"_August 12_.--A very good and attentive audience. Surely all will not be forgotten. How small their opportunity compared to ours who have been carefully instructed in the knowledge of divine truth from our earliest infancy! The Judge is just and merciful. He will deal fairly and kindly with all."
"_October 15_.--We had a good and very attentive audience yesterday, and I expatiated with great freedom on the love of Christ in dying, from his parting address in John xvi. It cannot be these precious truths will fall to the ground; but it is perplexing to observe no effects. They assent to the truth, but 'we don't know,' or 'you speak truly,' is all the response. In reading accounts of South Sea missions it is hard to believe the quickness of the vegetation of the good seed, but I know several of the men" [the South Sea missionaries], "and am sure they are of unimpeachable veracity. In trying to convey knowledge, and use the magic lantern, which is everywhere extremely popular, though they listen with apparent delight to what is said, questioning them on the following night reveals almost entire ignorance of the previous lesson. O that the Holy Ghost might enlighten them! To his soul-renewing influence my longing soul is directed. It is his word, and cannot die."
The long absence of Livingstone and the want of letters had caused great anxiety to his friends. The Moffats had been particularly concerned about him, and, in 1854, partly in the hope of hearing of him, Mr. Moffat undertook a visit to Mosilikatse, while a box of goods and comforts was sent to Linyanti to await his return, should that ever take place. A letter from Mrs. Moffat accompanied the box. It is amusing to read her motherly explanations about the white shirts, and the blue waistcoat, the woolen socks, lemon juice, quince jam, and tea and coffee, some of which had come all the way from Hamilton; but there are passages in that little note that make one's heart go with rapid beat:
"MY DEAR SON LIVINGSTON,--Your present position is almost too much for my weak nerves to suffer me to contemplate. Hitherto I have kept up my spirits, and been enabled to believe that our great Master may yet bring you out in safety, for though his ways are often inscrutable, I should have clung to the many precious promises made in his word as to temporal preservation, such as the 91st and 121st Psalms--but have been taught that we may not presume confidently to expect them to be fulfilled, and that every petition, however fervent, must be with devout submission to his will. My poor sister-in-law clung tenaciously to the 91st Psalm, and firmly believed that her dear husband would thus be preserved, and never indulged the idea that they should never meet on earth. But I apprehend submission was wanting. 'If it be Thy will,' I fancy she could not say--and, therefore, she was utterly confounded when the news came[42]. She had exercised strong faith, and was disappointed. Bear Livingstone, I have always endeavored to keep this in mind with regard to you. Since George [Fleming] came out it seemed almost hope against hope. Your having got so, thoroughly feverised chills my expectations; still prayer, unceasing prayer, is made for you. When I think of you my heart will go upward. 'Keep him as the apple of Thine eye,' 'Hold him in the hollow of Thy hand,' are the ejaculations of my heart."
[Footnote 42: Rev. John Smith, missionary at Madras, had gone to Vizagapatam to the ordination of two native pastors, and when returning in a small vessel, a storm arose, when he and all on board perished.]
In writing from Linyanti to his wife, Livingstone makes the best he can of his long detention. She seems to have put the matter playfully, wondering what the "source of attraction" had been. He says: