h cast
down and said to his wife, "Mary, this is hard work." "It is hard work,
my love," she replied, "but take courage, our lives shall be given us
for a prey." "But think, my dear," he said, "how long we have been
preaching to this people, and no fruit yet appears." The wise woman made
answer, "The Gospel has not yet been preached to them _in their own
tongue in which they were born_. They have heard it only through
interpreters, and interpreters who have themselves no just
understanding, no real love of the truth. We must not expect the
blessing till you are able, from your own lips and in their language, to
bring it through their ears into their hearts."

"From that hour," said Moffat, in relating the conversation, "I gave
myself with untiring diligence to the acquisition of the language."

As an instance of the drawback of preaching by means of an interpreter,
the sentence, "The salvation of the soul is a very important subject,"
was rendered by one of those individuals as follows: "The salvation of
the soul is a very great sack." A rendering altogether unintelligible.

For the purpose of studying the language Moffat made journeys among the
tribes, so that he might for a time be freed from speaking Dutch, the
language spoken with his own people at Lattakoo. Itinerating visits were
also made in turn every Sabbath to the surrounding villages, and
occasionally further afield, but sometimes, after walking perhaps four
to five miles to reach a village, not a single individual could be found
to listen to the Gospel message.

The only service in which the missionaries took any real delight at this
time, was the Sabbath evening service held in Dutch for the edification
of themselves and the two or three Hottentots, with their families, who
belonged to the mission.

In addition to sore privations, discouragements, false accusations, and
the loss of their property, the missionaries found even their lives at
times imperilled. The natives and all on the station were suffering
greatly from a long continued drought. All the efforts of the
professional rain-maker had been in vain, no cloud appeared in the sky,
no rain fell to water the parched land. The doings of the missionaries
were looked upon as being the cause of this misfortune. At one time it
was a bag of salt, which Moffat had brought in his waggon, that
frightened the rain away; at another the sound of the chapel bell. Their
prospects became darker than ever. At las