DAVID LIVINGSTONE

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1703, 20 March 1913, Page 6

DAVID LIVINGSTONE

CENTENARY CELEBRATION. INTERESTING SPEECHES. TRIBUTES TO A GREAT MANThe centenary of the birth of Davii i Livingstone, missionary and explorer, was celebrated at a public meeting in the Town Hall last night. The Mayor (Mr. D. M'Laren) presided, and other -speakers who dealt with various aspects of the life and work of Livingstone Were the Anglican Bishop of Wellington (Dr. Sprott), Commissioner Richards, Professor D. K. Picken, the Rev. J. ,T. Lewis, aiid Sir. J. G. W. Aitken. : Thero were about 800 people present. The Mayor said it afforded him great pleasure to preside at a meeting to do houour to tlio great man,' David Livingstone. .If there was one.quality in David Livingjtono, which was truly admirable, it was liis manliness, his bigness of character; he had a strong mind, a stout heart, and unbounding faith which enabled him to do lunch as a teacher by example as well as by precept. His forbears were poor in substance, but full of true riches, setting store by tho sturdy virile virtuo of honesty. No man was more generally honoured for his great work than David Livingstone, ono of the noblest men the j British race had produced. (Applause.)

Livinflstone's Equipment. Mr. J. G. W. Aitken spoke.of "Livingstone's Equipment." Livingstone, he said, ivas born in 1813 in stirring times, when Napoleon held Europe in the hollow of his hand. Livingstone must have inherited much of. his spirit from his father, ivho came from the Atlantic-beaten coast of the Western Highland. It'must have been from his father that he inherited liis genius for command and control which enabled him to wield 'such a wide and 'joneficent influence over the natives of Africa. His mother had been descended, from a family of covenanters, who' had endured hardships patiently, for .their faith. , Livingstone was to endure ■ many hardships, and the teachings he received from his mother ..in his happy home enabled him to bear them manfully. At the early age of ten, young Livingstone went to work in a cottonmill, but his thirst for knowledge was insatiable', and even while he. was at work ho laid the foundation of the splendid scholarship to which ho afterwards attained. Presently, while still a young man, lie became a Christian, 1 and the change came over liis life which was to make him one of the most ! remarkable meyi that ever lived on God's earth. Thenceforth he went about to equip himself for tlie foreign mission field, betook himself to Glasgow and went through n course in medicine. The. great equipment that Livingstone had, was signified in the one . word, "duty." "Dutr" ivas his watchword, and he did his work noblv and well.

In ths Trail of Livingstone, Commissioner Richards Paid that ever since his boyhood lie had l*jen a worshipper of heroes, and Livingstone, a hero of religion, garb;d in robes of self-sacrifice mid modesty, had received tardy recognition from mankind. . He himself had travelled 150,000 miles in tho track of David Livingstone, and on those peregrinations 110 had seen things which- made him want to H fall down and worship his inemory. In the olden times, the trail .of Caesar's legions had been marked bv devastated fields; in Africa, in tho track uf Livingstone, the desert was turned into gardens; instead of appalling bloodshed and wretchedness, there were the songs of Ziou- sung by good people. No man hod dor,-; such'work in Africa'as David Livingstone. His greatest quality was his courage, and although African missionaries were all brave men. 110110 of them had the iron courage that Livingstone had. Perils from wild animals, from dwarfs in the forest, from tho strong hill men, he met with unshaken bravery, and he never used a firearm against a man in all his travel, and never once was lie struck a blow. There was no example of indomitable perseverance to compare with that of Livingstone, hut what carried. liim through everything was that he saw in every native a precious soul to save. (Applause.) ,

Scientific Work. Professor D. 10. Picken spoke briefly of Livingstone's scientific work as an explorer, which lintl won him world-wide fame. The futile controversy of science and religion was going on in his youth, but Livingstone's scientific powers were consecrated to the service of God and man. Livingstone, tlie scientific apostle of Jesus Christ, probably l did more for the world than 1 another Livingstone devoted wholly to science would have done. Men trained to scientific thoroughness of work and consecrated to the service of God were, the men who were needed by the world and by the British Empire. (Applause.) i

Livingstone, Humanitarian. .The Rev. J. J. Lewis spoke of Livingstone as a hunlanitarian. Amid a superstitious, a savage, and a sensual people, the presence of a Godly home Was beneficent to a degrpe. They contrasted the gentlehess, order., and happiness of such a homo with the result of their centuries of vicious practices, and the effect could not be estimated. Livingstone furnished the example 'of a well-ordered home, and he also ministered to the bodily, ailments of the people. But his greatest fight for humanity was' against the greatest evil of the day. slavery. Africa was in his day under the scourge .of the dread curse, but, very largely as. the result of Livingstono's utforts, the slave trade had ceased. And he had drawn his inspiration 'for his life's work from his allegiance to the Saviour of the World, the Heaven crowned King of Humanity. His Great Examplo. 1

Bishop Sprott said that he proposed to speak of Livingstone as an inspirational force. Livingstone must not'be regarded iis some unitiue phenomenon in nature who could not be imitated, but as in somo real senso an examnle they would have power to follow. He did not, however, offer to everyone the advice ''Go. cmulato the achievements of Livingstone," tor men came into the' World very unequally endowed. The , most social arrangements could do was to provide eoualitv o { opportunity to all. But ill all normal human beings were the rudiments of all human excellencies and interests—philosonhy, scienoe, and religion. From time to time, however, arose mSn in whom they were condensed and concentrated, in whom - they were raised to the lndiest power. These were (lie -real; men of tho race. It appeared that the idea of the Creator was that men and women should form a society, knit closely bgether. and by that variety of gifts made ■nutnnllv denendent. So great men became examnles, helping the lesser liipn to develop their own smaller powers. These great men became centres of influence, and piwer radiated from them. So it was 'hat Livingstone was a great insniratioml force. Our moral aud spiritual force iiad three centres, consciousness of God, censoiousness right, and conciousness rf humanity. From time to lime there wero mcu in whom these feelings wore raised fo Ugliest power, in whom consciousncss was so vivid as to become it -masinn. Livingstone's passion for God impelled him to be a missionary, his passion f;>r righteousness made him fight the slave trade, and his passion for humanity sent him to Africa to care for the degraded peoples there. He had himself told what assisted him to bear the hardships of his life; it was tho promise, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end." And the words wero spoken under suoh circumstances by a man whose work was nn example of their truth, that the effect of them could not have been surpassed sine* they wero first spoken, in Galilee. The source of Livingstone's greatness was therefore as open to us as it was to him. (Applause.) During the evening a collection was taken up in aid of the Livingstone Centenary Fluid, for which tho parent Missionary Society in London hopes to raise JCIO.OOO for memorial extension work in Afi'iea.