THE ARMENIANS.
1860-1861.
The fleets and armies of Europe had retired, and the Turk felt in a
measure freed from a troublesome guardianship; which had, however,
greatly promoted both religion and reform in Turkey. The fact that
the war had materially weakened Russian influence at the Porte, may
have been among the reasons that induced England now to relax its
hold on the government of the Sultan. As a consequence, French
diplomacy was decidedly in the ascendant, and lent its influence to
promote Papal schemes. "The Armenians," writes a well informed
missionary, "accept a declaration of the Bible as ultimate, and as
the Protestant missionaries made the Bible the basis of all their
work, and accustomed the people to refer to it for authority in all
spiritual matters, the Papists have been shut up to the use of
political measures to gain adherents. This they have done by
espousing the cause of any party in litigation on condition that he
should register himself a Roman Catholic. This influence was very
powerful throughout the country, as it was supported by the
intervention of the French embassy, and led to violence and
persecution in various parts of the empire, especially at Mardin,
where the papal power was comparatively strong."
Anticipating the history, it may be said, that the Franco-German war
changed all this. The Turkish government then no longer feared the
French, and hence no longer lent itself to Papal intrigues. The
dogma of the Papal Infallibility has been also a severe blow to the
Oriental Papacy.
No one was more competent than Dr. Dwight to testify concerning the
state of religious opinions among the Armenians of the metropolis.
Writing in February, 1860, he said it would be hard to find an
intelligent Armenian in Constantinople, unless among the
ecclesiastics, who did not acknowledge that there were many errors
in the Armenian Church, and that the evangelical system was the
best.
About the game time, he found a great change for the better at
Rodosto, on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmora. The
evangelical brethren had suffered many indignities from the
Armenians, but now even the magnates were disposed to cultivate
friendly relations with them. This he attributed, in great measure,
to the wise and yet firm demeanor of Apraham, the native preacher,
who afterwards became pastor of the Rodosto church. He was a native
of the place, and was once a deacon in the old Armenian Church, and
a candidate for the offices of vartabed and bishop. His first
knowledge of the truth was gained while in the Armenian monastery at
Jerusalem. From thence he came to Bebek, where he studied theology.
He was an exception to the rule, that a prophet has no honor in his
own country, for without compromising the truth, he had gained the
respect of all. He showed his missionary friend a list of eighty
families, upon which he called in regular order. Though most of them
belonged to the old Armenian Church, they received him kindly. The
missionary called with him upon two of these families prominent in
the Armenian community, in one of which they spent an entire
evening. A copy of the Bible, in the modern language, was in the
house, and was brought forward, read, and commented upon, just as if
this had been a Protestant family.
Dr. Dwight attended the examination of the Protestant school at
Rodosto. More than half of the pupils were from non-Protestant
families; and an audience of two hundred and fifty expressed very
general satisfaction with the attainments of the pupils. On the
Sabbath he administered the Lord's Supper. A large number not
connected with the church, were present, and gave close attention to
the preaching. Many must have come from mere curiosity, but the
missionary never preached with greater certainty that he had the
sympathies of his audience.
In the following July, events showed that the new influences had in
some way reached all classes of Armenians in the metropolis. An aged
Protestant died and his body was borne by his friends to an Armenian
cemetery, which hitherto had been open to all bearing the Christian
name. Now, however, a mob, composed of the very lowest class of
Armenians, seized the coffin, and forcibly carried it out of the
burying-ground, where it remained four days. The mob increased to
thousands, and kept possession of the ground day and night. The
American and English Ambassadors were at length roused, and
remonstrated with the Porte and the Patriarch. The burial was
assented to, and the Seraskier, or Minister of War, came with
several hundred troops. A place was selected for the grave within
the cemetery, but the mob, at the first blow of the pickaxe, rushed
forward with a savage yell. The troops were ordered to resist, but
not to fire. After twenty or thirty had been wounded, the mob fell
back. The Patriarch and other dignitaries of the Armenian Church now
came upon the ground, and gave their sanction to the spot selected
for the burial, and the grave was dug. Just then the Seraskier, for
some unexplained reason, ordered the grave to be filled, and another
to be dug outside of the cemetery, in the middle of the public
highway. The Protestants declined taking part in the burial in such
a spot, though entreated to do so by the Seraskier, but remained and
looked on in silence, while Mussulmans dug the grave, put the coffin
into it, and filled it up. As soon as this was done, the mob rushed
forward and trampled spitefully upon it, in the presence of the
Pasha and Patriarch. The representatives of the Protestant powers
now united in a strong remonstrance to the government; and Stepan
Effendi, the civil head of the Protestants, was speedily notified,
that ground would be given them for cemeteries wherever Protestants
were found.
A native assistant died at Baghchejuk, near Nicomedia, early in the
year, who had from the beginning been intimately connected with the
work in that place, and was called the "prince of colporters," on
account of his success in distributing the Scriptures. Being by
nature an earnest man, when converted he became zealous in
disseminating the truth. As he was respected through all the region,
there was great anxiety among the Armenians to regain him, and an
ex-Patriarch visited Baghchejuk, in the hope of bringing him back.
Promises and threats were equally vain, and the storm of persecution
finally burst upon him. His vineyards and mulberry orchards were cut
down, and much of his property was wrested from him. He was beaten
and stoned, and his name cast out as vile. When they were building
the church he brought a basket full of stones and brick-bats, which
had been thrown through his windows, to be incorporated in the
foundation wall. He described the effect of persecution in his own
case, thus: "The truth in my heart was like a stake slightly driven
into soft ground, easily swayed, and in danger of falling before the
wind; but by the sledge-hammer of persecution God drove it in till
it became immovable." "His working power," says Mr. Parsons, the
resident missionary, "like everything else in his possession, was
consecrated to Christ. With great self-denial on his part, two
hundred piasters a month (about eight dollars) enabled him to give
all his time to street preaching, and the sale of the Scriptures. As
a bookseller he was eminently faithful and successful. Not contented
with sitting in the book-stall waiting for purchasers, he used to
shoulder a basket of books, and go through the streets and lanes of
town and city, offering for sale the 'Holy Book;' the 'Book that
would not lie;' the 'Infallible Guide;' and proclaiming, in
a loud voice, its divine origin, man's need of it, and its
light-and-life-giving power. This he did as time and strength
permitted, from Broosa to Angora, and from Bilijik to the Black Sea.
He everywhere either carried with him, or had near at hand, a supply
of Bibles in the Turkish, Armenian, Greek, and Jewish languages.
Probably not less than one hundred thousand persons have heard from
him the proffer of the word of life."
"The word of God," continues Mr. Parsons, "was his constant
companion. He was so familiar with it, that he could turn with
facility to any passage desired. He walked with God. He was a man of
prayer. His happiest moments were seasons of devotion--private,
social, and public. I should say, rather, that next to the work of
bringing others to Christ, his delight was in prayer and praise. He
has rested from his labors, but his works do follow him. Before he
died, he could rejoice in a rich harvest from his own sowing, but a
greater harvest is yet to be reaped from the seed so widely
scattered by his hand. He has gone, a sheaf of the first-fruits of
the work in Baghchejuk. He 'came to his grave as a shock of corn
cometh in in his season.'"
Mr. E. E. Bliss passed through Marsovan on his way to Harpoot, and
found that the rampant hostility of eight years before had died
out.[1] Instead of the hootings and stonings, which then greeted his
arrival, he was met, a long way out, by a goodly company to escort
him to his lodgings. On the Sabbath, in place of the little company
assembled in a lower room of his own house, he now preached to a
good audience, in a large and commodious chapel.
[1] See chapter xxiv.
"I spent," he says, "a few days at Sivas, where I was eight years
ago, and found the small room, where ten or fifteen then met for
God's worship, exchanged for a large upper room, filled with an
audience of more than a hundred. And as we went onward to places we
had never before visited, it was a continual feast to see the extent
to which the work of God had spread in the whole country. In almost
every place where we stopped for the night, however obscure the
village, some would gather around us as brethren in the Lord. They
were often coarsely dressed and rude of speech, undistinguishable in
appearance from the mass around them; but a few words of
conversation would show that their souls had been illuminated by the
truth."
The annual meeting of the Northern Armenian Mission for 1860, was
held at Harpoot, east of the Euphrates, seven hundred and fifty
miles from Constantinople. And it was a significant fact, that the
delegates from the metropolis were able to communicate with their
families over the telegraph wires, destined to connect London with
Calcutta.
The distance from the capital, and of the stations from each other
was so great, as to render it difficult to assemble in the annual
meetings, that were indispensable for an effective administration.
At this meeting, what had been known as the Northern Mission, was
divided into Western and Eastern, and Erzroom, Harpoot, and Arabkir
composed the Eastern Mission. The Southern Mission then took the
name of the Central; and the stations of the Assyria Mission were
united to the Eastern. It will be convenient to use the names
Western, Central, and Eastern in designating territory, but we
shall, as far as possible, treat the three divisions as constituting
one great mission.
The church at Harpoot received its first native pastor at this
annual meeting. He was one of several young men, who left Diarbekir
for Constantinople, eight years before, for the purpose of obtaining
a Protestant education at Bebek. They were subjected to many
revilings on their way, and few showed them any kindness. Some who
were in sympathy with them deprecated their removal from Diarbekir,
as the withdrawal from that place of the little light which had
begun to shine. Now, having completed the course of study at the
Seminary, Tomas, one of that company, was preaching the Gospel every
Sabbath in Diarbekir, and was to become pastor there; and Marderos,
another, combining great excellence of character, was made pastor of
the flourishing church at Harpoot.
Mr. Dunmore, when he commenced the Harpoot station, five years
before, found not a single Protestant in that city. It was now only
three years since the arrival of Messrs. Wheeler, Allen, and Barnum,
and there were thirty-nine church-members, and Harpoot was fast
becoming an important centre of influence. There were schools in ten
of the thirteen out-stations, eleven of which were supplied with
preaching on the Sabbath by the missionaries and students of the
Seminary, and in all the surrounding regions there was an increase
of attendance on preaching. Women learned to read, and groups were
found studying the Bible. In the numerous villages of the Harpoot
plain and outlying districts were many faithful disciples of the
Lord Jesus. The spirit of freedom had gone forth, as was seen in the
growing activity of laymen, and the consequent decline of
superstition and ecclesiastical despotism. Instruction was
communicated to large numbers of both men and women, and it was
beginning to be regarded as disgraceful for adults of either sex not
to be able to read.
The theological school contained twenty-four pupils, of whom eleven
were from the vicinity and ten were married men. The students
devoted their winter vacation of four months to preaching and
teaching, and in term time they preached at out-stations.
Mrs. Dwight, after twenty-one years of eminently useful service,
died at Constantinople in November, 1860. Dr. Dwight's family being
thus broken up, he commenced, with the approval of his brethren, a
tour through Syria and Asiatic Turkey, intending to go over much of
the ground he had traversed with Dr. Eli Smith in their explorations
thirty years before.
How great the changes in the intervening period! Then, for fourteen
and a half months, he was unable to receive tidings from his wife,
whom he had left in Malta. Now, from beyond the Euphrates, he could
have communicated daily with Constantinople by telegraph. Then, no
fellow-laborers were to be found between Smyrna and the little bands
of German and Scotch brethren soon after to be driven away from
Russian Armenia and Georgia, and nowhere did they meet among the
people any religious sympathies in unison with their own. Now, the
survivor found missionaries scattered over the land, and he scarcely
entered a place where some one, at least, did not greet him with a
joyful welcome. Then, the object was to explore an unbroken scene of
spiritual death. Now, it was to confirm living churches, and help
forward a growing spiritual work.
The tour was extended as far as the Nestorian mission, and occupied
about eight months. Reviewing this journey of almost unprecedented
interest, Dr. Dwight could not refrain from using the language of
Christian triumph: "I have visited," he says, "every station of the
Board in Turkey and Persia excepting those among the Bulgarians. It
has been my privilege to see all the missionaries and their
families,--a rare body of men and women, of whom our churches and
our country may well be proud,--and also to become personally
acquainted with hundreds and thousands of the dear Protestant
brethren and sisters of this land--God's lights in the midst of
surrounding darkness; God's witnesses even where Satan dwelleth."
Dr. Dwight was at Marash in April, and this is his own vivid
description of what he saw there: "This place is indeed a missionary
wonder! Twelve years ago there was not a Protestant here, and the
people were proverbially ignorant, barbarous, and fanatical. Six
years ago the evangelical Armenian church was organized with sixteen
members, the congregation at that time consisting of one hundred and
twenty. On the last Sabbath I preached in the morning to a
congregation of over a thousand, and in the afternoon addressed
nearly or quite fifteen hundred people, when forty were received
into the church, making the whole number two hundred and
twenty-seven. Nearly one hundred of these have been added since Mr.
White came here, two years ago. One old woman of seventy-five years
was admitted who was converted only four months ago. She was
previously a bigoted opposer, but now she seems full of the love of
Christ. Her emotions almost overpowered her on approaching the table
of the Lord.
"The church-members here impressed me from the first as men who
thought more of the spiritual than the temporal. The Holy Spirit has
been evidently at work here during the whole of the year, and
especially through the past winter, and conversions are constantly
taking place. The burden of conversation among the brethren is in
regard to praying and laboring for the salvation of souls.
"On the Sabbath the half of the body of the church was filled with
women packed closely together on the floor. The other half, and the
broad galleries around three sides of the house, were completely
crowded with men. A new church is needed immediately in the other
end of the town. I bless God that He brought me here, and I feel
almost like saying, 'Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.'"
It should be said that this visit to Marash was in the midst of a
revival. The resident missionary, Mr. White, describes the work as
being chiefly among the Armenians and Roman Catholics. "Every night
they met in the houses of the Protestants and spent hours, sometimes
even till near morning, examining the Scriptures and comparing them
with the corrupt teachings of their own churches. Our young men were
very active, laboring both day and night, so much so, that the
Catholic bishop said he could not understand it; that if the young
men were paid for thus laboring, the missionaries had not money
enough; and if they were not paid, they had a love which he could
not understand. Many of his people, however, seemed to comprehend it
better than he did, and are now regular attendants at our church."
The veteran missionary pays a noble tribute to the wives of the
missionaries at the several stations of the central mission: "I felt
myself rebuked when I saw the earnest, self-devoted spirit of my
missionary sisters, who are laboring in Aintab, in Marash, in
Antioch, in Aleppo, and in Oorfa, for the salvation of their
degraded sex; thinking little of the sacrifices they have made in
leaving America, to live in such a country as Turkey. It would be
difficult to find in Christendom a more happy class than these, our
helpers in Christ Jesus. The holy object which fills their hearts
lifts them above the distracting and embittering influences of
external circumstances."
The change at Diarbekir, during the score of years since Dr. Grant
and Mr. Homes barely escaped with their lives, had been truly
wonderful. Drs. Dwight and Schneider and Mr. Nutting, on their
approach from Oorfa, were met, eighteen miles out, by a deputation
of Protestant brethren on horseback; and, a few miles further on, by
another detachment, headed by Mr. Walker and the native pastor; and
when near the city, by a third on foot, thus giving them a sort of
triumphal entry. Nor, during their whole stay, was there anything to
awaken a feeling of insecurity, but convincing evidence, that
Protestantism had a strong hold on many minds.
Dr. Dwight noticed a decline of the Turkish population in the region
of the Euphrates. Several entire quarters in Diarbekir, formerly
Turkish, had passed into Christian hands, and the process was going
on. Armenians, Jacobites, and Protestants were buying Turkish
houses, but seldom did a Turk buy one of theirs; and around the
outskirts of the city there were extensive Turkish quarters all in
ruins.
Mrs. Dunmore had come to the United States in 1856, in consequence
of the failure of her health, and was never able to return. Her
husband continued his self-denying labors four years longer, until,
seeing no prospect of her recovery, he believed his duty required
him to follow her. It was then a time of civil war in his native
land, and his public spirit led him to accept an invitation from a
regiment of cavalry to be their chaplain. A detachment, with which
he was connected, was surprised early in the morning of August 3,
1861, and he fell, shot in the head before he was fairly out of his
tent.[1]
[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1862, p. 321.
In courage, enterprise, tact, and efficacy, Mr. Dunmore stood in the
front rank of missionaries. "He did not write much of what he did,"
says Mr. Walker, his successor at Diarbekir. "He cared not to be
known. But he cared for the souls of this poor people, and for
Christ's kingdom. I think that few missionaries are so well fitted
for the work, and very few labor with the same zeal and self-denial.
To few is it given to accomplish so much. There is comparatively
little accomplished in Diarbekir, Arabkir, Harpoot, and Moosh, which
is not, under God, due to this brother. His influence will long be
felt in these parts. Paul was his model, and there are few who come
so near to that exemplar. He had wonderful power in attaching the
natives to him. He could sympathize deeply with them, and aid them
as few can. His heart was in the work here, and it was a very great
trial for him to return to America. His fearless journeys among the
Koords in this land, led us often to feel apprehensive for his life.
The Lord forgive the Texan, whose bullet cut short a life so
valuable."
In the years 1860 and 1861, the ill health of either husband or wife
deprived the mission of the labors of Messrs. Clark, Hutchison,
Parsons, and Plumer, and their families. Mr. and Mrs. Peabody
returned to their native land, after a faithful service of nineteen
years. Dr. Schauffler also terminated his official connection of
twenty-nine years with his missionary associates, and entered the
service of the American, and the British and Foreign Bible Societies
in the work of Bible translation for the Turkish Mohammedans. Miss
Tenney was married to Dr. Hamlin, who had been released from his
connection with the Board to take charge of a Protestant college in
Constantinople, though without any change in the great object of his
labors.
Mr. Williams reoccupied Mardin in the year 1861. This was then, as
now, the capital of the Syrian Church, and the natural centre of
operations among the Arabic-speaking people in Eastern Turkey. It
embraced Mosul, and multitudes of towns and villages scattered over
a wide region, and required more than one missionary; though that
one was a man of first-rate abilities and eminent devotion to his
work. It was put in connection with the Armenian Mission, partly
because its missionary policy was the same, and partly because it
seemed necessary to work that whole field from one central station,
and by a small number of missionaries, and because it would require
the moral support of the larger mission in its neighborhood.
A training-school was commenced at Mardin in the following year, on
the plan of the one at Harpoot, with a class of eight hopefully
pious young men. The congregation had doubled since Mr. Williams'
return and Protestantism had a more favorable position; but as yet
the intellect accepted the truth more readily than did the heart.
Trebizond had only a native pastor, and the day-school was reported
as one of the best in Turkey. Khanoos, southeast of Erzroom, had
been faithfully cultivated for some time by the native pastor,
Simon, who was now removed to Moosh, where he would have a better
field. Erzroom was again without a missionary in consequence of the
necessary removal of Mr. Trowbridge to the capital.
In addition to notices of versions of the Scriptures in the
preceding chapter, it should now be stated, that Dr. Goodell had
completed the great work of his life,--the translation of the Bible
into the Turkish language, as written in the Armenian character and
spoken by the Armenians. The version was from the Hebrew and Greek;
the New Testament had received three distinct revisions, and the Old
Testament one. His principal helper, for thirty years, was Panayotes
Constantinides, who died March 11, 1861. "He had greatly desired,"
writes Dr. Goodell, "to live to see the end of the revision, and we
pressed on together, returning thanks at the end of every chapter,
that we had got so far on our journey. But his strength failed him
on the way, and when there was but little further to go, he laid
himself down, and the angels carried him to his home in heaven." Dr.
Schauffler had nearly completed a translation of the New Testament
in Turkish, with the Arabic or sacred character, and after much
difficulty had obtained the consent of the government to its
publication. Dr. Riggs had reached the books of Kings, in addition
to the Psalms, in his version of the Scriptures in Bulgarian, and
had also given time to preparing and editing Bulgarian tracts.
The amount of publication in the year 1860, in the Armenian,
Armeno-Turkish, Bulgarian, and Modern Greek, was 164,500 copies, and
13,296,000 pages. The total expenditure was $15,789, from the
following sources:--
American Bible Society $3,473
British and Foreign Bible Society 1,243
American Tract Society, New York 2,646
American Tract Society, Boston 674
London Tract Society 1,175
American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions 5,462
Other sources 1,116
--------
$15,789
Among the books published were a Reply to Archbishop Matteos in
Armenian, a Commentary on Matthew, Hymn-Book, Theological
Class-Book, and Geography,--the last at the expense of Haritûn
Minasiyan, an Armenian printer. The Word of God was more in demand
than any other book. The Armenian Bible, with marginal references,
electrotyped and printed in New York by the American Bible Society,
was highly prized. The American Tract Society had also electrotyped
and printed several works for the mission, which were admired for
their beauty, and were furnished more cheaply than they could have
been prepared in Constantinople.