i3o DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. vn. 



Wellington and Lord Brougham with pleasure, and, 

 possibly, he might get justice. He bids his father-in- 

 law not be surprised if he saw him abused in the news- 

 papers. 



On the 23d April 1852, Mrs. Livingstone and the 

 four children sailed from Cape Town for England. The 

 sending of his children to be brought up by others was 

 a very great trial, and Dr. Livingstone seized the oppor- 

 tunity to impress on the Directors that those by whom 

 missionaries were sent out had a great duty to the 

 children whom their parents were compelled to send 

 away. Referring to the filthy conversation and ways of 

 the heathen, he says : — 



" Missionaries expose their children to a contamination which they 

 have had no hand in producing. "We expose them and ourselves for 

 a time in order to elevate those sad captives of sin and Satan, who are 

 the victims of the degradation of ages. None of those who complain 

 about missionaries sending their children home ever descend to this. 

 And again, as Mr. James in his Young Man from Home forcibly shows, 

 a greater misfortune cannot befall a youth than to be cast into the 

 world without a home. In regard to even the vestige of a home, my 

 children are absolutely vagabonds. When shall we return to Kolobeng 1 ? 

 When to Kuruman 1 Never. The mark of Cain is on your foreheads, 

 your father is a missionary. Our children ought to have both the 

 sympathies and prayers of those at whose bidding we become strangers 

 for life." 



Was there ever a plea more powerful or more just ? 

 It is sad to think that the coldness of Christians at home 

 should have led a man like Livingstone to fancy that, 

 because his children were the children of a missionary, 

 they would bear the mark of Cain, and be homeless 

 vagabonds. Why are we at home so forgetful of the 

 privilege of refreshing the bowels of those who take their 

 lives in their hands for the love of Christ, by making a 

 home for their offspring ? In a higher state of Christianity 

 there will be hundreds of the best families at home 

 delighted, for the love of their Master, to welcome and 

 bring up the missionary's children. And when the Great 



