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providentially guided, and make it his special endeavor to promote the religious and moral instruction of the Greeks.

The researches of Messrs. Smith and Dwight-the results of which are about being published in two volumes by Mr. Smith, now on a visit to this country-have laid open an extensive field eastward of Constantinople, to the inspection of the Committee and the Board. The political condition of the Georgian provinces of Russia render it doubtful, at present, whether a mission should be attempted by the Board in those countries, although thousands of Armenians have emigrated into those provinces, within a few years, from Turkey. The Committee have it under consideration, however, whether they can, in any manner, extend aid to the excellent missionaries of the Basle society, who so hospitably entertained our brethren at Shousha, and who are laboring with great zeal and discretion, but with very inadequate pecuniary means, to benefit the numerous Armenian population around them.

The points at which we can most conveniently and effectually come into contact with the Armenian people in the Turkish empire, appear to be the following.

1. Constantinople.

2. Smyrna.

3.

4.

Trebizond-on the southeastern shore of the Black sea.

Tokat-which has the reputation of being the largest and most commercial city in the interior of Asia Minor. It would be the proper site of a mission in second Armenia. On the west, are Marsovan and Amasia; on the northeast, Nicksar; on the southeast, Sivas, once the royal residence of Mithridates;-embracing, together with Tokat, a population of about 24,000 Armenians, and neither of them more than eighty miles distant from that city.

Caesaria is probably the best station from which to operate on other parts of Armenia Minor; and Tarsus is the most eligible position for Cilicia. Neither Caesaria nor Tarsus, were visited by Messrs. Smith and Dwight.

It is not improbable that Diarkeker, in Armenia Proper, will prove a most advantageous location. Erzroom would have been a most desirable place for a mission, had not the Armenian population nearly all emigrated into the Russian territory.

PROPOSED MISSION TO THE NESTORIANS OF PERSIA.

Messrs. Smith and Dwight spent a week among the Nestorians of Oormia, one of the western districts of Persia; and to them the week appears to have been the most satisfactory and interesting of their whole tour. For an account of this people, the Board is referred to the volumes of researches now in the press. While the Nestorians as much need religious instruction as any of the oriental sects, there is strong reason to believe that a mission would encounter fewer obstacles among them, than in any other of the old churches of the East. Their views of open communion, and their liberality towards other sects, are without a parallel in that part of the world, and they entirely reject auricular confession.

The Committee look towards this promising field with a strong desire to establish a mission there as soon as the suitable men are found willing to encounter the necessary privations and exposures. Great prudence, devoted piety, and unquenchable zeal should be combined in the members of such a mission, and they should go forth, as indeed all missionaries should do, relying confidently for success on nothing except the promised presence and grace of Christ. Such a reliance will no where be vain.

MISSION TO THE JEWS OF TURKEY.

William G. Schauffler, Missionary.

Mr. Schauffler, whose name has been already mentioned, was ordained in Boston as a missionary to the Jews, on the 14th of November last.

The circumstances and the mission of Mr. Schauffler being somewhat peculiar, the Committee consented to his taking Paris in his way to Turkey, and spending a few months in attending the lectures upon oriental languages and literature, for which that city is distinguished; though they believe such a course will rarely be expedient for missionaries of the Board destined to the eastern world. He was received with great cordiality by Professor Kiaffer, Baron De Sacy, and others, and for three months applied himself intensely to the Arabic, Turkish, and Persian languages. By this time his health began to fail, and the

cholera making great ravages in the city, he commenced his journey to the field of his missionary labors, going by way of Stuttgard, his native place, through Bavaria, Vienna, &c. The Committee have heard of his arrival at Stuttgard, and hope soon to hear of his being in Constantinople.

MISSION TO GREECE.

ATHENS.-Jonas King, Missionary; and Mrs. King.

It is the united testimony of all recent travellers in the Levant, who have made the advancement of knowledge an object of particular attention, that the Greeks are in one respect a peculiar people. Neither the Armenians, nor any other nations or communities in that part of the world, evince such a desire for mental cultivation. It is a national characteristic, and, with respect to the degree and universality of it, a national peculiarity, comparing them with all their neighbors. With this excellence, they possess also the faults of the ancient Greeks-the faults of a quick perception, a perspicacious understanding, and a lively fancy, in union with a depraved nature. What they need to make. them the most interesting and useful people in the Levant, is the sanctifying influence of the gospel. It is extremely doubtful whether an increase of knowledge among them, without this influence, will be of any real use. There is reason even to dread the consequences of it; for they will then be almost sure to fill the East with the baleful opinions and sentiments of Voltaire and his atheistical associates. And yet, nothing is more certain than that knowledge will increase rapidly among the Greeks, whenever their government becomes settled, whether holiness exists among them or not. The Greeks will seek after knowledge, and if that knowledge is not hallowed and made salutary by the gospel, it will be deeply imbued with the most pernicious infidelity, and this influence will meet and obstruct us wherever we go around the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Nor can we console ourselves with the belief, that infidelity will ever demolish the bulwarks of superstition; for where infidelity reigns, liberty cannot exist, and all the power of superstition will be needed and carefully sustained, as a supporter of an iron-handed despotism.

If we hope to effect much good in the Mediterranean, we must not overlook the Greeks, and especially the Greeks of what is called liberated Greece.

Owing to causes beyond the control of the Committee, they have been unable to strengthen this mission the past year; but they have already had the satisfaction to state that this inability no longer exists. Mr. Riggs may be expected to enter that field early in the ensuing spring.

The last Report left Mr. King at Athens. He had opened a Lancasterian school for both sexes, and placed it under the tuition of Niketoplos, a teacher of more than ordinary qualifications. In June he removed his family to that city from the island of Tenos, where they had previously resided. This school he subsequently divided into two, one for males, the other for females; and about the same time established a third school in a neighboring village. He maintained also a constant personal religious intercourse with the adult population of Athens. In September circumstances made it necessary for him and his wife to visit Smyrna, which he did by way of Samos and the deserted site of Ephesus. At Carlovasi, in Samos, Mr. King thought a missionary might advantageously reside. They remained at Smyrna till February. While there Mr. King's labors were devoted principally to the Greeks. On the Sabbath, he was accustomed to address the scholars in Mr. Brewer's Greek school in the morning, to preach in Greek at the Dutch chapel before noon, and to preach in English or attend a meeting for religious conference in the afternoon.

Returning to Athens on the 25th of February, he found the city quiet, but the surrounding country infested with thieves. Attica was still held by the Turks. Greece was distracted by two distinct governments, one having its seat at Nauplia, on the gulf of Argos, the other at Megara, on the isthmus of Corinth. The former represented the government of the late President of Greece; the other professed to be founded upon more liberal principles. Quite recently the Committee have heard that the latter, embracing the well known names of Mavrocordato and Tricoupis, has triumphed, and that the Peloponnesus is in a state of comparative quiet.

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It would be an error to suppose, that the political constitution of Greece must be settled, before that country can afford great opportunities for diffusing Christian knowledge among the people. It

is possible, indeed, to imagine a form of government, that would exceedingly favor the spread of the gospel; but to expect the establishment of such a government in the present state of religion among the people of Greece, is not warranted by past experience. We have great liberty now-as great as we can expect ever to have, with the exception, perhaps, of somewhat less personal security at the present moment. Since the Egyptians were driven from the Morea, the youth of Greece have not proba. bly been much affected with the political vicissitudes of their country; and to them our attention is chiefly to be directed, and among them we may find thousands of readers and students of the best and most useful books our missionaries are able to make, and even of the New Testament itself. Here is a field, which may be cultivated without any serious obstruction while the Greek nation is in its forming process, and with no doubtful prospect of exerting a permanent and most salutary influence.

Mr. King has at present three Lancasterian schools at Athens: viz. Niketoplos's school, containing about 100 boys; a second, kept in a church which is occupied free of rent, containing about 60; and a girl's school with about the same number of pupils. He has, also, made arrangements for opening a hellenic school, as the higher schools are called where the ancient Greek is taught, and the demogerontes of the city have freely given him the use of the old hellenic school-house for this school, one apartment of which they had fitted up with benches and desks for 50 or 60 scholars. The Board has no longer any immediate connection with the schools at Syra.

On the Sabbath Mr. King has a regular Greek service in his principal school, between the hours of 9 and 11 in the morning; and at 11, and again at 3, he has public worship in Greek at his own house. The boys in the school sing a hymn and chaunt a doxology taken from the church service of the Greeks. The number of adults who attend these services is small, but no opposition is made to his proceedings.

Mr. King has, for a number of years, been much interested in the establishment of a college at Athens, and his prospectus of such an institution, drawn up as long ago as the year 1828, has been brought before our community by a number of the friends of Greece in the city of New York. It being obviously proper that the operations of the Board in Greece, so far as education is con

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