David Livingstone: Explorer and Missionary PDF
Preview David Livingstone: Explorer and Missionary
david livingstone david livingstone david livingstone explorer & missionary Sam Wellman © 1995 by Sam Wellman Print ISBN 978-1-61626-906-7 eBook Editions: Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62029-652-3 Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-62029-651-6 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher. Churches and other noncommercial interests may reproduce portions of this book without the express written permission of Barbour Publishing, provided that the text does not exceed 500 words and that the text is not material quoted from another publisher. When reproducing text from this book, include the following credit line: “From David Livingstone, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.” All scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Cover illustration: Greg Copeland Cover design: Kirk DouPonce Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses. Member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Printed in the United States of America. Contents 1. thirteenth Birthday ...............................7 2. reading sCienCe .................................13 3. emBraCing Christ ................................22 4. a missionary ....................................34 5. afriCa ..........................................47 6. the only mediCine ................................60 7. trouBle with lions ...............................73 8. lake ngami ......................................85 9. “we Come in PeaCe” ..............................97 10. slavers .......................................109 11. the makalolos .................................121 12. true Courage ..................................133 13. Battling Bitterness ............................144 14. the light of Christianity ........................156 15. BaCk to afriCa .................................169 16. hard years ....................................182 17. to die is gain ..................................195 afterword .......................................205 1. thirteenth Birthday On a hillside above the village of Blantyre in Scotland, three boys sat in the brown winter-dead grass. It was the afternoon of March 19, 1826. It was the Lord’s Day. There was a sharp bite to the cool air; the kind boys don’t mind at all. One boy had tousled brown hair and hazel eyes so lively they seemed restless even reading a book, which was exactly what he was doing. He held a tuft of grass in his free hand. “Yes, here it is,” he murmured to himself as he glanced from the book to the tuft of grass and back again. “Here is what, David? What is what, David?” asked a small boy squirming beside him. “It shows a picture of this very grass and gives its scientific name, Charles.” “Father doesn’t like you to read science,” grumbled an older boy, who ripped up blades of grass and flipped them into the air list- lessly. “I don’t see the harm, John,” said the boy named David. “The book seems very truthful to me.” John just grunted. He was staring down at the complex of fac- tory buildings on the river Clyde. Far down the river was the great city of Glasgow. John never saw it. David could think of no other 7 david livingstone word to describe the look in John’s eyes but dull. John looked but saw little. He listened but heard little. Many of the boys and the men in the cotton factory where David and John worked had that same dull look. David saw John glance down toward their home in Shuttle Row. John said, “Let’s go home. It’s almost time for cake.” David disliked being told what to do. Oh, he didn’t mind obey- ing his parents. It was when other boys He no longer told him what to do that he got very an- screamed gry. At the cotton mill, boys were always at tHem. His scoffing at the books he read during the anger Had lunch break: “Why are you so high and mighty? You’ll never be anything but a turned to cotton piecer like the rest of us!” That pity for tHe was about the only thing that really an- poor lost gered him. He used to scream at them: souls. “I can think and act for myself!” But it didn’t stop them from needling him. He no longer screamed at them. His anger had turned to pity for the poor lost souls. “Are you coming or not?” grumbled John. “Of course,” answered David. “Come on, Charles.” They ambled down the hill toward the village of Blantyre. John walked ahead, intent on cake. David held Charles’s hand. They walked under the ashes and immense oaks on the grand Bothwell Estate. They descended a bank to reach a three-story brick tene- ment building that was on another bank above the great cotton factory, which was really a monotonous group of long five-story buildings on the banks of the Clyde. On any other day after the boys entered a turret on the tene- ment building, they would have clomped up spiral stairs to the top 8 thirteenth Birthday floor. But today they entered a door to the first floor. By the time David and Charles looked down the hallway, John was darting in- side an open door. When they reached the open door, John had vanished within the people milling around inside the small room. There seemed barely room to stand. “Happy birthday, laddie!” roared Grandpa Hunter as he shook David’s hand. “Thirteen years old.” “Thank you, sir,” said David, humbled by Grandpa Hunter’s eighty years. He could never see Grandpa Hunter without thinking about the grandma he had never known, who had been dead for over thirty years. Why had God taken one half of their holy union so soon? Once a widower, Grandpa David Hunter gave up their cottage and field in Airdrie and came to Blantyre to become a tailor in the factory. “I’ll not be outdone by a Lowlander!” bellowed Grandpa Liv- ingstone. “Happy birthday to you, David.” “Thank you,” said David, slightly embarrassed by Grandpa Liv- ingstone’s pride in being a Highlander. Grandpa Hunter was prob- ably just as proud of being a Lowlander. But David took after his father, Neil, who confessed to feel- david took ing like a Highlander in his heart yet dreamed of other lands beyond ei- after His ther Highland or Lowland. Of course fatHer, wHo his father, Neil, was in the room, too. confessed to His father didn’t actually go to other feeling like lands like a missionary. He was only a HigHlander a wanderer compared to the men yet dreamed who worked in the factory because he of otHer traveled the shire to sell tea. David’s mother was here, too. And Grandma lands. Livingstone. After all, the celebration 9
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