Forwarding from the United States

Accordingly, when all had retired, he took the mysterious box to his study, and, before proceeding to open it, kneeled and commended himself, his household, and the mission, to the care of the covenant God. With trembling hands he then removed one envelope after another in a long succession, until he reached and removed the last; when his eyes fell, not upon a deadly weapon, but upon the faces of his beloved daughters, who were far over the seas.

They had chosen this method of forwarding from the United States their daguerreotypes, as a surprise to those at home, sending the package by the hand of the captain of a ship, with an injunction that it should be delivered without any intimation of what it contained, or of the source from which it came.

The father’s tears of love and thankfulness fell thick upon the familiar faces, and the whole family were immediately aroused to share in his joy.

During the latter part of 18 and the following year, the fierceness of actual persecution on the part of the Armenian ecclesiastics was stayed, but their hostility toward all who manifested any tendency to evangelical principles was not in the least abated. They took another method of expressing it, described by Mr. Goodell, under date of Oct. 27, 18: —

“All fiery persecution has now ceased. The policy of the present patriarch is more in accordance with civilized usage. The aim is to wear out the patience of the brethren, by depriving them of business in the most quiet and effectual way possible, and thus to reduce them to subjection by reducing them to poverty in a more genteel way than by prison and exile.

Spirit of determination

This is really, as our brethren confess, harder to bear, because it does not, on the one hand, rouse up the mind of the sufferer to such a spirit of determination, nor, on the other, does it secure so much sympathy from others. But, to the praise of God’s grace be it spoken, they all hold on their way, and the Lord is adding to them continually of such as shall be saved. The papists are still popping away at us with missiles drawn from the Missionary Ilerald,” but nobody seems now to care any thing about it. In fact, I have heard of no one being shot, or even wounded.