A young Scotsman had come to hear an address by a celebrated missionary. Following his conversion several years earlier, the young man had begun to grapple with the question, "What shall I do with my life?" The Great Commission had come to have a singular hold upon his mind. Its majestic syllables had for him a contemporaneous significance:
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (Matt. 28:18-20).
"All authority is given unto me." The same power is available!
"Go and evangelize all nations." The same program is operative!
"Lo, I am with you." The same Presence is assured!
The young Scotsman had completed his medical education, involving two years of study in Glasgow, and was ready for some high call to which he could give his utmost. His eyes were fastened upon the speaker, Robert Moffatt, with his flowing white beard and his vehement concern for Africa's perishing millions. The depths of his soul rose up to meet the challenge of the missionary, especially that contained in one sentence of twenty words. Those twenty words are historic, used of God to write an amazing history. The twenty words used by Robert Moffatt that epochal day were these:
"I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been."
The picture embodied in these stupendous words captivated his entire being and fired his soul with a passion which only death could quench. He would go to Africa! He would be a forerunner for Christ in the Dark Continent! He would search out the thousand villages, and other thousands, where no missionary had ever been.
This young doctor was David Livingstone, born in Blantyre, Scotland, March 19, 1813. He became the Pathfinder of Africa, whose eventful career is the story of many long, exciting, winding trails.
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