did not surrender his agnostic position, but he decided that it was at least an even chance that there might be a God. Further than that he did not go. A fifty-per-cent. chance that there is a God Almighty is very far removed from the confident certainty of “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” But a fifty-per-cent. chance God fully believed in is worth more as a factor in life than a forty-per-cent. faith in the whole Christian creed.
“WHAT WOULDST THOU HAVE ME TO DO?”
Mr. Rhodes had no sooner ciphered out his fifty-per-cent. chance than he was confronted with the reflection, “If there be a God, of which there is an even chance, what does He want me to do, if so be that He cares anything about what I do?” For so the train of thought went on. “If there be a God, and if He do care, then the most important thing in the world for me is to find out what He wants me to do, and then go and do it.”[1] But how was he to find it out? It is a problem which
- ↑ I have been somewhat severely taken to task by Mr. Bramwell Booth for what he regards as my failure to do full justice to the religious side of Mr. Rhodes’s character. By way of making amends, I quote the following extracts from the remarks made by the General and by Mr. W. Bramwell Booth himself after Mr. Rhodes’s death. General Booth, writing in the War Cry of April 5th, 1902, said:
In the course of my wanderings I have been privileged to meet with many of the class of individuals who are said to be the moving spirits of the world, but very few outside the pale of Christian and philanthropic circles have impressed and interested me more than did Cecil Rhodes.
The first time we met was on the occasion of my first visit to South Africa. Mr. Rhodes was then Premier of Cape Colony. That was in the year 1891. He received me at the Parliament Buildings.
We understood one another at once, and plunged into a discussion of my proposal for the founding of “An Over-the-Sea Colony.” “Our objects, you see, differ,” said he. “You are set on filling the world with the knowledge of the Gospel. My ruling purpose is the extension of the British Empire.” Then, laying his finger on a great piece of the map showing the country, part of which was then known as Mashonaland, but which is now called after his name, he went on to say, “If this part of South Africa would suit you, I can give you whatever extent of land you may require.”
Years passed away. In 1895 I was once more in South Africa. “If,” said Mr. Rhodes, “the gold turns out to be a success, the
