Conversion of Sechele

HE first fruit of Livingstone’s missionary labor in this

region was the conversion of Sechele, that chief of

whom we have already heard. The little sketch of his life

which follows is taken verbatim from Livingstone’s J/issionary Travels, though with some omissions:

“Twas from the first struck by his intelligence, and by the especial manner in which we felt drawn to each other. This remarkable man has not only embraced Christianity, but expounds its doctrines to his people.... On the first occasion in which I ever attempted to hold a public religious service, Sechele remarked that it was the custom of his nation to put questions when any new subject was brought before them, He then inquired if my forefathers knew of a future judgment. I replied in the affirmative, and began to describe the scene of the great white throne, and Him who shall sit on it, from whose face the heaven and earth shall flee away. ‘You startle me,’ he replied; ‘these words make all my bones to shake; Ihave no more strength in me; but my forefathers were living at the same time yours were, and how is it that they did not send them word about these terrible things sooner? They all passed away into darkness without knowing whither they were going.’ c

“As soon as he had an agen of learning, he set himself to read with such close application that, from being comparatively thin, the effect of being addicted to the chase, he became corpuient from want of exercise. He acquired the alphabet on the first day of my residence at Chonuane, and | never went into the town but I was pressed to hear him read some chapters of the Bible. Isaiah was a great favorite with him, and he was wont to exclaim, ‘He was a fine man, that Isaiah; he knew how to speak.’

“He seconded my anxiety that his subjects should become converts to Christianity, and said, “Do you imagine these people will ever believe by your merely talking to them? 1 can make them do nothing except by threatening them; and if you like, I shall call my head men, and with our whips of rhinoceros-hide we will soon make them all believe together.’ The idea of using persuasion to subjects, whose opinion he would not have condescended toask on any other matter, was especially surprising to him. He considered that they ought to be happy to embrace Christianity at his command.

“We felt the difficulties of his situation, and often said, ‘Oh, I wish you had come to this country before I was entangled in the meshes of our customs!’ In fact, he could not get rid of his superfluous wives without appearing to be ungrateful to their parents, who had done so much for him in his adversity.

“In the hope of inducing others to accept his new faith, he asked me to have family worship in his own house. This I did, and by and by I was surprised to hear how well he conducted the prayer in his own simple and beautiful style, for he was a thorough master of his language. At this time we were suffering from the effects of a drought, which was ascribed by the natives to Christianity, and none except his family, whom he ordered to attend, came near his meeting. ‘In former times,’ said he, ‘ when a chief was fond of hunting, all his people got dogs and became fond of hunting too. If he was fond of dancing or music, all showed a liking to these amusements too. If the chief loved beer, they all rejoiced in strong drink. But in this case it is different. I love the Word of God, and not one of my brethren will join me.’ “When he at last — in 1848 — applied for baptism, I asked him how, being acquainted with the Bible, he thought he ought to act. He went home and gave each of his supernumerary wives new clothing, together with all the goods they had been accustomed to keep in their huts for him. He then sent them to their parents with an intimation that he had no fault to find with them, but that he wished to follow the will of God. When he and his children were baptized, great numbers came to see the ceremony. Some thought from a stupid story which had been circulated by the enemies to Christianity in the South, that the converts would be made to drink an infusion of ‘dead men’s brains,’ and were astonished to find that only water was used. Seeing several old men in tears during the service, I afterwards asked them the cause of their weeping. They were crying to see their father, as the Scotch remark of a case of suicide, ‘so far left to himself? They seemed to think that I had thrown the glamour over him, and that he had become mine. All the friends of the divorced wives now became the opponents of our religion. The attendance at school and church dwindled down to very few besides the family of the chief. They all continued to treat us with respectful kindness; but to Sechele himself they uttered things which, had they ventured on in former times, would, as he often remarked, have cost them their lives.” Later we learn that Sechele himself had become a missionary to his own people, and had considerable influence over them, though more in material than in religious matters. He was always a warm friend of missions, had a remarkable knowledge of the Bible, and could preach well. His regard for the memory of Livingstone was very great, and he read with earnestness everything that he could find about him. Notwithstanding that Sechele’s efforts were not as successful as had been hoped, the results show that Livingstone had laid a good foundation. “That mission,” writes Dr. Moffat in 1874, “is the most prosperous, extensive, and influential of all our missions in the Bechuana country.”

In 1881 Sechele was still living, with the one wife whom he had retained, and though not without some inconsistencies of life — which Livingstone ascribed to the bad example set him by some — he still maintained his Christian profession. His people, being at some miles’ distance from Kolobeng, had now a missionary station of their own supported by a Hanoverian Society.