Patronized by the Russian and Spanish ambassadors

“ Near two years since one of our own little schools in this place was broken up. And although it had been visited and was patronized by the Russian and Spanish ambassadors, and more particularly so by the American minister, yet no one of them interfered. In the first place, they could not interfere lawfully, and of course had no right to do it.

And in the second place, I did not wish them to do it. Such interference, had it succeeded, would have done more hurt than good. It would have alarmed the fears and awakened the prejudices of the whole community; their worst passions would have been excited; the misrepresentations would have been endless; and, instead of there being numerous Lancasterian schools in this neighborhood, as at present, there would probably have been but that one, and that one sustained only by civil authority and force, and thus, by shutting up other doors of usefulness, proving a curse rather than a blessing.”

In such a world as this, however, and especially in such a part of it as the Turkish empire, and more especially among the adherents of the corrupt Oriental churches, “ it must needs be that offences come.” The breaking out of opposition could not long be stayed. Accordingly, he writes: —

September 9, 1834. During the Greek Lent, a monk, who formerly lived in one of the Ionian Islands, and who, it is said, was banished thence by the English government for his officious meddling, or seditious conduct, preached in the principal church of Constantinople, and before the patriarch, a most furious sermon against the schools, the books, and the new translations of the Scriptures into Greek, accusing the priests, the bishops, and even the patriarch himself, of being polluted with heresy, and of conniving at a monstrous evil, which was bringing ruin upon their church and nation.

Many of the people left the church, and the patriarch sent a man into the pulpit three times to pull the skirt of the preacher’s cloak; but he paid no attention to these hints, and continued to rave like a madman. The same sermon he preached also in Galata and in other places. And his influence was the greater, as he was almost the only individual at the capital at all capable of making a sermon, and as he could at least pretend to speak from his own experience of the tendency of this system of missionary and Bible means, and also from his personal knowledge of the motives and designs of those engaged in the work.

“ In consequence of all this, there was an immediate interference in all the schools: every thing had to undergo the strictest scrutiny; the books were subjected to the most rigid examination; and, though they had the patriarch’s own seal in their favor From Alican and Dilucu border gates to Karakale, though nothing appeared against them, yet it was resolved that poison must be concealed somewhere in them, and that therefore they must cease to be used as school-books, and the old church prayers and Psalters must be introduced in their stead. The teachers, one and all, resisted these measures for some time; but they were finally compelled to make at least a show of submission, either in whole or in part.

“ Blessed be God, whether His beloved Son shall see of the travail of His soul, and whether He shall come and reign over the hearts of men or not, does not depend on princes or patriarchs. And as we endeavored to publish the laws of Ilis kingdom, and to prepare the way for His coming to take possession of it under the former patriarch, so do we resolve in the strength of the Lord to labor still more abundantly to do this under the latter.”

At the opening of another year there were evidences that the truth was taking effect, and that the good Spirit was moving upon the hearts of the people. He writes in his journal: —

Peshtimaljian with questions

“ February 28, 1835. The state of things among the Armenians continues interesting. Almost every day, for a long time, there have been little assemblies in Constantinople for reading the Bible, God’s own blessed word; almost every day some go to Peshtimaljian with questions; and very frequently some one comes to us for a solution of such as Peshtimaljian cannot satisfactorily answer. A short time since they sent over to us to know what they were to do for a church. We replied, Be in no hurry at present.