| Description | Dated 10 August. Thanks for gift of books; since his last letter there has been much persecution by senior clergy of Etshmiazin, the two deacons for whom the books were requested have been taken away and have since died, one at Tiflis, the other in the Seman monastery on Lake Eriwan; the central school was closed and there are now only five elementary schools; the Armenian clergy also complained to the government at St Petersburg but judgement was given against them; they have printed 12000 copies of books in old and new Armenian (including dictionary of old/new Armenian); the translation of the New Testament into Armenian has been completed but at present cannot be printed in Russia, because of opposition from the senior clergy; hopes a mission press may be found to do it; though the clergy 'are corrupted and ignorant' the people are 'accessible and open for Christian evangelical instruction'; 'those at Isphahan in new Schulfa long much after an evangelical missionary to erect a school among them'; 'if Armenians once feel the truth of the Gospel they will be the best missionaries among the Mohammedans'; now appears called to leave the Armenians and go to the Germans in Georgia; asks what should be done with the books. |