GREEK CHURCH. 



415 



This society, through the Rev. Mr. Young, 

 expressed a desire to the Church Book Society 

 of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Xew 

 York for material to help in their work, and 

 in compliance with this request the Book So- 

 ciety, on June 13th, 186-4, passed a resolution 

 authorizing Mr. Young to forward to the Rus- 

 sian association at his discretion copies of any 

 of the publications of the Society, or of any 

 books on its approved list, and to convey to 

 the Association assurances of fraternal and 

 cordial sympathies, bidding them most heartily 

 " God speed " in their labors of love. 



In England an association has been formed, 

 called " the Eastern Church Association," which 

 numbers among its patrons the Archbishop of 

 Belgrade, of Serbia. It was announced that in 

 the early part of the year 1865, several Eastern 

 ecclesiastics would come to England, commis- 

 sioned by the Synod of Moscow to make def- 

 inite inquiries regarding the present position of 

 the Church of England, with a view to restored 

 intercommunion. 



We have given in the Annual Cyclopaedia 

 of 1863 an account of the missions of the Rus- 

 sian Church in Asia. Outside of Russia the 

 Church had hitherto sustained only one mission 

 in Pekin, China, which was established in the 

 reign of Peter the Great, more than one hun- 

 dred and fifty years ago. Its object was strict- 

 ly limited to the welfare of a colony of Russian 

 subjects who had been captured on the Amoor 

 and planted near Pekin. A treaty between 

 China and Russia authorized the Russian Gov- 

 ernment to keep six Russian missionaries at 

 Pekin, changing them once in ten years, with 

 the right of having a few students to learn 

 the Chinese and Manchoo language, with a 

 knowledge of Chinese affairs. Hitherto the 

 character and the fruits of this mission have 

 not been well spoken of by the Protestant 

 missionaries in China. But in the "Missionary 

 Herald " for February, 1865, is a letter from Mr. 

 Blodgett, missionary of the American Board at 

 Pekiii, who writes." Sept. 8. 1864, that >' the 

 Russian missionaries in Pekin now labor de- 

 voutly for the Chinese," in the country as well 

 as in the city. And he adds in behalf of the 

 Russians this testimony : " It is an interesting 

 fact, and one which marks a difference between 

 them and the Roman Catholics, that they trans- 

 late and use the Sacred Scriptures. Their ver- 

 sion of the Xew Testament into Chinese is now 

 in print in this city. They have obtained also, 

 from the English missionaries, the version of 

 the Bible by Messrs. Swan and Stallybrass, and 

 published by the British and Foreign Bible So- 

 ciety, for the use of their ministers to the Mon- 

 golians, and the version of the Xew Testament 

 published by the same society for the use of 

 their missions in Russian Manchuria. It is. 

 hopeful to see this regard for the "Word of God, 

 Their terms and usages coincide mosLy with 

 those of the Roman Catholics. 1 ' 



Other interesting statements on the mission- 

 ary work going on in the Russian Church are 



derived from the report of the Rev. J. Long, an 

 English clergyman, who recently spent several 

 months in travelling in Russia for the special 

 purpose of studying the religions and social 

 condition of the country. Mr. Long was in- 

 formed by the bishop of Viborg, who is at the 

 head of the academy of St. Petersburg for train- 

 ing priests, that the Russian Church has about 

 a hundred missionaries and missionary agents 

 at work in Siberia and the adjacent districts. 

 A Russian noble, who is one of the emperor's 

 chamberlains, and favorable to missions, gave 

 him much information on what the Russian 

 Church is doing for the missionary cause ; they 

 have missionaries located in the Altai Moun- 

 tains, at Kamtschatka and the Caucasus, near 

 Lake Baikal, and have also a number who labor 

 among the Buriats, who are Buddhists. The 

 Russians intend shortly to found a missionary 

 seminary, to be located* either at Kazan or Ir- 

 kutsk, as St. Petersburg is unsuited for it, and 

 they wish to have it in a place where the Ori- 

 ental languages can be taught to the students. 

 Another nobleman, member of the Council of 

 State, much interested in missions, wished to 

 introduce Mr. Long to the emperor's physician, 

 who is a devout man, and for this purpose took 

 him to the palace of Tsarko Celo, twenty miles 

 from St. Petersburg, when the physician prom- 

 ised to speak to the emperor in favor of the 

 proposal to form a general Russian Missionary 

 Society to remove obstacles and secure the sup- 

 port of the Imperial family. He afterwards 

 spent several days at the monastery of Troitza, 

 near Moscow, in companv with a Greek monk, 

 who is going out as a missionary to the Cauca- 

 sus, where the Russian Church is prosecuting 

 its missions vigorously in Siberia and Eastern 

 Asia. The principal of the Russian Academy 

 at Moscow gave him an interesting work on the 

 ' History of the Missions of the Russian Church." 

 Mr. Long speaks of Mr. Yususoff as warmly in 

 favor of missions ; also of Bishop Leontidts, as 

 one who speaks English, and is the only bishop 

 of the Russian Church who has not been brought 

 up a monk, having formerly served as an officer 

 in the Russian navy. He is a man of enlight- 

 ened views, anxious for 'a reform, as is also 

 Philaret, the Archbishop of Moscow. 



The same Mr. Long also makes some interest- 

 ing statements on the circulation of the Bible hi 

 Russia. The Holy Synod of the Greek Russian 

 Church has itself put hi circulation a new and iih- 

 proved version of the Gospel in Russ. Mr. Long 

 was told by Kasim Beg, a professor of Persian at 

 the University of St. Petersburg, that he had 

 translated the New Testament into the Tartar 

 language, at the express request and with the 

 aid of the Archbishop of Kazan, whom he de- 

 scribed as a man ready for every good word 

 and work. Russian friends at St. Petersburg 

 resolved last year to send a colporteur to the 

 fair of Xijni Xovogorod for the sale of Bibles- 

 but before he got half way there was such a de- 

 mand that he sold all his stock, and had to 

 write back to St. Petersburg to get a fresh sup- 



