The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 51

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

51

iiz§z§ ON ___— EE SE

When Moffat, taken aback by these extravagant
expressions, told the chief that he was unaware of
ever having done him all such kindnesses, Mosele-
katse pointed to the ambassadors that had brought
the missionary and said: “These are great men.
Umbate is my right hand. When I sent these men,
I sent my ears, my eyes, myzmouth. What they
heard I heard, what they saw I saw, and what they
said, was as if I had said it. You fed and clothed
them; and when they were threatened, you were
their shield. You did it to me.” |

A day after the chief, or king, had delivered his
stately speech to the missionary, he pardoned a high
official who under ordinary circumstances would
have been compelled to suffer the death penalty. In
pardoning the man, he said, “I pardon you for his
sake, for I love him.” But for all his fine speeches,
Moffat soon learned that he was a pompous hypo-
crite and that it would be a difficult matter indeed
to reach his heart, and so he soon returned to his
field of labor among the Bechuanas.

A Hard, but Not Barren Field.

In 1834, four years after his first visit, Moffat
returned to the country of the Matabeles. He was
received with every mark of honor and considera-
tion. Two years later, because of Moffat’s influence,
a mission was established at Motsega, but subse-
quently was abandoned. In 1860 the London
Society entered the field, but found the work most
difficult. The military code, polygamy, and witch-
craft were like national monuments to the Mata-
beles, and all seemed unalterably opposed to Chris-
tianity. Moselekatse’s son and successor, Loben-
gula, like his father, accepted the missionariés for
Moffat’s sake, permitted them to live in his country,
and was friendly to them, but secretly warned his
people against the Christian religion. At the end
of seventeen years not a convert had been made.
And yet there was an outward change. When the
missionaries first came to Buluwayo, the capital of
Matabeleland, they dared not preach without the
king’s special permission, but after five years they
openly and everywhere preached Christ Crucified.
When they first came, they were insulted daily, but

~after an interval of several years they were treated
with respect and confidence. After the death of
Lobengula the Gospel grew and prospered also in
Matabeleland, and to-day the Christians among the
Matabeles are numbered by thousands. The capital

of Matabeleland, once a collection of kraals, has .

to-day a number of native Christian churches.
Though the work has always been of a difficult
nature, even here it has not been done in vain.

The Progress of the Bechuana Mission.

After returning from Matabeleland, Moffat ad-
dressed himself to a task of the greatest and most
far-reaching importance, that of translating the
Scriptures into the language of the Bechuanar
First the New Testament was put into the hands
of the grateful people; later, the Scriptures of the
Old Testament. A printing-press was set up at
Kuruman, and the Bible and other books were
printed there. The missionaries also published a
small monthly paper. The station itself presented
a fine appearance. The desert was made to bloom
like a rose. Other great missionaries came into the
field, among them Livingstone, who became Moffat’s
son-in-law. Moffat returned to England in 1870
and lived there for a number of. years, serving the
great cause of missions with his facile pen. He
lived to the age of almost eighty-nine years. He
will ever rank as one of the greatest of missionary
heroes.

Chief Khama.

One of the finest trophies of Christian missions
in any part of the world is Khama, chief of one
Bechuana tribe. Khama’s father had been a hard-
hearted heathen, cruel, cunning, practising witch-
craft, and a man who had openly flaunted all at-
tempts made to change him from his sinful ways.
He once told a missionary who had labored long
and hard with him, “You were made with straight
hearts, but it is different with us black people —
God made us with crooked hearts.” But of his son
Khama old Sekhome admitted that he was different.
“Khama’s heart is right,” he said. The son became
a Christian when yet a boy, and throughout his
life was a consistent child of God. He put up a
strenuous fight to protect his people against the
white traders’ attempts to make drunkards of them.
Referring to this struggle, he once said: “I fear
Lobengula less than I do brandy. I fought against
Lobengula and drove him back; he never gives me
sleepless nights. But to fight against drink is to
fight against demons and not men. I fear the white
man’s drink more than the assegais of the Matabele,
which kill men’s bodies. Drink puts devils into
men and destroys their bodies and souls.” Khama
also put an end to rain-making and other heathen
customs. He abolished the purchase of wives with
cattle and introduced the law of marriage by free
choice. In 1890 he built a church in his capital

city at a cost of $15,000. Khama showed his fine
Christian spirit again and again, but never more
plainly than when he looked in pity on a poor,
starving desert tribe, drew them from their vagrant