| PREFACE
Tennessee gave us a President—Andrew Jackson— who said, "The Union must and shall be preserved." Many have sealed those words with blood. Tennessee has given to Persia a life and death which say,
" The knowledge of Christ must and shall he given to every creature." Many will die to make these words good.
Various persons in Asia and America, noting an example so worthy of grateful remembrance, have for two years past given much time to provide materials for this work. The reader may now follow this young Tennesseean to the inner fastnesses of almost pathless mountains. Adventures among robber chiefs in border wars will attract the young. The more thoughtful will ponder the fate of empires and vanity of life, as they follow the track of Xenophon, Alexander and Cyrus, or muse in the hollow tomb of Nineveh.
Christians, it is believed, will catch fresh inspiration from a soul so capable of responding to the call, “Come up higher”. They will never weary of looking into the struggles, pangs, joys, agonizing wrestlings and glorious victories of this fellow-soul. The name Rhea is already written upon the map of East Tennessee. It is written on hearts in Persia, and shall yet be written on the banners of many of God's embattled hosts.
These pages, as the reader will readily see, have caught intense interest from friends in Tennessee and Persia, and especially from Dr. Justin Perkins, of Oroomiah, and from the one who was nearest Mr. Rhea in life and in the thrilling scenes of his death. The omission of a profusion of valuable matter has been the most difficult and trying part of their preparation.
Only in this sentence can the author disclose how very much the work owes for delicate revision and unwearied care in its embellishment to Rev. J. W. Dulles, of Philadelphia.
That Jesus may own it in the progress of his cause is our prayer. How can we forget the blessed foreign work ! In this far land, our dear native land, we sometimes feel as the exiles felt at Babylon.
D. W. M.
Rochester, February 22, 1869. | 
