On the plain of Oroomiah, there was more preaching than ever before, and the line of demarkation between an evangelical church and a dead Christianity, was becoming more and more distinct. Mar Yohannan boldly discarded many customs of his Church, and then seemed disposed to go as fast in the work of reformation as his people could be induced to follow; and there was the same spirit among the helpers of the mission. The two seminaries were coming under a stricter discipline, and aimed at a higher standard of scholarship. About half of the forty students under Mr. Stoddard were hopefully pious, and some of them gave high promise of usefulness. One was appointed to succeed the bishop of the largest diocese in the province. Several were from different mountain districts, and one was from the valley of the Tigris. The number in the female seminary had increased from forty to fifty, and it was delightful to witness the intelligent zeal of some teachers in the Sabbath-schools. The ten who graduated in March were all hopefully pious, well educated, and quite refined, and most of them were expected to become teachers in their own villages. The description given by Mr. Stocking of a very aged priest, whom he saw among the hills north of Gawar, encourages the belief that the Holy Spirit sometimes makes the faintest rays of Gospel light effectual to salvation. The man was nearly deaf, and bending under the weight of a century or more, according to the statement of the people, but was able to converse intelligently about events which happened two or three generations before. "We were much surprised," writes Mr. Stocking, "at the correctness of his views in regard to some of the cardinal doctrines of the Scriptures, and particularly as to the necessity of an evangelical faith, in distinction from one that was dead, and of the work of the Holy Spirit in renewing and sanctifying believers. Though not remarkable for his learning, he appears to have been taught by the great Teacher himself; for he had never before seen a missionary. As I left him, to see him no more, he affectionately took my hand, and said he had one request to make, which was that we would remember him in our prayers at the mercy-seat. He also requested a New Testament in the ancient and modern Syriac, for his village, which we sent to him."