h bishops and priests, the
missionaries began to preach in the churches, and so great was the
demand for preaching that Mr. Stocking was ordained. The ordination
took place in one of the Nestorian churches. Mr. Perkins felt that
spiritual death, rather than theological error, was the calamity of
the Nestorians. Their liturgy was composed, in general, of
unexceptionable and excellent matter, and the charge of heresy on
the subject of Christ's character, he pronounces unjust. The Nicene
Creed, which they always repeat at the close of their worship,
accords very nearly with that venerable document, as it has been
handed down to us.1

1 Annual Report of the Board for 1841, p. 114.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE MOUNTAIN NESTORIANS.

1840-1844.

We paused in the history of the Nestorian mission at the return of
Dr. Grant to Oroomiah, after a successful exploration of the
mountains of Koordistan. He remained there till the 7th of May,
1840. During this time, two brothers of the Patriarch visited the
mission, and urged its extension into the mountains. Mar Shimon also
wrote, renewing his request for a visit in the spring. Dr. Grant had
but little prospect of recovering his health on the plain; and the
welfare of his two sons in the United States, children of his first
marriage, and the three children then with him at Oroomiah, seemed
to require that he revisit his native land. Two of these last
mentioned sickened and died in January. Having then only one son to
take with him, four years of age, he decided to return through the
mountains, and revisit the Patriarch on his way. It was a perilous
journey so early in the season, especially with so tender a
companion; but the brave little fellow appears to have endured the
snows and precipices of Koordistan as well as the father. The boy
was everywhere a favorite, both with Koords and Nestorians. One
night the snow was so deep near the summit of a mountain that they
were obliged to sleep under the open sky, with the thermometer below
zero; but the Patriarch's brothers had carpets enough to keep them
warm until three in the morning, when the light of the moon enabled
them to resume their journey. Mar Shimon was then a guest of
Suleiman Bey, in the castle of Julamerk, and with him they spent ten
days. Nurullah Bey had gone to Erzroom to negotiate for the
subjugation of the Independent Nestorians to the Turkish rule,
having already relinquished his own personal independence, a