Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/42

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THE NESTORIANS AND THEIR RITUALS.

for the salvation of men the great object of its labours, and regards Churches as mere agencies for effecting it. This spirit at the present moment portends more evil to the cause of truth and piety throughout the world than it is in the power of the whole Popedom to inflict. Prudential considerations have hitherto prevented the full disclosure of what the Committee know on this subject, and must still prevent it in some degree. It is time, however, to announce that our missionaries are threatened by an extended interference from a great ecclesiastical power, which denies our right to preach the Gospel anywhere. This interference is connected with the late appointment of an English Bishop at Jerusalem, who, the newspapers announce, has sailed for Joppa in the steam-ship 'Devastation.'" The following, bearing a later date, was doubtless intended as a recantation of the preceding, but the same jealousy lurks in every line: "Dr. Anderson said. The English Bishop, whose appointment for Jerusalem was mentioned at the concert in January, arrived at Jerusalem on the 21st of that month. We have lately seen a printed statement of proceedings relative to this bishopric, published by authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, together with a pamphlet of about one hundred pages, printed in London and dedicated, by permission, to the Bishop of Oxford, on the nature of the intercourse which is desirable between the Church of England and the Oriental Churches. The effect of establishing this bishopric in Syria upon our mission in that country must depend in great measure upon the personal character of the Bishop; but it is beyond question, so far as the parties in England are concerned, that the whole operation is based upon high, exclusive, church principles; though the impression we first had connecting it with Puseyism, (which grew out of a letter, apparently of high authority, from a distinguished Puseyite, published in the London 'Times' newspaper) is not sustained, I am happy to say, by the official documents. These documents declare the Bishop's missionary duties to relate chiefly to the Jews. He is himself, as is well known, a converted Jew."

Added to the above grounds, several instances of their unfriendliness to him and to his work, and of their unwarrantable sectarian proceedings among the Armenians, as related to me