104 TRUE DUTY OF MISSIONARIES. 



When converts are made from heathenism by modern 

 missionaries, it becomes an interesting question whether 

 their faith possesses the elements of permanence, or is 

 only an exotic too tender for self -propagation when the 

 fostering care of the foreign cultivators is withdrawn. 

 If neither habits of self-reliance are cultivated, nor oppor- 

 tunities given for the exercise of that virtue, the most 

 promising converts are apt to become like spoiled children. 

 In Madagascar a few Christians were left with nothing 

 but the Bible in their hands ; and though exposed to 

 persecution, and even death itself, as the penalty of 

 adherence to their profession, they increased tenfold in 

 numbers, and are, if possible, more decided believers now 

 than they were when, by an edict of the queen of that 

 island, the missionaries ceased their teaching. 



In South Africa such an experiment could not be made, 

 for 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 mis- 

 sionary field is the fact of the Missionary Societies con- 

 sidering the Cape Colony itself as a proper sphere for their 

 peculiar operation. In addition to a well-organised and 

 efficient Dutch Reformed Established Church, and schools 

 for secular instruction, maintained by Government, in 

 every village of an} 7 extent in the colony, we have a 

 number of other sects, as the Wesleyans, Episcopalians, 

 Moravians, all piously labouring 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 cannot 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 



