Encouraging Quote

Hi all,

I'm thankful that toward the end of our internship, Stam persuaded Mark to buy us each the Iain Murray book of our choice -- after all, what a shame it would have been to have Chinese food with Iain Murray but not receive one of his books!

Anyway, I requested A Scottish Christian Heritage, which I've lately been reading before bed. It has not disappointed.

Given Garrett's request for more posts, I thought I would encourage you all with a couple of quotes from Robert Moffat from Murray's book. Moffat was a Scottish missionary to South Africa in the 19th century, and David Livingstone's father-in-law. He labored for 7 years before seeing his first convert in 1826. Yet just a few years after that, in 1829, Moffat and his small team "were favoured with the manifest outpouring of the Spirit from on high" -- they baptized 6 more who gave "very satisfactory proofs of a change of heart," and the number at their church grew to twelve.

As the community of believers in Kuruman subsequently grew exponentially, Moffat still had this to say:

"We want in zeal. The work of conversion, or endeavors to convert sinners, is not so much the primary object of our souls as it ought to be. If I speak for myself I must say that I do not feel that sympathy for the awful condition of my fellow-men which their state ought to excite in every Christian bosom. When I look at the Man of Sorrows, His toilsome days and midnight prayers, and the burning zeal of the first ministers of the gospel, I feel as if I had not the same mind or spirit."

Moffat labored to translate the Bible into the Sechuana language, and finished his first edition in 1853. He was not satisfied with it, though, and continually labored to improve it. He completed a second version in 1857. He wrote this to his wife concerning God's Word:

"It was only yesterday, after laying down the Bible, that I wondered what kind of mind I would have had if I had not the Book of God, the Book containing the astounding idea of 'from everlasting to everlasting,' the development of all that is worth knowing... One would think, that as I have critically, and, I think, devoutly read and examined every verse, every word in the Bible, some a score of times over, I should not require to open the pages of that unspeakable blessed Book. Alas, for the human memory! I read the Bible today with the same feeling I ever did, like the hungry when seeking food, the thirsty when seeking drink, the bewildered when seeking counsel and the mourner when seeking comfort. Don't you believe all this? For alas, I read it sometimes as a formal thing, though my heart condemns me afterwards... I am yet astonished at my own ignorance of the Bible!"

And that from a man that had TRANSLATED the whole thing. May God grant us the same attitude!