Chapter 27 · 7 min read · 10 min listen
Appendix B: Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Reflection Guide
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.”
— James 1:22, ASV
This guide is for personal reflection, small groups, or a reading course of about twenty-four weeks. Its purpose is not to make David Livingstone an object of admiration, but to let his life hold up a mirror in which readers can examine their own discipleship under Scripture. Groups may find it helpful to begin each session with the chapter’s opening verse and to end with prayer. Many chapters raise hard questions about family, leadership, power and mission. They are meant to be discussed honestly, not settled quickly.
Introduction - The Saint, the Explorer, and the Record
Central idea
The real Livingstone, as his own writings and the record show him, is more complicated and more instructive than the Victorian legend.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Why do Christians need their heroes to be flawless? 2. What do we lose when we polish a life?
Chapter 1 - Shuttle Row
Central idea
A one-room home in a mill village gave him a Highland pride in honesty, a father’s stern faith and a mother’s cheerful thrift.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. What did you inherit from your family that helps you serve God? 2. What did you inherit that you have had to unlearn?
Chapter 2 - The Piecer
Central idea
Ten years in the mill formed endurance and a working man’s sympathy, and also a habit of judging others by work done.
Scriptures to revisit
Ecclesiastes 9:10; Colossians 3:23.
Reflection
1. How do you regard work you did not choose? 2. Where might your strengths make you hard on others?
Chapter 3 - Colour Blindness Cured
Central idea
His faith became his own when he saw that the God of Scripture and the God of creation are one.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Have you ever felt that faith and learning were at war? 2. What would it mean for you to see the world “in colour”?
Chapter 4 - Slow of Speech
Central idea
A poor preacher, nearly rejected by his Society, was sent anyway, and given other gifts.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. What weakness do you think disqualifies you? 2. How has God used you in spite of it?
Chapter 5 - Another Man’s Foundation
Central idea
He longed to go where Christ was not named, and saw early that Africa would be evangelised by Africans.
Scriptures to revisit
Romans 15:20-24; 2 Timothy 2:2.
Reflection
1. Is pioneering always better than building on others’ work? 2. Whom are you training to carry the gospel further than you can?
Chapter 6 - The Lion at Mabotsa
Central idea
He was saved from the lion by Mebalwe’s courage, and drew from the attack a lesson about God’s mercy.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Whose courage has protected you without much credit? 2. What do you make of his idea of a merciful provision?
Chapter 7 - Sechele
Central idea
A chief who read Isaiah asked hard questions, paid a great price for baptism, fell, and became the evangelist of his people.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. How would you answer Sechele’s question about his ancestors? 2. What did you make of the demand that he send away his wives?
Chapter 8 - Across the Thirstland
Central idea
Lake Ngami and the Zambezi opened a vision of the interior, at a heavy cost to his wife and children.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. When does a calling justify risk to others? 2. What did you hear in Mary’s silence?
Chapter 9 - Kolobeng Plundered
Central idea
The Boer raid ended his station, while Mary and the children wandered through English lodgings.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Who in your church is carrying a hidden cost for someone else’s ministry? 2. Can a resolution to place no value on anything go wrong?
Chapter 10 - Twenty-Seven Men
Central idea
At Luanda he refused a passage home rather than break his promise to the men who had brought him to the sea.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. What promise is it costing you to keep? 2. Why do you think he kept faith with these men more easily than with his family?
Chapter 11 - The Word of a Gentleman
Central idea
On the night of 14 January 1856 he found peace in the promise of Christ, not in any change of circumstances.
Scriptures to revisit
Matthew 28:18-20; Psalm 56:3-4.
Reflection
1. Which promise of Christ do you most need to take as the word of a gentleman? 2. What did you notice about the renaming of Mosi-oa-Tunya?
Chapter 12 - “I Never Made a Sacrifice”
Central idea
Fame, the Cambridge appeal, and the vision of commerce and Christianity together.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Is it true that serving Christ is never a sacrifice? 2. Where might the gospel in your culture be confused with commerce or national interest?
Chapter 13 - Kebrabasa
Central idea
A plan built on an unseen river collapsed, and he could not admit it, nor lead his colleagues well.
Scriptures to revisit
Proverbs 16:9; Philippians 2:3-4.
Reflection
1. When has perseverance turned into stubbornness in your life? 2. How do you respond when someone under you disagrees?
Chapter 14 - Graves at Linyanti
Central idea
The Helmore and Price families died at Linyanti, and he defended himself rather than grieving his share.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. How should Christians speak of missionary deaths? 2. Whose names are missing from the stories your church tells?
Chapter 15 - Magomero
Central idea
Captives were freed at Mbame’s village, and the mission was drawn into fighting and lost its bishop.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Is it ever right for Christians to use force to free the oppressed? 2. What did the freeing of Chuma mean in the long run?
Chapter 16 - Shupanga
Central idea
Mary died beside him at Shupanga, and he saw, too late, what their marriage had cost her.
Scriptures to revisit
Psalm 34:18; 2 Corinthians 6:10.
Reflection
1. What does contrition look like after a loss we helped to cause? 2. How would you tell Mary Livingstone’s story?
Chapter 17 - Recalled
Central idea
The Shire valley was devastated, the expedition recalled, and his son Robert lost.
Scriptures to revisit
2 Corinthians 4:8-9; Ephesians 6:4.
Reflection
1. How do you keep faith when your work appears to have done harm? 2. What would Robert have needed from his father?
Chapter 18 - The Sentence of Death
Central idea
Without medicines, he went on, and became dependent on the slave traders he had come to expose.
Scriptures to revisit
Hebrews 11:8-10; 2 Corinthians 1:8-9.
Reflection
1. Have you ever had to depend on people whose ways you oppose? 2. What does it mean to go out “not knowing whither”?
Chapter 19 - Nyangwe
Central idea
He witnessed a massacre, wrote it down, prayed, and helped move a nation; his first notes show a more tangled story.
Scriptures to revisit
Habakkuk 1:2-4; 2:4, 14; Ephesians 4:25.
Reflection
1. What is the place of lament in your prayers? 2. Why do we tell stories that put distance between ourselves and evil?
Chapter 20 - “I Presume”
Central idea
Stanley’s arrival brought him new life, and Livingstone refused to go home; he dedicated himself again on his birthday.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Who has brought you “good news from a far country”? 2. What would it mean for you to dedicate your “whole self” again today?
Chapter 21 - Chitambo’s Village
Central idea
He died in a grass hut, probably kneeling, among people who had stayed with him for years.
Scriptures to revisit
Psalm 116:15; 2 Timothy 4:6-8.
Reflection
1. How do you hold a cherished story that cannot be proved? 2. Who will be with you at the end?
Chapter 22 - Faithful Hands
Central idea
Susi, Chuma, Jacob Wainwright and their companions chose to carry his body a thousand miles to the coast.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. What did their choice reveal about them, and about him? 2. How can churches honour the unnamed who carry the work?
Chapter 23 - A Grain of Wheat
Central idea
His life bore fruit after his death, in the closing of the slave market and the churches of Central Africa, and in the shadow of empire.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. What in his life would you imitate, and what would you avoid? 2. What might God do with your life after you are gone?
Chapter 27 complete
Appendix B: Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Reflection Guide