Society in 1838, in answer to a schedule of queries sent down by them
when he offered himself as a missionary for their service. He says that
about his twelfth year he began to reflect on his state as a sinner, and
became anxious to realize the state of mind that flows from the
reception of the truth into the heart. He was deterred, however, from
embracing the free offer of mercy in the gospel, by a sense of
unworthiness to receive so great a blessing, till a supernatural change
should be effected in him by the Holy Spirit. Conceiving it to be his
duty to wait for this, he continued expecting a ground of hope within,
rejecting meanwhile the only true hope of the sinner, the finished work
of Christ, till at length his convictions were effaced, and his feelings
blunted. Still his heart was not at rest; an unappeased hunger remained,
which no other pursuit could satisfy.

[Footnote 5: _Missionary Travels_, p.4]

In these circumstances he fell in with Dick's _Philosophy of a Future
State_. The book corrected his error, and showed him the truth. "I saw
the duty and inestimable privilege _immediately_ to accept salvation by
Christ. Humbly believing that through sovereign mercy and grace I have
been enabled so to do, and having felt in some measure its effects on my
still depraved and deceitful heart, it is my desire to show my
attachment to the cause of Him who died for me by devoting my life to
his service."

There can be no doubt that David Livingstone's heart was very thoroughly
penetrated by the new life that now flowed into it. He did not merely
apprehend the truth--the truth laid hold of him. The divine blessing
flowed into him as it flowed into the heart of St. Paul, St. Augustine,
and others of that type, subduing all earthly desires and wishes. What
he says in his book about the freeness of God's grace drawing forth
feelings of affectionate love to Him who bought him with his blood, and
the sense of deep obligation to Him for his mercy, that had influenced,
in some small measure, his conduct ever since, is from him most
significant. Accustomed to suppress all spiritual emotion in his public
writings, he would not have used these words if they had not been very
real. They give us the secret of his life. Acts of self-denial that are
very hard to do under the iron law of conscience, become a willing
service under the glow of divine love. It was the glow of divine love as
well as the power of conscience that moved Livi