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DEATH OF MRS EVERETT.

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cordially beloved by all who knew her-taken from us in the midst of youth and active usefulness, and leaving a bereaved husband and tender, sorrowing family to mourn her loss. Such are the inscrutable ways of Providence to man. Yet we bow submissively to His afflictive hand, and feel to say, 'He doeth all things well;' 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'-Most sincerely yours, in the bonds of the Bible,

"C. N. RIGHTER.”

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CHAPTER X.

BIBLE LABOURS IN TURKEY.

MR RIGHTER reached Constantinople, on his return from the Crimea, on the last day of the year 1854. Besides attending to the distribution of the Scriptures in the hospitals and among the various classes in the city and vicinity, he commenced an effort to obtain a depository for Bibles and other religious books, which was soon successful. In a letter to the American Bible Society, dated April 19, 1855, he speaks of the opening and of the encouragements to the circulation of the Scriptures as follows:

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"The principal feature of interest in connexion with the Bible cause at Constantinople, during the present month, is the opening of our new depository to the public, for the sale of Bibles in various languages, in Pera, the Frank quarter of the city. We have obtained a large magazine in the main street, and erected a sign over the door with Bible and Religious Book Depository' in large capitals upon it, and suspended another in front with five different languages, English, French, German, Turkish, and Greek, upon the two sides; and placed the open Bible in various tongues in the windows, announcing to the multitude of every nation, who throng this crowded street, that here each in his own language can buy the Bible.' And it is most interesting to notice them stopping

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to read a moment in passing, and then coming in to buy the Word of God. A few days since four Bulgarians came and purchased the Psalms in Russian; then came a Jew and bought a Spanish Bible, and another the Old Testament in Hebrew; then an Italian called for the Bible, and a Greek, and Armenian, and German, and several French officers, also wished for Bibles; and all freely gave their money in exchange for the Book of Life. We have likewise included other religious books, and connected a small reading-room with the establishment, in order to bring more in contact with the Scriptures, and thereby increase their sale; and this has operated thus far most successfully.

"The whole is under the direction of a committee, of which Count de Zuylon Van Neyvelt, the ambassador of Holland, is president,--a man of most earnest and excellent Christian spirit.

"We have received a letter from the British and Foreign Bible Society, expressing their willingness to pay a reasonable proportion of the expenses of the depository for the sale of their books, and the committee have voted that they be requested to grant the sum of £50 as their proportion of the expense of the institution for the present year. I have already written to the American Bible Society upon the subject. Thus a new and most important agency is established for the spread of the Bible in this great metropolis, and incidentally to the various cities and towns of the Ottoman empire."

In the same letter he makes mention of the remarkable spirit of inquiry after the Word which had sprung up among the Turks :

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TURKS INQUIRING.

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"In my last two letters I have spoken of the remarkable interest the Turks are beginning to manifest in the Bible. This is increasing. Three Turks recently came to the depository at Stamboul, and bought each a Bible, saying that they regarded it as a treasure above price;' and two others, upon receiving the Bible, kissed it devoutly, and pressed it to their bosom, to express their love for it as the only true revelation from God, and opening to them the only true way of salvation. And another, as he bought the Bible, remarked that it was a very excellent book, but it came from the Turks.' They still persist in believing that nothing good can come from the Christians. Said he, Many hundred years ago, when we conquered the city, we found this book here in one of the magazines, and we did not value it very much. A short time afterwards an English traveller came along, and we sold it to him for a trifle. He took it home, and translated it into English. And this is the same Bible in Turkish, which you Christians have brought to us. It is our book, and we prize it highly.'

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Also, another Turk has, of his own accord, proposed to open a shop for the sale of Turkish Bibles and Testaments, in the midst of the other bazaars of the city, which would attract the attention of all. This is surely very wonderful, when we remember that, according to the Mohammedan law, for a Mussulman to receive the Bible and become a Christian, is still punishable with death; which penalty has been executed within the last year at Adrianople, only three days' distant from the capital.

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A few days since I called upon Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, English ambassador at the Sublime Porte, who has always been the firm friend of the Bible cause and

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Protestantism in the East, and expressed to him the acknowledgments of our society for the aid his protection and influence have always afforded us in publishing and distributing the Bible in the Ottoman empire. He received me very kindly, and replied-Our cause and interest are the same. We are always glad to protect Americans and American missionaries where our consular authority extends, and yours does not. The American missionaries are most excellent men.' Said he-To what church do you belong?' I said that I was a Presbyterian, but that our society embraced all evangelical denominations. I wish,' said he, that we could all adopt the apostles' creed, and have no further divisions into churches and sects.' I replied―That was precisely the creed and spirit of the American Bible Society.""

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Under a later date he writes :

"The Turks still continue to manifest a remarkable interest in the Bible and New Testament, and are calling for these at our magazines. As I was sitting in the depository a few days since, my attention was attracted to an old Turk with a long beard, who was reading very intently in the open Bible through the window. He afterwards came in, and asked to have one shewed to him, saying— 'Eyi, chok eyi' (Good, very good).

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Also, a Softa, one of the readers of the Koran at the mosques, came and begged that a Bible might be given him, which was accordingly done, with the prayer that his eyes might thereby be opened, and he be led to renounce the corrupt system of the false prophet, and embrace the truth as it is in Jesus."

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