DR. LIVINGSTONE, I PRESUME?

In 1858, David Livingstone, already a world famous missionary/explorer, returned to Africa to find the source of the Nile. Nine years later, in 1867, he reached the end of Lake Tanganyika and moved on toward the interior of central Africa - and dropped out of sight and communication.

After two years of no word from or about Dr. Livingstone (in 1869), the New York Herald sent a London reporter, Henry Morton Stanley on an expedition to find Dr. Livingstone. After another two years, involving arduous travels and all kinds of hardships; Stanley found Livingstone on October 28, 1871.

He stayed with Dr. Livingstone for a little over four months and this is what H. M. Stanley wrote:

In 1871 I went to him as prejudiced as the biggest atheist in London. To a
reporter and correspondent such as I, who had only to deal with wars, mass
meetings, and political gatherings, sentimental matters were entirely out of my
province. But there came for me a long time of reflection. I was out there away
from a worldly world. I saw this solitary old man there, and asked myself, "How
on earth does he stop here - is he cracked, or what? What is it that inspires
him?" For months after we met I simply found myself listening to him, wondering
at the old man carrying out all that was said in the Bible - "Leave all
things and follow Me!" But little by little his sympathy for others became
contagious; my sympathy was aroused, seeing his piety, his gentleness, his zeal,
his earnestness, and how he went quietly about his business. I was
converted by him, although he had not tried to do it.

I came across this story as I prepared my Sunday School lesson this week and it has really raised some questions in my soul -

• if someone came and spent a few months with me,


• if they just tagged along with me as I did all the things that make up my daily reality,


• would they see Jesus in me?


• would they see Him to such a degree that they would desire Him for themselves?