Many years ago, a faithful old Scottish minister was confronted by his deacons. Their complaint was that only one boy had been added to the church that year as a convert. They felt they needed to ask the old minister to leave and make room for someone who could have more success.
There had been a very close spiritual bond between the boy and the old minister, and upon the old man’s resigning, the young boy, named Robert told him he wanted to prepare to be a minister himself.
Years went by. An aged missionary returned to London From Africa. His name was spoken with reverence. When he went into a meeting place, people rose; when he spoke in public there was deep silence. Princes stood before him and nobles invited him to their homes. He had brought under the influence of the Gospel the most savage of African chiefs, had translated the Bible to strange tribes, had enriched with valuable knowledge the Royal Geographic Society, and honored the place of his birth, the United Kingdom, and the universal missionary cause.
In one of his visits to England he told about the need in Africa. Among his listeners was a young Scot who was studying medicine. The aged missionary, Dr. Robert Moffatt, said, "There is a vast plain in the north where I have sometimes seen, in the setting sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been." That phrase, "The smoke of a thousand villages," became a life long call to David Livingstone.
Livingstone - reached through Moffatt; Moffatt - reached through . . . no one knows the old minister’s name. He had only one convert his last year in the ministry, a boy, a boy named Robert Moffatt. But, the old man had been faithful . . . and because he was faithful he had success, for true success is commendation from the Master, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
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