CHAPTER VI. THE RESOLVE FORMED.-" WE WILL TRUST AND NOT BE HE story of the final heroic effort of the Martyr THE Bishop is thrillingly interesting. Hannington knew the danger of this attempt to open up a new route to Uganda, and on this ground he decided not to take his friend Mr. Copplestone with him. "If he got into any difficulty or trouble, no one else should be involved." His main anxiety was for the native porters who accompanied him. Reading with Mr. Copplestone the 146th Psalm, on coming to the ninth verse, "The Lord preserveth the strangers," the Bishop suddenly exclaimed with evident relief, "Praise God; He has sent me this message to-night. The Lord preserveth the strangers. My poor men are strangers, but the Lord preserveth them." Writing to Mrs. Hannington as to going without any other missionary, he says: "I feel this-that another man could add nothing to my safety. In Jesus' keeping I am safe." In another letter to his wife from Maungo, he says: "I have just finished forty-five miles; have cleared away the bushes and lighted a fire with my own hands. You must not be surprised if I am rather hazy. I have had scarcely any food for eighteen hours, and have not had a wash for two days, nor do I see much chance of getting more than a 'lick' for two days more. I am afraid, however, that hardships have not even commenced. God is just giving me a merciful rest after the terribly severe strain I have had to go through during the last twelve months." (His idea of a "rest" is pathetic.) "How gracious God has been in giving me so good a wife and such dear children and relatives!" He continues: "I hope the dearest ones keep well -as well as their father; then they will do." Then follows reference to some friends who, he hopes, will forgive him for not writing to them, on the plea that his hands were very full of business. "I wonder if I delude myself in this respect. We sometimes fancy we are busy when we are only idle. I leave them to judge. God bless them all." "Such words," says Mr. Dawson, "need no comment-but they irresistibly recall to our minds the words of the Master, 'When the fruit is ripe, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." One other letter, dated "Kikumbulm, August 11th, 1885," closed all correspondence. "The burden of my song must be Praise, and the teaching of every lesson has been Trust; so comfort your heart during my absence. If this is God's time for opening little poor,' as Jones (the native clergyman) says. My watch has gone wrong. The candles and lamp oil were forgotten and left behind, so that the camp fire has to serve instead. My donkey has died, so that I must walk every step of the way. Well! Having no watch, I don't wake up in the night to see if it is time to get up, but wait till daylight dawns. Having no candle, I don't read at night, which never suits me. Having no donkey, I can judge better as to distances, and as to what the men can do; for many marches depend upon my saying, 'We will stop here and rest, or sleep.' "My greatest trial is that I have a very inefficient staff of headmen, and nobody with me who really knows the road. Of course, I was assured before we started that many whom I had engaged had been over the road again and again. One man was said to have been over it five times. "And now, just leave me in the Hands of the Lord, and let our watchword be, 'We will trust, and not be afraid.'' And so he went on his way, while ever and anon the wilderness would ring to the sound of a Christian hymn : "Peace, perfect peace, the future all unknown! On New Year's Day, 1886, the postal telegram from Zanzibar announced the seizure and probable murder of the Bishop. The truth is, the state of things at Uganda was such that the Bishop might as safely have walked into a den of lions. Mwanga, the feeble-minded and cruel successor of Mtèsa, had inaugurated a series of terrible martyrdoms. Three Christian native lads had been tortured, their arms cut off, and then slowly burned to death, amidst jeering mockery,—yet singing and praising Jesus in the fire. The mission party at Uganda, who had heard of the Bishop's journey, in vain sought to explain its object to the king. His anger was aroused by what he regarded as a forbidden entrance to his country by the "back door," through Busoga; and it was decided "to kill the white man and his whole party, letting none escape, and to seize their goods." The Bishop's own little pocket diary, happily recovered by a Christian lad at Rubaga, must briefly tell the rest. He was violently seized and maltreated by about twenty ruffians on October 21st. "I said, 'Lord, I put myself in Thy hands; I look to Thee alone.' Feeling I was being dragged away to be murdered at a distance, I sang, 'Safe in the arms of Jesus."" He was placed in a hut, and learnt that he was to be kept prisoner till Mwanga sent word what was to be done with him. The hut had no ventilation and no chimney, and was in a fearfully filthy condition. The Bishop writes: "I am fearfully shaken; have scarce power to hold up my small Bible. Shall I live through it? My God, I am Thine. ought to be praising His holy Name, and I do.' . I "I woke full of pain, so that with the utmost difficulty I crawled outside. I expected to be murdered, and simply said, 'Let the Lord do as He sees fit; I shall not make the slightest resistance.'" Several days passed in great suffering, and the Bishop began to doubt whether messengers had really been sent to Mwanga. |