History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume II Part 26

There is no more satisfactory way of ill.u.s.trating 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 pa.s.sed along, the precious teachings of our Lord, and closed with prayer. All listened attentively, and p.r.o.nounced 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 pa.s.sing 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 Humaoun 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 pa.s.sed by a Turkish village, without stopping to point them to the Lamb of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. What impressed us most strongly is the bold manner in which orthodox Turks have declared it to be the Word of G.o.d, 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 a.s.sume 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 G.o.d to forgive sin. 'We have lost G.o.d;' 'We have lost the road;' 'We cannot find G.o.d;' 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 G.o.d'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 wors.h.i.+p neither pictures, nor crosses, nor saints); we a.s.semble 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 ill.u.s.trations 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 cla.s.ses 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 ma.s.ses are by no means hopeless, and the middle cla.s.s 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 a.s.surance of success.