None of those who complain about missionaries sending
their children home ever descend to this. And again, as Mr.
James in his _Young Man from Home_ forcibly shows, a greater
misfortune cannot befall a youth than to be cast into the
world without a home. In regard to even the vestige of a
home, my children are absolutely vagabonds. When shall we
return to Kolobeng? When to Kuruman? _Never_. The mark of
Cain is on your foreheads, your father is a missionary. Our
children ought to have both the sympathies and prayers of
those at whose bidding we become strangers for life."
Was there ever a plea more powerful or more just? It is sad to think
that the coldness of Christians at home should have led a man like
Livingstone to fancy that, because his children were the children of a
missionary, they would bear the mark of Cain, and be homeless vagabonds.
Why are we at home so forgetful of the privilege of refreshing the
bowels of those who take their lives in their hands for the love of
Christ, by making a home for their offspring? In a higher state of
Christianity there will be hundreds of the best families at home
delighted, for the love of their Master, to welcome and bring up the
missionary's children.
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