into
our plan; but when we arrived here, the Lord so completely put the
school of the Armenians into our hands, that on consultation both my
dearest Mary, myself, and Mr. Pfander thought that the Lord's children
and saints must take the work the Lord gives, particularly as there
appeared no immediate prospect of other work. We entered on it, and by
dear Mr. Pfander's most efficient help, the children were soon brought
to translate God's word with understanding, and the school increased
from 35 to near 80. My dearest Mary had long desired to undertake the
girl's school exclusively; but previous to her confinement she did not
feel able; but as soon as she got about, she undertook it heartily,
and the dear little children were so attached to their employments,
that they used to come on their holidays. She had got so far on in
Armenian, as to be able to prepare for them, in large characters, some
little pieces of Carus Wilson's, which I got translated into the
Armenian of this place, and the dear little children were so
interested by them, that they exceedingly desired to take them home,
and read them to their mothers, which in two or three days they were
to have done. For our own instruction in Arabic and Armenian, and for
the school, we had five most competent teachers. Thus things went on
up to the end of March, when the appearance of the plague obliged us
to break up the school. But now two months have passed, and Oh! how
changed. Half the children, or more, are dead; many have left the
place; the five teachers are dead, and my dear, dear Mary. When I
think on this, my heart is overwhelmed within me, and I remain in
absolute darkness as to the meaning of my Lord and Father; but shall I
therefore doubt him now, after so many proofs of love, because he acts
inscrutably to me? God forbid! That the Lord made the coming of my
dearest wife, and her multiplied trials and blessings, the instruments
of her soul's rapid preparation for his presence, I have no doubt. I
never heard a soul breathe a more simple, firm, and unostentatious
faith in God. She never had a doubt but that it was for the Lord she
left all that was naturally dear to her to expose herself to dangers
from which, with a constitutional timidity, she shrunk. Her soul was
most especially drawn out towards her Lord's coming, and this spread a
gilded halo round every trial. She constantly exclaimed, as we walked
on the roof of our house[32] of an evening, "When will