"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: