The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Sheet 38

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. 36

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

escape the hated presence of the white man. Though
freed, they were still slaves in more than one sense.
Many of them sold or threw away the clothing that
had been given them, and some are said to have
spent their first savings in buying slaves for them-
selves, whom they, in turn, treated as cruelly as ever
they had been treated. Jansen’s first Sunday service
was attended by nine natives, and these were prac-
tically nude.

But Jansen was not by any means discouraged.
Though they at first repelled his kindnesses, he
patiently continued to show them his love and sym-
pathy and daily divided out among them their
allowance. of rice provided by the government. And
after long and wearisome work he at last succeeded
in gaining their confidence. Gradually his little
house grew too small to hold the people that came
to hear him, and he was compelled to proclaim his
message in the open. - His school also became
crowded with pupils eager to learn, and in less than
twelve months many were so far advanced that they
could read the Bible. Though always contending
with the weakening attacks of tropical fever, Jansen
kept on with his unselfish work. Though the lips
of his fellow-laborers were sealed in death, he con-
tinued to tell his simple story of freedom from sin
in and through Jesus to the liberated slaves, who
now came flocking in great numbers to hear him.

In 1819, after three years of faithful labor, he
was compelled to go to England because of his
wife’s serious illness. But when he left Hogbrook,

“he left behind him a model community, a Christian
people living in decent homes, and a house of wor-
ship holding 1,300 persons, and, what is more, oyer-
flowing with regular attendants at three services
every Sunday. His week-day services were attended
by from 500 to 900 hearers. ;

So wonderful had been the transformation
wrought during the three years of Jansen’s labors
that even the local British government officials, in
their reports to the home government, contrasted
the former state of the people, their “groveling and
malignant superstitions, their greegrees, their red
water, their witchcraft, their devil-houses,” with
their state after Jansen’s labors of only three years
and were obliged to confess, “The hand of Heaven
is in this!” They called it “a miracle of good,
which the immediate interposition of the Almighty
alone could have wrought.” And then they added:
“What greater blessing could man or nation desire
or enjoy than to have been made the instrument of
conferring such sublime benefits on the most abject
of the human race!”

The love which these former slaves showed to
Jansen at the time of his departure was most
touching. Many of them went with him as far as
Freetown, where he was to take the ship, and as he
was about to embark, they cried in their broken
English, “Massa, suppose no water live here — we
go all the way with you — till feet no more.” When
he returned from England, the news of his arrival
was brought to his people at night, while they were
at church. The news so filled them with joy that
many of them went to Freetown that same night
to meet him, while others, not able to sleep, sang
the night away.

By 1823 the deadly climate had so undermined
Jansen’s health that he was once more obliged to
return to England. But the faithful servant of the
Lord never reached England. While still en route,
it pleased God to call His laborer home into his
eternal rest. During his last hours Sarah Bickers-
teth, his first convert, sat by his berth, read to him
the Twenty-third Psalm, prayed with him, heard
his last words, and closed his broken eyes. At the
early age of thirty-five, after only seven years’ work,
the Master bade His servant rest from his labors.
But what remarkable work had not this simple man
done in this short time! During this short period
he had changed what seemed a hopelessly ignorant,
unimpressionable, and depraved people into a model
Christian community. He had found at Hogbrook,
seven years before, the refuse from the holds of
slave-ships, a mass of human beings who were living
a life of unbridled lust, habitual lying, thieving,
and quarreling; paupers and criminals feeding on
government rations. Yet by God’s help, out of such
worthless and utterly unpromising material he
formed a community of industrious, intelligent,
virtuous, and pious men and women. And the work
which he did at Hogbrook was permanent; for since
1862 the Church of Sierra Leone has been self-sup-
porting, self-governing, and self-propagating. After
three generations there are over 15,000 native Chris-
tians of the Church of England in the country, with
3,000 pupils in the schools, served by 41 native
pastors and 242 native assistants. The total number
of Christians in Sierra Leone in 1925 was almost
40,000, and about 15,000 of these were Methodists.

Here we once more learn how the most hopeless
looking field often turns: out to be most fruitful in
the end. Thus God emphasizes His command to
preach the Gospel to every creature and not to pass
by the most degraded of men. Let us, then, go and
tell men what Christ has done for the world and its
sins and sorrows; let us assure them that the Son