A Missionary Lesson in Giving
M. Coillard, of the Zambesia Mission, reports to the French Société des Missions his arrival at Palapye, the town of the Christian chief Khama. Thus far on his way from the cape to the Zambesia, M. Coillard had been wonderfully prospered. At Kimberly he visited the diamond mines, and in the vast prison-like compound, where three or four thousand miners are shut in, he found a Zambesian quarter and a crowd of old acquaintances. Their faces lighted up with joy, and in the midst of exultant salutations,—"Our missionary father," and, "Here's provision for the road,"—one and another pressed upon him pieces of money. M. Coillard adds, "This from Zambesians, those inveterate beggars, astonished and touched me." It is not surprising that he should be "touched," but why should one be "astonished," when they had professed Christ? Would it not be expected that the Spirit of Christ would transform a beggar into a giver?