DESERTED BY FOLLOWERS. 563 



This his Arab shrewdness found means to accomplish. The 

 chieftain had been brought somehow to associate his prisoner 

 with the visitor, and to understand that his release would be a 

 special favor to Livingstone. The deception which he had 

 practised might have found some justification in the judgment 

 of charity on the ground of his being so weary of his long 

 imprisonment, even though it had occasioned such inconvenience 

 and loss of time to his deliverer; but the unqualified depravity 

 of his character was exhibited in the secret influence he exerted 

 on the minds of the few followers of the man to whom he owed 

 his liberty. The doctor was wholly unconscious of this until he 

 had been nearly three months at Kabwabwati. He then deter- 

 mined to return southward to Casembe, and go on if possible 

 to Lake Bemba before going to Ujiji. To his utter astonish- 

 ment his men refused to go ; even Susi and Chuma, as he after- 

 ward told Mr. Stanley, deserted him for a time. It then 

 appeared that the Arab had been improving those months to 

 sow discontent in the minds of these faithful men, that he might 

 join them to himself. 



Dr. Livingstone was very generous in his judgment on the 

 conduct of his men. " They were tired," he said ; two long 

 years they had been following him about the land ; they were 

 not interested in the great problem which summoned all his 

 energies ; they knew nothing of the heavenly inspiration which 

 moved him to sacrifice himself for the well-being of that heathen 

 world : it was a beautiful generosity : it was like the man. 

 But it strains our charity considerably to sign his moderate 

 sentence upon Mohamad. Men are to be pitied for their wicked- 

 ness, but the totalness of depravity cannot be its apology. It 

 is not easily decided precisely where human judgment may be- 

 come severe, but it may be questioned whether the highest good 

 of the guilty himself is not sacrificed sometimes to the joy the 

 Christian has in tenderness and charity. Nothing is more 

 fascinating in human character than the capacity which God's 

 Spirit gives to rise above resentment. We love to contemplate 

 the marvellous grace of God ; we can gaze upon it without 

 comprehending it and be glad, but the majesty of his justice is 

 there as well ; in our weakness we cannot fully harmonize these 

 attributes. The brow of justice seems harsh ; we cannot com- 



