1. TEACHERS WORKING UNDER THE WATHEN CHURCH.
2. DEACONS OF THE WATHEN CHURCH.
On Monday morning my owner, Mikula, bought a supply of various simple medicines to take back to his town, and he also asked for and received some slates, pencils, and reading-books to meet the demands of his numerous scholars. By noon he and the others had said “Good-bye” to their friends, white and black, and were on the road again with their faces turned homewards. Mikula moved with a buoyant step, for his heart was light and happy. His work as a deacon, teacher and preacher had received the commendation of his white man; and he was returning home to be married--to take to his house, which had cost him so much time, thought and labour, the girl of his choice, one who had been taught on the station, was a member of the Church, and sympathized with him in all his work.
During the evening, while we were sitting round the fire, the conversation turned on the days when much superstitious opposition and prejudice existed against the Christian religion, and witch-doctors and their followers exerted their combined forces to crush it. Mikula told of one zealous teacher he knew who travelled the country proclaiming God’s message of salvation, who was seen to enter a town, but was never known to leave it. False and misleading reports were spread concerning him; but after a long period the truth came to light: the evangelist went into the said town to preach, the people seized him, hurried him down the long slope to the river, fastened a great stone to his neck, and, hurling him from the rocks, drowned him in the rushing waters.
“A few months ago,” said one of the teachers sitting round the fire, “the people in a town I visited caught me and tied me with my arms extended on a cross in mockery of my Master; then they placed me for hours out in the broiling sun, so that my mouth and throat became parched and dry like the bottom of a saucepan. As the sun went down they set me free, and we have a teacher and some Christians now in that town, for they were astonished to hear me praying for them instead of abusing them.”
“Have you heard what happened some months ago in the district next to ours?” asked another. “An evangelist went into a town, and the natives took him and stretched him on a cross in imitation of our Saviour, and then, spearing him, they cut off his head and flung his body into the bush. Christ suffered much for our salvation, and it is to be expected that we shall have to suffer a little for Him.”
As they sat there round the fire two or three engaged in prayer, and singing softly their evening hymn--“Jesus, Lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly,” they rolled themselves in their blankets, and there in the open around their fires they stretched themselves in sleep.