Your most kind and welcome letter arrived this day, together with several others from my beloved friends in England, all by Bombay. It does, indeed, truly refresh my heart, to hear of the Lord's love to you all. Do you not praise God for these dear brothers and sisters he has given us? How rich we are in our sweet little church; a more loving, holy, and blessed little family cannot surely be found upon earth. Unworthy as I am to be one of you, yet I bless God that I am one. My heart is running over with thankfulness at the Lord's goodness to you all, and to me through you, and be not discouraged because I am blasted, and my bough no longer green, as it once was, the Lord has yet dealt most bountifully with me. In all but my dear Mary's place my path is opening again. I have hired one schoolmaster, and expect another. My English boys are most zealous and attached: my prospects of Bible circulation in Persia much opening. To the Jews here I have sold all my Hebrew Bibles, at about 3s. 6d. each: this is more to them than 12s. would be in England, and though it seems little, it answers an end of getting God's word amongst them. I had an Armenian bishop with me the other day, asking for Persian Testaments to send to Ispahan; and a Roman Catholic merchant has promised to take a parcel for me to Teheran, and to distribute them there. Besides these there are others whom I hope to find subservient to this end. For some days I had been making preparations to cross the desert, in order to consult with my dear brethren there about our future measures; but when I came to put together all the items of expense, I found I had not money enough, so I gave up the plan of going with my dear boys, and proposed waiting till Major Taylor came, and leaving them in the Residency, under his and dear Mrs. Taylor's kind care, to go alone. Your letter, however, has relieved all my pecuniary difficulties, and we shall now go altogether or remain together. The love of you all in thinking of and caring for me quite overwhelms me, as I see it to be the Lord's love in and through you all. He not only feeds us in this wilderness, but also provides for the school, so as to overwhelm me with a sense of his care over the most unworthy of his servants. My wonder is, how it is possible for me to love him so little. Since I left England, this is the first purpose I really thought desirable, that the want of sufficient money has put a stop to; and this you see but for a moment; not but that I can get money at any time, but I am determined not to borrow money till my affairs come to the utmost straits, and then only for the simplest necessaries.