116 
TRUE DUTY OF MISSIONARIES. 
Chap. YI. 
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 Hkely to become spoiled 
than trained to the manly Clrristian virtues. 
Another element of weakness in tliis part of the missionary 
field is the fact of the Missionary Societies considering the Cape 
Colony itself as a proper sphere for their pecuhar operations. In 
addition to a well-organised and efficient Dutch Keformed Estab¬ 
lished Church, and schools for secular instruction, maintained 
by Government, in every village of any extent in the colony, we 
have a number of other sects, as the Wesleyans, Episcopahans, 
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 dhect 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 with what has 
been made ready to their hands by men of greater enterprise. 
The idea of making model Clndstians 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 dffiect teaching of God himself. Notwithstanding the numbers 
of miracles he wrought, a generation had to be cut off because of 
unbehef. Our own elevation also has been the work of centuries, 
and, remembering this, we should not indulge in overwrought ex¬ 
pectations 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 mission¬ 
ary’s lifetime of teaching should be considered an ample supply of 
