In The Hope That Others Would Be Induced To Join Him In His Attachment
To Christianity, He Asked Me To
Begin family worship with him in his house.
I did so; and by-and-by was surprised to hear how
Well he conducted the prayer
in his own simple and beautiful style, for he was quite a master
of his own language. At this time we were suffering from
the effects of a drought, which will be described further on,
and none except his family, whom he ordered to attend, came near his meeting.
"In former times," said he, "when a chief was fond of hunting, all his people
got dogs, and became fond of hunting too. If he was fond of dancing or music,
all showed a liking to these amusements too. If the chief loved beer,
they all rejoiced in strong drink. But in this case it is different.
I love the Word of God, and not one of my brethren will join me." One reason
why we had no volunteer hypocrites was the hunger from drought, which was
associated in their minds with the presence of Christian instruction;
and hypocrisy is not prone to profess a creed which seems to insure
an empty stomach.
Sechele continued to make a consistent profession for about three years;
and perceiving at last some of the difficulties of his case,
and also feeling compassion for the poor women, who were by far
the best of our scholars, I had no desire that he should be in any hurry
to make a full profession by baptism, and putting away all his wives but one.
His principal wife, too, was about the most unlikely subject in the tribe
ever to become any thing else than an out-and-out greasy disciple
of the old school.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 44 of 1070
Words from 13369 to 13670
of 306638
