Africa has been called the Dark Continent, and the name is suitable in more ways than one. To the European people it was for ages a dark continent, because it was unknown, that is, unexplored by them. The name is also appropriate because Africa is the home of millions of dark-skinned people. But from a Christian point of view Africa is the dark continent, because over most of its inhabitants there still hangs a black cloud of heathen darkness that shuts out the glorious rays of the Gospel of Light and Love.

Of course you must know that Africa has not all been an unknown land. The northern part of it, which borders the Mediterranean Sea, has been known from ancient times. And is not Egypt the land of the Nile and the home of the Pharaohs in Africa, although we sometimes do not realise it? But it is not so much of these northern lands that I want to tell you as about the far greater portion that stretches away south over the Equator right down to the Cape. This part was until not so long ago the dark unknown continent, the land of those teeming millions of dark-skinned people who lived out their lives without ever hearing the Gospel story and without knowing the love of God for the children of men.

For hundreds of years very, very little was known of this vast land lying away to the south. The ancient peoples must have been afraid to explore it, and it is no wonder, for Africa is a land full of dangers and difficulties that must have appeared overwhelming to the ancients. Here is a description of part of a voyage along the African Coast made in the old days. I read it the other day in a nice book about Central Africa. “Having taken in water we sailed thence straight forwards until we came to a great gulf which the interpreter said was called the Horn of the West. In it was a large island, and in the island a lake like a sea, and in this another island on which we landed; and by day we saw nothing but woods, but by night we saw many fires burning, and heard the sounds of flutes and cymbals, and the beating of drums, and an immense shouting. Fear came upon us, and the soothsayers bade us quit the island. Having speedily set sail, we passed by a burning country full of incense, and from it huge streams of fire flowed into the sea; and the land could not be walked upon because of the heat. Being alarmed we speedily sailed away thence also, and going along four days we saw by night the land full of flame, and in the midst was a lofty fire, greater than the rest, and seeming to touch the stars. This by day appeared as a vast mountain called the Chariot of the Gods. On the third day from this, sailing by fiery streams, we came to a gulf called the Horn of the South.”

After reading such a description do you wonder that the ancients left the land to the south severely alone? We to-day can give a very simple explanation for the above fiery exhibition. These ancient mariners had evidently visited that part of Africa at the time of the bush fires and were consequently appalled.

In the year 1486 a Portuguese navigator, called Diaz, sighted the Cape of Good Hope; and a fellow countryman, Vasco da Gama, a few years later, discovered Natal and the Cape route to India. But of inland exploration there was little or none till men like James Bruce and Mungo Park made their famous journeys in the interior, the one on the Blue Nile, and the other on the Niger. Then bit by bit our knowledge of the interior of Africa was added to by such brave men of whom Dr Livingstone is the most famous.

If you ever get the opportunity of looking at an old map of Africa you will find that most of the interior is blank. But now the map of Africa is filled with names and features that are known to us through exploration. Mighty rivers and great lakes have been discovered, and mountains of which the ancients only dreamed are familiar to us. All honour to the brave men who have laid us so heavily under their debt, and to no one more than to David Livingstone, whose noble example was as an inspiration, and who as missionary and explorer laid down his life for the Dark Continent.

But for many years the European nations only looked upon Africa as a land whence slaves were to be taken for their plantations in the New World. And this part of the history of Africa is a dark blot upon their fair fame. What with the European slave-buying in the West, the Arab slave-hunting in the East, and the chiefs perpetually at war and enslaving one another’s people, the lives of countless numbers of these ignorant people were made miserable in the extreme.

The village lies slumbering peacefully in the hollow in the midst of its gardens of maize and sweet potatoes. It is silently surrounded before dawn by the cruel Arab and his men. Shots ring out. The startled inhabitants rush forth into the grey morning with shouts of “Nkondo!” (“War!”) “Nkondo!” (“War!”) The men who resist or try to flee are ruthlessly shot down. Houses and gardens are burned and destroyed, the dead and dying are left where they fall, round the necks of the living is riveted the hateful slave stick, and the gang is on its way to the coast leaving behind only the abomination of desolation. Too often, alas! have the children of Africa tasted of this bitter cup.

And now that the European people know the sin from which they were freed by the mercy of God, it behoves them to try their best to make up to the black people for the injury they formerly did them. That much is being done we know for the whole continent is marked out as belonging to the different European nations and is ruled by them. So the days of the old tribal wars are over and the slave-hunter has disappeared from the land.

The future of the Dark Continent you will then see lies now to a large extent in the hands of the people of Europe. The old rule of the native chiefs has in most places passed away, and in others is rapidly passing. The power has gone into the hands of the white man. Pray God he may use it wisely and guide his black brother towards the green pastures as becomes a follower of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.