Morning Star

PROVIDENTIAL DIRECTION OF A MISSIONARY.

The following remarkable narrative has been copied by a correspondent of the "Friend." from the tenth annual report of the 'Union Female missionary Society" of the Methodist Church in the bounds of the Philadelphia conference:

"A few years ago, Barnabas Shaw was sent by the Wesleyan Missionary Society to the Cape of Good Hope. On his arrival at the point of his destination, he was peremptorily forbidden to commence his mission by the authorities of the place. After failing to obtain permission to preach under any circumstances, and being warned to leave the settlement, he hesitated whether to return home or to make an excursion through the desert in quest of the Hottentots. His wife being in delicate health, he hesitated to propose the journey to her, until she said to him, 'It appears to me, that your way being hedged up here is an indication that the Lord designs that you should go up through the wilderness and preach to the Hottentots. I have an impression that this is our duty, and I want you to think of it, and pray over it, before you consent to return home.' He replied to her, that he had been thinking about it, but feared to mention it: but that still there was another obstacle: For,' said he, 'I have no authority to incur the expense of oxen and waggon, and interpreter, all of which will be necessary if we undertake the journey.' 'Well,' said she, 'buy the oxen and the waggon, and let us go in the name of the Lord, and if the Missionary Society will not pay the expense we have property in England, let it be sold to meet the draft.' Thus encouraged he resolved to go, and after travelling in a straight line to the north, through a trackless desert for the distance of four hundred miles without meeting a human being, they came to a point of rugged rocks, which required them to alter their course to the right or left; it being near night, they concluded to halt on their journey and wait until morning.-- Just as daylight, they saw beneath a projecting rock, six men lying on the ground, having passed the night thus near them, without either party having discovered the other. Mr Shaw approached them with his interpreter, and inquired of the chief who they were, whither they were going, and on what business. The chief replied, they were Hottentots, were going to the Cape of Good Hope, and were sent thither by their people to ask for a Christian teacher! Though scarcely able to conceal his emotions. Mr. Shaw told the chief. through his interpreter. that he was a Christian teacher, and was then going to visit his people, but knew not the way. So soon as the chief heard this, and mentioned it to his people, they all fell down on their faces, and rent the air with their exclamations of joy. After the missionary family had kneeled down on the ground, and given thanks to God for this signal and encouraging providence, they set out with the Hottentots as their guides, and soon arrived in safety at their native village, where they were received joyfully, and have ever since resided and labored with the most astonishing success.-- They are now not only civilized, but Christianized; and hundreds of them are living examples of piety toward God and benevolence to man. Mr Shaw and family are still prosecuting their missionary labors with the surrounding natives desiring to live and die with these converted heathens."