and the Church's glory in him, that
greatly comforts the weak. When the Lord first led me to feel
interested in the service of his cause abroad, I framed to
myself some _beau-ideal_ of a missionary that if I now
entertained would destroy all happiness. Since the Lord has led
me to see how truly low my place is in his holy blessed body,
amidst all this humiliation he makes me feel happy in the
thought I am a member, though embracing little that pride would
lead to aim at. If I am but allowed to minister to my dear and
holy brethren on the other side of the desert I shall feel
happy and thankful. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with the
condescension that he should allow me to feel part of his
mystical body, though so weak so useless.

On the subject of baptism all the dear brethren at Aleppo have
finally agreed and been baptized; thus the last little
difference that I know between us is closed. How gracious the
Lord is!

The Lord has laid his hand heavily on them. Dear Newman is but
just raised from a bed of sickness. The schoolmaster whom they
brought is so unwell, that dear John Parnell and his wife have
taken him for the change of air to the water's side; they too
have both been very ill. Mrs. Cronan is daily getting weaker
and weaker, so they are prevented joining me now from ill
health, as before from the disturbances, and in a short time
Mrs. Parnell expects to be confined, which will still delay
them, as well as the expectation of a friend or two from
England and Ireland. Should the Lord not remove these
difficulties to their coming before the spring, and my Bibles
and Testaments arrive from Bussorah, I purpose, the Lord
willing, perhaps even in about two months, going by the way of
Mosul, Merdin, Diarbekr, Orsa, and Beer to Aleppo, there to
consult and to be refreshed, should the Lord graciously smile
upon us, and in my way to distribute his word and see the state
of the places above mentioned.

When Mr. Newman was at the worst, and they had given up all
hopes of him, they anointed him with oil according to the 14th
of the 5th of James, and prayed over him, and the Lord had
mercy on them, yea, and on me also, and restored him. It seems
to me truly scriptural, and if the Church of Rome has perverted
it to superstitious end