Measuring the Missionary. 
ONE of the first problems facing a pioneer mis- 
sionary is that of making himself under- 
stood. For I want you to remember that whilst it 
is important that the missionary should understand 
the natives, it is not less so that the natives should 
come to understand him. Do you know that when 
our first missionaries went to the country of the 
Baila about the year 1893, the people could not 
understand them at all ? They actually thought 
that — having done some wicked thing — they had 
been driven from their own land, or else, they had 
left their country to make themselves rich by mak- 
ing slaves of the Africans. A crowd of savages, 
armed to the teeth, went one day to Mr. Chapman's 
mission at Nambala. They filed up in silence on 
the mission grounds just about one hundred yards 
from his hut. There they stayed for several hours, 
talking together in low tones, until things looked 
very black indeed. Mr. Chapman could not ask 
them any questions, as he knew so little of their 
tongue and they knew none of his. All that he 
could do was to silently pray. When they departed 
in peace Mr. Chapman was still in ignorance as to 
why they came. I reckon those first ideas the Baila 
had about the missionaries had something to do 
with the visit, don't you? Be that as it may, one 
thing has been abundantly proved, it was not until 
the people began to really know our missionaries 
