of Asia Minor a short time while the
Crimean war was in progress, and heard of reports among the
people,--circulated, as was believed, by Russian agents,--that if
Nicholas were victorious, he would secure the withdrawal from Turkey
of Protestant missionaries. Exasperation caused by the failure of
his negotiations with the Sultan, brought on the war; and the fall
of Sebastopol was a more direct benefit to the missions, than it was
to the nations that fought against it. But for the result then
obtained, at vast expense of treasure and life, very different might
have been the prospect of a successful republication of the Gospel
in Bible lands.

The number of missionaries in the Armenian Mission in 1855, was
twenty-six. One of these was an ordained physician, and there was a
physician unordained. There were twenty-eight female assistant
missionaries, three of whom were unmarried. Of the Armenian helpers,
thirteen were pastors and preachers, and sixty-four were
lay-helpers. The stations,--called such because missionaries resided
at them,--were fourteen. Twelve of these were north of the Taurus,
and two were south of that range.

Constantinople, Tocat, and Aintab had each a training-school for
native preachers and helpers, and there was also a girls'
boarding-school at Constantinople; and thirty-eight free schools
were scattered over the field. Nine years after the organization of
the first evangelical church, the number of churches was
twenty-three. The church at Aintab was the largest, containing one
hundred and forty-one members. Kessab, a long day's journey south of
Antioch, where no missionary had ever resided, had a church of
forty-one members. The first edifice for Christian worship in the
Ottoman Empire, erected on a new site, was the stone church at
Aintab. Prior to this, Christians had only been allowed to repair
their old churches, and to rebuild on the old sites. The obtaining
of this new indulgence was probably owing, in a measure, to the
influence of the Crimean war. The dedication service, early in 1855,
was attended by more than twelve hundred persons, and more than
eleven hundred were present on the following Sabbath.

The printing reported for this year amounted to thirty-five thousand
volumes, and nearly five millions of pages, in the Armenian,
Armeno-Turkish, Greek, Greco-Turkish, and Hebrew-Spanish, but
chiefly in Armenian. A religious periodical was issued every two
months called the "Avedaper," or