THE following is the letter of special interest, received by Rev. Neil Cameron, to which reference is made in the Synod report:—
C/O NATIVE COMMISSIONER, BEMBESI,
MATABELELAND, SOUTH AFRICA, 7th June, 1907.
MY DEAR MR. CAMERON,—I am very glad to have another opportunity of writing to you again, hoping that this letter will find you all enjoying good health. There has been here a great deal of fever this year; many people have suffered from it. Even in our Mission there have been several cases of it, but I am thankful to say that, through the mercy of God, very few have proved fatal. We have had, this year, a very wet season, and people here say that there is generally more fever in a wet season than in a dry one.
I often think about you all, and of my godly friends in Scotland. I hope you are all praying for me, that the Lord may afford me His grace and presence, and enable me to perform the work, and endure the trials He may see fit to call me to. It is His Spirit and guidance that we need in everything we do, as without Him we can do nothing. The Matabeles, as a people, seem generally kind and well-disposed towards me. They are also attentive, and willing to be taught. Chief Ngege’s son, too, is still with me, and some of them have also purchased clothes in order to come to Church, but still the attendance is not so large as I would desire. Most of them give the excuse of not having clothes to come to Church, and say that they have not the money to buy clothes.
Chief Ngege’s son was asking me why they allowed trains to go on the Sabbath day, and I asked him if he thought that was wrong, and he said “Certainly—that the Sabbath day was the Lord’s day; it was a day for everything to rest; they are given six days to work by the Lord.” I was also speaking to a young Matabele the other day, and he said, “What you missionaries say is all right enough, but you do not practice what you preach.” He said he had seen several missionaries not regarding the Sabbath at all.
There are some Fingoes, belonging to the Presbyterian Church of Africa, who have joined our Church. They formerly belonged to the Cape Colony, but are now living in Rhodesia. They were brought here by Mr. Rhodes, and are scattered all over Rhodesia, but some of them returned to Cape Colony after Mr. Rhodes’ death. I explained to them our position as a Church, and that we sang solely the Psalms of David and nothing else. I explained to them our simple mode of worship, which we think is according to Scripture, and that we expected that all who wish to join our Church must submit to all the doctrine and standards of our Church and simple mode of worship, and use only the Psalms of
David and no hymns or organs, and that they were not to bring the customs of their Churches into ours; and if at any time, even after they had joined us, any of them should think they were not in full sympathy with our doctrine and mode of worship, it would be advisable for those to leave us. I told them that we believed in the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, as the inspired Word of God, and accept the whole of the Confession of Faith as our doctrine and standard, and we believe that the Psalms of David only should be sung in the Church. They accepted everything I said.
These people who have joined us are living about six miles from our Mission here, at the Fingoe location at Lower Bembesi. There are also a few Matabeles at a place called Koco who have joined us, and so I shall now have two new preaching places, as I shall have to visit those places occasionally. Those Matabeles at Koco also belonged to the Presbyterian Church of Africa.
Some of the Fingoes who have joined us are preachers. I have known them for a long time and believe them to be good men, and think that they will be of great help to me. I shall now be able to go and preach to outside places. I could not have done so before, as I was all alone, and could not have anyone to take my place at home. These will now be able to assist me.
These people could not understand why we, being Free Presbyterians, were using a Methodist Hymn Book, and I explained to them that we were only using the nine Psalms in it, and not the Hymns in it. They then told me that there were a great many more Psalms in the Presbyterian Hymn Book than in the Wesleyan one. So they brought me a Presbyterian Hymn Book to see, and in examining it I found that it contained many more Psalms than in the Wesleyan one. These are the Psalms in metre I found in it—136, 139, 23, 100, 97, 148, 5, 89, 67, 95, 84, 24, 43, 119, 15, 27, 46, and 133; and the following Psalms in chant form—1, 8, 15, 19, 23, 24, 27, 41, 46, 48, 68, 65, 90, 103, and 122; and so I thought it best for the time being to use the Presbyterian Hymn Book, as it contains more Psalms than the Methodist one.
I am still looking for some one who can put for us the whole of the Psalms in metre, but I have not yet been successful. I also told these people that we intended to have our own Praise Book containing the Psalms alone, with no Hymns in it.—With kindest regards, yours sincerely,
J. B. RADASI.
A Roman Catholic Legacy to Ritualists.—A Roman Catholic wine merchant in Birmingham died recently and left several legacies for Romish institutions, and £500 for the “Cowley College, Oxford.” This means the “Cowley Fathers,” who are notorious Ritualists in the Church of England.