day, never to let our work
stand still for want of funds, for should I ever want any he would
gladly supply me, and lend me for my personal wants whatever I might
need. Now when we consider there is but one English family now
resident in Bagdad besides our own, how like the Lord's acting it is
to make them willing to supply to us the necessary help: not only does
the Lord supply us with means necessary for our expense, but does not
allow us when our little fund gets low, to know the anxiety of
expecting, or thinking what we should do. And, surrounded as we have
been these many months, by the alarm of war and the fear of plague or
cholera, even our dear native islands have not been without their
anxieties; but I have been much struck of late with the peculiar
dealings of God towards his chosen; as of old, the pillar that was all
darkness to the enemy, was light to the church in the wilderness, so
now all this dark cloud, the darkness of which may be felt, which is
spreading from one end of the Christian and Mohammedan world to the
other, has, towards the church in her pilgrimage, its full steady
bright light surmounted by "Behold he cometh!" Blessed assurance! But
a little day of toil, and then we shall come with him, or rise to join
his assembled saints, dressed all anew, with our house from heaven,
that spiritual clothing meet for the new creature in Christ Jesus. Oh,
what glorious liberty we are heirs to, as children of God, one day to
love our Eternal Father, Son, and Spirit, with unalloyed affections,
when our whole nature shall be again on the side of God, and not a
place left for the enemy to put his foot to harass the heir of glory.

_March 17._--A Chaldean Roman Catholic priest has been here to-day,
and read me the same passages of the Psalms in the Chaldean and Syrian
languages, and there appears to be no other difference than in
character, as far as he read. The Syrians, the Chaldeans, and the
Jews, might become most valuable objects of missionary labour, not
only as being in greater numbers here, but from the great similarity
of their languages, so that the mastering of the one would be to the
mastering of the three, with very little additional trouble. I
endeavoured to find out from him the difference between the spoken
and written languages, and as far as he produced illustrations, the
difference was only in pronunciation; the words seemed substantially
the same. But there is a very strong prejudice to con