Calls for religious conversation were frequent, but there was painful evidence, that in most cases the object was more selfish than spiritual. There appeared to be a general dissatisfaction with Judaism, but no proper knowledge of Christianity. Poverty and distress were the principal occasions of these calls. A few appeared to be interested in more fundamental truths; and they attentively read McCaul's "Old Paths," a controversial work that exposes the absurdity of rabbinism. The chief difficulty with all was in respect to the divine nature of the Messiah. The Spanish Jews, numbering seventy or eighty thousand souls in Constantinople, afforded a field for the faithful sower, rather than the cheerful reaper. The tyrannical rule of their rabbis rendered them less accessible, perhaps, than any other people in Turkey, the Moslems alone excepted; and intellectually they were among the most degraded races in the East. Yet they stood higher in their morals than did the Turks. They had but few books; and until the issue of the edition under Mr. Schauffler's superintendence, they had no copy of the Old Testament in their vernacular tongue, that was accessible to the people at large. Two editions of the Old Testament, in Hebrew-Spanish and Hebrew and Chaldee, with Rabbi Solomon Jarchi's commentary in opposition to Christian doctrines, had been published in 1816, at Vienna, in six quarto volumes. Now the Christian church, while waiting for a wider entrance among the people, was called on to provide the books that would be indispensable when that entrance should be secured. Among those most needed now, were a Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish vocabulary of the Old Testament (then in preparation); a Spelling Book for schools; a short Hebrew Grammar; a brief Arithmetic; a Geography of the Bible, and a Natural History of the same; various religious tracts and essays on prophecies, especially those concerning the Messiah; and a translation of McCaul's "Old Paths" into Hebrew-Spanish. The Ashkenazim, or German Jews, were only about two thousand, and were chiefly young men driven from Moldavia by the Boyars, and from Russia by the law of conscription that threatened them with the hardships and perils of a soldier's life. This department was under the charge of Mr. Allan, a missionary of the Free Church of Scotland, in connection with Mr. Schwartz, a converted Jew. The Protestant Armenians showed a deep interest in efforts for the conversion of the Jews, and were forward to render their aid, Nor could Jews or Mohammedans be wholly uninfluenced by the change then going on in the Armenian churches of the metropolis in respect to the use of pictures; the greater part of which had been removed, and the patriarchal church, in place of them had set the example of having passages of Scripture painted in large letters on the walls.