The providential preparation for the opening of the mission of the American Board at Constantinople sixty years ago was sufficiently remarkable to warrant recalling the story. In the year 1825 a tract by the Rev. Jonas King on the necessity of studying the Scriptures was published in Syria. It was translated into Armenian by Bishop Dionysius at Beirût and sent in manuscript to an influential Armenian at Constantinople. Its convincing words produced an extraordinary effect upon all who read them. Minds largely ignorant of the Bible and its teachings were aroused at once, to see the lacks of the Armenian Church in the matter of Bible knowledge. A school, having for its principal object the education of the clergy, was established at the Armenian Patriarchate at Constantinople, under charge of the eminent teacher Peshtimiljian. A rule limiting ordinations for the priesthood in Constantinople to graduates at this school was adopted, indicating slightly the ignorance which had been prevalent up to that time among the ordinary priesthood. Peshtimiljian, the head master of the new school, was a learned man for his day and was also firm in his conviction that the Bible is the sole standard of Christian life and doctrine.
Thus it was that when five or six years later the missionaries of the Board went to reside at Constantinople, there to urge upon the people individual examination of the Bible, their access to Armenians was easy. They found a strong group in the Armenian Church who were already exercised with this question, although it was pathetically evident that they had no idea that any other branch of the Christian Church was equally interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is noteworthy that all the first converts under the labors of the missionaries at Constantinople and many of the later ones received their first impulse towards evangelical Christianity from the school of Peshtimiljian, and that, perhaps, before a missionary had reached Constantinople.
An impressive ceremony in the Armenian Patriarchal Church in Constantinople, held in September, 1833, was part of the fruits of this remarkable movement. It was the first ordination of Armenian priests under the new rule. Fifteen young men, who had completed their studies in the school, were then solemnly set apart for the priest's office, and the missionaries were specially invited to be present at the ceremony. One of the men ordained on that day, the Rev. Kevork Ardzrouni, had been brought into such relations to the missionaries, that after his ordination Dr. Goodell and Dr. Dwight could call upon him in his cell of retirement. As they were leaving, Der Kevork asked an interest in their prayers. It surely was not without significance in the after life of this priest that there, at the threshold of his church service, he received the benediction of that holy servant of God, Rev. William Goodell, who solemnly invoked upon him the descent of the Holy Spirit as they stood together in the cloisters of the Armenian Patriarchate.