FEAR GOD AND WORK HARD; THE LABORER WHO WAS NEVER IDLE
“A hundred thousand welcomes, and 'tis time for you to come,
From the far land of the foreigner, to your country and your home;
O! long as we were parted; ever since you went away,
I never passed a dreamless night, or knew an easy day.
“You'll never part again, darling, is the promise of your eye;
I may tend you while I'm living; you will watch me when I die
And if death but kindly lead me to the blessed home on high,
What a hundred thousand welcomes will await you in the sky.”
OH David! David! you can't tell what I hat e suffered while waiting for you. Do not let us part again. You know you said to the Missionary society ' Whoever goes we will stay.' I must go back with you, if you return to Africa," said Mary Livingstone to her husband on his arrival in England.
“Yes, and you shall, Mary. The separation has been very bitter for me too; but I felt I was in the path of duty, and though it was like tearing my heart from my body, I felt that I dared not refuse to go forward at the call of God. I heard at Cairo of the death of my father. O Mary, it has made such a fearful blank in my life. I used to think bow I should sit by our fireside, and tell him about what I had seen and felt; but never mind, I shall tell him in the world to come.”
“You don't think that the saints after death talk about their doings!”
“Why not. If heaven be the abode of perfect bliss, it will add to its happiness to recount the mercies of the Lord. Father believed so. He said just as he was passing away: I so wished to see David-very, very, very much; but I think I'll know all that's worth knowing about him. When you see him tell him that I thought so.' O Mary, that awful agony of our not meeting with those we have wept for here; it makes my head reel, and my heart ache for the time; pray God none of our dear ones may be wanting.”
“Don't weep, David; I cannot bear to see you so distressed.”
“I bless God for a father and mother poor and pious. Thank God for them! We have to be a home to others now. When our children weep for us may they think of us as we do of our dead.”
May it be true of thee, O reader, that thy children shall say, "My father was a holy man, my mother feared God —would God I were as good as my parents." May thy children, if they call thee not rich, call thee blessed. Give them the delight of praising thy piety and Christian life!
Presented by the Geographical Society with its gold medal; by the city of London with its freedom in a box of the value of fifty guineas; a testimonial of the value of £2,000, and other tokens of public esteem, they made no difference to Livingstone; he was too noble to be elated by honor, as too pious to be hindered by misunderstanding and neglect. Whether among the blacks, who loved him as his own children did, or conversing with Her Majesty the Queen, he was the same simple, earnest, resolute, spiritual hero—a man above fear, self-seeking or gain.
In an address to the graduates of Cambridge, he closed his speech with the stirring words—"I know that in a few years I shall be cut off in Africa, which is now open; don't let it be shut again! I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for Christianity and commerce; do you carry on the work which I have begun. I LEAVE IT WITH YOU.”
Out of his influence sprang the Universities' Mission, a forward policy on the part of the London Missionary Society, and numerous efforts to civilize and Christianize the tribes which he had discovered.
Appointed H. M. Consul, he went back to Africa, accompanied by his wife, to explore the river Zambesi, his expenses being provided for by the British government. Accompanied by their youngest son, Oswell, David and Mary Livingstone left Liverpool loth March, 1858, carrying with them in sections the Ma Robert, a steam launch, which was to be employed in examining the Zambesi and its tributaries. The remainder of 1858 was spent exploring the mouths of the Zambesi and the river itself up to Tette. The next year, during three trips up the river Shire, was marked by the discovery of Lake Nyassa.
In 1860 Livingstone took the Makololo back to their own land. “Men taunted us saying Your Englishman will never return.' But we trusted you, and knew you would keep your promise, even if it cost you much. Now we are glad," said his Makololo followers when they beheld him.
In 1861 he partially explored the River Rovuma, and helped to establish the Universities' Mission.
Out of the proceeds of his book he provided another steamer, at a cost of £6,000, to sail upon the lake. The Ma Robert had proved such a ghastly failure that she was re-named the Asthmatic.
“O David, I am so thankful you are near," said Mary Livingstone on the 21st April, 1862. "While I was in England it was fearful. The children were at school, and the loneliness was awful. Some people, too, hurt me much. One doctor of divinity said in my hearing, `Oh, she's no good! she is here because her husband cannot live with her.' It is so hard to be scandalized thus.”
“Heed it not, Mary, we know how far that is from the truth. God knows that only the strong sense of duty that I dare pot resist tears me from your delightful society. You have been the light of our camp fires and the joy of my heart. We Scotchmen love as keenly as any others, though we don't show our heart to every curious eye.”
“But it is so cruel, dearest, when any one might know what a pang it has been to both of us. The day laborer who lives in his cottage with his wife and children has not been compelled to undergo the privations we have suffered.”
“Don't let it disturb you, dear wife. I have noticed that the devil, when he cannot injure men in any other way, often assails them through their good name. How many have suffered cruel injustice from this cause? I heed not their speeches, more than I do the cawing of the carrion crows. God is the judge and He will make it clear.”
“And then I suffer so from spiritual darkness. While I am with you I feel my old love for Christ return, but while I was in England I saw so much deception, envy, and wickedness among Christian people so called, that it made one almost loathe the Christian name. I have seen men of all denominations professing to love the same Savior, who have nevertheless hated each other worse than the Africans they despise.”
“O Mary, Christ must not be dishonored for such men! They are the scandal of the Gospel and its greatest hindrance. But shall we on their account forego our love and enjoyment of the Lord's presence? Let us look away from men to the living and gentle Christ. Forger them all and center all your love on Him.”
“I will, David dear; but if you would pray with me I should be so thankful. I don't know how it is, but while I am with you I never get troubled with doubts, and I seem to feel such love for Christ. I wish I were only half as good as you are.”
That night Mrs. Livingstone was taken ill; she grew rapidly worse, and on Sunday, 27th April, 1862, Dr. Stewart found her husband sitting beside the bed, formed of rude boxes, upon which lay his insensible, dying wife.
“O Mary, just one word. Only a parting kiss. Do say good-bye, dearest! O wife, leave me not without one word of farewell! O God, help me! Help me! This is more than I can bear! I can bear the pain, poverty, evil-speaking—I have had plenty; but this is beyond my strength. Spare her! Oh, spare her! If this cannot be, yet do permit me one word.”
But there was no response, and the strong man wept in bitter loneliness over his dead, his dead answering never a word!
Dost thou know the difference between an unknown corpse and thine own dead? How awful, yet how precious, the lips that can never, never answer our cries, or speak the words our hearts are breaking to hear!
‘Do you notice any change?'' said Dr. Stewart.
“Yes, the very features and expression of her father. O Mary! where are you now, and why can't I see you again?”
They laid the precious dust beneath a large baobab tree at Shupanga, sixty feet in circumference. With bitter tears the lonely husband turned away into the world, to go forward alone through the years that yet remained of his life journey.
“Though I cannot speak a word I shall hearken what you say, And be often, often with you when you think I'm far away.”
During the closing months of 1862 Livingstone again explored the River Rovuma. In 1863, while exploring the Shire Valley and Lake Nyassa, he was called home by the government.
I don't know whether I am to go on the shelf or not. If I do I'll make Africa the shelf," Livingstone said, when he was recalled home. Deserted by all his helpers, he himself navigated his ship to Bombay and thence sailed for Old England. He reached home, 23rd July, 1864.
On his way to witness the launch of a Turkish frigate, while in Glasgow, Livingstone found himself in the same carriage with the Turkish ambassador.
“The cheers of the people are for you," said Livingstone to the ambassador.
“No, they are for you, I am only what my master made me; you are what you made yourself," was the reply.
In August, 1865, he returned to Africa. He proposed seeking an entrance north of the Portuguese territories, passing round the southern end of Lake Tanganyika to explore the watershed of this part of the Dark Continent.
No one better exemplified the motto he gave to the pupils of the school at which his son Oswell was receiving his education: "FEAR GOD AND WORK HARD" —advice that we will all do well to ponder and embody in the life work that God may have permitted us to attempt for His glory. Whatever thou hast to do in the way of lawful service, "Fear God and Work Hard.”