Dr. Moffat Preaches to Hottentots
This incident is given as one of Dr. Moffat's early experiences in Africa: Shortly after his arrival in Africa, the young missionary was about to conduct a religious service in the family of a Dutch farmer, when he noticed the absence of the black servants, and remarked to the master of the house, "May none of your servants come in?" "What! Hottentots! Are you come to preach to Hottentots? Go to the mountains and preach to the baboons; or, if you like, I'll fetch my dogs, and you may preach to them!" The quick-witted missionary at once read as his text, "Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table!" Quietly he repeated the words a second and a third time, till the Boer was compelled to say, "No more of that, I'll bring you all the Hottentots in the place!" After the service the Boer, still surprised by the way in which he had been answered, remarked to the missionary, "Who hardened your hammer to deal my head such a blow? I will never object to the preaching of the gospel to Hottentots again."