The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1875-11-03
FOR THE CENTRAL PREsBYTERIAS.
A MACEDONIAN CRY.

Beloved Brsthren,-Being in strait
a strait, however, which arises from the
very interest and encouragement of circum-
stances by which l am now surrounded,-my
heart turns to you of the estimable Presby-
terisn body to which belong.
You know how, in the remarkable proVi-
denee of God, l have been brought back
among the Greeks; in whom, as you know,
l have felt an interest which perhaps my
friends have regarded as enthusiastic; my
son Obeying after great struggle, the in
tensely earnest call of our brother Kalo-
pOthskes, (Sho is to me q son and TO him
like "a brother in the flesh, } which call
seemed to be from God; and | coming with
him, as an indispensable condition on his
part, of his own coming, in accordance with
the strong wish of brother KalOpOthakes
himself.
You know too from the Missionary, that
our mission has brsnched off to Macedonia,
through the establishment of station at Sa-
lOnica; to which Mr. Stavros Miehelides, a
Greek gentleman, who had Joined the little
Athens church, has been appointed. Mr..
Mict@lides is not novice in religious expe-
rience. On the contrary, his mind has been
going through deep, thorough process for
years; and he actually had TO surrender
important positions with family on his
hands, because of his evangelical sentiments
and bis efforts to do good in his schools
But be is new in the preaching and mission
ary work. For this and still more important
reasons, which you will now understand, DIR.
KalopOthakes and myself have come up to
make brother Mict@ and the little few
who begin to sympsthize with him and US,
visit of counsel and encouragement.
have written a letter of so, q length,
addressed to my old colleague, the Rev. DR..
S. R. Houston, which have arranged, for
reasons very practical just now, to let 60
into print in the Central Presbyterian and
probably all of you will have seen it by the
time it reaches you; and it will have an
swered my purpose, in giving you and other
brethren and friends sn idea of the present
interesting position of things here. But in
case of any mishap to that letter, | would
say,-making the effort to condense where
there is so much of interest to me, that,
though brother Mictelides has, as yet, but
little handful, under Obloquy and danger
to worldly interests, to attend his Sunday
and ''week day" services,-only from half
dozen up to twenty, yet it is beginning, a
decided beginning; and an impression has
already been made, certainly enough to at
tract the attention of enemies of the truth.
Day breaks with faint CLEANS upon the hOr-
izon; but still 1t IS the day daaOn j; and
whether it be faith inspired of God or not,
/ have myself not shadow of doubt, to
use language which had often been running
through my thoughts and been often too on
my lips, in my poor Efforts of prayer, and
which brother Mich talides, looking in my
face with earnest feeling, recently quoted to
me as expressing his hope for his native re-
giOD, shat God is about to visit Macedonia. y
Several interesting persons, two or three Of
them gentlemen of some standing, and some
young men, attend his services more or less,
and are friendly to him; and more than one
give evidence of being personally interested
in the question of salvation; others being il
the position of Nieodemus, as first introduced
to us in New Testament history. But
though unpOpularity and damage to pecu
mary interests, and sometimes domestic di
vision and trouble, may be powerful Obsta
cles, yet here we have one great advantage
that there is no danger from the arm of gov
ernmental pOwer,-which danger we have
not yet passed in Independent Greece, fol
the Turks do not care about questions among
the Christians, aud have no bad idea o
Protestants so far as they know them.
We had the communion the first Sunday
and received young man whose religion
history has been remarkably similar to tina
of ofbrother Mich@lides, he being also teacher
We have in the two, most interesting Z" first
fruits of Macedonia; and We are to SEN
him at once as an evangelist to VolOs, a yer.
important seaport in Thessaly. An "evau
gehcal" association to be styled "the Mace
donian Greek branch of the Evangelical Al
lance" was formed; and it will probably b
the germ Of an organized Protestant com