Feb
09
2013
I Never Made a Sacrifice
For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office.
People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa.
Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay?
Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter?
Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege.
Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us.
I never made a sacrifice.
- African missionary David Livingstone, Cambridge University, December 4, 1857.
4 Comments
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Now that was great to wake up to today!!! God bless.
Trevin,
As much as I appreciate your edifying comments online I must suggest that Livingstone is not the best example to point to, even if this quotation seems uplifting. Here’s why:
- Much of Livingstone’s work was thinly disguised imperialism, attempting to expand the influence (and religion) of Great Britain.
- None of our service to God should EVER be done as an attempt to “repay” our debt to God. This is an insult to the magnitude of His grace.
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