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Chapter I. Introduction.
Chapter II. Introduction--continued.
Chapter III. The Bishop's Journal.
Chapter IV. The Bishop's Journal, continued.
Chapter V. The Bishop's Journal, continued.
Chapter VI. Miss Blennerhasset's Journal.
When I read the proof-sheets of the extracts of my Journal for 1891, I felt that the scanty allusions to the spiritual aspect of the work might be misunderstood; but as the Journal consists mainly of notes written at camp fires or during the intervals of travelling, little appears except what was necessary to recall the events of the day. There was little time to record conversations with chiefs and people, interesting though they were. I consider that our Heavenly Father's intention that the Gospel should be preached to the Mashona has been so plainly shown by His leadings during the late years, and that His blessing on the work, when begun, has been so continuous, that any intermittent allusions to either would rather obscure the great end to which day after day material work was tending.
The diary was not intended to have the interest of a book of travel, few of the daily incidents being written down beyond those that had some direct connection with the work.
Perhaps, too, those who have tried to do Christ's work among the heathen would rather that they should commend it to their fellow-Christians by the facts as they exist than by appeals to their feelings; for if the missionary did not believe that the accumulation of time spent in wearying travelling without the opportunity of doing any directly spiritual work, and the anxieties and responsibilities for the material needs of the Mission and its workers, were essentially a part of Christ's work, their deadening influence would very soon render the return to a life of sincere spiritual exhortation almost impossible.
"The mount for vision--but below
The paths of daily duty go,
And nobler life therein shall own
The pattern on the mountain shown."G. W. H. Knight-Bruce. March, 1892.