THE following letter was received by the Rev. Neil Cameron, Glasgow, on the 12th November:—
C/O NATIVE COMMISSIONER, BEMBESI,
MATABELELAND, 10th October, 1906.
MY DEAR MR. CAMERON,
Many thanks for your kind and most welcome letter, which I was very pleased to receive. I was glad to hear that you were still enjoying good health, but was very sorry to hear about the death of Mrs. Fraser. She was truly a very pious woman, and a very great and faithful friend to me when I was in Scotland. She will be greatly missed by all the godly people of our Church who knew her, and I shall never forget the Christian kindness she always showed me when I was there. I greatly sympathise with the bereaved family. She was truly a praying woman, and took a great interest in the welfare of our Church.
I am sorry to say that we have not yet any of the Psalms put in metre and printed. I am still hopeful that someone will be got who can undertake the work. You will remember that I wrote to the late Dr. Stewart, of Lovedale, asking him if he could not undertake the work, and he promised that he would ask one or two of his teachers if they could not make an attempt, although he had said it was a very difficult task. I was hopeful that something would be done, but Dr. Stewart got ill and died soon after that, and nothing more was heard. And so I am still using the Psalms in the native hymn book, but will not be satisfied until we have our own psalm book printed in metre. I think I told you some time ago that I also have £3 with me towards the printing of the Psalms in metre.
Chief Ngege has at last sent his son to school. He is staying with me. I told him he could go home sometimes on a Friday afternoon to see his parents, and come back on Saturday again, in order that he might be present during the Sabbath Services. He came last week, and I have just begun to teach him the alphabet in the native language. It is to be hoped that he will continue in school until he is able to read the Bible. He is a boy about fourteen years of age. I believe very much in spreading the Bibles amongst the natives. I would like them to learn to read, so that they might be able to read their Bibles themselves. It is by the Spirit of God alone that we can understand the Bible. Is it not a great blessing to poor and hell-deserving sinners like ourselves, that the invitations of the Gospel are addressed to those that have destroyed themselves, and a free pardon offered to the guilty sinner and lost sinner? We need grace to realise these things. Pray for us, that the Lord may pour down His Spirit upon us.
Kindly remember me to all the friends in Glasgow. I hope your dear mother is keeping well. I got, some time ago, two letters from Mr. Sinclair and one from Mr. Beaton. I was very pleased and thankful to get them. I shall always be very glad to get letters from any of our ministers, although I am not able to reply to them all. Of course, they all see my letters in the Magazine.
With kindest regards.—Your sincere friend,
JOHN B. RADASL.
P.S.—Thank the lady, for me, who sent the 10/- for a pulpit seat. The postage to Matabeleland is 2½d. If you address my letters to Bembesi, I can get them a day or two earlier.