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48 ARMENIA AND ITS SORROWS<br />
empire sliall be hindered in the exercise of the<br />
religion which he professes, nor shall he be in anyway<br />
annoyed on this account." How much this<br />
promise was worth, subsequent events have abundantly<br />
shown.<br />
The new movement rapidly (^rew, <strong>and</strong> in 1807 there<br />
were 56 churches, with 2000 communicants <strong>and</strong> 20,000<br />
adherents. The most recent statistics we have been<br />
able to obtain stated tliat there were 110 churches<br />
<strong>and</strong> 11,095 members, 74 native ordained ministers<br />
<strong>and</strong> 129 pi-eachers, <strong>and</strong> 85 other helpers, 203 places<br />
for stated preacliing, 31,018 average attendants at<br />
the services, 21,055 Sunday-school children, <strong>and</strong> a Protestant<br />
community of 45,008 persons.<br />
Since these figures were issued, many of the<br />
churches have been swept out of existence by the<br />
most relentless <strong>and</strong> barbarous persecution that the<br />
nineteenth century has witnessed.
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