Today, March 5th, is National Missionary Day. It commemorates the arrival of the London Missionary Society to Tahiti. I have been collecting some books printed by the National Sunday School Union that acknowledges many of the explorers/missionaries that went around the world preaching. They are called the ‘Splendid Lives Series’. They were published around 1900. As the series progressed, it also printed biographies of George Washington, Prince Albert, Florence Nightingale, Queen Victoria, Martin Luther, and many others. (The SSU also printed other books of adventures and good moral stories that I will discuss at another time.)
These missionaries were from several English societies, that loosely worked together to preach the word of God around the world. I would like to briefly show and discuss a few with you:
“The Story of David Livingstone” by K. Gregory. Livingstone is famous for exploring Africa, discovering the source of the Nile river, and being a missionary. He worked with the London Missionary Society. Perhaps Livingstone is best known for his later in life traveling through Africa, disappearing for almost six years, and was tracked down by Henry Morgan Stanley in Ujiji. Using Stanley’s words:
” I pushed through the crowds,,,until I came in front of a semicircle of Arabs, in front of which stood the white man with the grey beard. As I advanced…I noticed he was pale, looked weary. I did not know how he would receive me…walked deliberately up to him, took off my hat and said “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” As he nodded yes, I said “Thank God, dear Doctor, I have been permitted to see you.” He answered “I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you.”
Livingstone married Mary Moffit, daughter of another famous missionary in Africa. “Robert Moffett, The Story of a Great Missionary” by Hubert Williams. He came to Africa with the Scottish Congregational Society. Moffit spent most of his life in South Africa exploring, preaching, and raising a family. He published a lot of his findings to the Royal Geographical Society, and enlisted others to missionary work.
“George Grenfell, Pioneer Missionary and Explorer” by Shirley J. Dickens, was with the Baptist Missionary Society, and went to the Congo in Africa. He spent a lot of time exploring, as well as converting. Marvelous stories of pygmies and cannibals, and rivers never seen by a British man, are in the book.
Alexander Mackay was another Missionary in Africa, spending much of his time in Ethiopia and Uganda. The book “Alexander Mackay Missionary Hero of Uganda” by Andrew Melrose has good stories of his work helping build up Uganda to western technologies. He was an accomplished ‘Jack of All Trades’, and was considered the hardest working individual around.
The book Henry A. Stern, Missionary to Abyssinia” by E.C, Dawson tells of his adventures. He was with the London Jews’ Society, and spent time in Jerusalem before working in Ethiopia (Abyssinia). He was captured and held prisoner with others, by an Ethiopian King, Tewodros II. England mounted a large army to come in an rescue all of the hostages. This was a very interesting book during the time that England was colonizing the world.
Even in the Americas were there missionaries. “John Horden, Missionary Bishop-A Life on the Shores of Hudson’s Bay” by A.R. Buckland, tells of work in Canada. Horden worked with Church Missionary Society, and was a missionary to the Indians. He learned and translated Cree, Ojibwa, Inuktitut, and Chipewyan into his sermons. He also translated The Lord’s Prayer, some hymns, and then into the Gospels into Cree and had them published. This was another wonderful history, adventure story.
The whole series are interesting stories. I find myself now and then looking to find more, whenever I am tired of what I am collecting at the time. An added bonus, is that a lot of these books (remember-printed by the London Sunday School Union), were given as rewards to students.
There are people just collect books that have these bookplates in them. That is how specialized some people are in their book collecting. No subject is too small or narrow. I love these books with awards in them, because then I am holding a book that some child held-over 100 years ago. It was theirs…to read and keep. What a great incentive that was for children in Sunday school, to give them a book!
So as an officially recognised minister of the Universal Life Church, I have the authority to preach on the word of…well, books. And there are a bunch of good ones out there. Let me use my bully pulpit, to urge adults to buy a book for a child today-Missionary Day. For a son, daughter, grandkid, neighbor, even donate to a school or church. Be a missionary for youth readers.
Librarytomes 