Christus Liberator. By Ellen C. Parsons, M.A. (Macmillan and Co.
2s. net.)—Under this title Miss Parsons, whose name is well known on the other side of the Atlantic, has given us an "Outline Study of Africa," viewed from the missionary stand- point. The volume is one of a series, following books, with similar titles, in which the subject in general, and in reference to India, China, and Japan, has been treated. Sir Harry Johnston supplies an introduction, historical and geographical. He states one aspect of the problem thus: "Almost two-thirds of Africa. will be the nearly exclusive domain of the Negro race, and it is the special task of Europe and America" to civilise and Christianise. The negro, it will be remembered, offers oppor- tunities for both works. He has no ancient civilisation and no prepossessions of organised religion. And it must not be for- gotten that Islam is busy in its propaganda. What Miss Parsons has to say is well worth attention. Whatever sentimental admirers of Islam from without and philosophising followers from within may say, slavery and the degradation of woman are inseparable from it. After the general survey of the continent, each region is taken in turn, and the social and religions con- dition described. We would willingly follow the writer in her progress from West to East, from East to the Congo State and Central Africa, and from there again to the South. What a deplorable thing it is that nowhere is the prospect so gloomy as in the Congo State, known by so cruel an irony as the " Free."
Previous page
