At The Risk Of Appearing Frivolous
To Some, I Shall Continue To Descend To Mere Trifles.
The numbers who attended at the summons of the herald, who acted as beadle,
were often from five to seven hundred.
The service consisted of reading
a small portion of the Bible and giving an explanatory address,
usually short enough to prevent weariness or want of attention.
So long as we continue to hold services in the kotla,
the associations of the place are unfavorable to solemnity;
hence it is always desirable to have a place of worship as soon as possible;
and it is of importance, too, to treat such place with reverence,
as an aid to secure that serious attention which religious subjects demand.
This will appear more evident when it is recollected that, in the very spot
where we had been engaged in acts of devotion, half an hour after
a dance would be got up; and these habits can not be at first opposed
without the appearance of assuming too much authority over them.
It is always unwise to hurt their feelings of independence.
Much greater influence will be gained by studying how you may induce them
to act aright, with the impression that they are doing it
of their own free will. Our services having necessarily been
all in the open air, where it is most difficult to address
large bodies of people, prevented my recovering so entirely
from the effects of clergyman's sore throat as I expected,
when my uvula was excised at the Cape.
To give an idea of the routine followed for months together, on other days
as well as on Sundays, I may advert to my habit of treating the sick
for complaints which seemed to surmount the skill of their own doctors.
I refrained from going to any one unless his own doctor wished it,
or had given up the case. This led to my having a selection
of the severer cases only, and prevented the doctors being offended
at my taking their practice out of their hands. When attacked
by fever myself, and wishing to ascertain what their practices were,
I could safely intrust myself in their hands on account of their well-known
friendly feelings.
The plan of showing kindness to the natives in their bodily ailments
secures their friendship; this is not the case to the same degree
in old missions, where the people have learned to look upon relief
as a right - a state of things which sometimes happens among ourselves
at home. Medical aid is therefore most valuable in young missions,
though at all stages it is an extremely valuable adjunct to other operations.
I proposed to teach the Makololo to read, but, for the reasons mentioned,
Sekeletu at first declined; after some weeks, however,
Motibe, his father-in-law, and some others, determined to brave
the mysterious book. To all who have not acquired it,
the knowledge of letters is quite unfathomable; there is naught like it
within the compass of their observation; and we have no comparison
with any thing except pictures, to aid them in comprehending
the idea of signs of words.
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