It would seem, indeed, that it is only by the agency of such men as Moffat and his like that the contact of the white and black races can be anything but a curse to the blacks.  It is the missionary alone who seeks nothing for himself.  He has chosen an unselfish life.  If honour comes to him, it is by no choice of his own, but as the unsought tribute which others, as it were, force upon him.  Robert Moffat has died in the fullness both of years and honours.  His work has been to lay the foundations of the Church in the central regions of South Africa.  As far as his influence and that of his coadjutors and successors has extended, it has brought with it unmixed good.  His name will be remembered while the South African Church endures, and his example will remain with us as a stimulus to others, and as an abiding proof of what a Christian missionary can be and can do.”

The Brighton Daily News commenced its article by saying:—­“The grave has just closed over one of the most notable men whose figures are familiar to the inhabitants of Brighton.  Robert Moffat, the veteran pioneer in the mission field, and the simplest of heroes, has passed away, and many of the noblest of the land followed his remains to their resting-place.”  It concluded with, “In the drawing-rooms of fashionable Brighton, crowded with the lovers of art and science, no one grudged the cessation of music the most classical, or of conversation the most charming, to listen to the venerable Doctor when requested to repeat some incidents of his missionary life.  All felt that the scene was hallowed by the presence of one who had done a work for the good of men, such as few have been privileged to accomplish.  Robert Moffat belonged to no sect or party.  To better the world and advance the one Church formed the sole end of his being.”

Other journals and magazines bore like testimony to his worth.

Of his work we have said much in the preceding pages, and also something of its results.  To this may be added Robert Moffat’s own account of some of the benefits which sprung from the prosecution of missionary enterprise in South Africa.  In his speech at Port Elizabeth, on finally leaving for England, in May, 1870, referring to the general progress made in the interior, he said:—­

“Christianity has already accomplished much in this long benighted land.  When I first went to the Kuruman scarcely an individual could go beyond.  Now they travel in safety to the Zambesi.  Then we were strangers, and they could not comprehend us.  They treated us with great indignity, and considered us to be the outcasts of society, who, being driven from our own race, went to reside with them; but bearing in remembrance what our Saviour had to undergo, we were encouraged to persevere, and much success has rewarded our efforts.  Now it is safe to traverse any part of the country, and traders travel far beyond Kuruman without the slightest fear of molestation.