The Personal Life of David Livingstone: Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His FamilyBlaikie, William Garden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The Personal Life of David Livingstone: Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His Family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
During the first years at Kolobeng he received a long letter from his
younger brother Charles, then in the United States, requesting him to
use his influence with the London Missionary Society that he might be
sent as a missionary to China. In writing to the Directors about his
brother, in reply to this request, Livingstone disclaimed all idea of
influencing them except in so far as he might be able to tell them
facts. His brother's history was very interesting. In 1839, when David
Livingstone was in England, Charles became earnest about religion,
influenced partly by the thought that as his brother, to whom he was
most warmly attached, was going abroad, he might never see him again in
this world, and therefore he would prepare to meet him in the next. A
strong desire sprang up in his mind to obtain a liberal education. Not
having the means to get this at home, he was advised by David to go to
America, and endeavor to obtain admission to one of the colleges there
where the students support themselves by manual labor. To help him in
this, David sent him five pounds, which he had just received from the
Society, being the whole of his quarter's allowance in London. On
landing at New York, after selling his box and bed, Charles found his
whole stock of cash to amount to £2, 13s. 6d. Purchasing a loaf and a
piece of cheese as _viaticum_, he started for a college at Oberlin,
seven hundred miles off, where Dr. Finney was President. He contrived to
get to the college without having ever begged. In the third year he
entered on a theological course, with the view of becoming a missionary.
He did not wish, and could never agree, as a missionary, to hold an
appointment from an American Society, on account of the relation of the
American Churches to slavery; therefore he applied to the London
Missionary Society. David had suggested to his father that if Charles
was to be a missionary, he ought to direct his attention to China.
Livingstone's first missionary love had not become cold, and much though
he might have wished to have his brother in Africa, he acted
consistently on his old conviction that there were enough of English
missionaries there, and that China had much more need.
The Directors declined to appoint Charles Livingstone without a personal
visit, which he could not afford to make. This circumstance led him to
accept a pastorate in New England, where he remained until 1857, when he
came to this country and joined his brother in the Zambesi Expedition.
Afterward he was appointed H. M. Consul at Fernando Po, but being always
delicate, he succumbed to the climate of the country, and died a few
months after his brother, on his way home, in October, 1873. Sir Bartle
Frere, as President of the Royal Geographical Society, paid a deserved
tribute to his affectionate and earnest nature, his consistent Christian
life, and his valuable help to Christian missions and the African cause
generally[27].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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