New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-12-20
A STORY OLE NOZZLE WORK.

THE LIVES OF ROBERT AND MARY MOFFAT, 81
In, SOIL joins >. MOTIAT Portraits aud Maps.
Svo pp. XIX, 4s4. \. G. Armstrong & son.
Even To those who believe least in the practical
utility of foreign mission work there must always
he an attraction IN the biographies of true mission
;ules For though the busy wording may be
incapable of approaching the selfrcnunciation, the
spiritual exatation, the evan ,elIcal enthusiasm,
which lift these men 50 far above the ambition OF
material prosperity and sustain them 50 firmly IN
prolonged hardship, pryatlon and all manner OF
suffering bodily and mental there IS III the silent
testimony Of all such lives quckcninS suggestion
of planes of action not only di ierent lIom but
infinitely higher than that of mammon worship
Robert Motat. whose career his sou has here rev.
erently and lovingly recorded, WAS born mission
aIy The young ScOtchman was strongly drawn
TO the vocation at an age when most young men are
absorbed by the delights OF the full life Just open
ing before them He went to South Africa IN 1917,
and labored there fifty years yet was still full
of ylgor when he returned nnaly to his native
land During nearly the whole Of LIS active
career lie was assisted by his wife, a woman Of
beautiful character said by those who knew her to
have been a IN ssOnary only second in influence to
her husband. Moilats work was chiefly done
among the Bechuanas. When he first went to his
mission at Kuruman lie found the natives stepped
IN savagery, without germ Of CIVILIZATION lazy,
Glthy stupidity supersttIous, ignorant OF agrcul-
ure, living like beasts. 1t took years OF patient
toll carried on amid constant discoura -ements, 10
effect a change DIR. Mofat always maintained that
eyangeizaton should precedc civilization, contrary
to the theory held by many if not most statesmen.
Certainly his own experience with the Bcchuanas
deserves to rank as test Others had tried TO
raise them first to a higher plane Of life, and had
failed Moflat began with the Gospel and until lie
had taught them that he did not undertake to lift
them out of savagery The task was hard. but LIE
succeeded. The Bechuanas became Christians. and
then they began to rise rapidly. They abandoned
their filthy habits. They lived in houses They
cultivated and rrigated the soil. They became
peaceable sober Industrious, clearly, thrifty
people And they owed their emancipation to
Robert Mofat and Mary MOhat.
A more lndefatigable missionary than the former
never lived. lie was indeed, admirably lifted for
the life, for he was one Of those men who pick up
knowledge of all kinds as plants assmilate
1 moisture, and can turn their hands to anything
with a little practice. AS he had been bred a
gardener he possessed a fair knowledge of plants.
! lie taught himself geology also studied soils, so
| that he could know where and what to cultivate
picked up enough carpentering and mechanics to
enable him to build houses and pnt up mills and
presses learned the printers art that he might De
able to set up his translation of the Scriptures
into the native tongue; and famiarlzcd hiiuself
with of other handicrafts all of which were
useful or necessary to n sojourncr in the dis
taut wilderness
The only mode Of travel in South Africa during
the greater part of his residence there the
cart. This slow conveyance cTawled for days and
weeks between the far-separated settlements,
traversing extensive sand deserts where the want
of water was severely felt, and where every night
the camp had to be strongly defended against
prowling lions Sometimes these weary
Journeys a river usually fordable wonld be found in
food from recent rains, and then perhaps two
weeks would have to be passed on the banks, wait
ing for the subsistence of the stream. Then, too.
there was constant trouble made by turbulent
Beers and escaped desperadoes, who would engage
in cattle-theving raids upon tho native border
tribes, and by their atrocities cngeDder suspicion
aud hatred Of all white men, and not seldom cause
the collapse of all the good work so lab0riOnsly
raised by the missionaries. There fierce
native king, named Mosikatse. who ruled n
powerful tribe called tho Matebele. Him Motiat
visited experimcntally, ana though he could not
convert the chief he found favor in his eyes, and
| curious and almost touching friendship enduring
throughout Moflats residence in South Africa grew
up between them. 1t resulted. after many years,
IN the consent of Moslikatse to the establishment
Of mission in his country. The author says that
| the Matabele mission has not yet accomplished