horship, and his reputation for consistency, were
opposed, at the outset, to any change in his religious opinions.
Then all his reverence for his ecclesiastical superiors and his
former tutors, some of whom were naturally mild in their tempers,
and his previous habits of thought, withstood his yielding to the
convictions of conscience and the authority of Scripture. Next, the
anathemas of the Church, the tears of a mother appalled by the
infamy of having an apostate son, the furious menaces of brothers,
and the bitter hatred of masses stirred up by an influential
priesthood, combined to hold him back from the truth. All these
things were preparatory to being seized by indignant relatives,
chained to his prison walls, deprived of the New Testament and other
books, and of every means of recreation, refused even those bodily
comforts which nature renders indispensable; in such a forlorn
condition, exposed to the insults of a bigoted populace and the
revilings of a tyrannical priesthood, beaten till his body became a
mass of disease, and held in this variety of grief for years,
without one ray of hope, save through the portals of the tomb, who
expected that he would endure steadfastly to the end?

On the other hand, if he would only recant, promotion awaited him,
and wealth, indeed everything that could be offered to prevent a
dreaded defection. How many are there, with all our knowledge and
strength of religious principle, who, in his situation, would like
him be faithful unto death?

CHAPTER V.

THE PRESS AT MALTA.

1822-1833.

The location of the press at Malta, was not the result of design,
but because printing could not be done safely, if at all, either at
Smyrna or at Beirut. Its operations were begun under the impression
of a more extended taste for reading and reflection in the several
communities of the Levant, than really existed; and it is doubtful
whether the larger part of the earlier publications were well suited
to the apprehension of the Oriental mind. However this may be, it
was decided, in the year 1829, to make it a leading object, for a
time, to furnish books for elementary schools; making them, as far
as possible, the vehicles of moral and religious truth. The wisdom
of this course was seen among the Greeks. A first book for schools
of sixty pages, called the Alphabetarion, went into extensive use.
Twenty-seven thousand copies were called for in Greece before the
year 1831.

There