ngstone. Though he seldom
revealed his inner feelings, and hardly ever in the language of ecstasy,
it is plain that he was moved by a calm but mighty inward power to the
very end of his life. The love that began to stir his heart in his
father's house continued to move him all through his dreary African
journeys, and was still in full play on that lonely midnight when he
knelt at his bedside in the hut in Ilala, and his spirit returned to his
God and Saviour.

At first he had no thought of being himself a missionary. Feeling "that
the salvation of men ought to be the chief desire and aim of every
Christian," he had made a resolution "that he would give to the cause of
missions all that he might earn beyond what was required for his
subsistence[6]." The resolution to give himself came from his reading an
Appeal by Mr. Gutzlaff to the Churches of Britain and America on behalf
of China. It was "the claims of so many millions of his
fellow-creatures, and the complaints of the scarcity, of the want of
qualified missionaries," that led him to aspire to the office. From that
time--apparently his twenty-first year--his "efforts were constantly
directed toward that object without any fluctuation."

[Footnote 6: Statement to Directors of London Missionary Society.]

The years of monotonous toil spent in the factory were never regretted
by Livingstone. On the contrary, he regarded his experience there as an
important part of his education, and had it been possible, he would have
liked "to begin life over again in the same lowly style, and to pass
through the same hardy training[7]." The fellow-feeling he acquired for
the children of labor was invaluable for enabling him to gain influence
with the same class, whether in Scotland or in Africa. As we have
already seen, he was essentially a man of the people. Not that he looked
unkindly on the richer classes,--he used to say in his later years, that
he liked to see people in comfort and at leisure, enjoying the good
things of life,--but he felt that the burden-bearing multitude claimed
his sympathy most. How quick the people are, whether in England or in
Africa, to find out this sympathetic spirit, and how powerful is the
hold of their hearts which those who have it gain! In poetic feeling, or
at least in the power of expressing it, as in many other things, David
Livingstone and Robert Burns were a great contrast; but in sympathy with
the people they were alike, and in both cases th