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David Livingstone's SacrificeDavid Livingstone is recognized as one of the world's foremost
explorers and Christian missionaries. For thirty years he traveled
through Africa, making friends wherever he went. His example and his
death acted like an inspiration, filling Africa with an army of
explorers and missionaries. In recognition of his sufferings and many
compulsory delays in opening up the vast continent of Africa to
Christian influence, his words "I never made a sacrifice" have made an
indelible impression on men's hearts. Here is the glorious statement
of this pure and tenderhearted man in its original setting:
"People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid
back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can
never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own best reward in
healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind,
and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word
in such a view, and with such a thought! It was emphatically no
sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering
or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences
and charites of this life make us pause and cause the spirit to waver
and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are
nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed
in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk
when we remember the great sacrifice which He made Who left His
Father's throne on high to give Himself for us: Who, being the
brightness of that Father's glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when he had
by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high."
Aug. 1963 The Gospel Standard