"It is deplorable to think that one of the noblest of our missionary societies, the Church Missionary Society, is compelled to send to Germany for missionaries, whilst other Societies are amply supplied. Let this stain be wiped off. The sort of men who are wanted for missionaries are such as I see before me; men of education, standing, enterprise, zeal, and piety.... I hope that many whom I now address will embrace that honorable career. Education has been given us from above for the purpose of bringing to the benighted the knowledge of a Saviour. If you knew the satisfaction of performing such a duty, as well as the gratitude to God which the missionary must always feel, in being chosen for so noble, so sacred a calling, you would have no hesitation in embracing it.
"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 hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left his father's throne on high to give himself for us; 'who being the brightness of that Father's glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.'...
"I beg to direct your attention to Africa: I know that in a few years I shall be cut off in that country, which is now open; do not let it be shut again! I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity; do you carry out the work which I have begun, I LEAVE IT WITH YOU!"
In a prefatory letter prefixed to the volume entitled Dr. Livingstone's Cambridge Lectures, the late Professor Sedgwick remarked, in connection with this event, that in the course of a long academic life he had often been present in the senate-house on exciting occasions; in the days of Napoleon he had heard the greetings given to our great military heroes; he had been present at four installation services, the last of which was graced by the presence of the Queen, when her youthful husband was installed as Chancellor, amid the most fervent gratulations that subjects are permitted to exhibit in the presence of their Sovereign. But on none of these occasions "were the gratulations of the University more honest and true-hearted than those which were offered to Dr. Livingstone. He came among us without any long notes of preparation, without any pageant or eloquence to charm and captivate our senses. He stood before us, a plain, single-minded man, somewhat attenuated by years of toil, and with a face tinged by the sun of Africa.... While we listened to the tale he had to tell, there arose in the hearts of all the listeners a fervent hope that the hand of God which had so long upheld him would uphold him still, and help him to carry out the great work of Christian love that was still before him."
Next day, December 5th, Dr. Livingstone addressed a very crowded audience in the Town Hall, the Mayor presiding. Referring to his own plans, he said:
"I contend that we ought not to be ashamed of our religion, and had we not kept this so much out of sight in India, we should not now be in such straits in that country" [referring to the Indian Mutiny]. "Let us appear just what we are. For my own part, I intend to go out as a missionary, and hope boldly, but with civility, to state the truth of Christianity, and my belief that those who do not possess it are in error. My object in Africa is not only the elevation of man, but that the country might be so opened that man might see the need of his soul's salvation. I propose in my next expedition to visit the Zambesi, and propitiate the different chiefs along its banks, endeavoring to induce them to cultivate cotton, and to abolish the slave-trade: already they trade in ivory and gold-dust, and are anxious to extend their commercial operations. There is thus a probability of their interests being linked with ours, and thus the elevation of the African would be the result,
"I believe England is alive to her duty of civilizing and Christianizing the heathen. We cannot all go out as missionaries, it is true; but we may all do something toward providing a substitute. Moreover, all may especially do that which every missionary highly prizes, viz.--COMMEND THE WORK IN THEIR PRAYERS. I HOPE THAT THOSE WHOM I NOW ADDRESS WILL BOTH PRAY FOR AND HELP THOSE WHO ARE THEIR SUBSTITUTES."
Dr. Livingstone was thoroughly delighted with his reception at Cambridge. Writing to a friend, on 6th December 1857, he says: "Cambridge, as Playfair would say, was grand. It beat Oxford hollow. To make up my library again they subscribed at least forty volumes at once. I shall have reason soon to bless the Boers."
Referring to his Cambridge visit a few weeks afterward, in a letter to Rev. W. Monk, Dr. Livingstone said: "I look back to my visit to Cambridge as one of the most pleasant episodes of my life. I shall always revert with feelings of delight to the short intercourse I enjoyed with such noble Christian men as Sedgwick, Whewell, Selwyn, etc. etc., as not the least important privilege conferred on me by my visit to England. It is something inspiriting to remember that the eyes of such men are upon one's course. May blessings rest upon them all, and on the seat of learning which they adorn!"
Among the subjects that had occupied Dr. Livingstone's attention most intensely during the early part of the year 1857 was that of his relation to the London Missionary Society. The impression caused by Dr. Tidman's letter received at Quilimane had been quite removed by personal intercourse with the Directors, who would have been delighted to let Livingstone work in their service in his own way. But with the very peculiar work of exploration and inquiry which he felt that his Master had now placed in his hands, Dr. Livingstone was afraid that his freedom would be restricted by his continuing in the service of the Society, while the Society itself would be liable to suffer from the handle that might be given to contributors to say that it was departing from the proper objects of a missionary body. That in resigning his official connection he acted with a full knowledge of the effect which this might have upon his own character, and his reputation before the Church and the world, is evident from his correspondence with one of his most intimate friends and trusted counselors, Mr. J.B. Braithwaite, of Lincoln's Inn. Though himself a member of the Society of Friends, Mr. Braithwaite was desirous that Dr. Livingstone should continue to appear before the public as a Christian minister:
"To dissolve thy connection with the Missionary Society would at once place thee before the public in an aspect wholly distinct from that in which thou art at present, and, what is yet more important, would in a greater or less degree, and, perhaps, very gradually and almost insensibly to thyself, turn the current of thy own thoughts and feelings away from those channels of usefulness and service, as a minister of the gospel, with which I cannot doubt thy deepest interest and highest aspirations are inseparably associated."
On Dr. Livingstone explaining that, while he fully appreciated these views, it did not appear to him consistent with duty to be receiving the pay of a working missionary while engaged to a considerable extent in scientific exploration, Mr. Braithwaite expressed anew his sympathy for his feelings, and respect for his decision, but not as one quite convinced:
"Thy heart is bound, as I truly believe, in its inmost depths to the service of Christ. This is the 'one thing' which, through all, it is thy desire to keep in view. And my fear has been lest the severing of thy connection with a recognized religious body should lead any to suppose that thy Christian interests were in the least weakened; or that thou wast now going forth with any lower aim than the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. Such a circumstance would be deeply to be regretted, for thy character is now, if I may so speak, not thy own, but the common property, in a certain sense, of British Christianity, and anything which tended to lower thy high standing would cast a reflection on the general cause."