Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Personal Life of David Livingstone by William Garden Blaikie
page 41 of 618 (06%)
established. His temperament was far too high for most even of the
well-disposed people of Blantyre, but Neil Livingstone appreciated his
genuine worth, and so did his son. David says of him that "for about
forty years he had been incessant and never weary in good works, and
that such men were an honor to their country and their profession." Yet
it was not after the model of Thomas Burke that Livingstone's own
religious life was fashioned. It had a greater resemblance to that of
David Hogg, the other of the two Blantyre patriarchs of whom he makes
special mention, under whose instructions he had sat in the
Sunday-school, and whose spirit may be gathered from his death-bed
advice to him: "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." It would hardly be possible to
give a better account of Livingstone's religion than that he did make it
quietly, but very really, the every-day business of his life. From the
first he disliked men of much profession and little performance; the
aversion grew as he advanced in years; and by the end of his life, in
judging of men, he had come to make somewhat light both of profession
and of formal creed, retaining and cherishing more and more firmly the
one great test of the Saviour--"By their fruits ye shall know them."




CHAPTER II.

MISSIONARY PREPARATION.

A.D. 1836--1840.

DigitalOcean Referral Badge