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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of The Missions Of The American
+Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II., by Rufus Anderson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II.
+
+Author: Rufus Anderson
+
+Release Date: November 27, 2006 [EBook #19939]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISSIONS OF THE AMERICAN BOARD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bechard (JaBBechard@aol.com)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY
+OF
+THE MISSIONS
+OF THE
+AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS
+TO THE
+ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+BY RUFUS ANDERSON, D.D., LL.D.,
+LATE FOREIGN SECRETARY OF THE BOARD.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOL. II.
+
+BOSTON:
+CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY.
+1872.
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
+THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS,
+in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
+
+RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
+STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY
+H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. THE ARMENIANS.--1846-1855.
+
+Agency of Sir Stratford Canning.--Of Lord Cowley.--Lord Palmerston's
+Instructions.--Action of the Porte.--The Chevalier Bunsen.--A
+Vizerial Letter.--Further Concessions.--The Firman.--Good Counsel
+from Sir Stratford to the Protestants.--Dilatoriness of the Turkish
+Government.--Still another Concession by the Sultan.--Agency of the
+American Minister.--Greatness of the Changes.--The Divine Agency
+recognized.--The Danger.--Why Persecution was continued.--New
+Missionaries.--Pera again ravaged by Fire.--The Aintab
+Station.--Native Zeal for the Spread of the Gospel.--Activity of the
+Mission.--The Patriarch deposed.--Native Pastors.--Death of Mrs.
+Hamlin.--Death and Character of Dr. Azariah Smith.--Mr. Dunmore
+joins the Mission.--Removal into Old Constantinople.--The
+First Ecclesiastical Council.--The Gospel introduced into
+Marsovan.--Visited by Mr. E. E. Bliss.--A Persecution that was
+needed.--Unexpected Relief.--Changes in the Mission.--Missions by
+Native Pastors.--Death of Mrs. Everett.--Death of Mr. Benjamin.
+
+CHAPTER XXV. THE ARMENIANS.--1855-1860.
+
+The Crimean War subservient to the Gospel.--Its Origin.
+--Providential Interposition.--Probable Consequences of Russian
+Success.--Effect of the Fall of Sebastopol.--The Mission in
+1855.--Schools.--Church Organization.--Church Building.--The
+Printing.--Editions of the Scriptures.--The Book Depository.--Aid
+from Abroad.--Greek Students in Theology.--Licentiates.--Accession
+of Missionaries.--Death of Mr. Everett.--Miscellaneous
+Notices.--Renewed Agitation about the Death Penalty.--The Hatti
+Humaïoun.--How regarded by the English Ambassador.--Includes the
+Death Penalty.--Is recognized in the Treaty of Paris.--How estimated
+by the Missionaries.--Indications of Progress.--Aintab.--Death of
+Mrs. Schneider.--Girls' School at Constantinople.--Seminary at
+Bebek.--Division of the Mission.--Turkish Missions Aid
+Society.--Visit of Dr. Dwight to England.--A Remarkable
+Convert.--Death of the second Mrs. Hamlin.--Arabkir.--Sivas and
+Tocat.--Harpoot.--Geghi.--Revivals of Religion.--Girls' School at
+Nicomedia.--Fire at Tocat.--Mr. Dunmore's Explorations.--Church at
+Cesarea.--A former Persecutor made Catholicos.--Death of Mrs.
+Beebee.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. THE ARMENIANS.--1860-1861.
+
+A Result of the Crimean War.--Religious Opinion in Constantinople.
+--Change at Rodosto.--Outbreak at the Metropolis.--A Remarkable
+Native Helper.--Great Change in Marsovan.--Changes elsewhere.
+--Telegraphic Communication.--The Mission further divided.--First
+Native Pastor at Harpoot.--Rise of the Station.--Dr. Dwight's Second
+Tour in the East.--Changes since the First Tour.--Triumph of the
+Gospel at Marash.--Tribute to the Wives of Missionaries.--Change at
+Diarbekir.--Decline of Turkish Population.--Death and Character of
+Mr. Dunmore.--The Missionary Force.--Training School at
+Mardin.--Other Portions of the Field.--Scripture Translations.
+--Publications.
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. THE ASSYRIA MISSION.--1849-1860.
+
+Origin of the Mission.--Mosul reoccupied.--Why it had been
+relinquished.--Proposed American Episcopal Mission.--The Mission of
+the Board reinforced.--Dr. Bacon's Experience in the Koordish
+Mountains.--Punishment of the Robbers.--How the Gospel came to
+Diarbekir.--Church organized.--Arrival of Mr. Dunmore.--Tomas.
+--Persecutions.--Mr. Marsh's Visit to Mardin.--Dr. Lobdell's
+Experience at Aintab and Oorfa.--Outrage at Diarbekir.--Descent of
+the Tigris.--Diarbekir a Year later.--Congregational Singing at
+Mosul.--Dr. Lobdell as a Medical Missionary.--The Yazidees.--Dr.
+Lobdell's Visit to Oroomiah.--His Views of the Ecclesiastical Policy
+of the Mission.--Return to Mosul.--The Church at Diarbekir
+reorganized.--Strength out of Weakness.--Native Preacher at
+Hainè.--The Gospel at Cutterbul.--Relief at Mosul.--A Special Danger
+growing out of the Crimean War.--Excessive Heat.--Death of Mrs.
+Williams.--Dr. Lobdell visits Bagdad.--His Sickness, Death, and
+Character.--Religious Services at Diarbekir.--The Gospels in
+Koordish.--New Station at Mardin.--Remarkable Case of Conversion.
+--New Station at Bitlis.--Death of Mrs. Marsh.--Return of Mrs.
+Lobdell with Mr. Marsh.--Difficulties in the way of occupying
+Mosul.--Great Prosperity at Diarbekir.--Close of the Assyria
+Mission.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. THE NESTORIANS.--1851-1857.
+
+Mr. Stoddard's Reception on his Return.--Death of Judith Perkins.
+--Progress in the Mountains.--Progress on the Plain.--The
+Seminaries.--A suggestive Case of Native Piety.--Scenes on a
+Tour.--Nazee, a Christian Girl, at her Mountain Home.--Elevations of
+Places.--A Russian Friend.--Mr. Stocking's Return Home.--A Robbery.
+--Another Revival.--Seminary Graduates.--Extraordinary Enthusiasm.
+--Books.--Death of Mr. Crane.--Audacity of Papal Missionaries.
+--English and Russian Protection.--Mr. Cochran at Kosrova.--Matter
+of Church Organization.--Death of Deacon Guwergis.--Hostility of the
+Persian Government.--A new Revival.--Gawar vacated for a time.
+--Discomfiture of the Enemy.--The Lord a Protector.--The Monthly
+Concert.--Mountain Tours.--Search for a Western Station.--An
+Interesting Event.--Violence of Government Agents.--How these Agents
+were removed out of the Way.
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. THE NESTORIANS.--1857-1863.
+
+Death of Mr. Stoddard.--His Character.--Death of his Daughter.
+--Retrospective View.--Death of Mrs. Rhea.--Decisive Indication of
+Progress.--A Winter in Western Koordistan.--Mosul and its Vicinity.
+--The Mountain Field.--An Appeal.--Failing Health.--New
+Missionaries.--Death of Mr. Thompson.--Failure of the Plan for a
+Western Station.--Failure of Mr. Cobb's Health.--The Nestorian
+Helpers.--Tenth Revival in the Seminary.--Literary Treasures of the
+Nestorians.--Marriage of Mar Yohanan.--Advance towards Church
+Organization.--Death of the Patriarch.--Extraordinary Outburst of
+Liberality.--Dr. Dwight's Visit to Oroomiah.--His Opinion of the
+Church Policy of the Mission.--Improvements.--Appearance of the
+Native Preachers.--Death of Mr. Breath.--Apprehended Aggressions
+from Russian Ecclesiastics.--More Revivals.--Death of Mar
+Elias.--His Character.--Armenians on the Plain of Oroomiah.--Manual
+for the Reformed Church.--Retrospect of the Mission.--Miss Rice in
+sole Charge of the Female Seminary.--Care of the English Government
+for the Nestorians.
+
+CHAPTER XXX. THIRTY YEARS AMONG THE JEWS.--1826-1856.
+
+The First Missionaries.--Arrival of Mr. Schauffler at
+Constantinople.--Jews in that City.--Baptism of a German
+Jew.--Religious Excitements.--Visit to Odessa.--The Psalms in
+Hebrew-Spanish.--Printing of the Old Testament at Vienna.--Whole
+Bible in Hebrew-Spanish.--Unsuccessful Opposition.--Generous Aid
+from Scotland.--Demand for the Scriptures.--The Grand Difficulty.
+--Present Duty of Christian Churches.--The German Jews.--Interest of
+Protestant Armenians in the Mission.--The Italian Jews.--Service for
+the Germans.--Why so much Preparatory Work.--New Editions of the
+Scriptures.--Important Testimony.--Change of Relations to
+Constantinople Jews.--Attention turned to the Jews in Salonica.--The
+Jewish Population there.--Missionaries to Salonica.--The Zoharites.
+--Relations of the Jews to Christ's Kingdom.--The Practical
+Inference.--Death of Mr. Maynard.--New Missionary.--The People
+without Education.--Their Capacity for Self-righteousness.--Literary
+Labors of Mr. Schauffler.--A New Missionary.--Insalubrity of the
+Climate.--Dangerous Sickness.--Death of Mrs. Morgan.--Removal to
+Constantinople.--Salonica partially reoccupied.--Labors among the
+Smyrna Jews.--Labors of Mr. Schauffler.--Why the Mission was
+relinquished.--Mr. Schauffler turns to the Moslems.
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.--1857-1862.
+
+The Geographical Position.--Moslem Population.--The Bulgarians.
+--Their Origin and Early History.--Their Conversion to
+Christianity.--Their Ecclesiastical Relations.--Their Aversion
+to the Greek Hierarchy.--Danger from the Papacy.--Seasonable
+Intervention of Protestantism.--Their Struggle with the Greek
+Patriarch.--First Exploration of Roumelia, and Dr. Hamlin's
+Report.--The Result.--Division of the Bulgarian Field between
+Methodist Missionaries and those of the American Board.--Friendly
+Coöperation.--Report of a Tour by Mr. Bliss.--Commencement of the
+Bulgarian Mission.--Papal Opposition.--The Mission enlarged.--The
+Accessible Population.--Desire for Education.--Readiness to receive
+the New Testament.--Church formed at Adrianople.--Labors of Mr.
+Meriam.
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.--1862-1871.
+
+Brigandage in Bulgaria.--Mr. Meriam murdered by Brigands.
+--Distressing Circumstances and Death of Mrs. Meriam.--Successful
+Efforts to Punish the Assassins.--Check to the Brigandage.--Further
+Enlargement of the Mission.--School for Girls.--New Station at
+Samokov.--Results of a General Missionary Conference.--The Great
+Obstacle.--Signs of Progress.--Unexpected Hindrance.--Popularity of
+the Schools.--The People not accessible to Preaching.--Awakened
+Interest.--Girl's School at Eski Zagra.--Cases of Domestic
+Persecution.--A Serious Loss.--Effect of False Reports.--A
+Successful Intervention.--Public Celebration of the Lord's
+Supper.--Its Significance.--New Missionaries.--Death of Mr.
+Ball.--Death of Miss Reynolds.--The Connection with the Armenian
+Mission dissolved.--The Mission as thus constituted.--The Bulgarians
+Ecclesiastically Free.--First Effect of this Freedom.--Promising
+Events.--Death of Miss Norcross.--Removal of the School from Eski
+Zagra to Samokov.--A Church organized at Bansko.--Translation of the
+Bible into the Spoken Language.--The Mission in its Preliminary
+Stage, but ready for an Onward Movement.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII. THE ARMENIANS.--1861-1863.
+
+Dr. Dwight's Visit to the United States.--His Sudden Death.--His
+Life and Character.--His Views of Missionary Policy.--The Actual
+Call for Missionaries, and the Discretion awarded to them.--Bebek
+Seminary to be removed into the Interior.--Its History.--Removal of
+Boarding School for Girls.--Its Usefulness.--Exploration of the
+Taurus Mountains.--A Beautiful Scene.--A Barbarous Expulsion from
+Hadjin.--Murder of Mr. Coffing.--Successful Efforts to apprehend the
+Murderers.--One of them executed.--The Result.--Mrs. Coffing remains
+in the Mission.--Dr. Goodell's Estimate of Progress in the Central
+Mission.--Progress at Aintab.--At Oorfa.--At Harpoot.--Theological
+School.--A Native Preacher.--Mosul.--Ordination of a Native Pastor
+at Diarbekir.--Contrasted with an Oriental Ordination.--Disturbing
+Efforts of Garabed.--Progress at Bitlis.--The Church at Erzroom.
+--Progress at Arabkir.--Sojourn of Dr. Wood at Constantinople.
+--Accessions to the Mission.--Ordination of Native Pastors.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV. THE ARMENIANS.--1864-1865.
+
+A Reaction.--The Apparent Cause.--Consequent Movements.--Results.
+--Position of the Entire Field.--Obstacles to be surmounted.
+--Painful Experience at Marsovan.--Accessions to the Mission.
+--Working Force at the Metropolis.--Robert College and Bebek.--An
+unsuccessful Disorganizing Movement.--Great Fire at Broosa.--New
+Missionary Station.--Influence of the American War at Adana.
+--Diminished Force in Central Turkey.--Evangelical Progress at
+Aintab.--Two Churches formed.--Girls' Boarding School.--High
+School.--Graduating Class at Harpoot.--Singular Method of
+Opposition.--Progress of Self-support and the Evangelical Spirit in
+the Churches.--Death of Mrs. Williams.--General View of the Eastern
+Mission.--Methods of Opposition.--Liberal Support of the Gospel.
+--Prosperity at Diarbekir.--Death of Mr. Dodd.--Death of Mr.
+Morgan.--Death of Hohannes.--Interesting Ordinations.--Reception
+of Mr. and Mrs. Walker.--A Native Church in the Absence of both
+Missionary and Pastor.--Death of a Native Helper.
+
+CHAPTER XXXV. THE ARMENIANS--1865-1867.
+
+Harpoot Evangelical Union.--Other Similar Associations.--Their
+Utility.--A Poor Church enriched.--John Concordance, the Blind
+Preacher.--His Sermon on Tithes, and his Wide Influence.--Meeting of
+the Harpoot Union.--Death of Mrs. Adams.--New Missionaries.
+--Multiplication of Newspapers.--The Avedaper, or "Messenger."--The
+Reformed Church and Prayer-Book.--Consequent Excitement.
+--Bible-women.--Eleven Years at Harpoot.--Week of Prayer at Harpoot,
+and Bitlis.--Revival at Bitlis.--Broosa after Seventeen Years.
+--First Evangelical Greek Church.--Death of Mr. Walker.--His
+Character.--Return Home of Mrs. Walker.--Contrast at Choonkoosh.
+--A Foreign Mission resolved upon.--New Revival at Harpoot.--The
+Past and Present.--Injurious Effect of Prosperity in a Church.--The
+Recovery.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI. THE NESTORIANS.--1864-1868.
+
+Death and Character of Deacon Isaac.--Death and Character of Miss
+Fiske.--Death of Deacon Joseph.--Mountain Tours.--The Mountain
+Work.--Visit to the Young Patriarch.--The Seminary for Girls.--Great
+Usefulness of Dr. Wright.--His Death.--Death of Mr. Ambrose.
+--Nestorian Vagrancy.--Death and Character of Mr. Rhea.--Hostility
+of Mar Shimon.--Friendly Agency of the English Ambassador.--Royal
+Donation.--Success of the Girls' School.--Male Seminary.--A Private
+School.--Death of Priest Eshoo.--New Medical Missionary.--Estimates
+of Population.--Interesting Armenian Colony.--The Patriarch thwarted
+in his Hostility.--Favoring Indications.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII. THE NESTORIANS.--1867-1870.
+
+Convention of Nestorian Churches.--Ordination of a Nestorian
+Missionary.--A Satisfactory Tour.--Movement towards Self-supporting
+Churches.--Progress of the Reformation.--Retirement of
+Missionaries.--What Dr. Perkins had seen accomplished.--Rekindling
+of the Ancient Missionary Spirit.--Foreign Missions become a
+Necessity.--The Reviving Missionary Spirit illustrated.--Death of
+Priest Abraham.--Failure of the Original Plan of Church
+Organization.--Mar Yohanan.--Erratic Proceedings of Priest
+John.--The best People stand firm.--The Past not to be condemned.
+--Separate Churches become a Necessity.--Signs of Revival.--The
+Foreign Missionary Field for the Nestorians.--The Missionaries.
+--Assignments of Fields.--Transfer of the Mission to the
+Presbyterian Board.--Death and Character of Dr. Perkins.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII. SYRIA.--1857-1860.
+
+Death of Dr. Eli Smith.--The Work performed by him.--Dr. Van Dyck
+succeeds him as Translator.--The Missionaries.--Death of Dr. De
+Forest.--The Schools.--Progress in Fifteen Years.--Ain Zehalty.
+--Church at Hasbeiya.--Attitude of the Maronite Clergy.--B'hamdûn.
+--Kefr Shema.--A High-minded Christian.--Religious Toleration.
+--Prospect of a Native Ministry.--A New Call for the Gospel.--Church
+at Alma.--Successful Ministry at Cana.--First completed Protestant
+Church Building in Syria.--The Missionary's Wife at Cana.
+--Persecution.--The Women at Alma.--Training of Helpers.--Ain
+Zehalty again.--Struggles in the Department of Education.
+--Accessions to the Churches.--New Protestant Community at Deir
+Mimas.--A Cheering Annual Meeting.--Friendly Aid from United States
+Ambassador.--Arabic New Testament published.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX. SYRIA.--1860-1863.
+
+Another Civil War in Syria.--The Missionaries Safe.--Massacre near
+Sidon.--Mr. Bird at Deir el-Komr.--Destruction of Zahleh.--Massacre
+at Hasbeiya.--Massacre at Damascus.--Relief for Suffering
+Thousands.--Remarkable Escape of Missionaries and Native
+Protestants.--Foreign Interposition.--Effects of the War.--Arabic
+New Testament published.--Cooperation of American and English Bible
+Societies.--Importance of the Version.--Sales of the Scriptures.--A
+Voweled Arabic New Testament.--The Field Brightening.--A Good
+Governor.--Further Evidences of Progress.--Persecution.--A
+Significant Event.--Evidence of Divine Agency.--Changes in the
+Mission.--Growth of Beirût.--Demand for Education.--Proposal for a
+Protestant College.--What hindered a more Rapid Progress in the
+Mission.
+
+CHAPTER XL. SYRIA.--1863-1869.
+
+Personal.--Boarding Schools.--Printing.--Completion of the Arabic
+Translation of the Scriptures.--Multiplication of Copies.--Improved
+Government of Lebanon.--The Native Ministry.--Druze High School.
+--Value of Druze Protection.--Death of Tannûs el-Haddad.--Native
+Pastor at Hums.--Remarkable Awakening at Safeeta.--Remarkable
+Persecution.--Firmness of the persecuted People.--The Persecution
+closed.--Decline and Recovery of the Church at Hums.--Native
+Missions.--Administration of Daoud Pasha.--Accessions to the
+Mission.--Books published.--The Publishing Department strengthened.
+
+CHAPTER XLI. SYRIA.--1869-1870.
+
+But few Students in Theology.--Institution of a Theological
+Seminary.--Female Boarding Schools.--THE SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE.
+--Demand for a College.--Its Objects.--Range of its Studies.--Why an
+Independent Institution.--Its Location and Government.--Its
+Endowment.--Its Students.--The Religious Influences.--First
+Graduating Class.--The College Edifices.--Transfer of the Mission to
+the Presbyterian Board.--Feeling awakened by the Transfer.--RESULTS
+OF THE PAST.
+
+CHAPTER XLII. THE ARMENIANS.--1867-1869.
+
+New Missionaries.--Revival at Marash.--Revival at Mardin.--Oosee, a
+Native Candidate for a Foreign Mission.--Church organized at
+Mardin.--Wife of Oosee.--Struggle with the People of Zeitoon.
+--Deadly Assault on a Missionary.--The Rescue.--The Gospel gains a
+Footing in Zeitoon.--Coast of the Black Sea.--Death of Dr. William
+Goodell.--His Life and Character.--Prolonged Tour in Eastern
+Turkey.--Meeting of the Evangelical Union at Diarbekir.--Mardin.
+--Remarkable Church and Pastor at Sert.--Bitlis.--Extreme Poverty on
+the Plain of Moosh.--Oppression by the Priesthood.--Death of Mrs. H.
+S. Barnum.--District of Erzroom.--Diarbekir.--Native Mission to
+Koordistan.--Native Mission to Moosh.--Seminaries at Harpoot.--Cruel
+Persecution at Mardin.--Revival at Oorfa.--Apprehended Doctrinal
+Errors.--Reception of Mr. Wheeler on his Return to Harpoot.
+--Progress of Civilization at Aleppo.--Death of John Concordance.
+--Aintab after Twenty Years.
+
+CHAPTER XLIII. THE ARMENIANS.--1869-1872.
+
+Another Revival at Marash.--Another at Bitlis.--New Church and
+Pastor at Havadoric.--Great Change in Hadjin.--The Marsovan
+Seminary.--Angora.--Erzingan.--Crisis in the Koordistan Native
+Mission.--Mr. Wheeler's Visit to it, and Mr. Pond's Visit to Sert.
+--Mosul.--Death of Dr. Williams.--His Character.--Women in the
+Region of Cesarea.--Missionary Visit to Van.--Death of a Native
+Pastor.--Dr. Clarke's Impressions of Cilicia.
+
+CHAPTER XLIV. THE ARMENIANS.--EDUCATION.--1872.
+
+Common Schools a Necessity.--The Four Seminaries.--The Female
+Boarding Schools.--Tabular View of the Higher Schools.--Marsovan
+Seminary.--Harpoot Seminaries.--Marash Seminary.--Mardin
+Seminaries.--Training School at Tocat.--High School at Aintab.
+--Marsovan Female Seminary.--Harpoot Female Seminary.--Female
+Boarding School at Aintab.--Marash Female High School.--The ROBERT
+COLLEGE.--Its Origin.--Obstacles to be overcome.--To be a Christian
+Institution.--The Founder.--Fully established.--How Obstacles were
+surmounted.--The College Self-supporting.--Gifts by the Founder.
+--The Demand for Liberal Education.--_Proposed College in the
+Interior_.--How the Idea originated.--Interesting Statement from
+Aintab.--To be located in Aintab.
+
+CHAPTER XLV. THE ARMENIANS.--PRESENT CONDITION.--1872.
+
+Unreasonable Demands on Foreign Missions.--How the Millennium is
+made possible.--The Evangelizing Progress.--Changes in the
+Metropolis of Turkey.--National Progress.--Influence of the
+Protestant Faith.--Reform in Worship.--The Missionaries Hopeful.
+--The Degree of Progress.--Illustrations.--The Harpoot Community.
+--General Statements.--The Result.
+
+CHAPTER XLVI. THE MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+The Mohammedans to be approached through the Oriental Churches.
+--Largely of Christian Origin.--Degree of Security for Moslem
+Converts.--Mohammedan Susceptibility to Christian Influence
+illustrated.--General Character of the Illustrations.--The Gospel
+yet in its Incipient Stage of Influence among them.--Why so little
+Direct Effort hitherto.--Demand for Laborers of the same Race.
+--Experience favors the Plan hitherto pursued.--The Probable
+Future.--The Relations of the Missionary to the Moslems.--The Turks
+not an Unhopeful Race.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISSIONS
+
+TO THE
+
+ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1846-1855.
+
+
+Several European governments, and especially England, performed an
+important part in securing civil and religious freedom to the
+Protestant Armenians.[1]
+
+[1] This is impressively set forth in the _Correspondence respecting
+the Condition of Protestants in Turkey_, published by order of
+Parliament in 1851, pp. 154 folio.
+
+In March, 1846, Sir Stratford Canning, English Ambassador at
+Constantinople, reported to his government thirty-six evangelical
+Armenians as persecuted by the Patriarch. To this he added personal
+efforts to meliorate their condition, which resulted in promises
+from Turkish officials and the Patriarch of better treatment,
+promises that were by no means fulfilled.
+
+Upon learning that the Armenian Protestants had been organized into
+a church, he transmitted to Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary,
+their declaration of reasons for so doing, and their confession of
+faith.
+
+The Hon. H. R. Wellesley, better known as Lord Cowley, on taking,
+the place of Sir Stratford during his visit to England, cordially
+took up the unfinished work of his predecessor, and urged upon Lord
+Palmerston the importance of procuring from the Porte a recognition
+of the Protestant Armenians as an independent community. He showed
+that, in spite of the liberal assurances extorted from the
+Patriarch, they were exposed to daily injury and insult, and would
+continue to be so until recognized by the Porte as a distinct
+community among its Christian subjects. At the same time, he
+forwarded a copy of an able declaration by the American missionaries
+of their objects in coming to Turkey, which they had made to the
+Porte through Mr. Carr, the American Minister. Lord Cowley was
+instructed by Lord Palmerston, "to bring the situation of these
+people earnestly under the consideration of the Porte, and urgently
+to press the Turkish government to acknowledge them as a separate
+religious sect." In December the Porte freed the Protestant
+Armenians from the rule of the Armenian Patriarch, so far as
+regarded their commercial and temporal affairs, and allowed them to
+appoint an agent, who should manage their affairs with the
+government; and also to keep separate registers of marriages,
+births, and deaths. The Chevalier Bunsen, the well known Prussian
+Ambassador in Paris, now entered into the work, and recommended,
+that their recognition be as durable and complete as that of the
+other Christian nationalities. To this proposal Lord Palmerston
+cordially assented; but the Turkish officials were, as usual,
+disinclined to go forward.
+
+On the 19th of November, 1847, Lord Cowley had the satisfaction of
+announcing, that the Grand Vizier, wishing, as he said, to do
+something that he knew would be agreeable to his lordship, before he
+should leave the country, had obtained the Sultan's permission to
+issue a vizierial letter in his Majesty's name, which would
+establish their independence at once.[1]
+
+[1] This letter may be found in _Missionary Herald_ for 1848, p. 98.
+
+At the suggestion of Lord Cowley, the Porte promised to send letters
+to five different pashalics where there were Protestants, requiring
+them to act in accordance with the letter; in which was granted the
+privilege of toleration to all Protestant subjects alike, whether
+from the Armenian, Greek, Syrian, or Roman Catholic Churches, or
+from the Jews.
+
+This letter was of great importance under the existing
+circumstances; but the privileges it conferred might all be taken
+away on a change of ministry. Accordingly Sir Stratford Canning, on
+his return to Constantinople in 1850, lost no time in commencing
+negotiations for a more stable basis of protection, and succeeded in
+obtaining an Imperial Firman with the autograph of the Sultan, in
+behalf of his Protestant subjects; giving to their civil
+organization all the stability and permanency that the older
+Christian communities enjoyed in Turkey. It was issued in November,
+1850; and translated into English, reads as follows:--
+
+"To my Vizier, Mohammed Pasha, Prefect of the Police in
+Constantinople, the honorable Minister and glorious Councillor, the
+model of the world, and regulator of the affairs of the community;
+who, directing the public interests with sublime prudence,
+consolidating the structure of the empire with wisdom, and
+strengthening the columns of its prosperity and glory, is the
+recipient of every grace from the Most High. May God prolong his
+glory!
+
+"When this sublime and august mandate reaches you, let it be known,
+that hitherto those of my Christian subjects who have embraced the
+Protestant faith, in consequence of their not being under any
+specially appointed superintendence, and in consequence of the
+patriarchs and primates of their former sects, which they have
+renounced, naturally not being able to attend to their affairs, have
+suffered much inconvenience and distress. But in necessary
+accordance with my imperial compassion, which is the support of all,
+and which is manifested to all classes of my subjects, it is
+contrary to my imperial pleasure that any one class of them should
+be exposed to suffering.
+
+"As, therefore, by reason of their faith, the above mentioned are
+already a separate community, it is my royal compassionate will,
+that, for the facilitating the conducting of their affairs, and that
+they may obtain ease and quiet and safety, a faithful and
+trustworthy person from among themselves, and by their own
+selection, should be appointed, with the title of 'Agent of the
+Protestants,' and that he should be in relations with the Prefecture
+of the Police.
+
+"It shall be the duty of the Agent to have in charge the register of
+the male members of the community, which shall be kept at the
+police; and the Agent shall cause to be registered therein all
+births and deaths in the community. And all applications for
+passports and marriage licenses, and all petitions on affairs
+concerning the community that are to be presented to the Sublime
+Porte, or to any other department, must be given in under the
+official seal of the Agent.
+
+"For the execution of my will, this my imperial sublime mandate and
+august command has been especially issued and given from my sublime
+chancery.
+
+"Hence thou, who art the minister above named, according as it has
+been explained above, wilt execute to the letter the preceding
+ordinance; only, as the collection of the capitation tax and the
+delivery of passports are subject to particular regulations, you
+will not do anything contrary to those regulations. You will not
+permit anything to be required of them, in the name of fee, or on
+other pretences, for marriage licenses, or registration. You will
+see to it that, like the other communities of the empire, in all
+their affairs, such as procuring cemeteries and places of worship,
+they should have every facility and every needed assistance. You
+will not permit that any of the other communities shall in any way
+interfere with their edifices, or with their worldly matters or
+concerns, or, in short, with any of their affairs, either secular or
+religious, that thus they may be free to exercise the usages of
+their faith.
+
+"And it is enjoined upon you not to allow them to be molested an
+iota in these particulars, or in any others; and that all attention
+and perseverance be put in requisition to maintain them in quiet and
+security. And, in case of necessity, they shall be free to make
+representations regarding their affairs through their Agent to the
+Sublime Porte.
+
+"When this my imperial will shall be brought to your knowledge and
+appreciation, you will have this august decree registered in the
+necessary departments, and then give it over to remain in the hands
+of these my subjects. And see you to it, that its requirements be
+always in future performed in their full import.
+
+"Thus know thou, and respect my sacred signet! Written in the holy
+month of Moharrem, 1267 (November, 1850).
+
+"Given in the well guarded city Constantiniyeh."
+
+At the request of Sir Stratford Canning, thirteen of the leading
+Protestants called upon him, on the occasion of his procuring this
+charter of rights; and for nearly an hour he addressed them on their
+duties and responsibilities, in their present position in the
+empire. He told them that they ought to thank God that they were the
+first to be relieved from the shackles of superstition, and made
+acquainted with the pure Gospel of Christ. He told them that many
+eyes were upon them, and that they ought to excel all others in the
+land in faithful obedience to the government, in a brotherly
+deportment to those of other religious opinions, and an example of
+uprightness in every relation. Again and again did he exhort them to
+act, in all things, according to the principles and doctrines of the
+Gospel.
+
+Three years after this, on the 6th of December, 1853, on his return
+to Constantinople as Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the same noble
+friend of religious freedom, wrote to the Earl of Clarendon, that he
+had endeavored in vain to obtain the official transmission of the
+firman to the Pashas throughout the empire. This was strikingly
+characteristic of Turkish procrastination. But he was then able to
+state, that the Porte, "out of consideration for his repeated
+representations," had officially transmitted the firman to all
+Pashas where a Protestant society was known to exist.
+
+In 1854, his lordship obtained the concession from the Turkish
+government, that Christian evidence, in matters of criminal
+jurisdiction, should stand on the same footing everywhere in Turkey
+as the testimony of Mohammedans; thus removing a great wrong, under
+which the rayahs of the empire had labored for centuries.
+
+While gratefully acknowledging our obligations to the
+representatives of other nations, I should also record, that our
+brethren, both in the Armenian and Syria missions, were under
+continued obligation to Mr. Carr, our Minister at the Porte, for
+personal protection as American citizens. He acted with decision
+whenever their rights were invaded. In the repeated efforts made to
+remove them from the country, his reply to the formal demands of the
+Porte was, that he had power to protect the missionaries as American
+citizens, but not to remove them; and furthermore, that while papal
+missionaries from France and Italy were permitted to reside in
+Turkey, Protestant missionaries from America must also have the same
+privilege.
+
+Here we may properly pause, and consider what God had wrought, not
+alone through the agency of the churches, but with the coöperation
+of the great powers of the earth. Twenty years before, Messrs. Smith
+and Dwight did not find a single clear case of conversion in their
+extended travels through the Turkish empire. How many and great the
+subsequent changes! First came the national charter of rights, given
+by the Sultan in 1840; which, among its other results, destroyed the
+persecuting power of the Armenian aristocracy. Next came the
+abolition of the death penalty, in 1843, and the Sultan's pledge,
+that men should no more be persecuted for their religious opinions.
+Then, after three years, came the unthought of application of this
+pledge to the Armenian Protestants, when persecuted by their own
+hierarchy. In the next year followed the recognition of the
+Protestants as an independent community. Finally, in 1850, came the
+charter, signed by the Grand Sultan himself, placing the Protestants
+on the same national basis with the other Christian communities of
+the empire.
+
+How wonderful this progression of events! So far as the central
+government was concerned, missionaries might print, gather schools,
+form churches, ordain pastors, and send forth other laborers,
+wherever they pleased. Attention had been awakened, and there was a
+disposition to inquire, renounce errors, and embrace gospel truths.
+There was a progressive change in fundamental ideas; a gradual
+reconstruction of the social system; a spiritual reformation. At
+least fifty places were known, scattered over Asiatic Turkey, in all
+of which souls had been converted through the truth, and where
+churches might be gathered. Ten churches had been formed already,
+and in part supplied with pastors. Aintab, scarcely known by name
+five years before, numbered more Protestants than even the
+metropolis, and was becoming one of the most interesting missionary
+stations in the world.
+
+In this remarkable series of results we recognize the hand of God,
+who makes all earthly agencies subservient to the great work of
+redemption; so that secular agencies come as legitimately into the
+history of the republication of the Gospel in Bible lands, as do the
+labors of the missionaries. They were among the ordained means; and
+the leading agents cannot fail to command our grateful admiration.
+
+The danger at this time was, that the reformation so auspiciously
+begun, would pass its grand crisis before the central lights had
+grown bright enough, and a knowledge of the Gospel been sufficiently
+diffused in the empire. There was everywhere a curiosity to know
+what Protestantism was, and to hear what the missionaries had to
+say; but this curiosity, regarded as a national feeling, was in
+danger of dying out. In the year 1851, the President of the National
+Council of the Armenians said to Mr. Dwight: "Now is the time for
+you to work for the Armenian people. Such an opportunity as you now
+enjoy may soon pass away, and never more return. You should greatly
+enlarge your operations. Where you have one missionary, you should
+have ten; and where you have one book, you should put ten in
+circulation." Constantinople, Smyrna, Broosa, Trebizond, Erzroom,
+and Aintab, were already occupied as stations. It was proposed at
+once to occupy Sivas, Arabkir, Diarbekir, and Aleppo. Mr. Adger,
+after a laborious and most useful service in the literary department
+of the mission, was constrained, by his health, in 1847, to retire
+from the field.
+
+The statement of Lord Stratford, that three years were allowed to
+pass before the Sultan's firman was transmitted to the provinces,
+will account in part for the fact that persecution did not cease. In
+general, whenever evangelical views entered for the first time into
+a place, a battle was to be fought, and the first recipients of
+these views were sure to suffer more or less from the hands of their
+former co-religionists. But relief was almost sure to come on an
+appeal to the capital; and thus there was a gradual progress towards
+the full protection of the Protestants as a distinct community.
+
+The accession of missionaries during the time now under review, was
+as follows: Joel S. Everett, in 1845; Isaac G. Bliss, in 1847;
+Oliver Crane, in 1849; Joseph W. Sutphen, in 1852--who died before
+the close of the year; Wilson A. Farnsworth, William Clark, Andrew
+T. Pratt, M. D.; George B. Nutting, Fayette Jewett, M. D., and
+Jasper N. Ball, in 1853; Albert G. Beebe, George A. Perkins, Sanford
+Richardson, Edwin Goodell, and Benjamin Parsons, in 1854; and
+Alexander R. Plumer, and Ira T. Pettibone, in 1855. All these were
+married men, except Mr. Pettibone. Mary and Isabella, daughters of
+Dr. Goodell, returned to the mission within the last two years.
+
+In June, 1848, Pera was again ravaged by fire, and Messrs. Dwight,
+Homes, and Schauffler lost their houses, and most of their effects.
+
+In October of the same year, seven persons were added to the church
+at Aintab, five of whom were women. In this month, Dr. Azariah Smith
+returned to that station with his wife, and made it his permanent
+abode.
+
+The church at Aintab had a commendable zeal for the spread of the
+Gospel in the surrounding villages; but their colporters were never
+suffered to remain long in a place, the Armenian magnates persuading
+the Turkish authorities to send them away as vagabonds. They now
+resorted to an ingenious expedient for protecting themselves with
+the authority of law. Five men, who had trades, went forth to
+different towns, with their tools in one hand and the Bible in the
+other. Wherever they went they worked at their trades, and at the
+same time preached Christ to the people. The experiment succeeded
+wonderfully. They could no longer be treated as vagabonds, and the
+spirit of religious inquiry spread in all directions. The
+congregation in Aintab became so large that two houses were opened
+for worship at the same time, and urgent appeals came from Killis,
+Marash, Oorfa, Diarbekir, Malatia, Harpoot, Arabkir, and other
+places near and remote.
+
+Mr. Crane succeeded Mr. Schneider at Broosa. Mr. Benjamin made a
+missionary tour from Smyrna to the interior of Asia Minor; Mr.
+Schneider made one to Aintab, on a temporary mission; Messrs.
+Goodell and Everett to Nicomedia and Adabazar; Mr. Peabody into the
+province of Geghi; Mr. Homes to Nicomedia; and Mr. Johnston to
+Tocat. The building occupied by the Seminary at Bebek became now the
+property of the Board. The printing at Smyrna, in Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, Hebrew-Spanish, and Modern Greek, amounted to
+twenty-one thousand copies, and five million five hundred and
+eighty-two thousand pages. There was printing done at
+Constantinople, but the amount was not reported. Among the works in
+process of publication was D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation."
+
+The persecuting Matteos had now finished his career as Patriarch.
+Before the close of 1848, he was convicted of frauds upon the public
+treasury, and of forgery, and was degraded, and passed into
+retirement on the shores of the Bosphorus.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1849, p. 42; _Report_, 1849, p. 115.
+
+Three additional pastors were ordained during the year which closed
+with May, 1849; Baron Mugurdich, at Trebizond, Baron Hohannes
+Sahakian, at Adabazar, and Baron Avedis, as co-pastor at
+Constantinople. The reader is aware that Hohannes received the
+greater part of his education in the United States. He possessed a
+delightful spirit, and developed far more talent than he was
+commonly credited with in America, where he could communicate his
+thoughts only through the medium of a strange language.
+
+The mission suffered a painful bereavement on the 14th of November,
+1850, in the death of Mrs. Hamlin, at Rhodes, whither she had gone
+with her husband in the hope of relief.[1]
+
+[1] See an account of her last sickness in _Missionary Herald_, for
+1851, p. 82; also in her Memoir, _Light in the Dark River_, by Mrs.
+Lawrence.
+
+Another bereavement occurred at Aintab in the death on the 3d of
+June, 1851, of the Rev. Azariah Smith, M. D. Such was his peculiar
+adaptation to different fields, that he had labored in many places,
+but had a special attachment for Aintab. The uncommonly rapid
+development of the active Christian graces at that station was
+largely owing, under God, to his skillful efforts, and he wished
+there to spend the remainder of his days. In this he was gratified.
+He returned from laboring at Diarbekir greatly in need of quiet. But
+finding so much to be done in the absence of Mr. Schneider at the
+annual meeting in Constantinople, he allowed himself no relaxation.
+His labors for the last six weeks of his life were incessant. A
+violent fever did its work in a fortnight. At the outset he gave
+specific directions as to the treatment of his case, feeling that
+soon he would be unable to prescribe for himself; and expressed a
+wish that no native physician should be employed, as there was no
+competent one to be had at Aintab. While in full possession of
+reason, he spoke of his departure with the composure of one on a
+short journey, and soon to return. As the native brethren came in
+one by one and in companies, he reminded them how often he had
+preached to them salvation through Christ alone. "In his lucid
+intervals," says his missionary brother, "and even in his delirium,
+his soul seemed intent on measures for the good of this people. At
+last he appeared to be at the gate of heaven. When no longer able to
+articulate words, he would utter faint syllables expressive of his
+growing rapture. Then he would move his lips as if in prayer; and,
+again, for minutes together, he would attempt to sing. It was a
+blessed privilege to be by his side." Mr. Dunmore was present at the
+funeral, and says: "The chapel was crowded, and the roofs of the
+surrounding buildings were covered. There was abundant proof of the
+presence of grief-stricken hearts in gushing tears, and sobs were
+heard throughout the assembly. There were six or seven hundred
+present, and nearly as many accompanied us to the grave. I scarcely
+ever saw in America a more quiet and solemn procession. In the
+Protestant burying ground, by the side of his only child, lie the
+remains of our dear departed brother."
+
+The Rev. George W. Dunmore and wife had joined the mission early in
+1851, and proceeded to Diarbekir by way of Aintab. Broosa was now
+left for a time, as Nicomedia and Adabazar had been, to the care of
+a native pastor, under the superintendence of the Constantinople
+station; and useful evangelical tours were performed by different
+brethren.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1851, pp. 24-32, 78-81, 160-162,
+232-236.
+
+The law forbidding the residence of foreigners in Constantinople
+proper having become a dead letter, two of the brethren took up
+their abode near the "Seven Towers," amid an Armenian population,
+and a third evangelical church was formed in February, 1852, in the
+suburb of Has-Keuy.
+
+Among the miscellaneous labors of the brethren at the capitol, was
+the distribution of letters received at the mission post-office from
+the European mails. Not less than fifteen hundred letters were thus
+disposed of in the year 1851, as the Turks had no arrangements for
+distributing letters that came by steamers. There was also much
+other secular labor for the brethren at this central station.
+
+Difficulties in the church at Trebizond occasioned the calling of an
+ecclesiastical council,--the first one convened in the Turkish
+empire. Pastor Simon was present from the first church in
+Constantinople, pastor Hohannes from Adabazar, and Mr. Dwight from
+the mission. Pastor Hohannes was chosen moderator, and pastor Simon
+scribe; and Mr. Dwight describes them as managing the case with
+admirable tact and prudence. The results were satisfactory.
+
+Marsovan began now to claim special attention. It stands in one
+corner of a lovely plain hemmed in by mountains, and then contained
+eight hundred Armenian houses, with twice that number of Turkish
+families. The story of the entrance of the Gospel into this place is
+so interesting that it deserves to be recorded. Pastor Simon visited
+it in September, 1851, on his return from the council at Trebizond,
+and learned that, eighteen years before, a respectable inhabitant
+made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and bought in Beirût a few
+Armeno-Turkish tracts, not knowing what they were, only that they
+were written in his own native tongue. He read them carefully on his
+way home, and liked them so well that he retained them; but not
+until Protestants and Protestant books were anathematized in the
+churches did he learn their origin. They had been printed in Malta
+under the supervision of Mr. Goodell. Soon after this, Der Vartanes,
+on a missionary tour through Armenia, spent a night at the convent
+in Marsovan. This man was present in the evening, and recognized the
+similarity between the teachings of the stranger and his favorite
+tracts, but did not dare to speak out before the Vartabed. He
+managed, however, to see the good priest alone, and with great
+difficulty they contrived to unite in prayer under a tree in the
+garden. This was the only evangelical prayer he ever heard till Mr.
+Powers visited the place in March, 1851. We need not say how
+cordially he was received by the owner of the tracts; nor by him
+alone, for the missionary could scarcely get a moment to himself day
+or night. No wonder Mr. Powers felt that God had good things in
+store for this people. When he returned in July, he was disappointed
+in not being met by his friend, till he learned that six weeks
+before he had been dragged from his bed at midnight, and sent a
+prisoner with four others to Amasia, a town twenty-four miles
+distant. There for two weeks they were shut up with the vilest
+criminals, and one day they were chained together, two and two. The
+charge brought against them by the governor and council of Marsovan
+was, that they had made a violent assault upon the court. Nor would
+the Pasha of Amasia, who, according to Turkish custom, had "eaten" a
+large bribe, listen to any denial of the preposterous accusation.
+
+The outrages which they suffered at length produced such an
+excitement at Marsovan, that the primates hastened to give an order
+for their release. The spirit of religious inquiry now greatly
+increased, and a large number signed a petition to be set off from
+the Armenian Church as Protestants.
+
+Mr. E. E. Bliss visited Marsovan in October, and was there three
+months. His presence was greatly needed. There had been a decline of
+piety, and only a small number of the Protestants retained their
+interest in spiritual things. Conversation turned not so much on the
+truths of the Gospel as on the errors of the Armenian Church; nor so
+much on these as on the corruption of their priesthood and the
+exactions of the government. All were convinced of the truth of
+Protestantism, but its particular charm was in its promise of good
+for the life that now is. There was an obvious need of more
+persecution.
+
+During the first month, Mr. Bliss preached every evening in the
+week, and twice on the Sabbath. The audiences ranged from fifty to
+two hundred and fifty, and there were increasing evidences of
+interest in the preaching. Then came tribulation because of the
+word. The power of wealth and political influence was enlisted
+against the truth. The taxes of those who had joined the Protestant
+community were more than doubled, and those who could not or would
+not pay them, were thrown into prison. Indeed, former scenes in
+Constantinople were now repeated in Marsovan. No mercy was shown,
+except on the one condition of leaving the Protestant meetings. When
+day after day passed and brought no relief, the feeble began to
+yield. One by one they made their submission to the Vartabed, and
+received his blessing. Only four stood firm.
+
+But now the Lord sent a partial deliverance, in an unexpected way.
+An authoritative copy of the Sultan's firman was sent from
+Constantinople, by a brother who was ignorant of the circumstances.
+No such copy had before reached that part of the interior, so that
+any official who pleased could ignore its existence. The news of its
+arrival brought out the affrighted Protestants from their
+hiding-places. Many whose sympathies were with them, were as joyful
+as themselves. Before night five or six, who had submitted to the
+Vartabed, bore to him a written recantation of what they had done;
+and he, having heard of the firman, received the recantation and was
+silent. After that there was comparative peace, and the number
+attending on the preaching of the missionary increased.
+
+I have dwelt on these developments at Marsovan, as an illustration
+of what, in various degrees, was experienced in other places at this
+stage in the reformation; as in Marash, Kessab, Demirdesh, and
+Adana.
+
+Mr. Wood, of this mission, being detained in the United States by
+the failure of his wife's health, was elected, in 1852, a
+Corresponding Secretary of the Board, to reside in the city of New
+York. The widow of Dr. Azariah Smith had remained in active labors
+at Aintab, but disease now obliged her to retire from the field.
+Miss Maria A. West took charge, with Mrs. Everett, of the girls'
+boarding-school at Constantinople; and Miss Melvina Haynes, a sister
+of Mrs. Everett, gave herself to a species of labor among Armenian
+females, which has since risen to importance in the missionary
+field. Mrs. George B. Nutting died at Aintab, July 9, 1854.
+
+In the Reports of the Prudential Committee to the Board for 1852 and
+1853, a hundred important towns and villages are named, into which
+the reformation had gained entrance.
+
+Pastor Simon, of the first church in Constantinople, spent a summer
+at Aintab; but his absence was the occasion of serious injury to his
+own charge; and so it was at Adabazar. Pastor Hohannes, of that
+church, with teacher Simon, of Nicomedia, devoted eight months to a
+missionary tour through Asia Minor. Their course was by way of
+Smyrna and Beirût, to Kessab, Aleppo, Killis, Aintab, Marash, Oorfa,
+Albestan, Cesarea, Marsovan, and Samsûn; thence by steamer to
+Trebizond; thence to Erzroom, Khanoos, Moosh, Van, Bitlis, and back
+again through Diarbekir, Harpoot, Arabkir, Egin, Divrik, Sivas,
+Tokat, Amasia, Marsovan, and Samsûn. An inspection of the map will
+show that these brethren traversed Asia Minor by three lines,
+visiting all its most important places. They spent a considerable
+time in many of them, and everywhere found ready listeners to their
+message. In numerous places there were inquirers, who needed only
+leaders to withstand the fire of persecution.
+
+The mission suffered a sore bereavement in the death of Mrs. Everett
+at Constantinople, in December, 1854. She possessed a transparent
+and beautiful character, with eminent capacity for usefulness.[1]
+Mr. Benjamin also died at Constantinople, the next year, at the age
+of forty-four. He was nine years in the mission to Greece. His
+labors in the Armenian Mission,--first at Smyrna, and then at
+Constantinople,--were mainly through the press, in which he was
+eminently useful. He had a clear conviction, in devoting his life to
+giving the Armenians an evangelical literature, that he was doing
+the work to which his Master called him. Nor did he overrate the
+importance of this branch of the work. His missionary experience in
+another field was of much value in guarding him against mistakes. At
+Pera, in addition to his literary labors, he preached statedly in
+modern Greek to a small congregation.[2]
+
+[1] See _The Missionary Sisters_,--Mrs. Everett and Mrs. Hamlin,
+--written by Mrs. Benjamin.
+
+[2] See an obituary notice of Mr. Benjamin in the _Missionary
+Herald_ for 1855, pp. 142-147.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1855-1860.
+
+
+There are times when the movements of armies are evidently made
+subservient, in divine Providence, to the progress of the Gospel;
+and the history of missions to the Oriental Churches would be
+imperfect without some notice of the Crimean war of 1854 and 1855.
+The historian of that war has shown, that it originated in the
+desire of Nicholas, Czar of Russia, to secure certain rights in the
+"holy places" at Jerusalem (in which he was opposed by the Roman
+Catholic government of France), and to obtain a formal recognition
+of himself as protector of the millions in Turkey professing the
+Greek religion.[1] But for the seasonable return to Constantinople
+of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe in 1853, there is reason to fear,
+that the extraordinary persistence of the Czar might have been
+successful, and that the protectorate would have been used to
+destroy the evangelical missions.[2]
+
+[1] See volume first of Kinglake's _Invasion of the Crimea_. He
+describes very minutely how the English nation was drawn into the
+war; but it is not necessary to go into that subject here. The
+nation was doubtless much influenced by its desire to uphold the
+Turkish government in order to keep open its communication with
+India.
+
+[2] Some idea of the spirit in which such a protectorate might have
+been exercised, may be obtained from two out of a number of kindred
+articles of the Russian Penal Law:
+
+"Article 206. Whoever is found guilty of having induced others to
+secede from the Greek Orthodox Confession, and to join another
+Christian Church, will be condemned to the loss of the rights of his
+social position, to transportation to Tobolsk or Tomsk (Siberia), or
+to the punishment of the lash, and one or two years of imprisonment
+in the house of correction.
+
+"Article 207. Whoever endeavors, by preaching or writing, to seduce
+members of the Orthodox Church to join any other Christian
+community, will be punished the first time, with the loss of some of
+his special rights, and imprisonment for one or two years in a house
+of correction; the second time, with imprisonment in a fortress from
+four to six years; the third time, with the loss of all his personal
+and social civil rights and status, and transportation for life to
+Tobolsk or Tomsk (Siberia), with imprisonment of one or two years."
+--_New York Observer_ for August, 1871.
+
+The author was in the interior of Asia Minor a short time while the
+Crimean war was in progress, and heard of reports among the
+people,--circulated, as was believed, by Russian agents,--that if
+Nicholas were victorious, he would secure the withdrawal from Turkey
+of Protestant missionaries. Exasperation caused by the failure of
+his negotiations with the Sultan, brought on the war; and the fall
+of Sebastopol was a more direct benefit to the missions, than it was
+to the nations that fought against it. But for the result then
+obtained, at vast expense of treasure and life, very different might
+have been the prospect of a successful republication of the Gospel
+in Bible lands.
+
+The number of missionaries in the Armenian Mission in 1855, was
+twenty-six. One of these was an ordained physician, and there was a
+physician unordained. There were twenty-eight female assistant
+missionaries, three of whom were unmarried. Of the Armenian helpers,
+thirteen were pastors and preachers, and sixty-four were
+lay-helpers. The stations,--called such because missionaries resided
+at them,--were fourteen. Twelve of these were north of the Taurus,
+and two were south of that range.
+
+Constantinople, Tocat, and Aintab had each a training-school for
+native preachers and helpers, and there was also a girls'
+boarding-school at Constantinople; and thirty-eight free schools
+were scattered over the field. Nine years after the organization of
+the first evangelical church, the number of churches was
+twenty-three. The church at Aintab was the largest, containing one
+hundred and forty-one members. Kessab, a long day's journey south of
+Antioch, where no missionary had ever resided, had a church of
+forty-one members. The first edifice for Christian worship in the
+Ottoman Empire, erected on a new site, was the stone church at
+Aintab. Prior to this, Christians had only been allowed to repair
+their old churches, and to rebuild on the old sites. The obtaining
+of this new indulgence was probably owing, in a measure, to the
+influence of the Crimean war. The dedication service, early in 1855,
+was attended by more than twelve hundred persons, and more than
+eleven hundred were present on the following Sabbath.
+
+The printing reported for this year amounted to thirty-five thousand
+volumes, and nearly five millions of pages, in the Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, Greek, Greco-Turkish, and Hebrew-Spanish, but
+chiefly in Armenian. A religious periodical was issued every two
+months called the "Avedaper," or "Messenger." Dr. Dwight was editor
+of this, but the general supervision of the press, after the decease
+of Mr. Benjamin, devolved on Dr. Riggs.
+
+Octavo and duodecimo editions of the Armenian Bible were going
+through the press, as was also an octavo Bible in Greco-Turkish. The
+New Testament had been issued in the ancient Armenian, in the Ararat
+dialect or Eastern Armenian, in the Ararat and Ancient Armenian in
+parallel columns, in the Greco-Turkish, and in the Armeno-Turkish.
+The Gospel of Matthew was issued in the Koordish language, and the
+Psalms in the Bulgarian. A demand for the Bible in the Turkish
+language came from almost every part of the empire.
+
+The book depository was removed from Pera across the Golden Horn
+into the old city of Constantinople, and the Moslems made no
+objection. More than twenty boxes of books were sent to a single
+place in the interior within the space of a year and a half. At one
+time two boxes were ready for Diarbekir, one for Cesarea, one for
+Aintab, and another for Jerusalem.
+
+In this work the mission was liberally aided by the American, and
+the British and Foreign Bible Societies, by the London Religious
+Tract Society, the American Tract Society, and more recently by the
+Turkish Missions Aid Society. Mr. Barker, agent of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society, and the Rev. C. N. Righter, of the American
+Bible Society (who died not long after at Diarbekir), did much to
+promote the work of Bible distribution in the countries around the
+Mediterranean and Black Seas; and the Constantinople Bible Society
+employed a French and English colporter among the soldiers of the
+allied powers. More Bibles and religious books went into the hands
+of Mohammedans from the depository of the mission during the years
+1854 and 1855, than in all the previous years of its existence.
+Twenty thousand copies of the Bible were scattered through Turkey in
+that space of time.
+
+The transfer of Dr. Riggs to the department of the Press made it
+necessary to suspend the Greek department in the Seminary at Bebek,
+and four of the six Greek pupils were sent to Dr. King at Athens.[1]
+Another became a teacher in Demirdesh, and another went to the
+United States to complete his professional studies.
+
+[1] The author regrets being obliged to say, that these all
+disappointed the expectations of their benefactors.
+
+Five Armenian students had been licensed to preach, and sent to
+Adrianople, Cesarea, Sivas, Diarbekir, and Kessab. Another, having
+the ministry in prospect, was a teacher in the new training-school
+at Tocat, under Mr. Van Lennep. A similar school existed at Aintab.
+
+The accession of missionaries from 1855 to 1860 was as follows: In
+1855, Orson P. Allen; in 1856, George A. Pollard, Tillman C.
+Trowbridge, and Misses Mary E. Tenney and Sarah E. West; in 1857,
+Crosby H. Wheeler, Charles F. Morse, Oliver W. Winchester, Jackson
+G. Coffing, George H. White, and Julius Y. Leonard; in 1858,
+Theodore Byington, George Washburn, and William Hutchinson; and
+Herman N. Barnum, who, being at Constantinople as a traveller, made
+an offer of his services, which was accepted in this year; in 1859,
+William W. Meriam, Joseph K. Greene, James F. Clarke, George F.
+Herrick, and Henry S. West, M. D., and Miss Myra A. Proctor; in
+1860, Alvan B. Goodale, M. D., William F. Arms, Zenas Goss, William
+W. Livingston, and Lysander T. Burbank. Messrs. Washburn,
+Trowbridge, Pettibone, Barnum, Herrick, and Goss came to the mission
+unmarried; Mr. Washburn afterwards married a daughter of Dr. Hamlin,
+Mr. Barnum a daughter of Dr. Goodell, and Mr. Trowbridge a daughter
+of Dr. Riggs.
+
+Mr. Everett, a devoted servant of Christ, was called to his rest on
+the 5th of March, 1856, after a sickness of a few days. His orphan
+children returned to the United States in charge of Miss Haynes, the
+sister of their mother. Messrs. Isaac G. Bliss and Edwin Goodell, in
+consequence of the failure of health, were released from their
+connection with the Board. The former afterwards recovered his
+health, and returned to Turkey as agent of the American Bible
+Society, in which capacity he has rendered very valuable service.
+Antioch and Aleppo were transferred from the Syrian to the Armenian
+Mission. At Erzroom the war drove away, not only the church-members,
+but most of those who were interested in the truth. Mr. Richardson
+removed to Arabkir to supply the place of Mr. Clark, who had been
+called to the seminary at Bebek; left without a teacher by the death
+of Mr. Everett and the temporary absence of Dr. Hamlin. At Marash,
+in consequence of the war and the proximity of the rough
+mountaineers of Zeitoon, the missionaries were at one time in no
+small danger.
+
+The beheading of a young Armenian, who had rashly declared himself a
+Mohammedan, and then repented of his rashness, and the consequent
+successful efforts of Sir Stratford Canning, in procuring a pledge
+from the Sultan that no person should be persecuted in Turkey for
+his religious opinions, were described in the first volume.[1] This
+was in 1843 and 1844. Ten or eleven years later, there was another
+beheading at Adrianople for a like cause, and another at Aleppo; and
+the same high-minded statesman was again aroused to effort, not only
+for a more effectual abrogation of the death penalty itself, but to
+obtain for the Protestant Christians freedom from persecution, and
+for the Christians generally the privileges that were enjoyed by
+their fellow-subjects of the Moslem religion. The eighty folio pages
+of documents on the subject, which were presented to both Houses of
+Parliament in 1856, form an important and interesting chapter in the
+history of those times. The principal writers, in addition to Lord
+Stratford de Redcliffe and the Earl of Clarendon, were the Earl of
+Shaftesbury, Lord Cowley, Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, President of
+the Turkish Missions Aid Society, the Rev. Cuthbert G. Young, its
+Secretary, and Mehemet Fuad.
+
+[1] Vol. i. p. 135.
+
+As the result of all, a Hatti Humaïoun, or Imperial Firman, was
+issued by the Sultan in February, 1856. When read in public, the
+Sheik el Islam, the highest Moslem ecclesiastic, invoked the divine
+blessing on the Imperial Edict; but probably without an
+apprehension, either by himself or by his government, of the full
+significance of the instrument. By many of the Mohammedans it was
+regarded us opening the door for them to become Christians. Not a
+few of the Armenians and Greeks were displeased with it as favoring
+Protestantism; and this fact did not escape the sagacity of
+Mohammedans.
+
+The Imperial Rescript, as translated from the French, is as
+follows:--
+
+"Let it be done as herein set forth.
+
+"To you, my Grand Vizier, Mehemed Emin Aali Pasha, decorated with my
+Imperial Order of the Medjidiyé of the first class, and with the
+Order of Personal Merit; may God grant to you greatness, and
+increase your power!
+
+"It has always been my most earnest desire to insure the happiness
+of all classes of the subjects whom divine Providence has placed
+under my imperial sceptre; and since my accession to the throne I
+have not ceased to direct all my efforts to the attainment of that
+end.
+
+"Thanks to the Almighty, these unceasing efforts have already been
+productive of numerous useful results. From day to day the happiness
+of the nation and the wealth of my dominions go on augmenting.
+
+"It being now my desire to renew and enlarge still more the new
+institutions, ordained with the view of establishing a state of
+things conformable with the dignity of my empire and the position
+which it occupies among civilized nations; and the rights of my
+empire having, by the fidelity and praiseworthy efforts of all my
+subjects, and by the kind and friendly assistance of the great
+powers, my noble Allies, received from abroad a confirmation which
+will be the commencement of a new era, it is my desire to augment
+its well-being and prosperity, to effect the happiness of all my
+subjects, who in my sight are all equal and equally dear to me, and
+who are united to each other by the cordial ties of patriotism, and
+to insure the means of daily increasing the prosperity of my empire.
+I have, therefore, resolved upon, and I order the execution of, the
+following measures.
+
+"The guaranties promised on our part by the Hatti-Humaïoun of
+Gul-Hané, and in conformity with the Tanzimat, to all the subjects
+of my empire, without distinction of classes or of religion, for the
+security of their persons and property and the preservation of their
+honor, are to-day confirmed and consolidated; and efficacious
+measures shall be taken in order that they may have their full and
+entire effect.
+
+"All the privileges and spiritual immunities granted by my ancestors
+_ab antiquo_, and at subsequent dates, to all Christian communities
+or other non-Mussulman persuasions established in my empire under my
+protection, shall be confirmed and maintained.
+
+"Every Christian or other non-Mussulman community shall be bound,
+within a fixed period, and with the concurrence of a commission
+composed _ad hoc_ of members of its own body, to proceed, with my
+high approbation and under the inspection of my Sublime Porte, to
+examine into its actual immunities and privileges, and to discuss
+and submit to my Sublime Porte the reforms required by the progress
+of civilization and of the age. The powers conceded to the Christian
+Patriarchs and Bishops by the Sultan Mahomet II. and his successors,
+shall be made to harmonize with the new position which my generous
+and beneficent intentions insure to these communities.
+
+"The principle of nominating the Patriarchs for life, after the
+revision of the rules of election now in force, shall be exactly
+carried out, conformably to the tenor of their firmans of
+investiture.
+
+"The Patriarchs, Metropolitans, Archbishops, Bishops and Rabbins
+shall take an oath on their entrance into office, according to a
+form agreed upon in common by my Sublime Porte and the spiritual
+heads of the different religious communities. The ecclesiastical
+dues, of whatever sort or nature they be, shall be abolished, and
+replaced by fixed revenues for the Patriarchs and heads of
+communities, and by the allocation of allowances and salaries
+equitably proportioned to the importance of the rank, and the
+dignity of the different members of the clergy.
+
+"The property, real or personal, of the different Christian
+ecclesiastics shall remain intact; the temporal administration of
+the Christian or other non-Mussulman communities shall, however, be
+placed under the safeguard of an assembly to be chosen from among
+the members, both ecclesiastics and laymen, of the said communities.
+
+"In the towns, small boroughs, and villages, where the whole
+population is of the same religion, no obstacle shall be offered to
+the repair, according to their original plan, of buildings set apart
+for religious worship, for schools, for hospitals and for
+cemeteries.
+
+"The plans of these different buildings, in case of their new
+erection, must, after having been approved by the Patriarchs or
+heads of communities, be submitted to my Sublime Porte, which will
+approve of them by my imperial order, or make known its observation
+upon them within a certain time.
+
+"Each sect, in localities where there are no other religious
+denominations, shall be free from every species of restraint as
+regards the public exercise of its religion.
+
+"In the towns, small boroughs, and villages, where different sects
+are mingled together, each community inhabiting a distinct quarter
+shall, by conforming to the above-mentioned ordinances, have equal
+power to repair and improve its churches, its hospitals, its
+schools, and its cemeteries. When there is question of the erection
+of new buildings, the necessary authority must be asked for, through
+the medium of the Patriarchs and heads of communities, from my
+Sublime Porte, which will pronounce a sovereign decision according
+to that authority, except in the case of administrative obstacles.
+The intervention of the administrative authority in all measures of
+this nature will be entirely gratuitous. My Sublime Porte will take
+energetic measures to insure to each sect, whatever be the number of
+its adherents, entire freedom in the exercise of its religion.
+
+"Every distinction or designation tending to make any class whatever
+of the subjects of my empire inferior to another class, on account
+of their religion, language, or race, shall be forever effaced from
+the administrative protocol. The laws shall be put in force against
+the use of any injurious or offensive term, either among private
+individuals or on the part of the authorities.
+
+"As all forms of religion are and shall be freely professed in my
+dominions, no subject of my empire shall be hindered in the exercise
+of the religion that he professes, nor shall be in any way annoyed
+on this account. No one shall be compelled to change their religion.
+
+"The nomination and choice of all functionaries and other employés
+of my empire being wholly dependent upon my sovereign will, all the
+subjects of my empire, without distinction of nationality, shall be
+admissible to public employments, and qualified to fill them
+according to their capacity and merit, and conformably with rules to
+be generally applied.
+
+"All the subjects of my empire, without distinction, shall be
+received into the civil and military schools of the government, if
+they otherwise satisfy the conditions as to age and examination
+which are specified in the organic regulations of the said schools.
+Moreover, every community is authorized to establish public schools
+of science, art, and industry. Only the method of instruction and
+the choice of professors in schools of this class shall be under the
+control of a mixed council of public instruction, the members of
+which shall be named by my sovereign command.
+
+"All commercial, correctional, and criminal suits between Mussulmans
+and Christian or other non-Mussulman subjects, or between Christians
+or other non-Mussulmans of different sects, shall be referred to
+mixed tribunals.
+
+"The proceedings of these tribunals shall be public; the parties
+shall be confronted, and shall produce their witnesses, whose
+testimony shall be received, without distinction, upon an oath taken
+according to the religious law of each sect.
+
+"Suits relating to civil affairs shall continue to be publicly
+tried, according to the laws and regulations before the mixed
+provincial councils, in the presence of the governor and judge of
+the place. Special civil proceedings, such as those relating to
+successions or others of that kind, between subjects of the same
+Christian or other non-Mussulman faith, may, at the request of the
+parties, be sent before the councils of the Patriarchs or of the
+communities.
+
+"Penal, correctional, and commercial laws, and rules of procedure
+for the mixed tribunals, shall be drawn up as soon as possible, and
+formed into a code. Translations of them shall be published in all
+the languages current in the empire.
+
+"Proceedings shall be taken with as little delay as possible, for
+the reform of the penitentiary system as applied to houses of
+detention, punishment, or correction, and other establishments of
+like nature, so as to reconcile the rights of humanity with those of
+justice. Corporal punishment shall not be administered, even in the
+prisons, except in conformity with the disciplinary regulations
+established by my Sublime Porte; and everything that resembles
+torture shall be entirely abolished.
+
+"Infractions of the law in this particular shall be severely
+repressed, and shall besides entail, as of right, the punishment, in
+conformity with the civil code, of the authorities who may order,
+and of the agents who may commit them.
+
+"The organization of the police in the capital, in the provincial
+towns, and in the rural districts, shall be revised in such a manner
+as to give to all the peaceable subjects of my empire the strongest
+guaranties for the safety both of their persons and property.
+
+"The equality of taxes entailing equality of burdens, as equality of
+duties entails that of rights, Christian subjects, and those of
+other non-Mussulman sects, as it has been already decided, shall, as
+well as Mussulmans, be subject to the obligations of the Law of
+Recruitment. The principle of obtaining substitutes, or of
+purchasing exemption, shall be admitted. A complete law shall be
+published, with as little delay as possible, respecting the
+admission into and service in the army of Christian and other
+non-Mussulman subjects.
+
+"Proceedings shall be taken for a reform in the constitution of the
+provincial and communal councils, in order to insure fairness in the
+choice of the deputies of the Mussulman, Christian, and other
+communities, and freedom of voting in the councils. My Sublime Porte
+will take into consideration the adoption of the most effectual
+means for ascertaining exactly and for controlling the result of the
+deliberations of the decisions arrived at.
+
+"As the laws regulating the purchase, sale, and disposal of real
+property are common to all the subjects of my empire, it shall be
+lawful for foreigners to possess landed property in my dominions,
+conforming themselves to the laws and police regulations, and
+bearing the same charges as the native inhabitants, and after
+arrangements have been come to with foreign powers.
+
+"The taxes are to be levied under the same denomination from all the
+subjects of my empire, without distinction of class or of religion.
+The most prompt and energetic means for remedying the abuses in
+collecting the taxes, and especially the tithes, shall be
+considered. The system of direct collection shall gradually, and as
+soon as possible, be substituted for the plan of farming, in all the
+branches of the revenues of the State. As long as the present system
+remains in force, all agents of the government and all members of
+the medjlis shall be forbidden, under the severest penalties, to
+become lessees of any farming contracts which are announced for
+public competition, or to have any beneficial interest in carrying
+them out. The local taxes shall, as far as possible, be so imposed
+as not to affect the sources of production, or to hinder the
+progress of internal commerce.
+
+"Works of public utility shall receive a suitable endowment, part of
+which shall be raised from private and special taxes, levied in the
+provinces which shall have the benefit of the advantages arising
+from the establishment of ways of communication by land and sea.
+
+"A special law having been already passed, which declares that the
+budget of the revenue and expenditure of the state shall be drawn up
+and made known every year, the said law shall be most scrupulously
+observed. Proceedings shall be taken for revising the emoluments
+attached to each office.
+
+"The heads of each community and a delegate, designated by my
+Sublime Porte, shall be summoned to take part in the deliberations
+of the Supreme Council of Justice on all occasions which might
+interest the generality of the subjects of my empire. They shall be
+summoned specially for this purpose by my Grand Vizier. The
+delegates shall hold office for one year; they shall be sworn on
+entering upon their duties. All the members of the council, at the
+ordinary and extraordinary meetings, shall freely give their
+opinions and their votes, and no one shall ever annoy them on this
+account.
+
+"The laws against corruption, extortion, or malversation, shall
+apply, according to the legal forms, to all the subjects of my
+empire, whatever may be their class and the nature of their duties.
+
+"Steps shall be taken for the formation of banks and other similar
+institutions, so as to effect a reform in the monetary and financial
+system, as well as to create funds to be employed in augmenting the
+sources of the material wealth of my empire.
+
+"Steps shall also be taken for the formation of roads and canals to
+increase the facilities of communication and increase the sources of
+the wealth of the country. Everything that can impede commerce or
+agriculture shall be abolished. To accomplish these objects, means
+shall be sought to profit by the science, the art, and the funds of
+Europe, and thus gradually to execute them.
+
+"Such being my wishes and my commands, you, who are my Grand Vizier,
+will, according to custom, cause this Imperial Firman to be
+published in my capital, and in all parts of my empire; and you will
+watch attentively and take all the necessary measures that all the
+orders which it contains be henceforth carried out with the most
+rigorous punctuality."
+
+Lord Stratford, in replying to a congratulatory address from the
+missionaries, declared his agreement with them in the opinion, that
+something great had been gained; though he believed the principles
+involved would require persevering efforts to carry them into
+practice. He said that he was himself but an humble instrument in
+the hands of divine Providence, and that he had never felt the hand
+of God so sensibly in any other measure he had carried through, as
+in this, which, after he had given it up for lost, had succeeded all
+at once, in a way that filled him with astonishment.[1]
+
+[1] That the Hatti Humaïoun was really intended to include the death
+penalty, is made exceedingly probable by the official correspondence
+which preceded it, and which was in fact its procuring cause. Only a
+few brief extracts can be given in this note.
+
+Referring to the punishment of death as applied to apostates from
+Islamism, the Earl of Clarendon, English Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, writes thus to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe: "As the Turkish
+empire is, by treaty stipulations, to be declared part and parcel of
+the European system, it is quite impossible for the powers of Europe
+to acquiesce in the continuance in Turkey of a law, and a practice,
+which is a standing insult to every other nation in Europe."
+
+Again, on the 17th of September, 1853, the Earl of Clarendon writes
+thus to Lord Stratford: "Her Majesty's Government distinctly demands
+that no punishment whatever shall attach to the Mohammedan who
+becomes a Christian, whether originally a Mohammedan, or originally
+a Christian, any more than any punishment attaches to a Christian
+who embraces Mohammedanism. In all such cases the movements of human
+conscience must be left free, and the temporal arm must not
+interfere to coerce the spiritual decision."
+
+Referring to the Imperial Rescript, February 12, 1856, Lord
+Stratford says, writing to the Earl:--
+
+"If no one is to be molested on account of the religion he
+professes, and no one to be punished as a renegade, whatever form of
+faith he denies, I do not see what room there can possibly be for
+any practical persecutions in future within the limits of the
+Sultan's empire." See _Correspondence respecting Christian
+Privileges in Turkey, in Parliamentary Papers for_ 1856, pp. 15, 24,
+25, 33, 55, 60, 66, 67, 77-80.
+
+The plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, Austria, France, Russia,
+Sardinia, and Turkey, assembled in February, 1856, at the close of
+the Crimean war, to negotiate what is known as the Treaty of Paris.
+It is evident from the Protocols of their Conference, that, having
+the Earl of Clarendon and Lord Cowley among them, they were intent
+on giving weight and perpetuity to this firman of the Sultan, by a
+formal recognition of it in the treaty. This was done in article
+ninth, after much deliberation, and with the full concurrence of all
+the plenipotentiaries, including the representative of the
+Sultan.[1]
+
+[1] "NINTH ARTICLE. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, having, in his
+constant solicitude for the welfare of his subjects, issued a
+firman, which, while, ameliorating their condition without
+distinction of religion or race, records his generous intentions
+towards the Christian population of his empire, and wishing to give
+a further proof of his sentiments in that respect, has resolved to
+communicate to the Contracting Parties the said firman, emanating
+spontaneously from his sovereign will.
+
+"The Contracting Powers recognize the high value of this
+communication. It is clearly understood, that it cannot, in any
+case, give to said Powers the right to interfere, either
+collectively or separately, in the relations of his Majesty, the
+Sultan, with his subjects, nor in the internal administration of his
+Empire." See _Treaty of Paris_, March 30, 1856, in _Parliamentary
+State Papers_, vol. lxi. p. 20. Also, appended, _Protocols of
+Conferences_, pp. 8, 13, 51, 57, 58.
+
+The Hatti Humaïoun of 1855 was much more than a confirmation of the
+Imperial Firman of 1850, nor was it a dead letter. A year afterwards
+Dr. Jewett, while admitting that it was inefficient in certain
+respects, declared it to have been in an important sense, a
+quickening spirit. "Never," he says, "within the same space of time,
+has there been as much religious discussion with the Mussulmans as
+since the issue of the late firman, and never before, I think, has
+there been such a spirit of religious inquiry among Mohammedans, and
+readiness to discuss the merits of the Christian religion, as has
+been evident during the past year. It has awakened hope of a good
+day even for the Moslems." A few years later, Dr. Goodell, speaking
+of it says: "To the Protestant communities here, and to all who live
+godly in Christ Jesus, this Hatti Humaïoun is a boon of priceless
+value. Heretofore its principal use was to secure us from the
+molestation of these corrupt churches, but we have now begun to test
+its importance with reference to the Mohammedans themselves. Only a
+few years since, the headless bodies of apostates from the
+Mohammedan faith might be seen lying in the streets of the great
+city. But now such apostates may be seen at all hours of the day
+walking these same streets without any apparent danger, urging the
+claims of Christianity even in the very courts of the royal mosques,
+and teaching and preaching in the chapel, in the private circle, and
+sometimes even in the palaces of the great, that Jesus Christ is
+Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And all this wonderful
+security is, under God, owing entirely to the Hatti Humaïoun." He
+adds, "It is said that the Turkish government is sometimes guilty of
+violating some of the great principles of that document. And who
+that knows anything of human nature, or of the history of our race,
+ever supposed they would not be guilty of it? To suppose the
+contrary would be to suppose the Turk advanced very much farther
+towards perfection than any other nation on the face of the earth."
+
+A correspondence arose, about this time, in the old Armenian Church,
+between those who inclined towards the Papal Church and those who
+were opposed, and it was gratifying to see that the principal
+Armenian newspaper, published under the sanction of the Patriarch,
+drew its arguments almost wholly from the Scriptures, scarcely
+anything being said of the Councils, or of the Fathers.
+
+The out-stations of Nicomedia, Adabazar, Rodosto, Baghchejuk, and
+Broosa were prosperous. A Protestant Greek community at Demirdesh
+stood firm under persecution, though without a spiritual guide. The
+Pasha did little for their protection, but divine Providence had
+other instruments for their deliverance. The French Vice Consul,
+having to feed immense herds of cattle for the French army, selected
+the principal Greek Protestant of the place as the most competent
+overseer, and empowered him to employ the needful agents. This
+brought to his feet some who had beaten him and even threatened him
+with death. He freely employed them and paid them honestly, thus
+returning good for evil.
+
+The training-school at Tocat was composed of pious young men who
+made considerable progress in their studies. A footing was gained at
+Tarsus and Bitias, south of the Taurus range, and a native pastor
+was ordained at Kessab. Here was a Protestant community of more than
+four hundred.
+
+At Aintab and in its neighboring villages, after only nine years of
+labor, there were twelve stated religious services, nearly half of
+them conducted by native preachers, two thousand Protestants, old
+and young, two hundred and sixty-eight church-members, a large
+congregation on the Sabbath, three promising young men in the
+pastoral office, and two more prepared for that office. The year
+1856 was one of unbroken prosperity in all temporal concerns at
+Aintab. The influence of this prosperity, however, had its usual
+effect in developing a love of the world, and a feeling of
+self-consequence, resulting in some perplexities within the church.
+Such results are known in much older communities, and ought to be
+expected in the early religious life of such a people. Between the
+pastor Kara Krikor and his people there was all that could be
+expected of mutual confidence and harmony, and his monthly salary
+was paid with a promptness unusual in such cases.
+
+The death of Mrs. Schneider on the 29th of September was a great
+loss to the mission. This excellent woman had an earnest desire for
+the salvation of every one she met, and old and young listened with
+pleasure to her instructions. It became known, soon after her
+decease, that three or four small companies of native sisters had
+begun of their own accord to hold meetings in various quarters. The
+progress among the women of Aintab had been great. When the first
+missionary arrived, only one woman was known who was able to read.
+It was now ascertained that nearly three hundred could read the New
+Testament.
+
+The boarding-school pupils at Constantinople received a pupil this
+year from each of the following places--Trebizond, Diarbekir,
+Rodosto, Haskeuy, Scutari, and Baghchejuk. The chief difficulty in
+teaching was the want of suitable text-books in the modern language.
+In addition to the usual studies, the pupils were allowed an
+opportunity to acquaint themselves with domestic duties, and they
+did it in most cases with hearty good-will. Dr. Goodell exercised a
+fatherly care over the institution.
+
+During most of the year Mr. Clark had charge of the Seminary at
+Bebek. The prescribed course of study embraced four years in the
+scholastic department and three in the theological, and was designed
+to secure to the pupils a systematic training. The qualifications
+required for entering, raised the character of the common schools
+connected with the mission. During vacations the students were
+required to support themselves. The average number was forty-five,
+and it was necessary to reject no less than sixty applicants, mainly
+from inability to support them. Among them were Bulgarians,
+Albanians, Wallachians, and Servians. Seven students were in the
+theological department, and three others went through a part of the
+course, one of whom was a Turk, and another a Greek. Dr. Hamlin gave
+instruction in this department after his return, assisted by Dr.
+Schauffler in Turkish. Nine of the students in the seminary were
+church-members, and others gave evidence of piety.
+
+The growth of the Armenian Mission, along with its great extent, of
+territory, required a division for the more convenient
+administration of its affairs. Hence a Southern Armenian Mission was
+organized in November, 1856, having the Taurus for its boundary on
+the north, and embracing the stations of Aintab, Marash, Antioch,
+Aleppo, and Oorfa. Its printing was to be done at Constantinople.
+The members of this mission were Messrs. Schneider, Pratt, Beebee,
+Perkins, Morgan, Nutting, Cotting, and White. The field of the
+Northern Mission extended from the Balkans in European Turkey to the
+eastern waters of the Euphrates.
+
+The "Turkish Missions Aid Society" was formed in England in 1854;
+"not to originate a new mission, but to aid the existing evangelical
+missions in the Turkish empire, especially American." The funds
+contributed to the American missions were given expressly for a
+Native Agency; and important aid has thus been rendered down to the
+present time. The funds of the Society having suffered diminution in
+1857, Dr. Dwight was invited to visit England. He arrived in March
+of the following year, and visited the principal cities, in company
+with the Secretary. "I was everywhere received," says Dr. Dwight,
+"with the most overflowing kindness, and my simple story was
+listened to with the most intense interest. Clergymen and laymen of
+all evangelical denominations were usually present at the meetings,
+which were held on week days, and I saw nowhere anything like a
+sectarian spirit, but uniformly the very reverse. Ministers of the
+Church of England, as well as others, publicly advocated the plan of
+aiding the American Mission in Turkey, rather than sending forth a
+mission of their own." Valuable as the coöperation of this Society
+has been in the bestowment of funds, its moral influence in Turkey,
+as a visible illustration of fraternal feeling among Protestant
+Christians of various names and countries has been of far greater
+value.[1]
+
+[1] The aid afforded by the Turkish Missions Aid Society to the
+missions of the Board in Western Asia, has averaged about ten
+thousand dollars a year.
+
+An account was given, in a former chapter, of the conversion, in
+1842, of a "Papal Armenian.[1] His name was Bedros Kamaghielyan, and
+his death occurred in 1857, fifteen years afterward. His conversion
+was remarkable, and so was his subsequent life. He was for some
+years an efficient helper at Salonica among the Jews, and ever after
+that, he was a successful assistant of Dr. Dwight in Constantinople.
+Eminently wise to win souls to Christ, it is believed that many,
+among the different races in Turkey, will rise up and call him
+blessed. The first Turkish convert who became a preacher, received
+his first impressions from Bedros at Salonica. Years later, the
+missionaries learned that the origin of an interesting work of grace
+among the Greeks of Cassandra, in that region, was traceable to him.
+Though suffering from bodily infirmity in the later years of his
+life, his labors were unceasing for the salvation of souls, and for
+the edification of the church. He was noted for his humility and
+self-denial, and his piety was a steady glow of light. His views of
+the gospel method of salvation were clear, and his manner of
+presenting it exceedingly happy. He was eminently a peacemaker in
+the church, and his good sense was in constant demand in the
+settlement of difficulties. As a deacon in the Yeni Kapoo church he
+was constantly looking after the sick and infirm, visiting families
+in the Protestant community, and instructing their women in the
+doctrines and duties of Christianity. When attacked by his last
+sickness, Bedros very soon received the impression that it would be
+fatal. Once, in great bodily suffering, he exclaimed, "O, what a
+Saviour is my Saviour! He scatters all my darkness, and gives me
+peace." At another time, he wished the missionaries might all be
+called to his bedside, that he might declare to them his great joy,
+and what things the Lord was doing for his soul. A Mohammedan of
+some distinction, who had often had religious conversations with
+Bedros, called upon him without knowing of his sickness. The sick
+man, though in extreme bodily weakness, spoke very faithfully to his
+visitor, and told him of his joy in view of death, and his hope of
+going to be forever with the Lord Jesus Christ, and added: "This is
+the only way of peace and salvation, and Christ is the only Saviour
+of sinners for you, and for me, and for all the world." The eyes of
+the Turk filled with tears. He had never seen a Christian die
+before; and to hear a man talk with so much gladness of his
+departure from the world overcame him, and he hurried from the room.
+An aged Moslem called, who had known Bedros, and gave some evidence
+of being a Christian. Going to his bedside, his eyes streaming with
+tears, he embraced and kissed him in the most affectionate manner.
+Dr. Dwight closes his statement with the following testimony: "Thus
+has passed away one of the choicest spirits this world ever saw. I
+feel that I have many lessons to learn from his quiet, humble, and
+most useful life; and I trust that his death may be greatly blessed
+to all the missionaries, and to all the people."
+
+[1] Chapter ix. p. 130. See, also, _Missionary Herald_, 1857, pp.
+387-390.
+
+The second Mrs. Hamlin died suddenly, on the 6th of November, 1857.
+Though not permitted to give her dying testimony, the record of her
+life was that of a meek, lowly, and quiet spirit; diligent,
+faithful, and affectionate in every duty.[1]
+
+[1] See Memoir, _The Missionary Sisters_, written by Mrs. Benjamin.
+
+The region, of which Arabkir is the centre, was now rising in
+importance. The territory dependent on this station for instruction
+extended from northeast and southwest, along the western bank of the
+Euphrates, one hundred and seventy-five miles, with a population of
+one hundred thousand; about equally divided between Armenians and
+Mussulmans, with few Greeks, no Roman Catholics, and no Jews. A
+large number of the Mussulmans were known as Kuzzelbashes. The field
+was first occupied in 1853, and churches had been organized in three
+cities and two villages, all of which enjoyed the stated preaching
+of the Word.
+
+Sivas, west of Arabkir, and Tocat on the northwest, were missionary
+centres of populous fields, extensively accessible; the former
+containing a population of more than a hundred thousand, and the
+latter of nearly half a million,--Armenians, Turks, Kuzzelbashes,
+Koords, and Greeks.
+
+Harpoot lies cast of Arabkir, on the other side of the Euphrates.
+Mr. Dunmore commenced this station in 1855, and was alone in this
+city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants; the failure of his wife's
+health having obliged her to return to the United States. He had
+been usefully employed here nearly three years,--the last with
+Messrs. Wheeler and Allen,--when, having a taste for exploration and
+pioneer labors, he was transferred, in 1858, to Erzroom, with
+special reference to the region south of that city; and Messrs.
+Wheeler and Allen were joined at Harpoot, in 1859, by Mr. H. N.
+Barnum. The city is the centre of a population of about one hundred
+thousand, and stands on a lofty hill, looking to the distant range
+of the Taurus on the south, and scores of villages on the
+intervening plain. Northward, across the eastern branch of the
+Euphrates, is the still loftier range of the Anti-Taurus; while the
+distant horizon to the east and west is shut in by mountains.
+Arabkir was occupied for several years by Messrs. Clark, Pollard,
+and Richardson, but in 1865 was included in the Harpoot field.[1]
+
+[1] Mr. Wheeler's _Ten Years on the Euphrates_.
+
+Geghi is about ninety miles from Harpoot, in the direction of
+Erzroom. It was visited by Mr. Peabody and Mr. Bliss in 1848 and
+1851. Mr. Peabody found the Vartabed of the place and ten of the
+people deeply interested in reading the Scriptures. Mr. Wheeler
+visited Geghi in the summer of 1858 and found the truth much
+opposed, but taking a firm hold among the sixteen hundred Armenians
+of the place. He was touched by their earnest entreaties to remain
+with them a few mouths; or if that might not be, that he would leave
+his native helper till some one else could come among them. As with
+the Apostle Paul at Troas, the eagerness of the people to hear led
+him to protract his labors on one occasion, till an hour and a half
+past midnight, and on another till the breaking day.
+
+The year 1859 was signalized by a revival in the Bebek Seminary. At
+its commencement, nearly half the students were regarded as
+hopefully pious, and these all seemed at once to have new views of
+spiritual things. The Holy Spirit not only revived the graces of
+such, but put forth a converting power. Within a few weeks nearly
+all the students gave credible evidence of piety. There were several
+cases, also, of hopeful conversion in the girls' boarding school;
+and similar awakenings were reported at Marsovan, Yozgat,
+Baghchejuk, Broosa, and Marash. At the last place thirty-seven were
+added to the church at one time, making eighty-six by profession
+since the beginning of 1858.
+
+Mr. Parsons had received frequent complaints from the brethren of
+Nicomedia, that their girls had not been properly cared for by the
+teacher, and from the teacher that the brethren were intermeddling.
+He answered by withdrawing all aid until they could agree among
+themselves. The effect was immediate. They began to pay a tuition
+fee, and made special efforts to render the school attractive. The
+number of pupils was increased to seventy-eight, and the school
+ceased any longer to need aid.
+
+A fire destroyed the mission premises at Tocat in 1859. The flames
+were so rapid as not only to consume the buildings, but the clothing
+and bedding of the pupils, the books and apparatus of the school, a
+portion of the furniture of Messrs. Pettibone and Winchester, who
+had been recently placed at the head of the school, and all the
+effects of Mr. Van Lennep, including a large and valuable library,
+and a manuscript Armenian translation of a commentary on the Bible,
+made, and to have been printed, at the expense of the Prince of
+Schönberg. In view of this calamity, it was deemed expedient to
+close the training-school. A similar one was opened in the fall of
+the same year, at Harpoot. Mr. Clark returning to the United States,
+Dr. Hamlin renewed his connection with the Bebek Seminary.
+
+Mr. Dunmore, after describing a tour he had made of twelve hundred
+miles from Erzroom to Oroomiah in Persia, and from thence, on his
+return, through Russian Armenia, gives the following summary of his
+missionary travels: "I have travelled on horseback over six thousand
+miles in Turkey, and one thousand in Persia and Russia, between two
+and three hundred on goat skins upon the Tigris, and over fifteen
+hundred by steamer, without sickness by the way, without accident,
+or the loss of an article of value. And I have never taken a guard
+when travelling alone, for protection from robbers. Surely we may
+safely trust Him who says: 'Believe in God, believe also in me.'"[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1859, pp. 306-313.
+
+The missionaries at Cesarea were much encouraged by the progress of
+the work there. Mr. Leonard thus writes: "The church, though
+constantly dismissing members to other churches, still maintains its
+numbers by fresh accessions from without, and is at the same time
+evidently advancing in consistent, intelligent Christian character.
+Here are some noble exemplars of faith and piety, who search the
+Scriptures daily, and adorn their doctrines by a godly life. I have
+often wished I might introduce some of our American friends into our
+teachers' meetings on a Sabbath afternoon, or to the Sabbath-school
+at the intermission of public worship, where nearly the whole
+congregation remains, exhibiting a zeal and aptness in the
+discussion of religious truths scarcely surpassed in the most
+favored churches in New England. The weekly woman's prayer-meeting
+is sometimes left entirely in the hands of the native sisters, and
+any one of half a dozen is always ready without embarrassment to
+take the lead, discoursing very appropriately from her Turkish
+Testament. This, I am told, is a rare thing in Turkey, where woman
+has been so long held in ignorance and degradation."
+
+The reader will remember the Patriarch Matteos, and his degradation
+in 1849. After ten years passed in retirement, he was elected
+Catholikos of all the Armenians, and removed to Echmiadzin. His
+election to such a post at this time was significant, but the
+probability of his being able then to hinder the reformation did not
+create serious apprehension.
+
+Mrs. Beebee died peacefully at Marash, on the 28th of October, 1858,
+after protracted sufferings, and her husband returned some months
+after to the United States with broken health, and was released from
+his connection with the Board.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1860-1861.
+
+
+The fleets and armies of Europe had retired, and the Turk felt in a
+measure freed from a troublesome guardianship; which had, however,
+greatly promoted both religion and reform in Turkey. The fact that
+the war had materially weakened Russian influence at the Porte, may
+have been among the reasons that induced England now to relax its
+hold on the government of the Sultan. As a consequence, French
+diplomacy was decidedly in the ascendant, and lent its influence to
+promote Papal schemes. "The Armenians," writes a well informed
+missionary, "accept a declaration of the Bible as ultimate, and as
+the Protestant missionaries made the Bible the basis of all their
+work, and accustomed the people to refer to it for authority in all
+spiritual matters, the Papists have been shut up to the use of
+political measures to gain adherents. This they have done by
+espousing the cause of any party in litigation on condition that he
+should register himself a Roman Catholic. This influence was very
+powerful throughout the country, as it was supported by the
+intervention of the French embassy, and led to violence and
+persecution in various parts of the empire, especially at Mardin,
+where the papal power was comparatively strong."
+
+Anticipating the history, it may be said, that the Franco-German war
+changed all this. The Turkish government then no longer feared the
+French, and hence no longer lent itself to Papal intrigues. The
+dogma of the Papal Infallibility has been also a severe blow to the
+Oriental Papacy.
+
+No one was more competent than Dr. Dwight to testify concerning the
+state of religious opinions among the Armenians of the metropolis.
+Writing in February, 1860, he said it would be hard to find an
+intelligent Armenian in Constantinople, unless among the
+ecclesiastics, who did not acknowledge that there were many errors
+in the Armenian Church, and that the evangelical system was the
+best.
+
+About the game time, he found a great change for the better at
+Rodosto, on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmora. The
+evangelical brethren had suffered many indignities from the
+Armenians, but now even the magnates were disposed to cultivate
+friendly relations with them. This he attributed, in great measure,
+to the wise and yet firm demeanor of Apraham, the native preacher,
+who afterwards became pastor of the Rodosto church. He was a native
+of the place, and was once a deacon in the old Armenian Church, and
+a candidate for the offices of vartabed and bishop. His first
+knowledge of the truth was gained while in the Armenian monastery at
+Jerusalem. From thence he came to Bebek, where he studied theology.
+He was an exception to the rule, that a prophet has no honor in his
+own country, for without compromising the truth, he had gained the
+respect of all. He showed his missionary friend a list of eighty
+families, upon which he called in regular order. Though most of them
+belonged to the old Armenian Church, they received him kindly. The
+missionary called with him upon two of these families prominent in
+the Armenian community, in one of which they spent an entire
+evening. A copy of the Bible, in the modern language, was in the
+house, and was brought forward, read, and commented upon, just as if
+this had been a Protestant family.
+
+Dr. Dwight attended the examination of the Protestant school at
+Rodosto. More than half of the pupils were from non-Protestant
+families; and an audience of two hundred and fifty expressed very
+general satisfaction with the attainments of the pupils. On the
+Sabbath he administered the Lord's Supper. A large number not
+connected with the church, were present, and gave close attention to
+the preaching. Many must have come from mere curiosity, but the
+missionary never preached with greater certainty that he had the
+sympathies of his audience.
+
+In the following July, events showed that the new influences had in
+some way reached all classes of Armenians in the metropolis. An aged
+Protestant died and his body was borne by his friends to an Armenian
+cemetery, which hitherto had been open to all bearing the Christian
+name. Now, however, a mob, composed of the very lowest class of
+Armenians, seized the coffin, and forcibly carried it out of the
+burying-ground, where it remained four days. The mob increased to
+thousands, and kept possession of the ground day and night. The
+American and English Ambassadors were at length roused, and
+remonstrated with the Porte and the Patriarch. The burial was
+assented to, and the Seraskier, or Minister of War, came with
+several hundred troops. A place was selected for the grave within
+the cemetery, but the mob, at the first blow of the pickaxe, rushed
+forward with a savage yell. The troops were ordered to resist, but
+not to fire. After twenty or thirty had been wounded, the mob fell
+back. The Patriarch and other dignitaries of the Armenian Church now
+came upon the ground, and gave their sanction to the spot selected
+for the burial, and the grave was dug. Just then the Seraskier, for
+some unexplained reason, ordered the grave to be filled, and another
+to be dug outside of the cemetery, in the middle of the public
+highway. The Protestants declined taking part in the burial in such
+a spot, though entreated to do so by the Seraskier, but remained and
+looked on in silence, while Mussulmans dug the grave, put the coffin
+into it, and filled it up. As soon as this was done, the mob rushed
+forward and trampled spitefully upon it, in the presence of the
+Pasha and Patriarch. The representatives of the Protestant powers
+now united in a strong remonstrance to the government; and Stepan
+Effendi, the civil head of the Protestants, was speedily notified,
+that ground would be given them for cemeteries wherever Protestants
+were found.
+
+A native assistant died at Baghchejuk, near Nicomedia, early in the
+year, who had from the beginning been intimately connected with the
+work in that place, and was called the "prince of colporters," on
+account of his success in distributing the Scriptures. Being by
+nature an earnest man, when converted he became zealous in
+disseminating the truth. As he was respected through all the region,
+there was great anxiety among the Armenians to regain him, and an
+ex-Patriarch visited Baghchejuk, in the hope of bringing him back.
+Promises and threats were equally vain, and the storm of persecution
+finally burst upon him. His vineyards and mulberry orchards were cut
+down, and much of his property was wrested from him. He was beaten
+and stoned, and his name cast out as vile. When they were building
+the church he brought a basket full of stones and brick-bats, which
+had been thrown through his windows, to be incorporated in the
+foundation wall. He described the effect of persecution in his own
+case, thus: "The truth in my heart was like a stake slightly driven
+into soft ground, easily swayed, and in danger of falling before the
+wind; but by the sledge-hammer of persecution God drove it in till
+it became immovable." "His working power," says Mr. Parsons, the
+resident missionary, "like everything else in his possession, was
+consecrated to Christ. With great self-denial on his part, two
+hundred piasters a month (about eight dollars) enabled him to give
+all his time to street preaching, and the sale of the Scriptures. As
+a bookseller he was eminently faithful and successful. Not contented
+with sitting in the book-stall waiting for purchasers, he used to
+shoulder a basket of books, and go through the streets and lanes of
+town and city, offering for sale the 'Holy Book;' the 'Book that
+would not lie;' the 'Infallible Guide;' and proclaiming, in
+a loud voice, its divine origin, man's need of it, and its
+light-and-life-giving power. This he did as time and strength
+permitted, from Broosa to Angora, and from Bilijik to the Black Sea.
+He everywhere either carried with him, or had near at hand, a supply
+of Bibles in the Turkish, Armenian, Greek, and Jewish languages.
+Probably not less than one hundred thousand persons have heard from
+him the proffer of the word of life."
+
+"The word of God," continues Mr. Parsons, "was his constant
+companion. He was so familiar with it, that he could turn with
+facility to any passage desired. He walked with God. He was a man of
+prayer. His happiest moments were seasons of devotion--private,
+social, and public. I should say, rather, that next to the work of
+bringing others to Christ, his delight was in prayer and praise. He
+has rested from his labors, but his works do follow him. Before he
+died, he could rejoice in a rich harvest from his own sowing, but a
+greater harvest is yet to be reaped from the seed so widely
+scattered by his hand. He has gone, a sheaf of the first-fruits of
+the work in Baghchejuk. He 'came to his grave as a shock of corn
+cometh in in his season.'"
+
+Mr. E. E. Bliss passed through Marsovan on his way to Harpoot, and
+found that the rampant hostility of eight years before had died
+out.[1] Instead of the hootings and stonings, which then greeted his
+arrival, he was met, a long way out, by a goodly company to escort
+him to his lodgings. On the Sabbath, in place of the little company
+assembled in a lower room of his own house, he now preached to a
+good audience, in a large and commodious chapel.
+
+[1] See chapter xxiv.
+
+"I spent," he says, "a few days at Sivas, where I was eight years
+ago, and found the small room, where ten or fifteen then met for
+God's worship, exchanged for a large upper room, filled with an
+audience of more than a hundred. And as we went onward to places we
+had never before visited, it was a continual feast to see the extent
+to which the work of God had spread in the whole country. In almost
+every place where we stopped for the night, however obscure the
+village, some would gather around us as brethren in the Lord. They
+were often coarsely dressed and rude of speech, undistinguishable in
+appearance from the mass around them; but a few words of
+conversation would show that their souls had been illuminated by the
+truth."
+
+The annual meeting of the Northern Armenian Mission for 1860, was
+held at Harpoot, east of the Euphrates, seven hundred and fifty
+miles from Constantinople. And it was a significant fact, that the
+delegates from the metropolis were able to communicate with their
+families over the telegraph wires, destined to connect London with
+Calcutta.
+
+The distance from the capital, and of the stations from each other
+was so great, as to render it difficult to assemble in the annual
+meetings, that were indispensable for an effective administration.
+At this meeting, what had been known as the Northern Mission, was
+divided into Western and Eastern, and Erzroom, Harpoot, and Arabkir
+composed the Eastern Mission. The Southern Mission then took the
+name of the Central; and the stations of the Assyria Mission were
+united to the Eastern. It will be convenient to use the names
+Western, Central, and Eastern in designating territory, but we
+shall, as far as possible, treat the three divisions as constituting
+one great mission.
+
+The church at Harpoot received its first native pastor at this
+annual meeting. He was one of several young men, who left Diarbekir
+for Constantinople, eight years before, for the purpose of obtaining
+a Protestant education at Bebek. They were subjected to many
+revilings on their way, and few showed them any kindness. Some who
+were in sympathy with them deprecated their removal from Diarbekir,
+as the withdrawal from that place of the little light which had
+begun to shine. Now, having completed the course of study at the
+Seminary, Tomas, one of that company, was preaching the Gospel every
+Sabbath in Diarbekir, and was to become pastor there; and Marderos,
+another, combining great excellence of character, was made pastor of
+the flourishing church at Harpoot.
+
+Mr. Dunmore, when he commenced the Harpoot station, five years
+before, found not a single Protestant in that city. It was now only
+three years since the arrival of Messrs. Wheeler, Allen, and Barnum,
+and there were thirty-nine church-members, and Harpoot was fast
+becoming an important centre of influence. There were schools in ten
+of the thirteen out-stations, eleven of which were supplied with
+preaching on the Sabbath by the missionaries and students of the
+Seminary, and in all the surrounding regions there was an increase
+of attendance on preaching. Women learned to read, and groups were
+found studying the Bible. In the numerous villages of the Harpoot
+plain and outlying districts were many faithful disciples of the
+Lord Jesus. The spirit of freedom had gone forth, as was seen in the
+growing activity of laymen, and the consequent decline of
+superstition and ecclesiastical despotism. Instruction was
+communicated to large numbers of both men and women, and it was
+beginning to be regarded as disgraceful for adults of either sex not
+to be able to read.
+
+The theological school contained twenty-four pupils, of whom eleven
+were from the vicinity and ten were married men. The students
+devoted their winter vacation of four months to preaching and
+teaching, and in term time they preached at out-stations.
+
+Mrs. Dwight, after twenty-one years of eminently useful service,
+died at Constantinople in November, 1860. Dr. Dwight's family being
+thus broken up, he commenced, with the approval of his brethren, a
+tour through Syria and Asiatic Turkey, intending to go over much of
+the ground he had traversed with Dr. Eli Smith in their explorations
+thirty years before.
+
+How great the changes in the intervening period! Then, for fourteen
+and a half months, he was unable to receive tidings from his wife,
+whom he had left in Malta. Now, from beyond the Euphrates, he could
+have communicated daily with Constantinople by telegraph. Then, no
+fellow-laborers were to be found between Smyrna and the little bands
+of German and Scotch brethren soon after to be driven away from
+Russian Armenia and Georgia, and nowhere did they meet among the
+people any religious sympathies in unison with their own. Now, the
+survivor found missionaries scattered over the land, and he scarcely
+entered a place where some one, at least, did not greet him with a
+joyful welcome. Then, the object was to explore an unbroken scene of
+spiritual death. Now, it was to confirm living churches, and help
+forward a growing spiritual work.
+
+The tour was extended as far as the Nestorian mission, and occupied
+about eight months. Reviewing this journey of almost unprecedented
+interest, Dr. Dwight could not refrain from using the language of
+Christian triumph: "I have visited," he says, "every station of the
+Board in Turkey and Persia excepting those among the Bulgarians. It
+has been my privilege to see all the missionaries and their
+families,--a rare body of men and women, of whom our churches and
+our country may well be proud,--and also to become personally
+acquainted with hundreds and thousands of the dear Protestant
+brethren and sisters of this land--God's lights in the midst of
+surrounding darkness; God's witnesses even where Satan dwelleth."
+
+Dr. Dwight was at Marash in April, and this is his own vivid
+description of what he saw there: "This place is indeed a missionary
+wonder! Twelve years ago there was not a Protestant here, and the
+people were proverbially ignorant, barbarous, and fanatical. Six
+years ago the evangelical Armenian church was organized with sixteen
+members, the congregation at that time consisting of one hundred and
+twenty. On the last Sabbath I preached in the morning to a
+congregation of over a thousand, and in the afternoon addressed
+nearly or quite fifteen hundred people, when forty were received
+into the church, making the whole number two hundred and
+twenty-seven. Nearly one hundred of these have been added since Mr.
+White came here, two years ago. One old woman of seventy-five years
+was admitted who was converted only four months ago. She was
+previously a bigoted opposer, but now she seems full of the love of
+Christ. Her emotions almost overpowered her on approaching the table
+of the Lord.
+
+"The church-members here impressed me from the first as men who
+thought more of the spiritual than the temporal. The Holy Spirit has
+been evidently at work here during the whole of the year, and
+especially through the past winter, and conversions are constantly
+taking place. The burden of conversation among the brethren is in
+regard to praying and laboring for the salvation of souls.
+
+"On the Sabbath the half of the body of the church was filled with
+women packed closely together on the floor. The other half, and the
+broad galleries around three sides of the house, were completely
+crowded with men. A new church is needed immediately in the other
+end of the town. I bless God that He brought me here, and I feel
+almost like saying, 'Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.'"
+
+It should be said that this visit to Marash was in the midst of a
+revival. The resident missionary, Mr. White, describes the work as
+being chiefly among the Armenians and Roman Catholics. "Every night
+they met in the houses of the Protestants and spent hours, sometimes
+even till near morning, examining the Scriptures and comparing them
+with the corrupt teachings of their own churches. Our young men were
+very active, laboring both day and night, so much so, that the
+Catholic bishop said he could not understand it; that if the young
+men were paid for thus laboring, the missionaries had not money
+enough; and if they were not paid, they had a love which he could
+not understand. Many of his people, however, seemed to comprehend it
+better than he did, and are now regular attendants at our church."
+
+The veteran missionary pays a noble tribute to the wives of the
+missionaries at the several stations of the central mission: "I felt
+myself rebuked when I saw the earnest, self-devoted spirit of my
+missionary sisters, who are laboring in Aintab, in Marash, in
+Antioch, in Aleppo, and in Oorfa, for the salvation of their
+degraded sex; thinking little of the sacrifices they have made in
+leaving America, to live in such a country as Turkey. It would be
+difficult to find in Christendom a more happy class than these, our
+helpers in Christ Jesus. The holy object which fills their hearts
+lifts them above the distracting and embittering influences of
+external circumstances."
+
+The change at Diarbekir, during the score of years since Dr. Grant
+and Mr. Homes barely escaped with their lives, had been truly
+wonderful. Drs. Dwight and Schneider and Mr. Nutting, on their
+approach from Oorfa, were met, eighteen miles out, by a deputation
+of Protestant brethren on horseback; and, a few miles further on, by
+another detachment, headed by Mr. Walker and the native pastor; and
+when near the city, by a third on foot, thus giving them a sort of
+triumphal entry. Nor, during their whole stay, was there anything to
+awaken a feeling of insecurity, but convincing evidence, that
+Protestantism had a strong hold on many minds.
+
+Dr. Dwight noticed a decline of the Turkish population in the region
+of the Euphrates. Several entire quarters in Diarbekir, formerly
+Turkish, had passed into Christian hands, and the process was going
+on. Armenians, Jacobites, and Protestants were buying Turkish
+houses, but seldom did a Turk buy one of theirs; and around the
+outskirts of the city there were extensive Turkish quarters all in
+ruins.
+
+Mrs. Dunmore had come to the United States in 1856, in consequence
+of the failure of her health, and was never able to return. Her
+husband continued his self-denying labors four years longer, until,
+seeing no prospect of her recovery, he believed his duty required
+him to follow her. It was then a time of civil war in his native
+land, and his public spirit led him to accept an invitation from a
+regiment of cavalry to be their chaplain. A detachment, with which
+he was connected, was surprised early in the morning of August 3,
+1861, and he fell, shot in the head before he was fairly out of his
+tent.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1862, p. 321.
+
+In courage, enterprise, tact, and efficacy, Mr. Dunmore stood in the
+front rank of missionaries. "He did not write much of what he did,"
+says Mr. Walker, his successor at Diarbekir. "He cared not to be
+known. But he cared for the souls of this poor people, and for
+Christ's kingdom. I think that few missionaries are so well fitted
+for the work, and very few labor with the same zeal and self-denial.
+To few is it given to accomplish so much. There is comparatively
+little accomplished in Diarbekir, Arabkir, Harpoot, and Moosh, which
+is not, under God, due to this brother. His influence will long be
+felt in these parts. Paul was his model, and there are few who come
+so near to that exemplar. He had wonderful power in attaching the
+natives to him. He could sympathize deeply with them, and aid them
+as few can. His heart was in the work here, and it was a very great
+trial for him to return to America. His fearless journeys among the
+Koords in this land, led us often to feel apprehensive for his life.
+The Lord forgive the Texan, whose bullet cut short a life so
+valuable."
+
+In the years 1860 and 1861, the ill health of either husband or wife
+deprived the mission of the labors of Messrs. Clark, Hutchison,
+Parsons, and Plumer, and their families. Mr. and Mrs. Peabody
+returned to their native land, after a faithful service of nineteen
+years. Dr. Schauffler also terminated his official connection of
+twenty-nine years with his missionary associates, and entered the
+service of the American, and the British and Foreign Bible Societies
+in the work of Bible translation for the Turkish Mohammedans. Miss
+Tenney was married to Dr. Hamlin, who had been released from his
+connection with the Board to take charge of a Protestant college in
+Constantinople, though without any change in the great object of his
+labors.
+
+Mr. Williams reoccupied Mardin in the year 1861. This was then, as
+now, the capital of the Syrian Church, and the natural centre of
+operations among the Arabic-speaking people in Eastern Turkey. It
+embraced Mosul, and multitudes of towns and villages scattered over
+a wide region, and required more than one missionary; though that
+one was a man of first-rate abilities and eminent devotion to his
+work. It was put in connection with the Armenian Mission, partly
+because its missionary policy was the same, and partly because it
+seemed necessary to work that whole field from one central station,
+and by a small number of missionaries, and because it would require
+the moral support of the larger mission in its neighborhood.
+
+A training-school was commenced at Mardin in the following year, on
+the plan of the one at Harpoot, with a class of eight hopefully
+pious young men. The congregation had doubled since Mr. Williams'
+return and Protestantism had a more favorable position; but as yet
+the intellect accepted the truth more readily than did the heart.
+
+Trebizond had only a native pastor, and the day-school was reported
+as one of the best in Turkey. Khanoos, southeast of Erzroom, had
+been faithfully cultivated for some time by the native pastor,
+Simon, who was now removed to Moosh, where he would have a better
+field. Erzroom was again without a missionary in consequence of the
+necessary removal of Mr. Trowbridge to the capital.
+
+In addition to notices of versions of the Scriptures in the
+preceding chapter, it should now be stated, that Dr. Goodell had
+completed the great work of his life,--the translation of the Bible
+into the Turkish language, as written in the Armenian character and
+spoken by the Armenians. The version was from the Hebrew and Greek;
+the New Testament had received three distinct revisions, and the Old
+Testament one. His principal helper, for thirty years, was Panayotes
+Constantinides, who died March 11, 1861. "He had greatly desired,"
+writes Dr. Goodell, "to live to see the end of the revision, and we
+pressed on together, returning thanks at the end of every chapter,
+that we had got so far on our journey. But his strength failed him
+on the way, and when there was but little further to go, he laid
+himself down, and the angels carried him to his home in heaven." Dr.
+Schauffler had nearly completed a translation of the New Testament
+in Turkish, with the Arabic or sacred character, and after much
+difficulty had obtained the consent of the government to its
+publication. Dr. Riggs had reached the books of Kings, in addition
+to the Psalms, in his version of the Scriptures in Bulgarian, and
+had also given time to preparing and editing Bulgarian tracts.
+
+The amount of publication in the year 1860, in the Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, Bulgarian, and Modern Greek, was 164,500 copies, and
+13,296,000 pages. The total expenditure was $15,789, from the
+following sources:--
+
+American Bible Society              $3,473
+British and Foreign Bible Society    1,243
+American Tract Society, New York     2,646
+American Tract Society, Boston         674
+London Tract Society                 1,175
+American Board of Commissioners
+   for Foreign Missions              5,462
+Other sources                        1,116
+                                   --------
+                                   $15,789
+
+Among the books published were a Reply to Archbishop Matteos in
+Armenian, a Commentary on Matthew, Hymn-Book, Theological
+Class-Book, and Geography,--the last at the expense of Haritûn
+Minasiyan, an Armenian printer. The Word of God was more in demand
+than any other book. The Armenian Bible, with marginal references,
+electrotyped and printed in New York by the American Bible Society,
+was highly prized. The American Tract Society had also electrotyped
+and printed several works for the mission, which were admired for
+their beauty, and were furnished more cheaply than they could have
+been prepared in Constantinople.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE ASSYRIA MISSION.
+
+1849-1860.
+
+
+Mosul is related to the Syria Mission in language, the written
+Arabic being essentially the same in both fields; but there is
+considerable difference in the language of preaching and social
+intercourse, "Near Mosul, and especially on the east of the Tigris,"
+writes Dr. Leonard Bacon, after his visit to Mosul, "the language is
+Syriac, or as they there call it, _Fellahi_, the peasant language.
+In other districts, Turkish and Koordish are spoken by many nominal
+Christians. The people in Mesopotamia are very different from those
+in Syria. They are of other sects. Instead of the Greek Church, the
+Greek Catholic, and the Maronite, we find, as we travel east of the
+Euphrates, and especially as we approach the Tigris, the Jacobite,
+the Syrian Catholic or Romanized Jacobite, the Nestorian (almost
+exterminated), and the Chaldean or Romanized Nestorian. And the
+condition of these sects, as it respects the feeling of strength and
+pride, is very unlike that of the sects in Syria. The Maronite
+Church, and the Greek Catholic, are strong and proud in their
+relation to Rome, and in the feeling that they are protected by the
+great papal powers in Europe. The Greek Church may be likened to a
+Russian colony in the Turkish empire. But the more eastern sects,
+remnants of what were once the great Oriental Church, are in far
+different relations, ecclesiastical and political. The Jacobites,
+like the Nestorians, feel themselves weakened and depressed. The
+Syrian Catholic and the Chaldean are not very firmly united to Rome,
+and are little affected by European influences. Nor is this all. The
+nominal Christians of Mesopotamia are of a very different race and
+blood from those of Syria. The Greek element, which characterizes
+the Arabic-speaking Christians west of the Euphrates,--an element of
+subtlety of disputation, and of intellectual pride,--is not so
+prominent in these more Oriental communities. For these and other
+reasons, I cannot but think that this field should be occupied by
+the brethren of the Mosul station, and be regarded as entirely
+distinct from that of the Syria Mission. Mosul, as a centre of
+missionary labor, is much more nearly related to Oroomiah, than to
+Beirût, or Aleppo."[1]
+
+[1] _Report of the Board for_ 1851, p. 82.
+
+The visit of Messrs. Perkins and Stocking to Mosul, in May, 1849,
+has been already mentioned.[1] That visit did much to prepare the
+way for Mr. Ford, of the Aleppo station, who went there at the close
+of 1849. He was kindly received by Mr. Rassam, the English Consul,
+and had a joyful greeting from the little band of "gospel men," who
+welcomed the return of their long lost privileges of Christian
+instruction. Of the fifty who soon called upon him, about twenty
+appeared to be decidedly evangelical, and ready to stand by the
+Gospel at all hazards, though few of them gave evidence of a work of
+grace in their hearts. Twenty more were enlightened and favorably
+disposed; and the remaining ten might be regarded as indifferent or
+hostile. This little band was the remainder of those who had been
+brought under the influence of the Gospel, when our brethren of the
+Mountain Nestorian Mission were detained in the mysterious
+providence of God, to labor and suffer there. Yet the Lord had not
+forsaken them, for Meekha, the ingenious mechanic, who had learned
+the truth from Mr. Laurie, had given them the benefit of his
+steadfast piety and diligent instruction.
+
+[1] Chapter xx.
+
+The reader knows, already, what led to the temporary occupation of
+Mosul by the Board, in 1841. Its relinquishment in 1844, was chiefly
+in view of the fact, that the Episcopal Church of the United States
+had a mission then in Turkey, with the avowed object of laboring
+among the Jacobites of Mesopotamia.[1] That mission having been
+withdrawn from the Turkish empire, the operations of the Board were
+naturally extended again to Mosul, to look after the fruits of
+former labors, as well as to meet the exigencies of the mission in
+western Koordistan.
+
+[1] This was first known through Dr. Grant, who forwarded a copy of
+a letter from seven of the American Episcopal Bishops to the Syrian
+Patriarch at Mardin, as evidence of the fact. After stating the
+object in sending the Rev. Horatio Southgate to reside for a time at
+Mardin, with the hope of associating two others with him, to which
+no exception could be taken, the Patriarch was informed by the
+letter, that Mr. Southgate "will make it clearly understood, that
+the American Church has no ecclesiastical connection with the
+followers of Luther and Calvin, and takes no part in their plans or
+operations to diffuse the principles of these sects."
+
+The Rev. Dwight W. Marsh arrived at Mosul on the 20th of March,
+1850, going by way of Beirût, Aleppo, Aintab, Oorfa, and Diarbekir;
+from this last place he floated down the Tigris on a raft supported
+by inflated goat-skins, in less than four days to his new home. He
+describes the river as breaking through between bold precipices, and
+scenery delightfully and unexpectedly romantic. Mr. Schneider was
+his travelling companion from Aintab to Diarbekir, and Mr. Ford was
+at Mosul to greet him on his arrival. The Rev. William Frederic
+Williams removed from the Syria Mission to Mosul in the spring of
+1851, going in company with Dr. Bacon and his son Mr. Leonard W.
+Bacon, then travelling in the East. Salome Carabet, the eldest of
+the girls in Mr. Whiting's family at Abeih, went with Mr. Williams,
+to take charge of a school of thirty girls.
+
+Dr. Bacon's visit to Mosul was in compliance with a request of the
+Prudential Committee, that he would make his tour of relaxation and
+improvement the occasion of visiting the several stations of the
+Board in Western Asia. The attempt to proceed from Mosul to Oroomiah
+through the mountains by the most direct route, was unsuccessful.
+The two travellers, in company with Mr. Marsh, soon after crossing
+the Zab, were set upon by Koordish robbers, who had been requested
+by an Agha, near Akra, to kill them. So imminent was the peril, that
+they united together in prayer to God, led by Dr. Bacon. Some
+Moolahs seeing this, interceded for their lives, and though they
+could not hinder their being plundered, they succeeded in sending
+them safely to another Moolah, three hours distant, who was revered
+for his sanctity; and it was through his resolute protection, under
+God, that they effected a safe return to Mosul. Mr. Rassam gave
+information of the outrage to the English Ambassador, and the Pasha,
+in the following year, having received orders from Constantinople,
+sent three hundred men, with three cannon, against the robber, who
+was compelled to pay the full value of the losses, and much more
+besides to the government.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, for 1851, p. 295, and 1852, p. 388.
+
+The Assyria Mission was so named for geographical reasons. Its most
+northern station at this time, was Diarbekir. Dr. Grant passed
+through this city with Mr. Homes, in 1839, Messrs. Hinsdale and
+Mitchell passed through it in 1841, and Mr. Laurie in 1842. The city
+was visited by Mr. Peabody in 1849, when he found several persons
+awakened by reading the Scriptures and other books, brought there by
+colporters. It was visited again by Mr. Schneider in the following
+year, who reported that nearly fifty Armenians were accustomed to
+meet on the Sabbath for reading the Scriptures. These were then
+subjected to a severe persecution, and they sent to Constantinople
+for a vizierial letter, which was granted, but brought little
+relief. Dr. Azariah Smith organized a small church at Diarbekir in
+the spring of 1851. It included both Armenians and Jacobites; but
+only those were to be received who gave satisfactory evidence of
+piety. As soon as this restriction was announced, the most
+influential Syrians in the congregation resolutely set themselves to
+secure admission to the church for all Protestants of good moral
+character. For a time their efforts to unite the congregation in
+opposition prevented attention to their ordinary business; and but
+for the conservative spirit of the Armenian portion, perhaps the
+audience, as a whole, would have gone back to their churches. In the
+end all were persuaded to listen to a discourse on the subject, by
+Dr. Smith, and the character of the young ruler, in Luke xviii.
+18-30, was unfolded in connection with Acts ii. 43-47. The
+exhibition of a church, as an association of men devoted, body and
+soul, time and wealth, to the extension of Christ's kingdom, was new
+to them. That repentance involved the ceasing to live for selfish
+and worldly ends, and that faith in Christ included the consecration
+of our energies to his service, was no part of their old creed. And
+though these truths had been previously preached by the
+missionaries, the practical connection in which they now came up
+made them more impressive.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Dunmore, after spending some months at Aintab, arrived
+at Diarbekir in November, 1851. They were accompanied by Stepan, a
+graduate of the seminary at Bebek. This man, not long after his
+arrival, was rudely arrested by a Turkish officer as a Protestant,
+and cast into a prison, where he spent the night with vagabonds and
+thieves. The Pasha refused Mr. Dunmore a hearing, but at once
+ordered Stepan's release.
+
+Mr. Dunmore had not yet a free use of the Turkish, which was the
+language spoken by the Armenians; but an average of more than
+seventy persons came on the Sabbath to hear Stepan, and new faces
+were seen at every meeting.
+
+Soon after the arrival of Mr. Dunmore, a young man of talents, named
+Tomas, who had long been vacillating, boldly declared himself a
+Protestant, and though his bishop offered him the monthly reward of
+two hundred piastres for two years, paid in advance, if he would
+leave the Protestants, his reply was: "Go tell the bishop that I did
+not become a Protestant for money, and that I will not leave them
+for money, even should he give me my house full of gold." Tomas was
+then nineteen years of age, and had an orphan brother and two
+sisters dependent on him. He had been a prosperous silk
+manufacturer, but after he became a Protestant, both nominal
+Christians and Moslems refused to trade with him, and he was
+impoverished. It was decided to send him to the Bebek Seminary, with
+his younger brother; and to send his older sister to the Female
+Seminary at the same place; while Mr. and Mrs. Dunmore took the
+youngest, a bright little girl of six years. In this young man we
+have the future native pastor of the church in that city.
+
+The persecutions inflicted on the Protestants at Diarbekir were
+similar to those described elsewhere. But not only were the native
+converts, in this remote city, oppressed in every possible way, but
+the missionary reports himself as being grossly insulted, and even
+stoned in the streets whenever he went abroad.
+
+About this time Mr. Marsh performed a missionary tour to Mardin,
+through Jebel Tour, a branch of the great Kûrdish range of mountains
+which crosses the Tigris above Jezirah, and goes westward toward the
+Euphrates. These rugged, though not lofty mountains, cover fourteen
+hundred square miles, and form the stronghold of the Jacobites.
+Their ecclesiastical capital is Mardin. "High up the mountain's
+side," writes Mr. Marsh, "with a steep descent of six or seven
+hundred feet to the plains, the city wall mounts up still higher,
+three hundred feet or more; and a large castle on the mountain top
+crowns the view." Here he found several persons favorably inclined,
+and recommended the place for a missionary station.
+
+The Rev. Henry Lobdell, M. D., and wife, reached Mosul in May 1852.
+They came through Aintab, Oorfa, and Diarbekir. Such was the desire
+of the people of Aintab for a missionary physician to take the place
+of Dr. Smith, that four hundred and twenty of them signed a petition
+in a single evening, requesting him to remain; but he felt
+constrained to give them a negative. He speaks with pleasure of his
+brief sojourn at Oorfa, which he describes as beautifully situated
+on the west side of a fertile plain, and retaining many marks of its
+ancient greatness.
+
+In the ten days which Dr. Lobdell spent with Mr. Dunmore at
+Diarbekir, he was impressed by the hold the reformation was taking
+in that place. At the same time, he and his missionary brother had a
+startling illustration of its hostility to the Gospel. They were
+looking at the great mosque of the city, formerly a Christian
+church, and in the words of Mr. Dunmore, "As we were standing in
+front of it, in the public highway, examining its architecture,
+several lads came up and began to insult us and to order us away. We
+did not notice them, but went further from the mosque, and stopped
+to examine some old marble pillars. Soon, however, we found a rabble
+about us, who began to jerk our garments. I then turned and spoke to
+them, and they instantly rushed upon us like tigers. They seized Dr.
+Lobdell's hat, threw it into the air, and began to beat him. One
+ruffian seized me by the throat. By main strength I loosed his
+grasp, and was moving off, when two men tried to wrest my cane from
+me, but did not succeed. We retreated as last as possible, but when
+we got out of the reach of their hands, they resorted to throwing
+stones, some of them weighing two or three pounds. One hit Dr.
+Lobdell in the side, and we saw no alternative but to run for our
+lives. We went immediately to the Pasha, taking one of the largest
+stones with us, and made a statement of the facts in the presence of
+the council. He refused to do anything more than to send a man to
+inquire who was in fault, the ruffians, or we! He said he knew
+nothing about us."
+
+In a tent supported by a raft of one hundred and twenty inflated
+goat-skins, Dr. and Mrs. Lobdell floated down the Tigris to Mosul.
+"The Arabs, who swam out upon their goat-skins, and the Kûrds armed
+to the teeth upon the shore, were alike unable to touch us, as the
+river was unusually high and swift. I do not remember having enjoyed
+four successive days so much. The scenery is grand, equaling that of
+the far-famed Hudson. It might not wear as well, but it is unique
+and wonderful." Mr. and Mrs. Williams were there to welcome them.
+
+Mr. Marsh was absent on a visit to his native land, from whence he
+returned with his wife in May, 1853. He was accompanied as far as
+Aintab by Rev. Augustus Walker and wife, and from thence to
+Diarbekir, by Messrs. Schneider and Walker. Mr. Dunmore's
+congregation had then risen to nearly two hundred hearers.
+
+Mr. Marsh was especially struck, on returning to Mosul, with the
+greatly improved singing of the congregation, which he thought was
+now better there than at Diarbekir, Aintab, Constantinople, or
+Beirût. This was due to the unwearied pains taken by Mr. Williams,
+though the people seemed to have a better ear for music than
+elsewhere in Western Asia.
+
+Dr. Lobdell found his medical profession a great assistance to him
+as a preacher of the Gospel. Jacobites, Papists, and Moslems came in
+considerable numbers, and he preached the Gospel alike to all. He
+was overworked, and it was perhaps a favor to him that the judge was
+stirred up by Popish priests, as the Moslems affirmed, to forbid the
+Mohammedans coming to his preaching. The judge was willing that they
+should call upon him for medical aid, if he would not preach the
+Gospel to them; but the doctor declined administering to the body,
+unless he could, at the same time, explain to them "the words of
+Jesus" (which all Moslems professed to receive) for the benefit of
+their souls.
+
+Salome Carabet returned to Syria, very much in the manner of Rebecca
+of old, to become the wife of the young pastor at Hasbeiya; and the
+female school was thus deprived of its teacher.
+
+A visit by Dr. Lobdell to the Yezidees in October, 1852, developed
+interesting and valuable information. Their doctrines he regarded as
+a strange fusion of Mohammedanism and Christianity with the
+philosophy of the older Persians.[1]
+
+[1] See _Memoir of Dr. Lobdell_, pp. 213-227; also _Missionary
+Herald_ for 1853, pp. 109-111.
+
+In June, 1853, Dr. Lobdell travelled through Koordistan to Oroomiah.
+One of his objects was the improvement of his health; but he greatly
+desired, also, to confer with the brethren of the Nestorian Mission,
+and to preach the Gospel in the regions between. He took with him a
+native, who not only spoke the Syriac and Arabic, but the Turkish
+and Koordish.[1] "He came to us," wrote Dr. Perkins, "for the
+benefit of his impaired health. Yet was he buoyant as a lark, being
+overjoyed to find himself in our happy circle, after his perilous
+journey across the mountains." Two days after his arrival he was
+seized with a fever which proved severe and obstinate. But he
+recovered, and was able to give much thought to the somewhat
+peculiar method of proceeding in that mission; in which no separate
+Protestant community had been formed, and no church organized;
+though the missionaries had the communion by themselves, to which
+they invited only those whom they believed to be truly regenerated.
+His preconceived opinions had been somewhat adverse to the plan, and
+he and his brethren at Mosul had adopted other methods. But he wrote
+to the Secretaries of the Board his approval of the main policy of
+his brethren in Persia, as justified by their peculiar
+circumstances, and ratified by the blessing of Heaven. He specified
+some things in which he thought more decided measures might be
+taken; but advised that the mission be left to follow the leadings
+of Providence, until a crisis should come in the Nestorian Church,
+and then to act as they should deem wise at the time.
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1854, pp. 18-22.
+
+Before returning, Dr. Lobdell made an excursion of three weeks in
+the province of Azerbijan, going as far as Tabriz. It was while he
+was at Gawar, on his way home, that Deacon Tamo was liberated from
+his long imprisonment. Messrs. Rhea and Coan accompanied him to
+Mosul. Dr. Lobdell represents the two highest peaks of the Jelu
+Mountains as distinctly visible from Mosul. Every step through
+Koordistan reminded him of the devotion, courage, and energy of Dr.
+Grant.
+
+Some difficulties existed in the Protestant community at Diarbekir,
+growing out of the old leaven of baptismal regeneration, from which
+the church itself had not been thoroughly purged. The church then
+contained eleven members,--eight men and three women. Six of the men
+were Syrian Jacobites, and four of these were formerly deacons in
+their church. The difficulties encountered by Dr. Smith in 1851,
+when he declared his intention of admitting to the church none but
+such as were truly pious, and baptizing only them and their
+children, were now revived.
+
+In view of these things, a meeting of the Assyria Mission was held
+at Mosul for ten days, in March, 1854. It was then decided that
+Messrs. Marsh and Lobdell should return with Messrs. Dunmore and
+Walker, and assist in reorganizing the church at Diarbekir. Out of
+twenty candidates whom they examined, eleven were accepted; and, in
+the presence of three hundred persons, were organized into a new
+church, with a creed and covenant.[1] Dr. Lobdell had a hundred
+Christian patients daily while there; but the Pasha still continued
+to refuse protection, and the missionaries were still hooted and
+stoned in the streets. They believed, however, that the Gospel had
+taken such hold in the city as to insure its ultimate triumph.
+
+[1] I find, in the archives of the Board, an extended analysis of
+the baptismal question by these brethren, in its bearing on the
+Oriental Churches.
+
+The church was subjected to a severe trial, immediately after its
+reorganization. The Mosul brethren had to return to their own work;
+it was necessary for Mr. Dunmore to join his sick wife at Arabkir;
+and as it was unsafe for Mr. and Mrs. Walker to be left alone at
+Diarbekir, they went to Aintab for the summer. The Koords robbed
+them on their way, but they returned in the autumn, accompanied by
+David H. Nutting, M. D., and wife. Mr. Dunmore remained at Arabkir
+till the spring of 1855, when he commenced the important station of
+Harpoot. The missionaries at Diarbekir now enjoyed the very welcome
+protection of W. R. Holmes, Esq., the newly appointed English
+Consul. Dr. Nutting's professional services to the Pasha, in a
+dangerous illness, soon after his arrival, gave him an introduction
+to almost all the officers of the government and influential Moslems
+in the city, and obtained for him a public expression of the Pasha's
+gratitude. Instead of stonings in the streets, without redress, as
+under the preceding Pasha, the missionaries received respectful
+treatment, and had free access to all classes. Mr. Walker found the
+state of things better than he anticipated. Certain disaffected
+members of the Protestant community had repented of their errors.
+Persecution had not shaken the faith of any in the church. During
+the winter the congregation increased to two hundred. In April,
+1855, six were admitted to the church, and not less than four
+hundred and fifty persons were present. The accessions were not only
+from the Armenian and Jacobite Churches, but also from the Catholic
+Church, though fierce persecution and imprisonment were the
+consequence. A large portion of the Jacobite Church were convinced
+of the truth, and of the emptiness of their own rites and
+ceremonies. Some openly avowed that they retained their connection
+with their old church merely to fight against it, hoping to turn the
+whole community to Protestantism. The people demanded that the Bible
+should be read in the church in Turkish or Arabic, instead of the
+ancient Armenian and Syriac, which were, to most of them, dead
+languages; and the Jacobite bishop was forced to yield. Finding, at
+length, that this must rapidly undermine the priestly influence, he
+secretly removed the Scriptures from the church. But the word of the
+Lord was not bound, for the deacons or readers carried their own
+Bibles.
+
+At the out-station of Hainè, Stepan, the native preacher who had
+come to Diarbekir with Mr. Walker, was enabled by divine grace to
+maintain his position. The Pasha at one time ordered him to leave,
+but he thought it right to disobey. At a subsequent period, being
+stoned and beaten in the streets, he was obliged to flee, and the
+Protestants suffered much oppression. Through the energetic efforts
+of the Consul at Diarbekir, the persecuting governor was deposed,
+and another appointed.
+
+Across the river from Diarbekir is Cutterbul, a large Christian
+village, where were twenty Protestants, with several church-members;
+and the missionary, in his occasional visits, gathered almost as
+large a congregation as the one at Mosul. The preaching would have
+been acceptable in Turkish, or Koordish, though the people preferred
+the Arabic. Cutterbul was but a sample of what the villages on all
+sides of Diarbekir might have been, were the station fully manned.
+
+The Protestants at Mosul obtained no relief from their oppressive
+taxes until January, 1854; when, through the efforts of Lord
+Stratford de Redcliffe, a firman was addressed to the Pasha for
+their protection. The Pasha then ordered an equitable rate to be
+made for them, which encouraged the Protestants, and disheartened
+their enemies. The year was one of progress. Five were added to the
+Protestants, and two to the church, while there was a decided
+improvement in the attention given to preaching. The boys' school
+prospered, with forty pupils. Women were to some extent instructed
+in reading the Bible by the scholars, who went from house to house
+for the purpose. Thirty adults were taught at their houses, and
+thirty others attended the male school regularly. The church-members
+gained a reputation for strict honesty, temperance, and general
+excellence. The mere existence of a church upon an apostolical
+basis, worshipping God in simplicity, told with force against the
+corrupt hierarchies.
+
+The excitements at Mosul during the Crimean war, were often intense.
+At one period there was great danger of an outburst of Mohammedan
+fanaticism, so that the Christians were in terror for their lives.
+Stringent orders from Constantinople aroused the local authorities
+to do their duty, and the insolence of those ready for deeds of
+blood was checked. Early in May, 1854, a volunteer reinforcement of
+two thousand Koords for the Turkish army, was quartered in the city,
+and certain outrages indicated an approaching massacre of Christians
+and Jews. The evil was averted by the bold decision of the English
+Consul, who went to the Pasha, and demanded that the Koords be sent
+at once out of the city. They were soon on their way to the seat of
+war.
+
+Mosul was regarded as free from miasma; but the heat of the summer
+days was exhausting to the foreigner, and the natives also suffered.
+For a hundred days in 1853, the mercury stood, at two o'clock in the
+afternoon, as high as 98º; and for eighty days it ranged from 100º
+to 114º. The highest point in the shade was 117º. It was much the
+same in the following year.
+
+As the summer advanced, the health of Mrs. Williams declined, and it
+became obvious that she could no longer endure the excessive heat.
+She was desirous of removing to a cooler climate, and Dr. Lobdell
+went with her and her family to the mountains. When they were near
+the Zab river, they met Dr. Wright from Persia, who had come with
+the hope of conducting them to Oroomiah. The rest is told in the
+words of Dr. Lobdell. "We could go no farther, and on the 29th of
+June, at sunset, were on our way towards Mosul; our sick friend
+being anxious to go there to die, but most of the time unconscious
+of the incidents and fatigues. On the last day of June we reached
+Akra; a litter was made, twelve Christians bore it, and the next
+morning at six o'clock, while moving on the road, that litter became
+a bier! An hour farther, and a rough box way made ready for her we
+had loved. The children knew not what had happened. At evening, the
+box was bound upon a mule, and we rode silently for fourteen hours,
+and crossed to the ruins of Nineveh shortly after sunrise. The flag
+of the English Consul was thrown over the body as we crossed the
+Tigris. A narrow house had already been prepared for it outside the
+walls (not even the dead body of a Moslem could have been carried
+within the gates); Mr. Marsh had a short service; and there we laid
+the wife, the mother, down to her last sleep."[1]
+
+[1] Memoir of Dr. Lobdell, p. 330.
+
+The Crimean war inflamed Mohammedan fanaticism all over Western
+Asia. Such was its influence in Persia, that the missionaries
+requested Dr. Lobdell, in view of his recent visit, to go to Bagdad,
+and represent their critical situation with reference to the Persian
+government to Mr. Murray, English Ambassador to Persia; who was to
+be there in January, 1855, on his way to his post. He accordingly
+commenced his voyage down the river on the 10th of January, upon the
+customary raft of skins, and on the fourth day reached Bagdad. The
+ambassador arriving on the 8th of the following month, Dr. Lobdell
+had a satisfactory interview with him, which probably led to the
+subsequent visit of Mr. Murray to Oroomiah. His return was by
+post-horses in fifty-eight hours. The road made a long curve to the
+east to avoid the Arabs of the desert. The nearest route would have
+been on the west side of the Tigris.
+
+Ten days after this, Mr. Marsh and Mr. Williams went to Diarbekir to
+attend the second annual meeting of the mission. The next day Dr.
+Lobdell prepared a sermon, talked with a crowd of papists, preached
+to eighty-five patients, delivered his sermon to the church in the
+evening, and went to bed with a chill and fever. On the day
+following, he wrote his last letter, and made his last entry in his
+journal. He gradually grew worse, and was at times delirious. A
+message was sent for the absent brethren, but, owing to the
+disturbed state of the country, it was the twentieth day of his
+sickness, and only five days before his death, when Mr. Marsh
+reached Mosul. As he entered the room, the Doctor threw his arms
+about his neck and wept. The church-members prayed earnestly for his
+recovery, and were eager to serve as watchers. He passed easily
+away, as the Sabbath was closing, on the 25th of March, 1855, to his
+eternal rest. His age was twenty-eight.
+
+Dr. Lobdell's life was short to fill four hundred pages in Professor
+Tyler's excellent Memoir, but the volume is none too large. His
+life, measured by activities and results, was long. His character
+was many sided, and every side glowed with consecrated ardor. He
+made the most of himself as a man, a scholar, a Christian, and a
+Christian missionary. Like the Apostle Paul, "forgetting those
+things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which
+are before," he pressed "toward the mark for the prize of the high
+calling of God in Christ Jesus."
+
+He had a strong desire to go as a missionary to China, but the
+author, in his official correspondence, though seldom venturing to
+oppose such predilections, was so impressed with the difficulties to
+be overcome at Mosul, and with Dr. Lobdell's adaptation to that
+field, that he called his attention to it, and soon received the
+reply that he would go, as soon as he could get ready; and from that
+time the new field grew in his affections. That he could or would
+have done more for the kingdom of Christ, in any other sphere of
+labor, no one who attentively considers his remarkable life will
+venture to affirm.
+
+Dr. Henri B. Haskell succeeded Dr. Lobdell at Mosul, and reached
+Diarbekir, with the Rev. George C. Knapp and wife, appointed to that
+station, in April, 1856. The Christian worship at Diarbekir had now
+assumed a regular form. There were four services on the Sabbath. At
+the first, an hour after sunrise, fifty persons assembled for prayer
+and praise, and the meeting was conducted by two native teachers;
+one reading his own translation of Doddridge's "Rise and Progress"
+in Turkish; the other, after having read through Dr. Goodell's
+"Notes on Matthew," and a volume of his sermons in Turkish, had
+commenced reading discourses of his own. The second was at the time
+of "noon cry" from the minarets, when Mr. Walker or Baron Tomas, now
+returned for a time from Bebek, preached to about two hundred
+persons, who listened more attentively than most American
+congregations. At the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon)
+Baron Tomas met a Bible-class of sixty or eighty of the more
+intelligent Protestants. The last preaching service, at the tenth
+hour, was usually attended by a hundred or a hundred and fifty
+persons. From forty to seventy persons were present at the Friday
+evening meeting. The monthly concert was well attended, and with
+increasing contributions. Mrs. Walker had a Wednesday afternoon
+meeting for the women, at which from twenty to forty were present.
+
+The Gospels had been translated into Koordish by the native helper
+at Hainè, and copies of Matthew had been received from the press in
+Stamboul. As soon as the good deacon Shemmas could get the box
+containing them from the custom-house, he retired to his room and
+poured out his soul in thanksgiving to God for his great mercy, and
+prayed that He would now greatly bless his Word in this new tongue.
+
+The church at Diarbekir was doubled in 1856, and all belonging to
+the mission, both male and female, found full employment in
+imparting instruction. Baron Tomas returned to Bebek, to spend two
+years in the study of theology.
+
+Excepting the death of the second Mrs. Williams, on the 25th of
+December, there was nothing in 1857, specially demanding attention.
+
+Mr. Williams spent the summer of 1858 in Mardin, intending to occupy
+it as a new station, and returned in November to make it his
+permanent residence. He found the people, as he expected,
+exceedingly bigoted, yet hardy and intelligent. There was an
+important advantage in the pure mountain air of the place. The
+language was Arabic, as at Mosul. More than half of the twenty
+thousand inhabitants were nominal Christians; there were three
+Arabic-speaking villages within six miles, and the whole of Jebel
+Tour was accessible. He found the Romish Church stronger than he had
+expected, having a Papal-Syrian patriarchate just established within
+the city. He was received by the ecclesiastics with bitter
+denunciations. For a time, no one dared to acknowledge himself a
+Protestant, though many Mohammedans called upon him, and seemed to
+appreciate his very intelligent and gentlemanly conversation and
+manners.
+
+Subsequently a papal priest, to whom, in former years, he had given
+a Bible, joined himself to the missionary, and patiently endured
+severe persecution. But the most encouraging case was that of an
+influential merchant named Meekha. He was originally an Armenian,
+and, thirty years before had become a Papist, and carried over one
+hundred houses with him. He was the champion of the papal party. His
+conversion was on this wise. The priest just mentioned had sown much
+Gospel truth among his disciples, and among them was a son-in-law of
+Meekha. At length the old man, provoked by an instance of dishonesty
+and falsehood in his bishop, and unable to read himself, sent for
+his son-in-law to read to him the Gospel. The young man was kept
+reading for three days, until the Gospels and Epistles were all
+finished. Amazed to find his religion opposed by the whole spirit
+and teachings of the divine oracles, Meekha sent for the priests and
+they came. "Prove me your doctrines from the Bible," said he.
+Convinced, from their manner of reply, that they had nothing to say,
+he ceased from the worship of the Virgin, and declared himself a
+Protestant; and his wife was as sincere and earnest as he. Though
+father, mother, and three unmarried daughters were excommunicated,
+and subjected to continued insults, their souls were overflowing
+with joy and thankfulness that the Gospel had come to them.
+
+Speaking of this family, Mr. Williams says: "I have never witnessed
+such amazed eagerness as that with which, for the first time,
+they comprehended that salvation is without money and without
+price--absolutely free and gratuitous. It was to them _news_--good
+news; and when I call to mind Meekha's impetuous temperament, and
+see him listen with such docility to Christ's teaching, I cannot but
+hope that, though imperfectly sanctified, the 'good work' is begun
+in him, which God's grace will complete. He accepts no new truth
+without a challenge, and nothing short of a 'Thus saith the Lord,'
+will give it currency with him. At one of my evening lectures I
+alluded to Isaiah's statement, 'All our righteousnesses are as
+filthy rags,' when two or three spoke up: 'What 's that?' On
+repeating it they were incredulous, and demanded chapter and verse.
+I gave it to them next day, and it has taken hold of them like iron.
+I have seen Meekha since throw that verse into a crowd of opposers
+with such force as to start them from their seats with an emphatic
+'God forbid,' and the most positive denial that such a verse could
+be in the Bible. When I turned to the passage, and put the book into
+their hands that they might read it for themselves, they could not
+believe their own eyes, but continued poring over it, reading
+carefully from the head of the chapter; and this very day some of
+them came in to ask what it meant, and so changed in their manner I
+could hardly believe my eyes. Before, obstinate, dogged,
+unreasonable; now, meek, docile, and asking what the will of the
+Lord is. One said, 'That went like a dagger to my heart, and I slept
+none all that night.' And when to-day, I turned to Rom. iii. 26,
+Eph. ii. 8-9, and Rom. iv. 1-4, they listened as children. Truly the
+word of the Lord _is_ a sharp sword, piercing to the heart."
+
+Mr. Knapp's health forbidding a longer residence at Diarbekir, he
+commenced, in May, 1858, a new station at Bitlis, a healthy place
+several thousand feet above the level of the sea. Dr. and Mrs.
+Haskell were with them during the latter half of the summer, and
+spent the summer of 1859 at Mardin; but Mr. and Mrs. Marsh and Mrs.
+Lobdell decided to remain at Mosul. In May, Mr. and Mrs. Marsh were
+called to part with their second and only surviving child. A
+fortnight later, Mrs. Marsh herself had a severe attack of fever,
+but soon recovered. The fatal attack was three months later, and her
+death occurred unexpectedly. The thermometer in the early part of
+the night before, stood at 113º. During the day it was 120º; and on
+the night of her death it was 100º on the roof, where they slept.
+She had had a slight illness for a few days, and it now became a
+burning fever, with delirium, and all remedies proved vain. She died
+on the 12th of August, at the age of thirty-two, after a residence
+of six years at Mosul, as an earnest and faithful laborer. Her
+mother and her only sister had died before reaching the age of
+thirty, and it is possible Mrs. Marsh might not have lived as long
+in her native land, as she did at Mosul. "Yet it is probable," as
+her husband wrote at the time, "that the heat, so unusually extreme,
+cutting the leaves from the tree in our court by thousands, and
+causing many natives of the country to fall dead by the roadside,
+was the immediate occasion of her death."
+
+Mrs. Lobdell found reason, in the necessities of her children, for
+returning to America, and in April, 1860, she bade adieu to the
+little band of women, who, for eight years, had sat at her feet to
+learn of Jesus. She reached her native land in August, in company
+with Mr. Marsh.
+
+Mosul remained unoccupied during the summer, the heat at that season
+being found too great for endurance; though the climate is agreeable
+for nearly three fourths of the year. The summer retreat prepared by
+Dr. Lobdell at Deira, near Amadiah, was distant seventy miles, or
+four days' travel, and it required at least nine days to reach
+Mardin.
+
+There were but two or three places in Turkey where missionaries, up
+to this time, had had such marked success as in Diarbekir. The
+church, at the close of 1859, numbered sixty-one, and after the
+April communion, seventy-three. Rarely did a communion pass without
+some additions. Protestants were a recognized power among the
+people, and their influence was extending. Books were eagerly sought
+after and paid for. Illegal taxes had nearly ceased in the city
+itself. After a weary struggle of nine years, the assessment of the
+tax-roll for the Protestants was made upon a satisfactory plan,
+which bid fair to be permanent. The commercial standing of the
+Protestants was above that of any other sect, though there were no
+wealthy men among them. But the increase of the congregation had
+been retarded by the want of sufficient accommodations for public
+worship. The lamented removal of Mr. Holmes, the English Consul, to
+a more desirable consulate in European Turkey, while it was a great
+loss to the mission, threw his house upon the market, and it was
+purchased for a place of worship at less than half its cost. It
+required only slight alterations, and could be indefinitely
+enlarged. The members of the church subscribed a thousand dollars
+towards its purchase, and a certain amount was granted by the Board.
+The school for boys, and the one for girls, were both eminently a
+success. At Cutterbul, half the village was Protestant and the rest
+more than half so, and the place of prayer would not hold the
+congregation.
+
+In 1860, the stations of the Assyria Mission were brought within the
+field of the Eastern Turkey Mission, and the Assyria Mission ceased
+to have a separate existence.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1851-1857.
+
+
+The return of Mr. Stoddard, accompanied by his wife and Mr. and Mrs.
+Rhea, was mentioned in the first volume. He thus describes the
+manner of his reception: "While crossing the plain of Oroomiah, we
+arrived at a village twelve miles from the city, where a company of
+our brethren and sisters, with their little ones and many of the
+Nestorians, greeted us with tender emotions. A tent had been
+pitched, and a breakfast prepared; and we all sat down on the grass,
+under the grateful shade, to partake of the repast. Our hearts were
+full. During the three hours which we spent at this village,
+Nestorians of all classes, many of them our brethren in Christ, were
+continually arriving; and when, soon after noon, we set out for the
+city, our progress resembled more a triumphal procession than a
+caravan of weary travellers. Every mile increased our numbers. Our
+way was often almost blocked up by the people who came to meet us,
+some on horseback, some on foot; bishops, priests, deacons, village
+teachers, members of the seminary, with whom I had many times wept
+and prayed, all pressing forward in eager haste to grasp our hands,
+and swell the notes of welcome. Three years ago, they followed us
+out of the city, holding our horses by the bridle, and begging us
+not to leave them, while their mournful looks bespoke the sorrow of
+their hearts. Now I was returning to them with restored health, to
+identify my interests with theirs. I brought with me the salutations
+of many thousand Christians in our native land, and was accompanied
+into the harvest-field by new reapers. As I turned from thoughts of
+the past, and looked on the animating scene around us, the contrast
+almost overcome me."
+
+This was in 1851. In October of the following year, Dr. and Mrs.
+Perkins, going to meet Mr. and Mrs. Crane, and Sarah Stoddard, on
+their way from Trebizond, experienced a severe affliction in the
+death of their only surviving daughter, a very interesting girl. The
+journey was expected to be of advantage to the health of Mrs.
+Perkins and to their two children, Judith and Henry; and it was due
+to the new-comers that some one, acquainted with the language and
+country, should aid them through the long and tedious route from
+Erzroom. After a ride of thirty miles, they were unexpectedly
+exposed to a pestilential atmosphere at Khoy, where they spent the
+night. All went well with them until they had crossed the plain of
+Khoy, and the mountain beyond, and passed their last resting-place,
+when the beloved daughter showed signs of cholera. They could not
+rest there under the burning sun, and there was no water near; so
+they were obliged to proceed three or four miles further, to the
+Moslem village of Zorava. The nature of the disease was now
+painfully certain. The Mohammedan villagers were terrified and
+inhospitable. They would not even allow a morsel of bread to be sold
+to the faithful Nestorians who accompanied the family, nor even
+barley for their tired, hungry horses. And when the limbs of the
+child were cold and stiffening under the power of the deadly
+disease, they would not sell one stick of wood to warm water for
+her; but again and again ordered the heart-stricken travellers to
+leave the village with their dying child. As a further aggravation,
+after the father had twice administered laudanum, the vial
+containing the medicine disappeared from their tent, and could no
+more be found. There were all the usual accompaniments of the
+cholera, and in that high region the night air was cold. Collecting
+dry weeds, they managed to kindle a fire, and heated a stone which
+they placed at her feet.
+
+The spirit of the child was quiet, and beautifully resigned to the
+will of God. There had been no doubt as to her piety before her
+sickness, and the whole scene was all that could have been expected
+of an older person. At length the end came. "Breathing shorter and
+shorter for fifteen or twenty minutes," writes her father, "she
+gently slept, as we believe, in Jesus, at three o'clock on the
+morning of September 4, 1852, aged twelve years and twenty-six
+days."
+
+The bereaved and afflicted family was now a hundred and forty miles
+from home; but home was the place for her burial. The mother washed
+the corpse with her own hands, and dressed it for the grave. As no
+coffin could be obtained, the loved one was sewed in a strong
+oriental felt of the size and form of a bed-quilt, and placed upon a
+bed, and two willow sticks, cut from the margin of the brook, were
+sewed upon the sides of the bed, and it was then bound to the back
+of a faithful horse; the panic-stricken villagers calling upon them
+all the while, "Depart, depart." With what different feelings were
+they received on their return, by their large circle of weeping
+friends! One of the Nestorians, who had accompanied the family,
+standing by the grave, artlessly described to the Nestorians the
+affecting scenes he had witnessed, and all were bathed in tears. "In
+all the families of the village," wrote Miss Fidelia Fiske, "Judith
+had taken a deep interest, and several of the middle-aged women had
+been taught by her in the Sabbath-school. Indeed, she had greatly
+endeared herself to all the scores and hundreds of Nestorians who
+knew her, and was a universal favorite among the people. A Nestorian
+of a distant village said, on hearing of her death, "There was none
+like her,--so beautiful, so wise, so pious. She would pray like an
+angel."[1]
+
+[1] See _The Persian Flower; A Memoir of Judith Grant Perkins of
+Oroomiah, Persia_.
+
+The Gospel made its way among the Nestorians amid many
+discouragements. Yet there was progress, Even in the mountains of
+Koordistan, where the brethren could do little more than watch the
+leadings of Providence, there was much that was hopeful. It was an
+indication of promise, that the people of Memikan, the mountain
+station, notwithstanding their sufferings for the sake of the
+Gospel, did not falter in their adherence to it. Strangers, after
+listening to the reading and reciting of the school children,
+sometimes went away exclaiming, "Glory to God! There is nothing bad
+in all this." Religious worship was well attended. Even in the busy
+season, when the laborers were in their fields before dawn, and
+worked till late, a goodly number attended the daily evening
+service. Nor was it here, only, that a listening ear was found. In a
+tour among some of the largest neighboring villages, the
+missionaries were kindly received. Some sat from morning till the
+setting of the sun, giving earnest heed to the preaching. Could the
+people have been assured that they had nothing to fear from the
+civil power, they would have braved their ecclesiastics. Even as it
+was, the missionary pursued his work without molestation, and was
+treated with uniform respect by the authorities.
+
+On the plain of Oroomiah, there was more preaching than ever before,
+and the line of demarkation between an evangelical church and a dead
+Christianity, was becoming more and more distinct. Mar Yohannan
+boldly discarded many customs of his Church, and then seemed
+disposed to go as fast in the work of reformation as his people
+could be induced to follow; and there was the same spirit among the
+helpers of the mission.
+
+The two seminaries were coming under a stricter discipline, and
+aimed at a higher standard of scholarship. About half of the forty
+students under Mr. Stoddard were hopefully pious, and some of them
+gave high promise of usefulness. One was appointed to succeed the
+bishop of the largest diocese in the province. Several were from
+different mountain districts, and one was from the valley of the
+Tigris.
+
+The number in the female seminary had increased from forty to fifty,
+and it was delightful to witness the intelligent zeal of some
+teachers in the Sabbath-schools. The ten who graduated in March were
+all hopefully pious, well educated, and quite refined, and most of
+them were expected to become teachers in their own villages.
+
+The description given by Mr. Stocking of a very aged priest, whom he
+saw among the hills north of Gawar, encourages the belief that the
+Holy Spirit sometimes makes the faintest rays of Gospel light
+effectual to salvation. The man was nearly deaf, and bending under
+the weight of a century or more, according to the statement of the
+people, but was able to converse intelligently about events which
+happened two or three generations before. "We were much surprised,"
+writes Mr. Stocking, "at the correctness of his views in regard to
+some of the cardinal doctrines of the Scriptures, and particularly
+as to the necessity of an evangelical faith, in distinction from one
+that was dead, and of the work of the Holy Spirit in renewing and
+sanctifying believers. Though not remarkable for his learning, he
+appears to have been taught by the great Teacher himself; for he had
+never before seen a missionary. As I left him, to see him no more,
+he affectionately took my hand, and said he had one request to
+make, which was that we would remember him in our prayers at the
+mercy-seat. He also requested a New Testament in the ancient and
+modern Syriac, for his village, which we sent to him."
+
+In August, 1851, Mr. Coan, accompanied by Priest Dunka and Deacons
+John and Khamis, visited the districts of Jeloo, Bass, Tekhoma,
+Tiary, and Diss, and discoursed to more than four thousand persons.
+A part of this ground had never been trod before by a missionary.
+The ecclesiastics were, as usual, the greatest opposers, but there
+were two pleasing exceptions. In Alsan, a village of five hundred
+souls, there was one priest who, at first, seemed reserved, but as
+his prejudices were removed, he became, with his people, an
+attentive listener. The missionaries tarried four or five hours,
+preaching the Word to the hungry multitude. The people, in little
+companies, conversed about what they had heard, and publicly
+upbraided their priest for letting them remain in such ignorance. He
+made humble confession, and expressed a desire to send his little
+boy, a bright looking lad, to Oroomiah for instruction. At another
+village, they found a decidedly evangelical priest. That his
+influence over his large village was good was apparent in the quiet
+and orderly behavior of the people, and their attention to the
+Gospel. Indeed, they were accustomed to the word of exhortation
+daily at their evening prayers. This priest had a small school every
+winter, to which several lads resorted from neighboring districts.
+
+A very different scene was witnessed in the village of Mar Ziah,
+which was thronged with ecclesiastics who obtained their livelihood
+by begging. "They were dressed," Mr. Coan writes concerning them,
+"in scarlet and silk, and were exceedingly haughty in their bearing.
+We met the people in the churchyard, but, after a few words, there
+arose such a tumult as I hope never to see again. For an hour or
+more, the place was like a pandemonium. Some wished to hear what we
+had to say; but others, with savage fierceness, flew at them,
+yelling at the top of their voices, and looking as if ready to drink
+their blood. In the course of an hour or two their rage had spent
+itself, and after a few words of solemn admonition, we left them."
+At another village, scarcely three miles distant, where was no
+priest, a few persons assembled in a room where the missionaries
+stopped, and their solemn and tearful attention was very unlike the
+noisy scene they had just left. One young man begged, with tears, to
+receive a copy of the Gospel.
+
+Nazee was one of three Tiary girls who came to Oroomiah after the
+massacre of the mountain Nestorians, and in the seminary became
+hopefully pious. She was now living at Chumba, and having heard of
+the coming of her missionary friends, was standing on the bank of
+the impetuous Zab, awaiting their arrival. There was no fording the
+torrent, but the travellers ventured across on two single string
+pieces, bending under them at every step. She greeted them joyfully,
+and hastened to prepare a place for their lodging. While she was
+gone, the Malek came and took them to his house. Nazee was
+disappointed, but followed, eager to hear every word. During the
+address to the villagers assembled on the roof, it was affecting to
+see the eagerness with which she listened. Though others left she
+could not leave, and not till near midnight did she bethink herself,
+and apologize for keeping Mr. Coan up so late after a fatiguing
+day's journey. She was a light in her village, by which the deeds of
+the wicked had been reproved, and she had consequently suffered much
+persecution. Some friends in America, interested in the account
+which had been given of her while in the seminary, had sent her
+articles of dress; but her neighbors assembled and maliciously tore
+them into fragments before her eyes. She bore it meekly, and only
+prayed for them. She expected fresh insults because of the kindness
+shown her in the present visit. Long before light, on the day they
+were to leave, she was with the visitors, anxious to improve the few
+moments left for Christian conversation; and she followed them,
+lonely and sad, to the river's side. There they kneeled by the
+roaring stream, and commended her to the Great and Good Shepherd.
+
+Mr. Stoddard mentions the visit of Mr. Khanikoff, a Russian
+scientific gentleman, in the summer of 1852, to obtain information
+concerning the elevations and climates of these districts. Lake
+Oroomiah was ascertained to be about four thousand one hundred feet
+above the ocean, and the city four thousand five hundred feet, the
+plain sloping down gently towards the lake. Mount Seir rises two
+thousand eight hundred and thirty feet above the city, and seven
+thousand three hundred and thirty feet above the ocean; differing
+not greatly, in real height, from the White Mountains in New
+Hampshire. The mission residence, on the mountain side, is a
+thousand feet above the city. The mountains of Koordistan, some of
+which are capped with snow through all the year, often rise to the
+height of twelve thousand feet, and one peak is supposed to be
+fourteen thousand feet above the sea. Mr. Khanikoff afterwards
+became Russian Consul General at Tabriz, and proved himself a
+sincere and valuable friend to the mission.
+
+Failure of health constrained Mr. Stocking to return, with his
+family, to the United States, and he was never able to resume his
+missionary labors. Since his lamented decease, a son has taken his
+place among the Nestorians.
+
+It should be gratefully acknowledged, that violence towards
+missionaries has almost everywhere been the exception, and not the
+rule. It has been so even in Koordistan. But Mr. Cochran, while
+travelling with several Nestorians through Nochea, was assailed by
+five robbers in the employ of a Koordish chief, named Seyed Khan
+Bey. As Moslems the assailants were of course reckless of the life
+of Christians; and, for a time, the party were apprehensive of being
+murdered. But at last, while the freebooters were intent on their
+prey, the company fled up the steep mountain side, leaving their
+effects. Their horses were afterwards recovered.
+
+The year 1854 opened with a revival in both the seminaries. At the
+commencement of it, scarcely half the students in either of the
+institutions gave evidence of piety, which was an unusually small
+proportion. The thought of this, and especially that several of the
+senior class were about going forth into the world without Christ,
+led to earnest prayer, and to efforts which were followed by an
+immediate blessing. The special religious interest continued several
+weeks, and extended to the large village of Geog Tapa, but the
+results appear not to have been distinctly reported.
+
+The eighteen young men who graduated in 1854, were of higher promise
+than any previous class. Several of the performances at their
+graduation were very gratifying, particularly the valedictory
+addresses, pronounced by a young man of eighteen, which would not
+suffer in matter or manner, Dr. Perkins thought, by the side of
+similar addresses at any American college. Nearly all were hopefully
+pious, and were returning to homes widely distant from each other.
+
+In some parts of the field there was much enthusiasm. In Geog Tapa,
+for example, about seventy adults had commenced learning to read.
+The mode pursued there and elsewhere, was to induce teachers,
+scholars in the village schools, and other readers to teach adults,
+by the promise of a Bible, Testament, or other book, if they were
+successful. At an examination, the forenoon was devoted to the
+girls' school, taught by two graduates of the female seminary, and
+the afternoon to the Sabbath-school. Such a crowd of Nestorians was
+present, that it was necessary in the afternoon, to meet in a grove.
+The first class examined in the Sabbath-school consisted of men from
+twenty to seventy years of age, headed by the chief man of the
+village. Then followed a class of women, fifty or sixty in number,
+from forty to fifty years of age. These classes, not being able to
+read, had been taught orally. Next came a class of men, about twenty
+in number, and a class of twenty-three women, who had recently
+learned to read. These had been taught individually by boys
+connected with the village schools, each of whom received a copy
+of the Old Testament as a reward. On the plain of Oroomiah
+seventy-three free schools were reported, with more than a thousand
+boys, and one hundred and fifty girls and women as pupils.
+
+In Gawar, two schools embraced fourteen boarding and thirty-two day
+scholars. Fourteen of these were from Jeloo, Bass, and Tekhoma
+districts. Among them were four deacons, four from the family of the
+bishop of Jeloo, and nearly all were from prominent families. They
+were wild mountaineers, and in some thing's difficult to manage, but
+they acquired knowledge rapidly and with delight; and the constant
+study of the Bible wrought a perceptible change in them. In the
+Bootan districts, hitherto inaccessible to missionary influence,
+there was now a strong desire for schools, and for the labors of
+evangelical teachers.
+
+The New Testament in the modern language was beginning to be
+circulated among the people; a much enlarged edition of the hymn
+book had been issued, and a volume, entitled "Scripture Facts," had
+a wide circulation. Mr. Perkins had completed a translation of
+Doddridge's "Rise and Progress," and was engaged in translating
+Barth's "Church History."
+
+Mr. Crane died at Gawar on the 27th of August, 1854, at the
+commencement of a career of bright promise. So ardently was he
+beloved by the people there, that at the funeral service the whole
+assembly repeatedly broke forth into weeping. The afflicted widow
+was called, within a week of her husband's death, to mourn also the
+loss of a beloved son, and removed to Mount Seir, where she was a
+valued helper in the mission. She returned home in 1857. Mr. Rhea
+and Miss Harris were united in marriage in October, and spent the
+winter at Gawar.
+
+The audacity of the papal missionaries, backed by the French
+embassy, was marvelous. The American mission having been importuned
+to open a school in the large village of Khosrova, in Salmas, where
+popery predominated, two young men, graduates of the seminary, were
+successively sent thither. The first was several times driven away,
+through the instigation of the Lazarists, and those who were
+friendly to the mission also became objects of persecution. The
+second was assailed by the mob, headed, by the French chief of the
+Lazarists, and by a bishop. These two men, with their own hands,
+threw him into a canal, and called on the people to drown or kill
+him. He was mercifully delivered, but narrowly escaped with his
+life. The matter being reported to Mr. Abbott, the English Consul at
+Tabriz, the chief of the Lazarists, with some fifteen of his
+satellites, went thither, and apprehending a cool reception from the
+Consul, whose protection the Lazarists enjoyed in common with the
+American missionaries, he applied for assistance to the Russian
+Consul, proposing to transfer his passports to his hands. Mr.
+Khanikoff refused, and severely rebuked them for their conduct. Mr.
+Abbott obtained an order from the Governor of Azerbijan to lay heavy
+fines on the Mussulman deputies of Khosrova for withholding
+protection, and on the principal papists for their acts of violence,
+with the requirement of bonds for future good behavior.
+
+Messrs. Abbott and Stevens, English consuls at Tabriz and Teheran,
+kindly exerted their protecting influence, and Mr. Cochran
+subsequently spent a week at Khosrova, and had his house thronged
+every evening with from fifty to a hundred and fifty people, eager
+to listen to the preaching of the Word. The ecclesiastics raged, and
+stirred up the agent of the master of the village (who lives in
+Tabriz) to endeavor to drive our brother away; but the attempt
+failed. Sixty houses gave their names and seals, wishing to become
+Protestants. They were exceedingly desirous of having a missionary,
+and even threatened, good-naturedly, to take one by force to live
+among them.
+
+The reader may remember what Dr. Lobdell said of the course of this
+mission in respect to the forming of distinct churches.[1] Dr.
+Perkins, writing in May, 1855, gives the following account of the
+progress of the reformation towards that result: "Our communion
+occurred about two weeks ago, and nearly one hundred communicants
+sat down to the table of the Lord, including our mission. It was a
+solemn and delightful season. Among the native brethren present were
+Mar Yohannan and Mar Elias; and most of the others, of both sexes,
+were educated and quite intelligent; but, what is of far greater
+importance, they were, as we trust, true Christians. It would be
+easy at once to triple the number from those who, in the judgment of
+charity, are the children of God; but we think it better to
+introduce them somewhat gradually and cautiously to the ordinance;
+while, at the same time, we would not too long allow any of the
+sheep and lambs of Christ's flock to suffer for want of this
+important means of grace. It is exerting a powerful influence on
+those who participate in it, and on many others; and it cannot fail
+ultimately to produce the effect either of redeeming the ordinance
+from abuses, as administered in Nestorian churches, or drawing off
+the pious part of the people to a separate observance of it. We are
+quite willing that the scriptural administration of the ordinance to
+the pious Nestorians should work out either of these results, in the
+legitimate time and way, or both of them, as the Lord shall direct."
+
+[1] Chapter xxvii.
+
+Some months later, notice was given that, in the future, instead of
+personal invitations, the door would be thrown open for all who
+should consider themselves worthy candidates. Uniting with the
+missionaries would thus seem more like a voluntary and public
+profession of religion. None were to be received, however, to the
+communion without a private examination. On one sacramental occasion
+about one hundred united with the missionaries, and more than thirty
+of them for the first time. A large number were also present as
+spectators, many of them deeply interested.
+
+Deacon Guwergis of Tergawer, the well known "Mountain Evangelist,"
+died on the 12th of March, called suddenly from earnest and most
+useful labors to his reward.
+
+The course of the Persian government towards the mission and its
+friends, at this time, was very unsatisfactory. Asker Khan, a
+general in the Persian army, was appointed to investigate the truth
+of certain charges brought by the papists against the American
+missionaries, and early evinced a most unfriendly feeling towards
+them, and a partiality for their accusers. Indeed, he took no pains
+to conceal his hostility, and did all he could to stop the schools
+and other evangelizing agencies. But the missionaries had the aid,
+as far as aid could be rendered, of the Hon. C. A. Murray, the
+English Ambassador, and of Mr. Abbott at Tabriz, and Mr. Stevens at
+Teheran, and also of Mr. Khanikoff, the Russian Consul General at
+Tabriz. The disturbed state of political relations, and especially
+the want of harmony between the English and Persian governments,
+made it impossible for these friends to accomplish what they desired
+to do in their behalf. After withdrawing from Teheran, Mr. Murray
+visited Oroomiah, and the correspondence which then passed between
+him and the missionaries, showed his desire to aid both the
+suffering Nestorians and the missionary work. In his absence, the
+Russian Consul General became their protector,--"at first," as he
+said, "unofficially, but with very good heart; and officially,
+whenever he should have the right so to do." It is remarkable, and
+reveals a protecting Providence, that no department of labor, with
+the exception of village schools, very materially suffered at this
+time.
+
+In February, 1856, there began to be indications of the special
+influences of the Holy Spirit in some of the villages occupied by
+native helpers; and very soon there were marked indications of
+another work of grace in the two seminaries. The feeling in both the
+schools became very general. The voice of prayer was heard on every
+side; and a large proportion of those who were not pious, appeared
+to be seeking in earnest the way of life. On the 30th of March, Mr.
+Cochran reported that, with the exception of those most recently
+admitted, nearly all were hoping that they had passed from death
+unto life. In the villages, also, there were cases of peculiar
+interest.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Rhea were alone in Gawar. In the autumn it was deemed
+advisable, in view of the insurrectionary state of Koordistan, that
+they should withdraw for a time. They at first felt it their duty to
+remain; but the progress of events soon made it plain that Gawar was
+an unsuitable place for a lone lady, especially when winter should
+render it impossible for her to remove. Mr. Rhea, while at Oroomiah,
+continued, as far as possible, to superintend the labors of the
+native helpers in Memikan, and he returned the next summer, with
+Mrs. Rhea, to their mountain home. The Koordish chieftains, who had
+proudly boasted, that they would put their heels upon the necks of
+the poor Christians, were soon fleeing in dismay before the
+advancing Ottomans.
+
+Mr. Stoddard wrote, in September, 1856, that for six months, in
+consequence of the withdrawal from Persia of the English Ambassador,
+the missionaries had been without any political protection, and at
+the mercy of a hostile government, yet there was perhaps never a
+time when their work presented a more cheering aspect on the whole.
+The seminaries, being on the mission premises, suffered less
+annoyance than did the village schools, which were scattered widely
+over the plain. The teachers in these schools had many of them been
+educated in the seminaries, and were altogether superior as a class
+to what they were a few years before; and thus the standard of
+instruction was raised, and more religious influence was exerted
+over the pupils. Nor was there ever a time when more people were
+brought within the sound of the gospel, or when there were more
+stated attendants on preaching. And much use was made of the Monthly
+Concert on the first Monday of the month. The whole day was devoted
+to the natives. "Early Monday morning," writes Mr. Stoddard, "some
+of our friends arrive from the nearer villages, and others are
+continually dropping in during the forenoon. At about the dinner
+hour, nearly all are assembled. We occupy considerable time with
+them in private, or in little companies, each one attending to the
+helpers under his care, in hearing the monthly reports of their
+labors and trials, their hopes and fears, and intermingling the
+reports with religious conversation and prayer. At three in the
+afternoon we assemble, and spend an hour or two in public religious
+exercises. In the evening a similar meeting is held, when the
+natives not only speak freely, but often occupy nearly the whole
+time, leaving the brother who has charge of the meeting little to
+do. It very often happens, also, that after the meeting has been
+together two hours, there are several who feel that they want to be
+heard, if but for a few moments." These monthly occasions Mr.
+Stoddard enjoyed exceedingly, and came to look upon the "First
+Monday" as the great day of the month.
+
+In October, Messrs. Stoddard and Cochran and Miss Fiske made a tour
+of three weeks in the mountains of Koordistan. At Gawar they were
+joined by Mr. and Mrs. Rhea, and visited the districts of Ishtazin
+and Bass. From that point Messrs. Cochran and Rhea extended their
+journey to Amadiah, and returned to their party at Tekhoma, a week
+later. Thence they passed through the districts of Tâl, and up the
+Zab to Gawar. The fact that American ladies traversed in safety the
+gorges and precipices of central Koordistan, was an encouragement to
+native helpers and their families to reside in those difficult
+regions; but such tours were too fatiguing, probably, to be often
+repeated.
+
+The object of the visit to Amadiah was to make further explorations
+with reference to the formation of a station on the western side of
+the mountains. The mass of the people were on that side, and could
+not be advantageously reached from Oroomiah. The eastern district
+was fast becoming supplied with pious helpers, and it seemed very
+desirable for that section of the country to share in this
+initiatory work, before anything occurred to hinder it. The
+convictions of the brethren as to the desirableness of commencing a
+station there were much strengthened, and Mr. Cochran offered his
+own services for that purpose.
+
+November was ushered in by an event deeply interesting to the
+mission families; a public profession of religion by the three
+eldest children of the mission; and hope was entertained as to the
+piety of some of the younger.
+
+Asker Khan, agent of the Persian government at Oroomiah, now became
+more troublesome than ever, resorting to every form of annoyance in
+his power. At the instance of Mr. Khanikoff, Dr. Wright and Mr.
+Stoddard visited him at Tabriz, to see what could be done to induce
+the government to check the doings of its agent. But in this they
+failed, though the Consul did all he could to assist them. Even the
+Turkish Consul volunteered his aid, but almost in vain. Through Mr.
+Khanikoff, they learned that the orders from Teheran to the Kaim
+Makam required him to forbid the labors of the missionaries in the
+province of Salmas; to see that no school was established save in
+the two places where missionaries resided; and that the number of
+the schools should not exceed thirty, nor the number of pupils one
+hundred and fifty. He was to require that no girl receive
+instruction, at all events, in the same school with boys. The
+missionaries were not to induce any person to change his religion,
+and were to enter into a written engagement not to send forth
+preachers. Books conflicting with existing religions in Persia were
+not to be printed, and native teachers and preachers were to be
+approved by Mar Yoosuf and Mar Gabriel, two unprincipled and bitter
+opposers of evangelical religion. Such were the orders issued, it is
+believed at the instigation of the French, by the Prime Minister of
+Persia, and Messrs. Stoddard and Wright, unable to secure even delay
+in carrying them out, returned to Oroomiah. The mission now, at the
+suggestion of the Consul, made a formal application for protection
+to the Russian Ambassador at Teheran.
+
+Asker Khan was assassinated six days after the return of the
+brethren from Tabriz, by a Koordish chief at Mergawer. But his
+coadjutor, Asker Aly Khan, governor of the Nestorians, pursued the
+same persecuting course, urged on by the Kaim Makam at Tabriz. The
+career of the Kaim Makam, however, was now short, for in January,
+1857, the populace of that city, exasperated by his oppression, rose
+in a body, broke into his palace, plundered it, and compelled him to
+flee for his life. He was subsequently summoned to Teheran, and on
+his approach to that city, was stripped of his honors, mounted on a
+pack saddle, and thus led to prison, while a fine was imposed on him
+of a hundred thousand tomans.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1857-1863.
+
+
+The sojourn of three weeks at Tabriz had been a source of constant
+anxiety to Messrs. Stoddard and Wright, and the former had
+premonitory symptoms of fever on his way home. But he was not
+apprehensive on that account, and finding Mr. Cochran and two of the
+native teachers disabled by sickness, he devoted much time and labor
+to the Seminary, and to the correspondence which had accumulated in
+his absence. Yet fever was threatening, and on the 22d of December,
+ten days after his return, he became decidedly ill. On the 25th he
+was confined to his bed, where he lay for two and thirty days, while
+the fever ran its fatal course. He died in great peace January 26,
+1857, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. The public funeral
+services were in Syriac, and his remains were borne to their last
+resting-place by graduates of the seminary, whose conversion dated
+back to the first revival.
+
+The mind of Mr. Stoddard was cast in a fine mould. The older members
+of the Board remember him at the Annual Meeting in Pittsfield in
+1849. My own thought at the time was, that were an angel present in
+human form, his appearance and deportment would be much like those
+of Mr. Stoddard. A calm, seraphic joy shone in his face, and all
+that he said and did was just what all delighted to hear and see.
+His presence did much to give a character to that meeting. Mr.
+Stoddard had a frail body, and an almost feminine grace of person,
+like the popular impression of that disciple who leaned on the bosom
+of his Lord; but, like that disciple, he had strength of principle
+and inflexibility of purpose. His consecration to the missionary
+work was no sudden impulse. It was the result of repeated, and
+sometimes unexpected, meetings and conferences with Dr. Perkins,
+whose sagacious eye had marked him for a missionary. But the
+question once settled, it was settled for life. He went whole-souled
+into the work, and never doubted that his call to it was of God. His
+talents, which were of a high order, and his learning, which excited
+the admiration of Persian nobles and princes, were unreservedly
+consecrated. "He goes among the churches," said the lamented
+Professor B. B. Edwards, of the Andover Seminary, "burning like a
+seraph. So heavenly a spirit has hardly ever been seen in this
+country."
+
+Mr. Stoddard's daughter Harriet followed him to the grave within two
+months, at the age of thirteen, a victim to the same disease. She
+was sustained by the same calm trust in Christ, which lighted up the
+last hours of her excellent father.
+
+Dr. Perkins wrote in 1857, that when the mission was commenced,
+twenty-four years before, hardly a score of Nestorian men were able
+to read intelligently, and but a single woman, the sister of the
+Patriarch. The people had no printed books, and but few copies even
+of portions of the Bible in manuscript, and these were all in the
+ancient Syriac, and almost unintelligible. Their spoken language,
+the modern Syriac, had not been reduced to writing. Their moral
+degradation was extreme. Still there was a remarkable simplicity in
+their conception of religious doctrines, and a remarkable absence of
+bigotry in their feelings, as compared with other oriental sects,
+and they were very accessible to the missionaries. The change had
+been great. Of the fifty-six in the male seminary when he wrote,
+thirty were hopefully pious; and so were ninety-one of the one
+hundred and fifty who had been connected with it. These were the
+fruits of seven revivals. Of the one hundred and three who had been
+connected with the female seminary, sixty, or more than one-half,
+gave good evidence of conversion; and the same might be said of
+three fourths who were then in the school. A large portion of the
+young men who had left the seminary, were either preachers of the
+gospel, or very competent teachers in the village school; and the
+greater part of the religious graduates of the other seminary were
+married to those missionary helpers. This seminary had been blessed
+with eight revivals. The instruction in both institutions had been
+almost wholly in the native tongue.
+
+The entire Bible had been translated into the spoken language, which
+the mission had reduced to a written form; and two thousand
+intelligent readers, the result of the schools, had been supplied
+with the sacred volume. Indeed, the Scriptures had been printed and
+given to the people in the ancient Peschito version, as well as in
+the spoken tongue. To these were added valuable works on
+experimental and practical religion, for the use of the schools, and
+to meet the wants of a community in the early stages of a Christian
+civilization.
+
+Though separate churches had not been organized, none but pious
+Nestorians, for the last two or three years, had been admitted to
+communion with the mission church. The number who had thus communed
+was about two hundred, and it was thought that from one hundred and
+fifty to two hundred more were worthy of a place at the Lord's
+table.
+
+The French Jesuits and their emissaries had been a sore trial, but
+their success had not been great; and they had probably been useful,
+by stimulating the mission and the pious Nestorians in their
+Master's service.
+
+Mrs. Rhea had been two years a member of the mission as Miss Harris,
+and three as Mrs. Rhea. Her active and useful life closed on the 7th
+of December, 1857, at the age of twenty-nine years and five months.
+"Her sick room," says Dr. Wright, "was a hallowed place, where the
+Sun of Righteousness shone with wonderful brightness."
+
+Another revival of religion occurred in both the seminaries, at the
+opening of the year 1858, which was extended to Geog Tapa and other
+villages. Miss Fiske, in charge of the female seminary, relates a
+fact of much significance. She writes: "Some of the girls' pious
+friends came to pray with them yesterday, and I was led to inquire
+how many of them have a pious father or mother (or both), or older
+brother or sister; and I was surprised to find, as I think you will
+be to know, that about two thirds of them have such praying friends.
+I contrast this with the facts respecting their friends in 1846, and
+feel that we ought to be thankful and humble before our God, for
+what he has done for them."
+
+Mr. Rhea spent the winter of 1857 and 1858 on the western side of
+the Koordish mountains, and everywhere found an open door for
+preaching to the rude dwellers among the rocks. In Shermin, Usgan,
+and Argin, Nestorian villages southwest of Amadiah, he was cordially
+welcomed to their houses and churches, and had large congregations
+that gave earnest attention to his preaching. Snow fell eleven out
+of fifteen days, and when ready to return to Amadiah, he found the
+way entirely blocked up. Mr. Marsh having joined him from Mosul,
+they spent a number of days among large papal villages in that
+region, where they found ample opportunity for preaching the Gospel;
+and several individuals seemed earnest inquirers after the way of
+salvation from the power of sin. With reference to Mosul and
+vicinity, Mr. Rhea writes: "I am deeply impressed with the evidence,
+that the labors of the mission here have not been in vain, and that
+their results are not to be measured by the number of names on the
+church roll. The Jacobite Church here is now shaken to its
+foundations; and it cannot be doubted, that whatever of feeling
+after something better exists among many of its members is owing to
+the steady light of the Protestant church streaming in upon its
+darkness." He was absent six months, and for one third of this time
+was in Mosul. He regarded the proper field of the mountain branch of
+the Nestorian Mission as extending from Amadiah on the north to
+Mosul on the south, and from Akra on the east to Bootan on the west;
+including the mountain districts between Gawar and Amadiah. The
+Christian population was one in respect to nationality and language,
+and was a remnant of the once great Syrian Church. The language was
+the same substantially as that spoken in the eastern districts.
+
+As the result of these explorations, Mr. Rhea made an eloquent
+appeal for more effective labor in Western Koordistan, which was
+published in the "Missionary Herald," but cannot be sufficiently
+condensed for these pages.[1] His health had suffered in his
+mountain tours, which resembled those performed by his eminent
+predecessor, Dr. Grant. This rendered it necessary for him to spend
+a year for recovery in his native land, where his missionary
+addresses were well received. Two other members of the mission,
+second to none in the field,--the venerable Dr. Perkins, and Miss
+Fidelia Fiske,--were obliged to visit the United States in 1858; the
+former to care for the health of Mrs. Perkins, who, after burying
+six of her children, had accompanied Mrs. Crane to America, taking
+her only surviving child; and the latter, in consequence of a
+disease, which proved fatal after a few years. Dr. Perkins was also
+accompanied by Mrs. Stoddard, and three children of the mission.
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1858, pp. 317, 318.
+
+Mr. Rhea's appeal had not been without effect. The Rev. Thomas L.
+Ambrose joined the mission near the close of 1858, the Rev. John H.
+Shedd and wife in 1859, and the Rev. Henry N. Cobb and wife in 1860,
+with direct reference to the mountain field; and the Rev. Amherst L.
+Thompson and Rev. Benjamin Labaree, with their wives, and Frank N.
+H. Young, M. D., in 1860, to strengthen the force on the plains,
+together with Misses Aura Jeannette Beach and Harriet N. Crawford.
+Mr. Thompson had given much promise of usefulness, but died at Seir,
+August 25, 1860, only fifty-four days after his arrival. Miss Beach
+was to be associated with Miss Rice, who had rendered efficient
+service in the girls' Seminary as the associate of Miss Fiske, but
+was then alone and overburdened.
+
+The unexpected but providential withdrawal of so many older
+laborers, at this juncture, was not favorable to a more enlarged
+occupation of the field; and the plan of forming a station on the
+western side of the mountains, was not carried out. The height of
+Amadiah above the plain of Mesopotamia, and its salubrity in summer
+were found to have been overestimated; and further researches made
+it evident, that the demands of so trying a mountain field were more
+than the average health of missionaries would be able to endure at
+any season of the year. Indeed, impaired health obliged Mr. and Mrs.
+Cobb, who had been specially designated to the mountain district, to
+return home within two years; and, to their own great regret and
+that of their associates, they have never been able to rejoin the
+mission.
+
+The Nestorian helpers, as a class, were pronounced able and faithful
+men, remarkably so for Orientals. But they could not fully take the
+place of missionaries. "They do nobly," wrote Mr. Coan, "if properly
+directed and watched over, better perhaps, in some circumstances,
+than we can; but it is not the work of a day, nor a year, thoroughly
+to eradicate the habits of life of those who are brought up in gross
+superstition."
+
+Early in the year 1859, the seminary for young men was blessed with
+its tenth revival, in which a third of its pupils were hopefully
+converted. There had then been eleven such spiritual refreshings in
+the seminary for girls. In most of these outpourings of the Spirit,
+as now, the villages were more or less favored. The effects of these
+revivals were by no means limited to the souls converted. An
+enlightening, softening, elevating influence affected the masses.
+The young men from the seminary were generally of good abilities,
+having been selected from a large number of candidates, and many of
+them were distinguished for piety; and quite as much might be said
+of the other seminary.
+
+More than fourteen millions of printed pages had been distributed
+among the Nestorians. The Old Testament with references formed a
+part of this literary treasure; and the New Testament was about
+being issued in that form.
+
+Among the novelties to be recorded was the marriage of Mar Yohanan,
+in violation of the canons of the Nestorian Church. The bishop had
+been connected with the labors of the mission from the beginning. He
+pleaded the example of Luther and the Apostles. The step was one of
+his own choosing, and taken in the face of many threats, as well as
+the imputation of unworthy motives; but the "evangelicals" almost
+universally approved his course. The excitement was much less than
+had been apprehended; and another of the bishops, after some time,
+followed his example.
+
+In 1860 the observance of the Lord's Supper, instead of being
+confined to the missionary stations; was held, once in four months,
+in the various villages where the converts resided, and about a
+score of virtually reformed churches were thus planted and watered
+in as many different places. The native pastor was held responsible
+for the persons whose names were presented to the missionary, as
+suitable to be admitted to the Lord's table. Mr. Coan speaks of
+those little churches, as being such in fact, "scattered in the
+different villages, as so many moral light-houses in the surrounding
+darkness."
+
+Mar Shimon, the Nestorian Patriarch, died near the close of 1860, at
+the age of fifty-nine, and after having been thirty-five years in
+office. His successor was a nephew, eighteen years old, and a youth
+of amiable disposition. The patriarch had stood variously affected
+towards the mission, but was, for the most part, unfriendly. The
+effect of the Gospel in diminishing the superstitious reverence of
+the people for him, was one of the causes of his hostility.
+
+About this time, a spirit of unlooked-for liberality was manifested
+among the Nestorians. It should be borne in mind that the people are
+poor, that the man worth five hundred dollars is counted rich, and
+that probably no Nestorian is worth two thousand dollars. The
+indications in our own country were at that time very unpromising;
+and when the prospective embarrassments of the Board were stated at
+the monthly concert in Geog Tapa, John, the pastor, urged the people
+to support their own missionary in the mountains, and one of the
+audience rose and pledged nearly a month's support. Others
+contributed unwonted amounts, and soon the whole congregation was in
+a blaze of enthusiasm. Those who could command money gave money,
+others contributed wheat, or other produce, and even women took off
+their ornaments and gave them. At the monthly concert the next day
+in the city, the people were more aglow than at Geog Tapa, and gave
+on a larger scale, though frequently reminded that they were poor,
+and urged not to give more than their cooler judgments would
+approve. The amount contributed was five hundred dollars. They
+seized upon the figure of "a bride"-- more forcible in Persia than
+in America,--which Mr. Coan had used in his address; and one and
+another contributed for her "shoes," "dress," and other things,
+until the "church," the "Lamb's wife," had a very comfortable
+outfit.
+
+This outburst of benevolent effort was too sudden and excessive to
+last in the same measure. The advantage gained by the elevation thus
+reached, was the practicability of keeping the converts up to giving
+according to their ability, which is the Gospel standard. Dr.
+Perkins, writing two years later, thought there was a real gain by
+this effort, though it had reacted somewhat. Most of the pledges
+were redeemed after the next harvest and vintage.
+
+Dr. Dwight was eighteen days at Oroomiah during his Eastern tour in
+1860 and 1861. Mr. Wheeler had accompanied him from Harpoot. Some
+important changes in the practical working of the mission, made at
+the Annual Meeting, threw a greater responsibility on the native
+pastors. They were to have the responsibility, not only of
+administering baptism, but of the Lord's Supper; and the children of
+none except communicants were to be baptized. The relation of pastor
+and people was thus made more prominent and distinct. Dr. Dwight
+declares himself satisfied by what he saw at Oroomiah, that nothing
+more than this was needed to complete the organization of the
+reformed church. He had had the impression, for years, that sooner
+or later the converts among the Nestorians, like the same class of
+persons among the Armenians, would be organized into separate
+churches, wholly distinct from the Nestorian Church. The
+excommunications and persecutions that had led to that result among
+the Armenians, he seemed to think would not occur among the
+Nestorians; and it was evident to him that the old ceremonies of the
+Church were silently vanishing away, and that reformed services were
+taking their place, as the result of a fundamental change in the
+minds of the people. A distinct theological class was to be formed
+in the seminary of promising young converts, and no more men were to
+be educated in that school than could afterwards be profitably
+employed. The conclusion was also reached, in view of past
+experience, that the mountain regions should not be occupied by
+American families; reserving them as the peculiar field of the
+reformed church of the plain; as a training-school for their
+missionary spirit, and a necessary outlet for their pious zeal.
+
+The native preachers and helpers held a two days' meeting at
+Oroomiah while Dr. Dwight was there, in which several important
+subjects were discussed. He liked their appearance, admired the
+spirit of many of them, and was greatly moved by the extraordinary
+fire of their eloquence, though he understood them only through an
+interpreter. He was specially impressed by the childlike piety of
+the venerable Mar Elias.
+
+Mr. Breath, the ingenious and efficient missionary printer, died of
+cholera on the 10th of November, 1861. He had so far succeeded in
+training native printers and book-binders, that there was no further
+call for such workmen from the United States. Mrs. Breath returned
+home, with her three children, in the following year.
+
+Some uneasiness was created about this time by rumors, that priests
+of the Russian Church were coming to Oroomiah to proselyte
+Nestorians. They did not come; but emissaries were sent by them
+secretly, who made large promises, that deceived many; yet the
+evangelical party, with two or three exceptions, kept aloof from the
+affair. The proposal was that the Nestorians should renounce their
+religion, and receive the seven sacraments of the Greek Church; the
+inducements held out being such as the payment of their taxes for
+some years, and salaries to all ecclesiastics and head men of the
+villages. The Persian government at length became somewhat alarmed
+by these proceedings, and the English Consul, Mr. Abbott, having
+demanded the official interference of the authorities at Tabriz,
+measures were adopted promising some degree of relief to the
+oppressed and therefore discontented Nestorians.
+
+I have passed in silence, for the most part, the long series of
+efforts by the Persian government to embarrass the mission, since
+they appear to have been generally prompted by bribes from
+emissaries of the Papal Church, and proved strangely inoperative.
+
+Another interesting revival of religion occurred in the two
+seminaries in February, 1862. It seems to have been marked rather by
+an increase of grace in the church-members, than by the number of
+converts. The first months of 1863 and 1864 were also distinguished
+by special religious interest, extending to many of the villages on
+the plain.
+
+On Sabbath morning, December 6, 1863, the good old Mar Elias died,
+more than four score years of age. Until within a week of his death,
+he was accustomed to walk to town to attend the monthly concert, a
+distance of five miles, and for many years he had visited the
+villages of his diocese on foot. He was sick only three days, and
+his mind was clear. When asked by the young men about him for his
+dying charge, it was, "See that ye hold fast to God's Word." An
+immense concourse gathered from the surrounding country to do honor
+to his memory; and Dr. Perkins preached from the text: "My father,
+my father! The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof."
+
+As a most cheering illustration of what Nestorians may yet become,
+through the grace of God in the Gospel, I quote largely from an
+account of the venerable man, by Mr. Rhea.[1] "While our good old
+bishop was not an educated man,--his knowledge in books extending
+little beyond the Word of God,--and had but ordinary intellectual
+ability, he was still one of the most interesting characters among
+the Nestorians. There is no name among them that will be more
+fragrant; none that deserves a more honored place in the annals of
+his Church. The singularity of his position here, thirty years
+ago,--devout, spiritual, God-fearing, and active, when a deep night
+hung over his whole people,--like a mountain beacon, whose summit
+had caught the first beams of the sun, which was soon to flood all
+below with its glory; his prophetic anticipation of the coming of
+missionaries; his joy in welcoming them; his peculiar attachment to
+them and their families; his true-hearted devotion to them as God's
+ministers, and to their work, through all kinds of vicissitudes; the
+charming guilelessness of his character, ingenuous as a child; his
+wonderful love for the Word of God, making it his meditation by day
+and by night,--not able to pass two or three hours consecutively,
+without drinking from this well-spring of life; the child-like
+gentleness of his character,--though, when stirred in God's behalf,
+he showed a lion-hearted courage, tearing down the pictures and
+images which Papal hands had stealthily hung on the walls of his
+church, and pitching them indignantly from the door; his love of
+sound doctrine, holding forth the word of life in his humble way,
+always and everywhere, his face never so full of spiritual light as
+when rehearsing a conversation he had just had with some Mussulman
+friend, to whom he had opened the Scriptures, and talked of the
+kingdom yet to fill the whole earth,--the brotherhood of all
+races,--the one flock and the one shepherd; his silent patience, in
+a land of cruel wrong, under heavy burdens, borne uncomplainingly
+for many years; his wonderful spirituality, all things earthly being
+but the types of the heavenly,--the one, by resemblance or contrast,
+constantly suggesting the other, so that he could not be reminded
+that he was late to tea without the quick reply, 'May I not be late
+at the marriage supper of the Lamb,' or 'Jesus will gather us all
+in, in season;' all these traits of Christ-like beauty combined to
+make a character which, in this weary land, was a constant rest to
+the toil-worn missionary,--an influence for good, continually
+streaming forth into the darkness of spiritual death around him.
+God, who accurately weighs all men, only knows how much his kingdom
+in Persia has been advanced by Mar Elias, than whom the Nestorian
+Church never had a more spiritual and evangelical bishop."
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1864, pp. 146, 147.
+
+Almost five thousand Armenians inhabit the plain of Oroomiah, and
+the attention of the mission was gradually turned towards their
+spiritual enlightenment, with a prospect of ultimate success.
+
+At a general meeting of native helpers, in March, 1863, a Church
+Manual, or Directory was adopted; "in the observance of which," Mr.
+Cochran writes, "we have all that is essential to a reformed church,
+with reformed pastors; and in the possession of the substance, we
+can afford to dispense with the shadow of new organizations.....The
+prospect, we believe, was never brighter than at present for the
+ultimate evangelization of the old Church."
+
+During the thirty years from the arrival of Dr. Perkins, five of the
+twenty men and seven of the twenty-four women, who had joined the
+mission, had died; and five men and nine women had for various
+causes been obliged to retire from the field, leaving in the mission
+seven male and nine female laborers. In this time, the vast unknown
+of men and things where dwelt the primeval race, had become well
+known. A great work of exploration had been performed. So far as
+knowledge of the field was concerned, many a valley had been
+exalted, many a hill brought low. This was indeed preliminary work,
+but it was indispensable, and was no small share of what is involved
+in the conquest of the country for Christ. The seven missionaries
+then in the field had more than fifty Nestorian fellow-laborers in
+the gospel ministry, graduates of their seminary, and the nine
+female missionaries rejoiced in scores of pious young women from
+their seminary, abroad as wives, mothers, and teachers, doing a work
+perhaps not second in importance to that of the pious graduates of
+the other school. Nor should we overlook the reduction of the spoken
+language to writing, the translation of the Holy Scriptures into it,
+and the multiplication of books to the extent of seventy-nine
+thousand three hundred volumes, and more than sixteen millions of
+pages. Of the half a score and more of revivals in the seminaries,
+Dr. Perkins affirms that they would compare with the purest revivals
+he had ever witnessed in America.
+
+The return of Miss Beach to the United States threw the whole care
+of the female seminary on Miss Rice. She was afterwards materially
+aided by Mrs. Rhea, and from time to time by other members of the
+mission.
+
+The interest taken by the English government in the oppressed
+Nestorians, should be gratefully acknowledged. Mr. Taylor, English
+Consul at Diarbekir, was sent early in 1864 through the Nestorian
+districts of Koordistan, to ascertain their grievances, and report
+to the Ambassador at Constantinople; and Mr. Glen, a pious attaché
+to the British Embassy in Persia, spent several months on the plain
+of Oroomiah for a similar purpose.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THIRTY YEARS AMONG THE JEWS.
+
+1826-1856.
+
+
+The first missionary sent by the Board to the Jews in the Levant,
+was the Rev. Josiah Brewer, who, while connected with the Board, was
+supported by the "Female Society of Boston and Vicinity for
+promoting Christianity among the Jews." Sailing from Boston,
+September 16, 1826, he proceeded to Constantinople by way of Malta
+and Smyrna, expecting there to find every facility for learning the
+Hebrew-Spanish language, spoken by the Spanish Jews. But
+disturbances, growing partly out of the Greek revolution, so
+hindered his gaining access to the Jews, that he deemed it his duty
+to turn to some more open field of missionary labor.
+
+After the retirement of Mr. Brewer, the ladies assumed the support
+of the Rev. William G. Schauffler who became his successor. He was a
+native of Stuttgart in Germany, but early removed, with his parents,
+to a German colony near Odessa. He came to this country through the
+agency of the Rev. Jonas King, and spent several years at the
+Theological Seminary in Andover, to prepare himself for a mission to
+the East. He was ordained at Boston in November, 1831, and embarked
+soon after, going by way of Paris, where he attended the lectures on
+the oriental languages and literature, for which that city was then
+distinguished. He had been familiar with the French language from
+his youth, and, having an aptitude for such studies, applied himself
+successfully to the Arabic and Turkish. His health beginning to fail
+after some months, and the cholera making ravages in the city, he
+resumed his journey through Germany to Odessa, and thence by water
+to Constantinople, where he arrived on the last day of July,
+1832.[1]
+
+[1] For Mr. Shauffler's account of his residence at Paris and this
+journey, see _Missionary Herald_ for 1833 and 1834.
+
+The greater part of the Jews in Constantinople are descendants of
+the eight hundred thousand who were expelled from Spain in 1492, and
+their language is the Hebrew-Spanish; or the Spanish with a mixture
+of Hebrew words, all written in the Spanish Rabbinical alphabet. As
+soon as Mr. Schauffler had acquired this language, he began the
+careful revision of a Hebrew-Spanish translation of the Old
+Testament, already in print, but not intelligible to the common
+people. He found the Jewish mind in an unquiet state. Eight years
+before, as many as a hundred and fifty had renounced Judaism at one
+time, but nearly all were soon driven back by persecution. Several
+of these now requested baptism, and were ready to suffer for the
+sake of becoming Christians; but they seemed incapable of
+understanding that anything more could be required of them than an
+exchange of external relations, and gave little evidence of piety.
+
+Near the close of 1834, Mr. Schauffler baptized a German Jew, whom
+he named Herman Marcussohn, having formed his acquaintance in South
+Russia, sixteen years before. As he could not there profess
+Christianity except by joining the Greek Church, he had come to
+Constantinople, bringing letters to Mr. Schauffler, and was engaged
+by him as a literary assistant.
+
+Religious excitements were not wanting. Three young Jews became
+anxious for Christian baptism, and both the Greek and Armenian
+Patriarchs refusing it, they fell into the cold embrace of the Papal
+Church. Three others expressed the same desire; and ten young men
+took advantage of the death of the civil head of their community to
+flee, as was supposed, for the sake of greater freedom in religion.
+Mr. Schauffler's varying and perplexing experience constrained him
+to believe, that private charity, and sacrifices for individual
+Jews, should be employed very sparingly.
+
+The year 1835 was chiefly employed in revising the Hebrew-Spanish
+version of the Old Testament, and in preparing a Lexicon in the two
+languages. He also commenced a series of tracts in Hebrew-German. To
+some extent there was among the Jews a hearing ear, and to a greater
+extent the absence of an understanding heart. The German and Polish
+Jews were less bigoted and more intelligent than the Spanish Jews,
+but were more greedy of gain, and more indifferent to religion. On
+the great day of atonement they allowed Marcussohn to address them
+in their synagogue on the Christian religion; the rulers of the
+synagogue having first given him a seat on the platform among
+themselves, where they read their Scriptures and prayers, and where
+sermons were delivered.
+
+A visit of some months made by Mr. Schauffler among his friends at
+Odessa, in 1836, resulted, through divine grace, in a revival, as
+has been already stated, among the German population, and was not
+without good effects upon the demoralized Jews of that city. During
+his absence, his revision of the Psalms in Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish
+was printed at Constantinople, under the superintendence of Mr.
+Farman, a missionary of the London Jews Society. A relative of the
+chief rabbi called on Mr. Schauffler after his return, and took a
+hundred copies for distribution, and he thought his chief might be
+induced to give his _imprimatur_ to the contemplated edition of the
+Old Testament; but from some unknown cause, the chief rabbi became a
+fierce opposer of the Psalms, and prohibited the use of the edition.
+
+In May, 1839, Mr. Schauffler left for Vienna, to superintend the
+printing of the Old Testament for the Spanish Jews. As he was
+leaving, the caique, in which himself and family, including an
+infant child, were going off to the steamer, upset, and the whole
+party narrowly escaped drowning. His visits to Odessa, in going and
+coming, were the occasion, as before, of spiritual blessings to the
+people. His family expenses were paid by the Board, but the printing
+was at the charge of the American Bible Society. He was absent
+nearly three years, returning in August, 1842; and in that time
+carried through the press three thousand copies of the Old Testament
+in Hebrew-Spanish, in two volumes quarto, containing fifteen hundred
+pages. The Hebrew occupied every alternate page. He also printed
+five hundred copies of the Hebrew-Spanish Pentateuch, in two
+volumes, 16mo., with the Hebrew on the opposite page. The Sefardim,
+or Spanish Jews, having the New Testament previously, were now
+favored with the whole inspired volume in their vernacular tongue.
+
+Notwithstanding the anathemas of Jewish rulers, the three thousand
+copies of the Psalms, printed in 1836, were nearly exhausted in
+1844, and the book was in great esteem among the people. A vain
+effort was made by the rabbis to suppress the Vienna edition of the
+Old Testament. Only a few of the hundreds of copies in the hands of
+the people were delivered up, and it was believed that those
+confiscated by the rabbis found their way again into circulation.
+
+About this time, the "Committee of the General Assembly of the
+Church of Scotland on the Scheme for the Conversion of the Jews,"
+made a grant of £2,162 (about $10,000) to this mission for the
+circulation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the purchase of rabbinic type,
+and the publication of school-books and tracts for the Jews. This,
+while it generously enlarged the operations of the mission, afforded
+no relief to the treasury of the Board.
+
+Such were the calls for the Hebrew-Spanish Old Testament, that more
+than twelve hundred copies went into the hands of the Jews previous
+to June, 1843. One rabbi requested twenty copies for poor Jews in
+Roumelia; another, and he the chief rabbi, asked for ninety copies
+for six destitute places; and another, the rabbi of Orta Keuy, made
+repeated solicitations for thirty copies for schools in that suburb,
+and for twenty additional copies to place in reading rooms, where
+Jews come together in a social manner, on their Sabbath, to read the
+Bible.
+
+Calls for religious conversation were frequent, but there was
+painful evidence, that in most cases the object was more selfish
+than spiritual. There appeared to be a general dissatisfaction with
+Judaism, but no proper knowledge of Christianity. Poverty and
+distress were the principal occasions of these calls. A few appeared
+to be interested in more fundamental truths; and they attentively
+read McCaul's "Old Paths," a controversial work that exposes the
+absurdity of rabbinism. The chief difficulty with all was in respect
+to the divine nature of the Messiah.
+
+The Spanish Jews, numbering seventy or eighty thousand souls in
+Constantinople, afforded a field for the faithful sower, rather than
+the cheerful reaper. The tyrannical rule of their rabbis rendered
+them less accessible, perhaps, than any other people in Turkey, the
+Moslems alone excepted; and intellectually they were among the most
+degraded races in the East. Yet they stood higher in their morals
+than did the Turks. They had but few books; and until the issue of
+the edition under Mr. Schauffler's superintendence, they had no copy
+of the Old Testament in their vernacular tongue, that was accessible
+to the people at large. Two editions of the Old Testament, in
+Hebrew-Spanish and Hebrew and Chaldee, with Rabbi Solomon Jarchi's
+commentary in opposition to Christian doctrines, had been published
+in 1816, at Vienna, in six quarto volumes. Now the Christian church,
+while waiting for a wider entrance among the people, was called on
+to provide the books that would be indispensable when that entrance
+should be secured. Among those most needed now, were a Hebrew and
+Hebrew-Spanish vocabulary of the Old Testament (then in
+preparation); a Spelling Book for schools; a short Hebrew Grammar; a
+brief Arithmetic; a Geography of the Bible, and a Natural History of
+the same; various religious tracts and essays on prophecies,
+especially those concerning the Messiah; and a translation of
+McCaul's "Old Paths" into Hebrew-Spanish.
+
+The Ashkenazim, or German Jews, were only about two thousand, and
+were chiefly young men driven from Moldavia by the Boyars, and from
+Russia by the law of conscription that threatened them with the
+hardships and perils of a soldier's life. This department was under
+the charge of Mr. Allan, a missionary of the Free Church of
+Scotland, in connection with Mr. Schwartz, a converted Jew.
+
+The Protestant Armenians showed a deep interest in efforts for the
+conversion of the Jews, and were forward to render their aid, Nor
+could Jews or Mohammedans be wholly uninfluenced by the change then
+going on in the Armenian churches of the metropolis in respect to
+the use of pictures; the greater part of which had been removed, and
+the patriarchal church, in place of them had set the example of
+having passages of Scripture painted in large letters on the walls.
+
+Besides the Spanish and German Jews in Constantinople, there was a
+small body of Italian Jews who were generally destitute of all
+religion. Then as there were many Germans in the city, Mr.
+Schauffler held a stated service for them, in which his labors were
+blessed to the hopeful conversion of some. The attendance was often
+composed largely of Israelites. In the closing month of the year
+1844, he baptized a Jewish physician.
+
+The Jews are probably more strongly prejudiced against the Gospel,
+than any other people. Their whole literature is anti-Christian. So
+are their education and internal religious policy. The great effort
+of Jewish learning for fifty generations, has been to prevent the
+Old Testament from suggesting Christian ideas to the Jewish mind.
+Hence a Jewish mission requires an extraordinary amount of
+preparatory work, in the first instance; though its main objects and
+duties afterwards will differ little, if at all, from those of other
+missions.
+
+Mr. Schauffler was specially adapted to the preliminary work in
+Jewish missions, growing out of the peculiar state of the national
+mind. What this was, up to the year 1845, has been sufficiently
+indicated. In that year, a second edition of the Pentateuch, in
+Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish, was printed at Vienna; and a new edition,
+of five thousand copies of the Old Testament in the same languages,
+was commenced at Smyrna. The American Bible Society, which bore the
+expense of these editions, also authorized the printing of a Hebrew
+and Hebrew-German version of the Old Testament, for the German Jews.
+
+The testimony of Mr. Schauffler is so explicit on a point of great
+importance in a mission of the Jews, as to justify the following
+quotation:--
+
+"My own observation from the first, has established this fact, that
+whenever a Jew is truly converted, the hope of seeing all Israelites
+settled in Canaan sinks to the level of many other secondary ideas;
+and Christ and him crucified,--Christ risen, ascended, and reigning
+in glory, Christ and his kingdom, wherever its centre may
+be,--becomes the all-absorbing theme. In other words, such Jews I
+have always observed to be just what true converts among ourselves
+are; differing from us only in this, that they cherish that desire
+for the conversion of Israel, which we ought also to cherish, and of
+which Paul has left so splendid an example. Half-converted men, in
+whom the carnal pride of the old Pharisee has never been broken down
+by a divinely wrought sense of the guilt of unbelief in Christ, who,
+when they were baptized, thought they did Christ and his people an
+honor; these, of course, never fail to consider themselves as
+something special in the kingdom of Christ, and they expect to be
+treated by Him accordingly. These make an exception. There are,
+also, truly converted men among the proselytes, who cherish that
+notion. They are those who have been under the influence of
+missionaries, who make them a 'royal race,' amid the divinely
+designated 'royal priesthood' (than which nothing can be higher) of
+Christ's true people. We are all apt to believe what magnifies
+ourselves. But I have observed no inherent tendency that way among
+truly converted Jews, and never found it necessary to make efforts
+to eradicate such carnal hopes."
+
+The particular relations of the Board to the Spanish Jews in
+Constantinople underwent an unexpected change in the year 1846.
+Owing to the protracted and unavoidable delay in providing
+associates for Mr. Schauffler, the brethren from the Free Church of
+Scotland had so far taken possession of the ground, as to render
+another mission in that city inexpedient. Whatever cause there may
+have been for regretting this after the Board had obtained the men,
+no blame was attached to our more zealous brethren of the Scotch
+Church. Mr. Schauffler would continue to reside in Constantinople,
+and would render valuable aid to all the missions to the Jews in
+those parts.
+
+Attention was now directed to Salonica (the ancient Thessalonica),
+which had been visited by Messrs. Schauffler and Dwight some years
+before. The city was visited again by Mr. Schauffler in July, 1847,
+and he urgently recommended occupying it as a Jewish station. The
+number of rabbinical Jews residing there was estimated at
+thirty-five thousand, or about half of the whole population. The
+number of their synagogues was fifty-six. The Jews were diffused
+throughout the city, and not confined, as in Constantinople, to
+certain quarters. There was, therefore, a good degree of
+intermingling in civil life with other people. The natural
+consequence was, that a Salonica Jew did not evince the shyness so
+common elsewhere, in approaching Christians, or in entering their
+houses. They were thankful for the gift of the Old Testament in a
+language they could understand. Moreover, the centre of rabbinical
+learning was at Salonica, and not at Constantinople; which made the
+assent given by the Salonica rabbis to the correctness of the
+Hebrew-Spanish version, the more influential.
+
+The Rev. Messrs. Eliphal Maynard and Edward M. Dodd, appointed to
+this mission, reached Salonica, with their wives, in April, 1849,
+going by way of Constantinople. Mr. Schauffler was to remain at the
+metropolis, but accompanied them to Salonica and was with them seven
+weeks, helping them much towards a successful entrance on their
+work. Both of the brethren devoted themselves to the Hebrew-Spanish.
+Mr. Dodd gave, also, some attention to the Turkish, with a view to
+the Zoharites, or Moslem Jews, numbering about five thousand; all of
+whom seemed to rejoice that missionaries had come there to reside.
+He describes them as among the noblest of the inhabitants of the
+city, and as very ready to talk on religious subjects, with less
+self-conceit than the rabbinical Jews.
+
+The Prudential Committee, on sending forth these brethren, stated
+the more important facts, principles, and usages, which should be
+kept constantly in mind in their mission to the Jews.[1] The
+relations of that people to Christ's kingdom were believed to be the
+same with those of all other people; and they were no more shut out
+from that kingdom by a "judicial blindness," or more really "cast
+away," than any other perverse and wicked nation. The obstacles to
+be overcome among them were substantially the same with those in the
+Oriental Churches. The relations sustained to the spiritual
+blessings of the Abrahamic covenant being no longer of blood, but of
+faith, these blessings must be common alike to believing Jews and
+Gentiles. Never again, in the spiritual kingdom of God, will there
+be circumcision or uncircumcision, Greek or Jew. Never again will
+there be a need of bloody rites, a mediating priesthood, and a showy
+ritual. Never again will there be a theocracy with a sensuous
+external economy, limited to a single nation. Never again, in the
+kingdom of God, will he be accounted a Jew, in the evangelical
+sense, who is one outwardly, nor that be accounted circumcision
+which is outward in the flesh; but he will be a Jew, who is one
+inwardly, and is, of course, heir to all the spiritual promises made
+to the Jews in the Old Testament; and circumcision is of the heart,
+in the spirit, and not in the letter. On these broad, fundamental
+Scripture principles, rested the whole superstructure of our mission
+to the Jews.
+
+[1] More fully stated in the _Missionary Herald_ for 1849, p. 101.
+
+The prevalent idea, that judicial blindness came upon Israel in
+consequence of their crucifixion of the Son of God, precluding their
+conversion as a people until the arrival of some great prophetic
+era, seems without any proper Scripture warrant. They were blinded
+only "in part;" only "some" of the branches were broken off; they
+are not "cast away" as a people; and when the rest of mankind shall
+embrace the Gospel, and come into the kingdom, the Jews will do the
+same.
+
+The practical inference drawn from all this was, that the same
+general course should be pursued in Jewish missions, which is proper
+in missions to any other unevangelized people. They must be
+instructed as to the oneness of Christ's body, the church, and the
+equal membership of all true disciples. If a church be formed of
+Jewish converts alone, it should be in full communion with all other
+Christian churches.
+
+Manual labor schools and hospitals for the Jews, employing converts
+merely for the sake of giving them employment; boarding-schools to
+serve as houses of refuge for the children of converts; expenses
+incurred for shielding converts from persecution or for teaching
+them trades; were not regarded as within the range of missionary
+work; but the converts were, in general, to be left, as the Apostles
+left them, to meet the consequences of their conversion upon their
+persons, their families, and their business, as God in his
+providence and by his grace should enable them.
+
+Mr. Maynard was removed by death from his labors within five months
+after his arrival. In company with a New England clerical friend, he
+made a tour into the delightful region of Thessaly for relaxation
+and health. Unconsciously they exposed themselves to malaria, and
+both took the same fever; of which Mr. Maynard died at Salonica, and
+his friend at Athens. Mrs. Maynard soon afterwards returned home.
+The place thus early vacated was filled, in the following summer, by
+the Rev. Justin W. Parsons, who was accompanied by his wife.
+
+The Salonica Jews had scarcely more than the shadow of education. A
+school taught in the principal synagogue contained about a thousand
+pupils, but with the least possible intellectual value in the
+instruction. Half as many more were in private schools, where Hebrew
+and Hebrew-Spanish were taught, but nothing like Grammar, Geography,
+or History. In a small select school, supported by rich Jews,
+Italian (the commercial language) and French were taught.
+Familiarity with the Talmud was regarded as the perfection of
+knowledge, so that a man needed to know nothing else. "Oh," said a
+beardless youth to a missionary, "if you had only read our Talmud,
+you would throw all your books into the fire." Salonica was famous
+for its books, but they were servile imitations of the Talmud. The
+spoken language was essentially Spanish, but, with a deficient
+vocabulary, and greatly corrupted with Turkish and Hebrew words,
+while subject to constant change. Consequently the many books and
+tracts in Hebrew-Spanish, which were published by the English
+missionaries in Smyrna, were comparatively useless at Salonica,
+because of the difficulty of understanding them. These Jews
+therefore needed missionary schools.
+
+The excessive self-righteousness of this people, as described by Mr.
+Dodd, disclosed a serious obstacle to missionary success among them.
+"Two thousand years of punishment," he says, "have not destroyed the
+feeling, that they are the beloved of heaven. They pray, morning,
+noon, and night, and that too in the holy language. They always ask
+a blessing on their food. They neither eat nor touch any unclean
+thing. Except they wash their hands oft, they eat not. When they
+fast, it is by entire abstinence from food. They read the Word of
+God almost continually. In passing through the bazaars, you may see
+the shop-keepers taking up the Bible to read in their leisure hours;
+and if a visitor has to wait for you a few minutes, with a Bible
+within reach, you will certainly find him reading it, though it be
+in an unknown tongue; and once a year they sit up all night to read
+through the law. Their recognition of Providence is excessive. Every
+event is referred to God. He is thanked for every good; submission
+to his will is expressed in every trial. Every hope is uttered
+conditionally, in dependence on him; and his aid is invoked in
+trouble as frequently, and with as little meaning, as many
+Christians speak of fortune, or luck. As to the outward semblance of
+piety and devotion, I do not think another such people can be found.
+Like their fathers, they seek God daily, and delight to know his
+ways. As a nation, they take delight in approaching God. 'Is not the
+Lord among us?' 'No evil shall come upon us.' Talk to them of God's
+glory, and they will answer by quoting some beautiful Psalm of
+David. Talk of man's sinfulness, and they will repeat Psalm 51st,
+with seeming penitential devotion. Speak of God's wrath against sin;
+they will assent readily, but add, that he is pitiful, remembering
+that we are dust. Thus the missionary is baffled. Let him search the
+Word of God to find expressions that shall penetrate to their
+consciences; the Jew is familiar with them all, and repeats them
+every day in his prayers. They either mean nothing, or through a
+talmudic gloss, aided by self-righteous blindness, they foster his
+confidence in the mercy of the God who is his peculiar friend, and
+loves him more than he loves the Gentile world, or even his own
+justice and truth."
+
+Mr. Parsons also says, after a visit to Seres, a city fifteen miles
+northwest of Salonica: "The Jews of Seres have the same blind
+submission to the rabbis, the same prejudices, the same evasions of
+the truth. Gold is their God, and traffic is their religion,--one
+would say, who should meet them only in their fair. But in their
+prayers, and their Sabbath observance, the deceiver makes them
+appear to themselves the holy favorites of heaven, separate from the
+nations."
+
+Mr. Schauffler had now printed his Hebrew grammar, and commenced the
+printing of his Hebrew lexicon. The edition of the Pentateuch was
+nearly exhausted.
+
+The Rev. Homer B. Morgan and wife reached Salonica in February,
+1852. The brethren were of the opinion, that while for two thirds of
+the year the climate of that city was tolerably healthy, the low
+portions, where the Jews and Greeks chiefly resided, were subject to
+malaria. The missionaries, therefore, would have resided in the more
+elevated parts occupied by the Turks, but could neither hire nor
+purchase houses in that quarter. The best they could do was to live
+in the upper stories of their houses. Mr. Dodd suffered from a
+bronchial affection, and sought to recruit his health by an
+excursion into Thessaly, where he enjoyed some excellent
+opportunities for preaching the gospel, both to Jews and
+Gentiles.[1] Mr. Parsons visited the part of Macedonia, which lies
+northwest of Salonica, and then extended his journey to Sophia, the
+capital of Bulgaria.[2]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1852, pp. 235-238.
+
+[2] _Ibid_. pp. 78-83.
+
+The health of Mr. Dodd did not improve, and he repaired first to
+Malta, and then, with the consent of the Committee, to the United
+States. In August, 1852, a mouth after his departure, Mr. and Mrs.
+Parsons, and Mr. and Mrs. Morgan were all prostrated by intermittent
+fever. Mrs. Morgan did not yield to the disease, till she had
+exhausted her strength in caring for the others; and then, after a
+short illness, during most of which she was unconscious, she was
+removed to her heavenly home. Mr. Parsons was at one time very low;
+and the three survivors were subjected to such frequent returns of
+fever during the winter, that they were advised by physicians to
+spend the spring and summer on the Bosphorus. They left the station
+in charge of native helpers, and removed to Constantinople. Until
+sickness came, their labors had been uninterrupted. Their circle of
+acquaintance was constantly increasing, and they were generally
+regarded by the Jews as their sincere friends. They were expected in
+their visits to declare and make personal applications of gospel
+truths. A little volume upon the inspiration of the Old and New
+Testaments, by Mr. Dodd, was favorably received by many of the Jews.
+
+It was not deemed expedient for the brethren to resume their
+residence in Salonica. Mr. Morgan and Mr. and Mrs. Parsons removed
+to Smyrna, where they shared with their English brethren in labors
+among the Jews. They hoped to continue to occupy Salonica through
+Armenian native helpers, and to visit it themselves in the healthy
+season. Mr. Morgan was married to Mrs. Sutphen, of the Armenian
+mission, at the close of 1853, and on the return of Mr. and Mrs.
+Dodd to Smyrna in the autumn of 1854, they went to Salonica,
+expecting to remain there during nine months, and then to retire
+before the miasma of summer. Mr. Morgan was welcomed by his Jewish
+acquaintance, and found that the spirit of inquiry had spread, and
+that there was greater boldness on the part of a few. But whatever
+their secret conviction of the truth, none confessed the Saviour
+openly. The first fruits ripened elsewhere. A family of three fled
+to Malta, and were baptized there; another, a converted rabbi, came
+to Smyrna, and became a teacher. There had been a considerable
+advance in female education, since Mrs. Dodd had, with great
+difficulty, persuaded a Jewish girl to encounter the odium of
+learning to read. Some prominent rabbis were teaching their
+daughters, and the tide seemed evidently turning.
+
+The Jews of Smyrna were found to be more worldly, and less given to
+religious thought, than the Jews of Salonica. But an avowedly
+Christian school of near twenty pupils was sustained during the year
+1854, and taught by the converted rabbi above mentioned. The teacher
+was known to be a proselyte. The New Testament was read daily, and
+biblical instruction occupied a large place. It was hopeful that
+Jews were found willing to place their children in such an
+atmosphere. A boarding-school was opened for a few of the more
+promising boys belonging to the day-school. The parents of five
+actually signed a contract binding them to the missionaries for
+three years. This they did after the most explicit declarations,
+that while the boys would be trained for the highest usefulness and
+happiness in this world, they would be carefully instructed in the
+way of salvation through Jesus of Nazareth. The experiment could not
+proceed without opposition. The chief rabbi interposed. The eldest
+boy in the school manifested an inclination to embrace the Christian
+religion, and was beaten, dragged to the synagogue, and compelled to
+go through the form of worship. He was then put in irons procured
+from the mad-house. He afterwards fled to Constantinople, where he
+was baptized by one of the Scotch missionaries. The teacher was also
+thrown into prison, on a false accusation. A young Jewish physician
+appeared fully to embrace the truth, and was not moved by the most
+cruel threats, or flattering promises. Mr. Parsons was greatly
+encouraged.
+
+The instruction of inquirers at Constantinople had passed mostly
+into the hands of English and Scotch missionaries to the Jews, while
+Mr. Schauffler's labors were chiefly literary. He was preparing a
+new translation of the Psalms into Hebrew-Spanish, in a more popular
+style; but could hardly expect entire success, owing to the
+peculiarities of the language as spoken by the common people in
+different places. His translation of the Old Testament into
+Hebrew-German, after revision by Mr. Koenig, of the Scotch Free
+Church Mission, was printed by the American Bible Society. He was
+able to preach in various languages, and did not neglect employing
+his talent in that direction. The printing of his Hebrew Lexicon was
+completed in 1854.
+
+The reader will scarcely be prepared for the relinquishment of this
+mission, which took place early in 1856, though not in consequence
+of failing success. The Armenian and Jewish missions, at their
+united annual meeting in the spring of 1855, recommended that the
+Board relinquish to some other society the Jewish stations of
+Salonica and Smyrna. Constantinople, as such a station, had been
+practically relinquished some time before. At a conference of
+missionaries in Constantinople in November of that year, on occasion
+of a visit from the Foreign Secretary of the Board, the subject was
+carefully considered, and the question was decided according to the
+personal convictions of the brethren in the Jewish mission. The
+result was in favor of relinquishing the Jewish field to the English
+and Scotch Societies; and of the younger members of the mission
+devoting their strength to the Armenian field, the exclusive right
+to which had been conceded to American missionaries by the general
+consent, as it were, of Protestant Christendom. It had become
+certain that the Board could not command laborers enough to do
+anything like justice to both fields; while the English and Scotch
+churches manifested a special interest in laboring for the
+conversion of the ancient people of God; and there were both English
+and Scotch missionaries in Constantinople, and English missionaries
+in Smyrna; and others from the Established Church of Scotland were
+ready to occupy Salonica.
+
+Mr. Schauffler subsequently devoted himself to labors for the
+Moslems, many of whom were becoming interested in the spiritual form
+of Christianity presented in the Protestant Armenian communities,
+that were springing up throughout the empire.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.
+
+1857-1862.
+
+
+The geographical position of European Turkey brings it directly in
+contact with European civilization. Its interior may easily be
+reached from the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, the
+Grecian Archipelago, the Adriatic Sea, and from the Danube flowing
+down from the heart of Europe. The Mohammedan population is
+estimated at four millions, and three fourths of these are supposed
+to be of Christian origin, and less firmly wedded to the Moslem
+faith than the remaining million of Osmanly Turks. And even these,
+born and educated on the borders of Europe, in the midst of divers
+Christian races, must form a character different from that of the
+Asiatic Turks in other parts of the empire.
+
+Of the various races in European Turkey, the Bulgarians, properly so
+called, who are estimated at four millions, speaking the Bulgarian
+language, claim our first attention. They inhabit not only Bulgaria
+proper, extending from the Danube to the Balkan Mountains, but also
+an extensive region south of these mountains, reaching to the
+Bosphorus, the Marmora, and Albania; and embracing a good part of
+ancient Thrace, Albania, and Macedonia.[1]
+
+[1] On the map, this country is called _Bulgaria_, _Roumelia_, and
+_Macedonia_. _Roumelia_, formerly called Moldavia and Wallachia,
+north of the Danube, is peopled by a race supposed to be descended
+from the old Roman military colonies. The language has an affinity
+to the Latin. _Servia_ is peopled by Slavs, who speak substantially
+the same language with the Bulgarians. The population of Roumania is
+estimated at 3,864,000, and that of Servia at 1,078,000.
+
+The Bulgarians are of Slavonic origin, and their race is among the
+oldest in Europe. In the latter part of the fifth century they
+crossed the Danube, and gave their name to the country between that
+river and the Balkan Mountains. In subsequent ages they extended
+their conquests into Thrace and Macedonia, and, encamping before the
+walls of Constantinople, sought to drive the Byzantine emperors into
+Asia Minor. In 712, the Bulgarian troops defeated the armies of the
+Eastern Roman Empire, and laid siege to Constantinople. Three years
+later their king concluded a commercial treaty with the Emperor
+Theodosius III. which is said to have remained in force for a long
+time. In the year 814 the Bulgarians again invaded the Roman Empire,
+captured Adrianople, and carried a bishop named Manuel, with others
+of the citizens, into captivity. This person formed the companions
+of his captivity into a church, and they remained true to their
+faith, and labored earnestly for its spread. Having made proselytes
+among the Bulgarians, the bishop and many of the captives suffered
+martyrdom. Somewhat later, a captive monk, named Constantine
+Cypharas, endeavored to carry forward the work thus commenced; but
+the Greek empress, Theodora, for some special reasons, was led to
+redeem this monk, and procure his return to his native country. At
+this juncture, a sister of the Bulgarian king Bogoris was residing
+at Constantinople, whither she had been conveyed as a captive in
+early youth, and where she had been educated as a Christian, and the
+effort to secure the return of the monk resulted in her being sent
+back to her friends. She now labored to gain over the king, her
+brother, to the Christian faith. Circumstances at length favored her
+pious efforts, and she sent for Methodius of Thessalonica, a monk
+and a skilful painter. He was afterwards joined by his older brother
+Constantine, or Cyrill, surnamed the Philosopher, on account of his
+learning. Cyrill reduced the Slavonic language to writing, taught
+the barbarous nation the use of letters, and translated the
+Scriptures into that language. In the year 861 he baptized king
+Bogoris. The king undertook to force his people to change their
+religion and they revolted. He succeeded in suppressing the
+rebellion, and showed the superficial nature of his Christianity by
+the cruel revenge he took on the leaders of the revolt. Then the
+nation followed the lead of their king, and has ever since been
+nominally Christian. Neander says, that Cyrill was distinguished
+from all other missionaries of that period, by not yielding to the
+prejudice which regarded the languages of the rude nations as too
+profane to be employed for sacred uses, and by not shrinking from
+any toil which was necessary to master the language of the people
+among whom he labored.
+
+The Bulgarians wavered for a time, according to the sway of their
+political interests, between the Greek and Latin Churches, until
+finally they decided wholly in favor of the former, and a Greek
+archbishop and bishops were set over them.[1]
+
+[1] Neander's _Ecclesiastical History_, vol. iii. pp. 307-316,
+Torrey's Translation; and Dr. Murdock's Note to p. 51 of Mosheim's
+_Institute of Ecclesiastical History_, vol. ii.
+
+In the year 924, Simeon, the Bulgarian monarch, compelled the
+Byzantine Emperor, Romanus I., to recognize the National Church of
+Bulgaria as wholly independent of the Greek Hierarchy. This
+independence, after about fifty years, was partially destroyed by a
+Greek Emperor; and in 1018, Basil II. restored the supremacy of the
+Patriarch of Constantinople. The kingdom was revived in the latter
+part of the twelfth century, but was again overthrown in 1393, by
+the Sultan Bajazet I. Mohammed II., when he subverted the Eastern
+Empire in 1453, made the religious chiefs of the Christian sects
+responsible, not only for the spiritual administration of their
+respective flocks, but also for that of a large share of their
+temporal affairs,--such as public education, civil suits, contracts,
+wills, and the like. The Bulgarians appear for a time not to have
+been formally recognized by the Turks as belonging to the Greek
+Church, and of course were not subject to its Patriarch; but the
+Fanariote Greeks succeeded at last in making the Porte believe that,
+being of the same religion with the Greeks, they should be placed
+under the direct authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople; and
+this was effected in the year 1767. Thus the Bulgarians lost their
+religious independence.
+
+Since then, they have ever cherished an intense dislike of the Greek
+bishops, whose aim has always been to extinguish every remnant of
+national feeling, and obliterate all traces of their origin. They
+earnestly desired to have the Bible and the church-services in their
+own vernacular language, while the Greek Patriarch and his bishops
+insisted upon using only the ancient Greek. The people desired to
+have their children taught in the schools through the language of
+their own homes, while the bishops insisted that the instruction
+should be in the Greek language. They desired that their bishops and
+other ecclesiastics should be chosen from among themselves; but the
+Patriarch forced upon them Greek bishops, men of a foreign tongue,
+and foreign habits and sympathies, whose whole aim was to keep the
+people under the galling yoke of ecclesiastical tyranny.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1858, p. 322.
+
+What the Bulgarian people specially desired was ecclesiastical
+independence; and, in order to be freed from their forced dependence
+on the Greek Patriarchate, their leading men sometimes inclined to
+go over to the Pope. This of course was favored by the intrigues of
+the Jesuits, and politically by all the power of France. This
+awakened state of mind led many to examine the teachings of
+Scripture, and compare them with those of the Greek and Papal
+Churches; and some made inquiries of the missionaries at the several
+stations, as to Protestantism; and the question naturally arose,
+whether it would not be as well to become Protestants, as Roman
+Catholics.
+
+The Greek Patriarch was decided and bold. In 1861, he summoned the
+Bulgarian bishops to appear and answer for themselves before his
+great ecclesiastical Council at Constantinople; but they refused,
+declaring that they owed him no allegiance. The summons was thrice
+repeated, but in vain; whereupon the bishops were anathematized, and
+it was resolved to banish them to Mount Sinai. This was prevented by
+the interference of the Protestant Ambassadors, and the Bulgarians
+rallied to the defense of their bishops. Three thousand of them
+gathered at one time in one of their churches in the metropolis, and
+were prevented from proclaiming a Free Bulgarian Church only by the
+intervention of the Turkish government. Meanwhile the Bulgarian
+nation was agitated with the discussion of religious doctrines and
+ecclesiastical relations, and the Papists flooded the land with
+their publications. When the anathema against the bishops was sent
+to the Bulgarian towns, the people in some places would not allow it
+to be read, and publicly burnt it. They even caused a counter
+anathema to be read against the Greek Church. They doubtless
+regarded this matter as wholly a religious one; but, in an
+evangelical point of view, it was little more than a national
+movement for securing their rights. Sentiments were sometimes
+uttered, however, which strongly reminded one of the commencement of
+the Reformation in Germany. "The religion of the Greeks," says Mr.
+Crane, "has been denounced as contrary to the Bible, and the
+Scriptures eulogized and recommended to the people. In their printed
+speeches we have seen no instance, in which they have called upon
+Mary and the saints for protection, but many in which they have
+called upon God to vindicate their cause."
+
+Roumelia was partially explored in 1857 by Dr. Hamlin, accompanied
+by the Rev. Henry Jones, Secretary of the Turkish Missions Aid
+Society, then visiting our missions in Turkey. From Rodosto to
+Adrianople, a distance of seventy-two miles, they saw but few
+Bulgarian villages. Yet what came within their observation was of
+special interest, "Wherever we saw flocks, we saw Bulgarian
+shepherds; and wherever we saw cultivation, we saw Bulgarian
+laborers. They are indeed spread all over Roumelia, as laborers and
+shepherds, and the industry of the country is in their hands. The
+land is generally of excellent quality. It lies spread out in
+beautiful levels, and undulating, gently rising hills. In the
+neighborhood of villages it is covered with rich fields of grain,
+but elsewhere, for successive miles, it is roamed over by flocks of
+sheep, which, however, cannot crop a tithe of the grass. It is a
+beautiful region, waiting for the taste and intelligence of virtuous
+industry to make it a paradise."
+
+We have also a charming view given us of the hundred miles of
+country between Adrianople and Philippopolis, as it presented itself
+to the travellers in the opening of spring. "The Greek race
+disappears entirely from the soil, and the predominant race is the
+Bulgarian. So entirely unconscious are the people of the Balkan's
+being the boundary, that when I spoke of Bulgaria, I was repeatedly
+corrected by the remark, 'You are now in Bulgaria.' The soil along
+our route is of the finest quality, and large villages were
+occasionally seen on our right and left, with magnificent views of
+cultivated lands and vast pastures, the snowy Balkan summits
+bounding the north, and lower ranges of hills the south. The fields,
+clothed in the brightest verdure of spring, gave promise of
+unsurpassed abundance; and in view of the inspiring scenes before
+us, we could not forbear exclaiming, with the Psalmist: 'Thou
+crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. The
+pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over
+with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.'"
+
+Dr. Hamlin speaks thus of the people: "In the midst of this
+fertility, we had only to cast the eye upon one of the villages in
+order to feel that cruel oppression and spiritual darkness are upon
+the people. In some of the Bulgarian villages we saw no window, nor
+even a place for one, in a single house. The country being destitute
+of forest trees, there is no timber, except what is brought from a
+great distance, and so they construct their dwellings of the
+lightest material possible. They are generally of wicker work,
+plastered within with mud. A large mud chimney and a door are the
+only openings. And yet the Bulgarians, in these miserable cottages,
+are the cleanliest people in the world. Excepting the rice
+cultivators, who dress expressly for their muddy work, we saw not a
+ragged Bulgarian between Adrianople and Philippopolis. Their clothes
+are of home manufacture, coarse, strong, whole, and clean. The
+unembarrassed, kind, respectful bearing of the people, men, women,
+and children, must impress the most cursory observer. An impudent
+laugh, an over-curious gaze, or a rude remark, we did not meet with
+from old or young. We could hardly say this after going ten steps
+into a Greek or Turkish village."
+
+The favorable report made by Dr. Hamlin to his mission, awakened
+much interest, and it was resolved, "That the Bulgarian and other
+Slavonic races inhabiting European Turkey, call loudly for immediate
+and vigorous missionary efforts; and being providentially thrown
+upon the American churches as the chosen instrumentality for
+evangelizing them, are worthy of their most devoted patronage."
+
+The mission was commenced with the understanding, that the
+operations of the American Board would be in the country south of
+the Balkan Mountains; while the missionaries of the American
+Methodist Episcopal Church were to occupy stations north of these
+mountains. The Methodist brethren desired the aid of one of the
+older missionaries at Constantinople in the selection of their first
+station, and Mr. E. E. Bliss accompanied them. They visited Varna,
+Shumla, Rasgrad, and Rustchuk, and decided upon occupying the first
+and second of these places. The acquaintance thus formed between the
+two missions was ever after a source of mutual pleasure and profit.
+Mr. Bliss thus concludes a report of his visit:--
+
+"This, my first acquaintance with the Bulgarians, has given me a
+very favorable opinion of them. Others have expressed a different
+opinion, but I should rank them before the Armenians in native
+intelligence and cultivation. Certainly a higher degree of
+civilization prevails among them, than among the Armenians of Asia
+Minor. They have better homes, better vehicles, better implements of
+husbandry. Wherever we went, we found much to remind us that we were
+in Europe, and not in Asia. Our road from Varna to Rustchuk was
+bordered by the posts and wires of the telegraph. Every town had its
+telegraphic station and corps of operators--French, English, and
+Polish gentlemen. More than once, through their unsolicited
+kindness, our approach to a stopping place was announced by the
+wire, and we found lodgings made ready against our coming. This, to
+me, was quite a strange feature of missionary travelling, very
+unlike my experience in Asia Minor."
+
+The Rev. Charles F. Morse, who joined the Armenian mission in 1857,
+was appointed to commence the mission. Leaving his family at
+Constantinople until he had completed his arrangements, he proceeded
+to Adrianople in March, 1858, with Hagopos, a graduate of the Bebek
+Seminary, as an assistant. The population of Adrianople was then
+estimated at one hundred and forty thousand, of whom forty thousand
+were supposed to be Turks. The books in the Turkish language found
+in Mr. Morse's baggage, including a large number of New Testaments,
+were at first detained at the custom-house, under instructions from
+the Porte, but were released upon application of the American and
+English Consuls. His bookseller obtained a firman for the sale of
+books, and freely exposed the Turkish Testament, and Mr. Morse was
+himself allowed free access to the largest and finest of the
+mosques,--a favor not granted at the capital.
+
+The most formidable opposition apprehended was from the Romish
+missionaries. They had been quick to see a double advantage in the
+disaffection of the Bulgarians with the Greek Church, and the fall
+of the Russian Protectorate, and had already erected a fine church.
+The French residents, their consul, and even the English consular
+agent, were Catholics. An intelligent Bulgarian expressed the
+opinion that Protestant missions furnished the only possible
+safeguard against Rome in that country, and one of the best informed
+of the American missionaries declared his belief, that the greatest
+contest of Protestantism with Rome, since the era of the
+Reformation, would be in Turkey.
+
+The Rev. Theodore L. Byington and wife joined the mission in 1858,
+and were stationed at Adrianople. In the next year, the mission was
+strengthened by the arrival of Rev. Messrs. William W. Meriam and
+James F. Clark and their wives, who commenced a station at
+Philippopolis, in ancient Thrace. The Rev. William F. Arms and wife
+arrived in 1860, and were associated with Mr. Byington in a new
+station at Eski Zagra, seventy-five miles northwest from Adrianople,
+sixty northeast from Philippopolis, and twenty miles south of the
+Balkan Mountains. Mr. Oliver Crane was transferred from the Western
+Turkey Mission to Adrianople, in 1860. The population of
+Philippopolis was estimated at about sixty thousand, of whom twenty
+thousand were Bulgarians, sixteen thousand Mohammedans, fourteen
+thousand Greeks, and five thousand Jews. Surrounding the city, there
+were, within a circuit of thirty or forty miles, more than three
+hundred villages, including a large population, mostly Bulgarians.
+These villages were easy of access, and some of them would afford a
+healthy retreat in summer. There were numerous mosques, and five
+Greek and three Bulgarian churches. The Romanists were building a
+large church edifice. The situation of Eski Zagra was at the
+northern extremity of a luxuriant and beautiful plain, and contained
+ten thousand Bulgarians and eight thousand Turks.
+
+Mr. Byington found a remarkable zeal for education. There were in
+the town six Bulgarian schools for boys, with eight hundred
+scholars, and four for girls with one hundred and thirty-five
+scholars; and in the surrounding villages there were eleven schools,
+with three hundred pupils. For the two principal schools they had
+spacious buildings, that would grace a New England town. The
+teachers were gentlemenly men, and enthusiastic in their work. This
+class of teachers had generally received their education abroad, for
+the most part in Russia, where they could secure it without expense.
+They were earnest in their efforts to introduce a higher
+civilization, and gave the missionaries a cordial reception. It was
+otherwise with the priests.
+
+The readiness of the Bulgarians to receive the New Testament in
+their spoken language, is deserving of special note. An English
+gentleman, at one of the fairs in 1857, sold four hundred copies,
+which was all he had. Several editions were printed under the
+direction of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and were
+exhausted in 1859. At least fifteen thousand copies had been
+distributed, chiefly by sale, and the demand did not seem
+diminished. Mr. Byington reports at Eski Zagra in September, 1860,
+that, at the examination of one of the schools, each of twelve
+members of the most advanced class was presented by the Trustees
+with a handsome copy of the Bible Society's edition of the New
+Testament. Subsequent experience tended somewhat to diminish the
+value of such facts.
+
+A church was formed at Adrianople, on the first Sabbath in 1862,
+with a mixed membership. Pastor Apraham, already known to the reader
+in connection with the church at Rodosto, came by invitation, with
+one of his deacons, to assist in its formation; as also did the
+missionaries from Eski Zagra.
+
+Mr. Meriam at the close of 1861, stated as the results of
+observations in his recent tours, that in villages and towns where
+colporters had penetrated with the Word of Life, the people were no
+longer afraid of Protestants, but respected and confided in them;
+while they venerated and clung to their own form of religion; and
+that the obvious way to benefit the people, spiritually and
+temporally, most thoroughly and speedily, was to have suitable
+native helpers quietly settled in such villages. His account of some
+of the incidents on these tours will prepare the reader to
+sympathize with this excellent missionary, and his estimable wife,
+in the sad events soon to be narrated.
+
+"On reaching Tatar Bazarjik, the family of one of our boarding
+scholars would not permit me to go to a public khan, but insisted
+that I should go to their house. I accepted the kind invitation, and
+while with them, at their request, conducted family worship, morning
+and evening. Visited a dozen families and was cordially welcomed by
+all. In walking the street, one morning, I heard a voice from a shop
+inviting me to come in, and on entering found a company of
+Bulgarians, with their faces all aglow with the questions they had
+to ask. A number of persons collected from other shops, and after an
+hour, all seemed still unwilling that the conversation should be
+broken off. Their questions showed an intelligent desire for light
+on the true way of salvation."
+
+"Early Sabbath morning, a number of Bulgarians came to our room at
+the khan (at Otluk-Keuy), and began to ask questions about Christ,
+the Virgin Mary, the New Testament, Popery, Protestantism, the
+ceremonies of the Greek Church, etc., etc. The number of persons
+increased until we had an audience of forty. They gave us no time to
+eat until nightfall; and in the evening nine more came, and seemed
+convinced of the truth. We spent a week in this village. Wine is
+drank largely, and most of the young men are very wild, but we found
+some whose conversation encouraged us much. For example, there are
+three who hold regular meetings for the study of the New Testament
+on Sabbaths and fast days. Such questions as they cannot solve for
+themselves they reserve, until some one who can, passes through
+their village. They have become fully aware, by their study of the
+New Testament, that the Greek Church is not the one established by
+the Apostles. One of their earnest questions was, 'Can we find
+salvation in the Greek Church?' We found one enlightened priest in
+this village, and spent a half day conversing with him. He informed
+us that he was endeavoring to have the church service in the vulgar
+tongue, so that all might understand. He quotes Scripture readily,
+and is doing much good. All the other priests are miserable wine
+drinkers. On my refusing the invitation of one of these to drink
+with him, he exclaimed in astonishment, 'What! are you not a
+Christian'?"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.
+
+1862-1871.
+
+
+Brigandage has at times prevailed in some parts of Bulgaria,
+especially in the Balkan Mountains. In the spring of 1862, the roads
+were more or less infested with highwaymen, but the one from
+Philippopolis to Adrianople, and thence to Rodosto, being constantly
+travelled, was deemed safe. By this road Mr. Byington, and Mr.
+Meriam with his wife and child, went to Constantinople, to attend
+the annual meeting of the Western Turkey Mission. Returning, Mr.
+Byington started a week before Mr. Meriam, and reached Eski Zagra
+safely, going from Adrianople to Philippopolis alone. Mr. Meriam
+passed over the same route with his family. Nothing noticeable
+occurred till they reached Hermanli, twelve hours from Adrianople,
+at noon, July 3d. Here they found a company of half a score or more
+of men, with four wagons, hesitating to proceed on account of a band
+of mounted brigands, said to be lying in wait to rob them.
+Unfortunately the courageous advice of Mr. Meriam decided them to
+proceed, accompanied by two armed guards. After they had started,
+Mr. Meriam became convinced that it would have been safer for him
+and his family to have gone alone; and such was the fact, for the
+robbers did not know of his presence, and designed only to plunder
+the rayahs. The brigands came upon them about three o'clock in the
+afternoon. The faithless guards fled at once, and some valuable
+horses were seized. The drivers of the two forward talaccas, of
+which Mr. Meriam's was one, then increased their speed, endeavoring
+to escape; when the robbers pursued, firing rapidly upon the wagons,
+piercing the covering of Mr. Meriam's, and killing or wounding two
+or three occupants of the next vehicle. The missionary and his
+family were shielded for a time by the boxes in the hinder part of
+the carriage, till the fall of one of the horses wheeled it round,
+so as to face the assailants. Mr. Meriam sprang out to protect his
+wife and child, and immediately fell, pierced by two balls. When the
+agonized wife expostulated with one of the brigands, saying, that
+"he loved the Osmanlees, and wished to do them good," he replied,
+"Why then did you flee"? Had they quietly waited, though they might
+have been robbed, life would probably have been spared.
+
+Mrs. Meriam retained her presence of mind, and placing her infant
+upon the ground, carefully collected the papers and other articles
+which the robbers had scattered about, and then sat down to watch
+the lifeless remains of her husband. The Turkish authorities of the
+next village sent a conveyance to take her and her precious treasure
+to a khan. When the moodir saw her in her little room, with her babe
+and the corpse of her husband, he was much moved, and did what he
+could for her comfort. He sent a telegram to the governor of
+Philippopolis, designed for Mr. Clarke, but Mr. Clarke received no
+notice, and consequently no friend came to meet her. She conveyed
+the body in her own carriage; and spent the whole of the next night,
+with her babe, watching the talacca in the open air, vainly
+listening for the coming of the messenger whom she had so much
+reason to expect. On the next and last day, she prevailed on a
+Bulgarian boy to hasten on with a message, which brought Mr. Clarke
+to her relief, but only just before she entered the city. An
+immediate burial was necessary. The Austrian, Greek, and French
+Consuls were very kind, and the Bulgarian church was offered for the
+funeral.
+
+Mrs. Meriam possessed an excellent constitution, but the strain had
+been too much for her. A premature confinement followed, and fever,
+which assumed a typhoid form, closed her earthly career, July 25,
+about three weeks after her husband's murder.[1]
+
+[1] A statement, made at the time, that Mr. Meriam fired on the
+assassins was afterwards found to be untrue. Nor did Mrs. Meriam
+receive any injury at the time of the murder. Nothing was taken from
+her personally, and no violence was offered her. _Missionary
+Herald_, 1863, p. 143.
+
+It was necessary that an example should be made of the murderers.
+Mr. Seward, Secretary of State at Washington, took Mr. Webster's
+view as to the rights of missionaries, and removed the doubts of Mr.
+Morris, the American Minister at the Porte, which had occasioned an
+unfortunate delay; so that he, with Mr. Goddard the Consul General,
+put matters in train at Adrianople, which led the Pasha of that
+province to offer four hundred dollars, and soon after as much more,
+for information that would insure the detection of the assassins,
+and to distribute bands of soldiers over the country. Mr. Blunt, the
+English Consul at Adrianople, offered a reward of ninety dollars on
+his own responsibility; and with him the Austrian Consul, Mr.
+Camerlobe, actively coöperated.
+
+These efforts resulted in the arrest, conviction, and execution of
+three of the five engaged in the murder. The remaining two met with
+an ignominious and violent death; one having been assassinated, and
+the other shot down while committing highway robbery in an adjacent
+province.
+
+A very effectual check was thus put to the brigandage so prevalent
+before, and the attention of all classes was drawn to the character,
+position, and aims of the missionaries.
+
+Scarcely a year had elapsed, since Mr. Coffing had fallen by the
+hands of assassins in Central Turkey; and who can tell how much the
+punishment inflicted on the murderers of these missionaries, has
+contributed to the safety of their brethren, or how much it will be
+instrumental in preventing future massacres of native Christians, as
+well as missionaries, by fanatical Mohammedans.
+
+The Rev. Henry C. Haskell and wife joined the mission in the autumn
+of 1862, and assisted Mr. Morse in forming a new station at Sophia,
+about four days' journey northwest of Philippopolis. In the
+following year, Miss Mary E. Reynolds took charge of a school for
+girls at Eski Zagra, which had been successfully commenced by a
+young woman from Catholic Bohemia, who spoke the Bulgarian like a
+native, and gave good evidence of piety. The school was designed for
+the education of female teachers. The health of Mrs. Crane obliged
+her and her husband to return home, and ask for a release from their
+connection with the Board. Adrianople was thus left, for a time,
+without a missionary. The death of Mr. and Mrs. Meriam stirred up
+several young men in the school at Philippopolis who became active
+and successful colporters in the surrounding villages. Many of the
+people in Sophia were found to possess the Scriptures, and a
+considerable number were known to read them with interest; but as
+soon as the fact became known to their acquaintance, they were
+subjected to persecution.
+
+At Samokov, a pleasant town nine hours to the southeast of Sophia,
+with a Bulgarian population of ten thousand, there were encouraging
+indications, and that place proving to be more healthful and a
+better centre than Sophia, the station was removed thither in 1869.
+
+In 1863, the missionaries of the American Board and the Methodists
+working in this field held a meeting at Eski Zagra, for cultivating
+the friendly relations already existing between them. Dr. Wood and
+Mr. Isaac G. Bliss were present from the Armenian Mission. They
+found themselves in substantial agreement as to the methods of
+missionary labor, and also as to the nature of the field. "While
+some facts of a more or less hopeful nature," writes Mr. Byington,
+"were reported, the general feeling seemed to be, that the
+Bulgarians were a very different people from what they were supposed
+to be, six or eight years ago, and that in our efforts for their
+good, patience must have her perfect work. They cannot be said to be
+a particularly depraved people; they are not probably addicted to
+the grosser sins in any unusual degree; but there seems to be among
+them a great want of impressibility. When the truth is presented,
+they at once assent to it, but without any apparent impression on
+the heart. The brethren generally spoke of the pleasant social
+intercourse which they enjoyed with the people, but upon religious
+matters a very painful indifference was manifested."
+
+One great obstacle to the reception of evangelical truth among the
+Bulgarians, was the attachment of all classes to their national
+unity. The same had been found among the Armenians and Greeks. Men
+objected to the examination of evangelical doctrines, lest the
+result should be a schism in the nation; not being able to see how a
+change in religious belief could consist with national loyalty. Yet,
+though the progress of the work had not equaled the expectations
+awakened at the outset, it was obvious that increasing acquaintance
+with the missionaries was perceptibly removing prejudice. The
+conviction was gaining strength with many, not only that Protestants
+had a Christian faith, but that it was purer than their own. The
+girls' school at Eski Zagra had thirty pupils in regular attendance,
+and a score of applicants were refused for want of room. Mr. Clarke
+having been overworked, it was necessary to secure aid for him, and
+Mr. Haskell removed to Philippopolis. Mr. Ball, after a long
+detention at home by the decline of his wife's health, joined the
+Adrianople station in 1865. Some new prejudice against the
+missionaries was now created by accusations transferred from English
+newspapers, made in defense of the intolerance of the Turkish
+authorities, and of what certainly seemed an unfriendly policy in
+Sir Henry Bulwer, the English Ambassador.
+
+But the school for young men at Philippopolis, and that for girls at
+Eski Zagra, conciliated favor. The former had fourteen pupils, who
+made good improvement in mental and moral character, and manifested
+a good degree of religious feeling, a spirit of benevolence, and a
+readiness to labor for the good of others. During vacation, six of
+them were employed as colporters. Nearly all the older students
+seemed ready to take their stand on the Bible, and did not fear the
+name of Protestant. The girls' school numbered about thirty pupils,
+whose progress in study had been gratifying, and there had often
+been deep feeling under religious instruction. Members of the common
+council of the town, and others who witnessed an examination of the
+school, sent to Mr. Byington a letter of thanks, and assured him
+that the missionaries would yet be recognized by the Bulgarians as
+benefactors of their nation.
+
+The people could not, as yet, be drawn, in any numbers, to attend
+the regular religious services of the missionaries. They were banded
+together against receiving spiritual truth. Still something could be
+done by personal conversations and the circulation of books and
+tracts. Touring in the villages was often attended with
+encouragement.
+
+The year 1867 was one of peculiar promise. The moral stupor, which
+for so many years had taxed the faith of the mission, seemed to be
+yielding to the awakening power of the Word of God, and Gospel truth
+was not only better apprehended by the intellect, but also was
+impressing the heart and conscience. Though the awakening was
+neither as extensive, or thorough, or spiritual as was desired, it
+was real, and indicated the entering upon a new stage of the work.
+
+Miss Roseltha A. Norcross became the associate of Miss Reynolds in
+the school at Eski Zagra. The arrival of a new teacher and many
+applications for admission, led to an enlargement of the school. Two
+sisters, however, who were among the most interesting pupils, were
+called to severe trials. One of them left in 1866, but the other
+remained, and was the best scholar in the school. Both possessed
+more than ordinary intelligence and amiability, and for more than
+two years had been heartily devoted to Christ. "The younger who had
+left the school," says the report of the mission, "was taken, a few
+days since, into a room where many of her relatives and a priest had
+assembled, to extort from her a renunciation of her faith, and was
+told that she would either have to give up, or die; that they would
+give her no peace so long as she persisted in her present course.
+But the Lord sustained her. They resorted to entreaty, and besought
+her merely to make the sign of submission, telling her that she need
+not in her heart change her belief. But their seductions were as
+unavailing as their threats. It is more than a year since she left
+the school, and though, during this time, her closet, her Bible, and
+the conversation of her sister have been her only means of grace, it
+is evident that, in the midst of this wearing domestic persecution,
+a Christian character of unusual loveliness is being developed. She
+is as frail as a lily, but the strength of the Lord rests upon her."
+
+Another case was that of a pupil who had left a year and a half
+before, to teach a Bulgarian school. "Unaided," says the mission,
+"except from on high, she has fought a good fight during the past
+year. The parents of her pupils complain because she will not
+conform to the rites of their Church, but the trustees of the
+school, not wishing to lose her services, have been wise enough not
+to make conformity a condition of remaining in their service. Her
+parents have forbidden her visiting the missionary premises, but
+they have not been able to separate her from her Lord, nor to
+prevent her laboring for the spiritual good of her pupils. Although
+she has been occupying, for more than a year, a position beset with
+temptations, and has been in a great degree deprived of the sympathy
+and advice of Christian friends, we still hear from her that she is
+kept by the power of God."
+
+The mission suffered a most serious loss in the return of Mr. and
+Mrs. Byington to their native land, in consequence of the failing
+health of the latter.
+
+The great complaint of the missionaries had been of the indifference
+of the people. But after the departure of Mr. Byington, there was no
+ground for this at Eski Zagra. False reports were circulated with
+such effect, that the day-scholars were taken from the school, and
+the boarding-school was reassembled with difficulty. The oldest
+assistant teacher was forcibly abducted, but escaped and returned. A
+mob soon gathered, broke open an outer door, cut away some of the
+bars to the windows, and broke sixty panes of glass with stones. The
+proprietor of the house now sent for the police, which dispersed the
+rioters. Such outrages could not be allowed, and representations
+were made to Mr. Morris, the American Minister at Constantinople,
+and to Mr. Blunt, the friendly English Consul at Adrianople. Their
+prompt efforts were effectual. More than a score of the offenders
+were sentenced to imprisonment of different lengths, but were
+pardoned at the request of the missionaries. This act of clemency
+had a happy influence on the people, and the persecution had a good
+effect on the school.
+
+A young man who had been for five years a student at Philippopolis,
+was licensed to preach the gospel on the 24th of July; and on the
+following Sabbath, ten Bulgarians, six of whom were girls in the
+school, sat down at the Lord's table, in the presence of forty
+spectators. This was the more significant, as the Bulgarian council,
+a month before, had enjoined upon the different "trades" of the city
+and neighboring villages, to have no dealings with two individuals
+whose names and places of business were specified, nor with any
+others who were known as inclined to Protestantism. Such persons
+were therefore refused bread, or the right of baking at the public
+ovens, and some were reduced to great distress. The missionaries
+talked seriously with the leading men of the city in favor of
+religious _freedom_, but only a few of them conversed reasonably on
+the subject, and the masses were wholly opposed to it. Three men, as
+a means of asserting their religious liberty, went before the
+Turkish authorities and declared themselves Protestants, which
+seemed to be the beginning of a Protestant Bulgarian community. The
+missionaries were sometimes threatened with personal violence, but
+the Turkish government was ready to defend them.
+
+In January, 1869, four Bulgarians were admitted to the communion at
+Eski Zagra, two of them pupils in the school, and two married men.
+The number of Bulgarian communicants in that place was now eleven.
+
+The mission was strengthened, in 1868, by the arrival of Messrs.
+Lewis Bond, William Edwin Locke, and Henry Pitt Page, all ordained
+missionaries, and their wives. Mr. Bond was stationed at Eski Zagra,
+and Miss Esther P. Maltbie came thither as a teacher in 1870. Mr.
+Haskell welcomed the arrival, at Philippopolis, of Miss Minnie C.
+Beach, in 1869, and Messrs. Locke and Page commenced a new station,
+before noticed, at Samokov, in ancient Macedonia. Mr. and Mrs. Ball
+of Adrianople and Miss Reynolds of Eski Zagra found it necessary to
+return to the United States on account of their health; and it soon
+appeared that it was too late for them to recover. Mr. Ball died at
+Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, June 6, 1870, after a useful connection of
+seventeen years with the missionary work, and Miss Reynolds, at
+Springfield, Massachusetts, June 1, 1871, just eight years from the
+day of her sailing for Turkey, and after a life of singular
+devotedness and success.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1871, p. 247.
+
+Previous to the year 1870, the missionaries to the Bulgarians had
+sustained a nominal relation to the Western Armenian Mission. This
+connection was now dissolved, and the associated brethren took the
+name of the EUROPEAN TURKEY MISSION. Its stations were Eski Zagra,
+Philippopolis, Samokov, and Adrianople; and Dr. Riggs was reckoned
+as a member of it, though he continued to reside in Constantinople,
+his labors being chiefly for the Bulgarians. The Rev. Henry A.
+Schauffler, then in the United States, was also transferred from the
+Western Turkey Mission, and was expected, on his return to the
+field, to go to Philippopolis, where he would use the Turkish and
+Greek for the benefit of those who spoke these languages; and with
+the expectation that the work among the Bulgarians would everywhere
+connect itself, as soon as possible, with that of the large
+Mohammedan and Greek population, with whom they were intermingled.
+
+The Sultan, having confirmed the appointment of Bishop Anthimas, of
+Widdin, to be Exarch of Bulgaria, the Bulgarians thus virtually
+acquired their ecclesiastical independence, and so both their
+national spirit and their unwillingness to allow Protestantism to
+come in as an element of apprehended division, acquired strength.
+Few were yet able to see how one could be both a Bulgarian and a
+Protestant, and no general movement on the part of rulers and
+ecclesiastics towards Protestantism, was to be expected. But the
+Scriptures and evangelical publications were extensively circulated.
+Thoughtful minds were reached, and examples of what the Gospel could
+do to regenerate character and give peace to troubled spirits were
+beginning to attract attention. There was not such liberty to
+persecute as there had been in Asiatic Turkey. Truth was gaining a
+hold in cities and villages. The girls' school at Eski Zagra, under
+Miss Norcross, numbering twenty-six pupils, contained several who
+gave evidence of spiritual renewal, and applications for teachers
+had come from several towns and villages, accompanied by
+comparatively liberal subscriptions for their support. The hope, at
+Philippopolis, of getting helpers from the high school for young
+men, had been much disappointed, but some of its pupils were doing
+good. An influential merchant in Samokov was an active convert, and
+there was much to encourage in that region.
+
+Early in the autumn of 1870, Miss Norcross sickened, and on the 4th
+of November died, greatly to the grief of her pupils and of the
+whole mission.[1] Miss Maltbie arrived in less than a month after
+she had passed away. It was soon resolved to remove the school to
+Samokov, as a more healthful place, and more eligible on other
+accounts. A regular Sabbath service was held at this station, and a
+weekly prayer-meeting. The audiences were very small, and but five
+persons were deemed worthy to be received to church fellowship. At
+the out-stations, though there had been no striking success, there
+were everywhere signs of an advance. The native helper in the
+beautiful town of Bansko had a school of twenty-two pupils, and a
+congregation of sixty-five, and the little company contributed to
+Christian objects, during the year, nearly two hundred dollars,
+including the purchase of a site for a house of worship. The cause
+was greatly advanced by the labors of an earnest and devoted
+Bible-woman, whom the women of Bansko helped to support.
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1871, p. 53.
+
+Bansko will have the ecclesiastical distinction, hereafter, of being
+the place where the first evangelical Bulgarian church was formed,
+and fully organized. This was in August, 1871. The candidates were
+fifteen, nine men, and six women. In accordance with a written
+invitation from the people, Messrs. Locke, Bond, and Page started on
+Tuesday, August 22d, and went by a circuitous, though a pleasant,
+picturesque and easy route, passing through two cities, where they
+found several who were examining the truth, and reached their place
+of destination on the 24th. The brethren at Bansko had arranged
+liberally for the brethren and their horses, at their own houses,
+and gave them a hearty welcome. The candidates for church-membership
+were all examined, and answered the questions put to them more
+clearly than the missionaries had thought possible, considering the
+advantages they had enjoyed. The candidate for ordination as pastor,
+Mr. Evansko Touzorve, was examined on Saturday afternoon. He had
+been preaching there as a helper of the mission, and the examination
+was quite satisfactory, especially on the evidences of Christianity,
+just then a subject of special importance in that field, owing to
+the influx of German and French infidelity.
+
+Sabbath, August 27th, was devoted to the organization of the church,
+and the ordination of the pastor. A deacon had been previously
+chosen. The service was concluded with the Lord's Supper. The people
+were to have the services of the pastor eight months in the year,
+and to pay half his salary for that time, and the mission was to
+employ him the other four months in another part of the field. The
+new church could not then pay more towards the salary, having bought
+a lot of land, on which to build a church. The little flock was
+jubilant and of good courage. "What a contrast," exclaims the
+missionary, "between this state of things, and that two years ago,
+when the people seized our horses, and drove us from the village!"
+
+One of the most important results of the mission to the Bulgarians,
+has doubtless been the translation of the whole Bible into their
+present spoken language.[1] This was published for the first time,
+in the year 1871. "Methodius and Cyril, who first preached the
+gospel to the Bulgarians a thousand years ago, gave them the
+Scriptures in their then spoken language, the Slavic. But this
+ancient tongue, the mother of the modern Russian, Bulgarian,
+Servian, Polish, Illyrian, etc., has long since ceased to be the
+vernacular of any of the nations. Hence the necessity of new
+translations of the Word of God in all these dialects." One of the
+earliest results of the waking up of the Bulgarian people, was a
+translation of the four Gospels by Messrs. Seraphim of Eski Zagra,
+and Sapoonoff of Trevna, published at Bucharest in 1828. The first
+edition of the whole New Testament in Bulgarian was issued at
+Smyrna, in 1840, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible
+Society; but the literary labor was performed by a Bulgarian, the
+Rev. Neophytus P. Petroff, of Rila, with the aid of Hilarion, the
+Metropolitan Bishop of Ternovo. This edition was well received, and
+sold rapidly. It was faithfully, carefully, and ably prepared.
+
+[1] See Dr. Riggs' statement in the _Missionary Herald_, for 1872,
+pp. 76-79.
+
+The British and Foreign Bible Society published seven editions of
+this Testament, or about forty thousand copies, and authorized the
+preparation of a translation of the Old Testament. Mr. Constantine
+Photinoff, of Smyrna, to whom this work was committed, just lived to
+complete the first draft of a translation of the Old Testament, and
+died in 1858, only a few days after having removed from Smyrna to
+Constantinople, in order to revise it for publication, with Dr.
+Riggs.
+
+Meanwhile a rapid change had been going on in the Bulgarian
+language, and it had become manifest that the work must have a
+thorough revision. The translations of both the Old and New
+Testaments had been made in the Western, or Macedonian dialect; but
+the Eastern, or Slavic, was now taking the lead, and the language
+was evidently to be mainly moulded after that model.
+
+It is an interesting fact, stated by Dr. Riggs, that the government
+censor for Bulgarian publications called on him, the day after Mr.
+Photinoff's death, and expressed his hearty interest in the work of
+translating the Scriptures, and his hope that it would not be
+delayed.
+
+In the preparation of this work, Dr. Riggs was aided by two of the
+best Bulgarian scholars, the one trained in the use of the Western,
+and the other of the Eastern dialect. In the revision of the New
+Testament, he was also aided by the Rev. A. L. Long, D. D., of the
+Methodist Bulgarian mission. With such assistance, it is believed
+that this translation of the Bible will become a standard work. The
+first edition was printed in an imperial octavo volume of one
+thousand and sixty pages, with the references of our English Bible,
+which will be of special value to a people having as yet no
+Concordances, Bible Dictionaries, or Commentaries. Dr. Riggs brought
+to the annual meeting of the newly organized mission, in 1871, the
+first copy received from the binders.
+
+It should be borne in mind, that only preliminary work has been done
+as yet in this most inviting field. Scarcely fourteen years have
+elapsed since the field was first explored, and only twelve since
+stations began to be occupied. It is not time to expect any other
+results than first fruits. The missionaries have become thoroughly
+acquainted with the field, with its wants, and its strategetic
+points, and are ready to move forward as fast as they shall receive
+the needful aid.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1861-1863.
+
+
+Dr. Dwight having completed his eastern tour, visited the United
+States, where he arrived in November, 1861. It was arranged, that he
+should prepare and publish the results of his extended missionary
+observations. But the Head of the Church had ordered otherwise. On
+Saturday, January 25, 1862, while passing in the cars through
+Shaftsbury, Vermont, on his way to spend a Sabbath at Middlebury
+College, "the stormy wind, fulfilling His word," lifted the car from
+off the rails, and tossed it down a steep embankment; and one of the
+heavy trucks, following and dashing through it, at once set free the
+sanctified spirit of our brother, and gave him a sort of translation
+to the regions of the blessed. It was a sudden and unexpected close
+of a most useful life.
+
+Dr. Dwight was born at Conway, Massachusetts, on the 22d of
+November, 1803. His family removed to Utica, New York, and there, at
+the age of fifteen, he was hopefully converted during a revival of
+religion, and united with a Presbyterian church. He graduated at
+Hamilton College in 1825, and, while in the Theological Seminary at
+Andover, became deeply interested in the missionary work, and took
+great pains, along with some fellow-students, to illustrate the
+beginning of foreign missions from the United States. In his last
+year at the Seminary he offered himself to the American Board, and
+was appointed one of its missionaries. After completing his studies,
+he entered upon an agency for the Board, which continued until 1829.
+From this time, through more than thirty years, the events of his
+life form an important part of the history of the mission to the
+Armenians. That mission grew, in his time, from a single station at
+Constantinople to twenty-three stations, and eighty-one
+out-stations, extending over the greater part of Western Asia; and
+whereas, at the commencement of his labors, he did not know of a
+single convert in the whole country, at their close, there were
+forty-two churches, with sixteen hundred members, twelve ordained
+native pastors, forty-three licensed native preachers, thirty-four
+catechists, fifty-five teachers, and thirty-nine other helpers.
+
+He was made to be a leader in the Lord's host. There was in him a
+rare combination of sound common sense, piety, resolution, firmness,
+candor, and courtesy, and withal an honest simplicity, a godly
+sincerity, and a practical tact, that seldom failed to secure for
+him a commanding influence; and the mission, of which he was so long
+a member, was sufficiently eventful to give full exercise to all his
+powers.
+
+It affords much pleasure to the writer, that he is unable to recall
+an instance, in all the thirty years, where Dr. Dwight's opinions
+were seriously at variance with those of the Committee and
+Secretaries of the Board. It may be that, under the influence of a
+more extended correspondence, there was sometimes greater progress
+in their opinions on questions of missionary experience, than in
+his; but there was never any collision of thought; and it was most
+gratifying, on his arrival in this country, after his instructive
+and interesting tour of observation among the missions and mission
+churches, to find this eminent servant of Christ in full accord with
+his Committee on all the great points of missionary practice. The
+prominent trait, however, in his character was spirituality. This
+was in him an ever-growing quality. From day to day, from month to
+month, from the commencement of his missionary life until his death,
+he was wholly devoted to the kingdom and glory of his Redeemer. He
+walked with God, and was not, for God took him.
+
+It will be appropriate, at this stage of the history, to quote some
+of the views of Dr. Dwight on missionary policy in Turkey, as they
+were embodied in a circular letter to the brethren of his own
+mission, and substantially communicated to the Secretaries in their
+personal intercourse with him just before his lamented death. Coming
+from such a man, after so long and varied an experience, they
+deserve thoughtful attention. He speaks first of the education of a
+native ministry.
+
+"I am inclined to think that we have made our education at the Bebek
+Seminary too comprehensive, considering the actual circumstances and
+wants of the people. True, our course of study is nothing compared
+with that of American colleges; but it is much, compared with the
+amount of education existing in this country; and it seems to me we
+are in danger from two sources; namely, first, that our native
+preachers will be educated too far above their people; and,
+secondly, that they will require much more for their support, in
+consequence of their education, than their people can give. The plan
+of removing the Bebek Seminary to the interior, strikes me very
+favorably."
+
+Again, as to the support of the native ministry: "I think it very
+evident, that the past system is fraught with too many evils to be
+continued. I would not favor any sudden change, but it seems to me,
+that the experience we have gained, by the working of the past,
+would lead us to begin immediately on a new plan; and the providence
+of God, in restricting our means, is giving us an admirable
+opportunity for so doing. We may urge with great weight upon the
+churches the support of their own pastors, and leave the
+responsibility there, even when the treasury of the Board shall be
+relieved. I begin to question, whether we ought even to give regular
+aid from our funds, for the support of settled pastors, or even
+stated supplies of churches fully organized. Would it not simplify
+our relations to those churches, as well as call forth much more
+efficient effort from themselves, if we were to leave them, as the
+Apostles did their native churches, to take care of their own
+pastors, after such have been ordained? The native churches should
+be expected and encouraged to take, as fast as possible, the work of
+evangelizing surrounding districts upon themselves; and it will be
+better to leave them to choose and support wholly their own
+laborers. The plan of having such men supported partly by the
+mission and partly by the native churches, does not work well. If it
+is necessary for the mission to assist the churches in this work, I
+would do it irregularly, and without any pledges as to the amount or
+frequency of such aid."
+
+These views had been already exemplified, substantially, in the
+Central mission; and they have since had a more full practical
+development in the Eastern mission; as will appear in the progress
+of the history.
+
+It was not found easy to determine the number of stations or of
+missionaries desirable in Eastern or Western Turkey. The early
+theories in relation to this matter have been considerably modified
+by experience. It was natural to suppose, that many missionaries
+could labor among the million of people in Constantinople, without
+interfering with each other, or standing in the way of a native
+ministry. And so they might, could they at once have access to a
+considerable part of the population. But this was not true in fact,
+either as to missionaries, or the native ministry. It has been
+found, that it results in loss to place more preachers on the
+ground, than can find full scope for their ministry. Even should the
+overcrowded ministry be of the same denomination, it works badly,
+but far worse if made up of rival sects. For a time at least, all
+must operate upon nearly the same persons. In the rural districts,
+the missionaries reside in the centres of population, and generally
+where two families can dwell together, and where each missionary can
+have a distinct field of labor. But even there it is deemed
+expedient for the churches to have native pastors; nor there alone.
+The aim is to have constellations of churches with native
+office-bearers, around every missionary station. Not otherwise can
+the whole country be permeated by evangelical influences.
+
+It is plain that in a work so unlike anything at home, missionaries
+ought to have large discretion as to the time and manner of
+organizing native churches. Nor, since these infant communities are
+only partially enlightened and sanctified, is there reason for
+discouragement should they sometimes be not perfectly harmonious
+with their missionary fathers. It was so for a time with one of the
+first churches formed at the metropolis. The missionaries had of
+course the sole responsibility of determining what use should be
+made of the funds remitted by the Board. But the pastor and a
+portion of the church thought they ought to have a voice in their
+disposal. As this could not be, dissatisfaction arose, and
+complaints were publicly made against their American brethren. But
+these misunderstandings have in good measure passed away.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1862, p. 300, 1863, p. 268; and Report
+of the Board for 1871, p. 23.
+
+The Western Turkey Mission resolved, in 1862, to suspend the Bebek
+Seminary, with the expectation of reviving it at Marsovan. This
+institution was commenced by Dr. Hamlin, in November, 1840. It was a
+boarding-school, with a course of study believed to be adapted to
+the great ends of the mission, and soon became a very efficient
+means of gaining access to the people. Its third year, ending
+November, 1843, was called the "year of a thousand visits," because
+so many came desirous to learn the religious belief of the
+missionaries. The Principal was obliged to stop their coming, in
+order to save the school; but the work among the Armenians then
+received an impulse which it never lost. Dr. Hamlin continued in
+charge of the Seminary till the year 1857; aided, at different
+times, by most of his brethren. Messrs. Clark, Bliss, and Pettibone,
+had charge of it afterward. The building at Bebek, which had been
+some time occupied on a lease, became the property of the Board in
+1849. In 1853, the number of students was fifty, of whom fifteen
+were Greeks, under the instruction mainly of Dr. Riggs; and there
+was then a theological class of eleven Armenians. The Greek
+department was suspended in 1855. The students were very useful as
+evangelical laborers within and around Constantinople; and not a few
+of the graduates occupy, and have occupied, important posts of
+usefulness in different parts of the empire. It is recorded that, in
+1857, sixty applicants were rejected for want of means to support
+them; and it was believed that, with adequate pecuniary means, one
+hundred could have received instruction as easily as fifty.
+
+The metropolis was not found the best place to train men for the
+seclusion and small salaries of interior pastorates; but the school
+was nevertheless a most important instrument for good, and quite
+essential in the early progress of the mission. Of the forty-five
+students in the five years from 1857 to 1861, for which the Seminary
+was fairly held responsible, seven were preachers at the opening of
+1862, and thirteen were members of the theological class.
+
+The expediency of continuing the Seminary at the metropolis, had
+been discussed in the mission for several years. The other missions
+preferred training their native ministry within their own bounds;
+and the interior stations of the Western mission had strong
+objections to sending their pupils to be educated where expensive
+habits were almost necessarily acquired.
+
+It was resolved, in the same year, to discontinue the
+boarding-school for girls at Constantinople, with the expectation
+of reviving it, also, at Marsovan. It was commenced in 1845. The
+whole number of pupils had been one hundred and twenty-eight, of
+whom one half became members of the church. Eighty-three were from
+Constantinople and vicinity, and forty-five from the interior.
+Thirty-seven completed the course of four years. Two of the older
+graduates were teachers of self-supporting schools at Nicomedia;
+another, whose parents lived at Trebizond, taught at Marsovan; a
+fourth, since married to a graduate of the Bebek seminary, devoted
+herself to teaching the girls in a day-school at Adabazar, in charge
+of the native pastor; another was mistress of a school of forty
+pupils at Baghchejuk; and still another had a school of forty-five
+girls at Diarbekir, and was otherwise a shining light. Five were
+wives of pastors,--at Constantinople, Broosa, Bilijik, Harpoot, and
+Diarbekir; three of preachers,--at Nicomedia, Bandurma, and Aidin;
+and several of helpers in different places. The school was located
+successively at Pera, Bebek, and Hass-Keuy; and its teachers were
+Miss Lovell, Mrs. Everett, and the two Misses West.
+
+The summer heat at Adana was supposed to be too intense for the
+health of a missionary family. Mr. Coffing was therefore
+commissioned, by his brethren, to explore the Taurus Mountains, west
+and north of Marash, for a suitable summer residence. He performed
+this service in the autumn of 1860, accompanied by Mrs. Coffing and
+Deacon Sarkis. An interesting account of the tour may be found in
+the "Missionary Herald," for 1861.[1] Mr. Coffing requested
+permission, on his return, to occupy the new field, and left Aintab,
+with his family, for this purpose, in July, 1861; intending to
+reside at Hadjin, or Nigdeh in the mountains during the summer heat,
+and in the winter at Adana. As they went forth from Aintab, nearly
+the whole Protestant population, about fifteen hundred, stood on
+both sides of the road to bid them farewell, and as they passed,
+sang,--
+
+   "How sweet the tie that binds
+    Our hearts in Christian love;"
+
+and also an original hymn, expressive of their feelings on parting
+with this mission family. More than a hundred persons accompanied
+them during that afternoon, returning the next day; and many were
+the prayers offered for them, and for the dark town in the mountains
+whither they went. Their road through or rather upon the Taurus
+Mountains, was difficult, and in some places dangerous; but without
+serious accident they reached Hadjin on Saturday, July 14th. There
+they were kindly welcomed by the people, and commenced their labors
+with pleasant prospects of success. But, after a few weeks, the
+Moslem governor and the Armenian priests commenced a cruel
+opposition, scarcely paralleled in the missionary experiences of
+Turkey, and drove them from the place, with much loss and suffering.
+Arriving at Adana, where the native brethren gave them a kind
+reception, Mr. Coffing sought redress from the government, but in
+vain, as the Pasha was unfriendly; and the native Protestants of
+that city were subjected to many outrages during the winter.
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1861, pp. 169, 170.
+
+After six months, Mr. Coffing left Adana to attend the annual
+meeting of his mission at Aleppo, going by way of Alexandretta. The
+road being dangerous around the head of the gulf, he took a guard of
+three soldiers; but in the latter part of the route, he dismissed
+two of them, going on with the other, two muleteers, and a pious
+Armenian servant. When three miles from Alexandretta, he was fired
+upon by two men concealed in a thicket near the road. Two balls
+struck his left arm above the elbow, shattering the bone and
+severing an artery, and one entered the body. Though severely
+wounded, he rode on two miles further; and then, from loss of blood,
+sunk down upon the beach, not far from Alexandretta, and sent to
+that place for help. It was promptly rendered by Mr. Levi, the
+American Vice Consul, Arthur Roby, Esq., the English Vice Consul,
+and other gentlemen, and the fainting missionary was taken to the
+house of Mr. Levi, where he died the next morning, March 26th, 1862.
+The Armenian servant died four days later from his wounds, and
+another, who was wounded, recovered.
+
+Mr. Johnson, United States Consul at Beirût, took energetic
+measures, in connection with Mr. Morgan at Antioch, for apprehending
+the murderers. They had the coöperation not only of the gentlemen
+above mentioned, but also of Capt. Hobart of H. B. Majesty's Ship
+_Foxhound_, Capt. Simon, of the French Frigate _Mogador_, and Col.
+A. S. Frazer, H. B. M. Commissioner to Syria. The Turkish
+authorities acted with commendable decision, and two young Moslem
+robbers of the mountains, to whom the crime was traced, were finally
+captured; though one of them afterwards escaped, and was protected
+by the Pasha of the district. The other was executed in September,
+1862, and the offending Pasha was removed from office. Robbery was
+evidently no object with the assassins, and it was believed, that
+they were instigated by others. The hostile Armenians of Hadjin and
+Adana were, for a time, under great apprehension, and were so much
+impressed by the forbearance of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Morgan, that
+they assured the latter of their readiness to receive any preacher
+he might choose to send among them. The sorely afflicted widow
+resolved to remain in the mission, where she is still very usefully
+employed among her own sex. It should be added, that this is the
+only instance in the history of the Board, in which a missionary has
+suffered a violent death, inflicted because he was a missionary,
+from the hands of the people among whom he labored.
+
+Dr. Goodell attended the annual meeting of the Central mission in
+1862; and so strong were his impressions that the appropriate work
+of the missionary was nearly accomplished at some of the stations,
+that he apprehended there might be more danger of the missionary's
+staying too long, than that he would go too soon.
+
+At Aintab, for example, he found the church supporting its own
+pastors and common schools, and taking upon itself the supply of
+nearly all its out-stations. No appropriations were asked of the
+Board, except for the theological class, the female boarding-school,
+and one out-station; for all the rest the church provided. For these
+objects, for their own poor, and for their taxes to government, the
+sum total raised by the Protestants, in the then closing year, had
+been two thousand five hundred and fifty-six dollars, averaging one
+dollar and a quarter for every man, woman, and child in the
+community. The congregation being too large for one pastor,
+arrangements had been made to form a second church, and thus to have
+two churches instead of one. The theological school was on the point
+of being removed to Marash, and it was his opinion that, were it not
+for the female boarding-school, which would probably remain, the
+missionaries at Aintab should be preparing to withdraw from that
+place, and go to "regions beyond." While he deprecated too sudden
+changes, he thought the great question for the brethren at that
+station was: "How can we, in the most graceful manner, set up in
+life this first born child of ours, now come of age, and ready to
+act for itself?"
+
+Dr. Goodell speaks of Oorfu, along with Aintab and Marash, as
+advanced in Christian knowledge. About the year 1851, a native
+helper from Aintab spent three years in Oorfa, working at his trade
+as a weaver, but receiving a partial support from the mission, and
+reading and explaining the Scriptures to all that came. Mr.
+Schneider visited this place in 1854; a church was organized by Dr.
+Pratt in December, 1855, and Mr. Nutting commenced his residence
+there in 1857. Mr. White was also there a year or more, till 1859.
+The church was then small, and very partially sanctified. The number
+of church-members, in 1861, was fifteen, and nearly all the members
+were active, working Christians; and the real progress had been
+greater than the statistics indicated. Protestantism had become
+known, and was exerting a good influence. The congregation supported
+three schools, containing ninety-four pupils, of whom thirty-one
+were from non-protestant and non-paying parents, and thirty were
+girls. The Oorfa church regarded the evangelization of Germish, a
+neighboring Armenian village of a thousand souls, as their
+appropriate work.
+
+The report of the Harpoot station for 1862 states, that there was
+an increasing number in the city, and at nearly all the fifteen
+out-stations, who gave serious attention to the truth; and that
+there was a growing agitation among those who kept aloof from the
+preaching. A reform party among the old Armenians was rapidly
+acquiring influence; and to satisfy their demands, mid-day Sabbath
+services, for expounding the Scriptures in the modern tongue, were
+held in the churches of several villages. In the city, the party had
+formed a society for mutual improvement, and one of its rules was,
+that the Bible should be read in all their meetings. The sale of
+Bibles, or portions of it, in two years, exceeded two thousand, and
+the same was true of other volumes. The Theological school contained
+thirty-nine pupils,--twenty-one in the first class, and eighteen in
+the second. It occupied the upper story of a substantial building,
+erected chiefly by the aid of friends in America; while the lower
+story furnished a neat and well lighted place of worship. Mr.
+Wheeler writes: "Supplied as it is, without expense to the Board,
+with solar reflectors and two neat pulpit lamps, it is exerting an
+influence for good in the villages. Already the people of three
+villages have covered the black mud walls of their chapels with a
+neat white plaster, and four villages have each purchased one of the
+'wonderful lamps, by the light of which a man can read on the
+opposite side of the room.' At their own expense they are also
+furnishing their places of worship with clocks, and are beginning to
+learn that (to an oriental) very difficult lesson, to be prompt, and
+to value time." A girls' boarding-school was opened in 1862.
+
+Hadji Hagop, an old and valued helper at this station, went one
+Sabbath to Hulakegh, an out-station, to preach. On leaving the
+Protestant chapel, he met the teacher of the Armenian school with a
+Bible under his arm, going to the church, where they were to have a
+"preaching meeting,"--as was the case in several villages where the
+mission had congregations, partly in imitation of the mission, and
+partly to counteract its influence,--and he asked Hagop to go with
+him. He went, and the leading men urged him to preach, which he
+consented to do. The news spread through the village, and the
+congregation almost immediately swelled to two hundred and fifty. He
+preached Christ and Him crucified for about an hour, securing most
+fixed attention, and it is said the women were nearly all moved to
+tears.
+
+Mr. Walker, the resident missionary at Diarbekir, visited Mosul in
+1861, and found the congregation in that city about as it was when
+the missionaries left. Subsequently, when visited by Mr. Williams,
+the Mosul church sent an earnest plea for a missionary to the
+Prudential Committee. Mr. Williams was with them three months,
+married three couples, baptized several children, and admitted one
+to the church.
+
+Mr. Walker's tour was extended more than a thousand miles, and he
+found much that was very painful, and yet much that was encouraging,
+among the Arabic-speaking people in Eastern Turkey.
+
+The church in Diarbekir numbered eighty-four members in 1862, and
+the pupils in the Sabbath-school were two hundred and eighty-four.
+At Cutterbul a house had been built, to be occupied as a place of
+worship on the Sabbath, and for a school-house during the week, and
+there were hopeful indications in places near. At the annual meeting
+of the mission, in the following year, Baron Tomas Boyajian[1] was
+ordained as pastor of the first evangelical church in Diarbekir. His
+examination was well sustained. The ordaining services were
+necessarily in the open air, and were conducted in Armenian,
+Turkish, and Arabic. More than a thousand, adults were present,
+besides hundreds of children, and the interest was sustained to the
+end. The members of the church pledged themselves to furnish nearly
+half the salary. Thirteen members, heretofore connected with that
+church, were formed into a separate organization at Cutterbul.
+
+[1] Known to the reader as _Tomas_. _Baron_ is equivalent to _Mr_.
+
+These services were like our own; and how much more rational and
+appropriate must they have appeared to the people, than the
+ordination services prescribed in the Liturgy of the Armenian
+Church, as described by Mr. Goss. "In the first place, the exercises
+are all performed in an unknown tongue, the old Armenian. The bishop
+sits at one end of the church, the candidate enters at the other,
+walking on his knees, and thus proceeds to the altar. The skirt of
+the bishop is thrown over his head, and the bishop asks a few
+general questions, which are answered by a third person, either
+priest or deacon. They are such as these: 'Does this man understand
+the Scriptures'? 'Is he the child of a lawful marriage'? etc. An
+affirmative reply is given, when perhaps the man cannot read. He is
+then asked, if he is a disciple, not of Christ, but of certain
+church fathers. Also, if he will pronounce 'Anathema maranatha' upon
+all heretics. Then Arians, Nestorians, and other heretical sects are
+mentioned, and the sweeping question is put,--'Will you pronounce
+all accursed who do not acknowledge Mary to be the mother of God?'
+The candidate repeats the names of these sects, and curses them all.
+Then follows the re-baptism, with the sacred oil, according to the
+Armenian custom with infants. The hands of the new priest are then
+bound together and oiled, and he is made to stand outside of the
+church, when the congregation come, and, kissing his hands, put
+their paras[1] on a plate, which is near by to receive them. The
+priest is then imprisoned forty days in the church, with the cuffs
+of his sleeves and his trousers sewed close to his limbs. In this
+condition, he is not allowed to brush off an insect, or to relieve
+his body from any unpleasant sensation whatever. He cannot change
+his clothes during the whole time, and his food is of the coarsest
+quality. His wife passes through a similar ordeal at home."
+
+[1] About a mill of our money.
+
+Considerable annoyance was felt, about this time, growing out of the
+efforts of an Armenian, named Garabed, to form a church at
+Diarbekir, which should admit persons to the sacrament of the Lord's
+Supper without requiring evidence of piety, and baptize the children
+of any who might desire it. He made similar efforts at Aleppo,
+Aintab, and Marash. He visited Jerusalem, and so far gained the
+confidence of English missionaries residing there, that the
+excellent Bishop Gobat was induced to give him ordination. But he
+failed to secure the confidence of the missionaries and native
+pastors in Central and Eastern Turkey, where he was better known;
+and the evidence at hand constrains me to add, that the missionaries
+at all the stations anticipated nothing but evil from such
+intrusions, at this stage of the missionary enterprise in Turkey.[1]
+
+[1] "We desire to call your attention to the efforts of our English
+(Church) brethren to obtain a foothold in Aintab. It seems that
+large sums of money have been appropriated under the direction of
+Bishop Gobat, of Jerusalem, for this purpose; and a large and costly
+church building is being begun under the superintendence of the
+English Consul at Aleppo. We are surprised and grieved at this
+breach of courtesy on the part of these English friends, especially
+so soon after the earnest protests of the officers of our Board
+against such interference by other missionary societies."--_Letter
+written in_ 1872.
+
+The congregations at Bitlis were composed mostly of young men,
+apparently drawn together by love for the truth. About twenty were
+known as Protestants, and five of them had gone through a fiery
+trial of persecution. The Bible class, which had been broken up by
+that means, was now regularly attended by about thirty young men,
+some of whom developed rich natural endowments, and gave promise of
+future usefulness. Sabbath-school instruction was found a valuable
+auxiliary to the preaching of the missionaries, on account of the
+opportunity it afforded for free and familiar illustration and
+personal application of the truth. It also made the missionary
+acquainted with the superstitions and errors of the Armenian
+religion. The women's meeting, conducted by Mrs. Knapp and Mrs.
+Burbank, was well attended and influential. A school for girls,
+taught by the wife of the helper, was broken up by the violence of
+Armenian ecclesiastics. The missionaries appealed to the Pasha, and
+to Mr. Dalzell, the friendly British Consul at Erzroom. The result
+was that the priests commenced a free school for boys and girls, and
+also a preaching service, hoping thus to deter the people from
+becoming Protestants. The Porte had given orders that the
+Protestants in every city should have a suitable cemetery, but every
+effort to secure one at Bitlis had been without success.
+
+Dr. Dwight was much interested in this city. Its population was
+thirty thousand, and one third were Armenians; the rest were Koords
+and Turks, and there were hundreds of villages within the district.
+The place was proverbial for salubrity, and he saw enough to
+convince him that the leaven of the Gospel was working powerfully
+among the people. Moosh, an out-station of Bitlis, was occupied by
+the native pastor Simon. The truth had taken some hold there, but
+the people were more degraded than at Bitlis.
+
+Erzroom had several changes of missionaries in the six years
+previous to 1862. Being near to Russia, it suffered greatly during
+the Crimean war. The church was disbanded, but was reorganized by
+Mr. Trowbridge. Mr. Pollard removed thither from Arabkir, and was
+received with unexpected favor. The government now granted an
+eligible cemetery; and the Armenian Bishop, having had the benefit
+of a two years' residence in the United States, was friendly towards
+the American missionary.
+
+The removal of Mr. Pollard left Mr. Richardson alone at Arabkir. His
+report for 1862, shows that there was much to encourage him. Turkish
+women came to the female prayer-meetings; and the opening of
+Protestant schools had led the Armenians to establish schools for
+their own children, in some of which a large proportion of the
+pupils were girls, though but a few years had passed since it was
+considered a shame for females to learn to read. Eleven young men
+from seven different cities and villages in this district, were
+connected with the Harpoot Seminary, giving the prospect of an
+improved class of helpers. Yet most of the former helpers had proved
+themselves sincere and pious; and after having done what they could
+to bring forward younger men of higher attainments, they were
+themselves humbly and gracefully returning to their former trades
+and callings, and laboring for the advancement of the good cause as
+Sabbath-school teachers and private Christians.
+
+At the close of 1862, Dr. Wood, the Corresponding Secretary of the
+Board at New York, in consideration of his former experience and his
+familiarity with the Armenian language, was requested by the
+Prudential Committee to reside at Constantinople for a year or more,
+laboring in connection with the mission to Western Turkey. This was
+necessary in consequence of the sickness of several missionaries,
+and the special demand, at that time, for labor at that important
+post. He returned in the summer of 1864, after having rendered
+important service to the mission.
+
+The clerical accessions to the mission, in 1862 and 1863, were
+Messrs. John Francis Smith, Moses P. Parmelee, and Giles F.
+Montgomery, with their wives; and their respective assignments were
+to the Western, Central, and Eastern missions. In addition to these,
+Miss Arabella L. Babcock went to Harpoot, Miss Ann Eliza Fritcher to
+Marsovan, and Miss Mary E. Reynolds to the Bulgarian Mission.
+
+In May, 1863, native pastors were ordained at Antioch, Bitlis,
+Adana, and Tarsus. In June, a fifth was ordained at Killis, the
+officiating clergy in this last case, with a single exception, being
+natives.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1864-1866.
+
+
+A reactionary movement took place among the Mohammedans of the
+capital in 1864. The government had encouraged the introduction of
+European science. Men high in civil positions had delivered courses
+of lectures on history and other topics, in a surprisingly liberal
+spirit, and to audiences embracing hundreds of Turks. A "Literary
+and Scientific Gazette," published monthly under the auspices of a
+native "Oriental Society," discussed questions of political and
+social economy from an occidental stand-point; and the press was
+active in issuing pamphlets and books by native writers, indicating
+and promoting a new intellectual life. All this the devotees of the
+"Old School" regarded with suspicion. They were even more alarmed by
+the religious liberty, which had been successfully claimed for
+converts from Mohammedanism, who had been openly baptized, and lived
+unmolested as Christians. The government had some time before been
+led to discourage Christian education by missionaries and other
+foreigners, when they could do this indirectly and under plausible
+pretexts; and they were somewhat rigid in their censorship of the
+religious press. The Scriptures, however, were allowed to be printed
+and circulated in the Arabo-Turkish, or sacred character, and no
+objection was made to simple expositions of Christian truth in that
+language.
+
+But when copies of Dr. Pfander's book[1] were brought to
+Constantinople, which defended Christianity against Mohammedanism,
+and assailed the latter, it was detained at the custom-house; yet
+copies got abroad in some way, without foreign agency, and were
+sought by Mohammedans who were interested in the great question it
+discussed. A Moslem published a bitter reply; and in July, the
+manifest increase of both Christian ideas and pantheistic infidelity
+among the people, and the growing excitement among the fanatical
+party, began to alarm the government. There was believed to be a
+somewhat large body, who wished to reform the Mohammedan faith; and
+it was said that a petition was presented to the government, by some
+Moslems calling themselves Protestants, for a mosque in which to
+worship in their own way.
+
+[1] Dr. Pfander, was a highly respected missionary of the (English)
+Church Missionary Society. The work was printed in London.
+
+The fears of the Sultan were aroused. For several weeks spies beset
+the missionaries at every step. Finally, on a set day, several
+Turkish converts were arrested, and cast into prison, some of them
+being treated with great indignity. On the next day, the printing
+presses used by the missionaries were seized and put under seal, and
+rooms occupied by English missionaries, and the bookstore of the
+American mission and the two Bible Societies were also closed by the
+police.
+
+These proceedings, being in direct violation of rights secured by
+treaty, were at once met with a decided protest from Mr. Brown, who,
+in the absence of the American Minister Resident, was the
+representative of his government; and after some delay, the British
+Ambassador, Sir Henry Bulwer, also sent in a remonstrance. An
+examination of the bookstore discovered no prohibited publications;
+and after two days it was allowed to be re-opened. The printing
+offices were likewise restored. A correspondence followed between
+Sir Henry Bulwer and the Turkish authorities, and between him and
+the missionaries resident at Constantinople. The Mohammedans
+professed not to oppose their people's embracing the Christian
+religion, but only such reckless proselytism, as endangered the
+public peace; and they declared their willingness to release the
+imprisoned converts if it could be done consistently with their
+personal safety. But the missionaries believed that the intention of
+the Turks, and also the tendency of Sir Henry's movements, were
+seriously to curtail their own liberty and that of their converts,
+and greatly to embarrass the propagation of the Gospel, as well
+among all the nominally Christian sects, as among the Moslems.
+
+The immediate effect of these things was to prevent attendance by
+the Turks on preaching, the circulation of Christian books, and
+personal intercourse with the missionaries.
+
+The position of the entire field, at the opening of 1864, from
+Constantinople to Diarbekir on the East, and to Antioch on the
+south, was one to interest the intelligent observer. The laborers
+employed in this wide and populous region, not including the
+Bulgarians, were--
+
+Missionaries                    36
+Missionary Physicians            2
+Female Assistant Missionaries   41
+Native Pastors                  20
+Licensed Native Preachers       43
+Teachers                        83
+Other Helpers                   58
+                               ---
+                  Total        283
+
+The printing was done at Constantinople for all the missions; and
+that reported for the year 1863 was as follows:
+
+In Armenian              1,821,000 pages
+In Armeno-Turkish        1,128,000   "
+In Arabo-Turkish           264,000   "
+In Greek                     6,000   "
+In Bulgarian             1,896,000   "
+                         ---------
+                  Total  5,115,000   "
+
+Of Turkish Scriptures twice as many copies had been distributed as
+in previous years. More than twenty-five thousand copies of the Word
+of God went into circulation, in at least twenty different
+languages. The following is a statement of the Scriptures prepared
+and printed, under the supervision of the missionaries of the Board,
+from 1840 to 1863:
+
+In Modern Armenian          37,500
+In Ararat                    8,000
+In Armeno-Turkish            6,500
+In Greco-Turkish            55,000
+In Koordish                 13,000
+In Bulgarian                 4,000
+In Hebrew-Spanish           23,000
+Armenian Psalms             14,000
+                           -------
+                  Total    161,000
+
+Of these, there were published at the expense of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society, 100,000; of the American Bible Society,
+54,000; and of the American Tract Society (New York), 7,000. In
+addition to the above printed in Turkey, 10,500 copies of the modern
+Armenian version were printed in New York, from electrotype plates
+of the American Bible Society; and 5,000 copies of the same version
+were printed in London, by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
+
+The number of churches was forty-seven, with one thousand nine
+hundred and thirteen members. There had been received from the
+beginning two thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. The efforts
+to bring the churches to the point of self-support were not always
+appreciated. The people were poor, and sometimes felt their poverty
+more than they should, and in almost every church there were members
+who were ready to resent any transfer of pecuniary responsibility
+from the mission treasury to themselves. Moreover, it was sometimes
+not easy for a native pastor, with the tastes acquired during his
+education, to live in a manner that would put him in sympathy with
+his people, and encourage the hope of their soon assuming his
+support. Nor was it easy for the native pastor, from his different
+stand-point, to appreciate the responsibilities of the missionary. A
+union of the churches was needed, but had been delayed by their
+distance from each other and their poverty.
+
+It has been already stated that the Western mission resolved, in
+1862, to remove the two seminaries from Constantinople to Marsovan.
+Mr. Leonard and his wife and Miss Maria A. West were already there.
+Mr. Dodd and family, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Miss Fritcher now
+removed thither. The delightful harmony and Christian zeal which
+existed at this station when the mission passed the resolution, had
+been followed by painful disagreements. Through the mistaken zeal of
+a young school-teacher, anxious to effect some changes in the
+school, the community were betrayed into an attempt to obtain
+exclusive control of the funds of the Board appropriated to
+education. This eventually led to a struggle with the mission for
+the possession of the meeting-house and a dwelling-house connected
+with it, which had been purchased by the Board a few years before.
+Much ill feeling existed both in the church and the community while
+this was in progress, and for about six weeks a large number
+withdrew, and set up public worship in a private house, with the
+teacher at their head. This separate movement was then given up, and
+there was soon a return of peace and mutual affection; but neither
+of the schools were opened before the next year.
+
+The accessions to the missions in Turkey, in the time now under
+review, were Messrs. Walter H. Giles, Henry A. Schauffler, Lucien N.
+Adams, and Albert Bryant, with their wives; also Miss Clarissa C.
+Pond.
+
+The working force of the mission at Constantinople, consisting of
+Drs. Goodell and Riggs, and Messrs. Trowbridge, Herrick, and
+Washburn, was quite too small for the demands of that great
+metropolis, and for the general work of the mission which had to be
+performed there. The Rev. Isaac G. Bliss, agent of the American
+Bible Society, rendered valuable assistance in the care of the book
+department. Dr. Hamlin was no longer able to render the services he
+had performed. Robert College was allowed the use of the Seminary
+building at Bebek, belonging to the American Board, until another
+building could be erected. Its twenty students paid forty pounds
+each year for board and tuition. Its successful beginning in 1862,
+under the munificent patronage of its founder, and the care of its
+President, Dr. Hamlin, and Professors Perkins and Henry A.
+Schauffler, was a subject for general congratulation.
+
+The unhappy dissensions of the Protestant civil community had in
+some degree subsided; but the Pera church, maintaining its attitude
+of disaffection, sought patronage from the English Bishop of
+Gibraltar, offering to receive Episcopal ordination for the pastor,
+and to become a "Reformed Armenian church," which should reject the
+grossest errors of the Armenian Church, while it approximated
+closely to it in government, worship, and usages. Inquiries were
+instituted by the proper ecclesiastical authorities, and
+encouragement was withheld from the movement.
+
+It is painful to state that Vertanes, so often favorably mentioned
+in the early history of this mission, and frequently actuated by a
+zeal which the missionaries judged too ardent, became now
+disaffected, and it was necessary to dismiss him as a helper.
+
+The Pera church, at the time of writing this history, is in full
+fellowship with the missionaries and its sister churches.
+
+The Protestant community at Broosa suffered severely in a
+conflagration, which consumed nearly the whole Armenian quarter of
+the city. The neat Protestant church edifice, and the dwelling of
+the native pastor, happily escaped.
+
+A railway connects Smyrna with Aidin, a city of about fifty thousand
+inhabitants, eighty miles distant. A church had been formed there
+previous to 1865; four persons were added to it in that year, and
+the brethren were grateful for their native pastor, but desired a
+missionary who could preach in Greek, as they could reckon up scores
+of Greeks who seemed ready to receive the truth.
+
+Adana remained unoccupied after Mr. Coffing's death, until March,
+1863, when Mr. Goss arrived, and, afterwards, Dr. and Mrs. Goodale.
+The native pastor was faithful and intelligent. Though neither
+church nor congregation was large, there was an advance in the
+observance of the Sabbath, also in self-support and general
+benevolence. The increased price of the cotton grown on its
+magnificent plain, as the result of the war in America, had given an
+extraordinary impulse to the business of the place, and to the
+spirit of commerce. There was much to encourage hope in respect to
+this important station.
+
+Dr. Nutting, being transferred from the Eastern to the Central
+mission, was stationed at Oorfa, where his brother was laboring; Mr.
+and Mrs. Montgomery were added to the Central mission; but the
+return home of Mr. and Mrs. White and of Dr. and Mrs. Goodale, by
+reason of a failure of health, made the number of missionaries in
+that field less than it had been the year before.
+
+Yet such was the advance in Aintab, that the mission resolved, at
+its annual meeting in 1864, that there was no longer a call for the
+residence of a missionary in that city. The church had increased to
+three hundred and fifty members, and had two native pastors, both of
+decided ability, sound judgment, harmonious views, and deep-toned
+piety; and it was thought that the proper development of the
+pastoral relation, and the most economical disposal of missionary
+strength, would be promoted by leaving the station to native
+cultivation, with occasional visits of missionaries. As, however, a
+second church was to be formed, and a new house of worship to be
+built, mainly with funds from England placed under Dr. Schneider's
+direction, the mission approved of his remaining there till these
+things were done, when he was to go--as he has since gone--to
+another field, where he might hope, with his uncommon power as a
+preacher in the Turkish language, to reap a harvest like that which
+had resulted in the truly wonderful ingathering of souls at Aintab.
+
+The division of the church took place in the following year. When
+the time had fully come for it, the senior pastor proposed that each
+head of a family choose between them. The result was, that the two
+churches, thus formed, each contained about one hundred and fifty
+members. The number in each congregation, small and great, was
+between eight and nine hundred. The preponderance was slightly in
+favor of the first church and congregation, of which Baron Avedis
+was pastor. Baron Krikore became the pastor of the new church.
+
+On the Sabbath when the formal separation took place, the customary
+services were exchanged for addresses suited to the occasion by the
+pastors and Dr. Schneider, and there was the same intermingling of
+joy and sorrow which is sometimes witnessed on similar occasions in
+our own land. Those who went out made the sacrifice cheerfully. In
+the afternoon they assembled in their place of temporary worship,
+which was filled to its utmost capacity. "Though uncomfortably
+crowded, pleasure beamed in every countenance. The Confession of
+Faith and the Covenant were read and adopted anew by the church, all
+the members standing. Then they were addressed on subjects
+appropriate to their circumstances, with a view to rousing them to
+new zeal and activity. When all was over, little groups were engaged
+in lively conversation over the whole house, showing that all were
+especially interested in what had transpired."
+
+The Female Boarding-school at Aintab, under the care of Miss
+Proctor, was now firmly established, having overcome much prejudice
+against female education, and against the regulations necessary in
+such an institution. It had fourteen pupils, who acquitted
+themselves well at a public examination in the presence of a deeply
+interested assembly.
+
+In the high school for young men at the same station, under the very
+competent instruction of Baron Alexan, twelve candidates for the
+ministry were taught in secular branches, to whom lectures were
+delivered in the departments of theological study by Drs. Schneider
+and Pratt. At an examination of this school in the church, in the
+presence of several hundred persons,--including six Moslems of
+prominent social positions, most of whom listened for several hours
+with the deepest interest,--the scholars gave highly satisfactory
+proofs of mental ability and discipline; while the simplicity of
+their piety, and their readiness to labor where divine Providence
+should call them, gave good promise of their future steadfastness
+and usefulness. It was then resolved to remove the Theological
+School to Marash, and place it under the instruction of Dr. Pratt
+and Mr. Goss, assisted by Baron Alexan, and that none but pious
+young men should be admitted. The course of study was to occupy
+three years; and so much of their own personal expenses were to
+devolve upon the students, or their friends, as might test their
+character, and furnish a healthful stimulus to the Protestant
+community on the subject of education for the ministry.
+
+The Theological Seminary at Harpoot sent forth its first class of
+eighteen young men near the close of 1863. Eight of these had been
+licensed as preachers of the Gospel, and nearly all the rest were
+employed at out-stations, as catechists and teachers. Some were
+expecting to be soon ordained as pastors. The demand for additional
+laborers was urgent, because of the very general increase in the
+size, as well as number, of the congregations.
+
+Social meetings for the study of the Scriptures were found to be so
+influential for good in the Harpoot district, that the Armenian
+ecclesiastics of the Old Church sought to counteract their influence
+by the same expedient; but the result disappointed their hopes. In
+Malatia, they appointed a meeting for such readings every evening in
+the week, in each of the twenty-four wards of their part of the
+city. Their intention was to have the Scriptures and the church
+books read in the ancient language; but the people insisted on
+having the Bible alone read, and read in the spoken language. So
+every night the Word of God, in the vernacular, was read and
+commented on in twenty-four assemblies of from forty to sixty
+persons.
+
+Of more significance was the fact, that many of the local
+communities, besides the one at Harpoot, were taking upon themselves
+the support of their pastors and preachers, and were beginning to
+relieve the Board of the expense of their schools. A missionary
+spirit was also springing up. The churches in the cities were
+beginning to care for the villages. Missionary societies were
+formed. In one of the out-stations of Harpoot, the school boys had
+an evangelical society. On Saturdays they met and had prayers,
+singing, and the reading of a tract; and the next day they went out,
+two and two, to the houses of such Armenians as did not come to the
+Protestant place of worship, and asked the privilege of reading from
+the New Testament. Being children, they often found a hearing where
+older persons could not. A boys' missionary society in Diarbekir
+bore the expense of a scripture reader in a large Armenian village
+nine miles distant. A like association of men paid seven eighths of
+the salary of a helper in another village. Subsequently, a door
+being found open in an unhopeful village near the city, the native
+brethren hired a house, and each Sabbath sent one of their own
+number to spend the day as a scripture reader. A similar zeal was
+manifested at Bitlis by a number of young men, who were studying at
+their own charges.
+
+But there were trials. Some of the young men in the Harpoot Seminary
+refused to exercise the self-denial necessary to live on the means
+allowed for their support, and returned to their homes; and a few of
+the graduating class preferred to enter secular business, rather
+than accept the salary offered. This was not without its uses, as it
+confirmed a wholesome principle, and was the means of bringing some
+men, after a time, into the service under a more just apprehension
+of the true value of the ministry.
+
+The Eastern Turkey Mission was painfully afflicted in 1865 and 1866.
+The three families at Harpoot each lost two children; and Mrs.
+Williams was called to her rest, depriving the mission of a highly
+valued and beloved member, and leaving her husband alone, in the
+sole charge of a difficult station. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson were
+obliged by illness to visit their native land, and the Arabkir field
+was placed under the permanent care of the Harpoot station.
+
+The Eastern mission had now ten missionaries, with as many female
+assistant missionaries, six native pastors, seventeen licensed
+native preachers, twenty-five native teachers, and thirty-two other
+helpers. The out-stations had increased to forty-seven, eighteen of
+which were connected with Harpoot. The average attendance at the
+regular religious services was over two thousand and two hundred;
+and many more heard the informal preaching of colporters and other
+assistants. Twenty-two Sabbath-schools embraced one thousand and
+four hundred pupils. There were sixteen churches, with a membership
+of four hundred and fifty, of whom sixty-eight were admitted on
+profession of faith in 1864, and one hundred and twenty were women.
+The number of registered Protestants was three thousand five hundred
+and thirty. Besides four hundred adults receiving instruction, there
+were one thousand five hundred children in fifty common schools, of
+whom more than five hundred were girls. The girls' boarding-school
+at Harpoot had forty-two pupils. The Misses West and Fritcher, from
+Marsovan, had been very usefully connected for a time with this
+school, in consequence of the return home of Miss Babcock. Miss
+Clarissa C. Pond was now connected with the school, and early
+succeeded in gaining the language. The mission was much encouraged
+by a growing interest in education, especially among the women.
+Parents who, a few years before, thought it wholly unnecessary, if
+not a disgrace, for their daughters to read, and who could hardly be
+induced to allow them to attend school, now gladly paid considerable
+sums for their tuition. This advancing spirit of intelligence was
+seen, not only among those who were brought directly under the
+influence of missionary labor, but also among the Armenians
+generally, compelling their ecclesiastics, in some places, to open
+schools of their own. So, also, to keep the people away from the
+Protestant chapels, extra services were established in Armenian
+churches, in which the Bible was read and explained, and prayer was
+offered in the modern or spoken language. In the village of Ichme,
+they even went so far as to open an opposition prayer-meeting, a
+female prayer-meeting, and an evening meeting; and societies were
+formed in several places professedly to carry the Gospel to
+neighboring villages.
+
+There was much suffering from poverty, this year having been one of
+special trial in this respect, but there was great liberality on the
+part of the churches. In the Harpoot district, "there was a
+promptness in paying their pastors, preachers, and teachers," says
+the report of that station, "which would put to shame some richer
+and more enlightened communities, even in Christian America. The
+sums paid by the people for the support of pastors, schools, chapel
+building, the poor, and for other benevolent objects, amounted
+during the year to $1,224 (in gold), and would have been larger had
+not the mass of the people been unusually poor, even for them." Two
+things are noted that were especially cheering in regard to them:
+"First; so soon as they become interested in the truth, they
+earnestly desire a pastor of their own, and, _when necessary_, are
+willing to pay according to their ability for his support. Secondly;
+they are easily pleased, and are not fickle minded; do not desire,
+but rather oppose change. The preacher who has once been given to
+them, almost without exception they learn to love; and having
+learned this, they do not wish to part with him."
+
+Mr. Williams was at Diarbekir in February, and found the church in
+great prosperity under the pastorate of the Rev. Tomas Boyajian. For
+a year the station had had no missionary; and it was a year of high
+prices, almost a famine, and great stagnation in business throughout
+Eastern Turkey. At the same time, owing to the trouble in
+Constantinople, the Turkish officials were more averse to
+Protestants than ever before. Sickness, too, had prevailed,
+thirty-three having been buried at Diarbekir from the congregation
+over which the young pastor was settled. "Yet," says Mr. Williams,
+"the city work is in advance of any _one_ thing at Harpoot. The
+congregation at the Sabbath-school, three fourths of whom are
+adults, numbered three hundred and thirty-nine, and I wish those
+whose contributions have aided in planting this vine, could have
+looked upon the clusters of faces which were studying the Book of
+Life, and heard the hum of voices asking and answering questions!
+They would have felt that there are some places where the missionary
+work is _not_ a failure. The figures I have not by me, but since Mr.
+Walker has been absent, the church has increased, the congregation
+has increased; and that it is not an idle increase is shown by the
+fact, that this one congregation has, in the year of the
+missionary's absence, contributed four hundred dollars for the
+support and spread of the Gospel; for schools, two hundred and
+forty; for the poor (a year of high prices and great want), two
+hundred and seventy-five; and for the national head at
+Constantinople, forty."
+
+The year 1865 was signalized by the death of two very useful
+missionaries,--Rev. Edward Mills Dodd, and Rev. Homer Bartlett
+Morgan. Mr. Dodd died of cholera at Marsovan, on the 19th of August.
+He was a native of New Jersey, and his first labors were among the
+Jews of Salonica, commencing in April, 1849. In 1863, he was
+transferred from Smyrna to Marsovan. Mr. Barnum, of Harpoot, who was
+there at the time of his death, speaks of him as a sincere Christian
+and an earnest missionary, working up to and often quite beyond the
+strength of his feeble constitution. "His first missionary language
+was Hebrew-Spanish, of which, I have been told, he had a fine
+command. When he was transferred to the Armenian work he learned the
+Turkish, which he used with much more than ordinary correctness; and
+some of the best sermons which I have heard in that language were
+from him. He devoted considerable attention to Turkish hymnology,
+and many of the best of the Turkish hymns now in use were
+contributed by him."[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1865, pp. 380-383.
+
+Mr. Morgan died at Smyrna on the 25th of August, at the age of
+forty-one. He was from the State of New York, and obtained his
+education at Hamilton College, and at the Union and Auburn
+Theological Seminaries. He joined the mission to the Jews at
+Salonica in 1852. After that mission was relinquished, he removed,
+in 1856, to Antioch. Seven of the remaining nine years of his life
+were spent in that place, whence the great Apostle went forth on his
+first foreign mission; and the last two at Kessab, in a perfectly
+successful effort to restore unity to a divided church. The failing
+health of Mrs. Morgan rendered a visit to her native land
+imperative. Being detained ten days in the malarious atmosphere of
+Alexandretta by the non-arrival of their expected steamer, Mr.
+Morgan took the fever. Supposing it to be only an intermittent, they
+embarked for Marseilles, but on reaching Smyrna he was too ill to
+proceed farther. There, in a missionary family, he had the best of
+attendance, and after a week of delirious wanderings, he finished
+his earthly course, and was laid to rest in the cemetery of the
+Dutch hospital. His first wife was taken from him at Salonica, his
+first-born at Antioch, a second child at Bitias, and a third at
+Kessab; and the father sleeps in Smyrna, his old home.
+
+                           "Far from thee
+   Thy kindred and their graves may be,--
+   And yet it is a blessed sleep,
+   From which none ever wakes to weep."
+
+Repeated bereavements chastened the strong and decided character of
+Mr. Morgan. He grew in the grace of patience, and in spirituality
+and self-abnegation. He was an indefatigable worker, and was fitted
+to exert, as he did, a commanding influence on the policy of the
+mission. He soon made himself familiar with the Turkish language,
+and never wearied of studying its beautiful structure, and wrote
+some of the best Turkish hymns. The well known hymn,--"Not all the
+blood of beasts"--he clothed with not a little of the strength and
+power of the original.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1865, pp. 383-385.
+
+The year was also signalized by the death of Rev. Hohannes Der
+Sahagyan, pastor of the church in Nicomedia, and widely known as one
+of the two young men who first attached themselves to the teaching
+of the missionaries in Constantinople, also for his consistent
+piety, earnest zeal, and the severe persecutions which he suffered
+at different periods, as a follower of the Lord Jesus.
+
+A scene at the ordination of a native pastor at Perchenj, a village
+two hours from Harpoot, graphically described by Mr. Williams, has
+its chronological place here. It was in a large garden, with the
+pulpit under the wide-spreading branches of a mulberry-tree, and
+mats and carpets spread out in front. "Around the pulpit sat the
+council,--lay and clerical delegates, representing most of the
+evangelical ministry in this part of Turkey; then the regular
+Protestants of Perchenj, Harpoot, and the villages about, to whom it
+was a 'festa,' as was evident from their dress. Outside these were
+the partially committed ones, who, though they did not 'dress up'
+for the occasion, seemed to have taken the day for it; and again,
+outside that company, were men drawn in by the interest of the
+occasion from their work, with their field dresses on, tools in
+hand, leaning on their long handled spades, bending forward to catch
+question and answer, wholly unconscious of the picturesque finish
+they gave to the scene.
+
+"In the afternoon exercises, the pastor of Ichme and the pastor of
+Harpoot took prominent parts. The same was expected also of the
+pastors from Arabkir and Shapik, but unfortunately they were not
+present. The sermon was by Mr. Allen, and was moving and effective.
+It was very difficult to count the audience, at least from where I
+was. If I could have exchanged places with some of the boys, and
+hung myself among the mulberries, perhaps I could have succeeded
+better. Nothing in all the exercises seemed so American as the
+natural way in which the boys took to the trees. We judged there
+were, in the forenoon, about seven or eight hundred, and in the
+afternoon, six or seven hundred. To the last, everything was quiet,
+and all went off pleasantly. As you know, the community furnish half
+the pastor's salary from the start."
+
+In October, four months later, there was an ordination of much
+interest at Cesarea, where the churches in Constantinople, Marsovan,
+Sivas, and Yozgat were represented. It was in one of the most
+important centres of influence. Gregory the Illuminator was ordained
+in Cesarea, and he went forth from that place to his great work of
+Christianizing the Armenian nation nearly sixteen hundred years ago.
+There were born the great church teachers of Cappadocia, Basil of
+Cesarea and his brother Gregory of Nyssa. In the middle of the third
+century, the bishop of Cesarea protested against the usurpations of
+the bishop of Rome.
+
+"Wednesday morning the council met and organized. The whole day was
+given to the examination of the candidate, which was held in the
+church, and was attended by from two to three hundred persons. The
+candidate occupied three fourths of an hour with a statement of
+personal experience and reasons for entering the ministry. This he
+made in a manner so clear, forcible, and satisfactory, that the
+council felt the need of asking scarcely a question. To the
+congregation it was especially impressive, showing how far removed
+from the religion of forms, to which they have so long been bound,
+is that faith which works by love. Three hours were then devoted to
+an examination of his theological views, and he gave unmistakable
+evidence of being a man accustomed to think for himself,--one who
+has well-defined opinions, and is prepared to defend them."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1866, p. 53.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Walker, having recruited their health in their native
+land, were once more at their post in Diarbekir. What a change since
+the arrival of Mr. Dunmore among that people in the year 1851. Mr.
+Walker thus describes his reception: "When two or three hours
+distant from the city, we began to be met by companies on horseback;
+and farther on by those on slower mules and donkeys, and as we
+neared the city, a great company of men, women, and children gave us
+their hearty 'Hoshgelden' (word of welcome); and the children of one
+of the schools stood in line by the side of the road and sung
+theirs. Thus we were escorted by two hundred or more, through the
+gates of the city, and to our own home, which was swept and
+garnished for our coming."
+
+The church, during a part of Mr. Walker's absence, had been without
+the services of its native pastor, he being at Constantinople; but
+one of their own number, who had been educated at the Harpoot
+Seminary, was engaged to supply the pulpit, and not a service had
+been omitted. The Sabbath-school never fell below one hundred and
+forty. Divine goodness spared the lives of the Protestants, with a
+single exception, while fifteen hundred persons were dying in the
+city of the cholera. The active piety of the church seemed to be
+quickened by their trials; and thirty, out of one hundred and one
+members, were wont to go out two by two, by appointment, to spend
+Sabbath evenings in religious conversation at different houses. The
+result was that their place of worship became over-crowded, and a
+new building was prepared for a second congregation that would seat
+four hundred and fifty persons.
+
+Miss Maria A. West, of the Western Turkey mission, spent the winter
+in the family of Mr. Walker, and took a very active interest in the
+success of the women's weekly prayer-meetings. The attendance at
+these meetings sometimes arose to seventy, and the results of labor
+in this direction can hardly be over-estimated.
+
+Ararkel, a very valuable helper at one of the Bitlis out-stations,
+died in August, 1865. He was a most active opposer of the truth when
+the gospel was first preached in Moosh, but one of the first to
+accept it, being convinced by reading the Scriptures. He was
+persecuted unto imprisonment, but bore all patiently. Being
+naturally gentle and discreet, he was peculiarly fitted to be a
+pioneer, and was sent as a helper to Havadorik, a village on the
+mountains, among Koords, known as the dwelling-place of thieves and
+robbers. He there labored for two years, until his death, with much
+success. "His mouth," says Mr. Burbank, "was always full of
+evangelical doctrines. His prayers were mingled with tears, and his
+Bible was wet with them." He died of fever, leaving two little
+orphan boys and an aged mother without any means of support. The
+Armenians cheerfully granted him a burial in their own cemetery.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1865-1867.
+
+
+An association of native churches and pastors, called the Harpoot
+Evangelical Union, was formed at Harpoot near the close of 1865. It
+was to serve the purpose of a Home and Foreign Missionary Society,
+also of an Education and Church Building Society. It could form new
+churches, ordain and dismiss pastors, grant licenses to preachers,
+and depose the unworthy. It was to hold an annual meeting, and such
+other meetings during the year as circumstances might require.
+Aggrieved church-members might appeal to it under certain
+limitations.
+
+A similar association had been formed, September, 1864, by the
+churches in the Broosa and Nicomedia districts, called "The Union of
+the Evangelical Armenian Churches of Bithynia," embracing eight
+churches, and afterwards including the churches of Constantinople.
+Another was formed at Marsovan, at the close of 1868, and called
+"The Central Evangelical Union," and another in Central Turkey,
+called "The Cilicia Union."
+
+The effect of these organizations has been to enlarge the views of
+churches and ministers, and make them feel that the work of
+evangelizing the people around them belonged naturally to
+themselves. It also greatly developed a spirit of self-denying love
+for their work among the pastors and preachers, and a spirit of
+unity and independence among the churches. "Five years ago," writes
+Mr. Wheeler in September, 1866, "the pastor of the Harpoot church,
+now President of the Union, when we put upon his people an increased
+amount of his salary, inquired, 'By what right do these men put this
+burden on my church?' But when, in this meeting, a proposition was
+made to get the pastor's salaries from other sources than their
+churches' treasury, this same man, aided by the pastor at Arabkir,
+so conclusively showed the folly and hurtfulness of the proposal,
+that the mover of it dropped it in shame. The Arabkir pastor said:
+'This is to enable the pastor to be independent of the people, and
+to say, What have you given me that I should be your servant?' The
+force of this pithy argument is felt here, where ecclesiastics rule
+and devour the people, and where the tendency in that direction is
+so strong that we need to guard against it in laying the foundations
+of the churches. He then went on to show that it would be for the
+good of the churches to support their pastors. They would thus love
+and heed them more. 'The pastor,' he continued, 'who should get his
+support from any source outside of his own people, would be beyond
+their control.' In a subsequent discussion on supporting the poor of
+the church, he said: 'I am fully persuaded, that every church is not
+only able to support its poor, but its pastor too.'"
+
+The truth of this last remark was strikingly illustrated by the
+church in Shepik, the poorest and feeblest in the field, which for
+thirteen years had paid almost nothing for preaching, and was
+supposed to be a permanent pensioner on missionary bounty; but all
+at once it raised enough for the support of the preacher, besides
+nearly two hundred dollars in gold for the building of a house of
+worship. A blind preacher from the Harpoot Seminary had been the
+means of this unexpected result. He was known as John Concordance
+(Hohannes Hamapapar), on account of his wonderful readiness in
+quoting Scripture, chapter and verse. He was sent to Shepik, and
+hearing the complaints of the people about their poor crops and
+poverty, replied: "God tells you the reason in the third chapter of
+Malachi; where he says, 'Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have
+robbed me.'" Then taking for a text, "Bring ye all the tithes into
+the storehouse," etc., he inculcated the duty and privilege of
+setting apart _at least a tenth_ of their earnings for God. The
+people were convinced, and after paying half of their crops,
+according to usage, to the owner of the soil for rent, and a tenth
+to the government for taxes, as they must needs do, they gave
+another tenth to the Lord's "storehouse,"--a room they had set apart
+for receiving the tithes. And the sermon of this blind preacher, and
+the example of these poor people, have wrought wonders in the
+land.[1]
+
+[1] Mr. Wheeler's _Ten Years on the Euphrates_, chap. x. For an
+abstract of John Concordance's sermon on _Tithes_, preached at
+Harpoot, see, _Missionary Herald_ for 1868, pp. 308-312.
+
+During the year and a half after its formation, this union held five
+general meetings. The last of these was the most interesting. Eleven
+native pastors were present,--from the Harpoot district, and from
+Cesarea, Tocat, Adiaman, and Cutterbul. Nearly all the helpers of
+the Harpoot, Diarbekir, and Mardin fields were there, with twenty
+delegates from churches and from congregations that expected soon to
+have churches. There were also present the members of the
+Theological school, Mr. Livingston from Sivas, and Mr. Williams from
+Mardin, who had brought his students to spend the summer in the
+school at Harpoot.
+
+On the 15th of November, 1866, Mrs. Adams died at Aintab, of
+consumption, much lamented.[1] Mr. Richardson, on his return from
+America, joined the Broosa station. Mr. Williams was then alone amid
+the multitudes using the Arabic that centered around Mardin and
+Mosul; and Mr. Walker was the only missionary at Diarbekir, with at
+least a thousand towns and villages in his district. Yet it was a
+year of decided progress in Turkey. The missionary force received an
+unwonted accession in the years 1866 and 1867. Five ordained married
+missionaries arrived in the last of these years, namely, Messrs.
+Henry T. Perry, Theodore Baldwin, Henry S. Barnum, Charles C. Tracy,
+and Lyman Bartlett, with as many unmarried female assistant
+missionaries,--Misses Roseltha A. Norcross, Mary E. Warfield,
+Harriet Seymour, Sarah Ann Closson, and Mary G. Hollister. Mr. Henry
+O. Dwight, son of the distinguished missionary, Dr. H. G. O. Dwight,
+arrived at Constantinople as secular agent, with his wife, a
+daughter of Dr. Bliss. Miss Mary D. Francis arrived in 1866, and was
+afterwards married to Mr. Adams.
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1867, p. 98.
+
+Among other signs of progress was the increase of newspapers in
+Constantinople, and one or two other cities of Turkey. In
+Constantinople, five years before, a newspaper was rarely seen in
+the hands of any one of the thousands of persons passing up or down
+the Bosphorus and Golden Horn in the steamers which take the place
+of the street cars of Boston or New York. Now it had become a common
+sight, and newsboys thronged the thoroughfares with their papers, in
+Turkish and other languages. The standard of journalism was not
+high, but the thoughts of men were stirred. The influence of these
+papers was generally adverse to the missionary work. Partly to
+counteract this influence, the missionaries published, once a
+fortnight, a small newspaper called the "Avedaper," or "Messenger."
+It appeared alternately in the Armenian and Armeno-Turkish
+languages, and had fifteen hundred subscribers scattered over
+Turkey. Mr. E. E. Bliss, the editor, estimated the aggregate of
+readers at ten thousand. One incident may illustrate its influence.
+A villager living on the Taurus Mountains was so impressed with one
+of the sententious speeches of President Lincoln, translated in the
+paper, that he committed the whole to memory, that he might teach to
+others its lessons of "malice toward none, and charity to all."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, for 1867, p. 82.
+
+The general progress towards right religious opinions, had led to a
+division of the Armenians who remained in the Old Church into two
+parties, called the "Enlightened" and the "Unenlightened." The
+former was continually increasing, and had sharp contests with the
+Unenlightened on questions of clerical control in civil affairs.
+Their failure to secure even the partial reforms they sought
+convinced them of the necessity of more radical changes; and an
+Armenian paper announced a movement for the formation of a Reformed
+Armenian Church; on the principle of restoring the purity of
+doctrine and simplicity of worship, which they supposed existed in
+their Church at the beginning. The same paper advocated the complete
+separation of civil and ecclesiastical affairs; and announced that a
+book would soon be published, setting forth the doctrines and
+proposed form of worship for this new church. The new Prayer-book
+made its appearance early in 1867. It contained a Creed; a Ritual
+for Baptism, the Lord's Supper, Ordination, etc.; Forms for Daily
+Prayer in the churches; and Hymns and Songs. Judged by the standard
+of the New Testament, the book contained not a few errors of
+doctrine, and sanctioned many superstitious practices; yet it was a
+decided improvement upon the books in use in the Armenian Church.
+The Armenians of the Old Church regarded the changes as very
+radical, and the Patriarch denounced the book officially, and warned
+his people against it.
+
+"The most noteworthy part of the book is its Preface, which was
+printed last, and may be regarded as the platform of the reformed
+party. After giving a sketch of the history of the Armenian Church,
+its original purity of doctrine and worship, and the subsequent
+introduction of error and superstition, through the influence of the
+Greek and Roman Churches, it declares that the Armenian Church has
+come at last to be a mere 'satellite of Rome,' and that the time has
+come to assert its independence, to cast off the 'ultramontane
+influence,' to rescue the Church of their fathers from the 'Papal
+claws.' Three particulars are then set forth in which a
+'reformation' is needed. First, in reference to doctrine. 'The
+Armenian Church has,' it is said, 'doctrines introduced from abroad,
+which place faith in respect to salvation upon a wrong foundation,
+transferring man's hope from God to things created and material.
+Means are confounded with ends, and ends with means, and thus a
+thick veil is interposed between the eyes of the people and the
+simple doctrines of Christianity.' Secondly, 'The Church has now
+rites and ceremonies (unknown in purer times), which are a
+laughing-stock to the unbelieving, a grief to the truly pious, an
+offense to all enlightened men, and which have converted our
+churches into theatres, deprived worship of its spiritual character,
+and made it like the shows of a fair.' In the third place, 'The
+present relations of the clergy to the people are opposed to the
+spirit and substance of Christianity. Instead of being teachers,
+pastors, and fathers to the people, they claim to possess
+supernatural authority, rule by the terrors of that authority, teach
+the people only that which serves their own purposes, and are an
+obstacle to every good work.'"[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1867, pp. 237-239.
+
+For twenty years there had not been such a religious ferment in
+Constantinople, as there was at the time of issuing this Reformed
+Prayer-book. It was not a revival of religion. The question was not,
+"What must I do to be saved?" but "What did our Church teach in the
+days of its purity?" and "What are the doctrines of the Word of
+God?" Meanwhile the advocates of reform were continually driven to
+take higher ground; and such was their progress while carrying their
+book through the press, that they were obliged to reprint some of
+the first sheets, to make them conform to their new convictions. It
+may be stated as an illustration, that baptismal regeneration was
+taught in one of the original sheets, but in the reprint it was
+omitted.[1] So far as is known, this book has never been used in any
+church; but it is an index of the reform movement, and it has been
+useful in awaking inquiry.
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1867, p. 238.
+
+Bible-women began to be employed in Constantinople early in 1866.
+Five such women were supported by funds derived from the American
+Bible Society, and were kindly received in Armenian families. They
+sold many copies of the Scriptures, and met with much encouragement
+in their work. At this time, wherever missionaries labored in
+Turkey, large numbers of women were learning to read the Bible; and
+the majority of them were usually found at the women's prayer
+meeting.
+
+The progress at Harpoot, only eleven years from the commencement of
+the station, as described by Mr. Allen, is worthy of special
+attention. The leaven of the gospel was permeating the mass of the
+people. Many who persistently refused to be called by the unpopular
+name of "Protestant," were evidently under the influence of
+evangelical doctrines. The rising generation was growing up with
+enlightened views. Many young men would have taken a stand at once
+on the side of truth, but for the difficulty of separating from
+their parents. Societies had been formed, consisting of several
+hundred men not reckoned among the Protestants, for the purpose of
+having good schools for their children, and plain practical
+preaching in their churches. The magnates of one church had closed
+its door against the native evangelical preachers, and placed two
+Turkish soldiers to guard it. At another church the people were more
+resolute, saying, "We built this church, and we will be martyred
+upon its threshold, if necessary to defend our right to have the
+Gospel preached to us." At this the chief men gave way, contenting
+themselves with reporting the matter to the Patriarch at
+Constantinople. As an additional motive, the party of progress
+threatened to attend the services of the missionaries, if not
+allowed to have a service of their own.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1866, pp. 169-171.
+
+Quite a number of the young men and women in the Protestant city
+congregation dated their conversion from the "Week of Prayer." This
+week was duly observed at Harpoot from the first, and in 1866, with
+deeper religious feeling, than had ever been seen before. The
+morning and evening prayer-meetings were kept up till the close of
+May, when it was decided to discontinue the morning meetings, and to
+sustain the others every day, one hour before sunset. Three fourths
+of the congregation attended them regularly, and an earnest and
+tender spirit was manifest in the remarks and prayers.
+
+During this same week of prayer, Messrs. Burbank and Knapp, at
+Bitlis, aided by the native preacher Simon, afterwards pastor of the
+church, commenced a prayer-meeting at the dawn of day, which was so
+crowned with spiritual blessings, that it was continued, daily, for
+more than six months. The attendance increased from twenty to sixty,
+and was at one time nearly a hundred. The church had then only five
+members; and at the communion season in March, each of these five
+men publicly confessed his sins, and formally renewed his covenant.
+Many were in tears. Some in the congregation, who had thought
+themselves Christians, when they saw the church thus making
+confession, were amazed, and felt that they were themselves lost,
+and literally cried, as did the publican, "God be merciful to me a
+sinner."
+
+This was the commencement of the first revival of religion in
+Bitlis. Two meetings were held weekly for inquirers, at which
+between forty-five and fifty were usually present, of whom from
+fifteen to twenty-five were women. "Among the latter, was one over
+seventy years of age, who, being in the previous winter too feeble
+to walk through the deep snow to attend the meetings, had been
+carried by her stalwart son. Now she was a weeping penitent, seeking
+salvation at the foot of the cross, and that son was rejoicing in
+the hope of salvation." Forty men usually attended the sunrise
+prayer-meeting. Not as many of the fruits of this revival were
+gathered into the church as might have been anticipated, because of
+the very high standard--too high it would seem--which was required
+for admission.
+
+There had been great progress at Broosa. When Dr. Schneider left
+that place in 1849, on his removal to Aintab, no church had been
+formed, and his audience never exceeded fifteen natives, and
+sometimes it was not more than eight. No Protestant community had
+been formed, and in those days of fierce opposition very few were
+ready to face the consequences of an open acknowledgment of what
+they were convinced was the truth. But he found all this passed
+away, on his visit there in 1866. There was then a church of fifty
+members, and a Protestant community of one hundred and fifty,
+chiefly young men of enterprise, and a Sabbath congregation of one
+hundred and fifty. They had a beautiful house of worship, a
+prosperous day-school, and an excellent native pastor. There were
+many whose beards made them venerable. Dr. Schneider believed that
+half the Armenians in the city were convinced of the truth.
+
+The first evangelical church in Turkey, composed of Greeks, was
+organized by the Union of Bithynia at Demirdesh, in November, 1867.
+Mr. Kalopothakes was present from Athens. The church was composed
+exclusively of evangelical Greeks, and six of its thirteen members
+were women. Pastor Hohannes of Bilijik, on behalf of the Union,
+welcomed them to the fellowship of the churches; which he said had
+been lost through the departure of the Greeks and Armenians from the
+gospel, but was now recovered. The preacher was a Greek, and a
+native of the place.[1]
+
+[1] The members of the church formed at Hasbeiya in 1851 (p. 376 of
+vol. 1st) were seceders from the Greek Church, but were regarded by
+the Syrian mission as of the Arab race.
+
+The mission was sorely afflicted in September by the sudden death of
+Mr. Walker of Diarbekir. The cholera was prevalent in that city, and
+seemed to follow no laws. In the previous year, it had been almost
+wholly among the Mohammedans; but this year, it prevailed most in
+the Christian population. Mr. and Mrs. Walker removed to a khan
+outside the walls. "His last sermons were from the texts 'The Master
+has come, and calleth for thee;' and 'Except ye repent, ye shall all
+likewise perish.' On Monday, September 10th, he went into the city,
+spending some time over one stricken with cholera, besides customary
+duties. Tuesday morning, after a somewhat restless night, he rose as
+usual, and proposed a mission excursion to Cutterbul, but was
+persuaded to remain at home and rest. The premonitory symptoms soon
+appeared, but nothing peculiarly alarming, and as he had been held
+back from over-exertion, and been very careful in diet, all were
+full of hope. At the first whisper of illness the Christians
+gathered to aid, and the faithful Shemmas, without Mrs. Walker's
+knowledge, telegraphed to Mr. Williams, who started from Mardin at
+one o'clock, P. M., on Wednesday, and riding all night reached
+Diarbekir after sunrise to find that six hours before, September 13,
+1866, his brother had gone 'to be with Christ.'" His age was
+forty-five.
+
+"Diarbekir was filled with mourning. Not Protestants alone, but
+Moslems and Armenians, all were stricken. Such a funeral, as of one
+who was a father to all, was never witnessed there before. The
+native preacher conducted it appropriately and tenderly, praying not
+only for the stricken there, but for those in his native land who
+would so feel the loss."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1867, pp. 33-37.
+
+Mr. Walker was one of the best of missionaries. "His warm and
+affectionate nature," says Mr. Barnum, "quickly gained the hearts of
+the people wherever he went. His great desire was to see men coming
+to Jesus; and this he never forgot, whether at home or abroad. I
+have been with him not a little, and seldom have I seen an
+opportunity for a personal appeal, though only for a moment, pass
+unimproved."
+
+The tribute to Mr. Walker's memory from his brother Williams, of
+Mardin, who knew him well, and has so lately followed him into the
+eternal world must not be omitted.
+
+"His peculiar gifts were three:--1. He remembered faces, and
+recalled the names which belonged to them. He knew everybody.
+Ordinarily he needed to meet a man but once to recognize him ever
+after. And this pleases men; it appeals to their self-appreciation;
+they feel that they have made a permanent impression. Especially is
+this a power among a people who look up to the missionary as
+occupying a higher plane of civilization. It gives him a vast
+influence over them.
+
+"2. Partly as the result of this, but still distinct and beyond it,
+he had a marvelous faculty of making every man feel that he was
+especially an object of personal interest. Perhaps not that he alone
+was such, but that he was one of those taken into the inner sanctum
+of his affections. Love begets love, and believing that they were so
+dear to him, he was soon very dear to them. And he was never lacking
+in the outward expression of love. He was not afraid they would
+think he loved them too much.
+
+"3. He always had something to say. I suppose there is some good
+done by public preaching, but it is the preacher who is ready, in
+the face-to-face opportunity, who comes home laden with sheaves. Mr.
+Walker was always ready. Meet a man when he might, where he might,
+just the right word was on his tongue. And that warm grip of his
+hand, into how many souls has it infused a new and spiritual life.
+So he begot his children in the gospel; and by his sermons, which
+were always thoughtful, he built them up into Christian characters,
+as a workman who needeth not to be ashamed. Our Cutterbul deacon
+says to me since his death, 'I _never_ saw such a man.' When he left
+for Constantinople in 1859, perhaps one hundred men waited upon him
+out of the city, and he spoke to every one, and repeated nothing,
+but had a special word for each, exactly adapted to his case."
+
+Mrs. Walker returned to the United States, with her four children,
+in the following summer, and has since been recognized,--in
+connection with a benevolent lady in New York city,--as sustaining
+a relation of maternal guardianship to returned children of
+missionaries.
+
+At the close of the year Mr. Wheeler and others made a visit to
+Choonkoosh, two days' journey from Harpoot. Many of the people came
+several miles to welcome them, and crowds escorted them into the
+city. "Nine years ago," says Mr. Wheeler, "I made my first visit
+here in company with brother Dunmore, and we were hooted at, stoned,
+and at last driven from our room, in the pouring rain and splashing
+mud of a dark night." Now, every house seemed open to receive them.
+"Their new place for Protestant worship testified to the remarkable
+change. The men had brought all the timber, by hand, a distance of
+from three to five miles, and it sometimes required thirty men to
+bring one piece. Women and children brought water, earth, and
+stones; and women were still busy in plastering the walls, so that a
+meeting might be held there before we left!"[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1867, p. 108.
+
+The foreign missionary spirit was being developed. The Harpoot
+Evangelical Union resolved at Diarbekir, in 1866, to send a mission
+into the wild region eastward of that city, where the Armenians,
+living among the Koords, had lost all knowledge of both the Armenian
+and Turkish languages, and were in the grossest darkness. A dozen
+small churches, with a membership of hardly more than five hundred,
+undertook to educate seven young men to go as their missionaries,
+and the movement excited much enthusiasm. At the same time, the home
+missionary spirit received strength. The brethren at Harpoot were
+endeavoring to occupy fifty or more stations, within their home
+field, at most of which there were a few persons somewhat
+enlightened and more or less desirous of instruction.
+
+A blessing followed. The week of prayer, in the opening of 1867, was
+signalized by a revival at Harpoot.[1] There were indications of
+deep feeling in the church; and on one of the last days of the week,
+three of the most prominent men in the community openly identified
+themselves with the Protestants. One of these, named Sarkis Agha,
+became a very active and useful Christian. Feeling that he had been
+a stumbling-block to others, he lost no time in going to the market,
+and inviting twelve or fifteen of his most intimate friends, all men
+of influence, to his place of business, and telling them of his
+change of feeling. He expected only ridicule, but the majority were
+affected to tears, and requested him to read the Bible and pray with
+and for them.
+
+[1] An interesting account of this revival, by Miss Maria A. West,
+may be found in the _Missionary Herald_ for 1867, pp. 139-142.
+
+It was winter, and the travelling was very bad, so that they could
+not reach the more distant out-stations; but the members of the
+church visited the principal ones on the plain. Among these was
+Hooeli, about ten miles distant, where Mr. Barnum spent two days.
+The whole congregation appeared to be interested, prayer-meetings,
+morning and evening, were attended by from a hundred and twenty to
+two hundred persons; and through the entire day, till nearly
+midnight, the room of the missionary was thronged with inquirers. A
+large number of those with whom he conversed, appeared to be truly
+regenerated. Mr. Wheeler, on the following Sabbath, found the
+interest more widespread. Four hundred persons crowded into the
+chapel, and listened with fixed attention.
+
+Three years before, there was not a Protestant in the place. One
+year before, at the dedication of the chapel, when three hundred and
+fifty persons were present, the audience was so rude that there was
+the greatest difficulty in preserving quiet.[1] Both men and women
+were now quiet and serious listeners. A still larger attendance was
+reported on the following Sabbath, when more than a hundred failed
+of getting into the house of worship. There was also a revival of
+considerable power at Perchenj, another out-station, seven miles
+from Harpoot.
+
+[1] Mr. Barnum thus describes Miss Fritcher's meeting with seventy
+or eighty females in this place, two years before: "The chapel was
+nearly full of women, all sitting on the floor, and each one
+crowding up to get as near her as possible. They were very much like
+a hive of bees. The slightest thing would set them all in commotion,
+and they resembled a town meeting more than a religious gathering.
+When a child cried it would enlist the energies of half a dozen
+women, with voice and gesture to quiet it. When some striking
+thought of the speaker flashed upon the mind of some woman, she
+would begin to explain it in no moderate tones to those about her,
+and this would set the whole off into a bedlam of talk, which it
+would require two or three minutes to quell."
+
+Human nature is everywhere essentially the same. The people of
+Hooeli being thus strengthened, they, with a little aid from abroad,
+erected a larger and finer house of worship, and then began to
+desire a new minister. Their humble and earnest but not eloquent
+preacher, whose labors God had so blessed among them, would do, they
+said, to gather the lambs, but not to feed the sheep. Contrary to
+the advice of the missionaries, they called two popular men of the
+graduating class, one after the other, but both declined, choosing
+harder fields.
+
+"Meanwhile their preacher was called to another place, and the
+people came to the city, with their donkeys, to take him and his
+family home. These were quietly sleeping at his house, expecting to
+start on the morrow, when, at midnight, nine of the principal men of
+Hooeli roused him from sleep, and began to beg pardon for their
+rejection of him, saying, 'Come, get your goods in readiness, and go
+with us.' It seems that they took their failure to secure the others
+as a rebuke from God for their pride; and having met to pray, sent
+these nine men to ask pardon of Garabed in person, while others
+wrote letters asking his forgiveness, and begging him to come back.
+Both parties then appealed to the missionaries, who declined to
+interfere, advising them to pray and decide the matter among
+themselves. They agreed to accept the preacher's decision as God's
+will, and he after prayer and reflection, decided to return to his
+old people. In the mean time, twenty of the women of Hooeli,
+impatient at the delay, met also for prayer, and with difficulty
+were prevented from going in a body to take their old pastor home.
+But the brethren kept them back, and when at length he reached the
+village, no other preacher ever had such an ovation in all that
+region, within the memory of man."[1]
+
+[1] _Ten Years on the Euphrates_, pp. 278-280.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1864-1868.
+
+
+Deacon Isaac, brother of the Patriarch, died in the early autumn of
+1864, universally lamented. In character, as well as position, he
+was a prince among his people. I abridge the account of him by Mr.
+Rhea, who loved him as a friend.[1] Seen in his plain dress and
+Simple manners, no one would have thought of him as once the
+mountain chieftain, ready to break a lance with Koordish robbers.
+Growing up amid some of the grandest scenery in the world, it had
+its effect on his character; and that character the grace of God
+moulded into symmetry and beauty. His intellect was strong, his
+insight into human nature remarkable. The wily Persian official,
+baffled by him and mortified, exclaimed: "We cannot manage _him_."
+While he was accessible to little children, and poor distressed
+women, there was a dignity which prevented undue familiarity. The
+Patriarchal family were proud of him. He grew up in a land where it
+was no shame for noblemen to lie, yet always spoke the truth. He
+lived where bribery was practiced unblushingly, and his house was a
+court-room for the settlement of numberless cases of litigation, yet
+he took no reward for his services, much less to pervert justice.
+"He grew up where little deference was paid to woman; yet took pride
+in showing his respect for his wife Marta,--mentioning her name,
+quoting her opinions, and treating her with the utmost kindness.
+Their relation was a beautiful example of conjugal attachment, of
+untold worth in such a land and among such a people. He was
+naturally of a proud spirit, that could not brook an insult. Once,
+when insulted by a French Lazarist, he sprung to his feet, and put
+his hand to the hilt of his sword; but from that day he never wore
+the sword again."
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1865, p. 45.
+
+Miss Fidelia Fiske died at Shelburne, Massachusetts, the place of
+her birth, July 26th, 1864, at the age of forty-eight. She both
+studied and taught at the Mount Holyoke Seminary, and partook
+largely of the spirit of its founder, the well-known Mary Lyon. She
+embarked at Boston in March, 1843, in company with Dr. and Mrs.
+Perkins, Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard, and some others, and reached
+Oroomiah in June. After laboring there with unprecedented success as
+the Principal of the Seminary for fourteen years, the state of her
+health constrained her return to the United States in 1858.
+
+Up to her arrival at Oroomiah, the school had only day scholars, and
+the pupils were of course in habitual contact with the vice and
+degradation of their homes. She sought to make it a boarding-school;
+and after two years the prejudices of the people had been overcome,
+and the day scholars were all dropped. Her grand object was the
+salvation of her pupils, and of their relatives who visited the
+institution. After the first revival, in 1846, the school became the
+centre of holy influence for the women. She, and her worthy
+associate Miss Rice, found enough to do, day and night. When they
+went to a village, the women expected to be called together for
+prayer; and when these women returned the visit, they asked to be
+prayed with alone. There was a revival almost every year of her stay
+at Oroomiah; and probably few servants of Christ have had more
+occasion for gratitude, in being the means of bringing others to
+him, than Miss Fiske. When leaving Oroomiah on her return home, the
+many women and girls who gathered around to bid her farewell, asked
+"Can we not have one more prayer-meeting before you go, and in that
+Bethel?"--meaning, her own room. There they prayed, that their
+teacher "might come back to mingle her dust with her children's
+dust, hear the trumpet with them, and with them go up to meet the
+Lord." They were accustomed to style her "mother," and themselves
+her "children."
+
+Her usefulness after her return to the United States, was probably
+as great as it ever had been. This was not owing to the predominance
+of any one quality in her character, but to a combination of
+qualities of mind and heart surpassing anything I have ever seen in
+any other person. Her emotional nature was wonderfully sanctified,
+and each of her powers being well developed, and all nicely adjusted
+one to another, the whole worked with regularity and ease. Hence
+that singular accuracy of judgment, and that never-failing sense of
+propriety, for which she was distinguished. Hence the apparent
+absence of fatigue in her protracted conversations and
+conversational addresses. Hence the habitual control of her
+sanctified affections over her intellectual powers, so that she
+seemed ever ready, at the moment, for the call of duty, and
+especially to meet the claims of perishing souls. She seemed to me
+the nearest approach I ever saw, in man or woman, in the structure
+and working of her whole nature, to my ideal of the blessed Saviour,
+as he appeared in his walks on earth.
+
+The amount of her usefulness was as extraordinary as her character,
+and probably the tidings of no death have awakened so many voices of
+lamentation over the plain of Oroomiah, and in the glens of
+Koordistan.[1]
+
+[1] See _Woman and her Saviour in Persia_, by Dr. Thomas Laurie, and
+_The Cross and the Crown, or Faith working by Love, as exemplified
+in the Life of Fidelia Fiske_, by Dr. D. T. Fiske.
+
+Another death occurred this year, which was also sensibly felt by
+the mission. It was that of Deacon Joseph, of Degala. Dr. Perkins
+lamented the loss of his services in connection with the press, a
+kind of labor for which his qualifications were unequaled among the
+people. His well-balanced mind, his fine scholarship, the solidity
+of his Christian character, his eminent services in this department,
+especially the very important assistance he rendered in translating
+the Old Testament from the original Hebrew, would have secured him
+an honorable position in more enlightened lands.
+
+In 1863 and 1864 Mr. Shedd made extended tours in his mountain
+field. In the first, he crossed to Mosul, and from Oroomiah to
+Amadia he travelled mostly on foot, in native snowshoes and
+moccasins, with much fatigue and exposure. At Mosul, he enjoyed the
+hospitality of Mr. Rassam, and had conferences with Mr. Williams of
+Mardin. The second tour was in the autumn, and extended as far as
+Tiary.[1] The mountaineers may be viewed, he says, in two very
+different lights; first, as feeble, unreasonable, and lawless;
+poverty stricken, and lacking in self-respect, and self-reliance;
+connecting their interest in spiritual things too often with the
+hope of temporal benefits. Then there are constant feuds between
+villages, clans, and chiefs. The hopeful side is in the great
+preparatory work that has been accomplished, the general
+friendliness of the people, and the growing influence of the mission
+helpers. The following tabular view will give some idea of the
+mountain work in its incipient state, for, in some important
+respects, it was in that state as late as the year 1863:--
+
+                 Occupied Districts.
+                 Gawar Tekhoma Amadia Rakan Nerwa Jeloo Berwer Total
+No. of Christian
+ Villages.          -      6       6     3     4     -      -     -
+Estimated
+ Christian
+ Population.        -    4000      -    250   300    -      -     -
+When first
+ occupied by
+ Helpers.         1852   1856    1857  1861  1862  1862   1863    -
+No. of Helpers
+ the Past Year.     4      4       2     1     1     4      2    18
+No. of Villages
+ visited by
+ Preachers the
+ Past Year.        20      6       5     3     3     9     10    56
+No. of Villages
+ with stated
+ Congregations.     5      3       3     1     1     2      1    16
+No. of Persons in
+ Congregations.    88     55      55    15    10    90     35   348
+No. of Sabbath
+ Schools.           3      2       1     1     1     2      1    11
+No. in Sabbath
+ Schools.          42     25      25     8     7    75     25   207
+No. of Regular
+ Day Schools.       2      -       1     -     -     1      -     4
+No. of Scholars.   21     10       8     5     5    28      3    80
+No. reached by
+ Family
+ Visitation.      550    250     100    50    50   560    100  1660
+No. of
+ Communicants.     20      7       4     1     1     9      -    42
+No. of Candidates.  2      1       9     -     1     2      -    15
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1863, pp. 358-363; 1864, p. 231.
+
+Mr. Shedd visited the young Patriarch, in his second tour. The
+leaders whom he met there from different mountain districts, were
+surprised by the friendship shown to the missionaries by Mar Shimon,
+and that they heard not a word against them in the Patriarchal
+mansion. There were frequent interchanges of visits, and Mr. Shedd
+was assured that the young Patriarch was well disposed towards the
+mission and its labors. But there was no evidence that he had any
+real conviction of the truth.
+
+The seminary pupils were now working on a higher level. To a large
+extent, the pupils were daughters of Nestorian helpers and other
+pious parents, who had given them a Christian training. The contrast
+was striking between their general appearance and that of the
+earlier classes in that favored school. A considerable part of the
+expense was now met by the parents of the pupils.
+
+The Rev. Austin H. Wright, M. D., was the immediate medical
+successor of Dr. Grant, at Oroomiah,[1] where he arrived July 25,
+1840. To be thoroughly furnished for his work, he determined to
+master the Turkish, Syriac, and Persian languages; and it was
+doubtless his perfect acquaintance with these, coupled with his
+knowledge of medicine, and the gentle courtesy of his manners, that
+gave him so much influence among all classes of the people. "The
+influence of Dr. Wright in Oroomiah," said an intelligent Nestorian,
+"is that of a Prince." He is said to have spoken each of the
+languages above named with a precision, fluency, and grace, rarely
+equaled by a foreigner. In consequence of this proficiency, the
+intercourse with the higher classes was to a great extent in his
+hands. Persian gentlemen, polite and courteous in the extreme,
+appreciated the dignified yet simple ease and grace with which he
+met them. Having gone out alone, he was united in marriage June 13,
+1844, to Miss Catherine E. Myers, who joined the mission in 1843,
+and was then engaged in teaching. After twenty years his health and
+the interests of his family demanded a visit to his native land.
+Here he remained four years, devoting the latter half of that time
+to a revision of the Syriac New Testament, preparatory to its being
+electrotyped and printed in pocket form by the American Bible
+Society. To this the Psalms were afterward added. Mrs. Wright and
+four of the children remained in this country; but taking with him
+his eldest daughter Lucy, he returned to Oroomiah in September,
+1864. His return was joyful to him, and to the mission, and no less
+so to the Nestorians; but in three short months the summons came,
+calling him to a higher service.
+
+[1] For a biographical account of Dr. Wright, see _Missionary
+Herald_ for 1865, pp. 129-134.
+
+It had been arranged that he and Mr. Rhea, should translate the
+Scriptures into Tartar-Turkish for the benefit of the Mussulman
+population of Azerbijan and the regions beyond; but Dr. Wright's
+work was finished. His disease was typhoid fever, and during much of
+his sickness he was unconscious.
+
+In the twenty-five years of his service, he performed a great
+variety of labors,--as a preacher, a physician, a co-laborer in the
+department of the press, and, not least, as a shield to the poor
+oppressed Nestorians; for he was greatly respected by their
+Mohammedan rulers. And these duties he performed with marked
+ability, scrupulous fidelity, and an almost unerring judgment.
+
+In this year, also, died the Rev. Thomas L. Ambrose, on the 19th of
+August. The three years he spent in the mountains were to him years
+of suffering, the result of an ardent mental and moral temperament,
+as well as of the labors he performed. He returned home in 1861,
+hoping to resume his missionary work; but feeling that his country
+had claims upon him, and receiving an unsolicited appointment as
+chaplain of a New Hampshire regiment, he entered the service, was
+wounded while passing from entrenchments to a hospital, and after a
+few weeks died in the General Hospital at Fortress Monroe. In his
+relations to the mission and the Nestorian people, he beautifully
+exemplified the spirit of his Lord, in not desiring "to be
+ministered unto, but to minister."
+
+The harvests of 1865 were abundant, but there had been a famine in
+several of the previous years; and this had given a stimulus to the
+vagrancy, so frequent and annoying among the Nestorians. "Of the
+four thousand vagabonds," writes Dr. Perkins, "from the less than
+forty thousand Nestorians of Oroomiah, who made want their pretext
+for scattering themselves over Russia and other parts of Europe, as
+common beggars, hardly less greedy for lucre and for vice, than are
+locusts for every green thing, only a moiety return; many dying in
+those distant regions, from diseases induced by strange climates, or
+oftener by criminal indulgence; and many who survive, lying in
+prison for crimes, or preferring their vagabond life to the decent
+restraints of home. Many who do return are worse than lost to their
+people; coming only to spread a moral pestilence, being thoroughly
+demoralized; recklessly squandering their ill-gotten treasures till
+hunger drives them off again to beg. Happily they are now shut out
+of Russia by the government, and they have little hope from England.
+But Germany is still a golden land to them."
+
+Mr. Rhea, another very able member of the mission, was suddenly
+removed from earth on the 2d of September, 1865. He was on his
+return from Tabriz, with his wife and children. The whole scene, as
+described by Mrs. Rhea in the Memoir of her husband, is one of the
+most touching in missionary history.[1] He was ill when they left
+Tabriz, and not until they had gone too far to return did his wife
+awake to the alarming fact, that his disease was cholera.
+
+[1] See _The Tennesseean in Persia and Koordistan, being the Scenes
+and Incidents in the Life of Samuel Audley Rhea_, by Rev. Dwight W.
+Marsh, for Ten Years Missionary in Mosul, pp. 338-349.
+
+She then hoped to reach Ali Shah, a village four hours from
+Oroomiah. It was necessary to put the bedding on one of the loaded
+horses, and then to place Mr. Rhea upon it, and for two men to hold
+him on; which was done by the faithful Nestorians, Daniel and
+Guwergis. The motion of the horse extorted frequent, though gentle,
+groans of pain. He was very thirsty, and both the children were
+crying for water. There was none. At a brackish brook he had tried
+to drink, but spit out the bitter draught in disgust.
+
+"At length the moon rose, and the children became quiet. Daniel
+passed a rope around Mr. Rhea's back, and over his shoulders, to
+keep him from shaking about on the horse; and, taking off his hat,
+protected his head with a flannel. He grew quiet, and I said, 'He
+sleeps.' So we rode on and on in the still night; no sounds except
+from the horses' feet, or an occasional word about the precious
+load. 'Will the village never appear?' They said it was very near.
+O, how long the way seemed!
+
+"My mind was very active, picturing that comfortable room where we
+should rest, the refreshing water, the quiet rest, the soft bed for
+the dear invalid, the quick cup of tea, his sweet words, our
+subsequent journey home in the takhterawan, our safe arrival there.
+All this time my eyes were on him, and my ears strained to catch a
+sound. 'How long he sleeps! How still he is!'
+
+"At length the weary, weary road was passed. We reached the village,
+and stopped at a house where they said we could find a room. Daniel
+and I ran in to see it first, opened the windows, and spread down
+the shawl and pillows where he could rest; then went back to the
+gate, and I charged the men not to let him exert himself at all, but
+to take him down like a little child, and carry him carefully in. I
+ran forward then, opened my satchel, and got out the wine and
+camphor, and spreading a pillow on my lap, received him in my arms.
+
+"Just as they deposited him in my arms he drew one long, deep sigh.
+I wet his lips, bathed his face, spoke to him, called his name,
+raised him up, kissed him, and entreated him to speak. I chafed his
+soft, warm hands, felt his heart, his pulse, his temples, his neck,
+seeking everywhere for signs of life. In vain. He was dead!"
+
+Help came at length from the mission, and the mortal remains of Mr.
+Rhea, found their resting place at Seir, by the side of loved ones
+who had gone before him.
+
+Mr. Rhea died at the age of thirty-eight, in the very height of his
+usefulness. His mental abilities were very superior, and so were his
+acquirements, especially in Oriental languages. During his first
+winter's residence in Gawar, in addition to a systematic course of
+reading in Church History, and his study of Syriac, he went
+thoroughly through his Hebrew Bible. The Modern Syriac he spoke with
+great accuracy and fluency, and he preached with acceptance in the
+Tartar Turkish. He had also made progress in the Koordish language.
+"As a preacher," writes Mr. Coan, "he was earnest, faithful, and
+pungent; the glowing words leaped from his lips, while the Word of
+God seemed a fire shut up within him. He poured out his whole soul
+in the messages he delivered. I have seldom been edified by the
+discourses of any one as I have been by those of this dear brother.
+These discourses, whether in the pulpit, the social prayer-meeting,
+or at family devotions, seemed drawn from his own experience of the
+inexhaustible treasures in Christ. They were eminently fitted to
+make men better." Dr. Perkins said of him, "He is one of the finest
+preachers I ever heard, whether in English or in the Nestorian
+language. The Nestorians denominate him Chrysostom, from his
+remarkable powers as a preacher." He was excelled by few men in the
+beauty and eloquence of his address on public occasions, of which
+there was a fine illustration on the Fourth of July, 1865, the last
+before his death. Though a native of Tennessee, his heart was poured
+out in thanksgiving that the war was really over, and that the right
+had gained the day.
+
+The reader will not be surprised to hear that the young Patriarch,
+influenced by his nearest relatives, was following in the footsteps
+of his predecessor. In Gawar, he tried persuasion, blandishment, and
+compulsion; but the authorities gave him to understand that there
+could not be persecution. The independent tribes of the mountains
+were, civilly, under his power, and he was determined to keep his
+mountain diocese in its ancient ignorance. He diffused a vindictive
+spirit. No ecclesiastic ever had stronger motives to enter upon a
+path of reform, or fewer obstructions. But, refusing all fellowship
+with the gospel, he showed that the Nestorian Patriarch could no
+more adjust himself to the coming age of light and liberty of
+conscience than the Pope of Rome.
+
+Mr. Alison, English Ambassador at the Persian Court, seasonably
+interposed when there were powerful combinations to effect the ruin
+of the mission, headed by the bigoted Minister of Foreign Affairs.
+The Papal party had seized upon the Nestorian church at Ardeshai,
+and rebuilt it; and the Shah, upon the representation of Mr. Alison,
+granted a site for a new church, and subscribed £100 towards its
+erection.
+
+This royal donation was in December, 1865. In the April following,
+the mission had a friendly visit from his Royal Highness, Prince
+Ahmed Meerza, the governor of Oroomiah, and uncle of the King. He
+had come to the province strongly prejudiced against the mission,
+but had been becoming better informed. He was on the mission
+premises two hours and a half, and saw everything that could be
+shown him, in the way of schools, printing, type founding,
+sewing-machines, and medical dispensary. The last seemed to impress
+him most as to the benevolent character of the mission, and he left
+with strong expressions of good will.
+
+The examination of the female seminary, at the close of its term,
+was highly satisfactory, especially in the Bible and in theology. In
+the other seminary, superintended by Mr. Shedd in the absence of Mr.
+Cochran, there had been much religious interest. Many of the pupils
+being from the mountains, Mr. Shedd's labors in the seminary had a
+direct bearing on his particular portion of the field. Geog Tapa had
+a very fine school, entirely supported by the people themselves,
+which almost vied with the seminaries.
+
+The mission suffered another severe loss in the death of Priest
+Eshoo, already known to the reader, on the 19th of April, 1866.
+Thirty-one years before, the Koords plundered his native village on
+the plain of Gawar, and he removed to Degala, near Oroomiah. He was
+then about thirty years of age, a sedate, dignified, upright man and
+very righteous in his own eyes. Gentle and unassuming, he yet
+commanded the respect of all, and his reputation as a scholar soon
+secured for him the place of a teacher in the incipient male
+seminary. For many years he was its first teacher, and down to the
+close of his life sustained a relation to one or the other of these
+institutions. He and his lovely daughter Sarah were among the first
+converts in the revival of 1846. While remarkable for humility, he
+was firm in defense of the truth. His judgment was cool and
+discriminating, and he was known as a safe counselor. He was a good
+preacher, and several volumes of his sermons, neatly written by his
+own hand, showed that they were carefully studied.[1]
+
+[1] See vol. i. pp. 326-329.
+
+Dr. Van Norden and wife entered the mission in October, 1866, taking
+the place of Dr. Young, who had left three years before.
+
+Mr. Labaree communicates the result of careful inquiries by Mr.
+Thompson, of the British Legation, who had been spending some time
+at Oroomiah. Mr. Thompson estimated the Nestorians in Oroomiah,
+Tergawer, Sooldooz, and Salmas, at twenty thousand; the Armenians in
+Oroomiah alone at about two thousand eight hundred; the Papal
+Chaldeans in Oroomiah, Tergawer, and Sooldooz at six hundred and
+twenty-five; but the Chaldean and Armenian population of Salmas he
+did not learn. He thought that the population of Persia could not be
+more than from five to seven millions, and his opinion was deemed of
+great weight, as he had made himself familiar with the civil and
+political affairs of Persia during a long residence, and had
+travelled extensively through the country, with a very observant
+eye.
+
+Among the new lights breaking forth in Western and Central Asia, was
+a community of evangelical Armenians in the Russian province of
+Sherwan, near the Caspian Sea. A Nestorian brother had been sent to
+inquire into their condition early in 1862, and there had been
+occasional intercourse ever since; but cautiously, lest their cause
+should be jeoparded. They had suffered sore persecution, and had met
+in glens and deep recesses of the mountains, for the worship of God
+and the study of his Word. Their leader, Varpet Sarkis, had been
+exiled, their children left unbaptized, their young people
+unmarried, their dead denied the right of burial, and they the
+privilege of commemorating the death of their Lord. In August, 1866,
+an Imperial Ukase was brought them by a Lutheran clergyman from
+Moscow, granting them full liberty to worship God publicly as their
+consciences should dictate, and restoring to them all their
+privileges. Pious Nestorians, who had gone there from Oroomiah,
+reported that the Lutheran clergyman remained there a week,
+organized a church, received a hundred and six persons to Christian
+fellowship, and performed the necessary baptisms and marriages; and
+that they were expecting the return of their beloved guide and
+teacher from exile. Nearly two thousand copies of the Scriptures
+were sold among this people within three and a half years, besides
+many other good books and tracts.
+
+Mar Shimon, acting under the evil advice of his father and uncle,
+issued an order for the expulsion of all the helpers of the mission
+from Tehoma, and threatened not to leave one in all the mountains.
+Events providentially occasioned delay, and meanwhile Mr. Rassam,
+the British Vice Consul at Mosul, hearing of Mar Shimon's
+proceedings, addressed him a very strong letter of remonstrance,
+assuring him that the American missionaries were the truest and most
+efficient friends of the Nestorians, and urging him to invite their
+preachers back with the same publicity with which he had ordered
+their expulsion. The letter, coming from one to whom the Nestorians
+were greatly indebted, had the desired effect, and they were quite
+abashed by receiving such an emphatic rebuke from such a quarter. In
+addition to this rebuff, another was received, soon after, quite as
+mortifying. The Patriarch had written to Mr. Taylor, British Consul
+at Erzroom, offering to make over his people to the English Church,
+if the English government would extend to them its protection from
+Turks and Koords. The reply of the Consul was a decided rejection of
+the proposal, couched in language not at all flattering to the
+Patriarch. Thus baffled and censured, he privately signified his
+willingness that our preachers should remain at their places without
+molestation.
+
+The mission commenced the year 1868 with the encouraging fact, that
+one hundred Nestorians had been received to the communion during the
+previous year, which was a larger number than had been admitted in
+any one year before. This number embraced the fruits of revivals in
+several villages on the plain of Oroomiah, and in the two
+seminaries, with individuals scattered through the Koordish
+mountains. Mar Yooseph, the helper in Bootan, on the Tigris,
+reported, that he had held his first reformed communion in that
+distant region, and that seven came to the table of the Lord. There
+had been no opposition. The native preaching force in the mission
+was then sixty-two, of whom eighteen were in Koordistan, under the
+care of Mr. Shedd; and there were seventy-eight regular preaching
+places. Connected with nearly all these congregations were
+Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes, and in not a few instances the
+entire congregation was connected with them. The habit of giving was
+very generally established, affording evidence that the people might
+be expected eventually to support their pastors.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1867-1870.
+
+
+The annual convention of helpers and representatives of the
+Nestorian churches occupied three days of October, 1867. Ninety
+members were in attendance. Mar Yohanan was elected moderator, and
+Priest Yoosep of Dizza Takka, the former moderator, preached the
+opening sermon. The aged preacher lamented the prevailing
+worldliness of the church, and earnestly enforced the duty of prayer
+as the great remedy. He alluded feelingly to the destruction, by a
+Koordish chief, of one of their oldest and best churches, which
+dated back more than a thousand years. A part of the materials had
+been used to construct a fort, and a part to build a mosque upon the
+site of the church. The recent increase of wine drinking, among some
+of the communicants, received a faithful rebuke. Carefully prepared
+papers were presented on practical subjects, such as education,
+benevolence, temperance, family worship, and the means for promoting
+the spiritual efficacy of their body as a communion, and these were
+followed by free and animated discussions. The duty of assuming more
+fully the support of the gospel and of schools among the entire
+people, was earnestly enjoined; and during the discussion the spirit
+of self-denying benevolence rose to an unusual pitch. Several
+pledged a tenth of their income, and the contributions on the plain
+rose higher than ever before.
+
+There were pleasing episodes during these deliberations,--in the
+reports of Deacon Yâcob, a seminary graduate, of two and a half
+years' colportage in Russia, and of Deacon Eshoo concerning his
+successful labors for some years in Tabriz. Deacon Yâcob reported
+the sale of nineteen hundred Bibles and Testaments, and many other
+books and tracts, in Modern Russian, German, and other languages. He
+also spoke of revival scenes, resulting in the hopeful conversion of
+several adherents to the Greek Church. The Emperor of Russia, he
+said, encouraged the circulation of the Scriptures in the spoken
+language, allowed free passports to colporters, and exacted no
+duties for the largest sales.
+
+"The subject of wine drinking," writes Mr. Cochran, "the greatest
+bane of the people in the wine-making districts, was discussed with
+vigor, and, with one or two exceptions, in the spirit of a
+determined purpose to urge forward a reform. It was manifest that,
+on the whole, there had been a decided growth of conviction, that
+total abstinence is the only safe remedy for the evil. It was
+gratifying to hear no complaints of the use of stronger drinks,
+except among those outside of our communion."
+
+Several churches, as well as the seminaries, had enjoyed special
+seasons of revival. A sunrise prayer-meeting of an hour was held
+each day of the session, was well attended, and characterized by
+much fervor and importunity in prayer, and the last evening was
+spent in devotional exercises. The burden of prayer seemed to be for
+the outpouring of the Spirit on the churches and the conversion of
+souls, and many of the congregation were at times deeply moved.
+
+Deacon Yâcob was ordained in the month following, that he might be
+able to administer the ordinances to the converts among the Malakans
+of Russia. Mr. Shedd wrote of him as "a man whom we delight to have
+among us, so full is he of the Holy Ghost and of faith." One other
+person was also ordained as an elder or priest, and four as deacons,
+in connection with meetings of district conferences composed of
+preachers and delegates.
+
+In the first week of 1868, the "week of prayer," Mr. Labaree made a
+tour in five villages, and never passed that interesting season more
+delightfully, finding in each village cheering evidence of the
+special presence of the Lord. The Christians were induced to pray
+and labor earnestly for the unconverted around them. In each village
+two meetings were held each day, and were attended by considerable
+numbers outside of the church. Indeed that week was observed,
+generally, among the evangelized Nestorians, and there were
+indications of a blessing in the two seminaries, and in several
+villages.
+
+It is an important step towards the support of religious
+institutions, when a people have once acknowledged such support to
+be their duty; and this admission will be the more effectual when
+organizations exist that can attend to the performance of the duty.
+In the progress of events there had grown up four ecclesiastical
+bodies, called _Knooshyas_, that is, assemblies, three on the plain,
+and one in the mountains; which had their confession of faith and
+rules of discipline. The local assemblies sometimes met together as
+one body. As in kindred bodies among the Armenians, the missionaries
+were admitted for counsel, but not to vote. At a meeting of one of
+these bodies, the duty of self-support was fully acknowledged, and
+the desire was strongly expressed to show their gratitude to the
+American churches by assuming the entire support of the gospel among
+themselves, and sending it to regions beyond, as did their fathers.
+The following resolution was adopted, namely: "That it is the duty
+of every member of the church, as he has received spiritual benefits
+from his pastor, to aid in the temporal support of the same; and
+also to aid in meeting the necessary expenses of the church
+according to his ability."
+
+It was recommended that pastors preach on the subject of these
+resolutions; and that the pastor and lay-delegates, on their return
+home, use their influence with the brethren and congregations of
+their respective villages to bring the people up to their duty in
+these matters.
+
+The following reflections by the venerable Dr. Perkins, written
+about this time, will be refreshing to the reader: "The progress of
+our work," he says, "is steadily onward, and is probably as rapid as
+would consist with its highest prosperity. This progress is not
+always in a uniform current. It often resembles a succession of
+circling eddies, caused generally by obstacles in the stream, but
+sometimes by the accelerated speed of the current, which, but for
+these self-regulating checks, might bring upon the work serious
+disaster. Such eddies are often our best missionary regulators,
+correcting mistakes or undue haste, and giving to our converts
+occasion and time to examine the foundations of their faith."
+
+Miss Nancy Jane Dean joined the mission in October, 1868, to labor
+in the female seminary. Miss Rice and Mrs. Rhea had left Oroomiah in
+the previous May, with Dr. Perkins, and arrived at New York in
+August. Miss Rice had been connected with the female seminary
+twenty-two years, and her good influence was felt in hundreds of
+Nestorian homes on the broad plain and in the wild glens of the
+mountains. Mrs. Rhea's return was due to her children, but, like
+that of Miss Rice, it was a sad loss to the mission circle, and to
+the women of Persia. The return of Dr. Perkins, the father of the
+Nestorian mission, seemed like a removal of the foundations. "It is
+difficult," wrote Mr. Shedd, "to over-estimate his labors, continued
+now for more than a third of a century, or the value of his
+experience. It is a gratification to him, and to us all, that he can
+leave us in the atmosphere of revivals; and that, after he is gone,
+the many works from his pen will continue to speak to the people
+whom he loved. But many will sorrow at his leaving Persia, and most
+of all that they shall see his face no more."
+
+Dr. Perkins had seen much accomplished in the thirty-six years of
+his connection with the mission. From eighty-five centres, and to
+congregations averaging nearly two thousand four hundred, the gospel
+had come to be proclaimed, by more than a hundred native helpers, of
+whom fifty-eight were fully recognized preachers; and more than nine
+hundred persons had professed their faith in Christ, of whom seven
+hundred and twenty were then connected with the evangelical
+communion. The seminaries had educated hundreds of youth, whose
+influence was seen in the general social and moral elevation of the
+people. In the common schools there were more than a thousand
+pupils; and from the press more than half a million of pages had
+gone forth in the year preceding his departure; making an aggregate
+of nearly nineteen millions (18,996,450) from the beginning.
+
+The mission was commenced with the expectation that the revival of
+gospel light and influence among that people would rekindle their
+ancient missionary spirit. Extreme oppression and poverty have made
+the development of this spirit very difficult. But we have already
+seen among them as fine specimens of it, probably, as there ever
+were in the olden times. Witness the venerable Bishop Elias, Tamo of
+Gawar, Guwergis of Tergawer, Isaac of the Patriarchal family, Joseph
+the translator, Priest Eshoo of the Seminary, Oshana of Tehoma, and,
+more recently, Yâcob, among the Malakans of Russia, and Deacon Eshoo
+in the commercial capital of Persia. These were really missionary
+men; and there seems also to have been even a greater development of
+the genuine missionary zeal among the Nestorian women. There were,
+and doubtless there are now, men and women, who would have
+resolutely carried the gospel into Central Asia, had the door been
+open.
+
+The time had now come, when it could be no longer safe for the
+reformed Nestorian churches to defer entering upon incipient foreign
+missions. The healthful reaction of such missions had become as
+indispensable as it was when the churches at the Sandwich Islands
+were providentially led to send missionaries to Micronesia and the
+Marquesas. The churches at the Islands, living under a free
+constitutional government, were indeed able to support their
+missionaries, and the oppressed and impoverished Nestorians are not;
+but it was a great thing to have messengers go forth from among
+themselves to make the gospel known to less favored peoples.
+
+And here, to illustrate the high-toned missionary spirit of the
+Nestorians of our day, I will quote from the correspondence of
+Sarah, a daughter of Priest Abraham, of Geog Tapa. She was a convert
+of the first revival in 1846, and one of the earliest graduates of
+the female seminary. She seems to have gone, after graduation, to
+reside with her father, then laboring at Ardishai, one of the most
+wicked villages of the plain; where she persuaded her father to go
+and work for Christ. She was afterwards married to Oshana, one of
+those named above; and the following letter, written two years after
+to Miss Fiske, then in the United. States, will give a good idea of
+her spirit. She is giving an account of her visit to Tehoma, with
+her husband, Oshana, and her two little children:
+
+"Through the favor of our heavenly Father, I have made a journey
+into these mountains, rejoicing in the opportunity to labor for my
+people. I am very happy that my father and friends brought me on my
+way in willingness of soul. From the day that I left my own country,
+in every place that I have entered, until now, my heart has been
+excited to praise my Guide and my Deliverer, and I have also been
+grateful to my teachers, who brought me to labor in a desolate
+vineyard joyfully; I, who am so weak, and such a great sinner. In
+all the various circumstances through which I have passed, your
+counsels have been of great benefit to me.
+
+"I think you will be glad to know, that the gospel door is wide open
+here. You and your friends will pray, that the Lord of the harvest
+would send forth laborers into his harvest.
+
+"We left Oroomiah, May 6th, and on May 8th we reached Memikan, and
+remained there three days. It was our first Sabbath in the
+mountains, and I met that company of women, for whom our departed
+Mrs. Rhea used to labor. May 12th we left Memikan, and went up to
+the tops of the snowy mountains of Gawar. The cold was such that we
+were obliged to wrap our faces and our hands as we would in January.
+As we descended the mountain, we found it about as warm as February.
+That night we spent in the deep valley of Ishtazin, in the village
+of Boobawa, where Yohanan and Guly dwell. The people here are very
+wild and hard. Yohanan and Guly were not here, having gone to visit
+Khananis. Only a few came together for preaching. The people said,
+'Yohanan preaches, and we revile.' May 13th, we left Boobawa, and
+soon crossed the river. Men had gone before us, and were lying in
+wait there. They stripped us, but afterwards of themselves became
+sorry, and returned our things. As we were going along this
+wonderful, fearful river, and beheld the mountains on either side
+covered with beautiful forests, we remembered Mr. Rhea, the composer
+of the hymn, 'Valley of Ishtazin.' And when filled with wonder at
+the works of the Great Creator, we all, with one voice, praised him
+in songs of joy fitting for the mountains. Here the brethren
+reminded me, that our dear Miss Fiske had trodden these fearful
+precipices. This greatly encouraged me in my journey. This day we
+went into many villages, and over many ascents and descents. At
+evening we reached Jeloo, and remained over night in the pleasant
+village of Zeer, which lies in a valley made beautiful by forests
+and a river passing through it. They showed great hospitality here,
+and were eager to receive the word of the Lord. May 14th, we left
+Zeer, and went to Bass. It was Saturday night, and we remained over
+the Sabbath in the village of Nerik. I shall always have a pleasant
+remembrance of the Sabbath we passed there. From the first moment
+that we went in till Monday morning, we were never alone, so many
+were assembling to hear the words of the Lord. With tearful eyes and
+burning hearts, they were inquiring for the way of salvation. They
+would say, 'What shall we do? We have no one to sit among us, to
+teach us, poor, wretched ones.' Truly a man's heart burns within him
+as he sees this poor people scattered as sheep without a shepherd.
+May 16th, we mounted our mules, and went on our way. Half an hour
+from Nerik we came to the village of Urwintoos. An honorable,
+kind-hearted woman came out, and made us her guests. This was
+Oshana's aunt. As soon as we sat down, the house was filled with men
+and women. They brought a Testament themselves, and entreated us to
+read from that holy book. Did not my heart rejoice when I saw how
+eagerly they were listening to the account of the death of our Lord
+Jesus Christ! When the men went out, the women came very near to me,
+entreating for the word of the Lord, as those thirsting for water.
+Then I read to them from the Book.
+
+"There are many sad deeds of wickedness among these mountain
+Nestorians; and when Christians hear how anxious they are to receive
+the words of life, will they not feel for them? We reached Tehoma
+May 17th. Now, from the mercy of God, we are all well and in the
+village of Mazrayee. I am not able to labor for the women here as I
+desired, because many of them have gone to the sheep-folds. It is so
+hot we cannot remain here, and we will go there also, soon. I trust,
+wherever I am, and as long its I am here, I shall labor for that
+Master, who wearied Himself for me, and who bought these souls with
+his blood."
+
+Sarah returned to Oroomiah in the spring of 1860, and left in 1861
+for Amadiah. During the winter of 1861-62, no messenger could cross
+the snow-covered mountains between Oroomiah and Amadiah, and she
+thus wrote in March, 1862, to Miss Rice.
+
+"I did greatly long for the coming of the messenger. We were very
+sad in not hearing a single word from home. Now I offer
+thanksgivings to Him, in whose hands are all things, that He has
+opened a door of mercy, and has delighted us by the arrival of
+letters. They came to-day. Many thanks to you and your dear pupils!
+The Lord bless them, and prepare their hearts for such a blessed
+work as ours.
+
+"Give Eneya's salutations and mine to all the school. I think they
+will wish to hear about the work of the Lord here. Thanks to God,
+our health has been good ever since we came, and our hearts have
+been contented and happy in seeing some of our neighbors believing,
+and with joy receiving the words of life. Every Sabbath we have a
+congregation of thirty-five, and more men than women. For many weeks
+only the men came; but now, by the grace of God, the women come too,
+and their number is increasing. I have commenced to teach the life
+of the Lord Jesus from the beginning. I have strong hopes that God
+is awakening one of them. His word is very dear to her. Her son is
+the priest of the village, and a sincere Christian. Four other young
+men and five women are, we trust, not far from the door of the
+kingdom. We entreat you, dear sisters, to pray in a special manner
+for these thoughtful ones, that they may enter the narrow door of
+life.
+
+"From the villages about us we have a good report. They receive the
+gospel from Oshana and Shlemon, who visit them every Sabbath. In my
+journeys through these mountains, I have seen various assemblies of
+men and women listening to the gospel; poor ones, exclaiming, 'What
+shall we do? Our priests have deceived us; we are lost, like sheep
+on the mountains. There is no one to teach us.' They sit in misery
+and ignorance. They need our prayers and our help. I verily believe
+that if we labor faithfully--God help us to labor thus--we shall
+soon see our Church revived, built up on the foundation of Christ
+Jesus, and adorned for Him as a bride for her husband. With tears of
+joy we shall gaze on these ancient ruins becoming new temples of the
+Lord. Soon shall these mountains witness scenes that will rejoice
+angels and saints. Those will be blessed times. Let us pray for
+them, and labor with Christ for their coming."[1]
+
+[1] _Woman and her Saviour in Persia_, pp. 216-221. Similar
+illustrations could be multiplied from this remarkable volume, some
+of them scarcely less interesting than the above.
+
+Priest Abraham, the father of this excellent woman, died in 1871. He
+was one of the first to coöperate with Dr. Perkins, and was faithful
+unto the end.
+
+There was the more call for some new missionary movement from the
+fact, that, whatever may be affirmed as to the wisdom of the plan
+adopted for reforming the Nestorian Church, in the earlier stages of
+the mission, experience had shown that the Old Church, as such,
+could not be reformed. It was proper that, from time to time, the
+favorable facts on this subject should be stated in this history, as
+they appeared to the men then on the ground,--to Dr. Lobdell;[1] to
+Dr. Dwight;[2] to Mr. Coan;[3] to Dr. Perkins;[4] indeed to the
+whole body of the mission. But the experience of six and thirty
+years had shown, that the dead Church could not be galvanized into
+spiritual life. There was no way for the truly enlightened but to
+leave it, and form reunions on the Apostolic basis.
+
+[1] Chapter xxvii.
+
+[2] Chapter xxix.
+
+[3] Chapter xxix.
+
+[4] Chapter xxviii.
+
+The necessity had become obvious, but it was a trying process. It
+was too much for Mar Yohanan. He must be spoken of kindly, for he
+had long stood in friendly relations with the mission, though the
+evidence of his piety was never entirely satisfactory.
+
+Priest John, of Geog Tapa, gave unquestioned evidences of piety in
+early life. But in 1868, if not earlier, his gold had become dim,
+and his proceedings and their consequences must have a place in this
+history.
+
+Becoming extravagant in his habits, and thus involved in debt, he
+was disaffected because the mission could not accede to exorbitant
+demands, and relieve him from pecuniary embarrassments. So he went
+abroad to collect money for this purpose, and made his way to
+England, where he succeeded in interesting several of the
+dignitaries of the Established Church. Returning home in the autumn
+of 1869, he made such a report of his visit, and excited such
+expectation of the coming of Episcopal clergymen, and large
+patronage for ecclesiastics and civil protection for all classes,
+that many of the simple-hearted people were carried away. The
+mission had been hoping to get some of the evangelical churches, ere
+long, upon a self-supporting basis; but the hopes thus excited of
+their burdens being assumed by the Church of England, put back for a
+time this work of self-support.
+
+The narrative is continued in the language of Mr. Cochran: "Priest
+John returned from England flushed with the apparent success of his
+mission. At Geog Tapa, the next Sabbath after our communion, at
+early dawn he baptized fifteen children with much display. More than
+two hours were spent in reading the English Liturgy, chanting
+Psalms, and explaining and vindicating the usages of the English
+Church. He announced his intention to give the communion to all who
+desired it. This innovation upon the evangelical usage of more than
+a dozen years (though he had once previously practiced
+indiscriminate baptism), was not inappropriately followed by the
+suspension of the Sabbath-school and preaching service, and the
+turn-out of the whole village, headed by Malek Yonan and Priest
+John, to meet the son of the master of their village, who happened
+to return on that day from a long absence in the army. In the delay
+of the young Khan's arrival, a young deacon, more zealous than
+discreet, proposed a service by the roadside, but many voices cried,
+'We have become Episcopalians, and don't want any more preaching.'
+This public and flagrant violation of the Sabbath, headed by the two
+leading Christians of the village, painfully illustrates the
+material found there, and sadly contrasts with the better days of
+the excellent and lamented Malek Agha Beg and Mar Elias.
+
+"We have heard nothing from friends in England, but from other
+sources infer the probability of at least a visit of Episcopalians
+to Mar Shimon, and possibly to Oroomiah, the coming spring. Priest
+John states, that Dr. Perkins did him harm in England by his
+published statement, that he (Priest John) had come, not as an
+accredited agent to secure Episcopal interference, but rather on a
+private and personal begging expedition (the truth of which is well
+known in Oroomiah, and confirmed by a written stipulation lodged
+with friends here, that his companion should receive one third of
+the avails of the excursion). To destroy the force of Dr. Perkins'
+statement, Priest John has secured the signature of a large number
+of names, including Patriarchs, Bishops, Maleks, and principal men
+among the people. The paper was circulated privately, but we learn
+that only one of our employees, and very few, if any, of our
+communicants, could be persuaded to sign it.
+
+"If asked, what is the true state of feeling among our communicants,
+an extensive and familiar acquaintance with them enables me to
+testify with great confidence, that, with the exception of a very
+small high-church party, headed mainly by Mar Yohanan, I discover no
+special tendency to Old Churchism of any kind, and if let alone,
+they are more than satisfied with the gospel simplicity and
+spontaneity of worship."
+
+Under date of January 10th, 1870, Mr. Cochran adds, "Geog Tapa
+continues to witness novel scenes under the eccentric and reckless
+Priest John. At the close of the fast of the nativity, the communion
+was administered to the whole village, and numbers from surrounding
+villages were also invited in. Many who had not communed for from
+ten to thirty years, as well as the more superstitious and the
+lowest rabble, participated. Four priests, all of whom are of
+doubtful piety (though two were in our communion), officiated,
+clothed in white. The whole Old Church service was read in ancient
+Syriac, and long Psalms were chanted in the same. The baser sort
+were exultant, but the thoughtful, even of those not with us, were
+sad. Every artifice was used to draw in our communion, but we were
+rejoiced to find that all except ten,--consisting of the family of
+Priest John, and the priests and deacons who officiated,--refused to
+partake with them.
+
+"I have preached there three times since. Yesterday was our
+communion. The house was crowded at both services. It was judged
+that seven hundred were inside, and not less than one hundred and
+fifty outside. I preached in the morning on the spiritual character
+of a true church, and newness of life as the condition of admission,
+and that the ordinances belong exclusively to the church, and not to
+those outside. All listened attentively, though a disturbance was
+feared. In the afternoon I 'fenced' our communion fully, but Priest
+John had the effrontery to partake. I have since learned that had it
+been withheld, he, with the rabble, would have taken it by force. A
+perfect separation seems called for, and with it a casting out of
+unworthy members from the church. But the heart of the body is
+right, and will, I trust, stand by the truth."
+
+"Enlightened villagers," adds Mr. Shedd, under date of January 20,
+1870, "besides members of the evangelical communion, did not
+partake. It shows the movement for high-church aid in its true
+colors. Such aid on the part of the English bishops is nothing more
+nor less than salarying Mar Shimon and his ecclesiastics, for
+reading their old prayers and using their dead forms and rites, as
+they have done for ages past. We rejoice in so simple an issue, and
+are sure it can do no injury to vital Christianity."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1870, p. 190.
+
+The time having come for separate and independent church
+organizations, these painful occurrences seem to have been
+providentially designed to promote that result.
+
+Mr. Cochran thus writes: "The progress of the gospel and
+providential occurrences, are bringing us into many new relations to
+the old Nestorian Church, and grave questions, affecting the purity
+and future growth of our churches, are now forcing themselves upon
+us. So long as the Old Church did not oppose evangelical labors, so
+long as she freely opened her doors to our services, consenting to a
+separate administration of the ordinances for the hopefully pious,
+and silently tolerating many ecclesiastical and social reforms, and
+an abandonment of the liturgical service; in short, so long as we
+could see, under the preached gospel, the hold on the old
+superstitions steadily lessening, and the masses being leavened with
+evangelical truth, we were more than content to labor on without a
+separate church organization.
+
+"But experience in other fields, as well as our own, has proved that
+such labors can only be prosecuted for a time. From year to year we
+have found the old ecclesiastics more restive under their loss of
+support, and more jealous of the progress of spiritual life. Mar
+Shimon, as you are informed, has for years openly opposed the
+gospel, and now so intimidates the interior mountain districts under
+his immediate control, that it seems preposterous to attempt to
+prosecute labors there, unless on a separate foundation. And we now
+find the opposition on the plains, and all over the field, not less
+positive, and daily becoming more concerted and potent.
+
+"Mar Yohanan has also, for years, secretly, and often openly and
+most offensively, opposed spiritual and reformatory labors. Priest
+John, a most untiring and reckless man, is arousing a furor of zeal
+for Old Churchism,--a fanaticism that will not be likely to subside
+with the spasmodic efforts he may make. He and others are now
+administering the communion every few weeks to the whole people,
+without distinction of character. They also enjoin the fasts and
+saints' days, resume the use of the liturgy in ancient Syriac, burn
+incense daily, bow before the altar, and make the sign of the cross;
+though some, as yet, refuse to come into all these measures.
+
+"With the return of these old superstitions, there is also a painful
+throwing off of moral restraint, and intemperance and kindred vices
+have greatly increased.
+
+"In these circumstances the question has arisen, first in Geog Tapa,
+and subsequently in other places; Can 'the evangelicals' further
+unite in the morning and evening service conducted by priests--and
+there happen to be five or six in that village--who are reviving
+these superstitions? Almost the whole church are surprisingly united
+in the decision to withdraw. This has been done for the last two
+months, and we find upwards of one hundred members there, who are
+firm, and daily waxing stronger in faith and opposition to the old
+superstitions."
+
+These and other distractions seriously hindered the spiritual growth
+of the churches in the winter of 1869 and 1870. But in the spring, a
+very thorough work of grace was enjoyed at Degala, and it was
+believed that there were more than twenty genuine conversions,
+mostly among the aged and middle-aged. The church in that place paid
+half the salary of its pastor, and was expected soon to pay the
+whole. Mar Yooseph, the young bishop at Bootan, wrote that his
+congregation had increased to one hundred and fifty, and that, for
+much of the time, Christ and his salvation formed the only theme of
+conversation. He had hopes concerning considerably more than a score
+of new converts. Deacon Toma, who had spent a year in the Seminary,
+was with him as a helper, and promised to become another Deacon
+Guwergis.
+
+The immediate foreign mission field of the Nestorians, is among the
+Armenians in Russia, and the same people at Tabriz, Hamadan (the
+ancient Ecbatana), Teheran, and Ispahan in Persia, with the numerous
+villages in the intervening regions; descendants, to a great extent,
+of Armenians carried captive, in the year 1605, from the regions of
+Ararat by Shah Abbas the Great. They furnish the field
+providentially offered to the Nestorians, as the Koords do for the
+Armenians in Turkey. Hamadan is about three hundred miles southeast
+of Oroomiah, on the great caravan road between Tabriz and Bagdad. On
+the 28th of May, 1870, the mission resolved, that they considered it
+a duty urged upon them to embrace at once within their efforts the
+Armenians and the Mussulman sects of Central Persia, by planting a
+station at Hamadan; and they expressed the hope that the Board would
+heartily endorse this action, and help them to carry it out without
+delay, and also to occupy Tabriz.
+
+The members of the mission, in the spring of 1870, were the Rev.
+Messrs. Coan, Labaree, Cochran, and Shedd, and Dr. Van Norden, with
+their wives, and Miss Dean, principal of the female seminary. The
+mission was now known as the "Mission to Persia," in view of plans
+to reach the entire population of the country. To Mr. Cochran was
+assigned the superintendence of twenty out-stations in Oroomiah,
+Sooldooz, and Tergawer, and the field outlying these, together with
+the male Seminary, To Mr. Coan was committed the press, the editing
+of the "Rays of Light," care of the treasury, and the oversight of
+the city church, and of two out-stations. To Messrs. Shedd and
+Labaree, jointly, was given the care of twenty out-stations in
+Oroomiah and Salmas, besides Tabriz and Hamadan, with the Armenian
+work in general; and, separately, to Mr. Shedd the mountain field,
+and to Mr. Labaree the Mussulman work. Dr. Van Norden was to carry
+on his medical department, and to translate the Gospel of John into
+Turkish.
+
+In the autumn of this year the Mission to Persia was formally
+transferred to the care of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign
+Missions; reserving, however, the Armenian work in the northern
+portion of the field, from its intimate connection with the mission
+to the Armenians of Turkey.
+
+It remains only to speak of the honored founder of the mission.
+
+Dr. Perkins lived through the entire connection of the mission with
+the American Board, and died at Chicopee, Massachusetts, on the 31st
+of December, 1869, when he had nearly attained the age of
+sixty-five; having been born on the 12th of March, 1805. He
+graduated at Amherst College in 1829, taught the next year in
+Amherst Academy; spent the two following years in Andover Seminary;
+and was tutor in his Alma Mater for the greater part of another
+year. The engagement last named was shortened by his call to
+commence the mission among the Nestorians. His life, from the time
+of his sailing from Boston, with Mrs. Perkins, in September, 1833,
+for six-and-thirty years, is largely the history of the Nestorian
+mission.
+
+The careful reader of this history will not need a portraiture of
+his character. He was evidently made for the position he so long
+occupied. He was an acknowledged leader in the Lord's host; a Moses
+and a Joshua, with traits of character resembling those both of
+Elijah, and of the Apostle Paul. To idleness, vagrancy, and
+drunkenness, besetting sins of the Nestorians, he was the old
+prophet; and in his longing desire to make them savingly acquainted
+with the gospel, he was the apostle. Their spoken language he
+reduced to a written form, and gave them, in their vernacular, the
+Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; with a commentary on
+Genesis and on Daniel. Is it too much to pronounce him the Apostle
+to the Nestorians? He came to his end as a shock of corn fully ripe;
+and glorious results of his self denying, and in some respects
+suffering mission, he will assuredly behold in the heavenly world.
+Where in his native land could he have labored, with the prospect of
+so large a spiritual harvest, taking no account of the widely
+reacting influence of his labors on the churches at home? And we
+might propose the same inquiry with respect to the departed
+Stoddard, and Rhea, and Grant, and Fidelia Fiske, and others, both
+among the dead, and the living.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1857-1860.
+
+
+Dr. Eli Smith, whose name has an honorable place among the
+translators of the Scriptures, died at Beirût, Sabbath morning,
+January 11th, 1857.[1] Thirty years had elapsed since his first
+arrival in Syria, and he had before been connected for several
+months with the press at Malta. In 1829, he made an exploring visit,
+with the author, to the Ionian Islands, the Morea, and the Grecian
+Archipelago; and the next year, he and Dr. Dwight explored Armenia,
+and a part of the Nestorian country. The other more important events
+of his life are so far known to the reader, that they need not be
+repeated.
+
+[1] Dr. Smith expressed a decided opinion, in his last sickness,
+that no memoir of his life and labors should be published, since he
+had never kept a journal, and there were not sufficient materials.
+In this he was probably correct, considering what the public would
+have expected. A well written obituary, somewhat extended for that
+publication, may be found in the Missionary Herald for 1857, pp.
+224-229. See, also, pp. 123-125.
+
+The mind of Dr. Smith was rich in general principles, and in
+well-considered applications of them to the missionary work; though,
+in this latter respect, he was restricted more than his brethren
+among the Armenians, by the less pliable nature of the materials on
+which he was called to operate. After having explored countries
+which others were to occupy; after contributing largely to the
+accuracy, variety, and value of Dr. Robinson's "Biblical
+Researches"; and after securing the formation of type that would be
+acceptable to the most fastidious Arab; he set himself to prepare a
+new translation of the Bible into the Arabic language. With this in
+view, he pursued the study of Arabic and kindred languages to a
+greater extent than was necessary to become either a good speaker,
+or a good preacher. His learning was both extensive and accurate,
+and he was continually adding to his stores by a wide range of
+judicious reading. To a good knowledge of the ancient classics, he
+added an acquaintance, more or less perfect, with the French,
+Italian, German, and Turkish languages. With the Hebrew he was
+familiar; and the Arabic, by far the most difficult of all, was to
+him a second vernacular.
+
+Dr. Smith was eminently a man of business, and was accustomed to
+give attention to the minutest details. He spent much time in
+superintending the cutting, casting, and perfecting of the various
+fonts of type, made from models that he had accurately drawn from
+the best specimens of Arabic caligraphy.[1] For many years he read
+the proof-sheets of nearly every work that was printed at the
+mission press; and he bestowed much thought and labor upon the
+mechanical apparatus and fixtures of that establishment.
+
+[1] See. vol. i. p. 233.
+
+To him every pursuit was subsidiary to a faithful translation of the
+Word of God into the Arabic language. Yet he did not neglect the
+regular preaching of the gospel, which he regarded as the first duty
+of every missionary; and having early become a fluent speaker in the
+Arabic, this was ever his delight. "Almost as a matter of course,
+his preaching was expository and didactic. In clear, lucid, logical
+exposition of divine truth, he had few equals. His language, though
+select and grammatical, was always simple, and within the
+comprehension of the humblest of his hearers. In regard to matter,
+his discourses were eminently Biblical, sound, and evangelical. In
+form and costume, his theology was that of Edwards, and Dwight, and
+Woods,--the theology of the Puritan fathers of New England. Upon
+this system of divine truth his own hopes of eternal life rested,
+and it was this which he earnestly labored, for thirty years, to
+infuse into the Arabic literature, and transplant into the hard and
+stony soil of Syria's moral desert."
+
+The author, having had the best opportunities for knowing Dr. Smith,
+bears testimony to his excellent judgment, and to the great value of
+his correspondence with the executive officers of the Board, in the
+forming period of the missionary work.
+
+It did not please the Lord to grant the earnest desire of Dr. Smith
+to live and complete his translation of the Scriptures; and it must
+be admitted, that his ideal of perfection in the work was such, that
+it is doubtful whether he ever could have been satisfied that his
+entire translation was ready for publication. Only Genesis, Exodus,
+and the first sixteen chapters of Matthew, had received his final
+revision, and were acknowledged by him as complete. But, with the
+help of Mr. Bistâny, his assistant translator, he had put into
+Arabic the entire New Testament, the Pentateuch, the Historical
+Books of the Old Testament, and the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah,
+Lamentations, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, and Nahum.
+He had revised, and nearly prepared for the press, the whole of the
+New Testament, and all except Jeremiah, Lamentations, and the last
+fourteen chapters of Isaiah, of the books named in the Old
+Testament. With these finished specimens, and with so large a
+portion of the remainder translated and carefully revised, together
+with the helps to translation which he had accumulated, his brethren
+believed that he had laid the foundation for one of the best
+versions of the sacred Scriptures to be found in any language.
+
+Dr. Van Dyck had been connected with the mission since 1840, and
+very soon made himself master of the spoken Arabic, in which he
+greatly excelled as a preacher. It soon appeared, that he was the
+man to succeed Dr. Smith as translator of the Scriptures, and the
+mission arranged his removal, for that purpose, from Sidon to
+Beirût; so that in due time he was enabled to bring the great work
+to successful completion.[1]
+
+[1] See chapter xl.
+
+Mr. Aiken had joined Mr. Wilson at Hums, a new station north of
+Damascus, where he was bereaved of his wife before she had been six
+months in the field. The arrangement for 1857 was that Beirût should
+be occupied by Messrs. Van Dyck and Ford, and Mr. Hurter, the
+printer; Abeih by Messrs. Calhoun and Bliss; Sidon by Mr. Eddy; Deir
+el Komr by Mr. Bird; Bhamdûn by Mr. Benton; Tripoli by Messrs.
+Jessup and Lyons; and Hums by Mr. Wilson. Dr. Thomson and Mr. Aiken
+were in the United States; the latter with health so impaired as to
+forbid his resuming his mission. He had previously married Miss
+Cheney. In the following year, Miss Jane E. Johnson and Miss Amelia
+C. Temple arrived to take the care of a girls' boarding-school at
+Sûk el Ghurb, on Mount Lebanon; but the former was soon found unable
+to endure the climate. Dr. Thomson, while in this country, published
+a valuable work on Biblical literature, in two volumes, entitled
+"The Land and the Book." Dr. and Mrs. De Forest had come to this
+country in the hope of a restoration of his health; but on the 24th
+of November, 1858, this excellent missionary was released from long
+and severe physical sufferings by a peaceful death.
+
+The health of Mrs. Wilson made it necessary, for a time, to leave
+Hums without a resident missionary. The principal operations, both
+here and at Deir el-Komr, were through schools for both sexes, which
+had been embarrassed by Syrian and Greek opposers, but in no case
+suppressed. The female department of the school at Deir el-Komr
+commenced with a dozen pupils, but in six months the attendance
+exceeded fifty. When Mr. Bird came to that place, he thought there
+were not six females in the nominally Christian population, who
+could read; but a year had not passed before half the pupils in his
+girls' school could read their Bibles. There were other mountain
+schools under the care of the station, and in one there were more
+than sixty pupils.
+
+The following contrast of the state of things in 1857 with what it
+had been fifteen years before, indicates a preparatory work in no
+small degree encouraging. "Then, the missionary could hardly
+purchase here the necessaries of life; and when he left, he was
+followed by stones and execrations. Now, he is welcomed and honored.
+Then, fear kept even his friends from venturing to visit him; now,
+priests and even a bishop are ashamed not to return his calls. Then,
+the Protestant sect could not be vilified enough; now, it is spoken
+of with favor in public and in high places. The old Emir Beshir,
+once the persecutor and terror of Protestants, has passed away, and
+his dilapidated palace is used as barracks for Turkish soldiers. His
+prime minister, or secretary, who did much injury to the cause of
+evangelical religion, and whose mansion was, as it were, the
+stronghold of the enemy, is no more. What remains of this
+Ahithophel's house is the abode of the missionary, and furnishes
+apartments for Scripture schools, and a Protestant chapel. His
+sons-in-law were leaders in the movement which brought us to Deir
+el-Komr, and are among our firmest friends. His grandchildren learn
+the folly of popery by the knowledge of the Bible they acquire in
+our schools.
+
+"Time was, when every one trembled at the anathema of the clergy.
+Now, the latter dare not show their impotence by pronouncing it.
+Some of the people would be glad to be thus dissevered from a church
+which they abhor, for they would thus not only gain their end, but
+retain the sympathies of many who would else oppose them. Those who
+send their children to our schools, have been refused admission to
+the confessional and the eucharist; the Maronite bishop, however,
+has at length yielded the point, and tries to win, rather than
+compel. Their high school he has made free of charge, and has
+promised to open a girls' school beside. In the Greek Catholic
+communion, on the other hand, the men and some of the women remain
+"suspended;" yet they are of good courage, some glad of so excellent
+an excuse to get rid of the confessional, and others incensed at the
+glaring injustice that would admit the drunkard and the notoriously
+vicious, but exclude the respectable and the moral. We have here the
+anomaly of those being thrust out of the church, who are still its
+very pillars, its substantial supporters, whose names are known, and
+whose influence is felt, throughout the region.
+
+"We have reason to thank God and take courage. Still we long to see
+a work more purely spiritual. Light is being diffused, but there is
+not the corresponding religious interest. The truth is viewed by
+many as a beautiful theory, the heart remaining a flint. We have to
+regret the fact, that some of the best minds in the place are tinged
+with skepticism. Happily the most influential are, notwithstanding,
+our firm friends, and are in favor of good education and good
+morals."
+
+Ain Zehalty, a village situated in the heart of Lebanon, has been
+already mentioned.[1] Mr. Bird says, "We now have there five
+church-members. There have been regular Sabbath services under the
+charge of the native helper, Khalil. The audience has been on the
+increase, and is now not only larger than that in Deir el-Komr, but
+is composed of better materials. Those who come desire instruction,
+and are regular attendants and declared Protestants." An Ain
+Zehaltian, when out of his village, if not a Druze, was set down at
+once as a Protestant. The day school in that place had forty
+scholars, and half as many attended the evening school for adults.
+This school was for the special purpose of studying the Bible, and
+the pupils had gone through the historical books of the Old and New
+Testaments. Their custom on Saturday and Sabbath evenings was to
+read the devotional parts, and hold a prayer meeting.
+
+[1] Vol. i. p. 383.
+
+Mr. Ford made a visit to Hasbeiya in February, 1857, with Mr. Jones,
+Secretary of the Turkish Missions Aid Society. He had never before
+been in that region, and speaks highly of the native laborers. Of
+the church-members he says: "When compared with the rock from which
+they were hewn, and the hole of the pit from which they were digged,
+they show the genuineness of the work of grace in their hearts."
+"The signs of the times," he adds, "in the community around, are
+most encouraging. I will only refer now to a remarkable stirring up
+of the Maronites to defend themselves against the inroads made by
+the gospel upon their hitherto solid ranks. Their ecclesiastics have
+always maintained an attitude of proud contempt, as though conscious
+of the strength of their hold upon their people, and they have
+rarely deigned to come into personal contact with the despised
+preachers of the gospel. But the serious diminution of their numbers
+in various parts south of us, and the diffusion of spiritual light
+among the rest of their flocks, have forced them down from their
+assumed elevation, and now they select the ablest of their priests,
+ordain him bishop, and send him on a crusade through Deir el-Komr,
+Hasbeiya, Merj Aiun, and so on to Alma, where the spirit of Asaad
+es-Shidiak, the modern martyr of Syria, seems to be revived in the
+hearts of a simple people, preparing them to brave death itself for
+the Gospel's sake. This bishop has sought public discussions with
+Mr. Bird, at Deir el-Komr, and also with Mr. Wortabet, at Hasbeiya.
+In the latter place there had been two such discussions held just
+before we arrived. In the first, the bishop was effectually caught
+in his own craftiness, and so completely worsted, that he and his
+friends came to the second session prepared to regain by violence
+the advantage they had lost in argument; and the result was a stormy
+debate, terminated abruptly by an assault upon some of the
+Protestants present."
+
+Kefr Shema, a promising out-station, became a station by the removal
+thither from Aleppo of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy. No objection to their
+residence was made by the people, though it was not four years since
+they had combined in a desperate attempt to drive all Protestants
+from the village. The missionaries were visited and welcomed by
+many.
+
+Honorable mention is made of Antonius Yanni, the only native
+Protestant in Tripoli, who had been two years connected with the
+mission church, and had suffered much for the cause of Christ. He
+had refused the honorable and highly lucrative post of vice-consul
+for Russia, because its acceptance would necessarily have made him
+subservient to the corrupt Greek Church, and an attendant upon its
+services.
+
+There had been preaching for several years at Aramon, three miles
+from Abeih. But the congregation was broken up in midsummer by a
+mob. Mr. Calhoun, who was regarded with great respect by the people,
+visited the place, and in a very kind, gentle manner, told the
+people that religious freedom was guaranteed to all, and that they
+of the mission should be allowed to worship in their own hired
+house. The people listened with attention. On Monday Mr. Calhoun
+referred the case to the English Consul-general, and to the acting
+Consul for the United States. Late in the week, two officials from
+the government in Beirût, and two from the governor of the mountain
+district, met Mr. Calhoun at Aramon. "When the time for service
+arrived, the officials publicly stated, that there is to be perfect
+religious freedom for all;--to-day, to-morrow, this year, next year,
+and for all time. This they repeated over and over again, as the
+will of the Sultan, and then ordered some one to go upon the
+house-top and proclaim aloud, after the manner of the Mohammedans,
+_that it was time for prayers, and that all who wished to come might
+come_. Services were then conducted as usual, with an attentive
+audience; and at the close, in a place appointed, the officials
+demanded that the persecutors should ask pardon of the persecuted,
+which was accordingly done, many kissing the hand of the man whose
+house they had entered, and which we had hired. The governor also
+called some of the men to his own village, and threatened them with
+severe punishment if they should again molest any one on account of
+his religion. He then, Mohammedan as he was, repeated, in substance,
+the sentiment advanced, in the presence of his officers, by Mr.
+Calhoun, that religion pertains to the individual conscience and to
+God alone." Henceforward Mr. Aramon, the first teacher in the
+seminary, met with no opposition in a regular preaching service.
+
+The number of pupils in the Seminary, at the close of the year, was
+twenty-five, and some of them were of unusual promise. A theological
+class, of four middle-aged, married men, was kept up during the
+summer, and then they went forth preaching the gospel, or laboring
+as teachers and colporters. Thoroughly-educated young men, otherwise
+qualified to preach the gospel, could only be obtained to a limited
+extent. But men of riper age, of good common sense and
+simple-hearted piety, could be fitted, by a few months of direct
+Biblical training annually, to preach to the uninstructed
+peasantry,--a labor for which there was the loudest call.
+
+On the 12th of January, 1858, a deputation of four young men was
+received by Mr. Eddy, at Sidon, from a large village east of Tyre,
+called Cana. These brought a letter, signed by twenty-six persons,
+professing their dissatisfaction with their own corrupt Church, in
+connection with which they obtained no knowledge of God or of
+heaven, and asking that a preacher might be sent to them at once,
+and a teacher for their children. They denied being actuated by any
+worldly motive, and were sent back with two New Testaments, and the
+assurance that some one would be sent to instruct them as soon as
+possible. They were, accordingly, visited by Daher Abud, a faithful
+native helper, who was much gratified with the zeal and interest he
+found among them. In February, Mr. Eddy went himself, and was warmly
+welcomed. About forty men attended his preaching, whose eagerness to
+hear and converse detained him over the next day.
+
+From thence he went to Alma, a village of five hundred inhabitants,
+a long day from Cana, beautifully situated upon the summit of a high
+range of hills, two miles from the sea. The evangelical movement had
+commenced there two years before, and there was a Protestant
+community of about forty, including nine members of the church.
+"This was considered, in some respects," writes Mr. Eddy, "one of
+the brightest spots in the Syrian field. The great adversary of
+souls tried in vain, by the terrors of persecution and the
+seductions of flattery, to recover the people to himself. Failing in
+this, he sought to sow discord among brethren, and thus to conquer
+them; and for several months past he has rejoiced in seeing this
+'house divided against itself.' I felt much anxiety as to the issue
+of my visit, and had made it the subject of special prayer. I spent
+three days among the people, one of which was the Sabbath. The
+conversation and the preaching were mainly directed to the end of
+securing peace, and a day of fasting and prayer was observed. On the
+morning of the fourth day the clouds parted, and the Saviour
+revealed himself in love. Then, amid tears, and confessions, and
+promises, and prayers, the covenant of peace was signed, and
+thanksgiving offered to God, and we separated."
+
+Mr. Eddy visited Cana twice in the summer, and found the people,
+young and old, eager to be instructed in the Word of God. So many
+children attended the school from Catholic families, that the priest
+sent word to the bishop in Tyre, that if he did not interpose his
+authority, all the village would turn Protestant. Accordingly the
+bishop came, bringing with him several wealthy and influential men
+of the city. The Protestants were all invited to assemble at the
+house of the head man of the village, and then these friends of the
+bishop, in company with the head man and the priest, labored most of
+the night to induce them to return to their church. It would have
+been beneath the dignity of the bishop to have interceded directly
+with them, especially if he had not succeeded. The effort was a
+failure. Next the Prior of all the convents in that part of the
+country, hearing of the bishop's ill success, came, and sought to
+obtain, by love and promises, what the bishop had failed to
+accomplish by threats. But he too returned disappointed; and
+coincident with his departure, two persons came out from the
+Catholic Church and joined the Protestants.
+
+The month of November found Mr. Eddy again at Alma, to dedicate the
+first completed Protestant church in Syria. The enrolled Protestants
+numbered then about fifty. Dr. Van Dyck, before leaving Sidon, had
+selected a site for the building and seen the foundation laid, and
+had since collected from native Christians and foreign residents
+nearly the amount required for the church, which was of stone,
+thirty-two feet long and twenty-two feet broad, and capable of
+holding from one hundred and fifty to two hundred persons. It cost
+about three hundred dollars; thirty of which were contributed by the
+people of Alma out of their deep poverty, besides a large amount
+freely bestowed in labor. No opposition was made by the government
+to its erection.
+
+After the dedicatory sermon, the Lord's Supper was administered to
+the nine church-members, who renewed their vows to the Lord; and
+these, with other appropriate services, made it a Sabbath long to be
+remembered.
+
+In the summer of 1859, Mr. Eddy again visited Cana, taking Mrs. Eddy
+with him to secure access to the women. He pitched his tent, the
+first night, on the banks of the ancient Leontes, six or seven miles
+north of Tyre, and the next day at noon they were at Cana. The poor
+women, ignorant, yet eager to be taught, had never before enjoyed
+such an opportunity, and prized it exceedingly.
+
+The people had passed through severe sufferings. Several of the
+women had been beaten, and the men had a bitter tale to tell of
+oppression by their governor. He demanded a duplicate payment of
+taxes, and when the head man of the Protestants respectfully showed
+him a receipt, with his own seal affixed, he ordered him to be
+severely beaten and placed in confinement. He then sent officers to
+bring others of the Protestants before him, but, suspecting his
+intention, all except two fled into the open country. These two,
+when brought, were thrown down upon the ground before the governor,
+and beaten with staves without mercy upon their backs and feet, he
+encouraging his servants to deal harder blows with commands and
+threats. Thus beaten till their backs were livid and swollen, they
+were wounded also by being kicked and stepped on by those who beat
+them, to make them lie still. When hardly left alive, chains were
+placed upon their necks and feet, their hands were placed in wooden
+stocks, and they were cast into prison, where they spent the night
+with companions who had been previously beaten. Next morning they
+were brought before the governor, and two of them were again beaten,
+when they were dismissed with a threat, that if they left the
+village he would pull down their houses. They however, despite his
+threats, made their way to Tyre, whence they embarked in a vessel to
+Beirût, to seek redress from the Pasha, and sympathy from the
+missionaries. When they appeared before the Pasha's court, their
+backs were ordered to be uncovered, and their wounds exhibited; and
+the greatest indignation was expressed by the members of the council
+against him who had so barbarously treated them, in violation of the
+laws of the realm."
+
+The governor was sent for, and the indications were, that he would
+be expelled from office. But he was not. The Pasha suddenly changed
+his tone towards the Protestants, ordered one of them to be cast
+into prison on a false charge by the governor, and forbade the
+council to proceed further against him. The Cana people were
+detained two months from their homes. The proffered interposition of
+the English Consul was rudely rejected, and their release, when it
+was effected, was with no regard to the claims of justice. The visit
+of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy at that time must have been very seasonable and
+acceptable.
+
+From Cana they proceeded to Alma, where they remained about a week.
+The women here, being more numerous and more enlightened, and some
+of them members of the church, were prepared to receive greater
+benefit from the instruction of a Christian sister. Three additions
+were made to the church. The people, though poor, had here also been
+compelled by their governor to pay their taxes twice.
+
+The Seminary at Abeih was now made more directly a training school
+for native preachers and helpers; and a female boarding-school was
+opened at Sûk el-Ghûrb, a village six miles north of Abeih, under
+the direction of Miss Temple. The training of female helpers was its
+leading object, and the removal of Mr. Bliss thither made a home for
+the pupils.
+
+Ain Zehalty continued to be a marked village, and the papists made
+great efforts to reclaim it. A Maronite bishop at one time, and a
+wily Jesuit at another, repaired thither, at the urgent request of
+the papal party, to uproot the dangerous exotic. The coming of the
+bishop was with great boasting on the part of his adherents, but,
+much to their chagrin, he declined commencing a controversy with
+Khalil, the native helper there; and was afterwards so hotly plied
+with texts of Scripture by some of the church-members whom he
+ventured to attack, that he fled for refuge to the more
+accommodating "traditions of the elders." It was supposed that the
+disciple of Loyola would carry all before him; but the undaunted
+Bible-men were more than ready to meet him, which they did
+effectively; and his visit was productive of more good than harm.
+
+The report of the mission for 1858, furnishes many striking
+evidences of the influence exerted, especially in the department of
+education. Soon after the opening of the first Protestant school at
+Tripoli, the Greeks opened a school for boys, which soon became
+large and prosperous. And when the Protestant girls' school became a
+success, a board of directors was organized, under the direction of
+the Greek bishop, to break up the other, if possible. Not finding an
+educated woman in Syria who was not a Protestant, the Greeks applied
+to two Protestant young ladies to take their school, but without
+success. To secure the needful pecuniary means, they constrained the
+Patriarch to surrender a part of the convent revenues for this
+purpose. The Russian government, moreover, took up the subject of
+education in Syria, and remitted twelve thousand piasters (four
+hundred and eighty dollars) to the Greek school directors in Tripoli
+for the city schools; but with the injunction, that the tenets of
+the Greek Church should be the chief subject of instruction.
+
+Nineteen persons were added to the churches of the mission during
+the first half of the year 1859. This of course involved various
+local indications of progress, for which the limits of this history
+afford no space. A new place, however, is brought to our notice by
+Mr. Eddy, named Deir Mimas, a large village on the river Litany. A
+few had here professed Protestantism about two years before, and had
+encountered a storm of persecution from members of the Greek Church,
+and from the Mohammedan governor of their district. Yet they had
+constantly increased in numbers and strength. The missionary
+spending several days there, was delighted to find an audience each
+evening of more than one hundred, after their severe labors, all
+eager to hear. The number of men professing Protestantism was above
+sixty, and counting the women and the children, the number was one
+hundred and fifty, the largest in Syria. Their enemies were on the
+alert, and it was a sad fact, that no competent native teacher could
+be found to reside among them. They were then dependent on a native
+teacher, who came to them each Sabbath from a distance, having first
+preached in his own village.
+
+The annual meeting of the mission in this year was one of unusual
+interest. "From the beginning to the end of the meeting, it was
+apparent that there was much of a spirit of prayer among the native
+brethren. The native female prayer meeting in Beirût was more fully
+attended than usual; and the union meetings in Arabic and English,
+held in the chapel, in which the missionaries and native brethren
+united and large audiences assembled, were occasions of deep
+interest. The statements made in the meeting when the annual reports
+were read, at which W. A. Booth, Esq., of New York City, and Hon.
+Alpheus Hardy, of Boston, a member of the Prudential Committee, were
+providentially present, filled the minds of all with the conviction,
+that never before in the history of the Syria mission have we had so
+much encouragement, or such strong proofs that God is with us, and
+that the work is going forward in this land."
+
+Before this meeting, the mission had been favored with a visit from
+the Hon. James Williams, United States Ambassador at Constantinople,
+whose friendly and most useful agency was duly acknowledged by the
+mission. His reply to them may be found in the "Missionary
+Herald."[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1860, p. 163.
+
+The translation of the New Testament was now completed and published
+under the care of Dr. Van Dyck. The pocket edition was admitted to
+be one of the most beautiful books, in its typographical execution,
+in the Arabic language. It had this advantage, that it could be
+carried and read without attracting notice; which was something in a
+land where Bible readers met with so much determined opposition.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1860-1863.
+
+
+The year 1860 was noted for a civil war in Syria, and for savage
+massacres on Lebanon, at Hasbeiya, Damascus, and elsewhere, which
+awakened the indignation of the Christian world. The Druzes were
+prominent in these massacres, and so suffered greatly in character;
+yet the Turks were believed to have been the instigators. The war
+commenced in June; but the government for months had foreborne to
+check private assassinations and angry collisions, until the
+condition became unbearable.
+
+All the Greek and Papal Christians united against the Druzes, with
+the declared purpose of not leaving one of them on Lebanon, but they
+had miscalculated their power. The Protestants decided to take the
+side of neither party. It was believed at Beirût, that the main
+object of the foreign Jesuits and native Catholic clergy was to
+exterminate the Protestants, who had their homes chiefly among the
+Druzes. The Druzes were aroused to desperation, and thirty or forty
+Maronite and Greek villages were burned early in June. The
+inhabitants who escaped massacre fled to Beirût. Not one of these
+fugitives was a Protestant.
+
+The missionaries at Abeih, Deir el-Komr, and Sûk el-Ghûrb were not
+molested, and Messrs. Calhoun and Bird and their families remained
+at their several stations. It was thought best for those at the Sûk
+to descend to Beirût. Disturbance having arisen at Sidon, an English
+war steamer was sent thither to look after the foreigners. The
+steamer brought Mrs. Eddy and her children to Beirût, but Mr. Eddy
+and Mr. and Mrs. Ford decided to remain at Sidon.
+
+In the country and gardens near that city, hundreds of unarmed men
+and defenseless women and children, many of whom had fled thither
+for their lives, were afterwards savagely butchered by Moslems and
+Druzes. The missionaries then asked for a guard from the city
+governor, which he refused until the American Consul in Beirût
+demanded it.
+
+Mr. Bird, at Deir el-Komr, supposing that all was quiet around the
+city, left home to look after the little company of Protestants in
+Ain Zehalty. In his absence, the Druzes attacked Deir el-Komr on
+every side, and when Mr. Bird returned towards evening, he saw the
+town in flames, but could not enter. One of the more than one
+hundred houses burned, was a school-house belonging to the mission.
+The Druze Begs declared it was a mistake, and promised to rebuild
+it. The Christians had fought until their ammunition was exhausted,
+and then surrendered. Mr. Bird found his family unharmed, though the
+fighting and burning had been very near them. The Pasha coming up
+from Beirût made such arrangements that Mr. Bird and family decided
+to remain.
+
+The Druzes were now masters of Mount Lebanon south of the Damascus
+road, and there was no power left in that district to oppose them,
+save in the town of Zahleh. It was from this town that a company of
+horsemen went to Hasbeiya, sixteen years before, to compel the
+Protestants there to recant; and from this same town, not many
+months before, Mr. Benton and his family had been expelled with
+great violence by a mob. Its time had now come. Mr. Lyons passing
+that way in October, with relief for the survivors of the massacre,
+thus speaks of Zahleh: "It presents one of the saddest spectacles in
+all the wide field of desolation. Only a few months before, I had
+seen this then flourishing town in all its beauty and pride. Now,
+nothing remained but a vast collection of roofless houses, with
+blackened, shattered walls, and shapeless heaps of stones and
+rubbish. Shops, magazines, costly dwellings, and elegant churches,
+all had shared in the common ruin."
+
+The Protestants in Hasbeiya began to be troubled, early in the year,
+by premonitions of a coming storm. Mr. Eddy was there in May,
+accompanied by Mrs. Eddy and Miss Temple, who devoted themselves to
+labor for the spiritual good of the women in that community. Hardly
+had they returned to Sidon, when Hasbeiya was surrounded by hostile
+Druzes. They were driven off at first, but on the 3d of June the
+commander of the Turkish soldiers told the Christians to retire
+within the palace, and he would protect them. On the 11th the Druzes
+surrounded the palace, and the Turkish commander opened the gates,
+and allowed the Druzes to cut them in pieces. Some saved their lives
+by crawling under the dead bodies, and others by escaping over the
+walls. The Protestant church was partially destroyed, but not
+burned; its walls and roof remaining uninjured. At Rasheiya the
+Druzes told the Christians to give up their guns, and they would be
+safe. In the night, they set fire to the houses, and killed nearly
+all of one hundred and thirty men. More than one thousand persons
+were murdered in Hasbeiya and the surrounding region. Of these only
+nine were Protestants.
+
+At Damascus, on the 9th of July, the wild Moslems, from one of the
+suburbs of the city, with Koords, Druzes, and Arabs, burst upon the
+Christian quarter, plundering, butchering, and burning; not opposed,
+but aided, by the Turkish soldiers, who could have suppressed the
+insurrection at any time. The slaughter continued several days, and
+the killed were estimated at five thousand. The whole Christian
+quarter of the city was plundered of its great wealth, and the
+houses and churches were laid in ruins.
+
+Those who escaped these massacres fled towards Beirût and Sidon,
+destitute of everything. Appeals were at once made to the Christians
+of England and America, and the missionaries, acting for the
+"Anglo-American Relief Committee," were the chief almoners. The
+expenditure in August for food, clothing, bedding, shelter,
+hospital, and soup, was at the rate of about sixty thousand piasters
+a week, or two thousand four hundred dollars, and yet it seemed to
+make little impression on the mighty mass of misery. Dr. Thomson had
+the especial care of the clothing, bedding, shelter, and
+soup-kitchen, Dr. Van Dyck of the hospital and the sick in general,
+Mr. Jessup of the distribution of bread to about six thousand
+persons daily, and Butrus Bistany and Michael Aramon, two of the
+native brethren, had the daily distribution among about two thousand
+five hundred poor. The funds up to this time had come chiefly from
+the people of England, and English merchants at Beirût gave much
+time to managing the large financial business connected with so vast
+a charity. Dr. Thomson declares that the male children were
+generally murdered, and that the killed were largely mere boys; and
+who, he asks, were to support the thousands of widows, with their
+fatherless daughters? The country had no factories, and scarcely any
+kind of business by which such widows could gain a support. The
+silk, grape, and wheat harvests had been destroyed, the olive was
+likely to perish from neglect, there were no animals for the plough,
+no implements for husbandry, nor was life safe in the fields. He
+adds: "There was never, perhaps, a darker hour for missions in
+Syria; yet we are becoming acquainted with the people more rapidly
+than ever, and should we be permitted to visit them months hence, we
+shall have a most friendly welcome."
+
+Rasheiya and Deir Mimas were burned. Cana and Alma, being far from
+the Druze district, were not invaded. Tripoli was undisturbed. The
+destroyers in the neighborhood of Baalbec were not Druzes, but
+Moslems and Metawales. It is a remarkable fact that, excepting
+perhaps in Damascus, no injury was offered to a missionary; and
+Protestants, when recognized as such, were generally safe. The
+arrival of ships of war and a detachment of the French army at
+Beirût, with apprehensions of an alliance of Christian powers for
+the protection of the Christian population, had, at first, a
+restraining, and finally, a controlling influence, on the Turkish
+government. The Prime Minister was sent to Damascus, and inflicted
+terrible justice on one or two hundred of the guilty there.
+
+The direct effects of the war upon the missionary work were
+doubtless injurious. Immorality increased, the baser passions were
+aroused, and the hearts of many were hardened through suffering. But
+priestly and feudal power, the two greatest obstacles to the Gospel,
+were weakened, and new civil rights were secured to the Protestants.
+The respect for Protestant Christianity was increased, and
+prejudices were dissipated by witnessing its beneficent fruits;
+while multitudes were brought within the reach of the Gospel, who,
+but for these troubles, would never have heard its messages.
+
+The connection of Mr. and Mrs. Benton with the Board and the mission
+terminated in June, 1861, though they remained in Syria some time
+longer.
+
+The Arabic New Testament having been completed and published, the
+mission resolved to proceed, as soon as possible, with the
+translation and publication of the Old Testament, under the
+direction of Dr. Van Dyck. The British and Foreign Bible Society
+requested permission to adopt this version; instead of the one
+formerly issued by them. The result of a friendly negotiation was,
+that the American and the British and Foreign Bible Societies agreed
+to publish the version conjointly, from electrotype plates furnished
+by the former. The price of the reference edition was fixed at ten
+piasters, and of the pocket edition at five, or about forty and
+twenty cents, which placed them within reach of nearly all who could
+read.
+
+The importance of this work cannot easily be overestimated.
+Imperfect translations, and type which seemed to caricature their
+alphabet, had done much to prejudice Arabic scholars against the
+Christian Scriptures. By the labors of the mission, these objections
+were now removed. The educated Arab finds a book printed in
+characters modeled after the most approved specimens of Arab
+caligraphy. He soon perceives the style to be that of a man who is
+master of this wonderful language in all its grammatical and
+idiomatic niceties and rich resources. As a literary work it secures
+his respect, and thus invites a candid perusal. If he reads it, he
+finds the truths of Christianity clearly and correctly stated. Its
+beneficial influence will yet be felt, it is hoped, not only by the
+Christian sects of Mount Lebanon and Syria, but by the many millions
+who speak that language in other parts of the world. This work
+alone, worth many times what the mission had cost, could not have
+been accomplished, except by Christian scholars residing permanently
+among Arabs, and for substantially missionary purposes.
+
+The sale of the Scriptures, notwithstanding the poverty of the
+people, was unprecedented. In 1859, it amounted to four hundred and
+forty-eight copies; in 1860, to four thousand two hundred and
+ninety-three,--a nearly ten fold increase.
+
+Dr. Van Dyck was preparing a voweled edition of the New Testament,
+suitable for Mohammedans, written in the style of the Koran, which
+required much care and labor. This was completed in 1863.
+
+The field manifestly brightened in the two or three years after the
+war. There was an interesting development of the missionary spirit.
+Not less than six different missionary societies were formed,
+embracing nearly all the Protestants of the various towns and
+villages, and a commendable degree of liberality was shown by the
+natives in collecting and contributing. A hundred dollars thus
+raised will not appear a small amount to any one, who knows the
+extreme poverty of most of the congregations. There had been a great
+influx of population at Beirût, and preaching services, during some
+months, were held daily. The Sabbath-school numbered two hundred,
+and the children sang the same songs in Arabic, which American
+children love to sing in their own language. The mountain stations
+reported unusually large and attentive audiences. Ain Zehalty was
+wholly under Protestant influences. Its civil ruler was a member of
+the Protestant church, and its church edifice, purged of its altar
+and pictures, was no longer used for the idolatrous Greek service.
+The Gospel was preached in nine places in connection with the Sidon
+station, the congregations had doubled their number, and schools of
+both sexes were demanded. There were cases of unusual interest among
+the young men. Hasbeiya and Rasheiya were not yet safe for the
+return of their people, but their Protestants retained an ardor in
+the cause which was very encouraging. Ibl and Deir Mimas were still
+centres of evangelical light, and the people of Boaida, numbering
+one hundred, were all professed Protestants, and placed themselves
+under Biblical instruction. Mr. Ford and his family spent the summer
+in the district of which Deir Mimas is the centre, and more than
+thirty women were taught to read by Mrs. Ford. The field was open
+for schools, for preaching, and for influencing individuals,
+families, and communities. The only drawback was the want of
+laborers.
+
+Brief extracts from a letter of Mr. H. H. Jessup, written in March,
+1863, portray the work at that time.
+
+"Delegation after delegation, of men from various villages and
+different sects, call upon and write to us, entreating us not to
+neglect them. They ask for preachers, and we have none to send. They
+ask for schools, and we have not the means to support them. We are
+in _great straits_, and lay the case before our Christian brethren
+at home, throwing the responsibility upon those to whom God has
+given the means, and especially upon the young men in a course of
+preparation for the ministry."
+
+"The people of the village of Ain Kunyeh, near the Lake of Merom, on
+the upper waters of the Jordan, have with one consent turned away
+their priest, shut up their place of worship, and are entreating one
+of our Protestant helpers to come and teach them the way of life."
+
+"A few Sabbaths since, while we were assembled for divine service in
+the Beirût chapel, a crowd of thirty men came in, and with
+difficulty found seats, so full was the chapel already. Upon
+inquiry, after service, we learned that they are from the village of
+Rasheiya-el-Wady, north of Mount Hermon, and are a part of the
+residue of the people who escaped the massacre in that place in
+1860. They ask for a teacher, or native preacher, but we can give
+them only the most indefinite promises."
+
+"Twenty men from the village of Koryet-el-Hosson, near the famous
+castle Kolat-el-Hosson, halfway between Tripoli and Hums, write that
+they too have seen the light, and wish some one to come and instruct
+them; but what can we do for them, when the twenty-five men of
+Sheikh Mohammed, who petitioned us some time since, have been sent
+away empty?"
+
+"This morning a white-bearded priest called, with his aged brother,
+and several younger men. They declared their wish to become
+Protestants, and beg most earnestly for a school. They belong to a
+large and powerful family, and the Lord may use them as the entering
+wedge, to open that strong Greek district to the gospel. What shall
+we answer them?"
+
+Daoud Pasha, the new papal Governor, secured in 1862 by foreign
+intervention for Mount Lebanon, was at first supposed to be a bigot,
+and a tool of the Jesuits, but he soon proved himself an impartial
+and excellent ruler. He had several Protestants in office about him,
+in very important situations. Instead of objecting to missionaries
+establishing schools, he encouraged all efforts to educate the
+people.
+
+Among other evidences of an advance it may be stated, that in Hums
+two hundred and fifty persons avowed themselves Protestants, and
+sought earnestly for a Christian instructor. It was immediately
+decided to send them Suleeba Jerwan, who had lived two years in that
+place with Mr. Wilson, and was well acquainted with the people; and
+the native missionary society at Beirût decided to support him as
+their first missionary. This was done with a cordiality and
+earnestness that was most promising. Hasbeiya women and girls
+pledged weekly contributions for the spread of the Gospel, some
+promised two cents a week, and some half a cent; but even these
+small sums were large for them, and they gave with a hearty gladness
+that was most cheering. Two hundred and thirty Maronites in Bteddin
+had for months adhered steadfastly to the Protestant faith, and a
+flourishing school existed among them. In Cana the Protestant
+community had been augmented threefold, and the same was true of
+Deir Mimas. There had never been a time when so many were inquiring
+on the subject of religion; and a greater number avowed themselves
+Protestants within twelve months, than in the whole previous forty
+years. A new church edifice was built in Merj-Aiyun, costing about
+five hundred dollars, without drawing from the resources of the
+Board, and a new church had been formed in that district of
+seventeen members, most of them from the Hasbeiya church. In the
+Sidon field six persons had been admitted to the church, and there
+were twenty-two hopeful candidates. In Beirût and Abeih, there were
+seventeen such candidates, besides nine admitted to the communion.
+Bible classes were largely increased, and an unusual number of
+adults were learning to read, that they might study the Scriptures.
+Thirty of the best Sabbath-school songs published in America, had
+been translated into Arabic, and published at the expense of a
+sewing society at Beirût, and thus gospel truths, in an attractive
+form, were reaching the children all over the land.
+
+The president of the missionary society at Beirût stated in May,
+1862, that in the two previous months, they had not only sent a
+missionary to Hums, but had sent also a colporter to Jezzin,
+maintained religious meetings every Sabbath at Kefr Shima, and
+employed a city missionary in Beirût.
+
+But with these signs of prosperity, there seems to have been a need
+of chastening. The clergy of the Greek church at Hums, excited, as
+was supposed, by foreign influence, set their people so against the
+Protestants, that it was feared few would be able to stand. The
+native brethren were stoned and beaten in the streets, and abused by
+all classes. Quite a large number returned, nominally, to the Greek
+church; but many of these commenced a Bible class in the Greek
+church itself, thus bringing the truth to many, who would not
+otherwise have heard it. About fifteen men stood firm, and met
+nightly with Suleeba, for reading the Scriptures, prayer, and
+conference. The priests had expected the utter overthrow of
+Protestantism, and were enraged at the firmness of these brethren,
+and forbade all dealings with them. Letters to Suleeba from the
+missionaries were taken from the mail, read, and destroyed, and the
+Protestant places of meeting were assailed with stones. In the midst
+of these trials, Suleeba wrote expressing his gratitude to God for
+sustaining grace. Some alleviation was experienced through the
+efforts of Colonel Fraser, Her Britannic Majesty's Commissioner, so
+that the Protestant community became regularly organized, with a
+representative in the Mejlis, and a tax roll distinct from other
+sects.
+
+The Protestants in Ain Zehalty were also called to suffer. An order
+having come from Constantinople, requiring the restoration of all
+church edifices to their original sects, Daoud Pasha issued an order
+for giving up the edifice at Ain Zehalty. He must have acted under a
+misapprehension, since the building had never been the property of
+the bishop, but was built and still owned by the family of Khalil,
+the Protestant preacher. The Catholics were a very small minority in
+the village, yet the edifice appears not to have been recovered.
+Another convenient house of worship was soon after provided by
+Protestant friends.
+
+Mr. H. H. Jessup wrote respecting Hums:--"Quite recently, one of the
+more enlightened among the Greeks was taken ill, and sent for
+Suleeba, the native helper. He went, and found quite a company of
+relatives and friends. The sick man asked him to read a portion of
+Scripture. The passage selected contained the ten commandments, and
+while he was reading the _second_, the wife of the sick man
+exclaimed,--'Is that the Word of God? If it is, read it again.' He
+did so, when she arose and tore down a wooden picture of a saint at
+the head of the bed, declaring that henceforth there should be no
+idol worship in that house; and then, taking a knife, she scraped
+the paint from the picture, and took it for use in the kitchen. This
+was done with the approbation of all present. The case is the more
+remarkable, as it was the first instance in Syria, in which a woman
+had taken so decided a stand in advance of the rest of the family."
+
+The manifest agency of the Holy Spirit is the highest encouragement
+in the missionary work. "One of the members of the Beirût church,"
+Mr. Jessup writes, "has passed through an interesting religious
+experience this summer. He was for a time troubled with blasphemous
+thoughts, till he gave himself up as lost. His language was not
+unlike that of Bunyan in his "Grace Abounding;" and only after
+protracted struggles in prayer, the study of God's word, and finally
+resolving to go forward and do his duty in both light and darkness,
+did he find relief. The case was interesting as indicating the
+presence of God's Spirit, in leading him through a most severe
+struggle into ultimate peace in believing. Several young Protestants
+of Hasbeiya, resident in Beirût, are now passing through very deep
+conviction of sin. I have rarely seen persons so completely broken
+down by a sense of their lost condition. On Monday I spent several
+hours with two young people, who were passing through deep waters.
+They burst into tears, exclaiming, "We are lost, we are lost!" The
+Spirit of God was striving with them. Never have I felt more deeply
+the need of Divine aid, than when trying to lead these heavy-laden
+ones to Christ. Yet the missionary can have no more delightful labor
+than this."
+
+The mission was strengthened, in 1863, by the arrival of Rev.
+Messrs. Samuel Jessup, Philip Berry, and George Edward Post, M. D.,
+and their wives. Miss Temple retired from the mission in consequence
+of the obstructions to the higher education of girls growing out of
+the massacres, but with the esteem of all her associates. Mr. Lyons,
+broken down by overwork, was also under the necessity of withdrawing
+from the field. The girls' boarding-school had been transferred from
+Sûk el Ghûrb to Sidon, where it was under the care of Miss Mason.
+
+The population of Beirût was now not less than seventy thousand. A
+bank, a carriage road to Damascus, steamers plying to almost every
+maritime country in Europe, telegraphs in several directions,
+numerous schools and hospitals, and three printing presses, made it
+the commercial and intellectual capital of Syria.
+
+The tendency was to intellectual rather than spiritual progress, and
+there was a growing demand for education. The Jesuits were striving
+to reap the benefit of this, by opening colleges and seminaries in
+various parts of the country; nor could the fact be overlooked, that
+zealous Protestant educators, from different parts of Europe, were
+becoming so numerous at Beirût as to embarrass the mission in its
+natural development. The exigency at length constrained the mission
+to consider whether advantage should not be taken of the offer of
+Christian friends at home to found a Protestant College at Beirût.
+
+This was well, as will appear in the sequel. But it is impossible
+not to see, that the progress of the mission, in the years
+immediately following 1863,--in the increase of converts, and the
+multiplication of churches, with native preachers and pastors,--was
+not such as the facts already stated gave reason to expect. This the
+brethren on the ground foresaw, and their anxious appeals for help
+abound on the pages of the "Missionary Herald," and were enforced by
+appeals from the Prudential Committee. The "Annual Report" for 1863
+thus states the deficiency of laborers at that time:--
+
+"The field north of Beirût, a hundred miles long and fifty wide, has
+no missionary, although hundreds in Hums, and the large district of
+Akkar, are looking to the mission for instruction. A score of
+villages, in each one of which a faithful preacher would find an
+audience, do not receive a visit once a year from a gospel minister.
+Mount Lebanon, with its four hundred thousand inhabitants, scattered
+through its thousand villages, into nearly every one of which more
+or less light has penetrated, and from which cries for help
+constantly come, has but two missionaries; and one of them is
+confined, for the most part, to the Abeih Seminary. The southern
+district, comprising one half of the Syria mission field, with its
+ten regular preaching places, crippled by the disability of its
+oldest native helper and by the death of another, has but two
+missionaries, one of whom is just commencing to learn Arabic. Within
+the last eight years, thirteen missionary laborers, male and female,
+have entered the Syria field, while twenty-five have left it. During
+this period, the work has increased tenfold. Many who have fallen
+asleep took part in sowing, where now the harvest is so great that
+the few who remain cannot gather it; and unless the Lord of the
+harvest send more laborers, much precious fruit will be lost."
+
+It is painfully evident, that the degree of missionary spirit in the
+churches at home then fell short of the providential calls for
+evangelical labor in this field. Yet it is by no means certain what
+would have been the effect of a very large, sudden increase in the
+working forces. Without the restraining grace of God, it might have
+been the occasion of a fierce and malignant outbreak of opposition.
+
+The deficiency of laborers sufficiently accounts for the slow
+progress, and even the decline there was in not a few of the places
+named; as in Tripoli, and Hums, not to speak of promising villages
+in the western and southern sections. Churches, towns, cities in the
+most favored portions of New England would suffer a decline in
+religion and morals, if left, as these places necessarily were, with
+no more of the means of grace.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1863-1869.
+
+
+Mrs. Henry H. Jessup died at Alexandria, after a prolonged sickness,
+on the 2d of July, 1864, whither her husband had taken her on his
+way to the United States. Mr. George C. Hurter, after laboring
+twenty-three years as printer and secular agent with great
+usefulness, found himself constrained by domestic circumstances to
+withdraw from the mission. Mr. Bird was prostrated with a dangerous
+sickness for several months at Abeih, but a merciful Providence
+spared his valuable life.
+
+A boarding high-school was established at Beirût by Mr. Butrus
+Bistany, with nearly a hundred and fifty pupils. The charge for
+tuition and board was large for that country, yet the school was
+self-supporting. The pupils were made up of Greeks, Maronites,
+Greek-Catholics, Druzes, Moslems, and Protestants. A girls'
+boarding-school in the same city, under native instruction and
+government, promised also to be soon self-sustaining. The common
+schools of the mission were twenty-five, with five hundred and
+forty-eight pupils. The Seminary at Abeih had thirty-three pupils, a
+larger number than ever before. Five were in the theological
+department, and several others gave good evidence of piety. The
+graduates of this institution were now scattered over a wide region.
+The boarding-school for girls at Sidon, under Miss Mason, had ten
+pupils, and was making a favorable impression. It became evident,
+however, that pupils could not be obtained there sufficient to
+warrant so large an outlay, taking also into view the unhealthiness
+of that climate, and Miss Mason returned home, though with great
+reluctance. The girls' boarding-school at Beirût, under the care of
+Mr. Aramon and Miss Rufka Gregory, was prosperous.
+
+The printing, in 1862, amounted to eight thousand volumes and nine
+thousand tracts, making an aggregate of 6,869,000 pages, more than
+two thirds of which were Scripture. The number of pages from the
+beginning, was about 50,000,000. Somewhat more than six thousand
+volumes of Scripture were distributed during the year.
+
+The translation of the Scriptures into Arabic was completed on the
+22d of August, 1864, and the printing of the whole Arabic Bible in
+March of the next year. This event, of the highest importance to a
+large portion of the human race, was appropriately celebrated by the
+missionaries and their native brethren. In the upper room where Dr.
+Smith had labored on the translation eight years, and Dr. Van Dyck
+eight years more, the assembled missionaries gave thanks to God for
+the completion of this arduous work. "Just then," writes one of
+them, "the sound of many voices arose from below, and on throwing
+open the door, we heard a large company of native young men,
+laborers at the press and members of the Protestant community,
+singing to the tune of 'Hebron' a new song, 'even praise to our
+God,' composed for the occasion by one of their number in the Arabic
+language. Surely not for many centuries have the angels in heaven
+heard a sweeter sound arising from Syria, than the voices of this
+band of pious young men, singing a hymn composed by one of
+themselves, ascribing glory and praise to God, that now, for the
+first time, the Word of God is given to their nation and tongue in
+its purity." The hymn was composed by Mr. Ibrahim Sarkis and
+translated by Dr. H. H. Jessup, as follows:--
+
+  "Hail day, thrice blessed of our God!
+    Rejoice, let all men bear a part,
+   Complete at length thy printed word,
+    Lord, print its truth on every heart.
+
+  "To Him who gave his precious word,
+    Arise and with glad praises sing;
+   Exalt and magnify our Lord,
+    Our Maker and our Glorious King.
+
+  "Doubting and darkness flee away
+    Before thy truth's light-giving sun,
+   Thy powerful word, if heeded, may
+    Give guidance to each erring one.
+
+  "Lord, spare thy servant, through whose toil
+    Thou giv'st us this, of books the best;
+   Bless all who shared the arduous task,
+    From Eastern land, or distant West.
+
+  "Amen! Amen! lift up the voice;
+    Praise God whose mercy 's e'er the same;
+   His goodness all our song employs,
+    Thanksgivings then to His Great Name."
+
+Ten different editions of parts of the Scriptures were printed as
+the version was gradually prepared for publication, and over thirty
+thousand copies had been put into circulation, nearly all by sale.
+The demand for the volume, in one form or another, after the version
+was completed, was greater than the mission presses could meet,
+though worked by steam. The American Bible Society wisely undertook
+to electrotype several editions of different sizes, and Dr. Van Dyck
+came to New York to superintend the work. But after the royal octavo
+edition had been stereotyped, it was thought best for him to return
+to Syria, with the understanding that the Bible Society would enable
+him to electrotype the version in other forms, at Beirût.
+
+The press was now unable to meet the demand which had arisen for the
+books, as well as for the Bible. The issues were called for on the
+southern and eastern coasts of Arabia, and in India, and a box of
+them was sent to the interior of Africa.
+
+The administration of Daoud Pasha, the Christian Governor of Mount
+Lebanon, continued to be marked by commendable justice, vigor, and
+liberality, and there was a sense of security to which the land had
+long been a stranger. Industry and thrift began to appear, and all
+the interests of society received an impulse. Much, however,
+depended on the foreign Protestant Powers exerting a proper
+influence on the councils of the Turkish government in favor of
+religious liberty.
+
+The only ordination of a native preacher by the mission, up to this
+time, was that of the Rev. John Wortabet, in 1853, afterwards pastor
+of the Hasbeiya church. On the 10th of May, 1864, Mr. Suleeba Jerwan
+received ordination at Abeih. He had gone successfully through a
+four years' course of study in the Seminary, and had for some time
+proved himself faithful and efficient as a teacher and preacher.
+
+The Druzes had a prosperous high school at Abeih, under the special
+patronage of His Excellency Daoud Pasha, supported by the income
+from their religious establishments. Both of the instructors were
+Protestants and graduates of the Abeih Seminary. Though not a
+religious institution, such a school must have had an important
+bearing on the future of that singular people. In 1866, the
+Principal left, and was succeeded by another Protestant, also a
+graduate of the mission Seminary. Referring to the Druzes, the
+brethren of the Abeih station close their report for the year 1864
+with the following remarkable declaration:--
+
+"While it is true that the government of the mountain was never
+better, and we are free to open schools wherever parents dare send
+their children, it is no less true that the Protestants are a small
+and hated minority. Providence has made the Druzes a wall of
+defense, for the present. To them, under God, it is due that we
+pursue our labors on this mountain."
+
+Tannûs El Haddad, the oldest and most esteemed native helper in the
+mission, died in 1864, after more than thirty years of efficient
+labor. "A guileless, spiritual man, whose lovely spirit disarmed the
+enmity even of those who hated his religion. The church of Christ in
+Syria owes much to the holy life and faithful teaching of this man
+of God. The missionaries owe much. He long upheld their hands by the
+strength of his affection and sympathy."
+
+The installation of Suleeba Jerwan as pastor of the church in Hums,
+occurred in 1865. The Protestants there had long resisted the
+settlement of a native pastor, hoping to obtain the residence of an
+American missionary, but their welcome to the native pastor was now
+cordial. His wife was an excellent young woman, formerly a pupil in
+Mr. Bird's family, and his assistant in the instruction of her sex.
+Both pastor and people had a varied experience in after years, not
+unlike what is often seen in Christian lands.
+
+In the spring of 1865, the oppression of the Turkish government
+became so unbearable at Safeeta, in the district of Tripoli, that a
+large number of the people resolved to seek relief in Protestantism.
+A deputation of sixty heads of families, representing nearly five
+hundred souls, was accordingly sent to the missionaries at Tripoli.
+Their motives were wholly secular, and they were not at all aware of
+the spiritual object of the missionaries. This had to be explained,
+and they were told, that it was beyond the power of the mission to
+afford civil protection. The government allowed them to register
+their names as Protestants, and they listened with marked attention
+to the spiritual instructions of Dr. Post; Mr. Samuel Jessup, the
+other missionary, being then at Hums. On leaving, they asked for
+books, and to be more thoroughly inducted into the new way.
+
+The region of Safeeta was new to Protestant missions, but was
+populous and fertile, and bordering on the Nusaireyeh. Among the
+names handed to Dr. Post, as interested in this movement, were one
+hundred and fifty of this strange people, and there were a number of
+them in the deputation; but all of this class soon fell away. Dr.
+Post visited Safeeta in May, and arrangements were effected with the
+government, which opened the door for Christian teaching. He had
+audiences of one hundred and fifty every night, listening with
+reverent attention to words they had never heard before. "I taught
+them hymns," he writes, "and heard them repeat passages of Scripture
+and answer religious questions. On Sunday they commenced coming at
+five, A. M., and kept pouring in upon me all day long, till ten P.
+M.,--just allowing me time to eat, and not even leaving the room
+while I did that. Our large meetings in the evenings were by the
+light of the moon, as an open light would have been extinguished,
+and we had no lantern. A most interesting feature was the number of
+women in the audiences, an exceptional thing in all new religious
+movements in Syria." Two horsemen came from distant villages, to
+inquire about the new faith and sect. The motive was doubtless
+secular, but there is always hope where the Gospel gains a hearing.
+
+The fires of persecution soon began to burn with fury. The Greek
+bishop bribed the Turkish government, and the people were driven
+from their homes; everything was broken that could be broken,
+everything eaten that could be eaten, and women were left to the
+brutal lusts of the Turkish soldiers. It was surprising with what
+tenacity the people held out against all this. A few had become
+earnest inquirers; but without a more general acquaintance with the
+truth they could not be expected long to stand such an onset. Some
+relief came after a few weeks, through the death by cholera of the
+Greek bishop.
+
+Failing to find relief from English intervention, the newly made
+Protestants went _en masse_ to the governor of Tripoli; and failing
+to meet him, they then crossed the mountains to the Governor-general
+at Damascus, taking with them their wives, that the sight of their
+distress might move the heart of the Moslem ruler. At last they
+secured a hearing from him, and he promptly removed the oppressive
+tax-gatherer at Safeeta, and gave the poor people some money in
+token of his sympathy. But returning to their homes, they were still
+oppressed by their local governor. Mr. Samuel Jessup writes in
+October, that poverty and want had come upon them beyond anything
+seen elsewhere in Syria, excepting at Hasbeiya. Some had no means of
+buying their daily bread. They were promised a restoration of all
+that had been taken from them, if they would return to their old
+faith, but they stood firm. They desired a school for their girls,
+and a married teacher was sent them for a boys' school, so as to
+accommodate a female teacher in his family.
+
+Some months later, the cattle of a Protestant strayed, and while
+driving them home he was met by one of their persecutors, of the
+house of Beshoor, who, with some savage Nusairiyeh, threw him on the
+ground, stamped upon him, and drew a sword, threatening to kill him
+if he did not desist from his unclean religion. They dared not do
+more through fear of witnesses. Again, the plowmen of this same
+house plowed up the wheat belonging to the Protestants, ruining
+their hopes of a coming harvest, and leaving them without means to
+pay their taxes; which they must pay or go to prison. They also
+gathered all the olives of the Protestants, reducing them to the
+greatest straits for the means of living. The Moslem governor
+received large bribes to exterminate the sect, and would give them
+no hearing, but quartered his soldiers on them, who ate up all their
+scanty food, and distrained even their miserable cooking utensils,
+that they might sell them for barley for their horses. Many lived
+from day to day on what they could beg, or borrow. Still, after a
+year of such trials, they remained firm; which is the more
+wonderful, as only a few of them gave evidence of piety, and the
+time had not come for organizing them into a church. The school was
+doubtless helpful, being a decided success. Even the shepherds took
+tracts and primers, and studied them while tending their flocks.
+
+In January, 1867, the whole Protestant community of Safeeta were
+arrested, men, women, and children, and imprisoned in a small room,
+and a fire of cut straw was made on the floor to torture them with
+smoke. This wanton cruelty was based on a false demand made on them
+for money. Their sufferings were so great that they were finally
+released. In the evening, while assembled for worship, with their
+native preacher, government horsemen broke open and plundered their
+houses, and in the night drove them all, old and young, mothers and
+children, boys and girls, into the wilderness.
+
+The terrible experience of this people in the summer of 1869,
+somewhat more than two years later, is too suggestive and
+interesting to be passed in silence. I give the facts as related by
+Mr. Samuel Jessup.
+
+"For four years, a large number have been Protestants, and the
+oppressors have added persecution to oppression. Many fell away at
+first, but since then we have seen no special signs of apostasy
+until lately. Their enemies recently made a desperate effort to
+crush out Protestantism from that region. They took the leading men,
+one by one, and led them through fire and perils of all kinds;
+promising, at every step, to give immediate relief, if they would
+only return to the Greek Church. They fulfilled their promises to
+some who yielded, and then increased the pressure on the others. At
+length, seizing the opportunity when our teacher was absent, they
+made another grand onset. On Sunday morning, the Greek bishop and
+the abbots of the neighboring convents, with priests and people from
+all the region around, together with a great number of horsemen and
+footmen, made a grand parade, and came down like locusts upon the
+Protestants. Their former oppressor is dead, but his son, Tamir
+Beshoor, is making his little finger thicker than his father's
+loins. He headed a grand parade, and brought with him a supply of
+new garments, which he had purchased as bribes for the occasion.
+With the bishop and others, he entered the house of every
+Protestant, and by bribes and promises, followed by fiendish
+threats, carried off many captives. Some few had previously sold
+themselves, and agreed to take their stand on this occasion, and
+then they headed the crowd, and declared that every Protestant had
+decided to return, and that Protestantism was dead. Where they found
+a house locked, they forced it open, and sprinkled holy water in it.
+
+"But though their success was far too great, it was not complete.
+They succeeded in taking with them, that morning, twenty-one males.
+Eleven of them have not been to the Greek church since that time,
+but continue to meet with our brethren for prayer; and though it is
+now an important Greek fast, they do not observe it. The other ten
+either dare not or care not to come back to us, though all came to
+see me.
+
+"Before finishing their work that Sunday morning, they sent men to
+our school-room, broke it open, sprinkled it with holy water, and
+stole our bell."
+
+The firmness of some of the church-members is thus described: "After
+exhausting their catalogue of promises and threats on one, he said
+to them,--'Take my property, my house, my clothes, my family, even
+my body, and do with them what you will, but my soul you cannot
+have, and nothing will induce me to leave Christ.' Another said,
+when they came to his house,--'Come in, and let us read in the New
+Testament together, and perhaps you will see that we are right.' One
+girl, who had been two years in the Sidon school, saw her parents
+and relatives all fall into the procession; but when special effort
+was made to induce her to yield, she said,--'Though you should cut
+my body in pieces, I will never go with you.'
+
+"I reached Safeeta a few days after, and found that those who had
+stood firm had been obliged to flee for safety, and did not dare
+return until I went there. The wrath of their persecutors seems to
+have reached its height, and the poor people know not what to do.
+Appeal to the government seems useless, for it is from the
+government that their chief oppressor gets his power to persecute.
+All who went back came to call on me, and most of them attended the
+services. They said, in palliation of their course, 'We are flesh
+and blood, and have families to support. We have waited for
+deliverance for years, and now Tamir (the chief oppressor) says,
+Come back and I will restore to you all; remain as you are, and I
+will strip you of the little you have left, and drive you out of the
+country. And so we went back, but our hearts are with you, and we
+will come here too, though they compelled our bodies to go with
+them.' One woman showed a striped gown, threw it on the ground, and
+trampling on it said, with tears in her eyes, 'With that they bought
+my husband.' Some of the women, with tears and entreaties, tried to
+keep their husbands and friends from going, telling them that death
+was better."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1869, pp. 407-409.
+
+Twenty men were standing firm at Safeeta in February of the
+following year, though there had been little abatement of
+persecution. In April Dr. Jessup wrote, that it had just terminated,
+and the brethren at the Tripoli station had good hopes that there
+would be peace in that long persecuted community. This was owing, in
+great measure, to the interference of the American and English
+Consuls-general, and their influence with the Governor-general of
+Syria.
+
+The people of Hums becoming dissatisfied with their pastor, Suleeba,
+his connection was dissolved, three years after his settlement. The
+church remained in a divided condition for a year or more, without
+any celebration of the Lord's Supper. In the summer of 1869, Mr.
+Samuel Jessup visited the city, and finding the Protestants in a
+better state of feeling, invited the communicants to assemble at the
+Lord's table. All came and seemed to enjoy it as a season of rest
+and refreshment, after a long and weary wandering. They were ready
+to take a native pastor who suited them, and pay the larger part of
+his salary. They needed one well acquainted with the historical
+defenses of the Gospel, because of the inroads of European Jesuits
+and French infidel literature. Suleeba found demands for his
+faithful labors in other places. "The news," says Dr. Jessup, "from
+'scattered and peeled' Safeeta and from distracted Hums, is alike
+cheering, and indicative of progress in the right direction."
+
+The Tripoli station sent forth two of the Safeeta church-members as
+missionaries to visit the villages to the north and east, sending
+two together, as it would not be safe for one to go alone. The
+native missionary society at Beirût employed a zealous colporter,
+whose tours took a wide range, from Acre on the south to Hamath and
+even to Aleppo on the north, and his monthly reports showed that,
+throughout the country, there was not only urgent need of such
+labor, but also an increasing number prepared to profit by the
+visits of the gospel messenger. During the latter part of the year,
+another person was employed in similar work near Beirût. He also
+testified to a great increase of desire among the people for
+religious instruction.
+
+Daoud Pasha, alter inaugurating important reforms and improvements
+on Lebanon, was promoted to a seat in the cabinet at Constantinople.
+He had started a newspaper, "The Lebanon," established telegraphic
+lines, commenced a carriage road, encouraged education, and made his
+pashalic the safest in the empire for travelling. His successor was
+Franco Pasha, a Latin Catholic. The Beirût Arabic official journal,
+in speaking of his arrival, says, that "although attached to his own
+religion, he is free from bigotry, and will guarantee liberty of
+conscience to all."
+
+The mission was strengthened in 1867 by the arrival of Samuel S.
+Mitchell and Isaac N. Lowry, and their wives; and in 1869, of James
+S. Dennis, and Misses Eliza D. Everett, and Nellie A. Carruth.
+Messrs. Berry and Mitchell were constrained, by the failure of
+health after a short service, to leave the mission. Miss Carruth,
+also, though deeply interested in the work, and after valuable
+service in the girls' school, felt constrained soon to return to the
+United States.
+
+Among the books printed in this time, were Edwards' "History of
+Redemption;" Bickersteth's "Scripture Hand-book," with additions by
+Mr. Calhoun; a large Psalm and Hymn Book; Curwen's "New System of
+Musical Notation;"[1] a Children's Hymn Book; Bistany's Arabic
+Dictionary, and his Elements of Grammar; and an Arabic Almanac,
+probably the first ever printed in Arabic, although "Al-Manakh" (the
+climate) is an Arabic word. The press was now under the direction of
+Mr. Henry Thomson, a son of Dr. Thomson, who relieved the Beirût
+station of a heavy burden of care. The necessary preparations were
+completed in 1868 for electrotyping the Arabic Scriptures in Beirût.
+
+[1] By this, musical notes written in a syllabic form can be given,
+like the Arabic, from right to left. The staff, notes, and
+signatures are dispensed with, and single letters are arranged in
+succession, with separations by dots and marks. As a result, the
+ordinary Arabic types can be used to print the most intricate music.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1869-1870.
+
+
+Though the Seminary at Abeih had a few students preparing for the
+ministry, under Mr. Calhoun, it could not properly be called a
+Theological Seminary. Only at Hasbeiya, Hums, and Ain Zehalty had
+native pastors been found for the churches. There were five churches
+without pastors. The eight churches had two hundred and forty-five
+members. The thirty-one common schools numbered a thousand male and
+one hundred and seventy female pupils. Eight of the teachers were
+church-members, and four of these were females. The demand for
+education was beyond the ability of the mission to supply.
+
+At the recommendation of the Prudential Committee, a Theological
+Seminary was commenced at Abeih in May, 1869; and Dr. Jessup from
+Beirût, and Mr. Eddy from Sidon, were associated with Mr. Calhoun in
+its instruction. Seven students composed the first class, and, with
+but one exception, evinced a good Christian spirit, studied hard,
+and seemed anxious to live an active and useful Christian life. The
+five winter months of their vacation were spent in evangelical
+labors.
+
+As far back as 1865, there was a prosperous female boarding-school
+at Beirût, under the care of Mr. Aramon and Miss Rufka Gregory,
+natives of Syria. In the following year, this school had thirty
+boarders and twenty day scholars. It was the first Protestant school
+in Syria that demanded pay for the education of girls, but its
+receipts for tuition and board equaled about half the expenses.
+"Among the causes," say the brethren of the Beirût station, "which
+operated to prevent the raising of the rates of board and tuition to
+a self-supporting basis, was the existence of competing schools
+furnished with European teachers, rendering it difficult for the
+seminary to induce parents to pay the full expense. This was a grave
+difficulty, and one which, in one form or another, has met every
+attempt to establish the principle of self-support in Syria, in all
+departments of our work; but it only makes it the more important
+that this native institute, with native teachers and adapted to
+native tastes and habits, should be steadily sustained, lest the
+impulse already given in the direction of self-support, be lost." A
+building was completed for the school in 1867, at the cost of about
+$9,000, chiefly the result of contributions in the United States,
+but without any organic connection with the mission. Of its
+seventy-six pupils fifty-seven were boarders, and the income was
+$3,220 in gold, which was $1,000 short of its expenses. There was
+still the impediment of unwise competition. The pupils were from
+Moslem, Greek, and Greek-Catholic, as well as Protestant families;
+though it was well known that the institution was an evangelizing
+agency, and that all were expected to attend Protestant worship on
+the Sabbath, and were daily taught in the Bible.
+
+In the absence of Miss Gregory on account of failing health, Mr. and
+Mrs. Aramon carried on the school, with the assistance of ladies
+from the mission. The school increased in numbers and the
+examination in 1868 was attended by a great throng of the people,
+from all classes and all sects. It was a noticeable fact that
+Mohammedan parents in Beirût were beginning to insist earnestly upon
+the education of their girls. The Beirût Arabic official journal,
+the "Kadethat el-Akhbax," published a list of schools in the
+city,--possibly somewhat exaggerated,--in which it was said, that
+there were two thousand girls and three thousand boys and young men
+in the various Protestant, Greek, Maronite, Catholic, and Mohammedan
+schools.
+
+The school passed under the care of Misses Everett and Carruth on
+their arrival in Syria, and substantial progress was made towards
+self-support, but less than would have been but for the French,
+English, and German schools, which tended to draw away the girls,
+and the families they represented, from the influence of the
+missionaries.
+
+There was, also, a female boarding-school at Sidon, which had been
+growing in numbers and influence. The scholars were all Protestants,
+selected with care from the various schools of the country. "They
+have come," wrote Mr. Eddy, "from all parts of the land,--from Hums
+and Safeeta on the north, from Mount Lebanon on the east, and the
+district of Merj Aiyun on the south; and besides the good they gain
+for themselves while here, they will carry light and civilization,
+and we trust religious influence with them to their widely scattered
+homes." The school was in the immediate charge of Mrs. Watson and
+her daughter, English ladies, and more recently Miss Jacombs, for
+five years a teacher on Mount Lebanon, and supported by a society of
+ladies in England. It was fully in sympathy, however, with the
+mission, and had the sympathy, prayers, and aid of English
+Christians. The number of pupils was twenty.
+
+
+THE SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE.
+
+
+The desire for education had visibly increased, and was due, in
+part, to commercial intercourse with western nations, and the
+interference of foreign powers in the political affairs of the
+country; but far more to the schools, books, preaching, and personal
+influence of missionaries. Schools had been multiplying for
+elementary and high school instruction, but there was no provision
+for a liberal education. The Jesuits, indeed, had institutions, but
+their teaching was partial, fitted to repress inquiry, and
+exclusively to foster their own ecclesiastical and sectarian ends.
+
+THE SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE. [image]
+
+The demand for a Protestant college was discussed at a meeting of
+the mission, in the spring of 1861, and again in the following
+August, when an outline of the proposed scheme was presented.[1]
+
+[1] In this statement concerning the College, I make such use as my
+limits will allow, of an able document, drawn up by Prof. D. Stuart
+Dodge, and kindly sent me, at my request, by the President, Dr.
+Daniel Bliss. It bears date May, 1872.
+
+"The objects deemed essential, were to enable natives to obtain, in
+their own country, in their own language, and at a moderate cost, a
+thorough literary, scientific, and professional education; to found
+an institution, which should be conducted on principles strictly
+evangelical, but not sectarian; with doors open to youth of every
+Oriental sect and nationality, who would conform to its regulations,
+but so ordered that students, while elevated intellectually and
+spiritually, should not materially change their native customs. The
+hope was entertained, that much of the instruction might at once be
+intrusted to pious and competent natives, and that ultimately the
+teaching could be left in the hands of those, who had been raised up
+by the College itself."
+
+The curriculum embraced a period of four years; and the studies were
+the Arabic Language and Literature, Mathematics, the Natural
+Sciences, the Modern Languages, Turkish Law and Jurisprudence, and
+Medicine,--the last to have special prominence, since the East was
+filled with ignorant native quacks and medical jugglers. A leading
+place would also be given to Moral Science, and Biblical Literature,
+with the Scriptures as a constant text-book. Theology, as a system,
+would be left to the care of the several missions.
+
+It was thought that the American Board could not undertake so large
+a literary work in any one mission, and that the College should be
+separate from and independent of the Board and its missions, as
+such; but that, being on so broad a basis, other evangelical bodies
+among the Arabic-speaking race might be invited to share in its
+advantages and control. Denominational distinctions set aside, those
+engaged in similar missionary operations could unite in an
+enterprise designed to advance their common interests.
+
+The College was to be at Beirût, the chief seaport of Syria, and a
+place of enterprise and growing importance, occupying a central
+position in respect to all the Arabic races. The local Board of
+Directors was to be composed of American and British missionaries
+and residents of Syria and Egypt, with several consular officials
+and leading merchants; of which a quorum should always reside in
+Beirût and its immediate vicinity.
+
+The Rev. Daniel Bliss, six years a missionary of the American Board
+on Mount Lebanon, was cheerfully released by the Prudential
+Committee from his connection with the mission, that he might take
+the Presidency of the College, and visit the United States and
+England to obtain the needful endowment.
+
+To secure public confidence, it was found indispensable to have the
+institution incorporated in America, with a responsible Board of
+Trustees. A charter was accordingly obtained, in April, 1863, in
+accordance with the laws of the State of New York, and in May, 1864,
+additional power to hold real and personal estate was granted by act
+of the Legislature. A constitution was framed, binding the
+institution to evangelical and unsectarian principles; formally
+constituting the body, appointed by the mission, a local Board of
+Managers, with large liberty in administration; and defining the
+relations between the Boards in America and Syria and those of the
+various officers to be connected with the College. It further
+provided, that the Board of Trustees should have the right to
+exercise final authority in all matters, and that funds for
+endowments should be retained in the United States, the income only
+to be transmitted to the East.
+
+An endowment fund of $100,000 was secured from a small number of
+contributors, the Trustees and their immediate friends being the
+largest donors.[1] In addition to this, Dr. Bliss obtained £3,000 in
+England; Lords Shaftesbury, Stratford de Redcliffe, Dufferin,
+Strangford, and Calthorpe, among the nobility, indorsing the
+enterprise; and the Turkish Missions Aid Society rendered valuable
+assistance. The "Syrian Improvement Committee" gave £1,000, from
+funds remaining after the relief of sufferers from the Lebanon
+massacres.
+
+[1] Among the more active and influential of these, as I learn from
+other sources, was the Rev. D. Stuart Dodge. In 1872, the endowment
+fund was reported to be $130,000.
+
+Dr. Bliss returned to Syria early in 1866. The first college class
+consisted of fourteen members. A preparatory department was
+afterwards added, and eighty names have been enrolled in the two
+departments. The students have evinced, in most instances, an
+aptitude and zeal for study, that would be creditable in more
+favored lands. The charge for tuition is twenty-five dollars for the
+collegiate year of nine mouths; and fifty-five dollars additional
+for those who board in the institution. The sects represented are
+the Protestant, Orthodox-Greek, Papal-Greek, Latin, Maronite, Druze,
+Armenian, and Coptic.
+
+All boarders are required to be present at morning and evening
+prayers, and to attend Protestant worship and Bible classes on the
+Sabbath; and Bible lectures or Scripture recitations are of daily
+occurrence. A voluntary prayer-meeting is maintained by the
+students.
+
+Most of the thirteen who have graduated from the Academic
+Department, are acceptably employed as teachers of a higher grade in
+Syria and Egypt. Two have entered the Medical Department, and two
+are studying Law. The first Commencement was in July, 1870, and the
+addresses were in three languages. The College has a Medical
+Department, and the first medical class was graduated in July, 1871.
+
+A building fund of about $70,000 having been contributed chiefly by
+the donors to the endowment fund, a plot of nearly twenty acres of
+ground was purchased at Râs-Beirût, in the immediate vicinity of the
+city; facing Lebanon, overlooking the Mediterranean, healthy,
+accessible, yet sufficiently retired; and the edifice is in the
+process of erection. The corner stone was laid, December 7, 1871, by
+the Hon. William E. Dodge, and appropriate exercises, in English and
+Arabic, accompanied the ceremony.
+
+The Medical Hall is located at some distance from the College
+edifice. These buildings may be seen from almost every quarter of
+the city, and from the villages on the western slopes of Lebanon;
+and they will be the first objects to greet the eyes of all who
+enter the harbor, and will stand as the exponents and dispensers of
+sound Christian learning.
+
+The connection of this mission with the American Board continued
+until the latter part of the year 1870, wanting only two years of
+half a century, when the reunion of the Presbyterian Church gave
+rise to the question of a transfer of the mission to the
+Presbyterian Board. The events above described, connected with the
+Syrian Protestant College, favored such a result, and the question
+was kindly, though reluctantly entertained. On the 20th of
+September, 1870, the following paper was received at the Missionary
+House:--
+
+"The Syria mission, at a special meeting held in Abeih, August 16,
+1870, had laid before them two documents, one from the Prudential
+Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
+Missions, and the other from the Committee of Conference of the
+General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church with the American
+Board,--touching the transfer of the mission from the American Board
+to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions; and having given the
+subject their serious and prayerful consideration, they have adopted
+the following action:--
+
+"1. That the mission regard the subject thus presented as one which
+has not originated with themselves, but as having been brought
+before them by the Providence of God; and as not to be decided at
+all by them on personal grounds or ecclesiastical preferences, but
+to be decided solely in view of its bearings upon the cause of
+Christ in this land, and among the churches at home.
+
+"2. That the mission appreciate the delicacy and kindness with which
+the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for
+Foreign Missions conveyed the consent of the Board to the withdrawal
+of its members from their service, with the view of forming a new
+connection, if they deem it expedient, and the hearty assurance of
+their readiness to continue the support of the mission should they
+decide to remain as heretofore.
+
+"3. That they also equally appreciate the cordial invitation
+extended to them by the Committee of the Presbyterian Church, and
+the pledge conveyed to the mission, that they shall enjoy, in the
+new proposed connection, all the freedom of action, 'in respect to
+their policy and ecclesiastical relations,' which they have hitherto
+possessed.
+
+"4. That the mission find great difficulty in considering calmly and
+impartially a question involving their separation from the American
+Board, the severing of ties which have existed until within two
+years of half a century, which have been interwoven with the
+earliest recollections of childhood, which have grown strong by
+personal connection and active coöperation during years of service,
+and which we had anticipated would only be dissolved by death. No
+language can express how much of pain to their hearts the thought of
+this separation involves. Their relations to the Secretaries, to the
+Prudential Committee, and through them to the churches, have been
+most tender and happy.
+
+"In these relations they have found the largest liberty and the
+fullest sympathy, and personally, the mission have no cause to
+desire a change.
+
+"The feelings of the mission on this point will be more fully
+expressed by individual communications from its several members, to
+the Prudential Committee.
+
+"5. In view, however, of the weighty considerations which have been
+set before the mission for this change of their connection,
+considerations whose reasonableness and justice are apparent to
+their minds, and in view of the expressed opinion of what is their
+duty, on the part of the reunited Presbyterian Church, they cannot
+but feel that the call is from God, and the step to be taken is one
+demanded by the highest interests of Christ's Church.
+
+"6. That the mission express their conviction, that no change is
+demanded in the ecclesiastical connections of any of its members.
+
+"In accordance, therefore, with these views of this whole subject,--
+
+"_Resolved_, 1st; that the mission present to the Prudential
+Committee a request for a release from their connection with the
+American Board, with a view to placing themselves under the
+direction of the Presbyterian Board.
+
+"And 2d, That the mission accept the invitation conveyed in the
+letter of the Rev. J. F. Stearns, D. D., Chairman of the Committee
+of Conference of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, dated June 19,
+1870, to place themselves under the care of the Presbyterian Board.
+
+"Although the official ties which have bound us to those with whom
+we have been so long and so happily associated may thus be severed,
+we feel that the bonds of sympathy and of prayer remain unchanged,
+and will continue so to remain until, in the higher work of praise,
+our hearts and voices shall be again and forever _united_."
+
+In accordance with this action the individual members of the mission
+sent a request to be released from their connection with the
+American Board, and they were released by vote of the Prudential
+Committee.
+
+The members of the mission, at that time, were Drs. Thomson, Van
+Dyck, and H. H. Jessup, and Messrs. Calhoun, Eddy, Bird, Samuel
+Jessup. I. N. Lowry, and James S. Dennis. The author would naturally
+have great pleasure in quoting from their letters of farewell, but
+can only refer the reader for them to the "Missionary Herald."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1870, pp. 391-398.
+
+
+RESULTS OF THE PAST.
+
+
+The history of the mission of the American Board to Palestine and
+Syria cannot be closed better than by the retrospective summary made
+by the mission at the close of their relations with the Board. They
+are speaking of the results of past labors.
+
+"To Protestant influence, in great part, may we ascribe the changed
+feeling, which has come over the minds of the Mohammedans towards
+Christians. The Christian religion has become understood by them to
+be not wholly the system of idolatry, which they once regarded it,
+nor professing Christians as devoid of morality as they once seemed.
+As a consequence, there has been a sensible quenching of the flame
+of Moslem bigotry, and a greater respect for Christians, their
+rights, their Bible, and their religion. The relative positions of
+the crescent and the cross are not what they were when the
+missionaries came to Syria. The Bible has gained ground, and the
+Koran has lost it, as a controlling influence in the land. Some
+Mohammedans are among the attendants upon our preaching, and these
+would doubtless be more numerous, but for the risk to property and
+to life, which inquirers from among them incur.
+
+"Not without results have the children of the Druzes been taught in
+our schools during all these years, and so many conversations been
+held with adults of that sect. The leaven of the Gospel has
+penetrated even to the secret inner sanctuaries of their religion;
+and the white turbans of the initiated Druzes seen in our Sabbath
+congregations, the inquirers who come to our houses, and the
+baptized converts from among them, show that not in vain to the
+Druzes has the light of the Gospel again dawned upon Syria.
+
+"But principally among the nominally Christian sects have the
+indirect results of missionary labor extended. These are visible in
+the changed power of the clergy. Once excommunication was a terror
+above all terrors. Now it is so powerless a weapon, that those who
+once wielded it so effectively are ashamed to challenge ridicule by
+exposing its weakness.
+
+"Protestantism, once regarded by the mass of the people as the
+blackest of heresies, finds everywhere its defenders and
+vindicators, even where it lacks followers, and no longer can the
+lies gain currency, with which the clergy were accustomed to
+frighten away their flocks from gospel influence.
+
+"The religious instruction given in their churches has been
+modified. More Bible is taught, and less tradition. The preaching is
+more of Christ, and less of the saints. The adoration of pictures
+has greatly lessened. All sects have been compelled to introduce
+schools, and to educate both boys and girls, to educate their
+priests, and to remove the restrictions from reading the Bible.
+
+"The circulation of the Scriptures, and of religious books, has been
+wide-spread, and we have heard of some who have been enlightened by
+these silent teachers, and have through them found Christ as their
+Saviour, and died in joyful trust in Him; though they never had an
+opportunity to publicly profess their faith in Him.
+
+"Among all sects, Mohammedan, Druze, Greek, Maronite, and Catholic,
+the glaciers of prejudice, which for centuries have been forming,
+are now melting under the warmth of the Gospel.
+
+"The gift of the Bible to this people in their own tongue, is the
+rich golden tribute which the West has returned to the East, in
+acknowledgment of its obligation to the land whence the Bible came.
+
+"Brighter than the light, which kindles early and lingers late upon
+the crests of Lebanon and Hermon, crowning them with glory, is the
+light of the Gospel, which has shone into dark hearts, in hamlet and
+city, recalling the memories of a past not inglorious, and presaging
+a fairer splendor in the future.
+
+"Not in vain have Hebard, and Smith, and Whiting, and De Forest, and
+Ford, sowed the seed of the Word in tears, even though they went
+home with few gathered sheaves. From the heights of heaven they now
+behold the springing harvest. Not in vain have others toiled here,
+whose summons has not yet come. They bless God for what their eyes
+see and their ears hear of the Lord's working around them.
+Reluctantly have those yielded to the sad necessity of returning
+home, who, having just thrust in the sickle, found their strength
+unequal to the toil.
+
+"The churches in America, which have aided in sustaining the mission
+by their offerings and their prayers, have seen fewer results, than
+have crowned their labors in other fields; their faith has been
+sorely tried; but they have been permitted to hear, from time to
+time, of souls ransomed from darkness and sin; echoes of the songs
+of triumph sung by departing saints have been borne to their ears,
+and they have felt that their labors have not been unrewarded.
+
+"By God's grace we have laid anew the foundations of God's living
+temple, Christ being the chief corner-stone, and we have seen some
+courses already built upon it. We have set up and maintained the
+banner of the cross in the face of its pretended friends and its
+avowed foes. We have collected a little army on the Lord's side, and
+armed them with the sword of the Spirit. We have prepared an arsenal
+of spiritual weapons for future conflicts, in the Scriptures and
+other religious books translated and committed to the people. We
+have established outposts of schools and seminaries, have raised
+strongholds of the truth in churches planted here and there
+throughout the land. We have taken possession of the land in the
+name of King Immanuel, and we aim to subdue and hold it wholly for
+him."[1]
+
+[1] From the _Foreign Missionary of the Presbyterian Church_, April,
+1871, p. 305-307.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1867-1869.
+
+
+The year 1868 added five to the ordained missionary force of the
+missions; namely, Messrs. Alpheus N. Andrus, Carmi C. Thayer, John
+Edwin Pierce, Royal M. Cole, and Theodore S. Pond. Messrs. Milan H.
+Hitchcock, Edward Riggs, Henry Marden, and John Otis Barrows, were
+added in 1869. These were all accompanied by their wives. Besides
+these, there were George C. Reynolds, M. D., and wife, and ten
+unmarried women; namely, Misses Rebecca A. Tracy, Charlotte
+Elizabeth Ely, Mary A. C. Ely, Harriet G. Powers, Cyrene O. Van
+Duzee, Olive L. Parmelee, Isabella C. Baker, Flavia S. Bliss, Ursula
+C. Clarke, and Ardelle M. Griswold. Mardin was now manned, for the
+first time, with three missionaries, Messrs. Williams, Andrus, and
+Pond, with Misses Parmelee and Baker, two unmarried young women. Dr.
+Van Lennep and Mr. Ladd closed their labors in connection with the
+mission in 1869.
+
+It was not alone at Harpoot, that the year 1869 opened with a
+revival of religion. Aintab, Bitlis, Marash, and Mardin were favored
+with the like blessing. The "Week of Prayer" at Marash was described
+as a jubilee. Both houses of worship were opened, each day, an hour
+before sunset, and in each was a gathering of at least two hundred
+and fifty; where the many spontaneous prayers, and the pastor's vain
+endeavors to close the services within the hour, showed that the
+attendance was not a mere form. Twenty-nine out of fifty-two
+candidates were admitted to the first church, and twenty-one out of
+forty to the second. Nearly all these were able to read; and the
+examination was deemed more remarkable than the number received.
+
+In respect to Mardin, I cannot refrain from quoting the expressive
+words of Mr. Williams, whose pen had much of graphic power. "The
+community here received the proposal to observe the week of prayer
+most joyfully, and preferred two meetings a day to one,--the first
+at sunrise, the second an hour and a half before sunset, each an
+hour long. Our first meeting was in a pouring rain, thirty present.
+This is the first pleasant day, and seventy-six were present in the
+morning. One of the preachers opens the meeting by singing, reading,
+remarks, and prayer. This occupies from twenty-five to thirty
+minutes, and then the meeting is thrown open to others, and six or
+eight prayers, short and pertinent, fill the time till the hour is
+up. We never before have been able to start a prayer-meeting here,
+and now they move off in a line, as if they had done nothing else
+all their lives. I think as many as twenty-five persons have led in
+prayer."
+
+A church had not yet been formed, but the Protestant community
+undertook the entire support of their preacher, and also of one of
+their own number as a missionary to the Koords. The latter is thus
+described by Mr. Williams: "A great, six feet, brawny fellow, with
+unwashed clothes (he is a tanner), long, disheveled hair, large,
+open features, and eyes black as coal, that shine like stars; but so
+simple in his trust, so tender in his love to Jesus, and earnest in
+his efforts to do good! He learned to read with steady, earnest
+application, and his questions are so spiritual, so humble, so
+childlike, that it is as the sun whenever he enters my door.
+
+"One evening Oosee (Hosea) came in with clothes torn, fez[1] gone,
+face bloody, hair wildly disheveled, but the same genial lustre
+beaming from his eyes, accompanied by another Protestant, Daoud
+(David), who was earnest, almost imperative, that I should at once
+go to the governor and enter complaint. Asking for particulars, I
+learned that, returning from his garden soon after sunset, Oosee was
+set upon by a crowd of Papists, and escaped in the plight I saw him.
+Daoud insisted that unless those men were at once imprisoned, no one
+would be safe. I asked Oosee how he felt about it. 'Just as you say,
+Khowaja,[2] was his reply. I read to him parts of Rom. xii. and
+xiii., and showed him that he was justified in entering complaint,
+that he had a right to protection, and that those who had set upon
+him doubtless deserved punishment; but said I, 'Would those men have
+touched you when you were a Papist?' 'Not one.' 'Why?' 'They dare
+not. Why, they knew I could thrash the whole of them, and would have
+feared I'd kill them. They knew me.' 'And now?' 'Now they think I'm
+a Prote, and wont strike back.' 'Did you?' 'Not a bit; I only tried
+to get away from them.' 'And if now, instead of throwing them into
+prison, you forgive them, and treat them as if nothing had happened,
+do you think they will see any difference between Oosee the Papist,
+and Oosee the Prote?' 'Of course they will.' 'To what will they
+charge the difference?' 'To my new religion.' 'Will not that lead
+them to admit the power of the Gospel? Will it not honor Christ?'
+'Yes, I believe it will.' 'Well, Oosee, just as _you_ say. If
+you on the whole wish it, I will go to the governor and enter
+complaint,--you have a clear right to this,--or I will let it drop
+just here, as you please.' 'No, Khowaja, I'll not complain, I
+forgive them. I'll go home and treat them as if nothing had
+happened. That is what Jesus says, and I'll do it. Perhaps they will
+come to Christ.' He has never since been molested.
+
+[1] Red Turkish cap.
+
+[2] Gentleman--a title given to the missionaries in Eastern Turkey.
+
+"When it was decided to take a new class of training pupils in
+Arabic, Oosee was the first to whom I spoke about joining it. The
+proposition was wholly unexpected, and I wish you could have seen
+the joy that shone in his eyes and beamed from every feature! I
+asked him if he thought his wife would consent to his going. 'We
+will ask Jesus,' he said. 'If he wants me to go he will make her
+willing. I don't think she'll oppose.' To some, who attempted to
+dissuade him on the ground that the allowance was insufficient for
+his family, he said, 'If only they will let me study, we will
+consent to live in the yard; no matter about a house, we'll get on
+any way; anything for Jesus.' Some days after, I said; "How about
+the wife?' 'O, she says go, and if need be we'll sell our vineyard
+to meet expenses. She is more anxious to go than I.' The vineyard
+would possibly bring, if sold, forty dollars in currency."
+
+A church was organized at Mardin in February, which engaged to
+choose and support a pastor. On Sabbath afternoon, when it was
+organized, and the sacraments were administered, there were present
+three hundred and fifty persons, in a room which Mr. Williams says,
+"I had always insisted would hold one hundred and fifty, if properly
+packed." While candidates were being examined, the wife of Oosee
+presented herself. "No one had thought of her as a church-member,
+but before her examination was through, each had written against her
+name 'accepted.' We were as much delighted as surprised at her
+answers, and the meek, loving spirit she showed." Oosee did not go
+on the proposed mission, not deeming himself sufficiently educated;
+but is understood to have adorned his Christian profession down to
+the present time.
+
+The reader has already some acquaintance with the people of Zeitoon,
+inhabiting the mountains north of Marash. Until subdued by the Turks
+in 1862, they were famed for their defiance of all law. The town
+contained about twelve thousand inhabitants, all of them Armenians.
+The men were described as of athletic make, quick step, and piercing
+eyes, showing in all their bearing that they breathed the free air
+of the mountains. The town is about thirty-five miles from Marash,
+built against the side of a high rock, the houses hanging one above
+another, so that the roof of the house below is the front yard of
+the house above.
+
+Two years after their subjugation, Dr. Pratt made a professional
+visit, to attend one of their leaders then dangerously sick, and
+suffered no molestation. Two years later, at the earnest
+solicitation of several Protestants, Mr. Montgomery attempted a
+visit, with Pastor Avedis of the second church of Marash, and a
+deacon of the first church. The town being then under Turkish
+authority, they anticipated no special danger. "At evening, as we
+were entering the city," writes Mr. Montgomery, "to visit the
+governor of the place, according to custom, a furious mob of men and
+boys dragged us from our horses, and at once began beating and
+stoning us with frantic rage, rending the air with savage yells. Our
+Protestant guide was driven out of sight amid volleys of stones, the
+mob crying, 'Kill him! kill the wretch!' The deacon was allowed to
+secrete himself; but for Avedis and myself there was no escape till
+the mob had spent their fury, stoning us, and afterwards kicking and
+beating our prostrate bodies, while we were looking for escape only
+through death."
+
+At this crisis, a great strong man, yelling so as to appear in
+sympathy with the mob, rushed up to where Mr. Montgomery was lying,
+and threw him on his horse, saying to him in an under tone, "Don't
+be afraid, trust me;" and then with curses hurried him out of the
+way, and took him and the pastor in the dark to his own house,
+where, as he dared not to keep them, he got them ready, as well as
+he could, to return at once to Marash.
+
+"Thus we were saved," continues Mr. Montgomery, "after having been
+in the hands of the mob over two hours. We had a hard ride that
+night, hatless, our clothes bloody and torn, and our bodies so
+bruised that we could scarce sit on our horses; but we were enabled
+to pick our way homeward by the rough mountain paths."
+
+It was subsequently known that this outrage was instigated by the
+priests at Marash, with the connivance of the governor. Meanwhile
+the Zeitoon people were fearful lest they had gone too far, and the
+Protestants began to breathe more freely; and many, who had failed
+to declare themselves before, now stood up openly for the truth.
+
+In the summer of 1868, a native preacher was sent to Zeitoon by the
+home missionary society of Marash, and was allowed to remain
+unmolested, with ample opportunities for preaching the Word. At the
+close of the year, Mr. Trowbridge, having removed from
+Constantinople to Marash, made a visit to Zeitoon, and remained
+there laboring freely from Thursday till Monday. His guide homeward
+was a Zeitoon Protestant,--"a tall, gaunt man, past middle life, who
+has suffered much there for Christ's sake. At one time the people
+blackened his face with a coal, put him astride of a donkey with his
+face towards the tail, and thus paraded him through the streets; a
+crier shouting before him, 'Thus shall it be done to all who reject
+the worship of saints, and do not honor the Virgin Mary.' There is
+now no persecution."
+
+Hopeful indications once more appeared among the Greeks at Erzroom
+and Trebizond, and also at Kerasun and Ordo, on the coast of the
+Black Sea west of Trebizond. Mr. Parmelee visited the two places
+last named, and put a helper named Harootune at Ordo, around whom
+the people gathered, earnestly desiring to learn the way of life.
+Even the women, who were precluded by their notions of propriety
+from assembling with the men, anxiously inquired when the helper
+would bring his wife, that she might teach them also. Persecution
+arose, but as usual it was overruled for good.
+
+Dr. William Goodell, after more than forty years of successful
+missionary service, returned in 1865, in feeble health, to spend the
+evening of life in his native land. With his wife, who had been his
+faithful companion from the first, he made his home with his eldest
+son, a physician in Philadelphia. There, beloved and revered, he
+lived until February 18, 1867, when he was removed to his heavenly
+home, at the age of seventy-five.
+
+To the early friends of Dr. Goodell it seemed that his providential
+call was to be a preacher of the Gospel; and such he really was
+all through life, and the printed volume of his sermons in
+Armeno-Turkish, translated also into Armenian and Bulgarian, has had
+a very extensive circulation.[1] But Divine Providence so ordered
+the events of his early missionary career, that translating the
+Scriptures became his principal work. He began at Malta to translate
+the New Testament from the original into the Armeno-Turkish. That
+done, he entered upon the Old Testament; and he completed the last
+revision of the Bible in 1863. It was a great and good work, and
+will transmit his name for grateful remembrance to future ages.
+
+[1] The report of the Nicomedia station for 1871, contains the
+following: "In Diermendere, a basket-maker has learned Turkish, and
+is supplied with books and tracts in that language for use among the
+Turks. The book he thinks most of, and which he begs may be put into
+the Arabic character, is Dr. Goodell's sermons. A Baghchejuk
+brother, whose business takes him often among the Turks in the
+vicinity of Armash, always takes these sermons with him. He says
+that the Turks always listen with interest, and sometimes with
+tears. He is often requested to read the same sermon over and over
+again." The Marsovan report for the same year contains the
+following: "At Vizier Keopreu a change in public sentiment has taken
+place to such a degree, that the Armenian teacher is preaching Dr.
+Goodell's sermons to attentive audiences of his own people."
+
+Dr. Goodell had few equals as an agreeable letter-writer. The author
+was in official correspondence with him through his whole missionary
+life, and never ceased admiring his vivacity, humor, and felicity of
+expression, the aptness of his thoughts, and his very appropriate
+quotations of Scripture. He had the power, beyond most men, of
+passing at once and by an easy transition, from the merriest
+laughter to the most serious topics. His addresses to children had a
+resistless charm, and his power of turning a conversation into
+channels of his own choice was invaluable, in dealing with conceited
+disputatious orientals. "Indomitable in his purpose to do good,
+affable and courteous in manner, of ready tact, and abounding in
+resistless pleasantry, he gained access wherever he chose to go, and
+wielded an influence powerful for good upon all with whom he chose
+to associate. He commanded the respect of foreign ambassadors and
+travellers, of dignitaries in the Oriental Churches, bankers, and
+the highest in society, as well as the common people. Even enemies
+were constrained to honor him. Few possess in so high a degree the
+admirable faculty of doing good without offense, and of recommending
+personal religion to the world."[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1867, pp. 129-133: also 1865,
+p. 350.
+
+Mr. Herman N. Barnum's account of a tour to Diarbekir, Mardin, Sert,
+Bitlis, and Moosh, in 1867, brings the Eastern field vividly before
+us. His new associate, Mr. Henry S. Barnum, together with the
+pastors connected with the Evangelical Union, and nine recent
+graduates of the Seminary, accompanied him as far as Diarbekir,
+where they arrived on Saturday. There was a union service of the two
+congregations, on the next day, in the yard of one of the chapels,
+at which as many as eight hundred were present. The church in
+Diarbekir, though its pastor had been absent for two and a half
+years, and there was only one native preacher for the two
+congregations, yet had maintained the ordinances, and secured
+frequent accessions to the community. They supported their preacher,
+and also several schools, sent money to their absent pastor, and
+supported two students at the Theological Seminary, whom they had
+sent thither to be educated for the mission in Koordistan. They
+chose several of their more intelligent members to assist the
+preacher in keeping up the services of the two congregations; thus
+proving their ability to care for themselves under very unfavorable
+circumstances.
+
+The Union was in session four days, and its meetings were well
+attended. The evangelizing of Koordistan received a good deal of
+attention. The five young men who were preparing for it, had
+locations assigned them, their salaries fixed, and thus the native
+pastors were acquiring experience in missionary superintendence.
+Seven young men, just graduated from the Seminary, were carefully
+examined for licensure, especially in their religious experience and
+their motives for entering the ministry.
+
+The last day of the session was the most interesting, when one of
+the pastors read an essay upon the "means of promoting an awakening
+among the unconverted;" which was followed by remarks from nearly
+all the pastors present. The interest was greatest when some gave
+expression to their deep feeling of responsibility, and to the
+conviction that their own want of earnestness and spirituality was
+the reason of so much indifference among the unconverted.
+
+From Diarbekir the missionaries and six of the pastors went to
+Mardin, whence, after ordaining one pastor, they went a journey of
+five days to Sert. There they took part in another ordination, and
+the formation of a church. Elias, the new pastor, had labored long
+and faithfully in this place, and refused a most pressing call from
+Mardin, though in worldly things it was much more desirable. He
+believed he could be more useful where the poor and oppressed looked
+to him as their spiritual father. Out of seven persons who offered
+themselves as candidates for church-membership, six were organized
+into a church. The congregation was small and poor, but a long
+series of persecutions had wonderfully purged them of selfishness.
+They had paid largely for their house of worship, had provided the
+pastor elect with a new suit of clothes for the ordination, and,
+considering their deep poverty, had made extraordinary subscriptions
+towards the required half of his salary. They now adopted the system
+of tithes cheerfully, which had been so successfully advocated by
+John Concordance.
+
+From Sert Mr. Williams proceeded to Mosul, and the rest to Bitlis.
+There the congregation had long desired for their pastor Baron
+Simon, who received ordination as an evangelist years before at
+Constantinople. He has been repeatedly mentioned as Pastor Simon,
+and was a man of experience and sterling worth. There were no
+missionaries then at Bitlis. From hence they passed on to Moosh. The
+plain on which the town is situated, is sixty miles long and ten or
+twelve wide, and contains about seventy nominally Christian
+villages. The travellers were exposed to a snow-storm while crossing
+the plain. "It was genuine winter weather," writes Mr. Barnum, "yet
+I think I never saw anywhere else, not even in the warm sunshine of
+Egypt, so much nakedness, total or partial. Adults of course had the
+semblance of clothing, though it was often a mass of rags, sewed or
+tied together; but the poor children! It makes my heart ache to
+think of them. Some had a tolerably whole shirt and drawers, some
+had no drawers, and what was once a shirt was now a few shreds,
+hanging from the shoulders. Many had merely a rag, as a sort of
+jacket, with holes to put the arms through, and others had not a
+thread upon their bodies. The people seem to be almost bedless.
+Wherever we went, we found that the beds were a piece of carpet, or
+felt, or only a little straw, with a piece of carpet as a covering.
+In the six or seven villages visited by us, we did not notice a
+woman, or a child, who had either stockings or shoes. They walked
+about in the snow, and over the frozen ground, with bare feet. The
+soil is fertile, and the people own the land themselves,--not
+the Turkish Aghas, as is the case in many other parts of the
+country,--so that it must be mere thriftlessness, rather than any
+stern necessity, which makes them so destitute. They have not
+learned to raise cotton, and consequently do not have on hand the
+material for making clothes, except some kinds of woolen garments;
+and as they do not like to pay money for cotton cloth, they live in
+this truly barbarous state. Our pastors had never seen any
+destitution like this among their Christian brethren, and it made a
+deep impression upon them."
+
+Mr. Barnum adds: "The spiritual condition of the people is as bad as
+the physical. In the three or four monasteries surrounding the
+plain, there are said to be fifty vartabeds--men of more or less
+education. What a work they might do in these seventy villages, in
+improving the condition of the people, if they only had the heart
+for it. They are in a great measure responsible for this state of
+things. They come down periodically from their haunts of
+dissipation, and gather up and carry off whatever the people can
+spare; and this has helped to discourage enterprise. The great want
+now is the pure Gospel. This will not only save their souls, it will
+give them true civilization and refinement. To us it seemed that the
+people were ripe for the reception of the truth, for they are
+growing tired of their present condition. The pastors turned away
+from Moosh plain with the determination to induce the Evangelical
+Union, if consistent with the work undertaken in Koordistan, to do
+something for these people."
+
+This journey of five hundred and fifty miles occupied thirty-eight
+days, and was too much for the new missionary, who reached home
+"jaded and worn," and had a serious illness. Before his recovery,
+and probably in consequence of her care of her husband, Mrs. Barnum
+was prostrated by typhus fever, which proved fatal on the 31st of
+December, 1867, a little more than three months after her arrival at
+Harpoot. But even in so short a time she had greatly endeared
+herself to her associates.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1868, p. 136.
+
+North of the territory traversed by Mr. Barnum, is the Erzroom
+district. Of the sixty thousand inhabitants of the city of Erzroom
+in 1868, fifteen thousand were Armenians. The hundred villages
+scattered over its plain are smaller and more scattered than those
+on the plain of Harpoot. But then the territory connected with
+Erzroom is nearly as large as New England west of Maine, and has a
+population of half a million, two thirds of whom are Armenians.
+Touring in this territory is easy, as compared with the Harpoot
+district; since the roads, almost everywhere, admit of the use of
+wheels, and on the public thoroughfares the khans are comparatively
+good. A wagon road was then in a sluggish process of construction
+from Trebizond across the mountains.
+
+The church in Diarbekir continued to grow, even during the three or
+four years' absence of the pastor. They were active in communicating
+the truth to their neighbors, and were especially interested in
+securing the introduction of the Gospel into the surrounding
+villages, and into Koordistan. But since then, the energy bestowed
+upon these outside enterprises has been turned toward the building
+of a large church, by means of funds collected by the pastor chiefly
+in England, and to strictly home affairs.
+
+The young men sent on the mission to Koordistan addressed themselves
+chiefly to the Armenians and Jacobites, without neglecting the
+Moslems, Koords, and Yezidees. These sects, in their social
+intercourse, used only the Koordish language; but in their prayers,
+the Armenians used the ancient Armenian, the Jacobites the ancient
+Syriac, and the Koords the Arabic, all wholly unintelligible to
+them. And it was a new thought to them, that God could be addressed
+in the Koordish language.
+
+A company of native missionaries was sent from Harpoot, in the
+summer of 1868, to the benighted region of Moosh. This was a result
+of the tour just described, and was a self-denying enterprise, but
+the sacrifice was cheerfully made.
+
+The two Seminaries at Harpoot were now full. Including the students
+brought thither for a time from Mardin, and the Koordish students,
+there were fifty in each Seminary; and these, with their children,
+made a colony of one hundred and fifty.
+
+It became manifest, soon after the Crimean war, that the Papal
+ecclesiastics in Turkey, emboldened by the increased prospect of
+French protection, grew relentlessly cruel where they had power, in
+their persecutions of the Protestants. A painful illustration of
+this occurred at Mardin in the summer of 1868, upon the arrival of a
+new Papal Patriarch. He and the Papal Armenian bishop resolved to
+make a determined effort to crush out Protestantism. The charges
+upon which the proceedings were based, were pretended arrearages in
+the payment of taxes, whereas none of the taxes were due.
+
+On July 25th, six Protestants were arrested, and taken, not to
+prison, but to the cavalry camp, to bring water for the horses,
+sprinkle the ground, build mangers, clear privies, etc. Suleeba, the
+Protestant preacher from Diarbekir who was laboring there at the
+time, went to the Muteserif or governor of the city, and represented
+the injustice of the proceeding. As a result, he was ordered to
+prison himself, but was soon released. After various other efforts
+with the Muteserif and the Pasha to secure justice (in which he was
+opposed by the Papal Syrian Patriarch, and by priests and leaders of
+the other sects at Mardin), and after presenting receipts which had
+been given the Protestants for their taxes, Suleeba was delivered to
+the soldiers, with the rest. He writes:--
+
+"A gendarme took me to the camp. On seeing me the soldier said,
+'This is their priest; bring some _large_ jars (water jars) for
+him.' They fastened two jars to my neck, one before and one behind,
+and gave two into my hands.[1] A soldier was assigned to each one of
+us, and each one carried a long stick of wood, an inch in thickness,
+and with these they freely beat us. In filling the jars which were
+fastened to us, the soldiers would pour nearly as much into our
+necks as into the jars, so that we were thoroughly drenched all the
+time. Once I was so much fatigued that I begged permission to set
+down the jars and rest, but the soldiers would not allow me. I
+dropped one of them, as I could not hold it any longer, for the road
+was long and my hands grew weak. In trying to recover it I fell to
+the ground, and the soldier beat me severely with his stick."
+
+[1] The four jars, when full of water, weighed more than one hundred
+and fifty pounds.
+
+It was on Monday that Suleeba was sent to the camp, and things
+remained thus till Friday. "A little after sunrise on that day, a
+gendarme came and said, 'The Protestants are wanted at the palace.'
+We were taken to the Muteserif, and he began to curse us in the
+vilest manner for not giving the money. I said, 'Examine our
+accounts, and if you find that we owe anything we will pay it.' He
+then ordered a stick to be brought,--it was a strong one, thicker
+than my thumb,--and telling a soldier to take me by the head and
+bend me forward, he gave the stick to a centurion, who gave me ten
+or twelve blows. I still feel the soreness, though he was not
+violent in his beating."
+
+"About nine o'clock they called us to the Mejlis, or city council.
+After a careful examination of the documents, in which the Pasha's
+scribe, Fettah Effendi, took a prominent part, the Mejlis said with
+one voice, to those on the other side, 'You have no claim whatever
+on the Protestants.'" This decision was not accepted by the enemies
+of the Protestants. In the afternoon of the same day, Suleeba
+writes: "The Patriarch and the Papal Armenian Bishop called on the
+Pasha. They stayed about half an hour. Before they left, a
+lieutenant came from the Pasha, accompanied by two priests, and said
+to the Muteserif, 'The Pasha orders that you instantly deliver each
+one of the Protestants to two gensdarmes, and collect the money from
+each one _at once_, according to this paper.' The Muteserif replied,
+'There is no claim upon these men. What shall we collect?' He
+replied, 'This is the Pasha's order.' The Muteserif said, 'We have
+just examined these men's accounts, and have found that the
+Protestants do not owe a para. Tell the Pasha so.' The Lieutenant
+replied, 'The Patriarch and Bishop were with the Pasha just now, and
+he told them that this money should be collected.' The Muteserif
+then turned to Fettah Effendi, of Diarbekir, and urged him to go and
+explain to the Pasha, but he did not wish to go. He then called out,
+much excited, 'Come, gensdarmes, take these men and kill them.' I
+then said, 'How much money do you want? Tell us, and we will give
+it.' The Muteserif said, 'I don't know.' I said, 'You are delivering
+us over to these soldiers. Tell us how much you want and we will
+give it, and save ourselves from them.' The Muteserif then asked
+Fettah Effendi, who had looked over our documents, and who had said
+that the Protestants owed nothing, 'How much are these men to pay?'
+He said, 'I don't know.' He then turned to the members of the other
+sects and said, 'How much do you want of these men?' They said, 'Let
+them come to the market [where the chief of police was receiving
+taxes], and we will see.' So we were hurried off there. This was
+less than an hour before sunset. We were taken to the shop occupied
+by Daoud Agha, the chief of the police. A great crowd gathered as we
+went along, and afterwards, which completely filled all the streets
+in that vicinity. As we entered, Daoud Agha, who is an old enemy of
+the Protestants, said to his men, 'Bring me two bottles of raki and
+three or four candles, and I will collect this money before
+morning."
+
+The reader will remember the interesting account Mr. Williams gave
+of the conversion of an influential merchant at Mardin named
+Meekha.[1] This is the old man, Muksi Meekha, whom the chief of the
+police delivered over to the gensdarmes, with the charge to collect
+six thousand piasters from him. Mr. Barnum thus describes the
+treatment he received: "They took him out into the street and began
+to beat him with their gun-stocks. This is done by taking the gun in
+both hands and striking with it endwise. He promised to give
+security for the payment of the money in the morning, and begged to
+be allowed till morning to raise the money, as the shops were all
+shut; but they said, 'We must have the money now.' He wandered
+through the market in the vain hope of finding somebody who would
+advance the money, the guard all the time beating him, and so
+severely that he several times fell down, and his outer garment was
+torn into shreds; and he has since that time, now more than a week,
+kept his bed most of the time. At last he met a member of the Mejlis
+(a Turkish member), who told the guard that if it was money they
+wished they must take _kefil_ from him, and wait till morning, as it
+was now evening, and nobody could raise money at that time; 'but,'
+he said, 'if your object is to kill him, take him back to the chief
+of police and butcher him there.' They then took him back to the
+crowd, and he found a man who gave a part of the money and a note
+for the payment of the rest in the morning, and he was released. He
+thinks that he would have been killed but for the intervention of
+the Turk.
+
+[1] See Chapter xxvii.
+
+"Each one of the prisoners was then passed over to two gensdarmes.
+Some of these were at once delivered, by their friends advancing the
+money; but four of them, besides Muksi Meekha, were treated just as
+he was, and all of them have kept their beds most of the time since.
+
+"The police were at the same time sent to the houses of all the
+other Protestants, and they were brought, and the money which the
+sects demanded collected from them, by their paying the money or
+getting security for its payment in the morning. In this way, in the
+space of a few hours, and that evening, nineteen thousand piasters
+were collected."
+
+Only a very small portion of this money was ever refunded.
+
+Mention was made, in connection with Dr. Goodell's visit to the
+central mission in 1862, of the progress of the evangelical
+reformation at Oorfa. Two years later, Mr. Nutting, the resident
+missionary, announced an interesting revival of religion among his
+people. Both church and congregation were aroused, and the
+missionary had never seen more thorough conviction of sin, than was
+apparent in many. They had been studying the Westminster Assembly's
+Catechism for two years, and recently had attended lectures on the
+Epistle to the Romans; "and the fundamental truths thus lodged in
+their minds," writes Mr. Nutting, "had been greatly blessed." They
+met entirely the expense of their own religious and educational
+institutions. In February, 1865, the church numbered forty-two, and
+as many more were known to be inquirers.
+
+About this time there arose considerable uneasiness in the mission
+from an apprehension of doctrinal errors in a candidate for the
+pastorate of this church. To what extent such errors actually
+existed, was never determined with certainty, but there was a spirit
+of alienation and division, which was regarded with concern. The
+churches in Oorfa and its four out-stations contained a total, in
+1870, of one hundred and sixty-one members, of whom twenty-five had
+been received in the previous year. The Report of the Board for 1871
+declares the difficulties of former years to have happily passed
+away; except that unsound doctrinal views continued to disturb the
+harmony of the church at Severek, and that this place was noted, in
+early times, for the prevalence of similar errors.
+
+Mr. Wheeler returned from his visit to the United States in October,
+1868, accompanied by Mrs. Wheeler, and the Misses Parmelee and
+Baker; and they were met, six hours or nearly twenty miles out, by
+the Harpoot and village pastors, and quite a delegation from the
+city. The last day was a constant succession of welcomes. As they
+drew near the city, they saw a large crowd on the hill, with a white
+flag. It was the theological students drawn up in a line; and next,
+the women and girls of the school; and then men, women, and children
+crowded to greet them. It was the spontaneous expression of love to
+those who had told them of Christ and his salvation.
+
+The return of Dr. David H. Nutting from the United States to the
+Central mission, in the autumn of 1868, led him to speak of the
+progress of civilization at Aleppo. "All the stations of this
+mission are now connected with this city by telegraph, while it is
+connected with Constantinople. A line from here to Killis, Aintab,
+and Marash, has just been constructed. We have French and Russian,
+as well as Turkish, posts. A semi-weekly paper called the "Frat"
+(Euphrates), is printed here, in three languages--Arabic,
+Armeno-Turkish, and Arabo-Turkish. The streets are being repaved and
+widened in some places, and street-lamps are put up. A carriage-road
+from here to Alexandretta, the sea-port, is to be built
+immediately."
+
+John Concordance, the blind preacher at Havadoric, died at that
+place in March, 1869, greatly beloved and lamented, and not by his
+own people alone. The Armenians vied with the Protestants in
+attending to the burial services, and especially in seeing that
+Hohannes' particular requests were carried out to the letter, and
+both classes were genuine mourners at his grave. His influence in
+the matter of consecrating one tenth of one's income has been
+extensively felt; and he practiced what he preached. His salary was
+only eight dollars a month, and although he had a wife and child to
+support from this, he never failed of giving one tenth into the
+"store-house;" thus leaving but little more than seven dollars for
+the monthly support of himself and family.
+
+In the year 1868, Dr. Schneider, after a residence at Aintab of a
+score of years, returned again to Broosa. It was natural for him to
+review the progress of the good work at Aintab during his connection
+with it, and his statement will interest the reader.
+
+"I preached my first sermon in Aintab to a company of twenty-five or
+thirty in the year 1848. Now, the average audience is near one
+thousand, and often rises to twelve or fifteen hundred. Then, there
+was a church of only eight members; now, there are two churches,
+containing three hundred and seventy-three members. Then, the entire
+community of Protestants numbered only forty souls, while at present
+there are nineteen hundred, small and great. The number has become
+so large, that a division into two separate congregations became a
+necessity; and while there was then hardly any native laborer, now
+two able native pastors are settled over these two churches. In the
+beginning, next to nothing was done in the way of self-support and
+general benevolence; while now, these communities pay the salaries
+of their pastors and school-teachers, and all their other expenses.
+Besides this, nearly five hundred dollars in gold were given for
+general benevolence, and more than nine hundred towards a second
+church edifice. All this in a community where a day-laborer receives
+thirteen and a half cents per day, and a mason or carpenter
+thirty-two cents. In view of their poverty, and the exactions of the
+government, this is extraordinary liberality. More than one half of
+the male members of these churches give a tithe of their income to
+benevolent objects.
+
+"In the beginning, we worshipped in a private house; but for many
+years a large church edifice has been filled, and a second one, for
+the benefit of the second church, will be completed in a few months.
+At first, there was no school through the week, or on the Sabbath;
+now, there are seven common schools, with nearly four hundred
+pupils, and a Sabbath-school averaging a thousand, which has been as
+high as sixteen hundred. More than a score of pastors and preachers
+have been trained at Aintab, most of whom are still in the service,
+and a large number have been sent forth as teachers and colporters
+into the surrounding regions. Finally, when the Gospel was first
+preached in Aintab, the Protestants were despised and persecuted;
+while now, they are not only recognized as a regular community, with
+rights and privileges, but they have acquired for themselves a name,
+respect, and influence."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1869-1872.
+
+
+The year 1870 commenced at Marash with another revival. A thousand
+persons were present at the prayer-meeting on the 3d of January,
+which was admirably conducted by Pastor Murad. The missionaries,
+though present, did not deem it necessary to assist him. Fifty-three
+new members were received into the two churches, and a much larger
+number offered themselves for admission. Successful efforts were
+made to reach the women, who were visited in their own homes by the
+wives of students in the theological school, and by the older
+scholars in the girls' school. The number of houses thus visited
+during six weeks, was three hundred and eight, and there were
+fifty-five prayer-meetings.
+
+A revival was also in progress at Bitlis. For many weeks there had
+been a sunrise prayer-meeting every day; and it was fully attended
+for eight months; its location being changed occasionally to
+accommodate different parts of the city. The meeting on the 18th of
+February was the most interesting and profitable. Nearly ninety
+persons were seated on the floor of a room thirteen feet by twenty.
+Pastor Simon had charge of the meeting, and so ready were the
+people, that it continued two hours and three quarters before he
+could bring it to a close. As many as seventeen spoke, and about as
+many prayed. During the meeting, a prominent church-member called
+the attention of the weeping congregation to the importance of
+making a covenant with God _now_; and after reading a beautiful and
+appropriate hymn, he requested all who were ready to make such a
+covenant to rise. Nearly all rose, and while they were standing, he
+offered an earnest prayer for the aid of the Holy Spirit in keeping
+that covenant. It was an impressive scene. Forty were added to the
+church as the result of this revival. The people paid the debt on
+their chapel and parsonage, and enlarged the former. They also gave
+a site for the building to be erected by the two Misses Ely for the
+girls' boarding-school, in which were twenty pupils, for the most
+part wives of native helpers.
+
+Some time in the month of April, the good people of Bitlis observed
+a day of fasting and prayer for the village of Havadoric, where the
+blind preacher, John Concordance, had labored, and where he died.
+After a few weeks, Mr. Knapp visited the place, with Pastor Simon,
+and they found delightful evidence of the presence of the Holy
+Spirit. It was in contemplation to organize a church in that place,
+and the church in Bitlis had sent three delegates, who walked
+forty-five miles over the muddy roads. Ten hours were spent, the day
+after their arrival, in examining more than a score of persons for
+the new church, and eleven were approved, including two women. After
+the church had been organized, Avedis, a graduate of the Harpoot
+Seminary, was ordained as pastor. Fifty were present at the Lord's
+supper from Bitlis, Moosh, and Khanûs.
+
+The barbarous expulsion of Mr. and Mrs. Coffing from Hadjin, in
+1862, will be remembered.[1] This was attributed, at the time, to
+the priests and the Turkish governor, and not to the people. Mr.
+Adams from Adana, and Mr. Trowbridge from Marash, went there in
+1870, in company with Hagop Effendi, the Civil Head of the
+Protestants in Turkey, who was then on an official tour through the
+empire. They found the door for Christian effort wide open, as
+Messrs. Montgomery and Perry had done the year before. Though
+situated on the northern side of the Taurus mountains, Hadjin is
+more conveniently cared for by the Central mission than by the
+Western, and that section of country had been transferred
+accordingly. Native laborers had gone there, and a great change had
+taken place. Thirty-two had been enrolled as Protestants, and no
+mention is made of opposition. At the evening services on the
+house-top, where the missionary's tent was pitched, not only the
+Protestants, but large numbers of the Armenians, listened with eager
+attention. From early morn until dark on the Sabbath, there was
+hardly an intermission in the preaching, exposition, or reading of
+the Word of God.
+
+[1] See p. 221.
+
+In the autumn of 1869, Dr. Schneider, by direction of the mission,
+attended the examination of the Theological School at Marsovan. He
+writes, "The examination continued through most of three days, and
+as a whole was quite satisfactory. The appearance of the students in
+theology was peculiarly gratifying. The readiness and propriety of
+their answers proved that they had bestowed thought on the various
+points brought up, and saw their relations to one another. Their
+public addresses, when they received their diplomas, were all
+excellent, while some were of quite a superior order, and exhibited
+no common degree of oratorical power." He was also much gratified by
+the appearance of the girls' boarding-school.
+
+Seven days' travel, on his return to Broosa, brought him to Angora,
+a city of from forty to fifty thousand inhabitants. The probable
+estimate gave ten thousand to the Catholics, three hundred to the
+Greeks, a thousand to the Armenians, and five hundred to the Jews;
+the remainder were Mussulmans. Many books had been sold there, much
+light disseminated, and a small body of Protestants earnestly
+entreated for a missionary to reside among them, or at least for an
+educated native preacher. No uneducated man could sustain himself
+there against the powerful array which the Roman Catholics could
+bring to bear upon him by means of their educational establishments.
+Among the obstacles to be encountered, were the extreme worldliness
+of the people, and their devotion to sensual pleasures. Angora is
+within the limits of the ancient Galatia, and very probably was the
+site of one of "the churches of Galatia." It appears not yet to be
+occupied as a station.
+
+Another interesting place was Erzingan, within the Erzroom district,
+visited by Mr. and Mrs. Cole in the autumn of 1870. They travelled
+the whole distance of a hundred miles in a gig; with many risks, it
+is true, but with no disaster. The city was supposed to contain as
+many as ten thousand Armenians, forming a third part of the
+population. Mr. Dunmore, the brave pioneer, had spent three months
+there, and various helpers had been stationed there from time to
+time. The missionary and his wife were received with the utmost
+kindness, and had crowded meetings during the nine days they were
+there. Mrs. Cole had several interesting meetings, also, with the
+women. "Thus time passed," writes Mr. Cole, "and you may be sure it
+was a continual feast to the soul, and we felt quite reluctant to
+turn homeward."
+
+The mission sent by native churches to the Koords, like most new
+missions, had a tardy success; and, after four years, the zeal of
+the native churches began to flag, and some of the native pastors
+proposed to stop the work in Koordistan, and devote themselves more
+fully to the "home field." Knowing that the influence of such a
+course would be disastrous, Mr. Wheeler threw himself into the
+breach, and was off for a three weeks' tour in Koordistan. Redwan,
+the seat of the mission, was eighty miles east of Diarbekir. He was
+accompanied by Hagop Effendi, Civil Head of the Protestants, and two
+native preachers; and was rejoiced to find at Redwan a congregation
+of eighteen men, thirteen women, and twenty-two children. They had
+learned, or begun to learn, to read in the Armeno-Koordish, into
+which the four Gospels had been translated; and some were learning
+the Armenian language, so as to be able to read the whole Bible.
+Their chapel, of sun-dried brick, ten feet by twenty, was crowded on
+the evening of their arrival. "They sang 'Sweet hour of prayer,'"
+writes Mr. Wheeler, "and 'There is no other name so sweet,'
+translated from Armenian by their preacher, who had also translated,
+with the help of Pastor Mardiros of Harpoot, 'Forever with the
+Lord,' 'How lost was my condition,' 'My faith looks up to Thee,'
+'Safely through another week,' 'My days are passing swiftly by,' and
+others. Perhaps it was all romance, but somehow that little, close,
+low, dark, foul-aired chapel seemed to me almost a heavenly place,
+as we joined,--they in Koordish and I in Armenian,--in singing those
+sweet hymns." At an expense of forty dollars in gold, the people
+bought a fine lot for a larger building, including chapel,
+school-room, and parsonage, which they hoped to put up in the
+following year. They desired also the formation of a church, and the
+ordination of a pastor. "Do you wonder," adds Mr. Wheeler, "that I
+returned with a light heart to tell the churches these good news
+from their mission field?" The Harpoot church immediately decided to
+send a school-teacher to Redwan, so that the preacher might give
+himself entirely to his work.
+
+Mr. Pond, of Mardin, went to Sert four days distant in Koordistan,
+and experienced the usual trials by the way,--sleeping in "stifling
+stables, with a perfect menagerie of animals and fowls, and creeping
+creatures too numerous to catalogue."
+
+The church at Sert he found full of brotherly love, simple faith,
+and a desire for knowledge. It had given freely to the brethren in
+Redwan, and paid the entire salary of its own pastor. "Indeed," says
+the missionary, "but for this church in Sert, we should almost
+despond for the Arabic-speaking portion of our field. In Mardin, it
+is true, we have a flourishing church and community, but not so
+refreshing in its simplicity and strength of faith and love. The
+pastor of the Sert church is one of the best men for the pastoral
+work I have ever seen in Turkey, and is the chief cause, under God,
+of the cheering state of his flock."
+
+Mr. Pond next visited Mosul, and found it no longer an unpleasant
+part of their field. "Once, and that not long ago, it was the least
+hopeful spot in all our bishopric. For over thirty years has the
+Gospel been preached there, and by such men as Grant, and Lobdell,
+and Williams, Marsh, and Hinsdale. The church contained at one time
+twenty members, but had dwindled to ten."
+
+A pastor was to be ordained at Mosul, and Mr. Andrus, missionary
+from Mardin, Pastor Jurgis of Mardin, Pastor Elias of Sert, and
+delegates from these two churches were there to aid in that service.
+The pastor elect was ordained, the dead branches in the church were
+cut off, and eight new members were added, while as many more were
+ready to join at the next communion.
+
+Dr. Williams died at Mardin on the l4th of February, 1871, at the
+age of fifty-three, broken down by an accumulation of labors and
+cares, which, until near the close of his life, he had been
+compelled to bear alone. It was a great loss to the mission, but
+especially to Mardin; and he was called from earth just when the
+clouds, which had made his field seem dark to him, began to break.
+He saw it, and rejoiced. He said he was like Moses, who was
+permitted to look into the promised land from Pisgah, but was not
+allowed to enter it.
+
+Mr. H. N. Barnum, who knew Dr. Williams intimately, while admitting
+that he was unduly disposed to distrust his own powers and judgment,
+says that, aside from this, he was a rare man. "He had great
+self-control, and was so undemonstrative, that those who did not
+know him intimately can scarcely be said to have known him at all.
+He possessed genuine refinement; and with his marvelous fund of
+information in almost all departments of knowledge, his fine command
+of language, and his good nature and enthusiasm, he was, in his more
+cheerful moods, a fascinating member of our social circle. His clear
+mind had been carefully cultivated, and his acquisitions were very
+exact. However much he distrusted his own judgment, his associates
+confided in it. He was forward to acknowledge any mistake, and
+correct it, and he was enthusiastic in his zeal for the policy of
+self-support in the missionary work. His students held him in the
+highest admiration, and very few missionaries have secured the
+affection of the people for whom they labor so fully as he did. Had
+he remained at home, I am sure he would have stood conspicuous among
+the clergy. He was very careful in the use of missionary funds, and
+in everything maintained a conscience void of offense. He was,
+withal, eminently spiritual. His many trials had wrought in him a
+deep and thorough work of grace."
+
+"The _one_ attraction of heaven for Mr. Williams," writes his
+bereaved wife, "was _Jesus_. 'Like Jesus,' and 'without sin,' and
+'to be with Jesus and see Him as He is,' were phrases ever on his
+lips. He used often to speak of the great host gone before, and of
+the loved ones constantly gathering there; but it was rare to hear
+him speak of joy at the prospect of meeting them. It was always
+'_Jesus_, the joy of loving hearts.' Neither did he long for heaven
+as a place of _rest_, until very near the end. He loved toil, and
+felt a great desire to live and labor for the Master." "At last,"
+she says, "he did grow very weary, and often exclaimed; 'So tired,
+O, so tired.' In one of those weariest hours, he asked me if I
+remembered Bickersteth's description of Paradise. 'Well,' he said,
+'I can't bear to think of it. To think of climbing over those
+mountains, it is so wearisome. I think, 'In my Father's house are
+many mansions,' and I want to be taken right into one of them, and
+laid down to rest--to rest--O, how sweet.' His intellect was clouded
+in the last hours."
+
+I find some facts, received in 1871, concerning the women in the
+region of Cesarea, indicating a decided progress. "Three years ago,
+with the exception of Cesarea, Yozgat, and Moonjasoon, the truth
+seemed to have gained but very slight hold upon the women at our
+several out-stations. But few were ever found in the Sabbath
+congregation, scarcely any could read, and some bitterly persecuted
+their husbands. But now a marked change is visible, and the women
+form no inconsiderable part of all our congregations; large numbers
+are learning to read; female prayer-meetings are held at nearly or
+quite every out-station; and an earnest desire for improvement is
+everywhere apparent. As a consequence, a corresponding change is
+observed in the conduct of these women. They become better wives and
+mothers, and their influence is felt for good upon those around
+them."
+
+Messrs. Wheeler and Reynolds made a visit to Van in the summer of
+1871, preparatory to the occupation of that important post. Most of
+the ninety miles from Bitlis to Van, was within sight of the lake;
+its waters reposing in quiet beauty amid the mountains, on whose
+loftiest peaks there still lingered patches of snow. They reached
+the city in September, and were there a week. They found more
+readiness to receive the Word of God, and its teachers, and to have
+intercourse with them, than they had expected. They were also
+agreeably disappointed in the number, who were desirous that
+missionaries should reside among them. The region southeast of Van,
+which they had supposed was exclusively a Koordish-speaking section,
+they found to contain a number of Armenian villages, speaking their
+own language, with Bibles in the modern tongue, and men accustomed
+to read them. At the time of writing these pages, missionaries are
+understood to be on their way for the permanent occupation of Van,
+should such be the will of Providence.
+
+The church at Cutterbul, and indeed the whole region around
+Diarbekir, experienced a severe bereavement early in 1872, in the
+death of its first pastor Abd en Noor. "He was a thoughtful man,"
+writes Mr. Andrus of Mardin, "and a more independent thinker than
+many. He had made him a place in the village, so that even the young
+men of the Jacobite community looked to him as their father. He was
+very anxious to improve the condition of his race, was faithful both
+as a preacher and as a pastor, and in the latter capacity was more
+especially active during the past winter. He was one of the eight
+pupils received into the first class formed by Dr. Williams in
+Mardin, in September, 1862 (was then about thirty years old), and
+remained three years in the class, supplying the pulpit in Cutterbul
+during the winter months, where he had been preaching before he
+entered the school."
+
+The impressions made on Dr. Clarke, Foreign Secretary of the Board,
+by occurrences in 1871, on his way from Adana to Aintab, are
+significant of the work of grace, now in progress in the region
+distinguished by the early labors of the Apostle Paul. His route was
+across the Cilician and Antioch plains, over the Amarus mountains
+and another range, and for the most part through a region of
+wonderful fertility, needing only proper cultivation.
+
+"The journey," Dr. Clarke writes, "was not without some items of
+missionary interest, as showing how widely the truth is diffused.
+The first night out we encamped a little distance from a village
+that bears the name of Missis, built on the ruins of the ancient
+Mopsuestia--a place of some note in the early history of the Church.
+As we were setting up our tent, two Armenians from the village
+accosted us with the question,--'Are you the men that are bringing
+light into this dark land?' On being assured that we were just those
+very men, they gave us a hearty welcome, and did their best to
+assist us in every way, remaining till dark, and coming again in the
+early morning. This they did as a labor of love, and to receive some
+words of counsel and cheer. They were Protestants, but not
+church-members, who had come here for business--one from near
+Antioch, and the other from the neighborhood of Harpoot. Here, where
+no preacher of the truth had ever been stationed by us, these men
+were faithful to the light they had, spending the Sabbath together
+in studying the Scriptures and in prayer, and speaking to all who
+would listen of the Gospel of Christ. One of the men had formerly
+been a keeper of a drinking shop. One day, while plying his trade,
+he called out to a passer-by to come in and drink. The reply, 'I
+cannot, I am a Protestant,' arrested his attention, and eventually
+led him to give up his wicked traffic for an honest calling.
+
+"On another day we met a party of laborers coming down into Cilicia
+from Eastern Turkey, whom we at first mistook for Koords. But coming
+nearer, Mr. Trowbridge recognized them as Armenians, and at once
+asked if there were any Protestants among them. 'O yes,' cried
+several; and in proof they drew Testaments from their bosoms. One of
+them, a leading Protestant from Haboosi, on learning who I was, at
+once beset me to hurry on to the dedication of their new church,
+that was to come off in a few days. He, poor man, had been obliged
+to come away, but was very anxious to have me go. I was really sorry
+I could not do so, and thus be a witness to some of the ripe fruits
+of the great work in the villages about Harpoot. What may not be
+accomplished by such a party of Christian laborers, going into
+villages and neighborhoods unreached by other means? It is thus that
+the good seed is now scattered broadcast over the land.
+
+"We had hoped to reach Hassan-Beyli for the Sabbath, but the
+distance proved too great, and as it was three hours off from the
+main road, we had to give up a visit to this mountain eyrie,--now a
+centre of Christian influence, a few years ago a nest of robbers.
+But they would not let us off so. Tuesday morning, by six o'clock,
+we were surprised to see a half dozen of those stalwart men, who had
+left their mountain crags, three hours before, to come down and
+exchange Christian salutations. As I looked at them, I could not but
+wonder at the work of grace manifest in them. After words of
+exhortation through an interpreter, on mounting my horse I took them
+each by the hand, while the grasp tightened and eyes flashed and
+filled at the words--'Christ, Hallelujah, Amen.'"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.--EDUCATION.
+
+1872.
+
+
+The common school is as much a necessity in mission fields, as it is
+that the people should be able to read the Word of God; and it has
+everywhere been a primary object of attention; but always, and more
+especially of late years, with the aim and expectation, that it will
+speedily derive its support from the parents of the children.
+
+Properly conducted, the tendency of the common school is to
+development. Teachers are learning all the while; new branches of
+study are introduced; there is greater thoroughness in the teaching
+and discipline; till at length the Academy is evolved, and perhaps
+the College.
+
+This would be the natural order of development, were general
+education the leading object of missionary societies. But the
+unevangelized nations must be evangelized, and chiefly by their own
+people. Consequently one of the first efforts is to raise up
+teachers and preachers.
+
+Enough has probably been said, in this history, respecting the
+common schools. So, also, of the Seminary at Bebek, instituted in
+1840,[1] and the Girls' Boarding-school in the metropolis,
+instituted in 1845.[2] The Bebek Seminary was in some respects the
+forerunner of "Robert College." But however suitable its proximity
+to the capital may have been, regarding it as an incipient college,
+the location was not well adapted, on the whole, for a school to
+raise up young men for pastoral work in the towns and villages of
+the interior. Hence its discontinuance in 1862, and the opening of a
+training Seminary in Marsovan, in 1865. The delay of three years was
+owing to peculiar and unexpected causes. The Girls' Boarding-school
+at Constantinople was also discontinued for similar reasons, and was
+reopened at Marsovan in 1865.
+
+[1] See Chapter xxxiii.
+
+[2] See Chapter xxxiii.
+
+A highly intelligent Armenian gentleman thus addressed Dr. Hamlin:
+"The Bebek Seminary has given birth to influences, which have waked
+up our young men all over the land; and you are regarded as a public
+benefactor, although you can never be regarded as our religious
+guide. Still, in sentiment, you have--not eight thousand, but eight
+hundred thousand followers. We shall never be called Protestants; it
+is not an Armenian term; but we hope to see the day when the
+Armenian Church will be as evangelical as yours."
+
+The present Theological Seminaries are at Harpoot, Marsovan, Marash,
+and Mardin. There are, besides these, theological classes at
+Cesarea, Broosa, Sivas, Harpoot, Bitlis, Erzroom, and Eski Zagra.
+The first of the four seminaries above named originated in 1859, the
+second, in 1865, the third in 1868; and the fourth, in 1870. Like
+similar institutions in the United States, they are intended to
+receive only such as not only give evidence of piety, but are
+promising candidates for the gospel ministry. The course of study at
+Harpoot illustrates, substantially, the education given, or
+contemplated, in each of those institutions.
+
+For the _first_ year, Exegesis, the Synoptic Gospels and Pentateuch,
+the Turkish and Ancient Armenian languages, Algebra, Physiology,
+Reading, Writing, and Spelling Armenian.
+
+For the _second year_, Exegesis, Isaiah, Daniel, and Revelation,
+Geometry, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy, Rhetoric in Ancient
+Armenian, Evidences of Christianity (Turkish).
+
+For the _third_ year, Exegesis, Acts, Pauline Epistles, except
+Romans and Hebrews, Mental Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, and
+Theology.
+
+For the _fourth_ year, Exegesis, Pastoral Epistles, Romans, Hebrews,
+and Gospel of John, Sermonizing, Pastoral Theology, Church History,
+and Logic.
+
+Weekly exercises in composition and declamation through the first
+three years; and lectures on Physical Geography, Geology, History,
+and Chronology, and lessons in singing, distributed through the
+course at convenience.
+
+The female boarding-schools are mainly designed to educate teachers,
+Bible-readers, and wives for native teachers and pastors. They are
+in Marsovan, Aintab, Marash, Harpoot, Mardin, Bitlis, Erzroom, and
+Samokov. The pupils in the theological seminaries and classes, and
+in the female boarding-schools, as reported in the year 1871, were
+as follows:--
+
+                           Theological Theological      Female
+                            Seminaries.  Classes.  Boarding-schools.
+WESTERN TURKEY. Marsovan.       26          -             38
+                Cesarea.         -          5              -
+                Broosa.          -         13              -
+                Sivas.           -          2              -
+CENTRAL TURKEY. Aintab.          -          -             20
+                Marash.         35          -              -
+EASTERN TURKEY. Harpoot.        17         25[1]          34
+                Mardin.          5          -              5
+                Bitlis.          -          9             20
+                Erzroom.         -          6              8
+                              -----      -----          -----
+                Total.          83         60            125
+
+[1] More properly called a "Normal school."
+
+Thus the number in training for the gospel ministry, in 1871, was
+one hundred and forty-three, and the number in the female
+boarding-schools was one hundred and twenty-five.
+
+The Marsovan Seminary commenced with eight pupils, and the number
+was increased in two years to twenty-four. Classes were organized at
+the stations, to prepare candidates for admission to the seminary,
+and to train such helpers as were not to take the full course of
+study. The plan of instruction in the seminary has recently been
+enlarged so as to include the training of native agents for the
+Greek-speaking races of southwestern Asia Minor. Eight young men,
+who graduated in 1869, received licenses to preach from the "Central
+Evangelical Union," and were in great demand. Thirteen were thus
+commissioned in 1870, in which year a convenient seminary building
+was finished.[1]
+
+[1] See Chap. xxiv. p. 17; Report of the Board for 1870, p. 21; and
+_Missionary Herald_ for 1869, pp. 87, 122, 257; and for 1871, p.
+109.
+
+Mr. Wheeler has given a full and interesting description of the
+theological and female Seminaries at Harpoot, in his valuable work,
+entitled "Ten Years on the Euphrates," and to that the reader is
+referred.[1] Eighteen pupils graduated in 1863, seven in 1865, and
+eleven in 1867; of whom thirty-two became pastors, preachers, or
+helpers.
+
+[1] _Ten Years on the Euphrates_, pp. 162-221.
+
+Theological classes were taught at Aintab and Marash, as early as
+1860. It was resolved, eight years afterwards, in view of the
+greater number of students at Marash, that the Theological Seminary,
+then about being established, should be at that station. The
+examination of the students of this seminary in 1869, drew together
+an audience of a thousand persons. Thirty-three students were here
+in the following year, and it was necessary for the resident
+missionaries to give themselves almost wholly to their instruction;
+while the work in the city and at the out-stations was committed to
+the churches in Marash. That was a year of growth and prosperity to
+these churches; sixty-six new members being added to them on
+profession of faith. A new class of eighteen members was received in
+October.
+
+The Seminaries at Mardin are conducted on the same principles as
+those at Harpoot. They are comparatively new, and are designed to
+reach the race speaking the Arabic language.
+
+The training-school at Tocat was broken up by the fire, which
+consumed the mission premises in 1859.
+
+A very valuable high school was taught for some years at Aintab, by
+Mr. Alexan; who was transferred to Marash, in 1864, as assistant
+teacher in the new Theological Seminary.
+
+Thirty-five pupils attended the female Seminary at Marsovan in 1869,
+and many of them were hopefully converted. In 1870 there were forty
+pupils.
+
+A majority of the young men in the Seminary at Harpoot were married,
+and one main design of the female seminary at that station was the
+education of their wives. These kept house for their husbands, and
+attended school about seven hours a day, five days of the week.
+Their younger children were committed to the care of a woman
+employed for the purpose, while the older ones went to one of the
+city schools. Of the ninety-four connected with the seminary
+previous to 1867, forty-one were hopefully converted while in it.
+Their chief text-book was the Bible; and some of them, besides
+learning to read intelligently, and to write, keep accounts, and
+know something of geography and astronomy, became intelligent
+students and expounders of the Bible, and, with hearts warm with
+love to Christ, proved themselves wise and efficient in winning
+souls to Him.[1] This institution has had several valuable teachers
+from the United States, prominent among whom was Miss Maria A. West.
+
+[1] _Ten Years on the Euphrates_, p. 189.
+
+The Female Boarding-school at Aintab was commenced under the care of
+Miss Proctor in 1861, with eight pupils. The number was increased to
+fourteen in 1864, and to twenty-five in 1867, of whom ten gave
+evidence of piety. It is one of the best schools in Turkey.
+
+Mrs. Coffing's labors among the women of Marash, in 1867, and in the
+four schools of which she had the oversight, were of great value. In
+1868, she had charge of a girls' high school, which was an
+institution of much promise. The pupils were thirty-eight, six of
+whom were wives of students in the Theological Seminary. Of the
+hundred girls who had been in this school from the beginning,
+twenty-one were hopefully converted while in the school. In 1872, a
+boarding department was added for the benefit of girls from the
+out-stations.
+
+
+THE ROBERT COLLEGE.
+
+
+This college has no direct connection with the American Board, nor
+with the mission as such; yet our history would be incomplete
+without some account of it.
+
+The college may be said to have grown out of the efforts of Dr.
+Hamlin to furnish employment to Protestant Armenians, whose
+evangelical principles had thrown them out of business. For this end
+a flour mill and bakery were established with unlooked for success;
+and when the Crimean war broke out, very large quantities of bread
+were furnished by this Protestant bakery to the English troops and
+hospitals at Constantinople.
+
+Christopher R. Robert, Esq., of New York, was then travelling in the
+East, and his attention was attracted to a large boat load of
+excellent bread _en route_ from the bakery to the English camp. This
+led to further inquiries, and to an acquaintance and permanent
+friendship between himself and Dr. Hamlin.
+
+The project of a college was first suggested by the sons of Dr.
+Dwight, one of the most honored founders of the Armenian mission;
+and a meeting for consultation, called by them, was held at the
+house of Mr. Robert in New York, in October, 1857. Several such
+meetings were held, but no agreement was reached as to the
+principles which should govern the College.
+
+Mr. Robert, finding that nothing was to be done, then proposed to
+Dr. Hamlin to take up the work in coöperation with himself; which,
+after consulting his brethren and the officers of the American
+Board, he decided to do. I now quote from a statement kindly
+furnished me by Dr. Hamlin.
+
+"While all agreed in the necessity of a higher education, there were
+various views in regard to the proposed College. Some regarded these
+three obstacles as insuperable. (1) The variety of races,--Turkish,
+Armenian, Greek, and Slavic,--which have no common sympathies, and
+would not unite in one institution. (2) Variety of religious
+faith,--Islamism, Romanism, the Oriental Orthodox, and Armenian
+Churches,--which could never agree in one institution. (3) Variety
+of language,--Greek, Armenian, Turkish, and Slavonic,--each of which
+would seek preëminence.
+
+"It was decided, however, to make the experiment. The College was to
+be a Christian institution. The Bible was to be read, and prayer
+offered, morning and evening, at which all should be present. There
+would be Christian worship and Bible teaching on the Sabbath, but
+freedom of conscience would be sacredly regarded.
+
+"The American civil war, breaking out in 1861 prevented any attempt
+to obtain an endowment in the United States, and Mr. Robert, who had
+already advanced $10,000 for the purchase of a site, then deposited
+$30,000 in the hands of trustees, in order to commence the work.
+
+"The Turkish Government, at the instigation of Jesuit and French
+diplomacy, prevented the College from using the beautiful site it
+had purchased, although official leave to build there had been
+obtained from the department of Public Instruction. After much
+delay, expense, and fruitless effort, the College was opened in the
+building belonging to the American Board, and formerly known as the
+Bebek Seminary. It was called 'Robert College;' though without Mr.
+Robert's knowledge, because the name, having no special significance
+to the people there, would excite no local prejudice.
+
+"The College, thus founded in 1863, slowly but steadily gained the
+confidence of the communities around it. During the fourth year of
+its existence, the building was filled with students, and was
+considerably enlarged. On the fourth of July, 1869, the corner-stone
+of a new and large building was laid on the purchased site, leave
+having been obtained after seven years' effort. The new building,
+capable of receiving two hundred and fifty students, was entered,
+and the college opened publicly, September 15th, 1871. It has so
+rapidly filled with students, that the Trustees have resolved to
+raise an endowment, and erect another still larger building,
+confident that it also will soon be filled.
+
+ROBERT COLLEGE. [image]
+
+"All the supposed obstacles have disappeared. There are seventeen
+nationalities and six religions represented in the College, and
+there are no peculiar difficulties of government. Two forces
+contribute mainly to unify the whole. (1) All are subject to the
+daily influence of Christian instruction. (2) All study the English
+language in the preparatory department, and the College course is
+wholly in that language.
+
+"Another feature of the college should be noticed. It is
+self-supporting. It was designed to offer a sound Christian
+education to those who would pay for it. Two hundred dollars in gold
+are paid by every student for board and tuition forty weeks in the
+year. This is more for Turkey, than twice that sum would be in the
+United States.
+
+"Mr. Robert has given nearly $175,000 for this institution, or more
+than fivefold what he originally contemplated.
+
+"Nothing but the very highest education that can be attained, will
+now satisfy the Turkish community. Jesuit colleges have fallen into
+disrepute. They cannot meet this demand fairly, and satisfy it. New
+ideas of religious freedom pervade these communities; the old bonds
+are broken, and the college that gives the best culture, moral and
+mental, will be the most patronized by all. Missionary Societies
+cannot properly prosecute the work in this highest department of
+education. And yet foreign missions would be a failure if their work
+should stop in those classes where it usually begins. It must
+pervade and control the intelligence and enterprise of the land, and
+it cannot culminate in this result without the Christian College,
+and ultimately the Christian University."
+
+
+PROPOSED COLLEGE IN THE INTERIOR.
+
+
+As one result of the establishment of "Robert College" at
+Constantinople, a desire was awakened among the Protestants of
+Central Turkey for a similar institution, though on a less extended
+scale, and somewhat differently constituted; to be established
+either at Aintab, or Marash. Both places were anxious for the
+location, and set forth their claims with much ability, but the
+decision inclined in favor of Aintab. The subscriptions pledged by
+the people of that city, on condition of securing the college, were
+regarded by Dr. Schneider as equivalent to $60,000 of American
+money, or more than twenty dollars for each church-member, Nor were
+the offerings at Marash less liberal, in proportion to their means.
+
+The idea appears to have had its origin with the people of Marash;
+who state that their own condition, the number and power of their
+enemies, and the baneful influences of infidelity among them, made
+them feel that the standard of education in the Theological Seminary
+ought to be so raised as to meet the exigency. The failure of this
+proposal suggested the college; and the plan of one, elaborated by a
+committee, was brought before the "Union." By that time, however,
+the Protestants of Aintab had become fully awake to the importance
+of the measure, and the claims of the two cities were so earnestly
+pressed, that the Union declined deciding between them, and referred
+the decision to the Prudential Committee of the American Board.
+
+The very able pleas by the Protestants of the two cities drawn up in
+the spring of 1872, are before me, in the English language. The
+Aintab document opens with an interesting statement of their past
+progress in the matter of education. "We well remember," they say,
+"what our condition was, twenty-five or thirty years ago. We had
+then not even a thought about the necessity or advantages of
+education. A population of ten thousand Armenians was content with a
+single common school, where only reading and writing were taught.
+When, however, through the agency of the American Board, the Bible
+was translated into our modern language, it soon changed our
+opinions as to the importance of education, we can hardly explain
+how. Soon, the evangelical Armenians, not to speak of members of the
+Old Church, were not content with even three or four schools, nor
+were they satisfied with educating their sons, but began to plan for
+the education of their daughters. We discovered that mere reading
+and writing were not enough, and saw plainly the necessity of a
+higher grade of studies. Whereas once, we were hardly willing to
+send our children to schools where all the expense was borne by the
+missionaries, we were now anxious to open schools of a still higher
+character, and support them ourselves. We now realized, under the
+light of God's Word, that if men are to be good Christians, good
+fathers and mothers, and useful members of society, they must be
+educated. In this respect, our desires have been greatly
+strengthened by watching in our churches the constantly increasing
+demand for a stronger class of preachers and teachers. All the
+churches within the bounds of the Union are convinced of the
+necessity of a more thoroughly educated ministry. Hence the desire
+for a college in this section of the country."
+
+The decision was in favor of Aintab in view of its greater financial
+ability, its centrality, its comparative healthfulness, the
+abundance of good building materials, the lower price of skilled
+labor, the prospective railway communication between the coast and
+the interior, the proper distribution of educational advantages (the
+Theological Seminary being already at Marash), and the interest felt
+by all classes at Aintab, including the Old Armenians and the
+Moslems.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS. THE PRESENT CONDITION.
+
+1872.
+
+
+It seems often to be required of missions, though not properly, that
+they shall exert a vastly greater reforming influence on
+unevangelized countries, than the Gospel has yet done in Christian
+lands. When we speak of "the conversion of the world," we are
+generally understood as meaning the introduction of the
+"Millennium." But what we refer to is not the millennial state, but
+such a diffusion of gospel agencies and influences through the
+unevangelized world, as we see in the most favored Christian
+communities.
+
+This is all that can reasonably be expected from missionary efforts.
+The Millenium, whether it be near or remote, doubtless implies such
+a previous extension of gospel agencies as we are now attempting,
+but will be the actual result of a universal outpouring of the
+Spirit, such as we are taught to expect when the time comes for the
+ultimate triumphs of the Christian dispensation.
+
+The question naturally arises, in closing this History, how far
+progress has been made in evangelizing Turkey, or in preparing the
+way for its future evangelization. From the nature of the case,
+there can be only an approximation towards an exact reply; and
+perhaps none can be given more satisfactory, than is furnished by
+the narrative already recorded in these pages. Yet a brief notice of
+some of the more important facts, may reasonably be expected here.
+
+It must not be supposed, that some of the first facts that will be
+mentioned are regarded as direct results of missionary effort, or as
+indications of evangelizing progress; but even these mark a progress
+in the condition of society, which is very cheering, and full of
+promise with reference to future efforts for the introduction and
+establishment of a true and pure religion; white others noticed have
+a more direct and full connection with the missionary work.
+
+Where there has been intellectual and social progress on a large
+scale, we naturally look for material improvements. Turning, first
+of all, to the great metropolis, Dr. Wood testifies to such
+improvements as these: "The streets are named, and doors designated
+by numbers. Scavenger carts are supplanting the dogs. The terrible
+conflagrations have secured broad avenues, and handsome stone and
+brick structures, in place of mean wooden buildings, on streets so
+narrow that the sun could hardly enter them. Spacious flag-stone
+sidewalks are taking the place of the rough pavements of horrible
+memory, and macadamized roadbeds help one to climb the steep
+hill-sides of Constantinople. 'Tramways' are built or building, a
+boon of inexpressible value to the aged and feeble, and a thousand
+dwellings have been demolished for the track of the Belgrade and
+Vienna Railroad, entering at the Seven Towers, and carried along the
+Marmora, and around the Seraglio Point, to its terminus on the
+Golden Horn. The demolition of much of the sea-wall to make way for
+it and furnish materials for embankments, is a suggestive symbol of
+the social and religious reconstruction, which is tearing up old
+foundations, and using the labors of ages past for that which is to
+be."
+
+Dr. Wood next instances the significant telegraph lines, running to
+all points of the compass, of which he counted twelve on one side of
+a street, and four on the other. "The spectacle of small craft on
+the waters, sea-going steamers of the largest class, smaller
+passenger-boats for the Bosphorus and ports on the Marmora, and the
+magnificent iron-clads anchored in front of the Sultan's palaces,
+impresses both residents and strangers with a vivid sense of the
+greatness, wealth, and power, which, in spite of mismanagement,
+corruption, misrule, and all the elements of weakness and decline in
+the country, are here concentrated."
+
+"Costumes," he says, "are changing, and customs and ideas change
+with them. Even Turkish women are adopting Frank articles of dress,
+worn beneath the external covering, and go about tottering on
+high-heeled shoes of latest Parisian style; and Armenian women
+appear in public with unveiled faces, attired like ladies of Europe.
+Thirteen newspapers--three of them dailies, three tri-weeklies, and
+seven weeklies (one of which issues a daily bulletin), for Armenians
+alone, at the capital--attest a new intellectual life, by the fact
+of their existence, and by the freedom of their discussions.
+
+"Schools for girls are multiplying; even a normal school for Turkish
+girls has been established under government patronage; but a still
+greater zeal is displayed for the education of boys. The notions of
+the people concerning education are, indeed, very faulty, and much
+of the instruction given is poor enough in quality; but the waking
+up on the subject heralds a brighter day in the future. That this is
+far greater among the Christian populations, than in the Mohammedan
+and Jewish, and that the former are gaining more and more upon the
+latter in the possession of wealth, is suggestive of coming events,
+of the highest interest and importance."
+
+Dr. Clarke, Foreign Secretary of the Board, writing in the same year
+(1871), after his visit to the East, mentions the following
+indications of progress: "Hundreds of miles of railway, begun and
+under contract; telegraphic communication between the principal
+towns; postal arrangements for the conveyance of money, as well as
+letters, established within a few years between many places; police
+regulations, securing protection to life and property as never
+before; the suppression of robber-hordes, which had infested
+different sections; and the beginning of a newspaper press. The
+public mind in the great centres is waking up to what is going on in
+the outside world. The war in our own country, by its derangement of
+commerce, led to much inquiry; and the later conflicts in Europe
+have excited a lively interest in many minds. And not the least
+significant matter is the change of sentiment in reference to France
+and French influence. Already is it said by native merchants, that
+their children must learn English, or German, instead of French; and
+the power of Romanism, upheld so long by French consuls, is sensibly
+weakened. And Protestantism is quietly doing its work of
+enlightenment,--directly, in thousands of minds, and indirectly, in
+thousands more."
+
+Mr. Adams, of Adana, writing a year earlier, affirms that the
+Christian populations are far more ready to hear and read the Gospel
+than is commonly supposed, and that the Protestant faith has found
+its way into the remotest corners of the land. He says, we should
+not measure the success of missions by "tabular views" alone, for it
+often happens that a missionary's strongest grounds of hope are
+quite outside of the largest array of figures. "As I write this," he
+adds, "a statement of Hagop Effendi occurs to me. He said: "I have
+travelled a great deal among the Protestants of Syria and Turkey,
+and the strongest impression I have does not arise from the schools,
+books, or churches, as pledges that Protestantism is to be a success
+in Turkey, but from the prodigious extent to which the country at
+large is leavened by Protestant truth. The grandest results of your
+labors are not apparent."
+
+Another testimony is by Mr. Leonard, of Marsovan, under date of
+January, 1871. "Evidence," he says, "of a gradual reform in the
+Oriental churches, especially the Armenian Church, chiefly as the
+result of evangelical labors, crops out in almost every city.
+Consecrated pictures leave church walls for the garret; silver
+crosses go into the refining pot; auricular confession is neglected;
+many superstitious ceremonies and foolish restrictions, imposed by
+the priesthood, are regarded only as a curious relic of the past. We
+note, also, a growing friendliness towards Protestants, and
+occasionally very sensible efforts, in emulation of them, to educate
+the people."
+
+Mr. Leonard doubtless had a special reference to the Armenian Bishop
+of Amasia, who, having secured a majority of the people in his
+favor, swept two churches of their gold and silver images, crosses,
+and vestments, and appropriated the avails to the erection of
+school-houses and the support of teachers. The minority appealed to
+the Patriarch at Constantinople; but he is known to have been in
+sympathy with the reforming party in the church before his election,
+while at Van and Moosh, and is said to have sanctioned the whole
+proceeding, and to have followed his sanction with an exhortation to
+preach the Gospel.[1]
+
+[1] _Report of the Board_ for 1871, p. 27.
+
+Another testimony is from Mr. Wheeler, of Harpoot, written in April
+of the same year: "Henceforth we shall need less money, and more
+prayer; for this finishing of the work is, in some respects, even
+more perilous than was its beginning. The people expect and demand a
+thousand things, which they cannot _now_ have; and sometimes the
+more earnest ones are inclined to take the missionaries by the
+throat, with a 'Pay us that ye owe!' We are encouraged by the
+reflection that such experiences necessarily enter into such a work
+of awakening and reform, as is here going on."
+
+The testimony of Hagop Effendi, the Civil Head of the Protestants of
+Turkey, should also be adduced. He says: "The fact that eighty-five
+per cent. of the adults in the Protestant community can read, speaks
+greatly in favor of its members. Any one acquainted with the social
+condition and religious ideas of the Orient, who will take pains to
+compare them with the liberal institutions now introduced, can
+readily imagine the state of society that must necessarily follow
+such a change. As yet, the people do not possess the intellectual
+and moral elements necessary for the maintenance of the liberal
+institutions of Protestantism independent of foreign aid." "Those,"
+he adds, "who have become Protestant in principle, far exceed in
+number the registered Protestants. The indirect influence of
+Protestantism has been greater and healthier than is apparent." He
+then instances the strictly sober habits of the Protestants, among
+whom the use of strong drink is very rare, and habitual drunkenness
+is hardly known. And he was everywhere gratified to find, throughout
+the empire, a great improvement in domestic relations, as compared
+with the condition of families before they became Protestants.
+
+The districts of Harpoot, Aintab, and Marash are probably more
+advanced in the matter of self-governing, self-supporting,
+evangelical churches, than any other considerable portions of the
+field in Western Asia. The Rev. Herman N. Barnum, of the Harpoot
+station, while in the United States, drew up, at my request, a
+statement of some of the more important results of missionary labor
+in his own district, which may be regarded as illustrative of the
+results of missionary labor in other districts.
+
+He states these as rules,--that no church is to be organized without
+a native pastor; that no church is to receive aid from the mission
+for more than one half the salary of the pastor, and none for more
+than five years. Eighteen churches have been formed in the district,
+with six hundred and fifty members, and most of them on this plan.
+The church at Harpoot was self-supporting from the outset. Wherever
+a fully organized and self-supporting church existed, the peculiar
+work of the missionaries was regarded as completed in that place;
+the church and pastor, rather than the missionaries, being
+henceforth held responsible for the evangelization of the
+surrounding community. The missionaries aid, if necessary, by their
+counsel and in other ways, but what they do is through the church.
+His response as to the character of the churches, which I
+necessarily abridge, is deemed applicable, substantially, to the
+seventy-four churches among the Armenians. He says:--
+
+"1. They are becoming intelligent. Making the Bible a study, they
+become established in Christian doctrine.
+
+"2. Church discipline is better maintained than it is in American
+churches. Their 'watch and care' are delightful to witness. Many of
+these Christians came out of the grossest corruption, but the
+fellowship of the church is a shield and a support.
+
+"3. They are self-denying. The support of their own institutions,
+including the building of their school-houses and houses of worship,
+with very little missionary aid, necessitates the sacrifice of
+comforts which they cheerfully forego. Experience in Turkey has
+abundantly proved, that dependent churches are nearly worthless for
+evangelizing agencies. When the institutions of the Gospel are
+supported for them, they regard the work of extending it as
+belonging especially to the missionaries; and hence, however lavish
+the expenditure, they often complain that money is not more freely
+spent, and the work prosecuted on a grander scale. Complaints
+against missionaries come chiefly from churches doing little for
+themselves. On the other hand, self-supporting churches regard the
+work of propagating the Gospel as their own, and whatever is given
+them, they gratefully receive as aid in doing their own work.
+
+"4. These churches resemble the primitive churches in their
+disposition to work for others. They are imbued with a spirit of
+labor. They go from house to house, reading and preaching the word.
+This is the theme in the shop, the field, and by the way-side.
+
+"The chief source of discomfort is in the Armenian character itself,
+in which there is a lack of stability, and a want of perseverance.
+But there is ground for hope, that even this national trait may be
+overcome by the power of the Gospel.
+
+"In Harpoot and its seventy out-station is a Protestant community of
+about five thousand souls, characterized by a remarkable reformation
+in the outward life. Many of them are doubtless Christians, who, in
+the great care which the churches use in receiving members to their
+fellowship, are in a certain sense on probation. The Protestant name
+has become a synonym for integrity and uprightness.
+
+"The extent, to which the Gospel has affected the communities not
+Protestant, cannot be appreciated by one not in actual contact with
+them. It manifests itself partly in the weakened power of
+superstition, the multiplication of schools, the number of adults
+who have learned to read, the increase in general intelligence and
+knowledge of the truth, the decrease of intemperance and vice, the
+promotion of enterprise and good order; and, in short, the
+beginnings of a civilization, that has a Christian aspect. There
+have been sold at Harpoot about four thousand copies of the Bible,
+and twenty thousand portions of the same, with nearly fifty-five
+thousand volumes of other books, religious and educational, from the
+mission press. Large numbers of these have gone into the hands of
+the unevangelized, and are silently exerting an influence. This
+class of persons is always represented in our congregations. They
+hear the truth discussed everywhere, and thousands of them have
+accepted it intellectually, who have not yet separated themselves
+from their own religious communities. All this suggests the
+possibility of a rapid development, when the Spirit shall be poured
+out from on high.
+
+"Were the Harpoot field limited to the district seventy miles
+square, of which the city is the centre, it might now be safely
+left, with its seminaries and hundreds of villages, to the eleven
+churches and the native laborers found there, with an annual grant,
+for a few years, from the American Board. As it is, there is good
+hope that, by the blessing of God on the means in use, the whole
+district, embracing more than twenty thousand square miles and half
+a million of souls, may, in a few years, be relinquished as a
+missionary field."
+
+Some estimate may be formed of the influence exerted by the press,
+when it is considered that more than ten and a half millions of
+pages were issued, in the single year 1870, in the Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, Græco-Turkish, and Bulgarian languages; and that
+nearly three hundred millions of pages have been issued by these
+missions since they began their operations. The number of
+missionaries among the Armenians, in 1870, was forty, and of female
+assistant missionaries sixty.
+
+When the missionaries entered Turkey, religion was administered
+wholly by the hierarchy, and had everywhere a stereotype form. Death
+was the penalty for heresy among the Moslems; and it was scarcely
+less in the prevailing sentiment of the nominal Christian sects. The
+history relates how far this obstacle existed, and how far it has
+been overcome. Whatever be true as regards thy ecclesiastics, the
+people have now accepted, in some good degree, the principle of
+religious freedom, and so has the government of the Sultan.
+
+Before the institution of Protestant missions, the school-books
+among the Turks, Armenians, and Greeks were in the ancient
+languages, and the schools were consequently of little practical
+value. One of the first things done by the missionaries was the
+publication of school-books in the languages spoken by the people;
+and this simple movement took wonderfully with both Christians and
+Moslems, and has wrought a mighty revolution in the empire.
+
+The principle of self-support in native churches appears now to be
+the well-defined policy of all the missions in Turkey, to be
+realized in practice at the earliest possible day. In some of the
+missionary districts, the forming of the church and the ordination
+of the pastor are expected to occur at the same time; and when aid
+is given it is only for a limited series of years; and the schools,
+and all other necessary agencies, are to be transferred at the
+earliest moment from the mission to the people themselves. As a
+general rule, the missionaries do not now take the lead in the
+building of school-houses and places of worship. They aid as may
+seem necessary; but the responsibility and chief pecuniary burden
+are left with the people; except where the power of precedent, from
+a different course, is too strong to be overcome at once.
+
+The various testimonies embodied in this chapter will not affect all
+minds alike. Yet all must admit, that the Gospel has gained a
+deeper, firmer hold on the Armenians, than it ever had before, from
+the days of Gregory "the Illuminator" until now. A mental, moral,
+and social revolution is in progress, and mainly as a consequence of
+the republication of the Gospel by missionaries in the past half
+century; and there is no probability of any event occurring that
+shall be sufficient to arrest it. Doubtless great evil would result
+from extensive inroads of sectarian zeal. But there is hope of
+triumph even then,--from the Bible in their own language, brought by
+the press within reach of thousands of families, with fathers,
+mothers, and children able and free to read it; from self-governed,
+self-supported, self-propagating churches, scattered over the
+empire, each with its indoctrinated native pastor; from woman
+holding such a place in the family and social circle, as she never
+held before; and from common schools, and normal schools, and high
+schools, and theological seminaries, and even colleges, all
+independent of the hierarchy, and beyond the power of the Jesuits;
+with the logic of free thought, and a free conscience.
+
+It would seem that it may not be needful greatly to enlarge the
+present number of missionaries among the Armenian people. The native
+ministers and native churches are the main thing. And it must be
+admitted, that the Gospel, through the grace of God, has been
+republished, and its institutions replanted, extensively and most
+hopefully in the Armenian Church of the Orient. "In the midst of
+fermentation," writes the Constantinople station in 1872, "the
+leaven of truth is making its way; and so is, also, that of
+infidelity; but the latter is temporary in its influence, the former
+permanent. There is far more Protestantism outside of the Protestant
+church than within it. Protestant ideas of truth, of liberty of
+conscience, of progress, are spread far and wide, and are convulsing
+these nations."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+THE MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+
+The necessity for republishing the Gospel among the Oriental
+Churches, in order to approach the Mohammedans successfully, was
+stated in the Introduction to this History.[1] It seems proper now
+to give some illustrations of the effect this republication is
+likely to have upon that people.
+
+[1] See Volume i. pp. 1-6.
+
+A large portion of the Mohammedan population of Turkey is
+undoubtedly of Christian origin, and therefore less firmly wedded to
+the Moslem faith and ritual, than are the Osmanly Turks. Three
+fourths of the four millions in European Turkey, are believed to be
+of this class. The Kuzzelbashes in Eastern Turkey have a tradition
+that their Christian ancestors were compelled to become Mohammedans,
+and they are now regarded by the Turks as little better than
+infidels; nor are the Koords in much higher repute. Of the Druzes
+enough was said in the first volume.[1]
+
+[1] See Chapter xv.
+
+Though the penalty of death for embracing the Christian religion has
+been abrogated in Turkey,[1] yet the convert from Mohammedanism does
+not feel himself free from danger of secret assassination. Far
+greater security of life and property is enjoyed by Protestant
+Armenians and Bulgarians, than by Protestant Turks. Indeed, it is
+not long since Protestant Turks had no security whatever; and in
+Persia, they have none now. When Koord, Kuzzelbash, and Turk shall
+feel as free to inquire, and to act on conviction, as the members of
+the nominally Christian sects, there are facts encouraging the
+belief, that large numbers of Moslems may be expected to embrace the
+Christian faith.
+
+[1] See Chapters ix. and xxv.
+
+There is no more satisfactory way of illustrating this than by a
+simple statement of some of the more important facts. Indeed, it is
+requisite to the completeness of this history, that these be now
+stated, since they were designedly omitted in the preceding pages,
+in their various connections, in order to be recorded here.
+
+I begin with the year 1854, when the Imperial Firman of 1850 became
+known in the provinces.[1] Mr. Dunmore, on his way from Arabkir to
+Diarbekir, with Priest Kevork, spent the first night at a Moslem
+village. They had travelled in the rain, and were scarcely dry, says
+Mr. Dunmore, "when a company of Turks asked us to read to them from
+the New Testament, and tell them something of our belief. Kevork
+read to them from the Gospels, explaining, as he passed along, the
+precious teachings of our Lord, and closed with prayer. All listened
+attentively, and pronounced it, 'Good,' 'True,' 'Just.'"
+
+[1] See Chapters xxiv. and xxv.
+
+At another place, Mr. Dunmore found Turks desirous to hear the
+Gospel. "More than once," he says, "in passing through the streets,
+rich Moslem merchants called us into their shops, expressed their
+sympathy with us, and an earnest desire that we would remain. They
+called the Armenians to discuss questions with us, but the latter
+did so only when constrained by fear, or shame. We were frequently
+followed by a number of respectable Moslems, as we went from shop to
+shop to converse with the Armenians; and one day so many gathered
+about us that we could scarcely proceed on our way; all exclaiming,
+'Right,' 'True,' 'Good,' to all that we said."
+
+The Hutti Humaïoun was promulgated in 1855. In that year the Turkish
+Scriptures were sold openly on the bridge between Galata and
+Constantinople, no man forbidding.
+
+In September, 1857, Dr. Hamlin described the official examination,
+at his house, of a family converted from Mohammedanism. It was made
+at the instigation of the mother of the wife, who was almost frantic
+at the baptism of her daughter and grandchild. "Our dear friends,"
+wrote Dr. Hamlin, "stood firm as a rock, and at length the officers
+arose and said to me, as nearly as I can state; 'We are fully
+convinced that no compulsion has been used in this case, and, so far
+as we can see, the accusations of the mother are false. It is the
+will of his Majesty, our Sovereign, and it has become the law of the
+empire, that every subject, without exception, should enjoy entire
+religious freedom. The Mussulman is now as free to become a
+Christian, as a Christian is free to become a Mussulman. The
+government will know no difference in the two cases. It will only
+undertake, whenever an accusation of restraint or compulsion is
+brought, to ascertain the true state of the case; and then only in
+order to secure the most unexceptionable freedom of choice.'"
+
+In May of the following year, Dr. Hamlin wrote, that Selim Effendi,
+a converted Mussulman employed as an evangelist among his
+countrymen, had many inquirers. "I think he conversed with eleven
+last week; among whom a woman expressed a very decided desire to
+embrace Christianity, but she was afraid of her son. Her son had
+sometimes expressed the same wish, but he was afraid of his mother!
+Selim introduced them to each other."
+
+"Let the following statements be appreciated," said Dr. Schauffler,
+in September, 1858, "and the difference between the present and the
+former state of things will be better understood. (1.) The Imans and
+Ulemas are obliged to resort to moral suasion and entreaty. No
+threats of persecution are employed; the government takes no
+responsibility in these matters; the police has nothing to do with
+them. (2.) Although there are fewer purchasers of the New Testament,
+yet men buy it publicly, fearing no civil penalty. 'Why do you buy
+this infidel book?' says a bigot to a Mohammedan purchaser of the
+Gospel. He replies: 'I chose to buy it, and with my own money; you
+are welcome to mind your own business;' and so the matter ends. (3.)
+We hear of no search being made for the books in circulation among
+Mussulmans, No New Testaments have been burned yet, that we know of,
+by the Turks, as many copies have been by the Greek or Catholic
+priests and bishops."
+
+Mr. Dunmore wrote, in the same year, after visiting thirty villages,
+mostly Kuzzelbash and Turkish: "I really felt ashamed, that in
+touring I had ever passed by a Turkish village, without stopping to
+point them to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the
+world? And I testify what I have seen, when I say, that the Turks
+are approachable; and many of them ready to listen to the Gospel;
+while others are anxious to search the Scriptures, and are
+restrained only by the pressure of fears, which, as yet, the
+Hatti-humaioun has scarcely begun to remove in this region."
+
+I quote again from the same missionary: "At a Koordish village of
+twenty houses we spent two hours in preaching the Word to a company
+of thirty. One of them, who seemed to have received a few rays of
+light from enlightened men, boldly declared, that he believed the
+time was near, when the sword would no more be used to keep men in
+Moslem bonds, but that they all would soon be free to embrace the
+Gospel, if they wished. We spent a night at a Kuzzelbash village of
+forty houses. Immediately on our arrival, we had an audience of
+thirty or forty; and during the long evening, fifty or more listened
+to the great truths of the Gospel. We preached 'Christ crucified;
+the way, the truth, and the life;' and they received the word with
+eagerness. When the evening was far spent, we bowed together before
+the mercy-seat, after which our audience reluctantly retired. These
+are but samples of our visits among Kuzzelbashes and Turks on this
+tour."
+
+Dr. Hamlin, speaking of Turks near the close of 1858, says: "There
+have been, here and there, some burnings of the New Testament; not
+publicly, but in private, or in small social circles. Among
+Mussulmans themselves a spirited debate has repeatedly arisen as to
+the moral character of the act. Some have approved, others have most
+decidedly condemned it, affirming that the New Testament is the Word
+of God. What impressed us most strongly is the bold manner in which
+orthodox Turks have declared it to be the Word of God, and that to
+burn it is a sin."[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1858, p. 380.
+
+Dr. Dwight wrote in May, 1859: "The work among the Turks is looming
+up; and if not hindered by some untoward event, or by our neglect,
+it will by and by assume very large proportions. That Turkish
+officials through the country have been instructed not to persecute
+Mohammedans who embrace Christianity, is very evident. The governors
+of Sivas, Cesarea, and Diarbekir have, to our knowledge, within a
+short time, and with actual cases before them, publicly declared,
+that a Mohammedan who became a Christian could not be molested."
+
+Mr. White visited a place on the north of the Taurus Mountains in
+May, 1860, and had many calls from Mussulmans. "Every day they
+came," he says, "with an apparently sincere desire to learn the
+truth; and held long conversations on man's sinfulness, and how it
+was possible for God to forgive sin. 'We have lost God;' 'We have
+lost the road;' 'We cannot find God;' were expressions they used
+very often. At almost every meeting, from three to five Mussulmans
+were present. One is known all over the city as a Protestant; and a
+second is a member of the Governor's Council."
+
+Mr. Herrick, speaking of the Turkish department in the Bebek
+Seminary, wrote thus, in the same year: "Quite a number of
+Mohammedans have renounced Islam, and become true Christians; many
+more are soberly inquiring after the truth; and many others are
+turning, unsatisfied, from a religion which cannot save, or wavering
+in a merely nominal devotion to Islamism. That which is most
+striking is the clear evidence, often, of the work of God's Spirit
+in individual cases, and in general movements."
+
+Dr. Schneider gives this testimony concerning the Mussulmans at an
+out-station of Aintab: "There is a willingness among the Moslems
+here to listen to arguments in favor of Christianity, that is
+uncommon. By intercourse with Protestants, and the reading of the
+Scriptures, many of them have obtained glimpses of the truth, and a
+few are more or less convinced that Christianity is true. While I
+was there, fifteen Mussulmans and several women attended a service.
+Apparently there is no place in this region where there is so much
+prospect of a speedy work to be done among the Mussulmans."
+
+The inducement to labor among the Moslems, was much increased in the
+year 1860. At one large town in the heart of Asia Minor, a Moslem
+said to a Protestant, "Since you came here, you have caused us to
+fall into doubt and fear." At another, a Turk and his wife appeared
+to be true Christians. Though the man was zealous in making known
+the Gospel, the Moslems agreed to ignore his being a Protestant. At
+Diarbekir, a Turk declared himself a Christian, and a captain of the
+army at Harpoot did the same. Many Turks in the latter region
+purchased the New Testament, and some the whole Bible. The military
+Pasha of this district bought a Bible publicly, and so did the civil
+Pasha; thus showing the effect of the thorough evangelization of
+that community. At Constantinople, Dr. Dwight reported his having
+read the Scriptures and bowed in prayer with a high officer of the
+army in the palace of a Pasha, in the Mussulman quarter of the city,
+and in the presence of servants; the officer appearing to be
+strongly under the influence of evangelical ideas and feelings. Six
+Moslem converts were baptized that year at the capital. One of these
+was an Iman, seventy years of age. There had then been fifteen
+baptisms of adult converts from Mohammedanism in Constantinople.[1]
+The Grand Vizier subsequently required the Serasker to call Abdi
+Effendi, the baptized Iman above mentioned, and examine him. This
+was done, and the old man made the following confession and
+statement: "We are no ghiaours (_i. e_. we worship neither pictures,
+nor crosses, nor saints); we assemble and read out of this book
+(drawing out of his bosom the New Testament); we sing out of this
+one (producing a Turkish Hymn Book); and we listen to preaching from
+the Gospel, and engage in prayer for all men. If there is anything
+wrong in this book, please point it out to me." He supposed (on
+inquiry) that there might be some forty men who were like him, and
+mentioned some of their names.
+
+[1] In part, by English missionaries.
+
+It would be easy to multiply illustrations like the foregoing of the
+susceptibility of Mohammedans to Christian influence; and the reader
+will notice that they are of the same general nature with the early
+manifestations of interest among the Armenians. There have been,
+also, Turkish converts, who braved death in their Christian
+profession, and remained steadfast unto the end.
+
+No churches have been formed by our missionaries exclusively of
+Turkish Christians; and it can hardly be said, that the Board has
+yet had an organized mission to this people. Of the four
+missionaries sent especially to the Turks, Dr. Schauffler has
+devoted himself chiefly to translating the Scriptures into the
+Osmanli-Turkish; Mr. Herrick, besides doing service by his
+commentaries and other literary labors in that language, has been
+mainly employed in the Turkish department of the Theological
+Seminary, first at Bebek, and then at Marsovan; the younger Mr.
+Schauffler was born on the ground, as we may say, and began his
+labors amid the strifes of the Armenians in Constantinople with the
+missionaries, which was a great hindrance to his work, and the
+health of his family not allowing him to remain in Turkey, he is now
+a pioneer in the new mission to Austria; and Mr. Hutchison had
+scarcely entered the Turkish department of the Bebek Seminary, when
+the failure of his wife's health required a return to the United
+States. The mission of the Rev. James L. Merrick to the Persian
+Mohammedans, in 1834, was little more than a tentative exploration
+of the field, and was not continued.[1]
+
+[1] It should be stated that the English Church Missionary Society
+has had a missionary to the Mohammedans in Constantinople since
+1862, and reports five converts who are communicants. For the
+reactionary movement among the Turks at Constantinople, in
+consequence of the distribution of Dr. Pfander's _Defense of
+Christianity against Mohammedanism_, see page 234 of this volume.
+
+With a field so inviting as the Armenian along side of the
+Mohammedan, it was not easy to obtain missionaries to the Moslems.
+Then again, missionaries to the Armenians soon became engrossed by
+their labors. "The Mohammedans," wrote Dr. Schauffler in 1859,
+"never will be cared for by missionaries to the Armenians or the
+Bulgarians. We can all render each other important services, but no
+missionary can take charge of two nationalities. Each one, soon
+after coming, finds his hands so full of business for which he feels
+responsible, that he cannot do much besides. Moreover, every man
+gets his sympathies enlisted for the people of his charge. This is
+probably necessary to enable us to labor with energy, and suffer
+with patience; but this needful concentration of feeling precludes
+the idea of universality in missionary labor."
+
+Experience has also developed the great law here, as well as
+elsewhere, that the main work of winning races to Christianity must
+be performed by men of the same race. A Moslem will listen more
+patiently to a Christian Turk ("renegade" though he be), than he
+will to an Armenian; nor has it been found easy to enlist the
+Protestant Armenians effectively in labors for the Turks. It may be
+otherwise when the work is more advanced, and the Armenians are
+elevated to a higher social level. But a ministry raised from among
+themselves, is indispensable to the most efficient evangelization of
+the Turks.
+
+It would seem, therefore, that, up to the present time, the original
+plan of the mission to Turkey has been more promising of good, than
+any other; namely, that of operating upon the Mohammedans through
+regenerated churches planted in the communities where they dwell;
+and the greatest usefulness of these churches, for obvious reasons,
+must be expected in the interior, rather than in the capital. Thus
+far, there has been no material or very obvious change in the
+missionary policy; and the risk of such a change, and its probable
+advantages on the whole, should be carefully estimated. The
+Protestant nations of Europe are substantially with us in our
+evangelical labors among the Oriental Churches; and the churches we
+gather are "our epistle," "known and read" by the Mohammedans.
+Gradually, it may be, some of the missionaries now in the field, who
+are familiar with the Turkish language, and have their Armenian
+churches supplied with pastors, will turn their attention mainly to
+the Moslems, in the exercise of a sound discretion, both as regards
+the Turks and the Christians. It may be found that both classes may
+be happily inclosed in the same fold. The missionary now occupies a
+higher and more influential position with both, than he did years
+ago. The Turk, too, is better appreciated as he becomes known. He
+has more of manliness, self-respect, and religious feeling, than
+some races for whose salvation our labors have been blest. The
+masses are by no means hopeless, and the middle class is full of
+promise.
+
+The future is in the hands of the great Head of the Church; who has
+so crowned with success the past labors of his servants in Turkey,
+as to warrant the expectation, that whatever is needful to the
+effectual republication of the Gospel in those Bible lands, may be
+attempted with the glad assurance of success.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISSIONARIES
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISSIONARIES.
+
+
+When no date occurs in the right hand column, it is because the
+missionary is still in the field.
+
+In several instances, the date of the wife's arrival in the field
+precedes the arrival of the husband. The explanation is that the
+wife, previous to marriage, had been connected with the mission as a
+teacher.
+
+Dr. Eli Smith's Exploring Tour is included in his thirty years'
+missionary service. So in the case of Dr. H. G. O. Dwight, and some
+others.
+
+Cyprus is included in the Mission to Greece and the Greeks; the
+population consisting largely of that element.
+
+The asterisk (*) placed before a name, denotes that the person is
+deceased. When it is placed before a _date_, in the right hand
+column, it denotes that the person died _at the time there
+indicated_, and in the field.
+
+The Assyria Mission terminated in November, 1860, when it was merged
+in the Mission to the Armenians. The persons composing that mission
+remained at their stations.
+
+It should be specially noted, that this table is not destined to
+state the time of a missionary's connection either with the Mission,
+or with the Board, but only of his residence in the field.
+
+MISSION TO PALESTINE.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*Pliny Fisk                          Jan. 15, 1820.  *Oct. 23, 1825.
+*Levi Parsons                        Jan. 15, 1820.  *Feb. 10, 1822.
+*Jonas King, D.D.    [See Mission
+                       to Greece]    Nov.  2, 1822.   Aug. 26, 1825.
+*George B. Whiting   [See Mission
+                       to Syria]     Oct.,    1834.   Autumn,  1843.
+                     Mrs. Matilda S.
+                       Whiting       Oct.,    1834.   Autumn,  1843.
+Wm. M. Thomson, D.D. [See Mission
+                       to Syria]     April,   1834.
+                     *Mrs. Eliza N.
+                       Thomson       April,   1834.  *July 22, 1834.
+*John F. Lanneau     [See Mission
+                       to Syria]     May   1, 1836.   June 11, 1846.
+Charles S. Sherman                   Sept.,   1838.   July  1, 1842.
+                     Mrs. Martha E.
+                       Sherman       Sept.,   1839.   July  1, 1842.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIAN.
+*Asa Dodge, M.D.                     Sept.,   1834.  *Jan. 28, 1835.
+                     Mrs. Martha
+                       Dodge         Sept.,   1834.            1838.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARY.
+                     Miss Betsey
+                       Tilden        June 16, 1836.   March 1, 1843.
+
+Messrs. Beadle and Keyes were at Jerusalem from July 17, 1840, to
+January, 1841.
+
+THE PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT AT MALTA.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*Daniel Temple       [See Mission
+                       to Armenians] Feb. 22, 1822.  Dec.,     1833.
+                     *Mrs. Rachel B.
+                       Temple        Feb. 22, 1822. *Jan. 15,  1827.
+                     *Mrs. Martha E.
+                       Temple        Feb. 25, 1830.  Dec.,     1833.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARY.
+Homan Hallock        [See Mission
+                       to Armenians] Dec. 10, 1826.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth
+                       Hallock       Mar. 26, 1828.
+
+MISSION TO SYRIA.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*William
+   Goodell, D.D.     [See Mission
+                       to Armenians] Oct. 16, 1823.  May   2,  1828.
+                     *Mrs. Abigail P.
+                       Goodell       Oct. 16, 1323.  May   2,  1828.
+Isaac Bird                           Oct. 16, 1823.  Aug.,     1835.
+                     Mrs. Ann P.
+                       Bird          Oct. 16, 1823.  Aug.,     1835.
+*Eli Smith, D.D.                     Feb. 18, 1827. *Jan. 11,  1857.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah L. H.
+                       Smith         Jan. 28, 1834. *Sept. 30, 1836.
+                     *Mrs. Maria W. C.
+                       Smith         June 17, 1841. *May  27,  1842.
+                     Mrs. Henrietta S.
+                       Smith         Jan. 12, 1847.  May,      1857.
+Wm. M. Thomson, D.D. [See Mission
+                       to Palestine] Sept.,   1834.
+                     Mrs. Maria
+                       Thomson       Aug.  3, 1835.
+*Story Hebard                        Mar. 14, 1836. *June 30,  1841.
+                     *Mrs. Rebecca W. Hebard
+                       [formerly Miss
+                       Williams]     Nov. 13, 1835. *Feb. 18,  1840.
+Elias R. Beadle                      Oct. 15, 1838.  Sept. 27, 1842.
+                     *Mrs. Hannah
+                       Beadle        Oct. 15, 1838.  Sept. 27, 1842.
+Samuel Wolcott, D.D.                 April 1, 1840.  Jan.   2, 1843.
+                     *Mrs. Catharine E.
+                       Wolcott       April 1, 1840. *Oct.  26, 1841.
+*Nathaniel A. Keyes                  April 2, 1840.  April  5, 1844.
+                     *Mrs. Mary
+                       Keyes         April 2, 1840.  April  5, 1844.
+Leander Thompson                     April 1, 1840.  March  1, 1843.
+                     Mrs. Anne E.
+                       Thompson      April 1, 1840.  March  1, 1843.
+C. V. A. Van Dyck, D.D.              April 1, 1840.
+                     Mrs. Julia A.
+                       Van Dyck      Dec. 22, 1842.
+*George B. Whiting   [See Mission
+                       to Palestine] Autumn,  1843. *Nov.   8, 1855.
+                     *Mrs. Matilda S.
+                       Whiting       Autumn,  1843.  Mar.  14, 1856.
+*John F. Lanneau     [See Mission
+                       to Palestine] Feb.,    1844.  Feb.  17, 1846.
+                     Mrs. Julia H.
+                       Lanneau       Feb.,    1844.  Feb.  17, 1846.
+Simeon H. Calhoun                    July 28, 1844.
+                     Mrs. Emily P.
+                       Calhoun       March 6, 1849.
+Thomas Laurie, D.D.  [See Mission to
+                       Nestorians]   Dec. 11, 1844.  May    9, 1846.
+William A. Benton                    Oct. 20, 1847,  Con. terminated
+                                                       June, 1861
+                     Mrs. Loanza G.
+                       Benton        Oct. 20, 1847,        "
+*J. Edwards Ford                     March 8, 1848.  June,     1865.
+                     Mrs. Mary
+                       Ford          March 8, 1848.            1865.
+David M. Wilson                      March 8, 1848.  May    4, 1861.
+                     Mrs. Emeline
+                       Wilson        March 8, 1848.  May    4, 1861.
+Horace Foote                         Aug. 24, 1848.  Autumn,   1854.
+                     *Mrs. Roxana
+                       Foote         Aug. 24, 1848.  Autumn,   1854.
+*Wm. F. Williams, D.D. [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      March 6, 1849.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah P.
+                       Williams      March 6, 1849. *July   1, 1854.
+William W. Eddy                      Jan. 31, 1852.
+                     Mrs. Hannah M.
+                       Eddy          Jan. 31, 1852.
+William Bird                         April,   1853.
+                     Mrs. Sarah F.
+                       Bird          April,   1853.
+J. Lorenzo Lyons                     Feb. 25, 1855.  June,     1863.
+                     Mrs. Catharine N.
+                       Lyons         Feb. 25, 1855.  June,     1863.
+Edward Aiken                         April,   1856.  May    1, 1858.
+                     *Mrs. Susan D.
+                       Aiken         April,   1856. *June  20, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Sarah C. Aiken
+                       [formerly Miss
+                       Cheney]                       May    1, 1858.
+Daniel Bliss, D.D.                   April,   1856.
+                     Mrs. Abby M.
+                       Bliss         April,   1856.
+Henry H. Jessup, D.D.                Feb.  7, 1856.
+                     *Mrs. Caroline
+                       Jessup        April,   1858. *July   2, 1864.
+                     Mrs. Harriet E.
+                       Jessup        Nov. 22, 1868.
+Samuel Jessup                        Jan. 24, 1863.
+                     Mrs. Ann E.
+                       Jessup        Jan. 24, 1863.
+Philip Berry                         Oct.  7, 1863.  Oct,      1865.
+                     Mrs. Magdalene
+                       Berry         Oct.  7, 1863.  Oct,      1865.
+Geo Edw’d Post, M.D.                 Dec.,    1863.
+                     Mrs. Sarah P.
+                       Post          Dec.,    1863.
+Samuel S. Mitchell                   June 12, 1867.            1868.
+                     Mrs. Lucy M.
+                       Mitchell      June 12, 1867.            1868.
+Isaac N. Lowry                       Nov. 22, 1867.            1869.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Lowry         Nov. 22, 1867.            1869.
+James S. Dennis                      Feb. 10, 1869.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIANS.
+*H. A. DeForest, M.D.                Mar. 23, 1842.  May    8, 1854.
+                     Mrs. Catharine S.
+                       DeForest      Mar. 23, 1842.  May    8, 1854.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES.
+George C. Hurter                    April 15, 1841.  Spring,   1864.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth
+                       Hurter       April 15, 1841.  June   7, 1861.
+                     *Mrs. Rebecca W. Williams
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Hebard]       Nov. 13, 1835. *Feb.   8, 1840.
+                     *Mrs. Anna L.
+                       Whittlesey    May   2, 1851. *May    1, 1852.
+                     Miss Sarah Cheney
+                       [now Mrs. Edw’d
+                       Aiken]        April,   1853.  May    1, 1858.
+                     Miss Jane E.
+                       Johnson       Aug. 31, 1858.  May   15, 1859.
+                     Miss Amelia C. Temple
+                       [now Mrs. Geo.
+                       Gould]        Aug. 31, 1858.  Spring,   1862.
+                     Miss Adelaide L.
+                       Mason        April 11, 1860.  June,     1865.
+                     Miss Eliza D.
+                       Everett        Nov. 22, 1868.
+                     Miss Nellie A.
+                       Carruth        Nov. 22, 1868.           1869.
+
+MISSION TO GREECE AND THE GREEKS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+Josiah Brewer                        Dec. 27, 1826.  Spring,   1828.
+*Elnathan Gridley                    Dec. 27, 1826. *Sept. 27, 1827.
+*Jonas King, D.D.    [See Mission to
+                       Palestine]    April,   1831. *May   22, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Anna A.
+                       King          April,   1831.            1869.
+Elias Riggs, D.D.    [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Jan.,    1833.
+                     Mrs. Martha Jane
+                       Riggs         Jan.,    1833.
+Samuel R. Houston                    Nov.,    1834.            1840.
+                     *Mrs. Mary R.
+                       Houston       Nov.,    1834. *Nov.  24, 1839.
+Lorenzo W. Pease                     Nov.,    1834. *Aug.  28, 1839.
+                     Mrs. Lucinda
+                       Pease         Nov.,    1834.  Spring,   1841.
+James L. Thompson                    May,     1836.  Autumn,   1841.
+Daniel Ladd          [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Oct.,    1836.
+                     Mrs. Charlotte H.
+                       Ladd          Oct.,    1836.
+*Nathan Benjamin     [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Nov.,    1836.
+                     *Mrs. Mary G.
+                       Benjamin      Nov.,    1836.
+George W. Leyburn                    June,    1837.            1842.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth W.
+                       Leyburn       June,    1837.            1842.
+
+MISSION TO THE ARMENIANS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*William Goodell, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Syria]        June  9, 1831.  Summer,   1865.
+                     *Mrs. Abigail P.
+                       Goodell       June  9, 1831.  Summer,   1865.
+*H. G. O. Dwight, D.D.             Feb. 27, 1830.[1] Jan.  25, 1862.
+                     *Mrs. Elizabeth
+                       Dwight        June  5, 1832. *July   8, 1837.
+                     *Mrs. Mary
+                       Dwight        Sept. 4, 1839. *Nov.  16, 1860.
+*Daniel Temple       [See Print. Estab.
+                       at Malta]     Dec. 23, 1833.  Summer,   1844.
+                     *Mrs. Martha E.
+                       Temple        Dec. 23, 1833.  Summer,   1844.
+Thomas P. Johnston                   Jan. 19, 1834.            1853.
+                     Mrs. Marianne C.
+                       Johnston      Jan. 19, 1834.            1853.
+Benj. Schneider, D.D.                Jan. 19, 1834.
+                     *Mrs. Eliza C.
+                       Schneider     Jan. 19, 1834. *Sept. 29, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Susan M.
+                       Schneider     Oct.  1, 1858.
+John B. Adger, D.D.                  Oct. 25, 1834.            1846.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth K.
+                       Adger         Oct. 25, 1834.            1846.
+Philander O. Powers                  Jan. 12, 1835.  Summer,   1861.
+                     *Mrs. Harriet G.
+                       Powers        Jan. 12, 1835.  April,    1841.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah L.
+                       Powers        Jan. 11, 1843.  June,     1861.
+Philander O. Powers  [Reappointed]   June 25, 1866.
+Henry A. Homes                       Dec. 26, 1835.  Dec.  10, 1850.
+                     Mrs. Anna W.
+                       Homes         June 17, 1841.            1849.
+William C. Jackson                   Feb.  1, 1836.            1845.
+                     Mrs. Mary A.
+                       Jackson       Feb.  1, 1836.            1845.
+Cyrus Hamlin, D.D.                   Feb.  4, 1839.
+                     *Mrs. H. A. L.
+                       Hamlin        Feb.  4, 1839. *Nov.  14, 1850.
+                     *Mrs. Harriet M. Hamlin
+                       [formerly Miss H. M.
+                       Lovell]      April 18, 1845. *Nov.   6, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Mary E. Hamlin
+                       [formerly Miss M. E.
+                       Tenney]       Jan. 22, 1856.
+H. J. Van Lennep, D.D.              April 13, 1840.  Summer,   1869.
+                     *Mrs. Emma L.
+                       Van Lennep   April 13, 1840. *Sept. 12, 1840.
+                     *Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Van Lennep    Nov. 24, 1843. *Sept. 27, 1844.
+                     Mrs. Emily A.
+                       Van Lennep    June 16, 1850.  Summer,   1869.
+Josiah Peabody                       July,    1841.  July,     1860.
+                     Mrs. Mary L.
+                       Peabody       July,    1841.  July,     1860.
+George W. Wood, D.D.                April 28, 1842.  Sept.  4, 1850.
+                     *Mrs. Martha B.
+                       Wood         April 28, 1842.  Sept.  4, 1850.
+George W. Wood, D.D. [Reappointed]            1871.
+                     Mrs. Sarah A. H.
+                       Wood                   1871.
+Daniel Ladd          [See Mission to
+                       Greece]      Sept.  3, 1842.  Aug.,     1867.
+                     Mrs. Charlotte H.
+                       Ladd         Sept.  3, 1842.  Aug.,     1867.
+*Azariah Smith, M.D.                 Jan. 11, 1843. *June   3, 1851.
+                     Mrs. Corinth I.
+                       Smith        Sept. 20, 1848.            1853.
+Edwin E. Bliss, D.D.                April 16, 1843.
+                     Mrs. Isabella H.
+                       Bliss        April 16, 1843.
+E. Riggs, D.D., LL.D. [See Mission to Greece and the
+                       Bulgarians]            1844.
+                     Mrs. Martha J.
+                       Riggs                  1844.
+*Nathan Benjamin     [See Mission to
+                       Greece]       August   1844. *Jan.  27, 1855.
+                     *Mrs. Mary G.
+                       Benjamin      August   1844.            1855.
+*Joel S. Everett                    April 18, 1845. *March  5, 1856.
+                     *Mrs. Seraphina
+                       Everett      April 18, 1845. *Dec.  27, 1854.
+Isaac G. Bliss, D.D.                 Aug. 24, 1847.
+                     Mrs. Eunice B.
+                       Bliss         Aug. 24, 1847.
+Oliver Crane                         March,   1849.            1854.
+                     Mrs. Marion D.
+                       Crane         March,   1849.            1854.
+Oliver Crane         [Reappointed]            1860.            1863.
+                     Mrs. Marion D.
+                       Crane                  1860.            1863.
+*Joseph W. Sutphen                   Jan. 16, 1852. *Oct.   9, 1852.
+                     *Mrs. Susan H.
+                       Sutphen
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Morgan]       Jan. 16, 1852.            1865.
+Wilson A. Farnsworth                 Jan. 22, 1853.
+                     Mrs. Caroline E.
+                       Farnsworth    Jan. 22, 1853.
+William Clark                        Jan. 22, 1853.   Aug.,    1859.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth W.
+                       Clark         Jan. 22, 1853.   Aug.,    1859.
+Andrew T. Pratt, M.D.                Jan. 22, 1853.
+                     Mrs. Sarah F.
+                       Pratt         Jan. 22, 1853.
+George B. Nutting                    Feb.  9, 1853.   Summer,  1868.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah E.
+                       Nutting       Feb.  9, 1853.  *July  9, 1854.
+                     Mrs. Susan A.
+                       Nutting       Autumn,  1856.   Summer,  1868.
+*Fayette Jewett, M.D.               April 20, 1853.  *June 18, 1862.
+                     *Mrs. Mary A. A.
+                       Jewett       April 20, 1853.   Summer,  1862.
+*Jasper N. Ball                     Sept. 21, 1853.   Aug.,    1861.
+                     *Mrs. Caroline W.
+                       Ball         Sept. 21, 1853.   Aug.,    1861.
+*Jasper N. Ball      [Reappointed]   Jan.,    1865.            1869.
+                     Mrs. Martha Ann
+                       Ball          Jan.,    1865.            1869.
+*George W. Dunmore                   May,     1851.            1861.
+                     Mrs. Susan
+                       Dunmore       May,     1851.            1856.
+Albert G. Beebee                     Sept.    1854.   March,   1860.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah J.
+                       Beebee        Sept.,   1854.  *Oct. 28, 1858.
+George A. Perkins                    Sept.,   1854.   Spring,  1861.
+                     Mrs. Sarah E.
+                       Perkins       Sept.,   1854.   Spring,  1861.
+Sanford Richardson                  Sept. 25, 1854.
+                     Mrs. Rhoda A.
+                       Richardson   Sept. 25, 1854.
+*Edwin Goodell                      Sept. 25, 1854.            1855.
+                     Mrs. Catharine J.
+                       Goodell      Sept. 25, 1854.            1855.
+Benjamin Parsons                    Sept. 25, 1854.            1860.
+                     Mrs. Sarah W.
+                       Parsons      Sept. 25, 1854.            1860.
+Alexander R. Plumer                  Feb.  8, 1855.            1859.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth P.
+                       Plummer       Feb.  8, 1855.            1859.
+Ira Fayette Pettibone                Aug.  4, 1855.            1868.
+Ira Fayette Pettibone [Reappointed]  May,     1866.
+Justin W. Parsons    [See Mission to
+                       the Jews]     Sept.,   1855.
+                     Mrs. Catharine
+                       Parsons       Sept.,   1855.
+*Edward M. Dodd      [See Mission to
+                       the Jews]    Sept. 28, 1855. *Aug.  19, 1865.
+                     Mrs. Lydia H.
+                       Dodd         Sept. 28, 1855.  June,     1866.
+Orson P. Allen                       Dec.  9, 1855.
+                     Mrs. Caroline R.
+                       Allen         Dec.  9, 1855.
+*Homer B. Morgan     [See Mission to
+                       the Jews]     Jan.,    1856. *Aug.  25, 1865.
+                     Mrs. Susan H.
+                       Morgan        Jan. 16, 1852.            1865.
+Tillman C. Trowbridge [See Mission to
+                       the Jews]     Jan. 22, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Margaret
+                       Trowbridge             1861.
+George A. Pollard                    Jan. 22, 1856.            1868.
+                     Mrs. Mary H.
+                       Pollard       Jan. 22, 1856.            1868.
+Crosby H. Wheeler                   March  2, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Susan A.
+                       Wheeler      March  2, 1857.
+Charles F. Morse     [See Mission to
+                       Bulgarians]  March  2, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Eliza D.
+                       Morse        March  2, 1857.
+Oliver W. Winchester                March  2, 1857.  June,     1865.
+                     Mrs. Jeannette S.
+                       Winchester   March  2, 1857.  June,     1865.
+*Jackson G. Coffing                 March  2, 1857. *Mar.  26, 1862.
+                     Mrs. Josephine L.
+                       Coffing      March  2, 1857.
+George H. White                     March  2, 1857.  Autumn,   1863.
+                     Mrs. Joanna
+                       White        March  2, 1857.  Autumn,   1863.
+Julius Y. Leonard                   Sept.  4, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Amelia A.
+                       Leonard      Sept.  4, 1857.
+George Washburn                      August,  1858.
+                     Mrs. Henrietta L.
+                       Washburn     April 15, 1859.
+Joseph K. Greene                     Feb. 22, 1859.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth A.
+                       Greene        Feb. 22, 1859.
+Herman N. Barnum                     Autumn,  1858.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Barnum        July,    1860.
+William F. Arms                               1860.            1864.
+                     *Mrs. Emily F.
+                       Arms                   1860. *March,    1861.
+Alvin B. Goodale, M.D.               Mar. 25, 1860.            1864.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Goodale       Mar. 25, 1860.            1864.
+*Zenas Goss                          Mar. 25, 1860. *Aug.  28, 1864.
+William W. Livingston               Sept.  3, 1860.            1871.
+                     Mrs. Martha E.
+                       Livingston   Sept.  3, 1860.            1871.
+*Wm. F. Williams, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Assyria]      Nov.,    1860. *Feb.  14, 1871.
+                     *Mrs. Caroline P.
+                       Williams      Oct.  4, 1861. *Jan.  15, 1865.
+                       [for. Miss C. P.
+                       Barbour]                      Dec.  25, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Clarissa C.
+                       Williams
+                       [formerly Miss C. C.
+                             Pond]   Oct. 15, 1864.            1871.
+*Augustus Walker     [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      Nov.,    1860. *Sept. 13, 1866.
+                     Mrs. Eliza M.
+                       Walker        Nov.,    1860.   July,    1867.
+George C. Knapp      [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      Nov.,    1860.
+                     Mrs. Alzina M.
+                       Knapp         Nov.,    1860.
+Lysander T. Burbank                  Oct. 13, 1860.            1871.
+                     Mrs. Sarah S.
+                       Burbank       Oct. 13, 1860.            1871.
+John Francis Smith                   July  8, 1863.
+                     Mrs. Laura E.
+                       Smith         July  8, 1863.
+Moses P. Parmelee, M.D.              Aug. 14, 1863.
+                     *Mrs. Nellie A.
+                       Parmelee      Aug. 14, 1863.  *Feb. 17, 1870.
+                     Mrs. Julia
+                       Parmelee      Sept.,   1871.
+Giles F. Montgomery                  Dec.,    1863.
+                     Mrs. Emily R.
+                       Montgomery    Dec.,    1863.
+*Walter H. Giles                     Nov. 17, 1864.  *May  21, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth F.
+                       Giles         Nov. 17, 1864.
+Lucien H. Adams                      June  9, 1865.
+                     *Mrs. Augusta S.
+                       Adams         June  9, 1865.  *Nov. 18, 1866.
+                     Mrs. Nancy D.
+                       Adams
+                       [formerly Miss N. D.
+                       Francis]      June 25, 1866.
+Albert Bryant                        Oct. 28, 1865.  June,     1868.
+                     Mrs. Mary E. I.
+                       Bryant        Oct. 28, 1865.  June,     1868.
+Henry T. Perry                       Jan. 11, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Jennie H.
+                       Perry         Jan. 11, 1867.
+Theodore A. Baldwin                  Aug.  9, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Matilda J.
+                       Baldwin       Aug.  9, 1867.
+Henry S. Barnum                      Aug. 10, 1867.
+                     *Mrs. Lucretia L.
+                       Barnum        Aug. 10, 1867.  *Dec. 31, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Helen P.
+                       Barnum                 1869.
+Charles C. Tracy                     October, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Lemyra A.
+                       Tracy         October, 1867.
+Lyman Bartlett                       Nov.  8, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Cornelia C.
+                       Bartlett      Nov.  8, 1867.
+Alpheus N. Andrus                    May  30, 1868.
+                     Mrs. Louisa M.
+                       Andrus        May  30, 1868.
+Carmi C. Thayer                      July,    1868.
+                     Mrs. Mary F.
+                       Thayer        July,    1868.
+John Eldwin Pierce                   Sept.,   1868.
+                     Mrs. Lizzie A.
+                       Pierce        Sept.,   1868.
+Royal M. Cole                        Sept.,   1868.
+                     Mrs. Lizzie C.
+                       Cole          Sept.,   1868.
+Theodore S. Pond                     Dec. 13, 1868.
+                     Mrs. Julia J.
+                       Pond          Dec. 13, 1868.
+Milan H. Hitchcock                   June  5, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Lucy A.
+                       Hitchcock     June  5, 1869.
+Edward Riggs                         July,    1869.
+                     Mrs. Sarah H.
+                       Riggs         July,    1869.
+Henry Marden                         Oct. 15, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Mary L.
+                       Marden        Oct. 15, 1869.
+John Otis Barrows                    Dec. 23, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Clara S.
+                       Barrows       Dec. 23, 1869.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIANS.
+Henry S. West, M.D.                  Feb.,    1859.
+                     Mrs. Lottie M.
+                       West          Feb.,    1859.
+D. H. Nutting, M.D.    [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      Nov.,    1860.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Nutting       Nov.,    1860.
+*H. B. Haskell, M.D.   [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      Nov.,    1860.  Summer,   1861.
+                     Mrs. Sarah J.
+                       Haskell       Nov.,    1860.  Summer,   1861.
+James A. Milne, M.D.                 Aug.,    1867.            1868.
+                     Mrs. Arabella
+                       Milne         Aug.,    1867.            1868.
+Geo. C. Reynolds, M.D.               Nov. 26, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Martha W.
+                       Reynolds      Nov. 26, 1869.
+Mary L. Wadsworth, M.D.              June,    1871.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES.
+Homan Hallock        [See Print. Estab.
+                       at Malta]     Dec.,    1833.            1841.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth
+                       Hallock       Dec.,    1833.            1841.
+                     *Miss Harriet M.
+                       Lovell
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Hamlin]      April 18, 1845.  *Nov.  6, 1857.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah C.
+                       Hinsdale
+                       [widow of Rev. A. K.
+                       Hinsdale]              1845.            1855.
+                     Miss Melvina
+                       Haynes        Jan. 22, 1853.  July      1856.
+                     Miss Maria A.
+                       West          Jan. 22, 1853.
+                     Miss Isabella H.
+                       Goodell                1855.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Goodell
+                       [afterwards Mrs. H. N.
+                       Barnum]                1855.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Tenney
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Hamlin]       Jan. 22, 1856.
+                     Miss Sarah Elizabeth
+                       West          Jan. 22, 1856.  Sept.,    1862.
+                     Miss Myra A.
+                       Proctor       July 28, 1859.
+                     Miss Arabella L.
+                       Babcock       Sept.,   1862.  May,      1864.
+                     Miss Ann Eliza
+                       Fritcher      July  8, 1863.
+                     Miss Clarissa C.
+                       Pond
+                       [afterwards Mrs. W. F.
+                       Williams]     Oct. 15, 1864.            1871.
+                     Mrs. Nancy D.
+                       Francis
+                       [afterwards Mrs. L. H.
+                       Adams]        June 25, 1866.
+                     *Miss Mary E.
+                       Warfield     April 27, 1867.  *Feb. 12, 1870.
+                     Miss Harriet
+                       Seymour      April 27, 1867.
+                     Miss Sarah Ann
+                       Closson       Nov.  8, 1867.
+                     Miss Mary G.
+                       Hollister     Dec.,    1867.
+Henry O. Dwight                      Dec.,    1867.
+                     Mrs. Mary A.
+                       Dwight        Dec.,    1867.
+                     Miss Rebecca D.
+                       Tracy         Sept.,   1868.            1870.
+                     Miss Charlotte Elizab.
+                       Ely           Sept.,   1868.
+                     Miss Mary A. C.
+                       Ely           Sept.,   1868.
+                     Miss Harriet G.
+                       Powers        Sept.,   1868.
+                     Miss Cyrene O.
+                       Van Duzee     Sept.,   1868.
+                     Miss Olive L.
+                       Parmelee      Oct.,    1868.
+                     Miss Isabella C.
+                       Baker         Oct.,    1868.
+                     Miss Flavia S.
+                       Bliss         Nov.,    1868.
+                     Miss Ursula C.
+                       Clarke        Nov. 18, 1868.
+                     Miss Ardelle M.
+                       Griswold      Oct. 15, 1869.
+                     Miss Caroline E.
+                       Bush          Aug. 27, 1870.
+                     Miss Julia A.
+                       Rappleye      Nov. 11, 1870.
+                     Miss Sarah L.
+                       Wood          Nov. 11, 1870.
+                     Miss Julia A.
+                       Shearman      Jan.,    1871.            1872.
+                     Miss Cornelia P.
+                       Dwight
+                     Miss Mary S.
+                       Williams      May,     1871.
+                     Miss Mary M.
+                       Patrick      Sept. 21, 1871.
+
+[1] Dr. Dwight arrived at Malta at the date here indicated, but did
+not settle at Constantinople till June 5, 1832. The intervening time
+was employed partly in an exploring tour, and partly at Malta, in
+labors tributary to the mission.
+
+ASSYRIA MISSION.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+Dwight W. Marsh                      Mar. 29, 1850.  Summer,   1860.
+                     *Mrs. Julia W.
+                       Marsh         May   9, 1853.  *Aug. 12, 1859.
+*Wm. F. Williams, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    May,     1851.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah P.
+                       Williams      May,     1851.  *July  1, 1854.
+                     *Mrs. Harriet B.
+                       Williams      Nov.,    1857.  *Dec. 25, 1857.
+*Henry Lobdell, M.D.                 May   8, 1852.  *Mar. 25, 1855.
+                     Mrs. Lucy C.
+                       Lobdell       May   8, 1852.  Summer,   1860.
+*Augustus Walker     [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   April 27, 1853.
+                     Mrs. Eliza M.
+                       Walker       April,    1853.
+George C. Knapp      [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   April  5, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Alzina M.
+                       Knapp        April  5, 1856.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIANS.
+D. H. Nutting, M.D.  [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   Sept.,    1854.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Nutting      Sept.,    1854.
+*Henri B. Haskell, M.D. [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   April 19, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Sarah J.
+                       Haskell      April 19, 1856.
+
+MISSION TO THE JEWS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+Wm. G. Schauffler, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Mohammedans]  July 31, 1832.
+                     Mrs. Mary R.
+                       Schauffler    Feb. 26, 1834.
+*Eliphal Maynard                    April  2, 1849. *Sept. 14, 1849.
+                     Mrs. Celestia A.
+                       Maynard      April  2, 1849.            1850.
+*Edward M. Dodd      [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   April  2, 1849.
+                     Mrs. Lydia H.
+                       Dodd         April  2, 1849.
+Justin W. Parsons    [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    June 24, 1850.
+                     Mrs. Catharine
+                       Parsons       June 24, 1850.
+*Homer B. Morgan     [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Feb. 16, 1852.
+                     Mrs. Harriet G.
+                       Morgan        Feb. 16, 1852. *Sept. 10, 1852.
+                     Mrs. Susan H.
+                       Morgan
+                       [formerly Mrs.
+                       Sutphen]      Nov.  7, 1853.
+
+MISSION TO THE MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+James Lyman Merrick  [See Mission to
+                       Nestorians]   Oct. 25, 1835.   Dec.     1842.
+                     Mrs. Emma
+                       Merrick       Mar. 11, 1839.   Dec.     1841.
+Wm. G. Schauffler, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Jews]         May,     1858.
+                     Mrs. Mary R.
+                       Schauffler    May,     1858.
+William Hutchison                    Nov. 14, 1858.   April,   1859.
+                     Mrs. Foresta G.
+                       Hutchison     Nov. 14, 1858.   April,   1859.
+George F. Herrick                    Dec.  2, 1859.
+                     Mrs. Helen M.
+                       Herrick       Aug.,    1861.
+Henry A. Schauffler  [See Mission to
+                       Bulgarians]   June  3, 1865.
+                     Mrs. Clara E.
+                       Schauffler    June  3, 1865.
+
+MISSION TO THE NESTORIANS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*Justin Perkins, D.D.                Nov.,    1835.   May  28, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Charlotte
+                       Perkins       Nov.,    1835.            1857.
+*Albert L. Holladay                  June  7, 1837.   Spring,  1846.
+                     Mrs. Anne Y.
+                       Holladay      June  7, 1837.   Spring,  1846.
+*William R. Stocking                 June  7, 1837.   June,    1853.
+                     Mrs. Jerusha R.
+                       Stocking      June  7, 1837.   June,    1853.
+*Willard Jones                       Nov. 17, 1839.            1844.
+                     Mrs. Miriam
+                       Jones         Nov. 17, 1839.   Winter,  1844.
+*A. H. Wright, M.D.                  July 25, 1840.  *Jan.  4, 1865.
+                     Mrs. Catharine A.
+                       Wright        June 14, 1843.   August,  1859.
+*Abel K. Hinsdale                    June,    1841.  *Dec. 26, 1842.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah C.
+                       Hinsdale
+                       [see Mission to
+                       Armenians]    June,    1841.   Oct. 21, 1844.
+*Colby C. Mitchell                   June,    1841.  *June 27, 1841.
+                     *Mrs. Eliza A.
+                       Mitchell      June,    1841.  *July 12, 1841.
+*James Lyman Merrick [See Mission to
+                       Mohammedans]  Dec.     1842.   Summer,  1845.
+                     *Mrs. Emma
+                       Merrick       Dec.     1842.   Summer,  1845.
+Thomas Laurie, D.D.  [See Mission to
+                       Syria]        Nov. 11, 1842.   Nov. 10, 1844.
+                     *Mrs. Martha F.
+                       Laurie        Nov. 11, 1842.  *Dec. 16, 1843.
+*David T. Stoddard                   June 14, 1843.  *Jan. 26, 1857.
+                     *Mrs. Harriet
+                       Stoddard      June 14, 1843.  *Aug.  2, 1848.
+                     Mrs. Sophia D.
+                       Stoddard      June 26, 1851.   July,    1858.
+*Joseph G. Cochran                  Sept. 27, 1847.  *Nov.  2, 1871.
+                     *Mrs. Deborah W.
+                       Cochran      Sept. 27, 1848.
+George W. Coan                       Oct. 13, 1849.
+                     Mrs. Sarah P.
+                       Coan          Oct. 13, 1849.
+*Samuel A. Rhea                      June 26, 1851. *Sept.  2, 1865.
+                     *Mrs. Martha Ann
+                       Rhea          July  1, 1852. *Sept. 16, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Sarah Jane
+                       Rhea          Oct. 25, 1860.   May,     1869.
+*Edwin H. Crane                      Oct. 20, 1852.  *Aug. 27, 1854.
+                     *Mrs. Ann E.
+                       Crane
+                       [afterwards Mrs. P. O.
+                       Powers]       Oct. 20, 1852.   Nov.     1857.
+*Thomas L. Ambrose                   Nov. 27, 1858.   August,  1861.
+John H. Shedd                        Nov. 11, 1859.
+                     Mrs. Sarah Jane
+                       Shedd         Nov. 11, 1859.
+*Amherst L. Thompson                 July  2, 1860.  *Aug. 25, 1860.
+                     *Mrs. Esther E.
+                       Thompson      July  2, 1860.   Summer,  1861.
+Benjamin Labaree                     Oct. 25, 1860.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth E.
+                       Labaree       Oct. 25, 1860.
+Henry N. Cobb                        Oct. 25, 1860.   Autumn,  1862.
+                     Mrs. Matilda E.
+                       Cobb          Oct. 25, 1860.   Autumn,  1862.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIANS.
+*Asahel Grant, M.D.                  Oct. 15, 1835. *April 24, 1844.
+                     *Mrs. Judith S.
+                       Grant         Oct. 15, 1835.  *Jan. 14, 1839.
+*F. N. H. Young, M.D.                Oct. 25, 1860.   Summer,  1863.
+T. L. Van Norden, M.D.               Oct.  6, 1866.
+                     Mrs. Mary M.
+                       Van Norden    Oct.  6, 1866.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES.
+*Edwin Breath                        Nov.  7, 1840.  *Nov. 18, 1861.
+                     Mrs. Sarah Ann
+                       Breath        Oct. 13, 1849.   Summer,  1862.
+                     *Miss Fidelia
+                       Fiske         June 14, 1843.   July 15, 1858.
+                     Miss Catharine A.
+                       Myers
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Wright]       June 14, 1843.   August,  1859.
+                     Miss Mary Susan
+                       Rice          Nov. 20, 1847.
+                     *Miss Martha Ann
+                       Harris
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Rhea]         July  1, 1852. *Sept. 16, 1857.
+                     Miss Aura Jeannette
+                       Beach         July  2, 1860.   Sept.,   1862.
+                     *Miss Harriet N.
+                       Crawford      July  2, 1860.   May,     1865.
+                     Miss Nancy Jane
+                       Dean          Oct. 19, 1868.
+
+MISSION TO THE BULGARIANS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+Charles F. Morse     [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Mar. 26, 1858.            1870.
+                     Mrs. Eliza D.
+                       Morse         Mar. 26, 1858.            1870.
+Theodore L. Byington                Sept.  4, 1858.            1867.
+                     Mrs. Margaret E.
+                       Byington     Sept.  4, 1858.            1867.
+*William W. Meriam                  April 22, 1859.  *July  3, 1862.
+                     *Mrs. Susan
+                       Meriam       April 22, 1859.  *July 25, 1862.
+James F. Clarke                      Oct.,    1859.
+                     Mrs. Isabella G.
+                       Clarke        Oct.,    1859.
+William F. Arms                      July,    1860.   June,    1862.
+                     *Mrs. Emily
+                       Arms          July,    1860.  *Mar. 31, 1861.
+Oliver Crane         [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   Sept. 19, 1860.   Aug.,    1863.
+                     Mrs. Marion D.
+                       Crane        Sept. 19, 1860.   Aug.,    1863.
+Henry C. Haskell                     Dec. 13, 1862.
+                     Mrs. Margaret H.
+                       Haskell       Dec. 13, 1862.
+*Jasper N. Ball      [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Jan.,    1865.            1869.
+                     Mrs. Martha A.
+                       Ball          Jan.,    1865.            1869.
+Lewis Bond                           May  29, 1868.
+                     Mrs. Fannie G.
+                       Bond          May  29, 1868.
+Wm. Edwin Locke                      June,    1868.
+                     Mrs. Zoe A. M.
+                       Locke         June,    1868.
+Henry Pitt Page                      Nov. 26, 1868.
+                     Mrs. Mary A.
+                       Page          Nov. 26, 1868.
+Elias Riggs, D.D., LL.D. [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]             1871.
+                     Mrs. Martha J.
+                       Riggs                  1871.
+Henry A. Schauffler  [See Mission to
+                       Mohammedans]           1871.
+                     Mrs. Clara E.
+                       Schauffler             1871.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES.
+                     *Miss Mary E.
+                       Reynolds      Jul.  8, 1863.            1869.
+                     *Miss Roseltha N.
+                       Norcross     April 27, 1867.  *Nov.  4, 1870.
+                     Miss Minnie C.
+                       Beach         Oct. 15, 1869.
+                     Miss Esther T.
+                       Maltbie       Nov. 11, 1870.
+                     Mrs. Anna V.
+                       Mumford                1871.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ADDENDA.
+
+
+The foregoing Tabular View of the Missionaries was made partly for
+the author's convenience on commencing the second volume, by the
+very accurate gentleman who prepared the List of Publications that
+follows. Such a statement is very difficult to make; and it may be,
+after all the subsequent corrections, that there are omissions and
+errors. Should they be seasonably pointed out, the corrections will
+be made in a subsequent edition.
+
+The following should have had a place, under the head of the
+_Mission to the Armenians_, namely:--
+
+Rev. William A. Spaulding, who sailed in November, 1871.
+Mrs. Georgia D. Spaulding.
+Rev. Joseph E. Scott, who sailed in February, 1872.
+Mrs. Annie E. Scott.
+
+_Assistant Missionaries_.
+
+Miss Laura Farnham, who sailed November, 1871.
+Miss Phebe L. Cull, who sailed November, 1871.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PUBLICATIONS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CATALOGUE OF PUBLICATIONS
+
+
+ISSUED FROM THE MISSION PRESSES CONNECTED
+WITH THE MISSIONS OF THE BOARD TO THE
+SEVERAL ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+_Compiled by Rev. John A. Vinton, Winchester, Mass_.
+
+The sources of information were the "Missionary Herald" from 1821,
+and the Annual Reports of the Board from the beginning of these
+missions to the year 1871.
+
+IN ITALIAN.
+
+The Sabbath.
+Dr. Payson's Address to Mariners.
+Prayers for the Seven Days of the Week.
+Dr. Ashbel Green's Questions and Counsel.
+The Dairyman's Daughter, 78 pages, 1,000 copies.
+William Kelley, 32 pages, 500 copies.
+The Progress of Sin, 16 pages, 500 copies.
+Dialogue between a Traveller and Yourself, 12 pages, 500 copies.
+The Novelty of Popery.
+An Address to the Children of Israel, 25 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Christ's Sermon on the Mount, 16 pages, 1,000 copies.
+The Negro Servant, 28 pages, 1,000 copies.
+The Young Cottager, 72 pages, 1,000 copies.
+The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, 12 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Serious Thoughts on Eternity, 12 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Dialogue between Two Sailors, 18 pages, 1,000 copies.
+
+Previous to November, 1827, the number of books and tracts printed
+at the Mission Press in Italian, was 43; number of consecutive
+pages, 1,430; of copies, 55,500; whole number of pages, 1,700,000.
+
+IN MODERN GREEK.
+
+The Dairyman's Daughter, 119 pp.
+The Negro Servant, 32 pp.
+Payson's Address to Mariners, 22 pp.
+Short Prayers for Every Day in the Week, 70 pp.
+Tract on Redemption, by Dr. Naudi, 72 pp.
+Sixteen Short Sermons, 48 pp.
+Progress of Sin, 20 pp.
+Dialogue between a Traveller and Yourself, 14 pp.
+Life and Martyrdom of John the Baptist, 28 pp.
+Serious Thoughts on Eternity, 16 pp.
+The Young Cottager, 87 pp.
+The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, 73 pp.
+William Kelley, 45 pp.
+Watts's Catechism for Children, 16 pp.
+Address to the Children of Israel, 34 pp.
+Chrysostom on Reading the Scriptures, 26 pp.
+Content and Discontent, by Mrs. Sherwood, 24 pp.
+Serious Address to Young and Old, 27 pp.
+Life of James Covey, a converted Sailor, 16 pp.
+Life of the Virgin Mary, from the Bible only, 20 pp.
+An Appeal to the Heart, 34 pp.
+Exhortation to Seamen, 20 pp.
+Christ's Sermon on the Mount, 16 pp.
+
+The following were printed from 1830 to 1833:--
+
+Historical Selections from the Old Testament, 81 pp.
+Life of Abraham, 36 pp.
+Life of Joseph, 60 pp.
+Life of Moses, 36 pp.
+Life of Samuel, 24 pp.
+Life of David, 64 pp.
+Life of Elijah.
+Life of Elisha.
+Life of Daniel, 36 pp.
+Life of Esther, 20 pp.
+Abridgment of the Old Testament, 140 pp.
+Abridgment of the Gospels, 48 pp.
+Abridgment of the Acts, 60 pp.
+Lessons for Children.
+Bickersteth's Scripture Help, abridged.
+Lyttelton on the Conversion of St. Paul.
+The Ten Commandments.
+Ecclesiastical History.
+Dialogues on Grammar.
+The Alphabetarion, 120 pp.
+The Greek Reader, 156 pp.
+The Little Philosopher, 72 pp.
+The Child's Assistant, 60 pp.
+The Child's Arithmetic, 48 pp.
+Adams's Arithmetic.
+History of Greece.
+History of Rome.
+History of England.
+History of France.
+History of the Middle Ages.
+History of the Sandwich Islands.
+The Priest and Catechumen, a Dialogue, 12 pp.
+Peter Parley's Geography, with lithographed maps, 108 pp.
+Pinnock's Catechism of Greek History, with remarks, 150 pp.
+
+The amount printed in Modern Greek, while the press remained at
+Malta, was about 350,000 copies, mostly 12mo, comprising 21,000,000
+pages. Many of the editions were of 4,000 copies each. In the year
+ending October 1831, 4,760,000 pages were printed.
+
+After the removal of the press to Smyrna, in December, 1833, there
+were printed in Modern Greek,--
+
+Woodbridge's Geography, 296 pp.
+Scriptural Teacher, 116 pp.
+Questions on the Pentateuch, 88 pp.
+Several Hymns for the Mission Schools.
+Child's Book on the Soul.
+Tract on Self-Examination.
+Difficulties of Infidelity.
+The Magazine of Useful Knowledge--a monthly publication commenced in
+   1836 or 1837, and continued till 1843, when it was transferred to
+   Mr. Nicholas Petrokokino. It had, in 1839, 1,200 subscribers.
+
+About thirty million pages in Modern Greek had been printed by the
+mission between July 1822 and 1837.
+
+At Smyrna, in 1847 and 1848, were printed, Barth's Church History,
+   354 pages, 3,000 copies; 1,062,000 pages.
+At Constantinople, after the removal of the press, in 1853; Hymn
+   Book, 112 pages, 2,000 copies; 224,000 pages.
+In 1854, a tract of 20 pages, 2,000 copies; 40,000 pages.
+In 1860, tracts, 5,000 copies, 40,000 pages.
+In 1863, tracts, . . . . 6,000 pages.
+
+Printing in Modern Greek, at Athens, under the supervision of Dr.
+King:--
+
+Up to 1844, 32 books and tracts, 3,717 consecutive pages,
+   128,-215 pages in the whole.
+In 1845, 2,000 copies, 664,000 pages.
+In 1846, 3,000 copies, 190,500 pages.
+In 1853 to 1856, a collection of the publications of the American
+   Tract Society, vol. I.--V., making 2,500 consecutive pages of the
+   five volumes.
+In 1855, Chrysostom on Reading the Scriptures, 180 pages.
+Two volumes of Sermons, 48 in number, by Dr. King.
+A volume of Miscellanies, including his Farewell Letter to his
+   Friends in Palestine and Syria.
+
+IN GRECO-TURKISH (THE TURKISH LANGUAGE IN GREEK LETTERS).
+
+Christ's Sermon on the Mount, 16 pages, 450 copies.
+History of Moses, of Samuel, of Elijah, of Elisha, of Daniel, of
+   Esther; each a volume by itself; total, 524,000 pages.
+From 1840 to 1853, were printed 55,000 copies of the Scriptures.
+In 1854 and 1855, the Bible in 8vo, 7,000 copies, 2,456,000 pages.
+In 1864, 72 pages, 3,000 copies; in all, 216,000 pages.
+In 1867, the Tract Primer, 5,000 copies, 340,000 pages.
+In 1869, a Hymn Book, 264 pages, 2,000 copies; 528,000 pages.
+
+IN ANCIENT ARMENIAN.
+
+The New Testament, 836 pages, 2,000 copies. At Smyrna, 1838.
+The Four Gospels, printed separately, 1,000 copies.
+The Acts and Epistles, of the same edition, 1,500 copies, in 1843.
+The Psalter, 274 pages, total 548,000 pages; 3,000 copies printed in
+   1841; 2,000 copies in 1846.
+The New Testament, 2,000 copies, 1,464,000 pages; in 1853.
+The Christian Teacher, 136 pages, 500 copies; in 1838.
+Daily Food for Christians, 62 pages, 1,000 copies; in 1838.
+In 1869, printed 268 consecutive pages and 4,250 copies.
+
+IN MODERN ARMENIAN.
+
+Abercrombie on Mental Culture, 84 pages, 1,500 copies; 126,000
+   pages. Printed in 1844, at the expense of the author.
+Against Infidelity, 16 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Almanac for 1837, 3,000 copies.
+Almanac for 1839, 1,000 copies.
+An Arithmetic, 1866.
+An occasional paper, 4to, 20 pages, 500 copies.
+Answer of Evangelical Armenians to the Patriarch's Manifesto, 104
+   pages, 1,000 copies.
+Anxious Inquirer.
+Assembly's Shorter Catechism, with references, 104 pages, 2,000
+   copies.
+Astronomy, 104 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Avedaper (The), or Messenger, a religious periodical in Modern
+   Armenian, and in Armeno-Turkish. Published since January, 1855;
+   once in two weeks, with a circulation, in each language, of 1,000
+   copies.
+Balbaith's Confession, in the form of a letter from a converted Jew,
+   giving reasons for his profession of Christianity, 62 pages,
+   4,000 copies.
+Baptism and the New Birth, 112 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Baxter's Saints' Rest. 1854.
+Bible Dictionary. 1854.
+Bible Hand-book, 240 pages, 300 copies.
+British Martyrology. 1850.
+Child's Entertainer, 296 pages, 1,000 copies, containing Watts's
+   Divine and Moral Songs in Armenian verse, evangelical anecdotes,
+   some natural history, etc, 1838.
+Child's Instructor, 74 pages.
+Concordance to the Bible, 8vo, 504 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Dairyman's Daughter, 48 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Evidences of Christianity.
+False Claims of the Pope, 77 pages. It has been published in English
+   by the American Tract Society.
+Five Wounds (The) of Conscience, by Flavel, 1,500 copies.
+Forever! 4 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Friendly Letters to Sufferers by the late Fire, 16 pages, 500
+   copies.
+Good Works; a Tract on Justification, 48 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Grammar, English and Armenian; 112 pages, 500 copies. Another
+   edition of 272 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Guide to Parents, 61 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Guide to Repentance, 288 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Handbills, (four) each one page, containing, The Decalogue: A
+   Contrast between the Deaths of Haliburton and Voltaire; The
+   Christian Sabbath; The Death-bed of a Modern Free-thinker; 4,000
+   copies.
+History of the Church of God.
+History of Joseph, 326 pages, 3,000 copies.
+History of the Reformation, by Merle d'Aubigne. In 2 vols. 8vo, with
+   an Appendix of 50 pages, 1,000 copies, 1846. An enlarged edition
+   was printed in 1866.
+Holy Spirit, a Work on the, 1850.
+Hymns, 25 pages, 500 copies.
+Jones's (Rev. C. C.) Catechism, 203 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Joy in Heaven, 24 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Key to Reading, 8 pages, 1,500 copies.
+Lancasterian Cards, 80 to the set. 100 sets.
+Light of the Soul, 46 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Lives of the Patriarchs and Prophets, 300 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Lord's Supper, Treatise on the, 84 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Mary Lothrop, 96 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Messenger, The. See _Avedaper_.
+Mother at Home, 288 pages, 300 copies.
+Monthly Evangelical Preacher, commenced January, 1845, and suspended
+   at the close of the year, 284 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Monthly Magazine, four vols., for 1839-1842. The first year, 1,100
+   copies, each following year, 1,500. Relinquished for want of
+   funds. Resumed 1844, continued till 1846.
+New Testament, 646 pages, 5,000 copies in 1842 and 1843. A new
+   translation, carefully executed by four of the best scholars in
+   the Armenian nation, and compared by Dr. Adger, word by word,
+   with the original Greek.
+New Testament, with marginal references, and parallel passages.
+   Prepared by Dr. Adger and Dr. Riggs. 948 pages. 1848 and 1849.
+New Testament, in the Ararat or Eastern Dialect of the Modern
+   Armenian, with Scripture references, 8,000 copies.
+New Testament, in the Ararat or Eastern Dialect of the Modern
+   Armenian, with the Ancient Armenian, in parallel columns.
+Old Testament, in four volumes, 500 copies.
+Old Testament, imperial edition, 5,000 copies.
+Payson's Thoughts, 180 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Pentateuch, 684 pages, 1,500 copies.
+Progress of Sin, 24 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Pilgrim's Progress, with notes, 814 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Protestant Confessions, 265 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Psalter, in the Western Dialect of the Modern Armenian, 275 pages,
+   3,000 copies.
+Psalter, in the Ararat or Eastern Dialect of the Modern Armenian,
+   275 pages, 5,000 copies.
+Reply to Archbishop Matteos.
+Scripture Rule of Faith, 364 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Scripture Texts, 56 pages, 500 copies.
+Scripture Text Book, 622 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Sermon for the Whole World, 16 pages, 2,000 copies. It is the Sermon
+   on the Mount.
+Sin no Trifle, 16 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Spelling Book, 60 pages. At least four editions.
+Sunday-school Hymn Book, 8vo, 134 pages, 8,000 copies.
+Sunday-school Hymn and Tune Book, 8vo, 128 pages, 5,000 copies.
+The Two Lambs, 48 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Tract on Self-Examination, 52 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Upham's Intellectual Philosophy.
+Vivian's Three Dialogues, between a Minister and his Parishioner,
+   2,000 copies.
+What must I do? 20 pages, 2,000 copies.
+What is it to believe? 12 pages, 5,000 copies.
+Whateley's Evidences of Christianity, 192 pages, 2,000 copies.
+
+There were also many common school books.
+
+The sum total of printing in the Modern Armenian, in the year 1869,
+was 1,865 consecutive pages, and 25,920 copies.
+
+IN ARMENO-TURKISH.
+
+Printing in this language was commenced at Malta in 1828. In August,
+1829, the number of publications was nineteen. The printing of the
+Armeno-Turkish New Testament was begun January 8, 1830, and the last
+sheet was corrected before the close of January, 1831. A second
+edition of the same was printed at Smyrna in 1843, consisting of
+4,000 copies. The Old Testament was printed at Smyrna in 1841, 3,000
+copies. The Pentateuch was printed in a separate form, 2,000 copies.
+The Book of Psalms, in a separate form, was printed in 1844, 2,000
+copies.
+
+The following publications have also been issued:--
+
+Abbot's Young Christian, 350 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Arithmetic, 66 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Avedaper (Messenger), a monthly magazine. See _Avedaper_ in the
+   preceding list.
+Barth's Church History, 408 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Bogue's Essay, 444 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Capadose, Dr., Memoir of, 52 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Catechism on Christ, 82 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Chrysostom on Reading the Scriptures, 106 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Commentary on Matthew, 1,000 copies.
+Essay on Fasts, etc., 220 pages, 1,000 copies.
+False Claims of the Pope, 112 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Forever! 11 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Gallaudet's Child's Book on the Soul, 156 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Gallaudet's Natural Theology, 233 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Good Works, A tract on, 44 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Grammar, 213 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Guide to the Use of the Fathers, 318 pages, 2,000 copies.
+History of a Bible, 34 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Hymn Book.
+Intemperance, Tract on, 46 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Jones's (Rev. C. C.) Catechism, 305 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Light of the Soul, 48 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Mary Lothrop, 172 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Narrative Tracts, in one vol., 152 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Neff's (Felix) Dialogues on Sin and Salvation, 140 pages, 1,000
+   copies.
+New Testament, with marginal references.
+Old Testament, with marginal references, royal 8vo.
+
+From 1840 to 1863, 6,500 copies of the Scriptures were printed,--
+
+Physiology, Treatise on, 272 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Pike's Persuasives to Early Piety, 70 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Reader, No. 1, 63 pages, sixth edit., 5,000 copies. 1867.
+Reader, No. 2, 72 pages, 5,000 copies. 1869.
+Reader, No. 3, 84 pages, 5,000 copies. 1869.
+Sabbath, A work on the, 116 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Scripture Titles of Christ, 104 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Serious Inquiry, 20 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Sermon for the Whole World, 28 pages, 2,000 copies. It is the Sermon
+   on the Mount.
+Sermons, fourteen in one vol., 316 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Spelling Book, 64 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Theological Class Book.
+The Ten Commandments, a handbill, 2,000 copies.
+Without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord, 11 pages, 1,000 copies.
+
+In Armeno-Turkish there were printed in 1869, 398 consecutive pages
+and 16,000 copies.
+
+IN ARABO-TURKISH (SOMETIMES CALLED THE OSMANLI-TURKISH. TURKISH IN
+THE ARABIC CHARACTER).
+
+Under the direction of Dr. Schauffler, an edition of the New
+   Testament, of very beautiful typography, was issued in 1862.
+   Also, Matt. v. in separate form.
+A Commentary on Matthew and Mark, 400 pages, 1,000 copies. 1864.
+The Decalogue, one page, 1,000 copies. 1867.
+The Beatitudes, one page, 1,000 copies. 1867.
+Selected Texts, one page, 1,000 copies. 1867.
+Selected Texts, one page, 1,000 copies. 1867.
+On Belief and Worship: an Explanation of the Christian Religion as
+   understood and professed by Protestants, 128 pages, 3,000 copies.
+The Primer, 64 pages, 5,000 copies. 1869.
+Notes on the Decalogue, 80 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Teachings of the New Testament, concerning the Judgment, 16 pages,
+   5,000 copies.
+Firman of the Porte in relation to the Protestant community, 300
+   copies.
+
+In this dialect, in 1869, were printed 161 consecutive pages, 13,300
+copies--total, 531,300 pages.
+
+In the Koordish Dialect, previous to 1863, 13,000 copies of the
+Scriptures had issued from the mission press.
+
+IN BULGARIAN.
+
+In the year 1844, a small volume in this language was issued at
+   Smyrna. It was Part I. of Gallaudet's Child's Book on the Soul,
+   61 pages, 2,000 copies.
+In 1851 and 1852, several Tracts were printed, in all 8,000 copies.
+In 1853, the Book of Psalms.
+In 1860, 59,000 copies, in part of the New Testament, and in part of
+   other books and tracts, making 3,332,000 pages.
+In 1861, the New Testament, Biblical Catechism, Child's Book on the
+   Soul, etc., 1,195 consecutive pages, and 60,000 copies.
+In 1863, 1,896,000 pages. Up to this time, 4,000 copies of the New
+   Testament.
+In 1864, 303 copies of tracts, etc., 39,000 consecutive pages.
+The issue of the Old Testament, following the New, commenced 1866.
+The Zornitza, or Day Star, a small monthly sheet, was commenced
+   about 1866, having 750 subscribers.
+
+After this time, the printing was as follows:--
+
+                                                          TOTAL
+                                      PAGES.  COPIES.    COPIES.
+The Bible, commenced, imperial, 8vo     624    5,000   3,120,000
+The Pentateuch                          352    1,000     352,000
+Book of Genesis                         167    1,000     167,000
+Book of Proverbs                         91    2,000     182,000
+Hymn and Tune Book, finished             44    3,000     132,000
+Dr. Goodell's Sermons                   522    3,000   1,566,000
+Sermon on the Sabbath                    12    2,000      24,000
+Commentary on Matthew                   240    3,000     720,000
+Spiritual Worship                       156    2,000     312,000
+The Bible and Tradition                  35    3,000     105,000
+Protestants the Ancient Orthodox         43    3,000     129,000
+Baptism                                  28    3,000      84,000
+The Lord's Supper                        34    3,000     102,000
+The Pope and the Roman Catholic Church   74    3,000     220,000
+Answer to Infidel Objections             36    3,000     108,000
+Bruch on Prayer                          48    3,000     144,000
+The Way of Salvation                      8    3,000      24,000
+Poor Joseph                               8    3,000      24,000
+The Two Lambs                            18    3,000      54,000
+On Fasting, third edition                16    3,000      48,000
+The One Thing Needful, second edition     7    3,000      21,000
+The Enlightened Priest, second edition   22    3,000      66,000
+Index to Sermons                          4    3,000      12,000
+The Heavenly Voice, and What it is to
+   believe in Christ                     16    3,000      48,000
+Confession of Faith                       8    1,000       8,000
+Zornitza, "The Day Star," 12 Nos. 4to    96    2,000     192,000
+                                     ------- -------- -----------
+                                      2,709   70,000   7,964,000
+
+In the Bulgarian, in 1869, were printed 519 consecutive pages, and
+19,000 copies.
+
+IN HEBREW AND HEBREW-SPANISH.
+
+The Psalms, 3,000 copies, 1836. An edition in 1853, 5,000 copies.
+The Pentateuch, 500 copies. Second edition of 2,000 copies.
+The Old Testament, printed at Vienna, 3,000 copies.
+The same, second edition, 5,000 copies, printed at Smyrna.
+Oppenheim's Hebrew Grammar, at Smyrna, 2,000 copies. It was designed
+   to lead the Jews from a fanciful to a grammatical construction of
+   the Hebrew Oracles.
+A Hebrew Vocabulary.
+A Hebrew-Spanish Primer, of 20 pages.
+A Hebrew-Spanish Lexicon, in part; extending to 187 consecutive
+   pages; number of copies 8,000. So far in 1851. It appears to have
+   been since completed.
+In 1855, just before the close of the Jewish mission, 319 pages of
+   Hebrew-Spanish literature were printed in Constantinople, 5,000
+   copies.
+Between 1840 and 1860, 23,000 copies of the Hebrew-Spanish
+   Scriptures, under the supervision of missionaries of the American
+   Board.
+
+IN ARABIC.
+
+Previous to the arrival of the Mission Press at Beirût, the
+following tracts had been issued from it at Malta:--
+
+Farewell Letter of Rev. Jonas King to his friends in Syria, in 1825.
+Asaad Shidiak's Statement of his Conversion, and of his
+   Persecutions.
+Mr. Bird's Reply to the Maronite Bishop of Beirût, 535 pages.
+
+In 1836, amounting to 380,800 pages, as follows:--
+
+Spelling Cards, 8 pages, 500 copies.
+Watts's Catechism for small children, 16 pages, 1,000 copies.
+A Lithographic Copy-book, 200 copies.
+Elements of Arabic Grammar, 168 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Hymn Book, 24 pages, 200 copies.
+Alphabet, lithographed, 200 copies.
+The Dairyman's Daughter, 96 pages, 2,000 copies.
+
+Since 1836, the issues of the press were as follows:--
+
+Extracts from Chrysostom, 166 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Extracts from Thomas à Kempis, 60 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Smith's Arithmetic, 84 pages, 1,200 copies.
+Proverbs of Solomon, 4,000 copies.
+On Self-Examination, 40 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Sermon on the Mount, 12 pages, 6,000 copies.
+Tract on the Cholera, 12 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Child's Book on the Soul. Part I., 104 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Epistle to the Ephesians, 24 pages, 3,000 copies.
+The Psalms of David, 276 pages, 5,000 copies.
+Confession of Faith, 60 pages, 400 copies,
+On Temperance, by Mrs. Whiting, 96 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Child's Book on the Soul. Part II., 116 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Little Henry and his Bearer, 84 pages, 2,000 copies.
+The Acts of the Apostles, 150 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Arabic Syntax, 74 pages, 2,000 copies.
+The Passion of Christ, as in Matt. xxvii., 16 pages, 6,000 copies.
+Thomas à Kempis, revised, 343 pages, 2,000 copies.
+The First Sixteen Psalms, for Schools, 23 pages, 1,000 copies.
+The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, 256 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Spelling Book, 63 pages, 2,000 copies.
+The Westminster's Assembly's Catechism, 43 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Good Works, their place, 87 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Nevins's Thoughts on Popery, 156 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Watts's Catechism for Children, 2,000 copies.
+The Assembly's Shorter Catechism, with proofs, 1,500 copies.
+
+In 1842, the Arabic printing at Beirût amounted to 1,708,000 pages.
+In 1843, to 13,000 copies, and 1,282,000 pages. Number of pages from
+the beginning, 6,077,000.
+
+After the year 1845, the printing proceeded from year to year, and
+the number of copies and pages was reported as formerly; but the
+titles do not occur in the printed Reports, except as follows:--
+
+The Spelling Book, from Bible; 59 pages, 1,500 copies.
+Letter to the Syrian Clergy, 20 pages, 1,200 copies.
+The Book of Genesis, 136 pages, 1,200 copies.
+Union Question Book, Vol. I., 1,500 copies.
+An Arithmetic, by Butrus el Bistâny.
+Mrs. Whiting on Temperance, second edition.
+Mr. Johnston's tract on Good Works, their Place, second edition.
+Mr. Bird's Reply to the Maronite Bishop, second edition.
+Mr. Calhoun's Companion to the Bible.
+Dr. Van Dyck's Geography.
+Dr. Alexander's Evidences of Christianity.
+Dr. Van Dyck's Algebra.
+Dr. Van Dyck's Sermon on the Second Commandment.
+A small Arabic Grammar.
+Dr. Meshakah on Skepticism.
+Dr. Schneider on Rites and Ceremonies.
+A new edition of the Psalms of David.
+
+The New Testament, in the version made by Dr. Eli Smith, assisted by
+Butrus el Bistâny, and revised by Dr. Van Dyck, with references, and
+also a Pocket Edition of the same, without references, of 5,000
+copies, was issued from the press in March 1860.
+
+The printing of the WHOLE BIBLE IN ARABIC was finished in March
+1865. Upon this great work Drs. Smith and Van Dyck had labored with
+zeal and energy sixteen years, from 1838. Of this translation, ten
+different editions, of the whole, or of parts, had been printed in
+1865, comprising over 40,000 copies.
+
+Two hundred copies of the first three chapters of the Gospel by John
+were printed in raised letters, for the use of the blind.
+
+Printed in 1866: volumes of all kinds, 28,434. Copies of Tracts,
+23,000. Copies of Scripture, 14,554. Pages of Tracts, 888,000. Pages
+of Scripture, 2,872,000.
+
+Printed in 1867:--
+
+Edwards's History of Redemption.
+Bickersteth's Scripture Hand-book.
+A large Psalm and Hymn Book.
+A Psalter, versified.
+A Children's Hymn Book.
+A Monthly Missionary Arabic Journal.
+Mr. Bistâny's Elements of Grammar.
+Two editions of his Arabic Lexicon.
+
+In 1867, were printed 16,800 volumes of all kinds, and 20,700
+Tracts.
+
+In 1868, 726,000 pages of Scripture, and 1,300,000 of other works.
+
+In 1869, 5,147,000 pages of all kinds.
+
+The reports for subsequent years are defective.
+
+MODERN SYRIAC. (THE LANGUAGE OF THE NESTORIAN PEOPLE.)
+
+The printing, in the year 1843, was 860 volumes, 6,940 tracts, and
+611,580 pages.
+
+In 1844, the Four Gospels, and the Dairyman's Daughter, were
+   printed. Whole amount, 437,800 pages.
+The New Testament, with the ancient and modern Syriac in parallel
+   columns, was printed in 1846. In that year, 2,500 books and
+   tracts, and 1,114,000 pages, were printed; of which about
+   1,000,000 pages were quarto. Among the books was a new and
+   enlarged edition of the Nestorian Hymn Book, a Spelling Book, and
+   a Question Book.
+The Pilgrim's Progress was commenced in 1847.
+A monthly paper, entitled "The Rays of Light," was begun in 1848,
+   and has continued till the present time.
+In 1853 and 1854, an edition of the New Testament entire, was
+   printed; also a Hymn Book, and a volume entitled Scripture Facts.
+In 1855, Green Pastures for the Lord's Flocks, 392 pages.
+In 1856, Barth's Church History, and a Scripture Geography.
+
+Whole number of volumes printed this year, 3,000; 880,000 pages.
+
+In 1857, 934,000 pages, of which 768,000 were of Scripture, in large
+   quarto.
+
+During the eighteen years following the arrival of the press, from
+1840 to 1858, 68,000 volumes were printed, comprising 13,493,020
+pages.
+
+In 1860, the New Testament, with references, had been printed.
+The Old Testament is spoken of as having been previously printed in
+   that form.
+A Christian Almanac was issued in 1862.
+The Word of God was largely printed from year to year.
+In 1866, Rays of Light, a monthly paper, 8vo, 384 pages, 400 copies.
+   Wayland's Moral Science.
+
+Volumes printed in 1866, 1,250. Tracts, including the monthly paper,
+5,500. Pages of Scripture, and other works, 381,300.
+
+Whole number of volumes from the beginning, 91,350. Number of pages,
+18,052,050.
+
+In 1867, Dr. Perkins's Commentary on Genesis; also a Christian
+   Almanac.
+In 1869, Rays of Light, monthly, 104 pages, 400 copies.
+   Night of Toil, 221 pages, 500 copies.
+   Signet Ring, 65 pages, 200 copies.
+   Revival Hymns, 32 pages, 200 copies.
+   Dialogue on the Papacy, 12 pages, 200 copies.
+   Almanac, 44 pages, 200 copies.
+   Dr. Perkins's Commentary on Daniel, 154 pages, 500 copies.
+
+Printed in 1869, 632 consecutive pages, 2,200 copies.
+
+Total pages from the beginning, November 1840, to the close of 1869,
+19,529,150.
+
+
+
+INDEX. [not included]
+
+
+
+END OF VOLUME II.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of The Missions Of The
+American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II., by Rufus Anderson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISSIONS OF THE AMERICAN BOARD ***
+
+***** This file should be named 19939-8.txt or 19939-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/9/3/19939/
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diff --git a/19939-8.zip b/19939-8.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of The Missions Of The American
+Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II., by Rufus Anderson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II.
+
+Author: Rufus Anderson
+
+Release Date: November 27, 2006 [EBook #19939]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISSIONS OF THE AMERICAN BOARD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bechard (JaBBechard@aol.com)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY
+OF
+THE MISSIONS
+OF THE
+AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS
+TO THE
+ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+BY RUFUS ANDERSON, D.D., LL.D.,
+LATE FOREIGN SECRETARY OF THE BOARD.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOL. II.
+
+BOSTON:
+CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY.
+1872.
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
+THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS,
+in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
+
+RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
+STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY
+H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. THE ARMENIANS.--1846-1855.
+
+Agency of Sir Stratford Canning.--Of Lord Cowley.--Lord Palmerston's
+Instructions.--Action of the Porte.--The Chevalier Bunsen.--A
+Vizerial Letter.--Further Concessions.--The Firman.--Good Counsel
+from Sir Stratford to the Protestants.--Dilatoriness of the Turkish
+Government.--Still another Concession by the Sultan.--Agency of the
+American Minister.--Greatness of the Changes.--The Divine Agency
+recognized.--The Danger.--Why Persecution was continued.--New
+Missionaries.--Pera again ravaged by Fire.--The Aintab
+Station.--Native Zeal for the Spread of the Gospel.--Activity of the
+Mission.--The Patriarch deposed.--Native Pastors.--Death of Mrs.
+Hamlin.--Death and Character of Dr. Azariah Smith.--Mr. Dunmore
+joins the Mission.--Removal into Old Constantinople.--The
+First Ecclesiastical Council.--The Gospel introduced into
+Marsovan.--Visited by Mr. E. E. Bliss.--A Persecution that was
+needed.--Unexpected Relief.--Changes in the Mission.--Missions by
+Native Pastors.--Death of Mrs. Everett.--Death of Mr. Benjamin.
+
+CHAPTER XXV. THE ARMENIANS.--1855-1860.
+
+The Crimean War subservient to the Gospel.--Its Origin.
+--Providential Interposition.--Probable Consequences of Russian
+Success.--Effect of the Fall of Sebastopol.--The Mission in
+1855.--Schools.--Church Organization.--Church Building.--The
+Printing.--Editions of the Scriptures.--The Book Depository.--Aid
+from Abroad.--Greek Students in Theology.--Licentiates.--Accession
+of Missionaries.--Death of Mr. Everett.--Miscellaneous
+Notices.--Renewed Agitation about the Death Penalty.--The Hatti
+Humaioun.--How regarded by the English Ambassador.--Includes the
+Death Penalty.--Is recognized in the Treaty of Paris.--How estimated
+by the Missionaries.--Indications of Progress.--Aintab.--Death of
+Mrs. Schneider.--Girls' School at Constantinople.--Seminary at
+Bebek.--Division of the Mission.--Turkish Missions Aid
+Society.--Visit of Dr. Dwight to England.--A Remarkable
+Convert.--Death of the second Mrs. Hamlin.--Arabkir.--Sivas and
+Tocat.--Harpoot.--Geghi.--Revivals of Religion.--Girls' School at
+Nicomedia.--Fire at Tocat.--Mr. Dunmore's Explorations.--Church at
+Cesarea.--A former Persecutor made Catholicos.--Death of Mrs.
+Beebee.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. THE ARMENIANS.--1860-1861.
+
+A Result of the Crimean War.--Religious Opinion in Constantinople.
+--Change at Rodosto.--Outbreak at the Metropolis.--A Remarkable
+Native Helper.--Great Change in Marsovan.--Changes elsewhere.
+--Telegraphic Communication.--The Mission further divided.--First
+Native Pastor at Harpoot.--Rise of the Station.--Dr. Dwight's Second
+Tour in the East.--Changes since the First Tour.--Triumph of the
+Gospel at Marash.--Tribute to the Wives of Missionaries.--Change at
+Diarbekir.--Decline of Turkish Population.--Death and Character of
+Mr. Dunmore.--The Missionary Force.--Training School at
+Mardin.--Other Portions of the Field.--Scripture Translations.
+--Publications.
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. THE ASSYRIA MISSION.--1849-1860.
+
+Origin of the Mission.--Mosul reoccupied.--Why it had been
+relinquished.--Proposed American Episcopal Mission.--The Mission of
+the Board reinforced.--Dr. Bacon's Experience in the Koordish
+Mountains.--Punishment of the Robbers.--How the Gospel came to
+Diarbekir.--Church organized.--Arrival of Mr. Dunmore.--Tomas.
+--Persecutions.--Mr. Marsh's Visit to Mardin.--Dr. Lobdell's
+Experience at Aintab and Oorfa.--Outrage at Diarbekir.--Descent of
+the Tigris.--Diarbekir a Year later.--Congregational Singing at
+Mosul.--Dr. Lobdell as a Medical Missionary.--The Yazidees.--Dr.
+Lobdell's Visit to Oroomiah.--His Views of the Ecclesiastical Policy
+of the Mission.--Return to Mosul.--The Church at Diarbekir
+reorganized.--Strength out of Weakness.--Native Preacher at
+Haine.--The Gospel at Cutterbul.--Relief at Mosul.--A Special Danger
+growing out of the Crimean War.--Excessive Heat.--Death of Mrs.
+Williams.--Dr. Lobdell visits Bagdad.--His Sickness, Death, and
+Character.--Religious Services at Diarbekir.--The Gospels in
+Koordish.--New Station at Mardin.--Remarkable Case of Conversion.
+--New Station at Bitlis.--Death of Mrs. Marsh.--Return of Mrs.
+Lobdell with Mr. Marsh.--Difficulties in the way of occupying
+Mosul.--Great Prosperity at Diarbekir.--Close of the Assyria
+Mission.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. THE NESTORIANS.--1851-1857.
+
+Mr. Stoddard's Reception on his Return.--Death of Judith Perkins.
+--Progress in the Mountains.--Progress on the Plain.--The
+Seminaries.--A suggestive Case of Native Piety.--Scenes on a
+Tour.--Nazee, a Christian Girl, at her Mountain Home.--Elevations of
+Places.--A Russian Friend.--Mr. Stocking's Return Home.--A Robbery.
+--Another Revival.--Seminary Graduates.--Extraordinary Enthusiasm.
+--Books.--Death of Mr. Crane.--Audacity of Papal Missionaries.
+--English and Russian Protection.--Mr. Cochran at Kosrova.--Matter
+of Church Organization.--Death of Deacon Guwergis.--Hostility of the
+Persian Government.--A new Revival.--Gawar vacated for a time.
+--Discomfiture of the Enemy.--The Lord a Protector.--The Monthly
+Concert.--Mountain Tours.--Search for a Western Station.--An
+Interesting Event.--Violence of Government Agents.--How these Agents
+were removed out of the Way.
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. THE NESTORIANS.--1857-1863.
+
+Death of Mr. Stoddard.--His Character.--Death of his Daughter.
+--Retrospective View.--Death of Mrs. Rhea.--Decisive Indication of
+Progress.--A Winter in Western Koordistan.--Mosul and its Vicinity.
+--The Mountain Field.--An Appeal.--Failing Health.--New
+Missionaries.--Death of Mr. Thompson.--Failure of the Plan for a
+Western Station.--Failure of Mr. Cobb's Health.--The Nestorian
+Helpers.--Tenth Revival in the Seminary.--Literary Treasures of the
+Nestorians.--Marriage of Mar Yohanan.--Advance towards Church
+Organization.--Death of the Patriarch.--Extraordinary Outburst of
+Liberality.--Dr. Dwight's Visit to Oroomiah.--His Opinion of the
+Church Policy of the Mission.--Improvements.--Appearance of the
+Native Preachers.--Death of Mr. Breath.--Apprehended Aggressions
+from Russian Ecclesiastics.--More Revivals.--Death of Mar
+Elias.--His Character.--Armenians on the Plain of Oroomiah.--Manual
+for the Reformed Church.--Retrospect of the Mission.--Miss Rice in
+sole Charge of the Female Seminary.--Care of the English Government
+for the Nestorians.
+
+CHAPTER XXX. THIRTY YEARS AMONG THE JEWS.--1826-1856.
+
+The First Missionaries.--Arrival of Mr. Schauffler at
+Constantinople.--Jews in that City.--Baptism of a German
+Jew.--Religious Excitements.--Visit to Odessa.--The Psalms in
+Hebrew-Spanish.--Printing of the Old Testament at Vienna.--Whole
+Bible in Hebrew-Spanish.--Unsuccessful Opposition.--Generous Aid
+from Scotland.--Demand for the Scriptures.--The Grand Difficulty.
+--Present Duty of Christian Churches.--The German Jews.--Interest of
+Protestant Armenians in the Mission.--The Italian Jews.--Service for
+the Germans.--Why so much Preparatory Work.--New Editions of the
+Scriptures.--Important Testimony.--Change of Relations to
+Constantinople Jews.--Attention turned to the Jews in Salonica.--The
+Jewish Population there.--Missionaries to Salonica.--The Zoharites.
+--Relations of the Jews to Christ's Kingdom.--The Practical
+Inference.--Death of Mr. Maynard.--New Missionary.--The People
+without Education.--Their Capacity for Self-righteousness.--Literary
+Labors of Mr. Schauffler.--A New Missionary.--Insalubrity of the
+Climate.--Dangerous Sickness.--Death of Mrs. Morgan.--Removal to
+Constantinople.--Salonica partially reoccupied.--Labors among the
+Smyrna Jews.--Labors of Mr. Schauffler.--Why the Mission was
+relinquished.--Mr. Schauffler turns to the Moslems.
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.--1857-1862.
+
+The Geographical Position.--Moslem Population.--The Bulgarians.
+--Their Origin and Early History.--Their Conversion to
+Christianity.--Their Ecclesiastical Relations.--Their Aversion
+to the Greek Hierarchy.--Danger from the Papacy.--Seasonable
+Intervention of Protestantism.--Their Struggle with the Greek
+Patriarch.--First Exploration of Roumelia, and Dr. Hamlin's
+Report.--The Result.--Division of the Bulgarian Field between
+Methodist Missionaries and those of the American Board.--Friendly
+Cooeperation.--Report of a Tour by Mr. Bliss.--Commencement of the
+Bulgarian Mission.--Papal Opposition.--The Mission enlarged.--The
+Accessible Population.--Desire for Education.--Readiness to receive
+the New Testament.--Church formed at Adrianople.--Labors of Mr.
+Meriam.
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.--1862-1871.
+
+Brigandage in Bulgaria.--Mr. Meriam murdered by Brigands.
+--Distressing Circumstances and Death of Mrs. Meriam.--Successful
+Efforts to Punish the Assassins.--Check to the Brigandage.--Further
+Enlargement of the Mission.--School for Girls.--New Station at
+Samokov.--Results of a General Missionary Conference.--The Great
+Obstacle.--Signs of Progress.--Unexpected Hindrance.--Popularity of
+the Schools.--The People not accessible to Preaching.--Awakened
+Interest.--Girl's School at Eski Zagra.--Cases of Domestic
+Persecution.--A Serious Loss.--Effect of False Reports.--A
+Successful Intervention.--Public Celebration of the Lord's
+Supper.--Its Significance.--New Missionaries.--Death of Mr.
+Ball.--Death of Miss Reynolds.--The Connection with the Armenian
+Mission dissolved.--The Mission as thus constituted.--The Bulgarians
+Ecclesiastically Free.--First Effect of this Freedom.--Promising
+Events.--Death of Miss Norcross.--Removal of the School from Eski
+Zagra to Samokov.--A Church organized at Bansko.--Translation of the
+Bible into the Spoken Language.--The Mission in its Preliminary
+Stage, but ready for an Onward Movement.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII. THE ARMENIANS.--1861-1863.
+
+Dr. Dwight's Visit to the United States.--His Sudden Death.--His
+Life and Character.--His Views of Missionary Policy.--The Actual
+Call for Missionaries, and the Discretion awarded to them.--Bebek
+Seminary to be removed into the Interior.--Its History.--Removal of
+Boarding School for Girls.--Its Usefulness.--Exploration of the
+Taurus Mountains.--A Beautiful Scene.--A Barbarous Expulsion from
+Hadjin.--Murder of Mr. Coffing.--Successful Efforts to apprehend the
+Murderers.--One of them executed.--The Result.--Mrs. Coffing remains
+in the Mission.--Dr. Goodell's Estimate of Progress in the Central
+Mission.--Progress at Aintab.--At Oorfa.--At Harpoot.--Theological
+School.--A Native Preacher.--Mosul.--Ordination of a Native Pastor
+at Diarbekir.--Contrasted with an Oriental Ordination.--Disturbing
+Efforts of Garabed.--Progress at Bitlis.--The Church at Erzroom.
+--Progress at Arabkir.--Sojourn of Dr. Wood at Constantinople.
+--Accessions to the Mission.--Ordination of Native Pastors.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV. THE ARMENIANS.--1864-1865.
+
+A Reaction.--The Apparent Cause.--Consequent Movements.--Results.
+--Position of the Entire Field.--Obstacles to be surmounted.
+--Painful Experience at Marsovan.--Accessions to the Mission.
+--Working Force at the Metropolis.--Robert College and Bebek.--An
+unsuccessful Disorganizing Movement.--Great Fire at Broosa.--New
+Missionary Station.--Influence of the American War at Adana.
+--Diminished Force in Central Turkey.--Evangelical Progress at
+Aintab.--Two Churches formed.--Girls' Boarding School.--High
+School.--Graduating Class at Harpoot.--Singular Method of
+Opposition.--Progress of Self-support and the Evangelical Spirit in
+the Churches.--Death of Mrs. Williams.--General View of the Eastern
+Mission.--Methods of Opposition.--Liberal Support of the Gospel.
+--Prosperity at Diarbekir.--Death of Mr. Dodd.--Death of Mr.
+Morgan.--Death of Hohannes.--Interesting Ordinations.--Reception
+of Mr. and Mrs. Walker.--A Native Church in the Absence of both
+Missionary and Pastor.--Death of a Native Helper.
+
+CHAPTER XXXV. THE ARMENIANS--1865-1867.
+
+Harpoot Evangelical Union.--Other Similar Associations.--Their
+Utility.--A Poor Church enriched.--John Concordance, the Blind
+Preacher.--His Sermon on Tithes, and his Wide Influence.--Meeting of
+the Harpoot Union.--Death of Mrs. Adams.--New Missionaries.
+--Multiplication of Newspapers.--The Avedaper, or "Messenger."--The
+Reformed Church and Prayer-Book.--Consequent Excitement.
+--Bible-women.--Eleven Years at Harpoot.--Week of Prayer at Harpoot,
+and Bitlis.--Revival at Bitlis.--Broosa after Seventeen Years.
+--First Evangelical Greek Church.--Death of Mr. Walker.--His
+Character.--Return Home of Mrs. Walker.--Contrast at Choonkoosh.
+--A Foreign Mission resolved upon.--New Revival at Harpoot.--The
+Past and Present.--Injurious Effect of Prosperity in a Church.--The
+Recovery.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI. THE NESTORIANS.--1864-1868.
+
+Death and Character of Deacon Isaac.--Death and Character of Miss
+Fiske.--Death of Deacon Joseph.--Mountain Tours.--The Mountain
+Work.--Visit to the Young Patriarch.--The Seminary for Girls.--Great
+Usefulness of Dr. Wright.--His Death.--Death of Mr. Ambrose.
+--Nestorian Vagrancy.--Death and Character of Mr. Rhea.--Hostility
+of Mar Shimon.--Friendly Agency of the English Ambassador.--Royal
+Donation.--Success of the Girls' School.--Male Seminary.--A Private
+School.--Death of Priest Eshoo.--New Medical Missionary.--Estimates
+of Population.--Interesting Armenian Colony.--The Patriarch thwarted
+in his Hostility.--Favoring Indications.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII. THE NESTORIANS.--1867-1870.
+
+Convention of Nestorian Churches.--Ordination of a Nestorian
+Missionary.--A Satisfactory Tour.--Movement towards Self-supporting
+Churches.--Progress of the Reformation.--Retirement of
+Missionaries.--What Dr. Perkins had seen accomplished.--Rekindling
+of the Ancient Missionary Spirit.--Foreign Missions become a
+Necessity.--The Reviving Missionary Spirit illustrated.--Death of
+Priest Abraham.--Failure of the Original Plan of Church
+Organization.--Mar Yohanan.--Erratic Proceedings of Priest
+John.--The best People stand firm.--The Past not to be condemned.
+--Separate Churches become a Necessity.--Signs of Revival.--The
+Foreign Missionary Field for the Nestorians.--The Missionaries.
+--Assignments of Fields.--Transfer of the Mission to the
+Presbyterian Board.--Death and Character of Dr. Perkins.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII. SYRIA.--1857-1860.
+
+Death of Dr. Eli Smith.--The Work performed by him.--Dr. Van Dyck
+succeeds him as Translator.--The Missionaries.--Death of Dr. De
+Forest.--The Schools.--Progress in Fifteen Years.--Ain Zehalty.
+--Church at Hasbeiya.--Attitude of the Maronite Clergy.--B'hamdun.
+--Kefr Shema.--A High-minded Christian.--Religious Toleration.
+--Prospect of a Native Ministry.--A New Call for the Gospel.--Church
+at Alma.--Successful Ministry at Cana.--First completed Protestant
+Church Building in Syria.--The Missionary's Wife at Cana.
+--Persecution.--The Women at Alma.--Training of Helpers.--Ain
+Zehalty again.--Struggles in the Department of Education.
+--Accessions to the Churches.--New Protestant Community at Deir
+Mimas.--A Cheering Annual Meeting.--Friendly Aid from United States
+Ambassador.--Arabic New Testament published.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX. SYRIA.--1860-1863.
+
+Another Civil War in Syria.--The Missionaries Safe.--Massacre near
+Sidon.--Mr. Bird at Deir el-Komr.--Destruction of Zahleh.--Massacre
+at Hasbeiya.--Massacre at Damascus.--Relief for Suffering
+Thousands.--Remarkable Escape of Missionaries and Native
+Protestants.--Foreign Interposition.--Effects of the War.--Arabic
+New Testament published.--Cooperation of American and English Bible
+Societies.--Importance of the Version.--Sales of the Scriptures.--A
+Voweled Arabic New Testament.--The Field Brightening.--A Good
+Governor.--Further Evidences of Progress.--Persecution.--A
+Significant Event.--Evidence of Divine Agency.--Changes in the
+Mission.--Growth of Beirut.--Demand for Education.--Proposal for a
+Protestant College.--What hindered a more Rapid Progress in the
+Mission.
+
+CHAPTER XL. SYRIA.--1863-1869.
+
+Personal.--Boarding Schools.--Printing.--Completion of the Arabic
+Translation of the Scriptures.--Multiplication of Copies.--Improved
+Government of Lebanon.--The Native Ministry.--Druze High School.
+--Value of Druze Protection.--Death of Tannus el-Haddad.--Native
+Pastor at Hums.--Remarkable Awakening at Safeeta.--Remarkable
+Persecution.--Firmness of the persecuted People.--The Persecution
+closed.--Decline and Recovery of the Church at Hums.--Native
+Missions.--Administration of Daoud Pasha.--Accessions to the
+Mission.--Books published.--The Publishing Department strengthened.
+
+CHAPTER XLI. SYRIA.--1869-1870.
+
+But few Students in Theology.--Institution of a Theological
+Seminary.--Female Boarding Schools.--THE SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE.
+--Demand for a College.--Its Objects.--Range of its Studies.--Why an
+Independent Institution.--Its Location and Government.--Its
+Endowment.--Its Students.--The Religious Influences.--First
+Graduating Class.--The College Edifices.--Transfer of the Mission to
+the Presbyterian Board.--Feeling awakened by the Transfer.--RESULTS
+OF THE PAST.
+
+CHAPTER XLII. THE ARMENIANS.--1867-1869.
+
+New Missionaries.--Revival at Marash.--Revival at Mardin.--Oosee, a
+Native Candidate for a Foreign Mission.--Church organized at
+Mardin.--Wife of Oosee.--Struggle with the People of Zeitoon.
+--Deadly Assault on a Missionary.--The Rescue.--The Gospel gains a
+Footing in Zeitoon.--Coast of the Black Sea.--Death of Dr. William
+Goodell.--His Life and Character.--Prolonged Tour in Eastern
+Turkey.--Meeting of the Evangelical Union at Diarbekir.--Mardin.
+--Remarkable Church and Pastor at Sert.--Bitlis.--Extreme Poverty on
+the Plain of Moosh.--Oppression by the Priesthood.--Death of Mrs. H.
+S. Barnum.--District of Erzroom.--Diarbekir.--Native Mission to
+Koordistan.--Native Mission to Moosh.--Seminaries at Harpoot.--Cruel
+Persecution at Mardin.--Revival at Oorfa.--Apprehended Doctrinal
+Errors.--Reception of Mr. Wheeler on his Return to Harpoot.
+--Progress of Civilization at Aleppo.--Death of John Concordance.
+--Aintab after Twenty Years.
+
+CHAPTER XLIII. THE ARMENIANS.--1869-1872.
+
+Another Revival at Marash.--Another at Bitlis.--New Church and
+Pastor at Havadoric.--Great Change in Hadjin.--The Marsovan
+Seminary.--Angora.--Erzingan.--Crisis in the Koordistan Native
+Mission.--Mr. Wheeler's Visit to it, and Mr. Pond's Visit to Sert.
+--Mosul.--Death of Dr. Williams.--His Character.--Women in the
+Region of Cesarea.--Missionary Visit to Van.--Death of a Native
+Pastor.--Dr. Clarke's Impressions of Cilicia.
+
+CHAPTER XLIV. THE ARMENIANS.--EDUCATION.--1872.
+
+Common Schools a Necessity.--The Four Seminaries.--The Female
+Boarding Schools.--Tabular View of the Higher Schools.--Marsovan
+Seminary.--Harpoot Seminaries.--Marash Seminary.--Mardin
+Seminaries.--Training School at Tocat.--High School at Aintab.
+--Marsovan Female Seminary.--Harpoot Female Seminary.--Female
+Boarding School at Aintab.--Marash Female High School.--The ROBERT
+COLLEGE.--Its Origin.--Obstacles to be overcome.--To be a Christian
+Institution.--The Founder.--Fully established.--How Obstacles were
+surmounted.--The College Self-supporting.--Gifts by the Founder.
+--The Demand for Liberal Education.--_Proposed College in the
+Interior_.--How the Idea originated.--Interesting Statement from
+Aintab.--To be located in Aintab.
+
+CHAPTER XLV. THE ARMENIANS.--PRESENT CONDITION.--1872.
+
+Unreasonable Demands on Foreign Missions.--How the Millennium is
+made possible.--The Evangelizing Progress.--Changes in the
+Metropolis of Turkey.--National Progress.--Influence of the
+Protestant Faith.--Reform in Worship.--The Missionaries Hopeful.
+--The Degree of Progress.--Illustrations.--The Harpoot Community.
+--General Statements.--The Result.
+
+CHAPTER XLVI. THE MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+The Mohammedans to be approached through the Oriental Churches.
+--Largely of Christian Origin.--Degree of Security for Moslem
+Converts.--Mohammedan Susceptibility to Christian Influence
+illustrated.--General Character of the Illustrations.--The Gospel
+yet in its Incipient Stage of Influence among them.--Why so little
+Direct Effort hitherto.--Demand for Laborers of the same Race.
+--Experience favors the Plan hitherto pursued.--The Probable
+Future.--The Relations of the Missionary to the Moslems.--The Turks
+not an Unhopeful Race.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISSIONS
+
+TO THE
+
+ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1846-1855.
+
+
+Several European governments, and especially England, performed an
+important part in securing civil and religious freedom to the
+Protestant Armenians.[1]
+
+[1] This is impressively set forth in the _Correspondence respecting
+the Condition of Protestants in Turkey_, published by order of
+Parliament in 1851, pp. 154 folio.
+
+In March, 1846, Sir Stratford Canning, English Ambassador at
+Constantinople, reported to his government thirty-six evangelical
+Armenians as persecuted by the Patriarch. To this he added personal
+efforts to meliorate their condition, which resulted in promises
+from Turkish officials and the Patriarch of better treatment,
+promises that were by no means fulfilled.
+
+Upon learning that the Armenian Protestants had been organized into
+a church, he transmitted to Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary,
+their declaration of reasons for so doing, and their confession of
+faith.
+
+The Hon. H. R. Wellesley, better known as Lord Cowley, on taking,
+the place of Sir Stratford during his visit to England, cordially
+took up the unfinished work of his predecessor, and urged upon Lord
+Palmerston the importance of procuring from the Porte a recognition
+of the Protestant Armenians as an independent community. He showed
+that, in spite of the liberal assurances extorted from the
+Patriarch, they were exposed to daily injury and insult, and would
+continue to be so until recognized by the Porte as a distinct
+community among its Christian subjects. At the same time, he
+forwarded a copy of an able declaration by the American missionaries
+of their objects in coming to Turkey, which they had made to the
+Porte through Mr. Carr, the American Minister. Lord Cowley was
+instructed by Lord Palmerston, "to bring the situation of these
+people earnestly under the consideration of the Porte, and urgently
+to press the Turkish government to acknowledge them as a separate
+religious sect." In December the Porte freed the Protestant
+Armenians from the rule of the Armenian Patriarch, so far as
+regarded their commercial and temporal affairs, and allowed them to
+appoint an agent, who should manage their affairs with the
+government; and also to keep separate registers of marriages,
+births, and deaths. The Chevalier Bunsen, the well known Prussian
+Ambassador in Paris, now entered into the work, and recommended,
+that their recognition be as durable and complete as that of the
+other Christian nationalities. To this proposal Lord Palmerston
+cordially assented; but the Turkish officials were, as usual,
+disinclined to go forward.
+
+On the 19th of November, 1847, Lord Cowley had the satisfaction of
+announcing, that the Grand Vizier, wishing, as he said, to do
+something that he knew would be agreeable to his lordship, before he
+should leave the country, had obtained the Sultan's permission to
+issue a vizierial letter in his Majesty's name, which would
+establish their independence at once.[1]
+
+[1] This letter may be found in _Missionary Herald_ for 1848, p. 98.
+
+At the suggestion of Lord Cowley, the Porte promised to send letters
+to five different pashalics where there were Protestants, requiring
+them to act in accordance with the letter; in which was granted the
+privilege of toleration to all Protestant subjects alike, whether
+from the Armenian, Greek, Syrian, or Roman Catholic Churches, or
+from the Jews.
+
+This letter was of great importance under the existing
+circumstances; but the privileges it conferred might all be taken
+away on a change of ministry. Accordingly Sir Stratford Canning, on
+his return to Constantinople in 1850, lost no time in commencing
+negotiations for a more stable basis of protection, and succeeded in
+obtaining an Imperial Firman with the autograph of the Sultan, in
+behalf of his Protestant subjects; giving to their civil
+organization all the stability and permanency that the older
+Christian communities enjoyed in Turkey. It was issued in November,
+1850; and translated into English, reads as follows:--
+
+"To my Vizier, Mohammed Pasha, Prefect of the Police in
+Constantinople, the honorable Minister and glorious Councillor, the
+model of the world, and regulator of the affairs of the community;
+who, directing the public interests with sublime prudence,
+consolidating the structure of the empire with wisdom, and
+strengthening the columns of its prosperity and glory, is the
+recipient of every grace from the Most High. May God prolong his
+glory!
+
+"When this sublime and august mandate reaches you, let it be known,
+that hitherto those of my Christian subjects who have embraced the
+Protestant faith, in consequence of their not being under any
+specially appointed superintendence, and in consequence of the
+patriarchs and primates of their former sects, which they have
+renounced, naturally not being able to attend to their affairs, have
+suffered much inconvenience and distress. But in necessary
+accordance with my imperial compassion, which is the support of all,
+and which is manifested to all classes of my subjects, it is
+contrary to my imperial pleasure that any one class of them should
+be exposed to suffering.
+
+"As, therefore, by reason of their faith, the above mentioned are
+already a separate community, it is my royal compassionate will,
+that, for the facilitating the conducting of their affairs, and that
+they may obtain ease and quiet and safety, a faithful and
+trustworthy person from among themselves, and by their own
+selection, should be appointed, with the title of 'Agent of the
+Protestants,' and that he should be in relations with the Prefecture
+of the Police.
+
+"It shall be the duty of the Agent to have in charge the register of
+the male members of the community, which shall be kept at the
+police; and the Agent shall cause to be registered therein all
+births and deaths in the community. And all applications for
+passports and marriage licenses, and all petitions on affairs
+concerning the community that are to be presented to the Sublime
+Porte, or to any other department, must be given in under the
+official seal of the Agent.
+
+"For the execution of my will, this my imperial sublime mandate and
+august command has been especially issued and given from my sublime
+chancery.
+
+"Hence thou, who art the minister above named, according as it has
+been explained above, wilt execute to the letter the preceding
+ordinance; only, as the collection of the capitation tax and the
+delivery of passports are subject to particular regulations, you
+will not do anything contrary to those regulations. You will not
+permit anything to be required of them, in the name of fee, or on
+other pretences, for marriage licenses, or registration. You will
+see to it that, like the other communities of the empire, in all
+their affairs, such as procuring cemeteries and places of worship,
+they should have every facility and every needed assistance. You
+will not permit that any of the other communities shall in any way
+interfere with their edifices, or with their worldly matters or
+concerns, or, in short, with any of their affairs, either secular or
+religious, that thus they may be free to exercise the usages of
+their faith.
+
+"And it is enjoined upon you not to allow them to be molested an
+iota in these particulars, or in any others; and that all attention
+and perseverance be put in requisition to maintain them in quiet and
+security. And, in case of necessity, they shall be free to make
+representations regarding their affairs through their Agent to the
+Sublime Porte.
+
+"When this my imperial will shall be brought to your knowledge and
+appreciation, you will have this august decree registered in the
+necessary departments, and then give it over to remain in the hands
+of these my subjects. And see you to it, that its requirements be
+always in future performed in their full import.
+
+"Thus know thou, and respect my sacred signet! Written in the holy
+month of Moharrem, 1267 (November, 1850).
+
+"Given in the well guarded city Constantiniyeh."
+
+At the request of Sir Stratford Canning, thirteen of the leading
+Protestants called upon him, on the occasion of his procuring this
+charter of rights; and for nearly an hour he addressed them on their
+duties and responsibilities, in their present position in the
+empire. He told them that they ought to thank God that they were the
+first to be relieved from the shackles of superstition, and made
+acquainted with the pure Gospel of Christ. He told them that many
+eyes were upon them, and that they ought to excel all others in the
+land in faithful obedience to the government, in a brotherly
+deportment to those of other religious opinions, and an example of
+uprightness in every relation. Again and again did he exhort them to
+act, in all things, according to the principles and doctrines of the
+Gospel.
+
+Three years after this, on the 6th of December, 1853, on his return
+to Constantinople as Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the same noble
+friend of religious freedom, wrote to the Earl of Clarendon, that he
+had endeavored in vain to obtain the official transmission of the
+firman to the Pashas throughout the empire. This was strikingly
+characteristic of Turkish procrastination. But he was then able to
+state, that the Porte, "out of consideration for his repeated
+representations," had officially transmitted the firman to all
+Pashas where a Protestant society was known to exist.
+
+In 1854, his lordship obtained the concession from the Turkish
+government, that Christian evidence, in matters of criminal
+jurisdiction, should stand on the same footing everywhere in Turkey
+as the testimony of Mohammedans; thus removing a great wrong, under
+which the rayahs of the empire had labored for centuries.
+
+While gratefully acknowledging our obligations to the
+representatives of other nations, I should also record, that our
+brethren, both in the Armenian and Syria missions, were under
+continued obligation to Mr. Carr, our Minister at the Porte, for
+personal protection as American citizens. He acted with decision
+whenever their rights were invaded. In the repeated efforts made to
+remove them from the country, his reply to the formal demands of the
+Porte was, that he had power to protect the missionaries as American
+citizens, but not to remove them; and furthermore, that while papal
+missionaries from France and Italy were permitted to reside in
+Turkey, Protestant missionaries from America must also have the same
+privilege.
+
+Here we may properly pause, and consider what God had wrought, not
+alone through the agency of the churches, but with the cooeperation
+of the great powers of the earth. Twenty years before, Messrs. Smith
+and Dwight did not find a single clear case of conversion in their
+extended travels through the Turkish empire. How many and great the
+subsequent changes! First came the national charter of rights, given
+by the Sultan in 1840; which, among its other results, destroyed the
+persecuting power of the Armenian aristocracy. Next came the
+abolition of the death penalty, in 1843, and the Sultan's pledge,
+that men should no more be persecuted for their religious opinions.
+Then, after three years, came the unthought of application of this
+pledge to the Armenian Protestants, when persecuted by their own
+hierarchy. In the next year followed the recognition of the
+Protestants as an independent community. Finally, in 1850, came the
+charter, signed by the Grand Sultan himself, placing the Protestants
+on the same national basis with the other Christian communities of
+the empire.
+
+How wonderful this progression of events! So far as the central
+government was concerned, missionaries might print, gather schools,
+form churches, ordain pastors, and send forth other laborers,
+wherever they pleased. Attention had been awakened, and there was a
+disposition to inquire, renounce errors, and embrace gospel truths.
+There was a progressive change in fundamental ideas; a gradual
+reconstruction of the social system; a spiritual reformation. At
+least fifty places were known, scattered over Asiatic Turkey, in all
+of which souls had been converted through the truth, and where
+churches might be gathered. Ten churches had been formed already,
+and in part supplied with pastors. Aintab, scarcely known by name
+five years before, numbered more Protestants than even the
+metropolis, and was becoming one of the most interesting missionary
+stations in the world.
+
+In this remarkable series of results we recognize the hand of God,
+who makes all earthly agencies subservient to the great work of
+redemption; so that secular agencies come as legitimately into the
+history of the republication of the Gospel in Bible lands, as do the
+labors of the missionaries. They were among the ordained means; and
+the leading agents cannot fail to command our grateful admiration.
+
+The danger at this time was, that the reformation so auspiciously
+begun, would pass its grand crisis before the central lights had
+grown bright enough, and a knowledge of the Gospel been sufficiently
+diffused in the empire. There was everywhere a curiosity to know
+what Protestantism was, and to hear what the missionaries had to
+say; but this curiosity, regarded as a national feeling, was in
+danger of dying out. In the year 1851, the President of the National
+Council of the Armenians said to Mr. Dwight: "Now is the time for
+you to work for the Armenian people. Such an opportunity as you now
+enjoy may soon pass away, and never more return. You should greatly
+enlarge your operations. Where you have one missionary, you should
+have ten; and where you have one book, you should put ten in
+circulation." Constantinople, Smyrna, Broosa, Trebizond, Erzroom,
+and Aintab, were already occupied as stations. It was proposed at
+once to occupy Sivas, Arabkir, Diarbekir, and Aleppo. Mr. Adger,
+after a laborious and most useful service in the literary department
+of the mission, was constrained, by his health, in 1847, to retire
+from the field.
+
+The statement of Lord Stratford, that three years were allowed to
+pass before the Sultan's firman was transmitted to the provinces,
+will account in part for the fact that persecution did not cease. In
+general, whenever evangelical views entered for the first time into
+a place, a battle was to be fought, and the first recipients of
+these views were sure to suffer more or less from the hands of their
+former co-religionists. But relief was almost sure to come on an
+appeal to the capital; and thus there was a gradual progress towards
+the full protection of the Protestants as a distinct community.
+
+The accession of missionaries during the time now under review, was
+as follows: Joel S. Everett, in 1845; Isaac G. Bliss, in 1847;
+Oliver Crane, in 1849; Joseph W. Sutphen, in 1852--who died before
+the close of the year; Wilson A. Farnsworth, William Clark, Andrew
+T. Pratt, M. D.; George B. Nutting, Fayette Jewett, M. D., and
+Jasper N. Ball, in 1853; Albert G. Beebe, George A. Perkins, Sanford
+Richardson, Edwin Goodell, and Benjamin Parsons, in 1854; and
+Alexander R. Plumer, and Ira T. Pettibone, in 1855. All these were
+married men, except Mr. Pettibone. Mary and Isabella, daughters of
+Dr. Goodell, returned to the mission within the last two years.
+
+In June, 1848, Pera was again ravaged by fire, and Messrs. Dwight,
+Homes, and Schauffler lost their houses, and most of their effects.
+
+In October of the same year, seven persons were added to the church
+at Aintab, five of whom were women. In this month, Dr. Azariah Smith
+returned to that station with his wife, and made it his permanent
+abode.
+
+The church at Aintab had a commendable zeal for the spread of the
+Gospel in the surrounding villages; but their colporters were never
+suffered to remain long in a place, the Armenian magnates persuading
+the Turkish authorities to send them away as vagabonds. They now
+resorted to an ingenious expedient for protecting themselves with
+the authority of law. Five men, who had trades, went forth to
+different towns, with their tools in one hand and the Bible in the
+other. Wherever they went they worked at their trades, and at the
+same time preached Christ to the people. The experiment succeeded
+wonderfully. They could no longer be treated as vagabonds, and the
+spirit of religious inquiry spread in all directions. The
+congregation in Aintab became so large that two houses were opened
+for worship at the same time, and urgent appeals came from Killis,
+Marash, Oorfa, Diarbekir, Malatia, Harpoot, Arabkir, and other
+places near and remote.
+
+Mr. Crane succeeded Mr. Schneider at Broosa. Mr. Benjamin made a
+missionary tour from Smyrna to the interior of Asia Minor; Mr.
+Schneider made one to Aintab, on a temporary mission; Messrs.
+Goodell and Everett to Nicomedia and Adabazar; Mr. Peabody into the
+province of Geghi; Mr. Homes to Nicomedia; and Mr. Johnston to
+Tocat. The building occupied by the Seminary at Bebek became now the
+property of the Board. The printing at Smyrna, in Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, Hebrew-Spanish, and Modern Greek, amounted to
+twenty-one thousand copies, and five million five hundred and
+eighty-two thousand pages. There was printing done at
+Constantinople, but the amount was not reported. Among the works in
+process of publication was D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation."
+
+The persecuting Matteos had now finished his career as Patriarch.
+Before the close of 1848, he was convicted of frauds upon the public
+treasury, and of forgery, and was degraded, and passed into
+retirement on the shores of the Bosphorus.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1849, p. 42; _Report_, 1849, p. 115.
+
+Three additional pastors were ordained during the year which closed
+with May, 1849; Baron Mugurdich, at Trebizond, Baron Hohannes
+Sahakian, at Adabazar, and Baron Avedis, as co-pastor at
+Constantinople. The reader is aware that Hohannes received the
+greater part of his education in the United States. He possessed a
+delightful spirit, and developed far more talent than he was
+commonly credited with in America, where he could communicate his
+thoughts only through the medium of a strange language.
+
+The mission suffered a painful bereavement on the 14th of November,
+1850, in the death of Mrs. Hamlin, at Rhodes, whither she had gone
+with her husband in the hope of relief.[1]
+
+[1] See an account of her last sickness in _Missionary Herald_, for
+1851, p. 82; also in her Memoir, _Light in the Dark River_, by Mrs.
+Lawrence.
+
+Another bereavement occurred at Aintab in the death on the 3d of
+June, 1851, of the Rev. Azariah Smith, M. D. Such was his peculiar
+adaptation to different fields, that he had labored in many places,
+but had a special attachment for Aintab. The uncommonly rapid
+development of the active Christian graces at that station was
+largely owing, under God, to his skillful efforts, and he wished
+there to spend the remainder of his days. In this he was gratified.
+He returned from laboring at Diarbekir greatly in need of quiet. But
+finding so much to be done in the absence of Mr. Schneider at the
+annual meeting in Constantinople, he allowed himself no relaxation.
+His labors for the last six weeks of his life were incessant. A
+violent fever did its work in a fortnight. At the outset he gave
+specific directions as to the treatment of his case, feeling that
+soon he would be unable to prescribe for himself; and expressed a
+wish that no native physician should be employed, as there was no
+competent one to be had at Aintab. While in full possession of
+reason, he spoke of his departure with the composure of one on a
+short journey, and soon to return. As the native brethren came in
+one by one and in companies, he reminded them how often he had
+preached to them salvation through Christ alone. "In his lucid
+intervals," says his missionary brother, "and even in his delirium,
+his soul seemed intent on measures for the good of this people. At
+last he appeared to be at the gate of heaven. When no longer able to
+articulate words, he would utter faint syllables expressive of his
+growing rapture. Then he would move his lips as if in prayer; and,
+again, for minutes together, he would attempt to sing. It was a
+blessed privilege to be by his side." Mr. Dunmore was present at the
+funeral, and says: "The chapel was crowded, and the roofs of the
+surrounding buildings were covered. There was abundant proof of the
+presence of grief-stricken hearts in gushing tears, and sobs were
+heard throughout the assembly. There were six or seven hundred
+present, and nearly as many accompanied us to the grave. I scarcely
+ever saw in America a more quiet and solemn procession. In the
+Protestant burying ground, by the side of his only child, lie the
+remains of our dear departed brother."
+
+The Rev. George W. Dunmore and wife had joined the mission early in
+1851, and proceeded to Diarbekir by way of Aintab. Broosa was now
+left for a time, as Nicomedia and Adabazar had been, to the care of
+a native pastor, under the superintendence of the Constantinople
+station; and useful evangelical tours were performed by different
+brethren.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1851, pp. 24-32, 78-81, 160-162,
+232-236.
+
+The law forbidding the residence of foreigners in Constantinople
+proper having become a dead letter, two of the brethren took up
+their abode near the "Seven Towers," amid an Armenian population,
+and a third evangelical church was formed in February, 1852, in the
+suburb of Has-Keuy.
+
+Among the miscellaneous labors of the brethren at the capitol, was
+the distribution of letters received at the mission post-office from
+the European mails. Not less than fifteen hundred letters were thus
+disposed of in the year 1851, as the Turks had no arrangements for
+distributing letters that came by steamers. There was also much
+other secular labor for the brethren at this central station.
+
+Difficulties in the church at Trebizond occasioned the calling of an
+ecclesiastical council,--the first one convened in the Turkish
+empire. Pastor Simon was present from the first church in
+Constantinople, pastor Hohannes from Adabazar, and Mr. Dwight from
+the mission. Pastor Hohannes was chosen moderator, and pastor Simon
+scribe; and Mr. Dwight describes them as managing the case with
+admirable tact and prudence. The results were satisfactory.
+
+Marsovan began now to claim special attention. It stands in one
+corner of a lovely plain hemmed in by mountains, and then contained
+eight hundred Armenian houses, with twice that number of Turkish
+families. The story of the entrance of the Gospel into this place is
+so interesting that it deserves to be recorded. Pastor Simon visited
+it in September, 1851, on his return from the council at Trebizond,
+and learned that, eighteen years before, a respectable inhabitant
+made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and bought in Beirut a few
+Armeno-Turkish tracts, not knowing what they were, only that they
+were written in his own native tongue. He read them carefully on his
+way home, and liked them so well that he retained them; but not
+until Protestants and Protestant books were anathematized in the
+churches did he learn their origin. They had been printed in Malta
+under the supervision of Mr. Goodell. Soon after this, Der Vartanes,
+on a missionary tour through Armenia, spent a night at the convent
+in Marsovan. This man was present in the evening, and recognized the
+similarity between the teachings of the stranger and his favorite
+tracts, but did not dare to speak out before the Vartabed. He
+managed, however, to see the good priest alone, and with great
+difficulty they contrived to unite in prayer under a tree in the
+garden. This was the only evangelical prayer he ever heard till Mr.
+Powers visited the place in March, 1851. We need not say how
+cordially he was received by the owner of the tracts; nor by him
+alone, for the missionary could scarcely get a moment to himself day
+or night. No wonder Mr. Powers felt that God had good things in
+store for this people. When he returned in July, he was disappointed
+in not being met by his friend, till he learned that six weeks
+before he had been dragged from his bed at midnight, and sent a
+prisoner with four others to Amasia, a town twenty-four miles
+distant. There for two weeks they were shut up with the vilest
+criminals, and one day they were chained together, two and two. The
+charge brought against them by the governor and council of Marsovan
+was, that they had made a violent assault upon the court. Nor would
+the Pasha of Amasia, who, according to Turkish custom, had "eaten" a
+large bribe, listen to any denial of the preposterous accusation.
+
+The outrages which they suffered at length produced such an
+excitement at Marsovan, that the primates hastened to give an order
+for their release. The spirit of religious inquiry now greatly
+increased, and a large number signed a petition to be set off from
+the Armenian Church as Protestants.
+
+Mr. E. E. Bliss visited Marsovan in October, and was there three
+months. His presence was greatly needed. There had been a decline of
+piety, and only a small number of the Protestants retained their
+interest in spiritual things. Conversation turned not so much on the
+truths of the Gospel as on the errors of the Armenian Church; nor so
+much on these as on the corruption of their priesthood and the
+exactions of the government. All were convinced of the truth of
+Protestantism, but its particular charm was in its promise of good
+for the life that now is. There was an obvious need of more
+persecution.
+
+During the first month, Mr. Bliss preached every evening in the
+week, and twice on the Sabbath. The audiences ranged from fifty to
+two hundred and fifty, and there were increasing evidences of
+interest in the preaching. Then came tribulation because of the
+word. The power of wealth and political influence was enlisted
+against the truth. The taxes of those who had joined the Protestant
+community were more than doubled, and those who could not or would
+not pay them, were thrown into prison. Indeed, former scenes in
+Constantinople were now repeated in Marsovan. No mercy was shown,
+except on the one condition of leaving the Protestant meetings. When
+day after day passed and brought no relief, the feeble began to
+yield. One by one they made their submission to the Vartabed, and
+received his blessing. Only four stood firm.
+
+But now the Lord sent a partial deliverance, in an unexpected way.
+An authoritative copy of the Sultan's firman was sent from
+Constantinople, by a brother who was ignorant of the circumstances.
+No such copy had before reached that part of the interior, so that
+any official who pleased could ignore its existence. The news of its
+arrival brought out the affrighted Protestants from their
+hiding-places. Many whose sympathies were with them, were as joyful
+as themselves. Before night five or six, who had submitted to the
+Vartabed, bore to him a written recantation of what they had done;
+and he, having heard of the firman, received the recantation and was
+silent. After that there was comparative peace, and the number
+attending on the preaching of the missionary increased.
+
+I have dwelt on these developments at Marsovan, as an illustration
+of what, in various degrees, was experienced in other places at this
+stage in the reformation; as in Marash, Kessab, Demirdesh, and
+Adana.
+
+Mr. Wood, of this mission, being detained in the United States by
+the failure of his wife's health, was elected, in 1852, a
+Corresponding Secretary of the Board, to reside in the city of New
+York. The widow of Dr. Azariah Smith had remained in active labors
+at Aintab, but disease now obliged her to retire from the field.
+Miss Maria A. West took charge, with Mrs. Everett, of the girls'
+boarding-school at Constantinople; and Miss Melvina Haynes, a sister
+of Mrs. Everett, gave herself to a species of labor among Armenian
+females, which has since risen to importance in the missionary
+field. Mrs. George B. Nutting died at Aintab, July 9, 1854.
+
+In the Reports of the Prudential Committee to the Board for 1852 and
+1853, a hundred important towns and villages are named, into which
+the reformation had gained entrance.
+
+Pastor Simon, of the first church in Constantinople, spent a summer
+at Aintab; but his absence was the occasion of serious injury to his
+own charge; and so it was at Adabazar. Pastor Hohannes, of that
+church, with teacher Simon, of Nicomedia, devoted eight months to a
+missionary tour through Asia Minor. Their course was by way of
+Smyrna and Beirut, to Kessab, Aleppo, Killis, Aintab, Marash, Oorfa,
+Albestan, Cesarea, Marsovan, and Samsun; thence by steamer to
+Trebizond; thence to Erzroom, Khanoos, Moosh, Van, Bitlis, and back
+again through Diarbekir, Harpoot, Arabkir, Egin, Divrik, Sivas,
+Tokat, Amasia, Marsovan, and Samsun. An inspection of the map will
+show that these brethren traversed Asia Minor by three lines,
+visiting all its most important places. They spent a considerable
+time in many of them, and everywhere found ready listeners to their
+message. In numerous places there were inquirers, who needed only
+leaders to withstand the fire of persecution.
+
+The mission suffered a sore bereavement in the death of Mrs. Everett
+at Constantinople, in December, 1854. She possessed a transparent
+and beautiful character, with eminent capacity for usefulness.[1]
+Mr. Benjamin also died at Constantinople, the next year, at the age
+of forty-four. He was nine years in the mission to Greece. His
+labors in the Armenian Mission,--first at Smyrna, and then at
+Constantinople,--were mainly through the press, in which he was
+eminently useful. He had a clear conviction, in devoting his life to
+giving the Armenians an evangelical literature, that he was doing
+the work to which his Master called him. Nor did he overrate the
+importance of this branch of the work. His missionary experience in
+another field was of much value in guarding him against mistakes. At
+Pera, in addition to his literary labors, he preached statedly in
+modern Greek to a small congregation.[2]
+
+[1] See _The Missionary Sisters_,--Mrs. Everett and Mrs. Hamlin,
+--written by Mrs. Benjamin.
+
+[2] See an obituary notice of Mr. Benjamin in the _Missionary
+Herald_ for 1855, pp. 142-147.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1855-1860.
+
+
+There are times when the movements of armies are evidently made
+subservient, in divine Providence, to the progress of the Gospel;
+and the history of missions to the Oriental Churches would be
+imperfect without some notice of the Crimean war of 1854 and 1855.
+The historian of that war has shown, that it originated in the
+desire of Nicholas, Czar of Russia, to secure certain rights in the
+"holy places" at Jerusalem (in which he was opposed by the Roman
+Catholic government of France), and to obtain a formal recognition
+of himself as protector of the millions in Turkey professing the
+Greek religion.[1] But for the seasonable return to Constantinople
+of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe in 1853, there is reason to fear,
+that the extraordinary persistence of the Czar might have been
+successful, and that the protectorate would have been used to
+destroy the evangelical missions.[2]
+
+[1] See volume first of Kinglake's _Invasion of the Crimea_. He
+describes very minutely how the English nation was drawn into the
+war; but it is not necessary to go into that subject here. The
+nation was doubtless much influenced by its desire to uphold the
+Turkish government in order to keep open its communication with
+India.
+
+[2] Some idea of the spirit in which such a protectorate might have
+been exercised, may be obtained from two out of a number of kindred
+articles of the Russian Penal Law:
+
+"Article 206. Whoever is found guilty of having induced others to
+secede from the Greek Orthodox Confession, and to join another
+Christian Church, will be condemned to the loss of the rights of his
+social position, to transportation to Tobolsk or Tomsk (Siberia), or
+to the punishment of the lash, and one or two years of imprisonment
+in the house of correction.
+
+"Article 207. Whoever endeavors, by preaching or writing, to seduce
+members of the Orthodox Church to join any other Christian
+community, will be punished the first time, with the loss of some of
+his special rights, and imprisonment for one or two years in a house
+of correction; the second time, with imprisonment in a fortress from
+four to six years; the third time, with the loss of all his personal
+and social civil rights and status, and transportation for life to
+Tobolsk or Tomsk (Siberia), with imprisonment of one or two years."
+--_New York Observer_ for August, 1871.
+
+The author was in the interior of Asia Minor a short time while the
+Crimean war was in progress, and heard of reports among the
+people,--circulated, as was believed, by Russian agents,--that if
+Nicholas were victorious, he would secure the withdrawal from Turkey
+of Protestant missionaries. Exasperation caused by the failure of
+his negotiations with the Sultan, brought on the war; and the fall
+of Sebastopol was a more direct benefit to the missions, than it was
+to the nations that fought against it. But for the result then
+obtained, at vast expense of treasure and life, very different might
+have been the prospect of a successful republication of the Gospel
+in Bible lands.
+
+The number of missionaries in the Armenian Mission in 1855, was
+twenty-six. One of these was an ordained physician, and there was a
+physician unordained. There were twenty-eight female assistant
+missionaries, three of whom were unmarried. Of the Armenian helpers,
+thirteen were pastors and preachers, and sixty-four were
+lay-helpers. The stations,--called such because missionaries resided
+at them,--were fourteen. Twelve of these were north of the Taurus,
+and two were south of that range.
+
+Constantinople, Tocat, and Aintab had each a training-school for
+native preachers and helpers, and there was also a girls'
+boarding-school at Constantinople; and thirty-eight free schools
+were scattered over the field. Nine years after the organization of
+the first evangelical church, the number of churches was
+twenty-three. The church at Aintab was the largest, containing one
+hundred and forty-one members. Kessab, a long day's journey south of
+Antioch, where no missionary had ever resided, had a church of
+forty-one members. The first edifice for Christian worship in the
+Ottoman Empire, erected on a new site, was the stone church at
+Aintab. Prior to this, Christians had only been allowed to repair
+their old churches, and to rebuild on the old sites. The obtaining
+of this new indulgence was probably owing, in a measure, to the
+influence of the Crimean war. The dedication service, early in 1855,
+was attended by more than twelve hundred persons, and more than
+eleven hundred were present on the following Sabbath.
+
+The printing reported for this year amounted to thirty-five thousand
+volumes, and nearly five millions of pages, in the Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, Greek, Greco-Turkish, and Hebrew-Spanish, but
+chiefly in Armenian. A religious periodical was issued every two
+months called the "Avedaper," or "Messenger." Dr. Dwight was editor
+of this, but the general supervision of the press, after the decease
+of Mr. Benjamin, devolved on Dr. Riggs.
+
+Octavo and duodecimo editions of the Armenian Bible were going
+through the press, as was also an octavo Bible in Greco-Turkish. The
+New Testament had been issued in the ancient Armenian, in the Ararat
+dialect or Eastern Armenian, in the Ararat and Ancient Armenian in
+parallel columns, in the Greco-Turkish, and in the Armeno-Turkish.
+The Gospel of Matthew was issued in the Koordish language, and the
+Psalms in the Bulgarian. A demand for the Bible in the Turkish
+language came from almost every part of the empire.
+
+The book depository was removed from Pera across the Golden Horn
+into the old city of Constantinople, and the Moslems made no
+objection. More than twenty boxes of books were sent to a single
+place in the interior within the space of a year and a half. At one
+time two boxes were ready for Diarbekir, one for Cesarea, one for
+Aintab, and another for Jerusalem.
+
+In this work the mission was liberally aided by the American, and
+the British and Foreign Bible Societies, by the London Religious
+Tract Society, the American Tract Society, and more recently by the
+Turkish Missions Aid Society. Mr. Barker, agent of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society, and the Rev. C. N. Righter, of the American
+Bible Society (who died not long after at Diarbekir), did much to
+promote the work of Bible distribution in the countries around the
+Mediterranean and Black Seas; and the Constantinople Bible Society
+employed a French and English colporter among the soldiers of the
+allied powers. More Bibles and religious books went into the hands
+of Mohammedans from the depository of the mission during the years
+1854 and 1855, than in all the previous years of its existence.
+Twenty thousand copies of the Bible were scattered through Turkey in
+that space of time.
+
+The transfer of Dr. Riggs to the department of the Press made it
+necessary to suspend the Greek department in the Seminary at Bebek,
+and four of the six Greek pupils were sent to Dr. King at Athens.[1]
+Another became a teacher in Demirdesh, and another went to the
+United States to complete his professional studies.
+
+[1] The author regrets being obliged to say, that these all
+disappointed the expectations of their benefactors.
+
+Five Armenian students had been licensed to preach, and sent to
+Adrianople, Cesarea, Sivas, Diarbekir, and Kessab. Another, having
+the ministry in prospect, was a teacher in the new training-school
+at Tocat, under Mr. Van Lennep. A similar school existed at Aintab.
+
+The accession of missionaries from 1855 to 1860 was as follows: In
+1855, Orson P. Allen; in 1856, George A. Pollard, Tillman C.
+Trowbridge, and Misses Mary E. Tenney and Sarah E. West; in 1857,
+Crosby H. Wheeler, Charles F. Morse, Oliver W. Winchester, Jackson
+G. Coffing, George H. White, and Julius Y. Leonard; in 1858,
+Theodore Byington, George Washburn, and William Hutchinson; and
+Herman N. Barnum, who, being at Constantinople as a traveller, made
+an offer of his services, which was accepted in this year; in 1859,
+William W. Meriam, Joseph K. Greene, James F. Clarke, George F.
+Herrick, and Henry S. West, M. D., and Miss Myra A. Proctor; in
+1860, Alvan B. Goodale, M. D., William F. Arms, Zenas Goss, William
+W. Livingston, and Lysander T. Burbank. Messrs. Washburn,
+Trowbridge, Pettibone, Barnum, Herrick, and Goss came to the mission
+unmarried; Mr. Washburn afterwards married a daughter of Dr. Hamlin,
+Mr. Barnum a daughter of Dr. Goodell, and Mr. Trowbridge a daughter
+of Dr. Riggs.
+
+Mr. Everett, a devoted servant of Christ, was called to his rest on
+the 5th of March, 1856, after a sickness of a few days. His orphan
+children returned to the United States in charge of Miss Haynes, the
+sister of their mother. Messrs. Isaac G. Bliss and Edwin Goodell, in
+consequence of the failure of health, were released from their
+connection with the Board. The former afterwards recovered his
+health, and returned to Turkey as agent of the American Bible
+Society, in which capacity he has rendered very valuable service.
+Antioch and Aleppo were transferred from the Syrian to the Armenian
+Mission. At Erzroom the war drove away, not only the church-members,
+but most of those who were interested in the truth. Mr. Richardson
+removed to Arabkir to supply the place of Mr. Clark, who had been
+called to the seminary at Bebek; left without a teacher by the death
+of Mr. Everett and the temporary absence of Dr. Hamlin. At Marash,
+in consequence of the war and the proximity of the rough
+mountaineers of Zeitoon, the missionaries were at one time in no
+small danger.
+
+The beheading of a young Armenian, who had rashly declared himself a
+Mohammedan, and then repented of his rashness, and the consequent
+successful efforts of Sir Stratford Canning, in procuring a pledge
+from the Sultan that no person should be persecuted in Turkey for
+his religious opinions, were described in the first volume.[1] This
+was in 1843 and 1844. Ten or eleven years later, there was another
+beheading at Adrianople for a like cause, and another at Aleppo; and
+the same high-minded statesman was again aroused to effort, not only
+for a more effectual abrogation of the death penalty itself, but to
+obtain for the Protestant Christians freedom from persecution, and
+for the Christians generally the privileges that were enjoyed by
+their fellow-subjects of the Moslem religion. The eighty folio pages
+of documents on the subject, which were presented to both Houses of
+Parliament in 1856, form an important and interesting chapter in the
+history of those times. The principal writers, in addition to Lord
+Stratford de Redcliffe and the Earl of Clarendon, were the Earl of
+Shaftesbury, Lord Cowley, Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, President of
+the Turkish Missions Aid Society, the Rev. Cuthbert G. Young, its
+Secretary, and Mehemet Fuad.
+
+[1] Vol. i. p. 135.
+
+As the result of all, a Hatti Humaioun, or Imperial Firman, was
+issued by the Sultan in February, 1856. When read in public, the
+Sheik el Islam, the highest Moslem ecclesiastic, invoked the divine
+blessing on the Imperial Edict; but probably without an
+apprehension, either by himself or by his government, of the full
+significance of the instrument. By many of the Mohammedans it was
+regarded us opening the door for them to become Christians. Not a
+few of the Armenians and Greeks were displeased with it as favoring
+Protestantism; and this fact did not escape the sagacity of
+Mohammedans.
+
+The Imperial Rescript, as translated from the French, is as
+follows:--
+
+"Let it be done as herein set forth.
+
+"To you, my Grand Vizier, Mehemed Emin Aali Pasha, decorated with my
+Imperial Order of the Medjidiye of the first class, and with the
+Order of Personal Merit; may God grant to you greatness, and
+increase your power!
+
+"It has always been my most earnest desire to insure the happiness
+of all classes of the subjects whom divine Providence has placed
+under my imperial sceptre; and since my accession to the throne I
+have not ceased to direct all my efforts to the attainment of that
+end.
+
+"Thanks to the Almighty, these unceasing efforts have already been
+productive of numerous useful results. From day to day the happiness
+of the nation and the wealth of my dominions go on augmenting.
+
+"It being now my desire to renew and enlarge still more the new
+institutions, ordained with the view of establishing a state of
+things conformable with the dignity of my empire and the position
+which it occupies among civilized nations; and the rights of my
+empire having, by the fidelity and praiseworthy efforts of all my
+subjects, and by the kind and friendly assistance of the great
+powers, my noble Allies, received from abroad a confirmation which
+will be the commencement of a new era, it is my desire to augment
+its well-being and prosperity, to effect the happiness of all my
+subjects, who in my sight are all equal and equally dear to me, and
+who are united to each other by the cordial ties of patriotism, and
+to insure the means of daily increasing the prosperity of my empire.
+I have, therefore, resolved upon, and I order the execution of, the
+following measures.
+
+"The guaranties promised on our part by the Hatti-Humaioun of
+Gul-Hane, and in conformity with the Tanzimat, to all the subjects
+of my empire, without distinction of classes or of religion, for the
+security of their persons and property and the preservation of their
+honor, are to-day confirmed and consolidated; and efficacious
+measures shall be taken in order that they may have their full and
+entire effect.
+
+"All the privileges and spiritual immunities granted by my ancestors
+_ab antiquo_, and at subsequent dates, to all Christian communities
+or other non-Mussulman persuasions established in my empire under my
+protection, shall be confirmed and maintained.
+
+"Every Christian or other non-Mussulman community shall be bound,
+within a fixed period, and with the concurrence of a commission
+composed _ad hoc_ of members of its own body, to proceed, with my
+high approbation and under the inspection of my Sublime Porte, to
+examine into its actual immunities and privileges, and to discuss
+and submit to my Sublime Porte the reforms required by the progress
+of civilization and of the age. The powers conceded to the Christian
+Patriarchs and Bishops by the Sultan Mahomet II. and his successors,
+shall be made to harmonize with the new position which my generous
+and beneficent intentions insure to these communities.
+
+"The principle of nominating the Patriarchs for life, after the
+revision of the rules of election now in force, shall be exactly
+carried out, conformably to the tenor of their firmans of
+investiture.
+
+"The Patriarchs, Metropolitans, Archbishops, Bishops and Rabbins
+shall take an oath on their entrance into office, according to a
+form agreed upon in common by my Sublime Porte and the spiritual
+heads of the different religious communities. The ecclesiastical
+dues, of whatever sort or nature they be, shall be abolished, and
+replaced by fixed revenues for the Patriarchs and heads of
+communities, and by the allocation of allowances and salaries
+equitably proportioned to the importance of the rank, and the
+dignity of the different members of the clergy.
+
+"The property, real or personal, of the different Christian
+ecclesiastics shall remain intact; the temporal administration of
+the Christian or other non-Mussulman communities shall, however, be
+placed under the safeguard of an assembly to be chosen from among
+the members, both ecclesiastics and laymen, of the said communities.
+
+"In the towns, small boroughs, and villages, where the whole
+population is of the same religion, no obstacle shall be offered to
+the repair, according to their original plan, of buildings set apart
+for religious worship, for schools, for hospitals and for
+cemeteries.
+
+"The plans of these different buildings, in case of their new
+erection, must, after having been approved by the Patriarchs or
+heads of communities, be submitted to my Sublime Porte, which will
+approve of them by my imperial order, or make known its observation
+upon them within a certain time.
+
+"Each sect, in localities where there are no other religious
+denominations, shall be free from every species of restraint as
+regards the public exercise of its religion.
+
+"In the towns, small boroughs, and villages, where different sects
+are mingled together, each community inhabiting a distinct quarter
+shall, by conforming to the above-mentioned ordinances, have equal
+power to repair and improve its churches, its hospitals, its
+schools, and its cemeteries. When there is question of the erection
+of new buildings, the necessary authority must be asked for, through
+the medium of the Patriarchs and heads of communities, from my
+Sublime Porte, which will pronounce a sovereign decision according
+to that authority, except in the case of administrative obstacles.
+The intervention of the administrative authority in all measures of
+this nature will be entirely gratuitous. My Sublime Porte will take
+energetic measures to insure to each sect, whatever be the number of
+its adherents, entire freedom in the exercise of its religion.
+
+"Every distinction or designation tending to make any class whatever
+of the subjects of my empire inferior to another class, on account
+of their religion, language, or race, shall be forever effaced from
+the administrative protocol. The laws shall be put in force against
+the use of any injurious or offensive term, either among private
+individuals or on the part of the authorities.
+
+"As all forms of religion are and shall be freely professed in my
+dominions, no subject of my empire shall be hindered in the exercise
+of the religion that he professes, nor shall be in any way annoyed
+on this account. No one shall be compelled to change their religion.
+
+"The nomination and choice of all functionaries and other employes
+of my empire being wholly dependent upon my sovereign will, all the
+subjects of my empire, without distinction of nationality, shall be
+admissible to public employments, and qualified to fill them
+according to their capacity and merit, and conformably with rules to
+be generally applied.
+
+"All the subjects of my empire, without distinction, shall be
+received into the civil and military schools of the government, if
+they otherwise satisfy the conditions as to age and examination
+which are specified in the organic regulations of the said schools.
+Moreover, every community is authorized to establish public schools
+of science, art, and industry. Only the method of instruction and
+the choice of professors in schools of this class shall be under the
+control of a mixed council of public instruction, the members of
+which shall be named by my sovereign command.
+
+"All commercial, correctional, and criminal suits between Mussulmans
+and Christian or other non-Mussulman subjects, or between Christians
+or other non-Mussulmans of different sects, shall be referred to
+mixed tribunals.
+
+"The proceedings of these tribunals shall be public; the parties
+shall be confronted, and shall produce their witnesses, whose
+testimony shall be received, without distinction, upon an oath taken
+according to the religious law of each sect.
+
+"Suits relating to civil affairs shall continue to be publicly
+tried, according to the laws and regulations before the mixed
+provincial councils, in the presence of the governor and judge of
+the place. Special civil proceedings, such as those relating to
+successions or others of that kind, between subjects of the same
+Christian or other non-Mussulman faith, may, at the request of the
+parties, be sent before the councils of the Patriarchs or of the
+communities.
+
+"Penal, correctional, and commercial laws, and rules of procedure
+for the mixed tribunals, shall be drawn up as soon as possible, and
+formed into a code. Translations of them shall be published in all
+the languages current in the empire.
+
+"Proceedings shall be taken with as little delay as possible, for
+the reform of the penitentiary system as applied to houses of
+detention, punishment, or correction, and other establishments of
+like nature, so as to reconcile the rights of humanity with those of
+justice. Corporal punishment shall not be administered, even in the
+prisons, except in conformity with the disciplinary regulations
+established by my Sublime Porte; and everything that resembles
+torture shall be entirely abolished.
+
+"Infractions of the law in this particular shall be severely
+repressed, and shall besides entail, as of right, the punishment, in
+conformity with the civil code, of the authorities who may order,
+and of the agents who may commit them.
+
+"The organization of the police in the capital, in the provincial
+towns, and in the rural districts, shall be revised in such a manner
+as to give to all the peaceable subjects of my empire the strongest
+guaranties for the safety both of their persons and property.
+
+"The equality of taxes entailing equality of burdens, as equality of
+duties entails that of rights, Christian subjects, and those of
+other non-Mussulman sects, as it has been already decided, shall, as
+well as Mussulmans, be subject to the obligations of the Law of
+Recruitment. The principle of obtaining substitutes, or of
+purchasing exemption, shall be admitted. A complete law shall be
+published, with as little delay as possible, respecting the
+admission into and service in the army of Christian and other
+non-Mussulman subjects.
+
+"Proceedings shall be taken for a reform in the constitution of the
+provincial and communal councils, in order to insure fairness in the
+choice of the deputies of the Mussulman, Christian, and other
+communities, and freedom of voting in the councils. My Sublime Porte
+will take into consideration the adoption of the most effectual
+means for ascertaining exactly and for controlling the result of the
+deliberations of the decisions arrived at.
+
+"As the laws regulating the purchase, sale, and disposal of real
+property are common to all the subjects of my empire, it shall be
+lawful for foreigners to possess landed property in my dominions,
+conforming themselves to the laws and police regulations, and
+bearing the same charges as the native inhabitants, and after
+arrangements have been come to with foreign powers.
+
+"The taxes are to be levied under the same denomination from all the
+subjects of my empire, without distinction of class or of religion.
+The most prompt and energetic means for remedying the abuses in
+collecting the taxes, and especially the tithes, shall be
+considered. The system of direct collection shall gradually, and as
+soon as possible, be substituted for the plan of farming, in all the
+branches of the revenues of the State. As long as the present system
+remains in force, all agents of the government and all members of
+the medjlis shall be forbidden, under the severest penalties, to
+become lessees of any farming contracts which are announced for
+public competition, or to have any beneficial interest in carrying
+them out. The local taxes shall, as far as possible, be so imposed
+as not to affect the sources of production, or to hinder the
+progress of internal commerce.
+
+"Works of public utility shall receive a suitable endowment, part of
+which shall be raised from private and special taxes, levied in the
+provinces which shall have the benefit of the advantages arising
+from the establishment of ways of communication by land and sea.
+
+"A special law having been already passed, which declares that the
+budget of the revenue and expenditure of the state shall be drawn up
+and made known every year, the said law shall be most scrupulously
+observed. Proceedings shall be taken for revising the emoluments
+attached to each office.
+
+"The heads of each community and a delegate, designated by my
+Sublime Porte, shall be summoned to take part in the deliberations
+of the Supreme Council of Justice on all occasions which might
+interest the generality of the subjects of my empire. They shall be
+summoned specially for this purpose by my Grand Vizier. The
+delegates shall hold office for one year; they shall be sworn on
+entering upon their duties. All the members of the council, at the
+ordinary and extraordinary meetings, shall freely give their
+opinions and their votes, and no one shall ever annoy them on this
+account.
+
+"The laws against corruption, extortion, or malversation, shall
+apply, according to the legal forms, to all the subjects of my
+empire, whatever may be their class and the nature of their duties.
+
+"Steps shall be taken for the formation of banks and other similar
+institutions, so as to effect a reform in the monetary and financial
+system, as well as to create funds to be employed in augmenting the
+sources of the material wealth of my empire.
+
+"Steps shall also be taken for the formation of roads and canals to
+increase the facilities of communication and increase the sources of
+the wealth of the country. Everything that can impede commerce or
+agriculture shall be abolished. To accomplish these objects, means
+shall be sought to profit by the science, the art, and the funds of
+Europe, and thus gradually to execute them.
+
+"Such being my wishes and my commands, you, who are my Grand Vizier,
+will, according to custom, cause this Imperial Firman to be
+published in my capital, and in all parts of my empire; and you will
+watch attentively and take all the necessary measures that all the
+orders which it contains be henceforth carried out with the most
+rigorous punctuality."
+
+Lord Stratford, in replying to a congratulatory address from the
+missionaries, declared his agreement with them in the opinion, that
+something great had been gained; though he believed the principles
+involved would require persevering efforts to carry them into
+practice. He said that he was himself but an humble instrument in
+the hands of divine Providence, and that he had never felt the hand
+of God so sensibly in any other measure he had carried through, as
+in this, which, after he had given it up for lost, had succeeded all
+at once, in a way that filled him with astonishment.[1]
+
+[1] That the Hatti Humaioun was really intended to include the death
+penalty, is made exceedingly probable by the official correspondence
+which preceded it, and which was in fact its procuring cause. Only a
+few brief extracts can be given in this note.
+
+Referring to the punishment of death as applied to apostates from
+Islamism, the Earl of Clarendon, English Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, writes thus to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe: "As the Turkish
+empire is, by treaty stipulations, to be declared part and parcel of
+the European system, it is quite impossible for the powers of Europe
+to acquiesce in the continuance in Turkey of a law, and a practice,
+which is a standing insult to every other nation in Europe."
+
+Again, on the 17th of September, 1853, the Earl of Clarendon writes
+thus to Lord Stratford: "Her Majesty's Government distinctly demands
+that no punishment whatever shall attach to the Mohammedan who
+becomes a Christian, whether originally a Mohammedan, or originally
+a Christian, any more than any punishment attaches to a Christian
+who embraces Mohammedanism. In all such cases the movements of human
+conscience must be left free, and the temporal arm must not
+interfere to coerce the spiritual decision."
+
+Referring to the Imperial Rescript, February 12, 1856, Lord
+Stratford says, writing to the Earl:--
+
+"If no one is to be molested on account of the religion he
+professes, and no one to be punished as a renegade, whatever form of
+faith he denies, I do not see what room there can possibly be for
+any practical persecutions in future within the limits of the
+Sultan's empire." See _Correspondence respecting Christian
+Privileges in Turkey, in Parliamentary Papers for_ 1856, pp. 15, 24,
+25, 33, 55, 60, 66, 67, 77-80.
+
+The plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, Austria, France, Russia,
+Sardinia, and Turkey, assembled in February, 1856, at the close of
+the Crimean war, to negotiate what is known as the Treaty of Paris.
+It is evident from the Protocols of their Conference, that, having
+the Earl of Clarendon and Lord Cowley among them, they were intent
+on giving weight and perpetuity to this firman of the Sultan, by a
+formal recognition of it in the treaty. This was done in article
+ninth, after much deliberation, and with the full concurrence of all
+the plenipotentiaries, including the representative of the
+Sultan.[1]
+
+[1] "NINTH ARTICLE. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, having, in his
+constant solicitude for the welfare of his subjects, issued a
+firman, which, while, ameliorating their condition without
+distinction of religion or race, records his generous intentions
+towards the Christian population of his empire, and wishing to give
+a further proof of his sentiments in that respect, has resolved to
+communicate to the Contracting Parties the said firman, emanating
+spontaneously from his sovereign will.
+
+"The Contracting Powers recognize the high value of this
+communication. It is clearly understood, that it cannot, in any
+case, give to said Powers the right to interfere, either
+collectively or separately, in the relations of his Majesty, the
+Sultan, with his subjects, nor in the internal administration of his
+Empire." See _Treaty of Paris_, March 30, 1856, in _Parliamentary
+State Papers_, vol. lxi. p. 20. Also, appended, _Protocols of
+Conferences_, pp. 8, 13, 51, 57, 58.
+
+The Hatti Humaioun of 1855 was much more than a confirmation of the
+Imperial Firman of 1850, nor was it a dead letter. A year afterwards
+Dr. Jewett, while admitting that it was inefficient in certain
+respects, declared it to have been in an important sense, a
+quickening spirit. "Never," he says, "within the same space of time,
+has there been as much religious discussion with the Mussulmans as
+since the issue of the late firman, and never before, I think, has
+there been such a spirit of religious inquiry among Mohammedans, and
+readiness to discuss the merits of the Christian religion, as has
+been evident during the past year. It has awakened hope of a good
+day even for the Moslems." A few years later, Dr. Goodell, speaking
+of it says: "To the Protestant communities here, and to all who live
+godly in Christ Jesus, this Hatti Humaioun is a boon of priceless
+value. Heretofore its principal use was to secure us from the
+molestation of these corrupt churches, but we have now begun to test
+its importance with reference to the Mohammedans themselves. Only a
+few years since, the headless bodies of apostates from the
+Mohammedan faith might be seen lying in the streets of the great
+city. But now such apostates may be seen at all hours of the day
+walking these same streets without any apparent danger, urging the
+claims of Christianity even in the very courts of the royal mosques,
+and teaching and preaching in the chapel, in the private circle, and
+sometimes even in the palaces of the great, that Jesus Christ is
+Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And all this wonderful
+security is, under God, owing entirely to the Hatti Humaioun." He
+adds, "It is said that the Turkish government is sometimes guilty of
+violating some of the great principles of that document. And who
+that knows anything of human nature, or of the history of our race,
+ever supposed they would not be guilty of it? To suppose the
+contrary would be to suppose the Turk advanced very much farther
+towards perfection than any other nation on the face of the earth."
+
+A correspondence arose, about this time, in the old Armenian Church,
+between those who inclined towards the Papal Church and those who
+were opposed, and it was gratifying to see that the principal
+Armenian newspaper, published under the sanction of the Patriarch,
+drew its arguments almost wholly from the Scriptures, scarcely
+anything being said of the Councils, or of the Fathers.
+
+The out-stations of Nicomedia, Adabazar, Rodosto, Baghchejuk, and
+Broosa were prosperous. A Protestant Greek community at Demirdesh
+stood firm under persecution, though without a spiritual guide. The
+Pasha did little for their protection, but divine Providence had
+other instruments for their deliverance. The French Vice Consul,
+having to feed immense herds of cattle for the French army, selected
+the principal Greek Protestant of the place as the most competent
+overseer, and empowered him to employ the needful agents. This
+brought to his feet some who had beaten him and even threatened him
+with death. He freely employed them and paid them honestly, thus
+returning good for evil.
+
+The training-school at Tocat was composed of pious young men who
+made considerable progress in their studies. A footing was gained at
+Tarsus and Bitias, south of the Taurus range, and a native pastor
+was ordained at Kessab. Here was a Protestant community of more than
+four hundred.
+
+At Aintab and in its neighboring villages, after only nine years of
+labor, there were twelve stated religious services, nearly half of
+them conducted by native preachers, two thousand Protestants, old
+and young, two hundred and sixty-eight church-members, a large
+congregation on the Sabbath, three promising young men in the
+pastoral office, and two more prepared for that office. The year
+1856 was one of unbroken prosperity in all temporal concerns at
+Aintab. The influence of this prosperity, however, had its usual
+effect in developing a love of the world, and a feeling of
+self-consequence, resulting in some perplexities within the church.
+Such results are known in much older communities, and ought to be
+expected in the early religious life of such a people. Between the
+pastor Kara Krikor and his people there was all that could be
+expected of mutual confidence and harmony, and his monthly salary
+was paid with a promptness unusual in such cases.
+
+The death of Mrs. Schneider on the 29th of September was a great
+loss to the mission. This excellent woman had an earnest desire for
+the salvation of every one she met, and old and young listened with
+pleasure to her instructions. It became known, soon after her
+decease, that three or four small companies of native sisters had
+begun of their own accord to hold meetings in various quarters. The
+progress among the women of Aintab had been great. When the first
+missionary arrived, only one woman was known who was able to read.
+It was now ascertained that nearly three hundred could read the New
+Testament.
+
+The boarding-school pupils at Constantinople received a pupil this
+year from each of the following places--Trebizond, Diarbekir,
+Rodosto, Haskeuy, Scutari, and Baghchejuk. The chief difficulty in
+teaching was the want of suitable text-books in the modern language.
+In addition to the usual studies, the pupils were allowed an
+opportunity to acquaint themselves with domestic duties, and they
+did it in most cases with hearty good-will. Dr. Goodell exercised a
+fatherly care over the institution.
+
+During most of the year Mr. Clark had charge of the Seminary at
+Bebek. The prescribed course of study embraced four years in the
+scholastic department and three in the theological, and was designed
+to secure to the pupils a systematic training. The qualifications
+required for entering, raised the character of the common schools
+connected with the mission. During vacations the students were
+required to support themselves. The average number was forty-five,
+and it was necessary to reject no less than sixty applicants, mainly
+from inability to support them. Among them were Bulgarians,
+Albanians, Wallachians, and Servians. Seven students were in the
+theological department, and three others went through a part of the
+course, one of whom was a Turk, and another a Greek. Dr. Hamlin gave
+instruction in this department after his return, assisted by Dr.
+Schauffler in Turkish. Nine of the students in the seminary were
+church-members, and others gave evidence of piety.
+
+The growth of the Armenian Mission, along with its great extent, of
+territory, required a division for the more convenient
+administration of its affairs. Hence a Southern Armenian Mission was
+organized in November, 1856, having the Taurus for its boundary on
+the north, and embracing the stations of Aintab, Marash, Antioch,
+Aleppo, and Oorfa. Its printing was to be done at Constantinople.
+The members of this mission were Messrs. Schneider, Pratt, Beebee,
+Perkins, Morgan, Nutting, Cotting, and White. The field of the
+Northern Mission extended from the Balkans in European Turkey to the
+eastern waters of the Euphrates.
+
+The "Turkish Missions Aid Society" was formed in England in 1854;
+"not to originate a new mission, but to aid the existing evangelical
+missions in the Turkish empire, especially American." The funds
+contributed to the American missions were given expressly for a
+Native Agency; and important aid has thus been rendered down to the
+present time. The funds of the Society having suffered diminution in
+1857, Dr. Dwight was invited to visit England. He arrived in March
+of the following year, and visited the principal cities, in company
+with the Secretary. "I was everywhere received," says Dr. Dwight,
+"with the most overflowing kindness, and my simple story was
+listened to with the most intense interest. Clergymen and laymen of
+all evangelical denominations were usually present at the meetings,
+which were held on week days, and I saw nowhere anything like a
+sectarian spirit, but uniformly the very reverse. Ministers of the
+Church of England, as well as others, publicly advocated the plan of
+aiding the American Mission in Turkey, rather than sending forth a
+mission of their own." Valuable as the cooeperation of this Society
+has been in the bestowment of funds, its moral influence in Turkey,
+as a visible illustration of fraternal feeling among Protestant
+Christians of various names and countries has been of far greater
+value.[1]
+
+[1] The aid afforded by the Turkish Missions Aid Society to the
+missions of the Board in Western Asia, has averaged about ten
+thousand dollars a year.
+
+An account was given, in a former chapter, of the conversion, in
+1842, of a "Papal Armenian.[1] His name was Bedros Kamaghielyan, and
+his death occurred in 1857, fifteen years afterward. His conversion
+was remarkable, and so was his subsequent life. He was for some
+years an efficient helper at Salonica among the Jews, and ever after
+that, he was a successful assistant of Dr. Dwight in Constantinople.
+Eminently wise to win souls to Christ, it is believed that many,
+among the different races in Turkey, will rise up and call him
+blessed. The first Turkish convert who became a preacher, received
+his first impressions from Bedros at Salonica. Years later, the
+missionaries learned that the origin of an interesting work of grace
+among the Greeks of Cassandra, in that region, was traceable to him.
+Though suffering from bodily infirmity in the later years of his
+life, his labors were unceasing for the salvation of souls, and for
+the edification of the church. He was noted for his humility and
+self-denial, and his piety was a steady glow of light. His views of
+the gospel method of salvation were clear, and his manner of
+presenting it exceedingly happy. He was eminently a peacemaker in
+the church, and his good sense was in constant demand in the
+settlement of difficulties. As a deacon in the Yeni Kapoo church he
+was constantly looking after the sick and infirm, visiting families
+in the Protestant community, and instructing their women in the
+doctrines and duties of Christianity. When attacked by his last
+sickness, Bedros very soon received the impression that it would be
+fatal. Once, in great bodily suffering, he exclaimed, "O, what a
+Saviour is my Saviour! He scatters all my darkness, and gives me
+peace." At another time, he wished the missionaries might all be
+called to his bedside, that he might declare to them his great joy,
+and what things the Lord was doing for his soul. A Mohammedan of
+some distinction, who had often had religious conversations with
+Bedros, called upon him without knowing of his sickness. The sick
+man, though in extreme bodily weakness, spoke very faithfully to his
+visitor, and told him of his joy in view of death, and his hope of
+going to be forever with the Lord Jesus Christ, and added: "This is
+the only way of peace and salvation, and Christ is the only Saviour
+of sinners for you, and for me, and for all the world." The eyes of
+the Turk filled with tears. He had never seen a Christian die
+before; and to hear a man talk with so much gladness of his
+departure from the world overcame him, and he hurried from the room.
+An aged Moslem called, who had known Bedros, and gave some evidence
+of being a Christian. Going to his bedside, his eyes streaming with
+tears, he embraced and kissed him in the most affectionate manner.
+Dr. Dwight closes his statement with the following testimony: "Thus
+has passed away one of the choicest spirits this world ever saw. I
+feel that I have many lessons to learn from his quiet, humble, and
+most useful life; and I trust that his death may be greatly blessed
+to all the missionaries, and to all the people."
+
+[1] Chapter ix. p. 130. See, also, _Missionary Herald_, 1857, pp.
+387-390.
+
+The second Mrs. Hamlin died suddenly, on the 6th of November, 1857.
+Though not permitted to give her dying testimony, the record of her
+life was that of a meek, lowly, and quiet spirit; diligent,
+faithful, and affectionate in every duty.[1]
+
+[1] See Memoir, _The Missionary Sisters_, written by Mrs. Benjamin.
+
+The region, of which Arabkir is the centre, was now rising in
+importance. The territory dependent on this station for instruction
+extended from northeast and southwest, along the western bank of the
+Euphrates, one hundred and seventy-five miles, with a population of
+one hundred thousand; about equally divided between Armenians and
+Mussulmans, with few Greeks, no Roman Catholics, and no Jews. A
+large number of the Mussulmans were known as Kuzzelbashes. The field
+was first occupied in 1853, and churches had been organized in three
+cities and two villages, all of which enjoyed the stated preaching
+of the Word.
+
+Sivas, west of Arabkir, and Tocat on the northwest, were missionary
+centres of populous fields, extensively accessible; the former
+containing a population of more than a hundred thousand, and the
+latter of nearly half a million,--Armenians, Turks, Kuzzelbashes,
+Koords, and Greeks.
+
+Harpoot lies cast of Arabkir, on the other side of the Euphrates.
+Mr. Dunmore commenced this station in 1855, and was alone in this
+city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants; the failure of his wife's
+health having obliged her to return to the United States. He had
+been usefully employed here nearly three years,--the last with
+Messrs. Wheeler and Allen,--when, having a taste for exploration and
+pioneer labors, he was transferred, in 1858, to Erzroom, with
+special reference to the region south of that city; and Messrs.
+Wheeler and Allen were joined at Harpoot, in 1859, by Mr. H. N.
+Barnum. The city is the centre of a population of about one hundred
+thousand, and stands on a lofty hill, looking to the distant range
+of the Taurus on the south, and scores of villages on the
+intervening plain. Northward, across the eastern branch of the
+Euphrates, is the still loftier range of the Anti-Taurus; while the
+distant horizon to the east and west is shut in by mountains.
+Arabkir was occupied for several years by Messrs. Clark, Pollard,
+and Richardson, but in 1865 was included in the Harpoot field.[1]
+
+[1] Mr. Wheeler's _Ten Years on the Euphrates_.
+
+Geghi is about ninety miles from Harpoot, in the direction of
+Erzroom. It was visited by Mr. Peabody and Mr. Bliss in 1848 and
+1851. Mr. Peabody found the Vartabed of the place and ten of the
+people deeply interested in reading the Scriptures. Mr. Wheeler
+visited Geghi in the summer of 1858 and found the truth much
+opposed, but taking a firm hold among the sixteen hundred Armenians
+of the place. He was touched by their earnest entreaties to remain
+with them a few mouths; or if that might not be, that he would leave
+his native helper till some one else could come among them. As with
+the Apostle Paul at Troas, the eagerness of the people to hear led
+him to protract his labors on one occasion, till an hour and a half
+past midnight, and on another till the breaking day.
+
+The year 1859 was signalized by a revival in the Bebek Seminary. At
+its commencement, nearly half the students were regarded as
+hopefully pious, and these all seemed at once to have new views of
+spiritual things. The Holy Spirit not only revived the graces of
+such, but put forth a converting power. Within a few weeks nearly
+all the students gave credible evidence of piety. There were several
+cases, also, of hopeful conversion in the girls' boarding school;
+and similar awakenings were reported at Marsovan, Yozgat,
+Baghchejuk, Broosa, and Marash. At the last place thirty-seven were
+added to the church at one time, making eighty-six by profession
+since the beginning of 1858.
+
+Mr. Parsons had received frequent complaints from the brethren of
+Nicomedia, that their girls had not been properly cared for by the
+teacher, and from the teacher that the brethren were intermeddling.
+He answered by withdrawing all aid until they could agree among
+themselves. The effect was immediate. They began to pay a tuition
+fee, and made special efforts to render the school attractive. The
+number of pupils was increased to seventy-eight, and the school
+ceased any longer to need aid.
+
+A fire destroyed the mission premises at Tocat in 1859. The flames
+were so rapid as not only to consume the buildings, but the clothing
+and bedding of the pupils, the books and apparatus of the school, a
+portion of the furniture of Messrs. Pettibone and Winchester, who
+had been recently placed at the head of the school, and all the
+effects of Mr. Van Lennep, including a large and valuable library,
+and a manuscript Armenian translation of a commentary on the Bible,
+made, and to have been printed, at the expense of the Prince of
+Schoenberg. In view of this calamity, it was deemed expedient to
+close the training-school. A similar one was opened in the fall of
+the same year, at Harpoot. Mr. Clark returning to the United States,
+Dr. Hamlin renewed his connection with the Bebek Seminary.
+
+Mr. Dunmore, after describing a tour he had made of twelve hundred
+miles from Erzroom to Oroomiah in Persia, and from thence, on his
+return, through Russian Armenia, gives the following summary of his
+missionary travels: "I have travelled on horseback over six thousand
+miles in Turkey, and one thousand in Persia and Russia, between two
+and three hundred on goat skins upon the Tigris, and over fifteen
+hundred by steamer, without sickness by the way, without accident,
+or the loss of an article of value. And I have never taken a guard
+when travelling alone, for protection from robbers. Surely we may
+safely trust Him who says: 'Believe in God, believe also in me.'"[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1859, pp. 306-313.
+
+The missionaries at Cesarea were much encouraged by the progress of
+the work there. Mr. Leonard thus writes: "The church, though
+constantly dismissing members to other churches, still maintains its
+numbers by fresh accessions from without, and is at the same time
+evidently advancing in consistent, intelligent Christian character.
+Here are some noble exemplars of faith and piety, who search the
+Scriptures daily, and adorn their doctrines by a godly life. I have
+often wished I might introduce some of our American friends into our
+teachers' meetings on a Sabbath afternoon, or to the Sabbath-school
+at the intermission of public worship, where nearly the whole
+congregation remains, exhibiting a zeal and aptness in the
+discussion of religious truths scarcely surpassed in the most
+favored churches in New England. The weekly woman's prayer-meeting
+is sometimes left entirely in the hands of the native sisters, and
+any one of half a dozen is always ready without embarrassment to
+take the lead, discoursing very appropriately from her Turkish
+Testament. This, I am told, is a rare thing in Turkey, where woman
+has been so long held in ignorance and degradation."
+
+The reader will remember the Patriarch Matteos, and his degradation
+in 1849. After ten years passed in retirement, he was elected
+Catholikos of all the Armenians, and removed to Echmiadzin. His
+election to such a post at this time was significant, but the
+probability of his being able then to hinder the reformation did not
+create serious apprehension.
+
+Mrs. Beebee died peacefully at Marash, on the 28th of October, 1858,
+after protracted sufferings, and her husband returned some months
+after to the United States with broken health, and was released from
+his connection with the Board.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1860-1861.
+
+
+The fleets and armies of Europe had retired, and the Turk felt in a
+measure freed from a troublesome guardianship; which had, however,
+greatly promoted both religion and reform in Turkey. The fact that
+the war had materially weakened Russian influence at the Porte, may
+have been among the reasons that induced England now to relax its
+hold on the government of the Sultan. As a consequence, French
+diplomacy was decidedly in the ascendant, and lent its influence to
+promote Papal schemes. "The Armenians," writes a well informed
+missionary, "accept a declaration of the Bible as ultimate, and as
+the Protestant missionaries made the Bible the basis of all their
+work, and accustomed the people to refer to it for authority in all
+spiritual matters, the Papists have been shut up to the use of
+political measures to gain adherents. This they have done by
+espousing the cause of any party in litigation on condition that he
+should register himself a Roman Catholic. This influence was very
+powerful throughout the country, as it was supported by the
+intervention of the French embassy, and led to violence and
+persecution in various parts of the empire, especially at Mardin,
+where the papal power was comparatively strong."
+
+Anticipating the history, it may be said, that the Franco-German war
+changed all this. The Turkish government then no longer feared the
+French, and hence no longer lent itself to Papal intrigues. The
+dogma of the Papal Infallibility has been also a severe blow to the
+Oriental Papacy.
+
+No one was more competent than Dr. Dwight to testify concerning the
+state of religious opinions among the Armenians of the metropolis.
+Writing in February, 1860, he said it would be hard to find an
+intelligent Armenian in Constantinople, unless among the
+ecclesiastics, who did not acknowledge that there were many errors
+in the Armenian Church, and that the evangelical system was the
+best.
+
+About the game time, he found a great change for the better at
+Rodosto, on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmora. The
+evangelical brethren had suffered many indignities from the
+Armenians, but now even the magnates were disposed to cultivate
+friendly relations with them. This he attributed, in great measure,
+to the wise and yet firm demeanor of Apraham, the native preacher,
+who afterwards became pastor of the Rodosto church. He was a native
+of the place, and was once a deacon in the old Armenian Church, and
+a candidate for the offices of vartabed and bishop. His first
+knowledge of the truth was gained while in the Armenian monastery at
+Jerusalem. From thence he came to Bebek, where he studied theology.
+He was an exception to the rule, that a prophet has no honor in his
+own country, for without compromising the truth, he had gained the
+respect of all. He showed his missionary friend a list of eighty
+families, upon which he called in regular order. Though most of them
+belonged to the old Armenian Church, they received him kindly. The
+missionary called with him upon two of these families prominent in
+the Armenian community, in one of which they spent an entire
+evening. A copy of the Bible, in the modern language, was in the
+house, and was brought forward, read, and commented upon, just as if
+this had been a Protestant family.
+
+Dr. Dwight attended the examination of the Protestant school at
+Rodosto. More than half of the pupils were from non-Protestant
+families; and an audience of two hundred and fifty expressed very
+general satisfaction with the attainments of the pupils. On the
+Sabbath he administered the Lord's Supper. A large number not
+connected with the church, were present, and gave close attention to
+the preaching. Many must have come from mere curiosity, but the
+missionary never preached with greater certainty that he had the
+sympathies of his audience.
+
+In the following July, events showed that the new influences had in
+some way reached all classes of Armenians in the metropolis. An aged
+Protestant died and his body was borne by his friends to an Armenian
+cemetery, which hitherto had been open to all bearing the Christian
+name. Now, however, a mob, composed of the very lowest class of
+Armenians, seized the coffin, and forcibly carried it out of the
+burying-ground, where it remained four days. The mob increased to
+thousands, and kept possession of the ground day and night. The
+American and English Ambassadors were at length roused, and
+remonstrated with the Porte and the Patriarch. The burial was
+assented to, and the Seraskier, or Minister of War, came with
+several hundred troops. A place was selected for the grave within
+the cemetery, but the mob, at the first blow of the pickaxe, rushed
+forward with a savage yell. The troops were ordered to resist, but
+not to fire. After twenty or thirty had been wounded, the mob fell
+back. The Patriarch and other dignitaries of the Armenian Church now
+came upon the ground, and gave their sanction to the spot selected
+for the burial, and the grave was dug. Just then the Seraskier, for
+some unexplained reason, ordered the grave to be filled, and another
+to be dug outside of the cemetery, in the middle of the public
+highway. The Protestants declined taking part in the burial in such
+a spot, though entreated to do so by the Seraskier, but remained and
+looked on in silence, while Mussulmans dug the grave, put the coffin
+into it, and filled it up. As soon as this was done, the mob rushed
+forward and trampled spitefully upon it, in the presence of the
+Pasha and Patriarch. The representatives of the Protestant powers
+now united in a strong remonstrance to the government; and Stepan
+Effendi, the civil head of the Protestants, was speedily notified,
+that ground would be given them for cemeteries wherever Protestants
+were found.
+
+A native assistant died at Baghchejuk, near Nicomedia, early in the
+year, who had from the beginning been intimately connected with the
+work in that place, and was called the "prince of colporters," on
+account of his success in distributing the Scriptures. Being by
+nature an earnest man, when converted he became zealous in
+disseminating the truth. As he was respected through all the region,
+there was great anxiety among the Armenians to regain him, and an
+ex-Patriarch visited Baghchejuk, in the hope of bringing him back.
+Promises and threats were equally vain, and the storm of persecution
+finally burst upon him. His vineyards and mulberry orchards were cut
+down, and much of his property was wrested from him. He was beaten
+and stoned, and his name cast out as vile. When they were building
+the church he brought a basket full of stones and brick-bats, which
+had been thrown through his windows, to be incorporated in the
+foundation wall. He described the effect of persecution in his own
+case, thus: "The truth in my heart was like a stake slightly driven
+into soft ground, easily swayed, and in danger of falling before the
+wind; but by the sledge-hammer of persecution God drove it in till
+it became immovable." "His working power," says Mr. Parsons, the
+resident missionary, "like everything else in his possession, was
+consecrated to Christ. With great self-denial on his part, two
+hundred piasters a month (about eight dollars) enabled him to give
+all his time to street preaching, and the sale of the Scriptures. As
+a bookseller he was eminently faithful and successful. Not contented
+with sitting in the book-stall waiting for purchasers, he used to
+shoulder a basket of books, and go through the streets and lanes of
+town and city, offering for sale the 'Holy Book;' the 'Book that
+would not lie;' the 'Infallible Guide;' and proclaiming, in
+a loud voice, its divine origin, man's need of it, and its
+light-and-life-giving power. This he did as time and strength
+permitted, from Broosa to Angora, and from Bilijik to the Black Sea.
+He everywhere either carried with him, or had near at hand, a supply
+of Bibles in the Turkish, Armenian, Greek, and Jewish languages.
+Probably not less than one hundred thousand persons have heard from
+him the proffer of the word of life."
+
+"The word of God," continues Mr. Parsons, "was his constant
+companion. He was so familiar with it, that he could turn with
+facility to any passage desired. He walked with God. He was a man of
+prayer. His happiest moments were seasons of devotion--private,
+social, and public. I should say, rather, that next to the work of
+bringing others to Christ, his delight was in prayer and praise. He
+has rested from his labors, but his works do follow him. Before he
+died, he could rejoice in a rich harvest from his own sowing, but a
+greater harvest is yet to be reaped from the seed so widely
+scattered by his hand. He has gone, a sheaf of the first-fruits of
+the work in Baghchejuk. He 'came to his grave as a shock of corn
+cometh in in his season.'"
+
+Mr. E. E. Bliss passed through Marsovan on his way to Harpoot, and
+found that the rampant hostility of eight years before had died
+out.[1] Instead of the hootings and stonings, which then greeted his
+arrival, he was met, a long way out, by a goodly company to escort
+him to his lodgings. On the Sabbath, in place of the little company
+assembled in a lower room of his own house, he now preached to a
+good audience, in a large and commodious chapel.
+
+[1] See chapter xxiv.
+
+"I spent," he says, "a few days at Sivas, where I was eight years
+ago, and found the small room, where ten or fifteen then met for
+God's worship, exchanged for a large upper room, filled with an
+audience of more than a hundred. And as we went onward to places we
+had never before visited, it was a continual feast to see the extent
+to which the work of God had spread in the whole country. In almost
+every place where we stopped for the night, however obscure the
+village, some would gather around us as brethren in the Lord. They
+were often coarsely dressed and rude of speech, undistinguishable in
+appearance from the mass around them; but a few words of
+conversation would show that their souls had been illuminated by the
+truth."
+
+The annual meeting of the Northern Armenian Mission for 1860, was
+held at Harpoot, east of the Euphrates, seven hundred and fifty
+miles from Constantinople. And it was a significant fact, that the
+delegates from the metropolis were able to communicate with their
+families over the telegraph wires, destined to connect London with
+Calcutta.
+
+The distance from the capital, and of the stations from each other
+was so great, as to render it difficult to assemble in the annual
+meetings, that were indispensable for an effective administration.
+At this meeting, what had been known as the Northern Mission, was
+divided into Western and Eastern, and Erzroom, Harpoot, and Arabkir
+composed the Eastern Mission. The Southern Mission then took the
+name of the Central; and the stations of the Assyria Mission were
+united to the Eastern. It will be convenient to use the names
+Western, Central, and Eastern in designating territory, but we
+shall, as far as possible, treat the three divisions as constituting
+one great mission.
+
+The church at Harpoot received its first native pastor at this
+annual meeting. He was one of several young men, who left Diarbekir
+for Constantinople, eight years before, for the purpose of obtaining
+a Protestant education at Bebek. They were subjected to many
+revilings on their way, and few showed them any kindness. Some who
+were in sympathy with them deprecated their removal from Diarbekir,
+as the withdrawal from that place of the little light which had
+begun to shine. Now, having completed the course of study at the
+Seminary, Tomas, one of that company, was preaching the Gospel every
+Sabbath in Diarbekir, and was to become pastor there; and Marderos,
+another, combining great excellence of character, was made pastor of
+the flourishing church at Harpoot.
+
+Mr. Dunmore, when he commenced the Harpoot station, five years
+before, found not a single Protestant in that city. It was now only
+three years since the arrival of Messrs. Wheeler, Allen, and Barnum,
+and there were thirty-nine church-members, and Harpoot was fast
+becoming an important centre of influence. There were schools in ten
+of the thirteen out-stations, eleven of which were supplied with
+preaching on the Sabbath by the missionaries and students of the
+Seminary, and in all the surrounding regions there was an increase
+of attendance on preaching. Women learned to read, and groups were
+found studying the Bible. In the numerous villages of the Harpoot
+plain and outlying districts were many faithful disciples of the
+Lord Jesus. The spirit of freedom had gone forth, as was seen in the
+growing activity of laymen, and the consequent decline of
+superstition and ecclesiastical despotism. Instruction was
+communicated to large numbers of both men and women, and it was
+beginning to be regarded as disgraceful for adults of either sex not
+to be able to read.
+
+The theological school contained twenty-four pupils, of whom eleven
+were from the vicinity and ten were married men. The students
+devoted their winter vacation of four months to preaching and
+teaching, and in term time they preached at out-stations.
+
+Mrs. Dwight, after twenty-one years of eminently useful service,
+died at Constantinople in November, 1860. Dr. Dwight's family being
+thus broken up, he commenced, with the approval of his brethren, a
+tour through Syria and Asiatic Turkey, intending to go over much of
+the ground he had traversed with Dr. Eli Smith in their explorations
+thirty years before.
+
+How great the changes in the intervening period! Then, for fourteen
+and a half months, he was unable to receive tidings from his wife,
+whom he had left in Malta. Now, from beyond the Euphrates, he could
+have communicated daily with Constantinople by telegraph. Then, no
+fellow-laborers were to be found between Smyrna and the little bands
+of German and Scotch brethren soon after to be driven away from
+Russian Armenia and Georgia, and nowhere did they meet among the
+people any religious sympathies in unison with their own. Now, the
+survivor found missionaries scattered over the land, and he scarcely
+entered a place where some one, at least, did not greet him with a
+joyful welcome. Then, the object was to explore an unbroken scene of
+spiritual death. Now, it was to confirm living churches, and help
+forward a growing spiritual work.
+
+The tour was extended as far as the Nestorian mission, and occupied
+about eight months. Reviewing this journey of almost unprecedented
+interest, Dr. Dwight could not refrain from using the language of
+Christian triumph: "I have visited," he says, "every station of the
+Board in Turkey and Persia excepting those among the Bulgarians. It
+has been my privilege to see all the missionaries and their
+families,--a rare body of men and women, of whom our churches and
+our country may well be proud,--and also to become personally
+acquainted with hundreds and thousands of the dear Protestant
+brethren and sisters of this land--God's lights in the midst of
+surrounding darkness; God's witnesses even where Satan dwelleth."
+
+Dr. Dwight was at Marash in April, and this is his own vivid
+description of what he saw there: "This place is indeed a missionary
+wonder! Twelve years ago there was not a Protestant here, and the
+people were proverbially ignorant, barbarous, and fanatical. Six
+years ago the evangelical Armenian church was organized with sixteen
+members, the congregation at that time consisting of one hundred and
+twenty. On the last Sabbath I preached in the morning to a
+congregation of over a thousand, and in the afternoon addressed
+nearly or quite fifteen hundred people, when forty were received
+into the church, making the whole number two hundred and
+twenty-seven. Nearly one hundred of these have been added since Mr.
+White came here, two years ago. One old woman of seventy-five years
+was admitted who was converted only four months ago. She was
+previously a bigoted opposer, but now she seems full of the love of
+Christ. Her emotions almost overpowered her on approaching the table
+of the Lord.
+
+"The church-members here impressed me from the first as men who
+thought more of the spiritual than the temporal. The Holy Spirit has
+been evidently at work here during the whole of the year, and
+especially through the past winter, and conversions are constantly
+taking place. The burden of conversation among the brethren is in
+regard to praying and laboring for the salvation of souls.
+
+"On the Sabbath the half of the body of the church was filled with
+women packed closely together on the floor. The other half, and the
+broad galleries around three sides of the house, were completely
+crowded with men. A new church is needed immediately in the other
+end of the town. I bless God that He brought me here, and I feel
+almost like saying, 'Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.'"
+
+It should be said that this visit to Marash was in the midst of a
+revival. The resident missionary, Mr. White, describes the work as
+being chiefly among the Armenians and Roman Catholics. "Every night
+they met in the houses of the Protestants and spent hours, sometimes
+even till near morning, examining the Scriptures and comparing them
+with the corrupt teachings of their own churches. Our young men were
+very active, laboring both day and night, so much so, that the
+Catholic bishop said he could not understand it; that if the young
+men were paid for thus laboring, the missionaries had not money
+enough; and if they were not paid, they had a love which he could
+not understand. Many of his people, however, seemed to comprehend it
+better than he did, and are now regular attendants at our church."
+
+The veteran missionary pays a noble tribute to the wives of the
+missionaries at the several stations of the central mission: "I felt
+myself rebuked when I saw the earnest, self-devoted spirit of my
+missionary sisters, who are laboring in Aintab, in Marash, in
+Antioch, in Aleppo, and in Oorfa, for the salvation of their
+degraded sex; thinking little of the sacrifices they have made in
+leaving America, to live in such a country as Turkey. It would be
+difficult to find in Christendom a more happy class than these, our
+helpers in Christ Jesus. The holy object which fills their hearts
+lifts them above the distracting and embittering influences of
+external circumstances."
+
+The change at Diarbekir, during the score of years since Dr. Grant
+and Mr. Homes barely escaped with their lives, had been truly
+wonderful. Drs. Dwight and Schneider and Mr. Nutting, on their
+approach from Oorfa, were met, eighteen miles out, by a deputation
+of Protestant brethren on horseback; and, a few miles further on, by
+another detachment, headed by Mr. Walker and the native pastor; and
+when near the city, by a third on foot, thus giving them a sort of
+triumphal entry. Nor, during their whole stay, was there anything to
+awaken a feeling of insecurity, but convincing evidence, that
+Protestantism had a strong hold on many minds.
+
+Dr. Dwight noticed a decline of the Turkish population in the region
+of the Euphrates. Several entire quarters in Diarbekir, formerly
+Turkish, had passed into Christian hands, and the process was going
+on. Armenians, Jacobites, and Protestants were buying Turkish
+houses, but seldom did a Turk buy one of theirs; and around the
+outskirts of the city there were extensive Turkish quarters all in
+ruins.
+
+Mrs. Dunmore had come to the United States in 1856, in consequence
+of the failure of her health, and was never able to return. Her
+husband continued his self-denying labors four years longer, until,
+seeing no prospect of her recovery, he believed his duty required
+him to follow her. It was then a time of civil war in his native
+land, and his public spirit led him to accept an invitation from a
+regiment of cavalry to be their chaplain. A detachment, with which
+he was connected, was surprised early in the morning of August 3,
+1861, and he fell, shot in the head before he was fairly out of his
+tent.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1862, p. 321.
+
+In courage, enterprise, tact, and efficacy, Mr. Dunmore stood in the
+front rank of missionaries. "He did not write much of what he did,"
+says Mr. Walker, his successor at Diarbekir. "He cared not to be
+known. But he cared for the souls of this poor people, and for
+Christ's kingdom. I think that few missionaries are so well fitted
+for the work, and very few labor with the same zeal and self-denial.
+To few is it given to accomplish so much. There is comparatively
+little accomplished in Diarbekir, Arabkir, Harpoot, and Moosh, which
+is not, under God, due to this brother. His influence will long be
+felt in these parts. Paul was his model, and there are few who come
+so near to that exemplar. He had wonderful power in attaching the
+natives to him. He could sympathize deeply with them, and aid them
+as few can. His heart was in the work here, and it was a very great
+trial for him to return to America. His fearless journeys among the
+Koords in this land, led us often to feel apprehensive for his life.
+The Lord forgive the Texan, whose bullet cut short a life so
+valuable."
+
+In the years 1860 and 1861, the ill health of either husband or wife
+deprived the mission of the labors of Messrs. Clark, Hutchison,
+Parsons, and Plumer, and their families. Mr. and Mrs. Peabody
+returned to their native land, after a faithful service of nineteen
+years. Dr. Schauffler also terminated his official connection of
+twenty-nine years with his missionary associates, and entered the
+service of the American, and the British and Foreign Bible Societies
+in the work of Bible translation for the Turkish Mohammedans. Miss
+Tenney was married to Dr. Hamlin, who had been released from his
+connection with the Board to take charge of a Protestant college in
+Constantinople, though without any change in the great object of his
+labors.
+
+Mr. Williams reoccupied Mardin in the year 1861. This was then, as
+now, the capital of the Syrian Church, and the natural centre of
+operations among the Arabic-speaking people in Eastern Turkey. It
+embraced Mosul, and multitudes of towns and villages scattered over
+a wide region, and required more than one missionary; though that
+one was a man of first-rate abilities and eminent devotion to his
+work. It was put in connection with the Armenian Mission, partly
+because its missionary policy was the same, and partly because it
+seemed necessary to work that whole field from one central station,
+and by a small number of missionaries, and because it would require
+the moral support of the larger mission in its neighborhood.
+
+A training-school was commenced at Mardin in the following year, on
+the plan of the one at Harpoot, with a class of eight hopefully
+pious young men. The congregation had doubled since Mr. Williams'
+return and Protestantism had a more favorable position; but as yet
+the intellect accepted the truth more readily than did the heart.
+
+Trebizond had only a native pastor, and the day-school was reported
+as one of the best in Turkey. Khanoos, southeast of Erzroom, had
+been faithfully cultivated for some time by the native pastor,
+Simon, who was now removed to Moosh, where he would have a better
+field. Erzroom was again without a missionary in consequence of the
+necessary removal of Mr. Trowbridge to the capital.
+
+In addition to notices of versions of the Scriptures in the
+preceding chapter, it should now be stated, that Dr. Goodell had
+completed the great work of his life,--the translation of the Bible
+into the Turkish language, as written in the Armenian character and
+spoken by the Armenians. The version was from the Hebrew and Greek;
+the New Testament had received three distinct revisions, and the Old
+Testament one. His principal helper, for thirty years, was Panayotes
+Constantinides, who died March 11, 1861. "He had greatly desired,"
+writes Dr. Goodell, "to live to see the end of the revision, and we
+pressed on together, returning thanks at the end of every chapter,
+that we had got so far on our journey. But his strength failed him
+on the way, and when there was but little further to go, he laid
+himself down, and the angels carried him to his home in heaven." Dr.
+Schauffler had nearly completed a translation of the New Testament
+in Turkish, with the Arabic or sacred character, and after much
+difficulty had obtained the consent of the government to its
+publication. Dr. Riggs had reached the books of Kings, in addition
+to the Psalms, in his version of the Scriptures in Bulgarian, and
+had also given time to preparing and editing Bulgarian tracts.
+
+The amount of publication in the year 1860, in the Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, Bulgarian, and Modern Greek, was 164,500 copies, and
+13,296,000 pages. The total expenditure was $15,789, from the
+following sources:--
+
+American Bible Society              $3,473
+British and Foreign Bible Society    1,243
+American Tract Society, New York     2,646
+American Tract Society, Boston         674
+London Tract Society                 1,175
+American Board of Commissioners
+   for Foreign Missions              5,462
+Other sources                        1,116
+                                   --------
+                                   $15,789
+
+Among the books published were a Reply to Archbishop Matteos in
+Armenian, a Commentary on Matthew, Hymn-Book, Theological
+Class-Book, and Geography,--the last at the expense of Haritun
+Minasiyan, an Armenian printer. The Word of God was more in demand
+than any other book. The Armenian Bible, with marginal references,
+electrotyped and printed in New York by the American Bible Society,
+was highly prized. The American Tract Society had also electrotyped
+and printed several works for the mission, which were admired for
+their beauty, and were furnished more cheaply than they could have
+been prepared in Constantinople.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE ASSYRIA MISSION.
+
+1849-1860.
+
+
+Mosul is related to the Syria Mission in language, the written
+Arabic being essentially the same in both fields; but there is
+considerable difference in the language of preaching and social
+intercourse, "Near Mosul, and especially on the east of the Tigris,"
+writes Dr. Leonard Bacon, after his visit to Mosul, "the language is
+Syriac, or as they there call it, _Fellahi_, the peasant language.
+In other districts, Turkish and Koordish are spoken by many nominal
+Christians. The people in Mesopotamia are very different from those
+in Syria. They are of other sects. Instead of the Greek Church, the
+Greek Catholic, and the Maronite, we find, as we travel east of the
+Euphrates, and especially as we approach the Tigris, the Jacobite,
+the Syrian Catholic or Romanized Jacobite, the Nestorian (almost
+exterminated), and the Chaldean or Romanized Nestorian. And the
+condition of these sects, as it respects the feeling of strength and
+pride, is very unlike that of the sects in Syria. The Maronite
+Church, and the Greek Catholic, are strong and proud in their
+relation to Rome, and in the feeling that they are protected by the
+great papal powers in Europe. The Greek Church may be likened to a
+Russian colony in the Turkish empire. But the more eastern sects,
+remnants of what were once the great Oriental Church, are in far
+different relations, ecclesiastical and political. The Jacobites,
+like the Nestorians, feel themselves weakened and depressed. The
+Syrian Catholic and the Chaldean are not very firmly united to Rome,
+and are little affected by European influences. Nor is this all. The
+nominal Christians of Mesopotamia are of a very different race and
+blood from those of Syria. The Greek element, which characterizes
+the Arabic-speaking Christians west of the Euphrates,--an element of
+subtlety of disputation, and of intellectual pride,--is not so
+prominent in these more Oriental communities. For these and other
+reasons, I cannot but think that this field should be occupied by
+the brethren of the Mosul station, and be regarded as entirely
+distinct from that of the Syria Mission. Mosul, as a centre of
+missionary labor, is much more nearly related to Oroomiah, than to
+Beirut, or Aleppo."[1]
+
+[1] _Report of the Board for_ 1851, p. 82.
+
+The visit of Messrs. Perkins and Stocking to Mosul, in May, 1849,
+has been already mentioned.[1] That visit did much to prepare the
+way for Mr. Ford, of the Aleppo station, who went there at the close
+of 1849. He was kindly received by Mr. Rassam, the English Consul,
+and had a joyful greeting from the little band of "gospel men," who
+welcomed the return of their long lost privileges of Christian
+instruction. Of the fifty who soon called upon him, about twenty
+appeared to be decidedly evangelical, and ready to stand by the
+Gospel at all hazards, though few of them gave evidence of a work of
+grace in their hearts. Twenty more were enlightened and favorably
+disposed; and the remaining ten might be regarded as indifferent or
+hostile. This little band was the remainder of those who had been
+brought under the influence of the Gospel, when our brethren of the
+Mountain Nestorian Mission were detained in the mysterious
+providence of God, to labor and suffer there. Yet the Lord had not
+forsaken them, for Meekha, the ingenious mechanic, who had learned
+the truth from Mr. Laurie, had given them the benefit of his
+steadfast piety and diligent instruction.
+
+[1] Chapter xx.
+
+The reader knows, already, what led to the temporary occupation of
+Mosul by the Board, in 1841. Its relinquishment in 1844, was chiefly
+in view of the fact, that the Episcopal Church of the United States
+had a mission then in Turkey, with the avowed object of laboring
+among the Jacobites of Mesopotamia.[1] That mission having been
+withdrawn from the Turkish empire, the operations of the Board were
+naturally extended again to Mosul, to look after the fruits of
+former labors, as well as to meet the exigencies of the mission in
+western Koordistan.
+
+[1] This was first known through Dr. Grant, who forwarded a copy of
+a letter from seven of the American Episcopal Bishops to the Syrian
+Patriarch at Mardin, as evidence of the fact. After stating the
+object in sending the Rev. Horatio Southgate to reside for a time at
+Mardin, with the hope of associating two others with him, to which
+no exception could be taken, the Patriarch was informed by the
+letter, that Mr. Southgate "will make it clearly understood, that
+the American Church has no ecclesiastical connection with the
+followers of Luther and Calvin, and takes no part in their plans or
+operations to diffuse the principles of these sects."
+
+The Rev. Dwight W. Marsh arrived at Mosul on the 20th of March,
+1850, going by way of Beirut, Aleppo, Aintab, Oorfa, and Diarbekir;
+from this last place he floated down the Tigris on a raft supported
+by inflated goat-skins, in less than four days to his new home. He
+describes the river as breaking through between bold precipices, and
+scenery delightfully and unexpectedly romantic. Mr. Schneider was
+his travelling companion from Aintab to Diarbekir, and Mr. Ford was
+at Mosul to greet him on his arrival. The Rev. William Frederic
+Williams removed from the Syria Mission to Mosul in the spring of
+1851, going in company with Dr. Bacon and his son Mr. Leonard W.
+Bacon, then travelling in the East. Salome Carabet, the eldest of
+the girls in Mr. Whiting's family at Abeih, went with Mr. Williams,
+to take charge of a school of thirty girls.
+
+Dr. Bacon's visit to Mosul was in compliance with a request of the
+Prudential Committee, that he would make his tour of relaxation and
+improvement the occasion of visiting the several stations of the
+Board in Western Asia. The attempt to proceed from Mosul to Oroomiah
+through the mountains by the most direct route, was unsuccessful.
+The two travellers, in company with Mr. Marsh, soon after crossing
+the Zab, were set upon by Koordish robbers, who had been requested
+by an Agha, near Akra, to kill them. So imminent was the peril, that
+they united together in prayer to God, led by Dr. Bacon. Some
+Moolahs seeing this, interceded for their lives, and though they
+could not hinder their being plundered, they succeeded in sending
+them safely to another Moolah, three hours distant, who was revered
+for his sanctity; and it was through his resolute protection, under
+God, that they effected a safe return to Mosul. Mr. Rassam gave
+information of the outrage to the English Ambassador, and the Pasha,
+in the following year, having received orders from Constantinople,
+sent three hundred men, with three cannon, against the robber, who
+was compelled to pay the full value of the losses, and much more
+besides to the government.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, for 1851, p. 295, and 1852, p. 388.
+
+The Assyria Mission was so named for geographical reasons. Its most
+northern station at this time, was Diarbekir. Dr. Grant passed
+through this city with Mr. Homes, in 1839, Messrs. Hinsdale and
+Mitchell passed through it in 1841, and Mr. Laurie in 1842. The city
+was visited by Mr. Peabody in 1849, when he found several persons
+awakened by reading the Scriptures and other books, brought there by
+colporters. It was visited again by Mr. Schneider in the following
+year, who reported that nearly fifty Armenians were accustomed to
+meet on the Sabbath for reading the Scriptures. These were then
+subjected to a severe persecution, and they sent to Constantinople
+for a vizierial letter, which was granted, but brought little
+relief. Dr. Azariah Smith organized a small church at Diarbekir in
+the spring of 1851. It included both Armenians and Jacobites; but
+only those were to be received who gave satisfactory evidence of
+piety. As soon as this restriction was announced, the most
+influential Syrians in the congregation resolutely set themselves to
+secure admission to the church for all Protestants of good moral
+character. For a time their efforts to unite the congregation in
+opposition prevented attention to their ordinary business; and but
+for the conservative spirit of the Armenian portion, perhaps the
+audience, as a whole, would have gone back to their churches. In the
+end all were persuaded to listen to a discourse on the subject, by
+Dr. Smith, and the character of the young ruler, in Luke xviii.
+18-30, was unfolded in connection with Acts ii. 43-47. The
+exhibition of a church, as an association of men devoted, body and
+soul, time and wealth, to the extension of Christ's kingdom, was new
+to them. That repentance involved the ceasing to live for selfish
+and worldly ends, and that faith in Christ included the consecration
+of our energies to his service, was no part of their old creed. And
+though these truths had been previously preached by the
+missionaries, the practical connection in which they now came up
+made them more impressive.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Dunmore, after spending some months at Aintab, arrived
+at Diarbekir in November, 1851. They were accompanied by Stepan, a
+graduate of the seminary at Bebek. This man, not long after his
+arrival, was rudely arrested by a Turkish officer as a Protestant,
+and cast into a prison, where he spent the night with vagabonds and
+thieves. The Pasha refused Mr. Dunmore a hearing, but at once
+ordered Stepan's release.
+
+Mr. Dunmore had not yet a free use of the Turkish, which was the
+language spoken by the Armenians; but an average of more than
+seventy persons came on the Sabbath to hear Stepan, and new faces
+were seen at every meeting.
+
+Soon after the arrival of Mr. Dunmore, a young man of talents, named
+Tomas, who had long been vacillating, boldly declared himself a
+Protestant, and though his bishop offered him the monthly reward of
+two hundred piastres for two years, paid in advance, if he would
+leave the Protestants, his reply was: "Go tell the bishop that I did
+not become a Protestant for money, and that I will not leave them
+for money, even should he give me my house full of gold." Tomas was
+then nineteen years of age, and had an orphan brother and two
+sisters dependent on him. He had been a prosperous silk
+manufacturer, but after he became a Protestant, both nominal
+Christians and Moslems refused to trade with him, and he was
+impoverished. It was decided to send him to the Bebek Seminary, with
+his younger brother; and to send his older sister to the Female
+Seminary at the same place; while Mr. and Mrs. Dunmore took the
+youngest, a bright little girl of six years. In this young man we
+have the future native pastor of the church in that city.
+
+The persecutions inflicted on the Protestants at Diarbekir were
+similar to those described elsewhere. But not only were the native
+converts, in this remote city, oppressed in every possible way, but
+the missionary reports himself as being grossly insulted, and even
+stoned in the streets whenever he went abroad.
+
+About this time Mr. Marsh performed a missionary tour to Mardin,
+through Jebel Tour, a branch of the great Kurdish range of mountains
+which crosses the Tigris above Jezirah, and goes westward toward the
+Euphrates. These rugged, though not lofty mountains, cover fourteen
+hundred square miles, and form the stronghold of the Jacobites.
+Their ecclesiastical capital is Mardin. "High up the mountain's
+side," writes Mr. Marsh, "with a steep descent of six or seven
+hundred feet to the plains, the city wall mounts up still higher,
+three hundred feet or more; and a large castle on the mountain top
+crowns the view." Here he found several persons favorably inclined,
+and recommended the place for a missionary station.
+
+The Rev. Henry Lobdell, M. D., and wife, reached Mosul in May 1852.
+They came through Aintab, Oorfa, and Diarbekir. Such was the desire
+of the people of Aintab for a missionary physician to take the place
+of Dr. Smith, that four hundred and twenty of them signed a petition
+in a single evening, requesting him to remain; but he felt
+constrained to give them a negative. He speaks with pleasure of his
+brief sojourn at Oorfa, which he describes as beautifully situated
+on the west side of a fertile plain, and retaining many marks of its
+ancient greatness.
+
+In the ten days which Dr. Lobdell spent with Mr. Dunmore at
+Diarbekir, he was impressed by the hold the reformation was taking
+in that place. At the same time, he and his missionary brother had a
+startling illustration of its hostility to the Gospel. They were
+looking at the great mosque of the city, formerly a Christian
+church, and in the words of Mr. Dunmore, "As we were standing in
+front of it, in the public highway, examining its architecture,
+several lads came up and began to insult us and to order us away. We
+did not notice them, but went further from the mosque, and stopped
+to examine some old marble pillars. Soon, however, we found a rabble
+about us, who began to jerk our garments. I then turned and spoke to
+them, and they instantly rushed upon us like tigers. They seized Dr.
+Lobdell's hat, threw it into the air, and began to beat him. One
+ruffian seized me by the throat. By main strength I loosed his
+grasp, and was moving off, when two men tried to wrest my cane from
+me, but did not succeed. We retreated as last as possible, but when
+we got out of the reach of their hands, they resorted to throwing
+stones, some of them weighing two or three pounds. One hit Dr.
+Lobdell in the side, and we saw no alternative but to run for our
+lives. We went immediately to the Pasha, taking one of the largest
+stones with us, and made a statement of the facts in the presence of
+the council. He refused to do anything more than to send a man to
+inquire who was in fault, the ruffians, or we! He said he knew
+nothing about us."
+
+In a tent supported by a raft of one hundred and twenty inflated
+goat-skins, Dr. and Mrs. Lobdell floated down the Tigris to Mosul.
+"The Arabs, who swam out upon their goat-skins, and the Kurds armed
+to the teeth upon the shore, were alike unable to touch us, as the
+river was unusually high and swift. I do not remember having enjoyed
+four successive days so much. The scenery is grand, equaling that of
+the far-famed Hudson. It might not wear as well, but it is unique
+and wonderful." Mr. and Mrs. Williams were there to welcome them.
+
+Mr. Marsh was absent on a visit to his native land, from whence he
+returned with his wife in May, 1853. He was accompanied as far as
+Aintab by Rev. Augustus Walker and wife, and from thence to
+Diarbekir, by Messrs. Schneider and Walker. Mr. Dunmore's
+congregation had then risen to nearly two hundred hearers.
+
+Mr. Marsh was especially struck, on returning to Mosul, with the
+greatly improved singing of the congregation, which he thought was
+now better there than at Diarbekir, Aintab, Constantinople, or
+Beirut. This was due to the unwearied pains taken by Mr. Williams,
+though the people seemed to have a better ear for music than
+elsewhere in Western Asia.
+
+Dr. Lobdell found his medical profession a great assistance to him
+as a preacher of the Gospel. Jacobites, Papists, and Moslems came in
+considerable numbers, and he preached the Gospel alike to all. He
+was overworked, and it was perhaps a favor to him that the judge was
+stirred up by Popish priests, as the Moslems affirmed, to forbid the
+Mohammedans coming to his preaching. The judge was willing that they
+should call upon him for medical aid, if he would not preach the
+Gospel to them; but the doctor declined administering to the body,
+unless he could, at the same time, explain to them "the words of
+Jesus" (which all Moslems professed to receive) for the benefit of
+their souls.
+
+Salome Carabet returned to Syria, very much in the manner of Rebecca
+of old, to become the wife of the young pastor at Hasbeiya; and the
+female school was thus deprived of its teacher.
+
+A visit by Dr. Lobdell to the Yezidees in October, 1852, developed
+interesting and valuable information. Their doctrines he regarded as
+a strange fusion of Mohammedanism and Christianity with the
+philosophy of the older Persians.[1]
+
+[1] See _Memoir of Dr. Lobdell_, pp. 213-227; also _Missionary
+Herald_ for 1853, pp. 109-111.
+
+In June, 1853, Dr. Lobdell travelled through Koordistan to Oroomiah.
+One of his objects was the improvement of his health; but he greatly
+desired, also, to confer with the brethren of the Nestorian Mission,
+and to preach the Gospel in the regions between. He took with him a
+native, who not only spoke the Syriac and Arabic, but the Turkish
+and Koordish.[1] "He came to us," wrote Dr. Perkins, "for the
+benefit of his impaired health. Yet was he buoyant as a lark, being
+overjoyed to find himself in our happy circle, after his perilous
+journey across the mountains." Two days after his arrival he was
+seized with a fever which proved severe and obstinate. But he
+recovered, and was able to give much thought to the somewhat
+peculiar method of proceeding in that mission; in which no separate
+Protestant community had been formed, and no church organized;
+though the missionaries had the communion by themselves, to which
+they invited only those whom they believed to be truly regenerated.
+His preconceived opinions had been somewhat adverse to the plan, and
+he and his brethren at Mosul had adopted other methods. But he wrote
+to the Secretaries of the Board his approval of the main policy of
+his brethren in Persia, as justified by their peculiar
+circumstances, and ratified by the blessing of Heaven. He specified
+some things in which he thought more decided measures might be
+taken; but advised that the mission be left to follow the leadings
+of Providence, until a crisis should come in the Nestorian Church,
+and then to act as they should deem wise at the time.
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1854, pp. 18-22.
+
+Before returning, Dr. Lobdell made an excursion of three weeks in
+the province of Azerbijan, going as far as Tabriz. It was while he
+was at Gawar, on his way home, that Deacon Tamo was liberated from
+his long imprisonment. Messrs. Rhea and Coan accompanied him to
+Mosul. Dr. Lobdell represents the two highest peaks of the Jelu
+Mountains as distinctly visible from Mosul. Every step through
+Koordistan reminded him of the devotion, courage, and energy of Dr.
+Grant.
+
+Some difficulties existed in the Protestant community at Diarbekir,
+growing out of the old leaven of baptismal regeneration, from which
+the church itself had not been thoroughly purged. The church then
+contained eleven members,--eight men and three women. Six of the men
+were Syrian Jacobites, and four of these were formerly deacons in
+their church. The difficulties encountered by Dr. Smith in 1851,
+when he declared his intention of admitting to the church none but
+such as were truly pious, and baptizing only them and their
+children, were now revived.
+
+In view of these things, a meeting of the Assyria Mission was held
+at Mosul for ten days, in March, 1854. It was then decided that
+Messrs. Marsh and Lobdell should return with Messrs. Dunmore and
+Walker, and assist in reorganizing the church at Diarbekir. Out of
+twenty candidates whom they examined, eleven were accepted; and, in
+the presence of three hundred persons, were organized into a new
+church, with a creed and covenant.[1] Dr. Lobdell had a hundred
+Christian patients daily while there; but the Pasha still continued
+to refuse protection, and the missionaries were still hooted and
+stoned in the streets. They believed, however, that the Gospel had
+taken such hold in the city as to insure its ultimate triumph.
+
+[1] I find, in the archives of the Board, an extended analysis of
+the baptismal question by these brethren, in its bearing on the
+Oriental Churches.
+
+The church was subjected to a severe trial, immediately after its
+reorganization. The Mosul brethren had to return to their own work;
+it was necessary for Mr. Dunmore to join his sick wife at Arabkir;
+and as it was unsafe for Mr. and Mrs. Walker to be left alone at
+Diarbekir, they went to Aintab for the summer. The Koords robbed
+them on their way, but they returned in the autumn, accompanied by
+David H. Nutting, M. D., and wife. Mr. Dunmore remained at Arabkir
+till the spring of 1855, when he commenced the important station of
+Harpoot. The missionaries at Diarbekir now enjoyed the very welcome
+protection of W. R. Holmes, Esq., the newly appointed English
+Consul. Dr. Nutting's professional services to the Pasha, in a
+dangerous illness, soon after his arrival, gave him an introduction
+to almost all the officers of the government and influential Moslems
+in the city, and obtained for him a public expression of the Pasha's
+gratitude. Instead of stonings in the streets, without redress, as
+under the preceding Pasha, the missionaries received respectful
+treatment, and had free access to all classes. Mr. Walker found the
+state of things better than he anticipated. Certain disaffected
+members of the Protestant community had repented of their errors.
+Persecution had not shaken the faith of any in the church. During
+the winter the congregation increased to two hundred. In April,
+1855, six were admitted to the church, and not less than four
+hundred and fifty persons were present. The accessions were not only
+from the Armenian and Jacobite Churches, but also from the Catholic
+Church, though fierce persecution and imprisonment were the
+consequence. A large portion of the Jacobite Church were convinced
+of the truth, and of the emptiness of their own rites and
+ceremonies. Some openly avowed that they retained their connection
+with their old church merely to fight against it, hoping to turn the
+whole community to Protestantism. The people demanded that the Bible
+should be read in the church in Turkish or Arabic, instead of the
+ancient Armenian and Syriac, which were, to most of them, dead
+languages; and the Jacobite bishop was forced to yield. Finding, at
+length, that this must rapidly undermine the priestly influence, he
+secretly removed the Scriptures from the church. But the word of the
+Lord was not bound, for the deacons or readers carried their own
+Bibles.
+
+At the out-station of Haine, Stepan, the native preacher who had
+come to Diarbekir with Mr. Walker, was enabled by divine grace to
+maintain his position. The Pasha at one time ordered him to leave,
+but he thought it right to disobey. At a subsequent period, being
+stoned and beaten in the streets, he was obliged to flee, and the
+Protestants suffered much oppression. Through the energetic efforts
+of the Consul at Diarbekir, the persecuting governor was deposed,
+and another appointed.
+
+Across the river from Diarbekir is Cutterbul, a large Christian
+village, where were twenty Protestants, with several church-members;
+and the missionary, in his occasional visits, gathered almost as
+large a congregation as the one at Mosul. The preaching would have
+been acceptable in Turkish, or Koordish, though the people preferred
+the Arabic. Cutterbul was but a sample of what the villages on all
+sides of Diarbekir might have been, were the station fully manned.
+
+The Protestants at Mosul obtained no relief from their oppressive
+taxes until January, 1854; when, through the efforts of Lord
+Stratford de Redcliffe, a firman was addressed to the Pasha for
+their protection. The Pasha then ordered an equitable rate to be
+made for them, which encouraged the Protestants, and disheartened
+their enemies. The year was one of progress. Five were added to the
+Protestants, and two to the church, while there was a decided
+improvement in the attention given to preaching. The boys' school
+prospered, with forty pupils. Women were to some extent instructed
+in reading the Bible by the scholars, who went from house to house
+for the purpose. Thirty adults were taught at their houses, and
+thirty others attended the male school regularly. The church-members
+gained a reputation for strict honesty, temperance, and general
+excellence. The mere existence of a church upon an apostolical
+basis, worshipping God in simplicity, told with force against the
+corrupt hierarchies.
+
+The excitements at Mosul during the Crimean war, were often intense.
+At one period there was great danger of an outburst of Mohammedan
+fanaticism, so that the Christians were in terror for their lives.
+Stringent orders from Constantinople aroused the local authorities
+to do their duty, and the insolence of those ready for deeds of
+blood was checked. Early in May, 1854, a volunteer reinforcement of
+two thousand Koords for the Turkish army, was quartered in the city,
+and certain outrages indicated an approaching massacre of Christians
+and Jews. The evil was averted by the bold decision of the English
+Consul, who went to the Pasha, and demanded that the Koords be sent
+at once out of the city. They were soon on their way to the seat of
+war.
+
+Mosul was regarded as free from miasma; but the heat of the summer
+days was exhausting to the foreigner, and the natives also suffered.
+For a hundred days in 1853, the mercury stood, at two o'clock in the
+afternoon, as high as 98º; and for eighty days it ranged from 100º
+to 114º. The highest point in the shade was 117º. It was much the
+same in the following year.
+
+As the summer advanced, the health of Mrs. Williams declined, and it
+became obvious that she could no longer endure the excessive heat.
+She was desirous of removing to a cooler climate, and Dr. Lobdell
+went with her and her family to the mountains. When they were near
+the Zab river, they met Dr. Wright from Persia, who had come with
+the hope of conducting them to Oroomiah. The rest is told in the
+words of Dr. Lobdell. "We could go no farther, and on the 29th of
+June, at sunset, were on our way towards Mosul; our sick friend
+being anxious to go there to die, but most of the time unconscious
+of the incidents and fatigues. On the last day of June we reached
+Akra; a litter was made, twelve Christians bore it, and the next
+morning at six o'clock, while moving on the road, that litter became
+a bier! An hour farther, and a rough box way made ready for her we
+had loved. The children knew not what had happened. At evening, the
+box was bound upon a mule, and we rode silently for fourteen hours,
+and crossed to the ruins of Nineveh shortly after sunrise. The flag
+of the English Consul was thrown over the body as we crossed the
+Tigris. A narrow house had already been prepared for it outside the
+walls (not even the dead body of a Moslem could have been carried
+within the gates); Mr. Marsh had a short service; and there we laid
+the wife, the mother, down to her last sleep."[1]
+
+[1] Memoir of Dr. Lobdell, p. 330.
+
+The Crimean war inflamed Mohammedan fanaticism all over Western
+Asia. Such was its influence in Persia, that the missionaries
+requested Dr. Lobdell, in view of his recent visit, to go to Bagdad,
+and represent their critical situation with reference to the Persian
+government to Mr. Murray, English Ambassador to Persia; who was to
+be there in January, 1855, on his way to his post. He accordingly
+commenced his voyage down the river on the 10th of January, upon the
+customary raft of skins, and on the fourth day reached Bagdad. The
+ambassador arriving on the 8th of the following month, Dr. Lobdell
+had a satisfactory interview with him, which probably led to the
+subsequent visit of Mr. Murray to Oroomiah. His return was by
+post-horses in fifty-eight hours. The road made a long curve to the
+east to avoid the Arabs of the desert. The nearest route would have
+been on the west side of the Tigris.
+
+Ten days after this, Mr. Marsh and Mr. Williams went to Diarbekir to
+attend the second annual meeting of the mission. The next day Dr.
+Lobdell prepared a sermon, talked with a crowd of papists, preached
+to eighty-five patients, delivered his sermon to the church in the
+evening, and went to bed with a chill and fever. On the day
+following, he wrote his last letter, and made his last entry in his
+journal. He gradually grew worse, and was at times delirious. A
+message was sent for the absent brethren, but, owing to the
+disturbed state of the country, it was the twentieth day of his
+sickness, and only five days before his death, when Mr. Marsh
+reached Mosul. As he entered the room, the Doctor threw his arms
+about his neck and wept. The church-members prayed earnestly for his
+recovery, and were eager to serve as watchers. He passed easily
+away, as the Sabbath was closing, on the 25th of March, 1855, to his
+eternal rest. His age was twenty-eight.
+
+Dr. Lobdell's life was short to fill four hundred pages in Professor
+Tyler's excellent Memoir, but the volume is none too large. His
+life, measured by activities and results, was long. His character
+was many sided, and every side glowed with consecrated ardor. He
+made the most of himself as a man, a scholar, a Christian, and a
+Christian missionary. Like the Apostle Paul, "forgetting those
+things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which
+are before," he pressed "toward the mark for the prize of the high
+calling of God in Christ Jesus."
+
+He had a strong desire to go as a missionary to China, but the
+author, in his official correspondence, though seldom venturing to
+oppose such predilections, was so impressed with the difficulties to
+be overcome at Mosul, and with Dr. Lobdell's adaptation to that
+field, that he called his attention to it, and soon received the
+reply that he would go, as soon as he could get ready; and from that
+time the new field grew in his affections. That he could or would
+have done more for the kingdom of Christ, in any other sphere of
+labor, no one who attentively considers his remarkable life will
+venture to affirm.
+
+Dr. Henri B. Haskell succeeded Dr. Lobdell at Mosul, and reached
+Diarbekir, with the Rev. George C. Knapp and wife, appointed to that
+station, in April, 1856. The Christian worship at Diarbekir had now
+assumed a regular form. There were four services on the Sabbath. At
+the first, an hour after sunrise, fifty persons assembled for prayer
+and praise, and the meeting was conducted by two native teachers;
+one reading his own translation of Doddridge's "Rise and Progress"
+in Turkish; the other, after having read through Dr. Goodell's
+"Notes on Matthew," and a volume of his sermons in Turkish, had
+commenced reading discourses of his own. The second was at the time
+of "noon cry" from the minarets, when Mr. Walker or Baron Tomas, now
+returned for a time from Bebek, preached to about two hundred
+persons, who listened more attentively than most American
+congregations. At the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon)
+Baron Tomas met a Bible-class of sixty or eighty of the more
+intelligent Protestants. The last preaching service, at the tenth
+hour, was usually attended by a hundred or a hundred and fifty
+persons. From forty to seventy persons were present at the Friday
+evening meeting. The monthly concert was well attended, and with
+increasing contributions. Mrs. Walker had a Wednesday afternoon
+meeting for the women, at which from twenty to forty were present.
+
+The Gospels had been translated into Koordish by the native helper
+at Haine, and copies of Matthew had been received from the press in
+Stamboul. As soon as the good deacon Shemmas could get the box
+containing them from the custom-house, he retired to his room and
+poured out his soul in thanksgiving to God for his great mercy, and
+prayed that He would now greatly bless his Word in this new tongue.
+
+The church at Diarbekir was doubled in 1856, and all belonging to
+the mission, both male and female, found full employment in
+imparting instruction. Baron Tomas returned to Bebek, to spend two
+years in the study of theology.
+
+Excepting the death of the second Mrs. Williams, on the 25th of
+December, there was nothing in 1857, specially demanding attention.
+
+Mr. Williams spent the summer of 1858 in Mardin, intending to occupy
+it as a new station, and returned in November to make it his
+permanent residence. He found the people, as he expected,
+exceedingly bigoted, yet hardy and intelligent. There was an
+important advantage in the pure mountain air of the place. The
+language was Arabic, as at Mosul. More than half of the twenty
+thousand inhabitants were nominal Christians; there were three
+Arabic-speaking villages within six miles, and the whole of Jebel
+Tour was accessible. He found the Romish Church stronger than he had
+expected, having a Papal-Syrian patriarchate just established within
+the city. He was received by the ecclesiastics with bitter
+denunciations. For a time, no one dared to acknowledge himself a
+Protestant, though many Mohammedans called upon him, and seemed to
+appreciate his very intelligent and gentlemanly conversation and
+manners.
+
+Subsequently a papal priest, to whom, in former years, he had given
+a Bible, joined himself to the missionary, and patiently endured
+severe persecution. But the most encouraging case was that of an
+influential merchant named Meekha. He was originally an Armenian,
+and, thirty years before had become a Papist, and carried over one
+hundred houses with him. He was the champion of the papal party. His
+conversion was on this wise. The priest just mentioned had sown much
+Gospel truth among his disciples, and among them was a son-in-law of
+Meekha. At length the old man, provoked by an instance of dishonesty
+and falsehood in his bishop, and unable to read himself, sent for
+his son-in-law to read to him the Gospel. The young man was kept
+reading for three days, until the Gospels and Epistles were all
+finished. Amazed to find his religion opposed by the whole spirit
+and teachings of the divine oracles, Meekha sent for the priests and
+they came. "Prove me your doctrines from the Bible," said he.
+Convinced, from their manner of reply, that they had nothing to say,
+he ceased from the worship of the Virgin, and declared himself a
+Protestant; and his wife was as sincere and earnest as he. Though
+father, mother, and three unmarried daughters were excommunicated,
+and subjected to continued insults, their souls were overflowing
+with joy and thankfulness that the Gospel had come to them.
+
+Speaking of this family, Mr. Williams says: "I have never witnessed
+such amazed eagerness as that with which, for the first time,
+they comprehended that salvation is without money and without
+price--absolutely free and gratuitous. It was to them _news_--good
+news; and when I call to mind Meekha's impetuous temperament, and
+see him listen with such docility to Christ's teaching, I cannot but
+hope that, though imperfectly sanctified, the 'good work' is begun
+in him, which God's grace will complete. He accepts no new truth
+without a challenge, and nothing short of a 'Thus saith the Lord,'
+will give it currency with him. At one of my evening lectures I
+alluded to Isaiah's statement, 'All our righteousnesses are as
+filthy rags,' when two or three spoke up: 'What 's that?' On
+repeating it they were incredulous, and demanded chapter and verse.
+I gave it to them next day, and it has taken hold of them like iron.
+I have seen Meekha since throw that verse into a crowd of opposers
+with such force as to start them from their seats with an emphatic
+'God forbid,' and the most positive denial that such a verse could
+be in the Bible. When I turned to the passage, and put the book into
+their hands that they might read it for themselves, they could not
+believe their own eyes, but continued poring over it, reading
+carefully from the head of the chapter; and this very day some of
+them came in to ask what it meant, and so changed in their manner I
+could hardly believe my eyes. Before, obstinate, dogged,
+unreasonable; now, meek, docile, and asking what the will of the
+Lord is. One said, 'That went like a dagger to my heart, and I slept
+none all that night.' And when to-day, I turned to Rom. iii. 26,
+Eph. ii. 8-9, and Rom. iv. 1-4, they listened as children. Truly the
+word of the Lord _is_ a sharp sword, piercing to the heart."
+
+Mr. Knapp's health forbidding a longer residence at Diarbekir, he
+commenced, in May, 1858, a new station at Bitlis, a healthy place
+several thousand feet above the level of the sea. Dr. and Mrs.
+Haskell were with them during the latter half of the summer, and
+spent the summer of 1859 at Mardin; but Mr. and Mrs. Marsh and Mrs.
+Lobdell decided to remain at Mosul. In May, Mr. and Mrs. Marsh were
+called to part with their second and only surviving child. A
+fortnight later, Mrs. Marsh herself had a severe attack of fever,
+but soon recovered. The fatal attack was three months later, and her
+death occurred unexpectedly. The thermometer in the early part of
+the night before, stood at 113º. During the day it was 120º; and on
+the night of her death it was 100º on the roof, where they slept.
+She had had a slight illness for a few days, and it now became a
+burning fever, with delirium, and all remedies proved vain. She died
+on the 12th of August, at the age of thirty-two, after a residence
+of six years at Mosul, as an earnest and faithful laborer. Her
+mother and her only sister had died before reaching the age of
+thirty, and it is possible Mrs. Marsh might not have lived as long
+in her native land, as she did at Mosul. "Yet it is probable," as
+her husband wrote at the time, "that the heat, so unusually extreme,
+cutting the leaves from the tree in our court by thousands, and
+causing many natives of the country to fall dead by the roadside,
+was the immediate occasion of her death."
+
+Mrs. Lobdell found reason, in the necessities of her children, for
+returning to America, and in April, 1860, she bade adieu to the
+little band of women, who, for eight years, had sat at her feet to
+learn of Jesus. She reached her native land in August, in company
+with Mr. Marsh.
+
+Mosul remained unoccupied during the summer, the heat at that season
+being found too great for endurance; though the climate is agreeable
+for nearly three fourths of the year. The summer retreat prepared by
+Dr. Lobdell at Deira, near Amadiah, was distant seventy miles, or
+four days' travel, and it required at least nine days to reach
+Mardin.
+
+There were but two or three places in Turkey where missionaries, up
+to this time, had had such marked success as in Diarbekir. The
+church, at the close of 1859, numbered sixty-one, and after the
+April communion, seventy-three. Rarely did a communion pass without
+some additions. Protestants were a recognized power among the
+people, and their influence was extending. Books were eagerly sought
+after and paid for. Illegal taxes had nearly ceased in the city
+itself. After a weary struggle of nine years, the assessment of the
+tax-roll for the Protestants was made upon a satisfactory plan,
+which bid fair to be permanent. The commercial standing of the
+Protestants was above that of any other sect, though there were no
+wealthy men among them. But the increase of the congregation had
+been retarded by the want of sufficient accommodations for public
+worship. The lamented removal of Mr. Holmes, the English Consul, to
+a more desirable consulate in European Turkey, while it was a great
+loss to the mission, threw his house upon the market, and it was
+purchased for a place of worship at less than half its cost. It
+required only slight alterations, and could be indefinitely
+enlarged. The members of the church subscribed a thousand dollars
+towards its purchase, and a certain amount was granted by the Board.
+The school for boys, and the one for girls, were both eminently a
+success. At Cutterbul, half the village was Protestant and the rest
+more than half so, and the place of prayer would not hold the
+congregation.
+
+In 1860, the stations of the Assyria Mission were brought within the
+field of the Eastern Turkey Mission, and the Assyria Mission ceased
+to have a separate existence.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1851-1857.
+
+
+The return of Mr. Stoddard, accompanied by his wife and Mr. and Mrs.
+Rhea, was mentioned in the first volume. He thus describes the
+manner of his reception: "While crossing the plain of Oroomiah, we
+arrived at a village twelve miles from the city, where a company of
+our brethren and sisters, with their little ones and many of the
+Nestorians, greeted us with tender emotions. A tent had been
+pitched, and a breakfast prepared; and we all sat down on the grass,
+under the grateful shade, to partake of the repast. Our hearts were
+full. During the three hours which we spent at this village,
+Nestorians of all classes, many of them our brethren in Christ, were
+continually arriving; and when, soon after noon, we set out for the
+city, our progress resembled more a triumphal procession than a
+caravan of weary travellers. Every mile increased our numbers. Our
+way was often almost blocked up by the people who came to meet us,
+some on horseback, some on foot; bishops, priests, deacons, village
+teachers, members of the seminary, with whom I had many times wept
+and prayed, all pressing forward in eager haste to grasp our hands,
+and swell the notes of welcome. Three years ago, they followed us
+out of the city, holding our horses by the bridle, and begging us
+not to leave them, while their mournful looks bespoke the sorrow of
+their hearts. Now I was returning to them with restored health, to
+identify my interests with theirs. I brought with me the salutations
+of many thousand Christians in our native land, and was accompanied
+into the harvest-field by new reapers. As I turned from thoughts of
+the past, and looked on the animating scene around us, the contrast
+almost overcome me."
+
+This was in 1851. In October of the following year, Dr. and Mrs.
+Perkins, going to meet Mr. and Mrs. Crane, and Sarah Stoddard, on
+their way from Trebizond, experienced a severe affliction in the
+death of their only surviving daughter, a very interesting girl. The
+journey was expected to be of advantage to the health of Mrs.
+Perkins and to their two children, Judith and Henry; and it was due
+to the new-comers that some one, acquainted with the language and
+country, should aid them through the long and tedious route from
+Erzroom. After a ride of thirty miles, they were unexpectedly
+exposed to a pestilential atmosphere at Khoy, where they spent the
+night. All went well with them until they had crossed the plain of
+Khoy, and the mountain beyond, and passed their last resting-place,
+when the beloved daughter showed signs of cholera. They could not
+rest there under the burning sun, and there was no water near; so
+they were obliged to proceed three or four miles further, to the
+Moslem village of Zorava. The nature of the disease was now
+painfully certain. The Mohammedan villagers were terrified and
+inhospitable. They would not even allow a morsel of bread to be sold
+to the faithful Nestorians who accompanied the family, nor even
+barley for their tired, hungry horses. And when the limbs of the
+child were cold and stiffening under the power of the deadly
+disease, they would not sell one stick of wood to warm water for
+her; but again and again ordered the heart-stricken travellers to
+leave the village with their dying child. As a further aggravation,
+after the father had twice administered laudanum, the vial
+containing the medicine disappeared from their tent, and could no
+more be found. There were all the usual accompaniments of the
+cholera, and in that high region the night air was cold. Collecting
+dry weeds, they managed to kindle a fire, and heated a stone which
+they placed at her feet.
+
+The spirit of the child was quiet, and beautifully resigned to the
+will of God. There had been no doubt as to her piety before her
+sickness, and the whole scene was all that could have been expected
+of an older person. At length the end came. "Breathing shorter and
+shorter for fifteen or twenty minutes," writes her father, "she
+gently slept, as we believe, in Jesus, at three o'clock on the
+morning of September 4, 1852, aged twelve years and twenty-six
+days."
+
+The bereaved and afflicted family was now a hundred and forty miles
+from home; but home was the place for her burial. The mother washed
+the corpse with her own hands, and dressed it for the grave. As no
+coffin could be obtained, the loved one was sewed in a strong
+oriental felt of the size and form of a bed-quilt, and placed upon a
+bed, and two willow sticks, cut from the margin of the brook, were
+sewed upon the sides of the bed, and it was then bound to the back
+of a faithful horse; the panic-stricken villagers calling upon them
+all the while, "Depart, depart." With what different feelings were
+they received on their return, by their large circle of weeping
+friends! One of the Nestorians, who had accompanied the family,
+standing by the grave, artlessly described to the Nestorians the
+affecting scenes he had witnessed, and all were bathed in tears. "In
+all the families of the village," wrote Miss Fidelia Fiske, "Judith
+had taken a deep interest, and several of the middle-aged women had
+been taught by her in the Sabbath-school. Indeed, she had greatly
+endeared herself to all the scores and hundreds of Nestorians who
+knew her, and was a universal favorite among the people. A Nestorian
+of a distant village said, on hearing of her death, "There was none
+like her,--so beautiful, so wise, so pious. She would pray like an
+angel."[1]
+
+[1] See _The Persian Flower; A Memoir of Judith Grant Perkins of
+Oroomiah, Persia_.
+
+The Gospel made its way among the Nestorians amid many
+discouragements. Yet there was progress, Even in the mountains of
+Koordistan, where the brethren could do little more than watch the
+leadings of Providence, there was much that was hopeful. It was an
+indication of promise, that the people of Memikan, the mountain
+station, notwithstanding their sufferings for the sake of the
+Gospel, did not falter in their adherence to it. Strangers, after
+listening to the reading and reciting of the school children,
+sometimes went away exclaiming, "Glory to God! There is nothing bad
+in all this." Religious worship was well attended. Even in the busy
+season, when the laborers were in their fields before dawn, and
+worked till late, a goodly number attended the daily evening
+service. Nor was it here, only, that a listening ear was found. In a
+tour among some of the largest neighboring villages, the
+missionaries were kindly received. Some sat from morning till the
+setting of the sun, giving earnest heed to the preaching. Could the
+people have been assured that they had nothing to fear from the
+civil power, they would have braved their ecclesiastics. Even as it
+was, the missionary pursued his work without molestation, and was
+treated with uniform respect by the authorities.
+
+On the plain of Oroomiah, there was more preaching than ever before,
+and the line of demarkation between an evangelical church and a dead
+Christianity, was becoming more and more distinct. Mar Yohannan
+boldly discarded many customs of his Church, and then seemed
+disposed to go as fast in the work of reformation as his people
+could be induced to follow; and there was the same spirit among the
+helpers of the mission.
+
+The two seminaries were coming under a stricter discipline, and
+aimed at a higher standard of scholarship. About half of the forty
+students under Mr. Stoddard were hopefully pious, and some of them
+gave high promise of usefulness. One was appointed to succeed the
+bishop of the largest diocese in the province. Several were from
+different mountain districts, and one was from the valley of the
+Tigris.
+
+The number in the female seminary had increased from forty to fifty,
+and it was delightful to witness the intelligent zeal of some
+teachers in the Sabbath-schools. The ten who graduated in March were
+all hopefully pious, well educated, and quite refined, and most of
+them were expected to become teachers in their own villages.
+
+The description given by Mr. Stocking of a very aged priest, whom he
+saw among the hills north of Gawar, encourages the belief that the
+Holy Spirit sometimes makes the faintest rays of Gospel light
+effectual to salvation. The man was nearly deaf, and bending under
+the weight of a century or more, according to the statement of the
+people, but was able to converse intelligently about events which
+happened two or three generations before. "We were much surprised,"
+writes Mr. Stocking, "at the correctness of his views in regard to
+some of the cardinal doctrines of the Scriptures, and particularly
+as to the necessity of an evangelical faith, in distinction from one
+that was dead, and of the work of the Holy Spirit in renewing and
+sanctifying believers. Though not remarkable for his learning, he
+appears to have been taught by the great Teacher himself; for he had
+never before seen a missionary. As I left him, to see him no more,
+he affectionately took my hand, and said he had one request to
+make, which was that we would remember him in our prayers at the
+mercy-seat. He also requested a New Testament in the ancient and
+modern Syriac, for his village, which we sent to him."
+
+In August, 1851, Mr. Coan, accompanied by Priest Dunka and Deacons
+John and Khamis, visited the districts of Jeloo, Bass, Tekhoma,
+Tiary, and Diss, and discoursed to more than four thousand persons.
+A part of this ground had never been trod before by a missionary.
+The ecclesiastics were, as usual, the greatest opposers, but there
+were two pleasing exceptions. In Alsan, a village of five hundred
+souls, there was one priest who, at first, seemed reserved, but as
+his prejudices were removed, he became, with his people, an
+attentive listener. The missionaries tarried four or five hours,
+preaching the Word to the hungry multitude. The people, in little
+companies, conversed about what they had heard, and publicly
+upbraided their priest for letting them remain in such ignorance. He
+made humble confession, and expressed a desire to send his little
+boy, a bright looking lad, to Oroomiah for instruction. At another
+village, they found a decidedly evangelical priest. That his
+influence over his large village was good was apparent in the quiet
+and orderly behavior of the people, and their attention to the
+Gospel. Indeed, they were accustomed to the word of exhortation
+daily at their evening prayers. This priest had a small school every
+winter, to which several lads resorted from neighboring districts.
+
+A very different scene was witnessed in the village of Mar Ziah,
+which was thronged with ecclesiastics who obtained their livelihood
+by begging. "They were dressed," Mr. Coan writes concerning them,
+"in scarlet and silk, and were exceedingly haughty in their bearing.
+We met the people in the churchyard, but, after a few words, there
+arose such a tumult as I hope never to see again. For an hour or
+more, the place was like a pandemonium. Some wished to hear what we
+had to say; but others, with savage fierceness, flew at them,
+yelling at the top of their voices, and looking as if ready to drink
+their blood. In the course of an hour or two their rage had spent
+itself, and after a few words of solemn admonition, we left them."
+At another village, scarcely three miles distant, where was no
+priest, a few persons assembled in a room where the missionaries
+stopped, and their solemn and tearful attention was very unlike the
+noisy scene they had just left. One young man begged, with tears, to
+receive a copy of the Gospel.
+
+Nazee was one of three Tiary girls who came to Oroomiah after the
+massacre of the mountain Nestorians, and in the seminary became
+hopefully pious. She was now living at Chumba, and having heard of
+the coming of her missionary friends, was standing on the bank of
+the impetuous Zab, awaiting their arrival. There was no fording the
+torrent, but the travellers ventured across on two single string
+pieces, bending under them at every step. She greeted them joyfully,
+and hastened to prepare a place for their lodging. While she was
+gone, the Malek came and took them to his house. Nazee was
+disappointed, but followed, eager to hear every word. During the
+address to the villagers assembled on the roof, it was affecting to
+see the eagerness with which she listened. Though others left she
+could not leave, and not till near midnight did she bethink herself,
+and apologize for keeping Mr. Coan up so late after a fatiguing
+day's journey. She was a light in her village, by which the deeds of
+the wicked had been reproved, and she had consequently suffered much
+persecution. Some friends in America, interested in the account
+which had been given of her while in the seminary, had sent her
+articles of dress; but her neighbors assembled and maliciously tore
+them into fragments before her eyes. She bore it meekly, and only
+prayed for them. She expected fresh insults because of the kindness
+shown her in the present visit. Long before light, on the day they
+were to leave, she was with the visitors, anxious to improve the few
+moments left for Christian conversation; and she followed them,
+lonely and sad, to the river's side. There they kneeled by the
+roaring stream, and commended her to the Great and Good Shepherd.
+
+Mr. Stoddard mentions the visit of Mr. Khanikoff, a Russian
+scientific gentleman, in the summer of 1852, to obtain information
+concerning the elevations and climates of these districts. Lake
+Oroomiah was ascertained to be about four thousand one hundred feet
+above the ocean, and the city four thousand five hundred feet, the
+plain sloping down gently towards the lake. Mount Seir rises two
+thousand eight hundred and thirty feet above the city, and seven
+thousand three hundred and thirty feet above the ocean; differing
+not greatly, in real height, from the White Mountains in New
+Hampshire. The mission residence, on the mountain side, is a
+thousand feet above the city. The mountains of Koordistan, some of
+which are capped with snow through all the year, often rise to the
+height of twelve thousand feet, and one peak is supposed to be
+fourteen thousand feet above the sea. Mr. Khanikoff afterwards
+became Russian Consul General at Tabriz, and proved himself a
+sincere and valuable friend to the mission.
+
+Failure of health constrained Mr. Stocking to return, with his
+family, to the United States, and he was never able to resume his
+missionary labors. Since his lamented decease, a son has taken his
+place among the Nestorians.
+
+It should be gratefully acknowledged, that violence towards
+missionaries has almost everywhere been the exception, and not the
+rule. It has been so even in Koordistan. But Mr. Cochran, while
+travelling with several Nestorians through Nochea, was assailed by
+five robbers in the employ of a Koordish chief, named Seyed Khan
+Bey. As Moslems the assailants were of course reckless of the life
+of Christians; and, for a time, the party were apprehensive of being
+murdered. But at last, while the freebooters were intent on their
+prey, the company fled up the steep mountain side, leaving their
+effects. Their horses were afterwards recovered.
+
+The year 1854 opened with a revival in both the seminaries. At the
+commencement of it, scarcely half the students in either of the
+institutions gave evidence of piety, which was an unusually small
+proportion. The thought of this, and especially that several of the
+senior class were about going forth into the world without Christ,
+led to earnest prayer, and to efforts which were followed by an
+immediate blessing. The special religious interest continued several
+weeks, and extended to the large village of Geog Tapa, but the
+results appear not to have been distinctly reported.
+
+The eighteen young men who graduated in 1854, were of higher promise
+than any previous class. Several of the performances at their
+graduation were very gratifying, particularly the valedictory
+addresses, pronounced by a young man of eighteen, which would not
+suffer in matter or manner, Dr. Perkins thought, by the side of
+similar addresses at any American college. Nearly all were hopefully
+pious, and were returning to homes widely distant from each other.
+
+In some parts of the field there was much enthusiasm. In Geog Tapa,
+for example, about seventy adults had commenced learning to read.
+The mode pursued there and elsewhere, was to induce teachers,
+scholars in the village schools, and other readers to teach adults,
+by the promise of a Bible, Testament, or other book, if they were
+successful. At an examination, the forenoon was devoted to the
+girls' school, taught by two graduates of the female seminary, and
+the afternoon to the Sabbath-school. Such a crowd of Nestorians was
+present, that it was necessary in the afternoon, to meet in a grove.
+The first class examined in the Sabbath-school consisted of men from
+twenty to seventy years of age, headed by the chief man of the
+village. Then followed a class of women, fifty or sixty in number,
+from forty to fifty years of age. These classes, not being able to
+read, had been taught orally. Next came a class of men, about twenty
+in number, and a class of twenty-three women, who had recently
+learned to read. These had been taught individually by boys
+connected with the village schools, each of whom received a copy
+of the Old Testament as a reward. On the plain of Oroomiah
+seventy-three free schools were reported, with more than a thousand
+boys, and one hundred and fifty girls and women as pupils.
+
+In Gawar, two schools embraced fourteen boarding and thirty-two day
+scholars. Fourteen of these were from Jeloo, Bass, and Tekhoma
+districts. Among them were four deacons, four from the family of the
+bishop of Jeloo, and nearly all were from prominent families. They
+were wild mountaineers, and in some thing's difficult to manage, but
+they acquired knowledge rapidly and with delight; and the constant
+study of the Bible wrought a perceptible change in them. In the
+Bootan districts, hitherto inaccessible to missionary influence,
+there was now a strong desire for schools, and for the labors of
+evangelical teachers.
+
+The New Testament in the modern language was beginning to be
+circulated among the people; a much enlarged edition of the hymn
+book had been issued, and a volume, entitled "Scripture Facts," had
+a wide circulation. Mr. Perkins had completed a translation of
+Doddridge's "Rise and Progress," and was engaged in translating
+Barth's "Church History."
+
+Mr. Crane died at Gawar on the 27th of August, 1854, at the
+commencement of a career of bright promise. So ardently was he
+beloved by the people there, that at the funeral service the whole
+assembly repeatedly broke forth into weeping. The afflicted widow
+was called, within a week of her husband's death, to mourn also the
+loss of a beloved son, and removed to Mount Seir, where she was a
+valued helper in the mission. She returned home in 1857. Mr. Rhea
+and Miss Harris were united in marriage in October, and spent the
+winter at Gawar.
+
+The audacity of the papal missionaries, backed by the French
+embassy, was marvelous. The American mission having been importuned
+to open a school in the large village of Khosrova, in Salmas, where
+popery predominated, two young men, graduates of the seminary, were
+successively sent thither. The first was several times driven away,
+through the instigation of the Lazarists, and those who were
+friendly to the mission also became objects of persecution. The
+second was assailed by the mob, headed, by the French chief of the
+Lazarists, and by a bishop. These two men, with their own hands,
+threw him into a canal, and called on the people to drown or kill
+him. He was mercifully delivered, but narrowly escaped with his
+life. The matter being reported to Mr. Abbott, the English Consul at
+Tabriz, the chief of the Lazarists, with some fifteen of his
+satellites, went thither, and apprehending a cool reception from the
+Consul, whose protection the Lazarists enjoyed in common with the
+American missionaries, he applied for assistance to the Russian
+Consul, proposing to transfer his passports to his hands. Mr.
+Khanikoff refused, and severely rebuked them for their conduct. Mr.
+Abbott obtained an order from the Governor of Azerbijan to lay heavy
+fines on the Mussulman deputies of Khosrova for withholding
+protection, and on the principal papists for their acts of violence,
+with the requirement of bonds for future good behavior.
+
+Messrs. Abbott and Stevens, English consuls at Tabriz and Teheran,
+kindly exerted their protecting influence, and Mr. Cochran
+subsequently spent a week at Khosrova, and had his house thronged
+every evening with from fifty to a hundred and fifty people, eager
+to listen to the preaching of the Word. The ecclesiastics raged, and
+stirred up the agent of the master of the village (who lives in
+Tabriz) to endeavor to drive our brother away; but the attempt
+failed. Sixty houses gave their names and seals, wishing to become
+Protestants. They were exceedingly desirous of having a missionary,
+and even threatened, good-naturedly, to take one by force to live
+among them.
+
+The reader may remember what Dr. Lobdell said of the course of this
+mission in respect to the forming of distinct churches.[1] Dr.
+Perkins, writing in May, 1855, gives the following account of the
+progress of the reformation towards that result: "Our communion
+occurred about two weeks ago, and nearly one hundred communicants
+sat down to the table of the Lord, including our mission. It was a
+solemn and delightful season. Among the native brethren present were
+Mar Yohannan and Mar Elias; and most of the others, of both sexes,
+were educated and quite intelligent; but, what is of far greater
+importance, they were, as we trust, true Christians. It would be
+easy at once to triple the number from those who, in the judgment of
+charity, are the children of God; but we think it better to
+introduce them somewhat gradually and cautiously to the ordinance;
+while, at the same time, we would not too long allow any of the
+sheep and lambs of Christ's flock to suffer for want of this
+important means of grace. It is exerting a powerful influence on
+those who participate in it, and on many others; and it cannot fail
+ultimately to produce the effect either of redeeming the ordinance
+from abuses, as administered in Nestorian churches, or drawing off
+the pious part of the people to a separate observance of it. We are
+quite willing that the scriptural administration of the ordinance to
+the pious Nestorians should work out either of these results, in the
+legitimate time and way, or both of them, as the Lord shall direct."
+
+[1] Chapter xxvii.
+
+Some months later, notice was given that, in the future, instead of
+personal invitations, the door would be thrown open for all who
+should consider themselves worthy candidates. Uniting with the
+missionaries would thus seem more like a voluntary and public
+profession of religion. None were to be received, however, to the
+communion without a private examination. On one sacramental occasion
+about one hundred united with the missionaries, and more than thirty
+of them for the first time. A large number were also present as
+spectators, many of them deeply interested.
+
+Deacon Guwergis of Tergawer, the well known "Mountain Evangelist,"
+died on the 12th of March, called suddenly from earnest and most
+useful labors to his reward.
+
+The course of the Persian government towards the mission and its
+friends, at this time, was very unsatisfactory. Asker Khan, a
+general in the Persian army, was appointed to investigate the truth
+of certain charges brought by the papists against the American
+missionaries, and early evinced a most unfriendly feeling towards
+them, and a partiality for their accusers. Indeed, he took no pains
+to conceal his hostility, and did all he could to stop the schools
+and other evangelizing agencies. But the missionaries had the aid,
+as far as aid could be rendered, of the Hon. C. A. Murray, the
+English Ambassador, and of Mr. Abbott at Tabriz, and Mr. Stevens at
+Teheran, and also of Mr. Khanikoff, the Russian Consul General at
+Tabriz. The disturbed state of political relations, and especially
+the want of harmony between the English and Persian governments,
+made it impossible for these friends to accomplish what they desired
+to do in their behalf. After withdrawing from Teheran, Mr. Murray
+visited Oroomiah, and the correspondence which then passed between
+him and the missionaries, showed his desire to aid both the
+suffering Nestorians and the missionary work. In his absence, the
+Russian Consul General became their protector,--"at first," as he
+said, "unofficially, but with very good heart; and officially,
+whenever he should have the right so to do." It is remarkable, and
+reveals a protecting Providence, that no department of labor, with
+the exception of village schools, very materially suffered at this
+time.
+
+In February, 1856, there began to be indications of the special
+influences of the Holy Spirit in some of the villages occupied by
+native helpers; and very soon there were marked indications of
+another work of grace in the two seminaries. The feeling in both the
+schools became very general. The voice of prayer was heard on every
+side; and a large proportion of those who were not pious, appeared
+to be seeking in earnest the way of life. On the 30th of March, Mr.
+Cochran reported that, with the exception of those most recently
+admitted, nearly all were hoping that they had passed from death
+unto life. In the villages, also, there were cases of peculiar
+interest.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Rhea were alone in Gawar. In the autumn it was deemed
+advisable, in view of the insurrectionary state of Koordistan, that
+they should withdraw for a time. They at first felt it their duty to
+remain; but the progress of events soon made it plain that Gawar was
+an unsuitable place for a lone lady, especially when winter should
+render it impossible for her to remove. Mr. Rhea, while at Oroomiah,
+continued, as far as possible, to superintend the labors of the
+native helpers in Memikan, and he returned the next summer, with
+Mrs. Rhea, to their mountain home. The Koordish chieftains, who had
+proudly boasted, that they would put their heels upon the necks of
+the poor Christians, were soon fleeing in dismay before the
+advancing Ottomans.
+
+Mr. Stoddard wrote, in September, 1856, that for six months, in
+consequence of the withdrawal from Persia of the English Ambassador,
+the missionaries had been without any political protection, and at
+the mercy of a hostile government, yet there was perhaps never a
+time when their work presented a more cheering aspect on the whole.
+The seminaries, being on the mission premises, suffered less
+annoyance than did the village schools, which were scattered widely
+over the plain. The teachers in these schools had many of them been
+educated in the seminaries, and were altogether superior as a class
+to what they were a few years before; and thus the standard of
+instruction was raised, and more religious influence was exerted
+over the pupils. Nor was there ever a time when more people were
+brought within the sound of the gospel, or when there were more
+stated attendants on preaching. And much use was made of the Monthly
+Concert on the first Monday of the month. The whole day was devoted
+to the natives. "Early Monday morning," writes Mr. Stoddard, "some
+of our friends arrive from the nearer villages, and others are
+continually dropping in during the forenoon. At about the dinner
+hour, nearly all are assembled. We occupy considerable time with
+them in private, or in little companies, each one attending to the
+helpers under his care, in hearing the monthly reports of their
+labors and trials, their hopes and fears, and intermingling the
+reports with religious conversation and prayer. At three in the
+afternoon we assemble, and spend an hour or two in public religious
+exercises. In the evening a similar meeting is held, when the
+natives not only speak freely, but often occupy nearly the whole
+time, leaving the brother who has charge of the meeting little to
+do. It very often happens, also, that after the meeting has been
+together two hours, there are several who feel that they want to be
+heard, if but for a few moments." These monthly occasions Mr.
+Stoddard enjoyed exceedingly, and came to look upon the "First
+Monday" as the great day of the month.
+
+In October, Messrs. Stoddard and Cochran and Miss Fiske made a tour
+of three weeks in the mountains of Koordistan. At Gawar they were
+joined by Mr. and Mrs. Rhea, and visited the districts of Ishtazin
+and Bass. From that point Messrs. Cochran and Rhea extended their
+journey to Amadiah, and returned to their party at Tekhoma, a week
+later. Thence they passed through the districts of Tal, and up the
+Zab to Gawar. The fact that American ladies traversed in safety the
+gorges and precipices of central Koordistan, was an encouragement to
+native helpers and their families to reside in those difficult
+regions; but such tours were too fatiguing, probably, to be often
+repeated.
+
+The object of the visit to Amadiah was to make further explorations
+with reference to the formation of a station on the western side of
+the mountains. The mass of the people were on that side, and could
+not be advantageously reached from Oroomiah. The eastern district
+was fast becoming supplied with pious helpers, and it seemed very
+desirable for that section of the country to share in this
+initiatory work, before anything occurred to hinder it. The
+convictions of the brethren as to the desirableness of commencing a
+station there were much strengthened, and Mr. Cochran offered his
+own services for that purpose.
+
+November was ushered in by an event deeply interesting to the
+mission families; a public profession of religion by the three
+eldest children of the mission; and hope was entertained as to the
+piety of some of the younger.
+
+Asker Khan, agent of the Persian government at Oroomiah, now became
+more troublesome than ever, resorting to every form of annoyance in
+his power. At the instance of Mr. Khanikoff, Dr. Wright and Mr.
+Stoddard visited him at Tabriz, to see what could be done to induce
+the government to check the doings of its agent. But in this they
+failed, though the Consul did all he could to assist them. Even the
+Turkish Consul volunteered his aid, but almost in vain. Through Mr.
+Khanikoff, they learned that the orders from Teheran to the Kaim
+Makam required him to forbid the labors of the missionaries in the
+province of Salmas; to see that no school was established save in
+the two places where missionaries resided; and that the number of
+the schools should not exceed thirty, nor the number of pupils one
+hundred and fifty. He was to require that no girl receive
+instruction, at all events, in the same school with boys. The
+missionaries were not to induce any person to change his religion,
+and were to enter into a written engagement not to send forth
+preachers. Books conflicting with existing religions in Persia were
+not to be printed, and native teachers and preachers were to be
+approved by Mar Yoosuf and Mar Gabriel, two unprincipled and bitter
+opposers of evangelical religion. Such were the orders issued, it is
+believed at the instigation of the French, by the Prime Minister of
+Persia, and Messrs. Stoddard and Wright, unable to secure even delay
+in carrying them out, returned to Oroomiah. The mission now, at the
+suggestion of the Consul, made a formal application for protection
+to the Russian Ambassador at Teheran.
+
+Asker Khan was assassinated six days after the return of the
+brethren from Tabriz, by a Koordish chief at Mergawer. But his
+coadjutor, Asker Aly Khan, governor of the Nestorians, pursued the
+same persecuting course, urged on by the Kaim Makam at Tabriz. The
+career of the Kaim Makam, however, was now short, for in January,
+1857, the populace of that city, exasperated by his oppression, rose
+in a body, broke into his palace, plundered it, and compelled him to
+flee for his life. He was subsequently summoned to Teheran, and on
+his approach to that city, was stripped of his honors, mounted on a
+pack saddle, and thus led to prison, while a fine was imposed on him
+of a hundred thousand tomans.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1857-1863.
+
+
+The sojourn of three weeks at Tabriz had been a source of constant
+anxiety to Messrs. Stoddard and Wright, and the former had
+premonitory symptoms of fever on his way home. But he was not
+apprehensive on that account, and finding Mr. Cochran and two of the
+native teachers disabled by sickness, he devoted much time and labor
+to the Seminary, and to the correspondence which had accumulated in
+his absence. Yet fever was threatening, and on the 22d of December,
+ten days after his return, he became decidedly ill. On the 25th he
+was confined to his bed, where he lay for two and thirty days, while
+the fever ran its fatal course. He died in great peace January 26,
+1857, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. The public funeral
+services were in Syriac, and his remains were borne to their last
+resting-place by graduates of the seminary, whose conversion dated
+back to the first revival.
+
+The mind of Mr. Stoddard was cast in a fine mould. The older members
+of the Board remember him at the Annual Meeting in Pittsfield in
+1849. My own thought at the time was, that were an angel present in
+human form, his appearance and deportment would be much like those
+of Mr. Stoddard. A calm, seraphic joy shone in his face, and all
+that he said and did was just what all delighted to hear and see.
+His presence did much to give a character to that meeting. Mr.
+Stoddard had a frail body, and an almost feminine grace of person,
+like the popular impression of that disciple who leaned on the bosom
+of his Lord; but, like that disciple, he had strength of principle
+and inflexibility of purpose. His consecration to the missionary
+work was no sudden impulse. It was the result of repeated, and
+sometimes unexpected, meetings and conferences with Dr. Perkins,
+whose sagacious eye had marked him for a missionary. But the
+question once settled, it was settled for life. He went whole-souled
+into the work, and never doubted that his call to it was of God. His
+talents, which were of a high order, and his learning, which excited
+the admiration of Persian nobles and princes, were unreservedly
+consecrated. "He goes among the churches," said the lamented
+Professor B. B. Edwards, of the Andover Seminary, "burning like a
+seraph. So heavenly a spirit has hardly ever been seen in this
+country."
+
+Mr. Stoddard's daughter Harriet followed him to the grave within two
+months, at the age of thirteen, a victim to the same disease. She
+was sustained by the same calm trust in Christ, which lighted up the
+last hours of her excellent father.
+
+Dr. Perkins wrote in 1857, that when the mission was commenced,
+twenty-four years before, hardly a score of Nestorian men were able
+to read intelligently, and but a single woman, the sister of the
+Patriarch. The people had no printed books, and but few copies even
+of portions of the Bible in manuscript, and these were all in the
+ancient Syriac, and almost unintelligible. Their spoken language,
+the modern Syriac, had not been reduced to writing. Their moral
+degradation was extreme. Still there was a remarkable simplicity in
+their conception of religious doctrines, and a remarkable absence of
+bigotry in their feelings, as compared with other oriental sects,
+and they were very accessible to the missionaries. The change had
+been great. Of the fifty-six in the male seminary when he wrote,
+thirty were hopefully pious; and so were ninety-one of the one
+hundred and fifty who had been connected with it. These were the
+fruits of seven revivals. Of the one hundred and three who had been
+connected with the female seminary, sixty, or more than one-half,
+gave good evidence of conversion; and the same might be said of
+three fourths who were then in the school. A large portion of the
+young men who had left the seminary, were either preachers of the
+gospel, or very competent teachers in the village school; and the
+greater part of the religious graduates of the other seminary were
+married to those missionary helpers. This seminary had been blessed
+with eight revivals. The instruction in both institutions had been
+almost wholly in the native tongue.
+
+The entire Bible had been translated into the spoken language, which
+the mission had reduced to a written form; and two thousand
+intelligent readers, the result of the schools, had been supplied
+with the sacred volume. Indeed, the Scriptures had been printed and
+given to the people in the ancient Peschito version, as well as in
+the spoken tongue. To these were added valuable works on
+experimental and practical religion, for the use of the schools, and
+to meet the wants of a community in the early stages of a Christian
+civilization.
+
+Though separate churches had not been organized, none but pious
+Nestorians, for the last two or three years, had been admitted to
+communion with the mission church. The number who had thus communed
+was about two hundred, and it was thought that from one hundred and
+fifty to two hundred more were worthy of a place at the Lord's
+table.
+
+The French Jesuits and their emissaries had been a sore trial, but
+their success had not been great; and they had probably been useful,
+by stimulating the mission and the pious Nestorians in their
+Master's service.
+
+Mrs. Rhea had been two years a member of the mission as Miss Harris,
+and three as Mrs. Rhea. Her active and useful life closed on the 7th
+of December, 1857, at the age of twenty-nine years and five months.
+"Her sick room," says Dr. Wright, "was a hallowed place, where the
+Sun of Righteousness shone with wonderful brightness."
+
+Another revival of religion occurred in both the seminaries, at the
+opening of the year 1858, which was extended to Geog Tapa and other
+villages. Miss Fiske, in charge of the female seminary, relates a
+fact of much significance. She writes: "Some of the girls' pious
+friends came to pray with them yesterday, and I was led to inquire
+how many of them have a pious father or mother (or both), or older
+brother or sister; and I was surprised to find, as I think you will
+be to know, that about two thirds of them have such praying friends.
+I contrast this with the facts respecting their friends in 1846, and
+feel that we ought to be thankful and humble before our God, for
+what he has done for them."
+
+Mr. Rhea spent the winter of 1857 and 1858 on the western side of
+the Koordish mountains, and everywhere found an open door for
+preaching to the rude dwellers among the rocks. In Shermin, Usgan,
+and Argin, Nestorian villages southwest of Amadiah, he was cordially
+welcomed to their houses and churches, and had large congregations
+that gave earnest attention to his preaching. Snow fell eleven out
+of fifteen days, and when ready to return to Amadiah, he found the
+way entirely blocked up. Mr. Marsh having joined him from Mosul,
+they spent a number of days among large papal villages in that
+region, where they found ample opportunity for preaching the Gospel;
+and several individuals seemed earnest inquirers after the way of
+salvation from the power of sin. With reference to Mosul and
+vicinity, Mr. Rhea writes: "I am deeply impressed with the evidence,
+that the labors of the mission here have not been in vain, and that
+their results are not to be measured by the number of names on the
+church roll. The Jacobite Church here is now shaken to its
+foundations; and it cannot be doubted, that whatever of feeling
+after something better exists among many of its members is owing to
+the steady light of the Protestant church streaming in upon its
+darkness." He was absent six months, and for one third of this time
+was in Mosul. He regarded the proper field of the mountain branch of
+the Nestorian Mission as extending from Amadiah on the north to
+Mosul on the south, and from Akra on the east to Bootan on the west;
+including the mountain districts between Gawar and Amadiah. The
+Christian population was one in respect to nationality and language,
+and was a remnant of the once great Syrian Church. The language was
+the same substantially as that spoken in the eastern districts.
+
+As the result of these explorations, Mr. Rhea made an eloquent
+appeal for more effective labor in Western Koordistan, which was
+published in the "Missionary Herald," but cannot be sufficiently
+condensed for these pages.[1] His health had suffered in his
+mountain tours, which resembled those performed by his eminent
+predecessor, Dr. Grant. This rendered it necessary for him to spend
+a year for recovery in his native land, where his missionary
+addresses were well received. Two other members of the mission,
+second to none in the field,--the venerable Dr. Perkins, and Miss
+Fidelia Fiske,--were obliged to visit the United States in 1858; the
+former to care for the health of Mrs. Perkins, who, after burying
+six of her children, had accompanied Mrs. Crane to America, taking
+her only surviving child; and the latter, in consequence of a
+disease, which proved fatal after a few years. Dr. Perkins was also
+accompanied by Mrs. Stoddard, and three children of the mission.
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1858, pp. 317, 318.
+
+Mr. Rhea's appeal had not been without effect. The Rev. Thomas L.
+Ambrose joined the mission near the close of 1858, the Rev. John H.
+Shedd and wife in 1859, and the Rev. Henry N. Cobb and wife in 1860,
+with direct reference to the mountain field; and the Rev. Amherst L.
+Thompson and Rev. Benjamin Labaree, with their wives, and Frank N.
+H. Young, M. D., in 1860, to strengthen the force on the plains,
+together with Misses Aura Jeannette Beach and Harriet N. Crawford.
+Mr. Thompson had given much promise of usefulness, but died at Seir,
+August 25, 1860, only fifty-four days after his arrival. Miss Beach
+was to be associated with Miss Rice, who had rendered efficient
+service in the girls' Seminary as the associate of Miss Fiske, but
+was then alone and overburdened.
+
+The unexpected but providential withdrawal of so many older
+laborers, at this juncture, was not favorable to a more enlarged
+occupation of the field; and the plan of forming a station on the
+western side of the mountains, was not carried out. The height of
+Amadiah above the plain of Mesopotamia, and its salubrity in summer
+were found to have been overestimated; and further researches made
+it evident, that the demands of so trying a mountain field were more
+than the average health of missionaries would be able to endure at
+any season of the year. Indeed, impaired health obliged Mr. and Mrs.
+Cobb, who had been specially designated to the mountain district, to
+return home within two years; and, to their own great regret and
+that of their associates, they have never been able to rejoin the
+mission.
+
+The Nestorian helpers, as a class, were pronounced able and faithful
+men, remarkably so for Orientals. But they could not fully take the
+place of missionaries. "They do nobly," wrote Mr. Coan, "if properly
+directed and watched over, better perhaps, in some circumstances,
+than we can; but it is not the work of a day, nor a year, thoroughly
+to eradicate the habits of life of those who are brought up in gross
+superstition."
+
+Early in the year 1859, the seminary for young men was blessed with
+its tenth revival, in which a third of its pupils were hopefully
+converted. There had then been eleven such spiritual refreshings in
+the seminary for girls. In most of these outpourings of the Spirit,
+as now, the villages were more or less favored. The effects of these
+revivals were by no means limited to the souls converted. An
+enlightening, softening, elevating influence affected the masses.
+The young men from the seminary were generally of good abilities,
+having been selected from a large number of candidates, and many of
+them were distinguished for piety; and quite as much might be said
+of the other seminary.
+
+More than fourteen millions of printed pages had been distributed
+among the Nestorians. The Old Testament with references formed a
+part of this literary treasure; and the New Testament was about
+being issued in that form.
+
+Among the novelties to be recorded was the marriage of Mar Yohanan,
+in violation of the canons of the Nestorian Church. The bishop had
+been connected with the labors of the mission from the beginning. He
+pleaded the example of Luther and the Apostles. The step was one of
+his own choosing, and taken in the face of many threats, as well as
+the imputation of unworthy motives; but the "evangelicals" almost
+universally approved his course. The excitement was much less than
+had been apprehended; and another of the bishops, after some time,
+followed his example.
+
+In 1860 the observance of the Lord's Supper, instead of being
+confined to the missionary stations; was held, once in four months,
+in the various villages where the converts resided, and about a
+score of virtually reformed churches were thus planted and watered
+in as many different places. The native pastor was held responsible
+for the persons whose names were presented to the missionary, as
+suitable to be admitted to the Lord's table. Mr. Coan speaks of
+those little churches, as being such in fact, "scattered in the
+different villages, as so many moral light-houses in the surrounding
+darkness."
+
+Mar Shimon, the Nestorian Patriarch, died near the close of 1860, at
+the age of fifty-nine, and after having been thirty-five years in
+office. His successor was a nephew, eighteen years old, and a youth
+of amiable disposition. The patriarch had stood variously affected
+towards the mission, but was, for the most part, unfriendly. The
+effect of the Gospel in diminishing the superstitious reverence of
+the people for him, was one of the causes of his hostility.
+
+About this time, a spirit of unlooked-for liberality was manifested
+among the Nestorians. It should be borne in mind that the people are
+poor, that the man worth five hundred dollars is counted rich, and
+that probably no Nestorian is worth two thousand dollars. The
+indications in our own country were at that time very unpromising;
+and when the prospective embarrassments of the Board were stated at
+the monthly concert in Geog Tapa, John, the pastor, urged the people
+to support their own missionary in the mountains, and one of the
+audience rose and pledged nearly a month's support. Others
+contributed unwonted amounts, and soon the whole congregation was in
+a blaze of enthusiasm. Those who could command money gave money,
+others contributed wheat, or other produce, and even women took off
+their ornaments and gave them. At the monthly concert the next day
+in the city, the people were more aglow than at Geog Tapa, and gave
+on a larger scale, though frequently reminded that they were poor,
+and urged not to give more than their cooler judgments would
+approve. The amount contributed was five hundred dollars. They
+seized upon the figure of "a bride"-- more forcible in Persia than
+in America,--which Mr. Coan had used in his address; and one and
+another contributed for her "shoes," "dress," and other things,
+until the "church," the "Lamb's wife," had a very comfortable
+outfit.
+
+This outburst of benevolent effort was too sudden and excessive to
+last in the same measure. The advantage gained by the elevation thus
+reached, was the practicability of keeping the converts up to giving
+according to their ability, which is the Gospel standard. Dr.
+Perkins, writing two years later, thought there was a real gain by
+this effort, though it had reacted somewhat. Most of the pledges
+were redeemed after the next harvest and vintage.
+
+Dr. Dwight was eighteen days at Oroomiah during his Eastern tour in
+1860 and 1861. Mr. Wheeler had accompanied him from Harpoot. Some
+important changes in the practical working of the mission, made at
+the Annual Meeting, threw a greater responsibility on the native
+pastors. They were to have the responsibility, not only of
+administering baptism, but of the Lord's Supper; and the children of
+none except communicants were to be baptized. The relation of pastor
+and people was thus made more prominent and distinct. Dr. Dwight
+declares himself satisfied by what he saw at Oroomiah, that nothing
+more than this was needed to complete the organization of the
+reformed church. He had had the impression, for years, that sooner
+or later the converts among the Nestorians, like the same class of
+persons among the Armenians, would be organized into separate
+churches, wholly distinct from the Nestorian Church. The
+excommunications and persecutions that had led to that result among
+the Armenians, he seemed to think would not occur among the
+Nestorians; and it was evident to him that the old ceremonies of the
+Church were silently vanishing away, and that reformed services were
+taking their place, as the result of a fundamental change in the
+minds of the people. A distinct theological class was to be formed
+in the seminary of promising young converts, and no more men were to
+be educated in that school than could afterwards be profitably
+employed. The conclusion was also reached, in view of past
+experience, that the mountain regions should not be occupied by
+American families; reserving them as the peculiar field of the
+reformed church of the plain; as a training-school for their
+missionary spirit, and a necessary outlet for their pious zeal.
+
+The native preachers and helpers held a two days' meeting at
+Oroomiah while Dr. Dwight was there, in which several important
+subjects were discussed. He liked their appearance, admired the
+spirit of many of them, and was greatly moved by the extraordinary
+fire of their eloquence, though he understood them only through an
+interpreter. He was specially impressed by the childlike piety of
+the venerable Mar Elias.
+
+Mr. Breath, the ingenious and efficient missionary printer, died of
+cholera on the 10th of November, 1861. He had so far succeeded in
+training native printers and book-binders, that there was no further
+call for such workmen from the United States. Mrs. Breath returned
+home, with her three children, in the following year.
+
+Some uneasiness was created about this time by rumors, that priests
+of the Russian Church were coming to Oroomiah to proselyte
+Nestorians. They did not come; but emissaries were sent by them
+secretly, who made large promises, that deceived many; yet the
+evangelical party, with two or three exceptions, kept aloof from the
+affair. The proposal was that the Nestorians should renounce their
+religion, and receive the seven sacraments of the Greek Church; the
+inducements held out being such as the payment of their taxes for
+some years, and salaries to all ecclesiastics and head men of the
+villages. The Persian government at length became somewhat alarmed
+by these proceedings, and the English Consul, Mr. Abbott, having
+demanded the official interference of the authorities at Tabriz,
+measures were adopted promising some degree of relief to the
+oppressed and therefore discontented Nestorians.
+
+I have passed in silence, for the most part, the long series of
+efforts by the Persian government to embarrass the mission, since
+they appear to have been generally prompted by bribes from
+emissaries of the Papal Church, and proved strangely inoperative.
+
+Another interesting revival of religion occurred in the two
+seminaries in February, 1862. It seems to have been marked rather by
+an increase of grace in the church-members, than by the number of
+converts. The first months of 1863 and 1864 were also distinguished
+by special religious interest, extending to many of the villages on
+the plain.
+
+On Sabbath morning, December 6, 1863, the good old Mar Elias died,
+more than four score years of age. Until within a week of his death,
+he was accustomed to walk to town to attend the monthly concert, a
+distance of five miles, and for many years he had visited the
+villages of his diocese on foot. He was sick only three days, and
+his mind was clear. When asked by the young men about him for his
+dying charge, it was, "See that ye hold fast to God's Word." An
+immense concourse gathered from the surrounding country to do honor
+to his memory; and Dr. Perkins preached from the text: "My father,
+my father! The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof."
+
+As a most cheering illustration of what Nestorians may yet become,
+through the grace of God in the Gospel, I quote largely from an
+account of the venerable man, by Mr. Rhea.[1] "While our good old
+bishop was not an educated man,--his knowledge in books extending
+little beyond the Word of God,--and had but ordinary intellectual
+ability, he was still one of the most interesting characters among
+the Nestorians. There is no name among them that will be more
+fragrant; none that deserves a more honored place in the annals of
+his Church. The singularity of his position here, thirty years
+ago,--devout, spiritual, God-fearing, and active, when a deep night
+hung over his whole people,--like a mountain beacon, whose summit
+had caught the first beams of the sun, which was soon to flood all
+below with its glory; his prophetic anticipation of the coming of
+missionaries; his joy in welcoming them; his peculiar attachment to
+them and their families; his true-hearted devotion to them as God's
+ministers, and to their work, through all kinds of vicissitudes; the
+charming guilelessness of his character, ingenuous as a child; his
+wonderful love for the Word of God, making it his meditation by day
+and by night,--not able to pass two or three hours consecutively,
+without drinking from this well-spring of life; the child-like
+gentleness of his character,--though, when stirred in God's behalf,
+he showed a lion-hearted courage, tearing down the pictures and
+images which Papal hands had stealthily hung on the walls of his
+church, and pitching them indignantly from the door; his love of
+sound doctrine, holding forth the word of life in his humble way,
+always and everywhere, his face never so full of spiritual light as
+when rehearsing a conversation he had just had with some Mussulman
+friend, to whom he had opened the Scriptures, and talked of the
+kingdom yet to fill the whole earth,--the brotherhood of all
+races,--the one flock and the one shepherd; his silent patience, in
+a land of cruel wrong, under heavy burdens, borne uncomplainingly
+for many years; his wonderful spirituality, all things earthly being
+but the types of the heavenly,--the one, by resemblance or contrast,
+constantly suggesting the other, so that he could not be reminded
+that he was late to tea without the quick reply, 'May I not be late
+at the marriage supper of the Lamb,' or 'Jesus will gather us all
+in, in season;' all these traits of Christ-like beauty combined to
+make a character which, in this weary land, was a constant rest to
+the toil-worn missionary,--an influence for good, continually
+streaming forth into the darkness of spiritual death around him.
+God, who accurately weighs all men, only knows how much his kingdom
+in Persia has been advanced by Mar Elias, than whom the Nestorian
+Church never had a more spiritual and evangelical bishop."
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1864, pp. 146, 147.
+
+Almost five thousand Armenians inhabit the plain of Oroomiah, and
+the attention of the mission was gradually turned towards their
+spiritual enlightenment, with a prospect of ultimate success.
+
+At a general meeting of native helpers, in March, 1863, a Church
+Manual, or Directory was adopted; "in the observance of which," Mr.
+Cochran writes, "we have all that is essential to a reformed church,
+with reformed pastors; and in the possession of the substance, we
+can afford to dispense with the shadow of new organizations.....The
+prospect, we believe, was never brighter than at present for the
+ultimate evangelization of the old Church."
+
+During the thirty years from the arrival of Dr. Perkins, five of the
+twenty men and seven of the twenty-four women, who had joined the
+mission, had died; and five men and nine women had for various
+causes been obliged to retire from the field, leaving in the mission
+seven male and nine female laborers. In this time, the vast unknown
+of men and things where dwelt the primeval race, had become well
+known. A great work of exploration had been performed. So far as
+knowledge of the field was concerned, many a valley had been
+exalted, many a hill brought low. This was indeed preliminary work,
+but it was indispensable, and was no small share of what is involved
+in the conquest of the country for Christ. The seven missionaries
+then in the field had more than fifty Nestorian fellow-laborers in
+the gospel ministry, graduates of their seminary, and the nine
+female missionaries rejoiced in scores of pious young women from
+their seminary, abroad as wives, mothers, and teachers, doing a work
+perhaps not second in importance to that of the pious graduates of
+the other school. Nor should we overlook the reduction of the spoken
+language to writing, the translation of the Holy Scriptures into it,
+and the multiplication of books to the extent of seventy-nine
+thousand three hundred volumes, and more than sixteen millions of
+pages. Of the half a score and more of revivals in the seminaries,
+Dr. Perkins affirms that they would compare with the purest revivals
+he had ever witnessed in America.
+
+The return of Miss Beach to the United States threw the whole care
+of the female seminary on Miss Rice. She was afterwards materially
+aided by Mrs. Rhea, and from time to time by other members of the
+mission.
+
+The interest taken by the English government in the oppressed
+Nestorians, should be gratefully acknowledged. Mr. Taylor, English
+Consul at Diarbekir, was sent early in 1864 through the Nestorian
+districts of Koordistan, to ascertain their grievances, and report
+to the Ambassador at Constantinople; and Mr. Glen, a pious attache
+to the British Embassy in Persia, spent several months on the plain
+of Oroomiah for a similar purpose.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THIRTY YEARS AMONG THE JEWS.
+
+1826-1856.
+
+
+The first missionary sent by the Board to the Jews in the Levant,
+was the Rev. Josiah Brewer, who, while connected with the Board, was
+supported by the "Female Society of Boston and Vicinity for
+promoting Christianity among the Jews." Sailing from Boston,
+September 16, 1826, he proceeded to Constantinople by way of Malta
+and Smyrna, expecting there to find every facility for learning the
+Hebrew-Spanish language, spoken by the Spanish Jews. But
+disturbances, growing partly out of the Greek revolution, so
+hindered his gaining access to the Jews, that he deemed it his duty
+to turn to some more open field of missionary labor.
+
+After the retirement of Mr. Brewer, the ladies assumed the support
+of the Rev. William G. Schauffler who became his successor. He was a
+native of Stuttgart in Germany, but early removed, with his parents,
+to a German colony near Odessa. He came to this country through the
+agency of the Rev. Jonas King, and spent several years at the
+Theological Seminary in Andover, to prepare himself for a mission to
+the East. He was ordained at Boston in November, 1831, and embarked
+soon after, going by way of Paris, where he attended the lectures on
+the oriental languages and literature, for which that city was then
+distinguished. He had been familiar with the French language from
+his youth, and, having an aptitude for such studies, applied himself
+successfully to the Arabic and Turkish. His health beginning to fail
+after some months, and the cholera making ravages in the city, he
+resumed his journey through Germany to Odessa, and thence by water
+to Constantinople, where he arrived on the last day of July,
+1832.[1]
+
+[1] For Mr. Shauffler's account of his residence at Paris and this
+journey, see _Missionary Herald_ for 1833 and 1834.
+
+The greater part of the Jews in Constantinople are descendants of
+the eight hundred thousand who were expelled from Spain in 1492, and
+their language is the Hebrew-Spanish; or the Spanish with a mixture
+of Hebrew words, all written in the Spanish Rabbinical alphabet. As
+soon as Mr. Schauffler had acquired this language, he began the
+careful revision of a Hebrew-Spanish translation of the Old
+Testament, already in print, but not intelligible to the common
+people. He found the Jewish mind in an unquiet state. Eight years
+before, as many as a hundred and fifty had renounced Judaism at one
+time, but nearly all were soon driven back by persecution. Several
+of these now requested baptism, and were ready to suffer for the
+sake of becoming Christians; but they seemed incapable of
+understanding that anything more could be required of them than an
+exchange of external relations, and gave little evidence of piety.
+
+Near the close of 1834, Mr. Schauffler baptized a German Jew, whom
+he named Herman Marcussohn, having formed his acquaintance in South
+Russia, sixteen years before. As he could not there profess
+Christianity except by joining the Greek Church, he had come to
+Constantinople, bringing letters to Mr. Schauffler, and was engaged
+by him as a literary assistant.
+
+Religious excitements were not wanting. Three young Jews became
+anxious for Christian baptism, and both the Greek and Armenian
+Patriarchs refusing it, they fell into the cold embrace of the Papal
+Church. Three others expressed the same desire; and ten young men
+took advantage of the death of the civil head of their community to
+flee, as was supposed, for the sake of greater freedom in religion.
+Mr. Schauffler's varying and perplexing experience constrained him
+to believe, that private charity, and sacrifices for individual
+Jews, should be employed very sparingly.
+
+The year 1835 was chiefly employed in revising the Hebrew-Spanish
+version of the Old Testament, and in preparing a Lexicon in the two
+languages. He also commenced a series of tracts in Hebrew-German. To
+some extent there was among the Jews a hearing ear, and to a greater
+extent the absence of an understanding heart. The German and Polish
+Jews were less bigoted and more intelligent than the Spanish Jews,
+but were more greedy of gain, and more indifferent to religion. On
+the great day of atonement they allowed Marcussohn to address them
+in their synagogue on the Christian religion; the rulers of the
+synagogue having first given him a seat on the platform among
+themselves, where they read their Scriptures and prayers, and where
+sermons were delivered.
+
+A visit of some months made by Mr. Schauffler among his friends at
+Odessa, in 1836, resulted, through divine grace, in a revival, as
+has been already stated, among the German population, and was not
+without good effects upon the demoralized Jews of that city. During
+his absence, his revision of the Psalms in Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish
+was printed at Constantinople, under the superintendence of Mr.
+Farman, a missionary of the London Jews Society. A relative of the
+chief rabbi called on Mr. Schauffler after his return, and took a
+hundred copies for distribution, and he thought his chief might be
+induced to give his _imprimatur_ to the contemplated edition of the
+Old Testament; but from some unknown cause, the chief rabbi became a
+fierce opposer of the Psalms, and prohibited the use of the edition.
+
+In May, 1839, Mr. Schauffler left for Vienna, to superintend the
+printing of the Old Testament for the Spanish Jews. As he was
+leaving, the caique, in which himself and family, including an
+infant child, were going off to the steamer, upset, and the whole
+party narrowly escaped drowning. His visits to Odessa, in going and
+coming, were the occasion, as before, of spiritual blessings to the
+people. His family expenses were paid by the Board, but the printing
+was at the charge of the American Bible Society. He was absent
+nearly three years, returning in August, 1842; and in that time
+carried through the press three thousand copies of the Old Testament
+in Hebrew-Spanish, in two volumes quarto, containing fifteen hundred
+pages. The Hebrew occupied every alternate page. He also printed
+five hundred copies of the Hebrew-Spanish Pentateuch, in two
+volumes, 16mo., with the Hebrew on the opposite page. The Sefardim,
+or Spanish Jews, having the New Testament previously, were now
+favored with the whole inspired volume in their vernacular tongue.
+
+Notwithstanding the anathemas of Jewish rulers, the three thousand
+copies of the Psalms, printed in 1836, were nearly exhausted in
+1844, and the book was in great esteem among the people. A vain
+effort was made by the rabbis to suppress the Vienna edition of the
+Old Testament. Only a few of the hundreds of copies in the hands of
+the people were delivered up, and it was believed that those
+confiscated by the rabbis found their way again into circulation.
+
+About this time, the "Committee of the General Assembly of the
+Church of Scotland on the Scheme for the Conversion of the Jews,"
+made a grant of L2,162 (about $10,000) to this mission for the
+circulation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the purchase of rabbinic type,
+and the publication of school-books and tracts for the Jews. This,
+while it generously enlarged the operations of the mission, afforded
+no relief to the treasury of the Board.
+
+Such were the calls for the Hebrew-Spanish Old Testament, that more
+than twelve hundred copies went into the hands of the Jews previous
+to June, 1843. One rabbi requested twenty copies for poor Jews in
+Roumelia; another, and he the chief rabbi, asked for ninety copies
+for six destitute places; and another, the rabbi of Orta Keuy, made
+repeated solicitations for thirty copies for schools in that suburb,
+and for twenty additional copies to place in reading rooms, where
+Jews come together in a social manner, on their Sabbath, to read the
+Bible.
+
+Calls for religious conversation were frequent, but there was
+painful evidence, that in most cases the object was more selfish
+than spiritual. There appeared to be a general dissatisfaction with
+Judaism, but no proper knowledge of Christianity. Poverty and
+distress were the principal occasions of these calls. A few appeared
+to be interested in more fundamental truths; and they attentively
+read McCaul's "Old Paths," a controversial work that exposes the
+absurdity of rabbinism. The chief difficulty with all was in respect
+to the divine nature of the Messiah.
+
+The Spanish Jews, numbering seventy or eighty thousand souls in
+Constantinople, afforded a field for the faithful sower, rather than
+the cheerful reaper. The tyrannical rule of their rabbis rendered
+them less accessible, perhaps, than any other people in Turkey, the
+Moslems alone excepted; and intellectually they were among the most
+degraded races in the East. Yet they stood higher in their morals
+than did the Turks. They had but few books; and until the issue of
+the edition under Mr. Schauffler's superintendence, they had no copy
+of the Old Testament in their vernacular tongue, that was accessible
+to the people at large. Two editions of the Old Testament, in
+Hebrew-Spanish and Hebrew and Chaldee, with Rabbi Solomon Jarchi's
+commentary in opposition to Christian doctrines, had been published
+in 1816, at Vienna, in six quarto volumes. Now the Christian church,
+while waiting for a wider entrance among the people, was called on
+to provide the books that would be indispensable when that entrance
+should be secured. Among those most needed now, were a Hebrew and
+Hebrew-Spanish vocabulary of the Old Testament (then in
+preparation); a Spelling Book for schools; a short Hebrew Grammar; a
+brief Arithmetic; a Geography of the Bible, and a Natural History of
+the same; various religious tracts and essays on prophecies,
+especially those concerning the Messiah; and a translation of
+McCaul's "Old Paths" into Hebrew-Spanish.
+
+The Ashkenazim, or German Jews, were only about two thousand, and
+were chiefly young men driven from Moldavia by the Boyars, and from
+Russia by the law of conscription that threatened them with the
+hardships and perils of a soldier's life. This department was under
+the charge of Mr. Allan, a missionary of the Free Church of
+Scotland, in connection with Mr. Schwartz, a converted Jew.
+
+The Protestant Armenians showed a deep interest in efforts for the
+conversion of the Jews, and were forward to render their aid, Nor
+could Jews or Mohammedans be wholly uninfluenced by the change then
+going on in the Armenian churches of the metropolis in respect to
+the use of pictures; the greater part of which had been removed, and
+the patriarchal church, in place of them had set the example of
+having passages of Scripture painted in large letters on the walls.
+
+Besides the Spanish and German Jews in Constantinople, there was a
+small body of Italian Jews who were generally destitute of all
+religion. Then as there were many Germans in the city, Mr.
+Schauffler held a stated service for them, in which his labors were
+blessed to the hopeful conversion of some. The attendance was often
+composed largely of Israelites. In the closing month of the year
+1844, he baptized a Jewish physician.
+
+The Jews are probably more strongly prejudiced against the Gospel,
+than any other people. Their whole literature is anti-Christian. So
+are their education and internal religious policy. The great effort
+of Jewish learning for fifty generations, has been to prevent the
+Old Testament from suggesting Christian ideas to the Jewish mind.
+Hence a Jewish mission requires an extraordinary amount of
+preparatory work, in the first instance; though its main objects and
+duties afterwards will differ little, if at all, from those of other
+missions.
+
+Mr. Schauffler was specially adapted to the preliminary work in
+Jewish missions, growing out of the peculiar state of the national
+mind. What this was, up to the year 1845, has been sufficiently
+indicated. In that year, a second edition of the Pentateuch, in
+Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish, was printed at Vienna; and a new edition,
+of five thousand copies of the Old Testament in the same languages,
+was commenced at Smyrna. The American Bible Society, which bore the
+expense of these editions, also authorized the printing of a Hebrew
+and Hebrew-German version of the Old Testament, for the German Jews.
+
+The testimony of Mr. Schauffler is so explicit on a point of great
+importance in a mission of the Jews, as to justify the following
+quotation:--
+
+"My own observation from the first, has established this fact, that
+whenever a Jew is truly converted, the hope of seeing all Israelites
+settled in Canaan sinks to the level of many other secondary ideas;
+and Christ and him crucified,--Christ risen, ascended, and reigning
+in glory, Christ and his kingdom, wherever its centre may
+be,--becomes the all-absorbing theme. In other words, such Jews I
+have always observed to be just what true converts among ourselves
+are; differing from us only in this, that they cherish that desire
+for the conversion of Israel, which we ought also to cherish, and of
+which Paul has left so splendid an example. Half-converted men, in
+whom the carnal pride of the old Pharisee has never been broken down
+by a divinely wrought sense of the guilt of unbelief in Christ, who,
+when they were baptized, thought they did Christ and his people an
+honor; these, of course, never fail to consider themselves as
+something special in the kingdom of Christ, and they expect to be
+treated by Him accordingly. These make an exception. There are,
+also, truly converted men among the proselytes, who cherish that
+notion. They are those who have been under the influence of
+missionaries, who make them a 'royal race,' amid the divinely
+designated 'royal priesthood' (than which nothing can be higher) of
+Christ's true people. We are all apt to believe what magnifies
+ourselves. But I have observed no inherent tendency that way among
+truly converted Jews, and never found it necessary to make efforts
+to eradicate such carnal hopes."
+
+The particular relations of the Board to the Spanish Jews in
+Constantinople underwent an unexpected change in the year 1846.
+Owing to the protracted and unavoidable delay in providing
+associates for Mr. Schauffler, the brethren from the Free Church of
+Scotland had so far taken possession of the ground, as to render
+another mission in that city inexpedient. Whatever cause there may
+have been for regretting this after the Board had obtained the men,
+no blame was attached to our more zealous brethren of the Scotch
+Church. Mr. Schauffler would continue to reside in Constantinople,
+and would render valuable aid to all the missions to the Jews in
+those parts.
+
+Attention was now directed to Salonica (the ancient Thessalonica),
+which had been visited by Messrs. Schauffler and Dwight some years
+before. The city was visited again by Mr. Schauffler in July, 1847,
+and he urgently recommended occupying it as a Jewish station. The
+number of rabbinical Jews residing there was estimated at
+thirty-five thousand, or about half of the whole population. The
+number of their synagogues was fifty-six. The Jews were diffused
+throughout the city, and not confined, as in Constantinople, to
+certain quarters. There was, therefore, a good degree of
+intermingling in civil life with other people. The natural
+consequence was, that a Salonica Jew did not evince the shyness so
+common elsewhere, in approaching Christians, or in entering their
+houses. They were thankful for the gift of the Old Testament in a
+language they could understand. Moreover, the centre of rabbinical
+learning was at Salonica, and not at Constantinople; which made the
+assent given by the Salonica rabbis to the correctness of the
+Hebrew-Spanish version, the more influential.
+
+The Rev. Messrs. Eliphal Maynard and Edward M. Dodd, appointed to
+this mission, reached Salonica, with their wives, in April, 1849,
+going by way of Constantinople. Mr. Schauffler was to remain at the
+metropolis, but accompanied them to Salonica and was with them seven
+weeks, helping them much towards a successful entrance on their
+work. Both of the brethren devoted themselves to the Hebrew-Spanish.
+Mr. Dodd gave, also, some attention to the Turkish, with a view to
+the Zoharites, or Moslem Jews, numbering about five thousand; all of
+whom seemed to rejoice that missionaries had come there to reside.
+He describes them as among the noblest of the inhabitants of the
+city, and as very ready to talk on religious subjects, with less
+self-conceit than the rabbinical Jews.
+
+The Prudential Committee, on sending forth these brethren, stated
+the more important facts, principles, and usages, which should be
+kept constantly in mind in their mission to the Jews.[1] The
+relations of that people to Christ's kingdom were believed to be the
+same with those of all other people; and they were no more shut out
+from that kingdom by a "judicial blindness," or more really "cast
+away," than any other perverse and wicked nation. The obstacles to
+be overcome among them were substantially the same with those in the
+Oriental Churches. The relations sustained to the spiritual
+blessings of the Abrahamic covenant being no longer of blood, but of
+faith, these blessings must be common alike to believing Jews and
+Gentiles. Never again, in the spiritual kingdom of God, will there
+be circumcision or uncircumcision, Greek or Jew. Never again will
+there be a need of bloody rites, a mediating priesthood, and a showy
+ritual. Never again will there be a theocracy with a sensuous
+external economy, limited to a single nation. Never again, in the
+kingdom of God, will he be accounted a Jew, in the evangelical
+sense, who is one outwardly, nor that be accounted circumcision
+which is outward in the flesh; but he will be a Jew, who is one
+inwardly, and is, of course, heir to all the spiritual promises made
+to the Jews in the Old Testament; and circumcision is of the heart,
+in the spirit, and not in the letter. On these broad, fundamental
+Scripture principles, rested the whole superstructure of our mission
+to the Jews.
+
+[1] More fully stated in the _Missionary Herald_ for 1849, p. 101.
+
+The prevalent idea, that judicial blindness came upon Israel in
+consequence of their crucifixion of the Son of God, precluding their
+conversion as a people until the arrival of some great prophetic
+era, seems without any proper Scripture warrant. They were blinded
+only "in part;" only "some" of the branches were broken off; they
+are not "cast away" as a people; and when the rest of mankind shall
+embrace the Gospel, and come into the kingdom, the Jews will do the
+same.
+
+The practical inference drawn from all this was, that the same
+general course should be pursued in Jewish missions, which is proper
+in missions to any other unevangelized people. They must be
+instructed as to the oneness of Christ's body, the church, and the
+equal membership of all true disciples. If a church be formed of
+Jewish converts alone, it should be in full communion with all other
+Christian churches.
+
+Manual labor schools and hospitals for the Jews, employing converts
+merely for the sake of giving them employment; boarding-schools to
+serve as houses of refuge for the children of converts; expenses
+incurred for shielding converts from persecution or for teaching
+them trades; were not regarded as within the range of missionary
+work; but the converts were, in general, to be left, as the Apostles
+left them, to meet the consequences of their conversion upon their
+persons, their families, and their business, as God in his
+providence and by his grace should enable them.
+
+Mr. Maynard was removed by death from his labors within five months
+after his arrival. In company with a New England clerical friend, he
+made a tour into the delightful region of Thessaly for relaxation
+and health. Unconsciously they exposed themselves to malaria, and
+both took the same fever; of which Mr. Maynard died at Salonica, and
+his friend at Athens. Mrs. Maynard soon afterwards returned home.
+The place thus early vacated was filled, in the following summer, by
+the Rev. Justin W. Parsons, who was accompanied by his wife.
+
+The Salonica Jews had scarcely more than the shadow of education. A
+school taught in the principal synagogue contained about a thousand
+pupils, but with the least possible intellectual value in the
+instruction. Half as many more were in private schools, where Hebrew
+and Hebrew-Spanish were taught, but nothing like Grammar, Geography,
+or History. In a small select school, supported by rich Jews,
+Italian (the commercial language) and French were taught.
+Familiarity with the Talmud was regarded as the perfection of
+knowledge, so that a man needed to know nothing else. "Oh," said a
+beardless youth to a missionary, "if you had only read our Talmud,
+you would throw all your books into the fire." Salonica was famous
+for its books, but they were servile imitations of the Talmud. The
+spoken language was essentially Spanish, but, with a deficient
+vocabulary, and greatly corrupted with Turkish and Hebrew words,
+while subject to constant change. Consequently the many books and
+tracts in Hebrew-Spanish, which were published by the English
+missionaries in Smyrna, were comparatively useless at Salonica,
+because of the difficulty of understanding them. These Jews
+therefore needed missionary schools.
+
+The excessive self-righteousness of this people, as described by Mr.
+Dodd, disclosed a serious obstacle to missionary success among them.
+"Two thousand years of punishment," he says, "have not destroyed the
+feeling, that they are the beloved of heaven. They pray, morning,
+noon, and night, and that too in the holy language. They always ask
+a blessing on their food. They neither eat nor touch any unclean
+thing. Except they wash their hands oft, they eat not. When they
+fast, it is by entire abstinence from food. They read the Word of
+God almost continually. In passing through the bazaars, you may see
+the shop-keepers taking up the Bible to read in their leisure hours;
+and if a visitor has to wait for you a few minutes, with a Bible
+within reach, you will certainly find him reading it, though it be
+in an unknown tongue; and once a year they sit up all night to read
+through the law. Their recognition of Providence is excessive. Every
+event is referred to God. He is thanked for every good; submission
+to his will is expressed in every trial. Every hope is uttered
+conditionally, in dependence on him; and his aid is invoked in
+trouble as frequently, and with as little meaning, as many
+Christians speak of fortune, or luck. As to the outward semblance of
+piety and devotion, I do not think another such people can be found.
+Like their fathers, they seek God daily, and delight to know his
+ways. As a nation, they take delight in approaching God. 'Is not the
+Lord among us?' 'No evil shall come upon us.' Talk to them of God's
+glory, and they will answer by quoting some beautiful Psalm of
+David. Talk of man's sinfulness, and they will repeat Psalm 51st,
+with seeming penitential devotion. Speak of God's wrath against sin;
+they will assent readily, but add, that he is pitiful, remembering
+that we are dust. Thus the missionary is baffled. Let him search the
+Word of God to find expressions that shall penetrate to their
+consciences; the Jew is familiar with them all, and repeats them
+every day in his prayers. They either mean nothing, or through a
+talmudic gloss, aided by self-righteous blindness, they foster his
+confidence in the mercy of the God who is his peculiar friend, and
+loves him more than he loves the Gentile world, or even his own
+justice and truth."
+
+Mr. Parsons also says, after a visit to Seres, a city fifteen miles
+northwest of Salonica: "The Jews of Seres have the same blind
+submission to the rabbis, the same prejudices, the same evasions of
+the truth. Gold is their God, and traffic is their religion,--one
+would say, who should meet them only in their fair. But in their
+prayers, and their Sabbath observance, the deceiver makes them
+appear to themselves the holy favorites of heaven, separate from the
+nations."
+
+Mr. Schauffler had now printed his Hebrew grammar, and commenced the
+printing of his Hebrew lexicon. The edition of the Pentateuch was
+nearly exhausted.
+
+The Rev. Homer B. Morgan and wife reached Salonica in February,
+1852. The brethren were of the opinion, that while for two thirds of
+the year the climate of that city was tolerably healthy, the low
+portions, where the Jews and Greeks chiefly resided, were subject to
+malaria. The missionaries, therefore, would have resided in the more
+elevated parts occupied by the Turks, but could neither hire nor
+purchase houses in that quarter. The best they could do was to live
+in the upper stories of their houses. Mr. Dodd suffered from a
+bronchial affection, and sought to recruit his health by an
+excursion into Thessaly, where he enjoyed some excellent
+opportunities for preaching the gospel, both to Jews and
+Gentiles.[1] Mr. Parsons visited the part of Macedonia, which lies
+northwest of Salonica, and then extended his journey to Sophia, the
+capital of Bulgaria.[2]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1852, pp. 235-238.
+
+[2] _Ibid_. pp. 78-83.
+
+The health of Mr. Dodd did not improve, and he repaired first to
+Malta, and then, with the consent of the Committee, to the United
+States. In August, 1852, a mouth after his departure, Mr. and Mrs.
+Parsons, and Mr. and Mrs. Morgan were all prostrated by intermittent
+fever. Mrs. Morgan did not yield to the disease, till she had
+exhausted her strength in caring for the others; and then, after a
+short illness, during most of which she was unconscious, she was
+removed to her heavenly home. Mr. Parsons was at one time very low;
+and the three survivors were subjected to such frequent returns of
+fever during the winter, that they were advised by physicians to
+spend the spring and summer on the Bosphorus. They left the station
+in charge of native helpers, and removed to Constantinople. Until
+sickness came, their labors had been uninterrupted. Their circle of
+acquaintance was constantly increasing, and they were generally
+regarded by the Jews as their sincere friends. They were expected in
+their visits to declare and make personal applications of gospel
+truths. A little volume upon the inspiration of the Old and New
+Testaments, by Mr. Dodd, was favorably received by many of the Jews.
+
+It was not deemed expedient for the brethren to resume their
+residence in Salonica. Mr. Morgan and Mr. and Mrs. Parsons removed
+to Smyrna, where they shared with their English brethren in labors
+among the Jews. They hoped to continue to occupy Salonica through
+Armenian native helpers, and to visit it themselves in the healthy
+season. Mr. Morgan was married to Mrs. Sutphen, of the Armenian
+mission, at the close of 1853, and on the return of Mr. and Mrs.
+Dodd to Smyrna in the autumn of 1854, they went to Salonica,
+expecting to remain there during nine months, and then to retire
+before the miasma of summer. Mr. Morgan was welcomed by his Jewish
+acquaintance, and found that the spirit of inquiry had spread, and
+that there was greater boldness on the part of a few. But whatever
+their secret conviction of the truth, none confessed the Saviour
+openly. The first fruits ripened elsewhere. A family of three fled
+to Malta, and were baptized there; another, a converted rabbi, came
+to Smyrna, and became a teacher. There had been a considerable
+advance in female education, since Mrs. Dodd had, with great
+difficulty, persuaded a Jewish girl to encounter the odium of
+learning to read. Some prominent rabbis were teaching their
+daughters, and the tide seemed evidently turning.
+
+The Jews of Smyrna were found to be more worldly, and less given to
+religious thought, than the Jews of Salonica. But an avowedly
+Christian school of near twenty pupils was sustained during the year
+1854, and taught by the converted rabbi above mentioned. The teacher
+was known to be a proselyte. The New Testament was read daily, and
+biblical instruction occupied a large place. It was hopeful that
+Jews were found willing to place their children in such an
+atmosphere. A boarding-school was opened for a few of the more
+promising boys belonging to the day-school. The parents of five
+actually signed a contract binding them to the missionaries for
+three years. This they did after the most explicit declarations,
+that while the boys would be trained for the highest usefulness and
+happiness in this world, they would be carefully instructed in the
+way of salvation through Jesus of Nazareth. The experiment could not
+proceed without opposition. The chief rabbi interposed. The eldest
+boy in the school manifested an inclination to embrace the Christian
+religion, and was beaten, dragged to the synagogue, and compelled to
+go through the form of worship. He was then put in irons procured
+from the mad-house. He afterwards fled to Constantinople, where he
+was baptized by one of the Scotch missionaries. The teacher was also
+thrown into prison, on a false accusation. A young Jewish physician
+appeared fully to embrace the truth, and was not moved by the most
+cruel threats, or flattering promises. Mr. Parsons was greatly
+encouraged.
+
+The instruction of inquirers at Constantinople had passed mostly
+into the hands of English and Scotch missionaries to the Jews, while
+Mr. Schauffler's labors were chiefly literary. He was preparing a
+new translation of the Psalms into Hebrew-Spanish, in a more popular
+style; but could hardly expect entire success, owing to the
+peculiarities of the language as spoken by the common people in
+different places. His translation of the Old Testament into
+Hebrew-German, after revision by Mr. Koenig, of the Scotch Free
+Church Mission, was printed by the American Bible Society. He was
+able to preach in various languages, and did not neglect employing
+his talent in that direction. The printing of his Hebrew Lexicon was
+completed in 1854.
+
+The reader will scarcely be prepared for the relinquishment of this
+mission, which took place early in 1856, though not in consequence
+of failing success. The Armenian and Jewish missions, at their
+united annual meeting in the spring of 1855, recommended that the
+Board relinquish to some other society the Jewish stations of
+Salonica and Smyrna. Constantinople, as such a station, had been
+practically relinquished some time before. At a conference of
+missionaries in Constantinople in November of that year, on occasion
+of a visit from the Foreign Secretary of the Board, the subject was
+carefully considered, and the question was decided according to the
+personal convictions of the brethren in the Jewish mission. The
+result was in favor of relinquishing the Jewish field to the English
+and Scotch Societies; and of the younger members of the mission
+devoting their strength to the Armenian field, the exclusive right
+to which had been conceded to American missionaries by the general
+consent, as it were, of Protestant Christendom. It had become
+certain that the Board could not command laborers enough to do
+anything like justice to both fields; while the English and Scotch
+churches manifested a special interest in laboring for the
+conversion of the ancient people of God; and there were both English
+and Scotch missionaries in Constantinople, and English missionaries
+in Smyrna; and others from the Established Church of Scotland were
+ready to occupy Salonica.
+
+Mr. Schauffler subsequently devoted himself to labors for the
+Moslems, many of whom were becoming interested in the spiritual form
+of Christianity presented in the Protestant Armenian communities,
+that were springing up throughout the empire.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.
+
+1857-1862.
+
+
+The geographical position of European Turkey brings it directly in
+contact with European civilization. Its interior may easily be
+reached from the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, the
+Grecian Archipelago, the Adriatic Sea, and from the Danube flowing
+down from the heart of Europe. The Mohammedan population is
+estimated at four millions, and three fourths of these are supposed
+to be of Christian origin, and less firmly wedded to the Moslem
+faith than the remaining million of Osmanly Turks. And even these,
+born and educated on the borders of Europe, in the midst of divers
+Christian races, must form a character different from that of the
+Asiatic Turks in other parts of the empire.
+
+Of the various races in European Turkey, the Bulgarians, properly so
+called, who are estimated at four millions, speaking the Bulgarian
+language, claim our first attention. They inhabit not only Bulgaria
+proper, extending from the Danube to the Balkan Mountains, but also
+an extensive region south of these mountains, reaching to the
+Bosphorus, the Marmora, and Albania; and embracing a good part of
+ancient Thrace, Albania, and Macedonia.[1]
+
+[1] On the map, this country is called _Bulgaria_, _Roumelia_, and
+_Macedonia_. _Roumelia_, formerly called Moldavia and Wallachia,
+north of the Danube, is peopled by a race supposed to be descended
+from the old Roman military colonies. The language has an affinity
+to the Latin. _Servia_ is peopled by Slavs, who speak substantially
+the same language with the Bulgarians. The population of Roumania is
+estimated at 3,864,000, and that of Servia at 1,078,000.
+
+The Bulgarians are of Slavonic origin, and their race is among the
+oldest in Europe. In the latter part of the fifth century they
+crossed the Danube, and gave their name to the country between that
+river and the Balkan Mountains. In subsequent ages they extended
+their conquests into Thrace and Macedonia, and, encamping before the
+walls of Constantinople, sought to drive the Byzantine emperors into
+Asia Minor. In 712, the Bulgarian troops defeated the armies of the
+Eastern Roman Empire, and laid siege to Constantinople. Three years
+later their king concluded a commercial treaty with the Emperor
+Theodosius III. which is said to have remained in force for a long
+time. In the year 814 the Bulgarians again invaded the Roman Empire,
+captured Adrianople, and carried a bishop named Manuel, with others
+of the citizens, into captivity. This person formed the companions
+of his captivity into a church, and they remained true to their
+faith, and labored earnestly for its spread. Having made proselytes
+among the Bulgarians, the bishop and many of the captives suffered
+martyrdom. Somewhat later, a captive monk, named Constantine
+Cypharas, endeavored to carry forward the work thus commenced; but
+the Greek empress, Theodora, for some special reasons, was led to
+redeem this monk, and procure his return to his native country. At
+this juncture, a sister of the Bulgarian king Bogoris was residing
+at Constantinople, whither she had been conveyed as a captive in
+early youth, and where she had been educated as a Christian, and the
+effort to secure the return of the monk resulted in her being sent
+back to her friends. She now labored to gain over the king, her
+brother, to the Christian faith. Circumstances at length favored her
+pious efforts, and she sent for Methodius of Thessalonica, a monk
+and a skilful painter. He was afterwards joined by his older brother
+Constantine, or Cyrill, surnamed the Philosopher, on account of his
+learning. Cyrill reduced the Slavonic language to writing, taught
+the barbarous nation the use of letters, and translated the
+Scriptures into that language. In the year 861 he baptized king
+Bogoris. The king undertook to force his people to change their
+religion and they revolted. He succeeded in suppressing the
+rebellion, and showed the superficial nature of his Christianity by
+the cruel revenge he took on the leaders of the revolt. Then the
+nation followed the lead of their king, and has ever since been
+nominally Christian. Neander says, that Cyrill was distinguished
+from all other missionaries of that period, by not yielding to the
+prejudice which regarded the languages of the rude nations as too
+profane to be employed for sacred uses, and by not shrinking from
+any toil which was necessary to master the language of the people
+among whom he labored.
+
+The Bulgarians wavered for a time, according to the sway of their
+political interests, between the Greek and Latin Churches, until
+finally they decided wholly in favor of the former, and a Greek
+archbishop and bishops were set over them.[1]
+
+[1] Neander's _Ecclesiastical History_, vol. iii. pp. 307-316,
+Torrey's Translation; and Dr. Murdock's Note to p. 51 of Mosheim's
+_Institute of Ecclesiastical History_, vol. ii.
+
+In the year 924, Simeon, the Bulgarian monarch, compelled the
+Byzantine Emperor, Romanus I., to recognize the National Church of
+Bulgaria as wholly independent of the Greek Hierarchy. This
+independence, after about fifty years, was partially destroyed by a
+Greek Emperor; and in 1018, Basil II. restored the supremacy of the
+Patriarch of Constantinople. The kingdom was revived in the latter
+part of the twelfth century, but was again overthrown in 1393, by
+the Sultan Bajazet I. Mohammed II., when he subverted the Eastern
+Empire in 1453, made the religious chiefs of the Christian sects
+responsible, not only for the spiritual administration of their
+respective flocks, but also for that of a large share of their
+temporal affairs,--such as public education, civil suits, contracts,
+wills, and the like. The Bulgarians appear for a time not to have
+been formally recognized by the Turks as belonging to the Greek
+Church, and of course were not subject to its Patriarch; but the
+Fanariote Greeks succeeded at last in making the Porte believe that,
+being of the same religion with the Greeks, they should be placed
+under the direct authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople; and
+this was effected in the year 1767. Thus the Bulgarians lost their
+religious independence.
+
+Since then, they have ever cherished an intense dislike of the Greek
+bishops, whose aim has always been to extinguish every remnant of
+national feeling, and obliterate all traces of their origin. They
+earnestly desired to have the Bible and the church-services in their
+own vernacular language, while the Greek Patriarch and his bishops
+insisted upon using only the ancient Greek. The people desired to
+have their children taught in the schools through the language of
+their own homes, while the bishops insisted that the instruction
+should be in the Greek language. They desired that their bishops and
+other ecclesiastics should be chosen from among themselves; but the
+Patriarch forced upon them Greek bishops, men of a foreign tongue,
+and foreign habits and sympathies, whose whole aim was to keep the
+people under the galling yoke of ecclesiastical tyranny.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1858, p. 322.
+
+What the Bulgarian people specially desired was ecclesiastical
+independence; and, in order to be freed from their forced dependence
+on the Greek Patriarchate, their leading men sometimes inclined to
+go over to the Pope. This of course was favored by the intrigues of
+the Jesuits, and politically by all the power of France. This
+awakened state of mind led many to examine the teachings of
+Scripture, and compare them with those of the Greek and Papal
+Churches; and some made inquiries of the missionaries at the several
+stations, as to Protestantism; and the question naturally arose,
+whether it would not be as well to become Protestants, as Roman
+Catholics.
+
+The Greek Patriarch was decided and bold. In 1861, he summoned the
+Bulgarian bishops to appear and answer for themselves before his
+great ecclesiastical Council at Constantinople; but they refused,
+declaring that they owed him no allegiance. The summons was thrice
+repeated, but in vain; whereupon the bishops were anathematized, and
+it was resolved to banish them to Mount Sinai. This was prevented by
+the interference of the Protestant Ambassadors, and the Bulgarians
+rallied to the defense of their bishops. Three thousand of them
+gathered at one time in one of their churches in the metropolis, and
+were prevented from proclaiming a Free Bulgarian Church only by the
+intervention of the Turkish government. Meanwhile the Bulgarian
+nation was agitated with the discussion of religious doctrines and
+ecclesiastical relations, and the Papists flooded the land with
+their publications. When the anathema against the bishops was sent
+to the Bulgarian towns, the people in some places would not allow it
+to be read, and publicly burnt it. They even caused a counter
+anathema to be read against the Greek Church. They doubtless
+regarded this matter as wholly a religious one; but, in an
+evangelical point of view, it was little more than a national
+movement for securing their rights. Sentiments were sometimes
+uttered, however, which strongly reminded one of the commencement of
+the Reformation in Germany. "The religion of the Greeks," says Mr.
+Crane, "has been denounced as contrary to the Bible, and the
+Scriptures eulogized and recommended to the people. In their printed
+speeches we have seen no instance, in which they have called upon
+Mary and the saints for protection, but many in which they have
+called upon God to vindicate their cause."
+
+Roumelia was partially explored in 1857 by Dr. Hamlin, accompanied
+by the Rev. Henry Jones, Secretary of the Turkish Missions Aid
+Society, then visiting our missions in Turkey. From Rodosto to
+Adrianople, a distance of seventy-two miles, they saw but few
+Bulgarian villages. Yet what came within their observation was of
+special interest, "Wherever we saw flocks, we saw Bulgarian
+shepherds; and wherever we saw cultivation, we saw Bulgarian
+laborers. They are indeed spread all over Roumelia, as laborers and
+shepherds, and the industry of the country is in their hands. The
+land is generally of excellent quality. It lies spread out in
+beautiful levels, and undulating, gently rising hills. In the
+neighborhood of villages it is covered with rich fields of grain,
+but elsewhere, for successive miles, it is roamed over by flocks of
+sheep, which, however, cannot crop a tithe of the grass. It is a
+beautiful region, waiting for the taste and intelligence of virtuous
+industry to make it a paradise."
+
+We have also a charming view given us of the hundred miles of
+country between Adrianople and Philippopolis, as it presented itself
+to the travellers in the opening of spring. "The Greek race
+disappears entirely from the soil, and the predominant race is the
+Bulgarian. So entirely unconscious are the people of the Balkan's
+being the boundary, that when I spoke of Bulgaria, I was repeatedly
+corrected by the remark, 'You are now in Bulgaria.' The soil along
+our route is of the finest quality, and large villages were
+occasionally seen on our right and left, with magnificent views of
+cultivated lands and vast pastures, the snowy Balkan summits
+bounding the north, and lower ranges of hills the south. The fields,
+clothed in the brightest verdure of spring, gave promise of
+unsurpassed abundance; and in view of the inspiring scenes before
+us, we could not forbear exclaiming, with the Psalmist: 'Thou
+crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. The
+pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over
+with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.'"
+
+Dr. Hamlin speaks thus of the people: "In the midst of this
+fertility, we had only to cast the eye upon one of the villages in
+order to feel that cruel oppression and spiritual darkness are upon
+the people. In some of the Bulgarian villages we saw no window, nor
+even a place for one, in a single house. The country being destitute
+of forest trees, there is no timber, except what is brought from a
+great distance, and so they construct their dwellings of the
+lightest material possible. They are generally of wicker work,
+plastered within with mud. A large mud chimney and a door are the
+only openings. And yet the Bulgarians, in these miserable cottages,
+are the cleanliest people in the world. Excepting the rice
+cultivators, who dress expressly for their muddy work, we saw not a
+ragged Bulgarian between Adrianople and Philippopolis. Their clothes
+are of home manufacture, coarse, strong, whole, and clean. The
+unembarrassed, kind, respectful bearing of the people, men, women,
+and children, must impress the most cursory observer. An impudent
+laugh, an over-curious gaze, or a rude remark, we did not meet with
+from old or young. We could hardly say this after going ten steps
+into a Greek or Turkish village."
+
+The favorable report made by Dr. Hamlin to his mission, awakened
+much interest, and it was resolved, "That the Bulgarian and other
+Slavonic races inhabiting European Turkey, call loudly for immediate
+and vigorous missionary efforts; and being providentially thrown
+upon the American churches as the chosen instrumentality for
+evangelizing them, are worthy of their most devoted patronage."
+
+The mission was commenced with the understanding, that the
+operations of the American Board would be in the country south of
+the Balkan Mountains; while the missionaries of the American
+Methodist Episcopal Church were to occupy stations north of these
+mountains. The Methodist brethren desired the aid of one of the
+older missionaries at Constantinople in the selection of their first
+station, and Mr. E. E. Bliss accompanied them. They visited Varna,
+Shumla, Rasgrad, and Rustchuk, and decided upon occupying the first
+and second of these places. The acquaintance thus formed between the
+two missions was ever after a source of mutual pleasure and profit.
+Mr. Bliss thus concludes a report of his visit:--
+
+"This, my first acquaintance with the Bulgarians, has given me a
+very favorable opinion of them. Others have expressed a different
+opinion, but I should rank them before the Armenians in native
+intelligence and cultivation. Certainly a higher degree of
+civilization prevails among them, than among the Armenians of Asia
+Minor. They have better homes, better vehicles, better implements of
+husbandry. Wherever we went, we found much to remind us that we were
+in Europe, and not in Asia. Our road from Varna to Rustchuk was
+bordered by the posts and wires of the telegraph. Every town had its
+telegraphic station and corps of operators--French, English, and
+Polish gentlemen. More than once, through their unsolicited
+kindness, our approach to a stopping place was announced by the
+wire, and we found lodgings made ready against our coming. This, to
+me, was quite a strange feature of missionary travelling, very
+unlike my experience in Asia Minor."
+
+The Rev. Charles F. Morse, who joined the Armenian mission in 1857,
+was appointed to commence the mission. Leaving his family at
+Constantinople until he had completed his arrangements, he proceeded
+to Adrianople in March, 1858, with Hagopos, a graduate of the Bebek
+Seminary, as an assistant. The population of Adrianople was then
+estimated at one hundred and forty thousand, of whom forty thousand
+were supposed to be Turks. The books in the Turkish language found
+in Mr. Morse's baggage, including a large number of New Testaments,
+were at first detained at the custom-house, under instructions from
+the Porte, but were released upon application of the American and
+English Consuls. His bookseller obtained a firman for the sale of
+books, and freely exposed the Turkish Testament, and Mr. Morse was
+himself allowed free access to the largest and finest of the
+mosques,--a favor not granted at the capital.
+
+The most formidable opposition apprehended was from the Romish
+missionaries. They had been quick to see a double advantage in the
+disaffection of the Bulgarians with the Greek Church, and the fall
+of the Russian Protectorate, and had already erected a fine church.
+The French residents, their consul, and even the English consular
+agent, were Catholics. An intelligent Bulgarian expressed the
+opinion that Protestant missions furnished the only possible
+safeguard against Rome in that country, and one of the best informed
+of the American missionaries declared his belief, that the greatest
+contest of Protestantism with Rome, since the era of the
+Reformation, would be in Turkey.
+
+The Rev. Theodore L. Byington and wife joined the mission in 1858,
+and were stationed at Adrianople. In the next year, the mission was
+strengthened by the arrival of Rev. Messrs. William W. Meriam and
+James F. Clark and their wives, who commenced a station at
+Philippopolis, in ancient Thrace. The Rev. William F. Arms and wife
+arrived in 1860, and were associated with Mr. Byington in a new
+station at Eski Zagra, seventy-five miles northwest from Adrianople,
+sixty northeast from Philippopolis, and twenty miles south of the
+Balkan Mountains. Mr. Oliver Crane was transferred from the Western
+Turkey Mission to Adrianople, in 1860. The population of
+Philippopolis was estimated at about sixty thousand, of whom twenty
+thousand were Bulgarians, sixteen thousand Mohammedans, fourteen
+thousand Greeks, and five thousand Jews. Surrounding the city, there
+were, within a circuit of thirty or forty miles, more than three
+hundred villages, including a large population, mostly Bulgarians.
+These villages were easy of access, and some of them would afford a
+healthy retreat in summer. There were numerous mosques, and five
+Greek and three Bulgarian churches. The Romanists were building a
+large church edifice. The situation of Eski Zagra was at the
+northern extremity of a luxuriant and beautiful plain, and contained
+ten thousand Bulgarians and eight thousand Turks.
+
+Mr. Byington found a remarkable zeal for education. There were in
+the town six Bulgarian schools for boys, with eight hundred
+scholars, and four for girls with one hundred and thirty-five
+scholars; and in the surrounding villages there were eleven schools,
+with three hundred pupils. For the two principal schools they had
+spacious buildings, that would grace a New England town. The
+teachers were gentlemenly men, and enthusiastic in their work. This
+class of teachers had generally received their education abroad, for
+the most part in Russia, where they could secure it without expense.
+They were earnest in their efforts to introduce a higher
+civilization, and gave the missionaries a cordial reception. It was
+otherwise with the priests.
+
+The readiness of the Bulgarians to receive the New Testament in
+their spoken language, is deserving of special note. An English
+gentleman, at one of the fairs in 1857, sold four hundred copies,
+which was all he had. Several editions were printed under the
+direction of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and were
+exhausted in 1859. At least fifteen thousand copies had been
+distributed, chiefly by sale, and the demand did not seem
+diminished. Mr. Byington reports at Eski Zagra in September, 1860,
+that, at the examination of one of the schools, each of twelve
+members of the most advanced class was presented by the Trustees
+with a handsome copy of the Bible Society's edition of the New
+Testament. Subsequent experience tended somewhat to diminish the
+value of such facts.
+
+A church was formed at Adrianople, on the first Sabbath in 1862,
+with a mixed membership. Pastor Apraham, already known to the reader
+in connection with the church at Rodosto, came by invitation, with
+one of his deacons, to assist in its formation; as also did the
+missionaries from Eski Zagra.
+
+Mr. Meriam at the close of 1861, stated as the results of
+observations in his recent tours, that in villages and towns where
+colporters had penetrated with the Word of Life, the people were no
+longer afraid of Protestants, but respected and confided in them;
+while they venerated and clung to their own form of religion; and
+that the obvious way to benefit the people, spiritually and
+temporally, most thoroughly and speedily, was to have suitable
+native helpers quietly settled in such villages. His account of some
+of the incidents on these tours will prepare the reader to
+sympathize with this excellent missionary, and his estimable wife,
+in the sad events soon to be narrated.
+
+"On reaching Tatar Bazarjik, the family of one of our boarding
+scholars would not permit me to go to a public khan, but insisted
+that I should go to their house. I accepted the kind invitation, and
+while with them, at their request, conducted family worship, morning
+and evening. Visited a dozen families and was cordially welcomed by
+all. In walking the street, one morning, I heard a voice from a shop
+inviting me to come in, and on entering found a company of
+Bulgarians, with their faces all aglow with the questions they had
+to ask. A number of persons collected from other shops, and after an
+hour, all seemed still unwilling that the conversation should be
+broken off. Their questions showed an intelligent desire for light
+on the true way of salvation."
+
+"Early Sabbath morning, a number of Bulgarians came to our room at
+the khan (at Otluk-Keuy), and began to ask questions about Christ,
+the Virgin Mary, the New Testament, Popery, Protestantism, the
+ceremonies of the Greek Church, etc., etc. The number of persons
+increased until we had an audience of forty. They gave us no time to
+eat until nightfall; and in the evening nine more came, and seemed
+convinced of the truth. We spent a week in this village. Wine is
+drank largely, and most of the young men are very wild, but we found
+some whose conversation encouraged us much. For example, there are
+three who hold regular meetings for the study of the New Testament
+on Sabbaths and fast days. Such questions as they cannot solve for
+themselves they reserve, until some one who can, passes through
+their village. They have become fully aware, by their study of the
+New Testament, that the Greek Church is not the one established by
+the Apostles. One of their earnest questions was, 'Can we find
+salvation in the Greek Church?' We found one enlightened priest in
+this village, and spent a half day conversing with him. He informed
+us that he was endeavoring to have the church service in the vulgar
+tongue, so that all might understand. He quotes Scripture readily,
+and is doing much good. All the other priests are miserable wine
+drinkers. On my refusing the invitation of one of these to drink
+with him, he exclaimed in astonishment, 'What! are you not a
+Christian'?"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.
+
+1862-1871.
+
+
+Brigandage has at times prevailed in some parts of Bulgaria,
+especially in the Balkan Mountains. In the spring of 1862, the roads
+were more or less infested with highwaymen, but the one from
+Philippopolis to Adrianople, and thence to Rodosto, being constantly
+travelled, was deemed safe. By this road Mr. Byington, and Mr.
+Meriam with his wife and child, went to Constantinople, to attend
+the annual meeting of the Western Turkey Mission. Returning, Mr.
+Byington started a week before Mr. Meriam, and reached Eski Zagra
+safely, going from Adrianople to Philippopolis alone. Mr. Meriam
+passed over the same route with his family. Nothing noticeable
+occurred till they reached Hermanli, twelve hours from Adrianople,
+at noon, July 3d. Here they found a company of half a score or more
+of men, with four wagons, hesitating to proceed on account of a band
+of mounted brigands, said to be lying in wait to rob them.
+Unfortunately the courageous advice of Mr. Meriam decided them to
+proceed, accompanied by two armed guards. After they had started,
+Mr. Meriam became convinced that it would have been safer for him
+and his family to have gone alone; and such was the fact, for the
+robbers did not know of his presence, and designed only to plunder
+the rayahs. The brigands came upon them about three o'clock in the
+afternoon. The faithless guards fled at once, and some valuable
+horses were seized. The drivers of the two forward talaccas, of
+which Mr. Meriam's was one, then increased their speed, endeavoring
+to escape; when the robbers pursued, firing rapidly upon the wagons,
+piercing the covering of Mr. Meriam's, and killing or wounding two
+or three occupants of the next vehicle. The missionary and his
+family were shielded for a time by the boxes in the hinder part of
+the carriage, till the fall of one of the horses wheeled it round,
+so as to face the assailants. Mr. Meriam sprang out to protect his
+wife and child, and immediately fell, pierced by two balls. When the
+agonized wife expostulated with one of the brigands, saying, that
+"he loved the Osmanlees, and wished to do them good," he replied,
+"Why then did you flee"? Had they quietly waited, though they might
+have been robbed, life would probably have been spared.
+
+Mrs. Meriam retained her presence of mind, and placing her infant
+upon the ground, carefully collected the papers and other articles
+which the robbers had scattered about, and then sat down to watch
+the lifeless remains of her husband. The Turkish authorities of the
+next village sent a conveyance to take her and her precious treasure
+to a khan. When the moodir saw her in her little room, with her babe
+and the corpse of her husband, he was much moved, and did what he
+could for her comfort. He sent a telegram to the governor of
+Philippopolis, designed for Mr. Clarke, but Mr. Clarke received no
+notice, and consequently no friend came to meet her. She conveyed
+the body in her own carriage; and spent the whole of the next night,
+with her babe, watching the talacca in the open air, vainly
+listening for the coming of the messenger whom she had so much
+reason to expect. On the next and last day, she prevailed on a
+Bulgarian boy to hasten on with a message, which brought Mr. Clarke
+to her relief, but only just before she entered the city. An
+immediate burial was necessary. The Austrian, Greek, and French
+Consuls were very kind, and the Bulgarian church was offered for the
+funeral.
+
+Mrs. Meriam possessed an excellent constitution, but the strain had
+been too much for her. A premature confinement followed, and fever,
+which assumed a typhoid form, closed her earthly career, July 25,
+about three weeks after her husband's murder.[1]
+
+[1] A statement, made at the time, that Mr. Meriam fired on the
+assassins was afterwards found to be untrue. Nor did Mrs. Meriam
+receive any injury at the time of the murder. Nothing was taken from
+her personally, and no violence was offered her. _Missionary
+Herald_, 1863, p. 143.
+
+It was necessary that an example should be made of the murderers.
+Mr. Seward, Secretary of State at Washington, took Mr. Webster's
+view as to the rights of missionaries, and removed the doubts of Mr.
+Morris, the American Minister at the Porte, which had occasioned an
+unfortunate delay; so that he, with Mr. Goddard the Consul General,
+put matters in train at Adrianople, which led the Pasha of that
+province to offer four hundred dollars, and soon after as much more,
+for information that would insure the detection of the assassins,
+and to distribute bands of soldiers over the country. Mr. Blunt, the
+English Consul at Adrianople, offered a reward of ninety dollars on
+his own responsibility; and with him the Austrian Consul, Mr.
+Camerlobe, actively cooeperated.
+
+These efforts resulted in the arrest, conviction, and execution of
+three of the five engaged in the murder. The remaining two met with
+an ignominious and violent death; one having been assassinated, and
+the other shot down while committing highway robbery in an adjacent
+province.
+
+A very effectual check was thus put to the brigandage so prevalent
+before, and the attention of all classes was drawn to the character,
+position, and aims of the missionaries.
+
+Scarcely a year had elapsed, since Mr. Coffing had fallen by the
+hands of assassins in Central Turkey; and who can tell how much the
+punishment inflicted on the murderers of these missionaries, has
+contributed to the safety of their brethren, or how much it will be
+instrumental in preventing future massacres of native Christians, as
+well as missionaries, by fanatical Mohammedans.
+
+The Rev. Henry C. Haskell and wife joined the mission in the autumn
+of 1862, and assisted Mr. Morse in forming a new station at Sophia,
+about four days' journey northwest of Philippopolis. In the
+following year, Miss Mary E. Reynolds took charge of a school for
+girls at Eski Zagra, which had been successfully commenced by a
+young woman from Catholic Bohemia, who spoke the Bulgarian like a
+native, and gave good evidence of piety. The school was designed for
+the education of female teachers. The health of Mrs. Crane obliged
+her and her husband to return home, and ask for a release from their
+connection with the Board. Adrianople was thus left, for a time,
+without a missionary. The death of Mr. and Mrs. Meriam stirred up
+several young men in the school at Philippopolis who became active
+and successful colporters in the surrounding villages. Many of the
+people in Sophia were found to possess the Scriptures, and a
+considerable number were known to read them with interest; but as
+soon as the fact became known to their acquaintance, they were
+subjected to persecution.
+
+At Samokov, a pleasant town nine hours to the southeast of Sophia,
+with a Bulgarian population of ten thousand, there were encouraging
+indications, and that place proving to be more healthful and a
+better centre than Sophia, the station was removed thither in 1869.
+
+In 1863, the missionaries of the American Board and the Methodists
+working in this field held a meeting at Eski Zagra, for cultivating
+the friendly relations already existing between them. Dr. Wood and
+Mr. Isaac G. Bliss were present from the Armenian Mission. They
+found themselves in substantial agreement as to the methods of
+missionary labor, and also as to the nature of the field. "While
+some facts of a more or less hopeful nature," writes Mr. Byington,
+"were reported, the general feeling seemed to be, that the
+Bulgarians were a very different people from what they were supposed
+to be, six or eight years ago, and that in our efforts for their
+good, patience must have her perfect work. They cannot be said to be
+a particularly depraved people; they are not probably addicted to
+the grosser sins in any unusual degree; but there seems to be among
+them a great want of impressibility. When the truth is presented,
+they at once assent to it, but without any apparent impression on
+the heart. The brethren generally spoke of the pleasant social
+intercourse which they enjoyed with the people, but upon religious
+matters a very painful indifference was manifested."
+
+One great obstacle to the reception of evangelical truth among the
+Bulgarians, was the attachment of all classes to their national
+unity. The same had been found among the Armenians and Greeks. Men
+objected to the examination of evangelical doctrines, lest the
+result should be a schism in the nation; not being able to see how a
+change in religious belief could consist with national loyalty. Yet,
+though the progress of the work had not equaled the expectations
+awakened at the outset, it was obvious that increasing acquaintance
+with the missionaries was perceptibly removing prejudice. The
+conviction was gaining strength with many, not only that Protestants
+had a Christian faith, but that it was purer than their own. The
+girls' school at Eski Zagra had thirty pupils in regular attendance,
+and a score of applicants were refused for want of room. Mr. Clarke
+having been overworked, it was necessary to secure aid for him, and
+Mr. Haskell removed to Philippopolis. Mr. Ball, after a long
+detention at home by the decline of his wife's health, joined the
+Adrianople station in 1865. Some new prejudice against the
+missionaries was now created by accusations transferred from English
+newspapers, made in defense of the intolerance of the Turkish
+authorities, and of what certainly seemed an unfriendly policy in
+Sir Henry Bulwer, the English Ambassador.
+
+But the school for young men at Philippopolis, and that for girls at
+Eski Zagra, conciliated favor. The former had fourteen pupils, who
+made good improvement in mental and moral character, and manifested
+a good degree of religious feeling, a spirit of benevolence, and a
+readiness to labor for the good of others. During vacation, six of
+them were employed as colporters. Nearly all the older students
+seemed ready to take their stand on the Bible, and did not fear the
+name of Protestant. The girls' school numbered about thirty pupils,
+whose progress in study had been gratifying, and there had often
+been deep feeling under religious instruction. Members of the common
+council of the town, and others who witnessed an examination of the
+school, sent to Mr. Byington a letter of thanks, and assured him
+that the missionaries would yet be recognized by the Bulgarians as
+benefactors of their nation.
+
+The people could not, as yet, be drawn, in any numbers, to attend
+the regular religious services of the missionaries. They were banded
+together against receiving spiritual truth. Still something could be
+done by personal conversations and the circulation of books and
+tracts. Touring in the villages was often attended with
+encouragement.
+
+The year 1867 was one of peculiar promise. The moral stupor, which
+for so many years had taxed the faith of the mission, seemed to be
+yielding to the awakening power of the Word of God, and Gospel truth
+was not only better apprehended by the intellect, but also was
+impressing the heart and conscience. Though the awakening was
+neither as extensive, or thorough, or spiritual as was desired, it
+was real, and indicated the entering upon a new stage of the work.
+
+Miss Roseltha A. Norcross became the associate of Miss Reynolds in
+the school at Eski Zagra. The arrival of a new teacher and many
+applications for admission, led to an enlargement of the school. Two
+sisters, however, who were among the most interesting pupils, were
+called to severe trials. One of them left in 1866, but the other
+remained, and was the best scholar in the school. Both possessed
+more than ordinary intelligence and amiability, and for more than
+two years had been heartily devoted to Christ. "The younger who had
+left the school," says the report of the mission, "was taken, a few
+days since, into a room where many of her relatives and a priest had
+assembled, to extort from her a renunciation of her faith, and was
+told that she would either have to give up, or die; that they would
+give her no peace so long as she persisted in her present course.
+But the Lord sustained her. They resorted to entreaty, and besought
+her merely to make the sign of submission, telling her that she need
+not in her heart change her belief. But their seductions were as
+unavailing as their threats. It is more than a year since she left
+the school, and though, during this time, her closet, her Bible, and
+the conversation of her sister have been her only means of grace, it
+is evident that, in the midst of this wearing domestic persecution,
+a Christian character of unusual loveliness is being developed. She
+is as frail as a lily, but the strength of the Lord rests upon her."
+
+Another case was that of a pupil who had left a year and a half
+before, to teach a Bulgarian school. "Unaided," says the mission,
+"except from on high, she has fought a good fight during the past
+year. The parents of her pupils complain because she will not
+conform to the rites of their Church, but the trustees of the
+school, not wishing to lose her services, have been wise enough not
+to make conformity a condition of remaining in their service. Her
+parents have forbidden her visiting the missionary premises, but
+they have not been able to separate her from her Lord, nor to
+prevent her laboring for the spiritual good of her pupils. Although
+she has been occupying, for more than a year, a position beset with
+temptations, and has been in a great degree deprived of the sympathy
+and advice of Christian friends, we still hear from her that she is
+kept by the power of God."
+
+The mission suffered a most serious loss in the return of Mr. and
+Mrs. Byington to their native land, in consequence of the failing
+health of the latter.
+
+The great complaint of the missionaries had been of the indifference
+of the people. But after the departure of Mr. Byington, there was no
+ground for this at Eski Zagra. False reports were circulated with
+such effect, that the day-scholars were taken from the school, and
+the boarding-school was reassembled with difficulty. The oldest
+assistant teacher was forcibly abducted, but escaped and returned. A
+mob soon gathered, broke open an outer door, cut away some of the
+bars to the windows, and broke sixty panes of glass with stones. The
+proprietor of the house now sent for the police, which dispersed the
+rioters. Such outrages could not be allowed, and representations
+were made to Mr. Morris, the American Minister at Constantinople,
+and to Mr. Blunt, the friendly English Consul at Adrianople. Their
+prompt efforts were effectual. More than a score of the offenders
+were sentenced to imprisonment of different lengths, but were
+pardoned at the request of the missionaries. This act of clemency
+had a happy influence on the people, and the persecution had a good
+effect on the school.
+
+A young man who had been for five years a student at Philippopolis,
+was licensed to preach the gospel on the 24th of July; and on the
+following Sabbath, ten Bulgarians, six of whom were girls in the
+school, sat down at the Lord's table, in the presence of forty
+spectators. This was the more significant, as the Bulgarian council,
+a month before, had enjoined upon the different "trades" of the city
+and neighboring villages, to have no dealings with two individuals
+whose names and places of business were specified, nor with any
+others who were known as inclined to Protestantism. Such persons
+were therefore refused bread, or the right of baking at the public
+ovens, and some were reduced to great distress. The missionaries
+talked seriously with the leading men of the city in favor of
+religious _freedom_, but only a few of them conversed reasonably on
+the subject, and the masses were wholly opposed to it. Three men, as
+a means of asserting their religious liberty, went before the
+Turkish authorities and declared themselves Protestants, which
+seemed to be the beginning of a Protestant Bulgarian community. The
+missionaries were sometimes threatened with personal violence, but
+the Turkish government was ready to defend them.
+
+In January, 1869, four Bulgarians were admitted to the communion at
+Eski Zagra, two of them pupils in the school, and two married men.
+The number of Bulgarian communicants in that place was now eleven.
+
+The mission was strengthened, in 1868, by the arrival of Messrs.
+Lewis Bond, William Edwin Locke, and Henry Pitt Page, all ordained
+missionaries, and their wives. Mr. Bond was stationed at Eski Zagra,
+and Miss Esther P. Maltbie came thither as a teacher in 1870. Mr.
+Haskell welcomed the arrival, at Philippopolis, of Miss Minnie C.
+Beach, in 1869, and Messrs. Locke and Page commenced a new station,
+before noticed, at Samokov, in ancient Macedonia. Mr. and Mrs. Ball
+of Adrianople and Miss Reynolds of Eski Zagra found it necessary to
+return to the United States on account of their health; and it soon
+appeared that it was too late for them to recover. Mr. Ball died at
+Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, June 6, 1870, after a useful connection of
+seventeen years with the missionary work, and Miss Reynolds, at
+Springfield, Massachusetts, June 1, 1871, just eight years from the
+day of her sailing for Turkey, and after a life of singular
+devotedness and success.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1871, p. 247.
+
+Previous to the year 1870, the missionaries to the Bulgarians had
+sustained a nominal relation to the Western Armenian Mission. This
+connection was now dissolved, and the associated brethren took the
+name of the EUROPEAN TURKEY MISSION. Its stations were Eski Zagra,
+Philippopolis, Samokov, and Adrianople; and Dr. Riggs was reckoned
+as a member of it, though he continued to reside in Constantinople,
+his labors being chiefly for the Bulgarians. The Rev. Henry A.
+Schauffler, then in the United States, was also transferred from the
+Western Turkey Mission, and was expected, on his return to the
+field, to go to Philippopolis, where he would use the Turkish and
+Greek for the benefit of those who spoke these languages; and with
+the expectation that the work among the Bulgarians would everywhere
+connect itself, as soon as possible, with that of the large
+Mohammedan and Greek population, with whom they were intermingled.
+
+The Sultan, having confirmed the appointment of Bishop Anthimas, of
+Widdin, to be Exarch of Bulgaria, the Bulgarians thus virtually
+acquired their ecclesiastical independence, and so both their
+national spirit and their unwillingness to allow Protestantism to
+come in as an element of apprehended division, acquired strength.
+Few were yet able to see how one could be both a Bulgarian and a
+Protestant, and no general movement on the part of rulers and
+ecclesiastics towards Protestantism, was to be expected. But the
+Scriptures and evangelical publications were extensively circulated.
+Thoughtful minds were reached, and examples of what the Gospel could
+do to regenerate character and give peace to troubled spirits were
+beginning to attract attention. There was not such liberty to
+persecute as there had been in Asiatic Turkey. Truth was gaining a
+hold in cities and villages. The girls' school at Eski Zagra, under
+Miss Norcross, numbering twenty-six pupils, contained several who
+gave evidence of spiritual renewal, and applications for teachers
+had come from several towns and villages, accompanied by
+comparatively liberal subscriptions for their support. The hope, at
+Philippopolis, of getting helpers from the high school for young
+men, had been much disappointed, but some of its pupils were doing
+good. An influential merchant in Samokov was an active convert, and
+there was much to encourage in that region.
+
+Early in the autumn of 1870, Miss Norcross sickened, and on the 4th
+of November died, greatly to the grief of her pupils and of the
+whole mission.[1] Miss Maltbie arrived in less than a month after
+she had passed away. It was soon resolved to remove the school to
+Samokov, as a more healthful place, and more eligible on other
+accounts. A regular Sabbath service was held at this station, and a
+weekly prayer-meeting. The audiences were very small, and but five
+persons were deemed worthy to be received to church fellowship. At
+the out-stations, though there had been no striking success, there
+were everywhere signs of an advance. The native helper in the
+beautiful town of Bansko had a school of twenty-two pupils, and a
+congregation of sixty-five, and the little company contributed to
+Christian objects, during the year, nearly two hundred dollars,
+including the purchase of a site for a house of worship. The cause
+was greatly advanced by the labors of an earnest and devoted
+Bible-woman, whom the women of Bansko helped to support.
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1871, p. 53.
+
+Bansko will have the ecclesiastical distinction, hereafter, of being
+the place where the first evangelical Bulgarian church was formed,
+and fully organized. This was in August, 1871. The candidates were
+fifteen, nine men, and six women. In accordance with a written
+invitation from the people, Messrs. Locke, Bond, and Page started on
+Tuesday, August 22d, and went by a circuitous, though a pleasant,
+picturesque and easy route, passing through two cities, where they
+found several who were examining the truth, and reached their place
+of destination on the 24th. The brethren at Bansko had arranged
+liberally for the brethren and their horses, at their own houses,
+and gave them a hearty welcome. The candidates for church-membership
+were all examined, and answered the questions put to them more
+clearly than the missionaries had thought possible, considering the
+advantages they had enjoyed. The candidate for ordination as pastor,
+Mr. Evansko Touzorve, was examined on Saturday afternoon. He had
+been preaching there as a helper of the mission, and the examination
+was quite satisfactory, especially on the evidences of Christianity,
+just then a subject of special importance in that field, owing to
+the influx of German and French infidelity.
+
+Sabbath, August 27th, was devoted to the organization of the church,
+and the ordination of the pastor. A deacon had been previously
+chosen. The service was concluded with the Lord's Supper. The people
+were to have the services of the pastor eight months in the year,
+and to pay half his salary for that time, and the mission was to
+employ him the other four months in another part of the field. The
+new church could not then pay more towards the salary, having bought
+a lot of land, on which to build a church. The little flock was
+jubilant and of good courage. "What a contrast," exclaims the
+missionary, "between this state of things, and that two years ago,
+when the people seized our horses, and drove us from the village!"
+
+One of the most important results of the mission to the Bulgarians,
+has doubtless been the translation of the whole Bible into their
+present spoken language.[1] This was published for the first time,
+in the year 1871. "Methodius and Cyril, who first preached the
+gospel to the Bulgarians a thousand years ago, gave them the
+Scriptures in their then spoken language, the Slavic. But this
+ancient tongue, the mother of the modern Russian, Bulgarian,
+Servian, Polish, Illyrian, etc., has long since ceased to be the
+vernacular of any of the nations. Hence the necessity of new
+translations of the Word of God in all these dialects." One of the
+earliest results of the waking up of the Bulgarian people, was a
+translation of the four Gospels by Messrs. Seraphim of Eski Zagra,
+and Sapoonoff of Trevna, published at Bucharest in 1828. The first
+edition of the whole New Testament in Bulgarian was issued at
+Smyrna, in 1840, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible
+Society; but the literary labor was performed by a Bulgarian, the
+Rev. Neophytus P. Petroff, of Rila, with the aid of Hilarion, the
+Metropolitan Bishop of Ternovo. This edition was well received, and
+sold rapidly. It was faithfully, carefully, and ably prepared.
+
+[1] See Dr. Riggs' statement in the _Missionary Herald_, for 1872,
+pp. 76-79.
+
+The British and Foreign Bible Society published seven editions of
+this Testament, or about forty thousand copies, and authorized the
+preparation of a translation of the Old Testament. Mr. Constantine
+Photinoff, of Smyrna, to whom this work was committed, just lived to
+complete the first draft of a translation of the Old Testament, and
+died in 1858, only a few days after having removed from Smyrna to
+Constantinople, in order to revise it for publication, with Dr.
+Riggs.
+
+Meanwhile a rapid change had been going on in the Bulgarian
+language, and it had become manifest that the work must have a
+thorough revision. The translations of both the Old and New
+Testaments had been made in the Western, or Macedonian dialect; but
+the Eastern, or Slavic, was now taking the lead, and the language
+was evidently to be mainly moulded after that model.
+
+It is an interesting fact, stated by Dr. Riggs, that the government
+censor for Bulgarian publications called on him, the day after Mr.
+Photinoff's death, and expressed his hearty interest in the work of
+translating the Scriptures, and his hope that it would not be
+delayed.
+
+In the preparation of this work, Dr. Riggs was aided by two of the
+best Bulgarian scholars, the one trained in the use of the Western,
+and the other of the Eastern dialect. In the revision of the New
+Testament, he was also aided by the Rev. A. L. Long, D. D., of the
+Methodist Bulgarian mission. With such assistance, it is believed
+that this translation of the Bible will become a standard work. The
+first edition was printed in an imperial octavo volume of one
+thousand and sixty pages, with the references of our English Bible,
+which will be of special value to a people having as yet no
+Concordances, Bible Dictionaries, or Commentaries. Dr. Riggs brought
+to the annual meeting of the newly organized mission, in 1871, the
+first copy received from the binders.
+
+It should be borne in mind, that only preliminary work has been done
+as yet in this most inviting field. Scarcely fourteen years have
+elapsed since the field was first explored, and only twelve since
+stations began to be occupied. It is not time to expect any other
+results than first fruits. The missionaries have become thoroughly
+acquainted with the field, with its wants, and its strategetic
+points, and are ready to move forward as fast as they shall receive
+the needful aid.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1861-1863.
+
+
+Dr. Dwight having completed his eastern tour, visited the United
+States, where he arrived in November, 1861. It was arranged, that he
+should prepare and publish the results of his extended missionary
+observations. But the Head of the Church had ordered otherwise. On
+Saturday, January 25, 1862, while passing in the cars through
+Shaftsbury, Vermont, on his way to spend a Sabbath at Middlebury
+College, "the stormy wind, fulfilling His word," lifted the car from
+off the rails, and tossed it down a steep embankment; and one of the
+heavy trucks, following and dashing through it, at once set free the
+sanctified spirit of our brother, and gave him a sort of translation
+to the regions of the blessed. It was a sudden and unexpected close
+of a most useful life.
+
+Dr. Dwight was born at Conway, Massachusetts, on the 22d of
+November, 1803. His family removed to Utica, New York, and there, at
+the age of fifteen, he was hopefully converted during a revival of
+religion, and united with a Presbyterian church. He graduated at
+Hamilton College in 1825, and, while in the Theological Seminary at
+Andover, became deeply interested in the missionary work, and took
+great pains, along with some fellow-students, to illustrate the
+beginning of foreign missions from the United States. In his last
+year at the Seminary he offered himself to the American Board, and
+was appointed one of its missionaries. After completing his studies,
+he entered upon an agency for the Board, which continued until 1829.
+From this time, through more than thirty years, the events of his
+life form an important part of the history of the mission to the
+Armenians. That mission grew, in his time, from a single station at
+Constantinople to twenty-three stations, and eighty-one
+out-stations, extending over the greater part of Western Asia; and
+whereas, at the commencement of his labors, he did not know of a
+single convert in the whole country, at their close, there were
+forty-two churches, with sixteen hundred members, twelve ordained
+native pastors, forty-three licensed native preachers, thirty-four
+catechists, fifty-five teachers, and thirty-nine other helpers.
+
+He was made to be a leader in the Lord's host. There was in him a
+rare combination of sound common sense, piety, resolution, firmness,
+candor, and courtesy, and withal an honest simplicity, a godly
+sincerity, and a practical tact, that seldom failed to secure for
+him a commanding influence; and the mission, of which he was so long
+a member, was sufficiently eventful to give full exercise to all his
+powers.
+
+It affords much pleasure to the writer, that he is unable to recall
+an instance, in all the thirty years, where Dr. Dwight's opinions
+were seriously at variance with those of the Committee and
+Secretaries of the Board. It may be that, under the influence of a
+more extended correspondence, there was sometimes greater progress
+in their opinions on questions of missionary experience, than in
+his; but there was never any collision of thought; and it was most
+gratifying, on his arrival in this country, after his instructive
+and interesting tour of observation among the missions and mission
+churches, to find this eminent servant of Christ in full accord with
+his Committee on all the great points of missionary practice. The
+prominent trait, however, in his character was spirituality. This
+was in him an ever-growing quality. From day to day, from month to
+month, from the commencement of his missionary life until his death,
+he was wholly devoted to the kingdom and glory of his Redeemer. He
+walked with God, and was not, for God took him.
+
+It will be appropriate, at this stage of the history, to quote some
+of the views of Dr. Dwight on missionary policy in Turkey, as they
+were embodied in a circular letter to the brethren of his own
+mission, and substantially communicated to the Secretaries in their
+personal intercourse with him just before his lamented death. Coming
+from such a man, after so long and varied an experience, they
+deserve thoughtful attention. He speaks first of the education of a
+native ministry.
+
+"I am inclined to think that we have made our education at the Bebek
+Seminary too comprehensive, considering the actual circumstances and
+wants of the people. True, our course of study is nothing compared
+with that of American colleges; but it is much, compared with the
+amount of education existing in this country; and it seems to me we
+are in danger from two sources; namely, first, that our native
+preachers will be educated too far above their people; and,
+secondly, that they will require much more for their support, in
+consequence of their education, than their people can give. The plan
+of removing the Bebek Seminary to the interior, strikes me very
+favorably."
+
+Again, as to the support of the native ministry: "I think it very
+evident, that the past system is fraught with too many evils to be
+continued. I would not favor any sudden change, but it seems to me,
+that the experience we have gained, by the working of the past,
+would lead us to begin immediately on a new plan; and the providence
+of God, in restricting our means, is giving us an admirable
+opportunity for so doing. We may urge with great weight upon the
+churches the support of their own pastors, and leave the
+responsibility there, even when the treasury of the Board shall be
+relieved. I begin to question, whether we ought even to give regular
+aid from our funds, for the support of settled pastors, or even
+stated supplies of churches fully organized. Would it not simplify
+our relations to those churches, as well as call forth much more
+efficient effort from themselves, if we were to leave them, as the
+Apostles did their native churches, to take care of their own
+pastors, after such have been ordained? The native churches should
+be expected and encouraged to take, as fast as possible, the work of
+evangelizing surrounding districts upon themselves; and it will be
+better to leave them to choose and support wholly their own
+laborers. The plan of having such men supported partly by the
+mission and partly by the native churches, does not work well. If it
+is necessary for the mission to assist the churches in this work, I
+would do it irregularly, and without any pledges as to the amount or
+frequency of such aid."
+
+These views had been already exemplified, substantially, in the
+Central mission; and they have since had a more full practical
+development in the Eastern mission; as will appear in the progress
+of the history.
+
+It was not found easy to determine the number of stations or of
+missionaries desirable in Eastern or Western Turkey. The early
+theories in relation to this matter have been considerably modified
+by experience. It was natural to suppose, that many missionaries
+could labor among the million of people in Constantinople, without
+interfering with each other, or standing in the way of a native
+ministry. And so they might, could they at once have access to a
+considerable part of the population. But this was not true in fact,
+either as to missionaries, or the native ministry. It has been
+found, that it results in loss to place more preachers on the
+ground, than can find full scope for their ministry. Even should the
+overcrowded ministry be of the same denomination, it works badly,
+but far worse if made up of rival sects. For a time at least, all
+must operate upon nearly the same persons. In the rural districts,
+the missionaries reside in the centres of population, and generally
+where two families can dwell together, and where each missionary can
+have a distinct field of labor. But even there it is deemed
+expedient for the churches to have native pastors; nor there alone.
+The aim is to have constellations of churches with native
+office-bearers, around every missionary station. Not otherwise can
+the whole country be permeated by evangelical influences.
+
+It is plain that in a work so unlike anything at home, missionaries
+ought to have large discretion as to the time and manner of
+organizing native churches. Nor, since these infant communities are
+only partially enlightened and sanctified, is there reason for
+discouragement should they sometimes be not perfectly harmonious
+with their missionary fathers. It was so for a time with one of the
+first churches formed at the metropolis. The missionaries had of
+course the sole responsibility of determining what use should be
+made of the funds remitted by the Board. But the pastor and a
+portion of the church thought they ought to have a voice in their
+disposal. As this could not be, dissatisfaction arose, and
+complaints were publicly made against their American brethren. But
+these misunderstandings have in good measure passed away.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1862, p. 300, 1863, p. 268; and Report
+of the Board for 1871, p. 23.
+
+The Western Turkey Mission resolved, in 1862, to suspend the Bebek
+Seminary, with the expectation of reviving it at Marsovan. This
+institution was commenced by Dr. Hamlin, in November, 1840. It was a
+boarding-school, with a course of study believed to be adapted to
+the great ends of the mission, and soon became a very efficient
+means of gaining access to the people. Its third year, ending
+November, 1843, was called the "year of a thousand visits," because
+so many came desirous to learn the religious belief of the
+missionaries. The Principal was obliged to stop their coming, in
+order to save the school; but the work among the Armenians then
+received an impulse which it never lost. Dr. Hamlin continued in
+charge of the Seminary till the year 1857; aided, at different
+times, by most of his brethren. Messrs. Clark, Bliss, and Pettibone,
+had charge of it afterward. The building at Bebek, which had been
+some time occupied on a lease, became the property of the Board in
+1849. In 1853, the number of students was fifty, of whom fifteen
+were Greeks, under the instruction mainly of Dr. Riggs; and there
+was then a theological class of eleven Armenians. The Greek
+department was suspended in 1855. The students were very useful as
+evangelical laborers within and around Constantinople; and not a few
+of the graduates occupy, and have occupied, important posts of
+usefulness in different parts of the empire. It is recorded that, in
+1857, sixty applicants were rejected for want of means to support
+them; and it was believed that, with adequate pecuniary means, one
+hundred could have received instruction as easily as fifty.
+
+The metropolis was not found the best place to train men for the
+seclusion and small salaries of interior pastorates; but the school
+was nevertheless a most important instrument for good, and quite
+essential in the early progress of the mission. Of the forty-five
+students in the five years from 1857 to 1861, for which the Seminary
+was fairly held responsible, seven were preachers at the opening of
+1862, and thirteen were members of the theological class.
+
+The expediency of continuing the Seminary at the metropolis, had
+been discussed in the mission for several years. The other missions
+preferred training their native ministry within their own bounds;
+and the interior stations of the Western mission had strong
+objections to sending their pupils to be educated where expensive
+habits were almost necessarily acquired.
+
+It was resolved, in the same year, to discontinue the
+boarding-school for girls at Constantinople, with the expectation
+of reviving it, also, at Marsovan. It was commenced in 1845. The
+whole number of pupils had been one hundred and twenty-eight, of
+whom one half became members of the church. Eighty-three were from
+Constantinople and vicinity, and forty-five from the interior.
+Thirty-seven completed the course of four years. Two of the older
+graduates were teachers of self-supporting schools at Nicomedia;
+another, whose parents lived at Trebizond, taught at Marsovan; a
+fourth, since married to a graduate of the Bebek seminary, devoted
+herself to teaching the girls in a day-school at Adabazar, in charge
+of the native pastor; another was mistress of a school of forty
+pupils at Baghchejuk; and still another had a school of forty-five
+girls at Diarbekir, and was otherwise a shining light. Five were
+wives of pastors,--at Constantinople, Broosa, Bilijik, Harpoot, and
+Diarbekir; three of preachers,--at Nicomedia, Bandurma, and Aidin;
+and several of helpers in different places. The school was located
+successively at Pera, Bebek, and Hass-Keuy; and its teachers were
+Miss Lovell, Mrs. Everett, and the two Misses West.
+
+The summer heat at Adana was supposed to be too intense for the
+health of a missionary family. Mr. Coffing was therefore
+commissioned, by his brethren, to explore the Taurus Mountains, west
+and north of Marash, for a suitable summer residence. He performed
+this service in the autumn of 1860, accompanied by Mrs. Coffing and
+Deacon Sarkis. An interesting account of the tour may be found in
+the "Missionary Herald," for 1861.[1] Mr. Coffing requested
+permission, on his return, to occupy the new field, and left Aintab,
+with his family, for this purpose, in July, 1861; intending to
+reside at Hadjin, or Nigdeh in the mountains during the summer heat,
+and in the winter at Adana. As they went forth from Aintab, nearly
+the whole Protestant population, about fifteen hundred, stood on
+both sides of the road to bid them farewell, and as they passed,
+sang,--
+
+   "How sweet the tie that binds
+    Our hearts in Christian love;"
+
+and also an original hymn, expressive of their feelings on parting
+with this mission family. More than a hundred persons accompanied
+them during that afternoon, returning the next day; and many were
+the prayers offered for them, and for the dark town in the mountains
+whither they went. Their road through or rather upon the Taurus
+Mountains, was difficult, and in some places dangerous; but without
+serious accident they reached Hadjin on Saturday, July 14th. There
+they were kindly welcomed by the people, and commenced their labors
+with pleasant prospects of success. But, after a few weeks, the
+Moslem governor and the Armenian priests commenced a cruel
+opposition, scarcely paralleled in the missionary experiences of
+Turkey, and drove them from the place, with much loss and suffering.
+Arriving at Adana, where the native brethren gave them a kind
+reception, Mr. Coffing sought redress from the government, but in
+vain, as the Pasha was unfriendly; and the native Protestants of
+that city were subjected to many outrages during the winter.
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1861, pp. 169, 170.
+
+After six months, Mr. Coffing left Adana to attend the annual
+meeting of his mission at Aleppo, going by way of Alexandretta. The
+road being dangerous around the head of the gulf, he took a guard of
+three soldiers; but in the latter part of the route, he dismissed
+two of them, going on with the other, two muleteers, and a pious
+Armenian servant. When three miles from Alexandretta, he was fired
+upon by two men concealed in a thicket near the road. Two balls
+struck his left arm above the elbow, shattering the bone and
+severing an artery, and one entered the body. Though severely
+wounded, he rode on two miles further; and then, from loss of blood,
+sunk down upon the beach, not far from Alexandretta, and sent to
+that place for help. It was promptly rendered by Mr. Levi, the
+American Vice Consul, Arthur Roby, Esq., the English Vice Consul,
+and other gentlemen, and the fainting missionary was taken to the
+house of Mr. Levi, where he died the next morning, March 26th, 1862.
+The Armenian servant died four days later from his wounds, and
+another, who was wounded, recovered.
+
+Mr. Johnson, United States Consul at Beirut, took energetic
+measures, in connection with Mr. Morgan at Antioch, for apprehending
+the murderers. They had the cooeperation not only of the gentlemen
+above mentioned, but also of Capt. Hobart of H. B. Majesty's Ship
+_Foxhound_, Capt. Simon, of the French Frigate _Mogador_, and Col.
+A. S. Frazer, H. B. M. Commissioner to Syria. The Turkish
+authorities acted with commendable decision, and two young Moslem
+robbers of the mountains, to whom the crime was traced, were finally
+captured; though one of them afterwards escaped, and was protected
+by the Pasha of the district. The other was executed in September,
+1862, and the offending Pasha was removed from office. Robbery was
+evidently no object with the assassins, and it was believed, that
+they were instigated by others. The hostile Armenians of Hadjin and
+Adana were, for a time, under great apprehension, and were so much
+impressed by the forbearance of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Morgan, that
+they assured the latter of their readiness to receive any preacher
+he might choose to send among them. The sorely afflicted widow
+resolved to remain in the mission, where she is still very usefully
+employed among her own sex. It should be added, that this is the
+only instance in the history of the Board, in which a missionary has
+suffered a violent death, inflicted because he was a missionary,
+from the hands of the people among whom he labored.
+
+Dr. Goodell attended the annual meeting of the Central mission in
+1862; and so strong were his impressions that the appropriate work
+of the missionary was nearly accomplished at some of the stations,
+that he apprehended there might be more danger of the missionary's
+staying too long, than that he would go too soon.
+
+At Aintab, for example, he found the church supporting its own
+pastors and common schools, and taking upon itself the supply of
+nearly all its out-stations. No appropriations were asked of the
+Board, except for the theological class, the female boarding-school,
+and one out-station; for all the rest the church provided. For these
+objects, for their own poor, and for their taxes to government, the
+sum total raised by the Protestants, in the then closing year, had
+been two thousand five hundred and fifty-six dollars, averaging one
+dollar and a quarter for every man, woman, and child in the
+community. The congregation being too large for one pastor,
+arrangements had been made to form a second church, and thus to have
+two churches instead of one. The theological school was on the point
+of being removed to Marash, and it was his opinion that, were it not
+for the female boarding-school, which would probably remain, the
+missionaries at Aintab should be preparing to withdraw from that
+place, and go to "regions beyond." While he deprecated too sudden
+changes, he thought the great question for the brethren at that
+station was: "How can we, in the most graceful manner, set up in
+life this first born child of ours, now come of age, and ready to
+act for itself?"
+
+Dr. Goodell speaks of Oorfu, along with Aintab and Marash, as
+advanced in Christian knowledge. About the year 1851, a native
+helper from Aintab spent three years in Oorfa, working at his trade
+as a weaver, but receiving a partial support from the mission, and
+reading and explaining the Scriptures to all that came. Mr.
+Schneider visited this place in 1854; a church was organized by Dr.
+Pratt in December, 1855, and Mr. Nutting commenced his residence
+there in 1857. Mr. White was also there a year or more, till 1859.
+The church was then small, and very partially sanctified. The number
+of church-members, in 1861, was fifteen, and nearly all the members
+were active, working Christians; and the real progress had been
+greater than the statistics indicated. Protestantism had become
+known, and was exerting a good influence. The congregation supported
+three schools, containing ninety-four pupils, of whom thirty-one
+were from non-protestant and non-paying parents, and thirty were
+girls. The Oorfa church regarded the evangelization of Germish, a
+neighboring Armenian village of a thousand souls, as their
+appropriate work.
+
+The report of the Harpoot station for 1862 states, that there was
+an increasing number in the city, and at nearly all the fifteen
+out-stations, who gave serious attention to the truth; and that
+there was a growing agitation among those who kept aloof from the
+preaching. A reform party among the old Armenians was rapidly
+acquiring influence; and to satisfy their demands, mid-day Sabbath
+services, for expounding the Scriptures in the modern tongue, were
+held in the churches of several villages. In the city, the party had
+formed a society for mutual improvement, and one of its rules was,
+that the Bible should be read in all their meetings. The sale of
+Bibles, or portions of it, in two years, exceeded two thousand, and
+the same was true of other volumes. The Theological school contained
+thirty-nine pupils,--twenty-one in the first class, and eighteen in
+the second. It occupied the upper story of a substantial building,
+erected chiefly by the aid of friends in America; while the lower
+story furnished a neat and well lighted place of worship. Mr.
+Wheeler writes: "Supplied as it is, without expense to the Board,
+with solar reflectors and two neat pulpit lamps, it is exerting an
+influence for good in the villages. Already the people of three
+villages have covered the black mud walls of their chapels with a
+neat white plaster, and four villages have each purchased one of the
+'wonderful lamps, by the light of which a man can read on the
+opposite side of the room.' At their own expense they are also
+furnishing their places of worship with clocks, and are beginning to
+learn that (to an oriental) very difficult lesson, to be prompt, and
+to value time." A girls' boarding-school was opened in 1862.
+
+Hadji Hagop, an old and valued helper at this station, went one
+Sabbath to Hulakegh, an out-station, to preach. On leaving the
+Protestant chapel, he met the teacher of the Armenian school with a
+Bible under his arm, going to the church, where they were to have a
+"preaching meeting,"--as was the case in several villages where the
+mission had congregations, partly in imitation of the mission, and
+partly to counteract its influence,--and he asked Hagop to go with
+him. He went, and the leading men urged him to preach, which he
+consented to do. The news spread through the village, and the
+congregation almost immediately swelled to two hundred and fifty. He
+preached Christ and Him crucified for about an hour, securing most
+fixed attention, and it is said the women were nearly all moved to
+tears.
+
+Mr. Walker, the resident missionary at Diarbekir, visited Mosul in
+1861, and found the congregation in that city about as it was when
+the missionaries left. Subsequently, when visited by Mr. Williams,
+the Mosul church sent an earnest plea for a missionary to the
+Prudential Committee. Mr. Williams was with them three months,
+married three couples, baptized several children, and admitted one
+to the church.
+
+Mr. Walker's tour was extended more than a thousand miles, and he
+found much that was very painful, and yet much that was encouraging,
+among the Arabic-speaking people in Eastern Turkey.
+
+The church in Diarbekir numbered eighty-four members in 1862, and
+the pupils in the Sabbath-school were two hundred and eighty-four.
+At Cutterbul a house had been built, to be occupied as a place of
+worship on the Sabbath, and for a school-house during the week, and
+there were hopeful indications in places near. At the annual meeting
+of the mission, in the following year, Baron Tomas Boyajian[1] was
+ordained as pastor of the first evangelical church in Diarbekir. His
+examination was well sustained. The ordaining services were
+necessarily in the open air, and were conducted in Armenian,
+Turkish, and Arabic. More than a thousand, adults were present,
+besides hundreds of children, and the interest was sustained to the
+end. The members of the church pledged themselves to furnish nearly
+half the salary. Thirteen members, heretofore connected with that
+church, were formed into a separate organization at Cutterbul.
+
+[1] Known to the reader as _Tomas_. _Baron_ is equivalent to _Mr_.
+
+These services were like our own; and how much more rational and
+appropriate must they have appeared to the people, than the
+ordination services prescribed in the Liturgy of the Armenian
+Church, as described by Mr. Goss. "In the first place, the exercises
+are all performed in an unknown tongue, the old Armenian. The bishop
+sits at one end of the church, the candidate enters at the other,
+walking on his knees, and thus proceeds to the altar. The skirt of
+the bishop is thrown over his head, and the bishop asks a few
+general questions, which are answered by a third person, either
+priest or deacon. They are such as these: 'Does this man understand
+the Scriptures'? 'Is he the child of a lawful marriage'? etc. An
+affirmative reply is given, when perhaps the man cannot read. He is
+then asked, if he is a disciple, not of Christ, but of certain
+church fathers. Also, if he will pronounce 'Anathema maranatha' upon
+all heretics. Then Arians, Nestorians, and other heretical sects are
+mentioned, and the sweeping question is put,--'Will you pronounce
+all accursed who do not acknowledge Mary to be the mother of God?'
+The candidate repeats the names of these sects, and curses them all.
+Then follows the re-baptism, with the sacred oil, according to the
+Armenian custom with infants. The hands of the new priest are then
+bound together and oiled, and he is made to stand outside of the
+church, when the congregation come, and, kissing his hands, put
+their paras[1] on a plate, which is near by to receive them. The
+priest is then imprisoned forty days in the church, with the cuffs
+of his sleeves and his trousers sewed close to his limbs. In this
+condition, he is not allowed to brush off an insect, or to relieve
+his body from any unpleasant sensation whatever. He cannot change
+his clothes during the whole time, and his food is of the coarsest
+quality. His wife passes through a similar ordeal at home."
+
+[1] About a mill of our money.
+
+Considerable annoyance was felt, about this time, growing out of the
+efforts of an Armenian, named Garabed, to form a church at
+Diarbekir, which should admit persons to the sacrament of the Lord's
+Supper without requiring evidence of piety, and baptize the children
+of any who might desire it. He made similar efforts at Aleppo,
+Aintab, and Marash. He visited Jerusalem, and so far gained the
+confidence of English missionaries residing there, that the
+excellent Bishop Gobat was induced to give him ordination. But he
+failed to secure the confidence of the missionaries and native
+pastors in Central and Eastern Turkey, where he was better known;
+and the evidence at hand constrains me to add, that the missionaries
+at all the stations anticipated nothing but evil from such
+intrusions, at this stage of the missionary enterprise in Turkey.[1]
+
+[1] "We desire to call your attention to the efforts of our English
+(Church) brethren to obtain a foothold in Aintab. It seems that
+large sums of money have been appropriated under the direction of
+Bishop Gobat, of Jerusalem, for this purpose; and a large and costly
+church building is being begun under the superintendence of the
+English Consul at Aleppo. We are surprised and grieved at this
+breach of courtesy on the part of these English friends, especially
+so soon after the earnest protests of the officers of our Board
+against such interference by other missionary societies."--_Letter
+written in_ 1872.
+
+The congregations at Bitlis were composed mostly of young men,
+apparently drawn together by love for the truth. About twenty were
+known as Protestants, and five of them had gone through a fiery
+trial of persecution. The Bible class, which had been broken up by
+that means, was now regularly attended by about thirty young men,
+some of whom developed rich natural endowments, and gave promise of
+future usefulness. Sabbath-school instruction was found a valuable
+auxiliary to the preaching of the missionaries, on account of the
+opportunity it afforded for free and familiar illustration and
+personal application of the truth. It also made the missionary
+acquainted with the superstitions and errors of the Armenian
+religion. The women's meeting, conducted by Mrs. Knapp and Mrs.
+Burbank, was well attended and influential. A school for girls,
+taught by the wife of the helper, was broken up by the violence of
+Armenian ecclesiastics. The missionaries appealed to the Pasha, and
+to Mr. Dalzell, the friendly British Consul at Erzroom. The result
+was that the priests commenced a free school for boys and girls, and
+also a preaching service, hoping thus to deter the people from
+becoming Protestants. The Porte had given orders that the
+Protestants in every city should have a suitable cemetery, but every
+effort to secure one at Bitlis had been without success.
+
+Dr. Dwight was much interested in this city. Its population was
+thirty thousand, and one third were Armenians; the rest were Koords
+and Turks, and there were hundreds of villages within the district.
+The place was proverbial for salubrity, and he saw enough to
+convince him that the leaven of the Gospel was working powerfully
+among the people. Moosh, an out-station of Bitlis, was occupied by
+the native pastor Simon. The truth had taken some hold there, but
+the people were more degraded than at Bitlis.
+
+Erzroom had several changes of missionaries in the six years
+previous to 1862. Being near to Russia, it suffered greatly during
+the Crimean war. The church was disbanded, but was reorganized by
+Mr. Trowbridge. Mr. Pollard removed thither from Arabkir, and was
+received with unexpected favor. The government now granted an
+eligible cemetery; and the Armenian Bishop, having had the benefit
+of a two years' residence in the United States, was friendly towards
+the American missionary.
+
+The removal of Mr. Pollard left Mr. Richardson alone at Arabkir. His
+report for 1862, shows that there was much to encourage him. Turkish
+women came to the female prayer-meetings; and the opening of
+Protestant schools had led the Armenians to establish schools for
+their own children, in some of which a large proportion of the
+pupils were girls, though but a few years had passed since it was
+considered a shame for females to learn to read. Eleven young men
+from seven different cities and villages in this district, were
+connected with the Harpoot Seminary, giving the prospect of an
+improved class of helpers. Yet most of the former helpers had proved
+themselves sincere and pious; and after having done what they could
+to bring forward younger men of higher attainments, they were
+themselves humbly and gracefully returning to their former trades
+and callings, and laboring for the advancement of the good cause as
+Sabbath-school teachers and private Christians.
+
+At the close of 1862, Dr. Wood, the Corresponding Secretary of the
+Board at New York, in consideration of his former experience and his
+familiarity with the Armenian language, was requested by the
+Prudential Committee to reside at Constantinople for a year or more,
+laboring in connection with the mission to Western Turkey. This was
+necessary in consequence of the sickness of several missionaries,
+and the special demand, at that time, for labor at that important
+post. He returned in the summer of 1864, after having rendered
+important service to the mission.
+
+The clerical accessions to the mission, in 1862 and 1863, were
+Messrs. John Francis Smith, Moses P. Parmelee, and Giles F.
+Montgomery, with their wives; and their respective assignments were
+to the Western, Central, and Eastern missions. In addition to these,
+Miss Arabella L. Babcock went to Harpoot, Miss Ann Eliza Fritcher to
+Marsovan, and Miss Mary E. Reynolds to the Bulgarian Mission.
+
+In May, 1863, native pastors were ordained at Antioch, Bitlis,
+Adana, and Tarsus. In June, a fifth was ordained at Killis, the
+officiating clergy in this last case, with a single exception, being
+natives.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1864-1866.
+
+
+A reactionary movement took place among the Mohammedans of the
+capital in 1864. The government had encouraged the introduction of
+European science. Men high in civil positions had delivered courses
+of lectures on history and other topics, in a surprisingly liberal
+spirit, and to audiences embracing hundreds of Turks. A "Literary
+and Scientific Gazette," published monthly under the auspices of a
+native "Oriental Society," discussed questions of political and
+social economy from an occidental stand-point; and the press was
+active in issuing pamphlets and books by native writers, indicating
+and promoting a new intellectual life. All this the devotees of the
+"Old School" regarded with suspicion. They were even more alarmed by
+the religious liberty, which had been successfully claimed for
+converts from Mohammedanism, who had been openly baptized, and lived
+unmolested as Christians. The government had some time before been
+led to discourage Christian education by missionaries and other
+foreigners, when they could do this indirectly and under plausible
+pretexts; and they were somewhat rigid in their censorship of the
+religious press. The Scriptures, however, were allowed to be printed
+and circulated in the Arabo-Turkish, or sacred character, and no
+objection was made to simple expositions of Christian truth in that
+language.
+
+But when copies of Dr. Pfander's book[1] were brought to
+Constantinople, which defended Christianity against Mohammedanism,
+and assailed the latter, it was detained at the custom-house; yet
+copies got abroad in some way, without foreign agency, and were
+sought by Mohammedans who were interested in the great question it
+discussed. A Moslem published a bitter reply; and in July, the
+manifest increase of both Christian ideas and pantheistic infidelity
+among the people, and the growing excitement among the fanatical
+party, began to alarm the government. There was believed to be a
+somewhat large body, who wished to reform the Mohammedan faith; and
+it was said that a petition was presented to the government, by some
+Moslems calling themselves Protestants, for a mosque in which to
+worship in their own way.
+
+[1] Dr. Pfander, was a highly respected missionary of the (English)
+Church Missionary Society. The work was printed in London.
+
+The fears of the Sultan were aroused. For several weeks spies beset
+the missionaries at every step. Finally, on a set day, several
+Turkish converts were arrested, and cast into prison, some of them
+being treated with great indignity. On the next day, the printing
+presses used by the missionaries were seized and put under seal, and
+rooms occupied by English missionaries, and the bookstore of the
+American mission and the two Bible Societies were also closed by the
+police.
+
+These proceedings, being in direct violation of rights secured by
+treaty, were at once met with a decided protest from Mr. Brown, who,
+in the absence of the American Minister Resident, was the
+representative of his government; and after some delay, the British
+Ambassador, Sir Henry Bulwer, also sent in a remonstrance. An
+examination of the bookstore discovered no prohibited publications;
+and after two days it was allowed to be re-opened. The printing
+offices were likewise restored. A correspondence followed between
+Sir Henry Bulwer and the Turkish authorities, and between him and
+the missionaries resident at Constantinople. The Mohammedans
+professed not to oppose their people's embracing the Christian
+religion, but only such reckless proselytism, as endangered the
+public peace; and they declared their willingness to release the
+imprisoned converts if it could be done consistently with their
+personal safety. But the missionaries believed that the intention of
+the Turks, and also the tendency of Sir Henry's movements, were
+seriously to curtail their own liberty and that of their converts,
+and greatly to embarrass the propagation of the Gospel, as well
+among all the nominally Christian sects, as among the Moslems.
+
+The immediate effect of these things was to prevent attendance by
+the Turks on preaching, the circulation of Christian books, and
+personal intercourse with the missionaries.
+
+The position of the entire field, at the opening of 1864, from
+Constantinople to Diarbekir on the East, and to Antioch on the
+south, was one to interest the intelligent observer. The laborers
+employed in this wide and populous region, not including the
+Bulgarians, were--
+
+Missionaries                    36
+Missionary Physicians            2
+Female Assistant Missionaries   41
+Native Pastors                  20
+Licensed Native Preachers       43
+Teachers                        83
+Other Helpers                   58
+                               ---
+                  Total        283
+
+The printing was done at Constantinople for all the missions; and
+that reported for the year 1863 was as follows:
+
+In Armenian              1,821,000 pages
+In Armeno-Turkish        1,128,000   "
+In Arabo-Turkish           264,000   "
+In Greek                     6,000   "
+In Bulgarian             1,896,000   "
+                         ---------
+                  Total  5,115,000   "
+
+Of Turkish Scriptures twice as many copies had been distributed as
+in previous years. More than twenty-five thousand copies of the Word
+of God went into circulation, in at least twenty different
+languages. The following is a statement of the Scriptures prepared
+and printed, under the supervision of the missionaries of the Board,
+from 1840 to 1863:
+
+In Modern Armenian          37,500
+In Ararat                    8,000
+In Armeno-Turkish            6,500
+In Greco-Turkish            55,000
+In Koordish                 13,000
+In Bulgarian                 4,000
+In Hebrew-Spanish           23,000
+Armenian Psalms             14,000
+                           -------
+                  Total    161,000
+
+Of these, there were published at the expense of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society, 100,000; of the American Bible Society,
+54,000; and of the American Tract Society (New York), 7,000. In
+addition to the above printed in Turkey, 10,500 copies of the modern
+Armenian version were printed in New York, from electrotype plates
+of the American Bible Society; and 5,000 copies of the same version
+were printed in London, by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
+
+The number of churches was forty-seven, with one thousand nine
+hundred and thirteen members. There had been received from the
+beginning two thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. The efforts
+to bring the churches to the point of self-support were not always
+appreciated. The people were poor, and sometimes felt their poverty
+more than they should, and in almost every church there were members
+who were ready to resent any transfer of pecuniary responsibility
+from the mission treasury to themselves. Moreover, it was sometimes
+not easy for a native pastor, with the tastes acquired during his
+education, to live in a manner that would put him in sympathy with
+his people, and encourage the hope of their soon assuming his
+support. Nor was it easy for the native pastor, from his different
+stand-point, to appreciate the responsibilities of the missionary. A
+union of the churches was needed, but had been delayed by their
+distance from each other and their poverty.
+
+It has been already stated that the Western mission resolved, in
+1862, to remove the two seminaries from Constantinople to Marsovan.
+Mr. Leonard and his wife and Miss Maria A. West were already there.
+Mr. Dodd and family, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Miss Fritcher now
+removed thither. The delightful harmony and Christian zeal which
+existed at this station when the mission passed the resolution, had
+been followed by painful disagreements. Through the mistaken zeal of
+a young school-teacher, anxious to effect some changes in the
+school, the community were betrayed into an attempt to obtain
+exclusive control of the funds of the Board appropriated to
+education. This eventually led to a struggle with the mission for
+the possession of the meeting-house and a dwelling-house connected
+with it, which had been purchased by the Board a few years before.
+Much ill feeling existed both in the church and the community while
+this was in progress, and for about six weeks a large number
+withdrew, and set up public worship in a private house, with the
+teacher at their head. This separate movement was then given up, and
+there was soon a return of peace and mutual affection; but neither
+of the schools were opened before the next year.
+
+The accessions to the missions in Turkey, in the time now under
+review, were Messrs. Walter H. Giles, Henry A. Schauffler, Lucien N.
+Adams, and Albert Bryant, with their wives; also Miss Clarissa C.
+Pond.
+
+The working force of the mission at Constantinople, consisting of
+Drs. Goodell and Riggs, and Messrs. Trowbridge, Herrick, and
+Washburn, was quite too small for the demands of that great
+metropolis, and for the general work of the mission which had to be
+performed there. The Rev. Isaac G. Bliss, agent of the American
+Bible Society, rendered valuable assistance in the care of the book
+department. Dr. Hamlin was no longer able to render the services he
+had performed. Robert College was allowed the use of the Seminary
+building at Bebek, belonging to the American Board, until another
+building could be erected. Its twenty students paid forty pounds
+each year for board and tuition. Its successful beginning in 1862,
+under the munificent patronage of its founder, and the care of its
+President, Dr. Hamlin, and Professors Perkins and Henry A.
+Schauffler, was a subject for general congratulation.
+
+The unhappy dissensions of the Protestant civil community had in
+some degree subsided; but the Pera church, maintaining its attitude
+of disaffection, sought patronage from the English Bishop of
+Gibraltar, offering to receive Episcopal ordination for the pastor,
+and to become a "Reformed Armenian church," which should reject the
+grossest errors of the Armenian Church, while it approximated
+closely to it in government, worship, and usages. Inquiries were
+instituted by the proper ecclesiastical authorities, and
+encouragement was withheld from the movement.
+
+It is painful to state that Vertanes, so often favorably mentioned
+in the early history of this mission, and frequently actuated by a
+zeal which the missionaries judged too ardent, became now
+disaffected, and it was necessary to dismiss him as a helper.
+
+The Pera church, at the time of writing this history, is in full
+fellowship with the missionaries and its sister churches.
+
+The Protestant community at Broosa suffered severely in a
+conflagration, which consumed nearly the whole Armenian quarter of
+the city. The neat Protestant church edifice, and the dwelling of
+the native pastor, happily escaped.
+
+A railway connects Smyrna with Aidin, a city of about fifty thousand
+inhabitants, eighty miles distant. A church had been formed there
+previous to 1865; four persons were added to it in that year, and
+the brethren were grateful for their native pastor, but desired a
+missionary who could preach in Greek, as they could reckon up scores
+of Greeks who seemed ready to receive the truth.
+
+Adana remained unoccupied after Mr. Coffing's death, until March,
+1863, when Mr. Goss arrived, and, afterwards, Dr. and Mrs. Goodale.
+The native pastor was faithful and intelligent. Though neither
+church nor congregation was large, there was an advance in the
+observance of the Sabbath, also in self-support and general
+benevolence. The increased price of the cotton grown on its
+magnificent plain, as the result of the war in America, had given an
+extraordinary impulse to the business of the place, and to the
+spirit of commerce. There was much to encourage hope in respect to
+this important station.
+
+Dr. Nutting, being transferred from the Eastern to the Central
+mission, was stationed at Oorfa, where his brother was laboring; Mr.
+and Mrs. Montgomery were added to the Central mission; but the
+return home of Mr. and Mrs. White and of Dr. and Mrs. Goodale, by
+reason of a failure of health, made the number of missionaries in
+that field less than it had been the year before.
+
+Yet such was the advance in Aintab, that the mission resolved, at
+its annual meeting in 1864, that there was no longer a call for the
+residence of a missionary in that city. The church had increased to
+three hundred and fifty members, and had two native pastors, both of
+decided ability, sound judgment, harmonious views, and deep-toned
+piety; and it was thought that the proper development of the
+pastoral relation, and the most economical disposal of missionary
+strength, would be promoted by leaving the station to native
+cultivation, with occasional visits of missionaries. As, however, a
+second church was to be formed, and a new house of worship to be
+built, mainly with funds from England placed under Dr. Schneider's
+direction, the mission approved of his remaining there till these
+things were done, when he was to go--as he has since gone--to
+another field, where he might hope, with his uncommon power as a
+preacher in the Turkish language, to reap a harvest like that which
+had resulted in the truly wonderful ingathering of souls at Aintab.
+
+The division of the church took place in the following year. When
+the time had fully come for it, the senior pastor proposed that each
+head of a family choose between them. The result was, that the two
+churches, thus formed, each contained about one hundred and fifty
+members. The number in each congregation, small and great, was
+between eight and nine hundred. The preponderance was slightly in
+favor of the first church and congregation, of which Baron Avedis
+was pastor. Baron Krikore became the pastor of the new church.
+
+On the Sabbath when the formal separation took place, the customary
+services were exchanged for addresses suited to the occasion by the
+pastors and Dr. Schneider, and there was the same intermingling of
+joy and sorrow which is sometimes witnessed on similar occasions in
+our own land. Those who went out made the sacrifice cheerfully. In
+the afternoon they assembled in their place of temporary worship,
+which was filled to its utmost capacity. "Though uncomfortably
+crowded, pleasure beamed in every countenance. The Confession of
+Faith and the Covenant were read and adopted anew by the church, all
+the members standing. Then they were addressed on subjects
+appropriate to their circumstances, with a view to rousing them to
+new zeal and activity. When all was over, little groups were engaged
+in lively conversation over the whole house, showing that all were
+especially interested in what had transpired."
+
+The Female Boarding-school at Aintab, under the care of Miss
+Proctor, was now firmly established, having overcome much prejudice
+against female education, and against the regulations necessary in
+such an institution. It had fourteen pupils, who acquitted
+themselves well at a public examination in the presence of a deeply
+interested assembly.
+
+In the high school for young men at the same station, under the very
+competent instruction of Baron Alexan, twelve candidates for the
+ministry were taught in secular branches, to whom lectures were
+delivered in the departments of theological study by Drs. Schneider
+and Pratt. At an examination of this school in the church, in the
+presence of several hundred persons,--including six Moslems of
+prominent social positions, most of whom listened for several hours
+with the deepest interest,--the scholars gave highly satisfactory
+proofs of mental ability and discipline; while the simplicity of
+their piety, and their readiness to labor where divine Providence
+should call them, gave good promise of their future steadfastness
+and usefulness. It was then resolved to remove the Theological
+School to Marash, and place it under the instruction of Dr. Pratt
+and Mr. Goss, assisted by Baron Alexan, and that none but pious
+young men should be admitted. The course of study was to occupy
+three years; and so much of their own personal expenses were to
+devolve upon the students, or their friends, as might test their
+character, and furnish a healthful stimulus to the Protestant
+community on the subject of education for the ministry.
+
+The Theological Seminary at Harpoot sent forth its first class of
+eighteen young men near the close of 1863. Eight of these had been
+licensed as preachers of the Gospel, and nearly all the rest were
+employed at out-stations, as catechists and teachers. Some were
+expecting to be soon ordained as pastors. The demand for additional
+laborers was urgent, because of the very general increase in the
+size, as well as number, of the congregations.
+
+Social meetings for the study of the Scriptures were found to be so
+influential for good in the Harpoot district, that the Armenian
+ecclesiastics of the Old Church sought to counteract their influence
+by the same expedient; but the result disappointed their hopes. In
+Malatia, they appointed a meeting for such readings every evening in
+the week, in each of the twenty-four wards of their part of the
+city. Their intention was to have the Scriptures and the church
+books read in the ancient language; but the people insisted on
+having the Bible alone read, and read in the spoken language. So
+every night the Word of God, in the vernacular, was read and
+commented on in twenty-four assemblies of from forty to sixty
+persons.
+
+Of more significance was the fact, that many of the local
+communities, besides the one at Harpoot, were taking upon themselves
+the support of their pastors and preachers, and were beginning to
+relieve the Board of the expense of their schools. A missionary
+spirit was also springing up. The churches in the cities were
+beginning to care for the villages. Missionary societies were
+formed. In one of the out-stations of Harpoot, the school boys had
+an evangelical society. On Saturdays they met and had prayers,
+singing, and the reading of a tract; and the next day they went out,
+two and two, to the houses of such Armenians as did not come to the
+Protestant place of worship, and asked the privilege of reading from
+the New Testament. Being children, they often found a hearing where
+older persons could not. A boys' missionary society in Diarbekir
+bore the expense of a scripture reader in a large Armenian village
+nine miles distant. A like association of men paid seven eighths of
+the salary of a helper in another village. Subsequently, a door
+being found open in an unhopeful village near the city, the native
+brethren hired a house, and each Sabbath sent one of their own
+number to spend the day as a scripture reader. A similar zeal was
+manifested at Bitlis by a number of young men, who were studying at
+their own charges.
+
+But there were trials. Some of the young men in the Harpoot Seminary
+refused to exercise the self-denial necessary to live on the means
+allowed for their support, and returned to their homes; and a few of
+the graduating class preferred to enter secular business, rather
+than accept the salary offered. This was not without its uses, as it
+confirmed a wholesome principle, and was the means of bringing some
+men, after a time, into the service under a more just apprehension
+of the true value of the ministry.
+
+The Eastern Turkey Mission was painfully afflicted in 1865 and 1866.
+The three families at Harpoot each lost two children; and Mrs.
+Williams was called to her rest, depriving the mission of a highly
+valued and beloved member, and leaving her husband alone, in the
+sole charge of a difficult station. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson were
+obliged by illness to visit their native land, and the Arabkir field
+was placed under the permanent care of the Harpoot station.
+
+The Eastern mission had now ten missionaries, with as many female
+assistant missionaries, six native pastors, seventeen licensed
+native preachers, twenty-five native teachers, and thirty-two other
+helpers. The out-stations had increased to forty-seven, eighteen of
+which were connected with Harpoot. The average attendance at the
+regular religious services was over two thousand and two hundred;
+and many more heard the informal preaching of colporters and other
+assistants. Twenty-two Sabbath-schools embraced one thousand and
+four hundred pupils. There were sixteen churches, with a membership
+of four hundred and fifty, of whom sixty-eight were admitted on
+profession of faith in 1864, and one hundred and twenty were women.
+The number of registered Protestants was three thousand five hundred
+and thirty. Besides four hundred adults receiving instruction, there
+were one thousand five hundred children in fifty common schools, of
+whom more than five hundred were girls. The girls' boarding-school
+at Harpoot had forty-two pupils. The Misses West and Fritcher, from
+Marsovan, had been very usefully connected for a time with this
+school, in consequence of the return home of Miss Babcock. Miss
+Clarissa C. Pond was now connected with the school, and early
+succeeded in gaining the language. The mission was much encouraged
+by a growing interest in education, especially among the women.
+Parents who, a few years before, thought it wholly unnecessary, if
+not a disgrace, for their daughters to read, and who could hardly be
+induced to allow them to attend school, now gladly paid considerable
+sums for their tuition. This advancing spirit of intelligence was
+seen, not only among those who were brought directly under the
+influence of missionary labor, but also among the Armenians
+generally, compelling their ecclesiastics, in some places, to open
+schools of their own. So, also, to keep the people away from the
+Protestant chapels, extra services were established in Armenian
+churches, in which the Bible was read and explained, and prayer was
+offered in the modern or spoken language. In the village of Ichme,
+they even went so far as to open an opposition prayer-meeting, a
+female prayer-meeting, and an evening meeting; and societies were
+formed in several places professedly to carry the Gospel to
+neighboring villages.
+
+There was much suffering from poverty, this year having been one of
+special trial in this respect, but there was great liberality on the
+part of the churches. In the Harpoot district, "there was a
+promptness in paying their pastors, preachers, and teachers," says
+the report of that station, "which would put to shame some richer
+and more enlightened communities, even in Christian America. The
+sums paid by the people for the support of pastors, schools, chapel
+building, the poor, and for other benevolent objects, amounted
+during the year to $1,224 (in gold), and would have been larger had
+not the mass of the people been unusually poor, even for them." Two
+things are noted that were especially cheering in regard to them:
+"First; so soon as they become interested in the truth, they
+earnestly desire a pastor of their own, and, _when necessary_, are
+willing to pay according to their ability for his support. Secondly;
+they are easily pleased, and are not fickle minded; do not desire,
+but rather oppose change. The preacher who has once been given to
+them, almost without exception they learn to love; and having
+learned this, they do not wish to part with him."
+
+Mr. Williams was at Diarbekir in February, and found the church in
+great prosperity under the pastorate of the Rev. Tomas Boyajian. For
+a year the station had had no missionary; and it was a year of high
+prices, almost a famine, and great stagnation in business throughout
+Eastern Turkey. At the same time, owing to the trouble in
+Constantinople, the Turkish officials were more averse to
+Protestants than ever before. Sickness, too, had prevailed,
+thirty-three having been buried at Diarbekir from the congregation
+over which the young pastor was settled. "Yet," says Mr. Williams,
+"the city work is in advance of any _one_ thing at Harpoot. The
+congregation at the Sabbath-school, three fourths of whom are
+adults, numbered three hundred and thirty-nine, and I wish those
+whose contributions have aided in planting this vine, could have
+looked upon the clusters of faces which were studying the Book of
+Life, and heard the hum of voices asking and answering questions!
+They would have felt that there are some places where the missionary
+work is _not_ a failure. The figures I have not by me, but since Mr.
+Walker has been absent, the church has increased, the congregation
+has increased; and that it is not an idle increase is shown by the
+fact, that this one congregation has, in the year of the
+missionary's absence, contributed four hundred dollars for the
+support and spread of the Gospel; for schools, two hundred and
+forty; for the poor (a year of high prices and great want), two
+hundred and seventy-five; and for the national head at
+Constantinople, forty."
+
+The year 1865 was signalized by the death of two very useful
+missionaries,--Rev. Edward Mills Dodd, and Rev. Homer Bartlett
+Morgan. Mr. Dodd died of cholera at Marsovan, on the 19th of August.
+He was a native of New Jersey, and his first labors were among the
+Jews of Salonica, commencing in April, 1849. In 1863, he was
+transferred from Smyrna to Marsovan. Mr. Barnum, of Harpoot, who was
+there at the time of his death, speaks of him as a sincere Christian
+and an earnest missionary, working up to and often quite beyond the
+strength of his feeble constitution. "His first missionary language
+was Hebrew-Spanish, of which, I have been told, he had a fine
+command. When he was transferred to the Armenian work he learned the
+Turkish, which he used with much more than ordinary correctness; and
+some of the best sermons which I have heard in that language were
+from him. He devoted considerable attention to Turkish hymnology,
+and many of the best of the Turkish hymns now in use were
+contributed by him."[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1865, pp. 380-383.
+
+Mr. Morgan died at Smyrna on the 25th of August, at the age of
+forty-one. He was from the State of New York, and obtained his
+education at Hamilton College, and at the Union and Auburn
+Theological Seminaries. He joined the mission to the Jews at
+Salonica in 1852. After that mission was relinquished, he removed,
+in 1856, to Antioch. Seven of the remaining nine years of his life
+were spent in that place, whence the great Apostle went forth on his
+first foreign mission; and the last two at Kessab, in a perfectly
+successful effort to restore unity to a divided church. The failing
+health of Mrs. Morgan rendered a visit to her native land
+imperative. Being detained ten days in the malarious atmosphere of
+Alexandretta by the non-arrival of their expected steamer, Mr.
+Morgan took the fever. Supposing it to be only an intermittent, they
+embarked for Marseilles, but on reaching Smyrna he was too ill to
+proceed farther. There, in a missionary family, he had the best of
+attendance, and after a week of delirious wanderings, he finished
+his earthly course, and was laid to rest in the cemetery of the
+Dutch hospital. His first wife was taken from him at Salonica, his
+first-born at Antioch, a second child at Bitias, and a third at
+Kessab; and the father sleeps in Smyrna, his old home.
+
+                           "Far from thee
+   Thy kindred and their graves may be,--
+   And yet it is a blessed sleep,
+   From which none ever wakes to weep."
+
+Repeated bereavements chastened the strong and decided character of
+Mr. Morgan. He grew in the grace of patience, and in spirituality
+and self-abnegation. He was an indefatigable worker, and was fitted
+to exert, as he did, a commanding influence on the policy of the
+mission. He soon made himself familiar with the Turkish language,
+and never wearied of studying its beautiful structure, and wrote
+some of the best Turkish hymns. The well known hymn,--"Not all the
+blood of beasts"--he clothed with not a little of the strength and
+power of the original.[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1865, pp. 383-385.
+
+The year was also signalized by the death of Rev. Hohannes Der
+Sahagyan, pastor of the church in Nicomedia, and widely known as one
+of the two young men who first attached themselves to the teaching
+of the missionaries in Constantinople, also for his consistent
+piety, earnest zeal, and the severe persecutions which he suffered
+at different periods, as a follower of the Lord Jesus.
+
+A scene at the ordination of a native pastor at Perchenj, a village
+two hours from Harpoot, graphically described by Mr. Williams, has
+its chronological place here. It was in a large garden, with the
+pulpit under the wide-spreading branches of a mulberry-tree, and
+mats and carpets spread out in front. "Around the pulpit sat the
+council,--lay and clerical delegates, representing most of the
+evangelical ministry in this part of Turkey; then the regular
+Protestants of Perchenj, Harpoot, and the villages about, to whom it
+was a 'festa,' as was evident from their dress. Outside these were
+the partially committed ones, who, though they did not 'dress up'
+for the occasion, seemed to have taken the day for it; and again,
+outside that company, were men drawn in by the interest of the
+occasion from their work, with their field dresses on, tools in
+hand, leaning on their long handled spades, bending forward to catch
+question and answer, wholly unconscious of the picturesque finish
+they gave to the scene.
+
+"In the afternoon exercises, the pastor of Ichme and the pastor of
+Harpoot took prominent parts. The same was expected also of the
+pastors from Arabkir and Shapik, but unfortunately they were not
+present. The sermon was by Mr. Allen, and was moving and effective.
+It was very difficult to count the audience, at least from where I
+was. If I could have exchanged places with some of the boys, and
+hung myself among the mulberries, perhaps I could have succeeded
+better. Nothing in all the exercises seemed so American as the
+natural way in which the boys took to the trees. We judged there
+were, in the forenoon, about seven or eight hundred, and in the
+afternoon, six or seven hundred. To the last, everything was quiet,
+and all went off pleasantly. As you know, the community furnish half
+the pastor's salary from the start."
+
+In October, four months later, there was an ordination of much
+interest at Cesarea, where the churches in Constantinople, Marsovan,
+Sivas, and Yozgat were represented. It was in one of the most
+important centres of influence. Gregory the Illuminator was ordained
+in Cesarea, and he went forth from that place to his great work of
+Christianizing the Armenian nation nearly sixteen hundred years ago.
+There were born the great church teachers of Cappadocia, Basil of
+Cesarea and his brother Gregory of Nyssa. In the middle of the third
+century, the bishop of Cesarea protested against the usurpations of
+the bishop of Rome.
+
+"Wednesday morning the council met and organized. The whole day was
+given to the examination of the candidate, which was held in the
+church, and was attended by from two to three hundred persons. The
+candidate occupied three fourths of an hour with a statement of
+personal experience and reasons for entering the ministry. This he
+made in a manner so clear, forcible, and satisfactory, that the
+council felt the need of asking scarcely a question. To the
+congregation it was especially impressive, showing how far removed
+from the religion of forms, to which they have so long been bound,
+is that faith which works by love. Three hours were then devoted to
+an examination of his theological views, and he gave unmistakable
+evidence of being a man accustomed to think for himself,--one who
+has well-defined opinions, and is prepared to defend them."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1866, p. 53.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Walker, having recruited their health in their native
+land, were once more at their post in Diarbekir. What a change since
+the arrival of Mr. Dunmore among that people in the year 1851. Mr.
+Walker thus describes his reception: "When two or three hours
+distant from the city, we began to be met by companies on horseback;
+and farther on by those on slower mules and donkeys, and as we
+neared the city, a great company of men, women, and children gave us
+their hearty 'Hoshgelden' (word of welcome); and the children of one
+of the schools stood in line by the side of the road and sung
+theirs. Thus we were escorted by two hundred or more, through the
+gates of the city, and to our own home, which was swept and
+garnished for our coming."
+
+The church, during a part of Mr. Walker's absence, had been without
+the services of its native pastor, he being at Constantinople; but
+one of their own number, who had been educated at the Harpoot
+Seminary, was engaged to supply the pulpit, and not a service had
+been omitted. The Sabbath-school never fell below one hundred and
+forty. Divine goodness spared the lives of the Protestants, with a
+single exception, while fifteen hundred persons were dying in the
+city of the cholera. The active piety of the church seemed to be
+quickened by their trials; and thirty, out of one hundred and one
+members, were wont to go out two by two, by appointment, to spend
+Sabbath evenings in religious conversation at different houses. The
+result was that their place of worship became over-crowded, and a
+new building was prepared for a second congregation that would seat
+four hundred and fifty persons.
+
+Miss Maria A. West, of the Western Turkey mission, spent the winter
+in the family of Mr. Walker, and took a very active interest in the
+success of the women's weekly prayer-meetings. The attendance at
+these meetings sometimes arose to seventy, and the results of labor
+in this direction can hardly be over-estimated.
+
+Ararkel, a very valuable helper at one of the Bitlis out-stations,
+died in August, 1865. He was a most active opposer of the truth when
+the gospel was first preached in Moosh, but one of the first to
+accept it, being convinced by reading the Scriptures. He was
+persecuted unto imprisonment, but bore all patiently. Being
+naturally gentle and discreet, he was peculiarly fitted to be a
+pioneer, and was sent as a helper to Havadorik, a village on the
+mountains, among Koords, known as the dwelling-place of thieves and
+robbers. He there labored for two years, until his death, with much
+success. "His mouth," says Mr. Burbank, "was always full of
+evangelical doctrines. His prayers were mingled with tears, and his
+Bible was wet with them." He died of fever, leaving two little
+orphan boys and an aged mother without any means of support. The
+Armenians cheerfully granted him a burial in their own cemetery.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1865-1867.
+
+
+An association of native churches and pastors, called the Harpoot
+Evangelical Union, was formed at Harpoot near the close of 1865. It
+was to serve the purpose of a Home and Foreign Missionary Society,
+also of an Education and Church Building Society. It could form new
+churches, ordain and dismiss pastors, grant licenses to preachers,
+and depose the unworthy. It was to hold an annual meeting, and such
+other meetings during the year as circumstances might require.
+Aggrieved church-members might appeal to it under certain
+limitations.
+
+A similar association had been formed, September, 1864, by the
+churches in the Broosa and Nicomedia districts, called "The Union of
+the Evangelical Armenian Churches of Bithynia," embracing eight
+churches, and afterwards including the churches of Constantinople.
+Another was formed at Marsovan, at the close of 1868, and called
+"The Central Evangelical Union," and another in Central Turkey,
+called "The Cilicia Union."
+
+The effect of these organizations has been to enlarge the views of
+churches and ministers, and make them feel that the work of
+evangelizing the people around them belonged naturally to
+themselves. It also greatly developed a spirit of self-denying love
+for their work among the pastors and preachers, and a spirit of
+unity and independence among the churches. "Five years ago," writes
+Mr. Wheeler in September, 1866, "the pastor of the Harpoot church,
+now President of the Union, when we put upon his people an increased
+amount of his salary, inquired, 'By what right do these men put this
+burden on my church?' But when, in this meeting, a proposition was
+made to get the pastor's salaries from other sources than their
+churches' treasury, this same man, aided by the pastor at Arabkir,
+so conclusively showed the folly and hurtfulness of the proposal,
+that the mover of it dropped it in shame. The Arabkir pastor said:
+'This is to enable the pastor to be independent of the people, and
+to say, What have you given me that I should be your servant?' The
+force of this pithy argument is felt here, where ecclesiastics rule
+and devour the people, and where the tendency in that direction is
+so strong that we need to guard against it in laying the foundations
+of the churches. He then went on to show that it would be for the
+good of the churches to support their pastors. They would thus love
+and heed them more. 'The pastor,' he continued, 'who should get his
+support from any source outside of his own people, would be beyond
+their control.' In a subsequent discussion on supporting the poor of
+the church, he said: 'I am fully persuaded, that every church is not
+only able to support its poor, but its pastor too.'"
+
+The truth of this last remark was strikingly illustrated by the
+church in Shepik, the poorest and feeblest in the field, which for
+thirteen years had paid almost nothing for preaching, and was
+supposed to be a permanent pensioner on missionary bounty; but all
+at once it raised enough for the support of the preacher, besides
+nearly two hundred dollars in gold for the building of a house of
+worship. A blind preacher from the Harpoot Seminary had been the
+means of this unexpected result. He was known as John Concordance
+(Hohannes Hamapapar), on account of his wonderful readiness in
+quoting Scripture, chapter and verse. He was sent to Shepik, and
+hearing the complaints of the people about their poor crops and
+poverty, replied: "God tells you the reason in the third chapter of
+Malachi; where he says, 'Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have
+robbed me.'" Then taking for a text, "Bring ye all the tithes into
+the storehouse," etc., he inculcated the duty and privilege of
+setting apart _at least a tenth_ of their earnings for God. The
+people were convinced, and after paying half of their crops,
+according to usage, to the owner of the soil for rent, and a tenth
+to the government for taxes, as they must needs do, they gave
+another tenth to the Lord's "storehouse,"--a room they had set apart
+for receiving the tithes. And the sermon of this blind preacher, and
+the example of these poor people, have wrought wonders in the
+land.[1]
+
+[1] Mr. Wheeler's _Ten Years on the Euphrates_, chap. x. For an
+abstract of John Concordance's sermon on _Tithes_, preached at
+Harpoot, see, _Missionary Herald_ for 1868, pp. 308-312.
+
+During the year and a half after its formation, this union held five
+general meetings. The last of these was the most interesting. Eleven
+native pastors were present,--from the Harpoot district, and from
+Cesarea, Tocat, Adiaman, and Cutterbul. Nearly all the helpers of
+the Harpoot, Diarbekir, and Mardin fields were there, with twenty
+delegates from churches and from congregations that expected soon to
+have churches. There were also present the members of the
+Theological school, Mr. Livingston from Sivas, and Mr. Williams from
+Mardin, who had brought his students to spend the summer in the
+school at Harpoot.
+
+On the 15th of November, 1866, Mrs. Adams died at Aintab, of
+consumption, much lamented.[1] Mr. Richardson, on his return from
+America, joined the Broosa station. Mr. Williams was then alone amid
+the multitudes using the Arabic that centered around Mardin and
+Mosul; and Mr. Walker was the only missionary at Diarbekir, with at
+least a thousand towns and villages in his district. Yet it was a
+year of decided progress in Turkey. The missionary force received an
+unwonted accession in the years 1866 and 1867. Five ordained married
+missionaries arrived in the last of these years, namely, Messrs.
+Henry T. Perry, Theodore Baldwin, Henry S. Barnum, Charles C. Tracy,
+and Lyman Bartlett, with as many unmarried female assistant
+missionaries,--Misses Roseltha A. Norcross, Mary E. Warfield,
+Harriet Seymour, Sarah Ann Closson, and Mary G. Hollister. Mr. Henry
+O. Dwight, son of the distinguished missionary, Dr. H. G. O. Dwight,
+arrived at Constantinople as secular agent, with his wife, a
+daughter of Dr. Bliss. Miss Mary D. Francis arrived in 1866, and was
+afterwards married to Mr. Adams.
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1867, p. 98.
+
+Among other signs of progress was the increase of newspapers in
+Constantinople, and one or two other cities of Turkey. In
+Constantinople, five years before, a newspaper was rarely seen in
+the hands of any one of the thousands of persons passing up or down
+the Bosphorus and Golden Horn in the steamers which take the place
+of the street cars of Boston or New York. Now it had become a common
+sight, and newsboys thronged the thoroughfares with their papers, in
+Turkish and other languages. The standard of journalism was not
+high, but the thoughts of men were stirred. The influence of these
+papers was generally adverse to the missionary work. Partly to
+counteract this influence, the missionaries published, once a
+fortnight, a small newspaper called the "Avedaper," or "Messenger."
+It appeared alternately in the Armenian and Armeno-Turkish
+languages, and had fifteen hundred subscribers scattered over
+Turkey. Mr. E. E. Bliss, the editor, estimated the aggregate of
+readers at ten thousand. One incident may illustrate its influence.
+A villager living on the Taurus Mountains was so impressed with one
+of the sententious speeches of President Lincoln, translated in the
+paper, that he committed the whole to memory, that he might teach to
+others its lessons of "malice toward none, and charity to all."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, for 1867, p. 82.
+
+The general progress towards right religious opinions, had led to a
+division of the Armenians who remained in the Old Church into two
+parties, called the "Enlightened" and the "Unenlightened." The
+former was continually increasing, and had sharp contests with the
+Unenlightened on questions of clerical control in civil affairs.
+Their failure to secure even the partial reforms they sought
+convinced them of the necessity of more radical changes; and an
+Armenian paper announced a movement for the formation of a Reformed
+Armenian Church; on the principle of restoring the purity of
+doctrine and simplicity of worship, which they supposed existed in
+their Church at the beginning. The same paper advocated the complete
+separation of civil and ecclesiastical affairs; and announced that a
+book would soon be published, setting forth the doctrines and
+proposed form of worship for this new church. The new Prayer-book
+made its appearance early in 1867. It contained a Creed; a Ritual
+for Baptism, the Lord's Supper, Ordination, etc.; Forms for Daily
+Prayer in the churches; and Hymns and Songs. Judged by the standard
+of the New Testament, the book contained not a few errors of
+doctrine, and sanctioned many superstitious practices; yet it was a
+decided improvement upon the books in use in the Armenian Church.
+The Armenians of the Old Church regarded the changes as very
+radical, and the Patriarch denounced the book officially, and warned
+his people against it.
+
+"The most noteworthy part of the book is its Preface, which was
+printed last, and may be regarded as the platform of the reformed
+party. After giving a sketch of the history of the Armenian Church,
+its original purity of doctrine and worship, and the subsequent
+introduction of error and superstition, through the influence of the
+Greek and Roman Churches, it declares that the Armenian Church has
+come at last to be a mere 'satellite of Rome,' and that the time has
+come to assert its independence, to cast off the 'ultramontane
+influence,' to rescue the Church of their fathers from the 'Papal
+claws.' Three particulars are then set forth in which a
+'reformation' is needed. First, in reference to doctrine. 'The
+Armenian Church has,' it is said, 'doctrines introduced from abroad,
+which place faith in respect to salvation upon a wrong foundation,
+transferring man's hope from God to things created and material.
+Means are confounded with ends, and ends with means, and thus a
+thick veil is interposed between the eyes of the people and the
+simple doctrines of Christianity.' Secondly, 'The Church has now
+rites and ceremonies (unknown in purer times), which are a
+laughing-stock to the unbelieving, a grief to the truly pious, an
+offense to all enlightened men, and which have converted our
+churches into theatres, deprived worship of its spiritual character,
+and made it like the shows of a fair.' In the third place, 'The
+present relations of the clergy to the people are opposed to the
+spirit and substance of Christianity. Instead of being teachers,
+pastors, and fathers to the people, they claim to possess
+supernatural authority, rule by the terrors of that authority, teach
+the people only that which serves their own purposes, and are an
+obstacle to every good work.'"[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1867, pp. 237-239.
+
+For twenty years there had not been such a religious ferment in
+Constantinople, as there was at the time of issuing this Reformed
+Prayer-book. It was not a revival of religion. The question was not,
+"What must I do to be saved?" but "What did our Church teach in the
+days of its purity?" and "What are the doctrines of the Word of
+God?" Meanwhile the advocates of reform were continually driven to
+take higher ground; and such was their progress while carrying their
+book through the press, that they were obliged to reprint some of
+the first sheets, to make them conform to their new convictions. It
+may be stated as an illustration, that baptismal regeneration was
+taught in one of the original sheets, but in the reprint it was
+omitted.[1] So far as is known, this book has never been used in any
+church; but it is an index of the reform movement, and it has been
+useful in awaking inquiry.
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1867, p. 238.
+
+Bible-women began to be employed in Constantinople early in 1866.
+Five such women were supported by funds derived from the American
+Bible Society, and were kindly received in Armenian families. They
+sold many copies of the Scriptures, and met with much encouragement
+in their work. At this time, wherever missionaries labored in
+Turkey, large numbers of women were learning to read the Bible; and
+the majority of them were usually found at the women's prayer
+meeting.
+
+The progress at Harpoot, only eleven years from the commencement of
+the station, as described by Mr. Allen, is worthy of special
+attention. The leaven of the gospel was permeating the mass of the
+people. Many who persistently refused to be called by the unpopular
+name of "Protestant," were evidently under the influence of
+evangelical doctrines. The rising generation was growing up with
+enlightened views. Many young men would have taken a stand at once
+on the side of truth, but for the difficulty of separating from
+their parents. Societies had been formed, consisting of several
+hundred men not reckoned among the Protestants, for the purpose of
+having good schools for their children, and plain practical
+preaching in their churches. The magnates of one church had closed
+its door against the native evangelical preachers, and placed two
+Turkish soldiers to guard it. At another church the people were more
+resolute, saying, "We built this church, and we will be martyred
+upon its threshold, if necessary to defend our right to have the
+Gospel preached to us." At this the chief men gave way, contenting
+themselves with reporting the matter to the Patriarch at
+Constantinople. As an additional motive, the party of progress
+threatened to attend the services of the missionaries, if not
+allowed to have a service of their own.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1866, pp. 169-171.
+
+Quite a number of the young men and women in the Protestant city
+congregation dated their conversion from the "Week of Prayer." This
+week was duly observed at Harpoot from the first, and in 1866, with
+deeper religious feeling, than had ever been seen before. The
+morning and evening prayer-meetings were kept up till the close of
+May, when it was decided to discontinue the morning meetings, and to
+sustain the others every day, one hour before sunset. Three fourths
+of the congregation attended them regularly, and an earnest and
+tender spirit was manifest in the remarks and prayers.
+
+During this same week of prayer, Messrs. Burbank and Knapp, at
+Bitlis, aided by the native preacher Simon, afterwards pastor of the
+church, commenced a prayer-meeting at the dawn of day, which was so
+crowned with spiritual blessings, that it was continued, daily, for
+more than six months. The attendance increased from twenty to sixty,
+and was at one time nearly a hundred. The church had then only five
+members; and at the communion season in March, each of these five
+men publicly confessed his sins, and formally renewed his covenant.
+Many were in tears. Some in the congregation, who had thought
+themselves Christians, when they saw the church thus making
+confession, were amazed, and felt that they were themselves lost,
+and literally cried, as did the publican, "God be merciful to me a
+sinner."
+
+This was the commencement of the first revival of religion in
+Bitlis. Two meetings were held weekly for inquirers, at which
+between forty-five and fifty were usually present, of whom from
+fifteen to twenty-five were women. "Among the latter, was one over
+seventy years of age, who, being in the previous winter too feeble
+to walk through the deep snow to attend the meetings, had been
+carried by her stalwart son. Now she was a weeping penitent, seeking
+salvation at the foot of the cross, and that son was rejoicing in
+the hope of salvation." Forty men usually attended the sunrise
+prayer-meeting. Not as many of the fruits of this revival were
+gathered into the church as might have been anticipated, because of
+the very high standard--too high it would seem--which was required
+for admission.
+
+There had been great progress at Broosa. When Dr. Schneider left
+that place in 1849, on his removal to Aintab, no church had been
+formed, and his audience never exceeded fifteen natives, and
+sometimes it was not more than eight. No Protestant community had
+been formed, and in those days of fierce opposition very few were
+ready to face the consequences of an open acknowledgment of what
+they were convinced was the truth. But he found all this passed
+away, on his visit there in 1866. There was then a church of fifty
+members, and a Protestant community of one hundred and fifty,
+chiefly young men of enterprise, and a Sabbath congregation of one
+hundred and fifty. They had a beautiful house of worship, a
+prosperous day-school, and an excellent native pastor. There were
+many whose beards made them venerable. Dr. Schneider believed that
+half the Armenians in the city were convinced of the truth.
+
+The first evangelical church in Turkey, composed of Greeks, was
+organized by the Union of Bithynia at Demirdesh, in November, 1867.
+Mr. Kalopothakes was present from Athens. The church was composed
+exclusively of evangelical Greeks, and six of its thirteen members
+were women. Pastor Hohannes of Bilijik, on behalf of the Union,
+welcomed them to the fellowship of the churches; which he said had
+been lost through the departure of the Greeks and Armenians from the
+gospel, but was now recovered. The preacher was a Greek, and a
+native of the place.[1]
+
+[1] The members of the church formed at Hasbeiya in 1851 (p. 376 of
+vol. 1st) were seceders from the Greek Church, but were regarded by
+the Syrian mission as of the Arab race.
+
+The mission was sorely afflicted in September by the sudden death of
+Mr. Walker of Diarbekir. The cholera was prevalent in that city, and
+seemed to follow no laws. In the previous year, it had been almost
+wholly among the Mohammedans; but this year, it prevailed most in
+the Christian population. Mr. and Mrs. Walker removed to a khan
+outside the walls. "His last sermons were from the texts 'The Master
+has come, and calleth for thee;' and 'Except ye repent, ye shall all
+likewise perish.' On Monday, September 10th, he went into the city,
+spending some time over one stricken with cholera, besides customary
+duties. Tuesday morning, after a somewhat restless night, he rose as
+usual, and proposed a mission excursion to Cutterbul, but was
+persuaded to remain at home and rest. The premonitory symptoms soon
+appeared, but nothing peculiarly alarming, and as he had been held
+back from over-exertion, and been very careful in diet, all were
+full of hope. At the first whisper of illness the Christians
+gathered to aid, and the faithful Shemmas, without Mrs. Walker's
+knowledge, telegraphed to Mr. Williams, who started from Mardin at
+one o'clock, P. M., on Wednesday, and riding all night reached
+Diarbekir after sunrise to find that six hours before, September 13,
+1866, his brother had gone 'to be with Christ.'" His age was
+forty-five.
+
+"Diarbekir was filled with mourning. Not Protestants alone, but
+Moslems and Armenians, all were stricken. Such a funeral, as of one
+who was a father to all, was never witnessed there before. The
+native preacher conducted it appropriately and tenderly, praying not
+only for the stricken there, but for those in his native land who
+would so feel the loss."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1867, pp. 33-37.
+
+Mr. Walker was one of the best of missionaries. "His warm and
+affectionate nature," says Mr. Barnum, "quickly gained the hearts of
+the people wherever he went. His great desire was to see men coming
+to Jesus; and this he never forgot, whether at home or abroad. I
+have been with him not a little, and seldom have I seen an
+opportunity for a personal appeal, though only for a moment, pass
+unimproved."
+
+The tribute to Mr. Walker's memory from his brother Williams, of
+Mardin, who knew him well, and has so lately followed him into the
+eternal world must not be omitted.
+
+"His peculiar gifts were three:--1. He remembered faces, and
+recalled the names which belonged to them. He knew everybody.
+Ordinarily he needed to meet a man but once to recognize him ever
+after. And this pleases men; it appeals to their self-appreciation;
+they feel that they have made a permanent impression. Especially is
+this a power among a people who look up to the missionary as
+occupying a higher plane of civilization. It gives him a vast
+influence over them.
+
+"2. Partly as the result of this, but still distinct and beyond it,
+he had a marvelous faculty of making every man feel that he was
+especially an object of personal interest. Perhaps not that he alone
+was such, but that he was one of those taken into the inner sanctum
+of his affections. Love begets love, and believing that they were so
+dear to him, he was soon very dear to them. And he was never lacking
+in the outward expression of love. He was not afraid they would
+think he loved them too much.
+
+"3. He always had something to say. I suppose there is some good
+done by public preaching, but it is the preacher who is ready, in
+the face-to-face opportunity, who comes home laden with sheaves. Mr.
+Walker was always ready. Meet a man when he might, where he might,
+just the right word was on his tongue. And that warm grip of his
+hand, into how many souls has it infused a new and spiritual life.
+So he begot his children in the gospel; and by his sermons, which
+were always thoughtful, he built them up into Christian characters,
+as a workman who needeth not to be ashamed. Our Cutterbul deacon
+says to me since his death, 'I _never_ saw such a man.' When he left
+for Constantinople in 1859, perhaps one hundred men waited upon him
+out of the city, and he spoke to every one, and repeated nothing,
+but had a special word for each, exactly adapted to his case."
+
+Mrs. Walker returned to the United States, with her four children,
+in the following summer, and has since been recognized,--in
+connection with a benevolent lady in New York city,--as sustaining
+a relation of maternal guardianship to returned children of
+missionaries.
+
+At the close of the year Mr. Wheeler and others made a visit to
+Choonkoosh, two days' journey from Harpoot. Many of the people came
+several miles to welcome them, and crowds escorted them into the
+city. "Nine years ago," says Mr. Wheeler, "I made my first visit
+here in company with brother Dunmore, and we were hooted at, stoned,
+and at last driven from our room, in the pouring rain and splashing
+mud of a dark night." Now, every house seemed open to receive them.
+"Their new place for Protestant worship testified to the remarkable
+change. The men had brought all the timber, by hand, a distance of
+from three to five miles, and it sometimes required thirty men to
+bring one piece. Women and children brought water, earth, and
+stones; and women were still busy in plastering the walls, so that a
+meeting might be held there before we left!"[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1867, p. 108.
+
+The foreign missionary spirit was being developed. The Harpoot
+Evangelical Union resolved at Diarbekir, in 1866, to send a mission
+into the wild region eastward of that city, where the Armenians,
+living among the Koords, had lost all knowledge of both the Armenian
+and Turkish languages, and were in the grossest darkness. A dozen
+small churches, with a membership of hardly more than five hundred,
+undertook to educate seven young men to go as their missionaries,
+and the movement excited much enthusiasm. At the same time, the home
+missionary spirit received strength. The brethren at Harpoot were
+endeavoring to occupy fifty or more stations, within their home
+field, at most of which there were a few persons somewhat
+enlightened and more or less desirous of instruction.
+
+A blessing followed. The week of prayer, in the opening of 1867, was
+signalized by a revival at Harpoot.[1] There were indications of
+deep feeling in the church; and on one of the last days of the week,
+three of the most prominent men in the community openly identified
+themselves with the Protestants. One of these, named Sarkis Agha,
+became a very active and useful Christian. Feeling that he had been
+a stumbling-block to others, he lost no time in going to the market,
+and inviting twelve or fifteen of his most intimate friends, all men
+of influence, to his place of business, and telling them of his
+change of feeling. He expected only ridicule, but the majority were
+affected to tears, and requested him to read the Bible and pray with
+and for them.
+
+[1] An interesting account of this revival, by Miss Maria A. West,
+may be found in the _Missionary Herald_ for 1867, pp. 139-142.
+
+It was winter, and the travelling was very bad, so that they could
+not reach the more distant out-stations; but the members of the
+church visited the principal ones on the plain. Among these was
+Hooeli, about ten miles distant, where Mr. Barnum spent two days.
+The whole congregation appeared to be interested, prayer-meetings,
+morning and evening, were attended by from a hundred and twenty to
+two hundred persons; and through the entire day, till nearly
+midnight, the room of the missionary was thronged with inquirers. A
+large number of those with whom he conversed, appeared to be truly
+regenerated. Mr. Wheeler, on the following Sabbath, found the
+interest more widespread. Four hundred persons crowded into the
+chapel, and listened with fixed attention.
+
+Three years before, there was not a Protestant in the place. One
+year before, at the dedication of the chapel, when three hundred and
+fifty persons were present, the audience was so rude that there was
+the greatest difficulty in preserving quiet.[1] Both men and women
+were now quiet and serious listeners. A still larger attendance was
+reported on the following Sabbath, when more than a hundred failed
+of getting into the house of worship. There was also a revival of
+considerable power at Perchenj, another out-station, seven miles
+from Harpoot.
+
+[1] Mr. Barnum thus describes Miss Fritcher's meeting with seventy
+or eighty females in this place, two years before: "The chapel was
+nearly full of women, all sitting on the floor, and each one
+crowding up to get as near her as possible. They were very much like
+a hive of bees. The slightest thing would set them all in commotion,
+and they resembled a town meeting more than a religious gathering.
+When a child cried it would enlist the energies of half a dozen
+women, with voice and gesture to quiet it. When some striking
+thought of the speaker flashed upon the mind of some woman, she
+would begin to explain it in no moderate tones to those about her,
+and this would set the whole off into a bedlam of talk, which it
+would require two or three minutes to quell."
+
+Human nature is everywhere essentially the same. The people of
+Hooeli being thus strengthened, they, with a little aid from abroad,
+erected a larger and finer house of worship, and then began to
+desire a new minister. Their humble and earnest but not eloquent
+preacher, whose labors God had so blessed among them, would do, they
+said, to gather the lambs, but not to feed the sheep. Contrary to
+the advice of the missionaries, they called two popular men of the
+graduating class, one after the other, but both declined, choosing
+harder fields.
+
+"Meanwhile their preacher was called to another place, and the
+people came to the city, with their donkeys, to take him and his
+family home. These were quietly sleeping at his house, expecting to
+start on the morrow, when, at midnight, nine of the principal men of
+Hooeli roused him from sleep, and began to beg pardon for their
+rejection of him, saying, 'Come, get your goods in readiness, and go
+with us.' It seems that they took their failure to secure the others
+as a rebuke from God for their pride; and having met to pray, sent
+these nine men to ask pardon of Garabed in person, while others
+wrote letters asking his forgiveness, and begging him to come back.
+Both parties then appealed to the missionaries, who declined to
+interfere, advising them to pray and decide the matter among
+themselves. They agreed to accept the preacher's decision as God's
+will, and he after prayer and reflection, decided to return to his
+old people. In the mean time, twenty of the women of Hooeli,
+impatient at the delay, met also for prayer, and with difficulty
+were prevented from going in a body to take their old pastor home.
+But the brethren kept them back, and when at length he reached the
+village, no other preacher ever had such an ovation in all that
+region, within the memory of man."[1]
+
+[1] _Ten Years on the Euphrates_, pp. 278-280.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1864-1868.
+
+
+Deacon Isaac, brother of the Patriarch, died in the early autumn of
+1864, universally lamented. In character, as well as position, he
+was a prince among his people. I abridge the account of him by Mr.
+Rhea, who loved him as a friend.[1] Seen in his plain dress and
+Simple manners, no one would have thought of him as once the
+mountain chieftain, ready to break a lance with Koordish robbers.
+Growing up amid some of the grandest scenery in the world, it had
+its effect on his character; and that character the grace of God
+moulded into symmetry and beauty. His intellect was strong, his
+insight into human nature remarkable. The wily Persian official,
+baffled by him and mortified, exclaimed: "We cannot manage _him_."
+While he was accessible to little children, and poor distressed
+women, there was a dignity which prevented undue familiarity. The
+Patriarchal family were proud of him. He grew up in a land where it
+was no shame for noblemen to lie, yet always spoke the truth. He
+lived where bribery was practiced unblushingly, and his house was a
+court-room for the settlement of numberless cases of litigation, yet
+he took no reward for his services, much less to pervert justice.
+"He grew up where little deference was paid to woman; yet took pride
+in showing his respect for his wife Marta,--mentioning her name,
+quoting her opinions, and treating her with the utmost kindness.
+Their relation was a beautiful example of conjugal attachment, of
+untold worth in such a land and among such a people. He was
+naturally of a proud spirit, that could not brook an insult. Once,
+when insulted by a French Lazarist, he sprung to his feet, and put
+his hand to the hilt of his sword; but from that day he never wore
+the sword again."
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1865, p. 45.
+
+Miss Fidelia Fiske died at Shelburne, Massachusetts, the place of
+her birth, July 26th, 1864, at the age of forty-eight. She both
+studied and taught at the Mount Holyoke Seminary, and partook
+largely of the spirit of its founder, the well-known Mary Lyon. She
+embarked at Boston in March, 1843, in company with Dr. and Mrs.
+Perkins, Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard, and some others, and reached
+Oroomiah in June. After laboring there with unprecedented success as
+the Principal of the Seminary for fourteen years, the state of her
+health constrained her return to the United States in 1858.
+
+Up to her arrival at Oroomiah, the school had only day scholars, and
+the pupils were of course in habitual contact with the vice and
+degradation of their homes. She sought to make it a boarding-school;
+and after two years the prejudices of the people had been overcome,
+and the day scholars were all dropped. Her grand object was the
+salvation of her pupils, and of their relatives who visited the
+institution. After the first revival, in 1846, the school became the
+centre of holy influence for the women. She, and her worthy
+associate Miss Rice, found enough to do, day and night. When they
+went to a village, the women expected to be called together for
+prayer; and when these women returned the visit, they asked to be
+prayed with alone. There was a revival almost every year of her stay
+at Oroomiah; and probably few servants of Christ have had more
+occasion for gratitude, in being the means of bringing others to
+him, than Miss Fiske. When leaving Oroomiah on her return home, the
+many women and girls who gathered around to bid her farewell, asked
+"Can we not have one more prayer-meeting before you go, and in that
+Bethel?"--meaning, her own room. There they prayed, that their
+teacher "might come back to mingle her dust with her children's
+dust, hear the trumpet with them, and with them go up to meet the
+Lord." They were accustomed to style her "mother," and themselves
+her "children."
+
+Her usefulness after her return to the United States, was probably
+as great as it ever had been. This was not owing to the predominance
+of any one quality in her character, but to a combination of
+qualities of mind and heart surpassing anything I have ever seen in
+any other person. Her emotional nature was wonderfully sanctified,
+and each of her powers being well developed, and all nicely adjusted
+one to another, the whole worked with regularity and ease. Hence
+that singular accuracy of judgment, and that never-failing sense of
+propriety, for which she was distinguished. Hence the apparent
+absence of fatigue in her protracted conversations and
+conversational addresses. Hence the habitual control of her
+sanctified affections over her intellectual powers, so that she
+seemed ever ready, at the moment, for the call of duty, and
+especially to meet the claims of perishing souls. She seemed to me
+the nearest approach I ever saw, in man or woman, in the structure
+and working of her whole nature, to my ideal of the blessed Saviour,
+as he appeared in his walks on earth.
+
+The amount of her usefulness was as extraordinary as her character,
+and probably the tidings of no death have awakened so many voices of
+lamentation over the plain of Oroomiah, and in the glens of
+Koordistan.[1]
+
+[1] See _Woman and her Saviour in Persia_, by Dr. Thomas Laurie, and
+_The Cross and the Crown, or Faith working by Love, as exemplified
+in the Life of Fidelia Fiske_, by Dr. D. T. Fiske.
+
+Another death occurred this year, which was also sensibly felt by
+the mission. It was that of Deacon Joseph, of Degala. Dr. Perkins
+lamented the loss of his services in connection with the press, a
+kind of labor for which his qualifications were unequaled among the
+people. His well-balanced mind, his fine scholarship, the solidity
+of his Christian character, his eminent services in this department,
+especially the very important assistance he rendered in translating
+the Old Testament from the original Hebrew, would have secured him
+an honorable position in more enlightened lands.
+
+In 1863 and 1864 Mr. Shedd made extended tours in his mountain
+field. In the first, he crossed to Mosul, and from Oroomiah to
+Amadia he travelled mostly on foot, in native snowshoes and
+moccasins, with much fatigue and exposure. At Mosul, he enjoyed the
+hospitality of Mr. Rassam, and had conferences with Mr. Williams of
+Mardin. The second tour was in the autumn, and extended as far as
+Tiary.[1] The mountaineers may be viewed, he says, in two very
+different lights; first, as feeble, unreasonable, and lawless;
+poverty stricken, and lacking in self-respect, and self-reliance;
+connecting their interest in spiritual things too often with the
+hope of temporal benefits. Then there are constant feuds between
+villages, clans, and chiefs. The hopeful side is in the great
+preparatory work that has been accomplished, the general
+friendliness of the people, and the growing influence of the mission
+helpers. The following tabular view will give some idea of the
+mountain work in its incipient state, for, in some important
+respects, it was in that state as late as the year 1863:--
+
+                 Occupied Districts.
+                 Gawar Tekhoma Amadia Rakan Nerwa Jeloo Berwer Total
+No. of Christian
+ Villages.          -      6       6     3     4     -      -     -
+Estimated
+ Christian
+ Population.        -    4000      -    250   300    -      -     -
+When first
+ occupied by
+ Helpers.         1852   1856    1857  1861  1862  1862   1863    -
+No. of Helpers
+ the Past Year.     4      4       2     1     1     4      2    18
+No. of Villages
+ visited by
+ Preachers the
+ Past Year.        20      6       5     3     3     9     10    56
+No. of Villages
+ with stated
+ Congregations.     5      3       3     1     1     2      1    16
+No. of Persons in
+ Congregations.    88     55      55    15    10    90     35   348
+No. of Sabbath
+ Schools.           3      2       1     1     1     2      1    11
+No. in Sabbath
+ Schools.          42     25      25     8     7    75     25   207
+No. of Regular
+ Day Schools.       2      -       1     -     -     1      -     4
+No. of Scholars.   21     10       8     5     5    28      3    80
+No. reached by
+ Family
+ Visitation.      550    250     100    50    50   560    100  1660
+No. of
+ Communicants.     20      7       4     1     1     9      -    42
+No. of Candidates.  2      1       9     -     1     2      -    15
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1863, pp. 358-363; 1864, p. 231.
+
+Mr. Shedd visited the young Patriarch, in his second tour. The
+leaders whom he met there from different mountain districts, were
+surprised by the friendship shown to the missionaries by Mar Shimon,
+and that they heard not a word against them in the Patriarchal
+mansion. There were frequent interchanges of visits, and Mr. Shedd
+was assured that the young Patriarch was well disposed towards the
+mission and its labors. But there was no evidence that he had any
+real conviction of the truth.
+
+The seminary pupils were now working on a higher level. To a large
+extent, the pupils were daughters of Nestorian helpers and other
+pious parents, who had given them a Christian training. The contrast
+was striking between their general appearance and that of the
+earlier classes in that favored school. A considerable part of the
+expense was now met by the parents of the pupils.
+
+The Rev. Austin H. Wright, M. D., was the immediate medical
+successor of Dr. Grant, at Oroomiah,[1] where he arrived July 25,
+1840. To be thoroughly furnished for his work, he determined to
+master the Turkish, Syriac, and Persian languages; and it was
+doubtless his perfect acquaintance with these, coupled with his
+knowledge of medicine, and the gentle courtesy of his manners, that
+gave him so much influence among all classes of the people. "The
+influence of Dr. Wright in Oroomiah," said an intelligent Nestorian,
+"is that of a Prince." He is said to have spoken each of the
+languages above named with a precision, fluency, and grace, rarely
+equaled by a foreigner. In consequence of this proficiency, the
+intercourse with the higher classes was to a great extent in his
+hands. Persian gentlemen, polite and courteous in the extreme,
+appreciated the dignified yet simple ease and grace with which he
+met them. Having gone out alone, he was united in marriage June 13,
+1844, to Miss Catherine E. Myers, who joined the mission in 1843,
+and was then engaged in teaching. After twenty years his health and
+the interests of his family demanded a visit to his native land.
+Here he remained four years, devoting the latter half of that time
+to a revision of the Syriac New Testament, preparatory to its being
+electrotyped and printed in pocket form by the American Bible
+Society. To this the Psalms were afterward added. Mrs. Wright and
+four of the children remained in this country; but taking with him
+his eldest daughter Lucy, he returned to Oroomiah in September,
+1864. His return was joyful to him, and to the mission, and no less
+so to the Nestorians; but in three short months the summons came,
+calling him to a higher service.
+
+[1] For a biographical account of Dr. Wright, see _Missionary
+Herald_ for 1865, pp. 129-134.
+
+It had been arranged that he and Mr. Rhea, should translate the
+Scriptures into Tartar-Turkish for the benefit of the Mussulman
+population of Azerbijan and the regions beyond; but Dr. Wright's
+work was finished. His disease was typhoid fever, and during much of
+his sickness he was unconscious.
+
+In the twenty-five years of his service, he performed a great
+variety of labors,--as a preacher, a physician, a co-laborer in the
+department of the press, and, not least, as a shield to the poor
+oppressed Nestorians; for he was greatly respected by their
+Mohammedan rulers. And these duties he performed with marked
+ability, scrupulous fidelity, and an almost unerring judgment.
+
+In this year, also, died the Rev. Thomas L. Ambrose, on the 19th of
+August. The three years he spent in the mountains were to him years
+of suffering, the result of an ardent mental and moral temperament,
+as well as of the labors he performed. He returned home in 1861,
+hoping to resume his missionary work; but feeling that his country
+had claims upon him, and receiving an unsolicited appointment as
+chaplain of a New Hampshire regiment, he entered the service, was
+wounded while passing from entrenchments to a hospital, and after a
+few weeks died in the General Hospital at Fortress Monroe. In his
+relations to the mission and the Nestorian people, he beautifully
+exemplified the spirit of his Lord, in not desiring "to be
+ministered unto, but to minister."
+
+The harvests of 1865 were abundant, but there had been a famine in
+several of the previous years; and this had given a stimulus to the
+vagrancy, so frequent and annoying among the Nestorians. "Of the
+four thousand vagabonds," writes Dr. Perkins, "from the less than
+forty thousand Nestorians of Oroomiah, who made want their pretext
+for scattering themselves over Russia and other parts of Europe, as
+common beggars, hardly less greedy for lucre and for vice, than are
+locusts for every green thing, only a moiety return; many dying in
+those distant regions, from diseases induced by strange climates, or
+oftener by criminal indulgence; and many who survive, lying in
+prison for crimes, or preferring their vagabond life to the decent
+restraints of home. Many who do return are worse than lost to their
+people; coming only to spread a moral pestilence, being thoroughly
+demoralized; recklessly squandering their ill-gotten treasures till
+hunger drives them off again to beg. Happily they are now shut out
+of Russia by the government, and they have little hope from England.
+But Germany is still a golden land to them."
+
+Mr. Rhea, another very able member of the mission, was suddenly
+removed from earth on the 2d of September, 1865. He was on his
+return from Tabriz, with his wife and children. The whole scene, as
+described by Mrs. Rhea in the Memoir of her husband, is one of the
+most touching in missionary history.[1] He was ill when they left
+Tabriz, and not until they had gone too far to return did his wife
+awake to the alarming fact, that his disease was cholera.
+
+[1] See _The Tennesseean in Persia and Koordistan, being the Scenes
+and Incidents in the Life of Samuel Audley Rhea_, by Rev. Dwight W.
+Marsh, for Ten Years Missionary in Mosul, pp. 338-349.
+
+She then hoped to reach Ali Shah, a village four hours from
+Oroomiah. It was necessary to put the bedding on one of the loaded
+horses, and then to place Mr. Rhea upon it, and for two men to hold
+him on; which was done by the faithful Nestorians, Daniel and
+Guwergis. The motion of the horse extorted frequent, though gentle,
+groans of pain. He was very thirsty, and both the children were
+crying for water. There was none. At a brackish brook he had tried
+to drink, but spit out the bitter draught in disgust.
+
+"At length the moon rose, and the children became quiet. Daniel
+passed a rope around Mr. Rhea's back, and over his shoulders, to
+keep him from shaking about on the horse; and, taking off his hat,
+protected his head with a flannel. He grew quiet, and I said, 'He
+sleeps.' So we rode on and on in the still night; no sounds except
+from the horses' feet, or an occasional word about the precious
+load. 'Will the village never appear?' They said it was very near.
+O, how long the way seemed!
+
+"My mind was very active, picturing that comfortable room where we
+should rest, the refreshing water, the quiet rest, the soft bed for
+the dear invalid, the quick cup of tea, his sweet words, our
+subsequent journey home in the takhterawan, our safe arrival there.
+All this time my eyes were on him, and my ears strained to catch a
+sound. 'How long he sleeps! How still he is!'
+
+"At length the weary, weary road was passed. We reached the village,
+and stopped at a house where they said we could find a room. Daniel
+and I ran in to see it first, opened the windows, and spread down
+the shawl and pillows where he could rest; then went back to the
+gate, and I charged the men not to let him exert himself at all, but
+to take him down like a little child, and carry him carefully in. I
+ran forward then, opened my satchel, and got out the wine and
+camphor, and spreading a pillow on my lap, received him in my arms.
+
+"Just as they deposited him in my arms he drew one long, deep sigh.
+I wet his lips, bathed his face, spoke to him, called his name,
+raised him up, kissed him, and entreated him to speak. I chafed his
+soft, warm hands, felt his heart, his pulse, his temples, his neck,
+seeking everywhere for signs of life. In vain. He was dead!"
+
+Help came at length from the mission, and the mortal remains of Mr.
+Rhea, found their resting place at Seir, by the side of loved ones
+who had gone before him.
+
+Mr. Rhea died at the age of thirty-eight, in the very height of his
+usefulness. His mental abilities were very superior, and so were his
+acquirements, especially in Oriental languages. During his first
+winter's residence in Gawar, in addition to a systematic course of
+reading in Church History, and his study of Syriac, he went
+thoroughly through his Hebrew Bible. The Modern Syriac he spoke with
+great accuracy and fluency, and he preached with acceptance in the
+Tartar Turkish. He had also made progress in the Koordish language.
+"As a preacher," writes Mr. Coan, "he was earnest, faithful, and
+pungent; the glowing words leaped from his lips, while the Word of
+God seemed a fire shut up within him. He poured out his whole soul
+in the messages he delivered. I have seldom been edified by the
+discourses of any one as I have been by those of this dear brother.
+These discourses, whether in the pulpit, the social prayer-meeting,
+or at family devotions, seemed drawn from his own experience of the
+inexhaustible treasures in Christ. They were eminently fitted to
+make men better." Dr. Perkins said of him, "He is one of the finest
+preachers I ever heard, whether in English or in the Nestorian
+language. The Nestorians denominate him Chrysostom, from his
+remarkable powers as a preacher." He was excelled by few men in the
+beauty and eloquence of his address on public occasions, of which
+there was a fine illustration on the Fourth of July, 1865, the last
+before his death. Though a native of Tennessee, his heart was poured
+out in thanksgiving that the war was really over, and that the right
+had gained the day.
+
+The reader will not be surprised to hear that the young Patriarch,
+influenced by his nearest relatives, was following in the footsteps
+of his predecessor. In Gawar, he tried persuasion, blandishment, and
+compulsion; but the authorities gave him to understand that there
+could not be persecution. The independent tribes of the mountains
+were, civilly, under his power, and he was determined to keep his
+mountain diocese in its ancient ignorance. He diffused a vindictive
+spirit. No ecclesiastic ever had stronger motives to enter upon a
+path of reform, or fewer obstructions. But, refusing all fellowship
+with the gospel, he showed that the Nestorian Patriarch could no
+more adjust himself to the coming age of light and liberty of
+conscience than the Pope of Rome.
+
+Mr. Alison, English Ambassador at the Persian Court, seasonably
+interposed when there were powerful combinations to effect the ruin
+of the mission, headed by the bigoted Minister of Foreign Affairs.
+The Papal party had seized upon the Nestorian church at Ardeshai,
+and rebuilt it; and the Shah, upon the representation of Mr. Alison,
+granted a site for a new church, and subscribed L100 towards its
+erection.
+
+This royal donation was in December, 1865. In the April following,
+the mission had a friendly visit from his Royal Highness, Prince
+Ahmed Meerza, the governor of Oroomiah, and uncle of the King. He
+had come to the province strongly prejudiced against the mission,
+but had been becoming better informed. He was on the mission
+premises two hours and a half, and saw everything that could be
+shown him, in the way of schools, printing, type founding,
+sewing-machines, and medical dispensary. The last seemed to impress
+him most as to the benevolent character of the mission, and he left
+with strong expressions of good will.
+
+The examination of the female seminary, at the close of its term,
+was highly satisfactory, especially in the Bible and in theology. In
+the other seminary, superintended by Mr. Shedd in the absence of Mr.
+Cochran, there had been much religious interest. Many of the pupils
+being from the mountains, Mr. Shedd's labors in the seminary had a
+direct bearing on his particular portion of the field. Geog Tapa had
+a very fine school, entirely supported by the people themselves,
+which almost vied with the seminaries.
+
+The mission suffered another severe loss in the death of Priest
+Eshoo, already known to the reader, on the 19th of April, 1866.
+Thirty-one years before, the Koords plundered his native village on
+the plain of Gawar, and he removed to Degala, near Oroomiah. He was
+then about thirty years of age, a sedate, dignified, upright man and
+very righteous in his own eyes. Gentle and unassuming, he yet
+commanded the respect of all, and his reputation as a scholar soon
+secured for him the place of a teacher in the incipient male
+seminary. For many years he was its first teacher, and down to the
+close of his life sustained a relation to one or the other of these
+institutions. He and his lovely daughter Sarah were among the first
+converts in the revival of 1846. While remarkable for humility, he
+was firm in defense of the truth. His judgment was cool and
+discriminating, and he was known as a safe counselor. He was a good
+preacher, and several volumes of his sermons, neatly written by his
+own hand, showed that they were carefully studied.[1]
+
+[1] See vol. i. pp. 326-329.
+
+Dr. Van Norden and wife entered the mission in October, 1866, taking
+the place of Dr. Young, who had left three years before.
+
+Mr. Labaree communicates the result of careful inquiries by Mr.
+Thompson, of the British Legation, who had been spending some time
+at Oroomiah. Mr. Thompson estimated the Nestorians in Oroomiah,
+Tergawer, Sooldooz, and Salmas, at twenty thousand; the Armenians in
+Oroomiah alone at about two thousand eight hundred; the Papal
+Chaldeans in Oroomiah, Tergawer, and Sooldooz at six hundred and
+twenty-five; but the Chaldean and Armenian population of Salmas he
+did not learn. He thought that the population of Persia could not be
+more than from five to seven millions, and his opinion was deemed of
+great weight, as he had made himself familiar with the civil and
+political affairs of Persia during a long residence, and had
+travelled extensively through the country, with a very observant
+eye.
+
+Among the new lights breaking forth in Western and Central Asia, was
+a community of evangelical Armenians in the Russian province of
+Sherwan, near the Caspian Sea. A Nestorian brother had been sent to
+inquire into their condition early in 1862, and there had been
+occasional intercourse ever since; but cautiously, lest their cause
+should be jeoparded. They had suffered sore persecution, and had met
+in glens and deep recesses of the mountains, for the worship of God
+and the study of his Word. Their leader, Varpet Sarkis, had been
+exiled, their children left unbaptized, their young people
+unmarried, their dead denied the right of burial, and they the
+privilege of commemorating the death of their Lord. In August, 1866,
+an Imperial Ukase was brought them by a Lutheran clergyman from
+Moscow, granting them full liberty to worship God publicly as their
+consciences should dictate, and restoring to them all their
+privileges. Pious Nestorians, who had gone there from Oroomiah,
+reported that the Lutheran clergyman remained there a week,
+organized a church, received a hundred and six persons to Christian
+fellowship, and performed the necessary baptisms and marriages; and
+that they were expecting the return of their beloved guide and
+teacher from exile. Nearly two thousand copies of the Scriptures
+were sold among this people within three and a half years, besides
+many other good books and tracts.
+
+Mar Shimon, acting under the evil advice of his father and uncle,
+issued an order for the expulsion of all the helpers of the mission
+from Tehoma, and threatened not to leave one in all the mountains.
+Events providentially occasioned delay, and meanwhile Mr. Rassam,
+the British Vice Consul at Mosul, hearing of Mar Shimon's
+proceedings, addressed him a very strong letter of remonstrance,
+assuring him that the American missionaries were the truest and most
+efficient friends of the Nestorians, and urging him to invite their
+preachers back with the same publicity with which he had ordered
+their expulsion. The letter, coming from one to whom the Nestorians
+were greatly indebted, had the desired effect, and they were quite
+abashed by receiving such an emphatic rebuke from such a quarter. In
+addition to this rebuff, another was received, soon after, quite as
+mortifying. The Patriarch had written to Mr. Taylor, British Consul
+at Erzroom, offering to make over his people to the English Church,
+if the English government would extend to them its protection from
+Turks and Koords. The reply of the Consul was a decided rejection of
+the proposal, couched in language not at all flattering to the
+Patriarch. Thus baffled and censured, he privately signified his
+willingness that our preachers should remain at their places without
+molestation.
+
+The mission commenced the year 1868 with the encouraging fact, that
+one hundred Nestorians had been received to the communion during the
+previous year, which was a larger number than had been admitted in
+any one year before. This number embraced the fruits of revivals in
+several villages on the plain of Oroomiah, and in the two
+seminaries, with individuals scattered through the Koordish
+mountains. Mar Yooseph, the helper in Bootan, on the Tigris,
+reported, that he had held his first reformed communion in that
+distant region, and that seven came to the table of the Lord. There
+had been no opposition. The native preaching force in the mission
+was then sixty-two, of whom eighteen were in Koordistan, under the
+care of Mr. Shedd; and there were seventy-eight regular preaching
+places. Connected with nearly all these congregations were
+Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes, and in not a few instances the
+entire congregation was connected with them. The habit of giving was
+very generally established, affording evidence that the people might
+be expected eventually to support their pastors.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+THE NESTORIANS.
+
+1867-1870.
+
+
+The annual convention of helpers and representatives of the
+Nestorian churches occupied three days of October, 1867. Ninety
+members were in attendance. Mar Yohanan was elected moderator, and
+Priest Yoosep of Dizza Takka, the former moderator, preached the
+opening sermon. The aged preacher lamented the prevailing
+worldliness of the church, and earnestly enforced the duty of prayer
+as the great remedy. He alluded feelingly to the destruction, by a
+Koordish chief, of one of their oldest and best churches, which
+dated back more than a thousand years. A part of the materials had
+been used to construct a fort, and a part to build a mosque upon the
+site of the church. The recent increase of wine drinking, among some
+of the communicants, received a faithful rebuke. Carefully prepared
+papers were presented on practical subjects, such as education,
+benevolence, temperance, family worship, and the means for promoting
+the spiritual efficacy of their body as a communion, and these were
+followed by free and animated discussions. The duty of assuming more
+fully the support of the gospel and of schools among the entire
+people, was earnestly enjoined; and during the discussion the spirit
+of self-denying benevolence rose to an unusual pitch. Several
+pledged a tenth of their income, and the contributions on the plain
+rose higher than ever before.
+
+There were pleasing episodes during these deliberations,--in the
+reports of Deacon Yacob, a seminary graduate, of two and a half
+years' colportage in Russia, and of Deacon Eshoo concerning his
+successful labors for some years in Tabriz. Deacon Yacob reported
+the sale of nineteen hundred Bibles and Testaments, and many other
+books and tracts, in Modern Russian, German, and other languages. He
+also spoke of revival scenes, resulting in the hopeful conversion of
+several adherents to the Greek Church. The Emperor of Russia, he
+said, encouraged the circulation of the Scriptures in the spoken
+language, allowed free passports to colporters, and exacted no
+duties for the largest sales.
+
+"The subject of wine drinking," writes Mr. Cochran, "the greatest
+bane of the people in the wine-making districts, was discussed with
+vigor, and, with one or two exceptions, in the spirit of a
+determined purpose to urge forward a reform. It was manifest that,
+on the whole, there had been a decided growth of conviction, that
+total abstinence is the only safe remedy for the evil. It was
+gratifying to hear no complaints of the use of stronger drinks,
+except among those outside of our communion."
+
+Several churches, as well as the seminaries, had enjoyed special
+seasons of revival. A sunrise prayer-meeting of an hour was held
+each day of the session, was well attended, and characterized by
+much fervor and importunity in prayer, and the last evening was
+spent in devotional exercises. The burden of prayer seemed to be for
+the outpouring of the Spirit on the churches and the conversion of
+souls, and many of the congregation were at times deeply moved.
+
+Deacon Yacob was ordained in the month following, that he might be
+able to administer the ordinances to the converts among the Malakans
+of Russia. Mr. Shedd wrote of him as "a man whom we delight to have
+among us, so full is he of the Holy Ghost and of faith." One other
+person was also ordained as an elder or priest, and four as deacons,
+in connection with meetings of district conferences composed of
+preachers and delegates.
+
+In the first week of 1868, the "week of prayer," Mr. Labaree made a
+tour in five villages, and never passed that interesting season more
+delightfully, finding in each village cheering evidence of the
+special presence of the Lord. The Christians were induced to pray
+and labor earnestly for the unconverted around them. In each village
+two meetings were held each day, and were attended by considerable
+numbers outside of the church. Indeed that week was observed,
+generally, among the evangelized Nestorians, and there were
+indications of a blessing in the two seminaries, and in several
+villages.
+
+It is an important step towards the support of religious
+institutions, when a people have once acknowledged such support to
+be their duty; and this admission will be the more effectual when
+organizations exist that can attend to the performance of the duty.
+In the progress of events there had grown up four ecclesiastical
+bodies, called _Knooshyas_, that is, assemblies, three on the plain,
+and one in the mountains; which had their confession of faith and
+rules of discipline. The local assemblies sometimes met together as
+one body. As in kindred bodies among the Armenians, the missionaries
+were admitted for counsel, but not to vote. At a meeting of one of
+these bodies, the duty of self-support was fully acknowledged, and
+the desire was strongly expressed to show their gratitude to the
+American churches by assuming the entire support of the gospel among
+themselves, and sending it to regions beyond, as did their fathers.
+The following resolution was adopted, namely: "That it is the duty
+of every member of the church, as he has received spiritual benefits
+from his pastor, to aid in the temporal support of the same; and
+also to aid in meeting the necessary expenses of the church
+according to his ability."
+
+It was recommended that pastors preach on the subject of these
+resolutions; and that the pastor and lay-delegates, on their return
+home, use their influence with the brethren and congregations of
+their respective villages to bring the people up to their duty in
+these matters.
+
+The following reflections by the venerable Dr. Perkins, written
+about this time, will be refreshing to the reader: "The progress of
+our work," he says, "is steadily onward, and is probably as rapid as
+would consist with its highest prosperity. This progress is not
+always in a uniform current. It often resembles a succession of
+circling eddies, caused generally by obstacles in the stream, but
+sometimes by the accelerated speed of the current, which, but for
+these self-regulating checks, might bring upon the work serious
+disaster. Such eddies are often our best missionary regulators,
+correcting mistakes or undue haste, and giving to our converts
+occasion and time to examine the foundations of their faith."
+
+Miss Nancy Jane Dean joined the mission in October, 1868, to labor
+in the female seminary. Miss Rice and Mrs. Rhea had left Oroomiah in
+the previous May, with Dr. Perkins, and arrived at New York in
+August. Miss Rice had been connected with the female seminary
+twenty-two years, and her good influence was felt in hundreds of
+Nestorian homes on the broad plain and in the wild glens of the
+mountains. Mrs. Rhea's return was due to her children, but, like
+that of Miss Rice, it was a sad loss to the mission circle, and to
+the women of Persia. The return of Dr. Perkins, the father of the
+Nestorian mission, seemed like a removal of the foundations. "It is
+difficult," wrote Mr. Shedd, "to over-estimate his labors, continued
+now for more than a third of a century, or the value of his
+experience. It is a gratification to him, and to us all, that he can
+leave us in the atmosphere of revivals; and that, after he is gone,
+the many works from his pen will continue to speak to the people
+whom he loved. But many will sorrow at his leaving Persia, and most
+of all that they shall see his face no more."
+
+Dr. Perkins had seen much accomplished in the thirty-six years of
+his connection with the mission. From eighty-five centres, and to
+congregations averaging nearly two thousand four hundred, the gospel
+had come to be proclaimed, by more than a hundred native helpers, of
+whom fifty-eight were fully recognized preachers; and more than nine
+hundred persons had professed their faith in Christ, of whom seven
+hundred and twenty were then connected with the evangelical
+communion. The seminaries had educated hundreds of youth, whose
+influence was seen in the general social and moral elevation of the
+people. In the common schools there were more than a thousand
+pupils; and from the press more than half a million of pages had
+gone forth in the year preceding his departure; making an aggregate
+of nearly nineteen millions (18,996,450) from the beginning.
+
+The mission was commenced with the expectation that the revival of
+gospel light and influence among that people would rekindle their
+ancient missionary spirit. Extreme oppression and poverty have made
+the development of this spirit very difficult. But we have already
+seen among them as fine specimens of it, probably, as there ever
+were in the olden times. Witness the venerable Bishop Elias, Tamo of
+Gawar, Guwergis of Tergawer, Isaac of the Patriarchal family, Joseph
+the translator, Priest Eshoo of the Seminary, Oshana of Tehoma, and,
+more recently, Yacob, among the Malakans of Russia, and Deacon Eshoo
+in the commercial capital of Persia. These were really missionary
+men; and there seems also to have been even a greater development of
+the genuine missionary zeal among the Nestorian women. There were,
+and doubtless there are now, men and women, who would have
+resolutely carried the gospel into Central Asia, had the door been
+open.
+
+The time had now come, when it could be no longer safe for the
+reformed Nestorian churches to defer entering upon incipient foreign
+missions. The healthful reaction of such missions had become as
+indispensable as it was when the churches at the Sandwich Islands
+were providentially led to send missionaries to Micronesia and the
+Marquesas. The churches at the Islands, living under a free
+constitutional government, were indeed able to support their
+missionaries, and the oppressed and impoverished Nestorians are not;
+but it was a great thing to have messengers go forth from among
+themselves to make the gospel known to less favored peoples.
+
+And here, to illustrate the high-toned missionary spirit of the
+Nestorians of our day, I will quote from the correspondence of
+Sarah, a daughter of Priest Abraham, of Geog Tapa. She was a convert
+of the first revival in 1846, and one of the earliest graduates of
+the female seminary. She seems to have gone, after graduation, to
+reside with her father, then laboring at Ardishai, one of the most
+wicked villages of the plain; where she persuaded her father to go
+and work for Christ. She was afterwards married to Oshana, one of
+those named above; and the following letter, written two years after
+to Miss Fiske, then in the United. States, will give a good idea of
+her spirit. She is giving an account of her visit to Tehoma, with
+her husband, Oshana, and her two little children:
+
+"Through the favor of our heavenly Father, I have made a journey
+into these mountains, rejoicing in the opportunity to labor for my
+people. I am very happy that my father and friends brought me on my
+way in willingness of soul. From the day that I left my own country,
+in every place that I have entered, until now, my heart has been
+excited to praise my Guide and my Deliverer, and I have also been
+grateful to my teachers, who brought me to labor in a desolate
+vineyard joyfully; I, who am so weak, and such a great sinner. In
+all the various circumstances through which I have passed, your
+counsels have been of great benefit to me.
+
+"I think you will be glad to know, that the gospel door is wide open
+here. You and your friends will pray, that the Lord of the harvest
+would send forth laborers into his harvest.
+
+"We left Oroomiah, May 6th, and on May 8th we reached Memikan, and
+remained there three days. It was our first Sabbath in the
+mountains, and I met that company of women, for whom our departed
+Mrs. Rhea used to labor. May 12th we left Memikan, and went up to
+the tops of the snowy mountains of Gawar. The cold was such that we
+were obliged to wrap our faces and our hands as we would in January.
+As we descended the mountain, we found it about as warm as February.
+That night we spent in the deep valley of Ishtazin, in the village
+of Boobawa, where Yohanan and Guly dwell. The people here are very
+wild and hard. Yohanan and Guly were not here, having gone to visit
+Khananis. Only a few came together for preaching. The people said,
+'Yohanan preaches, and we revile.' May 13th, we left Boobawa, and
+soon crossed the river. Men had gone before us, and were lying in
+wait there. They stripped us, but afterwards of themselves became
+sorry, and returned our things. As we were going along this
+wonderful, fearful river, and beheld the mountains on either side
+covered with beautiful forests, we remembered Mr. Rhea, the composer
+of the hymn, 'Valley of Ishtazin.' And when filled with wonder at
+the works of the Great Creator, we all, with one voice, praised him
+in songs of joy fitting for the mountains. Here the brethren
+reminded me, that our dear Miss Fiske had trodden these fearful
+precipices. This greatly encouraged me in my journey. This day we
+went into many villages, and over many ascents and descents. At
+evening we reached Jeloo, and remained over night in the pleasant
+village of Zeer, which lies in a valley made beautiful by forests
+and a river passing through it. They showed great hospitality here,
+and were eager to receive the word of the Lord. May 14th, we left
+Zeer, and went to Bass. It was Saturday night, and we remained over
+the Sabbath in the village of Nerik. I shall always have a pleasant
+remembrance of the Sabbath we passed there. From the first moment
+that we went in till Monday morning, we were never alone, so many
+were assembling to hear the words of the Lord. With tearful eyes and
+burning hearts, they were inquiring for the way of salvation. They
+would say, 'What shall we do? We have no one to sit among us, to
+teach us, poor, wretched ones.' Truly a man's heart burns within him
+as he sees this poor people scattered as sheep without a shepherd.
+May 16th, we mounted our mules, and went on our way. Half an hour
+from Nerik we came to the village of Urwintoos. An honorable,
+kind-hearted woman came out, and made us her guests. This was
+Oshana's aunt. As soon as we sat down, the house was filled with men
+and women. They brought a Testament themselves, and entreated us to
+read from that holy book. Did not my heart rejoice when I saw how
+eagerly they were listening to the account of the death of our Lord
+Jesus Christ! When the men went out, the women came very near to me,
+entreating for the word of the Lord, as those thirsting for water.
+Then I read to them from the Book.
+
+"There are many sad deeds of wickedness among these mountain
+Nestorians; and when Christians hear how anxious they are to receive
+the words of life, will they not feel for them? We reached Tehoma
+May 17th. Now, from the mercy of God, we are all well and in the
+village of Mazrayee. I am not able to labor for the women here as I
+desired, because many of them have gone to the sheep-folds. It is so
+hot we cannot remain here, and we will go there also, soon. I trust,
+wherever I am, and as long its I am here, I shall labor for that
+Master, who wearied Himself for me, and who bought these souls with
+his blood."
+
+Sarah returned to Oroomiah in the spring of 1860, and left in 1861
+for Amadiah. During the winter of 1861-62, no messenger could cross
+the snow-covered mountains between Oroomiah and Amadiah, and she
+thus wrote in March, 1862, to Miss Rice.
+
+"I did greatly long for the coming of the messenger. We were very
+sad in not hearing a single word from home. Now I offer
+thanksgivings to Him, in whose hands are all things, that He has
+opened a door of mercy, and has delighted us by the arrival of
+letters. They came to-day. Many thanks to you and your dear pupils!
+The Lord bless them, and prepare their hearts for such a blessed
+work as ours.
+
+"Give Eneya's salutations and mine to all the school. I think they
+will wish to hear about the work of the Lord here. Thanks to God,
+our health has been good ever since we came, and our hearts have
+been contented and happy in seeing some of our neighbors believing,
+and with joy receiving the words of life. Every Sabbath we have a
+congregation of thirty-five, and more men than women. For many weeks
+only the men came; but now, by the grace of God, the women come too,
+and their number is increasing. I have commenced to teach the life
+of the Lord Jesus from the beginning. I have strong hopes that God
+is awakening one of them. His word is very dear to her. Her son is
+the priest of the village, and a sincere Christian. Four other young
+men and five women are, we trust, not far from the door of the
+kingdom. We entreat you, dear sisters, to pray in a special manner
+for these thoughtful ones, that they may enter the narrow door of
+life.
+
+"From the villages about us we have a good report. They receive the
+gospel from Oshana and Shlemon, who visit them every Sabbath. In my
+journeys through these mountains, I have seen various assemblies of
+men and women listening to the gospel; poor ones, exclaiming, 'What
+shall we do? Our priests have deceived us; we are lost, like sheep
+on the mountains. There is no one to teach us.' They sit in misery
+and ignorance. They need our prayers and our help. I verily believe
+that if we labor faithfully--God help us to labor thus--we shall
+soon see our Church revived, built up on the foundation of Christ
+Jesus, and adorned for Him as a bride for her husband. With tears of
+joy we shall gaze on these ancient ruins becoming new temples of the
+Lord. Soon shall these mountains witness scenes that will rejoice
+angels and saints. Those will be blessed times. Let us pray for
+them, and labor with Christ for their coming."[1]
+
+[1] _Woman and her Saviour in Persia_, pp. 216-221. Similar
+illustrations could be multiplied from this remarkable volume, some
+of them scarcely less interesting than the above.
+
+Priest Abraham, the father of this excellent woman, died in 1871. He
+was one of the first to cooeperate with Dr. Perkins, and was faithful
+unto the end.
+
+There was the more call for some new missionary movement from the
+fact, that, whatever may be affirmed as to the wisdom of the plan
+adopted for reforming the Nestorian Church, in the earlier stages of
+the mission, experience had shown that the Old Church, as such,
+could not be reformed. It was proper that, from time to time, the
+favorable facts on this subject should be stated in this history, as
+they appeared to the men then on the ground,--to Dr. Lobdell;[1] to
+Dr. Dwight;[2] to Mr. Coan;[3] to Dr. Perkins;[4] indeed to the
+whole body of the mission. But the experience of six and thirty
+years had shown, that the dead Church could not be galvanized into
+spiritual life. There was no way for the truly enlightened but to
+leave it, and form reunions on the Apostolic basis.
+
+[1] Chapter xxvii.
+
+[2] Chapter xxix.
+
+[3] Chapter xxix.
+
+[4] Chapter xxviii.
+
+The necessity had become obvious, but it was a trying process. It
+was too much for Mar Yohanan. He must be spoken of kindly, for he
+had long stood in friendly relations with the mission, though the
+evidence of his piety was never entirely satisfactory.
+
+Priest John, of Geog Tapa, gave unquestioned evidences of piety in
+early life. But in 1868, if not earlier, his gold had become dim,
+and his proceedings and their consequences must have a place in this
+history.
+
+Becoming extravagant in his habits, and thus involved in debt, he
+was disaffected because the mission could not accede to exorbitant
+demands, and relieve him from pecuniary embarrassments. So he went
+abroad to collect money for this purpose, and made his way to
+England, where he succeeded in interesting several of the
+dignitaries of the Established Church. Returning home in the autumn
+of 1869, he made such a report of his visit, and excited such
+expectation of the coming of Episcopal clergymen, and large
+patronage for ecclesiastics and civil protection for all classes,
+that many of the simple-hearted people were carried away. The
+mission had been hoping to get some of the evangelical churches, ere
+long, upon a self-supporting basis; but the hopes thus excited of
+their burdens being assumed by the Church of England, put back for a
+time this work of self-support.
+
+The narrative is continued in the language of Mr. Cochran: "Priest
+John returned from England flushed with the apparent success of his
+mission. At Geog Tapa, the next Sabbath after our communion, at
+early dawn he baptized fifteen children with much display. More than
+two hours were spent in reading the English Liturgy, chanting
+Psalms, and explaining and vindicating the usages of the English
+Church. He announced his intention to give the communion to all who
+desired it. This innovation upon the evangelical usage of more than
+a dozen years (though he had once previously practiced
+indiscriminate baptism), was not inappropriately followed by the
+suspension of the Sabbath-school and preaching service, and the
+turn-out of the whole village, headed by Malek Yonan and Priest
+John, to meet the son of the master of their village, who happened
+to return on that day from a long absence in the army. In the delay
+of the young Khan's arrival, a young deacon, more zealous than
+discreet, proposed a service by the roadside, but many voices cried,
+'We have become Episcopalians, and don't want any more preaching.'
+This public and flagrant violation of the Sabbath, headed by the two
+leading Christians of the village, painfully illustrates the
+material found there, and sadly contrasts with the better days of
+the excellent and lamented Malek Agha Beg and Mar Elias.
+
+"We have heard nothing from friends in England, but from other
+sources infer the probability of at least a visit of Episcopalians
+to Mar Shimon, and possibly to Oroomiah, the coming spring. Priest
+John states, that Dr. Perkins did him harm in England by his
+published statement, that he (Priest John) had come, not as an
+accredited agent to secure Episcopal interference, but rather on a
+private and personal begging expedition (the truth of which is well
+known in Oroomiah, and confirmed by a written stipulation lodged
+with friends here, that his companion should receive one third of
+the avails of the excursion). To destroy the force of Dr. Perkins'
+statement, Priest John has secured the signature of a large number
+of names, including Patriarchs, Bishops, Maleks, and principal men
+among the people. The paper was circulated privately, but we learn
+that only one of our employees, and very few, if any, of our
+communicants, could be persuaded to sign it.
+
+"If asked, what is the true state of feeling among our communicants,
+an extensive and familiar acquaintance with them enables me to
+testify with great confidence, that, with the exception of a very
+small high-church party, headed mainly by Mar Yohanan, I discover no
+special tendency to Old Churchism of any kind, and if let alone,
+they are more than satisfied with the gospel simplicity and
+spontaneity of worship."
+
+Under date of January 10th, 1870, Mr. Cochran adds, "Geog Tapa
+continues to witness novel scenes under the eccentric and reckless
+Priest John. At the close of the fast of the nativity, the communion
+was administered to the whole village, and numbers from surrounding
+villages were also invited in. Many who had not communed for from
+ten to thirty years, as well as the more superstitious and the
+lowest rabble, participated. Four priests, all of whom are of
+doubtful piety (though two were in our communion), officiated,
+clothed in white. The whole Old Church service was read in ancient
+Syriac, and long Psalms were chanted in the same. The baser sort
+were exultant, but the thoughtful, even of those not with us, were
+sad. Every artifice was used to draw in our communion, but we were
+rejoiced to find that all except ten,--consisting of the family of
+Priest John, and the priests and deacons who officiated,--refused to
+partake with them.
+
+"I have preached there three times since. Yesterday was our
+communion. The house was crowded at both services. It was judged
+that seven hundred were inside, and not less than one hundred and
+fifty outside. I preached in the morning on the spiritual character
+of a true church, and newness of life as the condition of admission,
+and that the ordinances belong exclusively to the church, and not to
+those outside. All listened attentively, though a disturbance was
+feared. In the afternoon I 'fenced' our communion fully, but Priest
+John had the effrontery to partake. I have since learned that had it
+been withheld, he, with the rabble, would have taken it by force. A
+perfect separation seems called for, and with it a casting out of
+unworthy members from the church. But the heart of the body is
+right, and will, I trust, stand by the truth."
+
+"Enlightened villagers," adds Mr. Shedd, under date of January 20,
+1870, "besides members of the evangelical communion, did not
+partake. It shows the movement for high-church aid in its true
+colors. Such aid on the part of the English bishops is nothing more
+nor less than salarying Mar Shimon and his ecclesiastics, for
+reading their old prayers and using their dead forms and rites, as
+they have done for ages past. We rejoice in so simple an issue, and
+are sure it can do no injury to vital Christianity."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1870, p. 190.
+
+The time having come for separate and independent church
+organizations, these painful occurrences seem to have been
+providentially designed to promote that result.
+
+Mr. Cochran thus writes: "The progress of the gospel and
+providential occurrences, are bringing us into many new relations to
+the old Nestorian Church, and grave questions, affecting the purity
+and future growth of our churches, are now forcing themselves upon
+us. So long as the Old Church did not oppose evangelical labors, so
+long as she freely opened her doors to our services, consenting to a
+separate administration of the ordinances for the hopefully pious,
+and silently tolerating many ecclesiastical and social reforms, and
+an abandonment of the liturgical service; in short, so long as we
+could see, under the preached gospel, the hold on the old
+superstitions steadily lessening, and the masses being leavened with
+evangelical truth, we were more than content to labor on without a
+separate church organization.
+
+"But experience in other fields, as well as our own, has proved that
+such labors can only be prosecuted for a time. From year to year we
+have found the old ecclesiastics more restive under their loss of
+support, and more jealous of the progress of spiritual life. Mar
+Shimon, as you are informed, has for years openly opposed the
+gospel, and now so intimidates the interior mountain districts under
+his immediate control, that it seems preposterous to attempt to
+prosecute labors there, unless on a separate foundation. And we now
+find the opposition on the plains, and all over the field, not less
+positive, and daily becoming more concerted and potent.
+
+"Mar Yohanan has also, for years, secretly, and often openly and
+most offensively, opposed spiritual and reformatory labors. Priest
+John, a most untiring and reckless man, is arousing a furor of zeal
+for Old Churchism,--a fanaticism that will not be likely to subside
+with the spasmodic efforts he may make. He and others are now
+administering the communion every few weeks to the whole people,
+without distinction of character. They also enjoin the fasts and
+saints' days, resume the use of the liturgy in ancient Syriac, burn
+incense daily, bow before the altar, and make the sign of the cross;
+though some, as yet, refuse to come into all these measures.
+
+"With the return of these old superstitions, there is also a painful
+throwing off of moral restraint, and intemperance and kindred vices
+have greatly increased.
+
+"In these circumstances the question has arisen, first in Geog Tapa,
+and subsequently in other places; Can 'the evangelicals' further
+unite in the morning and evening service conducted by priests--and
+there happen to be five or six in that village--who are reviving
+these superstitions? Almost the whole church are surprisingly united
+in the decision to withdraw. This has been done for the last two
+months, and we find upwards of one hundred members there, who are
+firm, and daily waxing stronger in faith and opposition to the old
+superstitions."
+
+These and other distractions seriously hindered the spiritual growth
+of the churches in the winter of 1869 and 1870. But in the spring, a
+very thorough work of grace was enjoyed at Degala, and it was
+believed that there were more than twenty genuine conversions,
+mostly among the aged and middle-aged. The church in that place paid
+half the salary of its pastor, and was expected soon to pay the
+whole. Mar Yooseph, the young bishop at Bootan, wrote that his
+congregation had increased to one hundred and fifty, and that, for
+much of the time, Christ and his salvation formed the only theme of
+conversation. He had hopes concerning considerably more than a score
+of new converts. Deacon Toma, who had spent a year in the Seminary,
+was with him as a helper, and promised to become another Deacon
+Guwergis.
+
+The immediate foreign mission field of the Nestorians, is among the
+Armenians in Russia, and the same people at Tabriz, Hamadan (the
+ancient Ecbatana), Teheran, and Ispahan in Persia, with the numerous
+villages in the intervening regions; descendants, to a great extent,
+of Armenians carried captive, in the year 1605, from the regions of
+Ararat by Shah Abbas the Great. They furnish the field
+providentially offered to the Nestorians, as the Koords do for the
+Armenians in Turkey. Hamadan is about three hundred miles southeast
+of Oroomiah, on the great caravan road between Tabriz and Bagdad. On
+the 28th of May, 1870, the mission resolved, that they considered it
+a duty urged upon them to embrace at once within their efforts the
+Armenians and the Mussulman sects of Central Persia, by planting a
+station at Hamadan; and they expressed the hope that the Board would
+heartily endorse this action, and help them to carry it out without
+delay, and also to occupy Tabriz.
+
+The members of the mission, in the spring of 1870, were the Rev.
+Messrs. Coan, Labaree, Cochran, and Shedd, and Dr. Van Norden, with
+their wives, and Miss Dean, principal of the female seminary. The
+mission was now known as the "Mission to Persia," in view of plans
+to reach the entire population of the country. To Mr. Cochran was
+assigned the superintendence of twenty out-stations in Oroomiah,
+Sooldooz, and Tergawer, and the field outlying these, together with
+the male Seminary, To Mr. Coan was committed the press, the editing
+of the "Rays of Light," care of the treasury, and the oversight of
+the city church, and of two out-stations. To Messrs. Shedd and
+Labaree, jointly, was given the care of twenty out-stations in
+Oroomiah and Salmas, besides Tabriz and Hamadan, with the Armenian
+work in general; and, separately, to Mr. Shedd the mountain field,
+and to Mr. Labaree the Mussulman work. Dr. Van Norden was to carry
+on his medical department, and to translate the Gospel of John into
+Turkish.
+
+In the autumn of this year the Mission to Persia was formally
+transferred to the care of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign
+Missions; reserving, however, the Armenian work in the northern
+portion of the field, from its intimate connection with the mission
+to the Armenians of Turkey.
+
+It remains only to speak of the honored founder of the mission.
+
+Dr. Perkins lived through the entire connection of the mission with
+the American Board, and died at Chicopee, Massachusetts, on the 31st
+of December, 1869, when he had nearly attained the age of
+sixty-five; having been born on the 12th of March, 1805. He
+graduated at Amherst College in 1829, taught the next year in
+Amherst Academy; spent the two following years in Andover Seminary;
+and was tutor in his Alma Mater for the greater part of another
+year. The engagement last named was shortened by his call to
+commence the mission among the Nestorians. His life, from the time
+of his sailing from Boston, with Mrs. Perkins, in September, 1833,
+for six-and-thirty years, is largely the history of the Nestorian
+mission.
+
+The careful reader of this history will not need a portraiture of
+his character. He was evidently made for the position he so long
+occupied. He was an acknowledged leader in the Lord's host; a Moses
+and a Joshua, with traits of character resembling those both of
+Elijah, and of the Apostle Paul. To idleness, vagrancy, and
+drunkenness, besetting sins of the Nestorians, he was the old
+prophet; and in his longing desire to make them savingly acquainted
+with the gospel, he was the apostle. Their spoken language he
+reduced to a written form, and gave them, in their vernacular, the
+Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; with a commentary on
+Genesis and on Daniel. Is it too much to pronounce him the Apostle
+to the Nestorians? He came to his end as a shock of corn fully ripe;
+and glorious results of his self denying, and in some respects
+suffering mission, he will assuredly behold in the heavenly world.
+Where in his native land could he have labored, with the prospect of
+so large a spiritual harvest, taking no account of the widely
+reacting influence of his labors on the churches at home? And we
+might propose the same inquiry with respect to the departed
+Stoddard, and Rhea, and Grant, and Fidelia Fiske, and others, both
+among the dead, and the living.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1857-1860.
+
+
+Dr. Eli Smith, whose name has an honorable place among the
+translators of the Scriptures, died at Beirut, Sabbath morning,
+January 11th, 1857.[1] Thirty years had elapsed since his first
+arrival in Syria, and he had before been connected for several
+months with the press at Malta. In 1829, he made an exploring visit,
+with the author, to the Ionian Islands, the Morea, and the Grecian
+Archipelago; and the next year, he and Dr. Dwight explored Armenia,
+and a part of the Nestorian country. The other more important events
+of his life are so far known to the reader, that they need not be
+repeated.
+
+[1] Dr. Smith expressed a decided opinion, in his last sickness,
+that no memoir of his life and labors should be published, since he
+had never kept a journal, and there were not sufficient materials.
+In this he was probably correct, considering what the public would
+have expected. A well written obituary, somewhat extended for that
+publication, may be found in the Missionary Herald for 1857, pp.
+224-229. See, also, pp. 123-125.
+
+The mind of Dr. Smith was rich in general principles, and in
+well-considered applications of them to the missionary work; though,
+in this latter respect, he was restricted more than his brethren
+among the Armenians, by the less pliable nature of the materials on
+which he was called to operate. After having explored countries
+which others were to occupy; after contributing largely to the
+accuracy, variety, and value of Dr. Robinson's "Biblical
+Researches"; and after securing the formation of type that would be
+acceptable to the most fastidious Arab; he set himself to prepare a
+new translation of the Bible into the Arabic language. With this in
+view, he pursued the study of Arabic and kindred languages to a
+greater extent than was necessary to become either a good speaker,
+or a good preacher. His learning was both extensive and accurate,
+and he was continually adding to his stores by a wide range of
+judicious reading. To a good knowledge of the ancient classics, he
+added an acquaintance, more or less perfect, with the French,
+Italian, German, and Turkish languages. With the Hebrew he was
+familiar; and the Arabic, by far the most difficult of all, was to
+him a second vernacular.
+
+Dr. Smith was eminently a man of business, and was accustomed to
+give attention to the minutest details. He spent much time in
+superintending the cutting, casting, and perfecting of the various
+fonts of type, made from models that he had accurately drawn from
+the best specimens of Arabic caligraphy.[1] For many years he read
+the proof-sheets of nearly every work that was printed at the
+mission press; and he bestowed much thought and labor upon the
+mechanical apparatus and fixtures of that establishment.
+
+[1] See. vol. i. p. 233.
+
+To him every pursuit was subsidiary to a faithful translation of the
+Word of God into the Arabic language. Yet he did not neglect the
+regular preaching of the gospel, which he regarded as the first duty
+of every missionary; and having early become a fluent speaker in the
+Arabic, this was ever his delight. "Almost as a matter of course,
+his preaching was expository and didactic. In clear, lucid, logical
+exposition of divine truth, he had few equals. His language, though
+select and grammatical, was always simple, and within the
+comprehension of the humblest of his hearers. In regard to matter,
+his discourses were eminently Biblical, sound, and evangelical. In
+form and costume, his theology was that of Edwards, and Dwight, and
+Woods,--the theology of the Puritan fathers of New England. Upon
+this system of divine truth his own hopes of eternal life rested,
+and it was this which he earnestly labored, for thirty years, to
+infuse into the Arabic literature, and transplant into the hard and
+stony soil of Syria's moral desert."
+
+The author, having had the best opportunities for knowing Dr. Smith,
+bears testimony to his excellent judgment, and to the great value of
+his correspondence with the executive officers of the Board, in the
+forming period of the missionary work.
+
+It did not please the Lord to grant the earnest desire of Dr. Smith
+to live and complete his translation of the Scriptures; and it must
+be admitted, that his ideal of perfection in the work was such, that
+it is doubtful whether he ever could have been satisfied that his
+entire translation was ready for publication. Only Genesis, Exodus,
+and the first sixteen chapters of Matthew, had received his final
+revision, and were acknowledged by him as complete. But, with the
+help of Mr. Bistany, his assistant translator, he had put into
+Arabic the entire New Testament, the Pentateuch, the Historical
+Books of the Old Testament, and the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah,
+Lamentations, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, and Nahum.
+He had revised, and nearly prepared for the press, the whole of the
+New Testament, and all except Jeremiah, Lamentations, and the last
+fourteen chapters of Isaiah, of the books named in the Old
+Testament. With these finished specimens, and with so large a
+portion of the remainder translated and carefully revised, together
+with the helps to translation which he had accumulated, his brethren
+believed that he had laid the foundation for one of the best
+versions of the sacred Scriptures to be found in any language.
+
+Dr. Van Dyck had been connected with the mission since 1840, and
+very soon made himself master of the spoken Arabic, in which he
+greatly excelled as a preacher. It soon appeared, that he was the
+man to succeed Dr. Smith as translator of the Scriptures, and the
+mission arranged his removal, for that purpose, from Sidon to
+Beirut; so that in due time he was enabled to bring the great work
+to successful completion.[1]
+
+[1] See chapter xl.
+
+Mr. Aiken had joined Mr. Wilson at Hums, a new station north of
+Damascus, where he was bereaved of his wife before she had been six
+months in the field. The arrangement for 1857 was that Beirut should
+be occupied by Messrs. Van Dyck and Ford, and Mr. Hurter, the
+printer; Abeih by Messrs. Calhoun and Bliss; Sidon by Mr. Eddy; Deir
+el Komr by Mr. Bird; Bhamdun by Mr. Benton; Tripoli by Messrs.
+Jessup and Lyons; and Hums by Mr. Wilson. Dr. Thomson and Mr. Aiken
+were in the United States; the latter with health so impaired as to
+forbid his resuming his mission. He had previously married Miss
+Cheney. In the following year, Miss Jane E. Johnson and Miss Amelia
+C. Temple arrived to take the care of a girls' boarding-school at
+Suk el Ghurb, on Mount Lebanon; but the former was soon found unable
+to endure the climate. Dr. Thomson, while in this country, published
+a valuable work on Biblical literature, in two volumes, entitled
+"The Land and the Book." Dr. and Mrs. De Forest had come to this
+country in the hope of a restoration of his health; but on the 24th
+of November, 1858, this excellent missionary was released from long
+and severe physical sufferings by a peaceful death.
+
+The health of Mrs. Wilson made it necessary, for a time, to leave
+Hums without a resident missionary. The principal operations, both
+here and at Deir el-Komr, were through schools for both sexes, which
+had been embarrassed by Syrian and Greek opposers, but in no case
+suppressed. The female department of the school at Deir el-Komr
+commenced with a dozen pupils, but in six months the attendance
+exceeded fifty. When Mr. Bird came to that place, he thought there
+were not six females in the nominally Christian population, who
+could read; but a year had not passed before half the pupils in his
+girls' school could read their Bibles. There were other mountain
+schools under the care of the station, and in one there were more
+than sixty pupils.
+
+The following contrast of the state of things in 1857 with what it
+had been fifteen years before, indicates a preparatory work in no
+small degree encouraging. "Then, the missionary could hardly
+purchase here the necessaries of life; and when he left, he was
+followed by stones and execrations. Now, he is welcomed and honored.
+Then, fear kept even his friends from venturing to visit him; now,
+priests and even a bishop are ashamed not to return his calls. Then,
+the Protestant sect could not be vilified enough; now, it is spoken
+of with favor in public and in high places. The old Emir Beshir,
+once the persecutor and terror of Protestants, has passed away, and
+his dilapidated palace is used as barracks for Turkish soldiers. His
+prime minister, or secretary, who did much injury to the cause of
+evangelical religion, and whose mansion was, as it were, the
+stronghold of the enemy, is no more. What remains of this
+Ahithophel's house is the abode of the missionary, and furnishes
+apartments for Scripture schools, and a Protestant chapel. His
+sons-in-law were leaders in the movement which brought us to Deir
+el-Komr, and are among our firmest friends. His grandchildren learn
+the folly of popery by the knowledge of the Bible they acquire in
+our schools.
+
+"Time was, when every one trembled at the anathema of the clergy.
+Now, the latter dare not show their impotence by pronouncing it.
+Some of the people would be glad to be thus dissevered from a church
+which they abhor, for they would thus not only gain their end, but
+retain the sympathies of many who would else oppose them. Those who
+send their children to our schools, have been refused admission to
+the confessional and the eucharist; the Maronite bishop, however,
+has at length yielded the point, and tries to win, rather than
+compel. Their high school he has made free of charge, and has
+promised to open a girls' school beside. In the Greek Catholic
+communion, on the other hand, the men and some of the women remain
+"suspended;" yet they are of good courage, some glad of so excellent
+an excuse to get rid of the confessional, and others incensed at the
+glaring injustice that would admit the drunkard and the notoriously
+vicious, but exclude the respectable and the moral. We have here the
+anomaly of those being thrust out of the church, who are still its
+very pillars, its substantial supporters, whose names are known, and
+whose influence is felt, throughout the region.
+
+"We have reason to thank God and take courage. Still we long to see
+a work more purely spiritual. Light is being diffused, but there is
+not the corresponding religious interest. The truth is viewed by
+many as a beautiful theory, the heart remaining a flint. We have to
+regret the fact, that some of the best minds in the place are tinged
+with skepticism. Happily the most influential are, notwithstanding,
+our firm friends, and are in favor of good education and good
+morals."
+
+Ain Zehalty, a village situated in the heart of Lebanon, has been
+already mentioned.[1] Mr. Bird says, "We now have there five
+church-members. There have been regular Sabbath services under the
+charge of the native helper, Khalil. The audience has been on the
+increase, and is now not only larger than that in Deir el-Komr, but
+is composed of better materials. Those who come desire instruction,
+and are regular attendants and declared Protestants." An Ain
+Zehaltian, when out of his village, if not a Druze, was set down at
+once as a Protestant. The day school in that place had forty
+scholars, and half as many attended the evening school for adults.
+This school was for the special purpose of studying the Bible, and
+the pupils had gone through the historical books of the Old and New
+Testaments. Their custom on Saturday and Sabbath evenings was to
+read the devotional parts, and hold a prayer meeting.
+
+[1] Vol. i. p. 383.
+
+Mr. Ford made a visit to Hasbeiya in February, 1857, with Mr. Jones,
+Secretary of the Turkish Missions Aid Society. He had never before
+been in that region, and speaks highly of the native laborers. Of
+the church-members he says: "When compared with the rock from which
+they were hewn, and the hole of the pit from which they were digged,
+they show the genuineness of the work of grace in their hearts."
+"The signs of the times," he adds, "in the community around, are
+most encouraging. I will only refer now to a remarkable stirring up
+of the Maronites to defend themselves against the inroads made by
+the gospel upon their hitherto solid ranks. Their ecclesiastics have
+always maintained an attitude of proud contempt, as though conscious
+of the strength of their hold upon their people, and they have
+rarely deigned to come into personal contact with the despised
+preachers of the gospel. But the serious diminution of their numbers
+in various parts south of us, and the diffusion of spiritual light
+among the rest of their flocks, have forced them down from their
+assumed elevation, and now they select the ablest of their priests,
+ordain him bishop, and send him on a crusade through Deir el-Komr,
+Hasbeiya, Merj Aiun, and so on to Alma, where the spirit of Asaad
+es-Shidiak, the modern martyr of Syria, seems to be revived in the
+hearts of a simple people, preparing them to brave death itself for
+the Gospel's sake. This bishop has sought public discussions with
+Mr. Bird, at Deir el-Komr, and also with Mr. Wortabet, at Hasbeiya.
+In the latter place there had been two such discussions held just
+before we arrived. In the first, the bishop was effectually caught
+in his own craftiness, and so completely worsted, that he and his
+friends came to the second session prepared to regain by violence
+the advantage they had lost in argument; and the result was a stormy
+debate, terminated abruptly by an assault upon some of the
+Protestants present."
+
+Kefr Shema, a promising out-station, became a station by the removal
+thither from Aleppo of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy. No objection to their
+residence was made by the people, though it was not four years since
+they had combined in a desperate attempt to drive all Protestants
+from the village. The missionaries were visited and welcomed by
+many.
+
+Honorable mention is made of Antonius Yanni, the only native
+Protestant in Tripoli, who had been two years connected with the
+mission church, and had suffered much for the cause of Christ. He
+had refused the honorable and highly lucrative post of vice-consul
+for Russia, because its acceptance would necessarily have made him
+subservient to the corrupt Greek Church, and an attendant upon its
+services.
+
+There had been preaching for several years at Aramon, three miles
+from Abeih. But the congregation was broken up in midsummer by a
+mob. Mr. Calhoun, who was regarded with great respect by the people,
+visited the place, and in a very kind, gentle manner, told the
+people that religious freedom was guaranteed to all, and that they
+of the mission should be allowed to worship in their own hired
+house. The people listened with attention. On Monday Mr. Calhoun
+referred the case to the English Consul-general, and to the acting
+Consul for the United States. Late in the week, two officials from
+the government in Beirut, and two from the governor of the mountain
+district, met Mr. Calhoun at Aramon. "When the time for service
+arrived, the officials publicly stated, that there is to be perfect
+religious freedom for all;--to-day, to-morrow, this year, next year,
+and for all time. This they repeated over and over again, as the
+will of the Sultan, and then ordered some one to go upon the
+house-top and proclaim aloud, after the manner of the Mohammedans,
+_that it was time for prayers, and that all who wished to come might
+come_. Services were then conducted as usual, with an attentive
+audience; and at the close, in a place appointed, the officials
+demanded that the persecutors should ask pardon of the persecuted,
+which was accordingly done, many kissing the hand of the man whose
+house they had entered, and which we had hired. The governor also
+called some of the men to his own village, and threatened them with
+severe punishment if they should again molest any one on account of
+his religion. He then, Mohammedan as he was, repeated, in substance,
+the sentiment advanced, in the presence of his officers, by Mr.
+Calhoun, that religion pertains to the individual conscience and to
+God alone." Henceforward Mr. Aramon, the first teacher in the
+seminary, met with no opposition in a regular preaching service.
+
+The number of pupils in the Seminary, at the close of the year, was
+twenty-five, and some of them were of unusual promise. A theological
+class, of four middle-aged, married men, was kept up during the
+summer, and then they went forth preaching the gospel, or laboring
+as teachers and colporters. Thoroughly-educated young men, otherwise
+qualified to preach the gospel, could only be obtained to a limited
+extent. But men of riper age, of good common sense and
+simple-hearted piety, could be fitted, by a few months of direct
+Biblical training annually, to preach to the uninstructed
+peasantry,--a labor for which there was the loudest call.
+
+On the 12th of January, 1858, a deputation of four young men was
+received by Mr. Eddy, at Sidon, from a large village east of Tyre,
+called Cana. These brought a letter, signed by twenty-six persons,
+professing their dissatisfaction with their own corrupt Church, in
+connection with which they obtained no knowledge of God or of
+heaven, and asking that a preacher might be sent to them at once,
+and a teacher for their children. They denied being actuated by any
+worldly motive, and were sent back with two New Testaments, and the
+assurance that some one would be sent to instruct them as soon as
+possible. They were, accordingly, visited by Daher Abud, a faithful
+native helper, who was much gratified with the zeal and interest he
+found among them. In February, Mr. Eddy went himself, and was warmly
+welcomed. About forty men attended his preaching, whose eagerness to
+hear and converse detained him over the next day.
+
+From thence he went to Alma, a village of five hundred inhabitants,
+a long day from Cana, beautifully situated upon the summit of a high
+range of hills, two miles from the sea. The evangelical movement had
+commenced there two years before, and there was a Protestant
+community of about forty, including nine members of the church.
+"This was considered, in some respects," writes Mr. Eddy, "one of
+the brightest spots in the Syrian field. The great adversary of
+souls tried in vain, by the terrors of persecution and the
+seductions of flattery, to recover the people to himself. Failing in
+this, he sought to sow discord among brethren, and thus to conquer
+them; and for several months past he has rejoiced in seeing this
+'house divided against itself.' I felt much anxiety as to the issue
+of my visit, and had made it the subject of special prayer. I spent
+three days among the people, one of which was the Sabbath. The
+conversation and the preaching were mainly directed to the end of
+securing peace, and a day of fasting and prayer was observed. On the
+morning of the fourth day the clouds parted, and the Saviour
+revealed himself in love. Then, amid tears, and confessions, and
+promises, and prayers, the covenant of peace was signed, and
+thanksgiving offered to God, and we separated."
+
+Mr. Eddy visited Cana twice in the summer, and found the people,
+young and old, eager to be instructed in the Word of God. So many
+children attended the school from Catholic families, that the priest
+sent word to the bishop in Tyre, that if he did not interpose his
+authority, all the village would turn Protestant. Accordingly the
+bishop came, bringing with him several wealthy and influential men
+of the city. The Protestants were all invited to assemble at the
+house of the head man of the village, and then these friends of the
+bishop, in company with the head man and the priest, labored most of
+the night to induce them to return to their church. It would have
+been beneath the dignity of the bishop to have interceded directly
+with them, especially if he had not succeeded. The effort was a
+failure. Next the Prior of all the convents in that part of the
+country, hearing of the bishop's ill success, came, and sought to
+obtain, by love and promises, what the bishop had failed to
+accomplish by threats. But he too returned disappointed; and
+coincident with his departure, two persons came out from the
+Catholic Church and joined the Protestants.
+
+The month of November found Mr. Eddy again at Alma, to dedicate the
+first completed Protestant church in Syria. The enrolled Protestants
+numbered then about fifty. Dr. Van Dyck, before leaving Sidon, had
+selected a site for the building and seen the foundation laid, and
+had since collected from native Christians and foreign residents
+nearly the amount required for the church, which was of stone,
+thirty-two feet long and twenty-two feet broad, and capable of
+holding from one hundred and fifty to two hundred persons. It cost
+about three hundred dollars; thirty of which were contributed by the
+people of Alma out of their deep poverty, besides a large amount
+freely bestowed in labor. No opposition was made by the government
+to its erection.
+
+After the dedicatory sermon, the Lord's Supper was administered to
+the nine church-members, who renewed their vows to the Lord; and
+these, with other appropriate services, made it a Sabbath long to be
+remembered.
+
+In the summer of 1859, Mr. Eddy again visited Cana, taking Mrs. Eddy
+with him to secure access to the women. He pitched his tent, the
+first night, on the banks of the ancient Leontes, six or seven miles
+north of Tyre, and the next day at noon they were at Cana. The poor
+women, ignorant, yet eager to be taught, had never before enjoyed
+such an opportunity, and prized it exceedingly.
+
+The people had passed through severe sufferings. Several of the
+women had been beaten, and the men had a bitter tale to tell of
+oppression by their governor. He demanded a duplicate payment of
+taxes, and when the head man of the Protestants respectfully showed
+him a receipt, with his own seal affixed, he ordered him to be
+severely beaten and placed in confinement. He then sent officers to
+bring others of the Protestants before him, but, suspecting his
+intention, all except two fled into the open country. These two,
+when brought, were thrown down upon the ground before the governor,
+and beaten with staves without mercy upon their backs and feet, he
+encouraging his servants to deal harder blows with commands and
+threats. Thus beaten till their backs were livid and swollen, they
+were wounded also by being kicked and stepped on by those who beat
+them, to make them lie still. When hardly left alive, chains were
+placed upon their necks and feet, their hands were placed in wooden
+stocks, and they were cast into prison, where they spent the night
+with companions who had been previously beaten. Next morning they
+were brought before the governor, and two of them were again beaten,
+when they were dismissed with a threat, that if they left the
+village he would pull down their houses. They however, despite his
+threats, made their way to Tyre, whence they embarked in a vessel to
+Beirut, to seek redress from the Pasha, and sympathy from the
+missionaries. When they appeared before the Pasha's court, their
+backs were ordered to be uncovered, and their wounds exhibited; and
+the greatest indignation was expressed by the members of the council
+against him who had so barbarously treated them, in violation of the
+laws of the realm."
+
+The governor was sent for, and the indications were, that he would
+be expelled from office. But he was not. The Pasha suddenly changed
+his tone towards the Protestants, ordered one of them to be cast
+into prison on a false charge by the governor, and forbade the
+council to proceed further against him. The Cana people were
+detained two months from their homes. The proffered interposition of
+the English Consul was rudely rejected, and their release, when it
+was effected, was with no regard to the claims of justice. The visit
+of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy at that time must have been very seasonable and
+acceptable.
+
+From Cana they proceeded to Alma, where they remained about a week.
+The women here, being more numerous and more enlightened, and some
+of them members of the church, were prepared to receive greater
+benefit from the instruction of a Christian sister. Three additions
+were made to the church. The people, though poor, had here also been
+compelled by their governor to pay their taxes twice.
+
+The Seminary at Abeih was now made more directly a training school
+for native preachers and helpers; and a female boarding-school was
+opened at Suk el-Ghurb, a village six miles north of Abeih, under
+the direction of Miss Temple. The training of female helpers was its
+leading object, and the removal of Mr. Bliss thither made a home for
+the pupils.
+
+Ain Zehalty continued to be a marked village, and the papists made
+great efforts to reclaim it. A Maronite bishop at one time, and a
+wily Jesuit at another, repaired thither, at the urgent request of
+the papal party, to uproot the dangerous exotic. The coming of the
+bishop was with great boasting on the part of his adherents, but,
+much to their chagrin, he declined commencing a controversy with
+Khalil, the native helper there; and was afterwards so hotly plied
+with texts of Scripture by some of the church-members whom he
+ventured to attack, that he fled for refuge to the more
+accommodating "traditions of the elders." It was supposed that the
+disciple of Loyola would carry all before him; but the undaunted
+Bible-men were more than ready to meet him, which they did
+effectively; and his visit was productive of more good than harm.
+
+The report of the mission for 1858, furnishes many striking
+evidences of the influence exerted, especially in the department of
+education. Soon after the opening of the first Protestant school at
+Tripoli, the Greeks opened a school for boys, which soon became
+large and prosperous. And when the Protestant girls' school became a
+success, a board of directors was organized, under the direction of
+the Greek bishop, to break up the other, if possible. Not finding an
+educated woman in Syria who was not a Protestant, the Greeks applied
+to two Protestant young ladies to take their school, but without
+success. To secure the needful pecuniary means, they constrained the
+Patriarch to surrender a part of the convent revenues for this
+purpose. The Russian government, moreover, took up the subject of
+education in Syria, and remitted twelve thousand piasters (four
+hundred and eighty dollars) to the Greek school directors in Tripoli
+for the city schools; but with the injunction, that the tenets of
+the Greek Church should be the chief subject of instruction.
+
+Nineteen persons were added to the churches of the mission during
+the first half of the year 1859. This of course involved various
+local indications of progress, for which the limits of this history
+afford no space. A new place, however, is brought to our notice by
+Mr. Eddy, named Deir Mimas, a large village on the river Litany. A
+few had here professed Protestantism about two years before, and had
+encountered a storm of persecution from members of the Greek Church,
+and from the Mohammedan governor of their district. Yet they had
+constantly increased in numbers and strength. The missionary
+spending several days there, was delighted to find an audience each
+evening of more than one hundred, after their severe labors, all
+eager to hear. The number of men professing Protestantism was above
+sixty, and counting the women and the children, the number was one
+hundred and fifty, the largest in Syria. Their enemies were on the
+alert, and it was a sad fact, that no competent native teacher could
+be found to reside among them. They were then dependent on a native
+teacher, who came to them each Sabbath from a distance, having first
+preached in his own village.
+
+The annual meeting of the mission in this year was one of unusual
+interest. "From the beginning to the end of the meeting, it was
+apparent that there was much of a spirit of prayer among the native
+brethren. The native female prayer meeting in Beirut was more fully
+attended than usual; and the union meetings in Arabic and English,
+held in the chapel, in which the missionaries and native brethren
+united and large audiences assembled, were occasions of deep
+interest. The statements made in the meeting when the annual reports
+were read, at which W. A. Booth, Esq., of New York City, and Hon.
+Alpheus Hardy, of Boston, a member of the Prudential Committee, were
+providentially present, filled the minds of all with the conviction,
+that never before in the history of the Syria mission have we had so
+much encouragement, or such strong proofs that God is with us, and
+that the work is going forward in this land."
+
+Before this meeting, the mission had been favored with a visit from
+the Hon. James Williams, United States Ambassador at Constantinople,
+whose friendly and most useful agency was duly acknowledged by the
+mission. His reply to them may be found in the "Missionary
+Herald."[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1860, p. 163.
+
+The translation of the New Testament was now completed and published
+under the care of Dr. Van Dyck. The pocket edition was admitted to
+be one of the most beautiful books, in its typographical execution,
+in the Arabic language. It had this advantage, that it could be
+carried and read without attracting notice; which was something in a
+land where Bible readers met with so much determined opposition.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1860-1863.
+
+
+The year 1860 was noted for a civil war in Syria, and for savage
+massacres on Lebanon, at Hasbeiya, Damascus, and elsewhere, which
+awakened the indignation of the Christian world. The Druzes were
+prominent in these massacres, and so suffered greatly in character;
+yet the Turks were believed to have been the instigators. The war
+commenced in June; but the government for months had foreborne to
+check private assassinations and angry collisions, until the
+condition became unbearable.
+
+All the Greek and Papal Christians united against the Druzes, with
+the declared purpose of not leaving one of them on Lebanon, but they
+had miscalculated their power. The Protestants decided to take the
+side of neither party. It was believed at Beirut, that the main
+object of the foreign Jesuits and native Catholic clergy was to
+exterminate the Protestants, who had their homes chiefly among the
+Druzes. The Druzes were aroused to desperation, and thirty or forty
+Maronite and Greek villages were burned early in June. The
+inhabitants who escaped massacre fled to Beirut. Not one of these
+fugitives was a Protestant.
+
+The missionaries at Abeih, Deir el-Komr, and Suk el-Ghurb were not
+molested, and Messrs. Calhoun and Bird and their families remained
+at their several stations. It was thought best for those at the Suk
+to descend to Beirut. Disturbance having arisen at Sidon, an English
+war steamer was sent thither to look after the foreigners. The
+steamer brought Mrs. Eddy and her children to Beirut, but Mr. Eddy
+and Mr. and Mrs. Ford decided to remain at Sidon.
+
+In the country and gardens near that city, hundreds of unarmed men
+and defenseless women and children, many of whom had fled thither
+for their lives, were afterwards savagely butchered by Moslems and
+Druzes. The missionaries then asked for a guard from the city
+governor, which he refused until the American Consul in Beirut
+demanded it.
+
+Mr. Bird, at Deir el-Komr, supposing that all was quiet around the
+city, left home to look after the little company of Protestants in
+Ain Zehalty. In his absence, the Druzes attacked Deir el-Komr on
+every side, and when Mr. Bird returned towards evening, he saw the
+town in flames, but could not enter. One of the more than one
+hundred houses burned, was a school-house belonging to the mission.
+The Druze Begs declared it was a mistake, and promised to rebuild
+it. The Christians had fought until their ammunition was exhausted,
+and then surrendered. Mr. Bird found his family unharmed, though the
+fighting and burning had been very near them. The Pasha coming up
+from Beirut made such arrangements that Mr. Bird and family decided
+to remain.
+
+The Druzes were now masters of Mount Lebanon south of the Damascus
+road, and there was no power left in that district to oppose them,
+save in the town of Zahleh. It was from this town that a company of
+horsemen went to Hasbeiya, sixteen years before, to compel the
+Protestants there to recant; and from this same town, not many
+months before, Mr. Benton and his family had been expelled with
+great violence by a mob. Its time had now come. Mr. Lyons passing
+that way in October, with relief for the survivors of the massacre,
+thus speaks of Zahleh: "It presents one of the saddest spectacles in
+all the wide field of desolation. Only a few months before, I had
+seen this then flourishing town in all its beauty and pride. Now,
+nothing remained but a vast collection of roofless houses, with
+blackened, shattered walls, and shapeless heaps of stones and
+rubbish. Shops, magazines, costly dwellings, and elegant churches,
+all had shared in the common ruin."
+
+The Protestants in Hasbeiya began to be troubled, early in the year,
+by premonitions of a coming storm. Mr. Eddy was there in May,
+accompanied by Mrs. Eddy and Miss Temple, who devoted themselves to
+labor for the spiritual good of the women in that community. Hardly
+had they returned to Sidon, when Hasbeiya was surrounded by hostile
+Druzes. They were driven off at first, but on the 3d of June the
+commander of the Turkish soldiers told the Christians to retire
+within the palace, and he would protect them. On the 11th the Druzes
+surrounded the palace, and the Turkish commander opened the gates,
+and allowed the Druzes to cut them in pieces. Some saved their lives
+by crawling under the dead bodies, and others by escaping over the
+walls. The Protestant church was partially destroyed, but not
+burned; its walls and roof remaining uninjured. At Rasheiya the
+Druzes told the Christians to give up their guns, and they would be
+safe. In the night, they set fire to the houses, and killed nearly
+all of one hundred and thirty men. More than one thousand persons
+were murdered in Hasbeiya and the surrounding region. Of these only
+nine were Protestants.
+
+At Damascus, on the 9th of July, the wild Moslems, from one of the
+suburbs of the city, with Koords, Druzes, and Arabs, burst upon the
+Christian quarter, plundering, butchering, and burning; not opposed,
+but aided, by the Turkish soldiers, who could have suppressed the
+insurrection at any time. The slaughter continued several days, and
+the killed were estimated at five thousand. The whole Christian
+quarter of the city was plundered of its great wealth, and the
+houses and churches were laid in ruins.
+
+Those who escaped these massacres fled towards Beirut and Sidon,
+destitute of everything. Appeals were at once made to the Christians
+of England and America, and the missionaries, acting for the
+"Anglo-American Relief Committee," were the chief almoners. The
+expenditure in August for food, clothing, bedding, shelter,
+hospital, and soup, was at the rate of about sixty thousand piasters
+a week, or two thousand four hundred dollars, and yet it seemed to
+make little impression on the mighty mass of misery. Dr. Thomson had
+the especial care of the clothing, bedding, shelter, and
+soup-kitchen, Dr. Van Dyck of the hospital and the sick in general,
+Mr. Jessup of the distribution of bread to about six thousand
+persons daily, and Butrus Bistany and Michael Aramon, two of the
+native brethren, had the daily distribution among about two thousand
+five hundred poor. The funds up to this time had come chiefly from
+the people of England, and English merchants at Beirut gave much
+time to managing the large financial business connected with so vast
+a charity. Dr. Thomson declares that the male children were
+generally murdered, and that the killed were largely mere boys; and
+who, he asks, were to support the thousands of widows, with their
+fatherless daughters? The country had no factories, and scarcely any
+kind of business by which such widows could gain a support. The
+silk, grape, and wheat harvests had been destroyed, the olive was
+likely to perish from neglect, there were no animals for the plough,
+no implements for husbandry, nor was life safe in the fields. He
+adds: "There was never, perhaps, a darker hour for missions in
+Syria; yet we are becoming acquainted with the people more rapidly
+than ever, and should we be permitted to visit them months hence, we
+shall have a most friendly welcome."
+
+Rasheiya and Deir Mimas were burned. Cana and Alma, being far from
+the Druze district, were not invaded. Tripoli was undisturbed. The
+destroyers in the neighborhood of Baalbec were not Druzes, but
+Moslems and Metawales. It is a remarkable fact that, excepting
+perhaps in Damascus, no injury was offered to a missionary; and
+Protestants, when recognized as such, were generally safe. The
+arrival of ships of war and a detachment of the French army at
+Beirut, with apprehensions of an alliance of Christian powers for
+the protection of the Christian population, had, at first, a
+restraining, and finally, a controlling influence, on the Turkish
+government. The Prime Minister was sent to Damascus, and inflicted
+terrible justice on one or two hundred of the guilty there.
+
+The direct effects of the war upon the missionary work were
+doubtless injurious. Immorality increased, the baser passions were
+aroused, and the hearts of many were hardened through suffering. But
+priestly and feudal power, the two greatest obstacles to the Gospel,
+were weakened, and new civil rights were secured to the Protestants.
+The respect for Protestant Christianity was increased, and
+prejudices were dissipated by witnessing its beneficent fruits;
+while multitudes were brought within the reach of the Gospel, who,
+but for these troubles, would never have heard its messages.
+
+The connection of Mr. and Mrs. Benton with the Board and the mission
+terminated in June, 1861, though they remained in Syria some time
+longer.
+
+The Arabic New Testament having been completed and published, the
+mission resolved to proceed, as soon as possible, with the
+translation and publication of the Old Testament, under the
+direction of Dr. Van Dyck. The British and Foreign Bible Society
+requested permission to adopt this version; instead of the one
+formerly issued by them. The result of a friendly negotiation was,
+that the American and the British and Foreign Bible Societies agreed
+to publish the version conjointly, from electrotype plates furnished
+by the former. The price of the reference edition was fixed at ten
+piasters, and of the pocket edition at five, or about forty and
+twenty cents, which placed them within reach of nearly all who could
+read.
+
+The importance of this work cannot easily be overestimated.
+Imperfect translations, and type which seemed to caricature their
+alphabet, had done much to prejudice Arabic scholars against the
+Christian Scriptures. By the labors of the mission, these objections
+were now removed. The educated Arab finds a book printed in
+characters modeled after the most approved specimens of Arab
+caligraphy. He soon perceives the style to be that of a man who is
+master of this wonderful language in all its grammatical and
+idiomatic niceties and rich resources. As a literary work it secures
+his respect, and thus invites a candid perusal. If he reads it, he
+finds the truths of Christianity clearly and correctly stated. Its
+beneficial influence will yet be felt, it is hoped, not only by the
+Christian sects of Mount Lebanon and Syria, but by the many millions
+who speak that language in other parts of the world. This work
+alone, worth many times what the mission had cost, could not have
+been accomplished, except by Christian scholars residing permanently
+among Arabs, and for substantially missionary purposes.
+
+The sale of the Scriptures, notwithstanding the poverty of the
+people, was unprecedented. In 1859, it amounted to four hundred and
+forty-eight copies; in 1860, to four thousand two hundred and
+ninety-three,--a nearly ten fold increase.
+
+Dr. Van Dyck was preparing a voweled edition of the New Testament,
+suitable for Mohammedans, written in the style of the Koran, which
+required much care and labor. This was completed in 1863.
+
+The field manifestly brightened in the two or three years after the
+war. There was an interesting development of the missionary spirit.
+Not less than six different missionary societies were formed,
+embracing nearly all the Protestants of the various towns and
+villages, and a commendable degree of liberality was shown by the
+natives in collecting and contributing. A hundred dollars thus
+raised will not appear a small amount to any one, who knows the
+extreme poverty of most of the congregations. There had been a great
+influx of population at Beirut, and preaching services, during some
+months, were held daily. The Sabbath-school numbered two hundred,
+and the children sang the same songs in Arabic, which American
+children love to sing in their own language. The mountain stations
+reported unusually large and attentive audiences. Ain Zehalty was
+wholly under Protestant influences. Its civil ruler was a member of
+the Protestant church, and its church edifice, purged of its altar
+and pictures, was no longer used for the idolatrous Greek service.
+The Gospel was preached in nine places in connection with the Sidon
+station, the congregations had doubled their number, and schools of
+both sexes were demanded. There were cases of unusual interest among
+the young men. Hasbeiya and Rasheiya were not yet safe for the
+return of their people, but their Protestants retained an ardor in
+the cause which was very encouraging. Ibl and Deir Mimas were still
+centres of evangelical light, and the people of Boaida, numbering
+one hundred, were all professed Protestants, and placed themselves
+under Biblical instruction. Mr. Ford and his family spent the summer
+in the district of which Deir Mimas is the centre, and more than
+thirty women were taught to read by Mrs. Ford. The field was open
+for schools, for preaching, and for influencing individuals,
+families, and communities. The only drawback was the want of
+laborers.
+
+Brief extracts from a letter of Mr. H. H. Jessup, written in March,
+1863, portray the work at that time.
+
+"Delegation after delegation, of men from various villages and
+different sects, call upon and write to us, entreating us not to
+neglect them. They ask for preachers, and we have none to send. They
+ask for schools, and we have not the means to support them. We are
+in _great straits_, and lay the case before our Christian brethren
+at home, throwing the responsibility upon those to whom God has
+given the means, and especially upon the young men in a course of
+preparation for the ministry."
+
+"The people of the village of Ain Kunyeh, near the Lake of Merom, on
+the upper waters of the Jordan, have with one consent turned away
+their priest, shut up their place of worship, and are entreating one
+of our Protestant helpers to come and teach them the way of life."
+
+"A few Sabbaths since, while we were assembled for divine service in
+the Beirut chapel, a crowd of thirty men came in, and with
+difficulty found seats, so full was the chapel already. Upon
+inquiry, after service, we learned that they are from the village of
+Rasheiya-el-Wady, north of Mount Hermon, and are a part of the
+residue of the people who escaped the massacre in that place in
+1860. They ask for a teacher, or native preacher, but we can give
+them only the most indefinite promises."
+
+"Twenty men from the village of Koryet-el-Hosson, near the famous
+castle Kolat-el-Hosson, halfway between Tripoli and Hums, write that
+they too have seen the light, and wish some one to come and instruct
+them; but what can we do for them, when the twenty-five men of
+Sheikh Mohammed, who petitioned us some time since, have been sent
+away empty?"
+
+"This morning a white-bearded priest called, with his aged brother,
+and several younger men. They declared their wish to become
+Protestants, and beg most earnestly for a school. They belong to a
+large and powerful family, and the Lord may use them as the entering
+wedge, to open that strong Greek district to the gospel. What shall
+we answer them?"
+
+Daoud Pasha, the new papal Governor, secured in 1862 by foreign
+intervention for Mount Lebanon, was at first supposed to be a bigot,
+and a tool of the Jesuits, but he soon proved himself an impartial
+and excellent ruler. He had several Protestants in office about him,
+in very important situations. Instead of objecting to missionaries
+establishing schools, he encouraged all efforts to educate the
+people.
+
+Among other evidences of an advance it may be stated, that in Hums
+two hundred and fifty persons avowed themselves Protestants, and
+sought earnestly for a Christian instructor. It was immediately
+decided to send them Suleeba Jerwan, who had lived two years in that
+place with Mr. Wilson, and was well acquainted with the people; and
+the native missionary society at Beirut decided to support him as
+their first missionary. This was done with a cordiality and
+earnestness that was most promising. Hasbeiya women and girls
+pledged weekly contributions for the spread of the Gospel, some
+promised two cents a week, and some half a cent; but even these
+small sums were large for them, and they gave with a hearty gladness
+that was most cheering. Two hundred and thirty Maronites in Bteddin
+had for months adhered steadfastly to the Protestant faith, and a
+flourishing school existed among them. In Cana the Protestant
+community had been augmented threefold, and the same was true of
+Deir Mimas. There had never been a time when so many were inquiring
+on the subject of religion; and a greater number avowed themselves
+Protestants within twelve months, than in the whole previous forty
+years. A new church edifice was built in Merj-Aiyun, costing about
+five hundred dollars, without drawing from the resources of the
+Board, and a new church had been formed in that district of
+seventeen members, most of them from the Hasbeiya church. In the
+Sidon field six persons had been admitted to the church, and there
+were twenty-two hopeful candidates. In Beirut and Abeih, there were
+seventeen such candidates, besides nine admitted to the communion.
+Bible classes were largely increased, and an unusual number of
+adults were learning to read, that they might study the Scriptures.
+Thirty of the best Sabbath-school songs published in America, had
+been translated into Arabic, and published at the expense of a
+sewing society at Beirut, and thus gospel truths, in an attractive
+form, were reaching the children all over the land.
+
+The president of the missionary society at Beirut stated in May,
+1862, that in the two previous months, they had not only sent a
+missionary to Hums, but had sent also a colporter to Jezzin,
+maintained religious meetings every Sabbath at Kefr Shima, and
+employed a city missionary in Beirut.
+
+But with these signs of prosperity, there seems to have been a need
+of chastening. The clergy of the Greek church at Hums, excited, as
+was supposed, by foreign influence, set their people so against the
+Protestants, that it was feared few would be able to stand. The
+native brethren were stoned and beaten in the streets, and abused by
+all classes. Quite a large number returned, nominally, to the Greek
+church; but many of these commenced a Bible class in the Greek
+church itself, thus bringing the truth to many, who would not
+otherwise have heard it. About fifteen men stood firm, and met
+nightly with Suleeba, for reading the Scriptures, prayer, and
+conference. The priests had expected the utter overthrow of
+Protestantism, and were enraged at the firmness of these brethren,
+and forbade all dealings with them. Letters to Suleeba from the
+missionaries were taken from the mail, read, and destroyed, and the
+Protestant places of meeting were assailed with stones. In the midst
+of these trials, Suleeba wrote expressing his gratitude to God for
+sustaining grace. Some alleviation was experienced through the
+efforts of Colonel Fraser, Her Britannic Majesty's Commissioner, so
+that the Protestant community became regularly organized, with a
+representative in the Mejlis, and a tax roll distinct from other
+sects.
+
+The Protestants in Ain Zehalty were also called to suffer. An order
+having come from Constantinople, requiring the restoration of all
+church edifices to their original sects, Daoud Pasha issued an order
+for giving up the edifice at Ain Zehalty. He must have acted under a
+misapprehension, since the building had never been the property of
+the bishop, but was built and still owned by the family of Khalil,
+the Protestant preacher. The Catholics were a very small minority in
+the village, yet the edifice appears not to have been recovered.
+Another convenient house of worship was soon after provided by
+Protestant friends.
+
+Mr. H. H. Jessup wrote respecting Hums:--"Quite recently, one of the
+more enlightened among the Greeks was taken ill, and sent for
+Suleeba, the native helper. He went, and found quite a company of
+relatives and friends. The sick man asked him to read a portion of
+Scripture. The passage selected contained the ten commandments, and
+while he was reading the _second_, the wife of the sick man
+exclaimed,--'Is that the Word of God? If it is, read it again.' He
+did so, when she arose and tore down a wooden picture of a saint at
+the head of the bed, declaring that henceforth there should be no
+idol worship in that house; and then, taking a knife, she scraped
+the paint from the picture, and took it for use in the kitchen. This
+was done with the approbation of all present. The case is the more
+remarkable, as it was the first instance in Syria, in which a woman
+had taken so decided a stand in advance of the rest of the family."
+
+The manifest agency of the Holy Spirit is the highest encouragement
+in the missionary work. "One of the members of the Beirut church,"
+Mr. Jessup writes, "has passed through an interesting religious
+experience this summer. He was for a time troubled with blasphemous
+thoughts, till he gave himself up as lost. His language was not
+unlike that of Bunyan in his "Grace Abounding;" and only after
+protracted struggles in prayer, the study of God's word, and finally
+resolving to go forward and do his duty in both light and darkness,
+did he find relief. The case was interesting as indicating the
+presence of God's Spirit, in leading him through a most severe
+struggle into ultimate peace in believing. Several young Protestants
+of Hasbeiya, resident in Beirut, are now passing through very deep
+conviction of sin. I have rarely seen persons so completely broken
+down by a sense of their lost condition. On Monday I spent several
+hours with two young people, who were passing through deep waters.
+They burst into tears, exclaiming, "We are lost, we are lost!" The
+Spirit of God was striving with them. Never have I felt more deeply
+the need of Divine aid, than when trying to lead these heavy-laden
+ones to Christ. Yet the missionary can have no more delightful labor
+than this."
+
+The mission was strengthened, in 1863, by the arrival of Rev.
+Messrs. Samuel Jessup, Philip Berry, and George Edward Post, M. D.,
+and their wives. Miss Temple retired from the mission in consequence
+of the obstructions to the higher education of girls growing out of
+the massacres, but with the esteem of all her associates. Mr. Lyons,
+broken down by overwork, was also under the necessity of withdrawing
+from the field. The girls' boarding-school had been transferred from
+Suk el Ghurb to Sidon, where it was under the care of Miss Mason.
+
+The population of Beirut was now not less than seventy thousand. A
+bank, a carriage road to Damascus, steamers plying to almost every
+maritime country in Europe, telegraphs in several directions,
+numerous schools and hospitals, and three printing presses, made it
+the commercial and intellectual capital of Syria.
+
+The tendency was to intellectual rather than spiritual progress, and
+there was a growing demand for education. The Jesuits were striving
+to reap the benefit of this, by opening colleges and seminaries in
+various parts of the country; nor could the fact be overlooked, that
+zealous Protestant educators, from different parts of Europe, were
+becoming so numerous at Beirut as to embarrass the mission in its
+natural development. The exigency at length constrained the mission
+to consider whether advantage should not be taken of the offer of
+Christian friends at home to found a Protestant College at Beirut.
+
+This was well, as will appear in the sequel. But it is impossible
+not to see, that the progress of the mission, in the years
+immediately following 1863,--in the increase of converts, and the
+multiplication of churches, with native preachers and pastors,--was
+not such as the facts already stated gave reason to expect. This the
+brethren on the ground foresaw, and their anxious appeals for help
+abound on the pages of the "Missionary Herald," and were enforced by
+appeals from the Prudential Committee. The "Annual Report" for 1863
+thus states the deficiency of laborers at that time:--
+
+"The field north of Beirut, a hundred miles long and fifty wide, has
+no missionary, although hundreds in Hums, and the large district of
+Akkar, are looking to the mission for instruction. A score of
+villages, in each one of which a faithful preacher would find an
+audience, do not receive a visit once a year from a gospel minister.
+Mount Lebanon, with its four hundred thousand inhabitants, scattered
+through its thousand villages, into nearly every one of which more
+or less light has penetrated, and from which cries for help
+constantly come, has but two missionaries; and one of them is
+confined, for the most part, to the Abeih Seminary. The southern
+district, comprising one half of the Syria mission field, with its
+ten regular preaching places, crippled by the disability of its
+oldest native helper and by the death of another, has but two
+missionaries, one of whom is just commencing to learn Arabic. Within
+the last eight years, thirteen missionary laborers, male and female,
+have entered the Syria field, while twenty-five have left it. During
+this period, the work has increased tenfold. Many who have fallen
+asleep took part in sowing, where now the harvest is so great that
+the few who remain cannot gather it; and unless the Lord of the
+harvest send more laborers, much precious fruit will be lost."
+
+It is painfully evident, that the degree of missionary spirit in the
+churches at home then fell short of the providential calls for
+evangelical labor in this field. Yet it is by no means certain what
+would have been the effect of a very large, sudden increase in the
+working forces. Without the restraining grace of God, it might have
+been the occasion of a fierce and malignant outbreak of opposition.
+
+The deficiency of laborers sufficiently accounts for the slow
+progress, and even the decline there was in not a few of the places
+named; as in Tripoli, and Hums, not to speak of promising villages
+in the western and southern sections. Churches, towns, cities in the
+most favored portions of New England would suffer a decline in
+religion and morals, if left, as these places necessarily were, with
+no more of the means of grace.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1863-1869.
+
+
+Mrs. Henry H. Jessup died at Alexandria, after a prolonged sickness,
+on the 2d of July, 1864, whither her husband had taken her on his
+way to the United States. Mr. George C. Hurter, after laboring
+twenty-three years as printer and secular agent with great
+usefulness, found himself constrained by domestic circumstances to
+withdraw from the mission. Mr. Bird was prostrated with a dangerous
+sickness for several months at Abeih, but a merciful Providence
+spared his valuable life.
+
+A boarding high-school was established at Beirut by Mr. Butrus
+Bistany, with nearly a hundred and fifty pupils. The charge for
+tuition and board was large for that country, yet the school was
+self-supporting. The pupils were made up of Greeks, Maronites,
+Greek-Catholics, Druzes, Moslems, and Protestants. A girls'
+boarding-school in the same city, under native instruction and
+government, promised also to be soon self-sustaining. The common
+schools of the mission were twenty-five, with five hundred and
+forty-eight pupils. The Seminary at Abeih had thirty-three pupils, a
+larger number than ever before. Five were in the theological
+department, and several others gave good evidence of piety. The
+graduates of this institution were now scattered over a wide region.
+The boarding-school for girls at Sidon, under Miss Mason, had ten
+pupils, and was making a favorable impression. It became evident,
+however, that pupils could not be obtained there sufficient to
+warrant so large an outlay, taking also into view the unhealthiness
+of that climate, and Miss Mason returned home, though with great
+reluctance. The girls' boarding-school at Beirut, under the care of
+Mr. Aramon and Miss Rufka Gregory, was prosperous.
+
+The printing, in 1862, amounted to eight thousand volumes and nine
+thousand tracts, making an aggregate of 6,869,000 pages, more than
+two thirds of which were Scripture. The number of pages from the
+beginning, was about 50,000,000. Somewhat more than six thousand
+volumes of Scripture were distributed during the year.
+
+The translation of the Scriptures into Arabic was completed on the
+22d of August, 1864, and the printing of the whole Arabic Bible in
+March of the next year. This event, of the highest importance to a
+large portion of the human race, was appropriately celebrated by the
+missionaries and their native brethren. In the upper room where Dr.
+Smith had labored on the translation eight years, and Dr. Van Dyck
+eight years more, the assembled missionaries gave thanks to God for
+the completion of this arduous work. "Just then," writes one of
+them, "the sound of many voices arose from below, and on throwing
+open the door, we heard a large company of native young men,
+laborers at the press and members of the Protestant community,
+singing to the tune of 'Hebron' a new song, 'even praise to our
+God,' composed for the occasion by one of their number in the Arabic
+language. Surely not for many centuries have the angels in heaven
+heard a sweeter sound arising from Syria, than the voices of this
+band of pious young men, singing a hymn composed by one of
+themselves, ascribing glory and praise to God, that now, for the
+first time, the Word of God is given to their nation and tongue in
+its purity." The hymn was composed by Mr. Ibrahim Sarkis and
+translated by Dr. H. H. Jessup, as follows:--
+
+  "Hail day, thrice blessed of our God!
+    Rejoice, let all men bear a part,
+   Complete at length thy printed word,
+    Lord, print its truth on every heart.
+
+  "To Him who gave his precious word,
+    Arise and with glad praises sing;
+   Exalt and magnify our Lord,
+    Our Maker and our Glorious King.
+
+  "Doubting and darkness flee away
+    Before thy truth's light-giving sun,
+   Thy powerful word, if heeded, may
+    Give guidance to each erring one.
+
+  "Lord, spare thy servant, through whose toil
+    Thou giv'st us this, of books the best;
+   Bless all who shared the arduous task,
+    From Eastern land, or distant West.
+
+  "Amen! Amen! lift up the voice;
+    Praise God whose mercy 's e'er the same;
+   His goodness all our song employs,
+    Thanksgivings then to His Great Name."
+
+Ten different editions of parts of the Scriptures were printed as
+the version was gradually prepared for publication, and over thirty
+thousand copies had been put into circulation, nearly all by sale.
+The demand for the volume, in one form or another, after the version
+was completed, was greater than the mission presses could meet,
+though worked by steam. The American Bible Society wisely undertook
+to electrotype several editions of different sizes, and Dr. Van Dyck
+came to New York to superintend the work. But after the royal octavo
+edition had been stereotyped, it was thought best for him to return
+to Syria, with the understanding that the Bible Society would enable
+him to electrotype the version in other forms, at Beirut.
+
+The press was now unable to meet the demand which had arisen for the
+books, as well as for the Bible. The issues were called for on the
+southern and eastern coasts of Arabia, and in India, and a box of
+them was sent to the interior of Africa.
+
+The administration of Daoud Pasha, the Christian Governor of Mount
+Lebanon, continued to be marked by commendable justice, vigor, and
+liberality, and there was a sense of security to which the land had
+long been a stranger. Industry and thrift began to appear, and all
+the interests of society received an impulse. Much, however,
+depended on the foreign Protestant Powers exerting a proper
+influence on the councils of the Turkish government in favor of
+religious liberty.
+
+The only ordination of a native preacher by the mission, up to this
+time, was that of the Rev. John Wortabet, in 1853, afterwards pastor
+of the Hasbeiya church. On the 10th of May, 1864, Mr. Suleeba Jerwan
+received ordination at Abeih. He had gone successfully through a
+four years' course of study in the Seminary, and had for some time
+proved himself faithful and efficient as a teacher and preacher.
+
+The Druzes had a prosperous high school at Abeih, under the special
+patronage of His Excellency Daoud Pasha, supported by the income
+from their religious establishments. Both of the instructors were
+Protestants and graduates of the Abeih Seminary. Though not a
+religious institution, such a school must have had an important
+bearing on the future of that singular people. In 1866, the
+Principal left, and was succeeded by another Protestant, also a
+graduate of the mission Seminary. Referring to the Druzes, the
+brethren of the Abeih station close their report for the year 1864
+with the following remarkable declaration:--
+
+"While it is true that the government of the mountain was never
+better, and we are free to open schools wherever parents dare send
+their children, it is no less true that the Protestants are a small
+and hated minority. Providence has made the Druzes a wall of
+defense, for the present. To them, under God, it is due that we
+pursue our labors on this mountain."
+
+Tannus El Haddad, the oldest and most esteemed native helper in the
+mission, died in 1864, after more than thirty years of efficient
+labor. "A guileless, spiritual man, whose lovely spirit disarmed the
+enmity even of those who hated his religion. The church of Christ in
+Syria owes much to the holy life and faithful teaching of this man
+of God. The missionaries owe much. He long upheld their hands by the
+strength of his affection and sympathy."
+
+The installation of Suleeba Jerwan as pastor of the church in Hums,
+occurred in 1865. The Protestants there had long resisted the
+settlement of a native pastor, hoping to obtain the residence of an
+American missionary, but their welcome to the native pastor was now
+cordial. His wife was an excellent young woman, formerly a pupil in
+Mr. Bird's family, and his assistant in the instruction of her sex.
+Both pastor and people had a varied experience in after years, not
+unlike what is often seen in Christian lands.
+
+In the spring of 1865, the oppression of the Turkish government
+became so unbearable at Safeeta, in the district of Tripoli, that a
+large number of the people resolved to seek relief in Protestantism.
+A deputation of sixty heads of families, representing nearly five
+hundred souls, was accordingly sent to the missionaries at Tripoli.
+Their motives were wholly secular, and they were not at all aware of
+the spiritual object of the missionaries. This had to be explained,
+and they were told, that it was beyond the power of the mission to
+afford civil protection. The government allowed them to register
+their names as Protestants, and they listened with marked attention
+to the spiritual instructions of Dr. Post; Mr. Samuel Jessup, the
+other missionary, being then at Hums. On leaving, they asked for
+books, and to be more thoroughly inducted into the new way.
+
+The region of Safeeta was new to Protestant missions, but was
+populous and fertile, and bordering on the Nusaireyeh. Among the
+names handed to Dr. Post, as interested in this movement, were one
+hundred and fifty of this strange people, and there were a number of
+them in the deputation; but all of this class soon fell away. Dr.
+Post visited Safeeta in May, and arrangements were effected with the
+government, which opened the door for Christian teaching. He had
+audiences of one hundred and fifty every night, listening with
+reverent attention to words they had never heard before. "I taught
+them hymns," he writes, "and heard them repeat passages of Scripture
+and answer religious questions. On Sunday they commenced coming at
+five, A. M., and kept pouring in upon me all day long, till ten P.
+M.,--just allowing me time to eat, and not even leaving the room
+while I did that. Our large meetings in the evenings were by the
+light of the moon, as an open light would have been extinguished,
+and we had no lantern. A most interesting feature was the number of
+women in the audiences, an exceptional thing in all new religious
+movements in Syria." Two horsemen came from distant villages, to
+inquire about the new faith and sect. The motive was doubtless
+secular, but there is always hope where the Gospel gains a hearing.
+
+The fires of persecution soon began to burn with fury. The Greek
+bishop bribed the Turkish government, and the people were driven
+from their homes; everything was broken that could be broken,
+everything eaten that could be eaten, and women were left to the
+brutal lusts of the Turkish soldiers. It was surprising with what
+tenacity the people held out against all this. A few had become
+earnest inquirers; but without a more general acquaintance with the
+truth they could not be expected long to stand such an onset. Some
+relief came after a few weeks, through the death by cholera of the
+Greek bishop.
+
+Failing to find relief from English intervention, the newly made
+Protestants went _en masse_ to the governor of Tripoli; and failing
+to meet him, they then crossed the mountains to the Governor-general
+at Damascus, taking with them their wives, that the sight of their
+distress might move the heart of the Moslem ruler. At last they
+secured a hearing from him, and he promptly removed the oppressive
+tax-gatherer at Safeeta, and gave the poor people some money in
+token of his sympathy. But returning to their homes, they were still
+oppressed by their local governor. Mr. Samuel Jessup writes in
+October, that poverty and want had come upon them beyond anything
+seen elsewhere in Syria, excepting at Hasbeiya. Some had no means of
+buying their daily bread. They were promised a restoration of all
+that had been taken from them, if they would return to their old
+faith, but they stood firm. They desired a school for their girls,
+and a married teacher was sent them for a boys' school, so as to
+accommodate a female teacher in his family.
+
+Some months later, the cattle of a Protestant strayed, and while
+driving them home he was met by one of their persecutors, of the
+house of Beshoor, who, with some savage Nusairiyeh, threw him on the
+ground, stamped upon him, and drew a sword, threatening to kill him
+if he did not desist from his unclean religion. They dared not do
+more through fear of witnesses. Again, the plowmen of this same
+house plowed up the wheat belonging to the Protestants, ruining
+their hopes of a coming harvest, and leaving them without means to
+pay their taxes; which they must pay or go to prison. They also
+gathered all the olives of the Protestants, reducing them to the
+greatest straits for the means of living. The Moslem governor
+received large bribes to exterminate the sect, and would give them
+no hearing, but quartered his soldiers on them, who ate up all their
+scanty food, and distrained even their miserable cooking utensils,
+that they might sell them for barley for their horses. Many lived
+from day to day on what they could beg, or borrow. Still, after a
+year of such trials, they remained firm; which is the more
+wonderful, as only a few of them gave evidence of piety, and the
+time had not come for organizing them into a church. The school was
+doubtless helpful, being a decided success. Even the shepherds took
+tracts and primers, and studied them while tending their flocks.
+
+In January, 1867, the whole Protestant community of Safeeta were
+arrested, men, women, and children, and imprisoned in a small room,
+and a fire of cut straw was made on the floor to torture them with
+smoke. This wanton cruelty was based on a false demand made on them
+for money. Their sufferings were so great that they were finally
+released. In the evening, while assembled for worship, with their
+native preacher, government horsemen broke open and plundered their
+houses, and in the night drove them all, old and young, mothers and
+children, boys and girls, into the wilderness.
+
+The terrible experience of this people in the summer of 1869,
+somewhat more than two years later, is too suggestive and
+interesting to be passed in silence. I give the facts as related by
+Mr. Samuel Jessup.
+
+"For four years, a large number have been Protestants, and the
+oppressors have added persecution to oppression. Many fell away at
+first, but since then we have seen no special signs of apostasy
+until lately. Their enemies recently made a desperate effort to
+crush out Protestantism from that region. They took the leading men,
+one by one, and led them through fire and perils of all kinds;
+promising, at every step, to give immediate relief, if they would
+only return to the Greek Church. They fulfilled their promises to
+some who yielded, and then increased the pressure on the others. At
+length, seizing the opportunity when our teacher was absent, they
+made another grand onset. On Sunday morning, the Greek bishop and
+the abbots of the neighboring convents, with priests and people from
+all the region around, together with a great number of horsemen and
+footmen, made a grand parade, and came down like locusts upon the
+Protestants. Their former oppressor is dead, but his son, Tamir
+Beshoor, is making his little finger thicker than his father's
+loins. He headed a grand parade, and brought with him a supply of
+new garments, which he had purchased as bribes for the occasion.
+With the bishop and others, he entered the house of every
+Protestant, and by bribes and promises, followed by fiendish
+threats, carried off many captives. Some few had previously sold
+themselves, and agreed to take their stand on this occasion, and
+then they headed the crowd, and declared that every Protestant had
+decided to return, and that Protestantism was dead. Where they found
+a house locked, they forced it open, and sprinkled holy water in it.
+
+"But though their success was far too great, it was not complete.
+They succeeded in taking with them, that morning, twenty-one males.
+Eleven of them have not been to the Greek church since that time,
+but continue to meet with our brethren for prayer; and though it is
+now an important Greek fast, they do not observe it. The other ten
+either dare not or care not to come back to us, though all came to
+see me.
+
+"Before finishing their work that Sunday morning, they sent men to
+our school-room, broke it open, sprinkled it with holy water, and
+stole our bell."
+
+The firmness of some of the church-members is thus described: "After
+exhausting their catalogue of promises and threats on one, he said
+to them,--'Take my property, my house, my clothes, my family, even
+my body, and do with them what you will, but my soul you cannot
+have, and nothing will induce me to leave Christ.' Another said,
+when they came to his house,--'Come in, and let us read in the New
+Testament together, and perhaps you will see that we are right.' One
+girl, who had been two years in the Sidon school, saw her parents
+and relatives all fall into the procession; but when special effort
+was made to induce her to yield, she said,--'Though you should cut
+my body in pieces, I will never go with you.'
+
+"I reached Safeeta a few days after, and found that those who had
+stood firm had been obliged to flee for safety, and did not dare
+return until I went there. The wrath of their persecutors seems to
+have reached its height, and the poor people know not what to do.
+Appeal to the government seems useless, for it is from the
+government that their chief oppressor gets his power to persecute.
+All who went back came to call on me, and most of them attended the
+services. They said, in palliation of their course, 'We are flesh
+and blood, and have families to support. We have waited for
+deliverance for years, and now Tamir (the chief oppressor) says,
+Come back and I will restore to you all; remain as you are, and I
+will strip you of the little you have left, and drive you out of the
+country. And so we went back, but our hearts are with you, and we
+will come here too, though they compelled our bodies to go with
+them.' One woman showed a striped gown, threw it on the ground, and
+trampling on it said, with tears in her eyes, 'With that they bought
+my husband.' Some of the women, with tears and entreaties, tried to
+keep their husbands and friends from going, telling them that death
+was better."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1869, pp. 407-409.
+
+Twenty men were standing firm at Safeeta in February of the
+following year, though there had been little abatement of
+persecution. In April Dr. Jessup wrote, that it had just terminated,
+and the brethren at the Tripoli station had good hopes that there
+would be peace in that long persecuted community. This was owing, in
+great measure, to the interference of the American and English
+Consuls-general, and their influence with the Governor-general of
+Syria.
+
+The people of Hums becoming dissatisfied with their pastor, Suleeba,
+his connection was dissolved, three years after his settlement. The
+church remained in a divided condition for a year or more, without
+any celebration of the Lord's Supper. In the summer of 1869, Mr.
+Samuel Jessup visited the city, and finding the Protestants in a
+better state of feeling, invited the communicants to assemble at the
+Lord's table. All came and seemed to enjoy it as a season of rest
+and refreshment, after a long and weary wandering. They were ready
+to take a native pastor who suited them, and pay the larger part of
+his salary. They needed one well acquainted with the historical
+defenses of the Gospel, because of the inroads of European Jesuits
+and French infidel literature. Suleeba found demands for his
+faithful labors in other places. "The news," says Dr. Jessup, "from
+'scattered and peeled' Safeeta and from distracted Hums, is alike
+cheering, and indicative of progress in the right direction."
+
+The Tripoli station sent forth two of the Safeeta church-members as
+missionaries to visit the villages to the north and east, sending
+two together, as it would not be safe for one to go alone. The
+native missionary society at Beirut employed a zealous colporter,
+whose tours took a wide range, from Acre on the south to Hamath and
+even to Aleppo on the north, and his monthly reports showed that,
+throughout the country, there was not only urgent need of such
+labor, but also an increasing number prepared to profit by the
+visits of the gospel messenger. During the latter part of the year,
+another person was employed in similar work near Beirut. He also
+testified to a great increase of desire among the people for
+religious instruction.
+
+Daoud Pasha, alter inaugurating important reforms and improvements
+on Lebanon, was promoted to a seat in the cabinet at Constantinople.
+He had started a newspaper, "The Lebanon," established telegraphic
+lines, commenced a carriage road, encouraged education, and made his
+pashalic the safest in the empire for travelling. His successor was
+Franco Pasha, a Latin Catholic. The Beirut Arabic official journal,
+in speaking of his arrival, says, that "although attached to his own
+religion, he is free from bigotry, and will guarantee liberty of
+conscience to all."
+
+The mission was strengthened in 1867 by the arrival of Samuel S.
+Mitchell and Isaac N. Lowry, and their wives; and in 1869, of James
+S. Dennis, and Misses Eliza D. Everett, and Nellie A. Carruth.
+Messrs. Berry and Mitchell were constrained, by the failure of
+health after a short service, to leave the mission. Miss Carruth,
+also, though deeply interested in the work, and after valuable
+service in the girls' school, felt constrained soon to return to the
+United States.
+
+Among the books printed in this time, were Edwards' "History of
+Redemption;" Bickersteth's "Scripture Hand-book," with additions by
+Mr. Calhoun; a large Psalm and Hymn Book; Curwen's "New System of
+Musical Notation;"[1] a Children's Hymn Book; Bistany's Arabic
+Dictionary, and his Elements of Grammar; and an Arabic Almanac,
+probably the first ever printed in Arabic, although "Al-Manakh" (the
+climate) is an Arabic word. The press was now under the direction of
+Mr. Henry Thomson, a son of Dr. Thomson, who relieved the Beirut
+station of a heavy burden of care. The necessary preparations were
+completed in 1868 for electrotyping the Arabic Scriptures in Beirut.
+
+[1] By this, musical notes written in a syllabic form can be given,
+like the Arabic, from right to left. The staff, notes, and
+signatures are dispensed with, and single letters are arranged in
+succession, with separations by dots and marks. As a result, the
+ordinary Arabic types can be used to print the most intricate music.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+SYRIA.
+
+1869-1870.
+
+
+Though the Seminary at Abeih had a few students preparing for the
+ministry, under Mr. Calhoun, it could not properly be called a
+Theological Seminary. Only at Hasbeiya, Hums, and Ain Zehalty had
+native pastors been found for the churches. There were five churches
+without pastors. The eight churches had two hundred and forty-five
+members. The thirty-one common schools numbered a thousand male and
+one hundred and seventy female pupils. Eight of the teachers were
+church-members, and four of these were females. The demand for
+education was beyond the ability of the mission to supply.
+
+At the recommendation of the Prudential Committee, a Theological
+Seminary was commenced at Abeih in May, 1869; and Dr. Jessup from
+Beirut, and Mr. Eddy from Sidon, were associated with Mr. Calhoun in
+its instruction. Seven students composed the first class, and, with
+but one exception, evinced a good Christian spirit, studied hard,
+and seemed anxious to live an active and useful Christian life. The
+five winter months of their vacation were spent in evangelical
+labors.
+
+As far back as 1865, there was a prosperous female boarding-school
+at Beirut, under the care of Mr. Aramon and Miss Rufka Gregory,
+natives of Syria. In the following year, this school had thirty
+boarders and twenty day scholars. It was the first Protestant school
+in Syria that demanded pay for the education of girls, but its
+receipts for tuition and board equaled about half the expenses.
+"Among the causes," say the brethren of the Beirut station, "which
+operated to prevent the raising of the rates of board and tuition to
+a self-supporting basis, was the existence of competing schools
+furnished with European teachers, rendering it difficult for the
+seminary to induce parents to pay the full expense. This was a grave
+difficulty, and one which, in one form or another, has met every
+attempt to establish the principle of self-support in Syria, in all
+departments of our work; but it only makes it the more important
+that this native institute, with native teachers and adapted to
+native tastes and habits, should be steadily sustained, lest the
+impulse already given in the direction of self-support, be lost." A
+building was completed for the school in 1867, at the cost of about
+$9,000, chiefly the result of contributions in the United States,
+but without any organic connection with the mission. Of its
+seventy-six pupils fifty-seven were boarders, and the income was
+$3,220 in gold, which was $1,000 short of its expenses. There was
+still the impediment of unwise competition. The pupils were from
+Moslem, Greek, and Greek-Catholic, as well as Protestant families;
+though it was well known that the institution was an evangelizing
+agency, and that all were expected to attend Protestant worship on
+the Sabbath, and were daily taught in the Bible.
+
+In the absence of Miss Gregory on account of failing health, Mr. and
+Mrs. Aramon carried on the school, with the assistance of ladies
+from the mission. The school increased in numbers and the
+examination in 1868 was attended by a great throng of the people,
+from all classes and all sects. It was a noticeable fact that
+Mohammedan parents in Beirut were beginning to insist earnestly upon
+the education of their girls. The Beirut Arabic official journal,
+the "Kadethat el-Akhbax," published a list of schools in the
+city,--possibly somewhat exaggerated,--in which it was said, that
+there were two thousand girls and three thousand boys and young men
+in the various Protestant, Greek, Maronite, Catholic, and Mohammedan
+schools.
+
+The school passed under the care of Misses Everett and Carruth on
+their arrival in Syria, and substantial progress was made towards
+self-support, but less than would have been but for the French,
+English, and German schools, which tended to draw away the girls,
+and the families they represented, from the influence of the
+missionaries.
+
+There was, also, a female boarding-school at Sidon, which had been
+growing in numbers and influence. The scholars were all Protestants,
+selected with care from the various schools of the country. "They
+have come," wrote Mr. Eddy, "from all parts of the land,--from Hums
+and Safeeta on the north, from Mount Lebanon on the east, and the
+district of Merj Aiyun on the south; and besides the good they gain
+for themselves while here, they will carry light and civilization,
+and we trust religious influence with them to their widely scattered
+homes." The school was in the immediate charge of Mrs. Watson and
+her daughter, English ladies, and more recently Miss Jacombs, for
+five years a teacher on Mount Lebanon, and supported by a society of
+ladies in England. It was fully in sympathy, however, with the
+mission, and had the sympathy, prayers, and aid of English
+Christians. The number of pupils was twenty.
+
+
+THE SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE.
+
+
+The desire for education had visibly increased, and was due, in
+part, to commercial intercourse with western nations, and the
+interference of foreign powers in the political affairs of the
+country; but far more to the schools, books, preaching, and personal
+influence of missionaries. Schools had been multiplying for
+elementary and high school instruction, but there was no provision
+for a liberal education. The Jesuits, indeed, had institutions, but
+their teaching was partial, fitted to repress inquiry, and
+exclusively to foster their own ecclesiastical and sectarian ends.
+
+THE SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE. [image]
+
+The demand for a Protestant college was discussed at a meeting of
+the mission, in the spring of 1861, and again in the following
+August, when an outline of the proposed scheme was presented.[1]
+
+[1] In this statement concerning the College, I make such use as my
+limits will allow, of an able document, drawn up by Prof. D. Stuart
+Dodge, and kindly sent me, at my request, by the President, Dr.
+Daniel Bliss. It bears date May, 1872.
+
+"The objects deemed essential, were to enable natives to obtain, in
+their own country, in their own language, and at a moderate cost, a
+thorough literary, scientific, and professional education; to found
+an institution, which should be conducted on principles strictly
+evangelical, but not sectarian; with doors open to youth of every
+Oriental sect and nationality, who would conform to its regulations,
+but so ordered that students, while elevated intellectually and
+spiritually, should not materially change their native customs. The
+hope was entertained, that much of the instruction might at once be
+intrusted to pious and competent natives, and that ultimately the
+teaching could be left in the hands of those, who had been raised up
+by the College itself."
+
+The curriculum embraced a period of four years; and the studies were
+the Arabic Language and Literature, Mathematics, the Natural
+Sciences, the Modern Languages, Turkish Law and Jurisprudence, and
+Medicine,--the last to have special prominence, since the East was
+filled with ignorant native quacks and medical jugglers. A leading
+place would also be given to Moral Science, and Biblical Literature,
+with the Scriptures as a constant text-book. Theology, as a system,
+would be left to the care of the several missions.
+
+It was thought that the American Board could not undertake so large
+a literary work in any one mission, and that the College should be
+separate from and independent of the Board and its missions, as
+such; but that, being on so broad a basis, other evangelical bodies
+among the Arabic-speaking race might be invited to share in its
+advantages and control. Denominational distinctions set aside, those
+engaged in similar missionary operations could unite in an
+enterprise designed to advance their common interests.
+
+The College was to be at Beirut, the chief seaport of Syria, and a
+place of enterprise and growing importance, occupying a central
+position in respect to all the Arabic races. The local Board of
+Directors was to be composed of American and British missionaries
+and residents of Syria and Egypt, with several consular officials
+and leading merchants; of which a quorum should always reside in
+Beirut and its immediate vicinity.
+
+The Rev. Daniel Bliss, six years a missionary of the American Board
+on Mount Lebanon, was cheerfully released by the Prudential
+Committee from his connection with the mission, that he might take
+the Presidency of the College, and visit the United States and
+England to obtain the needful endowment.
+
+To secure public confidence, it was found indispensable to have the
+institution incorporated in America, with a responsible Board of
+Trustees. A charter was accordingly obtained, in April, 1863, in
+accordance with the laws of the State of New York, and in May, 1864,
+additional power to hold real and personal estate was granted by act
+of the Legislature. A constitution was framed, binding the
+institution to evangelical and unsectarian principles; formally
+constituting the body, appointed by the mission, a local Board of
+Managers, with large liberty in administration; and defining the
+relations between the Boards in America and Syria and those of the
+various officers to be connected with the College. It further
+provided, that the Board of Trustees should have the right to
+exercise final authority in all matters, and that funds for
+endowments should be retained in the United States, the income only
+to be transmitted to the East.
+
+An endowment fund of $100,000 was secured from a small number of
+contributors, the Trustees and their immediate friends being the
+largest donors.[1] In addition to this, Dr. Bliss obtained L3,000 in
+England; Lords Shaftesbury, Stratford de Redcliffe, Dufferin,
+Strangford, and Calthorpe, among the nobility, indorsing the
+enterprise; and the Turkish Missions Aid Society rendered valuable
+assistance. The "Syrian Improvement Committee" gave L1,000, from
+funds remaining after the relief of sufferers from the Lebanon
+massacres.
+
+[1] Among the more active and influential of these, as I learn from
+other sources, was the Rev. D. Stuart Dodge. In 1872, the endowment
+fund was reported to be $130,000.
+
+Dr. Bliss returned to Syria early in 1866. The first college class
+consisted of fourteen members. A preparatory department was
+afterwards added, and eighty names have been enrolled in the two
+departments. The students have evinced, in most instances, an
+aptitude and zeal for study, that would be creditable in more
+favored lands. The charge for tuition is twenty-five dollars for the
+collegiate year of nine mouths; and fifty-five dollars additional
+for those who board in the institution. The sects represented are
+the Protestant, Orthodox-Greek, Papal-Greek, Latin, Maronite, Druze,
+Armenian, and Coptic.
+
+All boarders are required to be present at morning and evening
+prayers, and to attend Protestant worship and Bible classes on the
+Sabbath; and Bible lectures or Scripture recitations are of daily
+occurrence. A voluntary prayer-meeting is maintained by the
+students.
+
+Most of the thirteen who have graduated from the Academic
+Department, are acceptably employed as teachers of a higher grade in
+Syria and Egypt. Two have entered the Medical Department, and two
+are studying Law. The first Commencement was in July, 1870, and the
+addresses were in three languages. The College has a Medical
+Department, and the first medical class was graduated in July, 1871.
+
+A building fund of about $70,000 having been contributed chiefly by
+the donors to the endowment fund, a plot of nearly twenty acres of
+ground was purchased at Ras-Beirut, in the immediate vicinity of the
+city; facing Lebanon, overlooking the Mediterranean, healthy,
+accessible, yet sufficiently retired; and the edifice is in the
+process of erection. The corner stone was laid, December 7, 1871, by
+the Hon. William E. Dodge, and appropriate exercises, in English and
+Arabic, accompanied the ceremony.
+
+The Medical Hall is located at some distance from the College
+edifice. These buildings may be seen from almost every quarter of
+the city, and from the villages on the western slopes of Lebanon;
+and they will be the first objects to greet the eyes of all who
+enter the harbor, and will stand as the exponents and dispensers of
+sound Christian learning.
+
+The connection of this mission with the American Board continued
+until the latter part of the year 1870, wanting only two years of
+half a century, when the reunion of the Presbyterian Church gave
+rise to the question of a transfer of the mission to the
+Presbyterian Board. The events above described, connected with the
+Syrian Protestant College, favored such a result, and the question
+was kindly, though reluctantly entertained. On the 20th of
+September, 1870, the following paper was received at the Missionary
+House:--
+
+"The Syria mission, at a special meeting held in Abeih, August 16,
+1870, had laid before them two documents, one from the Prudential
+Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
+Missions, and the other from the Committee of Conference of the
+General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church with the American
+Board,--touching the transfer of the mission from the American Board
+to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions; and having given the
+subject their serious and prayerful consideration, they have adopted
+the following action:--
+
+"1. That the mission regard the subject thus presented as one which
+has not originated with themselves, but as having been brought
+before them by the Providence of God; and as not to be decided at
+all by them on personal grounds or ecclesiastical preferences, but
+to be decided solely in view of its bearings upon the cause of
+Christ in this land, and among the churches at home.
+
+"2. That the mission appreciate the delicacy and kindness with which
+the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for
+Foreign Missions conveyed the consent of the Board to the withdrawal
+of its members from their service, with the view of forming a new
+connection, if they deem it expedient, and the hearty assurance of
+their readiness to continue the support of the mission should they
+decide to remain as heretofore.
+
+"3. That they also equally appreciate the cordial invitation
+extended to them by the Committee of the Presbyterian Church, and
+the pledge conveyed to the mission, that they shall enjoy, in the
+new proposed connection, all the freedom of action, 'in respect to
+their policy and ecclesiastical relations,' which they have hitherto
+possessed.
+
+"4. That the mission find great difficulty in considering calmly and
+impartially a question involving their separation from the American
+Board, the severing of ties which have existed until within two
+years of half a century, which have been interwoven with the
+earliest recollections of childhood, which have grown strong by
+personal connection and active cooeperation during years of service,
+and which we had anticipated would only be dissolved by death. No
+language can express how much of pain to their hearts the thought of
+this separation involves. Their relations to the Secretaries, to the
+Prudential Committee, and through them to the churches, have been
+most tender and happy.
+
+"In these relations they have found the largest liberty and the
+fullest sympathy, and personally, the mission have no cause to
+desire a change.
+
+"The feelings of the mission on this point will be more fully
+expressed by individual communications from its several members, to
+the Prudential Committee.
+
+"5. In view, however, of the weighty considerations which have been
+set before the mission for this change of their connection,
+considerations whose reasonableness and justice are apparent to
+their minds, and in view of the expressed opinion of what is their
+duty, on the part of the reunited Presbyterian Church, they cannot
+but feel that the call is from God, and the step to be taken is one
+demanded by the highest interests of Christ's Church.
+
+"6. That the mission express their conviction, that no change is
+demanded in the ecclesiastical connections of any of its members.
+
+"In accordance, therefore, with these views of this whole subject,--
+
+"_Resolved_, 1st; that the mission present to the Prudential
+Committee a request for a release from their connection with the
+American Board, with a view to placing themselves under the
+direction of the Presbyterian Board.
+
+"And 2d, That the mission accept the invitation conveyed in the
+letter of the Rev. J. F. Stearns, D. D., Chairman of the Committee
+of Conference of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, dated June 19,
+1870, to place themselves under the care of the Presbyterian Board.
+
+"Although the official ties which have bound us to those with whom
+we have been so long and so happily associated may thus be severed,
+we feel that the bonds of sympathy and of prayer remain unchanged,
+and will continue so to remain until, in the higher work of praise,
+our hearts and voices shall be again and forever _united_."
+
+In accordance with this action the individual members of the mission
+sent a request to be released from their connection with the
+American Board, and they were released by vote of the Prudential
+Committee.
+
+The members of the mission, at that time, were Drs. Thomson, Van
+Dyck, and H. H. Jessup, and Messrs. Calhoun, Eddy, Bird, Samuel
+Jessup. I. N. Lowry, and James S. Dennis. The author would naturally
+have great pleasure in quoting from their letters of farewell, but
+can only refer the reader for them to the "Missionary Herald."[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1870, pp. 391-398.
+
+
+RESULTS OF THE PAST.
+
+
+The history of the mission of the American Board to Palestine and
+Syria cannot be closed better than by the retrospective summary made
+by the mission at the close of their relations with the Board. They
+are speaking of the results of past labors.
+
+"To Protestant influence, in great part, may we ascribe the changed
+feeling, which has come over the minds of the Mohammedans towards
+Christians. The Christian religion has become understood by them to
+be not wholly the system of idolatry, which they once regarded it,
+nor professing Christians as devoid of morality as they once seemed.
+As a consequence, there has been a sensible quenching of the flame
+of Moslem bigotry, and a greater respect for Christians, their
+rights, their Bible, and their religion. The relative positions of
+the crescent and the cross are not what they were when the
+missionaries came to Syria. The Bible has gained ground, and the
+Koran has lost it, as a controlling influence in the land. Some
+Mohammedans are among the attendants upon our preaching, and these
+would doubtless be more numerous, but for the risk to property and
+to life, which inquirers from among them incur.
+
+"Not without results have the children of the Druzes been taught in
+our schools during all these years, and so many conversations been
+held with adults of that sect. The leaven of the Gospel has
+penetrated even to the secret inner sanctuaries of their religion;
+and the white turbans of the initiated Druzes seen in our Sabbath
+congregations, the inquirers who come to our houses, and the
+baptized converts from among them, show that not in vain to the
+Druzes has the light of the Gospel again dawned upon Syria.
+
+"But principally among the nominally Christian sects have the
+indirect results of missionary labor extended. These are visible in
+the changed power of the clergy. Once excommunication was a terror
+above all terrors. Now it is so powerless a weapon, that those who
+once wielded it so effectively are ashamed to challenge ridicule by
+exposing its weakness.
+
+"Protestantism, once regarded by the mass of the people as the
+blackest of heresies, finds everywhere its defenders and
+vindicators, even where it lacks followers, and no longer can the
+lies gain currency, with which the clergy were accustomed to
+frighten away their flocks from gospel influence.
+
+"The religious instruction given in their churches has been
+modified. More Bible is taught, and less tradition. The preaching is
+more of Christ, and less of the saints. The adoration of pictures
+has greatly lessened. All sects have been compelled to introduce
+schools, and to educate both boys and girls, to educate their
+priests, and to remove the restrictions from reading the Bible.
+
+"The circulation of the Scriptures, and of religious books, has been
+wide-spread, and we have heard of some who have been enlightened by
+these silent teachers, and have through them found Christ as their
+Saviour, and died in joyful trust in Him; though they never had an
+opportunity to publicly profess their faith in Him.
+
+"Among all sects, Mohammedan, Druze, Greek, Maronite, and Catholic,
+the glaciers of prejudice, which for centuries have been forming,
+are now melting under the warmth of the Gospel.
+
+"The gift of the Bible to this people in their own tongue, is the
+rich golden tribute which the West has returned to the East, in
+acknowledgment of its obligation to the land whence the Bible came.
+
+"Brighter than the light, which kindles early and lingers late upon
+the crests of Lebanon and Hermon, crowning them with glory, is the
+light of the Gospel, which has shone into dark hearts, in hamlet and
+city, recalling the memories of a past not inglorious, and presaging
+a fairer splendor in the future.
+
+"Not in vain have Hebard, and Smith, and Whiting, and De Forest, and
+Ford, sowed the seed of the Word in tears, even though they went
+home with few gathered sheaves. From the heights of heaven they now
+behold the springing harvest. Not in vain have others toiled here,
+whose summons has not yet come. They bless God for what their eyes
+see and their ears hear of the Lord's working around them.
+Reluctantly have those yielded to the sad necessity of returning
+home, who, having just thrust in the sickle, found their strength
+unequal to the toil.
+
+"The churches in America, which have aided in sustaining the mission
+by their offerings and their prayers, have seen fewer results, than
+have crowned their labors in other fields; their faith has been
+sorely tried; but they have been permitted to hear, from time to
+time, of souls ransomed from darkness and sin; echoes of the songs
+of triumph sung by departing saints have been borne to their ears,
+and they have felt that their labors have not been unrewarded.
+
+"By God's grace we have laid anew the foundations of God's living
+temple, Christ being the chief corner-stone, and we have seen some
+courses already built upon it. We have set up and maintained the
+banner of the cross in the face of its pretended friends and its
+avowed foes. We have collected a little army on the Lord's side, and
+armed them with the sword of the Spirit. We have prepared an arsenal
+of spiritual weapons for future conflicts, in the Scriptures and
+other religious books translated and committed to the people. We
+have established outposts of schools and seminaries, have raised
+strongholds of the truth in churches planted here and there
+throughout the land. We have taken possession of the land in the
+name of King Immanuel, and we aim to subdue and hold it wholly for
+him."[1]
+
+[1] From the _Foreign Missionary of the Presbyterian Church_, April,
+1871, p. 305-307.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1867-1869.
+
+
+The year 1868 added five to the ordained missionary force of the
+missions; namely, Messrs. Alpheus N. Andrus, Carmi C. Thayer, John
+Edwin Pierce, Royal M. Cole, and Theodore S. Pond. Messrs. Milan H.
+Hitchcock, Edward Riggs, Henry Marden, and John Otis Barrows, were
+added in 1869. These were all accompanied by their wives. Besides
+these, there were George C. Reynolds, M. D., and wife, and ten
+unmarried women; namely, Misses Rebecca A. Tracy, Charlotte
+Elizabeth Ely, Mary A. C. Ely, Harriet G. Powers, Cyrene O. Van
+Duzee, Olive L. Parmelee, Isabella C. Baker, Flavia S. Bliss, Ursula
+C. Clarke, and Ardelle M. Griswold. Mardin was now manned, for the
+first time, with three missionaries, Messrs. Williams, Andrus, and
+Pond, with Misses Parmelee and Baker, two unmarried young women. Dr.
+Van Lennep and Mr. Ladd closed their labors in connection with the
+mission in 1869.
+
+It was not alone at Harpoot, that the year 1869 opened with a
+revival of religion. Aintab, Bitlis, Marash, and Mardin were favored
+with the like blessing. The "Week of Prayer" at Marash was described
+as a jubilee. Both houses of worship were opened, each day, an hour
+before sunset, and in each was a gathering of at least two hundred
+and fifty; where the many spontaneous prayers, and the pastor's vain
+endeavors to close the services within the hour, showed that the
+attendance was not a mere form. Twenty-nine out of fifty-two
+candidates were admitted to the first church, and twenty-one out of
+forty to the second. Nearly all these were able to read; and the
+examination was deemed more remarkable than the number received.
+
+In respect to Mardin, I cannot refrain from quoting the expressive
+words of Mr. Williams, whose pen had much of graphic power. "The
+community here received the proposal to observe the week of prayer
+most joyfully, and preferred two meetings a day to one,--the first
+at sunrise, the second an hour and a half before sunset, each an
+hour long. Our first meeting was in a pouring rain, thirty present.
+This is the first pleasant day, and seventy-six were present in the
+morning. One of the preachers opens the meeting by singing, reading,
+remarks, and prayer. This occupies from twenty-five to thirty
+minutes, and then the meeting is thrown open to others, and six or
+eight prayers, short and pertinent, fill the time till the hour is
+up. We never before have been able to start a prayer-meeting here,
+and now they move off in a line, as if they had done nothing else
+all their lives. I think as many as twenty-five persons have led in
+prayer."
+
+A church had not yet been formed, but the Protestant community
+undertook the entire support of their preacher, and also of one of
+their own number as a missionary to the Koords. The latter is thus
+described by Mr. Williams: "A great, six feet, brawny fellow, with
+unwashed clothes (he is a tanner), long, disheveled hair, large,
+open features, and eyes black as coal, that shine like stars; but so
+simple in his trust, so tender in his love to Jesus, and earnest in
+his efforts to do good! He learned to read with steady, earnest
+application, and his questions are so spiritual, so humble, so
+childlike, that it is as the sun whenever he enters my door.
+
+"One evening Oosee (Hosea) came in with clothes torn, fez[1] gone,
+face bloody, hair wildly disheveled, but the same genial lustre
+beaming from his eyes, accompanied by another Protestant, Daoud
+(David), who was earnest, almost imperative, that I should at once
+go to the governor and enter complaint. Asking for particulars, I
+learned that, returning from his garden soon after sunset, Oosee was
+set upon by a crowd of Papists, and escaped in the plight I saw him.
+Daoud insisted that unless those men were at once imprisoned, no one
+would be safe. I asked Oosee how he felt about it. 'Just as you say,
+Khowaja,[2] was his reply. I read to him parts of Rom. xii. and
+xiii., and showed him that he was justified in entering complaint,
+that he had a right to protection, and that those who had set upon
+him doubtless deserved punishment; but said I, 'Would those men have
+touched you when you were a Papist?' 'Not one.' 'Why?' 'They dare
+not. Why, they knew I could thrash the whole of them, and would have
+feared I'd kill them. They knew me.' 'And now?' 'Now they think I'm
+a Prote, and wont strike back.' 'Did you?' 'Not a bit; I only tried
+to get away from them.' 'And if now, instead of throwing them into
+prison, you forgive them, and treat them as if nothing had happened,
+do you think they will see any difference between Oosee the Papist,
+and Oosee the Prote?' 'Of course they will.' 'To what will they
+charge the difference?' 'To my new religion.' 'Will not that lead
+them to admit the power of the Gospel? Will it not honor Christ?'
+'Yes, I believe it will.' 'Well, Oosee, just as _you_ say. If
+you on the whole wish it, I will go to the governor and enter
+complaint,--you have a clear right to this,--or I will let it drop
+just here, as you please.' 'No, Khowaja, I'll not complain, I
+forgive them. I'll go home and treat them as if nothing had
+happened. That is what Jesus says, and I'll do it. Perhaps they will
+come to Christ.' He has never since been molested.
+
+[1] Red Turkish cap.
+
+[2] Gentleman--a title given to the missionaries in Eastern Turkey.
+
+"When it was decided to take a new class of training pupils in
+Arabic, Oosee was the first to whom I spoke about joining it. The
+proposition was wholly unexpected, and I wish you could have seen
+the joy that shone in his eyes and beamed from every feature! I
+asked him if he thought his wife would consent to his going. 'We
+will ask Jesus,' he said. 'If he wants me to go he will make her
+willing. I don't think she'll oppose.' To some, who attempted to
+dissuade him on the ground that the allowance was insufficient for
+his family, he said, 'If only they will let me study, we will
+consent to live in the yard; no matter about a house, we'll get on
+any way; anything for Jesus.' Some days after, I said; "How about
+the wife?' 'O, she says go, and if need be we'll sell our vineyard
+to meet expenses. She is more anxious to go than I.' The vineyard
+would possibly bring, if sold, forty dollars in currency."
+
+A church was organized at Mardin in February, which engaged to
+choose and support a pastor. On Sabbath afternoon, when it was
+organized, and the sacraments were administered, there were present
+three hundred and fifty persons, in a room which Mr. Williams says,
+"I had always insisted would hold one hundred and fifty, if properly
+packed." While candidates were being examined, the wife of Oosee
+presented herself. "No one had thought of her as a church-member,
+but before her examination was through, each had written against her
+name 'accepted.' We were as much delighted as surprised at her
+answers, and the meek, loving spirit she showed." Oosee did not go
+on the proposed mission, not deeming himself sufficiently educated;
+but is understood to have adorned his Christian profession down to
+the present time.
+
+The reader has already some acquaintance with the people of Zeitoon,
+inhabiting the mountains north of Marash. Until subdued by the Turks
+in 1862, they were famed for their defiance of all law. The town
+contained about twelve thousand inhabitants, all of them Armenians.
+The men were described as of athletic make, quick step, and piercing
+eyes, showing in all their bearing that they breathed the free air
+of the mountains. The town is about thirty-five miles from Marash,
+built against the side of a high rock, the houses hanging one above
+another, so that the roof of the house below is the front yard of
+the house above.
+
+Two years after their subjugation, Dr. Pratt made a professional
+visit, to attend one of their leaders then dangerously sick, and
+suffered no molestation. Two years later, at the earnest
+solicitation of several Protestants, Mr. Montgomery attempted a
+visit, with Pastor Avedis of the second church of Marash, and a
+deacon of the first church. The town being then under Turkish
+authority, they anticipated no special danger. "At evening, as we
+were entering the city," writes Mr. Montgomery, "to visit the
+governor of the place, according to custom, a furious mob of men and
+boys dragged us from our horses, and at once began beating and
+stoning us with frantic rage, rending the air with savage yells. Our
+Protestant guide was driven out of sight amid volleys of stones, the
+mob crying, 'Kill him! kill the wretch!' The deacon was allowed to
+secrete himself; but for Avedis and myself there was no escape till
+the mob had spent their fury, stoning us, and afterwards kicking and
+beating our prostrate bodies, while we were looking for escape only
+through death."
+
+At this crisis, a great strong man, yelling so as to appear in
+sympathy with the mob, rushed up to where Mr. Montgomery was lying,
+and threw him on his horse, saying to him in an under tone, "Don't
+be afraid, trust me;" and then with curses hurried him out of the
+way, and took him and the pastor in the dark to his own house,
+where, as he dared not to keep them, he got them ready, as well as
+he could, to return at once to Marash.
+
+"Thus we were saved," continues Mr. Montgomery, "after having been
+in the hands of the mob over two hours. We had a hard ride that
+night, hatless, our clothes bloody and torn, and our bodies so
+bruised that we could scarce sit on our horses; but we were enabled
+to pick our way homeward by the rough mountain paths."
+
+It was subsequently known that this outrage was instigated by the
+priests at Marash, with the connivance of the governor. Meanwhile
+the Zeitoon people were fearful lest they had gone too far, and the
+Protestants began to breathe more freely; and many, who had failed
+to declare themselves before, now stood up openly for the truth.
+
+In the summer of 1868, a native preacher was sent to Zeitoon by the
+home missionary society of Marash, and was allowed to remain
+unmolested, with ample opportunities for preaching the Word. At the
+close of the year, Mr. Trowbridge, having removed from
+Constantinople to Marash, made a visit to Zeitoon, and remained
+there laboring freely from Thursday till Monday. His guide homeward
+was a Zeitoon Protestant,--"a tall, gaunt man, past middle life, who
+has suffered much there for Christ's sake. At one time the people
+blackened his face with a coal, put him astride of a donkey with his
+face towards the tail, and thus paraded him through the streets; a
+crier shouting before him, 'Thus shall it be done to all who reject
+the worship of saints, and do not honor the Virgin Mary.' There is
+now no persecution."
+
+Hopeful indications once more appeared among the Greeks at Erzroom
+and Trebizond, and also at Kerasun and Ordo, on the coast of the
+Black Sea west of Trebizond. Mr. Parmelee visited the two places
+last named, and put a helper named Harootune at Ordo, around whom
+the people gathered, earnestly desiring to learn the way of life.
+Even the women, who were precluded by their notions of propriety
+from assembling with the men, anxiously inquired when the helper
+would bring his wife, that she might teach them also. Persecution
+arose, but as usual it was overruled for good.
+
+Dr. William Goodell, after more than forty years of successful
+missionary service, returned in 1865, in feeble health, to spend the
+evening of life in his native land. With his wife, who had been his
+faithful companion from the first, he made his home with his eldest
+son, a physician in Philadelphia. There, beloved and revered, he
+lived until February 18, 1867, when he was removed to his heavenly
+home, at the age of seventy-five.
+
+To the early friends of Dr. Goodell it seemed that his providential
+call was to be a preacher of the Gospel; and such he really was
+all through life, and the printed volume of his sermons in
+Armeno-Turkish, translated also into Armenian and Bulgarian, has had
+a very extensive circulation.[1] But Divine Providence so ordered
+the events of his early missionary career, that translating the
+Scriptures became his principal work. He began at Malta to translate
+the New Testament from the original into the Armeno-Turkish. That
+done, he entered upon the Old Testament; and he completed the last
+revision of the Bible in 1863. It was a great and good work, and
+will transmit his name for grateful remembrance to future ages.
+
+[1] The report of the Nicomedia station for 1871, contains the
+following: "In Diermendere, a basket-maker has learned Turkish, and
+is supplied with books and tracts in that language for use among the
+Turks. The book he thinks most of, and which he begs may be put into
+the Arabic character, is Dr. Goodell's sermons. A Baghchejuk
+brother, whose business takes him often among the Turks in the
+vicinity of Armash, always takes these sermons with him. He says
+that the Turks always listen with interest, and sometimes with
+tears. He is often requested to read the same sermon over and over
+again." The Marsovan report for the same year contains the
+following: "At Vizier Keopreu a change in public sentiment has taken
+place to such a degree, that the Armenian teacher is preaching Dr.
+Goodell's sermons to attentive audiences of his own people."
+
+Dr. Goodell had few equals as an agreeable letter-writer. The author
+was in official correspondence with him through his whole missionary
+life, and never ceased admiring his vivacity, humor, and felicity of
+expression, the aptness of his thoughts, and his very appropriate
+quotations of Scripture. He had the power, beyond most men, of
+passing at once and by an easy transition, from the merriest
+laughter to the most serious topics. His addresses to children had a
+resistless charm, and his power of turning a conversation into
+channels of his own choice was invaluable, in dealing with conceited
+disputatious orientals. "Indomitable in his purpose to do good,
+affable and courteous in manner, of ready tact, and abounding in
+resistless pleasantry, he gained access wherever he chose to go, and
+wielded an influence powerful for good upon all with whom he chose
+to associate. He commanded the respect of foreign ambassadors and
+travellers, of dignitaries in the Oriental Churches, bankers, and
+the highest in society, as well as the common people. Even enemies
+were constrained to honor him. Few possess in so high a degree the
+admirable faculty of doing good without offense, and of recommending
+personal religion to the world."[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1867, pp. 129-133: also 1865,
+p. 350.
+
+Mr. Herman N. Barnum's account of a tour to Diarbekir, Mardin, Sert,
+Bitlis, and Moosh, in 1867, brings the Eastern field vividly before
+us. His new associate, Mr. Henry S. Barnum, together with the
+pastors connected with the Evangelical Union, and nine recent
+graduates of the Seminary, accompanied him as far as Diarbekir,
+where they arrived on Saturday. There was a union service of the two
+congregations, on the next day, in the yard of one of the chapels,
+at which as many as eight hundred were present. The church in
+Diarbekir, though its pastor had been absent for two and a half
+years, and there was only one native preacher for the two
+congregations, yet had maintained the ordinances, and secured
+frequent accessions to the community. They supported their preacher,
+and also several schools, sent money to their absent pastor, and
+supported two students at the Theological Seminary, whom they had
+sent thither to be educated for the mission in Koordistan. They
+chose several of their more intelligent members to assist the
+preacher in keeping up the services of the two congregations; thus
+proving their ability to care for themselves under very unfavorable
+circumstances.
+
+The Union was in session four days, and its meetings were well
+attended. The evangelizing of Koordistan received a good deal of
+attention. The five young men who were preparing for it, had
+locations assigned them, their salaries fixed, and thus the native
+pastors were acquiring experience in missionary superintendence.
+Seven young men, just graduated from the Seminary, were carefully
+examined for licensure, especially in their religious experience and
+their motives for entering the ministry.
+
+The last day of the session was the most interesting, when one of
+the pastors read an essay upon the "means of promoting an awakening
+among the unconverted;" which was followed by remarks from nearly
+all the pastors present. The interest was greatest when some gave
+expression to their deep feeling of responsibility, and to the
+conviction that their own want of earnestness and spirituality was
+the reason of so much indifference among the unconverted.
+
+From Diarbekir the missionaries and six of the pastors went to
+Mardin, whence, after ordaining one pastor, they went a journey of
+five days to Sert. There they took part in another ordination, and
+the formation of a church. Elias, the new pastor, had labored long
+and faithfully in this place, and refused a most pressing call from
+Mardin, though in worldly things it was much more desirable. He
+believed he could be more useful where the poor and oppressed looked
+to him as their spiritual father. Out of seven persons who offered
+themselves as candidates for church-membership, six were organized
+into a church. The congregation was small and poor, but a long
+series of persecutions had wonderfully purged them of selfishness.
+They had paid largely for their house of worship, had provided the
+pastor elect with a new suit of clothes for the ordination, and,
+considering their deep poverty, had made extraordinary subscriptions
+towards the required half of his salary. They now adopted the system
+of tithes cheerfully, which had been so successfully advocated by
+John Concordance.
+
+From Sert Mr. Williams proceeded to Mosul, and the rest to Bitlis.
+There the congregation had long desired for their pastor Baron
+Simon, who received ordination as an evangelist years before at
+Constantinople. He has been repeatedly mentioned as Pastor Simon,
+and was a man of experience and sterling worth. There were no
+missionaries then at Bitlis. From hence they passed on to Moosh. The
+plain on which the town is situated, is sixty miles long and ten or
+twelve wide, and contains about seventy nominally Christian
+villages. The travellers were exposed to a snow-storm while crossing
+the plain. "It was genuine winter weather," writes Mr. Barnum, "yet
+I think I never saw anywhere else, not even in the warm sunshine of
+Egypt, so much nakedness, total or partial. Adults of course had the
+semblance of clothing, though it was often a mass of rags, sewed or
+tied together; but the poor children! It makes my heart ache to
+think of them. Some had a tolerably whole shirt and drawers, some
+had no drawers, and what was once a shirt was now a few shreds,
+hanging from the shoulders. Many had merely a rag, as a sort of
+jacket, with holes to put the arms through, and others had not a
+thread upon their bodies. The people seem to be almost bedless.
+Wherever we went, we found that the beds were a piece of carpet, or
+felt, or only a little straw, with a piece of carpet as a covering.
+In the six or seven villages visited by us, we did not notice a
+woman, or a child, who had either stockings or shoes. They walked
+about in the snow, and over the frozen ground, with bare feet. The
+soil is fertile, and the people own the land themselves,--not
+the Turkish Aghas, as is the case in many other parts of the
+country,--so that it must be mere thriftlessness, rather than any
+stern necessity, which makes them so destitute. They have not
+learned to raise cotton, and consequently do not have on hand the
+material for making clothes, except some kinds of woolen garments;
+and as they do not like to pay money for cotton cloth, they live in
+this truly barbarous state. Our pastors had never seen any
+destitution like this among their Christian brethren, and it made a
+deep impression upon them."
+
+Mr. Barnum adds: "The spiritual condition of the people is as bad as
+the physical. In the three or four monasteries surrounding the
+plain, there are said to be fifty vartabeds--men of more or less
+education. What a work they might do in these seventy villages, in
+improving the condition of the people, if they only had the heart
+for it. They are in a great measure responsible for this state of
+things. They come down periodically from their haunts of
+dissipation, and gather up and carry off whatever the people can
+spare; and this has helped to discourage enterprise. The great want
+now is the pure Gospel. This will not only save their souls, it will
+give them true civilization and refinement. To us it seemed that the
+people were ripe for the reception of the truth, for they are
+growing tired of their present condition. The pastors turned away
+from Moosh plain with the determination to induce the Evangelical
+Union, if consistent with the work undertaken in Koordistan, to do
+something for these people."
+
+This journey of five hundred and fifty miles occupied thirty-eight
+days, and was too much for the new missionary, who reached home
+"jaded and worn," and had a serious illness. Before his recovery,
+and probably in consequence of her care of her husband, Mrs. Barnum
+was prostrated by typhus fever, which proved fatal on the 31st of
+December, 1867, a little more than three months after her arrival at
+Harpoot. But even in so short a time she had greatly endeared
+herself to her associates.[1]
+
+[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1868, p. 136.
+
+North of the territory traversed by Mr. Barnum, is the Erzroom
+district. Of the sixty thousand inhabitants of the city of Erzroom
+in 1868, fifteen thousand were Armenians. The hundred villages
+scattered over its plain are smaller and more scattered than those
+on the plain of Harpoot. But then the territory connected with
+Erzroom is nearly as large as New England west of Maine, and has a
+population of half a million, two thirds of whom are Armenians.
+Touring in this territory is easy, as compared with the Harpoot
+district; since the roads, almost everywhere, admit of the use of
+wheels, and on the public thoroughfares the khans are comparatively
+good. A wagon road was then in a sluggish process of construction
+from Trebizond across the mountains.
+
+The church in Diarbekir continued to grow, even during the three or
+four years' absence of the pastor. They were active in communicating
+the truth to their neighbors, and were especially interested in
+securing the introduction of the Gospel into the surrounding
+villages, and into Koordistan. But since then, the energy bestowed
+upon these outside enterprises has been turned toward the building
+of a large church, by means of funds collected by the pastor chiefly
+in England, and to strictly home affairs.
+
+The young men sent on the mission to Koordistan addressed themselves
+chiefly to the Armenians and Jacobites, without neglecting the
+Moslems, Koords, and Yezidees. These sects, in their social
+intercourse, used only the Koordish language; but in their prayers,
+the Armenians used the ancient Armenian, the Jacobites the ancient
+Syriac, and the Koords the Arabic, all wholly unintelligible to
+them. And it was a new thought to them, that God could be addressed
+in the Koordish language.
+
+A company of native missionaries was sent from Harpoot, in the
+summer of 1868, to the benighted region of Moosh. This was a result
+of the tour just described, and was a self-denying enterprise, but
+the sacrifice was cheerfully made.
+
+The two Seminaries at Harpoot were now full. Including the students
+brought thither for a time from Mardin, and the Koordish students,
+there were fifty in each Seminary; and these, with their children,
+made a colony of one hundred and fifty.
+
+It became manifest, soon after the Crimean war, that the Papal
+ecclesiastics in Turkey, emboldened by the increased prospect of
+French protection, grew relentlessly cruel where they had power, in
+their persecutions of the Protestants. A painful illustration of
+this occurred at Mardin in the summer of 1868, upon the arrival of a
+new Papal Patriarch. He and the Papal Armenian bishop resolved to
+make a determined effort to crush out Protestantism. The charges
+upon which the proceedings were based, were pretended arrearages in
+the payment of taxes, whereas none of the taxes were due.
+
+On July 25th, six Protestants were arrested, and taken, not to
+prison, but to the cavalry camp, to bring water for the horses,
+sprinkle the ground, build mangers, clear privies, etc. Suleeba, the
+Protestant preacher from Diarbekir who was laboring there at the
+time, went to the Muteserif or governor of the city, and represented
+the injustice of the proceeding. As a result, he was ordered to
+prison himself, but was soon released. After various other efforts
+with the Muteserif and the Pasha to secure justice (in which he was
+opposed by the Papal Syrian Patriarch, and by priests and leaders of
+the other sects at Mardin), and after presenting receipts which had
+been given the Protestants for their taxes, Suleeba was delivered to
+the soldiers, with the rest. He writes:--
+
+"A gendarme took me to the camp. On seeing me the soldier said,
+'This is their priest; bring some _large_ jars (water jars) for
+him.' They fastened two jars to my neck, one before and one behind,
+and gave two into my hands.[1] A soldier was assigned to each one of
+us, and each one carried a long stick of wood, an inch in thickness,
+and with these they freely beat us. In filling the jars which were
+fastened to us, the soldiers would pour nearly as much into our
+necks as into the jars, so that we were thoroughly drenched all the
+time. Once I was so much fatigued that I begged permission to set
+down the jars and rest, but the soldiers would not allow me. I
+dropped one of them, as I could not hold it any longer, for the road
+was long and my hands grew weak. In trying to recover it I fell to
+the ground, and the soldier beat me severely with his stick."
+
+[1] The four jars, when full of water, weighed more than one hundred
+and fifty pounds.
+
+It was on Monday that Suleeba was sent to the camp, and things
+remained thus till Friday. "A little after sunrise on that day, a
+gendarme came and said, 'The Protestants are wanted at the palace.'
+We were taken to the Muteserif, and he began to curse us in the
+vilest manner for not giving the money. I said, 'Examine our
+accounts, and if you find that we owe anything we will pay it.' He
+then ordered a stick to be brought,--it was a strong one, thicker
+than my thumb,--and telling a soldier to take me by the head and
+bend me forward, he gave the stick to a centurion, who gave me ten
+or twelve blows. I still feel the soreness, though he was not
+violent in his beating."
+
+"About nine o'clock they called us to the Mejlis, or city council.
+After a careful examination of the documents, in which the Pasha's
+scribe, Fettah Effendi, took a prominent part, the Mejlis said with
+one voice, to those on the other side, 'You have no claim whatever
+on the Protestants.'" This decision was not accepted by the enemies
+of the Protestants. In the afternoon of the same day, Suleeba
+writes: "The Patriarch and the Papal Armenian Bishop called on the
+Pasha. They stayed about half an hour. Before they left, a
+lieutenant came from the Pasha, accompanied by two priests, and said
+to the Muteserif, 'The Pasha orders that you instantly deliver each
+one of the Protestants to two gensdarmes, and collect the money from
+each one _at once_, according to this paper.' The Muteserif replied,
+'There is no claim upon these men. What shall we collect?' He
+replied, 'This is the Pasha's order.' The Muteserif said, 'We have
+just examined these men's accounts, and have found that the
+Protestants do not owe a para. Tell the Pasha so.' The Lieutenant
+replied, 'The Patriarch and Bishop were with the Pasha just now, and
+he told them that this money should be collected.' The Muteserif
+then turned to Fettah Effendi, of Diarbekir, and urged him to go and
+explain to the Pasha, but he did not wish to go. He then called out,
+much excited, 'Come, gensdarmes, take these men and kill them.' I
+then said, 'How much money do you want? Tell us, and we will give
+it.' The Muteserif said, 'I don't know.' I said, 'You are delivering
+us over to these soldiers. Tell us how much you want and we will
+give it, and save ourselves from them.' The Muteserif then asked
+Fettah Effendi, who had looked over our documents, and who had said
+that the Protestants owed nothing, 'How much are these men to pay?'
+He said, 'I don't know.' He then turned to the members of the other
+sects and said, 'How much do you want of these men?' They said, 'Let
+them come to the market [where the chief of police was receiving
+taxes], and we will see.' So we were hurried off there. This was
+less than an hour before sunset. We were taken to the shop occupied
+by Daoud Agha, the chief of the police. A great crowd gathered as we
+went along, and afterwards, which completely filled all the streets
+in that vicinity. As we entered, Daoud Agha, who is an old enemy of
+the Protestants, said to his men, 'Bring me two bottles of raki and
+three or four candles, and I will collect this money before
+morning."
+
+The reader will remember the interesting account Mr. Williams gave
+of the conversion of an influential merchant at Mardin named
+Meekha.[1] This is the old man, Muksi Meekha, whom the chief of the
+police delivered over to the gensdarmes, with the charge to collect
+six thousand piasters from him. Mr. Barnum thus describes the
+treatment he received: "They took him out into the street and began
+to beat him with their gun-stocks. This is done by taking the gun in
+both hands and striking with it endwise. He promised to give
+security for the payment of the money in the morning, and begged to
+be allowed till morning to raise the money, as the shops were all
+shut; but they said, 'We must have the money now.' He wandered
+through the market in the vain hope of finding somebody who would
+advance the money, the guard all the time beating him, and so
+severely that he several times fell down, and his outer garment was
+torn into shreds; and he has since that time, now more than a week,
+kept his bed most of the time. At last he met a member of the Mejlis
+(a Turkish member), who told the guard that if it was money they
+wished they must take _kefil_ from him, and wait till morning, as it
+was now evening, and nobody could raise money at that time; 'but,'
+he said, 'if your object is to kill him, take him back to the chief
+of police and butcher him there.' They then took him back to the
+crowd, and he found a man who gave a part of the money and a note
+for the payment of the rest in the morning, and he was released. He
+thinks that he would have been killed but for the intervention of
+the Turk.
+
+[1] See Chapter xxvii.
+
+"Each one of the prisoners was then passed over to two gensdarmes.
+Some of these were at once delivered, by their friends advancing the
+money; but four of them, besides Muksi Meekha, were treated just as
+he was, and all of them have kept their beds most of the time since.
+
+"The police were at the same time sent to the houses of all the
+other Protestants, and they were brought, and the money which the
+sects demanded collected from them, by their paying the money or
+getting security for its payment in the morning. In this way, in the
+space of a few hours, and that evening, nineteen thousand piasters
+were collected."
+
+Only a very small portion of this money was ever refunded.
+
+Mention was made, in connection with Dr. Goodell's visit to the
+central mission in 1862, of the progress of the evangelical
+reformation at Oorfa. Two years later, Mr. Nutting, the resident
+missionary, announced an interesting revival of religion among his
+people. Both church and congregation were aroused, and the
+missionary had never seen more thorough conviction of sin, than was
+apparent in many. They had been studying the Westminster Assembly's
+Catechism for two years, and recently had attended lectures on the
+Epistle to the Romans; "and the fundamental truths thus lodged in
+their minds," writes Mr. Nutting, "had been greatly blessed." They
+met entirely the expense of their own religious and educational
+institutions. In February, 1865, the church numbered forty-two, and
+as many more were known to be inquirers.
+
+About this time there arose considerable uneasiness in the mission
+from an apprehension of doctrinal errors in a candidate for the
+pastorate of this church. To what extent such errors actually
+existed, was never determined with certainty, but there was a spirit
+of alienation and division, which was regarded with concern. The
+churches in Oorfa and its four out-stations contained a total, in
+1870, of one hundred and sixty-one members, of whom twenty-five had
+been received in the previous year. The Report of the Board for 1871
+declares the difficulties of former years to have happily passed
+away; except that unsound doctrinal views continued to disturb the
+harmony of the church at Severek, and that this place was noted, in
+early times, for the prevalence of similar errors.
+
+Mr. Wheeler returned from his visit to the United States in October,
+1868, accompanied by Mrs. Wheeler, and the Misses Parmelee and
+Baker; and they were met, six hours or nearly twenty miles out, by
+the Harpoot and village pastors, and quite a delegation from the
+city. The last day was a constant succession of welcomes. As they
+drew near the city, they saw a large crowd on the hill, with a white
+flag. It was the theological students drawn up in a line; and next,
+the women and girls of the school; and then men, women, and children
+crowded to greet them. It was the spontaneous expression of love to
+those who had told them of Christ and his salvation.
+
+The return of Dr. David H. Nutting from the United States to the
+Central mission, in the autumn of 1868, led him to speak of the
+progress of civilization at Aleppo. "All the stations of this
+mission are now connected with this city by telegraph, while it is
+connected with Constantinople. A line from here to Killis, Aintab,
+and Marash, has just been constructed. We have French and Russian,
+as well as Turkish, posts. A semi-weekly paper called the "Frat"
+(Euphrates), is printed here, in three languages--Arabic,
+Armeno-Turkish, and Arabo-Turkish. The streets are being repaved and
+widened in some places, and street-lamps are put up. A carriage-road
+from here to Alexandretta, the sea-port, is to be built
+immediately."
+
+John Concordance, the blind preacher at Havadoric, died at that
+place in March, 1869, greatly beloved and lamented, and not by his
+own people alone. The Armenians vied with the Protestants in
+attending to the burial services, and especially in seeing that
+Hohannes' particular requests were carried out to the letter, and
+both classes were genuine mourners at his grave. His influence in
+the matter of consecrating one tenth of one's income has been
+extensively felt; and he practiced what he preached. His salary was
+only eight dollars a month, and although he had a wife and child to
+support from this, he never failed of giving one tenth into the
+"store-house;" thus leaving but little more than seven dollars for
+the monthly support of himself and family.
+
+In the year 1868, Dr. Schneider, after a residence at Aintab of a
+score of years, returned again to Broosa. It was natural for him to
+review the progress of the good work at Aintab during his connection
+with it, and his statement will interest the reader.
+
+"I preached my first sermon in Aintab to a company of twenty-five or
+thirty in the year 1848. Now, the average audience is near one
+thousand, and often rises to twelve or fifteen hundred. Then, there
+was a church of only eight members; now, there are two churches,
+containing three hundred and seventy-three members. Then, the entire
+community of Protestants numbered only forty souls, while at present
+there are nineteen hundred, small and great. The number has become
+so large, that a division into two separate congregations became a
+necessity; and while there was then hardly any native laborer, now
+two able native pastors are settled over these two churches. In the
+beginning, next to nothing was done in the way of self-support and
+general benevolence; while now, these communities pay the salaries
+of their pastors and school-teachers, and all their other expenses.
+Besides this, nearly five hundred dollars in gold were given for
+general benevolence, and more than nine hundred towards a second
+church edifice. All this in a community where a day-laborer receives
+thirteen and a half cents per day, and a mason or carpenter
+thirty-two cents. In view of their poverty, and the exactions of the
+government, this is extraordinary liberality. More than one half of
+the male members of these churches give a tithe of their income to
+benevolent objects.
+
+"In the beginning, we worshipped in a private house; but for many
+years a large church edifice has been filled, and a second one, for
+the benefit of the second church, will be completed in a few months.
+At first, there was no school through the week, or on the Sabbath;
+now, there are seven common schools, with nearly four hundred
+pupils, and a Sabbath-school averaging a thousand, which has been as
+high as sixteen hundred. More than a score of pastors and preachers
+have been trained at Aintab, most of whom are still in the service,
+and a large number have been sent forth as teachers and colporters
+into the surrounding regions. Finally, when the Gospel was first
+preached in Aintab, the Protestants were despised and persecuted;
+while now, they are not only recognized as a regular community, with
+rights and privileges, but they have acquired for themselves a name,
+respect, and influence."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.
+
+1869-1872.
+
+
+The year 1870 commenced at Marash with another revival. A thousand
+persons were present at the prayer-meeting on the 3d of January,
+which was admirably conducted by Pastor Murad. The missionaries,
+though present, did not deem it necessary to assist him. Fifty-three
+new members were received into the two churches, and a much larger
+number offered themselves for admission. Successful efforts were
+made to reach the women, who were visited in their own homes by the
+wives of students in the theological school, and by the older
+scholars in the girls' school. The number of houses thus visited
+during six weeks, was three hundred and eight, and there were
+fifty-five prayer-meetings.
+
+A revival was also in progress at Bitlis. For many weeks there had
+been a sunrise prayer-meeting every day; and it was fully attended
+for eight months; its location being changed occasionally to
+accommodate different parts of the city. The meeting on the 18th of
+February was the most interesting and profitable. Nearly ninety
+persons were seated on the floor of a room thirteen feet by twenty.
+Pastor Simon had charge of the meeting, and so ready were the
+people, that it continued two hours and three quarters before he
+could bring it to a close. As many as seventeen spoke, and about as
+many prayed. During the meeting, a prominent church-member called
+the attention of the weeping congregation to the importance of
+making a covenant with God _now_; and after reading a beautiful and
+appropriate hymn, he requested all who were ready to make such a
+covenant to rise. Nearly all rose, and while they were standing, he
+offered an earnest prayer for the aid of the Holy Spirit in keeping
+that covenant. It was an impressive scene. Forty were added to the
+church as the result of this revival. The people paid the debt on
+their chapel and parsonage, and enlarged the former. They also gave
+a site for the building to be erected by the two Misses Ely for the
+girls' boarding-school, in which were twenty pupils, for the most
+part wives of native helpers.
+
+Some time in the month of April, the good people of Bitlis observed
+a day of fasting and prayer for the village of Havadoric, where the
+blind preacher, John Concordance, had labored, and where he died.
+After a few weeks, Mr. Knapp visited the place, with Pastor Simon,
+and they found delightful evidence of the presence of the Holy
+Spirit. It was in contemplation to organize a church in that place,
+and the church in Bitlis had sent three delegates, who walked
+forty-five miles over the muddy roads. Ten hours were spent, the day
+after their arrival, in examining more than a score of persons for
+the new church, and eleven were approved, including two women. After
+the church had been organized, Avedis, a graduate of the Harpoot
+Seminary, was ordained as pastor. Fifty were present at the Lord's
+supper from Bitlis, Moosh, and Khanus.
+
+The barbarous expulsion of Mr. and Mrs. Coffing from Hadjin, in
+1862, will be remembered.[1] This was attributed, at the time, to
+the priests and the Turkish governor, and not to the people. Mr.
+Adams from Adana, and Mr. Trowbridge from Marash, went there in
+1870, in company with Hagop Effendi, the Civil Head of the
+Protestants in Turkey, who was then on an official tour through the
+empire. They found the door for Christian effort wide open, as
+Messrs. Montgomery and Perry had done the year before. Though
+situated on the northern side of the Taurus mountains, Hadjin is
+more conveniently cared for by the Central mission than by the
+Western, and that section of country had been transferred
+accordingly. Native laborers had gone there, and a great change had
+taken place. Thirty-two had been enrolled as Protestants, and no
+mention is made of opposition. At the evening services on the
+house-top, where the missionary's tent was pitched, not only the
+Protestants, but large numbers of the Armenians, listened with eager
+attention. From early morn until dark on the Sabbath, there was
+hardly an intermission in the preaching, exposition, or reading of
+the Word of God.
+
+[1] See p. 221.
+
+In the autumn of 1869, Dr. Schneider, by direction of the mission,
+attended the examination of the Theological School at Marsovan. He
+writes, "The examination continued through most of three days, and
+as a whole was quite satisfactory. The appearance of the students in
+theology was peculiarly gratifying. The readiness and propriety of
+their answers proved that they had bestowed thought on the various
+points brought up, and saw their relations to one another. Their
+public addresses, when they received their diplomas, were all
+excellent, while some were of quite a superior order, and exhibited
+no common degree of oratorical power." He was also much gratified by
+the appearance of the girls' boarding-school.
+
+Seven days' travel, on his return to Broosa, brought him to Angora,
+a city of from forty to fifty thousand inhabitants. The probable
+estimate gave ten thousand to the Catholics, three hundred to the
+Greeks, a thousand to the Armenians, and five hundred to the Jews;
+the remainder were Mussulmans. Many books had been sold there, much
+light disseminated, and a small body of Protestants earnestly
+entreated for a missionary to reside among them, or at least for an
+educated native preacher. No uneducated man could sustain himself
+there against the powerful array which the Roman Catholics could
+bring to bear upon him by means of their educational establishments.
+Among the obstacles to be encountered, were the extreme worldliness
+of the people, and their devotion to sensual pleasures. Angora is
+within the limits of the ancient Galatia, and very probably was the
+site of one of "the churches of Galatia." It appears not yet to be
+occupied as a station.
+
+Another interesting place was Erzingan, within the Erzroom district,
+visited by Mr. and Mrs. Cole in the autumn of 1870. They travelled
+the whole distance of a hundred miles in a gig; with many risks, it
+is true, but with no disaster. The city was supposed to contain as
+many as ten thousand Armenians, forming a third part of the
+population. Mr. Dunmore, the brave pioneer, had spent three months
+there, and various helpers had been stationed there from time to
+time. The missionary and his wife were received with the utmost
+kindness, and had crowded meetings during the nine days they were
+there. Mrs. Cole had several interesting meetings, also, with the
+women. "Thus time passed," writes Mr. Cole, "and you may be sure it
+was a continual feast to the soul, and we felt quite reluctant to
+turn homeward."
+
+The mission sent by native churches to the Koords, like most new
+missions, had a tardy success; and, after four years, the zeal of
+the native churches began to flag, and some of the native pastors
+proposed to stop the work in Koordistan, and devote themselves more
+fully to the "home field." Knowing that the influence of such a
+course would be disastrous, Mr. Wheeler threw himself into the
+breach, and was off for a three weeks' tour in Koordistan. Redwan,
+the seat of the mission, was eighty miles east of Diarbekir. He was
+accompanied by Hagop Effendi, Civil Head of the Protestants, and two
+native preachers; and was rejoiced to find at Redwan a congregation
+of eighteen men, thirteen women, and twenty-two children. They had
+learned, or begun to learn, to read in the Armeno-Koordish, into
+which the four Gospels had been translated; and some were learning
+the Armenian language, so as to be able to read the whole Bible.
+Their chapel, of sun-dried brick, ten feet by twenty, was crowded on
+the evening of their arrival. "They sang 'Sweet hour of prayer,'"
+writes Mr. Wheeler, "and 'There is no other name so sweet,'
+translated from Armenian by their preacher, who had also translated,
+with the help of Pastor Mardiros of Harpoot, 'Forever with the
+Lord,' 'How lost was my condition,' 'My faith looks up to Thee,'
+'Safely through another week,' 'My days are passing swiftly by,' and
+others. Perhaps it was all romance, but somehow that little, close,
+low, dark, foul-aired chapel seemed to me almost a heavenly place,
+as we joined,--they in Koordish and I in Armenian,--in singing those
+sweet hymns." At an expense of forty dollars in gold, the people
+bought a fine lot for a larger building, including chapel,
+school-room, and parsonage, which they hoped to put up in the
+following year. They desired also the formation of a church, and the
+ordination of a pastor. "Do you wonder," adds Mr. Wheeler, "that I
+returned with a light heart to tell the churches these good news
+from their mission field?" The Harpoot church immediately decided to
+send a school-teacher to Redwan, so that the preacher might give
+himself entirely to his work.
+
+Mr. Pond, of Mardin, went to Sert four days distant in Koordistan,
+and experienced the usual trials by the way,--sleeping in "stifling
+stables, with a perfect menagerie of animals and fowls, and creeping
+creatures too numerous to catalogue."
+
+The church at Sert he found full of brotherly love, simple faith,
+and a desire for knowledge. It had given freely to the brethren in
+Redwan, and paid the entire salary of its own pastor. "Indeed," says
+the missionary, "but for this church in Sert, we should almost
+despond for the Arabic-speaking portion of our field. In Mardin, it
+is true, we have a flourishing church and community, but not so
+refreshing in its simplicity and strength of faith and love. The
+pastor of the Sert church is one of the best men for the pastoral
+work I have ever seen in Turkey, and is the chief cause, under God,
+of the cheering state of his flock."
+
+Mr. Pond next visited Mosul, and found it no longer an unpleasant
+part of their field. "Once, and that not long ago, it was the least
+hopeful spot in all our bishopric. For over thirty years has the
+Gospel been preached there, and by such men as Grant, and Lobdell,
+and Williams, Marsh, and Hinsdale. The church contained at one time
+twenty members, but had dwindled to ten."
+
+A pastor was to be ordained at Mosul, and Mr. Andrus, missionary
+from Mardin, Pastor Jurgis of Mardin, Pastor Elias of Sert, and
+delegates from these two churches were there to aid in that service.
+The pastor elect was ordained, the dead branches in the church were
+cut off, and eight new members were added, while as many more were
+ready to join at the next communion.
+
+Dr. Williams died at Mardin on the l4th of February, 1871, at the
+age of fifty-three, broken down by an accumulation of labors and
+cares, which, until near the close of his life, he had been
+compelled to bear alone. It was a great loss to the mission, but
+especially to Mardin; and he was called from earth just when the
+clouds, which had made his field seem dark to him, began to break.
+He saw it, and rejoiced. He said he was like Moses, who was
+permitted to look into the promised land from Pisgah, but was not
+allowed to enter it.
+
+Mr. H. N. Barnum, who knew Dr. Williams intimately, while admitting
+that he was unduly disposed to distrust his own powers and judgment,
+says that, aside from this, he was a rare man. "He had great
+self-control, and was so undemonstrative, that those who did not
+know him intimately can scarcely be said to have known him at all.
+He possessed genuine refinement; and with his marvelous fund of
+information in almost all departments of knowledge, his fine command
+of language, and his good nature and enthusiasm, he was, in his more
+cheerful moods, a fascinating member of our social circle. His clear
+mind had been carefully cultivated, and his acquisitions were very
+exact. However much he distrusted his own judgment, his associates
+confided in it. He was forward to acknowledge any mistake, and
+correct it, and he was enthusiastic in his zeal for the policy of
+self-support in the missionary work. His students held him in the
+highest admiration, and very few missionaries have secured the
+affection of the people for whom they labor so fully as he did. Had
+he remained at home, I am sure he would have stood conspicuous among
+the clergy. He was very careful in the use of missionary funds, and
+in everything maintained a conscience void of offense. He was,
+withal, eminently spiritual. His many trials had wrought in him a
+deep and thorough work of grace."
+
+"The _one_ attraction of heaven for Mr. Williams," writes his
+bereaved wife, "was _Jesus_. 'Like Jesus,' and 'without sin,' and
+'to be with Jesus and see Him as He is,' were phrases ever on his
+lips. He used often to speak of the great host gone before, and of
+the loved ones constantly gathering there; but it was rare to hear
+him speak of joy at the prospect of meeting them. It was always
+'_Jesus_, the joy of loving hearts.' Neither did he long for heaven
+as a place of _rest_, until very near the end. He loved toil, and
+felt a great desire to live and labor for the Master." "At last,"
+she says, "he did grow very weary, and often exclaimed; 'So tired,
+O, so tired.' In one of those weariest hours, he asked me if I
+remembered Bickersteth's description of Paradise. 'Well,' he said,
+'I can't bear to think of it. To think of climbing over those
+mountains, it is so wearisome. I think, 'In my Father's house are
+many mansions,' and I want to be taken right into one of them, and
+laid down to rest--to rest--O, how sweet.' His intellect was clouded
+in the last hours."
+
+I find some facts, received in 1871, concerning the women in the
+region of Cesarea, indicating a decided progress. "Three years ago,
+with the exception of Cesarea, Yozgat, and Moonjasoon, the truth
+seemed to have gained but very slight hold upon the women at our
+several out-stations. But few were ever found in the Sabbath
+congregation, scarcely any could read, and some bitterly persecuted
+their husbands. But now a marked change is visible, and the women
+form no inconsiderable part of all our congregations; large numbers
+are learning to read; female prayer-meetings are held at nearly or
+quite every out-station; and an earnest desire for improvement is
+everywhere apparent. As a consequence, a corresponding change is
+observed in the conduct of these women. They become better wives and
+mothers, and their influence is felt for good upon those around
+them."
+
+Messrs. Wheeler and Reynolds made a visit to Van in the summer of
+1871, preparatory to the occupation of that important post. Most of
+the ninety miles from Bitlis to Van, was within sight of the lake;
+its waters reposing in quiet beauty amid the mountains, on whose
+loftiest peaks there still lingered patches of snow. They reached
+the city in September, and were there a week. They found more
+readiness to receive the Word of God, and its teachers, and to have
+intercourse with them, than they had expected. They were also
+agreeably disappointed in the number, who were desirous that
+missionaries should reside among them. The region southeast of Van,
+which they had supposed was exclusively a Koordish-speaking section,
+they found to contain a number of Armenian villages, speaking their
+own language, with Bibles in the modern tongue, and men accustomed
+to read them. At the time of writing these pages, missionaries are
+understood to be on their way for the permanent occupation of Van,
+should such be the will of Providence.
+
+The church at Cutterbul, and indeed the whole region around
+Diarbekir, experienced a severe bereavement early in 1872, in the
+death of its first pastor Abd en Noor. "He was a thoughtful man,"
+writes Mr. Andrus of Mardin, "and a more independent thinker than
+many. He had made him a place in the village, so that even the young
+men of the Jacobite community looked to him as their father. He was
+very anxious to improve the condition of his race, was faithful both
+as a preacher and as a pastor, and in the latter capacity was more
+especially active during the past winter. He was one of the eight
+pupils received into the first class formed by Dr. Williams in
+Mardin, in September, 1862 (was then about thirty years old), and
+remained three years in the class, supplying the pulpit in Cutterbul
+during the winter months, where he had been preaching before he
+entered the school."
+
+The impressions made on Dr. Clarke, Foreign Secretary of the Board,
+by occurrences in 1871, on his way from Adana to Aintab, are
+significant of the work of grace, now in progress in the region
+distinguished by the early labors of the Apostle Paul. His route was
+across the Cilician and Antioch plains, over the Amarus mountains
+and another range, and for the most part through a region of
+wonderful fertility, needing only proper cultivation.
+
+"The journey," Dr. Clarke writes, "was not without some items of
+missionary interest, as showing how widely the truth is diffused.
+The first night out we encamped a little distance from a village
+that bears the name of Missis, built on the ruins of the ancient
+Mopsuestia--a place of some note in the early history of the Church.
+As we were setting up our tent, two Armenians from the village
+accosted us with the question,--'Are you the men that are bringing
+light into this dark land?' On being assured that we were just those
+very men, they gave us a hearty welcome, and did their best to
+assist us in every way, remaining till dark, and coming again in the
+early morning. This they did as a labor of love, and to receive some
+words of counsel and cheer. They were Protestants, but not
+church-members, who had come here for business--one from near
+Antioch, and the other from the neighborhood of Harpoot. Here, where
+no preacher of the truth had ever been stationed by us, these men
+were faithful to the light they had, spending the Sabbath together
+in studying the Scriptures and in prayer, and speaking to all who
+would listen of the Gospel of Christ. One of the men had formerly
+been a keeper of a drinking shop. One day, while plying his trade,
+he called out to a passer-by to come in and drink. The reply, 'I
+cannot, I am a Protestant,' arrested his attention, and eventually
+led him to give up his wicked traffic for an honest calling.
+
+"On another day we met a party of laborers coming down into Cilicia
+from Eastern Turkey, whom we at first mistook for Koords. But coming
+nearer, Mr. Trowbridge recognized them as Armenians, and at once
+asked if there were any Protestants among them. 'O yes,' cried
+several; and in proof they drew Testaments from their bosoms. One of
+them, a leading Protestant from Haboosi, on learning who I was, at
+once beset me to hurry on to the dedication of their new church,
+that was to come off in a few days. He, poor man, had been obliged
+to come away, but was very anxious to have me go. I was really sorry
+I could not do so, and thus be a witness to some of the ripe fruits
+of the great work in the villages about Harpoot. What may not be
+accomplished by such a party of Christian laborers, going into
+villages and neighborhoods unreached by other means? It is thus that
+the good seed is now scattered broadcast over the land.
+
+"We had hoped to reach Hassan-Beyli for the Sabbath, but the
+distance proved too great, and as it was three hours off from the
+main road, we had to give up a visit to this mountain eyrie,--now a
+centre of Christian influence, a few years ago a nest of robbers.
+But they would not let us off so. Tuesday morning, by six o'clock,
+we were surprised to see a half dozen of those stalwart men, who had
+left their mountain crags, three hours before, to come down and
+exchange Christian salutations. As I looked at them, I could not but
+wonder at the work of grace manifest in them. After words of
+exhortation through an interpreter, on mounting my horse I took them
+each by the hand, while the grasp tightened and eyes flashed and
+filled at the words--'Christ, Hallelujah, Amen.'"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS.--EDUCATION.
+
+1872.
+
+
+The common school is as much a necessity in mission fields, as it is
+that the people should be able to read the Word of God; and it has
+everywhere been a primary object of attention; but always, and more
+especially of late years, with the aim and expectation, that it will
+speedily derive its support from the parents of the children.
+
+Properly conducted, the tendency of the common school is to
+development. Teachers are learning all the while; new branches of
+study are introduced; there is greater thoroughness in the teaching
+and discipline; till at length the Academy is evolved, and perhaps
+the College.
+
+This would be the natural order of development, were general
+education the leading object of missionary societies. But the
+unevangelized nations must be evangelized, and chiefly by their own
+people. Consequently one of the first efforts is to raise up
+teachers and preachers.
+
+Enough has probably been said, in this history, respecting the
+common schools. So, also, of the Seminary at Bebek, instituted in
+1840,[1] and the Girls' Boarding-school in the metropolis,
+instituted in 1845.[2] The Bebek Seminary was in some respects the
+forerunner of "Robert College." But however suitable its proximity
+to the capital may have been, regarding it as an incipient college,
+the location was not well adapted, on the whole, for a school to
+raise up young men for pastoral work in the towns and villages of
+the interior. Hence its discontinuance in 1862, and the opening of a
+training Seminary in Marsovan, in 1865. The delay of three years was
+owing to peculiar and unexpected causes. The Girls' Boarding-school
+at Constantinople was also discontinued for similar reasons, and was
+reopened at Marsovan in 1865.
+
+[1] See Chapter xxxiii.
+
+[2] See Chapter xxxiii.
+
+A highly intelligent Armenian gentleman thus addressed Dr. Hamlin:
+"The Bebek Seminary has given birth to influences, which have waked
+up our young men all over the land; and you are regarded as a public
+benefactor, although you can never be regarded as our religious
+guide. Still, in sentiment, you have--not eight thousand, but eight
+hundred thousand followers. We shall never be called Protestants; it
+is not an Armenian term; but we hope to see the day when the
+Armenian Church will be as evangelical as yours."
+
+The present Theological Seminaries are at Harpoot, Marsovan, Marash,
+and Mardin. There are, besides these, theological classes at
+Cesarea, Broosa, Sivas, Harpoot, Bitlis, Erzroom, and Eski Zagra.
+The first of the four seminaries above named originated in 1859, the
+second, in 1865, the third in 1868; and the fourth, in 1870. Like
+similar institutions in the United States, they are intended to
+receive only such as not only give evidence of piety, but are
+promising candidates for the gospel ministry. The course of study at
+Harpoot illustrates, substantially, the education given, or
+contemplated, in each of those institutions.
+
+For the _first_ year, Exegesis, the Synoptic Gospels and Pentateuch,
+the Turkish and Ancient Armenian languages, Algebra, Physiology,
+Reading, Writing, and Spelling Armenian.
+
+For the _second year_, Exegesis, Isaiah, Daniel, and Revelation,
+Geometry, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy, Rhetoric in Ancient
+Armenian, Evidences of Christianity (Turkish).
+
+For the _third_ year, Exegesis, Acts, Pauline Epistles, except
+Romans and Hebrews, Mental Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, and
+Theology.
+
+For the _fourth_ year, Exegesis, Pastoral Epistles, Romans, Hebrews,
+and Gospel of John, Sermonizing, Pastoral Theology, Church History,
+and Logic.
+
+Weekly exercises in composition and declamation through the first
+three years; and lectures on Physical Geography, Geology, History,
+and Chronology, and lessons in singing, distributed through the
+course at convenience.
+
+The female boarding-schools are mainly designed to educate teachers,
+Bible-readers, and wives for native teachers and pastors. They are
+in Marsovan, Aintab, Marash, Harpoot, Mardin, Bitlis, Erzroom, and
+Samokov. The pupils in the theological seminaries and classes, and
+in the female boarding-schools, as reported in the year 1871, were
+as follows:--
+
+                           Theological Theological      Female
+                            Seminaries.  Classes.  Boarding-schools.
+WESTERN TURKEY. Marsovan.       26          -             38
+                Cesarea.         -          5              -
+                Broosa.          -         13              -
+                Sivas.           -          2              -
+CENTRAL TURKEY. Aintab.          -          -             20
+                Marash.         35          -              -
+EASTERN TURKEY. Harpoot.        17         25[1]          34
+                Mardin.          5          -              5
+                Bitlis.          -          9             20
+                Erzroom.         -          6              8
+                              -----      -----          -----
+                Total.          83         60            125
+
+[1] More properly called a "Normal school."
+
+Thus the number in training for the gospel ministry, in 1871, was
+one hundred and forty-three, and the number in the female
+boarding-schools was one hundred and twenty-five.
+
+The Marsovan Seminary commenced with eight pupils, and the number
+was increased in two years to twenty-four. Classes were organized at
+the stations, to prepare candidates for admission to the seminary,
+and to train such helpers as were not to take the full course of
+study. The plan of instruction in the seminary has recently been
+enlarged so as to include the training of native agents for the
+Greek-speaking races of southwestern Asia Minor. Eight young men,
+who graduated in 1869, received licenses to preach from the "Central
+Evangelical Union," and were in great demand. Thirteen were thus
+commissioned in 1870, in which year a convenient seminary building
+was finished.[1]
+
+[1] See Chap. xxiv. p. 17; Report of the Board for 1870, p. 21; and
+_Missionary Herald_ for 1869, pp. 87, 122, 257; and for 1871, p.
+109.
+
+Mr. Wheeler has given a full and interesting description of the
+theological and female Seminaries at Harpoot, in his valuable work,
+entitled "Ten Years on the Euphrates," and to that the reader is
+referred.[1] Eighteen pupils graduated in 1863, seven in 1865, and
+eleven in 1867; of whom thirty-two became pastors, preachers, or
+helpers.
+
+[1] _Ten Years on the Euphrates_, pp. 162-221.
+
+Theological classes were taught at Aintab and Marash, as early as
+1860. It was resolved, eight years afterwards, in view of the
+greater number of students at Marash, that the Theological Seminary,
+then about being established, should be at that station. The
+examination of the students of this seminary in 1869, drew together
+an audience of a thousand persons. Thirty-three students were here
+in the following year, and it was necessary for the resident
+missionaries to give themselves almost wholly to their instruction;
+while the work in the city and at the out-stations was committed to
+the churches in Marash. That was a year of growth and prosperity to
+these churches; sixty-six new members being added to them on
+profession of faith. A new class of eighteen members was received in
+October.
+
+The Seminaries at Mardin are conducted on the same principles as
+those at Harpoot. They are comparatively new, and are designed to
+reach the race speaking the Arabic language.
+
+The training-school at Tocat was broken up by the fire, which
+consumed the mission premises in 1859.
+
+A very valuable high school was taught for some years at Aintab, by
+Mr. Alexan; who was transferred to Marash, in 1864, as assistant
+teacher in the new Theological Seminary.
+
+Thirty-five pupils attended the female Seminary at Marsovan in 1869,
+and many of them were hopefully converted. In 1870 there were forty
+pupils.
+
+A majority of the young men in the Seminary at Harpoot were married,
+and one main design of the female seminary at that station was the
+education of their wives. These kept house for their husbands, and
+attended school about seven hours a day, five days of the week.
+Their younger children were committed to the care of a woman
+employed for the purpose, while the older ones went to one of the
+city schools. Of the ninety-four connected with the seminary
+previous to 1867, forty-one were hopefully converted while in it.
+Their chief text-book was the Bible; and some of them, besides
+learning to read intelligently, and to write, keep accounts, and
+know something of geography and astronomy, became intelligent
+students and expounders of the Bible, and, with hearts warm with
+love to Christ, proved themselves wise and efficient in winning
+souls to Him.[1] This institution has had several valuable teachers
+from the United States, prominent among whom was Miss Maria A. West.
+
+[1] _Ten Years on the Euphrates_, p. 189.
+
+The Female Boarding-school at Aintab was commenced under the care of
+Miss Proctor in 1861, with eight pupils. The number was increased to
+fourteen in 1864, and to twenty-five in 1867, of whom ten gave
+evidence of piety. It is one of the best schools in Turkey.
+
+Mrs. Coffing's labors among the women of Marash, in 1867, and in the
+four schools of which she had the oversight, were of great value. In
+1868, she had charge of a girls' high school, which was an
+institution of much promise. The pupils were thirty-eight, six of
+whom were wives of students in the Theological Seminary. Of the
+hundred girls who had been in this school from the beginning,
+twenty-one were hopefully converted while in the school. In 1872, a
+boarding department was added for the benefit of girls from the
+out-stations.
+
+
+THE ROBERT COLLEGE.
+
+
+This college has no direct connection with the American Board, nor
+with the mission as such; yet our history would be incomplete
+without some account of it.
+
+The college may be said to have grown out of the efforts of Dr.
+Hamlin to furnish employment to Protestant Armenians, whose
+evangelical principles had thrown them out of business. For this end
+a flour mill and bakery were established with unlooked for success;
+and when the Crimean war broke out, very large quantities of bread
+were furnished by this Protestant bakery to the English troops and
+hospitals at Constantinople.
+
+Christopher R. Robert, Esq., of New York, was then travelling in the
+East, and his attention was attracted to a large boat load of
+excellent bread _en route_ from the bakery to the English camp. This
+led to further inquiries, and to an acquaintance and permanent
+friendship between himself and Dr. Hamlin.
+
+The project of a college was first suggested by the sons of Dr.
+Dwight, one of the most honored founders of the Armenian mission;
+and a meeting for consultation, called by them, was held at the
+house of Mr. Robert in New York, in October, 1857. Several such
+meetings were held, but no agreement was reached as to the
+principles which should govern the College.
+
+Mr. Robert, finding that nothing was to be done, then proposed to
+Dr. Hamlin to take up the work in cooeperation with himself; which,
+after consulting his brethren and the officers of the American
+Board, he decided to do. I now quote from a statement kindly
+furnished me by Dr. Hamlin.
+
+"While all agreed in the necessity of a higher education, there were
+various views in regard to the proposed College. Some regarded these
+three obstacles as insuperable. (1) The variety of races,--Turkish,
+Armenian, Greek, and Slavic,--which have no common sympathies, and
+would not unite in one institution. (2) Variety of religious
+faith,--Islamism, Romanism, the Oriental Orthodox, and Armenian
+Churches,--which could never agree in one institution. (3) Variety
+of language,--Greek, Armenian, Turkish, and Slavonic,--each of which
+would seek preeminence.
+
+"It was decided, however, to make the experiment. The College was to
+be a Christian institution. The Bible was to be read, and prayer
+offered, morning and evening, at which all should be present. There
+would be Christian worship and Bible teaching on the Sabbath, but
+freedom of conscience would be sacredly regarded.
+
+"The American civil war, breaking out in 1861 prevented any attempt
+to obtain an endowment in the United States, and Mr. Robert, who had
+already advanced $10,000 for the purchase of a site, then deposited
+$30,000 in the hands of trustees, in order to commence the work.
+
+"The Turkish Government, at the instigation of Jesuit and French
+diplomacy, prevented the College from using the beautiful site it
+had purchased, although official leave to build there had been
+obtained from the department of Public Instruction. After much
+delay, expense, and fruitless effort, the College was opened in the
+building belonging to the American Board, and formerly known as the
+Bebek Seminary. It was called 'Robert College;' though without Mr.
+Robert's knowledge, because the name, having no special significance
+to the people there, would excite no local prejudice.
+
+"The College, thus founded in 1863, slowly but steadily gained the
+confidence of the communities around it. During the fourth year of
+its existence, the building was filled with students, and was
+considerably enlarged. On the fourth of July, 1869, the corner-stone
+of a new and large building was laid on the purchased site, leave
+having been obtained after seven years' effort. The new building,
+capable of receiving two hundred and fifty students, was entered,
+and the college opened publicly, September 15th, 1871. It has so
+rapidly filled with students, that the Trustees have resolved to
+raise an endowment, and erect another still larger building,
+confident that it also will soon be filled.
+
+ROBERT COLLEGE. [image]
+
+"All the supposed obstacles have disappeared. There are seventeen
+nationalities and six religions represented in the College, and
+there are no peculiar difficulties of government. Two forces
+contribute mainly to unify the whole. (1) All are subject to the
+daily influence of Christian instruction. (2) All study the English
+language in the preparatory department, and the College course is
+wholly in that language.
+
+"Another feature of the college should be noticed. It is
+self-supporting. It was designed to offer a sound Christian
+education to those who would pay for it. Two hundred dollars in gold
+are paid by every student for board and tuition forty weeks in the
+year. This is more for Turkey, than twice that sum would be in the
+United States.
+
+"Mr. Robert has given nearly $175,000 for this institution, or more
+than fivefold what he originally contemplated.
+
+"Nothing but the very highest education that can be attained, will
+now satisfy the Turkish community. Jesuit colleges have fallen into
+disrepute. They cannot meet this demand fairly, and satisfy it. New
+ideas of religious freedom pervade these communities; the old bonds
+are broken, and the college that gives the best culture, moral and
+mental, will be the most patronized by all. Missionary Societies
+cannot properly prosecute the work in this highest department of
+education. And yet foreign missions would be a failure if their work
+should stop in those classes where it usually begins. It must
+pervade and control the intelligence and enterprise of the land, and
+it cannot culminate in this result without the Christian College,
+and ultimately the Christian University."
+
+
+PROPOSED COLLEGE IN THE INTERIOR.
+
+
+As one result of the establishment of "Robert College" at
+Constantinople, a desire was awakened among the Protestants of
+Central Turkey for a similar institution, though on a less extended
+scale, and somewhat differently constituted; to be established
+either at Aintab, or Marash. Both places were anxious for the
+location, and set forth their claims with much ability, but the
+decision inclined in favor of Aintab. The subscriptions pledged by
+the people of that city, on condition of securing the college, were
+regarded by Dr. Schneider as equivalent to $60,000 of American
+money, or more than twenty dollars for each church-member, Nor were
+the offerings at Marash less liberal, in proportion to their means.
+
+The idea appears to have had its origin with the people of Marash;
+who state that their own condition, the number and power of their
+enemies, and the baneful influences of infidelity among them, made
+them feel that the standard of education in the Theological Seminary
+ought to be so raised as to meet the exigency. The failure of this
+proposal suggested the college; and the plan of one, elaborated by a
+committee, was brought before the "Union." By that time, however,
+the Protestants of Aintab had become fully awake to the importance
+of the measure, and the claims of the two cities were so earnestly
+pressed, that the Union declined deciding between them, and referred
+the decision to the Prudential Committee of the American Board.
+
+The very able pleas by the Protestants of the two cities drawn up in
+the spring of 1872, are before me, in the English language. The
+Aintab document opens with an interesting statement of their past
+progress in the matter of education. "We well remember," they say,
+"what our condition was, twenty-five or thirty years ago. We had
+then not even a thought about the necessity or advantages of
+education. A population of ten thousand Armenians was content with a
+single common school, where only reading and writing were taught.
+When, however, through the agency of the American Board, the Bible
+was translated into our modern language, it soon changed our
+opinions as to the importance of education, we can hardly explain
+how. Soon, the evangelical Armenians, not to speak of members of the
+Old Church, were not content with even three or four schools, nor
+were they satisfied with educating their sons, but began to plan for
+the education of their daughters. We discovered that mere reading
+and writing were not enough, and saw plainly the necessity of a
+higher grade of studies. Whereas once, we were hardly willing to
+send our children to schools where all the expense was borne by the
+missionaries, we were now anxious to open schools of a still higher
+character, and support them ourselves. We now realized, under the
+light of God's Word, that if men are to be good Christians, good
+fathers and mothers, and useful members of society, they must be
+educated. In this respect, our desires have been greatly
+strengthened by watching in our churches the constantly increasing
+demand for a stronger class of preachers and teachers. All the
+churches within the bounds of the Union are convinced of the
+necessity of a more thoroughly educated ministry. Hence the desire
+for a college in this section of the country."
+
+The decision was in favor of Aintab in view of its greater financial
+ability, its centrality, its comparative healthfulness, the
+abundance of good building materials, the lower price of skilled
+labor, the prospective railway communication between the coast and
+the interior, the proper distribution of educational advantages (the
+Theological Seminary being already at Marash), and the interest felt
+by all classes at Aintab, including the Old Armenians and the
+Moslems.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+THE ARMENIANS. THE PRESENT CONDITION.
+
+1872.
+
+
+It seems often to be required of missions, though not properly, that
+they shall exert a vastly greater reforming influence on
+unevangelized countries, than the Gospel has yet done in Christian
+lands. When we speak of "the conversion of the world," we are
+generally understood as meaning the introduction of the
+"Millennium." But what we refer to is not the millennial state, but
+such a diffusion of gospel agencies and influences through the
+unevangelized world, as we see in the most favored Christian
+communities.
+
+This is all that can reasonably be expected from missionary efforts.
+The Millenium, whether it be near or remote, doubtless implies such
+a previous extension of gospel agencies as we are now attempting,
+but will be the actual result of a universal outpouring of the
+Spirit, such as we are taught to expect when the time comes for the
+ultimate triumphs of the Christian dispensation.
+
+The question naturally arises, in closing this History, how far
+progress has been made in evangelizing Turkey, or in preparing the
+way for its future evangelization. From the nature of the case,
+there can be only an approximation towards an exact reply; and
+perhaps none can be given more satisfactory, than is furnished by
+the narrative already recorded in these pages. Yet a brief notice of
+some of the more important facts, may reasonably be expected here.
+
+It must not be supposed, that some of the first facts that will be
+mentioned are regarded as direct results of missionary effort, or as
+indications of evangelizing progress; but even these mark a progress
+in the condition of society, which is very cheering, and full of
+promise with reference to future efforts for the introduction and
+establishment of a true and pure religion; white others noticed have
+a more direct and full connection with the missionary work.
+
+Where there has been intellectual and social progress on a large
+scale, we naturally look for material improvements. Turning, first
+of all, to the great metropolis, Dr. Wood testifies to such
+improvements as these: "The streets are named, and doors designated
+by numbers. Scavenger carts are supplanting the dogs. The terrible
+conflagrations have secured broad avenues, and handsome stone and
+brick structures, in place of mean wooden buildings, on streets so
+narrow that the sun could hardly enter them. Spacious flag-stone
+sidewalks are taking the place of the rough pavements of horrible
+memory, and macadamized roadbeds help one to climb the steep
+hill-sides of Constantinople. 'Tramways' are built or building, a
+boon of inexpressible value to the aged and feeble, and a thousand
+dwellings have been demolished for the track of the Belgrade and
+Vienna Railroad, entering at the Seven Towers, and carried along the
+Marmora, and around the Seraglio Point, to its terminus on the
+Golden Horn. The demolition of much of the sea-wall to make way for
+it and furnish materials for embankments, is a suggestive symbol of
+the social and religious reconstruction, which is tearing up old
+foundations, and using the labors of ages past for that which is to
+be."
+
+Dr. Wood next instances the significant telegraph lines, running to
+all points of the compass, of which he counted twelve on one side of
+a street, and four on the other. "The spectacle of small craft on
+the waters, sea-going steamers of the largest class, smaller
+passenger-boats for the Bosphorus and ports on the Marmora, and the
+magnificent iron-clads anchored in front of the Sultan's palaces,
+impresses both residents and strangers with a vivid sense of the
+greatness, wealth, and power, which, in spite of mismanagement,
+corruption, misrule, and all the elements of weakness and decline in
+the country, are here concentrated."
+
+"Costumes," he says, "are changing, and customs and ideas change
+with them. Even Turkish women are adopting Frank articles of dress,
+worn beneath the external covering, and go about tottering on
+high-heeled shoes of latest Parisian style; and Armenian women
+appear in public with unveiled faces, attired like ladies of Europe.
+Thirteen newspapers--three of them dailies, three tri-weeklies, and
+seven weeklies (one of which issues a daily bulletin), for Armenians
+alone, at the capital--attest a new intellectual life, by the fact
+of their existence, and by the freedom of their discussions.
+
+"Schools for girls are multiplying; even a normal school for Turkish
+girls has been established under government patronage; but a still
+greater zeal is displayed for the education of boys. The notions of
+the people concerning education are, indeed, very faulty, and much
+of the instruction given is poor enough in quality; but the waking
+up on the subject heralds a brighter day in the future. That this is
+far greater among the Christian populations, than in the Mohammedan
+and Jewish, and that the former are gaining more and more upon the
+latter in the possession of wealth, is suggestive of coming events,
+of the highest interest and importance."
+
+Dr. Clarke, Foreign Secretary of the Board, writing in the same year
+(1871), after his visit to the East, mentions the following
+indications of progress: "Hundreds of miles of railway, begun and
+under contract; telegraphic communication between the principal
+towns; postal arrangements for the conveyance of money, as well as
+letters, established within a few years between many places; police
+regulations, securing protection to life and property as never
+before; the suppression of robber-hordes, which had infested
+different sections; and the beginning of a newspaper press. The
+public mind in the great centres is waking up to what is going on in
+the outside world. The war in our own country, by its derangement of
+commerce, led to much inquiry; and the later conflicts in Europe
+have excited a lively interest in many minds. And not the least
+significant matter is the change of sentiment in reference to France
+and French influence. Already is it said by native merchants, that
+their children must learn English, or German, instead of French; and
+the power of Romanism, upheld so long by French consuls, is sensibly
+weakened. And Protestantism is quietly doing its work of
+enlightenment,--directly, in thousands of minds, and indirectly, in
+thousands more."
+
+Mr. Adams, of Adana, writing a year earlier, affirms that the
+Christian populations are far more ready to hear and read the Gospel
+than is commonly supposed, and that the Protestant faith has found
+its way into the remotest corners of the land. He says, we should
+not measure the success of missions by "tabular views" alone, for it
+often happens that a missionary's strongest grounds of hope are
+quite outside of the largest array of figures. "As I write this," he
+adds, "a statement of Hagop Effendi occurs to me. He said: "I have
+travelled a great deal among the Protestants of Syria and Turkey,
+and the strongest impression I have does not arise from the schools,
+books, or churches, as pledges that Protestantism is to be a success
+in Turkey, but from the prodigious extent to which the country at
+large is leavened by Protestant truth. The grandest results of your
+labors are not apparent."
+
+Another testimony is by Mr. Leonard, of Marsovan, under date of
+January, 1871. "Evidence," he says, "of a gradual reform in the
+Oriental churches, especially the Armenian Church, chiefly as the
+result of evangelical labors, crops out in almost every city.
+Consecrated pictures leave church walls for the garret; silver
+crosses go into the refining pot; auricular confession is neglected;
+many superstitious ceremonies and foolish restrictions, imposed by
+the priesthood, are regarded only as a curious relic of the past. We
+note, also, a growing friendliness towards Protestants, and
+occasionally very sensible efforts, in emulation of them, to educate
+the people."
+
+Mr. Leonard doubtless had a special reference to the Armenian Bishop
+of Amasia, who, having secured a majority of the people in his
+favor, swept two churches of their gold and silver images, crosses,
+and vestments, and appropriated the avails to the erection of
+school-houses and the support of teachers. The minority appealed to
+the Patriarch at Constantinople; but he is known to have been in
+sympathy with the reforming party in the church before his election,
+while at Van and Moosh, and is said to have sanctioned the whole
+proceeding, and to have followed his sanction with an exhortation to
+preach the Gospel.[1]
+
+[1] _Report of the Board_ for 1871, p. 27.
+
+Another testimony is from Mr. Wheeler, of Harpoot, written in April
+of the same year: "Henceforth we shall need less money, and more
+prayer; for this finishing of the work is, in some respects, even
+more perilous than was its beginning. The people expect and demand a
+thousand things, which they cannot _now_ have; and sometimes the
+more earnest ones are inclined to take the missionaries by the
+throat, with a 'Pay us that ye owe!' We are encouraged by the
+reflection that such experiences necessarily enter into such a work
+of awakening and reform, as is here going on."
+
+The testimony of Hagop Effendi, the Civil Head of the Protestants of
+Turkey, should also be adduced. He says: "The fact that eighty-five
+per cent. of the adults in the Protestant community can read, speaks
+greatly in favor of its members. Any one acquainted with the social
+condition and religious ideas of the Orient, who will take pains to
+compare them with the liberal institutions now introduced, can
+readily imagine the state of society that must necessarily follow
+such a change. As yet, the people do not possess the intellectual
+and moral elements necessary for the maintenance of the liberal
+institutions of Protestantism independent of foreign aid." "Those,"
+he adds, "who have become Protestant in principle, far exceed in
+number the registered Protestants. The indirect influence of
+Protestantism has been greater and healthier than is apparent." He
+then instances the strictly sober habits of the Protestants, among
+whom the use of strong drink is very rare, and habitual drunkenness
+is hardly known. And he was everywhere gratified to find, throughout
+the empire, a great improvement in domestic relations, as compared
+with the condition of families before they became Protestants.
+
+The districts of Harpoot, Aintab, and Marash are probably more
+advanced in the matter of self-governing, self-supporting,
+evangelical churches, than any other considerable portions of the
+field in Western Asia. The Rev. Herman N. Barnum, of the Harpoot
+station, while in the United States, drew up, at my request, a
+statement of some of the more important results of missionary labor
+in his own district, which may be regarded as illustrative of the
+results of missionary labor in other districts.
+
+He states these as rules,--that no church is to be organized without
+a native pastor; that no church is to receive aid from the mission
+for more than one half the salary of the pastor, and none for more
+than five years. Eighteen churches have been formed in the district,
+with six hundred and fifty members, and most of them on this plan.
+The church at Harpoot was self-supporting from the outset. Wherever
+a fully organized and self-supporting church existed, the peculiar
+work of the missionaries was regarded as completed in that place;
+the church and pastor, rather than the missionaries, being
+henceforth held responsible for the evangelization of the
+surrounding community. The missionaries aid, if necessary, by their
+counsel and in other ways, but what they do is through the church.
+His response as to the character of the churches, which I
+necessarily abridge, is deemed applicable, substantially, to the
+seventy-four churches among the Armenians. He says:--
+
+"1. They are becoming intelligent. Making the Bible a study, they
+become established in Christian doctrine.
+
+"2. Church discipline is better maintained than it is in American
+churches. Their 'watch and care' are delightful to witness. Many of
+these Christians came out of the grossest corruption, but the
+fellowship of the church is a shield and a support.
+
+"3. They are self-denying. The support of their own institutions,
+including the building of their school-houses and houses of worship,
+with very little missionary aid, necessitates the sacrifice of
+comforts which they cheerfully forego. Experience in Turkey has
+abundantly proved, that dependent churches are nearly worthless for
+evangelizing agencies. When the institutions of the Gospel are
+supported for them, they regard the work of extending it as
+belonging especially to the missionaries; and hence, however lavish
+the expenditure, they often complain that money is not more freely
+spent, and the work prosecuted on a grander scale. Complaints
+against missionaries come chiefly from churches doing little for
+themselves. On the other hand, self-supporting churches regard the
+work of propagating the Gospel as their own, and whatever is given
+them, they gratefully receive as aid in doing their own work.
+
+"4. These churches resemble the primitive churches in their
+disposition to work for others. They are imbued with a spirit of
+labor. They go from house to house, reading and preaching the word.
+This is the theme in the shop, the field, and by the way-side.
+
+"The chief source of discomfort is in the Armenian character itself,
+in which there is a lack of stability, and a want of perseverance.
+But there is ground for hope, that even this national trait may be
+overcome by the power of the Gospel.
+
+"In Harpoot and its seventy out-station is a Protestant community of
+about five thousand souls, characterized by a remarkable reformation
+in the outward life. Many of them are doubtless Christians, who, in
+the great care which the churches use in receiving members to their
+fellowship, are in a certain sense on probation. The Protestant name
+has become a synonym for integrity and uprightness.
+
+"The extent, to which the Gospel has affected the communities not
+Protestant, cannot be appreciated by one not in actual contact with
+them. It manifests itself partly in the weakened power of
+superstition, the multiplication of schools, the number of adults
+who have learned to read, the increase in general intelligence and
+knowledge of the truth, the decrease of intemperance and vice, the
+promotion of enterprise and good order; and, in short, the
+beginnings of a civilization, that has a Christian aspect. There
+have been sold at Harpoot about four thousand copies of the Bible,
+and twenty thousand portions of the same, with nearly fifty-five
+thousand volumes of other books, religious and educational, from the
+mission press. Large numbers of these have gone into the hands of
+the unevangelized, and are silently exerting an influence. This
+class of persons is always represented in our congregations. They
+hear the truth discussed everywhere, and thousands of them have
+accepted it intellectually, who have not yet separated themselves
+from their own religious communities. All this suggests the
+possibility of a rapid development, when the Spirit shall be poured
+out from on high.
+
+"Were the Harpoot field limited to the district seventy miles
+square, of which the city is the centre, it might now be safely
+left, with its seminaries and hundreds of villages, to the eleven
+churches and the native laborers found there, with an annual grant,
+for a few years, from the American Board. As it is, there is good
+hope that, by the blessing of God on the means in use, the whole
+district, embracing more than twenty thousand square miles and half
+a million of souls, may, in a few years, be relinquished as a
+missionary field."
+
+Some estimate may be formed of the influence exerted by the press,
+when it is considered that more than ten and a half millions of
+pages were issued, in the single year 1870, in the Armenian,
+Armeno-Turkish, Graeco-Turkish, and Bulgarian languages; and that
+nearly three hundred millions of pages have been issued by these
+missions since they began their operations. The number of
+missionaries among the Armenians, in 1870, was forty, and of female
+assistant missionaries sixty.
+
+When the missionaries entered Turkey, religion was administered
+wholly by the hierarchy, and had everywhere a stereotype form. Death
+was the penalty for heresy among the Moslems; and it was scarcely
+less in the prevailing sentiment of the nominal Christian sects. The
+history relates how far this obstacle existed, and how far it has
+been overcome. Whatever be true as regards thy ecclesiastics, the
+people have now accepted, in some good degree, the principle of
+religious freedom, and so has the government of the Sultan.
+
+Before the institution of Protestant missions, the school-books
+among the Turks, Armenians, and Greeks were in the ancient
+languages, and the schools were consequently of little practical
+value. One of the first things done by the missionaries was the
+publication of school-books in the languages spoken by the people;
+and this simple movement took wonderfully with both Christians and
+Moslems, and has wrought a mighty revolution in the empire.
+
+The principle of self-support in native churches appears now to be
+the well-defined policy of all the missions in Turkey, to be
+realized in practice at the earliest possible day. In some of the
+missionary districts, the forming of the church and the ordination
+of the pastor are expected to occur at the same time; and when aid
+is given it is only for a limited series of years; and the schools,
+and all other necessary agencies, are to be transferred at the
+earliest moment from the mission to the people themselves. As a
+general rule, the missionaries do not now take the lead in the
+building of school-houses and places of worship. They aid as may
+seem necessary; but the responsibility and chief pecuniary burden
+are left with the people; except where the power of precedent, from
+a different course, is too strong to be overcome at once.
+
+The various testimonies embodied in this chapter will not affect all
+minds alike. Yet all must admit, that the Gospel has gained a
+deeper, firmer hold on the Armenians, than it ever had before, from
+the days of Gregory "the Illuminator" until now. A mental, moral,
+and social revolution is in progress, and mainly as a consequence of
+the republication of the Gospel by missionaries in the past half
+century; and there is no probability of any event occurring that
+shall be sufficient to arrest it. Doubtless great evil would result
+from extensive inroads of sectarian zeal. But there is hope of
+triumph even then,--from the Bible in their own language, brought by
+the press within reach of thousands of families, with fathers,
+mothers, and children able and free to read it; from self-governed,
+self-supported, self-propagating churches, scattered over the
+empire, each with its indoctrinated native pastor; from woman
+holding such a place in the family and social circle, as she never
+held before; and from common schools, and normal schools, and high
+schools, and theological seminaries, and even colleges, all
+independent of the hierarchy, and beyond the power of the Jesuits;
+with the logic of free thought, and a free conscience.
+
+It would seem that it may not be needful greatly to enlarge the
+present number of missionaries among the Armenian people. The native
+ministers and native churches are the main thing. And it must be
+admitted, that the Gospel, through the grace of God, has been
+republished, and its institutions replanted, extensively and most
+hopefully in the Armenian Church of the Orient. "In the midst of
+fermentation," writes the Constantinople station in 1872, "the
+leaven of truth is making its way; and so is, also, that of
+infidelity; but the latter is temporary in its influence, the former
+permanent. There is far more Protestantism outside of the Protestant
+church than within it. Protestant ideas of truth, of liberty of
+conscience, of progress, are spread far and wide, and are convulsing
+these nations."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+THE MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+
+The necessity for republishing the Gospel among the Oriental
+Churches, in order to approach the Mohammedans successfully, was
+stated in the Introduction to this History.[1] It seems proper now
+to give some illustrations of the effect this republication is
+likely to have upon that people.
+
+[1] See Volume i. pp. 1-6.
+
+A large portion of the Mohammedan population of Turkey is
+undoubtedly of Christian origin, and therefore less firmly wedded to
+the Moslem faith and ritual, than are the Osmanly Turks. Three
+fourths of the four millions in European Turkey, are believed to be
+of this class. The Kuzzelbashes in Eastern Turkey have a tradition
+that their Christian ancestors were compelled to become Mohammedans,
+and they are now regarded by the Turks as little better than
+infidels; nor are the Koords in much higher repute. Of the Druzes
+enough was said in the first volume.[1]
+
+[1] See Chapter xv.
+
+Though the penalty of death for embracing the Christian religion has
+been abrogated in Turkey,[1] yet the convert from Mohammedanism does
+not feel himself free from danger of secret assassination. Far
+greater security of life and property is enjoyed by Protestant
+Armenians and Bulgarians, than by Protestant Turks. Indeed, it is
+not long since Protestant Turks had no security whatever; and in
+Persia, they have none now. When Koord, Kuzzelbash, and Turk shall
+feel as free to inquire, and to act on conviction, as the members of
+the nominally Christian sects, there are facts encouraging the
+belief, that large numbers of Moslems may be expected to embrace the
+Christian faith.
+
+[1] See Chapters ix. and xxv.
+
+There is no more satisfactory way of illustrating this than by a
+simple statement of some of the more important facts. Indeed, it is
+requisite to the completeness of this history, that these be now
+stated, since they were designedly omitted in the preceding pages,
+in their various connections, in order to be recorded here.
+
+I begin with the year 1854, when the Imperial Firman of 1850 became
+known in the provinces.[1] Mr. Dunmore, on his way from Arabkir to
+Diarbekir, with Priest Kevork, spent the first night at a Moslem
+village. They had travelled in the rain, and were scarcely dry, says
+Mr. Dunmore, "when a company of Turks asked us to read to them from
+the New Testament, and tell them something of our belief. Kevork
+read to them from the Gospels, explaining, as he passed along, the
+precious teachings of our Lord, and closed with prayer. All listened
+attentively, and pronounced it, 'Good,' 'True,' 'Just.'"
+
+[1] See Chapters xxiv. and xxv.
+
+At another place, Mr. Dunmore found Turks desirous to hear the
+Gospel. "More than once," he says, "in passing through the streets,
+rich Moslem merchants called us into their shops, expressed their
+sympathy with us, and an earnest desire that we would remain. They
+called the Armenians to discuss questions with us, but the latter
+did so only when constrained by fear, or shame. We were frequently
+followed by a number of respectable Moslems, as we went from shop to
+shop to converse with the Armenians; and one day so many gathered
+about us that we could scarcely proceed on our way; all exclaiming,
+'Right,' 'True,' 'Good,' to all that we said."
+
+The Hutti Humaioun was promulgated in 1855. In that year the Turkish
+Scriptures were sold openly on the bridge between Galata and
+Constantinople, no man forbidding.
+
+In September, 1857, Dr. Hamlin described the official examination,
+at his house, of a family converted from Mohammedanism. It was made
+at the instigation of the mother of the wife, who was almost frantic
+at the baptism of her daughter and grandchild. "Our dear friends,"
+wrote Dr. Hamlin, "stood firm as a rock, and at length the officers
+arose and said to me, as nearly as I can state; 'We are fully
+convinced that no compulsion has been used in this case, and, so far
+as we can see, the accusations of the mother are false. It is the
+will of his Majesty, our Sovereign, and it has become the law of the
+empire, that every subject, without exception, should enjoy entire
+religious freedom. The Mussulman is now as free to become a
+Christian, as a Christian is free to become a Mussulman. The
+government will know no difference in the two cases. It will only
+undertake, whenever an accusation of restraint or compulsion is
+brought, to ascertain the true state of the case; and then only in
+order to secure the most unexceptionable freedom of choice.'"
+
+In May of the following year, Dr. Hamlin wrote, that Selim Effendi,
+a converted Mussulman employed as an evangelist among his
+countrymen, had many inquirers. "I think he conversed with eleven
+last week; among whom a woman expressed a very decided desire to
+embrace Christianity, but she was afraid of her son. Her son had
+sometimes expressed the same wish, but he was afraid of his mother!
+Selim introduced them to each other."
+
+"Let the following statements be appreciated," said Dr. Schauffler,
+in September, 1858, "and the difference between the present and the
+former state of things will be better understood. (1.) The Imans and
+Ulemas are obliged to resort to moral suasion and entreaty. No
+threats of persecution are employed; the government takes no
+responsibility in these matters; the police has nothing to do with
+them. (2.) Although there are fewer purchasers of the New Testament,
+yet men buy it publicly, fearing no civil penalty. 'Why do you buy
+this infidel book?' says a bigot to a Mohammedan purchaser of the
+Gospel. He replies: 'I chose to buy it, and with my own money; you
+are welcome to mind your own business;' and so the matter ends. (3.)
+We hear of no search being made for the books in circulation among
+Mussulmans, No New Testaments have been burned yet, that we know of,
+by the Turks, as many copies have been by the Greek or Catholic
+priests and bishops."
+
+Mr. Dunmore wrote, in the same year, after visiting thirty villages,
+mostly Kuzzelbash and Turkish: "I really felt ashamed, that in
+touring I had ever passed by a Turkish village, without stopping to
+point them to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the
+world? And I testify what I have seen, when I say, that the Turks
+are approachable; and many of them ready to listen to the Gospel;
+while others are anxious to search the Scriptures, and are
+restrained only by the pressure of fears, which, as yet, the
+Hatti-humaioun has scarcely begun to remove in this region."
+
+I quote again from the same missionary: "At a Koordish village of
+twenty houses we spent two hours in preaching the Word to a company
+of thirty. One of them, who seemed to have received a few rays of
+light from enlightened men, boldly declared, that he believed the
+time was near, when the sword would no more be used to keep men in
+Moslem bonds, but that they all would soon be free to embrace the
+Gospel, if they wished. We spent a night at a Kuzzelbash village of
+forty houses. Immediately on our arrival, we had an audience of
+thirty or forty; and during the long evening, fifty or more listened
+to the great truths of the Gospel. We preached 'Christ crucified;
+the way, the truth, and the life;' and they received the word with
+eagerness. When the evening was far spent, we bowed together before
+the mercy-seat, after which our audience reluctantly retired. These
+are but samples of our visits among Kuzzelbashes and Turks on this
+tour."
+
+Dr. Hamlin, speaking of Turks near the close of 1858, says: "There
+have been, here and there, some burnings of the New Testament; not
+publicly, but in private, or in small social circles. Among
+Mussulmans themselves a spirited debate has repeatedly arisen as to
+the moral character of the act. Some have approved, others have most
+decidedly condemned it, affirming that the New Testament is the Word
+of God. What impressed us most strongly is the bold manner in which
+orthodox Turks have declared it to be the Word of God, and that to
+burn it is a sin."[1]
+
+[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1858, p. 380.
+
+Dr. Dwight wrote in May, 1859: "The work among the Turks is looming
+up; and if not hindered by some untoward event, or by our neglect,
+it will by and by assume very large proportions. That Turkish
+officials through the country have been instructed not to persecute
+Mohammedans who embrace Christianity, is very evident. The governors
+of Sivas, Cesarea, and Diarbekir have, to our knowledge, within a
+short time, and with actual cases before them, publicly declared,
+that a Mohammedan who became a Christian could not be molested."
+
+Mr. White visited a place on the north of the Taurus Mountains in
+May, 1860, and had many calls from Mussulmans. "Every day they
+came," he says, "with an apparently sincere desire to learn the
+truth; and held long conversations on man's sinfulness, and how it
+was possible for God to forgive sin. 'We have lost God;' 'We have
+lost the road;' 'We cannot find God;' were expressions they used
+very often. At almost every meeting, from three to five Mussulmans
+were present. One is known all over the city as a Protestant; and a
+second is a member of the Governor's Council."
+
+Mr. Herrick, speaking of the Turkish department in the Bebek
+Seminary, wrote thus, in the same year: "Quite a number of
+Mohammedans have renounced Islam, and become true Christians; many
+more are soberly inquiring after the truth; and many others are
+turning, unsatisfied, from a religion which cannot save, or wavering
+in a merely nominal devotion to Islamism. That which is most
+striking is the clear evidence, often, of the work of God's Spirit
+in individual cases, and in general movements."
+
+Dr. Schneider gives this testimony concerning the Mussulmans at an
+out-station of Aintab: "There is a willingness among the Moslems
+here to listen to arguments in favor of Christianity, that is
+uncommon. By intercourse with Protestants, and the reading of the
+Scriptures, many of them have obtained glimpses of the truth, and a
+few are more or less convinced that Christianity is true. While I
+was there, fifteen Mussulmans and several women attended a service.
+Apparently there is no place in this region where there is so much
+prospect of a speedy work to be done among the Mussulmans."
+
+The inducement to labor among the Moslems, was much increased in the
+year 1860. At one large town in the heart of Asia Minor, a Moslem
+said to a Protestant, "Since you came here, you have caused us to
+fall into doubt and fear." At another, a Turk and his wife appeared
+to be true Christians. Though the man was zealous in making known
+the Gospel, the Moslems agreed to ignore his being a Protestant. At
+Diarbekir, a Turk declared himself a Christian, and a captain of the
+army at Harpoot did the same. Many Turks in the latter region
+purchased the New Testament, and some the whole Bible. The military
+Pasha of this district bought a Bible publicly, and so did the civil
+Pasha; thus showing the effect of the thorough evangelization of
+that community. At Constantinople, Dr. Dwight reported his having
+read the Scriptures and bowed in prayer with a high officer of the
+army in the palace of a Pasha, in the Mussulman quarter of the city,
+and in the presence of servants; the officer appearing to be
+strongly under the influence of evangelical ideas and feelings. Six
+Moslem converts were baptized that year at the capital. One of these
+was an Iman, seventy years of age. There had then been fifteen
+baptisms of adult converts from Mohammedanism in Constantinople.[1]
+The Grand Vizier subsequently required the Serasker to call Abdi
+Effendi, the baptized Iman above mentioned, and examine him. This
+was done, and the old man made the following confession and
+statement: "We are no ghiaours (_i. e_. we worship neither pictures,
+nor crosses, nor saints); we assemble and read out of this book
+(drawing out of his bosom the New Testament); we sing out of this
+one (producing a Turkish Hymn Book); and we listen to preaching from
+the Gospel, and engage in prayer for all men. If there is anything
+wrong in this book, please point it out to me." He supposed (on
+inquiry) that there might be some forty men who were like him, and
+mentioned some of their names.
+
+[1] In part, by English missionaries.
+
+It would be easy to multiply illustrations like the foregoing of the
+susceptibility of Mohammedans to Christian influence; and the reader
+will notice that they are of the same general nature with the early
+manifestations of interest among the Armenians. There have been,
+also, Turkish converts, who braved death in their Christian
+profession, and remained steadfast unto the end.
+
+No churches have been formed by our missionaries exclusively of
+Turkish Christians; and it can hardly be said, that the Board has
+yet had an organized mission to this people. Of the four
+missionaries sent especially to the Turks, Dr. Schauffler has
+devoted himself chiefly to translating the Scriptures into the
+Osmanli-Turkish; Mr. Herrick, besides doing service by his
+commentaries and other literary labors in that language, has been
+mainly employed in the Turkish department of the Theological
+Seminary, first at Bebek, and then at Marsovan; the younger Mr.
+Schauffler was born on the ground, as we may say, and began his
+labors amid the strifes of the Armenians in Constantinople with the
+missionaries, which was a great hindrance to his work, and the
+health of his family not allowing him to remain in Turkey, he is now
+a pioneer in the new mission to Austria; and Mr. Hutchison had
+scarcely entered the Turkish department of the Bebek Seminary, when
+the failure of his wife's health required a return to the United
+States. The mission of the Rev. James L. Merrick to the Persian
+Mohammedans, in 1834, was little more than a tentative exploration
+of the field, and was not continued.[1]
+
+[1] It should be stated that the English Church Missionary Society
+has had a missionary to the Mohammedans in Constantinople since
+1862, and reports five converts who are communicants. For the
+reactionary movement among the Turks at Constantinople, in
+consequence of the distribution of Dr. Pfander's _Defense of
+Christianity against Mohammedanism_, see page 234 of this volume.
+
+With a field so inviting as the Armenian along side of the
+Mohammedan, it was not easy to obtain missionaries to the Moslems.
+Then again, missionaries to the Armenians soon became engrossed by
+their labors. "The Mohammedans," wrote Dr. Schauffler in 1859,
+"never will be cared for by missionaries to the Armenians or the
+Bulgarians. We can all render each other important services, but no
+missionary can take charge of two nationalities. Each one, soon
+after coming, finds his hands so full of business for which he feels
+responsible, that he cannot do much besides. Moreover, every man
+gets his sympathies enlisted for the people of his charge. This is
+probably necessary to enable us to labor with energy, and suffer
+with patience; but this needful concentration of feeling precludes
+the idea of universality in missionary labor."
+
+Experience has also developed the great law here, as well as
+elsewhere, that the main work of winning races to Christianity must
+be performed by men of the same race. A Moslem will listen more
+patiently to a Christian Turk ("renegade" though he be), than he
+will to an Armenian; nor has it been found easy to enlist the
+Protestant Armenians effectively in labors for the Turks. It may be
+otherwise when the work is more advanced, and the Armenians are
+elevated to a higher social level. But a ministry raised from among
+themselves, is indispensable to the most efficient evangelization of
+the Turks.
+
+It would seem, therefore, that, up to the present time, the original
+plan of the mission to Turkey has been more promising of good, than
+any other; namely, that of operating upon the Mohammedans through
+regenerated churches planted in the communities where they dwell;
+and the greatest usefulness of these churches, for obvious reasons,
+must be expected in the interior, rather than in the capital. Thus
+far, there has been no material or very obvious change in the
+missionary policy; and the risk of such a change, and its probable
+advantages on the whole, should be carefully estimated. The
+Protestant nations of Europe are substantially with us in our
+evangelical labors among the Oriental Churches; and the churches we
+gather are "our epistle," "known and read" by the Mohammedans.
+Gradually, it may be, some of the missionaries now in the field, who
+are familiar with the Turkish language, and have their Armenian
+churches supplied with pastors, will turn their attention mainly to
+the Moslems, in the exercise of a sound discretion, both as regards
+the Turks and the Christians. It may be found that both classes may
+be happily inclosed in the same fold. The missionary now occupies a
+higher and more influential position with both, than he did years
+ago. The Turk, too, is better appreciated as he becomes known. He
+has more of manliness, self-respect, and religious feeling, than
+some races for whose salvation our labors have been blest. The
+masses are by no means hopeless, and the middle class is full of
+promise.
+
+The future is in the hands of the great Head of the Church; who has
+so crowned with success the past labors of his servants in Turkey,
+as to warrant the expectation, that whatever is needful to the
+effectual republication of the Gospel in those Bible lands, may be
+attempted with the glad assurance of success.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISSIONARIES
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MISSIONARIES.
+
+
+When no date occurs in the right hand column, it is because the
+missionary is still in the field.
+
+In several instances, the date of the wife's arrival in the field
+precedes the arrival of the husband. The explanation is that the
+wife, previous to marriage, had been connected with the mission as a
+teacher.
+
+Dr. Eli Smith's Exploring Tour is included in his thirty years'
+missionary service. So in the case of Dr. H. G. O. Dwight, and some
+others.
+
+Cyprus is included in the Mission to Greece and the Greeks; the
+population consisting largely of that element.
+
+The asterisk (*) placed before a name, denotes that the person is
+deceased. When it is placed before a _date_, in the right hand
+column, it denotes that the person died _at the time there
+indicated_, and in the field.
+
+The Assyria Mission terminated in November, 1860, when it was merged
+in the Mission to the Armenians. The persons composing that mission
+remained at their stations.
+
+It should be specially noted, that this table is not destined to
+state the time of a missionary's connection either with the Mission,
+or with the Board, but only of his residence in the field.
+
+MISSION TO PALESTINE.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*Pliny Fisk                          Jan. 15, 1820.  *Oct. 23, 1825.
+*Levi Parsons                        Jan. 15, 1820.  *Feb. 10, 1822.
+*Jonas King, D.D.    [See Mission
+                       to Greece]    Nov.  2, 1822.   Aug. 26, 1825.
+*George B. Whiting   [See Mission
+                       to Syria]     Oct.,    1834.   Autumn,  1843.
+                     Mrs. Matilda S.
+                       Whiting       Oct.,    1834.   Autumn,  1843.
+Wm. M. Thomson, D.D. [See Mission
+                       to Syria]     April,   1834.
+                     *Mrs. Eliza N.
+                       Thomson       April,   1834.  *July 22, 1834.
+*John F. Lanneau     [See Mission
+                       to Syria]     May   1, 1836.   June 11, 1846.
+Charles S. Sherman                   Sept.,   1838.   July  1, 1842.
+                     Mrs. Martha E.
+                       Sherman       Sept.,   1839.   July  1, 1842.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIAN.
+*Asa Dodge, M.D.                     Sept.,   1834.  *Jan. 28, 1835.
+                     Mrs. Martha
+                       Dodge         Sept.,   1834.            1838.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARY.
+                     Miss Betsey
+                       Tilden        June 16, 1836.   March 1, 1843.
+
+Messrs. Beadle and Keyes were at Jerusalem from July 17, 1840, to
+January, 1841.
+
+THE PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT AT MALTA.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*Daniel Temple       [See Mission
+                       to Armenians] Feb. 22, 1822.  Dec.,     1833.
+                     *Mrs. Rachel B.
+                       Temple        Feb. 22, 1822. *Jan. 15,  1827.
+                     *Mrs. Martha E.
+                       Temple        Feb. 25, 1830.  Dec.,     1833.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARY.
+Homan Hallock        [See Mission
+                       to Armenians] Dec. 10, 1826.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth
+                       Hallock       Mar. 26, 1828.
+
+MISSION TO SYRIA.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*William
+   Goodell, D.D.     [See Mission
+                       to Armenians] Oct. 16, 1823.  May   2,  1828.
+                     *Mrs. Abigail P.
+                       Goodell       Oct. 16, 1323.  May   2,  1828.
+Isaac Bird                           Oct. 16, 1823.  Aug.,     1835.
+                     Mrs. Ann P.
+                       Bird          Oct. 16, 1823.  Aug.,     1835.
+*Eli Smith, D.D.                     Feb. 18, 1827. *Jan. 11,  1857.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah L. H.
+                       Smith         Jan. 28, 1834. *Sept. 30, 1836.
+                     *Mrs. Maria W. C.
+                       Smith         June 17, 1841. *May  27,  1842.
+                     Mrs. Henrietta S.
+                       Smith         Jan. 12, 1847.  May,      1857.
+Wm. M. Thomson, D.D. [See Mission
+                       to Palestine] Sept.,   1834.
+                     Mrs. Maria
+                       Thomson       Aug.  3, 1835.
+*Story Hebard                        Mar. 14, 1836. *June 30,  1841.
+                     *Mrs. Rebecca W. Hebard
+                       [formerly Miss
+                       Williams]     Nov. 13, 1835. *Feb. 18,  1840.
+Elias R. Beadle                      Oct. 15, 1838.  Sept. 27, 1842.
+                     *Mrs. Hannah
+                       Beadle        Oct. 15, 1838.  Sept. 27, 1842.
+Samuel Wolcott, D.D.                 April 1, 1840.  Jan.   2, 1843.
+                     *Mrs. Catharine E.
+                       Wolcott       April 1, 1840. *Oct.  26, 1841.
+*Nathaniel A. Keyes                  April 2, 1840.  April  5, 1844.
+                     *Mrs. Mary
+                       Keyes         April 2, 1840.  April  5, 1844.
+Leander Thompson                     April 1, 1840.  March  1, 1843.
+                     Mrs. Anne E.
+                       Thompson      April 1, 1840.  March  1, 1843.
+C. V. A. Van Dyck, D.D.              April 1, 1840.
+                     Mrs. Julia A.
+                       Van Dyck      Dec. 22, 1842.
+*George B. Whiting   [See Mission
+                       to Palestine] Autumn,  1843. *Nov.   8, 1855.
+                     *Mrs. Matilda S.
+                       Whiting       Autumn,  1843.  Mar.  14, 1856.
+*John F. Lanneau     [See Mission
+                       to Palestine] Feb.,    1844.  Feb.  17, 1846.
+                     Mrs. Julia H.
+                       Lanneau       Feb.,    1844.  Feb.  17, 1846.
+Simeon H. Calhoun                    July 28, 1844.
+                     Mrs. Emily P.
+                       Calhoun       March 6, 1849.
+Thomas Laurie, D.D.  [See Mission to
+                       Nestorians]   Dec. 11, 1844.  May    9, 1846.
+William A. Benton                    Oct. 20, 1847,  Con. terminated
+                                                       June, 1861
+                     Mrs. Loanza G.
+                       Benton        Oct. 20, 1847,        "
+*J. Edwards Ford                     March 8, 1848.  June,     1865.
+                     Mrs. Mary
+                       Ford          March 8, 1848.            1865.
+David M. Wilson                      March 8, 1848.  May    4, 1861.
+                     Mrs. Emeline
+                       Wilson        March 8, 1848.  May    4, 1861.
+Horace Foote                         Aug. 24, 1848.  Autumn,   1854.
+                     *Mrs. Roxana
+                       Foote         Aug. 24, 1848.  Autumn,   1854.
+*Wm. F. Williams, D.D. [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      March 6, 1849.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah P.
+                       Williams      March 6, 1849. *July   1, 1854.
+William W. Eddy                      Jan. 31, 1852.
+                     Mrs. Hannah M.
+                       Eddy          Jan. 31, 1852.
+William Bird                         April,   1853.
+                     Mrs. Sarah F.
+                       Bird          April,   1853.
+J. Lorenzo Lyons                     Feb. 25, 1855.  June,     1863.
+                     Mrs. Catharine N.
+                       Lyons         Feb. 25, 1855.  June,     1863.
+Edward Aiken                         April,   1856.  May    1, 1858.
+                     *Mrs. Susan D.
+                       Aiken         April,   1856. *June  20, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Sarah C. Aiken
+                       [formerly Miss
+                       Cheney]                       May    1, 1858.
+Daniel Bliss, D.D.                   April,   1856.
+                     Mrs. Abby M.
+                       Bliss         April,   1856.
+Henry H. Jessup, D.D.                Feb.  7, 1856.
+                     *Mrs. Caroline
+                       Jessup        April,   1858. *July   2, 1864.
+                     Mrs. Harriet E.
+                       Jessup        Nov. 22, 1868.
+Samuel Jessup                        Jan. 24, 1863.
+                     Mrs. Ann E.
+                       Jessup        Jan. 24, 1863.
+Philip Berry                         Oct.  7, 1863.  Oct,      1865.
+                     Mrs. Magdalene
+                       Berry         Oct.  7, 1863.  Oct,      1865.
+Geo Edw'd Post, M.D.                 Dec.,    1863.
+                     Mrs. Sarah P.
+                       Post          Dec.,    1863.
+Samuel S. Mitchell                   June 12, 1867.            1868.
+                     Mrs. Lucy M.
+                       Mitchell      June 12, 1867.            1868.
+Isaac N. Lowry                       Nov. 22, 1867.            1869.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Lowry         Nov. 22, 1867.            1869.
+James S. Dennis                      Feb. 10, 1869.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIANS.
+*H. A. DeForest, M.D.                Mar. 23, 1842.  May    8, 1854.
+                     Mrs. Catharine S.
+                       DeForest      Mar. 23, 1842.  May    8, 1854.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES.
+George C. Hurter                    April 15, 1841.  Spring,   1864.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth
+                       Hurter       April 15, 1841.  June   7, 1861.
+                     *Mrs. Rebecca W. Williams
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Hebard]       Nov. 13, 1835. *Feb.   8, 1840.
+                     *Mrs. Anna L.
+                       Whittlesey    May   2, 1851. *May    1, 1852.
+                     Miss Sarah Cheney
+                       [now Mrs. Edw'd
+                       Aiken]        April,   1853.  May    1, 1858.
+                     Miss Jane E.
+                       Johnson       Aug. 31, 1858.  May   15, 1859.
+                     Miss Amelia C. Temple
+                       [now Mrs. Geo.
+                       Gould]        Aug. 31, 1858.  Spring,   1862.
+                     Miss Adelaide L.
+                       Mason        April 11, 1860.  June,     1865.
+                     Miss Eliza D.
+                       Everett        Nov. 22, 1868.
+                     Miss Nellie A.
+                       Carruth        Nov. 22, 1868.           1869.
+
+MISSION TO GREECE AND THE GREEKS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+Josiah Brewer                        Dec. 27, 1826.  Spring,   1828.
+*Elnathan Gridley                    Dec. 27, 1826. *Sept. 27, 1827.
+*Jonas King, D.D.    [See Mission to
+                       Palestine]    April,   1831. *May   22, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Anna A.
+                       King          April,   1831.            1869.
+Elias Riggs, D.D.    [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Jan.,    1833.
+                     Mrs. Martha Jane
+                       Riggs         Jan.,    1833.
+Samuel R. Houston                    Nov.,    1834.            1840.
+                     *Mrs. Mary R.
+                       Houston       Nov.,    1834. *Nov.  24, 1839.
+Lorenzo W. Pease                     Nov.,    1834. *Aug.  28, 1839.
+                     Mrs. Lucinda
+                       Pease         Nov.,    1834.  Spring,   1841.
+James L. Thompson                    May,     1836.  Autumn,   1841.
+Daniel Ladd          [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Oct.,    1836.
+                     Mrs. Charlotte H.
+                       Ladd          Oct.,    1836.
+*Nathan Benjamin     [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Nov.,    1836.
+                     *Mrs. Mary G.
+                       Benjamin      Nov.,    1836.
+George W. Leyburn                    June,    1837.            1842.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth W.
+                       Leyburn       June,    1837.            1842.
+
+MISSION TO THE ARMENIANS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*William Goodell, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Syria]        June  9, 1831.  Summer,   1865.
+                     *Mrs. Abigail P.
+                       Goodell       June  9, 1831.  Summer,   1865.
+*H. G. O. Dwight, D.D.             Feb. 27, 1830.[1] Jan.  25, 1862.
+                     *Mrs. Elizabeth
+                       Dwight        June  5, 1832. *July   8, 1837.
+                     *Mrs. Mary
+                       Dwight        Sept. 4, 1839. *Nov.  16, 1860.
+*Daniel Temple       [See Print. Estab.
+                       at Malta]     Dec. 23, 1833.  Summer,   1844.
+                     *Mrs. Martha E.
+                       Temple        Dec. 23, 1833.  Summer,   1844.
+Thomas P. Johnston                   Jan. 19, 1834.            1853.
+                     Mrs. Marianne C.
+                       Johnston      Jan. 19, 1834.            1853.
+Benj. Schneider, D.D.                Jan. 19, 1834.
+                     *Mrs. Eliza C.
+                       Schneider     Jan. 19, 1834. *Sept. 29, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Susan M.
+                       Schneider     Oct.  1, 1858.
+John B. Adger, D.D.                  Oct. 25, 1834.            1846.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth K.
+                       Adger         Oct. 25, 1834.            1846.
+Philander O. Powers                  Jan. 12, 1835.  Summer,   1861.
+                     *Mrs. Harriet G.
+                       Powers        Jan. 12, 1835.  April,    1841.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah L.
+                       Powers        Jan. 11, 1843.  June,     1861.
+Philander O. Powers  [Reappointed]   June 25, 1866.
+Henry A. Homes                       Dec. 26, 1835.  Dec.  10, 1850.
+                     Mrs. Anna W.
+                       Homes         June 17, 1841.            1849.
+William C. Jackson                   Feb.  1, 1836.            1845.
+                     Mrs. Mary A.
+                       Jackson       Feb.  1, 1836.            1845.
+Cyrus Hamlin, D.D.                   Feb.  4, 1839.
+                     *Mrs. H. A. L.
+                       Hamlin        Feb.  4, 1839. *Nov.  14, 1850.
+                     *Mrs. Harriet M. Hamlin
+                       [formerly Miss H. M.
+                       Lovell]      April 18, 1845. *Nov.   6, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Mary E. Hamlin
+                       [formerly Miss M. E.
+                       Tenney]       Jan. 22, 1856.
+H. J. Van Lennep, D.D.              April 13, 1840.  Summer,   1869.
+                     *Mrs. Emma L.
+                       Van Lennep   April 13, 1840. *Sept. 12, 1840.
+                     *Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Van Lennep    Nov. 24, 1843. *Sept. 27, 1844.
+                     Mrs. Emily A.
+                       Van Lennep    June 16, 1850.  Summer,   1869.
+Josiah Peabody                       July,    1841.  July,     1860.
+                     Mrs. Mary L.
+                       Peabody       July,    1841.  July,     1860.
+George W. Wood, D.D.                April 28, 1842.  Sept.  4, 1850.
+                     *Mrs. Martha B.
+                       Wood         April 28, 1842.  Sept.  4, 1850.
+George W. Wood, D.D. [Reappointed]            1871.
+                     Mrs. Sarah A. H.
+                       Wood                   1871.
+Daniel Ladd          [See Mission to
+                       Greece]      Sept.  3, 1842.  Aug.,     1867.
+                     Mrs. Charlotte H.
+                       Ladd         Sept.  3, 1842.  Aug.,     1867.
+*Azariah Smith, M.D.                 Jan. 11, 1843. *June   3, 1851.
+                     Mrs. Corinth I.
+                       Smith        Sept. 20, 1848.            1853.
+Edwin E. Bliss, D.D.                April 16, 1843.
+                     Mrs. Isabella H.
+                       Bliss        April 16, 1843.
+E. Riggs, D.D., LL.D. [See Mission to Greece and the
+                       Bulgarians]            1844.
+                     Mrs. Martha J.
+                       Riggs                  1844.
+*Nathan Benjamin     [See Mission to
+                       Greece]       August   1844. *Jan.  27, 1855.
+                     *Mrs. Mary G.
+                       Benjamin      August   1844.            1855.
+*Joel S. Everett                    April 18, 1845. *March  5, 1856.
+                     *Mrs. Seraphina
+                       Everett      April 18, 1845. *Dec.  27, 1854.
+Isaac G. Bliss, D.D.                 Aug. 24, 1847.
+                     Mrs. Eunice B.
+                       Bliss         Aug. 24, 1847.
+Oliver Crane                         March,   1849.            1854.
+                     Mrs. Marion D.
+                       Crane         March,   1849.            1854.
+Oliver Crane         [Reappointed]            1860.            1863.
+                     Mrs. Marion D.
+                       Crane                  1860.            1863.
+*Joseph W. Sutphen                   Jan. 16, 1852. *Oct.   9, 1852.
+                     *Mrs. Susan H.
+                       Sutphen
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Morgan]       Jan. 16, 1852.            1865.
+Wilson A. Farnsworth                 Jan. 22, 1853.
+                     Mrs. Caroline E.
+                       Farnsworth    Jan. 22, 1853.
+William Clark                        Jan. 22, 1853.   Aug.,    1859.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth W.
+                       Clark         Jan. 22, 1853.   Aug.,    1859.
+Andrew T. Pratt, M.D.                Jan. 22, 1853.
+                     Mrs. Sarah F.
+                       Pratt         Jan. 22, 1853.
+George B. Nutting                    Feb.  9, 1853.   Summer,  1868.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah E.
+                       Nutting       Feb.  9, 1853.  *July  9, 1854.
+                     Mrs. Susan A.
+                       Nutting       Autumn,  1856.   Summer,  1868.
+*Fayette Jewett, M.D.               April 20, 1853.  *June 18, 1862.
+                     *Mrs. Mary A. A.
+                       Jewett       April 20, 1853.   Summer,  1862.
+*Jasper N. Ball                     Sept. 21, 1853.   Aug.,    1861.
+                     *Mrs. Caroline W.
+                       Ball         Sept. 21, 1853.   Aug.,    1861.
+*Jasper N. Ball      [Reappointed]   Jan.,    1865.            1869.
+                     Mrs. Martha Ann
+                       Ball          Jan.,    1865.            1869.
+*George W. Dunmore                   May,     1851.            1861.
+                     Mrs. Susan
+                       Dunmore       May,     1851.            1856.
+Albert G. Beebee                     Sept.    1854.   March,   1860.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah J.
+                       Beebee        Sept.,   1854.  *Oct. 28, 1858.
+George A. Perkins                    Sept.,   1854.   Spring,  1861.
+                     Mrs. Sarah E.
+                       Perkins       Sept.,   1854.   Spring,  1861.
+Sanford Richardson                  Sept. 25, 1854.
+                     Mrs. Rhoda A.
+                       Richardson   Sept. 25, 1854.
+*Edwin Goodell                      Sept. 25, 1854.            1855.
+                     Mrs. Catharine J.
+                       Goodell      Sept. 25, 1854.            1855.
+Benjamin Parsons                    Sept. 25, 1854.            1860.
+                     Mrs. Sarah W.
+                       Parsons      Sept. 25, 1854.            1860.
+Alexander R. Plumer                  Feb.  8, 1855.            1859.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth P.
+                       Plummer       Feb.  8, 1855.            1859.
+Ira Fayette Pettibone                Aug.  4, 1855.            1868.
+Ira Fayette Pettibone [Reappointed]  May,     1866.
+Justin W. Parsons    [See Mission to
+                       the Jews]     Sept.,   1855.
+                     Mrs. Catharine
+                       Parsons       Sept.,   1855.
+*Edward M. Dodd      [See Mission to
+                       the Jews]    Sept. 28, 1855. *Aug.  19, 1865.
+                     Mrs. Lydia H.
+                       Dodd         Sept. 28, 1855.  June,     1866.
+Orson P. Allen                       Dec.  9, 1855.
+                     Mrs. Caroline R.
+                       Allen         Dec.  9, 1855.
+*Homer B. Morgan     [See Mission to
+                       the Jews]     Jan.,    1856. *Aug.  25, 1865.
+                     Mrs. Susan H.
+                       Morgan        Jan. 16, 1852.            1865.
+Tillman C. Trowbridge [See Mission to
+                       the Jews]     Jan. 22, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Margaret
+                       Trowbridge             1861.
+George A. Pollard                    Jan. 22, 1856.            1868.
+                     Mrs. Mary H.
+                       Pollard       Jan. 22, 1856.            1868.
+Crosby H. Wheeler                   March  2, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Susan A.
+                       Wheeler      March  2, 1857.
+Charles F. Morse     [See Mission to
+                       Bulgarians]  March  2, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Eliza D.
+                       Morse        March  2, 1857.
+Oliver W. Winchester                March  2, 1857.  June,     1865.
+                     Mrs. Jeannette S.
+                       Winchester   March  2, 1857.  June,     1865.
+*Jackson G. Coffing                 March  2, 1857. *Mar.  26, 1862.
+                     Mrs. Josephine L.
+                       Coffing      March  2, 1857.
+George H. White                     March  2, 1857.  Autumn,   1863.
+                     Mrs. Joanna
+                       White        March  2, 1857.  Autumn,   1863.
+Julius Y. Leonard                   Sept.  4, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Amelia A.
+                       Leonard      Sept.  4, 1857.
+George Washburn                      August,  1858.
+                     Mrs. Henrietta L.
+                       Washburn     April 15, 1859.
+Joseph K. Greene                     Feb. 22, 1859.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth A.
+                       Greene        Feb. 22, 1859.
+Herman N. Barnum                     Autumn,  1858.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Barnum        July,    1860.
+William F. Arms                               1860.            1864.
+                     *Mrs. Emily F.
+                       Arms                   1860. *March,    1861.
+Alvin B. Goodale, M.D.               Mar. 25, 1860.            1864.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Goodale       Mar. 25, 1860.            1864.
+*Zenas Goss                          Mar. 25, 1860. *Aug.  28, 1864.
+William W. Livingston               Sept.  3, 1860.            1871.
+                     Mrs. Martha E.
+                       Livingston   Sept.  3, 1860.            1871.
+*Wm. F. Williams, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Assyria]      Nov.,    1860. *Feb.  14, 1871.
+                     *Mrs. Caroline P.
+                       Williams      Oct.  4, 1861. *Jan.  15, 1865.
+                       [for. Miss C. P.
+                       Barbour]                      Dec.  25, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Clarissa C.
+                       Williams
+                       [formerly Miss C. C.
+                             Pond]   Oct. 15, 1864.            1871.
+*Augustus Walker     [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      Nov.,    1860. *Sept. 13, 1866.
+                     Mrs. Eliza M.
+                       Walker        Nov.,    1860.   July,    1867.
+George C. Knapp      [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      Nov.,    1860.
+                     Mrs. Alzina M.
+                       Knapp         Nov.,    1860.
+Lysander T. Burbank                  Oct. 13, 1860.            1871.
+                     Mrs. Sarah S.
+                       Burbank       Oct. 13, 1860.            1871.
+John Francis Smith                   July  8, 1863.
+                     Mrs. Laura E.
+                       Smith         July  8, 1863.
+Moses P. Parmelee, M.D.              Aug. 14, 1863.
+                     *Mrs. Nellie A.
+                       Parmelee      Aug. 14, 1863.  *Feb. 17, 1870.
+                     Mrs. Julia
+                       Parmelee      Sept.,   1871.
+Giles F. Montgomery                  Dec.,    1863.
+                     Mrs. Emily R.
+                       Montgomery    Dec.,    1863.
+*Walter H. Giles                     Nov. 17, 1864.  *May  21, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth F.
+                       Giles         Nov. 17, 1864.
+Lucien H. Adams                      June  9, 1865.
+                     *Mrs. Augusta S.
+                       Adams         June  9, 1865.  *Nov. 18, 1866.
+                     Mrs. Nancy D.
+                       Adams
+                       [formerly Miss N. D.
+                       Francis]      June 25, 1866.
+Albert Bryant                        Oct. 28, 1865.  June,     1868.
+                     Mrs. Mary E. I.
+                       Bryant        Oct. 28, 1865.  June,     1868.
+Henry T. Perry                       Jan. 11, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Jennie H.
+                       Perry         Jan. 11, 1867.
+Theodore A. Baldwin                  Aug.  9, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Matilda J.
+                       Baldwin       Aug.  9, 1867.
+Henry S. Barnum                      Aug. 10, 1867.
+                     *Mrs. Lucretia L.
+                       Barnum        Aug. 10, 1867.  *Dec. 31, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Helen P.
+                       Barnum                 1869.
+Charles C. Tracy                     October, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Lemyra A.
+                       Tracy         October, 1867.
+Lyman Bartlett                       Nov.  8, 1867.
+                     Mrs. Cornelia C.
+                       Bartlett      Nov.  8, 1867.
+Alpheus N. Andrus                    May  30, 1868.
+                     Mrs. Louisa M.
+                       Andrus        May  30, 1868.
+Carmi C. Thayer                      July,    1868.
+                     Mrs. Mary F.
+                       Thayer        July,    1868.
+John Eldwin Pierce                   Sept.,   1868.
+                     Mrs. Lizzie A.
+                       Pierce        Sept.,   1868.
+Royal M. Cole                        Sept.,   1868.
+                     Mrs. Lizzie C.
+                       Cole          Sept.,   1868.
+Theodore S. Pond                     Dec. 13, 1868.
+                     Mrs. Julia J.
+                       Pond          Dec. 13, 1868.
+Milan H. Hitchcock                   June  5, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Lucy A.
+                       Hitchcock     June  5, 1869.
+Edward Riggs                         July,    1869.
+                     Mrs. Sarah H.
+                       Riggs         July,    1869.
+Henry Marden                         Oct. 15, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Mary L.
+                       Marden        Oct. 15, 1869.
+John Otis Barrows                    Dec. 23, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Clara S.
+                       Barrows       Dec. 23, 1869.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIANS.
+Henry S. West, M.D.                  Feb.,    1859.
+                     Mrs. Lottie M.
+                       West          Feb.,    1859.
+D. H. Nutting, M.D.    [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      Nov.,    1860.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Nutting       Nov.,    1860.
+*H. B. Haskell, M.D.   [See Assyria
+                       Mission]      Nov.,    1860.  Summer,   1861.
+                     Mrs. Sarah J.
+                       Haskell       Nov.,    1860.  Summer,   1861.
+James A. Milne, M.D.                 Aug.,    1867.            1868.
+                     Mrs. Arabella
+                       Milne         Aug.,    1867.            1868.
+Geo. C. Reynolds, M.D.               Nov. 26, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Martha W.
+                       Reynolds      Nov. 26, 1869.
+Mary L. Wadsworth, M.D.              June,    1871.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES.
+Homan Hallock        [See Print. Estab.
+                       at Malta]     Dec.,    1833.            1841.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth
+                       Hallock       Dec.,    1833.            1841.
+                     *Miss Harriet M.
+                       Lovell
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Hamlin]      April 18, 1845.  *Nov.  6, 1857.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah C.
+                       Hinsdale
+                       [widow of Rev. A. K.
+                       Hinsdale]              1845.            1855.
+                     Miss Melvina
+                       Haynes        Jan. 22, 1853.  July      1856.
+                     Miss Maria A.
+                       West          Jan. 22, 1853.
+                     Miss Isabella H.
+                       Goodell                1855.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Goodell
+                       [afterwards Mrs. H. N.
+                       Barnum]                1855.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Tenney
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Hamlin]       Jan. 22, 1856.
+                     Miss Sarah Elizabeth
+                       West          Jan. 22, 1856.  Sept.,    1862.
+                     Miss Myra A.
+                       Proctor       July 28, 1859.
+                     Miss Arabella L.
+                       Babcock       Sept.,   1862.  May,      1864.
+                     Miss Ann Eliza
+                       Fritcher      July  8, 1863.
+                     Miss Clarissa C.
+                       Pond
+                       [afterwards Mrs. W. F.
+                       Williams]     Oct. 15, 1864.            1871.
+                     Mrs. Nancy D.
+                       Francis
+                       [afterwards Mrs. L. H.
+                       Adams]        June 25, 1866.
+                     *Miss Mary E.
+                       Warfield     April 27, 1867.  *Feb. 12, 1870.
+                     Miss Harriet
+                       Seymour      April 27, 1867.
+                     Miss Sarah Ann
+                       Closson       Nov.  8, 1867.
+                     Miss Mary G.
+                       Hollister     Dec.,    1867.
+Henry O. Dwight                      Dec.,    1867.
+                     Mrs. Mary A.
+                       Dwight        Dec.,    1867.
+                     Miss Rebecca D.
+                       Tracy         Sept.,   1868.            1870.
+                     Miss Charlotte Elizab.
+                       Ely           Sept.,   1868.
+                     Miss Mary A. C.
+                       Ely           Sept.,   1868.
+                     Miss Harriet G.
+                       Powers        Sept.,   1868.
+                     Miss Cyrene O.
+                       Van Duzee     Sept.,   1868.
+                     Miss Olive L.
+                       Parmelee      Oct.,    1868.
+                     Miss Isabella C.
+                       Baker         Oct.,    1868.
+                     Miss Flavia S.
+                       Bliss         Nov.,    1868.
+                     Miss Ursula C.
+                       Clarke        Nov. 18, 1868.
+                     Miss Ardelle M.
+                       Griswold      Oct. 15, 1869.
+                     Miss Caroline E.
+                       Bush          Aug. 27, 1870.
+                     Miss Julia A.
+                       Rappleye      Nov. 11, 1870.
+                     Miss Sarah L.
+                       Wood          Nov. 11, 1870.
+                     Miss Julia A.
+                       Shearman      Jan.,    1871.            1872.
+                     Miss Cornelia P.
+                       Dwight
+                     Miss Mary S.
+                       Williams      May,     1871.
+                     Miss Mary M.
+                       Patrick      Sept. 21, 1871.
+
+[1] Dr. Dwight arrived at Malta at the date here indicated, but did
+not settle at Constantinople till June 5, 1832. The intervening time
+was employed partly in an exploring tour, and partly at Malta, in
+labors tributary to the mission.
+
+ASSYRIA MISSION.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+Dwight W. Marsh                      Mar. 29, 1850.  Summer,   1860.
+                     *Mrs. Julia W.
+                       Marsh         May   9, 1853.  *Aug. 12, 1859.
+*Wm. F. Williams, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    May,     1851.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah P.
+                       Williams      May,     1851.  *July  1, 1854.
+                     *Mrs. Harriet B.
+                       Williams      Nov.,    1857.  *Dec. 25, 1857.
+*Henry Lobdell, M.D.                 May   8, 1852.  *Mar. 25, 1855.
+                     Mrs. Lucy C.
+                       Lobdell       May   8, 1852.  Summer,   1860.
+*Augustus Walker     [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   April 27, 1853.
+                     Mrs. Eliza M.
+                       Walker       April,    1853.
+George C. Knapp      [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   April  5, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Alzina M.
+                       Knapp        April  5, 1856.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIANS.
+D. H. Nutting, M.D.  [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   Sept.,    1854.
+                     Mrs. Mary E.
+                       Nutting      Sept.,    1854.
+*Henri B. Haskell, M.D. [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   April 19, 1856.
+                     Mrs. Sarah J.
+                       Haskell      April 19, 1856.
+
+MISSION TO THE JEWS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+Wm. G. Schauffler, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Mohammedans]  July 31, 1832.
+                     Mrs. Mary R.
+                       Schauffler    Feb. 26, 1834.
+*Eliphal Maynard                    April  2, 1849. *Sept. 14, 1849.
+                     Mrs. Celestia A.
+                       Maynard      April  2, 1849.            1850.
+*Edward M. Dodd      [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   April  2, 1849.
+                     Mrs. Lydia H.
+                       Dodd         April  2, 1849.
+Justin W. Parsons    [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    June 24, 1850.
+                     Mrs. Catharine
+                       Parsons       June 24, 1850.
+*Homer B. Morgan     [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Feb. 16, 1852.
+                     Mrs. Harriet G.
+                       Morgan        Feb. 16, 1852. *Sept. 10, 1852.
+                     Mrs. Susan H.
+                       Morgan
+                       [formerly Mrs.
+                       Sutphen]      Nov.  7, 1853.
+
+MISSION TO THE MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+James Lyman Merrick  [See Mission to
+                       Nestorians]   Oct. 25, 1835.   Dec.     1842.
+                     Mrs. Emma
+                       Merrick       Mar. 11, 1839.   Dec.     1841.
+Wm. G. Schauffler, D.D. [See Mission to
+                       Jews]         May,     1858.
+                     Mrs. Mary R.
+                       Schauffler    May,     1858.
+William Hutchison                    Nov. 14, 1858.   April,   1859.
+                     Mrs. Foresta G.
+                       Hutchison     Nov. 14, 1858.   April,   1859.
+George F. Herrick                    Dec.  2, 1859.
+                     Mrs. Helen M.
+                       Herrick       Aug.,    1861.
+Henry A. Schauffler  [See Mission to
+                       Bulgarians]   June  3, 1865.
+                     Mrs. Clara E.
+                       Schauffler    June  3, 1865.
+
+MISSION TO THE NESTORIANS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+*Justin Perkins, D.D.                Nov.,    1835.   May  28, 1869.
+                     Mrs. Charlotte
+                       Perkins       Nov.,    1835.            1857.
+*Albert L. Holladay                  June  7, 1837.   Spring,  1846.
+                     Mrs. Anne Y.
+                       Holladay      June  7, 1837.   Spring,  1846.
+*William R. Stocking                 June  7, 1837.   June,    1853.
+                     Mrs. Jerusha R.
+                       Stocking      June  7, 1837.   June,    1853.
+*Willard Jones                       Nov. 17, 1839.            1844.
+                     Mrs. Miriam
+                       Jones         Nov. 17, 1839.   Winter,  1844.
+*A. H. Wright, M.D.                  July 25, 1840.  *Jan.  4, 1865.
+                     Mrs. Catharine A.
+                       Wright        June 14, 1843.   August,  1859.
+*Abel K. Hinsdale                    June,    1841.  *Dec. 26, 1842.
+                     *Mrs. Sarah C.
+                       Hinsdale
+                       [see Mission to
+                       Armenians]    June,    1841.   Oct. 21, 1844.
+*Colby C. Mitchell                   June,    1841.  *June 27, 1841.
+                     *Mrs. Eliza A.
+                       Mitchell      June,    1841.  *July 12, 1841.
+*James Lyman Merrick [See Mission to
+                       Mohammedans]  Dec.     1842.   Summer,  1845.
+                     *Mrs. Emma
+                       Merrick       Dec.     1842.   Summer,  1845.
+Thomas Laurie, D.D.  [See Mission to
+                       Syria]        Nov. 11, 1842.   Nov. 10, 1844.
+                     *Mrs. Martha F.
+                       Laurie        Nov. 11, 1842.  *Dec. 16, 1843.
+*David T. Stoddard                   June 14, 1843.  *Jan. 26, 1857.
+                     *Mrs. Harriet
+                       Stoddard      June 14, 1843.  *Aug.  2, 1848.
+                     Mrs. Sophia D.
+                       Stoddard      June 26, 1851.   July,    1858.
+*Joseph G. Cochran                  Sept. 27, 1847.  *Nov.  2, 1871.
+                     *Mrs. Deborah W.
+                       Cochran      Sept. 27, 1848.
+George W. Coan                       Oct. 13, 1849.
+                     Mrs. Sarah P.
+                       Coan          Oct. 13, 1849.
+*Samuel A. Rhea                      June 26, 1851. *Sept.  2, 1865.
+                     *Mrs. Martha Ann
+                       Rhea          July  1, 1852. *Sept. 16, 1857.
+                     Mrs. Sarah Jane
+                       Rhea          Oct. 25, 1860.   May,     1869.
+*Edwin H. Crane                      Oct. 20, 1852.  *Aug. 27, 1854.
+                     *Mrs. Ann E.
+                       Crane
+                       [afterwards Mrs. P. O.
+                       Powers]       Oct. 20, 1852.   Nov.     1857.
+*Thomas L. Ambrose                   Nov. 27, 1858.   August,  1861.
+John H. Shedd                        Nov. 11, 1859.
+                     Mrs. Sarah Jane
+                       Shedd         Nov. 11, 1859.
+*Amherst L. Thompson                 July  2, 1860.  *Aug. 25, 1860.
+                     *Mrs. Esther E.
+                       Thompson      July  2, 1860.   Summer,  1861.
+Benjamin Labaree                     Oct. 25, 1860.
+                     Mrs. Elizabeth E.
+                       Labaree       Oct. 25, 1860.
+Henry N. Cobb                        Oct. 25, 1860.   Autumn,  1862.
+                     Mrs. Matilda E.
+                       Cobb          Oct. 25, 1860.   Autumn,  1862.
+MISSIONARY PHYSICIANS.
+*Asahel Grant, M.D.                  Oct. 15, 1835. *April 24, 1844.
+                     *Mrs. Judith S.
+                       Grant         Oct. 15, 1835.  *Jan. 14, 1839.
+*F. N. H. Young, M.D.                Oct. 25, 1860.   Summer,  1863.
+T. L. Van Norden, M.D.               Oct.  6, 1866.
+                     Mrs. Mary M.
+                       Van Norden    Oct.  6, 1866.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES.
+*Edwin Breath                        Nov.  7, 1840.  *Nov. 18, 1861.
+                     Mrs. Sarah Ann
+                       Breath        Oct. 13, 1849.   Summer,  1862.
+                     *Miss Fidelia
+                       Fiske         June 14, 1843.   July 15, 1858.
+                     Miss Catharine A.
+                       Myers
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Wright]       June 14, 1843.   August,  1859.
+                     Miss Mary Susan
+                       Rice          Nov. 20, 1847.
+                     *Miss Martha Ann
+                       Harris
+                       [afterwards Mrs.
+                       Rhea]         July  1, 1852. *Sept. 16, 1857.
+                     Miss Aura Jeannette
+                       Beach         July  2, 1860.   Sept.,   1862.
+                     *Miss Harriet N.
+                       Crawford      July  2, 1860.   May,     1865.
+                     Miss Nancy Jane
+                       Dean          Oct. 19, 1868.
+
+MISSION TO THE BULGARIANS.
+
+  ORDAINED            WIVES OF           TIME OF        TIME OF
+MISSIONARIES.       MISSIONARIES.       ENTERING.       LEAVING.
+Charles F. Morse     [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Mar. 26, 1858.            1870.
+                     Mrs. Eliza D.
+                       Morse         Mar. 26, 1858.            1870.
+Theodore L. Byington                Sept.  4, 1858.            1867.
+                     Mrs. Margaret E.
+                       Byington     Sept.  4, 1858.            1867.
+*William W. Meriam                  April 22, 1859.  *July  3, 1862.
+                     *Mrs. Susan
+                       Meriam       April 22, 1859.  *July 25, 1862.
+James F. Clarke                      Oct.,    1859.
+                     Mrs. Isabella G.
+                       Clarke        Oct.,    1859.
+William F. Arms                      July,    1860.   June,    1862.
+                     *Mrs. Emily
+                       Arms          July,    1860.  *Mar. 31, 1861.
+Oliver Crane         [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]   Sept. 19, 1860.   Aug.,    1863.
+                     Mrs. Marion D.
+                       Crane        Sept. 19, 1860.   Aug.,    1863.
+Henry C. Haskell                     Dec. 13, 1862.
+                     Mrs. Margaret H.
+                       Haskell       Dec. 13, 1862.
+*Jasper N. Ball      [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]    Jan.,    1865.            1869.
+                     Mrs. Martha A.
+                       Ball          Jan.,    1865.            1869.
+Lewis Bond                           May  29, 1868.
+                     Mrs. Fannie G.
+                       Bond          May  29, 1868.
+Wm. Edwin Locke                      June,    1868.
+                     Mrs. Zoe A. M.
+                       Locke         June,    1868.
+Henry Pitt Page                      Nov. 26, 1868.
+                     Mrs. Mary A.
+                       Page          Nov. 26, 1868.
+Elias Riggs, D.D., LL.D. [See Mission to
+                       Armenians]             1871.
+                     Mrs. Martha J.
+                       Riggs                  1871.
+Henry A. Schauffler  [See Mission to
+                       Mohammedans]           1871.
+                     Mrs. Clara E.
+                       Schauffler             1871.
+ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES.
+                     *Miss Mary E.
+                       Reynolds      Jul.  8, 1863.            1869.
+                     *Miss Roseltha N.
+                       Norcross     April 27, 1867.  *Nov.  4, 1870.
+                     Miss Minnie C.
+                       Beach         Oct. 15, 1869.
+                     Miss Esther T.
+                       Maltbie       Nov. 11, 1870.
+                     Mrs. Anna V.
+                       Mumford                1871.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ADDENDA.
+
+
+The foregoing Tabular View of the Missionaries was made partly for
+the author's convenience on commencing the second volume, by the
+very accurate gentleman who prepared the List of Publications that
+follows. Such a statement is very difficult to make; and it may be,
+after all the subsequent corrections, that there are omissions and
+errors. Should they be seasonably pointed out, the corrections will
+be made in a subsequent edition.
+
+The following should have had a place, under the head of the
+_Mission to the Armenians_, namely:--
+
+Rev. William A. Spaulding, who sailed in November, 1871.
+Mrs. Georgia D. Spaulding.
+Rev. Joseph E. Scott, who sailed in February, 1872.
+Mrs. Annie E. Scott.
+
+_Assistant Missionaries_.
+
+Miss Laura Farnham, who sailed November, 1871.
+Miss Phebe L. Cull, who sailed November, 1871.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PUBLICATIONS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CATALOGUE OF PUBLICATIONS
+
+
+ISSUED FROM THE MISSION PRESSES CONNECTED
+WITH THE MISSIONS OF THE BOARD TO THE
+SEVERAL ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
+
+_Compiled by Rev. John A. Vinton, Winchester, Mass_.
+
+The sources of information were the "Missionary Herald" from 1821,
+and the Annual Reports of the Board from the beginning of these
+missions to the year 1871.
+
+IN ITALIAN.
+
+The Sabbath.
+Dr. Payson's Address to Mariners.
+Prayers for the Seven Days of the Week.
+Dr. Ashbel Green's Questions and Counsel.
+The Dairyman's Daughter, 78 pages, 1,000 copies.
+William Kelley, 32 pages, 500 copies.
+The Progress of Sin, 16 pages, 500 copies.
+Dialogue between a Traveller and Yourself, 12 pages, 500 copies.
+The Novelty of Popery.
+An Address to the Children of Israel, 25 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Christ's Sermon on the Mount, 16 pages, 1,000 copies.
+The Negro Servant, 28 pages, 1,000 copies.
+The Young Cottager, 72 pages, 1,000 copies.
+The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, 12 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Serious Thoughts on Eternity, 12 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Dialogue between Two Sailors, 18 pages, 1,000 copies.
+
+Previous to November, 1827, the number of books and tracts printed
+at the Mission Press in Italian, was 43; number of consecutive
+pages, 1,430; of copies, 55,500; whole number of pages, 1,700,000.
+
+IN MODERN GREEK.
+
+The Dairyman's Daughter, 119 pp.
+The Negro Servant, 32 pp.
+Payson's Address to Mariners, 22 pp.
+Short Prayers for Every Day in the Week, 70 pp.
+Tract on Redemption, by Dr. Naudi, 72 pp.
+Sixteen Short Sermons, 48 pp.
+Progress of Sin, 20 pp.
+Dialogue between a Traveller and Yourself, 14 pp.
+Life and Martyrdom of John the Baptist, 28 pp.
+Serious Thoughts on Eternity, 16 pp.
+The Young Cottager, 87 pp.
+The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, 73 pp.
+William Kelley, 45 pp.
+Watts's Catechism for Children, 16 pp.
+Address to the Children of Israel, 34 pp.
+Chrysostom on Reading the Scriptures, 26 pp.
+Content and Discontent, by Mrs. Sherwood, 24 pp.
+Serious Address to Young and Old, 27 pp.
+Life of James Covey, a converted Sailor, 16 pp.
+Life of the Virgin Mary, from the Bible only, 20 pp.
+An Appeal to the Heart, 34 pp.
+Exhortation to Seamen, 20 pp.
+Christ's Sermon on the Mount, 16 pp.
+
+The following were printed from 1830 to 1833:--
+
+Historical Selections from the Old Testament, 81 pp.
+Life of Abraham, 36 pp.
+Life of Joseph, 60 pp.
+Life of Moses, 36 pp.
+Life of Samuel, 24 pp.
+Life of David, 64 pp.
+Life of Elijah.
+Life of Elisha.
+Life of Daniel, 36 pp.
+Life of Esther, 20 pp.
+Abridgment of the Old Testament, 140 pp.
+Abridgment of the Gospels, 48 pp.
+Abridgment of the Acts, 60 pp.
+Lessons for Children.
+Bickersteth's Scripture Help, abridged.
+Lyttelton on the Conversion of St. Paul.
+The Ten Commandments.
+Ecclesiastical History.
+Dialogues on Grammar.
+The Alphabetarion, 120 pp.
+The Greek Reader, 156 pp.
+The Little Philosopher, 72 pp.
+The Child's Assistant, 60 pp.
+The Child's Arithmetic, 48 pp.
+Adams's Arithmetic.
+History of Greece.
+History of Rome.
+History of England.
+History of France.
+History of the Middle Ages.
+History of the Sandwich Islands.
+The Priest and Catechumen, a Dialogue, 12 pp.
+Peter Parley's Geography, with lithographed maps, 108 pp.
+Pinnock's Catechism of Greek History, with remarks, 150 pp.
+
+The amount printed in Modern Greek, while the press remained at
+Malta, was about 350,000 copies, mostly 12mo, comprising 21,000,000
+pages. Many of the editions were of 4,000 copies each. In the year
+ending October 1831, 4,760,000 pages were printed.
+
+After the removal of the press to Smyrna, in December, 1833, there
+were printed in Modern Greek,--
+
+Woodbridge's Geography, 296 pp.
+Scriptural Teacher, 116 pp.
+Questions on the Pentateuch, 88 pp.
+Several Hymns for the Mission Schools.
+Child's Book on the Soul.
+Tract on Self-Examination.
+Difficulties of Infidelity.
+The Magazine of Useful Knowledge--a monthly publication commenced in
+   1836 or 1837, and continued till 1843, when it was transferred to
+   Mr. Nicholas Petrokokino. It had, in 1839, 1,200 subscribers.
+
+About thirty million pages in Modern Greek had been printed by the
+mission between July 1822 and 1837.
+
+At Smyrna, in 1847 and 1848, were printed, Barth's Church History,
+   354 pages, 3,000 copies; 1,062,000 pages.
+At Constantinople, after the removal of the press, in 1853; Hymn
+   Book, 112 pages, 2,000 copies; 224,000 pages.
+In 1854, a tract of 20 pages, 2,000 copies; 40,000 pages.
+In 1860, tracts, 5,000 copies, 40,000 pages.
+In 1863, tracts, . . . . 6,000 pages.
+
+Printing in Modern Greek, at Athens, under the supervision of Dr.
+King:--
+
+Up to 1844, 32 books and tracts, 3,717 consecutive pages,
+   128,-215 pages in the whole.
+In 1845, 2,000 copies, 664,000 pages.
+In 1846, 3,000 copies, 190,500 pages.
+In 1853 to 1856, a collection of the publications of the American
+   Tract Society, vol. I.--V., making 2,500 consecutive pages of the
+   five volumes.
+In 1855, Chrysostom on Reading the Scriptures, 180 pages.
+Two volumes of Sermons, 48 in number, by Dr. King.
+A volume of Miscellanies, including his Farewell Letter to his
+   Friends in Palestine and Syria.
+
+IN GRECO-TURKISH (THE TURKISH LANGUAGE IN GREEK LETTERS).
+
+Christ's Sermon on the Mount, 16 pages, 450 copies.
+History of Moses, of Samuel, of Elijah, of Elisha, of Daniel, of
+   Esther; each a volume by itself; total, 524,000 pages.
+From 1840 to 1853, were printed 55,000 copies of the Scriptures.
+In 1854 and 1855, the Bible in 8vo, 7,000 copies, 2,456,000 pages.
+In 1864, 72 pages, 3,000 copies; in all, 216,000 pages.
+In 1867, the Tract Primer, 5,000 copies, 340,000 pages.
+In 1869, a Hymn Book, 264 pages, 2,000 copies; 528,000 pages.
+
+IN ANCIENT ARMENIAN.
+
+The New Testament, 836 pages, 2,000 copies. At Smyrna, 1838.
+The Four Gospels, printed separately, 1,000 copies.
+The Acts and Epistles, of the same edition, 1,500 copies, in 1843.
+The Psalter, 274 pages, total 548,000 pages; 3,000 copies printed in
+   1841; 2,000 copies in 1846.
+The New Testament, 2,000 copies, 1,464,000 pages; in 1853.
+The Christian Teacher, 136 pages, 500 copies; in 1838.
+Daily Food for Christians, 62 pages, 1,000 copies; in 1838.
+In 1869, printed 268 consecutive pages and 4,250 copies.
+
+IN MODERN ARMENIAN.
+
+Abercrombie on Mental Culture, 84 pages, 1,500 copies; 126,000
+   pages. Printed in 1844, at the expense of the author.
+Against Infidelity, 16 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Almanac for 1837, 3,000 copies.
+Almanac for 1839, 1,000 copies.
+An Arithmetic, 1866.
+An occasional paper, 4to, 20 pages, 500 copies.
+Answer of Evangelical Armenians to the Patriarch's Manifesto, 104
+   pages, 1,000 copies.
+Anxious Inquirer.
+Assembly's Shorter Catechism, with references, 104 pages, 2,000
+   copies.
+Astronomy, 104 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Avedaper (The), or Messenger, a religious periodical in Modern
+   Armenian, and in Armeno-Turkish. Published since January, 1855;
+   once in two weeks, with a circulation, in each language, of 1,000
+   copies.
+Balbaith's Confession, in the form of a letter from a converted Jew,
+   giving reasons for his profession of Christianity, 62 pages,
+   4,000 copies.
+Baptism and the New Birth, 112 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Baxter's Saints' Rest. 1854.
+Bible Dictionary. 1854.
+Bible Hand-book, 240 pages, 300 copies.
+British Martyrology. 1850.
+Child's Entertainer, 296 pages, 1,000 copies, containing Watts's
+   Divine and Moral Songs in Armenian verse, evangelical anecdotes,
+   some natural history, etc, 1838.
+Child's Instructor, 74 pages.
+Concordance to the Bible, 8vo, 504 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Dairyman's Daughter, 48 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Evidences of Christianity.
+False Claims of the Pope, 77 pages. It has been published in English
+   by the American Tract Society.
+Five Wounds (The) of Conscience, by Flavel, 1,500 copies.
+Forever! 4 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Friendly Letters to Sufferers by the late Fire, 16 pages, 500
+   copies.
+Good Works; a Tract on Justification, 48 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Grammar, English and Armenian; 112 pages, 500 copies. Another
+   edition of 272 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Guide to Parents, 61 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Guide to Repentance, 288 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Handbills, (four) each one page, containing, The Decalogue: A
+   Contrast between the Deaths of Haliburton and Voltaire; The
+   Christian Sabbath; The Death-bed of a Modern Free-thinker; 4,000
+   copies.
+History of the Church of God.
+History of Joseph, 326 pages, 3,000 copies.
+History of the Reformation, by Merle d'Aubigne. In 2 vols. 8vo, with
+   an Appendix of 50 pages, 1,000 copies, 1846. An enlarged edition
+   was printed in 1866.
+Holy Spirit, a Work on the, 1850.
+Hymns, 25 pages, 500 copies.
+Jones's (Rev. C. C.) Catechism, 203 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Joy in Heaven, 24 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Key to Reading, 8 pages, 1,500 copies.
+Lancasterian Cards, 80 to the set. 100 sets.
+Light of the Soul, 46 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Lives of the Patriarchs and Prophets, 300 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Lord's Supper, Treatise on the, 84 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Mary Lothrop, 96 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Messenger, The. See _Avedaper_.
+Mother at Home, 288 pages, 300 copies.
+Monthly Evangelical Preacher, commenced January, 1845, and suspended
+   at the close of the year, 284 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Monthly Magazine, four vols., for 1839-1842. The first year, 1,100
+   copies, each following year, 1,500. Relinquished for want of
+   funds. Resumed 1844, continued till 1846.
+New Testament, 646 pages, 5,000 copies in 1842 and 1843. A new
+   translation, carefully executed by four of the best scholars in
+   the Armenian nation, and compared by Dr. Adger, word by word,
+   with the original Greek.
+New Testament, with marginal references, and parallel passages.
+   Prepared by Dr. Adger and Dr. Riggs. 948 pages. 1848 and 1849.
+New Testament, in the Ararat or Eastern Dialect of the Modern
+   Armenian, with Scripture references, 8,000 copies.
+New Testament, in the Ararat or Eastern Dialect of the Modern
+   Armenian, with the Ancient Armenian, in parallel columns.
+Old Testament, in four volumes, 500 copies.
+Old Testament, imperial edition, 5,000 copies.
+Payson's Thoughts, 180 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Pentateuch, 684 pages, 1,500 copies.
+Progress of Sin, 24 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Pilgrim's Progress, with notes, 814 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Protestant Confessions, 265 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Psalter, in the Western Dialect of the Modern Armenian, 275 pages,
+   3,000 copies.
+Psalter, in the Ararat or Eastern Dialect of the Modern Armenian,
+   275 pages, 5,000 copies.
+Reply to Archbishop Matteos.
+Scripture Rule of Faith, 364 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Scripture Texts, 56 pages, 500 copies.
+Scripture Text Book, 622 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Sermon for the Whole World, 16 pages, 2,000 copies. It is the Sermon
+   on the Mount.
+Sin no Trifle, 16 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Spelling Book, 60 pages. At least four editions.
+Sunday-school Hymn Book, 8vo, 134 pages, 8,000 copies.
+Sunday-school Hymn and Tune Book, 8vo, 128 pages, 5,000 copies.
+The Two Lambs, 48 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Tract on Self-Examination, 52 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Upham's Intellectual Philosophy.
+Vivian's Three Dialogues, between a Minister and his Parishioner,
+   2,000 copies.
+What must I do? 20 pages, 2,000 copies.
+What is it to believe? 12 pages, 5,000 copies.
+Whateley's Evidences of Christianity, 192 pages, 2,000 copies.
+
+There were also many common school books.
+
+The sum total of printing in the Modern Armenian, in the year 1869,
+was 1,865 consecutive pages, and 25,920 copies.
+
+IN ARMENO-TURKISH.
+
+Printing in this language was commenced at Malta in 1828. In August,
+1829, the number of publications was nineteen. The printing of the
+Armeno-Turkish New Testament was begun January 8, 1830, and the last
+sheet was corrected before the close of January, 1831. A second
+edition of the same was printed at Smyrna in 1843, consisting of
+4,000 copies. The Old Testament was printed at Smyrna in 1841, 3,000
+copies. The Pentateuch was printed in a separate form, 2,000 copies.
+The Book of Psalms, in a separate form, was printed in 1844, 2,000
+copies.
+
+The following publications have also been issued:--
+
+Abbot's Young Christian, 350 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Arithmetic, 66 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Avedaper (Messenger), a monthly magazine. See _Avedaper_ in the
+   preceding list.
+Barth's Church History, 408 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Bogue's Essay, 444 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Capadose, Dr., Memoir of, 52 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Catechism on Christ, 82 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Chrysostom on Reading the Scriptures, 106 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Commentary on Matthew, 1,000 copies.
+Essay on Fasts, etc., 220 pages, 1,000 copies.
+False Claims of the Pope, 112 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Forever! 11 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Gallaudet's Child's Book on the Soul, 156 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Gallaudet's Natural Theology, 233 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Good Works, A tract on, 44 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Grammar, 213 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Guide to the Use of the Fathers, 318 pages, 2,000 copies.
+History of a Bible, 34 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Hymn Book.
+Intemperance, Tract on, 46 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Jones's (Rev. C. C.) Catechism, 305 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Light of the Soul, 48 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Mary Lothrop, 172 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Narrative Tracts, in one vol., 152 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Neff's (Felix) Dialogues on Sin and Salvation, 140 pages, 1,000
+   copies.
+New Testament, with marginal references.
+Old Testament, with marginal references, royal 8vo.
+
+From 1840 to 1863, 6,500 copies of the Scriptures were printed,--
+
+Physiology, Treatise on, 272 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Pike's Persuasives to Early Piety, 70 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Reader, No. 1, 63 pages, sixth edit., 5,000 copies. 1867.
+Reader, No. 2, 72 pages, 5,000 copies. 1869.
+Reader, No. 3, 84 pages, 5,000 copies. 1869.
+Sabbath, A work on the, 116 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Scripture Titles of Christ, 104 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Serious Inquiry, 20 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Sermon for the Whole World, 28 pages, 2,000 copies. It is the Sermon
+   on the Mount.
+Sermons, fourteen in one vol., 316 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Spelling Book, 64 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Theological Class Book.
+The Ten Commandments, a handbill, 2,000 copies.
+Without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord, 11 pages, 1,000 copies.
+
+In Armeno-Turkish there were printed in 1869, 398 consecutive pages
+and 16,000 copies.
+
+IN ARABO-TURKISH (SOMETIMES CALLED THE OSMANLI-TURKISH. TURKISH IN
+THE ARABIC CHARACTER).
+
+Under the direction of Dr. Schauffler, an edition of the New
+   Testament, of very beautiful typography, was issued in 1862.
+   Also, Matt. v. in separate form.
+A Commentary on Matthew and Mark, 400 pages, 1,000 copies. 1864.
+The Decalogue, one page, 1,000 copies. 1867.
+The Beatitudes, one page, 1,000 copies. 1867.
+Selected Texts, one page, 1,000 copies. 1867.
+Selected Texts, one page, 1,000 copies. 1867.
+On Belief and Worship: an Explanation of the Christian Religion as
+   understood and professed by Protestants, 128 pages, 3,000 copies.
+The Primer, 64 pages, 5,000 copies. 1869.
+Notes on the Decalogue, 80 pages, 3,000 copies.
+Teachings of the New Testament, concerning the Judgment, 16 pages,
+   5,000 copies.
+Firman of the Porte in relation to the Protestant community, 300
+   copies.
+
+In this dialect, in 1869, were printed 161 consecutive pages, 13,300
+copies--total, 531,300 pages.
+
+In the Koordish Dialect, previous to 1863, 13,000 copies of the
+Scriptures had issued from the mission press.
+
+IN BULGARIAN.
+
+In the year 1844, a small volume in this language was issued at
+   Smyrna. It was Part I. of Gallaudet's Child's Book on the Soul,
+   61 pages, 2,000 copies.
+In 1851 and 1852, several Tracts were printed, in all 8,000 copies.
+In 1853, the Book of Psalms.
+In 1860, 59,000 copies, in part of the New Testament, and in part of
+   other books and tracts, making 3,332,000 pages.
+In 1861, the New Testament, Biblical Catechism, Child's Book on the
+   Soul, etc., 1,195 consecutive pages, and 60,000 copies.
+In 1863, 1,896,000 pages. Up to this time, 4,000 copies of the New
+   Testament.
+In 1864, 303 copies of tracts, etc., 39,000 consecutive pages.
+The issue of the Old Testament, following the New, commenced 1866.
+The Zornitza, or Day Star, a small monthly sheet, was commenced
+   about 1866, having 750 subscribers.
+
+After this time, the printing was as follows:--
+
+                                                          TOTAL
+                                      PAGES.  COPIES.    COPIES.
+The Bible, commenced, imperial, 8vo     624    5,000   3,120,000
+The Pentateuch                          352    1,000     352,000
+Book of Genesis                         167    1,000     167,000
+Book of Proverbs                         91    2,000     182,000
+Hymn and Tune Book, finished             44    3,000     132,000
+Dr. Goodell's Sermons                   522    3,000   1,566,000
+Sermon on the Sabbath                    12    2,000      24,000
+Commentary on Matthew                   240    3,000     720,000
+Spiritual Worship                       156    2,000     312,000
+The Bible and Tradition                  35    3,000     105,000
+Protestants the Ancient Orthodox         43    3,000     129,000
+Baptism                                  28    3,000      84,000
+The Lord's Supper                        34    3,000     102,000
+The Pope and the Roman Catholic Church   74    3,000     220,000
+Answer to Infidel Objections             36    3,000     108,000
+Bruch on Prayer                          48    3,000     144,000
+The Way of Salvation                      8    3,000      24,000
+Poor Joseph                               8    3,000      24,000
+The Two Lambs                            18    3,000      54,000
+On Fasting, third edition                16    3,000      48,000
+The One Thing Needful, second edition     7    3,000      21,000
+The Enlightened Priest, second edition   22    3,000      66,000
+Index to Sermons                          4    3,000      12,000
+The Heavenly Voice, and What it is to
+   believe in Christ                     16    3,000      48,000
+Confession of Faith                       8    1,000       8,000
+Zornitza, "The Day Star," 12 Nos. 4to    96    2,000     192,000
+                                     ------- -------- -----------
+                                      2,709   70,000   7,964,000
+
+In the Bulgarian, in 1869, were printed 519 consecutive pages, and
+19,000 copies.
+
+IN HEBREW AND HEBREW-SPANISH.
+
+The Psalms, 3,000 copies, 1836. An edition in 1853, 5,000 copies.
+The Pentateuch, 500 copies. Second edition of 2,000 copies.
+The Old Testament, printed at Vienna, 3,000 copies.
+The same, second edition, 5,000 copies, printed at Smyrna.
+Oppenheim's Hebrew Grammar, at Smyrna, 2,000 copies. It was designed
+   to lead the Jews from a fanciful to a grammatical construction of
+   the Hebrew Oracles.
+A Hebrew Vocabulary.
+A Hebrew-Spanish Primer, of 20 pages.
+A Hebrew-Spanish Lexicon, in part; extending to 187 consecutive
+   pages; number of copies 8,000. So far in 1851. It appears to have
+   been since completed.
+In 1855, just before the close of the Jewish mission, 319 pages of
+   Hebrew-Spanish literature were printed in Constantinople, 5,000
+   copies.
+Between 1840 and 1860, 23,000 copies of the Hebrew-Spanish
+   Scriptures, under the supervision of missionaries of the American
+   Board.
+
+IN ARABIC.
+
+Previous to the arrival of the Mission Press at Beirut, the
+following tracts had been issued from it at Malta:--
+
+Farewell Letter of Rev. Jonas King to his friends in Syria, in 1825.
+Asaad Shidiak's Statement of his Conversion, and of his
+   Persecutions.
+Mr. Bird's Reply to the Maronite Bishop of Beirut, 535 pages.
+
+In 1836, amounting to 380,800 pages, as follows:--
+
+Spelling Cards, 8 pages, 500 copies.
+Watts's Catechism for small children, 16 pages, 1,000 copies.
+A Lithographic Copy-book, 200 copies.
+Elements of Arabic Grammar, 168 pages, 1,000 copies.
+Hymn Book, 24 pages, 200 copies.
+Alphabet, lithographed, 200 copies.
+The Dairyman's Daughter, 96 pages, 2,000 copies.
+
+Since 1836, the issues of the press were as follows:--
+
+Extracts from Chrysostom, 166 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Extracts from Thomas a Kempis, 60 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Smith's Arithmetic, 84 pages, 1,200 copies.
+Proverbs of Solomon, 4,000 copies.
+On Self-Examination, 40 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Sermon on the Mount, 12 pages, 6,000 copies.
+Tract on the Cholera, 12 pages, 4,000 copies.
+Child's Book on the Soul. Part I., 104 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Epistle to the Ephesians, 24 pages, 3,000 copies.
+The Psalms of David, 276 pages, 5,000 copies.
+Confession of Faith, 60 pages, 400 copies,
+On Temperance, by Mrs. Whiting, 96 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Child's Book on the Soul. Part II., 116 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Little Henry and his Bearer, 84 pages, 2,000 copies.
+The Acts of the Apostles, 150 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Arabic Syntax, 74 pages, 2,000 copies.
+The Passion of Christ, as in Matt. xxvii., 16 pages, 6,000 copies.
+Thomas a Kempis, revised, 343 pages, 2,000 copies.
+The First Sixteen Psalms, for Schools, 23 pages, 1,000 copies.
+The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, 256 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Spelling Book, 63 pages, 2,000 copies.
+The Westminster's Assembly's Catechism, 43 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Good Works, their place, 87 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Nevins's Thoughts on Popery, 156 pages, 2,000 copies.
+Watts's Catechism for Children, 2,000 copies.
+The Assembly's Shorter Catechism, with proofs, 1,500 copies.
+
+In 1842, the Arabic printing at Beirut amounted to 1,708,000 pages.
+In 1843, to 13,000 copies, and 1,282,000 pages. Number of pages from
+the beginning, 6,077,000.
+
+After the year 1845, the printing proceeded from year to year, and
+the number of copies and pages was reported as formerly; but the
+titles do not occur in the printed Reports, except as follows:--
+
+The Spelling Book, from Bible; 59 pages, 1,500 copies.
+Letter to the Syrian Clergy, 20 pages, 1,200 copies.
+The Book of Genesis, 136 pages, 1,200 copies.
+Union Question Book, Vol. I., 1,500 copies.
+An Arithmetic, by Butrus el Bistany.
+Mrs. Whiting on Temperance, second edition.
+Mr. Johnston's tract on Good Works, their Place, second edition.
+Mr. Bird's Reply to the Maronite Bishop, second edition.
+Mr. Calhoun's Companion to the Bible.
+Dr. Van Dyck's Geography.
+Dr. Alexander's Evidences of Christianity.
+Dr. Van Dyck's Algebra.
+Dr. Van Dyck's Sermon on the Second Commandment.
+A small Arabic Grammar.
+Dr. Meshakah on Skepticism.
+Dr. Schneider on Rites and Ceremonies.
+A new edition of the Psalms of David.
+
+The New Testament, in the version made by Dr. Eli Smith, assisted by
+Butrus el Bistany, and revised by Dr. Van Dyck, with references, and
+also a Pocket Edition of the same, without references, of 5,000
+copies, was issued from the press in March 1860.
+
+The printing of the WHOLE BIBLE IN ARABIC was finished in March
+1865. Upon this great work Drs. Smith and Van Dyck had labored with
+zeal and energy sixteen years, from 1838. Of this translation, ten
+different editions, of the whole, or of parts, had been printed in
+1865, comprising over 40,000 copies.
+
+Two hundred copies of the first three chapters of the Gospel by John
+were printed in raised letters, for the use of the blind.
+
+Printed in 1866: volumes of all kinds, 28,434. Copies of Tracts,
+23,000. Copies of Scripture, 14,554. Pages of Tracts, 888,000. Pages
+of Scripture, 2,872,000.
+
+Printed in 1867:--
+
+Edwards's History of Redemption.
+Bickersteth's Scripture Hand-book.
+A large Psalm and Hymn Book.
+A Psalter, versified.
+A Children's Hymn Book.
+A Monthly Missionary Arabic Journal.
+Mr. Bistany's Elements of Grammar.
+Two editions of his Arabic Lexicon.
+
+In 1867, were printed 16,800 volumes of all kinds, and 20,700
+Tracts.
+
+In 1868, 726,000 pages of Scripture, and 1,300,000 of other works.
+
+In 1869, 5,147,000 pages of all kinds.
+
+The reports for subsequent years are defective.
+
+MODERN SYRIAC. (THE LANGUAGE OF THE NESTORIAN PEOPLE.)
+
+The printing, in the year 1843, was 860 volumes, 6,940 tracts, and
+611,580 pages.
+
+In 1844, the Four Gospels, and the Dairyman's Daughter, were
+   printed. Whole amount, 437,800 pages.
+The New Testament, with the ancient and modern Syriac in parallel
+   columns, was printed in 1846. In that year, 2,500 books and
+   tracts, and 1,114,000 pages, were printed; of which about
+   1,000,000 pages were quarto. Among the books was a new and
+   enlarged edition of the Nestorian Hymn Book, a Spelling Book, and
+   a Question Book.
+The Pilgrim's Progress was commenced in 1847.
+A monthly paper, entitled "The Rays of Light," was begun in 1848,
+   and has continued till the present time.
+In 1853 and 1854, an edition of the New Testament entire, was
+   printed; also a Hymn Book, and a volume entitled Scripture Facts.
+In 1855, Green Pastures for the Lord's Flocks, 392 pages.
+In 1856, Barth's Church History, and a Scripture Geography.
+
+Whole number of volumes printed this year, 3,000; 880,000 pages.
+
+In 1857, 934,000 pages, of which 768,000 were of Scripture, in large
+   quarto.
+
+During the eighteen years following the arrival of the press, from
+1840 to 1858, 68,000 volumes were printed, comprising 13,493,020
+pages.
+
+In 1860, the New Testament, with references, had been printed.
+The Old Testament is spoken of as having been previously printed in
+   that form.
+A Christian Almanac was issued in 1862.
+The Word of God was largely printed from year to year.
+In 1866, Rays of Light, a monthly paper, 8vo, 384 pages, 400 copies.
+   Wayland's Moral Science.
+
+Volumes printed in 1866, 1,250. Tracts, including the monthly paper,
+5,500. Pages of Scripture, and other works, 381,300.
+
+Whole number of volumes from the beginning, 91,350. Number of pages,
+18,052,050.
+
+In 1867, Dr. Perkins's Commentary on Genesis; also a Christian
+   Almanac.
+In 1869, Rays of Light, monthly, 104 pages, 400 copies.
+   Night of Toil, 221 pages, 500 copies.
+   Signet Ring, 65 pages, 200 copies.
+   Revival Hymns, 32 pages, 200 copies.
+   Dialogue on the Papacy, 12 pages, 200 copies.
+   Almanac, 44 pages, 200 copies.
+   Dr. Perkins's Commentary on Daniel, 154 pages, 500 copies.
+
+Printed in 1869, 632 consecutive pages, 2,200 copies.
+
+Total pages from the beginning, November 1840, to the close of 1869,
+19,529,150.
+
+
+
+INDEX. [not included]
+
+
+
+END OF VOLUME II.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of The Missions Of The
+American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II., by Rufus Anderson
+
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