f his Church. In April of this year, Dionysius revisited
Jerusalem, as the interpreter of German missionaries. The Armenian
Convent owed him a sum of money, which it refused to pay, and
forbade any Armenian in the city to speak to him. The Greeks, on the
other hand, treated him with attention, and so did the Moslem
governor. He returned to Beirut in company with three hundred of the
Armenian pilgrims, who were no sooner out of Jerusalem than they
began to treat him with kindness and respect, while they were full
of inquiries as to what he and the Protestants believed, what
ordinances they had, and how they observed them, with many more such
questions. He was engaged in conversation with them day and night,
and had full opportunity to explain his religious views, and to show
them the difference between the Christianity of the New Testament,
and that of the Oriental Churches; and they expressed much
astonishment at his statements. Some of them were persons of
respectability and influence, and declared their indignation at the
treatment he had received from the convent. It is probable that
these conversations had some connection with the spirit of
reform among the Armenians, which not long after appeared at
Constantinople.

The Rev. Eli Smith reached Beirut early in 1827. At the monthly
concert in March, kept as a day of fasting and prayer, and closed
with the Lord's Supper, sixteen persons were present, who were all
regarded as hopefully pious. They were from America, Europe, Asia,
and Africa, and were members of nine churches,--Congregational,
Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed Lutheran, Moravian, Latin, Armenian,
Greek Catholic, and Abyssinian. Dionysius Carabet, Gregory Wortabet,
and their wives were then received into the mission church, as was
also the wife of Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, a native of Italy.
This admission of converts into a church, without regard to their
previous ecclesiastical relations, was a practical ignoring of the
old church organizations in that region. It was so understood, and
the spirit of opposition and persecution was roused to the utmost.
In the Maronite and Greek Catholic churches, severe denunciations
were uttered against the missionaries, and all who should render
them any service.

Messrs. Goodell and Bird gave more or less time, with the help of
their native assistants, to preparing useful works in the native
languages. These, with Mr. King's "Farewell Letter," were copied by
the