The Personal Life of David Livingstone: Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His FamilyBlaikie, William Garden
Religion
The Personal Life of David Livingstone: Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His Family
Blaikie, William Garden
Livingstone, David, 1813-1873
Before we set out with the chief on this journey, it will be well to
give a few extracts from Livingstone's Journal, showing how unwearied
were his efforts to teach the people:
"_Banks of Chobe, Sunday, May 15th_.--Preached twice to about
sixty people. Very attentive. It is only divine power which
can enlighted dark minds as these.... The people seem to
receive ideas on divine subjects slowly. They listen, but
never suppose that the truths must become embodied in actual
life. They will wait until the chief becomes a Christian, and
if he believes, then they refuse to follow,--as was the case
among the Bakwains. Procrastination seems as powerful an
instrument of deception here as elsewhere."
"_Sunday, 12th June_.--A good and very attentive audience. We
introduce entirely new motives, and were these not perfectly
adapted for the human mind and heart by their divine Author,
we should have no success."
"_Sunday, 19th June_.--A good and attentive audience, but
immediately after the service I went to see a sick man, and
when I returned toward the Kotla, I found the chief had
retired into a hut to drink beer; and, as the custom is,
about forty men were standing singing to him, or, in other
words, begging beer by that means. A minister who had not
seen so much pioneer service as I have done would have been
shocked to see so little effect produced by an earnest
discourse concerning the future judgment, but time must be
given to allow the truth to sink into the dark mind, and
produce its effect. The earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord--that is enough. We can
afford to work in faith, for Omnipotence is pledged to
fulfill the promise. The great mountains become a plain
before the Almighty arm. The poor Bushman, the most degraded
of all Adam's family, shall see his glory, and the dwellers
in the wilderness shall bow before Him. The obstacles to the
coming of the Kingdom are mighty, but come it will for
all that;
"Then let us pray that come it may,
As come, it will for a' that,
That man to man the world o'er
Shall brothers be for a' that.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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