Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/45

Rh according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." I had some conversation with several of their principal converts, who called upon me of their own accord in Beyroot and Aleppo as late as 1850, and the truth of the above remarks forced itself upon me. Talk of the infallibility of the Pope! these youngmen seemed to lay claim to inspiration, and decided what was truth and what was error with the assurance of Apostles. Another thing which struck me also in their conduct, was the importance which they attached to Protestantism, by which I mean the bare rejection of certain doctrines held to be true by the communities from which they had seceded. Theirs was evidently a religion of negation; for, these errors discarded, it did not appear with them a matter of much importance what truths were embraced and what were rejected. As to all outward forms and sacred rites, these they looked upon with contempt, and it made one's heart sick to hear these children of yesterday treat with scorn and derision things which their forefathers and the holy Church throughout the world had revered from the beginning of Christianity.

Sad, sad indeed, is it to think what the necessary consequences of such teaching must be! The leaven has already begun to work, and unless stayed in its progress, will sooner or later taint the Eastern Churches with a latitudinarianism and rationalism, far more pernicious than the errors and superstitions with which they have so long defaced the pure truths of the Gospel. It is time indeed, that the Church of England should awake to a sense of her responsibilities towards the East, from which she first received a knowledge of Christ, and to emulate the zeal of the Independents, whose large band of missionaries, extensive scholastic establishments, and sumptuous residences, betoken an earnestness and liberality worthy of our imitation.

During our stay at the capital I was honoured with several interviews with Sir Stratford Canning, whose courtesy and friendliness I shall ever remember with gratitude. He was then as since, doing all in his power to obtain an amelioration of the condition of the Christians in Turkey, and his benevolent efforts have not been in vain. Unswerving in his