ie after
confession, and while his penance is incomplete, he cannot be sent
to hell, neither is he prepared for heaven. He must first complete
his penance in a temporary state of misery. This state the papists
call purgatory; and though the other churches reject the name, they
cleave tenaciously to the thing. As all believe that the sufferings
of the departed may be shortened by the merit of good works
performed by surviving relatives and imputed to them, prayers for
the dead are frequent in churches and over graves, and masses are
celebrated in their name.

Though the Nestorians renounced auricular confession, they no more
looked to the redemption of Christ for pardon, than did their
neighbors, and they knew of no other regeneration than baptism.

There is no need of entering here on the practical influence of such
a religion on the lives of the people. That will appear in the
progress of our history. Enough has been said to justify the
American churches in laboring to restore to the degenerate churches
of the East the Gospel they had lost, especially as an indispensable
means of Christianizing the Moslems of Turkey and Persia.

The Oriental communities within the range of this history, are the
following:--

The GREEKS;
The ARMENIANS;
The NESTORIANS;
The JACOBITES;
The BULGARIANS;
The ROMAN CATHOLICS OF TURKEY;
The JEWS OF TURKEY; and
The MOHAMMEDANS.

The Missions are as follows:--

The PALESTINE Mission;
The SYRIA Mission;
The GREEK Mission;
The ARMENIAN Mission;
The NESTORIAN Mission;
The ASSYRIAN Mission;
The MISSION TO THE JEWS; and that to
The MOHAMMEDANS.

MISSIONS TO THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.

CHAPTER I.

PALESTINE.

1819--1824.

American missions in Bible lands, like their apostolic predecessors,
had a beginning at Jerusalem. The first missionaries from this
country to the Oriental Churches were Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons.
On the 23d of September, 1818, they were appointed to labor in
Palestine. But as, at that early period, there was special need of
making the churches acquainted with the work, and foreign
missionaries were less common than now, they were detained to labor
at home until November of the following year, when they embarked at
Boston for Smyrna, in the ship _Sally Ann_, Captain Edes. They were
both interesting men, and the impressive public services connected
with their departure were long remembered in Boston. A single
extract from the official instructions