nd ecclesiastical despotism. Instruction was
communicated to large numbers of both men and women, and it was
beginning to be regarded as disgraceful for adults of either sex not
to be able to read.

The theological school contained twenty-four pupils, of whom eleven
were from the vicinity and ten were married men. The students
devoted their winter vacation of four months to preaching and
teaching, and in term time they preached at out-stations.

Mrs. Dwight, after twenty-one years of eminently useful service,
died at Constantinople in November, 1860. Dr. Dwight's family being
thus broken up, he commenced, with the approval of his brethren, a
tour through Syria and Asiatic Turkey, intending to go over much of
the ground he had traversed with Dr. Eli Smith in their explorations
thirty years before.

How great the changes in the intervening period! Then, for fourteen
and a half months, he was unable to receive tidings from his wife,
whom he had left in Malta. Now, from beyond the Euphrates, he could
have communicated daily with Constantinople by telegraph. Then, no
fellow-laborers were to be found between Smyrna and the little bands
of German and Scotch brethren soon after to be driven away from
Russian Armenia and Georgia, and nowhere did they meet among the
people any religious sympathies in unison with their own. Now, the
survivor found missionaries scattered over the land, and he scarcely
entered a place where some one, at least, did not greet him with a
joyful welcome. Then, the object was to explore an unbroken scene of
spiritual death. Now, it was to confirm living churches, and help
forward a growing spiritual work.

The tour was extended as far as the Nestorian mission, and occupied
about eight months. Reviewing this journey of almost unprecedented
interest, Dr. Dwight could not refrain from using the language of
Christian triumph: "I have visited," he says, "every station of the
Board in Turkey and Persia excepting those among the Bulgarians. It
has been my privilege to see all the missionaries and their
families,--a rare body of men and women, of whom our churches and
our country may well be proud,--and also to become personally
acquainted with hundreds and thousands of the dear Protestant
brethren and sisters of this land--God's lights in the midst of
surrounding darkness; God's witnesses even where Satan dwelleth."

Dr. Dwight was at Marash in April, and this is his own vivid
description of what he saw