ndered
how I should pretend that I held to the Christian religion, and still
converse in such abusive terms against it; and _I_ also wondered, that
after he saw this, he should not be willing so much as to ask me, in
mildness, and self-possession, and forbearance, _for what reasons_ I was
unwilling to receive the doctrines of the pope, or to say I believed as
he did; but he would not consent that the above mentioned Armenian
priest should hold a discussion with me, and more than this, laid every
person, and even his own brother, under excommunication, if he should
presume to dispute or converse with me on the subject of religion.

Under this prohibition from conversation, and this bereavement of books,
from what quarter could I get the necessary evidence to believe in their
opinion?

Another cause I had of wonder, which was, that not one of all with whom
I conversed, after he saw me to be heretical and declining from the
truth, thought proper to advise me to use the only means of becoming
strong in the faith, viz. prayer to God the Most High, and searching his
Holy Word, which a child may understand. I wondered, too, that they
should ridicule me, and report me abroad as one mad and after all this,
be so fearful to engage in a dispute with the madman, lest he should
vanquish them in argument, or spoil their understandings, or turn them
away from the truth.

After some time came the bishop of Beyroot. I gave him the usual
salutation, and was greatly rejoiced to see him, as I knew the
excellency of his understanding, and his quickness of apprehension, and
hoped that, after some discussion between us, he would explain the
truth, and that he would rest on clear evidence to support his views.
But in this case also, I was disappointed; for one day, when I asked him
a question, and during the whole short conversation which followed,
whenever I began to bring evidence against him, he was angry, and
finally drove me from my chamber in a fury, and that with no other
cause, as he pretended, than that he did not wish to converse with a
heretic.

Some time after this, Hoory Joseph Shaheen came down to the convent of
Alma, and I endeavoured to get him to unite with me in persuading the
patriarch to send out among the people preachers of the gospel, or that
there should be preaching in the churches as before mentioned. But he
would not co-operate with me in this, and I was again disappointed.

Then, when the patriarch and the bis