THE MORIMO OF THE BECHUANAS.-ORIGIN OF MORIMO.

70

RAIN-MAKER'S SAGACITY.-INCREDULITY OF A CHIEF.

thus, without being a ventriloquist or Pythoness, | had enabled the rain-maker to fall on so lucky a stratagem. She fared well, whoever fasted; and though the heavens continued as brass, and the earth as iron, she became, by the gifts of rich and poor, a spectacle of obesity, and soon died. This may account for the town people knowing something about the name Morimo, where the inhabitants of many villages and hamlets, being without rainmakers, are in perfect ignorance.

standing, I had only to draw conclusions from facts, which, according to the proverb, are "stubborn things," though even these sometimes fail to convince. Having asked the opinion of Mr. Campbell, as we were walking together, upon the views of a native Christian from Namaqua-land, with whom we had been conversing on this subject, and who had been giving us an ample and descriptive account of his former ideas, Mr. C. remarked, in his usual pithy style, "Ah, sir, the people in England would not believe that men could become like pigs,

of looking up to see from whence they came. People who have had the Christian lullaby sung over their cradles, and sipped the knowledge of divine things with their mother's milk, think all men must see as they do."

Even the rain-maker, when asked by the missionary why he could thus honour the little mali-eating acorns under the tree, without being capable cious thing which they called Morimo, that only came out of a hole to inflict pain, taking advantage of our Christian views as to the meaning of the word, would promptly reply, "Do not you say Morimo is the governor of the heavens, and that he only can make rain? why then should we not honour him?" This showed his skill in the appropriation of our principles to serve his own purposes. He also exhibited considerable cunning in this transfer; for, should rain not come at his call, he could bring in the Morimo of the teachers for some part, if not the whole, of the blame. Thus, when hail injured their crops, or rain fell in the cold and unseasonable part of the year, they would use the vilest epithets, and curse both the missionaries and their Morimo. When we assured them that God was in the heavens, and that He did whatever He pleased, they blamed us for giving Him a high position beyond their reach; for they viewed their Inquiring one day of a group of natives whom I Morimo as a noxious reptile. "Would that I could had been addressing, if any of them had previously catch it, I would transfix it with my spear," ex-known that Great Being which had been described claimed S., a chief, whose judgment on other subjects would command attention.

As the science of rain-making, and the character of one of whom it might have been said he had got a patent, will be described in a following chapter, I shall confine myself in this to replying to many questions which have been put to me in this country as to the extent of the knowledge of divine things among the natives of South Africa. I am aware that the popular opinion is, that "man is a religious creature;" that "wherever he is to be found, there also are to be traced the impressions and even convictions of the existence of a God." It is also commonly believed, that wherever man is found scattered over the wide spread surface of earth's domain, the knowledge of a "vicarious offering," or sacrifice, by way of atonement, has retained its seat in the human mind. Such were my own views when I left my native land; and entertaining such views, I persuaded myself, or rather tried to persuade myself, that I could discover rays of natural light, innate ideas of a Divine Being, in the most untutored savage;-that I could never be at any loss to make appeals to something analogous to our own faith in the religious notions even of those among whom not a vestige of temple, altar, image, idol, or shrine was to be found. When I was unsuccessful, I attributed it to my ignorance of the language, or the paucity of competent interpreters. So great was the force of early prejudices, that it was a long time before I could be induced to embrace what I once considered an erroneous view of the subject. Living among a people who were not in the habit of metaphysical disquisitions, which so often bewilder the under

One of the most convincing proofs that the minds of the people are covered by the profoundest darkness, is, that after the missionary has endeavoured for hours to impart to them a knowledge of the Divine Being, they not unfrequently address to him the question, "What is it you wish to tell me?" And if anything were wanting to confirm this conviction, surely this fact will be sufficient, that even where he has succeeded in conveying to the vacant mind of the savage ideas which he considers as paramount to all others, he is told that, certainly these fables are very wonderful, but not more so than their own.

to them; among the whole party I found only one old woman, who said that she remembered hearing the name Morimo when she was a child, but was not told what the thing was. Indeed, even in towns the general reply on that subject is, that these are things about which the old people can speak; but as they are not in the habit of instructing the rising generation on such topics, it is easy to see how even these vague notions become extinct altogether, as they have done in many parts of the country. Nor is it surprising that a chief, after listening attentively to me while he stood leaning on his spear, should utter an exclamation of amazement, that a man whom he accounted wise should vend such fables for truths. Calling about thirty of his men, who stood near him, to approach, he addressed them, pointing to me, "There is Ra-Mary (Father of Mary), who tells me that the heavens were made, the earth also, by a beginner, whom he calls Morimo. Have you ever heard anything to be compared with this? He says that the sun rises and sets by the power of Morimo; as also that Morimo causes winter to follow summer, the winds to blow, the rain to fall, the grass to grow, and the trees to bud;" and, casting his arm above and around him, added, "God works in everything you see or hear! Did ever you hear such words?" Seeing them ready to burst into laughter, he said, "Wait, I shall tell you more; Ra-Mary tells me that we have spirits in us, which will never die; and that our bodies, though dead and buried, will rise and live again. Open your ears to-day; did you ever hear litlamane (fables) like these?" This was followed by a burst of deafening laughter; and on its partially subsiding, the chief man begged me

TESTIMONY OF A CONVERT.-INVISIBLE THINGS OF GOD.

71

to say no more on such trifles, lest the people should | istence beyond what they see and feel. This think me mad!

But it is to the testimony of such as have been brought out of darkness into the marvellous light of the gospel that we must look for decisive evidence on this point. The following is one example out of many which could be given. The question being put to one whose memory was tenacious as his judgment was enlightened, "How did you feel in your natural state, before hearing the gospel? How did you feel upon retiring from private as well as public crimes, and laying your head on the silent pillow? Were there no fears in your breast, no spectres before your eyes, no conscience accusing you of having done wrong? No palpitations, no dread of futurity?" No," said he. How could we feel, or how could we fear? We had no idea that an unseen eye saw us, or that an unseen ear heard What could we know beyond ourselves, or of another world, before life and immortality were brought to us by the word of God ?" This declaration was followed by a flood of tears, while he added, "You found us beasts and not men."

us.

66

CHAPTER XVII.

demonstrates that all the knowledge of Divine things existing in every nation, from the refined Greek down a thousand gradations, through the numberless shades of polytheism to the rude barbarian, is to be traced to Divine Revelation, whether written or traditional, and not to innate or intuitive ideas. This view of the subject we shall find, on more minute inquiry, in perfect accordance with the declarations contained in the inspired volume. For "it is He that teacheth man knowledge. I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the heavens by myself." These are the declarations of the great "I AM;" and without such a revelation, the world by wisdom could never have found out God. It is recorded by some author, that there were two periods of the world in which the knowledge of God was universal. This was at the creation, and during the days of Noah, after the flood. At the former period the revelation must have been made known by God himself; and at the latter by the preacher of righteousness in his own family. Keeping this in mind, there is no difficulty in understanding the following declaration of the Apostle. "For the invisible things of Him (His eternal power and

Works of creation insufficient-Knowledge of God not innate Godhead) revealed or made known at the creation

-Invisible things of God-What the Scriptures teachOpinions of ancient philosophers-President Edwards' argument-Reason insufficient-Roby's conclusion on the subject-Man's responsibility-Native ceremonies-Customs

origiuating with Doctors and Rain-makers-An unpleasant

ceremony-Native poets or eulogists-Natural Theology Systems of Idolatry-Their various grades-How Africa was colonized-Physical variety in man.

of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead."* That the stupendous earth and heavens, and the endless variety of order, change, and the dazzling beauty and grandeur of every thing touched by the finger of Jehovah, do testify

tradition has circulated the report through the nations of the earth, which has undergone, by satanic influence on the minds of fallen creatures, all those modifications presented to us in the pantheon, or in the minds of savages.

with a voice, loud as the thunder's roar, clear as the noontide beam, there can be no question; but surely not by uttering speech to a previously unTHE preceding chapter contains facts from which informed mind, and conveying the primary idea important deductions may be drawn; and the of the existence of God. This, in my humble writer has involuntarily been led to inquire, Are opinion, is not what the apostle intended to convey, we compelled to enter the gloomy recesses of hea- but simply that God originally imparted the thenism? If we look at home-a land of light-knowledge of his own being to man, and that shall we not find individuals whose ignorance would equal that either of Hottentot or Bechuana? Have not our noble band of home missionaries brought to light instances of the grossest darkness? How many are there who have resisted the force of every argument on the subject, and even laughed The Scriptures, so far from teaching us that we to scorn every article in our creed, and have died may infer the being of a God from the works of martyrs to atheism! Let us go to the asylums for creation, assert that our knowledge of the visible the deaf and dumb, and we shall find there per-universe, as the production of God's creative power, sons having eyes to see and gaze on the infinitude of wonders in creation, and possessing minds capable of reasoning from effect to cause, who, previous to their being instructed, were perfectly ignorant of a Divine Being. While then we have these facts before us, we feel compelled to differ in opinion from those who would have us believe, that the volume of Nature "affords the primary and entire proof of God's existence;" and "to vindicate his claim to be, he leaves to the heavens which declare his glory, to the firmament which showeth his handywork, to the days which utter knowledge, and the nights which proclaim wisdom." The preceding examples exhibit to our view sentient beings, whose minds, notwithstanding the indications of Divine wisdom, power, and goodness in creation, are unconscious of any ex

⚫ Romans i. 20 :—“ For (yàp, nam, siquidem, forasmuch as) the invisible things of him, his eternal power and godhead, as afterwards explained, from not ix, but arò, ever since, the creation of the world, when they were fully communicated,

are clearly seen, because after a declaration of his nature and existence, the Divine attributes are plainly evinced, being understood vousva, explained to the understanding, by the things that are made, onμao, the works of God, or things which he had done, not only of creation but of providence, in the deluge, in the wonderful preservation of the church, and destruction of his enemies, in his many appearances, miracles, and interpositions with mankind, which, through all ages, had been related to them, and were a sensible demonstration of omniscience, omnipotence, invisibility, and immateriality, even his eternal power and godhead, which alone could effect such wonderful things.”—Ellis on Divine Things.

72

WHAT THE SCRIPTURES TEACH.-REASON INSUFFICIENT.

impossible for us to conceive than how matter should be produced by spirit, or anything else but matter.' The best reasoner in the world, endeavouring to find out the causes of things by the things themselves, might be led into the grossest errors and contradictions, and find himself, at the end, in extreme want of an instructor.

"What instance can be mentioned, from any history, of any one nation under the sun, that emerged from atheism or idolatry into the knowledge or adoration of the one true God, without the assistance of revelation? The Americans, the Africans, the Tartars, and the ingenious Chinese. have had time enough, one would think, to find out the right and true idea of God; and yet, after above five thousand years' improvement, and the full exercise of reason, they have, at this day, got no farther in their progress towards the true religion, than to the worship of stocks and stones and devils. How many thousand years must be allowed to these nations to reason themselves into the true religion? What the light of nature and reason could do to investigate the knowledge of God, is best seen by what they have already done. We cannot argue more convincingly on any foundation than that of known and incontestable facts."

is derived, not from the deductions of reason, but | have a material cause, there being nothing more from a belief of the Divine testimony revealing the fact: "Through faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."* Such as advocate the dignity of human reason may spin a fine theory, but let them go to the hut or the den of the sunburnt African, and ask if any such a system has been spun by these children of nature. It is easy to detect the borrowed plumes with which the heathen moralists bedecked their bright effusions. Philosophers and poets find no difficulty in following nature to nature's God, when they have revelation to lead the way, but let them point out to us nations who have found the Almighty without other aids than their own resources. It is to this that Tertullian refers, when he asks them, "Which of your poets, which of your sophisters, have not drank from the fountains of the prophets?" and thus, as Dr. Ellis expresses it, "their noblest flights took wing from the gospel." Many heathen philosophers who possessed advantages vastly superior to any of Africa's sons, instead of inferring from works of creation, the existence of a Supreme Being, generally maintained that the matter, and some even that the form of the world itself was eternal, and others again substituted parts of the visible universe for God himself. Even no less a person than the learned philosopher Dr. Clarke, the defender of natural religion, admits, that " of the philosophers themselves, who should have corrected the errors of the vulgar, some argued themselves out of the belief of the very being of God." The following from President Edwards's "Miscellaneous Observations," will be found to throw additional light on the subject:

"If the most sagacious of the philosophers were capable of doing this, after hearing so much of a first cause and a creation, what would they have done, and what would the gross of mankind, who are inattentive and ignorant, have thought of the matter. if nothing had been taught concerning God and the origin of things; but every single man left solely to such intimation as his own senses and reason could have given him? We find the earlier ages of the world did not trouble themselves about the question, whether the being of God could be proved by reason; but either never inquired into the matter, or took their opinions upon that head, merely from tradition. But allowing that every man is able to demonstrate to himself, that the world, and all things contained therein, are effects, and had a beginning, which I take to be a most absurd supposition, and look upon it to be almost impossible for unassisted reason to go so far; yet if effects are to be ascribed to similar causes, and a good and wise effect must suppose a good and wise cause; by the same way of reasoning, all the evil and irregularity in the world must be attributed to an evil and unwise cause. So that either the first cause must be both good and evil, wise and foolish, or else there must be two first causes, an evil and irrational, as well as a good and wise principle. Thus man, left to himself, would be apt to reason, If the cause and the effects are similar and conformable, matter must Heb. xi. 3.

All this, and much more that might be said on the subject, goes to prove, that reason, whose province is not to invent, but to collect, arrange, and deduce, cannot discover first principles; and that unless these are supplied by the law and the testimony, the mind must wander, as it has done, in the bewildering maze of uncertainty, and darken instead of seeing more clearly the reflected beams of revealed truth, which tradition has conveyed like a glimmering ray to the minds of most of the inhabitants of our globe.

It appears evident, then, from what has been written, that all the relics of theology to be found in heathen lands, are only the remaining fragments which have been handed down by a vitiated and defective tradition. But more than this, we find people not only in Africa, but in other parts of the world, from whose intellectual horizon the last rays of tradition have fled,-proving what the Scriptures affirm, that man's depraved nature is such, as to choose darkness rather than light,-and who have now most emphatically forgotten God. The late Rev. William Roby, in his Lectures on Revealed Religion, from which some hints have been taken, makes the following remarks:

With respect to ourselves, it must be admitted, that we derived our knowledge of the truth from instruction; and wherever it exists, it may be traced through antecedent generations, to the first parents of the human race; and they could derive it from no other than their Creator. The advocates of human reason and natural religion, may talk and write on these subjects, but their systems are radically defective in various respects. They are not only obscure and confused; inadequate and imperfect; different and contradictory; but are all of them merely hypothetical. They are founded upon nothing but presumption, they cannot justly pretend to certainty, for they acknowledge no infallible standard; presenting no evidence of divine authority, they have no claim to religious

MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY.-NATIVE POETS OR EULOGISTS.