David Livingstone (1813-1873) Part 3

In the two last magazines we have traced the early influences on the life of David Livingstone, one of Congregationalism’s finest figures, born two hundred years ago last month, and seen how his life was spent evangelizing and exploring in Africa. This final article attempts to assess his life and draw lessons for us two centuries later.

It is always difficult to assess the life of an historical figure writing decades or even centuries later, and that must be true of a complex character like David Livingstone.  We have already commented on the criticism that he faced for concentrating on exploration rather than evangelism, and on the frequent inter-personal problems that he had with those with whom he worked. How can we evaluate this, and what more needs to be said?

We are all products of our own age, and life is very different in the United Kingdom at the end of the second Elizabethan age, compared to how it was at the beginning of the Victorian era.  Despite the political uncertainties, Africa today is a largely open continent.  Television, jet travel, foreign holidays and the computer age mean that we can know as much about it as we do about other parts of Europe or even of the United Kingdom.  The people of Livingstone’s day knew less about Africa than we do about Mars.  Those who criticize Livingstone for being more of an explorer than a missionary need to remember this! 

The evils of the slave trade too were much more open in the nineteenth century than they are today, and Livingstone’s conviction that Western civilization and commerce, along with the Gospel, would eradicate this wickedness was an understandable one.  Some might even say that subsequent events have proved him right.

That Livingstone was a difficult person to live and work with seems undeniable.  It is hard to think that he would have achieved so much as an explorer, and endured so much personal tragedy if he had not been such a determined and independently minded man.  One man’s determination is another man’s stubbornness, however, and perhaps we would have to admit that his behavior was sometimes unhelpful in many ways. 

Looking at his personality through modern eyes, however, more than one modern medically minded Christian has noted in his life and diaries a pattern of alternating highs and lows that were often not to be explained by circumstances.  At least one expert has concluded that Livingstone probably suffered from what we would now call manic depressive disorder, a condition that also appeared to be present in his brother and two sisters.  Perhaps that was the case, but even if not, we are reminded again of the truth that we see so often in the Scripture; God uses deeply flawed individuals to do His work!

That Livingstone was a thoroughly converted man cannot be doubted.  The depth of his conversion experience and of his subsequent dedication to Christ is well attested.  He never lost sight of the greatness of the Gospel, nor lost his burden to take the good news to the lost.  He had a great stamina as a missionary, spurred on by his biblical belief that God was going, in time, to call men and women to Himself from every nation in the world.  He also saw that though he might be called to be a pioneer who would begin the work in Africa, later generations would be wonderfully transformed by the message he carried.  His own words are interesting, as we compare the one African conversion that could be attributed to Livingstone’s work with the many hundreds of thousands converted in Africa during the twentieth century;

“… when we view the state of the world and its advancing energies … we see the earth filling with the knowledge of the glory of God, - ay, all nations seeing His glory and bowing before Him whose right it is to reign.  Our work and its fruits are cumulative.  We work towards another state of things.  Future missionaries will be rewarded by conversions for every sermon.  We are their pioneers and helpers.  Let them not forget the watchmen of the night – us, who worked when all was gloom, and no evidence of success in the way of conversion cheered our path.”

Not only has Livingstone been proved correct abundantly, but his faith serves as an example to all who serve God in barren days, us included.

          What was the secret of such dogged perseverance and commitment?  The answer shines clearly from his own diaries and writings and from the testimony of those who knew him and worked with him.  He had a great desire for God, a personal humility about his own gifts, and a longing for Jesus Christ to be proclaimed and glorified in the lives of men and women.  He was never satisfied with his level of experience of Christ or of personal sanctification, but always wanted to know more of Him.  Are you like that?

          The Africans amongst whom he worked give the most eloquent of testimonies to his love for them.  They would have been sensitive to any patronizing, superior or racist attitude towards them, but they recognized in Livingstone a man who genuinely loved them and desired their welfare.  How else can you explain the fact that two of his African associates were willing to carry his body those 1500 miles on the journey back to eventual burial in Westminster Abbey?

David Livingstone (1813-1873) Part 2

In the last post we saw the early influences on the life of David Livingstone, one of Congregationalism’s finest figures, born two hundred years ago this month.  We also saw how he came to faith in Christ, and was led to full time missionary service in Africa. This article deals with his three spells in Africa.  

David Livingstone set sail for Africa at the end of 1840.  This would be where, with the exception of two brief spells back in Britain, he would spend the rest of his life.  The first of his three spells on that continent lasted fifteen years, and began at the Kuruman Mission Station, 650 miles north east of Cape Town, where he worked for two years.  Immediately he became convinced of two principles. Firstly, native Christians needed to be trained to evangelise their own people.  Secondly that rather than having a large number of missionaries operating from a mission station it was better that some went to unexplored areas of the land, and reached people yet to hear the Gospel.  He moved further into the interior, and was encouraged when his young bride, Mary was able to join him.  The pattern of his years in Africa was set, as time and again he moved further and further into unreached areas, reaching Kolobeng in modern day Botswana, where he would spend some five years.  It was here that he had the joy of seeing his first (and perhaps only) convert, Sechele, who was baptized on confession of his faith in Christ.

          

From his base at Kolobeng, Livingstone made many long journeys to visit and bring the Gospel to other tribes.  These were hazardous, especially in terms of the health of him and his growing family.  His wife almost died and the children suffered dreadfully from the mosquitos.  At this time, Livingstone became the first European to discover Lake Ngami and the Zambesi River, but also became more and more aware of the evils of the slave trade which was bringing great misery to so many on the continent.  Livingstone realized that African tribes were engaging in the slave trade out of a desire to possess European goods, especially guns.  If only legitimate commerce could be established, Livingstone believed that the slave trade would cease to exist.  It could be argued that from then on Livingstone lost sight of the primacy of bringing the Gospel to people, such was his desire to find and open up trade routes in, until then, unknown tracts of Africa.  But, Livingstone felt that the three controlling forces of his life worked hand in hand.  He wanted to explore, evangelise and emancipate.  Finding new paths and new tribes would mean he and others could bring the Gospel, but along with this would come European civilization and commerce which would bring freedoms for those who were now oppressed.

Livingstone set out, therefore, on the ambition of finding a trade route to the coast. Though this necessitated sending his wife and children back to England, and caused some to think that he was now more of an explorer than a missionary, the London Missionary Society, at first, accepted his plan.  Between 1853 and 1855 he went first west and then east from Linyanti in the Upper Zambesi, seeking a suitable route.  It was at this time that he famously discovered the Victoria Falls.  Wherever he went, he sought to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the locals, but by this time the LMS felt unable to support his new style of working, and Livingstone left the service of the Mission.

His second spell in Africa saw him lead a government-sponsored expedition to the Zambesi and to the Shire Highlands of Lake Niassa.  At the same time a Universities Mission in the area had been established by some English Churchmen, which Livingstone gladly assisted in.  But the Mission was not a success and the failure coincided with a series of other disappointments which brought the pioneer missionary to his lowest point.  The expedition itself achieved little, and cost the life of Livingstone’s wife, Mary, and others who succumbed to fever. Mistakes in decision-making, and a failure to work with other team members, meant that Livingstone was at least partly responsible for the failure, and he returned to Britain for his second furlough a sad man.

Livingstone returned for a third spell on the continent encouraged by a friend to search for the source of the River Nile.  Though some have thought he ceased, in reality, from being a true missionary at this point, his letters at the time show that he still thought that evangelization, discovery of new trade routes, and the emancipation of those in the grip of the slave trade went hand in hand.  He sought to tell people about Christ wherever he went. 

Again, however, Livingstone met with continued trials and discouragements.  The brutal reality of the slavery he saw being perpetrated by Arab traders in particular appalled him. He was witness to a number of terrible events, including one massacre at Nyangwe, when some four hundred people were killed, many of them women and children.  He likened what he saw to being in hell itself.  He was more convinced than ever that his days should be spent on the three goals that had inspired him throughout.

But his health was failing, so much so that his two faithful servants, Susi and Chuma, had to carry him from place to place.  It was they who famously carried his body some 1,500 miles to the coast so that it could be transported back to England, following his death, whilst in prayer, on or around May 1st 1873.  His internal organs, however, including his heart, were removed and buried in Africa.  The rest of his remains now lie in Westminster Abbey.

(To be continued)

David Livingstone (1813-1873) Part 1

Next month marks the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of David Livingstone, one of the great pioneer missionaries of Christian history, and one of the most famous Congregationalist figures of all time.  This first article explores his early life.

          David Livingstone was born on March 13^th 1813 in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, about eight miles south of Glasgow.  He grew up in a typically poor, protestant Scottish family, where there was an emphasis on personal piety, hard work, the importance of education and a sense of mission.

          His parents, Neil, a tea salesman, and Agnes, had been married just over two years before in Blantyre.  Neil’s family came from the island of Ulva, just off the Scottish west coast, and Agnes’s from the lowlands of Scotland, being descended from a family of Covenanters, evangelical protestants who suffered much persecution in earlier times.

          The family were poor, and David was brought up as one of seven children in a single room at the top of a tenement block known as ‘Shuttle Row’.  It had been built for the workers of a cotton factory on the banks of the River Clyde. 

The Livingstone family was devout, and David was brought up to treasure God’s Word.  Before he was ten, the boy received a prize for reciting the whole of the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm, "with only five hitches," we are told.  It was in this factory that David was forced to go to work to help the family’s finances, when he was only ten years old.  He had to work there from six in the morning until eight in the evening every day.

          Along with the other children, Livingstone would then spend what was left of the evening at the night school run for their benefit.  Though many children simply fell asleep exhausted, Livingstone studied hard, often until late at night.

He bought a study-book out of his first week's wages, and in the evenings, when David could have the schoolmaster's help, he took it, and when he couldn't, he worked on alone. In this way he mastered his Latin. He was not brighter than other boys, but more determined to learn than many. He used to put a book on the spinning jenny, and catch sentences now and then, as he passed the place in his work. In this way he learned to put his mind on his book no matter what clatter went on around him. When nineteen, he was promoted in the factory.

Though David had been brought up in a Christian family, it wasn’t until he was twenty that the young man became an earnest Christian, and the spiritual change that took place then determined the whole course of the remainder of his life.  Before his conversion he had often thought about eternity; "Great pains," he says, "had been taken by my parents to instill the doctrines of Christianity into my mind, and I had no difficulty in understanding the theory of a free salvation by the atonement of our Saviour; but it was only about this time that I began to feel the necessity and value of a personal application of the provisions of that atonement to my own case."

He now began to reflect on his state as a sinner, and became anxious to experience the peace that the Gospel promises. He often felt his unworthiness to receive the grace promised by the Bible and consequently long felt that he couldn’t commit himself to the only true hope of the sinner, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.  In His grace, God revealed to him his error, and he renounced all hope in himself; and as a bankrupt sinner he trusted in the power and willingness of Christ to save. To use again his own words: "I saw the duty and inestimable privilege immediately to accept salvation by Christ. Humbly believing that through sovereign mercy and grace I have been enabled so to do, and having felt in some measure its effects on my still depraved and deceitful heart, it is my desire to show my attachment to the cause of Him who died for me by henceforth devoting my life to His service."

Following his conversion, Livingstone soon became aware of the desperate need for qualified missionaries, and as a response, he began to intersperse his work in the Blantyre cotton mill with studies in theology and medicine.  He was a member by now of a congregational church, where the pastor, the Rev John Moir, encouraged him in his missionary training.  Close friends also supported him, and they persuaded him to apply to the London Missionary Society.

The Missionary Society were reluctant at first to accept him, on the grounds that that he was a dismal failure as a preacher, and very hesitant in his leading of public worship.  They therefore extended his probationary period.  Livingstone had always had an interest in China, and so determined that this would be where he would serve the Lord.  The Opium War that was then raging in the Far East frustrated him in this desire, and so his attention turned to Africa, after hearing Robert Moffatt, an LMS worker there.

(To be continued)