Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/350

296 to us, to put in order the things which have been destroyed, and to make straight what has been perverted, through the late misfortunes which have happened to us.

"And again we repeat our supplication that you turn not your face away from our request, which is but a little one, but made to a great people, and a blessed Church. For, behold, the messengers of the Pope are as spies among us, and are using every species of intrigue to get an opportunity of entering into our country, in order to deceive the hearts of the simple, and these come to us without our asking them. And do you wish to go far from us,—you towards whom we have a cordial will? as Isaiah saith: I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me; but you neglect those who seek after you. And have you not heard that a cup of cold water given to your Christian brethren in affliction shall never be forgotten of ! Finally we pray to the to pour His heavenly blessing upon your Church, and upon the blessed people who are under your spiritual government in the , that you may spread the knowledge of the Gospel of, and sow the divine Word, and bring forth fruit thereby, sixty, and a hundred fold, now and for evermore.

"Written at Mosul, the 9th of the month Nisan, in the year of our 1844, and of the Grecian era 2155, by the hand of Kash' Auraha of Asheetha."

The decision of the Committees at home called us to prepare to leave Mosul, but the pain of separating from the scene of our interesting labours was heightened by a domestic affliction, which I should hesitate to introduce here, but for the manifestations of public sympathy which attended it. My mother, who at an advanced age had accompanied my sister, Mrs. Rassam, to this far distant place, was now called to her rest. The news of the approaching departure of her only sou weighed upon her spirits, and for some time previous she seemed aware that her dissolution drew nigh. She breathed her last in my arms on the morning of the 28th of April. Her universal charity flowing from simple but fervent piety had won for her the esteem and