em 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? When to Kuruman? _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 Day comes, none will more
surely receive that best of all forms of repayment, "Inasmuch as ye did
it unto the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto Me."

Livingstone, who had now got the troublesome uvula cut out, was
detained at the Cape nearly two months after his family left. He was so
distrusted by the authorities that they would hardly sell powder and
shot to him, and he had to fight a battle that demanded all his courage
and perseverance for a few boxes of percussion-caps. At the last moment,
a troublesome country postmaster, to whom he had complained of an
overcharge of postage, threatened an action against him for defamation
of character, and, rather than be further detained, deep in debt though
he was, Livingstone had to pay him a considerable sum. His family were
much in his thoughts; he found some relief in writing by every mail. His
letters to his wife are too sacred to be spread before the public; we
confine ourselves to a single extract, to show over what a host of
suppressed emotions he had to ma