General History of the Present-day Mission. 10 Lord Kitchener’s decision being reported to the Committee they passed the following resolutions :— ‘That this Committee, having long intended to send a Mission to the Hastern Soudan, and especially to Khartoum, in memory of the late General Gordon, regret to find that, through circumstances beyond their control, it is not possible for them to open at present a medical mission at Khartoum. As, however, they have received permission and encouragement to go to Fashoda and the district south thereof, they believe that God has opened to them a door to preach the Gospel among the pagan tribes of the Soudan, in whom General Gordon felt special interest, and they direct that steps be taken towards the occupation of that district. To this end offers of service and further funds are earnestly invited.

‘They believe, however, that the religious feeling of this country justly demands that an effort to perpetuate Gordon's memory shall include the direct proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the races inhabiting the Upper Basin of the Nile, which has recently been brought under the control of England. They will therefore continue to strengthen their base in Egypt, with the intention of extending their Mission to Khartoum and the surrounding districts as soon as it may be possible, in the providence of God, to go there also.’ * The Gordon Memorial Mission opened.

Fourteen months after the battle of Omdurman, on November 24, 1899, the power of the Khalifa was finally and completely shattered and he himself was slain, and six days later, on St. Andrew’s Day, the Day of Intercession for Foreign Missions, after a little service had been held at Old Cairo in a large tent, which was then dedicated to God for His work in the Soudan, an official permit to proceed up-country was received by Dr. Harpur and the Rev. Ll. H. Gwynne. Starting within a week they reached Omdurman on December 14, and succeeded in obtaining a house, fourteen feet square, in the centre of the so-called Christian quarter of the town, where the unhappy Christians who denied their faith under the Mahdi’s rule used to draw together, the walls within walls and the many strong wooden doors speaking eloquently of the terror in which they lived. But though allowed to live in Omdurman the missionaries were * History of the C.M.S., vol. tii., pp. 748-9.

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