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.'"