20
HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT.
work of evangelical preparation which the elder doctors of the church discern in heathenism itself and which is not yet completed.
It was with little surprise that the Chairman learned how decided was the opposition of the Sultan of Turkey to the proposed Conference, an opposition very embarrassing to the leaders of the Greek and Armenian Churches in the Turkish Empire; but the position finally taken by His Grace, the Archbishop of
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
Canterbury, excited the wonder of some of the friends of that liberal-minded prelate in Great Britain. The Archbishop's letter, which exercised a large influence over the action of the Anglican Church, was as follows:
I am afraid that I cannot write the letter which, in yours of March 20, you wish me to write, expressing a sense of the importance of the proposed Conference, without its appearing to be an approval of the scheme. The difficulties which I myself feel are not questions of distance and convenience, but rest on the fact that the Christian religion is the one religion.
