LECTURE IT. 27 



in an eminent degree. We should compare new converts 

 who are still surrounded with all their old associations of 

 heathenism, rather with the churches first planted by the 

 Apostles, than with ourselves. Public opinion, law, cus- 

 tom, and general manners, with us who have enjoyed the 

 inestimable blessings of the Gospel so long, are so essen- 

 tially different from those which governed the converts of 

 the first Christian age, and which still influence those new 

 disciples of the better way among whom our modern Mis- 

 sionaries labour. If these latter soldiers of the cross have 

 sometimes to mourn over the inconsistencies of their con- 

 verts, it must be remembered that such was also the case 

 with the Apostles, as their writings prove; especially 

 those of St Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles. 



I was not at all anxious to enter on the labours of 

 other men ; for I consider that the young missionary should 

 devote himself as much as possible to his own field of duty, 

 and not interfere with any other man's labour, but go to 

 the real heathen, who may not as yet have heard Christ's 

 name, or received his Gospel. Through the instrumen- 

 tality of Mr Moffat 1 , the Bechuanas have the Bible in 

 their own language. To shew the value put on the sacred 

 volume, in the first editions there were two sorts, one 

 rather cheaper than the other and the binding less costly. 

 The natives, who are rather inclined to be niggardly, pur- 

 chased the cheap edition, thinking the binding stronger; 



1 For an account of this Beclmana Bible of Mr Moffat's, see 

 Appendix, p. 122. 



