History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume II Part 10

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 wors.h.i.+p, 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, pa.s.ses 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 x.x.xII.

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 pa.s.sed 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 s.h.i.+elded 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 a.s.sailants. Mr. Meriam sprang out to protect his wife and child, and immediately fell, pierced by two b.a.l.l.s. 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 const.i.tution, but the strain had been too much for her. A premature confinement followed, and fever, which a.s.sumed 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 a.s.sa.s.sins 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 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. G.o.ddard 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 a.s.sa.s.sins, 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 cooperated.

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 a.s.sa.s.sinated, 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 cla.s.ses 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 a.s.sa.s.sins 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 ma.s.sacres 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 a.s.sisted 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 a.s.sent 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 cla.s.ses 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 Amba.s.sador.

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 a.s.sured 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 G.o.d, 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 a.s.sociate 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 a.s.sembled, 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 wis.h.i.+ng 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 G.o.d."

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 rea.s.sembled with difficulty. The oldest a.s.sistant 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 gla.s.s 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 ma.s.ses were wholly opposed to it. Three men, as a means of a.s.serting 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, Ma.s.sachusetts, 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 a.s.sociated 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 pa.s.sed 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 fellows.h.i.+p. 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 wors.h.i.+p. 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, pa.s.sing 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-members.h.i.+p 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 G.o.d 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.