Moreover, there was a sweet and loud-throated bell upon which the clock
struck, with space allowed for the addition of others that must
wait till Thomas could make up his mind to approach Dorcas as to the
provision of the necessary funds. Yes, the church was finished, and the
Bishop of those parts had made a special journey to consecrate it at
the hottest season of the year, and as a reward for his energy had
contracted fever and nearly been washed away in a flooded river.
Only one thing was lacking, a sufficient congregation to fill this fine
church, which secretly the Bishop, who was a sensible man, thought would
have been of greater value had it been erected in any of several
other localities that he could have suggested. For alas! the Christian
community of Sisa-Land did not increase. Occasionally Thomas succeeded
in converting one of Menzi's followers, and occasionally Menzi snatched
a lamb from the flock of Thomas, with the result that the scales
remained even neither going up nor down.
The truth was, of course, that the matter was chiefly one of race; those
of the Sisas in whom the Basuto blood preponderated became Christian,
while those who were of the stubborn Zulu stock, strengthened and
inspired by their prophet Menzi, remained unblushingly heathen.
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