History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume II Part 22

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 wors.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sembling 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 princ.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sing 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 a.s.sociate. He commanded the respect of foreign amba.s.sadors 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 a.s.sociate, 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 Sat.u.r.day. 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 a.s.sist the preacher in keeping up the services of the two congregations; thus proving their ability to care for themselves under very unfavorable circ.u.mstances.

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 a.s.signed 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-members.h.i.+p, 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 wors.h.i.+p, 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 t.i.thes 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 pa.s.sed 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 suns.h.i.+ne of Egypt, so much nakedness, total or partial. Adults of course had the semblance of clothing, though it was often a ma.s.s of rags, sewed or tied together; but the poor children! It makes my heart ache to think of them. Some had a tolerably whole s.h.i.+rt and drawers, some had no drawers, and what was once a s.h.i.+rt 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 dest.i.tute. 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 dest.i.tution 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 a.s.sociates.[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 G.o.d 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 a.s.signed 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 doc.u.ments, 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 doc.u.ments, 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 n.o.body 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 pa.s.sed 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 s.p.a.ce 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 a.s.sembly'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 inst.i.tutions. 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 pa.s.sed 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 cla.s.ses 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 t.i.the of their income to benevolent objects.

"In the beginning, we wors.h.i.+pped 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."