MISSIONARIES' HOUSES. 105 



-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. Notwith- 

 standing 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 expectations 

 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 missionary's lifetime of teaching should be con- 

 sidered an ample supply of foreign teaching for any tribe 

 in a thinly peopled country, for some never will receive 

 the Gospel at all, while in other parts, when Christianity 

 is once planted, the work is sure to go on. A missionary 

 is soon known to be supported by his friends at home ; 

 and though the salary is but a bare subsistence, to Africans 

 it seems an enormous sum ; and being unable to appreciate 

 the motives by which he is actuated, they consider them- 

 selves entitled to various services at his hands, and de- 

 frauded if these are not duly rendered. This feeling is 

 all the stronger when a young man, instead of going 

 boldly to the real heathen, settles down in a comfortable 

 house and garden prepared by those into whose labours 

 he has entered. A remedy for this evil might be found 

 in appropriating the houses and gardens raised by the 

 missionaries' hands to their own families. It is ridiculous 

 to call such places as Kuruman, for instance, "Missionary 

 Society's property." This beautiful station was made 

 what it is, not by English money, but by the sweat and 

 toil of fathers whose children have, notwithstanding, 

 no place on earth which they can call a home. The 

 Society's operations may be transferred to the north, 

 and then the strong-built mission premises become the 

 home of a Boer, and the stately stone church his cattle- 

 pen. This place has been what the monasteries of Europe 

 are said to have been when pure. The monks did not 

 disdain to hold the plough. They introduced fruit-trees,, 

 flowers, and vegetables, in addition to teaching and 



