120 MISSIONARY WORK. 



instance of this occurred while Dr. Livingstone was in Sesheke. 

 There had been a theft committed, and in the effort to find out 

 the guilty party a young man who was suspected was bound 

 and exposed in the scorching sun until he should make restitu- 

 tion or pay the fine. The mother of this young man seized a 

 hoe, and, going to her son, threatened to kill anybody who 

 should interfere ; and having cut the cords led him away to her 

 home. All Moriantsane could do was to send word to Sekeletu. 

 So the matter ended. The reins of government were hanging 

 loosely. The lawless spirit is in human nature ; the slightest 

 toleration of it is the tiny crevice in authority through which 

 an inexhaustible fountain sends its smallest stream ; a stream 

 which will wear and widen and deepen until gigantic rebellion 

 breaks up the foundations of government and bears them, help- 

 lessly scattered, on its mighty, rageful surface. The history of 

 the wild tribes is a miniature history of the wide world. The 

 law of cause and effect is absolute and universal. 



The diligent Christian finds work in every place. Living- 

 stone was immediately engaged in teaching the people of Se- 

 sheke ; and such was the respect which he always inspired, such 

 was the honor in which he was held, that there was no trouble 

 in gathering several hundreds of these poor heathen to hear his 

 message from the great Chief of all, the "King of kings." 

 Their temple was by the river; the shade an "outspreading 

 camel-thorn tree." How sweetly suggestive was every bough 

 of this noble tree, while he recalled the probability that one like 

 it furnished the timber of which the Ark of the Covenant was 

 made ! No wonder the heart of the missionary was overflowing 

 with confidence in God's mercy for his degraded audience. 

 How could he, either, find it in his own heart to dwell on their 

 sinfulness? Indeed, Livingstone was so full of tenderness and 

 charity, so unwilling to see or reveal the blemishes of others, 

 that he hardly draws the curtain sufficiently on the moral condi- 

 tion of Africa. His own elevated purity turned away from the 

 stagnant corruption about him with silent pity. He only says 

 that there is corruption, that there is death, and, crying to the 

 world for help, works on with the energy of devotion, almost 

 of despair, healing and lifting up the people. 



The Makololo were singularly wanting in religious ideas, 



