The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 82

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

82

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Wonders of Transforming Grace.

OLD CALABAR.

The Gospel has a transforming power, which it
exerts upon the heart of the individual; and it is
a powerful factor in changing whole communities.
Old Calabar, on the western coast of Africa, is an
instance. There Christian teaching wrought a

notable change in a whole people, eradicated bar-
barous customs, and produced a native civilization
at which the world marvels.

William Anderson, one of the early missionaries
in Calabar, writes thus concerning conditions as
they obtained when the first messenger of the Gospel

Former Slave Transport ir Africa.

came to the region of the Old Calabar River: “Had
there been a truth-telling newspaper in town, its
daily items would have been of the following stamp:
‘Other four slaves of the late- —— butchered last
night.’ ‘Five or six of the -family.of ‘to take
the ordeal in the market-place to-day.” ‘One of
——s wives gave birth to twins two days ago.
Infants killed and mother banished from the town.’
‘Great gala day yesterday on the river —king and
gentlemen in their canoes — drums beating, flags
floating — all off in procession to bar of the river —
the usual sacrifice of an Albino girl’ ”

Sin Immeasurable.
The first missionaries found a community of
naked, degraded savages. Human sacrifices were
common and were sanctioned and encouraged by

superstitions which claimed to be religion. The
most cruel: customs were built into the very fabric
of society. Vice and crime flourished as in few
other places in the world. The very faith which
these savages had in a hereafter drove them to
observe the most revolting and horrid customs under
the plea that the observance of these savage customs
were a protection to the living and the dead. The
death of a chief meant the sacrifice of many men
and women... When, for example, Chief Efium died,
the following funeral ceremonies were observed:
A costly cloth was laid on the floor of the grave.
Five of the youngest of his forty wives were placed
alive upon this cloth, and the corpse of the chief
was laid upon these living bodies. And
while this was done, not one of the spec-
tators showed any feeling for the poor
victims as they sent forth their heart-
rending cries. Six free men were forced
to eat a poison bean, which caused their
death in a very short time, and then
their bodies were arranged around that
of the chief. After this fifty slaves were
brought to the edge of the grave, where
one after another was struck with a club,
and their bodies allowed to fall into the
yawning tomb. For another week daily
human sacrifices were offered near the
town. The conclusion of the funeral
ceremonies consisted in the erection of
a juju house, in which was placed all the
furniture that the chief might want in
the other world — tables,: chairs, dishes,
and the like; but all these articles were
broken before they were: placed in the
house.

The death of the next chief was
attended by-the butchering of about ‘three hundred
persons, including thirty wives. When these poor
women received the summons, “The, king calls you,”
each arrayed herself in the finest ornaments, swal-
lowed a quantity of rum, and then-went forth to be
strangled with a copper wire. The chief’s umbrella
bearer, his snuff-box carrier, and other officials were
sent with the insignia of their offices to share his
resting-place.

Depths of Superstition.

The death of a king or chief was supposed to be
because he was bewitched by some one. The sus-
pected persons would be compelled to submit to the _
ordeal of drinking the powdered esere bean, on the
supposition that if guilty, they would retain it and
die; but if innocent, they would be relieved of it