4 o 4 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 ic 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 



