DAVID LIVINGSTONE – Apostle to Africa

DAVID LIVINGSTONE – Apostle to Africa
John Waters
GLS Publishing, 1992 – reprinted 2009

It was an awesome read of David Livingstone’s adventurous journey in Africa. Not a very dramatic account, but at the end of the book, I got to know better of David Livingstone’s character and the values he held dear. One example is when he refused to use violence at all, in the midst of unreasoning tribal groups who will attack at any one who came near. For this principle, he has won many tribal leader’s hearts… *Read on for yourself*

Chapter 10: The Good Samaritan
“His religion is not of the theoretical kind, but it is a constant, earnest, sincere practice…In him religion show its loveliest characteristics; it controls his behaviors not only towards his helpers but towards…all who come in contact with him. Without it, Livingstone, with his…high spirit and courage, must have become uncompanionable, and a hard master. Religion has tamed him, and made him a Christian gentleman…religion has made him the most companionable of men and indulgent of masters…”

“From being blocked and hated in every possible way… he has, through his uniform kindness and mild, pleasant temper, won all hearts. I noticed that everybody showed him respect. Even the Muslims never passed his house without calling to pay their compliments, and to say, “The blessing of God rest on you.”

Chapter 13: The Fruits
Livingstone was a pioneer: he went where no messenger of the gospel had been before. He sowed the seed of the Word of God without seeing much immediate fruit; but he carried on sowing, seeing with the eyes of faith alone the churches that were to spring up in places where only the forces of darkness seemed to reign.

Dying on his knees before God, David Livingstoe brought an army of believers to their knees to plead for Africa…Today there are sixteen thousand missionaries in Black Africa …Black Africa is quickly becoming, nominally, a Christian continent. And perhaps seventeen percent of the world’s evangelical Christians are to be found there. There are almost as many evangelical believers in Africa now as in all of Western Europe.