404. THE LAND OF THE LION 
they have confronted me with this difficulty: “How can 
we believe that a child was born without a father ?”’ 
The natives have no idea of God, and this fact, instead 
of making their conversion easy, makes it far more difficult. 
There is nothing to build on; the whole idea is outside the 
range of their minds, they must be raised, helped, educated 
for a long time before it can have any real hold on them. 
So with regard to a future life, they have no wish for it. 
It in no way appeals to them. I have not found that the 
Mohammedan conception of the future affects the Moham- 
medan native in the slightest degree. His lot may seem 
to us to be utterly miserable, it does not seem so to him. 
Theoretically, like other natives who recognize only nature’s 
powers, he should be a terror-stricken coward. In his 
own judgment he is neither poor nor unhappy. What 
need has he of a supremely good Creator, a Redeemer 
or a heaven to come? As a matter of fact, he is measur- 
ably satisfied with what he has and is. 
The real hold that the missionary has on him is the fact 
that he is a white man, a being of another and a high order. 
Gladly, proudly, he follows him; painstakingly he imitates 
him. The missionary’s hymns, the missionary’s Bible, 
everything pertaining to his ‘“‘bwana,” are, for that 
‘“‘bwana’s”’ sake, dear. He is proud, indeed, to show to all 
who will see it the evidence of his devotion. I have heard 
him called a hypocrite for pulling from a corner of his scant 
clothing a testament he could not read, as was too evident 
by the fact that he held it upside down! But the poor child 
of nature was only trying to show that he was a mission boy. 
Let me repeat what I have said. The personality of 
the missionary is the one great link holding the native to 
better things during these difficult days of rearrangement 
and disorder, still awaiting him. 
In this respect no words can exaggerate the good the 
Christian missionary has accomplished and is_ to-day 
