The Language Is, However, So Simple
In Its Construction, That Its Copiousness By No Means Requires The Explanation
That The
People have fallen from a former state of civilization and culture.
Language seems to be an attribute of the human
Mind and thought;
and the inflections, various as they are in the most barbarous tongues,
as that of the Bushmen, are probably only proofs of the race being human,
and endowed with the power of thinking; the fuller development of language
taking place as the improvement of our other faculties goes on.
It is fortunate that the translation of the Bible has been effected
before the language became adulterated with half-uttered foreign words,
and while those who have heard the eloquence of the native assemblies
are still living; for the young, who are brought up in our schools,
know less of the language than the missionaries; and Europeans
born in the country, while possessed of the idiom perfectly,
if not otherwise educated, can not be referred to for explanation of any
uncommon word. A person who acted as interpreter to Sir George Cathcart
actually told his excellency that the language of the Basutos
was not capable of expressing the substance of a chief's diplomatic paper,
while every one acquainted with Moshesh, the chief who sent it,
well knows that he could in his own tongue have expressed it without study
all over again in three or four different ways. The interpreter
could scarcely have done as much in English.
This language both rich and poor speak correctly; there is no vulgar style;
but children have a `patois' of their own, using many words in their play
which men would scorn to repeat. 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. 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 can not help longing that both he and his friends
would direct 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 Christians 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 direct teaching of God himself.
Notwithstanding the numbers of miracles he wrought, a generation
had to be cut off because of unbelief. Our own elevation, also,
has been the work of centuries, and, remembering this,
we should not indulge in overwrought expectations 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 missionary's lifetime of teaching should be considered
an ample supply of foreign teaching for any tribe in a thinly-peopled country,
for some never will receive the Gospel at all, while in other parts,
when Christianity is once planted, the work is sure to go on.
A missionary is soon known to be supported by his friends at home;
and though the salary is but a bare subsistence, to Africans it seems
an enormous sum; and, being unable to appreciate the motives
by which he is actuated, they consider themselves entitled
to various services at his hands, and defrauded if these
are not duly rendered.
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