The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 50

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

50

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Wonders of Transforming Grace.

ROBERT MOFFAT AMONG THE BECHUANAS.
«(Coneluded.)

Moffat Goes to See the Matabeles.

The wonderful happenings among the Bechuanas
could not be kept secret. Soon it was noised abroad
among the neighboring tribes what great changes
were taking place at Kuruman. The news also
reached the ears of the powerful head of the Mata-.
beles, Chief Moselekatse. The Matabele chief at
once sent messengers to Kuruman to make in-
quiries. There had been a feud of long duration
between the Bechuanas and Matabeles, and because
of this the former were not very eager to give the
ambassadors a friendly weleome. However, Moffat
told his people that they must let bygones be by-
gones. What the messengers saw and heard im-
pressed them deeply. It was beyond their compre-
hension how such a great change could have been
wrought in their former enemies. When told that
this transformation had been brought about by the
Word of God, they asked to see the Bible; and
when it was brought them, they turned it about
and examined it with great care, still not able to
understand how a.book could do such wonders. But
though they could not understand it all, they were
able to see the marvelous results, and they decided
that their chief must be told and taught all these
things.

After their investigation had been completed, the
ambassadors addressed Moffat in a long and very
stately speech, and what they told the missionary
of their chief and people convinced him that he
should pay the Matabeles a visit. When Mosele-
katse’s messengers left for home, Moffat set out
with them upon his visit to their tribe.

The chief of the Matabeles was an absolute
monarch, who brooked no opposition. He truly
ruled his people with an iron hand. If his armies
failed to defeat the armies against which he sent
them, he would put to death all the soldiers that
might return. With him a soldier’s duty was to
conquer or die. His demeanor was haughty and
imperious. Ambassadors, whether from his own or
other tribes, could approach him only with greatest
difficulty.

_ King Moselekatse had Grencted his own and the
“surrounding countries in blood, and women used
his name to frighten children. The Bechuanas had

‘being pure.

once determined to make the journey, Moffat would
not permit his being held back. On the way they
passed through-the country of the Bakwains, who,
in order to protect themselves against the great
number of lions which infested the region, made
their dwellings in trees. Mr. Moffat reported that
he saw one large tree in which were the homes of
no less than seventeen families.

The Country of Moselekatse.
When they were about to enter the land of the
Matabeles, the question once more arose whether it
would not be wiser for Moffat to return. The Mata-

‘bele messengers fully realized the danger to. which

Moffat was exposing himself. Finally one of them
decided the matter by saying, “Father Moffat, you
have been our protector. We will be yours. You
love us, and would you now leave us?” Pointing to
the mountains on the distant horizon, they added,
“Yonder dwells our great king; but how dare we
enter his presence without you? When we make
our report to him of all we have seen in the land
of the Bechuanas and fail to bring you who wrought
all those wonders, we shall surely be put to death.
If you do not go with us, it will be better for us
to die here than to go farther.”

Moffat went on. They soon entered a land of
great fertility, with marks of a higher ‘civilization
than Moffat had seen among the other people of
South Africa with whom he had come in contact.
But side by side with these marks of social advance-
ment went also the marks of war and its destruc-

tiveness.
The Journey Ends.

Moselekatse received Moffat with great respect
and treated him with the utmost courtesy. He said
to Moffat, “The land is before you; you are come
to your son.” The chief greatly marveled at the
tires on Moffat’s wagon, hoops of iron without end.
One of the ambassadors, taking hold of Moffat’s
hand, said to the king, “I myself saw this very
hand cut these bars of iron, take off pieces of the
ends, and then join them as you now see them.”

The chief called the missionary Machobane,.
which had been the name of his father. In expla-
nation he said: “You are like a father tome. You
have made my heart white as milk.” But this claim
of his was made too soon, for his heart was far from
He continued: “I do not understand
how you can so love a stranger. You never saw me
before, and still you love me. You fed me when
I was hungry; you clothed me when I was naked;
you carried me in your bosom.”