study, such as you can
pursue only there. Meanwhile, I will remain here till your return, and
complete the education of your future wife. Then, seek ordination,
which also, unhappily, you cannot obtain in Southern Africa. Some day,
God will set up His Church in this land, and it will grow like the
mustard seed, and the people will rest under its shadow. But that time
is still far off. Let it be your work, as it has been mine, to prepare
the furrows for the seed that will then be cast in. Will you do this?"

"God being my helper," answered Ernest, "I will."

APPENDIX.

THE HOTTENTOT GOD.

The worship of the beetle by the Hottentots has been disputed. No doubt
it has not been their practice during the last fifty years. But that it
existed in more ancient times, is (I think) abundantly proved by the
evidence of trustworthy writers. Kolben, for example, has the following
explicit statement, made from his own experience.

"The Hottentots adore as a benignant Deity, a certain insect, peculiar
(it is said) to the Hottentot countries. This animal is of the
dimensions of a child's little finger; the back green, the belly
speckled white and red. It is provided with two wings and two horns.
To this little winged Deity, whenever they set eyes on it, they render
the highest tokens of veneration. If it honours their kraal with a
visit, the inhabitants assemble round it with transports of devotion, as
if the Lord of the Universe was come among them. If the insect happens
to alight on a Hottentot, he is looked upon as a man without guilt, and
distinguished and reverenced as a saint and the delight of the Deity
ever after. They declared that if this deified insect had been killed,
all their cattle would certainly have been destroyed by wild beasts, and
they themselves, every man, woman, and child of them, brought to a
miserable end."--_Kolben_, vol 1, page 99.

KAFFIR PROPHETS.

The scriptural curse of the "false prophet" has never been more
strikingly fulfilled, than in the instance of the Kaffir nation in the
year 1656. A false prophet, named Umhlahaza, professed to have received
a revelation from heaven through the visions of a girl, commanding the
Kaffirs to kill the whole of their cattle, and promising that, in the
event of their obedience, all their forefathers, together with their
cattle, should rise to life again, that they should regain their
ascendancy in the land, and live in plenty and prosperity f