The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

“ As my voice and my strength will not allow me to address this large assembly, I have, since my arrival here, prepared my thoughts, and addressed them to the respected President of this Board, and will now request Mr. Dodge to read the paper to the Board.”

VERY HONORED AND DEAR SIR, — Including two years which I spent as an agent of the Board, it is now more than forty-five years since I entered the service, and came under the direction of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and about forty-three years since I received a commission from your Prudential Committee to labor as a missionary under their direction, among the mingled peoples of Asia Minor.

On account of my age and infirmities it should be known that I am no longer able to perform the active duties of a missionary, and having no voice or strength left to address this great congregation on the subject, I choose to come in this way by letter, and place in your hands, honored sir, the commission which I received about forty-three years ago. Not that I wish my connection with you to be really ever sundered, unless you yourselves should consider it desirable for the sake of the good cause; for when I entered this holy service it was for life, nor do I wish it to terminate but with my life.

Feeling of discouragement

I wish it to be understood that it is not through any feeling of discouragement that I now retire from the field, for the work never appeared to me more hopeful than it does now. Nor is it through any dissatisfaction with the Board, with the Prudential Committee, or with any of my brethren and sisters of the mission. More kind, more con-siderate, and more affectionate brethren and sisters, than those with whom it has been my happiness to be associated, earth never saw, nor can I easily be made to feel that even the millennium itself will ever produce any thing better.