Farewell to Children
Our father was not sorry, after an absence of four months, to return to his home in Brixton, where he spent the winter free from public work: the principal family event being his son’s departure for South Africa. A farewell meeting was held at the Rev. Baldwin Brown’s lecture-room, and the sailing of the steamer being deferred, the next day was spent in his home at Brixton with a crowd of his children and grandchildren around him. The seeing the voyagers off was sad enough, with the prospect of beholding them no more in this world, and the intense desire to go with them — for his heart was still in Africa. The solemn and earnest gaze which he fixed on his children till the last possible moment, as the vessel slowly moved away, was more eloquent than words. A few weeks later, Livingstone’s remains were brought home, and he went down to Southampton to meet them. The part he had to take in the identification, and his presence at the funeral in Westminster Abbey, were all to him deeply affecting circumstances. About this time he was called to stand by the grave of another old friend, Thomas Binney. A strong attachment had existed between the two men, dating from our father’s first visit home in 1840. Binney had given him much valuable assistance whilst writing his book, and had been a kind adviser to each of his sons successively when home for their education.
The greater part of the year was spent in deputation work for the Society, beginning with London and its neighbourhood, until after May, when extended tours were taken, and meetings held in nearly all the southern counties of England and Wales. We reached home from this round in November, and the winter was spent quietly at home, with occasional attendance at meetings of one sort or another.
In April, 1875, he again began work with the meetings of the season. He paid a hasty visit to Glasgow in May, to be present at the wedding of his grandson, Oswell Livingstone; returning immediately to London, where he had the pleasure of welcoming his daughter Bessie and her husband, on a visit home from South Africa. His summer campaign on behalf of the Missionary Society was in the eastern counties, after which he started for Whitehall, Cumberland, the residence of Mr. George Moore. Mr. Moore was in the habit of having a gathering of London friends who helped him in conducting Bible Society meetings in the neighbouring villages. It was a very interesting and enjoyable season. Besides the guests at the Hall, who represented all denominations, the town missionaries of Westmoreland and Cumberland were entertained at the inn, and had the full enjoyment of the beautiful grounds, each day attending a conference in the old baronial hall. Mr. Moore presented each of them on leaving with a copy of “Guthrie on the Parables,” as a memento of their meeting with our father. At the close of this pleasant week he went on to Carlisle, where he held meetings for the Missionary Society, and then proceeded to Hamilton to the marriage of his granddaughter, Agnes Livingstone, with Alexander Bruce of Edinburgh. After a month spent in Scotland he returned to London, taking some deputation work on the way: but not to rest, for before he settled in for the winter he had visited Lancashire and Yorkshire, and various places in Kent, Hampshire, and Wales 1 He might well say, as he often did, that people either could not or would not see that he was getting old. All this while he was seldom without some occupation in the way of revising proof-sheets of the Sechwana Hymn-book, Scripture Selections, and the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” a new translation of which last, based upon his own, had been prepared by his son-in-law, Roger Price.
On St. Andrew’s Day he lectured on Missions in Westminster Abbey, and afterwards supped with Dean Stanley at Mr. Flood Jones’s, Lady Augusta being too ill to entertain him.
On the twenty-first of December, 1875, he was eighty years of age. This day had been fixed upon by Mr. Baldwin Brown and his helpers for the opening of the new Mission Hall in Vauxhall Street, Lambeth. He was asked to attend — though without the knowledge that it was his birthday; and thenceforward the hall was called the Moffat Institute. He had always been greatly interested in this mission, and now felt it had a special claim upon him. He received many congratulatory tokens on this day, and, not least, a visit from a deputation of Congregational ministers, who presented him with an address signed by a great number from every part of the country. This address remains to his children one of the most valued mementoes of the regard in which their father was held by so many of his fellow-servants in Christ.
The winter of 1875-6 was spent in London, but he had a good many public engagements in the neighbourhood. In March, Roger Price sailed for Zanzibar. Later on our father visited, at Horsham, the daughters of his former fellow-labourer Helmore, who laid down his life for the gospel at Linyanti, in the Makololo country.
From Horsham our father went on to Brighton, and spent a week with Mrs. Goulty. It was always a special pleasure to visit her. She and her late husband were reckoned among those friends who had welcomed him on his first return from South Africa, and their attachment never wavered.
[The following letter was written to Mrs. Goulty a year or two later on:
•’ Brixton, Ma/xk 23, 1878.
“Among the many thoughts which have passed through my mind to-day, you have not been forgotten. To-morrow you will enter on the eighty-seventh year of your pilgrimage. I think I can in some degree enter into your feelings of wonder and gratitude — wonder in having been spared so long, while so many thousands have passed away and gone to an unchangeable and deathless state. Even among our contemporaries how few, if any, remain. Among the last of mine is James Parsons, of York. I have been affectingly impressed with the succession of mourning-cards for friends received since my return from a long life in Africa to the land of my forefathers They are gone, but they are only gone before, enjoying what they so long desired — to be present with the Lord. How impressive and how solemn to think of the stream of human beings rushing on to the vast eternity, and still more so to think of the multitude moving along without a thought of their future destiny. Our hearts sink within us at the thought of the untold myriads perishing for whom Christ died. How the reflection awakens our inmost emotions to exclaim, ‘Oh to grace how great a debtor! ’ and ‘Why was I made to hear His voice? ’
“The remembrance of the Brighton Kuruman Lodge and the many incidents, and the now happy Mary playing on the piano while I was studying the sermon I had to preach before the Directors! Can I ever forget the attention of your late beloved one, who received charge from the Directors to care for me that my voice might, through many a walk on the wavy beach, return to perform the task appointed to me. It would tire you to refer to the variety of apparently small, but to me never to be forgotten, events. Will these things be thought of when we reach ’ the heavenly fields, and walk the golden streets ’ y
“Oh how little we are made to know of that ’ land afar off.’ What are its shining inhabitants doing y Perhaps the departed are, though in glory, very near to us. I was with you in spirit during your severe attack; and how good it was of Lizzie and Isabel to report progress, which I hope continues; but old folks like you and me do not rally so soon.”]
At this time he was much troubled by the severe illness and death in Egypt of his grandson, Thomas S. Livingstone, who had been for some years in failing health. He longed to accompany the friend who went out, but felt it was too far. Tom’s genial spirit and frequent visits to his grandfather had greatly endeared him, and his death was a great sorrow.
May brought its usual round of meetings. On the sixth he dined with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace. About this time the Jubilee Singers were in England, on their second visit. He was quite in his element when with them, and lost no opportunity of hearing them sing. When at Brixton they came in to him at Knowle Road, and he and they were both much pleased. They afterwards gave him a photograph group of themselves. In this month he received an invitation from the Corporation of London to attend a ball given at Guildhall in honour of the Prince of Wales on his return from India. He accepted it, and went, greatly amused by all he saw, though not sufficiently charmed to desire a second such opportunity. Later in the month he spoke at the Moravian Missionary Meeting, which always drew out his sympathies, as he considered he owed his wife to the Moravians. A day or two after he was to have been with the •’ Friends’” Foreign Mission Association, but was unable to attend on account of a cold. “Sad disappointment,” he writes in his note-book. A round of engagements followed in town and country. On the twelfth of July, 1876, he had the pleasure of breakfasting with Mr. Gladstone in the house of the Rev. Newman Hall, along with a number of ministers.
In August he went to Edinburgh to be at the unveiling of Livingstone’s statue, which took place the day before a similar ceremonial for Prince Albert. He took a great interest in both, but perhaps still more in another quite informal interview with the Queen, who, hearing of his presence in Edinburgh, sent for him. She was just starting for a drive when he arrived, so that they really met and exchanged a few words on the staircase of Holyrood Palace. Later on we find him at Bristol, always, as usual, in the thick of meetings. He visited Müller’s Orphanage, and was intensely interested. One little girl asked him to accept her doll, a very minute one. This touched him exceedingly, and the doll took its place on his study mantelpiece till the day of his death.
Constant engagements filled up the remainder of the year. One i’]Q VISIT TO PARIS.
day it would be a public meeting; then an address to the boys at ]^.Iill Hill School, in which he took a special interest from the presence there of two of his own grandsons; then he was to be found assisting in mission work at the Institute in Lambeth. He spent a day at Wimbledon with Sir Bartle Frere, then starting for South Africa. His mind was very much occupied at this time with African affairs, and full of anxiety. The East African Missions were being started, and two members of the Bechwana staff transferred to them — which did not meet with his approval; nor did other changes then taking place in the Bechwana field. He never could see any start being made for South Africa without being greatly excited. A longing always came over him to go too. He was restless till the party was away, which in this case was early in 1877, when Price and Dodgshun left for Zanzibar and Cockin for Matebeleland. Some of the party were of his own family, and started from his house, and his deepest feelings were stirred.
When all this was over, he went in April, 1877, by invitation of the French Missionary Society, to Paris. The day after his arrival he addressed, through Theodore Monod, four thousand Sunday-school children — a sight quite unexpected in France. They were assembled in a circus, and the place was crowded. These corresponded, with our French friends, to the English May meetings; but the children were thus collected only once in two years, it being a much greater undertaking than in England. During his three weeks’ sojourn in Paris he addressed nine meetings, besides one in Orleans. On all these occasions the audiences were large. Not the least interesting was a meeting held in one of Mr. McAll’s Mission rooms. Here particularly the people seemed to anticipate the meaning from the gestures, even before they heard the interpretation. Another meeting of special interest was held in the Halle Herz at the request of Madame Andrd, a benevolent and missionary-spirited lady, who asked our father to give a lecture on Livingstone as a corrective to the idea of sceptics, who, it appeared, rejoiced in Livingstone as one who had given up the propagation of Christianity as hopeless and had turned to science. This address was much appreciated and commented upon in the Paris papers. Among his hearers was the Emperor of Brazil. His host and hostess were Dr. and Mrs. Casalis, of the Missionary Society. Dr. Casalis having been twenty years in Basutoland, they had much in common. The Casalis family were indefatigable in their kind attention, and thus besides these meetings our father got through a great deal of sight-seeing during the three weeks, including two days spent with Madame Andrd at Versailles, and he enjoyed all immensely. I think the tomb of Buonaparte impressed him most of all. The fact that Dr. and Mrs. Casalis had been shut up in Paris during the siege, and that Madame Andre’s house had been the headquarters of the Crown Prince at Versailles, added not a little to the interest of the sojourn with them.
On one occasion there was quite accidentally a very interesting gathering at the breakfast-table in the house of Dr. Casalis. Major Malan, who was so devoted to Africa, was also staying there, and it happened that the Messrs. Moir, bound for East Africa, were passing through Paris. The daughter of Casalis, born in South Africa, and married to the son of a South African missionary, was there with her husband, besides several young French students boarding in the house, their destination being also South or West Africa. Very soon after, in a few days, all were scattered; but I think that unpremeditated meeting, and communion of kindred spirits old and young, would hardly ever be forgotten. So much work and pleasure was compressed into those three weeks that our father was pretty well worn-out, and was glad to feel quiet at home again for a day or two before going to Glasgow to address the missionary meeting of the United Presbyterian Synod. Here he was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Kidston, and he never visited Scotland again without renewing his enjoyment of their friendship. From Glasgow he went to the Free Church Assembly meetings in Edinburgh, and here also addressed the missionary meeting. He was the guest of Mr. Dickson for the week. Dr. Andrew Bonar, of Glasgow, and a Norwegian minister were also guests, besides others whom he met, making the occasion one of special enjoyment.
After a visit to Falkirk and Stirling friends he found a quiet resting-place in a visit to the Kidstons, then at Portencross, on the west coast of Scotland, where the sea air quite set him up, as it generally did. He thoroughly enjoyed the primitiveness of this then out-of-the-way fisher village, and felt a great pleasure in giving some idea of his work in South Africa to the children of the village, on the Sunday evening in Mr. Kidston’s house. Returning to England he continued his public work at various places, and spent a month in visiting members and connections of his own family, carrying at the same time an edition of the Sechwana hymn-book through the press.