Till then, our pulses will quicken and our enthusiasm kindle as we read
of dangers encountered and overcome, of the true courage that could
undismayed encounter the king of beasts roaming on the African plain,
and of passing the time with savage chiefs, beneath the spears and clubs
of whose warriors thousands had been slain. Or our sympathy is awakened
as stories of sickness and suffering, of hunger and terrible thirst, of
trying disappointments, continued year after year, are related. Anon,
gratitude causes the tear to start to our eye as we witness the love
that prompts the effort to win the heathen to the Saviour, and see the
once benighted ones clothed and subdued, learning in mind and heart the
truth of the Gospel. Gratitude arises that we have men, heroic Christian
men, who count nothing dear to them, not even their lives, that they may
win sinners to the love of Jesus Christ.

Such an one was he, whose memoir we present to our readers, with the
earnest desire that his strong faith may strengthen ours, that his quiet
courage may excite us to perseverance in well-doing, and that his
deliverance from manifold and very real dangers may lead us to place
reliance upon Him in whom Moffat trusted, and who never forsakes those
that trust in Him. May we all see, and especially the youth of our land,
as we read the records of such noble lives, that true godliness detracts
not from true manhood, but rather that it glorifies and ennobles it,
until evil is overcome, and the wicked are put to silence.

In writing this brief sketch of the life of the Rev. Dr. Moffat, the
author has been much indebted to those who have trodden the path before
him; especially to the two well-known works, "Robert and Mary Moffat,"
by their son John S. Moffat, and to Robert Moffat's own book,
"Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa." He also owes his
acknowledgments to "The Missionary Magazine," "The Chronicle of the