Fortunately it was not yet twelve
o'clock, so I baptized him at once from one of the pannikins (the only
vessels I had) reverently, and, I trust, efficiently. I then set myself
to work to instruct him in the deeper mysteries of our belief, and to
make him, not only in name, but in heart a Christian.
It is true that I might not have succeeded, for Chowbok was very hard to
teach. Indeed, on the evening of the same day that I baptized him he
tried for the twentieth time to steal the brandy, which made me rather
unhappy as to whether I could have baptized him rightly. He had a prayer-
book--more than twenty years old--which had been given him by the
missionaries, but the only thing in it which had taken any living hold
upon him was the title of Adelaide the Queen Dowager, which he would
repeat whenever strongly moved or touched, and which did really seem to
have some deep spiritual significance to him, though he could never
completely separate her individuality from that of Mary Magdalene, whose
name had also fascinated him, though in a less degree.
He was indeed stony ground, but by digging about him I might have at any
rate deprived him of all faith in the religion of his tribe, which would
have been half way towards making him a sincere Christian; and now all
this was cut off from me, and I could neither be of further spiritual
assistance to him nor he of bodily profit to myself: besides, any company
was better than being quite alone.
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