Robert Moffat Visits the Cape
In the year 1816 the Missions in South Africa had fallen into a state of grievous disorder. The number of stations was large, and they were scattered far apart. Some of the men who had been sent out had proved themselves unworthy of their trust, and had not maintained even an ordinary standard of Christian conduct. On the arrival of Robert Moffat and his colleagues they were astounded to find themselves associated in the service of the Society with men who had brought shame on the very name of Christian, and whose reputations were a by-word to the ungodly.
A correspondence with the Directors followed on this and some other subjects. They were slow to open their eyes to the unwelcome truth, and were disposed to regard the representations which had been made to them as the result of prejudice and discontent.
They were the more predisposed to take this view of the case because the missionaries were at the same time pointing out another of their difficulties — the smallness of their stipends. The Directors seemed unable to understand why men who had given up home and friends for the sake of preaching the gospel to the heathen should be so open to ordinary human weakness as to find it irksome, if not difficult, to keep up a position of respectability on twenty-five or thirty pounds a year, which was less than half what any ordinary mechanic could earn at the Cape. Correspondence, as is often the case, did not mend the matter much. The chasm between the Directors and their missionaries grew wider. It was for Robert Moffat a happy circumstance that he was away in Namaqualand, too far off to take an active part in the strife which led to three of the colleagues with whom he sympathized retiring from the service of the Society. Happily, too, when he arrived at the Cape on his return from Namaqualand he found that the Directors were sending two deputies — John Campbell of Kingsland, and Dr. Philip — to inquire into these matters, and to set things in order. This measure saved the South African Mission. The Directors had made a good choice. Mr. Campbell’s work was temporary, but Dr. Philip was to take up his position at the Cape as the Society’s agent or superintendent.
It would be difificult to measure the good that has resulted from the work of Dr. Philip. Perhaps a test of the depth and reality of the influence he exerted is to be found in the fact that for many years he was the best-hated man in the Colony — hated, that is, by those who were not the friends of the natives. To the Cape he was in those days, in his championship of justice to the natives, very much what Dr. Colenso was later on in Natal; and he was more fortunate than the latter in never having handicapped himself with excursions into the regions of Biblical criticism. He united a clear and scholarly mind with a will as firm as the granite of his native land, and he fought the battle of the native races at heavy odds. Now that the tide has turned, and that there is a strong Colonial party standing where Dr. Philip once stood all but alone but for a few trusty friends, some men may have forgotten what he did. His record is on high, and can never be forgotten there.
The members of the Deputation set themselves to remedy the evils which had worked so much havoc; and Moffat soon saw that there was no reason for him to do otherwise than to continue his work in connection with the Society, though, as he says in a letter to his parents at this time, “My determination was, whether I continued with or left the Society, to return to the heathen beyond the limits of the Colony.”
Men like Philip and Moffat, both devoted to the service of their Master, could not be very far away from each other in personal brotherly feeling. The latter, however, had a stout Nonconformist objection to the principle of a superintendency. He protested against it from the hrst as “putting Pope into new clothes.” It was well that the remoteness of the Bechwana Mission practically isolated it from the range of the doctor’s regime; and after his retirement from the duties of his office in old age no successor was appointed. The wisdom of this is an open question.
The Deputation was already in Cape Town when Moffat arrived there with Afrikaner. After many conferences with him, it seemed good not only that his services should be transferred to the Bechwana country, but that he should accompany Campbell and Philip on a journey of inspection to the stations in the eastern part of the Colony and in Kafirland. As this journey involved a probable absence of about twelve months, it was a trial of faith to him. He was expecting the arrival of his bride, and it seemed hard that she should have to land in a strange country and to find none of her own to welcome her.
“On these accounts” (he says) “nothing could have incited me to take this journey but a sense of my duty which I owe to Him in whose service I am engaged. Dr. Philip and Mr, Campbell laid before me the valuable aid my service would render them on their important tour. I consider this a sufficient cause to take up my cross and to follow Jesus. This is my comfort, that the Lord is her refuge, and she will find numerous affectionate friends in the Cape who will receive her with open arms. During my stay in the Cape I enjoyed the longed-for privilege of hearing a few English sermons from Dr. P. and Mr. C. I also preached occasionally in Dutch both to Christians and heathen — or properly, to white and black.”