ROBERT and MARY MOFFAT were no longer young and active. Over fifty years of hard work began to tell on the brave missionary. Family sorrows, too, weighed heavily upon the aged couple. Their eldest son Robert had died, and Mary, the wife of Dr. Livingstone, had also passed to her rest above. Bessie and Ann were both married, Jane alone was left with them. On Sunday, 20th March, 1870, Robert Moffat preached for the last time at Kuruman, then bade farewell to the old spot where so many years had been spent, and to the people for whom his life had been given. They flocked around the wagon with the tears streaming down their cheeks, and as the wheels began to move, a long, loud cry went up from the weeping crowd, which the aged couple answered with their tears. They reached England on 24th July, 1870, and ere the year had closed, Mrs. Moffat was with Christ in heaven. The aged missionary visited many parts of the country, seeking to stir up interest among God's people in Africa. He visited Carronshore, sixty-three years after leaving it, and found the red-tiled cottage in which his boyhood was spent. Some of the old people still lived who knew him, and one who had been a schoolmate would not be satisfied till he heard the aged missionary speak to the crowd which had gathered round the door. Visits to the Queen at Osborne, to Cetewayo the Zulu king who was then in England, and to Muller's Orphan Homes at Bristol closed the public life of the veteran missionary. With his daughter Jeanie seated by his side, on a quiet Sunday evening, they sang his favorite hymn, one verse especially of which was dear to him—
“I’ve wrestled on towards heaven
'Gainst storm, and wind, and tide:
Now like a weary traveler,
That leaneth on his guide:
Amid the shades of evening,
While sinks life's lingering sand,
I hail the glory dawning
From Immanuel's land.”
On the following Tuesday evening, the 10th of August, 1883, the home-call came, and the ransomed spirit of Robert Moffat passed into the presence of Christ, who saved him when a youth, and whom he had loved and served even unto old age. Happy, thrice happy is such a life: in Christ at conversion, for Christ all the years of service, and with Christ forever and ever.
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