Livingstone’s prayer

Will affluent America fulfill the great missionary’s vision? | Marvin Olasky

Three weeks ago I reported on the career of missionary David Livingstone through 1857, when he received massive acclaim as a hero. His next 16 years were more up and down. His constant attacks on the slave trade, and the failure of an expedition he led, gave an opening to critics who said he rushed ahead instead of following regulations—and Livingstone talked back, knocking "the so-called Missionaries to the heathen, who never march into heathen territory."

Livingstone also had to contend with pacifists who did not like his occasional brandishing of a weapon: "I can never cease wondering why the friends who sincerely believe in the power of peace principles don't test them by going forth to the heathen as missionaries of the cross." Some said he should only preach the gospel, instead of developing a holistic ministry; he responded by writing that a missionary should not be "a dumpy sort of man with a Bible under his arm. I have labored in bricks and mortar, at the forge and carpenter's bench, as well as in preaching and medical practice. . . . I am serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men, or taking an astronomical observation."