Degree of influence and independence

I am perfectly astonished at the advance they have made, and the degree of influence and independence they have acquired, while the dignitaries of the church have lost in the same proportion. It appears to me that the latter have lost full fifty per cent since I first came to Constantinople, nearly four years ago. Every struggle they make shows more and more their weakness instead of their strength.

“The above-mentioned priest came over to Pera, and preached a whole sermon against our Greek school, uttering the most furious exclamations, and raving like a maniac. But every little girl comes just as before; not a single child was frightened away for a single day, and the school goes on as prosperously as ever. Besides all this, two new schools for boys, on the Lancasterian plan, have gone into operation in the interior.

April 2, he writes: “ The good work goes on among the Armenians without any abatement. The change that has taken place among them within the last fifteen months is truly astonishing, and almost surpasses belief. Three of those who are most active in the reformation, and who talk and read and preach in all companies and on all occasions and with all boldness, are members of the great Synod, by which every thing relative to the affairs of the church or of the nation (the Armenians) is regulated. Almost every day, too, I am visited more or less by Mussulmans. I could very profitably devote my whole time to them.”

Under the above date (April 2, 1835), he makes mention of the death of several eminent missionaries in different parts of the world: —

Dr. Dodge at Jerusalem

“ The letter which brought us the intelligence of the death of Dr. Dodge, at Jerusalem, informed us also of the decease of the Rev. Dr. Morrison, in China, and of the Rev. Dr. Carey, at Serampore. And it was only a few days previous that we heard of our brethren Lyman and Munson being devoured by cannibals in the Island of Sumatra. This last seems to us particularly shocking and awful, because it is an event so uncommon. But in reality what difference does it make whether our bodies be devoured by cannibals or by worms? Our blessed Lord will in either case know where to find us at the resurrection of the just.”

In his correspondence at this time he speaks hopefully and confidently of the blessing which was coming upon the people for whom he was laboring and praying. In a letter to a friend in Boston, dated Constantinople, Oct. 13, 1835, he writes: —

“ Your kind letter of May 7th was received July the 4th, together with the penknives and razors, with which, indeed, you have kept me well supplied these thirteen years. But for the former I should not have written so much nor so well; and but for the latter I should not have made so decent an appearance when I went abroad. Oh, how pleasant it is to belong to the kingdom of Christ, and to use razors, penknives, scissors, and, indeed, every thing, under His spiritual reign!