The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-03-17

~ ~ ia lIS eNpIliIlS, n llGIl Itdu Oh
into the night, and on Sundays, with
his father and mother and brothers
and sisters, he walked to church three
miles away without a failure from
year to year. There was no molly cod
ding in Neil Livingstone's home.
They were making heroes there, not
molly Goodies. The first money al
lowed for himself from his earnings
was spent on a Latin grammar, and
David used to take it with him to the
factory. 1t was placed on the machine
before him, and as he worked he
snatched chances at it during the day.
He mastered it, and read Virgil and
Horace and other Latin classics dur
ing those years in the spinning mill.
He read much else beside, strong and
noble books. He spent his holidays
rambling into the country, studying the
rocks and plants and birds and other
objects of natural interest, laying the
foundation for the great scientific
work which he afterwards did in
Africa.
Some time in his late teens" while
still a worker in the cotton mill, be
came into conscious, personal relation
with Jesus Christ, and gave his heart
to Him. His first impulse was to de-
vote his life to His service who had
given Himself for him in the eternal
sacrifice. This is the way he eX-
pressed it himself; 1T is my desire
to show my attachment to the cause
of him who died for me by devoting
myself to his service The missionary
cause appealed to him, and he set
about preparing himself to be a medi-
cal missionary. He attended the Uni
versity for four winters, studying
medicine and theology, supporting
himself in the meantime by working
in the factory in the summers; and in
due time he was admitted to the prac-
tice of medicine, and ordained to the
gospel ministry, and sent out to South
Africa as a medical missionary under
the London Missionary society in 1870.
He was then q years old.
His home leaving was character
istically Scotch The family rose at 5
o'clock in the morning. The mother
prepared breakfast. With his father
David talked over the prospects OF
Christian missions, and they agreed
that the time would come when rich
men and great men Would think it a
great honor to support whole stations
of missionaries. After breakfast,
David read the 121st n the 135th
Psalms, n then they knelt in prayer
David leaving, but he broke down be-
fore he had proceeded far. Then he
and his father walked to Glasgow, and
on the BroomielaW they looked for the
IlnGf fir,,n ~, artl -, .aal 1+I,-~,r
faces. The old man walked home with
a lonely heart, yet praising God. The
young mar set his face toward Africa
Now I have no time to do more than
mention the work hat Livingstone die
in Africa. He pushed far north be-
yond h bound of civilization, and
founded mission stations far beyond
where other men had aver labored, in
a region thai was a blank on the mar
of the world. Il am ready to go any
where he said, provided it be for.
Ward.' Il am trying now" he sale
again, Ito establish the Lords king
dom in a region wider by far thar
Scotland. Fever seems to forbid it,
but I shall work for the glory o
Christ's kingdom-fever or no fever
The quintescence of all the heroisms
is that fever or no fever"
After he had been in Africa severa
years, he came to realize that the
slave trade, which he saw in all it.
h~ideousness, hat ''open sore of The
world" as he called it, was the great.
est hindrance to the missionary enter.
prise, that effective missionary worl
was indeed impossible while it con.
tinued. He came to the conclusion
also that the most effective way tt
, stop it was to open out Africa t,
civilization. The slave trader, like the
, fur trader of the northwest a century
j, ago, wished to keep the country CLOSED
to the outer world. Livingstone Sc
. himself to open it up. The nefariou!
business would be stopped when tn,
, world knew Africa, and the Christian
=, enterprise would then flourish. S,
thought Livingstone. So the mission
airy turned explorer, and the creates
epic of exploration ever transacted il
, this world was begun.
, The grand object in his exploration
! and in all his work was to extend tn,
, kingdom of Jesus Christ. Il will plac,
!, no value" he said, ION anything
idN VI MAY poSStSS, eActpl III ItIdtlOl
to the kingdom of Christ" The Mis-.
sionary society, of which he was {
servant, did not understand his far
reaching plans. They We're too larg,
for the society to understand. Man,
good people felt that he had lost TIL,
missionary motive and had turnet
aside to be a mere raveler and ex.
plorer, But none of those thing.
moved him.. He severed his connection
with the missionary society, got {
commission as a British consul withou
salary and kept up his great work %
exploration until he spent the las
spark of his life on his knees in pair
and prayer, after 80 years of suffering
and sorrow and sickness and hard
ships unparalleled, and labors un
~speakable in the Dark Continent.
The particulars of his explorations
need not concern us today. 1t is