A letter has also reached me to-day by the same conveyance, from the
Bible Society, dated 27th July last year, mentioning the sending of
three cases of Arabic and Persian Scriptures to my dear brother
Pfander. When I consider how God, in his infinite and unsearchable
providence, has seen it fit to bring to nought all our plans by the
disorganization of this at all times lawless land, I cannot but feel
it a strong call to form very few plans for the future, and just to
work by the day. Our hope was, when we came to Bagdad, to have been
able to travel pretty extensively both in the mountains of Kourdistan
and in Persia; but the state of the country, and other considerations,
brought all these plans to nothing, so my dear friend and kind
brother left me for Shushee, having been able to obtain much of the
information he desired, without the journey. And I, instead of having
a large present field of useful employment, and one prospectively
increasing, am now without employment or prospect, and if it were not
that I feel getting on a little in the colloquial language of the
country, I should be almost without hope of remaining with advantage
here; but while I feel this, my heart does not sink. The Lord will yet
let his light shine out of the darkness, and will one day enable me to
speak of his promises; for I daily feel more assured this is the great
gift after which an evangelist is to press--it is the very instrument
of his labour. And let such a missionary feel infinitely happier
to hear it said he speaks very low Arabic, but that every body
understands him; than very pure, but which is unintelligible, except
to the Mollahs. If he speaks not in a very mixed dialect of Turkish,
Persian, and Arabic, he will not be understood here; there is,
however, still an immense preponderance of Arabic over the others.
The British and Foreign School Society have also very kindly offered
to afford what assistance their limited means will allow to the
furtherance of Scripture instruction in the East. I shall endeavour
to repay this free kindness by obtaining the best information I can,
before I call on their aid, for nothing is so discouraging as failures
from precipitate attempts; but so variable is the state of affairs in
these countries, that previous to your judgment being matured by
experience, you may be led, with the best intentions possible, to
undertake, on a bright day, plans which, before they can be executed,
prove as baseless as a vision, and which will leave nothing behind
but the remembrance of useless expense and unproductive labour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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