on as the little
band of disciples surrounded the table of the
Lord at Pell Street Chapel, she was suddenly
convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment.
Her husband felt that he had now come into
unclouded day. But so strangely successful
are Satan's devices that, shortly after, an-
other pall of gloom overspread him : his heart
seemed as ice for coldness, and as stone or
steel for hardness ; he felt himself insensible
to all divine impressions, and could not even
pray.
Few human experiences are more remark-
able as proofs of Grod's direct care over us
than what may be called gracious providences.
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 26
At critical times such relief comes, from
most unexpected sources, as demonstrates
that He who alone knows our heart-sickness
and faintness has sent us the exact medicine
for our ills. For example, how often Mr.
Stodhardt proved himself the messenger from
above, the angel of the church, the channel
of a divine communication to this benighted
soul; in repeated instances, though himself
unconscious of the fact, applying the balm of
Gilead to the sore heart of Johnson ! How
was it if we leave out God as the controlling
and guiding power that at this very time he
was led to expound the first seven verses of
Paul's first letter to Timothy, which are the
only words specially addressed to such as
"desire the office of a bishop"? And how
was it that he was led to say that, when once
a yearning is awakened in the heart for ser-
vice in the ministry or any other particular
calling, if that yearning be enkindled ~by the
Spirit of God, it will prove a fire not easily
quenched, and after every attempt to dampen
or put it out will again burst into flame ; in
other words, a divinely created yearning can-
26 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
not be silenced, but will not rest until it is ac-
complished. What wonder that a word so in
season was an arrow in the heart of Johnson !
He felt that so far as he had resisted this de-
sire to be a missionary he had quenched the
Spirit ; and this conviction at first made the
darkness deeper, until one day a promise of
God brought again the day-dawn : " My grace
is sufficient for thee : for My strength is made
perfect in weakness."
He now sought Mr. Stodhardt and poured
out his soul to him, and was advised by him
to go to a Mr. A , who often met with the
committee of the London Missionary Society.
He resolved to follow this counsel, and that
night, also, fully to acquaint his wife with his
strong desire after the mission field. Like
Carey, he was met with a rebuff ; she replied
that she could not think of such a course for
herself, preferring to stay where she was, but
that if he wanted to go she would not keep
him. Thus a new discouragement disheart-
ened him ; but he gave himself unto prayer,
and so quickly did the answer come that but
a few days later he found his wife moved by
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 27
as great a desire as himself to go into the
world field.
While waiting to hear the result of Mr.
A *s promised interposition with the com-
mittee of the London Missionary Society, he
was told by Mr. During, who was in the em-
ploy of the Church Missionary Society, that
they would send out with himself another la-
borer, and again hope was kindled that he
might be chosen as Mr. Diiring's companion.
A conversation followed with Mr. Pratt, who
brought the matter before the committee;
and about a fortnight later both Mr. John-
son and his wife met the committee and were
accepted, as has been recorded in the pre-
vious pages.
And now Johnson fell into a new snare.
His wife became ill, and the temptation to
despair because of his conscious inability and
incompetency once more oppressed him ; and
yet again his pastor was the unconscious in-
strument of God in lifting him out of the hor-
rible pit of despondency, by a sermon on these
words: "Because the foolishness of God is
wiser than men ; and the weakness of God is
28 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
stronger than men."* As though to em-
phasize the fitness of his message, Mr. Stod-
hardt, in connection with this discourse,
chanced to mention a fellow-student, who
after three years at college could not so much
as learn English grammar, and who neverthe-
less was greatly used as a preacher of the
good news.
Strange as it may seem, even with such
support, Johnson sank down again into the
miry clay of doubt, and so deeply that he
began to question whether he was himself a
saved man. Given over for a time to that
fatal folly of morbid introspection, he kept
searching into himself, as though anything
but despondency could come from within,
unless it were a confidence even more delusive.
The great Adversary again tempted him to
give up at once and forever all thoughts of
mission work, and so to announce to the com-
mittee of the Church Missionary Society.
But in a dream Grod spoke to him, and that
precious promise which once before had
proved a rock beneath his feet " My grace
* 1 Cor. i. 25.
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 29
is sufficient for thee " became to this lowly
disciple what it had been to the great apostle
to the Gentiles, a firm standing-place and
resting-place. God so powerfully impressed
on his mind His own all-sufficiency as to re-
move absolutely all his fear. Let not the
reader fail to note how conspicuous was the
intervention of God's inspired Word at every
crisis of Johnson's experience. Whenever de-
liverance came, it came through the infallible
Book, and so it was to the close of life. He
never fell into any snare without finding re-
lief and release in the Holy Scriptures both
for himself and for others. How true it is :
" The entrance of Thy words giveth light " !
A new doubt now arose, with regard to- the
place of his destination. There was in the
entire world field no darker spot than Sierra
Leone. Mary Lyon used to say to the girls
at Holyoke, " If you would be true servants
of God, be ready to go where no one else
will ;" and it was just such a test which was
now applied to this humble believer. He was
warned that the district of the Dark Continent
for which he was designated represented the
30 SEVEN YE/IRS IN SIERRA LEONE
intensity of its darkness, the worst of its
habitations of iniquity and cruelty. The final
question, the supreme test, now to be applied
to him was : Are you willing to go where no
one else will I
Thus far in this volunteer's experience
there had been little else than a series of dis-
appointments, discouragements, and delays.
Is there no lesson to be learned from G-od's
strange way of dealing with this His chosen
servant ! Has it not been a common experi-
ence of those whom God calls to and fits for
some special service, that at the very outset
they are severely tested as to the sincerity
of their self-surrender and the persistency of
their purpose!
When Christ said to Simon Peter, "Whither
I go, thou canst not follow Me now," he im-
petuously and impatiently replied, "Lord,
why cannot I follow thee now? I am ready
to go with Thee both to prison and to death.
I will lay down my life for Thy sake." Jesus
calmly answered: "Wilt thou lay down thy
life for My sake! Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, The cock shall not crow this night,
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 31
till thou hast thrice denied that thou know-
est Me."
Here was a disciple that loved Jesus, and
felt both desirous to go anywhere with Him
and ready to follow Him at risk of imprison-
ment and death. He was sincere, but he did not
know himself ; and even after this awful warn-
ing he was still so self-complacent and self-
confident that he only the more vehemently
declared his devotion to his Master at any
cost. But the omniscient eye saw Satan at
that moment preparing for his unwary feet a
snare into which he would fall saw that he
would commit a sin of denial next in guilt to
Judas's betrayal, and that his faith would
utterly fail but for his Master's prayers.
The warning is plain. A sincere and ear-
nest disciple, who feels ready to go at once,
anywhere, at any risk, for his Lord's sake, may
be impetuous in spirit and impatient of divine
delays. Perhaps the Lord sees that he does not
know himself, that he needs the test of patient
waiting. It may be, only a lapse into sin can
show him how weak and wilful and wayward
he is; that he must, in a sense, be "con-
32 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
verted " before he can be used to strengthen
his brethren ; that perhaps he is not yet filled
with the Spirit and must tarry until he is
endued with power from on high.
There is singular pathos in those words,
"Whither I go," to Gethsemane's passion
and Golgotha's cross, " thou canst not follow
Me now ; but thou shalt follow Me afterward."
Not now. God's time may not yet be fully
come, but our time is always ready. Yet is
it not true that we are least ready when we
think we are most ready ? Resolute, indeed,
but often in the crises of temptation resolu-
tion snaps like the green withes or new ropes
which bound Samson ; vehement, indeed, but
much vehemence is the mere movement of
fleshly energy, not the momentum of spirit-
ual force and power. Carlyle quaintly says :
" Vehemence is not strength. A man is not
strong who takes convulsion-fits, though six
men cannot hold him then."
The subsequent career of this missionary
shows that he needed just this discipline of
delay. He who would follow Christ must
wait His beck and bidding, His time and
MADE MEET FOR THE MASTER'S USE 33
way, and wait also for his own full testing
and training. When we confidently feel ready
for heroic martyrdom, He may see us on
the verge of cowardly denial or betrayal. At
every stage of service we must leave ourselves
wholly in His hands. Even the chosen vessel
needs cleansing and filling it may be, needs
breaking and remaking before it will be " a
vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the
Master's use, and prepared unto every good
work."
CHAPTER II
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH
THAT must have been a weirdly awful scene
when, in May, 1890, Henry Varley, the evan-
gelist, preached to a throng of five thousand
people in the vast crater of Mount Eden, New
Zealand.
Johnson's appointed field of labor was a
crater ; not a burnt-out crater, but the very
mouth of a burning, seething, restless hell of
iniquity. As this small section of western
Africa must so prominently figure in this
biographical sketch, it is well to rehearse the
peculiar circumstances under which Sierra
Leone was settled.
Its name is due to the fancied resemblance
of the contour of its hills to a lion's form. In
1787 a settlement was projected by Granville
Sharp and other philanthropists, in order to
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 35
provide a suitable home for destitute negroes
from different parts of the world, as well as
to establish a center whence a Christian civ-
ilization might reach out into other parts of
the Dark Continent. At this time there were
in London a large number of blacks whom it
was desired to remove from the city for the
relief of the city itself, and it was thought
that Sierra Leone would afford a good colonial
settlement for the several purposes in view.
Four hundred and seventy destitute negroes
were removed thereto in 1787 by the London
committee. Eleven hundred and ninety-six
others were sent there from Nova Scotia in
1790, the northern climate proving too severe
for them. The population was further in-
creased by other transportations of people of
color, and, after the abolition of the slave-trade,
in 1807, slaves captured by the British cruisers
were put ashore there and settled. In 1789
the settlement had been plundered and de-
stroyed by a band of pirates. Sharp, Wilber-
force, and others had then formed the Sierra
Leone Company, and Freetown became the
center of the colony. The inhabitants suffered
36 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
greatly from fever, and the French in 1794
made Sierra Leone the scene of further in-
roads and plunders. After the reestablish-
ment of the colony it was finally transferred,
in 1808, to the British government, since
which time it has steadily advanced.
This was the field of labor to which William
Johnson was to go, and it is not strange if, as
he thought of the scene of his labors, it pre-
sented little attraction. He could not forget
that there was the dumping-ground for the
world's refuse population, ignorant and de-
graded people, rescued from the holds of
slave-ships, or exported from overcrowded
cities like London, where they had become an
intolerable stench in the nostrils of the com-
munity. As Johnson thought of such a hope-
less field of work, a darkness that might be felt
seemed to envelop him. But once again there
came to him light through a promise of God.
" I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not ;
I will lead them in paths they have not known :
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked things straight.
These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them/' *
* Isaiah xlii. 16.
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 37
On the eleventh day of March, 1816, John-
son and his wife embarked on board the Echo,
sailing for Sierra Leone, and the missionary
career of this devoted servant of God was
thus actually begun. On the 27th of April
following, with Messrs. Horton, During, Jost,
and their wives, they reached Freetown in
safety. The voyage had not been without
incidents of interest. Twice divine deliver-
ances had been wrought in answer to prayer
once when Johnson was taken dangerously
ill, and again when by some carelessness or
mismanagement the ship had been driven so
close to the rocks that it was almost impossi-
ble to avoid its being dashed in pieces.
When the missionaries, meeting at Sierra
Leone, divided up the field among the labor-
ers, Hogbrook, afterward known as Eegent's
Town, was appointed as Johnson's particular
station. He was candidly made acquainted
with the fact that many negroes were there,
and in a fearful slough of mingled wickedness,
woe, and want. But keeping that promise
before him, " I will bring the blind by a way
that they knew not," and feeling that he had
38 SE^EN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
not chosen the field for himself, but had been
chosen by God for the field instead of being
driven into darkness by the unpromising
aspects of his work, he found light in looking
up to God and was enabled even to rejoice and
exult in Him. A deep conviction possessed
him, at the outset, that God's Spirit both could
and would uphold him and his fellow-laborers
in their humble efforts, and make them the
means of salvation to multitudes of these de-
based negroes. In this strong faith we may
find a prophecy of the actual results. " We
are saved by hope." Despair never yet
achieved anything but disaster. There was
something about Johnson that led others
to expect results. Mr. Bickersteth, who had
arrived about six months earlier, soon dis-
cerned the worth of a man of such conse-
crated spirit, so dead to the world and self,
and so devoted to the Lord ; and he early pre-
dicted that, wherever the providence of God
might place Johnson, a blessing would surely
follow.
Among Johnson's earliest utterances in
his new field was a memorable tribute to the
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 39
power of God's Spirit, which is here put
prominently in the forefront of the narrative,
since it is of main consequence, not so much
that we trace even so remarkable a career, as
that we penetrate to those secrets of success
which are, like God Himself, essentially the
same yesterday and to-day and forever.
Among the earliest entries in his journal,
he records how, when confronted with the
terrible degradation and depravity of the
Hogbrook negroes, he felt "fully convinced
that if God the Holy Spirit stopped them, as
it were, in their mad career, although some
of the wildest cannibals in Africa, they could
not any longer resist." This is another fac-
tor in this marvelous career which explains
its manifold and multiplied successes. Two
we have already noticed the constant resort
for guidance to the infallible Book of God,
and the bold approach in prayer to the throne
of grace. Here is the third: William John-
son honored and trusted the Holy Spirit of
God. Keeping these three great facts full in
view, we shall need no other philosophy to
account for these seven years in Sierra Leone.
40 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Soon after Johnson's arrival at the colony he
went to the Yongroo district to introduce Bell's
system of education. Its author, Andrew
Bell, D.D. who was born at St. Andrews in
1753, and died in 1832 while at Madras act-
ing as chaplain, was intrusted by the direc-
tors of the East India Company with the
management of the school for the education
of the orphans of the European militia. He
obtained the services of well-qualified teachers,
and adopted the expedient of conducting the
school by the aid of the pupils themselves.
Hence originated the famous "monitorial
system," so called, whereby the school or
family might teach itself under the superin-
tendence of a master or parent. This meth-
od is here briefly outlined because Johnson
availed himself of it in the educational work
of the colony.
He found the children more active and
quick to apprehend than he had expected.
"While in the Yongroo district he also met two
natives, each of whom came to him saying,
" Me wish to learn Book ; me know nothing ;"
and whom he began at once to teach to read
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 41
the Word of God, this experience being a fore-
cast and foretaste of what he was afterward to
see more largely developed the intense de-
sire for a knowledge of the divine Book.
In June, less than two months after land-
ing, Johnson removed to Hogbrook, where
he found fifteen hundred released slaves wait-
ing to be taught. As he looked upon this
mixed company the very refuse of human-
ity he felt that no mere human teaching
could reach and raise them to any higher
dignity; but he planted his faith firmly on
this conviction : that with God nothing is im-
possible, and that it was the lost that Jesus
came to seek and to save. He remembered
that God's Word is a hammer that breaks in
pieces the flinty rock, and that God's Spirit
is a fire that melts and subdues all things ;
and he undertook his work, simply waiting
on God, confidently trusting in almighty
power and love, dependency looking to the
Holy Spirit to give all increase, and will-
ing and desirous that all praise, honor, and
glory should accrue to God alone. Every
word above written should be weighed and
42 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
pondered. We are starting out on a path of
narration in which are to be traced some of the
most marvelous signs of Grod's working since
apostolic days ; and it is first of all needful,
for the full profit of this study, that we fix in
our minds the human conditions which made
it possible for divine power to be so singu-
larly exhibited.
Let repetition first make emphatic the ab-
solute hopelessness of this field of labor to
human eyes. Johnson's first impressions no
subsequent changes could ever efface. He
could never forget the scene engraved on his
mind and heart as he first looked on the de-
graded herds of human swine at Hogbrook.
As Livingstone confessed a half -century later
in the wilds of equatorial Africa, he felt as
though he were in hell itself and breathing
the sulphurous atmosphere of the bottomless
abyss. Such utter wretchedness and un-
speakable vileness he had never before seen ;
and, withal, sin brought forth death literally,
for six or seven died in a day.
Again he said within himself, "Is there any
hope ! " But he dared not give way to despair.
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 43
Could not God make visible even to these
and among these, who were the offscouring
of the world, His saving power! The words
of Jesus came with strange force to his mind :
" So the last shall be first, and the first last."
And so he freshly resolved, "I will simply
go and tell these poor creatures of the love
of Christ, and rest on God's promise, 'My
word shall not return unto Me void.' "
He began at once to carry out his purpose.
He found very few of them who could speak
even a broken English. The greater propor-
tion of them, being taken from slave-ships
and originally captured from different Afri-
can tribes, were, of course, ignorant of one
another's language and had no common
vehicle of conversation or communication,
except a sort of dialect, generally found in
such cases, in which English words were
thrown together without grammatical forms
or connections, but sufficiently intelligible to
convey meaning. Of course the capacity
to understand English was correspondingly
limited, and their teacher found himself com-
pelled to use only such words and sentences
44 SE^EN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
as are of the simplest sort, adapted to a child's
mind and measure of intelligence.
It was a happy circumstance that it was
not necessary to describe what he found in
this new field. The misery of Hogbrook, or
Eegent's Town, could not be conceived by an
outsider even if adequately portrayed, but it
could not be put in words. He found some
in an actual state of starvation, and to them
it was his business to deal out rations of food
first of all. He was himself living in a leaky
hut, with no bed but the ground, with no
covering but a blanket, his wife remaining
elsewhere until a decent dwelling could be
built at Hogbrook. He describes himself as
" in a wilderness," but adds : " i In the wilder-
ness shall waters break out, and streams in
the desert. And the parched ground shall be-
come a pool, and the thirsty land springs of
water.' " Thus did the Lord prove to His ser-
vant the truth of His own promise that, when
God's words are found and we do eat them,
they are the joy and rejoicing of our hearts.
There is some message of Grod supplied for
every time of need.
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 45
Another discouragement threatened the
work just begun: the strongest member of
this little missionary band was the first to
succumb to the treacherous African climate,
namely, Mr. Jost ; but G-od sustained John-
son. He strengthened himself in the Lord
and with new vigor took up daily duty as
one who has been forcibly reminded that the
time is short.
The influence of superstition is enslaving
in proportion to the otherwise low level of the
poor victims who are in bondage to it. Igno-
rance is the mother of superstition, and, be-
cause the ignorance of these natives was ex-
treme, their fears were correspondingly easy
to excite and hard to allay. The worship of
fetishes is inseparable from such a low level,
and in his whole experience among these peo-
ple Johnson found the power of gree-grees
immense. These are charms, whose fasci-
nation consists, more than anything else, in
the mystery which invests them. A piece of
buffalo hide or alligator's skin, within which
is sewed up an unknown something, a bit
of an elephant's tooth, a serpent's fang or
46 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
rattle, a strip of parchment with a few char-
acters from the Koran, a piece of glass, or
almost anything else, with or without value,
suffices to command a veneration scarcely
second in degree to the homage paid to the
most august and gigantic idol. On one of
his mission tours in the colony Johnson
found a very superstitious man, who had
formerly lived at Begent's Town, but had left
it for some district less enlightened by the
gospel, where he could live more securely
after the fashion of his pagan countrymen.
In a word, he was one who, doing evil, hates
the light and withdraws into the darkness to
escape its reproving ray. He was in bondage
to gree-grees ; and in hope to show him the
worthlessness of his charms the powerless-
ness of his little god Johnson had cut open
the leather in which one was sewed and found
it to contain nothing but a piece of paper
the old wrapper belonging to a cake of soap,
and upon which was the stamp of the manufac-
turer, " Genuine Windsor Soap." The vain
charm was exposed to the man and his compan-
ions, evoking hearty laughter. This gree-gree
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 47
had a history that is instructive and sugges-
tive. Its owner had bought it, for one shil-
ling and threepence sterling, of a Mandingo
man, a Mohammedan an example of the
way in which these deluded people are prac-
tised upon by Moslems. And yet these gree-
grees and " devils' houses " were then to be
seen everywhere through the colony.
One of the deepest shadows which the
missionary found, even in this land of the
death-shade, was the complete degradation of
the people, and the utter inadequacy of such
terms as they understood to convey any
proper conceptions of divine things. This
double discouragement confronted him every-
where, and would have confounded him, had
he not remembered that the things which are
impossible with men are possible with God.
Here were minds and hearts so brutalized
with sin and so fossilized into insensibility
that to make any wholesome impression on
them seemed hopeless ; and the only medium
of conveying such impression was language
that had sunk to their own low level. He
who is to lift men needs a lifting force, and
48 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
in this case the force, or at least the fulcrum,
was what was lacking.
For example, William Davis went toward
Cockle Bay to speak to his country-people of
Jesus, and, on returning, told Johnson that he
met some natives, whom he besought to go
to Wilberforce to hear Mr. Gates preach, but
who replied that, as they did not understand
English, they could not even pray to God.
There was in this a deeper meaning than they
knew, for their vernacular was so hopelessly
interwoven with their abominations and su-
perstitions that it seemed incapable of con-
veying Christian ideas. Mr. Davis had indeed
assured them that He who knows our desires
and thoughts can read the heart's longing
even through the most imperfect dialect, but
we must not lose sight of the fact that such
native speech presented a mountain obstacle
in the way of gospel triumph.
Again, the shadow of imported vices rested
on this land. It was found necessary to ex-
plain to these slaves the word " Christmas "
and the meaning of the festivities associated
with our Lord's nativity. There had been
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 49
introduced, by Europeans, a custom of almost
universal intoxication; every one made as
much noise as possible, and gunning, dan-
cing, drumming, and most other forms of
boisterous and riotous celebration disgraced
the sacred day, carried to a great pitch of rev-
elry. But now Johnson had the joy of not-
ing that not a single person was intoxicated,
nor was there any unusual noise or distur-
bance on Christmas day. A reverent audi-
ence met at the service of worship in the morn-
ing, and in the evening he went to Leices-
ter Mountain to hold a missionary prayer-
meeting, accompanied by a crowd of about
four hundred men, women, and children.
The slave-trade added to all other curses
which rested upon Africa a darkness which
might be felt. It filled him with an un-
speakable horror, which reminds one of Liv-
ingstone's chronic impression about what he
called the "open sore of the world." As
cargo after cargo was landed from rescue
ships, and human beings were left to be cared
for, and in the most deplorable condition,
from two hundred to as many as from eight
50 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
hundred to twelve hundred at one time,
Johnson felt as though a door had been
opened into hell itself, giving him some faint
conception of the miseries of lost souls.
These rescued slaves were in every way liv-
ing pictures and parables of woe and want,
wretchedness and wickedness. The women
especially were sufferers ; most of ah 1 , the girls
from ten to twelve years of age. Most of the
children were taken ill, and many of them
died, too weak to resist disease. And, but
for the unselfish love that bore him up as in
everlasting arms, he acknowledged that he
would rather have been shut up in a dungeon
than have been compelled to behold the suf-
ferings, hear the sighs and groans, and witness
the dying agonies of these victims of man's
inhumanity to man. To save their lives
seemed a vain hope, and in some respects
scarcely desirable, for it meant a prolongation
of misery. To save their souls seemed even
more impossible in the brief time and amid
the limited opportunities which were avail-
able.
To add to the afflictions of this humble ser-
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 61
vant of God, ophthalmia, which had broken
out at Begent's Town, had seized upon his
eyes, so that he could scarcely see.
And yet, amid all these surroundings, this
man of God undertook to hold forth that
Word which is at once light and life. The
church and school-house stood together on
one hill, in a large inclosure. The remainder
of the hill contained about twelve acres, and,
with the help of the children, was early
brought into a state of cultivation, which
promised in another year to furnish nearly
if not quite enough provision for the school
tables. At the close of the year 1817, and
after a residence of only eighteen months,
William Johnson could rejoicingly contem-
plate an improvement so rapid, regular, and
far-reaching that it may be questioned whe-
ther the like of it has been seen elsewhere
in missionary history. We have searched the
annals of the century without finding any
parallel, unless perhaps it be found in such as-
tonishing victories of the gospel as have been
exhibited in the Hawaiian Islands, in the
Telugu Mission in India, in Banza Manteke
52 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
in equatorial Africa, and in northern Formosa
under George L. MacKay. Yet in some re-
spects what Johnson saw in Sierra Leone
surpasses, as it also precedes, them all.
This godly missionary found himself at the
close of this year, without any assistance,
amid labors, both temporal and spiritual,
which were overwhelming. The people to
whom he ministered were like feeble bulbs
set in the soil, with scarce lif e enough to sur-
vive, and needing constant watching and
nursing in order to their growth or even con-
tinued existence. And he was so pressed and
oppressed by the care of temporalities that
he could not attend as he would to the higher
interests of their souls. He had to oversee
blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, attend to
storekeeping and land-tilling, be a surveyor
and a purveyor, teach and preach, feed bodies
and feed souls, all at once. And yet he saw
Hogbrook already, after eighteen months, be-
coming a garden of the Lord, where the
spiritual features corresponded to the im-
proving material aspect and attraction. The
low brook which, running through the town,
THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 53
gave it its somhewat offensive name, was a
symbol of the river of the water of life, which
makes everything to live whither it cometh.
In this unfruitful soil he sowed the double
seed of the kingdom : first the Word of God,
and secondly himself, content to fall into the
ground and die that he might bring forth
much fruit. And so it came to pass that, in
this region and shadow of death, again it be-
came true that " light is sprung up."
CHAPTER III
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OP TRUTH
WHEN Mrs. Ingalls in Burma found herself
face to face with hundreds of thousands of
unsaved souls, she could not withhold from
them the message of salvation, and in her
simple way, like the woman of Samaria, be-
came the herald of the Saviour she had found.
When by conservative ecclesiastics she was
called to account for her itinerating tours,
and asked, "Were you ever ordained to
preach?" she replied, "No; but I was foreor-
dained?
William Johnson had originally been sent
to Sierra Leone to teach school, but he had
been thrust by the very exigencies of the field
into the work of an evangelist, and had made
full proof of his ministry. Though not com-
missioned nor ordained by man to preach,
54
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 55
yet, in the presence of such want and woe,
such spiritual destitution and spiritual in-
quiry, he could only say to himself, " I have
no ability nor authority, but what can I
do? My heart is full, and if I should hold
my peace, the very stones would immediately
cry out." It had always been his desire to
preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, but
he had felt his unworthiness so deeply that
he doubted his call to this work. Grod Him-
self had now solved his perplexity in a very
practical way by constraining him to become
His witness in the presence of such abound-
ing need and in the absence of any who were
better qualified. The divine seal was on the
work and on the workman, and it was plain
that the Holy Spirit meant him for a service
much more extended and important than was
included in the first plan. He had uncon-
sciously grown into a first-class missionary,
and the committee in London felt that he
should be formally invested with all proper
authority for his wider work. Accordingly,
letters were written calling a meeting of the
missionaries, Butscher, Wylander, and Wen-
56 SEl/EN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
zel, for his ordination' as a Lutheran min-
ister.
Meanwhile nine more adults were baptized
and other candidates were waiting. The
Saturday evening prayer service was notably
a time of special blessing, and that particular
hour was marvelously owned of God. For
example, on the first Saturday evening of
January, 1817, while prayer was being offered
to God, two young men cried out, "Jesus,
Massa, have mercy," and with such demon-
strations of deep feeling that the incident
naturally prevented the orderly conduct of a
prayer-meeting, as it distracted the attention
of the people. The meeting was about clos-
ing when Johnson, going outside, found in
a house near at hand a throng of negroes,
some on their knees crying aloud, others sit-
ting, but trembling and in tears, while yet
others in their broken dialect were singing
praises unto Jesus. Unable to pass by such
a gathering, he went in and spoke to them of
the new birth from above, in terms adapted
to their simplicity. They heard him with
much docility, but, when he proposed the
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 57
singing of a hymn, their sobs choked their
utterance, and when he attempted to pray,
his voice was almost drowned by their loud
outcries for mercy.
He recorded the fact that never before had
he anywhere witnessed such a scene, and
that waves of feeling swept over him like
ocean tides as he beheld the workings of God
on these hearts and consciences. Mingled
astonishment and gratitude swayed him. He
had come out to Sierra Leone asking of God
one soul as his reward, and already beheld
the abundant fruits of his labors apparent.
At the six o'clock prayer-meeting of the Sun-
day morning these singular manifestations of
God's mighty power were renewed, as also at
the regular morning service, when he spoke
from John xxi. 19 : " Follow thou Me."
Experiences like these were, even at this
early stage of his work, already so common
that the entries in his journals are little more
than a monotonous repetition or reiteration
of the description of such scenes and inci-
dents, so that examples need not be multi-
plied. It will suffice to add that such evi-
68 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
dences that the Holy Spirit was directly
dealing with the conscience and will were
abundant throughout the whole period of
Johnson's labors.
On the second Sunday of February, after
the baptism of ten adults, the Lord's Supper
was celebrated with forty-one communicants ;
and, as usual, Johnson dwelt upon the great
themes of human guilt and divine grace.
Without remembering his constant recur-
rence to these two foundation truths we shall
miss the most important lesson of his minis-
try and the vital secret of his serviceableness.
It may be well, therefore, to tarry just here
and consider the bearing of the truth preached
upon the whole power of our ministry to
souls.
There is no accident in the moral universe.
A law of cause and effect works in the realm
of mind as in the realm of matter. God is
not mocked by atheistic chance, with its
hopeless uncertainties: every seed has its
own body, and every sowing its own reaping,
and the harvest is according to the tilling.
Our own persuasion grows, as our observa-
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 59
tion and experience broaden our induction,
that, as the Archbishop of Canterbury phrases
it, it is the great primary truths of the gospel
that most surely mold character. John the
Baptist, last of the old seers, first of the new
evangelists, was a voice proclaiming three
great primitive truths: first, sin and judg-
ment ; second, the coming of One greater than
he, to atone for sin and remove judgment;
third, the present opportunity of faith in
Him, whereby sin is effectually taken away
before judgment lifts its awful ax of de-
struction. " Behold, the Lamb of God, who
beareth away the sin of the world ! " Here is
one sentence, with its few, simple, primary
teachings; and upon those foundations all
practical theology may be constructed the
whole divine system of saving truth. Germs
of doctrine, they are capable of endless ex-
pansion, but they nevertheless contain in
themselves, germinally, all that we need to
know in order to salvation.
It is a singular proof of the wisdom and
grace of God that He has made the primary
truths of salvation so few and so simple. He
60 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
loved the world and yearned over the race.
Salvation could be applicable to the whole
family of man only as it was adapted to the
lowest and least. There are vast multitudes,
so sunk in sin and so small in intellectual
capacity, that they can take in only the sim-
plest primitive truths ; and all of us, even the
highest and greatest and wisest, have at last
to return to and lean upon these same primi-
tive truths.
The famous Bishop Butler, who has been
called the Melchizedek of the Anglican
Church, because he had neither predecessor
nor successor, had days of darkness as he ap-
proached his dying hour. " What shall I lay
hold of?" said he to his chaplain. He re-
minded the dying bishop of the atonement
for sin. "But how shall I know that it is
for me t " " l Him that cometh unto Me I will
in no wise cast out,'" was the scriptural an-
swer. " Oh, this is comfortable indeed ! " said
the bishop, as he rested, like any other poor
sinner, upon the all-sufficiency of grace and
the all-inclusiveness of the promise of God.
The late Bishop of Durham, one of the
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 61
greatest scholars and thinkers of his age,
had, as he neared life's boundary, many weeks
of quiet debility, favorable to meditative
habits. His friends thought that his mighty
mind might be brooding over some great
problems of philosophy or theology. But he
assured them it was not so. He said, " I take
three or four great primitive truths and think
upon them constantly." From all his excur-
sions into the limitless realms of speculative
thought he at last returned with the spirit of
a little child to quench his thirst at the foun-
tain of living waters, and, like Israel in the
desert, drink of that Eock which is Christ.
Michael Faraday had the brains of twenty
common men ; yet when he was asked, as the
last hours drew near, " What are your specu-
lations ! " calmly said, " Speculations ? I have
none. I am not resting my dying head on
speculations. ' I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that He is able to keep
that which I have committed unto Him
against that day.'"* And so, when Sir
George Williams visited the dying Earl of
* 2 Tim. i. 12.
62 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Shaf tesbury, and found him, with face turned
to the wall, in deep depression, he bent over
and whispered in his ear, " ' Complete in Him '
complete, that is, lacking nothing ! " The
departing earl turned over in bed and said,
" Yes ; that is just the message that I need
now."
It is a well-known and very beautiful fact
that both John "Wesley and Charles H. Spur-
geon, who in the next century in so many
things closely resembled him, had similar
experiences in approaching death. Wesley
had several days of struggle with Satan, and
deep darkness, and on coming out of the con-
flict he said :
" I the chief of sinners am,
But Jesus died for me ! "
And Spurgeon, as he approached death, said
to his friend Taylor of Norwood, " There are
four words upon which I have lived and shall
die." "What are they? "said Taylor. "They
are these four," said Spurgeon : " Jesus died
for me ! "
We would affirm, what from time to time
we shall emphasize by repetition in the course
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 63
of this narrative, that we believe that the
almost unprecedented triumph of William
Johnson at Sierra Leone was owing mainly
to three things : he heartily honored the Holy
Spirit of Glod ; he constantly communed with
God in prayer; and he preached uniformly
the great primary truths of the gospel. What
we just now desire to make emphatic is that
he did not neglect those severer aspects of
truth which are necessary if we are to arouse
sinners to a sense of danger and make them
appreciate their need of Christ. For instance,
one Sunday morning he took as his theme
the day of judgment, with the state of the
saints in heaven and of the wicked in hell.
One hearer, William Tamba, went home much
alarmed, tried to pray, but could not, tried to
sleep, but could not, and when at length he
wearily fell into slumber, he had a dreadful
dream. He saw a man coming into his cot-
tage and making in the middle of it a large
fire ; then bringing in two persons, he bound
them with chains and put them into the fire.
Tamba in his dream beheld the nails dropping
from their fingers and toes, and he saw that
64 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
they were not dead, but howling with anguish.
At length the man came to Tamba himself
and prepared to thrust him also into the fire,
when another voice from behind solemnly
said, " Let him alone ; he belongs to Me ! "
Whereupon he was set at liberty at once.
So vivid was this dream that when he fully
awoke he found himself upon his knees be-
fore his bed. He continued in tears and
prayers all night, and early the next day came
to Johnson, asking, like the Philippian jailer,
"What must I do to be saved?" and when
an explanation of his inquiries was sought,
he related his dream of the night preceding.
How far Johnson was from any mere pride
of numbers may be seen from the fact that
in his letter to the secretaries in October,
1821, he said : " I cannot say how many com-
municants we have. The number is great ; I
am afraid to number them."
In 1822 he again wrote to the secretaries,
specifying where missionaries or schoolmas-
ters were needful, and he added, "Mission-
aries who will simply preach Christ crucified
will alone succeed." He said : " None of the
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 65
Gentiles have been more injured than Africa,
and no people is more degraded. It is time
to assume the character of the widow who
pleaded, ' Avenge me of mine adversary.' I
plead not mine own case, but the widowhood
of Africa; for her will I cry with importu-
nity, i Send missionaries ! send missionaries !
Avenge Africa of her adversary ! ' "
The school work formed a conspicuous fea-
ture in the labors of Johnson at Hogbrook.
When the bell first rang for school, ninety
boys, besides all the girl-pupils, made their
appearance, and he formed them into four
classes. At six o'clock in the evening another
school was opened for adults, with twelve
women and thirty-one men. In this as in
all other forms of service the sole dependence
was on the Word of God, and the unceasing
prayer was for the Holy Spirit to reveal the
truth and power of God to the soul. Few of
Christ's servants ever presented a parallel to
the simple, humble, single-minded faith and
devotion of this missionary, and few triumphs
of the gospel present a parallel to the story
of these seven years at Sierra Leone. Do
66 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
not these two facts bear the relation of cause
and effect ? Is success such as we now begin
to chronicle an accident or a mere incident,
or is it simply a natural harvest of the un-
mixed seed of the kingdom, steeped in tears
and sown in faith?
The school grew so fast that there was no
room ; fifty boys were crowded on the piazza
and others under the shade of trees. Mean-
while the church building was in erection,
where, as soon as ready, it was proposed to
hold both school and services of worship.
So pressing were the spiritual needs of this
people that it was deeply regretted that any
time must be given to secular cares and
affairs; but in all matters he sought to act
as a partner with Grod. He yearned also to
go into neighboring villages and teach the
Word of Gk>d, where the English tongue was
better or more widely understood; but for
the time he was compelled to give all heed to
the destitution immediately about him, wish-
ing he could multiply himself a hundredfold.
Every work finds unbelieving hinderers.
When the schools and congregations were
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 67
outgrowing all accommodations and such
hunger was manifested to hear the Word of
God that the people pressed upon him as
upon his Master, so that there was no room
even about the door there were those who
stood off and shook their heads ominously ;
and who discouraged him, saying that Afri-
cans are all like a tornado, which comes all
at once and with a rush, but soon blows over.
But his trust was too strongly fixed in God
to be easily turned aside. He was confident
that such a desire to hear and read the Word
of God could come only from the Spirit of
God, and had therefore upon it the seal of
continuance. Meanwhile, despite all the pre-
dictions of doubters and unbelievers, the day-
school increased to a hundred and forty boys
and women, and grew in interest as well as
numbers. A stone church capable of holding
some five hundred was roofed in, in August,
and a fourth Sunday had not passed after its
opening before the building was already too
small for the people.
Thus, in a few months after landing, we
have found Johnson settled in the spot where
68 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
the rest of his short life was to be spent, and
where, by God's blessing, a desert of sin and
Satan was rapidly to change into a garden
of the Lord. His labors were so great that
from one Sunday to another he could scarce
find a single hour for himself. Captured ne-
groes continued to arrive from time to time,
and sometimes as many as a thousand at once.
He was obliged to send for rice every week to
Freetown, five miles off, and distribute these
rations twice a week without assistance. At
times it seemed as though one man could not
bear up under such burdens, and he was on
the point of giving up in despair. But the
thought that he might be the means which
God would use to bring even this benighted
people to the feet of Jesus, nerved and forti-
fied him for undertakings so laborious and
various that they remind us of the toils and
trials of Paul.
The gospel proved itself again the true civ-
ilizer. Idleness and ignorance are the hand-
maids of vice and impiety, as industry and
intelligence are the handmaids of virtue and
godliness. Surprising as it may seem, this
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 69
debased people already began to show im-
provement in the matter of cleanliness and
thrift. These filthy slaves studied personal
tidiness, and strove to get properly attired to
appear before the Lord on Sunday. The Rev.
Joel Lindley, of the Zulu Mission, used to say
that the first sign of new life in the natives
was a desire to be clad. A man would come
to the mission premises to barter something
for a cheap calico shirt, then a few days after
for a pair of duck pants, and then for a little
three-legged stool; and, said Dr. Lindley,
" when that Zulu got on his shirt and pants
and sat down on his little stool he was about
a mile above the level of the naked savages
about him." And so, often the earliest indi-
cation that the poor negroes of Hogbrook
were aspiring to a new life was a desire to
appear washed and cleanly clad.
As Johnson continued speaking twice a day
and thrice on Sundays, the people thronged
him as though to ask further knowledge con-
cerning the ways of God. At times he found
them seeking clothing or other supplies for
temporal needs, and he began to suspect that
70 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
they were moved by no higher motive than
selfish desire of gain. But this was only a
symptom of general improvement, as abun-
dant facts attested.
In October of that first year a shingle-
maker, by name Joe Thompson, following
him from church, asked to speak with him.
With a holy gratitude he found that this man
was a religious inquirer, seeking relief, not
for his body, but for his soul, under a load
of conscious sin and guilt ; and he proved the
first convert unto Christ at Sierra Leone.
It was natural that the missionary should
take special interest in this, the first-fruits of
his work; and, seeking to trace the means
used of God for his awakening, he found
that one evening, when he had asked his
hearers if any of them had ever given five
minutes to prayer to Jesus, this young me-
chanic had been so struck with the ques-
tion, which he could answer only to his own
condemnation, that it proved an arrow of
Grod, wounding him and working deep con-
viction of sin. He had afterward heard some
explanation of what misery sin entails, and
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 71
what is the present and future state of the
unforgiven sinner. Something within wit-
nessed that the Word of God was true. All
the evil deeds and thoughts of his life moved
as in awful procession before his mind and
memory. He had tried to pray, but could not,
and it was at this stage that he sought his
pastor to learn from him what he must do to
be saved.
Imagine the sensations which thrilled that
humble missionary, when God gave him, out
of that offscouring of the world, the first pre-
cious jewel for his crown ! Let him give his
own testimony : " What at that moment I felt
is unspeakable. I pointed this inquirer to
the crucified Jesus, and the tears ran down
his cheeks. I was obliged to leave him, for
I could not contain myself. I went home and
fell on my knees."
First drops betoken a shower. The next
week more inquirers came in like manner,
and the doubts and fears of Johnson as to his
mission were at once banished. There was
no more room to question that God had sent
him thither, for He was daily with him.
72 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Soon after, at his request, Mr. Butscher, sta-
tioned at Leicester Mountain, came over and
baptized twenty-two of these captured slaves,
among whom was one boy. As they were
individually and carefully examined as to
their knowledge of Christ, before this ordi-
nance was administered, both Mr. Johnson
and Mr. Butscher were astonished to see in
what manifest and manifold ways God had
revealed Himself to these ignorant sons of
Ham. Within nine months after Johnson's
arrival over forty had received baptism.
How simple were the sermons which were
so used of God may appear from a few speci-
mens which will be found in this short sketch.
For example, a discourse on 1 Corinthians ii.
2: "1. Who is Jesus Christ! 2. What has
Jesus Christ done 1 3. What is Jesus Christ
doing to-day ! 4. What is Jesus Christ going
to do ? " This would hardly be accepted as a
model in homiletics or hermeneutics, but it
was made the means of salvation, which is
the highest proof of efficiency in a sermon ;
for, if none were found to praise the archer
RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH 73
and his bow, there were groans from the
wounded which proved that the rude arrow
had somehow hit the mark.
Prayer and testimony meetings became a
natural necessity, for those whom God had
awakened yearned over others, and desired
to tell one another what God had done for
their souls. Affecting confessions were made
from time to time in these prayer-meetings.
For example, Johnson preached on Sunday,
May 13, 1821, on Isaiah xliv. 21. The ser-
mon made an impression so profound that
the next evening a man came to him and
made a remarkable disclosure of his own
state, and showed that the Word of God had
been to him a mirror in which he was sur-
prised to see himself and his people so won-
derfully reflected that he could only exclaim,
" God knows all things ; He put them things
in the Bible." He saw that no human being
could have so portrayed the condition of a
people he had never seen.* Thus by mani-
fold signs wrought through this simple
* Appendix I.
74 SEyEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
preacher and teacher, who declared the whole
counsel of God, who preached the law and
the gospel, rightly dividing the Word of truth,
God set His seal on this His servant, and
enabled him to make full proof of his min-
istry.
CHAPTEE IV
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN
THERE is in mechanics, as in nature, a law
of adjustment, upon which all harmonious
and successful action and interaction depend.
Until one part meets its fellow-part in exact
articulated adaptation the organism cannot
have healthy activity. Until every wheel,
lever, cog, and even screw, is in its place no
machine, if there be motion at all, can move
without friction.
Some such thought as this is suggested in
that divinely inspired prayer which sums up
the Epistle to the Hebrews: "The God of
peace . . . make you perfect in every good
work to do His will, working in you that which
is well pleasing in His sight."* The lead-
ing word (tcarapTUjat) means, adjust you thor-
* Heb. xiii. 20, 21.
75
76 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
oughly, knit or frame you together, articulate
you as a joint in the body to the framework
of the body. Only so can God work in you
to will and to do. And it is equally plain
that so soon as we are thus adjusted to the
work and will of God blessing will follow, for
God is free to work.
Doubtless no further explanation is needed
to account for the immediate success of John-
son's labors than the fact of his prompt
adjustment to the plan and mind of God.
Education is sometimes disqualification
where it ought to be preparation for holy
service. Trained scholars sometimes lose
childlikeness of spirit and dependence on
God, and get proud, self-confident, and lean
on their own understanding. The strong are
prone to glory in their own strength, the rich
in their wealth, the wise in their sagacity, the
learned in their knowledge ; and so they forget
that the only true wisdom, wealth, or glory is
in understanding and knowing God. Here was
a man so weak, ignorant, poor, obscure, and
utterly inadequate for any great achievement,
that he had no resource or resort but to trust
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN 77
in Jehovah. He knew he was an earthen
vessel, frail and broken, and his only power
must be found in a capacity for conveyance
of a blessing not his own. Whatever be the
reason, the fact is that, as we have seen, he
had scarcely begun his work in this worst of
all fields when blessing also began to be given.
He had landed at Freetown in April ; he had
cometoHogbrook in June ; on the 14th of July
distinct showers of mercy fell on the newly
sown seed. Family prayers were held between
five and six o'clock in the morning, but, even
so early, a throng of natives filled the house.
He read and explained the latter part of the
forty-sixth chapter of the prophecy of Jere-
miah, a passage of Scripture so appropriate to
his surroundings and so important as supply-
ing another key to his life-work that we here
make prominent the very words upon which
his mind was fixed.
Verse 11 : "In vain shalt thou use many medicines ;
For thou shalt not be cured."
Verse 15 : "Why are thy valiant men swept away?
They stood not,
Because the Lord did drive them."
Then, the contrast, in verse 27 :
78 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
" But fear not thou, O My servant Jacob,
And be not dismayed, O Israel :
For, behold, I will save thee from afar off,
And thy seed from the land of their captivity ;
And Jacob shall return,
And be in rest and at ease,
And none shall make him afraid.
Fear thou not, O Jacob, ... for I am with thee."
Such was the divine nutriment on which the
fainting heart of this simple believer and
laborer with Grod both nourished itself into
strength and fed others.
Two hours later that same morning three
women were found standing at the door, ask-
ing to "learn Book"; and at ten o'clock a
service was held, at which Johnson explained
the eighteenth chapter of John, dwelling upon
the sufferings of Christ as the divine antidote
for human sin and sorrow. At this meeting
the whole house, and even the piazza and
windows, were crowded, and some were
obliged to stand in the yard. Then at three
o'clock in the afternoon another crowd was
addressed on Acts ii. 36, 37 :
" Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that
God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN 79
pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of
the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do ? "
At this time the throng was too great to
be accommodated within range of his voice.
And why should it awaken any surprise that
God owned a method of dealing with souls
that so magnified the Word of His grace, and
showed so diligent a search to find the exact
medicine whereby the disease of sin should
be cured?
Again, at seven o'clock in the evening, a
fourth service was held, the house and
grounds being filled, and the same old gospel
being magnified. And so the work went on
from day to day, and from daybreak until far
on into the night. He who thus faithfully
and tirelessly preached the Word to the mul-
titudes was equally faithful in dealing with
individual souls, thus imitating his Master,
who spoke to those whom He met by the
way, as to the woman at the well.
We have seen how Saturday evenings were
set apart for these assemblies for prayer and
testimony. Only a few had yet learned how
to pray in public, but as the missionary pastor
80 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
heard them wrestling with God for a blessing,
and listened to their simple pleadings and to
their touching tales of God's dealings, he ex-
perienced such joy as turned that wilderness
of Sierra Leone into an Eden, and, like Paul in
his rapture to the third heaven, whether he
were in the body or out of the body he could
not tell. The climate was so unhealthy the
worst in the world that he felt his time must
be short; but, though at times physically
prostrate, he could not think of returning to
England, and continually blessed God that,
at whatever cost of sacrifice, he had been sent
by Him on such an errand.
The church building had now become so
crowded that the governor of the colony, who
frequently attended the services, ordered a
gallery built as soon as possible, thus nearly
doubling the capacity of the house. And
before October one hundred and sixty-four
boys were enrolled in the school, upward of
twenty pupils were in the family school, and
more than fifty adults in the evening classes.
We have thus been careful to follow every
step and stage of this great work of grace
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN 81
from its beginning, for these were the base-
blocks on which that spiritual edifice was
reared which still remains almost without a
parallel in mission history.
Very marked were the dealings of God with
the conscience where an observer might have
thought conscience was dead. Early in No-
vember Mr. Johnson had written to the
Church Missionary Society of several persons
who complained of their "bad hearts," and
who gave such clear proofs of grace that no
one could forbid their baptism, and reference
has been already made to their reception as
converts. Evidence now accumulated that
God's Spirit was at work generally upon the
consciences of the Hogbrook slaves, and com-
pelling repentance at cost of much renuncia-
tion of sin. Thus, one young man who sought
baptism, but was found to be living in sinful
relations with a woman, after the loose fash-
ion prevalent in the colony, being rejected,
went away with a sad face as though prefer-
ring to live in sin ; but before the next Sunday
he returned, and, sitting down with his face
to the wall, gave a striking account of the
82 SEyEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Lord's dealing with him. When he was told
that he might be baptized and come to the
Lord's table only on condition of his marriage
with the woman whom he had led into sin,
he joyfully consented and at once complied,
being married, baptized, and admitted to the
Lord's Supper within three hours; and no
sooner were these parties married than the
wife gave proof that the Spirit was at work
also in her heart.
About the same time another encouraging
sign appeared. Dr. Macaulay Wilson, who
was an attending physician of the negroes
and himself also a colored man, after often
being an attendant at public worship, came
to Johnson, confessing his sin and seeking
salvation. He acknowledged that, from the
time when he had heard him speak upon the
words, " The blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanseth us from all sin," he had been unable
to find rest; that he had often started out
purposing to acquaint him with his soul's an-
xieties, but had by pride been kept back from
such confession. Now, however, he made
a full acknowledgment of the fact that he
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN 83
had been grievously and notoriously wicked,
and asked spiritual counsel. This conversion
was an incident of great importance in the
history of this mission, for Dr. Wilson was
the son of King George of Yongroo, and his
accepted heir, and had great influence with
the Bullom people. Thus the gospel found
its way once more into " Caesar's household."
This colored doctor, this son of the Bullom
king, became a very great help and encour-
agement to Johnson, growing in grace and
knowledge of Christ and capacity for service.
He acted as clerk on Sunday, and in the
absence of the missionary kept the fires burn-
ing on the altar of family worship, and himself
made most affecting and effective exhorta-
tions.
The new gallery was now added to the
church, holding two hundred more, and the
schools both of children and adults made such
progress that as early ^s February 14, 1817,
they were able to report a total of three hun-
dred and thirty scholars.
There were now masons, bricklayers, car-
penters, shingle-makers, smiths, sawyers,
84 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
tailors, and bricKmakers connected with the
colony, which became after a while a model
of thrift and industry.
Smallpox visited the settlement, but the
boys and girls were promptly inoculated, as
were most of the population, and the only
fatal cases in the school were those of two
boys and one girl, though several of the people
who refused to be inoculated fell victims.
The little girl who died gave every reason for
confidence that she was a Christian disciple.
She lamented very much over her wicked
heart, and prayed to Jesus as her only refuge,
and was baptized. At her funeral Johnson
spoke on Amos iv. 12 : " Prepare to meet thy
God." She was much beloved by those who
knew her, and about three hundred followed
the body to the grave, and the occasion made
a deep impression. Many of the children at
Kissy, however, fell victims to the scourge
above one hundred of them.
Crowds continued to attend family worship,
upward of two hundred being habitually pres-
ent, and sometimes in the evening the church
building, though enlarged, was almost full.
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN 85
It was March 31, 1817, when Johnson was
set apart according to the rites of the Luther-
an Church, the humble man being not a little
distressed by doubts and fears as to his capa-
city to exercise the functions of an ordained
minister; but the Holy Spirit continued so
manifestly and abundantly to bless his work
that all his questionings were finally silenced.
1 Corinthians i. 25, 26, removed all remaining
doubt; or, had any doubt remained, on the
following Easter Sunday God set His seal
upon this newly ordained minister while
speaking to a crowded congregation on John
xi. 25, 26. At this time his hearers were so
visibly moved that many wept and prayed
aloud for mercy. These experiences were
repeated precisely in the afternoon, when he
spoke on 1 Corinthians xv. 55; and in the
evening, while engaged in prayer, crying and
praying became so general that he was com-
pelled to leave off and give out a hymn. Even
this was of no purpose ; he besought them to
be still, and gave out another hymn, but was
unable to restore quiet ; the greater part of
the congregation were on their knees crying
86 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
aloud for pardon. What wonder if Johnson
found it impossible to express with tongue
or pen the feelings that overcame him, and,
like Titus Coan in the work at Hilo and Puna
not many years after, he was obliged to leave
his congregation in this state, bowed down in
tears and cries before God! As he passed
toward the door he saw a man on his knees,
knocking with his hands on the boards and
crying, " Lord Jesus, me no let you go ; first
pardon my sins." As he went home, quite
convinced that God was so dealing with them
that he could only leave Him to work, he
heard nothing but cries in every direction
for the space of about fifteen minutes. He
was obliged to use means to prevent further
disturbances, for the simple mention of the
name of Jesus immediately evoked these out-
cries; and he gave directions to the door-
keepers that when more than one person was
thus affected he must remove such from the
building, that the meeting might proceed
without disturbance. Strange experiences,
indeed, when a minister can keep a service of
divine worship sufficiently quiet for himself
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN 87
to be heard only by removing stricken souls
from the congregation ! Yet so marked were
the movings of the Spirit of Grod that there
was seldom a Sunday in which the door-
keepers were not compelled to use such means,
that the outcries of a few might not make
profit impossible to the many.
The number of communicants had reached
seventy before the 1st of March, and the
scholars in the school nearly four hundred.
The people were so eager to hear the Word
of God that on Sundays they came an hour
before service to secure a seat, and it became
necessary to enlarge the church into a cruci-
form shape, which nearly doubled the room.
So full of striking incidents is the short
career of Johnson at Sierra Leone that the
most that can be done is to select some of the
more marked examples of the operation of
God's grace.
For example, in the^daily evening school
six men and three women were reading the
Testament, and one of the men was asked
how he liked his new book. His reply was,
" I cannot thank the Lord Jesus enough for
88 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
this good book, for I have seen myself in it."
Unconsciously to himself, he was giving a
practical comment upon the words of James,
who wrote of him who looketh into the per-
fect law of liberty, and continueth looking
until he seeth what manner of man he is.
This humble black man found in the Word
of God the magic mirror which reflects every
man's character and history and destiny.
And so, every entry in Johnson's journal
and every letter he wrote make record of
the wonderful workings of God; though he
was not without trials of faith and patience,
even as Christ forewarned us. His dear wife
was so ill that for days she seemed to be
dying, though mercifully spared. There were
constant accessions to the church of such as
were manifestly being saved, and the experi-
ences and inquiries of these simple-minded
converts might fill a volume with most fasci-
nating details, all the more interesting be-
cause the people had been sunk to such
depths of degradation. Johnson noticed one
woman who attended morning and evening
prayer and was almost always in tears; he
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN 89
thought this strange, as she understood so
little English that there seemed to be little
chance for the gospel to impress her. On
asking her why she wept, she pointed to her
heart and said, " Here ! here ! " She felt like
the publican who smote upon his breast as he
cried for mercy, as though all possible sin
were crowded together there in her own heart.
Johnson, as he beheld such scenes, could only
recall the promise, "I will work, and who
shall let it?" And so plain was God's hand
that he could only say, " Lord, carry on the
work even as Thou hast begun it."
The community thus being provided with
the gospel, this godly man sought to organize
it into a more prosperous and harmonious
state ; and one of his first steps was to start
a Benefit Society, the effect of which was
greatly to increase the health and happiness,
mutual sympathy and harmony, of its mem-
bers. After a discourse #n the goodness of
God in sending missionaries to Africa, he sug-
gested that they should form a little society
for the relief of their sick members, and that
each one of them should subscribe a halfpenny
90 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
a week. The response was immediate, and
one of them said, " Dat be very good t'ing,
broders ; s'pose one be sick, all be sick ; s'pose
one be well, all be well " a very simple but
practical comment upon Paul's words in 1
Corinthians xii. 12-27 : " Whether one mem-
ber suffer, all the members suffer with it," etc.
One who had recently been brought out of
the depths of sin being asked, " How is your
heart now!" replied, "Massa, my heart no
live here now, my heart live there," pointing
upward. Another, being asked why he wept,
said, " G-od came into my heart, and my heart
bad too much, that it made me cry."
Conversion compelled, as everywhere, giv-
ing up of idols. Gree-grees, and the like charms
or fetishes to which the people cling in their
superstitious state, were brought forward and
put into the fire, like the occult books of the
Ephesian magians.
Already, also, the workman began to find
his compensation. "When Johnson, partly
through illness and overwork, fell at times
into depression, God used these simple con-
verts to teach him and comfort his soul. For
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN 91
instance, John Sandy said, "Once me see
light, but now me have no light, no peace ;
my bad heart bring me into all these troubles,
and I do not know what I must do ; I can-
not tell whether I am on the way to hell or
heaven." His teacher saw how these simple
believers were tried, like himself, with con-
stantly recurring depressions and doubts,
and so, whether well or ill, doubting or con-
fident, this indefatigable worker went on
with his labors.
His simple methods with these people may
be seen by a further illustration. On Novem-
ber 17, 1817, at noon, he spoke to the girls
and asked if any of them could tell what they
had heard the day before. Hannah Cammel,
an usher, said, " I heard you say that if any
man, woman, boy, or girl died without Jesus
Christ they must go to hell." " What do you
think, Hannah ! Are you with Jesus Christ,
or are you without Him?"-*" I am without
Him, sir." "Did you ever pray to Him?"
" Yes, sir." " Why or what for did you pray
to Him ? " " To save me from my sins, sir."
"Do you know what Jesus Christ did for
92 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
sinners ? " " He came into the world to save
them, sir." " "Well, then, if He came into the
world to save sinners, and you say you are a
sinner, He came to save you." She appeared
so affected by this truth that she could speak
no more.
We have before referred to those seductive
snares of fetish-worshipers known as gree-
grees. On September 10, 1818, a man from
Cockle Bay came into town offering these
things for sale, and was brought to Johnson as
a sort of malefactor. The missionary reminded
his captors and accusers that such were some
of them, not long before in the same darkness
of superstition, and taught them to pity
rather than to despise and hastily judge and
condemn the evil-doer ; then, quietly turning
to the vender of these devil's wares, he coun-
seled him not to come to Eegent's Town
with his worthless trash, but, if he would
persist in such business, to seek some better
market.
About an hour later a whole box of gree-
grees was brought in, some of which were
both rare and valuable, such as even John-
SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN 93
son had never before seen; but these boys
and girls, like the converts of Ephesus again,
with great joy and acclamations committed
them to the flames.
Thus, to this praying man was committed
the power to open the windows of heaven;
and the cloud which at first was no bigger
than a man's hand had already overspread
the whole sky, and there was a sound of
abundance of rain in the moral desert of
Sierra Leone.
CHAPTER V
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD
THAT devout man who is the founder of the
China Inland Mission has well reminded us
that, though Satan, the hinderer, may " build
a hedge about us " to restrain our holy activ-
ity, he cannot " roof us in and keep us from
looking up." Nothing need prevent a child
of God from praying, and praying always
brings every other best blessing.
Elijah "prayed, and the heavens gave rain,
and the earth brought forth her fruit." That
is a typical history of all true revivals or
refreshings from on high. Some one has
prayed, and showers of blessing always de-
scend when prayers ascend. Johnson knew
how to pray, and his spirit of intercession
and supplication proved contagious in Sierra
Leone, so that even these slaves at Hogbrook
94
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 96
learned to prevail with God. Among the first-
fruits of faithful gospel teaching was this
boldness in coming to the throne of grace.
Early in the morning, while it was yet dark,
January 15, 1818, Johnson was awakened by
hearing from some distance the sound of
prayer. He rose and went out on the ve-
randa, but could distinguish only a few
words until, the prayer being ended, a num-
ber of voices blending in sacred song, he
heard the familiar doxology :
" To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."
Then followed another prayer, loud and clear
enough to be distinguished as the voice of a
lad, who for ten or twelve minutes poured
out his very soul before God, somewhat thus :
" Lord Jesus, my heart too bad, bad too
much. Me want to love you, me want to
serve you; bad heart not let-one. O Lord
Jesus, me can't make me good. Take away
bad heart ; give me new heart. Me sin every
day; pardon my sin. O Lord Jesus, make
me sin no more."
There were other prayers, whose utterances
06 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
were not so distinct, but in them all the name
of Jesus was as ointment poured forth. These
young seekers after God were holding a
meeting by moonlight, for as yet it had not
dawned, and, like the psalmist, they with
their prayers and praises "prevented the
dawning of the morning."
With emotions that found vent only in
sobs and tears, their pastor went back to
bed, but not to sleep. Overawed and over-
whelmed, a holy excitement forbade slumber.
In those sounds of prayer he had heard the
footfalls of God, the sound of a rushing,
mighty wind from heaven, precursor of a
new Pentecost, and he was prepared for
new and more vivid signs that God was nigh,
at the very doors. He was in that strange,
unearthly mood of expectancy when one
waits in silent, speechless awe for greater
and more general manifestations of the Holy
Spirit's presence, and knowing not what form
they may assume, can only hush his own
breathing.
Of course such an expectant spirit is never
disappointed. Diligent inquiry failed to dis-
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 97
close who they were that he had overheard
engaged in this moonlight meeting, but three
days later, at the morning service, during
prayer, a number of persons present were
overtaken with a suspicious drowsiness. Ob-
serving this, the missionary gently cautioned
his hearers to beware of sluggish habits of
praying, reminding them that it is not the
formal, listless petition that G-od hears, but
such asking as engages the whole heart and
is spiritually earnest. As he pressed the mat-
ter upon the consciences of such as had been
sleeping while others were praying, several
cried aloud, and such confusion was created
by those who were thus overcome of emotion
that a hymn was sung while the doorkeepers
removed them. Trembling and unable to
walk or even stand, they had to be carried
out literally, in the arms of others, before
sufficient quiet was restored. "*
These violent ebullitions of feeling became
common occurrences, and sometimes occa-
sioned harsh criticism on the part of refined
people who witnessed or heard of them. But
those who have studied the history of reviv-
98 SEISEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
als well know that such manifestations have
often been connected with undoubted and
marked movements of the Spirit. Such occa-
sional violent outbreaks of emotion we can-
not afford to despise as hypocritical or de-
nounce as artificial and hysterical. Periods
of spiritual awakening have too often been
attended by such physical phenomena for us
to pass harsh and hasty judgments upon
them. Very notably, in the Hawaiian Isl-
ands a quarter of a century later, and in Ire-
land half a century later, similar signs fol-
lowed. At Hilo and Puna, Titus Coan, as we
have before hinted, had frequently to stop
preaching, praying, and even singing, while
he beheld a vast congregation of five thou-
sand so broken down with contrition for sin
that scores and hundreds of them fainted and
fell to the ground in a swoon.
Like Mr. Coan after him, Johnson did noth-
ing either to excite or to encourage such ex-
cessive emotion, but, in fact, rather sought
to suppress such outbursts, speaking against
them as unseemly interruptions ; but he found
that the most he could do was to moderate or
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 99
modify what neither he nor his hearers were
able to control or suppress. Asa Mahan,
Charles G. Finney, Henry Grattan Guinness,
and others who have witnessed these cyclonic
storms of feeling, like Mr. Coan and Mr. John-
son, became satisfied at last that in some mys-
terious way they were due to, or at least con-
nected with, the Spirit's work. No man long
engages in successful evangelistic labors with-
out learning that the Holy Spirit of God, like
the wind, bloweth where and as He listeth,
and we hear the sound thereof sometimes a
gentle murmur or soft zephyr, sometimes a
hurricane roar or a tornado blast, but, whether
in whispers or in thunders, alike mysterious,
divine, independent of man, uncontrollable by
man, inexplicable to man.
There is another law of revivals which
Johnson found at work in Regent's Town.
Whenever and wherever the* Spirit of God is
supernaturally arid marvelously working, the
spirits of evil are doubly active, so that a
decided outburst of genuine religious life is
commonly the signal for an outbreak of
scandalous sin. Mr. Kelly, the schoolmaster,
100 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
had to be dismissed and sent back in disgrace
to Freetown, the governor so fully approving
Mr. Johnson's course in the matter that he
determined no longer to employ Mr. Kelly in
any capacity. Besides this serious drawback,
the African fever, which has been the great
foe of missions to the Dark Continent and so
fatal to hundreds of workers, again laid Mr.
Johnson prostrate; in fact, his symptoms
were alarming ; but his life was spared.
As he was beginning to rally from this at-
tack of illness, a woman applied for baptism
who had already done so a score of times.
She could only say, in the broken dialect
that became so precious as the vehicle of the
Spirit, " My bad heart follow me all the time ;
me can't do no good heart too bad will not
let me. Me want to serve Jesus, but me no
sabby how [know how], me too much 'fraid.
Suppose me die? Me go to fire me been
bad too much." When asked what she meant
by her bad heart following her always, her
reply was, "Me no want to do bad, but me
heart always do want to do bad, and so fol-
low me always."
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 101
In a few cases the simple utterances of
these ignorant negroes are here recorded,
partly because they give completeness to the
narrative, partly because they lend vividness
to the portraiture, and partly because in this
very absence of the more refined and cultured
forms of expression we have an additional
proof of genuineness. Obviously we detect
here no traces of the stereotyped phrases of
the church catechism or the theological sys-
tem. This is simply the dialect of the uni-
versal man. In the seventh chapter of the
Epistle to the Eomans we have the same
confession in substance, only framed in more
elegant language: "For that which I do I
allow not : for what I would, that do I not ;
but what I hate, that do I. ... The evil
which I would not, that I do. ... I see an-
other law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin."
Here is one of the evidences of Christian-
ity: from pole to pole, from sunrise to sun-
set, whatever be the clime, color, class, or
caste, wherever the gospel reaches and
102 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
touches human souls the results are essen-
tially the same. In the mirror of the divine
Word and Spirit heart answers to heart, as
in water face answereth to face. Both in sin
and in salvation there is one common experi-
ence, however variously expressed.
Even at the early stage of Mr. Johnson's
ministry at Kegent's Town other tokens of
divine co-working were not wanting. Con-
viction of sin was wrought, not in open
transgressors only, but in converted men and
women, who saw and lamented their coldness
and indifference, became acutely and pain-
fully sensible of their inconsistencies and
deficiencies, and yearned for more holiness
and usefulness. The public services were so
thronged that it became necessary to remove
a partition wall and so again double the seat-
ing capacity, but the audience-room was no
sooner enlarged than it was again filled.
Deep conviction of sin and contrition for sin
were so common as to be quite general, and
one instance must suffice as representative of
many, for every day was full of like inci-
dents, and history was making fast.
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 103
Hannah Cammel, the usher in the girls'
school, who now gave such evidence of re-
generation that Johnson could not hesitate
about receiving her into membership, had
previously such deep distress on account of
her sins that she declared that she had no
rest day nor night. Like the psalmist, she
felt her iniquities too many for her, and she
could not look up. She actually believed her-
self the "chief of sinners." Her patient teacher
could only turn her eyes to Him who came to
seek and to save that which was lost, and pray
that the same divine Spirit who had shown
her her great sins would also show her the
great Sin-bearer. Only He who pricks the
heart until we cry, " What shall I do ? " can
withdraw His sharp arrow, and in withdraw-
ing it leave behind in the wounded conscience
His soothing salve, the Balm of Gilead.
As Johnson watched Grod's wonder- working
among these debased and degraded tribes, he
marveled anew at the grace that touches all
sinners alike, imparts essentially the same
experience of salvation to all, and makes the
same fruits of faith and love to grow in all.
104 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
This devoted servant of (rod found that even
saints have to wrestle against principalities
and powers. Trials and temptations seemed
to multiply and intensify in proportion as
"flesh and blood" seemed subdued or the
Spirit's work became deeper rooted and wider
spread.
For instance, one of his communicants was
determined to marry an unconverted girl, and
he felt constrained to oppose it, and quoted to
him the divine injunction, " Be not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers," and bade
him pray much before taking such a step.
But, being in no mood to accept such advice,
his passion's fires quite swept away both his
sound judgment and his self-control, and he
angrily demanded that Mr. Johnson should
perform the ceremony. Too conscientious to
be a party to what he regarded as an unscrip-
tural union, the patient pastor remonstrated,
but in vain. The man bade him erase his name
from the church roll, as he would no longer
have anything to do with either church or
pastor.
The tender-hearted missionary was greatly
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 105
grieved, lest the whole affair should become
known and prove a public scandal and dis-
grace. "When persuaded still to attend family
prayer by William Tamba, one of Johnson's
helpers, the man's face exhibited such hard-
ness and wore such a diabolical expression
that many observed and spoke of it. At the
same time some idle women, who, though
communicants, were busybodies in other
men's matters, were going from house to
house, peddling gossip and speaking things
they ought not. There was also a quarrel
between a man and his wife, leading to blows,
and caused by a slanderous report which had
reached his ears that she was going about
from house to house while he was at work.
Poor Johnson ! his head was as waters and
his eyes a fountain of tears, for he wept day
and night, as he beheld one of Christ's dis-
ciples, who had been much Beloved, aflame
with an unholy passion and apostatizing for
its sake; another beating his own wife in
unjust anger, and idle slanderers, whose
tongues were set on fire of hell, kindling
heartburnings in peaceful homes.
106 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
He who awhile before could not sleep for
joy, now could not for grief and anxiety. All
this vicarious sorrow and caretaking induced
morbid spiritual states, so that at times he
began to doubt the genuineness of his con-
verts, and even his own saved state. The
moment the devil finds a disciple dropping
his shield of faith, he is more than ready
with his fiery darts. This servant of God got
disheartened, and so distrustful. " Are these
people all hypocrites ! " he asked, " and am I
one myself? All my past feelings and ex-
periences seem at times but my own imagin-
ings or a delusive dream."
There is a comfort, after all, in human
frailty. " Elijah was a man of like passions
as we are ; " that prince of God, who pre-
vailed to open and shut heaven's flood-gates,
was but a man like ourselves. Even Jesus
Himself had His hours of deep darkness, as
in Gethsemane and the crisis of atonement
on Calvary. The Book of Psalms is given to
disciples as a mirror of universal experience :
every child of God sees himself reflected
there, and every possible mood and frame of
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 107
joy or sorrow, hope or despair, ecstasy or
apathy, finds there both a response and, if
need be, a remedy. It is a harp of a thousand
strings, and any chords of feeling that vibrate
in our experience may be heard by him who
listens to the dirges, plaints, wails, or anthems
and choral shouts of the inspired psalmist.
If Johnson, like other men, turned at times
toward the darkness, he always returned to
the true Light. A faithful biographical sketch,
like a true portrait, leaves out nothing ; even
the infirmities and sins of God's people have
their lesson. This man of God, blessed in
his work for souls as few others have ever
been, was subject to like temptations as
others. His prayers brought down copious
rains after long drought, and yet he was made
after the frail human pattern. Saints are
perfect only as they are perfect in Christ Jesus.
His sermons were a sort of Journal index-
ing his mental states and reflecting his spirit-
ual habits. About this time he preached
on Matthew xiv. 12: "And went and told
Jesus." It was because the dove of his own
heart, circling over restless waters and find-
108 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
ing no perch, in its farthest flight never quite
lost sight of the ark, and was still under its
attraction and sway, that it invariably flut-
tered back to God's bosom. He went and
told Jesus, and so he taught his people to
go, like John's sorrowing disciples, and pour
their complaints and anxieties into the Mas-
ter's ear.
If some of his converts gave him anxiety,
others bore unmistakable fruits of the Spirit.
When William Tamba lost by death a bullock
and a goat, which constituted the bulk of his
worldly estate, he only said, like Job, "He
that gave them took them away," and under
his heavy losses seemed so cheerful that his
joy in God was more marked in his adversity
than in his prosperity, and made a singular
impression on all who knew him.
The simple and broken utterances of these
untaught children of the Dark Continent
were so touching and so striking that their
pastor wrote many of them down in his
journal. Some of them are worthy of preser-
vation as part of this wonderful story of mis-
sions.
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 109
"Me heart too. much trouble sometimes
so hard, will not let me pray. Hope the
Lord Jesus teach me more and more to love
Him and serve Him. I poor guilty sinner;
thank God, He send Jesus to save me, poor
sinner."
"Me heart remember all them bad things
me do before ; me bad too much."
" Wicked things trouble me too much ; me
want to do good, but wicked heart no let me.
Me heart run awa [about] all this week. Sup-
pose me pray, me heart run to my country
all about. Sometimes them things me no
want to remember more come into my heart,
and then me can't say any more but, ' Jesus,
have mercy on me, poor thing.' Me no sabby
[know] what me must do hope Jesus save
me. Suppose He no save me, me lost forever."
"Sometimes you preach, massa, me t'ink
you talk only to me. Me say in heart, ' That
me!' Me been do that thing. Sometimes
me t'ink me have two hearts* one want
do good, other always want do bad. Jesus,
have mercy on poor sinner."
* Compare Rom. vii.
110 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
"My husband he no pray, no serve God.
Suppose me talk to him about God palaver
[preaching], he take whip, he flog me. Me
have trouble much, but Jesus help me take
all the trouble."
Missionaries, and other visitors at Regent's
Town, attending public services of worship,
saw the church filled with from one thousand
to twelve hundred black people, their faces
lit up with eager desire after the Word, and
among the converts some from the Ebo nation
and other tribes, the most savage and brutal
that were found in the slave- vessels ; and
they were compelled to declare that noth-
ing less than a miracle had been wrought in
the mission. Moreover, these very converts,
themselves just plucked as brands from the
burning, and having the smell of fire and the
smutch of the burning brand yet on them,
crowded the church on the first Monday of
the month, at the missionary concert, planning
for the rescue of others yet in the fire of sin,
and bringing forward their contributions, a
willing offering.
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 111
With a refuse population like this to deal
with, it was like bringing the order and
beauty of cosmos out of chaos to develop
holy living, and the perversity and depravity
of evil were repeatedly exhibited.
In the school there were outbreaks of un-
governable temper. One day the largest but
one of the girls, and the most tiresomely head-
strong, not only refused to obey the head
usher, but caught hold of her and beat her.
The assault was renewed after an interval,
and so Johnson had to interfere. The case
called for sharp discipline, and he took the
whip and laid a few strokes on the back of
the rebellious scholar. The lash caught on
some obstacle, and rebounding struck his own
left eye, which was instantly covered with
blood. The pain was so great as to induce
faintness and sickness, and for three days
both eyes were nearly blind. The affliction
only served to bring out the deep love of
these poor negroes for Johnson, whom
they constantly visited and for whom they
showed the solicitude of devotion. Some,
112 SE^EN YE/IRS IN SIERRA LEONE
whose piety and sincerity he had doubted,
thus proved both the reality of their faith in
Christ and of their love toward His servant,
and so again all things worked together for
good.
Mr. Johnson's narrative abounds in refer-
ences to the surprisingly untiring attendance
of these converts upon the so-called " means
of grace." There were people, and not a few,
who attended every Sunday six separate
services of worship, beginning with a prayer-
meeting at six o'clock in the morning, then a
preaching service at half-past ten, another
prayer-meeting at two o'clock, another
preaching service at three, and concluding
the day with two more prayer-meetings at
six and a quarter past eight. And distance
was no obstacle, nor was an inconvenient,
uncomfortable state of weather. The Word
of God laid hold on them ; they learned that
God is a prayer-hearer, and they came as
those who expected to get blessing, and were
never disappointed. Here was an apostolic
church like unto the primitive assemblies,
springing up on African soil and producing all
FIRST-FRUITS UNTO GOD 113
the early fruits of faith and godliness. Truly
God is no respecter of persons. Who shall
ever measure the possibilities of grace when
such astonishing results appear on such a
field as first-fruits unto God I
CHAPTER YI
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND
THE history of missions is the standing
witness and irresistible proof of the fact that
God is, and is a rewarder of those who dili-
gently seek Him. The story of these seven
years in Sierra Leone is itself another burn-
ing bush, which, although it grew in a desert,
exhibits every leaf and twig aflame with the
divine presence ; and to this day no one who
looks intently upon it can help exclaiming,
" How wonderful is it ! w
Yet in all this experience of God's working
there was perpetual need of man's watching.
The missionary found, both in himself and in
his surroundings, abundant occasion for un-
ceasing prayerfulness and watchfulness. He
himself was but human, and full of the follies
and frailties of a fallen man; a moment of
114
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 115
self-confidence or self-dependence might be-
tray him not only into grievous mistakes,
but into serious sins and departures from the
living God. There were European residents
in the colony who vigorously believed noth-
ing and consistently practised what they
believed, exhibiting their creed in their con-
duct; and there were also formalists and
ritualists, who had neither any true concep-
tion of spiritual worship nor any real insight
into the inner meaning and purport of divine
ordinances. Nor could there be any doubt of
a personal devil, nor of his mighty working;
for he seemed to have come down, having
great wrath, as though he knew that his time
was short, and was determined to work all the
havoc and ruin possible in this rapidly trans-
forming community.
It was the habit of Johnson not to spare
himself. Perhaps he often went to an ex-
treme in his exertions and was unduly care-
less of health. Those who, like him, find
themselves confronting a whole multitude of
most debased and depraved humanity, in
perishing need of help for both body and
116 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
soul, and yet compelled to minister to such
complex misery and poverty single-handed,
have often sacrificed themselves in the vain
attempt to overtake the destitution and
degradation about them. Ordinary prudence
is forgotten in passion for souls ; the barriers
of conscious self-preservation are often swept
away by the resistless impulse of love for
dying men. The maxims of health, the im-
perative laws of rest and recreation, the
demand for pure air, good food, abundant
sleep, are not so much forgotten as disre-
garded in the multiplying activities of a man
who sees no way of escape from crowded
meetings, ceaseless labors, unwholesome diet,
and broken rest, except in the utter aban-
donment of his work.
This may be indefensible and even suicidal,
but it is an experience which is so common
with the most devoted servants of God that
it cannot easily be remedied. Our blessed
Lord Himself found no leisure so much as to
eat, and had to take the night and the lonely
mountain-top to find a time and place for
prayerful communion with God. The ques-
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 117
tion asked Him by controversial Jews, " Thou
art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen
Abraham?" hints that the young man of
thirty may have presented the appearance of
premature age, as though twenty years older,
because of the too rapid expenditure of vi-
tality in the unavoidable pressure of His
ministry to souls and bodies.
Whatever be the ethics of Mr. Johnson's
case, the fact is that more than once he rose
from a sick-bed, weak and exhausted, to go
to his pulpit or prayer-meeting, lest his
hungry flock should go untended or unfed.
Sometimes, like Lyman Beecher, he found a
good "pulpit sweat" acting as a tonic and
stimulant, but there were too many cases in
which such exertions were far from remedial.
From these aspects of his work, and ex-
perience of weakness and conflict, we turn,
however, to the singular and almost unprece-
dented success which so abundantly repaid
all expenditure of time and strength that all
self -loss was more than forgotten in the vast
gains of others. If he had ever for a mo-
ment doubted the divine vitality of which
118 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
the gospel was the hiding, he could not ques-
tion that in this seed of the Word there lay
the secret of all wisdom and power. He saw
that seed, sown by himself in a soil as hope-
less as any in the wide world field, actually
taking root, and not only taking root, but
bearing fruit the same fruit as elsewhere
and in the most promising soil. Plants of
godliness, trees of righteousness, were grow-
ing rapidly and already stood there in Re-
gent's Town, proving God's own husbandry,
and men were constrained to call them the
planting of the Lord, that He might be
glorified.*
Every day was fraught with events that go
to make history. For example, on Novem-
ber 27, 1817, he visited King George of Yon-
groo, in the Bullom settlement, and as he
observed the devils' houses and the influence
of the gree-grees, he could only thank God for
the contrast to all this presented at Hogbrook.
On his return he was welcomed with such
enthusiasm that he could get no farther
than his door, both house and piazza, being
* Isaiah Ixi. 3.
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 119
thronged, and from that point he addressed
the crowd. At an evening meeting he read
an anecdote of a poor woman who had, at
cost of much sacrifice, contributed to mis-
sions ; and when he had done speaking four
communicants spoke in behalf of the cause
of missions, and asked to form a missionary
society, and urged that one evening each week
might be set apart for its meetings. Decem-
ber 3d being designated, at seven o'clock the
church building was full. A service of prayer
had preceded, as nothing was done without
first counseling with God ; and a brief talk
followed, in which Mr. Johnson, referring to
their former state without Christ, depicted the
misery of the heathen, and urged them both to
send out and support their own missionary,
and encouraged them to bring their own little
gifts, by commenting on Mark xii. 42-44, the
story of the widow and her two mites. No less
than seventeen converts followed him, speak-
ing much to the purpose, although in broken
English, and their pastor wished in his heart
th at friends in England might have heard those
simple exhortations. William Tamba prayed
120 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
G-od to send out more laborers to the regions
beyond, and emphasized both his prayer and
his speech by giving a half-crown. Thinking
that he might not understand that a monthly
offering was contemplated, it was so explained
to him ; but his answer was, " I know, and I
will give a similar sum each month." Several
others followed his example. It was then
decided that those who became members
should undertake to give not less than two-
pence a month, and one hundred and seven
at once became subscribers, after which
several of the school-boys and -girls gave
their pence and halfpence. One boy, being
asked where he had got his money, answered,
" Me have three coppers [i.e., halfpence] long
time ; me beg massa take two, me keep one."
Mr. Johnson advised him to keep them all,
but he insisted that at least two should be
put in the mission fund, which deeply stirred
the heart of his pastor.
The next day after the formation of this
missionary society it was announced that a
visit was to be made to Leicester Mountain
in the evening, where all the missionaries were
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 121
to meet to pray for the spread of the gos-
pel, and that any who wished to accompany
Mr. Johnson must be ready at four o'clock,
dressed and clean. Three hundred and
twenty-one went with him. It seemed in-
credible, even to the missionary himself, that
all these his companions had so short a time
before seemed almost beyond the reach of
grace.
The large place of meeting was filled, and
some were standing in the yard. It was an
occasion never to be forgotten, and as they
marched back they sang with joy such hymns
as:
"How beauteous are their feet,
Who stand on Zion's hill ;
Who bring salvation on their tongues,
And words of peace reveal ! "
The following Lord's day afternoon the
sacramental Supper was administered to some
eighty persons, Mr. Gates making the address ;
but when about half through his remarks he
was suddenly overtaken by fever, and had to
leave Mr. Johnson to complete the discourse ;
who also, though he had finished the sermon,
122 SEWN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
was prostrated by fever, so that the people had
to take charge of the evening service them-
selves. The next day Mr. Johnson's symptoms
were alarmingly violent, for he became de-
lirious ; but a messenger, hastily despatched
to the governor, returned with a physician
mounted on horseback, and his recovery was
rapid. One such glimpse at both the work
and its hindrances may suffice, for it is a fair
example of experiences extended through
seven years.
Physical transformations were also wrought
by the gospel. In place of desolation and
devastation, Johnson, in 1818, surveying Re-
gent's Town from a high rock, could see the
prophecy in Isaiah xxxv. 1, 2 literally ful-
filled. What in 1816 was a desert overgrown
with bush, and the dwelling-place of wild men
and wild beasts, was two years later a fruitful
field, garden spots, fields covered with rice,
cocoa, cassavas, yams, plantains, and ba-
nanas. With a joy that to be known must
be felt, he saw the vilest vices and most ab-
horrent practices give place to habits of indus-
try and virtue, and practical morality and
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 123
piety manifested in the daily life of hundreds
of people. Promiscuous concubinage would
be too refined a phrase for the nameless enor-
mities which had prevailed and which were
now supplanted and displaced by honorable
marriage and domestic purity. When, on
July 5, 1818, he united in holy wedlock James
Bell, a stone-mason, and Hannah Cammel,
an usher in the girls' school, both of them
communicants in his church and wearing
European dress, he regarded it as marking
a new epoch in the mission. This was the
finest black couple he had ever united in
matrimony; they represented the fruits of
such civilization as the gospel produces, and
he felt a holy pride in contemplating such a
basis for a Christian home and household
amid the pagan darkness of Africa.
Family life is another sphere which severely
tests the genuineness and depth of the work
of grace, and here again gospel triumphs were
made conspicuous. Under sin's reign we
sometimes see a whole people perishing by
excess of deaths over births, while even the
births themselves are largely the fruit of crime.
124 SEWN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
At Sierra Leone in one day in 1816 more
persons died than were born during a whole
year, for there were seven deaths daily and
but six births in the three hundred and sixty-
five. Two years later it was recorded that
within six months only seven deaths had
occurred, while forty-two were born, and the
excess was therefore already fivefold.
In 1817 a mutual Benefit Society was organ-
ized, consisting of communicants only, each
member paying a halfpenny per week, thus
forming a fund from which to supply help in
sickness or other times of need. This proved
a conspicuous means of promoting and foster-
ing unselfish love and mutual harmony. It
was another of the fruits of godliness, for
every one learned to look, not on his own
things solely, but on the things of others.
These new converts thus early thought of
and cared for one another. And though they
were so poor, the half-yearly contributions
from January to June, 1818, reached in half-
pence nearly seven pounds sterling.
These converted blacks were faithful
church-goers, not easily kept away by the
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 125
weather. Through torrents of rain they
trudged over roads ankle-deep in mud, and
forded streams sometimes up to the waist,
and even to the neck, that they might worship
God. Nearly two years after Johnson began
labors among them he put on record in his
journal that " not one service had been neg-
lected" since he came there. During the
rainy season, when the overflow of the streams
submerged even the bridges, the people waded
through the water up to the armpits rather
than be deprived of such privileges, and thus,
whether rainy or fair, the house of prayer
was always full.
When, for any cause, these simple-minded
converts were kept from the missionary prayer
service, they came afterward to bring their
small offerings, thus showing more self-sacri-
fice and zeal than many a more enlightened
disciple, who acts as though to escape a
" collection " were simply so much saved !
The fruits of faith are not easily counter-
feited even by that master of frauds, the
devil. Systematic and cheerful giving may
be counted among the remarkable signs of
126 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
grace. Paul, in that great essay on Christian
giving which occupies the eighth and ninth
chapters of Second Corinthians, presents an
example so rare that even yet it has few par-
allels. Those Macedonian disciples were so
glad to give that, when their deep poverty
made him feel reluctant to accept their offer-
ings, they, with much entreaty, begged him to
receive their gift and admit them to the sacred
privilege and fellowship of this ministry to
poor saints of the Lord.
It was given to these Eegent's Town con-
verts to imitate these Macedonians in their
eagerness to give. One morning some brought
money due for the following month's contri-
bution to missions, and when the inquiry was
naturally made as to the reason for this ad-
vance payment, the explanation of one was :
"I may be sick next month and unable to
pay, so I pay now to make sure ! "
We now come to a time in the history of
this work when the floods of water were
poured upon the dry ground, and the blessing
was so abundant and enriching that even the
minute features of the narrative acquire fas-
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 127
cinating interest. Nothing seems insignifi-
cant when God mightily moves among men,
We may well give close attention to details,
lest we lose some part of the significance of
this pentecostal outpouring.
On September 6, 1818, the church was so
densely thronged that even the vestry, gal-
lery stairs, tower, and windows were full, and
some of the extra seats broke down with
their burden. When pastor Johnson came in
and looked on the eager throng, his heart
was so full both of joy and of awe that he
could scarcely restrain his emotion or open his
mouth in controlled speech. The groanings
and loud cries were more rare, but in their
place there was a holy silence as in the pres-
ence of God.
After the service he observed boys and
girls going into a field, and he went up to
the housetop to watch them. Shortly they
parted, the boys going one way and the girls
another, and at length he could see them all
kneeling behind different clumps of bushes
for prayer. When the evening service was
over, the boys sought him and told him how
128 SEYEN YE/IRS IN SIERRA LEONE
they had been out in the field to pray, but
found that they did not know how. They
said they had heard that Jesus prayed for
them, and would like to know if that were
really true. He then in simple words ex-
plained to them the office of the great High
Priest and Intercessor at God's right hand,
and they went again to the field, joyfully to
resume praying. It was a bright, still, moon-
light night, and the scene was awfully im-
pressive. Groups of girls could be seen here
in one part of the field, and there, at some
little distance off upon a high rock, the boys
were gathered. Through the quiet night air
their voices were clearly heard repeating and
then singing hymns, and engaging in prayer,
and their words could almost be distin-
guished. Many of the older people, hearing,
arose and went to join these " infant congre-
gations," where, as out of the mouth of babes
and sucklings, G-od was once more perfecting
His praise.
Next morning Johnson awoke early, hear-
ing the girls behind the school-house sing-
ing and praying ; and his wife advised their
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 129
going back to bed, lest others should be dis-
turbed. Shortly after, about four o'clock,
the boys were heard singing in their houses,
and word was sent to them likewise to keep
silence and not to wake those who needed
sleep. But who could doubt that a power
from above was at work among the school-
children of Kegent's Town I
The morning signal rang for family wor-
ship, but it was raining so hard, and the wind
blowing so like a tornado, that few were ex-
pected to morning prayers. Imagine the sur-
prise when, looking from his window, the
missionary saw the streets thronged, and go-
ing into the large church found it as full as
on Sunday ! Mr. Davis and Tamba had been
with the boys until two o'clock in the morn-
ing, and testified that they could not have
believed mere lads capable of such gifts in
prayer. All the people seemed to be breathing
a heavenly air and bathed in the light of God.
Their whole conversation was in heaven, and
seemed an illustration of what is recorded of
Elijah, that he stood in the presence of Je-
hovah.
9
130 SE^EN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Outsiders who ventured within could not
fail to recognize an unusual but indefinable
solemnity that pervaded these assemblies.
A carpenter from Leopold's Town begged
that permission might be obtained from the
governor for him to stay at Kegent's Town,
so reluctant was he to get out of the circle
where such blessing abode.
Just before Mr. Johnson retired for rest
September 7, 1818, the girls asked if they
might not go into the church to sing and
pray. Permission was given, with the con-
dition that but two hymns should be sung,
in order to allow others to sleep. But the
singing had only begun when all the people
who heard it got up and joined them. John-
son's own servant, Mary Wynah, was the
first to pray, and not a man or boy was then
present, but when her prayer was concluded
the boys, who had come in, took up the sup-
plication, and the prayers continued until six
o'clock in the morning, when the throng re-
luctantly dispersed and went quietly to bed.
The next day, after school, boys and girls
together again resorted to the church for
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 131
prayer, while the missionary and his wife,
standing behind the window or sitting under
the staircase, drank in delight as they heard
these little ones pour out their hearts to Grod.
At last the prayer of a boy but ten years old
was so marvelously rich in spiritual experi-
ence that the heart of the missionary burst
with emotion. He could stay no longer with-
out crying aloud, and, with full soul and
streaming eyes, he sought some place where
he could give free vent to his pent-up feel-
ings. Even then he could scarcely pray in
words, for tears choked his utterance, and he
could only cry, amid sobs of joy, " my God
and Saviour, what hast Thou done ! What
shall I render to Thee 1 "
Such rejoicing was not, however, un-
mingled with trembling. He was overawed
at such clear signs of the divine presence,
but he had observed that whenever the Spirit
of holiness was peculiarly active the spirits
of evil redoubled their activity also, and such
continued to be his experience to the very
end of his life. Johnson remarked, "I am
afraid the devil will roar very loud hereafter,"
132 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
reminding one of the Cornish miner and
evangelist, Billy Bray, who always counted
on Satan's making a special row whenever
the spirit of revival broke out among the peo-
ple, and braced himself for the encounter.
The attachment of these young converts to
their missionary pastor was wonderful in both
strength and tenderness. For instance, when
Mr. Grarnon died, the governor wished Mr.
Johnson to hold service at Freetown, August
2, 1818. When it was known that he was
going to comply, his whole parish was in an
uproar of excitement lest he should stay at
Freetown to take Mr. Garnon's place, and he
could with difficulty pacify his people even
by the most emphatic assurances of his return.
They declared that if he changed his field of
residence and labor they all would follow in
a body; and when at last he prevailed on
them to consent to his going for the Sunday,
they declared that if he did not come back
promptly on Monday they would go and fetch
him!
His experience at Freetown was not such
as would be likely to wean him from his de-
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 133
voted flock. He found a motley congrega-
tion, in which were the governor and some
officers, together with soldiers and the in-
habitants of the town. He spoke from Acts
xix. 2, but the Word fell on very unfruitful
soil. Indeed, a spirit not only of lethargy,
but of levity, pervaded the assembly. He
was annoyed by the laughter of the officers,
who seemed on the point of leaving in the
midst of the meeting, and one did go out.
The audience generally were as uninterested
and inattentive as though blind and deaf, and
the black soldiers were apparently the only
ones who inclined to give the preacher a
decent hearing. When at noon he reached
home, he felt himself not only in another
atmosphere, but in a new world. Some of the
people, in their impatience for his return, met
him on the hill as he approached, and he
found Dr. Macaulay Wilson's house crowded,
with preparations for keeping the Lord's
Supper. In the evening he addressed a throng
that seemed to drink in every word he spoke,
and again he thanked God for such proofs of
His presence, and for a people whose hearts
134 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
were not closed and hardened against the
truth.
Not only were they good hearers and not
forgetful, but they were doers of the work.
They heard for a practical purpose. For in-
stance, finding a dispute existing among his
church-members, he at once preached from
Luke vi. 37 : " Forgive, and ye shall be for-
given." The Word had immediate effect.
Before they left the house all the disputants
had confessed to one another with sorrow
their misdoings and their desire for peace.
Harmony was at once restored. The house
of God became the gate of heaven once more,
opening into love's fragrant gardens.
In August, 1818, nine of the sixteen appli-
cants for baptism were school-girls, and in
the cases of some of them their youth was a
ground of hesitancy. But they gave proofs
so simple, yet so ample and striking, of the
working of God's grace in their minds and
hearts, that their pastor dared not refuse
them. Among them was one, a girl of eleven,
whom his wife two years before had taken
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 135
into their home and named Hagar Johnson.
He was strongly opposed to her joining the
church, yet he could find nothing to blame
in her conduct, and at her examination as
to the evidence of her regenerate state this
mere child of eleven years gave an account
of her experience of grace so satisfactory that
it is not irreverent to apply to her such words
as were written of her Master when he was
twelve years of age : all that heard her were
astonished at her understanding and answers.
Mr. Johnson's objections were swept away,
and she was received. Nor had he any occa-
sion to regret it, for he often found this young
disciple on her knees, praying and weeping
as she yearned after Grod, or, like some ma-
ture saint, visiting the fatherless and widows
in their affliction, ministering to the sick and
the needy, while she never failed to show
piety at home.
The Spirit used the Word as the sword, the
hammer, and the fire, all at once. The most
hardened and hostile were pricked in their
hearts, broken into contrition, melted into
136 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
obedience. Those who had been most hope-
lessly bound by habits of sin found their
fetters broken, their prison doors opened, and
themselves free. It was the acceptable year
of the Lord. On one occasion, the greatest
enemy of the missionary and his message,
who had in every way fought against the
truth, working all uncleanness with greedi-
ness, came to Mr. Johnson in the greatest
distress of mind for guidance.
The numbers of those who manifested de-
sire after godliness were at times so great
that the testimony of his own eyes could
scarcely be believed. It was more like an
illusive dream than a sober reality. Yet it
could be no dream, for as he closely observed
he saw how the whole conduct and charac-
ter, thought and utterance, had undergone a
transformation.
How great was the joy of these Sierra
Leone converts in their newly found Saviour
may be seen by the praise they publicly gave
to God that they had ever been sold into
slavery, since their bondage to man had been
the means used in His providence for intro-
FLOODS UPON THE DRY GROUND 137
ducing them into the liberty of the Lord's
freemen.
Early in his experiences at Hogbrook, Mr.
Johnson records his manner of studying God's
Word, which should be embodied in this nar-
rative as both important and instructive, and
of permanent value as revealing secrets of
his success. His humility and self-distrust
drove him to find all sufficiency in God, and
his testimony is unequivocal :
" I have learned by experience that when I
have studied a passage, divided and subdi-
vided it, and am thus well prepared by my
own imaginations, I feel no power to explain
it ; but that when I entirely lean upon God
the Holy Spirit's influence, and thus begin,
divisions and subdivisions come flowing
apace."
His constant prayer was that whenever, in
the name of Jesus, he stood up, he might en-
tirely depend on the wisdom that comes from
above. And it must be confessed that the
simple sermons which he preached evinced
much of the Spirit's teaching, even if they
were not framed on the best homiletic models.
138 SE^EN YE4RS IN SIERRA LEONE
For example, let us take, almost at ran-
dom, an outline on Isaiah Ixii. 12 : " 1. The
election: God's people a 'holy people.' 2.
Their redemption : * Redeemed of the Lord.'
3. Their calling : ' Sought out.' 4. Their final
perseverance: 'A city not forsaken.'"
CHAPTER VII
THE REGIONS BEYOND
THERE are two passions that rank highest
among all those impulsive, propulsive forces
which can control a human soul. One is the
passion for God, and the other is the passion
for men. These are companion gifts and
graces, representing the noblest, divinest
affections of which in our best estate we are
capable, and are correspondingly difficult for
even Satan, the master counterfeiter, to imi-
tate.
By passion for Grod is meant that unutter-
able yearning after the divine nature and
holiness which our Lord expresses by hunger
and thirst after righteousness, and which led
to Tholuck's famous declaration: "I have
but one passion, and it is He, it is He ! " By
passion for men is meant that kindred love
139
140 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
for souls which leads to earnest, self-denying
labors for the salvation of men as such, irre-
spective of rank, place, caste, class, color, or
condition.
Samuel J. Mills so yearned over earth's,
perishing multitudes that even the vast valley
of the Mississippi was to him " like a pinhole,"
and he felt a sense of restraint and limitation
even within the entire territory of the United
States, vast as it was. And so Johnson felt
"like a bird in a cage" in Sierra Leone,
beating the wings of his holy aspiration
against the bars that kept him from a larger
flight. He would gladly have been as free as
the apocalyptic angel flying through the midst
of heaven with the everlasting gospel. His
mind was constantly wandering into the re-
gions beyond, and many a night was spent
in sleepless, restless yearnings and praying
for the Dark Continent as a whole. He, like
Coleridge, saw lif e in two aspects :
" The petty done,
The undone vast."
His passion for souls only revealed to
him his comparative apathy and lethargy a
THE REGIONS BEYOND 141
common phenomenon that still perplexes and
torments many of the best of God's saints.
Growth in the likeness of Christ serves only
to make us seem to ourselves further from
the complete image of His perfection. One
very marked peculiarity of Johnson was
his mercurial temperament, and this must
always be borne in mind in following the
course of his life-story. The territory through
which a stream runs determines the residuum
which it leaves on its bed, whether it be gold
or red oxide of iron and green sulphur. It is
an encouragement to others who find them-
selves weak according to the flesh to see how
a man subject to like passions as themselves
was so strengthened and used by the Holy
Spirit. God chooses weak, frail, and earthen
vessels, yea, broken pitchers, to convey His
grace. There were times when for a whole
week this man was in a very low state, saw
only his own backwardness in God's service,
and felt only his own indifference to the souls
over whom he was set as a watchman. He
reproached himself that his thoughts were
unduly absorbed with the work in the colony,
142 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
while all Africa, with its countless millions
of pagans, lay untrodden before him, inviting
labor. Yet who cannot see that all this dark
cloud of self -accusation and reproach was but
the smoke beneath which burned the Spirit's
divine fires'! No one can study the brief
record of this seven years' ministry without
seeing in this unlettered man one who had in
the school of Christ learned the lesson of self-
loss for others' gain. He counted himself
but a seed of the kingdom, whose destiny it
was to die, and dying bring forth much fruit,
and that fruit was all the recompense or re-
ward he desired.
What a sign and fruit of God's husbandry
was it that in the unpromising soil of Sierra
Leone passion for souls was found growing
even in new converts ! It was common for
those who had recently found Christ to be
moved by irrepressible desires to win others
to Him. For instance, a woman comes, desir-
ing to speak with Mr. Johnson. As Mondays
were set apart for spiritual conference and
counsel, he bids her come then. But it is
midweek, and she cannot wait ; her anxieties
THE REGIONS BEYOND 143
for others are too intense to brook delay.
Yet she herself had been baptized only eight
months before, and amid constant persecu-
tion from her country-people had persevered
both in her piety of conduct and her boldness
of testimony. Even her own husband beat her
when she talked of Jesus, but she calmly de-
fied his club until his hard heart yielded
before her gentle patience, and he began to
attend church and sought a habitation nearer
by, that he might oftener hear the "Word.
And now she has brought four of her coun-
trywomen, and they are waiting for the mis-
sionary's teaching. Through this humble
woman's witness the grace of God has begun
in them also its mighty work. Think of a
degraded African woman, who eight months
before was a fetish- worshiper too low ap-
parently to be reached even .by the gospel, and
yet whose mighty passion for souls cannot .be
put off five ,days for an interview ! "Where
did these .debased people get such advanced
ideas of divine things, as when another
woman of the Ebo tribe came asking for bap-
tism, and said, "Me pray to God the Holy
144 SE^EN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Ghost to take me to Jesus, Him to take me
to the Father " ! The pastor could only mar-
vel how to so simple a mind had been re-
vealed the ministry of the Spirit in leading
to Jesus as Saviour, and the mediatorial work
of the Lord Jesus in reconciling and leading
the sinner to God. But the same Spirit who
could thus make truth plain to the benighted
heart could inspire in that heart a holy zeal
for God.
If "the powers that be are ordained of
God," they do not always honor their divine
ordination. In 1818 the governor, visiting
Begent's Town, expressed the wish that Mr.
Johnson would baptize more of the people,
and, in fact, all of them that would submit.
Looking on baptism as he did, as an act of
civilization, he thought it the duty of the
missionary to apply it to all and so help to
make them all Christians. He urged that the
reason why so many were baptized on the
day of Pentecost was that the apostles de-
spised and refused none; and the warmth
and positiveness with which he advocated
such promiscuous use of the ordinance were
THE REGIONS BEYOND 145
well calculated to abash and embarrass his
humble subordinate.
Like too many others, the chief magistrate
mistook a sign and seal of grace received
for a means or method of receiving or con-
veying grace. Few evils have ever crept
into the church of God more alarming and
subtle than notions of sacramental efficacy.
Worship expresses itself in forms, but forms
can never inspire worship. Love and loyalty
to G-od find their natural channel in holy
obedience, but in vain do you scoop out
a channel where there is no stream. It is
both an inversion and a perversion when a
sacrament or ordinance is elevated to such
prominence as that it is made practically to
take the position of a cause where it should
be an effect, or to precede where it should
succeed.
Johnson was not a man to be thus silenced.
He could withstand governors and kings if
loyalty to Christ and His truth demanded, as
John the Baptist rebuked Herod, as Elijah
confronted Ahab, or as Sir Matthew Hale
joined issue with the Protector. He quietly
10
146 SEWN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
replied that ho could baptize none whose
hearts God had not touched.
The simple-minded missionary had clear
views of New Testament teaching, and dared
to hold firmly fast to apostolic usage, and
would baptize no adults save those who, like
pentecostal converts, were " pricked in their
heart" and "believed." The governor had
no answer ready to meet the biblical argu-
ment, but had the usual reply, always too
easy to resort to, and often quite too convinc-
ing to timid souls the appeal to human au-
thority. He declared he would write to the
Archbishop of Canterbury about it, insisting
that it was Johnson's duty to make Christians
of this people. To which again he replied
that there was One only who could make
Christians, and that he could and would bap-
tize none but those whom he believed Glod
had thus wrought upon. So stubborn was
the governor in his purpose to follow out his
notions of baptismal regeneration that he
threatened to employ some less scrupulous
Wesleyan minister to perform the rite, or get
more advanced ritualists from the Society for
THE REGIONS BEYOND 147
Promoting Christian Knowledge. Johnson
again affirmed his readiness to baptize all
who were manifestly penitent for sin and
willing to accept Christ as Saviour, but he
could not go beyond the Word of the Lord,
even at the command of a governor. The
chief magistrate gave up the contest as hope-
less, and contented himself with calling the
immovable Johnson and the society that sent
him to Africa " a set of fanatics."
The missionary, who had learned too much
of loyalty to God to obey human dictates,
found that this was not the only matter in
which conscience compelled resistance to the
chief magistrate of the colony. He refused
to enjoin the people to sing " God save the
king," because it was so habitually sung over
the beer-pot that he could not safely intro-
duce it into a divine service. And although
the governor was determined to impose it on
the people, Johnson would not submit, believ-
ing this patriotic hymn so tainted with^god-
less associations that it was like a garment
spotted with the flesh, unfit to be worn by
worshipers in a prayer service.
148 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Whether or not the missionary's course
always commends itself to our judgment as
wise and sensible, we cannot question either
its sincerity or intrepidity; and, in view of
the temptation before which so many fail and
fall, of bowing to human authority even at
expense of conscience, it is impossible not to
admire the fixedness of purpose that made
him stand like Gibraltar amid the waves, firm,
unmoved, and serene.
While in Freetown Christmas was a day
of revelry, if not of riot, the people conduct-
ing themselves in most unseemly fashion,
guns firing all night, drunkenness stalking
the streets, houses set on fire, and maroons
and settlers ready any moment for an open
brawl, Johnson saw in his own field peace
and quiet prevailing, a cleanly dressed and
decorous company coming to church, without
a sound of gun-firing or a sign of intoxica-
tion. And the next day eight hundred happy
people sat down together to a sort of love-
feast before the house of the missionary.
They had themselves prepared the dinner,
their carpenters making the tables and
THE REGIONS BEYOND 149
benches, and their mechanics bringing the
provisions they had saved against the feast-
day, while others cooked them. David Noah,
one of their number, asked the blessing,
which all reverently repeated after him. And
when all had eaten and were full, they
gathered up the fragments, that nothing
might be lost. What a contrast to the can-
nibal feasts of pagan tribes !
The mighty passion for souls that swayed
Johnson had a strong counter-current to
contend with in his hearty affection for his
wife. In 1819 there first arose a demand,
on her account, for a pause in his apostolic
work. Mrs. Johnson's health, which during
all their stay in Sierra Leone proved very
frail, had at this time become seriously and,
as it proved, permanently impaired. In
1818 an almost fatal illness had brought her
to the verge of the grave, and the same symp-
toms now reappeared with even greater vio-
lence, and made her return to England a
matter of necessity. Her devoted husband
was in a strait betwixt two, much perplexed
as to questions of both love and duty. Loy-
150 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
alty to his wife and responsibility for his large
flock each pressed its peculiar claims, and it
was for a time doubtful which motive would
ultimately prevail. In each direction his
path seemed to meet a "mountain insur-
mountable to reason." At last he determined
to accompany her to England.
Here perhaps we come to a natural halting-
place whence to look in general survey over
the work accomplished in these two short
years. As from " Inspiration Point," which in
the Yosemite Valley commands a view of the
whole of that vale of imposing beauty, we
may here at least glance at the stupendous
changes wrought by the gospel at Hogbrook.
This repulsive name, which had given place
to the more refined title Kegent's Town, had
come originally from the host of wild hogs
which infested the small stream flowing there-
abouts; and it was scarce too mean to de-
scribe the low order of human swine which
were there found wallowing in their own
mire and filth. What more could be ex-
pected of a refuse population, the offscouring
of the earth, swept from the alleys of London,
THE REGIONS BEYOND 151
and emptied out of those devil's galleys, the
slave-ships, and finding a dumping-ground in
Africa ! Here in Sierra Leone this indiscrim-
inate mass of humanity, huddled together
without moral restraints or physical control,
gave way to the basest of animal passions
because no higher motives were appealed to ;
and the life thus lived was so unutterably
low in its level, physically, intellectually, and
morally, that, as has been intimated, lan-
guage supplies no proper colors in which
to paint such a picture. Hell may furnish an
adequate dialect of description, but earth has
not yet supplied one, thank God !
Can it be credited, even upon authentic
testimony, that already there had taken place
a transformation which was rather a trans-
figuration? Worship simple and sincere,
decorous and spiritual, on the Lord's day,
family prayer preceding and following daily
toils, and such public and household devo-
tions displacing a superstition and idolatry
too low to be dignified by the name of wor-
ship ! Gree-gree charms and witchcraft, red
water and devils' houses, vile practices and
152 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
abhorrent usages, had already given way to
decent attire and civilized habits, to Christian
wedlock and well-regulated household life,
to Bibles and prayer-books, missionary so-
cieties and consecrated offerings.
Johnson's passion for souls led to occasional
excursions into the surrounding country, a
few references to which may be sufficient
without repetitious details. For example,
early in 1819 he went, in company with Mi*.
Gates, William Tamba, and others, to Wilber-
f orce, on the northwestern side of the colony,
and Cape Shilling, forty miles beyond, to
Margenna and Robiss, and made a complete
circuit. He undertook tours afoot, going
sometimes as far as one hundred and twenty
miles in seven days, in hopes to reach those
tribes yet unevangelized, and find new fields
of service and sacrifice, and win new trophies
for Christ. In all these excursions he found
it needful almost to tear himself away from
the simple-minded converts, who were in
mortal fear lest some fatality might take
from them the teacher to whom they were
devoted. So great, however, was Johnson's
THE REGIONS BEYOND 153
yearning to sow the wider wastes about
him with the gospel seed that but for
providential hindrances arresting his ac-
tivities he would doubtless have overleaped
the bounds of the colony in larger and more
permanent operations. He might, indeed,
have anticipated Livingstone as Africa's mis-
sionary explorer and general.
Everywhere in these tours into regions
beyond were found proofs of a similar deg-
radation to that originally confronted in
Hogbrook. Among the Cosso people marks
of the reign of superstition abounded. Scarce
a house had not its wooden post and broken
bowl for its defense. At Margenna they
were warned against approaching one partic-
ular house, as it was haunted, and approach
would be fatal; and to confirm this a dead
horned owl was pointed out hanging near
it, which, as it was stoutly maintained, had
dropped down dead for presuming to fly
over it.
One important result of this tour (1819)
was that both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Gates felt
so well satisfied as to the manner in which
154 SEYEti YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
William Tamba had addressed the natives
that both he and William Davis were taken
into the society's service to act as messen-
gers of salvation in native districts. The
examination of these two men previous to
their being thus set apart revealed the same
motives and spirit as in the most mature
saints another evidence of the Spirit's teach-
ing. In their simple language we find a holy
humility and self-distrust, coupled with a
deep desire to be of use, a simple faith in
G-od's call and help, and a courageous fear-
lessness in accepting whatever risk was
involved. And the society's committee, in
approving this new step of sending native
teachers among their countrymen, advised a
well-digested system whereby competent con-
verts should be selected, trained, and habitu-
ated to such evangelistic service.
The secretaries of the Church Missionary
Society wrote to Johnson (April 8, 1819),
expressing their judgment that he had been
" rather too slow to baptize," they taking the
position that " baptism is a means of grace,
and may be a turning-point in decision of
THE REGIONS BEYOND 155
heart for Christ." They also advised that in
cases of "baptized persons dying" he might
safely " use the burial service, whatever their
previous character," arguing that to refuse
implied a "needless scrupulosity" and an
assuming of " a judgment of condemnation."
The same letter informed him that a sec-
ond chaplain, the Eev. Thomas Garnsey, was
about to come to the colony.
While the critical illness of Mrs. Johnson
made her immediate return to England
necessary, and demanded his accompanying
her (for she needed such care as only a hus-
band can give), yet it seemed impossible to
leave the people. Over fifty negroes were
added in February to the church, and many
more were candidates, so that nearly every
night was spent in examination, and some
cases of conversion were as startling as the
change of a lion into a lamb.
As the time drew near for Mr. Johnson to
sail for England the need seemed to be only
the more imperative for him to remain where
he was. The number of communicants now
reached two hundred and sixty-three, and
156 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
their course of life was such as became the
gospel of Christ, and put to silence all cavil-
ing. All the people seemed hungry for
righteousness, and a deep seriousness per-
vaded the schools. Moreover, in March, 1819,
the boys' school-house was burned, and the
girls' house and Johnson's own dwelling were
in danger; but prayer was earnestly offered
for deliverance, and the wind, which at the
beginning was so boisterous as to threaten
a conflagration, ceased, and a complete calm
followed, and all the people saw the flames
ascend perpendicularly, and acknowledged the
hand of God. Such destruction made neces-
sary a rebuilding, while such interposition of
God emphasized the power of prayer and
opened the hearts of the people to the truth.
On April 11, 1819, Mr. Johnson baptized one
hundred and ten adults ; it was a pentecostal
day.
The missionary who saw this work of God
moving at such pace in Regent's Town not
only went on evangelistic tours into the re-
gions beyond, but sought to organize mis-
sionary societies and multiply all kindred
THE REGIONS BEYOND 157
means of gracious growth and service in the
settlements he visited. Though at times very
low-spirited, he found refuge from morbid
mental states in abundant work for others,
and when so ill that he seemed pressed down
under an insupportable burden of discourage-
ment, he remembered that we are " immortal
till our work is done," and gloried in that
strength which is made perfect only in weak-
ness.
These venturings into the regions beyond
were sometimes occasions of peculiar interest.
During the nine days' journey in October,
1820, in connection with the Plantains, a
group of islands where he found about two
hundred inhabitants, Mr. Johnson went in
search of the lime-trees planted by the Eev.
John Newton when he had been wandering
over the island like a lost sheep ; and he found
that they had been cut down, but from the
trunk of one new branches had shot forth ;
and a hymn-book also was discovered, several
hymns in which were of Newton's own com-
position. Thus, on the very spot where this
converted slave-trader had wandered in igno-
158 SEWN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
ranee sixty-five years before, and planted
lime-trees for his amusement, his hymns were
still being sung in the Sherbro tongue.
In April, 1821, Johnson learned that the
missionaries had succeeded in getting land
sufficient to begin a colony in the Bassa
country. When the news reached his ears
his emotion could not be expressed. Mr. Gates
had been encouraged to go into that country
with reference to establishing a mission, and
he had died of fatigue, which had caused
Johnson to bear a heavy burden. Now, for
the first time, that burden had been relieved,
for had Mr. Gates not gone there, the mis-
sionaries would not have received land. The
king had made an agreement with him which
opened the way immediately, and now the
prince, the king's son, came with Mr. Davis
as a token of good faith. When the two
entered the evening school, the natives of the
Bassa country surrounded the prince, affec-
tionately embraced him, and inquired for
their relatives, laughing for joy when they
heard that their parents were alive and that
the gospel would soon be sounding in their
THE REGIONS BEYOND 159
ears. The scene was simply indescribable,
and would have drawn tears from eyes un-
used to weep.
There was a sense in which the regions
beyond were frequently brought near to the
missionary's doors. On May 15, 1821, a note
received from J. Reffell, Esq., chief super-
intendent of captured negroes, informed
Johnson that a vessel had been brought in
with two hundred and thirty-eight miserable
slaves, and that he and the acting governor
had agreed to send them up to Regent's Town,
begging him to go to Freetown to receive
them. He went, accompanied by some of the
people, those who remained at home prepar-
ing food for these new-comers. The vessel
was a small schooner, and many of the poor
victims were actually reduced to skeletons.
Two hundred and seventeen slaves were
delivered to Johnson's care, the rest being
placed in the Leicester Hospital. He had to
surround them by his people as they marched
out of Freetown to prevent the soldiers of
the fort seizing some of the women for wives.
The scenes which took place upon the ar-
160 SEfEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
rival of these slaves at Regent's Town defy
description. As soon as they came in sight
all the people left their houses to meet them
with loud acclamations. When they saw that
the new-comers were weak and faint, they
carried the feeblest of them toward Mr.
Johnson's house and laid them on the ground,
themselves also being quite exhausted. Soon
many of the people began to recognize their
friends and relatives, and there was a gen-
eral cry: "O massa, my sister, my brother,
my mother, my father, my countrywoman ! "
The poor creatures, who had recently been
taken out of the hold of a slave- vessel, faint
and but half conscious of what had befallen
them, did not know whether to laugh or
cry when they beheld the countenances of
those whom they had supposed long dead,
but whom they now beheld, clothed and
clean, in some cases perhaps bearing healthy
children in their arms. The people ran off
to their houses, brought all the provisions
they had made ready, and shortly over-
powered these unfortunates with messes of
eveiy description, pineapples, oranges, and
THE REGIONS BEYOND 161
groundnuts being also brought out in great
abundance.
During the same day another remarkable
event occurred nothing less than a genuine
earthquake, which shook all the buildings;
but even this made less impression than the
wonderful scenes of the morning, and it was
a long time before these lost their vividness.
These new-comers had to be distributed
among the people, several of whom had the
joy to take home a long-lost brother or sister.
There were many most affecting incidents.
One of the little girls who had been rescued
was clothed in the raiment of a school-girl,
that she might be taken to church ; and when
she saw the number of people gathered, she
ran back crying, thinking it was a slave-
market and she was again to be sold. She
stammered out among sobs that she "had
been sold too much, and did not want to be
sold any more." By October fifty out of two
hundred and thirty-eight of the newly ar-
rived slaves had died as the effect of their
confinement and half-starvation on ship-
board.
11
162 SEfEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Another addition had now to be planned
for the church, which was enlarged so as to
be eighty feet long by sixty-four wide, with
galleries all around, doubling its accommo-
dations.
Notwithstanding his trials, labors, and dis-
appointments, Johnson felt himself to be the
happiest man in the world, and declared
that he would not exchange his situation for
all the crowns on earth ; while, at the same
time, he was so affected by the sins and way-
wardness of the people that he was a Jere-
miah, and exclaimed, " Oh that my head were
waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that
I might weep day and night for the slain of
the daughter of my people!" In October,
1822, one hundred and eighty more were
received from a slave-vessel, thus increasing
the population to nineteen hundred. The
regions beyond were sending their popula-
tion to his very doors.
CHAPTER VIII
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION
THE spirit is often willing when the flesh is
weak. It is one of the sore trials of faith
that in more senses than one it has to wrestle
against flesh and blood. Weakness hinders
even those who are no longer slaves of wicked-
ness, and infirmities of the body oppress many
a saint who is strong in faith and heroic in
purpose. To learn to halt for a time, especially
for an indefinite time, and, while yearning and
burning with intense desire for active service,
to be compelled to rest, perhaps to resign
ourselves to passive suffering this is one of
the last and hardest tasks given us in the
school of Grod.
In Johnson's case such an abandonment
of his work first became a necessity in 1819.
He had long fought against it, but at last suc-
163
164 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
cumbed to an inevitable, unavoidable absence,
and knew not when he would return. A mys-
terious divine hand pointed to the shores of
Britain a man whose whole heart, like Living-
stone's after him, was in Africa.
The day of departure came, and on April
22d a farewell message to his beloved peo-
ple, from 2 Corinthians xiii. 11 having been
delivered four days previously Johnson
embarked on board the Echo. Hundreds of
negroes, old and young, men and women,
walked with him over the hard five-mile road
to Freetown, and took leave of him with
many tears, as the Ephesian elders parted
from Paul at Miletus. They gave striking
expression to their devotion in such simple
words as these: "Massa, suppose no water
live here," pointing to the wide sea, "we go
with you all the way till feet no more."
Such a man as Johnson could not be hid.
On the voyage he preached, and dealt so
faithfully and pointedly with the passengers
that some complained to the captain that the
preacher was personal. It was the message,
not the man, that was "personal"; and so
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION 165
plain was it that he was impelled only by
unselfish love of truth and love of souls that
before the vessel reached the dock the mouths
of opposers were stopped, and foes were
turned to friends, kind and attentive.
As the main purpose of this narrative is
to portray with all possible simplicity and
brevity the work of God at Sierra Leone, it
will suffice to give only a passing glance at
this interval of absence from the field.
He revisited Hanover in Germany, where
his mother lived, and when he told her
that he was her son, her own " Augustine,"
she could not believe it until he showed her
two marks upon his body which served to
identify him. Then her agitation of mind
can scarcely be conceived. Tears of mingled
joy and uncontrollable excitement ran down
her cheeks. One of his sisters, about twenty
years old, could not be persuaded to leave him,
and scarcely slept after his arrival, sitting be-
side him even when he lay in bed. Notwith-
standing his own disapproval of the plan as
inexpedient, she prepared to accompany him
wherever he might go, and, following him on
166 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
his return to England, she was, after due
examination, received by the committee of
the Church Missionary Society as a school-
mistress for West Africa. Thus Johnson's
visit to his own kindred was attended with
peculiar blessing, for which his gracious ex-
periences and letters had prepared the way,
and lasting impressions were made upon a
large circle of relatives and friends.
While in England, God used his simple
narrative of his missionary labors in Sierra
Leone, as he had used the rehearsal of the mis-
sion tour of Paul and Barnabas at Antioch,
for the refreshment and arousing of the
churches. The respite from work at Kegent's
Town was not a loss to the wider work of
missions. For example, when, before the Berk-
shire Church Missionary Association, he read
letters lately received from native converts
and communicants in his church in Sierra
Leone, Tamba, Davis, Peter Hughes, David
Noah, a gentleman who was present was so
struck with these letters as confirming Mr.
Johnson's statements that he asked to be in-
formed whether these documents were origi-
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION 167
nals or copies. He was permitted to examine
them closely for himself, and he then frankly
stated his conviction that, considering the
very short time during which these slaves had
been under instruction, they evinced a degree
and a rapidity of progress in religious know-
ledge quite unequaled.* He was so persuaded
of the usefulness of Mr. Johnson's labors that,
although a member and supporter both of
the Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge and of the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, he could not
withhold active support from the Church
Missionary Society also, and it was at his
suggestion that a resolution was passed favor-
ing the publication of these letters. Mr.
Johnson attended meetings and addressed
audiences at Saffron- Walden, Suffolk, Exeter,
Teignmouth, and other places, and every-
where great blessing attended his words of
witness. But Sierra Leone drew him with
a strange and irresistible force, and, as Mrs.
Johnson's health was already greatly im-
proved, in less than five months after his
* Appendix II.
168 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
arrival in England preparations were made
for his return. On the 19th of November, at
Freemasons' Hall in London, he gave a de-
tailed account of the remarkable scenes of
transformation he had already witnessed at
Regent's Town, and it is difficult to say which
produced the profounder impression the
marvelous changes of which he had been the
instrumental means, or the simplicity and
humility which were manifested in the whole
narration. The minds of all present were
deeply moved, and this brief visit to England
served to rivet attention upon the field to
which he returned.
On December 27th, with their band of new
helpers, he and his wife reembarked for Africa
in the ship Maida, and on January 31, 1820,
reached Freetown.
On landing he was met, as might be anti-
cipated, by a welcome home which was char-
acteristically hearty. A man who saw him
coming ashore ran quickly five miles to Re-
gent's Town with the news ; and Mr. Wilhelm
had just concluded the daily evening service
when he rushed in among the congregation
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION 169
crying, "All hear! all hear! Mr. Johnson
come ! " The confusion and excitement over-
leaped all bounds. The whole assembly
leaped to its feet as one man, and such as
could not wait to get out at the doors actually
jumped out at the windows. Mr. Johnson
testified that he had never in his life shaken
hands as on that day, though he took care not
to lose any of Ms finger-nails in consequence
of this incessant and painful handshaking, as
had been the case when he left six months be-
fore. But the j oy of those simple-minded peo-
ple made him quite insensible to any physical
discomfort due to their wild enthusiasm.
One of the first matters claiming his atten-
tion was a letter which had come, in his ab-
sence, from the secretaries in London, having
reference to the loud outcries and violent fits
of weeping, already noted as often hindering
the decorous conduct of public worship. The
letter called attention to the necessity of
carefully guarding against Satan's devices,
and referred to the peculiar character of the
African tribes, their imperfect knowledge of
religion and their limited experience in the
170 SEJSEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
divine life, their imperfectly formed judg-
ments and their constitutional susceptibility
to excitement. The wisdom of a sound mind,
evinced in this whole communication, showed
that the Church Missionary Society then, as
now, was administered by men conspicuous
not only for sterling piety, but for sanctified
common sense. Johnson felt, however, what
many a missionary has felt since, that it is
one thing to give wise counsel from a secre-
tary's desk in the center of an enlightened na-
tion, and quite another to confront an actual
difficulty on the field, in the midst of an ig-
norant, uncultivated, superstitious throng of
negroes recently rescued from the yoke of
abject slavery. Many a theory of treatment,
which is as symmetrical and beautiful as the
geometrical web which a spider weaves, is as
frail and weak when applied to the practical
evil which needs correction or restraint. It
reminds one of the boastful French surgeon
who, having treated a large number of criti-
cal cases, confessed that he had in no case
saved the patient's life, but insisted that the
operation was very brilliant.
A supreme sorrow and trial, however,
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION 171
awaited Mr. Johnson's return. When he
entered Begent's Town it was about ten
o'clock in the evening and bright moonlight ;
but that silver radiance only served to dis-
close the fact that ruins confronted him
everywhere. The church tower and the
school-house, which was being roofed in
when he left, were now leveled to the ground ;
the other school-house, intended for the boys,
was pulled down as far as the windows, and
the fences were down about his yard and gar-
den and the cultivated field. The hospital
was as he had left it, no progress having been
made, and all else, including the church build-
ing, was in a most deplorable state. In fact,
the town was scarcely recognizable.
Closer examination showed more serious
declension in spiritual things. Several of his
church-members had sadly backslidden, but
not without cause. In his subsequent letter
to the directors he says: "I thought that I
had left a friend and a brother here when
I left this place,* but how have I been de-
ceived!" Eachel Garnon, Hagar Johnson,
* By his own request a Mr. and Mrs. Morgan had been put
in charge of the work during his absence.
172 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
and Martha Johnson had actually been
flogged out of church, on Sunday, by his sub-
stitute. These girls had for three years been
Mr. Johnson's household servants, and one
of them had just risen from a sick-bed. Ra-
chel bore for considerable time the marks of
the whip on her back ; nor could the victims
of this outrage tell why this flogging had
been inflicted, or why they were thus driven
from the house of worship. Mrs. Wilhelm
gave them all an excellent character, attesting
their uniformly consistent Christian behavior.
It gradually transpired that, so soon as
Johnson had gone, his plans had been upset
and new ones formed, and the whole town
brought into confusion. The pay of some of
the work-people had been reduced, and such
as were not willing to accept less wages had
been told to go elsewhere, so that the popu-
lation of the place had, from this and other
causes, been thinned. The missionary society
had been virtually dissolved ; no one had for
four or five months spoken of it or done any-
thing to feed its flame, no sermon being
preached, no offerings being collected ; and a
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION It3
fire that lias no fuel will of course die down
and go out. The benefit society would like-
wise have gone to ruin had not the members
of it themselves kept up the interest in it.
Mr. Wilhelm had done all he could to re-
store former prosperity, but with only partial
success. Through an administration so un-
wise as to be almost, if not quite, unchristian,
the little church had been well-nigh wrecked.
Fet all that Mr. Johnson wrote to the direc-
tors was without a trace of resentment : " I
pity Mr. , and heartily forgive him, and
pray that, if he goes out again elsewhere, he
may be possessed of a more humble spirit."
With the return of the beloved pastor the
church rapidly regained its former state. He
invited and exhorted the people to come to-
gether, revive their missionary society and
renew their offerings, and they cordially
responded. The church had gone through
the furnace of trial and was not consumed;
over two hundred and fifty communicants
remained, and on this basis the rebuilding of
the work must be carried on.
As in every other crisis, God's servant re-
174 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
sorted to prayer. As he confronted the dis-
asters that in his absence had come upon the
little flock, under a grief that would have
crushed most other men, he simply took
refuge in the old promise through which the
light first came into his soul :
" Call upon Me in the day of trouble ;
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me."
A prayer-hearing God once more appeared
for his deliverance. At the throne of grace
in the secret pavilion with God he got peace
and so communicated it, removing the jeal-
ousy and envy which had been the cause of
all the differences between brethren, and him-
self setting the example of unselfish love.
He himself never caused unpleasantness or
estrangement. Bearing patiently with a meek
and quiet spirit all that was unkind and un-
just, he became not only a peacekeeper, but
a peacemaker, though never at the expense of
truth or the risk of principles. " The wisdom
that is from above is first pure, then peace-
able."
His holy zeal was, throughout, a large factor
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION 176
in his success. In the midst of all these
arduous toils, made heavier by these trials,
he writes: "Ah, who would not be a mis-
sionary to Africa ! Had I ten thousand lives,
I would willingly offer them all for the sake
of one poor negro." Such devotion is the
impregnable armor of love, and enables one
to bear all things and be more than a con-
queror.
His humility also made him self-distrustful
and therefore the less prone to judge others
harshly. He did not wince under reproof,
but rather sought rebuke when needful. He
begged the secretaries to counsel and ad-
monish him as to whatever they regarded as
out of the way; he thought of himself as a
most unworthy and inefficient missionary,
and welcomed even a smiting as a kindness
if it might help him to greater service.
No small part of the distressing vexations
of this field arose from resident Europeans,
as, for example, those in Freetown, whose
ungodly passions found vent not only in
breaking the Sabbath for themselves, but in
getting intoxicated and going about on horse-
176 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
back through the villages, annoying church-
goers who were on their way to or from the
house of worship.
One of the native converts expressed his
quaint philosophy of the trials through which
they had passed in these words : " Suppose
somebody beat rice; he fan it, and all the
chaff fly away and the rice get clean. Now,
massa, we be in that fashion since you gone :
God fan us that time for true."
In January, 1821, in a letter to the secre-
taries in London, Johnson made mention of
another trial which it was for him very hard
patiently to bear, as it involved risk to the
converts, over whom he watched with pa-
rental care and to whom he was daily impart-
ing his own life and soul, because they were
so dear to him. Let us record his own words :
" The devil," he writes, " is going about in
two different shapes like a roaring lion, and
like an angel of mercy. Some of our people
have become very wicked, and communicants
suffer persecution; but this only shows the
difference between the seed of the woman
and the seed of the serpent. Thirty men and
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION 177
women are under instruction with reference
to baptism."
Two months later a severe cold settled
upon his lungs, inducing violent coughing
and nearly proving fatal. This added greatly
to his burdens. About the same time a
spirit of opposition and persecution seemed
to be let loose among the people. Mere pro-
fessors of religion, who had no real hold upon
the truth or upon the Lord Jesus, carried to
and fro by every wind of doctrine and made
the victims of the sleight and cunning crafti-
ness of deceivers, joined the openly profane
and spoke against him and his co-workers in
scorn and ridicule. He felt like David when
pursued by enemies who lay in wait for him
on every side; but, like David, he found a
strong tower of refuge in Grod, and the work
of Christ proceeded.
There was another fire of trial through
which Johnson was called to pass; in fact,
it might be said that he was never out of this
furnace of affliction, though its heat was not
always equally intense. We refer to his over-
whelming conviction of his own sinfulness
12
178 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
and unworthiness. He was a marvelous
missionary in the measure of his simple faith,
implicit obedience, and successful work. Yet
the more Clod's mercy and goodness were
displayed to him, the more unworthy and
ungrateful he seemed to himself to be. The
goodness of Grod in a very emphatic sense led
him to repentance. It appeared to him as
though no human creature could be more
depraved, and he records his conviction that
in the whole world of sinners there could be
no one worse than himself. How far these
were morbid moods, owing in part to con-
stitutional habits of self-reproach and in part
to diseased conditions of body, it is now im-
possible to determine. But of one thing no
doubt is left : he had learned the great lesson
that the only ground of hope which is at all
solid and unchanging is that which is ex-
ternal, not internal a salvation which is of
free and saving grace and quite independent
of all human merit ; and, like Matthew Henry,
if he had not at all times the faith of assur-
ance, he had the faith of adherence, and never
was left to despair.
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION 179
Few sorrows cut so deeply as those which
are vicarious, and most of all when evil
threatens our best beloved. " A sword shall
pierce thine own soul also," was the brief but
awful forecast of the anguish which the virgin
mother of our Lord would suffer when the
spear should pierce His human heart. Mrs.
Johnson's illness in 1822 was so severe that
the doctors directed her immediate departure
for Europe ; an ulcer was forming in her head ;
and on the 4th of May she took leave of her
husband. The people mourned her depar-
ture, declaring that she was to them "like their
own mother," which was true. They were
prostrated by grief, and every one appeared
to mourn and weep. Johnson felt that he
must not again leave his people, for he could
not forget how, when the shepherd had be-
fore parted with his flock for a season, the
wolf had been among them and had caught
some and scattered the whole flock. Yet he
endured a great fight of contending feelings.
When, five months after Mrs. Johnson
had thus sailed for England alone, a rumor
was spread by an arriving vessel that she
180 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
had died at sea, her husband's mind was
kept for months in most painful suspense,
more especially as another vessel, that left
England a month after the arrival of the
Fletcher, brought 110 letter from Mr. During
and no tidings from Mrs. Johnson. And yet,
in the midst of all these labors and anxieties,
he redoubled his activities, if that were pos-
sible, and enjoyed unusual power and free-
dom in preaching. From every new distrac-
tion of care he found escape in absorbing
work for God and souls, and the promise was
again fulfilled: "As thy days so shall thy
strength be." Sometimes for five hours he
spoke, yet without undue fatigue; and al-
though again the church building had been
enlarged, the audiences were too great to be
accommodated.
The report of Mrs. Johnson's death was not
confirmed, as on November 21st a letter from
the captain of the Fletcher to a gentleman in
Freetown stated that all his passengers had
been safely landed. It subsequently tran-
spired, however, that Mr. Johnson's mother
was dead, and the surviving members of the
IN THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION 181
household at home were in consequence
plunged into the depths of sorrow.
Africa was indeed a "vale of tears," and
Mr. Johnson's own testimony was, "If any
one wishes to experience trials, let him come
to Africa. It is certainly the worst climate
in the world." And yet so much was this
man inspired by passion for souls, and so
deeply was he interested in his work and his
people, that he adds, " There is nevertheless
not a spot in the world that I like better. I
could not live elsewhere." How like David
Livingstone that sounds ! He was in the fur-
nace of affliction in Africa for thirty years.
Yet nothing could wean him from his love
for the Dark Continent.
CHAPTER IX
THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES
OF all the forms of the self -life, none is
more subtle than self -glory. Many a servant
of God has been so lifted up with pride by
his own successes as to be utterly disqualified
for further use. And so the severest test of
a true workman is this: whether, amid all
the highest honor given him of God in ser-
vice, he not only retains humility, but grows
in this consummate grace, which Andrew
Murray regards as the very " beauty of holi-
ness."
"Let another praise thee, and not thine
own mouth," is a maxim that seldom needs to
be repeated to a true servant of God, for he
well knows that all glory belongs to his
Master, since all power is from Him. The
mouth that is active in one's own praise is
182
THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES 183
the sad index of a heart that has not learned
that primal secret of all service, that, even
when labors are most abundant and harvests
most plentiful, both the strength for the toil
and the increase from the seed-sowing are
the bestowments of God.
Johnson never glorified himself; and, in
fact, he saw nothing in himself to awaken
complacency or afford ground for boasting,
so that his humility rather grew as his success
increased. Consequently the major part of
this great work of God would never have
been thus widely known had not a cloud of
witnesses, not only from within but from
without the mission, been constrained to bear
testimony.
At this distance of time it is difficult to
appreciate the rapidity with which the trans-
formation of the community at Eegent's
Town went forward. Mr. Eenner, the senior
missionary in western Africa, after a visit
thus wrote, as early as January 2, 1817, to
Mr. Pratt, of the Church Missionary Society :
" I spoke morning and evening in the church
to a people that seemed to be devout in-
184 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
deed. Regent's Town is fast advancing in
getting civilized and Christianized. Almost
every night, as I am told, one or another is
affected, and on certain nights the whole
congregation seem impressed. Judging by
appearance, these are they that take the
kingdom of heaven by violence. The tem-
poral and spiritual work of our brother is no
doubt great and laborious among this people,
but to Johnson all is easy and full of pleasure.
It is surprising to what a degree of harmo-
nious singing both sexes have attained, as if
it were a congregation of ten years' standing."
Sunday, November 23, 1817, Captain Welsh
of the brig Pyrenees spent at Regent's Town,
having been an old acquaintance of John-
son's in London. When the bell rang the first
time, Johnson and Welsh themselves found it
difficult, and in fact impossible, to get in by
the doors, and had to find their way through
the church tower. Not only was the building
thus filled, but some were sitting outside on
boards. The sermon was from John v. 6:
" Wilt thou be made whole I " Captain Welsh
was delighted, and said, " I have to-day seen
THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES 185
what I never saw before. What would not
our London friends give for such a sight!
Gk>d has blessed your labors beyond descrip-
tion. I had heard of your success, but could
not believe what I heard." The modest mis-
sionary could only reply, as usual : " To God
be all the glory," for he habitually turned
attention from himself to Him who is the
fountain of all blessing.
Mr. Morgan who had undertaken the ad-
ministration of the mission during Mr. John-
son's absence, and who had exhibited, as we
have seen, such surprising lack of good
temper, administrative skill, and Christian
discretion, if nothing worse, and who was
entirely recalled from the field in conse-
quence would not be very likely to give any
too partial an account of Johnson's work.
Yet on his return to London he made to the
committee a report which has the highest
value, because it cannot have been colored by
any personal attachment to his predecessor,
from whom he had in some measure been
alienated. Such testimony borne to another's
success is a proof of its reality which cannot
186 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
be set aside, and should be embodied in this
narrative.*
When ^Eschines heard unstinted praise
of Demosthenes' oration "On the Crown,"
he was constrained to say, notwithstanding
that oration was directed against himself,
"Ah, you should have heard it yourself; it
was a masterpiece ! " And what shall we say
when even the verdict of foes also was in
Johnson's favor! When Satan bestirs him-
self against God's servants, it is probably
because his craft is in danger. It was when
Paul and his fellow- witnesses were turning
the Ephesian world upside down that Deme-
trius raised his uproar. In 1821 a West In-
dian rumseller whose infernal business was
fast coming to ruin through the faithful
preaching of Johnson against drunkenness
and all that led to it lay in wait with a
loaded gun to shoot him ; and so obvious was
his murderous intent that, after repeated
proofs had been afforded of his hateful malice,
the missionary unwillingly lodged a complaint
against him. But that man's loaded gun was
* Appendix HI.
THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES 187
an indirect witness to the work of reforma-
tion. Satan may well war against a trans-
formation so radical that it was rather a
transfiguration.
In the report of the local authorities at
Sierra Leone sent to the home government
in January, 1819, such changes as have been
described were formally noted, and the of-
ficial document thus concludes (let us embody
the very words, as a most emphatic testimony
on the part of secular magistrates) :
" Let it be considered that not more than
three or four years have passed since the
greater number of Mr. Johnson's popula-
tion were taken out of the holds of slave-
ships; and who can compare their present
condition with that from which they were
rescued without seeing manifest cause to
exclaim, ' The hand of Heaven is in this ' !
Who can contrast the simple and sincere
Christian worship which precedes and follows
their daily labors with the groveling and
malignant superstitions of their original state
their gree-grees, their red water, their witch-
craft, and their devils' houses without feel-
188 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
ing and acknowledging a miracle of good
which the immediate interposition of the
Almighty alone could have wrought? And
what greater blessing could man or nation
desire or enjoy than to have been made the
instruments of conferring such sublime bene-
fits on the most abject of the human race!
"If any other circumstance could be re-
quired to prove the immediate interposition
of the Almighty, we have only to look at the
plain men and simple means employed in
bringing about the miraculous conversion
that we have recorded. Does it not recall to
mind the first diffusion of the gospel by the
apostles themselves? These thoughts will
occur to strangers at remote distance when
they hear these things, and must they not
recur much more forcibly to us who have
these things constantly before our eyes ? "
Another notable testimony was given in
April, 1819, by Mr. and Mrs. Jesty, who, hav-
ing just come to reinforce, the missionary
band, paid a visit to the field, and bore their
witness. Mrs. Jesty wrote to her sister :
"I wish that I could find language suffi-
THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES 180
ciently descriptive of the interesting scenes
which we have witnessed here. Indeed, they
must be seen before the facts will be credited.
Had I heard the circumstances from the best
authority, I could not have conceived it pos-
sible that so glorious a progress could have
been made in the work of our God as we have
beheld since we have been staying at Regent's
Town." *
In April, 1821, Mr. Singleton, a member of
the Society of Friends, sent out to glean facts
about the Dark Continent, arrived at Regent's
Town, and was so deeply moved by what he
saw that he was scarcely able to speak. He
was astonished to see these wretched slaves
now so clean and tidy, their general condition
so much better than that of the poorer classes
in Great Britain ; and to find Bibles and Tes-
taments everywhere on the tables in their
houses as familiar books.
A humorous incident occurred in connec-
tion with Mr. Singleton's visit. Quaker-like,
he entered the church without taking off his
hat. This was an act quite inexplicable to
* Appendix IV.
190 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
the native Christians, and seemed to them
shockingly irreverent; so that two of them
boldly went up to him and politely requested
him to remove his hat, which he did with a
smile, apparently much pleased with their zeal
for G-od, although in a sense it was not accord-
ing to knowledge. At the evening meeting
he heard from one of the native women a very
pathetic and effective testimony :
"When me think about the great things
G-od has done for me, me do not know what
to do. When me was in my own country they
catch us all, and then they take up my brothers
and sisters and kill them. Me only left,"
here her sobs almost choked her utterance,
" and they put them in the pot and boil them
and eat them. Me only left. What great things
the Lord do for me ! Poor, guilty sinner, me
so bad ! Only the good Lord Jesus save me."
On Mr. Singleton's return he published a
journal of his tour and a report, in which he
refers to Regent's Town and the great work
of God there.*
It was during this same year, 1821, that the
* Appendix V.
THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES 191
Europeans of Freetown, after an inspection,
confessed their surprise at the order, industry,
and piety of the people, and were especially
amazed at their liberality, they having that year
contributed over seventy-two pounds sterling
(three hundred and fifty dollars). The mouths
of opposers and critics were so effectually
stopped that they acknowledged the gospel
to be the only adequate means of civilizing
such heathen ; and the gentlemen of Freetown
were so thoroughly convinced of the general
success of preaching the gospel that they
publicly paid their tribute that, above all
other institutions, those of Regent's Town had
proved most beneficial to the degraded chil-
dren of "Africa. Editors sought interviews
with reference to publishing accounts of the
work, and, what is a more crucial test, many
of these European residents, and among them
the governor, asked Johnson to call upon them
for contributions ! In fact, this humble man
was in fear lest the prosperity that exposed
him to so much flattery might involve serious
risk of inflating him with pride.
An American vessel arrived in March, 1821,
192 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
with missionaries for the Sherbro coast. Two
of them, Messrs. Andrus and Bacon, visited
the church at Regent's Town. Mr. Andrus
left on record his testimony that he had sup-
posed the accounts which he had heard to be
greatly exaggerated, but, like the Queen of
Sheba, he felt that the half had not been told
him. He had never, even in America, seen
any church filled with more devout and de-
corous hearers, nor so large a body of com-
municants behaving with more piety at the
Lord's table. Mr. Bacon, the other of these
American visitors, on his return to Philadel-
phia published a glowing account of his ex-
periences in Africa, which we likewise pre-
serve as essential to the completeness of this
volume.*
We record another unequivocal tribute to
this work of God through His servant. In
1822, at a quarter-session at Freetown, his
honor the chief justice observed that "ten
years before, when the population of the
colony was but four thousand, there were
forty cases on the calendar for trial ; but that
* Appendix VI,
THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES 193
now, with a population of sixteen thousand,
there were but six cases," and he congratu-
lated the magistrates on the moral improve-
ment of the colony. What was most notice-
able, however, was the fact that, among the
criminal cases, there was not one from any
of the villages under the superintendence of
a missionary or schoolmaster; so that his
honor dismissed Johnson and his consta-
bles politely, as having no business that re-
quired their attendance at the session. The
community at Eegent's Town represented a
law-abiding and self-governing, as well as self-
supporting and self -propagating, church. On
December 27, 1821, at a meeting of communi-
cants, a law had been framed by themselves,
that if any person should begin a quarrel or
behave as did not become a Christian, he
should be turned out and fined five pounds,
or be confined in the house of correction for
two months. All, however, conducted them-
selves with such propriety that there was
found no need to put this law into execution.
The work was its own witness. Many a
lion was turned into a lamb, and inquiring
13
194 SEJSEN YEARS IN SIERR4 LEONE
souls who, like Noah's dove, could find no rest,
sought refuge in the ark of the covenant.
Johnson's methods with candidates were very
thorough. When he received them for in-
struction he appointed a time when all should
be present; he then read over their names,
places of abode, etc., and requested certain
communicants to watch over them, and if they
should observe in them any improper conduct
to inform him ; and in all cases of unbecom-
ing behavior the offender was dismissed or
kept on a sort of probation. All candidates
were kept three months on trial, subject to a
searching scrutiny. This was found to be the
most efficient method of getting acquainted
with the real conduct and character of intend-
ing communicants. No pains were spared to
put to proof the reality of conversion.
Few forms of witness are more convincing
and irresistible than those found in the death
of saints. The august exchange of worlds
is a crisis in any man's history, and in most
cases a decisive test of genuineness and sin-
cerity. A faith and hope and love that, in
the darkness of the dying hour, light up the
THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES 195
valley of the shadow of death with the celes-
tial torch of a confident assurance may well
be the object of the envy of the unbeliever;
and Balaam is not the only slave of greed or
other unholy appetites and passions who has
inwardly said, " Let me die the death of the
righteous, and let my last end be like his."
Johnson saw converted slaves not only
living, but dying, in the full assurance of
their high calling. For example, on Easter
Sunday, 1820, he was called to attend the
funeral of a youth by the name of George
Paull, and spoke from Hebrews ix. 27 : " It
is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment." Concerning the dead, he
sent home a tribute whose main outline fea-
tures we here preserve.
Five years previous to his death he had
been taken from the hold of a slave-ship a mere
lad. In 1817 he came begging to be taken
into the school, and was admitted, and within
a year he showed signs of unusual seriousness
and sobriety of mind, and shortly gave such
evidence of the working of God's grace that
he was welcomed into the church and bap-
196 SE^EN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
tized on Christmas day, 1818. From that
time his walk with God was obvious to all
observers. Habitually earnest and fervent
in spirit, he exhibited singular power in
prayer and skill in winning souls. A severe
cold, caught during the rainy season of 1819,
fixed itself upon him and brought on a fatal
attack of lung disease. When he died he
had already about him the distinguishing
marks of a mature and experienced saint.
His counsels were wise, his rebukes tender;
his expressions of faith in God and resigna-
tion to His will most Christ-like ; his joy in
God and his heavenly insight into truth such
as are seen in connection only with the ripest
fruits of godliness ; and all these characteris-
tics seemed incredible in a lad of sixteen.
The slave-boy had in a very peculiar sense
been made into the Lord's freeman, and knew
not only the clean heart, but the right, the
holy, the free spirit. He had thus early learned
both the joy of G-od's salvation and the secret
of converting sinners unto God.*
Toward the close of the year 1820 the anni-
* PS. u. 12, is.
THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES 197
versary of the Sierra Leone Church Mission-
ary Society was observed. Twenty-one mis-
sionaries in all sat down at the same board, the
largest number that had ever dined together
in the western African mission field. Out of
the whole income of the society Mr. Johnson's
humble church had that year contributed
nearly one half, considerably over fifty pounds
sterling.
Thus, from a multitude of independent
sources came one consenting testimony to
the work of God's grace at Regent's Town.
CHAPTER X
AT THE DESIEED HAVEN
To everything earthly there cometh the
end, but to the true saint and servant of God
that end is but the beginning of something
nobler, better, purer, and more satisfying.
Life here ends, that life elsewhere may begin ;
or rather let us say of the disciple's life that at
death it is left free to find its fullest exercise,
development, and enjoyment.
In no one thing, perhaps, does our current
unbelief more reveal itself than in our ceme-
teries, where over the graves of our sainted
dead we rear monuments with essentially
heathen emblems and symbols. What place
have inverted torches, closed urns, broken
columns, fading flowers, in resting-places of
saints! If to be absent from the body is to
198
AT THE DESIRED HAYEN 199
be present with the Lord, these symbols of
disaster, defeat, disappointment, destruction,
are wholly unfit to express our faith and
hope. Our blessed Lord taught the skeptical
Sadducees that God is not the God of the
dead, but of the living, and that those whom
we call dead all live unto Him. And the
Spirit speaketh expressly of the blessedness
of the dead who die in the Lord, that, though
they rest from their labors, vexatious toils,
burdensome exertions, their works their
truest activities accompany them into the
higher sphere ; and that they are before the
throne of God and serve Him day and night
in His temple. And the last glimpse we get
of them in the Apocalypse, where the door is
opened in heaven, is that of a sevenfold per-
fection, where there is :
1. " No more curse " perfect sinlessness ;
2. "The throne of God and of the Lamb"
perfect government ;
3. "And His servants shall serve Him"
perfect service ;
4. "And they shall see His face "perfect
communion;
200 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
5. "And His name shall be in their fore-
heads " perfect resemblance ;
6. " No night there " perfect day ;
7. " And they shall reign for ever and ever "
perfect glory.
Johnson's earthly work was now almost
done. In seven years he had effected results
which would ordinarily be regarded as an
abundant reward, if crowning the labor of a
full lifetime. But all this extensity and inten-
sity of holy toils had told upon his physical
frame and spirits. Though not yet forty years
old, his zeal had been self -consuming, and his
health was steadily and rapidly declining.
At this time Mrs. Johnson was so much better
that hope was entertained of her being able
soon to return to Africa ; but the last attack
of ophthalmia had so seriously impaired the
sight of her husband's left eye, and sympa-
thetically of the right eye also, as to threaten
him with blindness ; and he had been so fre-
quently scorched in the furnace of African
fever that his whole constitution was under-
mined. In February, 1823, he made his last
report to the secretaries of the Church Mis-
AT THE DESIRED HAYEN 201
sionary Society, and through it we may get
our last survey of the work before he left it
forever.
There were then ten different stations in
Sierra Leone, with an aggregate of 603 com-
municants, 410 of whom were at Kegent's
Town; and of the total number of scholars
(3168) 933 were under his care. In this letter
he refers to the qualifications of missionaries
and schoolmasters needed at Sierra Leone,
recommending that they be acquainted not
only with the gospel, but with husbandry
and mechanics, arithmetic, geography, and
land-surveying, and that, withal, they should
know how to rule well their own houses. This
shows the sagacity of this missionary states-
man, who, with all his humble estimate of his
own capacity, had set before him this aim:
to rear on African soil a Metlakahtla a model
state out of the refuse of humanity that he
found at Hogbrook.
At this time he was ministering to the lar-
gest congregation he had ever seen gathered
in Africa, and the church building, with all
its repeated enlargements, was far too small.
202 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
Communicants were sometimes obliged to re-
main outside, especially when for any reason
converts from other stations met with those
at Regent's Town ; and yet the edifice would
accommodate two thousand, and he was per-
plexed how to provide for any more.
The schools were improving, and over
seven hundred had been taught to read. The
converts, poor as they were, were systematic,
habitual, self-denying givers, and a single
offering, taken at the meeting of the Re-
gent's Town Branch Missionary Association,
amounted to over ten pounds (fifty dollars.)
These are a few only of the indications of
the abundant prosperity of the work of God
at this stage of its history. It seemed never-
theless so imperative, on the whole, that John-
son should at least rest for a season, that the
secretaries agreed to his return to England,
and toward the end of April he embarked.
When he set sail for England, the superin-
tendence "of Regent's Town devolved upon
Mr. Norman.
His journal makes mention of one Sarah
Bickersteth, the first of her nation who had
AT THE DESIRED HAYEN 203
tasted that the Lord is gracious. She was
a native of the Kroo country, and some five
years previously, while yet a little girl, had
been brought to the colony. She was now well
grown, and, being a thoroughly new creature,
was very sad over the superstitions of her
country people, and very desirous to serve
her newly found Saviour in missionary labors.
This young woman was Johnson's compan-
ion on the voyage, and to her care was com-
mitted also an infant daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. During.
It was but the third day of the voyage
when the seeds of the fatal disease which
Johnson must have carried on board with
him began to manifest their fruits. He was
prostrated by a fever, which so increased in
intensity 'and violence that two days later he
was too weak even to turn in bed, and his
general symptoms were such that, anticipat-
ing the end as near at hand, he said to his
weeping attendant, " I think I cannot live."
On Saturday, the 3d of May, he expressed a
deep desire to see his wife once 'more, and
sought to calm the fears of Sarah Bickersteth,
204 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
who could not calmly contemplate his ap-
proaching departure, and he composedly di-
rected her how to proceed on her arrival at
London. At his request she then read to
him the same Twenty-third Psalm which to
so many saints in the valley of the shadow of
death has been God's staff and stay ; and then
adding, " I am dying ; pray for me," he passed
into the haven where he desired to be. Thus,
with a strange, poetic propriety, this earliest
convert of her people was permitted to soothe
by her simple, sacred ministries the last hours
of this pioneer missionary in Sierra Leone.
Just after embarkation the tender shepherd
had addressed his last letter to his little flock,
exhorting them to continue in the grace of
God. And his last intelligent and intelligible
words on earth were, "I cannot live; God
calls me, and this night I shall be with Him."
The tidings of his death reached the Church
Missionary House in July following, and was
the saddest intelligence which up to that time
had ever reached that missionary center. The
accounts of the wonderful work which for
years had given singular occasion for joy were
AT THE DESIRED HAVEN 205
now followed by one awful fact of bereave-
ment, that created a sorrow correspondingly
deep. When it was learned that this apostolic
missionary had departed on Sunday, May
4th, about one week after sailing, it was im-
mediately felt that the records of his brief
career in Africa must not be left to oblivion ;
a story of missions so instructive, so interest-
ing, so absorbing, so profitable, must be made
accessible to a large circle of readers ; and so
steps were taken to prepare a memoir of his
life and labors, which was published in 1852.
A letter was at once sent by the secretaries
at London to the native teachers at Regent's
Town, breathing a most affectionate and
apostolic spirit; reminding them that the
hand of God was to be seen in their affliction,
and that in removing their beloved human
instructor He was teaching them to trust Him
the more, humbling and proving them as He
had done with Israel of old ; and the hope was
expressed that the death of their missionary
pastor might be the means of turning to God
many whom his preaching and lif e had failed
to convert.
206 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
The tidings of this great bereavement found
their way back to Sierra Leone in the early
part of September. Of course the informa-
tion spread there with telegraphic swiftness,
for both grief and joy have their own quick
signals for communication. In a few mo-
ments all Regent's Town was ablaze with
excitement, and the mission house was at
once crowded with weeping inquirers. Mr.
Norman found it very difficult to assuage or
even relieve their excessive grief, and could
only beseech them to testify their gratitude
to God for sparing so long to them their be-
loved teacher, by bearing with meekness and
patience the trial of their faith, and by bring-
ing forth more abundantly in their lives the
fruits of the gospel. Advantage was taken of
the softening influence of grief to exhort them
to remember the words that he had spoken
unto them while he was yet with them, and
to attend faithfully to the instructions with
which these seven years had been so laden.
In the evening a more formal service was
held in the crowded church, when the Scrip-
ture lesson for the day proved singularly
AT THE DESIRED HAVEN 207
appropriate : John viii. 12-19. Mr. Norman
dwelt particularly on the twelfth verse: "I
am the light of the world : he that f olloweth
Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life ; w and one of the favorite
hymns of the departed pastor and teacher
closed the impressive service.
Knowing the strength of African emotions,
Mr. Norman was both surprised and gratified
at the admirably controlled behavior of this
bereaved community. Their grief was deep
and unmistakable, yet subdued and quiet,
like a deep-flowing river ; and when the ser-
vice concluded, all moved out in absolute
silence, restraining not only words, but even
sobs.
To supply the place of the man whom God
had translated to a higher sphere was no easy
matter. The faith of the committee having
the mission in charge was tried by severe
and repeated disappointments. Mr. and Mrs.
Norman were 'obliged to return to England in
January, 1824. Eleven months passed before
any resident missionary was sent to Regent's
Town ; and when the Eev. H. Brooks landed,
208 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
he found that for want of any responsible and
capable leader the public works had been
stopped, the population had diminished to
thirteen hundred, and there were sad signs of
the need of a man of capacity and sagacity to
take charge of this newly gathered church.
But he also found that, notwithstanding two
years of such lack of proper spiritual guidance
and general superintendence, a better dressed
or better behaved congregation no village even
in England could show.
The death of Mr. Brooks a few weeks later
again left Begent's Town without a minister.
And for upward of twelve years this mission
suffered from a strange succession of disap-
pointments and calamities. As our purpose
has been mainly to trace the history of the
seven years of Johnson's labors, it is not
needful to carry this narrative further into
the subsequent years. But one incontro-
vertible fact stands out as bold and un-
mistakable as a mountain-peak against the
sky. From wild, naked, wretched slaves a
church and congregation had been gathered
with a rapidity so astonishing, with a success
AT THE DESIRED HAVEti 209
so incredible, with, a transformation so inde-
scribable, that it could be traced only to the
God that worketh wonders; and the com-
panion fact that, after a lapse of more than
twenty years of seeming disasters and dis-
couragements, this congregation still re-
mained in existence and had not relapsed
into heathenism, but maintained its separa-
tion as a godly community, is a sufficient
proof of the reality and solidity of the work
which had been thus accomplished.
In putting the concluding paragraphs to
this story of seven years of labor, we cannot
forbear to observe both the coincidences and
the contrasts that history presents. God raises
up men to do His bidding, and provides for
a true apostolic succession of witnesses, war-
riors, workers. At the same time in different
quarters of the earth men appear, whose
words shake the world, and whose lives make
an ineradicable impress on the race. No
human forethought could have provided for
the simultaneous or coetaneous appearance
of these men in history ; it can be explained
by nothing short of a divine Providence. And
14
210 SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
the remarkable adaptation of these different
men to their spheres is a confirmatory proof
that a divine hand molded these various
vessels upon His potter's wheel for the exact
service, in His great house, to which they were
ordained.
Quite as impressive as these coincidences are
the contrasts of history. Up to a certain point
Luther and Loyola bear the most surprising
resemblance ; beyond that point it is only life-
long contrast, and a contrast of the utmost
significance. Let this seven years of William
Johnson at Sierra Leone be compared with the
seven years of Napoleon Bonaparte between
the capture of Madrid in December, 1808, and
the battle of Waterloo in June, 1815. Just
as Napoleon's great defeat made him a captive
and exile at St. Helena, Johnson's career was
about beginning in Africa. Let any candid
student of history carefully set side by side
the campaigns of the great Corsican and the
humble evangelism of the lowly Moravian,
and say which will best bear the searching
eye of God, or even the fixed gaze of wise
and good men. In one case a blaze of human
AT THE DESIRED HAVEN 211
glory, going out in disgrace and dishonor ; in
the other an unpretending career of service,
unobserved by men, but accounted of God
worthy to be accompanied by signs and seals
of divine power. The man who boasted that
he could "make circumstances" entered in
1812 on his Russian campaign, and actually
concentrated between the Vistula and the
Niemen an army of half a million. He cap-
tures Wilna, ravages Lithuania, drives before
him the Russian generals, and marches di-
rectly into the snares of famine and frost.
God is not pn the side of his heavy battalions ;
in Lithuania alone one hundred thousand of
his soldiers drop out of his ranks. He finds
Smolensk evacuated by the enemy, but oc-
cupied by flames. At Borodino, after bloody
battle, he holds the field, but nothing else. A
little later he enters Moscow, but five weeks
after retreats with an army reduced by nearly
four fifths of its original number. He returns
through the districts he had wasted in his
advance, and leaves Smolensk with only
forty thousand fighting men, and crosses the
Beresina with only twenty-five thousand, the
212 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
spell of his terrible name forever broken, and
nothing but disaster before him.
William Johnson, at the time when Napo-
leon breathed his last at St. Helena, in 1821,
had been for only five years at work in Re-
gent's Town. Here is a man presenting, at
every point, a most marked contrast to the
great Corsican, a man of no wealth, acquisi-
tions, endowments, social standing, or educa-
tion, without one element of human greatness,
as men reckon greatness; out of a London
workshop ; having never been in college and
without eloquence or learning; yet he is used
of God to give organized form to a chaotic mass
of human refuse, to civilize, humanize, and
Christianize men and women who are little
above the wild hogs that infested the district.
He wins them; he weans them from their
brutal, bestial vices ; he builds out of them
a Christian state ; a well-ordered community
grows up, with its streets and gardens, church
and schools, homes and farms, a model of
thrift, order, neatness, and industry. We find
him preaching the simple news of salvation,
and soon gathering fifteen hundred to two
AT THE DESIRED HAYEN 213
thousand hearers from among the slaves of the
colony, educating one thousand in schools, and
admitting four hundred to sealing ordinances.
Here is found within two years a flourishing
church, with crowds of sinners saved by grace
and seeking to save others, and denying them-
selves to send the gospel to the darker parts of
the continent. And when he dies, seven years
after landing, and is buried at sea, every
honest and honorable craft, and even the
callings which demand culture and education,
are represented at Regent's Town. Most
wonderful of all, while the brilliant star which
rose over Europe and went down in igno-
minious night deserves, for the incarnation of
selfishness, to be known as "Wormwood," this
man's whole course is one grand exhibition of
the one unconscious grace, humility, and of
the one celestial virtue, unselfish love. We
can find not a trace of selfish ambition, ap-
petite, avarice, in his whole labors, even when
his journals and private letters are scrutinized
with a critical eye. He went to Africa, not
to conquer for himself, but to achieve vic-
tories for his Master. And while the church
214 SEYEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE
of Christ shall read the story of the miracles
of missions, loving eyes will linger in wonder
and amazement over the apostolic history of
William Johnson and his Seven Years in
Sierra Leone.*
* Appendix VII.
APPENDICES
As the original " Memoir of W. A. B. Johnson,"
published in 1852 in London and in 1853 in New
York, is now so difficult to obtain, it seems essential
to the completeness of this volume that it should
include and preserve at least some of the most im-
portant and striking portions of the contents of
the former narrative. Hence there will here be
found seven somewhat copious extracts from the
pages of that fuller and more minute account, now
no longer within reach of most readers. Some of
these excerpts are in themselves invaluable both as
testimonies to the work and as revelations of God's
gracious power.
APPENDIX I
WE extract this from Johnson's journal :
" In the evening a young man came to me and
said : l Massa, them words you talk last night strike
me too much. When you preach, you read the
fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the forty-fourth
Isaiah, and explain them. You show how our
country -people stand. Me say, " Ah, who tell massa
all this? He never been in my country." You
215
216 APPENDICES
say, " Do not your country-people live in that fash-
ion?" I say, "Yes, that true; God knows all
things. He put them things in the Bible." Massa,
I so sure that the Bible God's Word, for man can-
not put all things there, because he no see it. That
time I live in my country, I live with a man that
make gree-gree. He take me into the bush and
teach me to make gree-gree too. He show me one
tree. He say, "That gree-gree tree." He take
country ax and cut some of that tree. He make a
god, and he take the leaves and that what was left,
and give me to carry home. When we came home
he make a fire, and all the people come and sit
round the fire. Then they cook and eat. When
they done eat, the man take the leaves of the gree-
gree tree and burn them in the fire, and then all the
people stand round the fire and clap their hands
and cry, " Aha, aha ! " Massa, when you read that
verse, I can't tell you what I feel. You then begin
to talk about the text (twentieth verse), "He feed-
eth on ashes ; " and I was struck again, for when
they done cry, " Aha," they take the ashes and make
medicine ; they give it to people when they be sick.
You been see some gree-gree which looks like dirt j
that is the same ashes they carry that our poor
countrymen feed on ashes. For true the Bible
God's Word. Again you talk about the twenty-first
verse, and tell us to remember this, and look back
and see how God pull us like brand out of the fire.
Massa, I thank God for the Word I hear last night ;
it make my heart sorry for my country-people, but
it make my heart glad when I see what God done
for me. But me so wicked. God love me so much,
and still my heart so cold. Massa, one thing trouble
me too much: sometimes you talk about whore-
mongers and adulterers. I must say I not done
that sin yet, but I am so 'fraid by and by I shall
APPENDICES 217
do that sin. Me done that sin plenty times with
my heart. I hope the Lord Jesus will have mercy
upon me and keep me. Another thing trouble me ;
I don't know if you like to hear it, but I will tell
you. My heart trouble me too much about my
country-people me so much want to be a teacher
to them. I wanted to tell you before, but me so
ashamed; but when you preach last night about
our country-people, I think I must tell you/ "
APPENDIX II
OP the letters received by Mr. Johnson from
some of the converted negroes in Sierra Leone
during his stay in England, it seems proper here to
give one or two. The following are selected from
many :
" REGENT'S TOWN, May 26, 1819.
"My DEAR FATHER IN CHRIST JESUS: I have
written a few lines to you. I hope you are well in
the Lord, and your wife. I hope you will remember
me to my brethren and sisters, though I do not
know them ; but I trust one day or other we shall
meet on the right hand of our Lord Jesus Christ.
"When I think about the office to which our
Lord has appointed me, I fear.*
"When I read the Bible I learn that God said,
'Fear thou not; for I am with thee ; ; and, <If ye
have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say
unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place ;
and it shall remove : and nothing shall be impos-
sible unto you/ And when I read in New Testa-
* The writer was a native assistant in one of the schools.
218 APPENDICES
ment, I find Jesus said, ' He that believeth on Me
hath everlasting life.' 1 1 am the bread of life.' This
is my hope. But I fear again, because the Lord
said, ( Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly,
and will fight against thee with the sword of My
mouth.' This is my trouble.
" Remember me to all my brethren and sisters ;
let them pray for me, that the Lord may give me
faith to believe in Him. I do not fear what man
can do to me, for the Lord is my shield and my
hope.
"Pray for me! pray for me! for I stand in
need. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you and all His children. Amen."
Another writes :
"I take this opportunity of writing these few
lines unto you, my dear brother, and I hope God
may preserve and keep you when you pass through
the mighty deep ; and, by the will of God, I hope
we may see one another again. I remember you
day by day, and I ask you how you feel in your
heart, my dear brother. I hope you may be well
in the Lord Jesus Christ you and Mrs. Johnson ;
and I pray unto God that He may keep you till
you come to Africa again, that we may see one
another.
"I thank almighty God for his loving-kindness
to me. I know the Lord is my Saviour and my
God. I pray for all the good people who are in
England, and the secretary. I hope you may be
well in Jesus, and that you may send more mission-
aries to Africa to preach the gospel to our poor
countrymen. My master,' please to send me one
hymn-book. My wife ask you, how you do, Mrs.
Johnson ? "
The writer of one of these letters gives the fol-
APPENDICES 219
lowing affecting account of the state of the colony
during the few months preceding. The feelings
of the Christian natives under their bereavements
afford a fair indication of the value of the mission.
"I stayed at Charlotte Town when Mr. Taylor
was sick, and I speak to the people the Word of
God. One time we meet together for missionary
prayer-meeting. Oh, that time many white people
sick, and many of them die !
" And that time we lose one of our sisters, Mary
Moddy; she was brought to bed, and the child
died, and herself caught cold. And I went to see
her, and I asked her, 'How you do?' She said,
'I fear too much.' I asked her, 'What you fear
for?' And she said, 'I done sin.' And I said,
'Pray to the Lord Jesus Christ; He only can do
you good.' And I prayed with her, and the next
day I went again, and I say unto her, 'How do
you feel in your heart?' And she said, 'Oh, my
heart too wicked ! ' And I said, ' Do you pray to
Jesus Christ?' She said, 'Yes; to whom should I
pray, if I not pray to the Lord Jesus Christ ? ' And
I talked with her a good while, and then I prayed
with her and went away. The next day I went
again, and she could hardly speak. I prayed with
her, and stop with her, and by and by she died.
" That time Mr. Cates sick, and Mr. Morgan sick,
and poor Mr. Cates die. I think the journey to the
Bassa country which he take, that too much for him,
the land so long to walk and the sun so hot. Yet
I cannot prove that ; but I think his work was done
and his time up. When he was sick I went to see
him. ' How do you do, Mr. Cates ? ' And he said,
' I shall certainly die.' And by and by he got down
to Freetown, and he sink very much all his
strength gone ; but he was a man of faith, and he
die on Friday about five o'clock. And on Satur-
220 APPENDICES
day we go to bury him four o'clock, and we look
upon him ; and then we went to Mr. Jesty's house,
and Mr. Jesty tell us, and say, he think God would
leave this place, because white people die fast ; and
when I hear that I fear too much, and I consider
many things in my mind; and I think hypocrites
live among us, and God want to punish us ; but I
trust again in the Lord ; He knows His people, He
never forsake them. Then Mr. Collier get sick,
and Mr. Morgan get sick again; and our friend
said, ' God soon leave this place.' And I said, i I
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ; He knows His
people, [and He never left them, neither forsake
them.' And next Sunday Mr. Collier die about
eleven o'clock. Then Mr. Morgan sick, Mrs. Mor-
gan sick, Mr. Bull sick ! Oh, that time all mission-
aries sick ! We went to Freetown Monday, bury
Mr. Collier, and we come home again and keep
service in the church. Oh, that time trouble too
much in my heart! Nobody to teach me, and I
was sorry for my poor country-people. Mr. Cates
died, Mr. Collier died, Mr. Morgan sick ! Oh, what
must I do for my countrymen ? But I trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, He know what to do; and I
went to pray, and I say, * O Lord, take not all the
teachers away from us.' "
APPENDIX in
MR. THOMAS MORGAN TO THE SECRETARY
"... I HAD in England read, heard, and thought
much on the African character, or rather given in
to some prejudices against the mental endowments
APPENDICES 221
of the negroes, and leaning rather still to the side
of uncharitableness. On my arrival I resolved to
study, as much as possible, a particular acquain-
tance with their private thoughts ; and I now find,
from summing up the various occurrences which I
have myself witnessed, you have reason to adore
God for suffering you to open a door through
which the light of the Sun of righteousness is now
spreading its influence over the whole country of
Ethiopia.
"No blame can attach itself to any missionary
or superintendent for not becoming acquainted
with every occurrence which happens among the
negroes entrusted to their care. Their labors, were
they to do nothing more than absolute duty, and
what the world, indifferent to the people's eternal
interests, would expect, are truly great, difficult,
and arduous ; and if, with your departed servant,*
I visited the members of each family separately, it
was to gratify my own inclination, and to try the
ground of those faults so often assigned to profess-
ing Christian negroes. Faults and crimes were
found, and many were great ; but none surpassed,
nor did they equal, the state of the towns of the
same size, and which for centuries have heard and
read the gospel, in England. This is a proof that
African towns (I speak especially of Regent's Town)
are superior to the towns of England in moral and
religious conduct; and if we take into view the
short period since civilization began here, we may
say it is a light to the people of Britain. They
who in Africa have sat in darkness have seen a
great light, and it hath shined into their hearts.
" I have mentioned in former letters the ultimate
success which attended my exertions in Freetown
schools. I have seen there Dr. Bell's remark veri-
* Mr. Gates.
222 APPENDICES
fied. A child of any ability may with facility pro-
ceed from reading the alphabet to the reading of
the Bible in four months. This leads me to offer
a remark on the ability of the negroes. If I can
recollect my own at an early period of life, theirs
is as far superior as one child need wish to be to
another. A strong barrier this for those to con-
quer who think them only fit to labor for the grati-
fication of their owners. I wish every heart which
undervalues the character of these poor heathen
could have visited them with me, have seen their
labors of love and imitated their zeal for religion.
" Soon after my arrival at Regent's Town, Mrs.
Morgan and myself were both seized with the fever,
in which we were tenderly and unceasingly watched
by the children around us. As I often suffered
much in my head, and, I believe, frequently mani-
fested it by contortion of countenance, a boy, who
had attached himself to me from his first entering
the colony, and whom I kept constantly about me,
sat for several hours in the night holding my head
and bathing it with vinegar, and, when I dropped
asleep, covering it from cold or wiping away the
drops of perspiration. No affection, I think, in a
Christian land would surpass this.
" One morning in the month of June, and dur-
ing Mrs. Morgan's indisposition, Brother Gates and
myself being engaged, as was our custom at break-
fast, in reading Mil tier's l Church History/ we were
alarmed by feeble cries of 'Massa, massa, fire live
here ! ' I went immediately to the adjoining room,
and found the flames issuing through the crevices
of the floor. Brother Cates followed, and with his
usual self-possession and calmness said, 'We will
remove this child ' (who was lying'sick in the room)
1 and Mrs. Morgan ; and God will assist us to get
the fire under. 7 This we accordingly did, and by
APPENDICES 223
the application of wet blankets soon confined and
at last extinguished the fire.
"We were much struck with the integrity of the
people. In their anxiety to save as much as pos-
sible, almost every article was removed. In the
confusion many things were scattered about the
yard; not one article, however, even the most
trifling, was lost, but all were brought again to the
house and fixed in their proper places. A boy who
had got possession of the box which contained the
money for paying the mechanics and laborers was
found in the garden, parading with the box under
his arm, and guarding it, though unnecessarily,
with a drawn cutlass in his hand.
" I was struck, during a fire which broke out in
our house, with the sudden disappearance of the
women, who at the commencement almost filled the
house. On inquiry I found that they had retired
to the church to offer up their prayers unto God.
What but a divine influence could draw them to
God in this trial, to ask His blessing on the exer-
tions of those employed 1
11 While we were replacing the books which had
been scattered on this occasion, two of the girls
came to us. I asked what was wanted. l Nothing,
massa/ was the reply ; l but we come tell you God
hear every time somebody go talk Him. 7 'How,
my child/ said I, l do you know that God hears His
people when they pray 1 7 She said, l Massa, when
fire come this morning I sabby your house no burn
too much. Every morning I hear you and Mr.
Gates, and you pray God keep this house and all
them girls and boys what live here ; and when fire
come I say to Sarah, " Ah ! God plenty good ; He
heard what massa say to Him this morning ; He no
let this house burn too much."' What a reproof
did I feel this ! I knew how often my heart was
224 APPENDICES
indifferent while I asked for these mercies ; and I
trust it made me more anxious to urge the duty
of family prayer on others more earnestly. Soon
after the same girls mentioned their desire for one
of the elder girls to pray with the school-children
before they went to bed and when they rose in the
morning.
" Scarcely an event occurs but what they notice
as springing from the overruling providence of
God. Taught of God, they mark the painful events
of His providence, as children would mark the deal-
ings of a father. After the death of Mr. Gates I
have frequently heard their expressions of sorrow
for sin, and acknowledgments of God's justice in
punishing them. They have used such language
as this: 'We have done something very bad God
is very angry; He is removing all our teachers;
by and by nobody will be left to tell us good. We
must pray, dear brothers and sisters ; we must look
into our own hearts ; some bad live there/ Similar
occurrences in England would have passed, perhaps,
unheeded by the greater part of professing Chris-
tians.
" How many candlesticks spreading around them
the light of truth, and reflecting the rays of Him
who fed their luster by His own incomprehensible
glory, are removed from the congregation where
Jesus had planted them, without giving rise to the
thought, l God is angry with us for sin ' ! What
has not our God permitted your society to do al-
ready ? What a call to go forward and increase in
the work !
"No day passed, when I was capable of taking
exercise, without my entering some of the huts
around us. Visiting unexpectedly, as I often did,
the families of all classes of the communicants, I
could not be deceived as to their actual condition.
APPENDICES 225
" I have found many commendably employed in
agriculture. I believe the society is apt to conceive
that a cultivated farm or garden in Africa must re-
semble the same thing in England, which it does
not. I have often myself drawn too strong a line
of comparison between the two. Agriculture is,
among many, especially those on whose hearts we
trust the dew of God's grace is continually de-
scending, flourishing.
"Many of the gardens are kept in very neat
order, though most of the owners have but little
leisure to devote to this employment. I have fre-
quently known the whole of the time allowed for
dinner spent by both husband and wife in fencing,
digging, or planting the little spot of ground at-
tached to each dwelling.
" Decency and cleanliness manifest the diligence
of those who live under the power of religion. Their
time is, indeed, so well occupied that in cases where
they can read they may be frequently seen at leisure
moments with some friends around them searching
the Word of life ; and these little respites from labor
are often made a blessing to the whole town, as the
sick, the careless, the backsliding, and the profane
are not seldom visited, instructed, warned, com-
forted, and relieved at these seasons by their zeal-
ous brethren.
" The Christian negroes show a strong attachment
to the simplest views of religion. I began some
explanation as plain as possible, in successive even-
ings, of the Lord's Prayer. It pleased God gra-
ciously to bless these words to the people. They
made the most practical use of them. A display of
an unholy temper would receive a reproof : l If God
your Father, that be no like His child. 7 Some said
that they needed indeed such a Father ; others, such
daily bread. Some thought God could not be their
15
226 APPENDICES
Father, because they did not feel sufficient desires
that His kingdom should come among their coun-
try-people j and others felt that they were rebellious
children for not doing His will on earth more as it
was done in heaven. Some wept to think how He
delivered them from temptation and evil ; and all,
I believe, burned with love to ascribe to him the
kingdom of His love, the power of His Spirit, and
the glory of their salvation.
" I was obliged, by the pressing requests of the
people, to repeat these explanations four or five
times, and resolved in future to know nothing and
to speak of nothing among the negroes but the plain-
est words of the Redeemer. How much better cal-
culated His language is than any other to reach the
heart may be judged of by this instance out of many.
" How much may be gained by the simplicity, or
rather sublimity, of the gospel, I never knew before.
The work in which the missionary engages must
be the work of Jesus, for He suits and opens every
capacity to receive heavenly manna.
" But there was another reason which tended to
render this subject useful. I had it frequently read
before I spoke on it, which proves how rapidly,
under God's blessing, the knowledge of the gospel
must increase if the soil wherein the grain is cast
were more cultivated and manured by acquaintance
with the Bible. Difficulties, I know, are great, and
the man who goes as a schoolmaster to labor among
the heathen must expect many trials on earth.
However the comprehension of the minds of the
Africans may be ridiculed, I have found them,
though needing cultivation, far from barren. The
finer feelings of the soul in the attachment of these
people to their instructors, families, and friends are
equal to the sons and daughters of the princes of
Europe.
APPENDICES 227
" How eminently the gospel shines in the conduct
of the people, and how strikingly its influence is
manifested, no one can possibly conjecture but
those who have been eye-witnesses. I have fre-
quently experienced myself, and seen experienced
by different superintendents, the most docile and
tractable dispositions.
" On the disbanding of the West India regiments
sent to the colony for that purpose, a natural degree
of affectionate feeling was excited in the breasts of
the negroes to see them. These regiments had been
several years before formed of liberated negroes,
and many of the people were expecting to find
parents, brothers, and friends among them. The
feelings of glowing hope were strongly delineated
in almost every countenance. When in the evening
intelligence arrived that on the following morning
the troops would be permitted to land, after evening
prayer it became a matter of general conversation.
Some were looking forward with hope, while their
joy cast a cloud over the faces of others, whose
friends had been murdered in different skirmishes
when they themselves were enslaved. In the morn-
ing, at prayer, the church was particularly full, and
a few words were spoken on the danger to which
a Christian was exposed when running into temp-
tation, and some desire intimated that none would
visit Freetown that day. I gave this intimation
against my own feelings ; for I thought their wishes
laudable, though I feared the consequences which
might arise from gratifying them. In the course
of an hour after, an old and faithful Christian came
to tell me that his brother was come among the
soldiers. 'Well/ said I, 'and do you wish to see
him ? ' l Yes, massa, I want to look him, but I no
want to go to-day/ 'Well/ I replied, 'I want to
send to Freetown ; if you can find another commu-
228 APPENDICES^
nicant who wishes to go and see the soldiers, I will
send you down/ After a search of near two hours
he returned with: 'Well, massa, me no find one
that want to go; all them people what belong to
church think 'tis no good for them to run where
God say temptation live.' Two days elapsed before
this poor fellow, whose heart was full of affection
to his brother, went to Freetown to see him. I
singled him out as a fit object of reward ; and hav-
ing mentioned the subject to the governor, that
father of the liberated negroes, anticipating my
request, promised, and kept his promise, that the
brothers should have the privilege of living together.
" I know of many similar instances, but this one
struck me much. I thought it an example worthy
of imitation, and was fully convinced that while I
had known the gospel longer I had obeyed it less.
" You must think that, more than according to
tlie labors of the society, God has blessed. The
church has much reason to take up David's ex-
clamation, and say, l Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits/ There are, as must be
expected, many errors in large towns, but the good
which has been done in Africa neither we nor the
generations to come will be able to fathom. Per-
haps never one of your servants ever noticed the
field of your labors with more impartial views than
did my dear Brother Gates and myself j and it was
not till I had left that field that I suffered my mind
to form a sentiment on the subject."
APPENDIX IV
OF a Sunday spent at Regent's Town, Mr. Jesty,
after speaking of an early meeting in the church,
at six o'clock in the morning, thus writes :
APPENDICES 229
" At ten o'clock I saw a sight which at once as-
tonished and delighted me. The bell at the church
rung for divine service, on which Mr. Johnson's
well-regulated schools of boys and girls walked, two
and two, to the church the girls extremely clean,
and dressed entirely in white, in striking contrast
with which were their black arms and faces; the
boys, equally clean, were dressed in white trousers
and scarlet jackets. The clothing of both boys and
girls is supplied by government.
" The eagerness of the inhabitants to hear the
Word will appear from their early attendance on
the means of grace. It is true, there is a bell in the
steeple of the church, but it is of little use at Re-
gent's Town, for the church is generally filled half
an hour before the bell tolls. The greatest atten-
tion is paid during the service. Indeed, I witnessed
a Christian congregation in a heathen land a
people 'fearing God and working righteousness/
The tear of godly sorrow rolled down many a
colored cheek, and showed the contrition of a heart
that felt its own vileness.
"At three o'clock in the afternoon there was
again a very full attendance, so that scarce an in-
dividual was to be seen throughout the town, so
eager are they to hear the Word, and to feed on
that 'living bread that came down from heaven/
The service was over about half -past four o'clock.
"At six we met again ; and although many had
to come from a considerable distance, and up a
tremendous hill, I did not perceive any decrease of
number, or any weariness in their frequent atten-
dance on the means of grace.
"We left the church about eight o'clock, and re-
turned to Mr. Johnson's house, which is close by
the church. While at supper I heard singing, and
on walking into the piazza found that about twenty
of the school-girls were assembled under it. One
230 APPENDICES
of the elder girls gave out the hymn in an impres-
sive manner, while a younger girl held a lamp.
After we had supped, the girls, in a very respectful
and humble way, sent up to Mr. Johnson to know
if he would allow them to come upstairs into his
sitting-room, to sing a parting hymn. On their
entering the room Mr. Johnson gave out a hymn,
and in a few minutes I think we had at least one
hundred and twenty boys and girls in the room and
piazza. They sang three hymns ; and after a few
suitable words from Mr. Johnson they departed,
pleased with the favor granted them.
"Thus was the last Sabbath spent in Regent's
Town. Never did I pass such a day in my dear
native country. Never did I witness such a con-
gregation in a professing Christian land, nor ever
beheld such apparent sincerity and brotherly love."
Of the monthly meeting, held on the following
evening, Mr. Jesty thus writes :
" Mr. Johnson and myself entered the names of
subscribers and received their mites ; and I cannot
but notice that, in one minute after Mr. Johnson
and myself were ready to receive the money and
names, we were surrounded by several hundreds of
humble friends to missionary exertions, crying, as
it were with one voice, ( Massa, take my money ! '
t Massa, massa, take mine ! ' ' Eight coppers one
moon.' It was indeed a pleasing sight to behold a
people once led captive at the will of Satan, de-
voted to gross superstition and folly, embracing
their gree-grees and trusting in them for defense,
and once expending all the money that they could
spare in the purchase of these false gods now con-
quered by the love and power of Him that taketh
away 'the sin of the world, and with cheerful and
renewed hearts giving of their little substance to
aid those means which, by the blessing of God, will
APPENDICES 231
communicate the privileges of the gospel to their
countrymen also.
" From these few poor and once injured and de-
spised Africans we collected that evening about
2. 7s. O my countrymen, fellow-Christians in
highly favored England, you who have multiplied
and daily renewed comforts and blessings, ( go and
do likewise 7 ! "
Of the manner of closing this day Mr. Jesty says :
" After we left the church the children of the two
schools retired to their school-houses, and the rest
of the congregation to their respective homes.
"But that faith which cometh from above and
worketh by love has taken such possession of the
hearts of this people, that they delight to be con-
tinually l speaking one to another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, and to sing with grace
in their hearts to the Lord.'
" The school-houses are situated behind Mr. John-
son's, on a higher part of the hill. The school-girls
assembled in a row before their school-house, with
three or four lamps dispersed through the line.
Their eldest teacher gave out the hymn, and they
were singing delightfully :
' How beauteous are their feet,
Who stand on Zion's hill ! '
While the girls were singing this hymn the boys
had climbed a little higher up the hill, when one of
their teachers gave out the hymn :
1 Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched ! '
" It was a beautiful moonlight night, so that the
children could be seen from all parts of the town,
while the lofty mountains resounded with the echo
of their voices. I was walking up and down in the
232 APPENDICES
piazza listening to them, and anticipating the time
when all kings shall fall down before the Redeemer
and all nations shall serve Him, when I saw at the
foot of the hill some men and women coming to-
ward the children. The men joined the boys, and
the women joined the girls.
" The boys and girls had now sung several hymns,
and after a few minutes' cessation began again. I
was thinking of our Christian friends in England,
and said to Mr. Johnson, i Could all the friends of
missionary exertions but witness this scene, they
would be more and more zealous for the universal
diffusion of the gospel of a crucified Saviour/ when
I looked around me and saw numbers of the inhabi-
tants, men and women, coming in every direction.
They joined respectively the boys and girls, and
sang for some time, when the boys and girls retired
to their school-houses, and the men and women re-
tired to their homes in peace.
" This is a great work, and it is marvelous in our
eyes; but it is the Lord, and to Him be all the
glory ! "
Mr. Jesty adds :
"We rose next morning between five and six
o'clock, and attended morning prayer at the church.
After the service was over a few more came for-
ward, and begged us to take their coppers to aid
the cause of missions. We collected on this occa-
sion upward of fifteen shillings, which, with the
collection made the evening before, amounted to
more than three pounds. Mr. Johnson has a mis-
sionary meeting and sermon once a month, on
which occasions he generally collects three pounds.
Do not these poor people hold forth a bright ex-
ample to all Christians 1
" I have now given you a faithful and imperfect
picture of the state of Regent's Town. The Lord
APPENDICES 233
has certainly blessed, in a peculiar manner, the
labors of Mr. Johnson. The people love him as
their father, and reverence him as their spiritual
guide. Should a dispute arise among any of them,
they come to him to settle their palaver, and they
abide by his decision. He seems in every respect
suited for these people unwearied in his exertions,
and an excellent example to all his brethren."
Mrs. Jesty thus concludes her letter to her sister :
"The love which these people manifest among
themselves, and toward their minister and all faith-
ful missionaries, their anxiety and the fervency of
their prayers that the gospel may be made known
through all nations these things are worthy the
admiration of all Christians. It may almost be said
of the inhabitants of Regent's Town that they
1 dwell in love/ and that they live a life of prayer
and praise to Him t who loved them, and gave
Himself for them ; j for besides their meetings for
prayer every morning and evening, the hearts of
many of them seem to be full of the love of Christ
the whole day ; and when ' they are merry they sing
psalms ' ; such vocal music resounds from all parts
of the town. A dispute is seldom known among
them. They have every one of them cast off his
gree-gree, and nearly all of them are become wor-
shipers of the blessed Jesus. A few years since
none of the inhabitants of this place had ever heard
the name of Jesus; they went about naked, and
were in every respect like the savage tribes ; but
now oh, what a happy change! they are all de-
cently dressed; and it is the most heart- cheering
sight to see them flock together in crowds to the
house of prayer.
" Mr. Johnson has been made an instrument of
incalculable good to this people. Under his minis-
try one hundred and sixteen persons have become
234 APPENDICES
communicants, and one hundred and ten are can-
didates for baptism and the Lord's Supper j these
will be received as members of the church of Christ
on Easter Sunday. He is very particular in his
examination of the people before they are admitted
to the Lord's table.
" It may indeed be said that l numbers are added
to the church daily ; ; for Mr. Johnson has frequently
five or six in a day coming to his house to talk of
the state of their souls, who appear to be very sin-
cere. During the few days that we have been here,
upward of fifty persons have been to tell Mr. John-
son of their troubles, which they confess in affect-
ing terms : ' My bad heart trouble me, me no sleep
all night ; me no peace, me know me very wicked,
but God good too much ; me t'ank God for what He
done for my soul j me want love Jesus more ; me
want to go to Jesus ; me know nothing else but de
blood of Jesus can wash away my sin.' Such com-
plaints as those from these lost sheep of Israel are
incessantly brought before their worthy pastor,
who with affection directs them to the great Com-
forter, and advises them to embrace that gospel
which is l the power of God unto salvation.'
" O my dear sister, is not this encouraging to all
Christian friends in England to be doubly zealous
and active in their missionary exertions ? Let me
entreat you all to be unwearied in your efforts and
prayers, that all Africa may become as Regent's
Town. This is the fruit of the gospel. Oh, send
forth the gospel and more faithful laborers into the
vineyard of the Lord ! Let me again beg of you,
my dear sister, to t pray and not to faint/ Let the
interests of Christ's kingdom be ever uppermost in
your heart. Here is yet a wide field for labor.
May the happy effect of the gospel be felt by all
benighted Africa, and to God shall the glory be
given forever."
APPENDICES 236
APPENDIX V
MR. SINGLETON thus writes of Regent's Town :
" The population of Regent's Town is about 1350 ;
of this number, 700 are able to provide for them-
selves and families by means of their farms. One
man sold the produce of his little spot last year for
fifty pounds, and the quantity of cassava sold then
was ten thousand bushels.
" A small market is held each day, but the sev-
enth day is the principal one. Five oxen are weekly
consumed, besides pork.
" The people, with a few exceptions, are indus-
trious, as may be seen by the improved houses
which they build for themselves, by their furniture,
all of their own making, and by the neatness and
cleanliness of their habitations. In several houses
are sofas covered with clean print or the country
cloth, tables and forms, or chairs ; and especially I
noticed in each house a corner cupboard with its
appropriate crockery ware. The beds and sleeping-
rooms are remarkably neat and clean. A few of
the inhabitants, more ingenious or richer than the
rest, are building houses of board, with stores below
and piazza in front.
"The superintendent appears to have consider-
able influence with the people, and his advice is
readily followed.
" A woman whose husband absconded about four
years since, and has not been heard of during that
time, asked the superintendent some time after the
man's departure if she might not marry again ; he
informed her that the law of England required a
period of seven years before that was allowed. She
submitted, and to the present has lived alone, main-
taining herself and acting with exemplary propriety.
236 APPENDICES
"As we were standing under the piazza this
morning (sixth day), a young African came to ask
permission to marry. W. Johnson gave good
reasons for withholding his assent, which he had
scarcely done when he was called away ; and I ad-
vised the hesitating youth to acquiesce. He readily
answered : ' My massa good man. He say girl too
young. We wait. I no pass de word of my massa. ;
" Returning from a walk over one or two of the
farms, and coming near the market-place, we were
met by an elderly African, with a basket on his head
covered with a cloth. He stopped, and, placing the
basket on the ground, drew out a glass bottle, which
he held up that the superintendent might see its
contents, and uttered a few words which I could not
understand. The bottle contained palm- wine ; and
the man in his simplicity produced it uncalled for,
to assure the superintendent that it was not rum,
the use of this liquor being prohibited.
"Soon after breakfast Captain Grant came in.
We visited the schools together. The girls behaved
with seriousness, and appeared under good care.
There was an agreeable solidity in their counte-
nances which, I hope, indicated something good
within. The boys were attentive, and the monitors
active, as was the case too at Gloucester and Kissy.
" I visited with satisfaction the school at Freetown
and those at several of the villages in the moun-
tains. At Regent's Town I remained two days, and
left the family and villagers with regret. This is
a favored place, and while there I indulged in a
wish that if the Friends should be induced to com-
mence a settlement on the Gambia, their success
might equal that of the superintendent of Regent's
Town."
APPENDICES 237
APPENDIX VI
MR. BACON published on his return to Philadel-
phia an account of his visit to Africa, containing
the following sketch of Regent's Town :
" March 17, 1821, Saturday. About one o'clock
we arrived at Regent's Town. Mr. and Mrs. John-
son had been at Freetown, where Mr. Johnson was
sick several weeks. On our arrival great numbers
of his people came to shake hands with him, and
inquired affectionately after his health. The ex-
pression of every countenance bore strong testimony
of their ardent love for him, and of the joy which
filled their hearts on his recovery from sickness and
his safe return to his flock.
"At six o'clock in the evening the bell at tle
church rang for divine service. The people were
immediately seen walking from different parts of
the town, the parsonage house being so situated
that there is a fair view of almost the whole settle-
ment ; and it was delightful to observe the eager-
ness which the people manifested to hear the Word
of God. A prayer-meeting was held by the com-
municants after the usual evening prayers, it being
expected that the Lord's Supper would be celebrated
the next day.
"March 18th, Sunday. At six o'clock the bell
rang for morning prayers, when the church was
again filled. How pleasing to behold hundreds of
those who were once wretched inmates of the holds
of slave-ships assembled in the house of God on the
morning of that holy day on which our blessed
Saviour rose from the dead and ascended up to
heaven ! With a hundred copies of the Holy Bible
spread open before their black faces, their eyes
238 APPENDICES
were fixed intently on the words of the lesson which
their godly pastor was reading. Almost all Mr.
Johnson's people who can read the blessed book are
supplied with Bibles from that best of institutions,
the British and Foreign Bible Society. Surely
Christians ought to feel themselves encouraged in
the support of missions when such cheering fruits
present themselves to view !
"At ten o'clock the bell again rang, though the
church was nearly filled before that hour. The
members of the well-regulated schools, which passed
in review before the parsonage in regular succession,
were all clad in clean and decent apparel. When
we arrived at the church there were no vacant seats
to be seen. The greatest attention was paid during
divine service. 'Indeed, I witnessed a Christian
congregation in a heathen land a people " fearing
God and working righteousness." The tear of godly
sorrow rolled down many a colored cheek, and
showed the contrition of a heart that felt its own
vileness.' There were three couples married and
one child baptized. AJ: ter the sermon Mr. Johnson,
with the assistance of Brother Andrus, administered
the communion of the body and blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ to nearly four hundred communicants.
This indeed was ' a feast of fat things ' to my soul.
" At three o'clock the church was again filled, and
the most devout attention was paid to the reading
and hearing of the Word. The whole congregation
seemed eager to catch every word which fell from
the pastor's lips.
"Again, before the ringing of the bell at six
o'clock in the evening, the people were seen from
the distant parts of tide town leaving their homes,
and retracing their steps toward the house of God.
There we again united in praising that God who
hath wrought such wonderful things even among
APPENDICES 239
the mountains of Sierra Leone, where the praises
of Jehovah resound not only from His holy sanc-
tuary, but from the humblest mud- walled cottage
from the tongues of those children of Africa who
have been taken by the avaricious slave-trader,
dragged from parents, separated from brother and
sister, and perhaps from wife or husband, bound in
chains, hurried on board the slave-ship, crowded in
a space not exceeding their length and breadth, nor
even allowed to breathe the vital air. These per-
sons, after being recaptured by order of the British
government, have been put under the charge of a
faithful minister of the gospel, whose labors have
been accompanied by the Holy Spirit. These are
the mighty works of God."
APPENDIX
THE original memoir of Johnson thus impressively
concludes :
"And now we bring our narrative to a close.
The lessons it teaches are many ; but two or three
thoughts more immediately present themselves.
" The first is, the sovereignty and power which
mark certain of the divine operations.
" It was remarked a few years since by an aged
and thoughtful minister : l We do the best we can
to raise up a succession of faithful ministers of the
gospel. We look out for young men of promise-
men whose hearts God seems to have touched ; we
put them under instruction ; we make them theo-
logians and preachers ; and thus whatever is in our
power we do, and in so doing we act rightly ; no
other course is open to us. To a certain degree we
240 APPENDICES
succeed, though we often have to mourn over grie-
vous disappointments. But now and then it pleases
God to take the work into His own hands. He
raises up a man, and makes him a preacher of the
gospel by His own especial teaching, and then we
behold a very different sort of minister from any
that human efforts or human skill can produce.'
"The truth of this remark, which was uttered
long before either of these remarkable men had
been given to the Christian church, has since been
made strikingly evident in the histories of Williams
and of Johnson. No two individuals in modern
times have been so honored of God in the mission-
ary work as were these two men, and none could be
more evidently prepared by Himself for the work.
"It was in the year 1816 a year which will be
ever memorable in the angelic annals that the
mission of these two men was commanded. An
eminent prelate of our church once compared Mr.
Williams's narratives with the Acts of the Apostles,*
and under such sanction we cannot hesitate to say
that, as in A.D. 45 (Acts xiii. 2) so in A.D. 1816, ' the
Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Johnson and Williams
for the work whereunto I have called them/ And
what was that work ? It was one as absolutely be-
yond all human power as was the subjection of the
Roman empire to the sway of Him who was cruci-
fied on Calvary.
"Two regions of the earth were preeminently
reigned over by the Evil One. In Africa, among
the degraded race of Ham, the slave-trade had done
its work in crushing, brutalizing, exterminating,
while their religion was avowedly devil-worship. In
Polynesia some of the most lovely spots on the earth
were becoming depopulated by vice and unnatural
* The late Bishop of Eipon, who called these narratives
the "twenty-ninth chapter of the Acts." A, T, P.
APPENDICES 241
cruelty. Mothers slept calmly on beds beneath
which they had buried many of their own murdered
infants. Over these two regions Satan ruled su-
preme, and his kingdom of hell was almost visibly
established. To overthrow that dominion it pleased
God to send forth two young men not a phalanx
of learned theologians or well-taught divines or
clever and astute philosophers, but two men of no
learning, possessing only a scanty measure of the
most ordinary instruction. There cannot be a
doubt that this was ordered as in the apostle's day :
'After that . . . the world by wisdom knew not
God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. . . . Because the fool-
ishness of God is wiser than men ; and the weakness
of God is stronger than men' (1 Cor. i. 21, 25).
"Had the event proved otherwise, the directors
of the London Missionary Society would have been
deemed by many to have laid themselves open to
censure. John Williams had not arrived at the age
of manhood when he was sent forth, and his previous
instruction had occupied but a few short months.
" As to William Johnson, he had been a mechanic ;
had been placed in the National Society's training-
school for a single twelvemonth, and was sent forth
by the Church Missionary Society to labor in West
Africa as a schoolmaster. It is quite certain that
neither of these societies had an idea, when they
sent forth these young men with far less than the
ordinary preparation, what important instruments,
in the hand of the Holy Ghost, they were then dis-
missing to their labors.
" But, though called to the work at about the same
period and sent forth in the same year, and resem-
bling each other greatly in their previous histories,
there was a wide difference in the two spheres of
labor for which they were destined, and there was
16
242 APPENDICES
a similar difference in the character of their minds.
He who 'knew what was in man/ and who 'fash-
ioneth the clay like a potter/ gave to Polynesia the
conqueror and civilizer, Williams, and to oppressed
Africa the sympathizing consoler and preacher,
Johnson. The same gospel dwelt in the hearts and
on the lips of each, but the outward circumstances
of their respective missions were very different.
Mr. Williams's lot was cast in a land
' Where every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile.'
Luxury, indolence, and luxurious vice were the foes
with which he had to wrestle. What a picture of
the native opulence of those regions is given by the
single fact that the people of one of those islands,
few in number, were able, when really awakened to
their duty, to send home to the parent society in one
year a contribution of the value of eighteen hundred
pounds !
" It is no detraction from the merits of Mr. Wil-
liams to remark that Mr. Johnson, placed in more
painful and difficult circumstances, shines under
these circumstances with a still brighter light. Ease
and luxury, sunny climes and softening atmospheres,
are not those which are most favorable to Christian
heroism. Multitudes of predecessors in the mis-
sionary work had sunk under these temptations, and
had failed in the same undertaking in which Mr.
Williams so remarkably succeeded. The difficulties
which surrounded Mr. Johnson were of a different
class. The climate, it is true, was in each case un-
favorable to vigorous effort j but, while surrounding
circumstances in Polynesia almost resembled those
of Bunyan's l enchanted ground/ the case of a mis-
sionary in western Africa was widely different.
Despondency might cooperate with a relaxing cli-
APPENDICES 243
mate, and so produce a despairing inertness ; but as-
suredly everything around was replete with painful
sights and dread-inspiring alarms. Poverty, degra-
dation, physical and moral wretchedness among the
people, conspired, with frequent sickness and death
among the laborers, to throw the missionary upon
his God as his only refuge and strength, * a very
present help in time of trouble/ And when this re-
sult was produced, the effect was naturally most
salutary. It recalled Cowper's lines :
' For He who knew what human hearts would prove,
How slow to learn the dictates of His love ;
That, hard by nature and of stubborn will,
A life of ease would make them harder still,
In pity to the souls His grace designed
To rescue from the ruins of mankind,
Called for a cloud to darken all their years,
And said, "Go, spend them in the vale of tears." '
" The general effect, then, of these differing cir-
cumstances was, that while both these eminent men
preached the same gospel, and with the same sim-
plicity and faithfulness, the results were modified
by external influences. In Mr. Williams's case we
find large and rapid successes; in Mr. Johnson's,
more limited but perhaps more deeply spiritual con-
versions. We remark the difference not in depre-
ciation of Mr. Williams's labors ; had he been placed
in Mr. Johnson's circumstances he would probably
have been what Mr. Johnson was ; while Mr. John-
son, in Polynesia, would have proved himself an-
other Williams. l But all these worketh that one
and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man
severally as He will' (1 Cor. xii. 11). Nor must
the reader forget, in comparing these two eminently
successful missionaries, that Mr. Williams's course
was prolonged to more than two and twenty years,
while Mr. Johnson's ended in less than seven.
244 APPENDICES
" A second remark which naturally suggests itself
is this : that when God speaks to any man directly,
as He spoke to William Johnson, the speech of that
man to his fellow-sinners will often be found to be
similarly direct and effective.
" Johnson was awakened and called ' out of dark-
ness into marvelous light' without human instru-
mentality. By the Holy Ghost, working with con-
spiring circumstances, his heart was penetrated.
The preacher's part which followed was only to
administer comfort and to point to Christ. And
when so built upon the only sure foundation, and
made desirous of spreading the knowledge of sal-
vation, it is most worthy of remark that he could
scarcely open his mouth without some one being
stricken to the heart. The proofs of the directness
and effective character of his preaching pervade his
whole history. The l live coal from the altar ; evi-
dently had * touched his lips/ and his speech was
' with demonstration of the Spirit and with power/
"One more observation must be made, though
with fear and trembling. In the short but emi-
nently successful career of Mr. Johnson, we see
how practicable it is to unite a burning zeal with a
sound judgment, and how excellently the two com-
bine to form the able minister of the gospel.
" In the present day, prudence and caution and
decorum are more common than fervency and ear-
nest zeal ; and hence it follows that any overflow-
ing of earnestness is almost sure to be checked
and reproved, as 'bordering on enthusiasm.' It
was so in Mr. Johnson's case. His very first step
in his public duty exposed him to such a check;
but a review of his whole course presents him in
the light of one who merely felt and acted in the
spirit of St. Paul. He was willing to be i made all
things to all men, that he might by all means save
APPENDICES 246
some/ He was ' instant in season, out of season,
reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all long-suffer-
ing and doctrine/ But he was ever watchful,
humble, desirous to receive the counsel of his elders,
and prompt in obeying it. He kept an even course
between the urgency of the governor, on the one
hand, desirous of a general admission into the
church, and the apprehensions, on the other, of
'that fearful Tamba, dreading that the church
would be filled with hypocrites. 7 The soundness
of his judgment and the wisdom of his course are
seen in the rapid disappearance of disorder, and the
perpetual increase of his influence over his people.
Not by mere priestly pretensions, but by the legiti-
mate sway of mind over mind and heart over heart,
he won his way, till toward the close of his course
the control exercised by him seemed all that a pastor
could desire. It is not indeed to be doubted that,
as in the apostolic churches, so in Regent's Town,
the enemy was sedulously employed in sowing
tares among the wheat. We have already seen
that within a few weeks after his departure the
temptation of ardent spirits crept in. If we had
pursued the story still later, we might have met
with the sad story of a quarrel, ending with the ap-
pearance of some of the Regent's Town communi-
cants, as criminals, before a magistrate. But the
counterpart of all this had been written before, in
St. Paul's and St. Peter's epistles (2 Cor. xii. 21 j 2
Pet. ii. 18-22). And the best criterion of Mr. John-
son's having followed Paul, as Paul followed his
Master, is that his whole narrative bears the closest
resemblance to the apostle's own experience, as we
find it depicted in his various epistles.
" Such is the work of God, carried on by a few
of His people, for l accomplishing the number of
His elect and hastening His kingdom/ Let us
246 APPENDICES
compare it, for a few moments, with some of the
works of man.
" And the contrast which first and most naturally
presents itself is that of such a mission as Regent's
Town with the missions of Rome.
"All the missions of which Rome boasts have
been enterprises begun and carried on within the
last three centuries. And whatever the Roman
Church might have been in earlier times, we believe
that from the Reformation downward, at least, it
has been apostate, and its works, therefore, the
works of fallen man and not of God. Let us com-
pare those works with a Protestant mission such as
that of Regent's Town.
" We have here the narrative of a plain and simple
mechanic, educated but scantily for a schoolmaster
of poor liberated negroes, but who, in the course of
his labors, speaking of Christ to them, becomes the
means of building up an extensive Christian church.
Very soon we find him assembling fifteen hundred
people together, Sunday by Sunday, admitting four
hundred of them to the Lord's table, and educating
one thousand in schools. The reality of the work
is shown by its endurance. After much adversity
and many discouragements long continued, Re-
gent's Town at this moment rejoices in the Chris-
tian church which was founded by William Johnson.
From that church many redeemed souls have joined
the blessed company in paradise. Now a parallel
to all this may be found in other Christian missions,
such as those of Mr. Williams, already alluded to,
the churches gathered by the Moravians in different
countries, and the churches now multiplying in
Tinnevelly. But is the like to be found in the his-
tory of the papal church ? There are indeed large
records of their successes, and we believe that, at
various periods, the missionaries of Rome in divers
APPENDICES 247
countries have succeeded in "baptizing great numbers.
To baptize myriads of ignorant and unconverted
heathens, however, if this be all, is a mere delusion.
Has there been, among the annals of Romish mis-
sions, a single instance resembling that of Regent's
Town in its reality a single instance, we mean,
of a Christian congregation not only baptized, but
brought into the habits, feelings, and tempers of
the Christian life ? We have met with no such his-
tory, and we doubt if such a one exists.
" But we may pass from the counterfeit Christian-
ity of apostate Rome to the other religions of
mankind. Do we find among them anything re-
sembling a genuine Christian mission, either in its
self-sacrifice or in its wondrous results ?
" i Look at the spirit of aggression which charac-
terizes this religion, its undeniable power to prompt
those who hold it to render it victorious a spirit
which has not been least active in our own time.
We do not see anything like this in other religions.
We do not see mollas from Ispahan, Brahmans
from Benares, bonzes from China, preaching their
systems of religion in London, Paris, and Berlin,
supported, year after year, by an enormous expen-
diture on the part of their zealous compatriots, and
the nations who support them taking the liveliest
interest in their success or failure.' * In fact, it is
Christianity alone which professes to have received
a divine command to ' go and teach all nations ? ;
and it is only Christianity which acts upon such an
injunction.
"Isolate, for a moment, the case of Regent's
Town, and let it be regarded with close attention.
Here is a single man but just escaped from a Lon-
don workshop, employed in organizing, civilizing,
and humanizing a large body of rescued slaves, of
* " The Eclipse of Faith," p. 218.
248 APPENDICES
a different race and of various other tongues. In
a wonderfully short space of time he so gains the
affections of these poor savages that a large Chris-
tian village arises almost as if by magic. Streets
and gardens, a church and schools, fields and farm-
yards, are occupied and cultivated by hundreds of
willing hearts and hands. At once, without any delay,
a congregation of redeemed and saved men and
women is seen. The church is filled to overflow-
ing j the schools are crowded with eager learners j
hundreds press forward to beg for the benefit of
the Christian sacraments ; meanwhile, industry and
its fruits abound on every side, and purity of morals
such as no English village knows universally pre-
vails. Such are the results of even three or four
years' labor ; may we not reasonably ask, When did
the religion of Rome or of the East, or when did
the philanthropy of rationalistic philosophers, pro-
duce such a wondrous transformation as this ?
"It is well that men should thoroughly under-
stand that Christianity is alone in the world as a
religion. There is no other faith which even pre-
tends to be made for mankind; and there is no
other the adherents to which make any attempt to
diffuse it among mankind. The reason is easily
discernible. The various forms of heathenism have
all one original and one patron : they constitute
different provinces of the one kingdom of * the god
of this world/ They do not make war upon each
other, for * if Satan be divided against Satan, how
shall his kingdom stand T But with the religion
of Christ the case is wholly different. Five hun-
dred years before it was distinctly manifested, a
prophet was inspired to foretell that after the As-
syrian, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman empires a
totally different power should arise 'a stone, cut
out without hands, which should become a great
APPENDICES 249
mountain, and should fill the whole earth.' And
Christ Himself, when departing from the earth for
a season, said to His disciples, < All power is given
unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore,
and teach all nations. 7
"This command was given eighteen hundred
years ago, in the land of Palestine, and it was ad-
dressed to a few poor fishermen and artisans. And
in this nineteenth century, lamentably as the in-
junction has been neglected, we still see several
hundreds of men traversing, like Johnson and Wil-
liams, different regions of the earth, braving the
pestilence here and the club of the savage there, and
even rejoicing to lay down their lives in such a
cause.
" The prediction, the command, and the fact which
are at this moment before our eyes, should all be
taken in connection ; and if this be done, the sincere
seeker after truth will find that which admits of but
one reasonable solution.
" But let us for a moment take a still larger view,
and compare the narrative we have just closed with
the works and ways of men in general, taking for
the stronger argument men in their most civilized
and humanized condition,
"What are the thoughts and pursuits of men in
society, even if we look chiefly to the most refined
and humanized of the species nay, even to men
associated together in Christian churches? Are
they not bent, for the most part, either on the ac-
quisition of money, or on the pursuit of what is
called pleasure ? Taking even the more respectable
and moral classes apart from the rest, do we not
find that either the pursuit of wealth, or the enjoy-
ment of the things procured by wealth, is the one
predominant idea ?
" What a contrast is furnished by the memoir we
260 APPENDICES
are closing! A most active and energetic mind,
engaged for seven years in one engrossing pursuit,
and that pursuit so far above the sordid aims of
men in general, that his letters, journals, and re-
ports for a long series of years may be searched,
and not a thought connected with self, selfish gains,
or selfish enjoyments will be found. As, in para-
dise of old, and in the paradise yet to be revealed,
all thoughts of such things would seem absurd, re-
volting, and out of place, so, in the higher atmo-
sphere to which Johnson had attained, he seems to
have left such thoughts behind. He had his ' food
and raiment ' provided for him, and he had his work
to do ; that done, there only remained the blessed
termination : * God calls me, and this night I shall
be with Him.'
" It is true that some few cases of less selfish "and
sordid views and feelings do now and then occur in
the world at large. One higher and nobler aspect
of human labors and human ambition has been
presented in the most emphatic way while these
closing pages were passing through the press. All
that human nature in its noblest and best condition
could offer has just passed before us, in the person
of the greatest warrior of Europe, now on his way
to his last earthly resting-place.* Let us honor, as
David honored Abner, the memory of one of the
powerful of the earth, who acknowledged heaven's
law, subjection, and knew it to be his safest and
wisest course to follow only the dictates of duty.
But while we rejoice in such an example, let us
rightly appreciate the sphere and character of his
labors. The noblest of his kind, still that kind was
not the highest. The warrior has to do with earth
only; the preacher of the gospel has to do with
* The reference is to the Duke of Wellington, who died
September 14, 1852, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
APPENDICES 261
heaven. So long as our present condition lasts,
which will be but a few years longer, Waterloo
will be one of earth's most thrilling names. It de-
cided the fate of empires ; it gave Europe ' rest for
forty years/ But when the transitory things of
the present world shall have vanished, and the real
and eternal shall rise in their proper form and con-
sistency, then Waterloo and Agincourt and Mara-
thon will be remembered only with wonder and
with pity, while such names as Bethelsdorp, Raia-
teia, and Regent's Town will be ' had in everlasting
remembrance.'
" What is the brightest hope held out in God's
Word to the truest and most faithful of His ser-
vants? We know, indeed, that salvation is the
common hope of all; that to be admitted 'within
the gates of the city ' is the humble trust of every
believer. But our Lord has said, ' In My Father's
house are many mansions.' His apostle adds that
* one star diif ereth from another star in glory.' The
meaning of the gospel parable is not dubious, which
relates that the king rewarded his servants with
authority over two cities, over five, or over ten,
according to their previous success in his service.
Now the most glorious promise of future bliss that
is to be found in Holy Scripture is that which de-
clares that 'they that be wise shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many
to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever. 1
"Behold, then, a poor mechanic, laboring in
Whitechapel, ' almost naked and in want of food.'
God suddenly, without any human aid, l speaks to
his heart.' * At once does he respond to the call ;
at once does he spring l out of darkness into mar-
velous light.' Soon after, he hears of the wretched
state of the heathen, and he steps forward with
* Hos. ii. 14, margin.
252 APPENDICES
1 Here am I ; send me.' He is sent, and for seven
years each month's labor is a visible inroad on the
kingdom of Satan. All that he does, whether in
teaching or exhorting or withstanding error, is done
with the whole heart. His success is almost with-
out a precedent. Doubtless a whole company of
redeemed souls went before him to paradise. The
church built up by him in six short years, although
long afflicted and left destitute, endured, and is a
li ving and thriving church at this day. Its candle-
stick remains, a light to all western Africa. And
what of its founder ? Gone, to shine ' as the stars
for ever and ever ' ! Few, when seated in i heavenly
places/ far above myriads of the learned, the
wealthy, the honored, and the powerful of the
Christian church few, very few, will cry louder
than he, 1 O the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable
are His judgments, and His ways past finding
out!'"
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