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THE HISTORY OF SECHELE.

that the New Testament forbids a man to have more than one wife. Now, if he sent all his wives away except one, he knew he should give mortal offence to their friends, so here was his difficulty.

Dr Livingstone says "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, and none except his family whom he ordered to attend came near his meeting. In former times,' said he, 'if he hunted, all his people got dogs, and became fond of hunting too. If he was fond of dancing and music, all showed a liking to these amusements. 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." "

This might be accounted for by the fact that they imagined Dr Livingstone and his instructions kept away the rain which they so much needed.

At last Sechele applied for baptism, "and," says Dr Livingstone, "I simply asked him how he, having the Bible

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in his hand, and able to read it, thought he ought to act. He went home, gave each of his superfluous wives new clothing, and all his own goods, which they had been accustomed to keep in their huts for him, and sent them to their parents, with an intimation that he had no fault to find with them, but that in parting with them he wished to follow the will of God. On the day on which he and his children were baptized, great numbers came to see the ceremony.

Some thought, from a stupid calumny circulated by enemies to Christianity in the south, that the converts would be made to drink an infusion of 'dead men's brains,' and were astonished to find that only water was used at baptism.

Seeing several of the old men actually in tears during the service, I asked them afterwards the cause of their weeping; they were crying to see their chief, as the Scotch remark over a case of suicide, 'so far left to himself.' They seemed to think that I had thrown the glamour over him, and that he had become mine. Here commenced an opposition which we had not previously experienced. All the friends of the divorced wives became the enemies of our religion. The attendance at school and church diminished to very few besides the chief's own family. They all treated

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A HUMBLE cottager had several beehives: they were very profitable, and she made nearly half-a-sovereign a year out of each of them. A book fell into her hands which told her about the heathen: it said Christ died for them--actually died for them -and now His reward is to have them converted and loving Him; but how shall they hear of Him without preachers, and how can preachers be sent unless people will help to support them? Everybody must do something. Jesus did His part: He did not

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grudge them His life-blood; and shall we grudge them our silver and gold? No," she replied (as if the book had talked to her), "I wont, for one." And that very day she set apart two of her hives, the honey of which was to be sold for the missionary cause; and when she took the twenty shilings to her minister, and he said, "Surely, you cannot afford so much as this," she looked hard at him and said, "Sir, I must affordit; THE LORD HATH NEED OF IT!"-Juv. Missionary Herald.

Poetry.

WE ALL MIGHT DO GOOD.

Kindly breathed or suppress'd, It may guard off some pain,

Or give peace to some breast.

We all might do good,

In a thousand small ways

In forbearing to flatter,

Yet yielding due praise;

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Price 6d. per doz. or 38. 6d. per 100; 20 copies sent free by post for 10d., paid in advance. Published by GALL & INGLIS, 6 George Street, Edinburgh, HOULSTON & WRIGHT, London.

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A SERVANT of God sat in a bamboo moved the lofty palm-trees which chair in the front of a mission-house grew by the way-side. He looked in the East Indies. It was the even- faint, weary, and careworn; for he ing of the day: the sun's heat was had sat in that chair all the long day, still very great, and not a breeze teaching the simple truths of the October 1858.

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THE HISTORY OF SECHELE.

you do?" they ask, "Have you had rain?" or, "Which way is the rain?" The rain-doctor is a most important personage among the Bakwains. Sechele himself, before his conversion, was celebrated in this way, and his people begged him, now that they were suffering so severely from drought, to try some of his old medicine to bring the longed-for rain. They thought Dr Livingstone had bound him with some spell which prevented him from using his power, and some of the old men came to the missionary, entreating him to allow him to make only a few showers. They said, "The corn will die if you refuse, and we shall become scattered. Only let him make rain this once, and we shall all, men, women, and children, come to the school, and sing and pray as long as you please. " Dr Livingstone assured them that he wished Sechele to do what he thought right himself, but in spite of all he could say, they must have thought him very hard-hearted, as the rain would not fall. Still, they always treated him and his family with kindness and respect. One of their principal men said to him one day, "We like you as well as if you had been born among us; you are the only white man we can become familiar with; but we wish you to give up that everlasting preaching and pray

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During such a drought as this, the air is so scorched and dry that needles lying out of doors for months would not rust. The leaves of the trees were all drooping, soft, and shrivelled; plants, animals and man all pined for water. The women parted with all their ornaments to purchase corn from their more fortunate neighbours, and the men went out to hunt.

Of course the people were not in a very good humour for listening to the missionary's instructions. When people are feasting at one time and starving at another, as is the case with most savage tribes, they cannot learn with much regularity.

But Sechele and his tribe had other misfortunes worse to bear than even the want of rain and scarcity of food. There was a settlement of Dutch boers, or farmers, in the neighbouring mountains, who seemed to think that black people were made on purpose to be slaves to the whites. They had already made slaves of several of the

THE HISTORY OF SECHELE.

used against them!

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neighbouring tribes, and now resolved | cannon and five hundred guns to be Of course they complained to the government of this offence against the law.

to enslave Sechele and his people. Whenever the boers heard of natives who were industrious in raising corn for themselves, or who were active in any other sort of work, they said, "If they want to work, let them work for us, their masters!' Thus, they got all the labour of their farms done without paying any wages for it. And if any tribes refused to work for them on such terms, they would arm themselves against them, and shoot them down. These boers call themselves Christians, and have churches and clergymen and Bibles. Some of them said to Dr Livingstone, "You might as well teach the monkeys on the rocks as the Africans." To which he replied, by proposing that some of their own children, and these despised blacks, should be examined together, to see which could read best; the boers, however, wisely declined this way of proving whether the Africans could learn. During all the time that Dr Livingstone was with the Bakwains, the boers were very suspicious of him, they knew that his instructions would only help to make them more independent, and watched him with a jealous eye. At last they thought they had discovered something which should enable them to get rid of him. They had found out, so they said, that he had actually given Sechele a

And what do you think was the origin of the story? Why, just this

Dr Livingstone had an old blackmetal pot which Sechele borrowed one day to cook with, as theirs of pottery are very brittle, and this black pot was first changed into a cannon, and then five hundred guns added to it! That is the way in which stories grow.

The boers had another cause of quarrel with Sechele. English traders were constantly passing and re-passing through his country, especially since Dr Livingstone's discovery of Lake Ngami, and the boers wrote to Sechele, ordering him to stop these traders, as they sometimes sold guns to the natives. They thought no one should have guns but themselves. But Sechele replied, "I was made an independent chief, and placed here by God, and not by you. I was never conquered by Moselekatse, as those tribes whom you rule over; and the English are my friends. I get everything I wish from them. I'cannot hinder them from going where they like.”

In the meantime, Dr Livingstone took one of his long journeys, and while he was absent sad things happened.

(To be continued.)

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