1836-40.] MISSIONARY PREPARATION. 35. 



of this abominable opium war % I will go at once to Africa.' The 

 Directors concurred, and Africa became his sphere." 



It is no wonder that all his life Livingstone had a 

 very strong faith in Providence, for at every turn of his 

 career up to this point, some unlooked-for circumstance 

 had come in to give a new direction to his history. First,. 

 his reading Dick's Philosophy of a Future State, which led 

 him to Christ, but did not lead him away from science ;. 

 then his falling in with Gutzlaff's Appeal, which induced 

 him to become a medical missionary ; the Opium War, 

 which closed China against him ; the friendly word of the 

 Director who procured for him another trial ; Mr. Moffat's 

 visit, which deepened his interest in Africa ; and finally, 

 the issue of a dangerous illness that attacked him in 

 London, — all indicated the unseen hand that was pre- 

 paring him for his great work. 



The meeting of Livingstone with Moffat is far too. 

 important an event to be passed over without remark. 

 Both directly and indirectly Mr. Moffat's influence on his 

 young brother, afterwards to become his son-in-law, was 

 remarkable. In after life they had a thorough apprecia- 

 tion of each other. No family on the face of the globe 

 could have been so helpful to Livingstone in connection 

 with the great work to which he gave himself. If the 

 old Roman fashion of surnames still prevailed, there is no 

 household of which all the members would have been 

 better entitled to put Afbicantjs after their name. The 

 interests of the great continent were dear to them all. 

 In 1872, when one of the Search Expeditions for Living- 

 stone was fitted out, a grandson of Dr. Moffat, another 

 Robert Moffat, was among those who set out in the hope 

 of relieving him ; cut off at the very beginning, in the 

 flower of his youth, he left his bones to moulder in 

 African soil. 



The illness to which we have alluded was an attack of 

 congestion of the liver, with an affection of the lungs. 



