An Interview with David Livingstone

This “interview” consists of questions by the author and answers taken from a biography written by William Blaikie and published in 1880, “Personal Life of David Livingstone.” William L. Coleman is pastor of Sterling Evangelical Mennonite Church in Sterling, Kansas. He has the M.Div. from Grace Theological Seminary.

If you had the choice again, would you become a missionary?

I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office.

But many Christians have criticized you for spending so much time in mapping geography.

I have labored in bricks and mortar, at the forge and the carpenter’s bench, as well as in preaching and medical practice. I feel that I am “not my own.” I am serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men, or taking an astronomical observation; am I to hide the light under a bushel, merely because some will consider it not sufficiently, or even at all, missionary?

Doesn’t it irritate you when people question your motives?

I like to hear that some abuse me now, and say that I am no Christian. Many good things were said of me which I did not deserve, and I feared to read them. I shall read every word I can on the other side, and that will prove a sedative to what I was forced to hear of an opposite tendency.

Some people think it was sheer folly to march into the jungle of an unknown and potentially hostile people.

Can the love of Christ not carry the missionary where the slave-trade carries the trader?

How could you bring yourself to sacrifice so much for Christ?

Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest 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 is 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 charities of this life, may 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.

And yet leaving your family so much must have been painful.

Nothing but a strong conviction that the step will lead to the glory of Christ would make me orphanize my children. Even now my bowels yearn over them. They will forget me; but I hope when the day of trial comes, I shall not be found a more sorry soldier than those who serve an earthly sovereign.

You never regained full use of your arm after a lion crushed it. What does one think when being attacked by a lion?

I was thinking what part of me he would eat first.

What do you feel is the purpose of a missionary?

The missionary’s object is to endeavor by every means in his power to make known the gospel by preaching, exhortation, conversation, instruction of the young; improving, so far as in his power, the temporal conditions of those among whom he labors, by introducing the arts and sciences of civilization, and doing everything to commend Christianity to their hearts and consciences.

Do you think that missions have been too slow or too quick in developing national churches?

I am more and more convinced that in order to bring about the permanent settlement of the gospel in any part, the natives must be taught to relinquish their reliance on Europe. An onward movement ought to be made whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. I tell my Bakwains that if spared ten years, I shall move on to the regions beyond them.

Why did you become a physician?

My great object was to be like Him—to imitate Him as far as He could be imitated. We have not the power of working miracles, but we can do a little in the way of healing the sick, and I sought a medical education in order that I might be like Him.

Did you feel at any time that your work was discouraging?

For a long time I felt much depressed after preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to apparently insensible hearts; but now I like to dwell on the love of the great Mediator; for it always warms my heart, and I know that the gospel is the power of God—the great means which He employs for the regeneration of our ruined world.

What passage of Scripture have you found particularly helpful and strengthening?

The same as Captain Maclure, the discoverer of the Northwest Passage, mentions in a letter to his sister as familiar in his experience: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy steps. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass.

You have spoken of your conversion at the age of twelve and a spiritual awakening at twenty. Would you tell us about this latter experience?

Great pains 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.

A Sunday-school teacher, David Hogg, had a great influence in your life. You have often quoted what he told you on his death-bed. Would you repeat it once more?

Now, lad, make religion the every-day business of your life, and not a thing of fits and starts; for if you do, temptation and other things will get the better of you.

What advice would you give to the person who wants to be a Christian witness?

I hope you improve the talents committed to you whenever there is an opportunity. You have a class with whom you have some influence. It requires prudence in the way of managing it; seek wisdom from above to direct you; persevere—don’t be content with once or twice recommending the Saviour to them—again and again, in as kind a manner as possible, familiarly, individually, and privately exhibit to them the fountain of happiness and joy, never forgetting to implore divine energy to accompany your endeavors, and you need not fear that your labor will be unfruitful.

George M. Marsden is associate professor of history at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has the Ph.D. (Yale University) and has written “The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience.”

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