To Thee, O God, we look. And, oh! Thou who
wast the man of sorrows for the sake of poor vile sinners,
and didst not disdain the thief's petition, remember me and
Thy cause in Africa. Soul and body, my family, and Thy cause,
I commit all to Thee. Hear, Lord, for Jesus' sake."
In the entire records of Christian heroism, there are few more
remarkable occasions of the triumph of the spirit of holy trust than
those which are recorded here so quietly and modestly. We are carried
back to the days of the Psalmist: "I will not be afraid of ten thousand
of the people that have set themselves against me round about." In the
case of David Livingstone as of the other David, the triumph of
confidence was not the less wonderful that it was preceded by no small
inward tumult. Both were human creatures. But in both the flutter lasted
only till the soul had time to rally its trust--to think of God as a
living friend, sure to help in time of need. And how real is the sense
of God's presence! The mention of the two longitudinal ridges, and of
the refusal of the people to give more than two canoes, side by side
with the most solemn appeals, would have been incongruous, or even
irreverent, if Livingstone had not felt that he was dealing with the
living God, by whom every step of his own career and every movement of
his enemies were absolutely controlled.
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