56 
GOD'S BLACK DIAMONDS. 
four towns IVe mentioned. When the news leaked 
out, as it eventually did, there was an expedition 
of soldiers sent against them, and they were 
defeated and punished. The road was eventually 
made, and ever since has served the countryside 
splendidly. Travelling is much easier, life is much 
safer, and old feuds and suspicions are fast passing 
away. The folks of the different towns are getting 
to know each other better and trust each other 
more. The story of that bit of road-making serves 
as a parable setting forth the experience of all 
Gospel pioneers from Christ down to the present 
day. It cost Christ His life to become the Way for 
God's children throughout the world to travel on 
and reach God. And every true follower of Him 
is a maker of roads and leveller of paths. One of 
Livingstone's great dreams was to open a way for 
the white man into the very heart of darkest Africa. 
Said he, I will open a path through this country 
— or perish." In doing it, his life was in danger 
hundreds of times. Angry natives attacked him; 
a wounded lion shattered his shoulder blade; brutal 
slave traders constantly sought his death, but 
nothing stopped him. Fire, water, stone walls 
could not stop Livingstone." Every missionary 
has some sort of opposition to meet. In West 
Africa — the slave owner, the witch doctor, those 
devoted to ancestor worship— object stoutly to the 
changes missionary work brings. They secretly 
plot and they openly persecute, until very often 
before the road is made the cost in suffering and 
blood has been a heavy one. But it is always 
worth while. The Master blazed tracks and made 
roads. And shall not His servants do likewise ? 
