“Yes, I am, when I consider the difficulty to be surmounted.  Nothing but the Divine assistance could have produced such effects as have already taken place.  The chiefs are to a man opposed to us.”

“Why so?”

“Because Christianity strikes at the root of their sensuality; it was the same when it was first preached by our Divine Master.  The riches of a Caffre consist not only in his cattle, but in the number of his wives, who are all his slaves.  To tell them that polygamy is unlawful and wrong, is therefore almost as much as to tell them that it is not right to hold a large herd of cattle; and as the chiefs are of course the opulent of the nation, they oppose us.  You observe in Caffreland, as elsewhere, it is ’hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.’  I have asked the chiefs why they will not come to church, and their reply has been, ’The great word is calculated to lessen our pleasures and diminish the number of our wives; to this we can never consent,’”

“But still you say you have made some progress.”

“If I have, let it be ascribed to the Lord, and not to me and my otherwise useless endeavors; it must be His doing; and without His aid and assistance, the difficulties would have been insurmountable.  It is for me only to bear in mind the scriptural injunction, ’In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.’”

“But have they no idea whatever of a Supreme Being, either bad or good? have they no idea, as some of the African tribes have, of the devil?”

“None; and in their language they have no word to express the idea of the Deity; they swear by their kings of former days as great chiefs, but no more.  Now if they had any religion whatever, you might, by pointing out to them the falsity and absurdity of that religion, and putting it in juxtaposition with revealed Truth, have some hold upon their minds; but we have not even that advantage.”

“But can not you make an impression upon their minds by referring to the wonders of nature,—­by asking them who made the sun and stars?  Surely they might be induced to reflect by such a method.”

“I have tried it a hundred times, and they have laughed at me for my fables, as they have termed them.  One of the chiefs told me to hold my tongue, that his people might not think me mad.  The Scriptures, indeed, teach us that, without the aid of direct revelation, men are also without excuse if they fail to attain to a certain knowledge of the Deity,—­’even his eternal power and God-head,’—­by a devout contemplation of the visible world, which with all its wonders is spread out before them as an open volume.  But beyond this, all knowledge of the origin or manner of creation is derived, not from the deductions of human reasoning, but from the Divine testimony; for it is expressly said, ’Through faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God.’”