ngstone is familiar to all of you. From your
childhood you have known the brief data of his days. He was born in
Lanarkshire, Scotland, March 19, 1813. He began working in a
cotton-factory at the age of ten, and for ten years thence, educated
himself, reading Latin, Greek, and finally pursuing a course of
medicine and theology in which he graduated. In 1840, firmly believing
in his call, he offered his services to the London Missionary Society,
by whom he was ordained, and sent as a medical missionary to South
Africa, where he commenced his labors. In 1849, he discovered Lake
Ngami; in 1852, he explored the Zambezi River. In 1856, he discovered
the wonderful Victoria Falls, and then returned to England, where he was
overwhelmed with honors. In 1857, he published his first book, hardly
realizing that it was an epoch-making volume, and that he had made an
unprecedented contribution alike to literature, science, and religion.
In the same year, he severed his connection with the Missionary society,
believing that he could best work unhampered by its restrictions. He was
appointed British Consul for the East Coast of Africa, and commander of
an expedition to explore Eastern and Central Africa. He discovered the
Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa in 1859; published his second book during a
visit to England, 1864-65. He returned to Africa, started to explore the
interior, and was lost to the world for two years. He re-appeared in
1867, having solved the problem of the sources of the Nile. From then
until 1871, when he was found by Stanley, suffering the most pitiful
privations, his was a record of important discoveries and explorations.
After parting with Stanley in 1872, he continued his explorations, and
died in 1873. His body was interred in Westminster Abbey in 1874.

This is a meagre account of the life of David Livingstone. The romance
and wonder of it do not appear on the surface; the splendor of the
heroic soul is lost in the dry chronology of dates; the marvelous
achievement of self-sacrifice is not visible. Yet the wildest fantasies
of medieval troubadours pale into insignificance when placed side by
side with the life-story of David Livingstone.

What has this modern romance in it for the man of to-day? An infinity of
example, of hope, of the gleam to follow. The most salient thing about
Livingstone's early life is the toil and the privation which he endured
gladly, in order to accomplish that which he had set himself to do.