The Bamapela have adopted a click
into their dialect, and a large infusion of the ringing "ny",
which seems to have been for the purpose of preventing others
from understanding them.
The fact of the complete translation of the Bible at a station
seven hundred miles inland from the Cape naturally suggests the question
whether it is likely to be permanently useful, and whether Christianity,
as planted by modern missions, is likely to retain its vitality
without constant supplies of foreign teaching? It would certainly
be no cause for congratulation if the Bechuana Bible seemed at all likely
to meet the fate of Elliot's Choctaw version, a specimen of which
may be seen in the library of one of the American colleges -
as God's word in a language which no living tongue can articulate,
nor living mortal understand; but a better destiny seems in store for this,
for the Sichuana language has been introduced into the new country
beyond Lake Ngami. There it is the court language, and will take a stranger
any where through a district larger than France. The Bechuanas, moreover,
in all probability possess that imperishability which forms
so remarkable a feature in the entire African race.
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is withdrawn.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 opportunities 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 ten-fold
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 missionary field
is the fact of the missionary societies considering the Cape Colony itself
as a proper sphere for their peculiar operations. In addition to
a well-organized and efficient Dutch Reformed Established 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, Episcopalians, Moravians, all piously laboring
at the same good work.
