OPENINGS 
 
 rOE THE 
 
 GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO BRITISH CHRISTIANS. 
 
 BY 
 
 CUTHBEET G. YOUNG. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES NISBET AND CO., BERNERS STREET. 
 
 MDCCCLIV. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Chapter I. — The Eastern Churches 8 
 
 „ II. — Christian Missions in Turkey ... 8 
 
 III. — The Field at Constantinople 15 
 
 „ IV. — The Gospel in Armenia and Asia Minor 21 
 
 V. — Greeks desiring to see Jesus 30 
 
OPENINGS 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE GOSPEL IN TUKKEY. 
 
 CHAPTEE 1. 
 
 THE EASTERN CHURCHES, 
 
 Object of this pamphlet — Number and location of the Christian sects in Turkey— The 
 G-reeks — ^Armenians— their origin, dispersion, national and social characteristics — 
 Jacobites— Nestorians — Maronites — Distinctive tenets and superstitions of the Ar- 
 menian, Greek, and Latin Churches. 
 
 § 1. — The subject of this address was first brought before 
 the writer's notice seven years ago, while on a tour along the 
 shores of the Levant. Having visited Turkey a second time, 
 and resided for six months among the American missionaries 
 at Beyrout, Smyrna, and Constantinople, he had many oppor- 
 tunities, from conversation with them, and attendance at their 
 protracted annual meetings, as well as from personal observa- 
 tion, of becoming more correctly acquainted with the nature 
 of the evangelical movement among the Armenians and Greeks 
 in Turkey. . 
 
 The work, which has been progressing during the last 
 twenty years, in the face of violent persecutions, is so mani- 
 festly of God, the harvest is so great, and the labourers are so 
 few, that information alone appears necessary to awaken a 
 general and heartfelt sympathy on behalf of this promising 
 field of missionary enterprise. 
 
4 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE. GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 It has been suggested that a brief statement of the openings 
 for the Gospel in Turkey may be welcome at the present 
 time ; and that while Britain is sending her physical forces 
 to strengthen her Mohammedan ally, British Christians may be 
 roused to strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of 
 those good soldiers of Jesus Christ, who are valiant for the 
 truth in that benighted empire. 
 
 Not only are there many millions of Mohammedans in 
 Turkey,* but also of nominal Christians, members of the 
 Eastern Churches, who, while professing the name of Jesus, 
 are involved in deep spiritual darkness and superstition. 
 But, compared to the Turks, they stand on vantage ground, 
 being accessible to the circulation of the Hol^ Scriptures, and 
 the preaching of the true Gospel, in a very great degree. . 
 
 § 2. — Among these old Christian communities, the first in 
 point of numbers as well as influence is the Greek Church, 
 which has in. European Turkey no less than 11,000,000 
 within its pale, though differing widely in language aud 
 national characteristics. Turkish Moldavia and Wallachia 
 (the principalities at present occupied by Eussia,) are said 
 to have a population of nearly four millions. Bulgaria also 
 has four millions. Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Turkish 
 Croatia, and Montenegro, have perhaps a million and a half 
 among them. Only 1,500,000 probably are Greeks in 
 descent and language, as well as in religion ; and of these, 
 there are believed to be as many as 200,000 in Constanti- 
 nople and the villages of the Bosphorus. 
 
 In Turkey in Asia there are 2,000,000 who are Greeks 
 in language, as well as religion, chiefly located around the 
 coasts of Asia Minor, and in the islands. 
 
 Next in importance to the Greek Church is that of the 
 
 * In European Turkey there are said to be tliree millions and a half of Mohamme- 
 dans to eleven millions and a half of Christians : in Asiatic Turkey eight millions and 
 a half of Mohammedans to four millions and a half of Christians ; so that the latter form 
 the decided njiyority in the whole empire. 
 
THE EASTERN CHUKCHES. 
 
 5 
 
 Armenians, who are scattered throughout Armenia, (their ori- 
 ginal seat), Asia Minor, Syria, and Assyria, to the number 
 of 1,750,000. Beside their own tongae, they are conver- 
 sant with the Turkish, the only language used in wide dis- 
 tricts of country by both Armenians and Greeks. 
 
 The sum total of the Armenians is said to be three millions, 
 inclusive of those in Persia and Georgia. Their original seat 
 was the kingdom of Armenia, of which Mount Ararat was the 
 centre. The greater Armenia comprised the territory west 
 of the Caspian Sea, south of Mount Caucasus, to the Meso- 
 potamian desert. The lesser Armenia embraced the eastern 
 provinces of Asia Minor, especially Pontus, Cappadocia, and 
 Cilicia. 
 
 With few and short intervals, Armenia appears to have 
 been subject to the neighbouring principalities of Assyria, 
 Media, Syria, and Cappadocia, as its people are now under 
 the sway of Persians, Russians, Turks, and -Kurds. Being 
 a border land, its inhabitants have always suffered severely 
 in time of war, and for many centuries have been deprived, 
 like the Poles, of their independence, and most of them dis- 
 persed through the neighbouring lands. 
 
 But the type of nationality appears in their physiognomy, 
 , their manners, their mental and moral traits, almost as marked 
 as in the Jewish race, just enough to suggest an Israelitish 
 origin. Dr. Pri chard, on the authority of Neumann, says, 
 that " their early traditions connect them with the history 
 of the Medes and Persians. They are a branch of the 
 same stock as the people of Iran, though separated at an early 
 period, and forming a peculiar people." There are Armenians 
 as far east and south as Cabul and India ; but those among 
 whom the Gospel has made so many converts are the Arme-. 
 nians in Turkey. In European Turkey there are not more, 
 probably, than 100,000; and of this number 70,000 reside 
 in Constantinople. Like the Jews, they are generally either 
 
6 
 
 OPENINGS FOE THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 very rich or very poor. The Armenians are the prin- 
 cipal bankers, money-changers, tax-gatherers, merchants, 
 and clerks of the Turkish empire; and bear the character 
 of being gross usurers. But the large proportion are found 
 in the towns and villages of Asiatic Turkey, as agricultural 
 laboLirefs, small traders, and artisans. Many hawk goods, 
 which they carry in their packs, through a great extent of 
 country in the interior. 
 
 It seems to have been the arrangement of Divine Provi- 
 dence that the Armenians should be a very scattered and 
 migratory race ; which would fit them, when evangelized, to 
 be excellent pioneers of the pure Gospel, among the popula- 
 tions with whom they are interspersed. 
 
 In addition to the Greeks and Armenians, there are 200,000 
 Jacobites, M^ho are found chiefly in the country watered by 
 the Tigris and Euphrates, and in Syria. 200,000 Nestorians, 
 who are scattered in the regions about Mosul, but chiefly 
 in the mountains of Kurdistan, and along the Persian frontier, 
 
 and 250,000 Maronites, on Mount Lebanon, who, though 
 
 acknowledging the Pope of Eome, are so far independent 
 that they have a patriarch of their own, do not recognise 
 the celibacy of priests, and use both bread and wine at the 
 communion, 
 
 § 3. — These then are the nominal Christians, known 
 under the name of the Eastern Churches. Let us briefly 
 notice the points of difference between them, commencing 
 with those mentioned last. 
 
 The distinctive dogma of the Maronites is, that our Lord 
 had but one will, and hence they are called monothelites. 
 
 The Armenians and Jacobites, as well as the Copts of 
 Egypt, and the Abyssinians, maintain as firmly the mono- 
 physite doctrine — denying the distinction between the divine 
 and human natures of the Eedeemer ; while the Nestorians 
 have fallen into the opposite extreme of maintaining a dis- 
 
THE EASTEEN CHURCHES. 
 
 7 
 
 tinction of persons in our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as of 
 natures. 
 
 The Greek amd Arrrienian Churches agree in maintain- 
 ing that " the Holy Ghost proceeds, not from the Father 
 and the Son, (the doctrine of the Eoman Catholic and of 
 most Protestant churches) but from the Father only." They 
 also differ professedly from Eome in denouncing image wor- 
 ship ; but it is surely much the same thing, whether a saint 
 is represented by a painted, a carved, or a molten image. 
 The Greek and Armenian churches are crowded with pictures, 
 . especially pictures of the Virgin ; and as the devotees, by 
 continually kissing the canvas, effaced the colours, smaller 
 pictures of the same saints are suspended below. The saints 
 thus represented are so numerous that their festival days 
 occasion a serious interruption to business, and, with the fast 
 days, fill up half the year. These fasts are rigorous : but 
 abstinence from meats admits of excess in other diet, and of 
 the utmost licence on festival days* 
 
 In some respects the Armenian Church has more of gro- 
 velling superstition than the Greek ; for instance, the adora- 
 tion of relics, and of the true wood of the cross! In the Church 
 Book, which contains the forms of daily prayer, the following 
 words occur : — " Through the supplications of the holy cross, 
 the silent intercessor, 0 merciful Lord ! have compassion on 
 the spirits of our dead." And the following is an article of 
 the creed, drawn up by the Patriarch Matteos, only seven 
 years ago : — " That the holy wooden cross, anointed pictures, 
 and relics of saints, are to be adored : and that God always 
 works miracles by means of them." The doctrine of tran- 
 substantiation, which was not introduced into the Greek 
 Church until within these two centuries, seems to have been 
 held in the Armenian Church from the beginning ; and never 
 more strongly than now. In this, as well as in auricular 
 confession, absolution, and purgatory, it approximates more 
 closely to the Church of Eome. 
 
8 
 
 OPENINGS FOE THE GOSPEL IN TUEKEY. 
 
 In all the Eastern Churclies more is practically made of 
 minute ceremonial differences (as the mode of signing the 
 cross, and the use of leavened bread at the communion,) than 
 of the dogmas which were the original cause of their seces- 
 sion from the so-called Catholic Church. In all, there are 
 the same inadequate ideas of danger and of duty : the same 
 faith in the merit of fasts, penances, prayers, and good works ; 
 the same belief in the mystical virtues of holy anointings 
 and baptisms, pictures and relics, as well as in tran substan- 
 tiation, priestly absolution, and prayers for the dead : and the 
 same virtual exclusion of Jesus as the one Mediator. 
 
 The morality of the people, as well as that of the priests, is 
 at a very low ebb ; lying, cheating, drunkenness, gambling, 
 swearing, and perjury, being only too common ; so that 
 neither Mohammedans nor Jews are likely to be favourably 
 impressed with the Christianity exemplified by them. • 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN TUEKEY. 
 
 Providential openings — ^Decay of Islamism — Missions to Jews — and to the Eastern 
 Churches in Egypt, Palestine, Syiia, Assyria, and Kurdistan — Origin and progress of 
 the mission to the Aimenians. 
 
 § 1. — The present is pre-eminently the missionary age 
 of the Church. The remarkable openings for the circulation 
 of the Holy Scriptures, and for the preaching of the Gospel, 
 seem to be at once a fruit and reward of the missionary spirit, 
 and an indication that many ancient prophecies may shortly be 
 fulfilled. The events of the last few years distinctly teach us 
 not to argue from the experience of the past, but to believe 
 that " one day is with the Lord as a thousand years," as truly 
 as that " a thousand years are as one day." The unexpected 
 
I 
 
 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN TURKEY. 9 
 
 revolution in China, by whicli one of the most exclnsive and 
 idolatrous of nations, as well as the most considerable in 
 point of numbers, has been thrown open, in so remarkable a 
 way, to the influences of true civilization and Christianity, 
 is one instance of this, but by no means the only one. Yet 
 more striking in some respects, though less appreciated, are 
 the changes which have been brought about in Turkey during 
 the last twenty years. 
 
 Since the accession of the present Sultan, rapid strides 
 have been made in innovations on the stereotyped usages 
 of Islamism. Within ten years it was the law of Turkey 
 that no. one could change his religion unless for that of Islam, 
 and that, should a Christian, after avowing Islamism, re- 
 nounce it again, he should suffer death. But now that so 
 many palpable violations of the Koran have been made, its 
 bloody enactment of capital punishment, as the doom of apos- 
 tate Mussulmen, may also, ere long, be set aside. 
 
 Intelligent Moslems seem generally aware of the decay and 
 approaching dissolution of their religious system, so likely to 
 ,be accelerated by the general infusion of the Christian 
 element into their institutions ; which, in European Turkey 
 at least, seems now inevitable. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the spectacle of a living 
 evangelical Christianity is the means most likely to impress 
 the Moslem and dispose him to a change ; for the rise, the spread, 
 and the duration of Islamism are clearly traceable to the 
 degrading superstitions, the virtual idolatries, and the spiri- 
 tual deadness of the Eastern Churches. As regards the 
 prospects of Christianity spreading among the Mohammedans 
 in Turkey, little can be hoped for under present circum- 
 stances ; but there are some inquiring minds who read and 
 prize the word of God ; and the Turks generally begin to 
 distinguish between an empty profession of the Christian name, 
 and the reality of Christian life. 
 
10 
 
 OPENINGS FOB THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 § 2. — The existing missions in Turkey are those which 
 have especial reference to the Jews, and to the members of 
 the Eastern Churches. For many years the agents of British 
 and American societies have laboured with various success 
 among the Jetvs in Constantinople, Salonica, Smyrna, and Bag- 
 dad ; as well as in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. 
 
 For twenty years past the agents of the Church Missionary 
 Society have laboured among the Copts of Egypt and the 
 Abyssinians. In Palestine* a mission (on which the Lord's 
 blessing appears to rest) was commenced two years ago by 
 the same society among the Arabs of the Greek rite ; the 
 most promising stations being Nazareth and Nablous. " 
 
 In Syria the missionaries of the American Board have 
 been labouring for the last quarter of a century amidst great 
 discouragement ; but now, at Beyrout and Sidon, in Lebanon 
 and Hermon the seed seems at length to be striking root, 
 and promises to yield ere long a precious harvest. 
 
 A very successful mission has also been carried on by the 
 agents of the American Board, for more than twenty years, 
 among the Nestorians, in the mountains of Kurdistan, and in 
 the valley of Ooroomiah. 
 
 The Assyrian mission of the Board occupies at present only 
 Diarbekr on the Tigris, and Mosul (Nineveh). In the for- 
 mer town, especially, there is a spirit of earnest inquiry, and 
 the reformation is spreading among both Jacobites and Ar- 
 menians. 
 
 But it is not so much to the reformation in the lEastern 
 Churches as a whole, as specially to the remarkable openings 
 for the Grospel among the Armenians and Greeks in Turkey^ 
 that the reader's earnest attention is invited. 
 
 The missionaries of the American Board are the only evan- 
 gelical labourers in the extensive Aimenian field ; and, with 
 
 * As long ago as a.u. 1819, the American Board had a mission tliere ; but its agents 
 were ultimately withdrawn to Syria, 
 
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN TURKEY. 
 
 11 
 
 the single exception of Mr. Wolters of Smyrna, (in connexion 
 with the Chnrch Missionary Society) the only labourers among 
 the Greeks north of Syria. 
 
 § 3. — The evangelical movement in the Armenian Church 
 commenced, about thirty years ago, in the ' conversion of 
 three ecclesiastics at Beyroot, two of whom were bishops. 
 It appears that, by their letters to Constantinople and vari- 
 ous parts of Turkey, they contributed much towards preparing 
 the minds of their fellow-countrymen for the reformation. 
 In the year 1825, the American missionary, Mr. King, who 
 has since been so much persecuted in Greece, wrote a, fare- 
 well letter to the Eoman Catholics, on the occasion of his 
 leaving Syria, stating the reasons why he could not be a 
 Eomanist. The letter was translated into the Armenian 
 language, and a copy came into the hands of an Armenian of 
 distinction at Constantinople. There it produced an extra- 
 ordinary effect, being considered of so much importance that 
 it was read at a large meeting of the clergy in the Patriarchal 
 church ; and, on the Scripture references in it being examined, 
 it was agreed, as if by common consent, that the Armeniaii 
 Church needed reform. The way had been prepared by the 
 circulation of the holy Scriptures, during the preceding ten 
 years, in the ancient Armenian character, which was exten- 
 sively read by the priests and educated men. 
 
 Among the immediate results of this meeting of the clergy, 
 was the appointment of a remarkable man named Peshti- 
 maljian, to superintend a seminary for training priests for 
 the Armenian church. It was his constant aim to make his 
 pupils Bible students, and his influence was felt long after 
 his death. 
 
 In the summer of 1832, two American missionaries were 
 sent as pioneers to Constantinople, At first little could 
 be done, except by means of schools, and by the press. 
 A high school, carried on for some time at Pera by one of 
 
12 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 the evangelical Armenians, at length aroused the jealousy of 
 the leading ecclesiastics, and, through their influence, and 
 that of the bankers, who formed the leading council of the 
 nation, the school was broken up ; but, to their utter dismay 
 and chagrin, 'a rich Armenian, who had founded a large 
 school in one of the suburbs of the capital (Haskeuy), ap- 
 pointed as chief teacher the very man whose evangelical 
 views had led to the breaking up of the Pera school. This 
 man, though no Protestant, was resolved to employ the 
 best possible teacher ; the Bible was the avowed text-book ; 
 and thus, instead of his former limited influence in a school 
 of 40 pupils, Sahakian was at the head of the national 
 school of 600. The school was ultimately closed ; but soon 
 after a seminary was formed at Bebek (a Greek village, six 
 miles up the Bosphorus), in connection with the American 
 mission, which, though small, has trained most of the pastors, 
 and many of the native helpers now in the field. 
 
 As the study of the holy Scriptures, in the ancient 
 language, had led some of the priests to see the error of 
 their ways, and to preach the true Gospel (in as far as they 
 understood it) ; so their circulation in the modern tongues, 
 led many of the people to manifest a spirit of earnest inquiry, 
 which increased to such a degree as to excite the jealousy of 
 the patriarch and chief ecclesiastics. As, by the constitution 
 of Turkey, the patriarch at Constantinople is the political 
 head of his nation, and almost irresponsible, the conse- 
 quences of a persecuting policy were sure to be most serious. 
 He had but to prefer an accusation, true or false, to the 
 Turkish officials, and the party so charged could be punished 
 at his pleasure, by fine, confiscation of goods, imprisonment, 
 torture, or banishment. Anathemas and persecutions, at first 
 petty, but soon open and violent, were the means employed 
 to put a stop to the reformation. Some were bastinadoed, 
 sticks being broken on their naked feet ; others were impri- 
 
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN TURKEY. 
 
 13 
 
 soned on false pretences ; the shops and houses of many were 
 forcibly closed, and their goods and furniture thrown into the 
 street ; wives were forced to separate from their husbands ; 
 parents to disinherit their children who avowed evangelical 
 sentiments, or else be anathematised themselves. Nor was 
 this confined to Constantinople. The Turkish governors in 
 the provinces received letters from the capital, at the dictation 
 of the patriarch, to aid the ecclesiastics there in bringing the 
 heretics to order. But this persecution was the means of 
 making more widely known the principles of the Gospel, for 
 the sake of which many were willing so long and patiently 
 to suffer. 
 
 Through the efforts of Sir Stratford Canning and Lord 
 Cowley, toleration was at last obtained. On the 1st July, 
 1846, the evangelical Armenians in Constantinople, to 
 the number of forty (three being females), formed them- 
 selves into a church, after they all had been cast out of the 
 ancient church by public anathema — one of the native 
 brethren being chosen by ballot as their pastor. On Novem- 
 ber 15th, 1847, an imperial decree recognised the native Pro- 
 testants as an independent community, with whom " no in- 
 terference should be permitted, either in temporal or spiritual 
 concerns, on the part of the patriarchs, monks, or priests of 
 other sects." But this decree, though respected at Constan- 
 tinople, was frequently disregarded by the provincial pashas, 
 who received bribes from the rich Armenians of the old 
 church. It was not until May, last year (1853), that the 
 issue of a firman, with the Sultan's own autograph attached, 
 addressed directly to the civil agent of the Protestants, and 
 promulgated officially by the government throughout the 
 country, placed the Protestants on an equality with other 
 Christian bodies. In this remarkable document, the Chris- 
 tians are really, according to the letter, put on the same level 
 before the law with the Mohammedans themselves. 
 
14 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 The political changes which have taken place in Turkey, 
 during the last quarter of a century, have thus gradually 
 prepared the way for the more general diffusion of the truth 
 as it is in Jesus. 
 
 § 4. — In describing what the Lord has wrought among the 
 Armenians, it is difficult to know where to begin. More 
 than two hundred places in Turkey are known to contain 
 evangelical Armenians ; but the American mission is not able 
 to occupy even thirty, and that very imperfectly. 
 
 At Constantinople there are six missionaries, four native 
 preachers, and six native assistants ; while the only provision 
 made for the Armenians of Asia Minor and Armenia may be 
 summed up thus : Thirteen American missionaries^ six native 
 preachers, thirty native helpers. This deficiency of labourers 
 makes the extent of the reformation all the more remarkable. 
 
 The progress made during twenty years will clearly appear 
 from the following statements by Mr. Powers, missionary at 
 Trebizond, on the Black Sea, (the ancient port of Armenia.) 
 " The first publication of school cards, and the book of 
 Psalms, has been followed by Bibles, tracts, and other use- 
 ful publications in various languages, to the amount of more 
 than one hundred and nine millions of pages, circulated in 
 almost every city and hamlet where Armenians are found. 
 The first school, which the Armenians did not suffer to live, 
 has been followed by fourteen others, containing four hundred 
 and sixty-six pupils, who are pursuing all the various branches 
 of education, from A B C to the study of theology. 
 
 " At that time (twenty years ago) the whole mission of the 
 Arikenians consisted of two families, occupying a single house 
 on the shores of the Bosphorus. Now^ the whole force of the 
 mission, consisting of American missionaries, native preachers, 
 and helpers, amounts to one hundred persons or more, oc- 
 cupying some twenty different posts. .... Then^ not an 
 individual was known in whose piety the missionary had 
 
THE FIELD AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 15 
 
 sufficient confidence to invite Mm to sit witli him at the 
 Lord's table. Now^ fifteen regularly organized churclies 
 exist, with an aggregate of three hundred and fifty-one com- 
 municants," — [Vide Evangelical Christendom^ March 1854. 
 
 A detailed account of the reformation among the Arme- 
 nians will be found in the deeply interesting work of Mr. 
 Dwight, missionary at Constantinople, entitled " Christianity 
 revived in the East." Messrs. Nisbet & Co. have under- 
 taken to publish an enlarged edition of this valuable work, for 
 which the author is preparing a preface and a supplement, 
 bringing down the narrative to the present time. It is in- 
 dispensable to those who desire accurate information concern- 
 ing the nature and extent of the evangelical movement in 
 Turkey. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FIELD AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 Churches at Koom Kapoo, Pera, and Haskeuy— HopeM Symptoms— Opening in 
 the Khans— The Bebek Seminai-y — Its spiritual character— Student Colporteurs — 
 Their zeal and usefulness. 
 
 § 1. — The limited size of this pamphlet does not admit 
 of much detail. It may be well, however, to say something 
 about the work at Constantinople. The number of Armenians 
 there is supposed to be about seventy thousand. Though six 
 missionaries reside in the city or neighbourhood, three of 
 these (whose time is chiefly devoted to preparing works for 
 the press and to education) must be considered as labouring 
 for the whole Armenian community in Turkey. 
 
 There are now in the capital three native churches, the 
 largest of which is at Koom Kapoo, near the Turkish quarter. 
 The pastor, Avedis, was trained in the Bebek seminary. The 
 church comprises sixty members, who have continued faithful 
 
16 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 amidst mucli persecution. Tlie females have been sorely 
 tried, in having to submit to the jeers and insults of drunk- 
 ards, on their way to the humble " upper room " in which 
 they assemble for public worship.. It is in one of the most 
 public thoroughfares, no other place being eligible. No 
 sooner did it become known that an evangelical service was 
 held there, than the number of dram-shops, which had before 
 exceeded thirty, greatly increased ; and, it is humbling to 
 say, that on many of them is inscribed, in large letters, 
 "Boston Kum," and that they are the property of English 
 subjects. This evil has increased to such a degree that the 
 female members of the church dare scarcely venture out on 
 the Lord's day ; but it is hoped that a more favourable place 
 may be obtained. 
 
 In the neighbouring suburb of Psamatia, near the Seven 
 Towers, Mr. Ladd, one of the missionaries, laboured with 
 much encouragement for a few months ; but since his re- 
 moval to Smyrna, the spirit of inquiry has much decreased. 
 A resident missionary is much needed there. 
 
 -The original church at Pera has been formed into two 
 communities, as the members came from so many parts of the 
 city as to make the distance very inconvenient. The services 
 at Pera, which are conducted in si; long room in the house 
 of one of the missionaries, are well attended. Besides the 
 meetings for exposition of the Word of God, many prayer- 
 meetings are held on Sundays and week days, among which 
 is a missionary prayer-meeting once a month. A large Bible 
 class also is taught by one of the missionaries. 
 
 The third church meets at Haskeuy, and is under the care 
 of pastor Simon Khachadoorian, who was trained in the 
 mission seminary. His elder brother, who has departed to 
 his rest, was the first pastor of the first church that was 
 formed; another brother is pastor of the church at Broosaj 
 the mother and two sisters are also earnest Christians. I 
 
THE FIELD AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 17 
 
 accompanied Mr. Dwight, one Lord's day afternoon, to the 
 little room where the congregation was assembled. It was 
 an occasion of unusual interest, for the pastor had just re- 
 turned from a six months' visit to Aintab, where he had sup- 
 plied the place of a sick missionary. Mr. Dwight preached, 
 and then the little church united in celebrating the Supper 
 of the Lord. Though I could not understand the language, 
 it was impossible not to feel deep emotion, while so much of 
 the spirit of fervent devotion pervaded both pastor and people. 
 
 Haskeuy is one of the strongholds of the Armenians, and 
 when the female seminary was removed thither a year ago, it 
 was predicted by some to prove a certain failure. But the 
 contrary effect appears to have been produced; for a recent 
 letter informs me that " there seems to be a good deal of in- 
 quiry awakened at Haskeuy, and a very interesting state 
 of things now exists there. Mr. Everett spends many of his 
 evenings in conversation with inquiring Armenians. In the 
 female seminary there are many hopeful tokens, and several 
 have within a few months given themselves to the Saviour. 
 . . . On the whole, there is much to encourage those who seek 
 to extend the knowledge of the truth in this great city. The 
 Constantinople Auxiliary Bible Society, and the Ministers' 
 Meeting, which is attended once in three months by all the 
 clergymen of the different evangelical societies and denomi- 
 nations here, are hopeful signs of the times." The depot of 
 the British and Foreign Bible Society, and of the American 
 Tract Society, is near the most frequented part of Stamboul, 
 the Turkish quarter of the capital. Even Turks occasionally 
 visit it, and purchase Bibles. 
 
 A very extensive opening is presented for colportage at Con- 
 stantinople, as appears from a letter of Mr. Hamlin's lately 
 received. " There is a wide and almost untrodden field 
 for missionary labour in the khans, which we believe may 
 now be attempted. Some of the khans have from 500 to 
 
 c 
 
18 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 1000 occupants in crowded seasons ; they are from all parts 
 of the interior, more than from Constantinople. These 
 khans are lodging-places for all kinds of traders, artisans, 
 and merchants, who have no families here ; and often a section 
 of a khan will be filled entirely by people from a particular 
 city or district, the great proportion being men in the prime 
 of manhood. Something has been repeatedly attempted in 
 these places, but interrupted by mobs. We believe prudent 
 labourers may now enter safely, hire a room, and as the gates 
 of the khans are shut early in the evening, the whole evening 
 and night may be devoted to religious conversation, and the 
 distribution and reading of books. Many books will thus go 
 back into the interior." The pious students in the mission 
 seminary are very desirous to devote their vacations to such 
 labours. 
 
 § 2. — At Bebek, on the Bosphorus, six miles from the 
 city, is the seminary for young men. At present 51 ^re 
 under instruction, 16 of whom are Greeks. The object of 
 this institution is twofold — to train young men for the work 
 of pastors, evangelists, schoolmasters, and colporteurs, as well 
 as to promote the useful arts among the Armenian Protestants, 
 and thus secure for them the means of subsistence, poor and 
 down-trodden as they are by their former co-religionists. 
 The principle on which the pupils are received is that of self- 
 support, in so far as is practicable; but many of them are 
 very poor, some with threadbare garments, and without stock- 
 ings. They looked well and happy, however, and there are 
 indications of decided piety among a large proportion.; the 
 principal, Mr. Hamlin, exercising a most happy personal in- 
 fluence over them. It is found that manual labour for three 
 or four hours a day has a salutary effect on their physical 
 and moral health ; while the religious instruction which they 
 receive is already bearing fruit, not only in making them 
 soimd in the faith, but , also in deepening the tone of personal 
 
t:hb field at Constantinople. 
 
 19 
 
 piety among many. A recent letter from Mr. Van Lennep, 
 of Constantinople, to the American Board, describes the state 
 of religious feeling in the seminary to be very deep. " The 
 room devoted to secret prayer is constantly occupied, and 
 some are obliged to wait far into the night in order to have 
 an opportunity to offer their supplications undisturbed. The 
 boys retire behind a door or a clothes-press, where they stand 
 out of sight, and their being there is known only by their 
 sighs and groans. Stillness and solemnity pervade the build- 
 ing at all hours, but they are more marked on the Sabbath. 
 The pupils listen to the word with anxious earnestness." 
 
 Another indication of the piety of many of these young 
 men, is afforded by their missionary zeal. Of their own free 
 will, some six or eight offered to spend their vacations as 
 colporteurs, so as to have an opportunity of making known 
 the Gospel. Accordingly, six of them, four Armenians and 
 two Greeks, spent their summer vacation last August in 
 visiting various places on the Asiatic side of the Sea of Mar- 
 mora on a missionary tour. Mr. Hamlin thus wrote to me 
 concerning them :— " In one village near Bandurma, the 
 priest assembled a large number of the people, according to 
 a preconcerted plan, first to dispute with the colporteurs ; and 
 when he had exposed and silenced them, the people were to 
 fair upon them, beat them, and drive them out of the village. 
 The young men accepted the challenge to a public debate, 
 knowing nothing of the secret plan. One of the accusation^ 
 which they brought against the Armenian Church, was the 
 worship of pictures. This the priest denied, saying, ' We 
 honour, but do not worship them ; ' and, turning to the mul- 
 titude, appealed to them, and said, ' Do you worship the 
 pictures of the saints?' 'Yes; to be sure we do!' cried 
 a number of indignant voices, imagining that the priest had 
 abandoned his own Church, in order to escape from the Bible 
 argument. This brought such a discomfiture on the whole 
 
20 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 affair, that some felt angry with the priest ; others seemed 
 "won by the arguments of the students ; and the priest slipped 
 away, ashamed and angry. No violence was offered; and 
 a good impression seemed to be made upon many who came 
 with bitter prejudices against the truth." So often does 
 Satan outwit himself; and the adversary is smitten with a 
 sling and stone. This is not the only instance of the useful- 
 ness of these missionary students. Two members of the Pera 
 church, husband and wife, ascribe their conversion to the 
 faithful admonitions of one of these youths, who, when they 
 were on the point of separation, owing to domestic quarrels, 
 told them to bind up their quarrels in a bundle, and throw 
 them into the Marmora ; at the same time, expounding the 
 Gospel ordinance bearing on such a case. They are now 
 united, consistent, humble Christians. " In another instance, 
 which occurred lately in Haskeuy, the child of an Armenian 
 was buried without candles, or the customary ceremonies, 
 through the firmness of one of the students of the Bebek 
 seminary ; and in the presence of priests and people assem- 
 bled at the funeral, he arose and made an address, which was 
 listened to with quietness and attention. This is the more 
 remarkable, as, in days past, the subject of interment has 
 been a fruitful source of diificulty, and of bitter trial and 
 persecution." The above is an extract from a letter recently 
 received. Another interesting instance of usefulness lately 
 occurred at Khortal, a village regularly visited by the student 
 colporteurs : — " A young man, hopefully converted through 
 their labours, a man of pleasing address, and considerable 
 education in the Armenian language and literature, has been 
 admitted into the seminary, although the opposition of friends 
 will keep him at home for a time." 
 
 The seminary building is an old wooden house, in a very 
 dilapidated state. The means for the support of the students 
 are also very limited. With their frugal fare, and the little ^ 
 
THE FIELD AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 21 
 
 that their manual labour obtains, Mr. Hamlin calculates that 
 £10 per annum may support a student. 
 
 Is it not the duty of Christians to aid in sustaining an 
 institution which has enjoyed, and never more than now, 
 such evident tokens of the Divine blessing ? 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE aOSPEL IN ARMENIA AND ASIA MINOR, 
 
 Bright auguries — Blessing on native agency— Tlie work in Mysla, Bithynia, 0alatia 
 Cappadocia, Ai'menia, Cilicia, and Syria — Aintab, rapid progress there — Primitive 
 piety, zeal, and self-denial— Marasli— Tarsus— Ur of the Chaldees—Kessab— Urgent 
 call for Labourers — Declension at Tocat— Sivas— Cesarea— Arabkir — Missionai'y's 
 appeal, 
 
 § 1. — Having said thus much about Constantinople, I 
 would now earnestly invite the reader's prayerful considera- 
 tion of the claims of Asia Minor and Armenia, as a field of 
 missionary enterprise. Whether as respects the spiritual 
 character of the work that has been developed in those coun- 
 tries in recent years, or the rapidity of the movement, or its 
 extent, can we be mistaken in concluding that " this is 
 Lord's doing? It is marvellous in our eyes." 
 
 Many of the districts occupied by the American mission, *■ 
 which have most enjoyed the influences of the Holy Spirit, 
 as well as many more now earnestly entreating for mission- 
 aries and native preachers, are those concerning which we 
 read so much in the Acts of the Apostles. In the region of 
 Antioch, where " the disciples were first called Christians," 
 but which has been sunk during so many dreary ages in 
 Pagan, Mohammedan and anti-Christian darkness, — in the 
 regions of Cilicia and Pamphylia, of Asia (i.e., Lydia, Acts 
 xvi. 6 Rev. i. 11,) and Mysia, of Galatia and Phrygia, where 
 multitudes came together to hear the word of Grod from the 
 
22 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 lips of Paul and Barnabas, multitudes are coming now in 
 these latter days to read and hear the same precious word 
 of eternal life.* 
 
 HohanneSy pastor of the church at Adabazar (south of the 
 Sea of Marmora), and Simon Vouzebed, a native evangelist, 
 devoted eight months last year (1852-3) to a missionary tour 
 through North Syria, Asia Minor, and Armenia. They tra- 
 versed the country by three distinct lines, visiting all the 
 more important places, spending considerable time in many of 
 them, and in the villages on their route,, and every where 
 found ready listeners to their message. '* I am not aware," 
 says Mr. Hohannes, " that I have passed through a single 
 place, in which there is not either an actual awakening, or a 
 preparation of mind for the reception of the truth." 
 
 The following extracts are from the recent annual Eeport of 
 the American Board : — " The Protestant churches have been 
 increased from ten to fifteen during the year, and an aggregate 
 increase of members has been reported, amounting in all to 
 ninety. But the mighty change which is going on in the minds 
 of men, among all classes of the community,and in almost every 
 part of the field of the Armenian mission, is very imperfectly 
 indicated by the statistics of churches, or of the newly organ- 
 ised Protestant communities. With mingled light and shade 
 in the picture, the brief survey we are here able to make, will 
 shew it to be one (on the general scale) of constantly bright- 
 ening promise. It is an interesting fact, that three of the 
 five churches jus^ gathered, are the fruit mainly of the labours 
 
 * Tlie following are instances : — In Syria — Kessab, six hours from Antiooli, and the 
 disU-iet of Suadia (Scleucia). the old port of Antioeh. In the latter there is a general 
 desire for seripturid instruction ; in tiie former, a large evangelical community. In 
 Cilicia—Amtab, three days journey north of Aleppo, has a chmxh of one hundred 
 members, and a congi-egation of seven hundred. At Tarsws, where Paul was bom, 
 and at Adana, there is much earnest inqniiy. At Killis, a church is fonhed. Cilicia is 
 acknowledged to he the most promising district of the Ai-menian mission. . At 
 Smyrna, a little evangelical chui'ch is formed ; and at Thyaiira, there would be one, if 
 a pastor could be obtained. 
 
THE GOSPEL IN ARMENIA AND ASIA MINOR. 
 
 23 
 
 of a native agency. In Killis, in Kessab, and in Eodosto, 
 only two or three visits have ever been made by a missionary. 
 It is also worthy of notice, that the development in these 
 places has taken place under a fierce opposition, and the en- 
 durance of outrage and violence, and with but a small amount 
 of direct agency of any kind. Two of the churches in Con- 
 stantinople, and those in Nicomedia, Adabazar, Broosa, and 
 Eodosto, are under the charge of native pastors. So con- 
 vinced are the mission, and the committee, of the desirableness 
 of such a ministry to all the existing and future churches in 
 this field, that no effort will be spared to secure it, as rapidly 
 and to as great an extent as shall be found practicable. 
 
 § 2. — The following are only a few of the places no- 
 ticed in the Eeport : — 
 
 Adrimiople. — " In this important centre, decided progress 
 has been made during the past year. Seven persons are re- 
 garded as pious." 
 
 Nicomedia. — " The church numbers forty-one. It is 
 much engaged in labours for the spiritual welfare of the 
 villages around." 
 
 Broosa^ (at the foot of Olympus, the capital of ancient 
 Bithynia). — " God is truly with His people here, and He opens 
 to them a wide door of usefulness." 
 
 Villages arowid the Lake Nice — (in the ancient Bithynia, 
 the seat of the famous ecclesiastical council.) — "In all this 
 region, the darkness of ages is beginning to disperse. Five 
 priests are specified, who are enlightened and anxious to 
 rescue their people from the errors of their church. Active 
 friends to spiritual Christianity are rising up in nearly every 
 one of these villages, and also in the thirteen villages of 
 Yalovah, on the southern shore of the Grulf of Nicomedia, and 
 the Sea of Marmora." 
 
 Kassaba, Mohalich, Bandurmah, Chamak. — " In these vil- 
 lages, on the south of the Sea of Marmora, the Gospel has 
 
24 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 made a large entrance The great number who are 
 
 friendly to the Gospel, prevents persecution." 
 
 " Cesarea (in the ancient Cappadocia) is henceforth to he 
 occupied as a station. It is one of the great centres. The 
 report of a colporteur, who has laboured there during most 
 of the year, is favourable. Incidents frequently occur, 
 showing the presence of the Holy Spirit. We have every 
 reason to hope that a great harvest of souls is to be gathered 
 there. Some of the most interesting cases of awakening and 
 conversion in Constantinople and Smyrna, have occurred 
 among persons coming from Cesarea and its vicinity." 
 
 " Erzeroom district (near the present seat of war in Armenia.) 
 — The field out of Erzeroom is in some parts * white unto har- 
 vest.' In about one hundred villages on the plain, freer 
 access to the people is obtained, prejudice is weakening, and 
 greater willingness to hear is manifested." 
 
 " Kharpoot has a nominally Christian population of ten 
 thousand souls, and overlooks a rich plain, studded with three 
 hundred and sixty-six villages, containing from one hundred 
 to five thousand inhabitants each, nearly all Armenians, and 
 all within a few hours' ride of the city. 'It presents,' says 
 Mr. Dunmore, 'the richest country, and most inviting and 
 promising missionary field that I have seen in Turkey.' Quite 
 a number meet on the Sabbath for mutual instruction and 
 prayer." 
 
 § 3. — The spiritual reformation has most rapidly a?a' 
 generally developed itself in the ancient Cilicia and North 
 Syria. One of the most remarkable places in the whole 
 Armenian mission field is Aintah (in Cilicia), and on that 
 account I will enter a little into detail respecting the work 
 of God there. It is situated about three days ride, or 
 seventy miles north of Aleppo. In a population of thirty 
 thousand, there are nearly ten . thousand Armenians. An 
 evangelical movement became first apparent there in 
 
THE GOSPEL IN AEMENIA AND ASIA MINOR. 
 
 25 
 
 1846 ; some copies of the Holy Scriptures and other books 
 having been circulated there by a colporteur, who had been 
 expelled by the Patriarch from Constantinople. He was fol- 
 lowed by a preaching friar, enlightened as to the errors of 
 his church, but not a converted man ; yet it pleased the Lord 
 to use him as an instrument for spreading abroad the truth, 
 and soon, eighty-two heads of families signed a letter, request- 
 ing that a missionary might be sent to them. Their request 
 was granted, and though the missionaries at Aintab have 
 l>een repeatedly laid prostrate by the trying climate, the 
 work of God has made such progress that there is now a 
 congregation of seven hundred, and a church of one hundred 
 members. They listen with great interest to the truth ; and 
 not only is there a great and increasing demand for biblical 
 exposition and evangelical instruction in the church, but the 
 members of the old church are going more and more to their 
 Bibles, in understanding which they are aided by voluntary 
 Scripture readers from among the Protestants. 
 
 Seven years ago there was only one woman in Aintab 
 able to read ; now one hundred and fifty can do so, of whom 
 thirty-five were receiving instruction last year in the mis- 
 sion school ; while those that cannot read, have juvenile 
 Scripture readers to visit them nearly every day. The 
 childlike, fervent, earnest piety of these evangelical Ar- 
 menians, their love for the Word, their spirit of prayer, 
 their consistent walk, their brotherly love, their ardent zeal, 
 and their self-denial, recall to mind the piety of the members 
 of the primitive churches, in the same or neighbouring districts 
 of Asia Minor. In much, we may learn from them, but espe- 
 cially in their practical missionary zeal. Though in general 
 very poor, yet, as regards their contributions to the treasury 
 of the Lord, it may be truly said that " to their power, yea,, 
 and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves 
 and they not only feel constrained to give their money, but 
 
26 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 themselves to tlie work of the Lord. Many of the native 
 evangelists and colporteurs leave their families and business 
 for months together, to carry the Gospel to the regions 
 beyond. At one time thirty individuals, members of the 
 church and congregation, divided into ten companies, spent 
 the evenings not occupied with public religious services, in 
 visiting such Protestants and members of the old church as 
 might be willing to receive them. Last year, fourteen dif- 
 ferent individuals from the Aintab church were engaged as 
 colporteurs. 
 
 Large as is the audience at Aintab, it would be much 
 larger if there was a proper sanctuary. Awnings are 
 spread on the sides of the two rooms used for public wor- 
 ship; but they must greatly "lengthen their cords and 
 strengthen their stakes," to provide adequate accommodation. 
 This large tent, covered by rude mats, is a poor protection 
 against the rain and cold of winter, as well as the heat of 
 summer ; but the converts sit on their mats as happy as 
 though they had pews in a spacious building. At special 
 seasons, such as the celebration of the Lord's Supper, and 
 the admission of members, they manifest deep emotion ; and 
 it is no rare thing, on ordinary occasions, to see the whole 
 congregation in tears. I have mentioned the case of Aintab 
 as a sample of the state of things in various places in the 
 Armenian missionary field.* 
 
 Marash (90 miles N.W. of Aintab).— " The year has been 
 one of hard struggle anil final triumph. Violent persecution 
 has resulted in the recognition and protection of a Protestant 
 community of about twenty. A spirit of inquiry has since been 
 quite extensive and active. The missionaries think that 
 there is not a more promising spot in the entire Armenian 
 field." 
 
 * For a more detailed accouat of Aiiitab, see " Evangelical CliriBteudom," Novem- 
 ber, 1853. 
 
THE GOSPEL IN ARMENIA AND ASIA MINOR. 
 
 27 
 
 Adana. — The native helper has a crowd of inquirers, 
 not only during the day, but till ten or eleven o'clock at 
 night." 
 
 Tarsus. — " This place, interesting as the birth-place of the 
 Apostle Paul, is now to be taken into our list of important 
 points affected by the Eeformation. A native helper, on a 
 visit of a few days, had free intercourse with some twenty 
 persons, who ' manifested a deep interest in the truth, listen- 
 ing to his presentation of it with many tears.' They ask for 
 some one to remain with them, but none can be spared." 
 
 Killis (S.W. of Aintab). — "A church was formed here in 
 June, 1852, which now consists of nine members. ' Inquiry 
 appears to be active.' The missionaries can only visit it for 
 a few weeks in the whole year, and there is no pastor." 
 
 Oorfa (Ur of the Chaldees). — " A pious native has laboured 
 here during the entire year, and some new ground has been 
 gained. The conviction has become very extensive and 
 deep, that the Armenian Church is in gross error. From two 
 to five hundred persons are said to be thus enlightened. No 
 missionary or pastor can be obtained for the 7,500 Armenians 
 and 1,000 Jacobites who reside here." 
 
 Malatia — Adyiaman. — " In both these places a reforma- 
 tion has commenced, and a loud call exists for labour. The 
 whole surrounding regions are waking up to the truth, raising 
 their voices for preachers of the Word of Life." "Most 
 painful," say the missionaries at Aintab, " are the refusals of 
 aid we are compelled to make." 
 
 '■'■Kessah (up Mount Casius, in Syria), has 2,000 inha- 
 bitants, all Armenians. In the history of the work here, 
 God seems to have set his seal on the value of native labour. 
 Native brethren from the Aintab church have laboured for 
 six months each. There is now a church of twenty members, 
 and a congregation of two hundred, and the number is con- 
 tinually increasing. The priest seems inclined to evangelical 
 
Sa OPENINGS FOB THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 views. All this lias occurred witMn two years from the first 
 open avowal of Protestantism in the place. There is no 
 pastor." 
 
 " Armenian Villages round Suadia (the old port of An- 
 tioch). Their aggregate population is five or six thousand 
 souls. The people have, for several years, shown much desire 
 for instruction." 
 
 § 4. — These statements surely indicate that there is a 
 wide and open door. Mr. Schneider, of Aintab, said, some 
 months ago, " We are constantly receiving calls for some one 
 to preach the Gospel. These calls wax more loud and more 
 earnest every month. Sometimes I almost fear to have the 
 post arrive, lest some such appeal, to which we cannot re- 
 spond, come to increase our perplexity." 
 
 In numerous large towns, and in rural districts, like the 
 plain of Kharpoot, with its 366 villages, bands of evange- 
 lical Christians are located, who have in vain entreated help 
 year after year. In some instances, as at Sivas, the member 
 of the Church who has the most knowledge of the Scriptures, 
 though comparatively uneducated, has become the spiritual 
 guide of the community ; and, for a while, such instrumen- 
 tality has been much blessed by the Lord, not only in con- 
 firming the believers, but in confounding the adversaries, 
 and winning many to the side of truth ; but, communi- 
 ties trained in this imperfect manner, are necessarily liable 
 to be turned aside by every wind of doctrine, if not entirely 
 to fall away. Even in one of the churches at Constantinople, 
 formed for some years, the same tendency has been found, 
 where the claims of distant parts of the field have seemed to 
 require the temporary absence of the native pastor for some 
 months. 
 
 It was painful to hear, at the annual meetings of the mis- 
 sion last year, (June 1853), at Constantinople, the number 
 and pressing nature of applications for aid to which no re- 
 
THE GOSPEL IN ARMENIA AND ASIA MINOR. 
 
 29 
 
 sponse cotild be given. " From every part of the land," 
 writes Mr. Dwight, " there comes to us one appeal, ' send ns 
 
 preachers, send us preachers.' Who can tell what 
 
 sad disasters may follow even a slight delay ? a dreadful stu- 
 pidity may settle down upon minds that are now awakened 
 and anxious. — Aversion and disgust may take the place of 
 / desire. — Infidelity may freeze up all the channels to the 
 heart." 
 
 With how much reason such fears are expressed, the fol- 
 lowing extracts from the last annual reports of the mission 
 too clearly show. " In Tocat^ with ten thousand Armenians, 
 the infidel party claim to be ' two hundred strong,' some of 
 whom were once ' readers of the Grospel.' This is the effect 
 of a partial enlightenment, without having some one at hand 
 to feed the people with words of knowledge. Manuscript 
 translations of Strauss, and other infidel writers, are in cir- 
 culation among the people." 
 
 '■^Sivas (fifty-four miles from Tocat) has ten thousand Arme- 
 nians. — The little Church, though without a pastor, regularly 
 assembles for worship. There is much religious discussion in 
 the place, and infidelity has raised its standard. A resident 
 missionary is much needed. The Armenians of the seven- 
 teen villages about Sivas are calling for instruction." 
 
 Villages of Geglii. — " A retrograde movement has com- 
 menced here. The fire of persecution became too hot for the 
 faith of weak disciples, who were without a competent 
 teacher, and they have fled or concealed themselves : a few 
 have returned." 
 
 In similar terms Mr. Dwight speaks in the following letter 
 to the Board in the United States : " Already do we begin to 
 see the disastrous consequences of so much delay in supplying 
 the interior of this country" with preachers of the word. Many 
 who had united themselves with the Protestants, have gone 
 back to the old Church.. 
 
30 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 " In Cesarea, very few indeed are left, who came together 
 for worship with our colporteur on the Sabbath. He is an 
 uneducated man, and has long since ceased to interest them ; 
 and they have long been pleading for a missionary ; but they 
 are quite discouraged, because no one responds to their ap- 
 peal. . . . Some from persecution have fled from the place ; 
 others have gone back to the old community. . . In ArahJcir, 
 things are said to be rapidly going backwards. Time was, 
 and not long ago, when forty and more came together every 
 Sabbath, and read the Scriptures, and prayed that G-od would 
 send them an expounder of His Word. Now the number is 
 reduced to a mere handful ; and they write in a very dis- 
 couraging manner. From Sivas, also, we learn, that diffi- 
 culties have arisen in the little church organised there, the 
 members of which are still as sheep without a shepherd. 
 They need this moment the assiduous labours of a pastor ; 
 and if they remain much longer in their destitute condition, 
 I fear the church will become extinct. What, hope is there 
 of churches growing up and flourishing in the United States, 
 without preachers and pastors '? And if this cannot be ex- 
 pected in enlightened America, how much less here, among 
 this poor, ignorant, degraded people." 
 
 It is thus most evident, that the present means and agency 
 are entirely inadequate to meet the constantly increasing de- 
 mands in the extended Armenian field. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GREEKS DESIRING TO SEE JESUS. 
 
 The open door among the Greeks at Constantinople, Demirdesh, and Thyatira. — Their 
 special claims. — Cloirng appeal. 
 
 § 1. — I have now to refer to another field of labour, 
 which, though much less extensive as yet, is equally, and, in 
 
GREEKS DESIRING TO SEE JESUS, 
 
 31 
 
 some respects, even more necessitous than the Armenian. 
 For some years, an earnest spirit of enquiry has appeared 
 among various communities of Greeks, especially at Con- 
 stantinople, Demirdesh, and Akhissar (the ancient Thyatira) ; 
 but promising as is this field, as much so in the opinion of 
 the American missionaries as any among the Armenianss, they 
 can scarcely touch it. 
 
 For the 200,000 Greeks resident in Constantinople, and in 
 the villages of the Bosphorus, the only provision is one ser- 
 vice on the Lord's Day at Pera, and another at Bebek ; where 
 one of the missionaries also gives biblical instruction to a 
 few promising youths from the interior. Four years ago, 
 owing to the disappointments in other parts of the Greek field 
 of labour, and the slight success at Constantinople, the 
 American Board was led to devote its entire efforts to the 
 Armenians, among whom the spirit of enquiry continued to 
 extend on every side ; but no sooner was this carried out, 
 than some Greeks at Constantinople showed an eager desire 
 for instruction, and the missionaries felt constrained to open 
 a religious service for them on the Lord's Day. 
 
 Two years ago some inhabitants of the Greek village of 
 Demirdesh, near Broosa, who had heard the truth from the 
 lips of converted Armenians in the latter place, declared them- 
 selves Protestants. A trying persecution followed, many were 
 severely beaten, compelled to leave their dwellings, and lie 
 for some time concealed, their lives being in great peril from 
 their |)igoted and exasperated fellow-citizens, who were hounded 
 on by the priests. Five families remained steadfast; and from 
 these, five young men offered: themselves as students in the 
 mission seminary at Bebek, with a view of becoming preach- 
 ers of the word of life. The . seminary was intended for 
 Armenians only, but the missionaries could not find it in their 
 hearts to refuse their entreaties, especially after they had 
 given such evidence of sincerity and zeal. They continue to 
 
82 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 give promise of being faithful servants of the Lord, though 
 they have not enjoyed, until within the last year, the advan- 
 t9,ge of biblical instruction in common with their fellow- 
 students, the Armenians. The movement at Demirdesh, their 
 native place, continues to extend, as the following extract 
 from the recent report of the American Board will show : — 
 " The Protestant Grreeks in Demirdesh have been called to 
 endure fiery trials of persecution :* but they fainted not, and 
 the Lord has granted them deliverance, and advanced His 
 cause through their sufferings. They greatly need, and 
 earnestly entreat, a preacher to labour constantly among 
 them." 
 
 Mr, Eiggs, one of the Missionaries at Constantinople, wrote 
 thus to me respecting the work there, not long ago ; — " My 
 stay at Demirdesh was one protracted meeting — mornings, 
 afternoons, and evenings. The little band there came to be 
 instructed in the way of life more thoroughly — they are but 
 beginners. What we shall do for them I do not know." 
 
 At Akhissar (Thyatira) there are eighteen Greeks who 
 are well spoken of as giving evidence of true conversion. 
 They have had no religious opportunities, besides very occa- 
 sional visits from a missionary or native helper, once or twice 
 a year. Some hundreds in the town are dissatisfied with the 
 priests. Mr. Constantinides, the first fruits of missionary 
 labour among the Greeks, (he was converted under the mi- 
 nistry of Mr. Hartley, twenty-five years ago), spent three 
 weeks there in the spring of last year, and found a number 
 of serious inguirers. f-'- 
 
 During his visit, the Ionian Greeks stirred up the passions 
 of the members of the old Church ; so that the meetings of 
 the Protestants were interrupted, and some were severely 
 handled. But the Gospel seems to have taken root, and a 
 
 * Instigated by Yanco, a renegade Protestant from Constantinople. 
 
GREEKS DESIRING TO SEE JESUS. - 33 
 
 church woiild be formed there, if it were possible to find a 
 pastor. 
 
 At the distance of a day's journey from Akhissar, is Mag- 
 nesia, a large Turkish town, containing one thousand five 
 hundred Greek houses, and many more of Armenian. An 
 evangelist is much required for these two places, as well as 
 for Demirdesh ; and there is need of at least two foreign mis- 
 sionaries at Constantinople, besides colporteurs. 
 
 The Greeks who have evinced this love for the Word are 
 generally t)f the poorer class— agricultural labourers, culti- 
 vators of silk, shoemakers, tailors, furriers, and common 
 artisans of the country ; unsophisticated, and uncontaminated 
 by contact with the loose, immoral and infidel principles of 
 Europeans. 
 
 In other inland places, besides those already named, light 
 is breaking on the minds of the Greeks. At Amasia (100 miles 
 south-east of Sinope), there are frequent calls for copies of 
 the Word of God." Inquirers are found among the five 
 thousand Greeks of Tocat and its vicinity. In some other 
 places, priests have become enlightened, and preach and 
 practise the Gospel. 
 
 § 2. — Many who attend the Sunday service at Constan- 
 tinople come from some miles distance ; but it was pain- 
 ful to hear how missionaries were compelled to say to such 
 inquiring Greeks, desiring to learn more of Jesus — " we are 
 sent to the Armenians^" and how the only native preacher 
 among them expressed his despair because no missionary • 
 would come ; yet the call is as distinct and earnest, as if we 
 heard the man of Macedonia cry — " Come over and help us." 
 Who, then, will go over ? And who will provide the means 
 for their support ? 
 
 The claims of the Armenians are so numerous and pressing, 
 that the American missionaries, and their friends in the 
 United States, are in a great strait. Dr. Anderson, the seere- 
 
 e 
 
34 
 
 OPENINGS FOE THE GOSPEL IN TORKEY, 
 
 tary of their society, thus wrote to me regarding this field 
 in a letter dated from Boston, U. S., as late as February 16th, 
 1854: " We are really perplexed as to what we ought to 
 atfempt for the Greeks, and shall be thankful for light from 
 any quarter. . . . Our engagements are so heavy, that we 
 hardly know what to do in this direction," 
 
 As there are so many materials ready at hand, such a 
 variety of excellent and useful works from the press, so much 
 preparation by means of Lancasterian and other schools, the 
 stimulus to which was given by the missionaries ; some pious 
 and promising students at the Bebek seminary, who may in 
 due time be qualified to preach to their countrymen, and the 
 ijucleus of a congregation, fifteen to thirty being the average 
 attendance — as our American brethren are unequal to the 
 work, and' are prepared heartily to co-operate with men 
 of liberal views and large hearts, who may be sent into 
 that field, shall we not, ought we not to strengthen their 
 hands ? 
 
 l"he case, then, hiost earnestly pressing for immediate con- 
 sideration seems that of the Greeks ; but the claims of the 
 Armenians are scarcely less urgent, if it be a duty where 
 " the fields are white already unto the harvest " to supply the 
 needed labourers, that the ears now full of promise may not 
 wither and fall. 
 
 § 3.— The statements which have been given, show that 
 there is a very wide and open door, while there are 'few to 
 enter in, and slight means of sustaining them. Were there 
 the men and the means, there is room enough iox fifty foreign 
 missionaries and a hundred native helpers. At length, after 
 repeated appea.ls to the Christians of the United States, the 
 missionary spirit seems to have revived in the theological 
 seminaries ; for the Secretary of the American Board writes, 
 that at Andover seminary there are seventeen, and in the 
 N'ew York seminary twenty-one, who have devoted them- 
 
GBEEKS DESIKING TO SEE JESUS.' 
 
 35 
 
 selves to the work of foreign missions ; a number of whom 
 are desirous of being sent to the Levant. This seems a 
 manifest answer to prayer ; but where are the means for the 
 support of those who, on further trial, give evidence of being 
 truly called to this work? Where are the means for the sup- 
 port of native helpers, pastors, evangelists, and schoolmasters, 
 as well as of those who, though comparatively uneducated, 
 give proof, by their knowledge and love of the Word of God, 
 as well as by their consistent walk and ardent zeal, that they 
 are qualified to be colporteurs ? 
 
 A very extensive field is presented for itinerant labour 
 through the whole country. Many at Aintab and other 
 places, who have given some weeks or months each year to 
 this good work at a great sacrifice, would probably devote 
 their entire time and strength to such labour, if their families 
 could be sustained. 
 
 Itinerant native labour, in connection with the Holy Scrip- 
 tures and religious tracts, has been the instrumentality most 
 si^ally blessed by the Lord. Humble disciples have carried 
 Bibles in their packs with their other goods, and thus scattered 
 the good seed far and wide, where the living voice of the 
 preacher had never yet been heard. Wherever colporteurs 
 have gone forth, the demand for books and tracts has far ex- 
 ceeded the supply, and, in most cases, wherever labour has 
 been bestowed, for however short a time, the results hay^ 
 been truly encouraging. 
 
 As regards the Greeks, while their creed is not so far re- 
 moved from the doctrines of the New Testament as that of 
 the Armenians, the results of the threatened war, more im- 
 mediate or remote, are -likely, by removing the remaining 
 civil and religious disabilities from the Christian sects in 
 Turkey, and by exposing the selfishness of Russia, to dispose 
 them to look with more favour on Great Britain ; to which 
 they are laid under so njany and great obligations. 
 
36 
 
 OPENINGS FOB THE GOSPEL IN TUKKEY. 
 
 But whatever may be the designs of Providence (even if, 
 contrary to all human probabilities, the power of Eussia 
 should, after all, prevail), who can over-estimate the value of 
 the precious opportunity now given for sowing the good seed ? 
 The Greeks still seek after wisdom, while not a few seek it at 
 the fountain head, from the written Word ; there are many 
 who say, " we would see Jesus." And shall we not hear 
 them, and help them, and bring them to " the Lamb of God, 
 which taketh away the sins of the world." 
 
 § 4. — Some friends of missions have felt called upon 
 to help tho§e who so earnestly, and in such numbers, are 
 crying, " Come over and help us." A beginning has been 
 made. Some friends at Tottenham and Hackney have formed 
 the nucleus of a fund for the support of native evangelists, 
 and colporteurs. Others are prepared to support evange- 
 lists ; and others, students in the Bebek seminary. An in- 
 terest has been awakened on behalf of the Greeks at Con- 
 stantinople and in Asia Minor, which may lead to foreign 
 missionaries being sustained there. 
 
 But, compared to what is required, how little has as yet 
 been accomplished. How many colporteurs, how many evan- 
 gelists, how many schoolmasters, how many native pastors, 
 how many foreign missionaries are required ! " The harvest 
 truly is great, but the labourers are few ; pray ye, therefore, 
 the Lord of the harvest, that He may send forth more 
 labourers into His harvest." 
 
 How many earnest, oft-repeated, calls for aid have to be 
 refased ! When the door is opened so wide, and the Lord is 
 giving such showers of blessings, shall there be none to cast 
 in the good seed, or to cultivate it when sown '? Shall we do 
 nothing for the 200,000 Greeks at Constantinople ? Shall 
 Kessab, and Killis, and Sivas, where churches are actually 
 formed — shall Arabkir, and Mariash, Tarsus, and Thyatira, 
 and scor-es of towns, and villages, and hamlets in Asia 
 
GREEKS DESIEIKG TO SEE JESUS. 
 
 37 
 
 Minor, where an earnest spirit of enquiry is apparent, 
 be left unvisited, unaided, and unblessed ? 
 
 If tbe heathen have claims upon the evangelical churches 
 of America and Britain, have not those who bear the Christian 
 name, and those especially whose eyes are opened to perceive 
 the errors which they have been taught, and who are anxious 
 to learn the truth as it is in Jesus ? It may be said regarding 
 them, with yet more force than of the Jews, What advantage, 
 then, have the members of these corrupted Christian churches? 
 " Much everyway — chiefly because that unto them are com- 
 mitted the oracles of God." If we do not aid in this mission- 
 ary enterprise, shall we not be verily guilty concerning these 
 our brethren ? Will none consider the indications of Divine 
 Providence ? Will none come to the help of the Lord against 
 the mighty ? Will no young men preparing for the ministry, 
 or in a private calling, consider how immense is the dispro- 
 portion between the fifteen missionaries who labour in Asia 
 Minor, and the many thousands of evangelical ministers in 
 Britain ? Will none who have experience, from- some years' 
 service in the ministry, hear the call from the highlands and 
 lowlands of Syria and Cilicia, and Armenia, " Come over and 
 help us " ? If our American brethren are not strong enough 
 to occupy the field, shall we not, ought we not to give a help- 
 ing hand ? The neglect in this country of the Eastern churches 
 is inexplicable, except from the idea entertained by many, 
 that the type of their Christianity was of a superior caste to 
 that of the apostate Latin Church ; but this has been proved 
 erroneous. The influence of Britain is now powerfully felt 
 in Turkey. The present juncture is favourable for extended 
 evangelistic efforts, because of the political and religious 
 rights so recently guaranteed and confirmed to the Christian 
 sects, and also on account of the rapid decay of Islamism. 
 The spirit of inquiry has not been checked as yet by the 
 war, and " there never was such a time to work in Turkey 
 
38 
 
 OPENINGS FOB THE GOSPEL IN TUBKEY. 
 
 as at the present." So writes Mr. Dwight from Constan- 
 tinople, on the 22nd March, 1854. The door may be opened 
 ere long among the Mohammedans; and when that day 
 arrives, what missionaries would be likely to prove so efficient 
 as converted Grreeks and Armenians ?* 
 
 * If any additional consideration is necessary to stimulate enlightened missionary 
 zeal on their behalf, it is furnished by the untiring efforts of the Roman propagandists. 
 The Pope has three well endowed ooUeges at Vienna, Venice, and Milan, exclusively 
 for the Ai-menians, besides the colleges and other schools in diiferent parts of the Tur- 
 kish emph-e, as Constantinople, Smyrna, and Beyrout, into which Ai-menians are received 
 with others. The buildings are large stone and brick stniotures, and the professors are 
 very well supported. The College of San Benedetto, at Galata, (Constantinople) con- 
 tains a hundred students, and its branch at Bebek as many more, who are intended for 
 interpreters, attaches, &c. Mr. Hamlin says, " I may safely hazard the assertion, that 
 the papists are spending more money in their efforts to proselyte the nommal Chris- 
 tians of the East, particularly the Armenians, than all those American Churches 
 which act, through this Board, are spending in all parts of the world, If any one 
 question this, let him examine the vast amount of real estate vested in colleges and 
 schools, in convents, in lai-ge, numerous, and costly churches, and in all the parapher- 
 nalia of their pompous trappings; also the contributions and legacies from the peopte 
 already proselyted; and in addition, the large stuns annually received from Europe." 
 Compare with the substantial buildmgs of the Eomanists, the dilapidated wooden semi- 
 nary at Bebek, and the chapels in private houses, or in small tents, inconveniently situ- 
 ated, unsuited to tlie wants of the Protestants, and not likely to command respect for 
 their faitli. 
 
 The following extract from a circular recently issued, is 
 appended here, as a suitable conclusion to the staternents 
 given in this pamphlet : — 
 
 IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE 
 
 REMARKABLE OPENINGS FOR SPREADING 
 THE GOSPER pr TURKEY, 
 
 IT IS PBOPOSED TO FORM AN 
 
 ASSOCIATION IN AID OP MISSIONS IN THAT EMPIRE, 
 
 P.^PEOIALLy AMONG THE ARMENI^S AND GBEEKS. 
 
OPENINGS FOR THK GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 39 
 
 What can we do ? 
 
 None of our British Missionary Societies are in a state, or 
 are prepared, to occupy this ground.* Amidst the many 
 societies already existing, it is very desirable, if possible, to 
 avoid forming a new one. 
 
 A truly Evangelical Missionary Society is already working 
 in this field, has all the necessary apparatus at work, and 
 is capable of extension, viz., the American Board of Foreign 
 Missions. 
 
 It is proposed, therefore, to aid and supplement the 
 Turkish Missions of the Board chiefly by missionaries, Ame- 
 rican or European, medical or otherwise, wherever an open 
 door is found ; native pastors, evangelists, and colporteurs ; 
 the preparation of pious youths for the missionary work, and 
 education generally. 
 
 The result of this would be — a great saving of ex- 
 pense ; to work in union with our brethren in Christ ; to 
 present a united front to those whom we wish to evangelize, 
 and to all the enemies of our faith ; io strengthen the foun- 
 dation already laid, and extend it, as the providence of God 
 may bless our efforts. 
 
 Evangelical British Christians are therefore earnestly in- 
 vited — to pray that God may revive these old Christian 
 communities ; to contribute of their substance to this great 
 object ; and to interest others in it by diffusing information. 
 
 The characteristics of this work are — it interferes with no 
 other mission ; the apparatus for carrying it on is already 
 at work ; it seeks " to bring into the way of truth those who 
 profess and call themselves Christians it is for a field 
 " white unto the harvest," and of deep and peculiar interest 
 at the present time. 
 
 * The Church Missionaiy Society has at present but one agent in Asia Minor, its 
 chief efforts in the Turkish dominions being in Egypt and Palestine, in connexion 
 with the encouraging ■work of Bishop Gobat. 
 
40 
 
 OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN TURKEY. 
 
 We cordially commend this 
 pathy and co-operation. 
 
 Shaftesbury, 
 Congleton. 
 C. E. Eardley. 
 
 J. Wallis Alexander, London. 
 William Anderson, West Ham. 
 W. T. Berger, Dalston. 
 John Coldstream, Edinburgh. 
 W. B. Gumey, Camberwell. 
 Ggorge Hitchcock, London. 
 Luke Howard, Tottenham. ^ 
 A. Kinnaird, London. 
 George Pearse, Hackney. 
 S. M. Peto, Westminster. 
 J. M. Strachan, Teddington. 
 T. R. Wheatley, St. John's Wood. 
 Wm. Holt Yates, Brompton. 
 John Beecham, London. 
 
 object to your Christian sym- 
 
 Thos. R. Brooke, Avening. 
 
 John Brown, Edinburgh. 
 
 Jabez Bunting, London. 
 
 Robt. Candlish, Edinburgh. 
 
 W. W. Champneys, Whitechapel. 
 
 John Edgar, I3elfast. 
 
 George Fisk, St. John's Wood. 
 
 T. Romaine Govett, Alby, near 
 
 Norwich. 
 James Hamilton, London. 
 Ridley H. Herschell, London. 
 John Eliot Howard, Tottenham. 
 J. A. James, Birmingham, 
 Peter Latrobe, London. 
 Edward Steane, Camberwell. 
 Arthur Tidman, London. 
 Daniel Wilson, Islington. 
 
 Contributions for the Turkish Missions will be received by Messrs. 
 Barclay, Bevan, & Co., Lombard Street ; and Messrs. Ransom & Co., 
 Pall Mall East, London ; the Editors of Evangelical Christendom, through 
 Rev. Edward Steane, D.D., Camberwell, Surrey, or, Rev. Henry Jones, 
 7 Adam Street, Strand, London; also by Messrs. Nisbet, Berners Street; 
 Seeleys, Fleet Street; and Partridge & Oakey, Paternoster Row; Mr. 
 James Van Sommer, High Cross, Tottenham ; and Rev. Cuthbert G. 
 Young, North Shields. 
 
 LONDON: C. RICHARDS, 100, ST. MARTIn's I,ANE.