Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖

attempted to do so.” Never for an

instant did these heroes falter at their work; with sublime

endurance they held on, fought on, and never relaxed until, dashing

through the “imminent deadly breach,” the place was won, and the

British flag was again unfurled on the walls of Delhi. All were

great—privates, officers, and generals. Common soldiers who had

been inured to a life of hardship, and young officers who had been

nursed in luxurious homes, alike proved their manhood, and emerged

from that terrible trial with equal honour. The native strength

and soundness of the English race, and of manly English training

and discipline, were never more powerfully exhibited; and it was

there emphatically proved that the Men of England are, after all,

its greatest products. A terrible price was paid for this great

chapter in our history, but if those who survive, and those who

come after, profit by the lesson and example, it may not have been

purchased at too great a cost.

 

But not less energy and courage have been displayed in India and

the East by men of various nations, in other lines of action more

peaceful and beneficent than that of war. And while the heroes of

the sword are remembered, the heroes of the gospel ought not to be

forgotten. From Xavier to Martyn and Williams, there has been a

succession of illustrious missionary labourers, working in a spirit

of sublime self-sacrifice, without any thought of worldly honour,

inspired solely by the hope of seeking out and rescuing the lost

and fallen of their race. Borne up by invincible courage and

never-failing patience, these men have endured privations, braved

dangers, walked through pestilence, and borne all toils, fatigues,

and sufferings, yet held on their way rejoicing, glorying even in

martyrdom itself. Of these one of the first and most illustrious

was Francis Xavier. Born of noble lineage, and with pleasure,

power, and honour within his reach, he proved by his life that

there are higher objects in the world than rank, and nobler

aspirations than the accumulation of wealth. He was a true

gentleman in manners and sentiment; brave, honourable, generous;

easily led, yet capable of leading; easily persuaded, yet himself

persuasive; a most patient, resolute and energetic man. At the age

of twenty-two he was earning his living as a public teacher of

philosophy at the University of Paris. There Xavier became the

intimate friend and associate of Loyola, and shortly afterwards he

conducted the pilgrimage of the first little band of proselytes to

Rome.

 

When John III. of Portugal resolved to plant Christianity in the

Indian territories subject to his influence, Bobadilla was first

selected as his missionary; but being disabled by illness, it was

found necessary to make another selection, and Xavier was chosen.

Repairing his tattered cassock, and with no other baggage than his

breviary, he at once started for Lisbon and embarked for the East.

The ship in which he set sail for Goa had the Governor on board,

with a reinforcement of a thousand men for the garrison of the

place. Though a cabin was placed at his disposal, Xavier slept on

deck throughout the voyage with his head on a coil of ropes,

messing with the sailors. By ministering to their wants, inventing

innocent sports for their amusement, and attending them in their

sickness, he wholly won their hearts, and they regarded him with

veneration.

 

Arrived at Goa, Xavier was shocked at the depravity of the people,

settlers as well as natives; for the former had imported the vices

without the restraints of civilization, and the latter had only

been too apt to imitate their bad example. Passing along the

streets of the city, sounding his handbell as he went, he implored

the people to send him their children to be instructed. He shortly

succeeded in collecting a large number of scholars, whom he

carefully taught day by day, at the same time visiting the sick,

the lepers, and the wretched of all classes, with the object of

assuaging their miseries, and bringing them to the Truth. No cry

of human suffering which reached him was disregarded. Hearing of

the degradation and misery of the pearl fishers of Manaar, he set

out to visit them, and his bell again rang out the invitation of

mercy. He baptized and he taught, but the latter he could only do

through interpreters. His most eloquent teaching was his

ministration to the wants and the sufferings of the wretched.

 

On he went, his handbell sounding along the coast of Comorin,

among the towns and villages, the temples and the bazaars,

summoning the natives to gather about him and be instructed. He

had translations made of the Catechism, the Apostles’ Creed, the

Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and some of the devotional offices

of the Church. Committing these to memory in their own tongue he

recited them to the children, until they had them by heart; after

which he sent them forth to teach the words to their parents and

neighbours. At Cape Comorin, he appointed thirty teachers, who

under himself presided over thirty Christian Churches, though the

Churches were but humble, in most cases consisting only of a

cottage surmounted by a cross. Thence he passed to Travancore,

sounding his way from village to village, baptizing until his hands

dropped with weariness, and repeating his formulas until his voice

became almost inaudible. According to his own account, the success

of his mission surpassed his highest expectations. His pure,

earnest, and beautiful life, and the irresistible eloquence of his

deeds, made converts wherever he went; and by sheer force of

sympathy, those who saw him and listened to him insensibly caught a

portion of his ardour.

 

Burdened with the thought that “the harvest is great and the

labourers are few,” Xavier next sailed to Malacca and Japan, where

he found himself amongst entirely new races speaking other tongues.

The most that he could do here was to weep and pray, to smooth the

pillow and watch by the sick-bed, sometimes soaking the sleeve of

his surplice in water, from which to squeeze out a few drops and

baptize the dying. Hoping all things, and fearing nothing, this

valiant soldier of the truth was borne onward throughout by faith

and energy. “Whatever form of death or torture,” said he, “awaits

me, I am ready to suffer it ten thousand times for the salvation of

a single soul.” He battled with hunger, thirst, privations and

dangers of all kinds, still pursuing his mission of love, unresting

and unwearying. At length, after eleven years’ labour, this great

good man, while striving to find a way into China, was stricken

with fever in the Island of Sanchian, and there received his crown

of glory. A hero of nobler mould, more pure, self-denying, and

courageous, has probably never trod this earth.

 

Other missionaries have followed Xavier in the same field of work,

such as Schwartz, Carey, and Marshman in India; Gutzlaff and

Morrison in China; Williams in the South Seas; Campbell, Moffatt

and Livingstone in Africa. John Williams, the martyr of Erromanga,

was originally apprenticed to a furnishing ironmonger. Though

considered a dull boy, he was handy at his trade, in which he

acquired so much skill that his master usually entrusted him with

any blacksmiths work that required the exercise of more than

ordinary care. He was also fond of bell-hanging and other

employments which took him away from the shop. A casual sermon

which he heard gave his mind a serious bias, and he became a

Sunday-school teacher. The cause of missions having been brought

under his notice at some of his society’s meetings, he determined

to devote himself to this work. His services were accepted by the

London Missionary Society; and his master allowed him to leave the

ironmonger’s shop before the expiry of his indentures. The islands

of the Pacific Ocean were the principal scene of his labours—more

particularly Huahine in Tahiti, Raiatea, and Rarotonga. Like the

Apostles he worked with his hands,—at blacksmith work, gardening,

shipbuilding; and he endeavoured to teach the islanders the art of

civilised life, at the same time that he instructed them in the

truths of religion. It was in the course of his indefatigable

labours that he was massacred by savages on the shore of Erromanga-

-none worthier than he to wear the martyr’s crown.

 

The career of Dr. Livingstone is one of the most interesting of

all. He has told the story of his life in that modest and

unassuming manner which is so characteristic of the man himself.

His ancestors were poor but honest Highlanders, and it is related

of one of them, renowned in his district for wisdom and prudence,

that when on his deathbed he called his children round him and

left them these words, the only legacy he had to bequeath—“In my

lifetime,” said he, “I have searched most carefully through all

the traditions I could find of our family, and I never could

discover that there was a dishonest man among our forefathers: if,

therefore, any of you or any of your children should take to

dishonest ways, it will not be because it runs in our blood; it

does not belong to you: I leave this precept with you—Be honest.”

At the age of ten Livingstone was sent to work in a cotton factory

near Glasgow as a “piecer.” With part of his first week’s wages he

bought a Latin grammar, and began to learn that language, pursuing

the study for years at a night school. He would sit up conning his

lessons till twelve or later, when not sent to bed by his mother,

for he had to be up and at work in the factory every morning by

six. In this way he plodded through Virgil and Horace, also

reading extensively all books, excepting novels, that came in his

way, but more especially scientific works and books of travels. He

occupied his spare hours, which were but few, in the pursuit of

botany, scouring the neighbourhood to collect plants. He even

carried on his reading amidst the roar of the factory machinery, so

placing the book upon the spinning jenny which he worked that he

could catch sentence after sentence as he passed it. In this way

the persevering youth acquired much useful knowledge; and as he

grew older, the desire possessed him of becoming a missionary to

the heathen. With this object he set himself to obtain a medical

education, in order the better to be qualified for the work. He

accordingly economised his earnings, and saved as much money as

enabled him to support himself while attending the Medical and

Greek classes, as well as the Divinity Lectures, at Glasgow, for

several winters, working as a cotton spinner during the remainder

of each year. He thus supported himself, during his college

career, entirely by his own earnings as a factory workman, never

having received a farthing of help from any other source. “Looking

back now,” he honestly says, “at that life of toil, I cannot but

feel thankful that it formed such a material part of my early

education; and, were it possible, I should like to begin life over

again in the same lowly style, and to pass through the same hardy

training.” At length he finished his medical curriculum, wrote his

Latin thesis, passed his examinations, and was admitted a

licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. At first he

thought of going to China, but the war then waging with that

country prevented his following out the idea; and having offered

his services to the London Missionary Society, he was by them sent

out to Africa, which he reached in 1840. He had intended to

proceed to China by his own efforts; and he says the only pang he

had in going to Africa at the charge of the London Missionary

Society was, because “it