LIGHT AND DARKNESS.

77

that light, in its final plenitude, is calculated to disperse all darkness. But this effect belongs to its consummation. In its earlier and struggling states light does but reveal darkness. palpable and visible.'

It makes darkness

The light revealed the dark

ness, at this time, in these wilds of heathenism. It served to make that darkness visible. But it soon began to disperse that darkness, and, as we shall see hereafter, some of the clouds began to roll away ere the labours of Mr Pearse came to their final close.

The poet Pringle puts into the lips of the Captive

of Camalu' the following words :—

"Thy kingdom come! let Light and Grace

Throughout all lands in triumph go;

Till pride and strife to love give place,
And blood and tears forget to flow;

Till Europe mourn for Afric's woe
And o'er the deep her arms extend

To lift her where she lieth low,

And prove indeed her Christian friend!'

Let

In such a prayer who would not join? in so blessed a task who would not take part? Europe, and especially Great Britain, remember Africa, and Africa will one day remember her.

The following remarks in a letter addressed by Mr Pearse to the General Secretaries of the Society, October 28th, 1840, and published in the Missionary Notices for August 1841 are indicative of the deep sympathy he felt for those around him, and will form a fitting close to the details of this chapter :

'If ignorance and superstition, if wretchedness and crime, may challenge the commiseration, and stimulate the prayers and efforts, of British Christians, then these woefully exist here. O could my voice reach the ears of my friends in our native isle, I would entreat them, by the blood that was shed for a guilty world, and by the immense, the incalculable value of an immortal spirit, to pity and pray for the thousands of the perishing sons of Ham in this land of woe, and sin, and death.'

CHAPTER VI.

Learning the Language.

The thought of duty sweeteneth toil, and travail is a pleasure;

And time spent in doing, hath a comfort that is not for

the idle,

The hardship is transmuted into joy by the dear alchemy

of mercy.

Labour is good for man, bracing up his energies to con

quest,

And without it life is dull, the man perceiving himself

useless.

For wearily the body groaneth, like a door on rusty

hinges,

And the grasp of the mind is weakened, as the talons of a

caged vulture.

M. F. TUPPER.

NECESSITY OF LEARNING THE VERNACULAR.

PRETERS. LANGUAGES OF SOUTH AFRICA.
GRAMMARS. MR PEARSE'S DIFFICULTIES.
PERSEVERANCE.

SUCCESS.

INTER

KAFIR

GREAT

FIRST ATTEMPT TO PREACH.
KAFIR LITERA-

GERMAN MISSIONARIES.

TURE. UTHLANGA. UTIXO. HYMN ON THE SABBATH. WORK YET TO BE DONE. ABLE MEN REQUIRED.

MISSIONARY who would become thoroughly efficient, must necessarily learn to preach and to converse in the vernacular of the people to whom he is sent. We have had, it is true, both in South Africa

and elsewhere, able and successful missionaries, who, for want of tact, or for want of confidence, never could utter ten sentences in the native tongue, however long they laboured to acquire it. This is always a misfortune, and must prevent that access to the minds of the people which it is essential to obtain. For language is one of the keys which unlock the door of the soul. If you go to a man of

F