The year 1867 was one of peculiar promise. The moral stupor, which for so many years had taxed the faith of the mission, seemed to be yielding to the awakening power of the Word of God, and Gospel truth was not only better apprehended by the intellect, but also was impressing the heart and conscience. Though the awakening was neither as extensive, or thorough, or spiritual as was desired, it was real, and indicated the entering upon a new stage of the work. Miss Roseltha A. Norcross became the associate of Miss Reynolds in the school at Eski Zagra. The arrival of a new teacher and many applications for admission, led to an enlargement of the school. Two sisters, however, who were among the most interesting pupils, were called to severe trials. One of them left in 1866, but the other remained, and was the best scholar in the school. Both possessed more than ordinary intelligence and amiability, and for more than two years had been heartily devoted to Christ. "The younger who had left the school," says the report of the mission, "was taken, a few days since, into a room where many of her relatives and a priest had assembled, to extort from her a renunciation of her faith, and was told that she would either have to give up, or die; that they would give her no peace so long as she persisted in her present course. But the Lord sustained her. They resorted to entreaty, and besought her merely to make the sign of submission, telling her that she need not in her heart change her belief. But their seductions were as unavailing as their threats. It is more than a year since she left the school, and though, during this time, her closet, her Bible, and the conversation of her sister have been her only means of grace, it is evident that, in the midst of this wearing domestic persecution, a Christian character of unusual loveliness is being developed. She is as frail as a lily, but the strength of the Lord rests upon her." Another case was that of a pupil who had left a year and a half before, to teach a Bulgarian school. "Unaided," says the mission, "except from on high, she has fought a good fight during the past year. The parents of her pupils complain because she will not conform to the rites of their Church, but the trustees of the school, not wishing to lose her services, have been wise enough not to make conformity a condition of remaining in their service. Her parents have forbidden her visiting the missionary premises, but they have not been able to separate her from her Lord, nor to prevent her laboring for the spiritual good of her pupils. Although she has been occupying, for more than a year, a position beset with temptations, and has been in a great degree deprived of the sympathy and advice of Christian friends, we still hear from her that she is kept by the power of God." The mission suffered a most serious loss in the return of Mr. and Mrs. Byington to their native land, in consequence of the failing health of the latter.