130 TRUE DUTY OF MISSIONAKIES. 



such a variety of Christian sects have followed the footsteps of 

 the London Missionary Society's successful career, that converts 

 of one denomination, if left to their own resources, are eagerly 

 adopted by another, and are thus more likely to become spoiled 

 than trained to the manly Christian virtues. 



Another element of weakness in this part of the missionary 

 field is the fact of the missionary societies considering the Cape 

 Colony itself as a proper sphere for their peculiar operations. In 

 addition to a well-organized and efficient Dutch Reformed Estab- 

 lished Church, and schools for secular instruction, maintained by 

 government, in every village of any extent in the colony, we 

 have a number of other sects, as the Wesleyans, Episcopalians, 

 Moravians, all piously laboring at the same good work. Now it 

 is deeply to be regretted that so much honest zeal should be so 

 lavishly expended in a district wherein there is so little scope for 

 success. When we hear an agent of one sect urging his friends 

 at home to aid him quickly to occupy some unimportant nook, 

 because, if it is not speedily laid hold of, he will " not have room 

 for the sole of his foot," one can not help longing that both he and 

 his friends would direct their noble aspirations to the millions of 

 untaught heathen in the regions beyond, and no longer continue 

 to convert the extremity of the continent into, as it were, a dam 

 of benevolence. 



I would earnestly recommend all young missionaries to go at 

 once to the real heathen, and never to be content with what has 

 been made ready to their hands by men of greater enterprise. 

 The idea of making model Christians of the young need not be 

 entertained by any one who is secretly convinced, as most men 

 who know their own hearts are, that he is not a model Christian 

 himself. The Israelitish slaves brought out of Egypt by Moses 

 were not converted and elevated in one generation, though under 

 the direct teaching of God himself. Notwithstanding the numbers 

 of miracles he wrought, a generation had to be cut off because of 

 unbelief. Our own elevation, also, has been the work of centuries, 

 and, remembering this, we should not indulge in overwrought ex- 

 pectations as to the elevation which those who have inherited the 

 degradation of ages may attain in our day. The principle might 

 even be adopted by missionary societies, that one ordinary mission- 

 ary's lifetime of teaching should be considered an ample supply of 



