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This is true, of course, even of more cultured ]>eople, but among 

 men who have only reached the stage of development of the 

 Bantu of the present day the danger is intensified many-fold. 



R. H. Nassau* is loud in his condemnation of the methods 

 of the early missionaries in West Africa, and describes the 

 results of " a Church which two hundred years ago had bap- 

 tized members by hundreds of thousands, with large churches, 

 hne cathedrals, schools, colleges, and political backing, and no 

 other iform of Christianity to compete with it. [and yet] shows 

 in Kongo to-day no results in the matters of civilization, educa- 

 tion, morality, or pure religion." 



A close study of the methods and aims of South African 

 missionaries to-day has led me to the conclusion that the same 

 danger exists here, though perhaps not in the same degree, as 

 the conditions are somewhat different. Unless missionaries are 

 verv careful indeed, there will always be the danger of Native 

 converts regarding Christian rites and ceremonies as the charms 

 and practices of a sujjerior kind of magic. As long as Chris- 

 tianitv is regarded in this way Christianity cannot have the power 

 it otherwise would have in ujilifting and developing the charac- 

 ters of its converts. 



In the course of a paper read before the Central Society for 

 Sacred Study in Johannesburg a few months ago, the writer 

 drew attention to this danger, and in the discussion which fol- 

 lowed, a striking confirmation of Nassau's testimony was 

 afforded by one who related his ]>ersonal experiences on the 

 Eastern borders of Rhodesia a few years ago. During a visit 

 into Portuguese territory he discovered the ruins of a large 

 church which had been built by one of the early Portuguese 

 pioneers, but the only other relics of Christianity he could find 

 were : — 



(i) Portions of the wafers used in the celebration of the 

 Mass, which were worn by men of the tribe as charms, 

 and which were credited the i)ower of warding off 

 malaria. 

 (2) Small images of the Blessed Virgin, which sometimes 

 formed the sole adornment of the women, and which 

 were apparently used as fertility charms. 



On the other hand, it is only fair to say that the work of 

 Christian missions in South Africa is not merely superficial. 

 The effect of Christianity upon the lives and characters of 

 thousands of Bantu converts is often marvellous in the extreme. 



The high moral plane to which Native Christians sometimes 

 attain may be illustrated by the following incident : About four 

 years ago, while living in Pietersburg, I acted as agent for a 

 friend who left the district to take u\) work in Natal. ■ This 

 friend left a wagon with a Native blacksmith in one of the 

 locations a few miles from the towri, to be sold by him. Several 

 months elapsed, and no purchaser could be found, until one day 

 a Native came to me and offered eighteen pounds for it. I 



* " Fetichism in West Africa," p. 211. 



