Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Stanley and Africa
The great missionary himself has given us a very remarkable instance of the power of the Scriptures over the heathen mind - an instance which forms quite a romantic episode. In one of my early journeys, he says, with some of my companions, we came to a heathen village on the banks of the Orange River, between Namaqua Land and the Griqua country. Io had travelled far, and were hungry, thirsty, and fatigued. From the fear of being exposed to lions, we preferred remaining at the village to proceeding during the night. The people at the village rather roughly directed us to halt at a distance. W'e asked water, but they would not supply it. I offered the three or four buttons which still remained on my jacket for a little milk this also was refused. We had the prospect of another hungry night, at a distance from water, though within sight of the river. \ve found it difficult to recon cile ourselves to our lot; for, in addition to repeated rebuffs, the manners of the villagers excited our suspicion. \vhen twilight drew on, a woman approached from the heights beyond which the village lay. She bore on her head a bundle of wood, and had a vessel of milk in her hand. The latter, without Openingher lips, she handed to us, laid down the wood, and returned to the village. A second time she approached, with a cooking vessel on her head, and a leg of mutton in one hand, and water in the other. She sat down without saying a word, prepared the fire, and put on the meat. Ive asked her again and again who she was. She remained silent till affectionately entreated to give us a reason for such unlocked-for kindness to strangers. The solitary tear stole down her sable cheek when she replied, 'i love llim whose servants you are; and surely it is my duty to give you a cup of cold water in His name my heart is full, therefore I cannot speak the joy I feel to see you in this out-of-the-way place.' She was a lonely disciple indeed, and her only means of keeping the spiritual life awake within her was a copy of the Dutch New Testament, which she had got years before, when in a missionary school, previous to removing with her relatives far up the country.
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