hoped. Things are
in preparation for the knowledge of God's holy word being extended,
and thus one great object of missionary labour is in the way of
attainment. But still, while I feel assured of there being some choice
fruit from here and there a fruitful bough, I at the same time feel no
less assured, that the great harvest will be of wickedness, and that
the pestilence of infidelity is the great spreading evil, not the
spreading of Millennial blessedness. As it was in the days of Noah, so
do I believe it will be at the coming of the Son of Man; and as it was
in the days of Lot, the great mass of mankind will be taunting the
Church with, "Where is the sign of his coming?" which shews plainly
enough that this will be a doctrine of the Church in the latter days,
or how should it be reviled; so that our Lord, in contemplating the
general apostacy, said, "When the Son of Man cometh shall he find
faith in the earth?" Oh, then, how happy is it to be among those who
love his appearing, who long for the termination of that dispensation
which witnessed the humiliation of the Church under the world, and the
rise of that glorious kingdom which shall not be dissolved, and into
which no sorrow or sighing can enter. I feel the languages to be a
great barrier. Whether the Lord will pour down this among the other
gifts of the latter days, I do not know, but at present it is a great
exercise of a Missionary's patience, to ask even for the common
necessaries of life; but to speak out the fulness of a full heart, so
as to be understood and felt is very, very difficult. The difficulties
in the way of a literary acquaintance with these languages are by no
means so great, as the study may be pursued alone, but the colloquial
language can only be learned by intercourse with men, and this is far
more difficult to attain by an European, who may have a very good
knowledge of the language of books, and still be little understood in
speaking. But still the time spent in the learning of a language among
a people, every thought, and purpose, and habit of whose lives are
diverse from your own, has this advantage, that you become in some
measure acquainted with their peculiarities before you are in a
situation to offend against them.

We have heard that the Emperor of Russia has conferred some honours on
the family of this Pasha, who are Armenian Christians, in Teflis.
Things are beginning to look unsettled in Persia. Contentions have
already aris