We cannot remember too much or too often that it is our lives, far more than our teaching in a class, that the natives look at and try to understand. We do, indeed, need to be ‘epistles known and read of all men.’ Angry words about some mistake by an incapable workman often do serious harm, and deter people from coming under the influence of the Gospel.
The first thing the natives ask about a missionary is, ‘Is he a kind man?’ or, as they put it, ‘Alina ekisa?’ (‘Has he kindness?’) If they are told that ‘he has kindness,’ then they desire to come and see him, and are willing to listen to his teaching. But if he is announced to be a man of ‘busungu’ (anger), people are immediately afraid of him, and take care to stay away.
More substantial houses of sunburnt bricks are now being built, and before long we may hope to see corrugated iron roofs, which,
