Before night between three and four thousand houses were heaps of ashes

Upon the very heels of these disasters came another of those fearful conflagrations with which Constantinople has been so often visited. On the 9th of August, nearly if not quite half of Pera, where Mr. Goodell was living, was reduced to ashes. The fire broke out in the morning in the midst of wooden buildings, which, owing to a long-continued drought, had become like tinder, and before night between three and four thousand houses were heaps of ashes, and not less than fifty thousand of the inhabitants were without a home or a shelter.

Armenians were visited with severe personal

In addition to these public calamities, the Armenians were visited with severe personal afflictions. In the sudden reverses of the government and the country some of the wealthiest bankers were reduced to poverty, one of them in the extremity of his misfortunes committing suicide. The hand of God was laid heavily upon many of those who had been leaders in the persecution, so that it became a common remark that God was taking the side of the persecuted and vindicating their cause.

In the shadow of all these public and domestic calamities a council of the Armenian leaders was called, at which it was resolved that those who had been sent into exile should be recalled, and that the rigorous measures against the evangelical converts should be suspended. There was no real change in the feelings of the leaders, but they were awed.

They seemed to realize that the hand of God was lifted against them, and that it was best to stay the persecution. The old patriarch, who was friendly to the missionaries, was reinstated, and the assistant, who had been appointed to the office for the purpose of carrying out the most rigorous measures, was dismissed. One after another of the banished returned; those who had embraced the simple truths of the Gospel had their faith confirmed; intercourse with the missionaries was resumed; their own labors among the people were taken up; and the work of God appeared to receive a new impulse.