The native pastor was held responsible for the persons whose names were presented to the missionary, as suitable to be admitted to the Lord's table.

Mr.Coan speaks of those little churches, as being such in fact, "scattered in the different villages, as so many moral light-houses in the surrounding darkness." Mar Shimon, the Nestorian Patriarch, died near the close of 1860, at the age of fifty-nine, and after having been thirty-five years in office.

His successor was a nephew, eighteen years old, and a youth of amiable disposition.

The patriarch had stood variously affected towards the mission, but was, for the most part, unfriendly.

The effect of the Gospel in diminishing the superstitious reverence of the people for him, was one of the causes of his hostility.
About this time, a spirit of unlooked-for liberality was manifested among the Nestorians.