There is unhappily a tendency among persons living for any length of
time among heathen people, to think and speak with a certain contempt
for those people, at whose moral elevation they may even be sincerely
aiming. They see all that is bad in these "inferior races," and little
that is good. This was not so in the case of the greatest and most
successful Missionaries. They never lost faith in human nature, even at
its lowest estate, and hence they were able to raise the standard of the
least promising of the outcast races of the world. This faith in the
possibility of the elevation of these races has been firmly held,
however, by some who know them best, and have lived among them the
longest.
Mr Rider Haggard writes thus on this subject:--"So far as my own
experience of natives has gone, I have found that in all the essential
qualities of mind and body they very much resemble white men. Of them
might be aptly quoted the speech Shakespeare puts into Shylock's mouth:
'Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses,
affections, passions?' In the same way, I ask, has a native no feelings
or affections? does he not suffer when his parents are shot, or his
children stolen, or when he is driven a wanderer from his home? Does he
not know fear, feel pain, affection, hate, and gratitude? Most certainly
he does; and this being so, I cannot believe that the Almighty, who made
both white and black, gave to the one race the right or mission of
exterminating or of robbing or maltreating the other, and calling the
process the advance of civilization. It seems to me, that on only one
condition, if at all, have we the right to take the black men's land;
and that is, that we provide them with an equal and a just Government,
and allow no maltreatment of them, either as individuals or tribes, but,
on the contrary, do our best to elevate them, and wean them from savage
customs. Otherwise, the practice is surely undefensible.
"I am aware, however, that with the exception of a small class, these
are sentiments which are not shared by the great majority of the public,
either at home or abroad."
A French gentleman, who has been for many years connected with the
_Missions Evangéliques_ of France, related recently in my presence some
incidents of the early experience of French Missionaries in South
Africa. One of these had laboured for years without encouragement. The
hearts of the native people around him remained unmoved. One day,
however, he spoke among them especially of Calvary, of the sufferings of
Christ on the Cross. A Chief who was present left the building in which
the teacher was speaking. At the close, this Chief was found sitting on
the ground outside, his back to the door, his head bent forward and
buried in his arms. He was weeping. When spoken to, he raised his arm
with a movement of deprecation, and, in a voice full of pity and
indignation, said--"to think that there was no one even to give Him a
drink of water!" That poor savage had known what thirst is. This one
awakened chord of human sympathy with the human Christ was
communicative. Other hearts were touched, and from that time the
Missionary began to reap a rich harvest from his labours. In the midst
of the elaborate services of our fashionable London churches is there
often to be found so genuine a feeling as that which shook the soul of
this Chief, and broke down the barrier of coldness and hardness in his
fellow-countrymen which had before prevented the acceptance of the
message of Salvation and of the practical obligations of Christianity
among them? Men who are capable of rising to the knowledge and love of
divine truth cannot be supposed to be impervious to the influence of
_civilization_ properly understood.