THE ARMENIANS.
1867-1869.
The year 1868 added five to the ordained missionary force of the
missions; namely, Messrs. Alpheus N. Andrus, Carmi C. Thayer, John
Edwin Pierce, Royal M. Cole, and Theodore S. Pond. Messrs. Milan H.
Hitchcock, Edward Riggs, Henry Marden, and John Otis Barrows, were
added in 1869. These were all accompanied by their wives. Besides
these, there were George C. Reynolds, M. D., and wife, and ten
unmarried women; namely, Misses Rebecca A. Tracy, Charlotte
Elizabeth Ely, Mary A. C. Ely, Harriet G. Powers, Cyrene O. Van
Duzee, Olive L. Parmelee, Isabella C. Baker, Flavia S. Bliss, Ursula
C. Clarke, and Ardelle M. Griswold. Mardin was now manned, for the
first time, with three missionaries, Messrs. Williams, Andrus, and
Pond, with Misses Parmelee and Baker, two unmarried young women. Dr.
Van Lennep and Mr. Ladd closed their labors in connection with the
mission in 1869.
It was not alone at Harpoot, that the year 1869 opened with a
revival of religion. Aintab, Bitlis, Marash, and Mardin were favored
with the like blessing. The "Week of Prayer" at Marash was described
as a jubilee. Both houses of worship were opened, each day, an hour
before sunset, and in each was a gathering of at least two hundred
and fifty; where the many spontaneous prayers, and the pastor's vain
endeavors to close the services within the hour, showed that the
attendance was not a mere form. Twenty-nine out of fifty-two
candidates were admitted to the first church, and twenty-one out of
forty to the second. Nearly all these were able to read; and the
examination was deemed more remarkable than the number received.
In respect to Mardin, I cannot refrain from quoting the expressive
words of Mr. Williams, whose pen had much of graphic power. "The
community here received the proposal to observe the week of prayer
most joyfully, and preferred two meetings a day to one,--the first
at sunrise, the second an hour and a half before sunset, each an
hour long. Our first meeting was in a pouring rain, thirty present.
This is the first pleasant day, and seventy-six were present in the
morning. One of the preachers opens the meeting by singing, reading,
remarks, and prayer. This occupies from twenty-five to thirty
minutes, and then the meeting is thrown open to others, and six or
eight prayers, short and pertinent, fill the time till the hour is
up. We never before have been able to start a prayer-meeting here,
and now they move off in a line, as if they had done nothing else
all their lives. I think as many as twenty-five persons have led in
prayer."
A church had not yet been formed, but the Protestant community
undertook the entire support of their preacher, and also of one of
their own number as a missionary to the Koords. The latter is thus
described by Mr. Williams: "A great, six feet, brawny fellow, with
unwashed clothes (he is a tanner), long, disheveled hair, large,
open features, and eyes black as coal, that shine like stars; but so
simple in his trust, so tender in his love to Jesus, and earnest in
his efforts to do good! He learned to read with steady, earnest
application, and his questions are so spiritual, so humble, so
childlike, that it is as the sun whenever he enters my door.
"One evening Oosee (Hosea) came in with clothes torn, fez[1] gone,
face bloody, hair wildly disheveled, but the same genial lustre
beaming from his eyes, accompanied by another Protestant, Daoud
(David), who was earnest, almost imperative, that I should at once
go to the governor and enter complaint. Asking for particulars, I
learned that, returning from his garden soon after sunset, Oosee was
set upon by a crowd of Papists, and escaped in the plight I saw him.
Daoud insisted that unless those men were at once imprisoned, no one
would be safe. I asked Oosee how he felt about it. 'Just as you say,
Khowaja,[2] was his reply. I read to him parts of Rom. xii. and
xiii., and showed him that he was justified in entering complaint,
that he had a right to protection, and that those who had set upon
him doubtless deserved punishment; but said I, 'Would those men have
touched you when you were a Papist?' 'Not one.' 'Why?' 'They dare
not. Why, they knew I could thrash the whole of them, and would have
feared I'd kill them. They knew me.' 'And now?' 'Now they think I'm
a Prote, and wont strike back.' 'Did you?' 'Not a bit; I only tried
to get away from them.' 'And if now, instead of throwing them into
prison, you forgive them, and treat them as if nothing had happened,
do you think they will see any difference between Oosee the Papist,
and Oosee the Prote?' 'Of course they will.' 'To what will they
charge the difference?' 'To my new religion.' 'Will not that lead
them to admit the power of the Gospel? Will it not honor Christ?'
'Yes, I believe it will.' 'Well, Oosee, just as _you_ say. If
you on the whole wish it, I will go to the governor and enter
complaint,--you have a clear right to this,--or I will let it drop
just here, as you please.' 'No, Khowaja, I'll not complain, I
forgive them. I'll go home and treat them as if nothing had
happened. That is what Jesus says, and I'll do it. Perhaps they will
come to Christ.' He has never since been molested.
[1] Red Turkish cap.
[2] Gentleman--a title given to the missionaries in Eastern Turkey.
"When it was decided to take a new class of training pupils in
Arabic, Oosee was the first to whom I spoke about joining it. The
proposition was wholly unexpected, and I wish you could have seen
the joy that shone in his eyes and beamed from every feature! I
asked him if he thought his wife would consent to his going. 'We
will ask Jesus,' he said. 'If he wants me to go he will make her
willing. I don't think she'll oppose.' To some, who attempted to
dissuade him on the ground that the allowance was insufficient for
his family, he said, 'If only they will let me study, we will
consent to live in the yard; no matter about a house, we'll get on
any way; anything for Jesus.' Some days after, I said; "How about
the wife?' 'O, she says go, and if need be we'll sell our vineyard
to meet expenses. She is more anxious to go than I.' The vineyard
would possibly bring, if sold, forty dollars in currency."
A church was organized at Mardin in February, which engaged to
choose and support a pastor. On Sabbath afternoon, when it was
organized, and the sacraments were administered, there were present
three hundred and fifty persons, in a room which Mr. Williams says,
"I had always insisted would hold one hundred and fifty, if properly
packed." While candidates were being examined, the wife of Oosee
presented herself. "No one had thought of her as a church-member,
but before her examination was through, each had written against her
name 'accepted.' We were as much delighted as surprised at her
answers, and the meek, loving spirit she showed." Oosee did not go
on the proposed mission, not deeming himself sufficiently educated;
but is understood to have adorned his Christian profession down to
the present time.
The reader has already some acquaintance with the people of Zeitoon,
inhabiting the mountains north of Marash. Until subdued by the Turks
in 1862, they were famed for their defiance of all law. The town
contained about twelve thousand inhabitants, all of them Armenians.
The men were described as of athletic make, quick step, and piercing
eyes, showing in all their bearing that they breathed the free air
of the mountains. The town is about thirty-five miles from Marash,
built against the side of a high rock, the houses hanging one above
another, so that the roof of the house below is the front yard of
the house above.
Two years after their subjugation, Dr. Pratt made a professional
visit, to attend one of their leaders then dangerously sick, and
suffered no molestation. Two years later, at the earnest
solicitation of several Protestants, Mr. Montgomery attempted a
visit, with Pastor Avedis of the second church of Marash, and a
deacon of the first church. The town being then under Turkish
authority, they anticipated no special danger. "At evening, as we
were entering the city," writes Mr. Montgomery, "to visit the
governor of the place, according to custom, a furious mob of men and
boys dragged us from our horses, and at once began beating and
stoning us with frantic rage, rending the air with savage yells. Our
Protestant guide was driven out of sight amid volleys of stones, the
mob crying, 'Kill him! kill the wretch!' The deacon was allowed to
secrete himself; but for Avedis and myself there was no escape till
the mob had spent their fury, stoning us, and afterwards kicking and
beating our prostrate bodies, while we were looking for escape only
through death."
At this crisis, a great strong man, yelling so as to appear in
sympathy with the mob, rushed up to where Mr. Montgomery was lying,
and threw him on his horse, saying to him in an under tone, "Don't
be afraid, trust me;" and then with curses hurried him out of the
way, and took him and the pastor in the dark to his own house,
where, as he dared not to keep them, he got them ready, as well as
he could, to return at once to Marash.
"Thus we were saved," continues Mr. Montgomery, "after having been
in the hands of the mob over two hours. We had a hard ride that
night, hatless, our clothes bloody and torn, and our bodies so
bruised that we could scarce sit on our horses; but we were enabled
to pick our way homeward by the rough mountain paths."
It was subsequently known that this outrage was instigated by the
priests at Marash, with the connivance of the governor. Meanwhile
the Zeitoon people were fearful lest they had gone too far, and the
Protestants began to breathe more freely; and many, who had failed
to declare themselves before, now stood up openly for the truth.
In the summer of 1868, a native preacher was sent to Zeitoon by the
home missionary society of Marash, and was allowed to remain
unmolested, with ample opportunities for preaching the Word. At the
close of the year, Mr. Trowbridge, having removed from
Constantinople to Marash, made a visit to Zeitoon, and remained
there laboring freely from Thursday till Monday. His guide homeward
was a Zeitoon Protestant,--"a tall, gaunt man, past middle life, who
has suffered much there for Christ's sake. At one time the people
blackened his face with a coal, put him astride of a donkey with his
face towards the tail, and thus paraded him through the streets; a
crier shouting before him, 'Thus shall it be done to all who reject
the worship of saints, and do not honor the Virgin Mary.' There is
now no persecution."
Hopeful indications once more appeared among the Greeks at Erzroom
and Trebizond, and also at Kerasun and Ordo, on the coast of the
Black Sea west of Trebizond. Mr. Parmelee visited the two places
last named, and put a helper named Harootune at Ordo, around whom
the people gathered, earnestly desiring to learn the way of life.
Even the women, who were precluded by their notions of propriety
from assembling with the men, anxiously inquired when the helper
would bring his wife, that she might teach them also. Persecution
arose, but as usual it was overruled for good.
Dr. William Goodell, after more than forty years of successful
missionary service, returned in 1865, in feeble health, to spend the
evening of life in his native land. With his wife, who had been his
faithful companion from the first, he made his home with his eldest
son, a physician in Philadelphia. There, beloved and revered, he
lived until February 18, 1867, when he was removed to his heavenly
home, at the age of seventy-five.
To the early friends of Dr. Goodell it seemed that his providential
call was to be a preacher of the Gospel; and such he really was
all through life, and the printed volume of his sermons in
Armeno-Turkish, translated also into Armenian and Bulgarian, has had
a very extensive circulation.[1] But Divine Providence so ordered
the events of his early missionary career, that translating the
Scriptures became his principal work. He began at Malta to translate
the New Testament from the original into the Armeno-Turkish. That
done, he entered upon the Old Testament; and he completed the last
revision of the Bible in 1863. It was a great and good work, and
will transmit his name for grateful remembrance to future ages.
[1] The report of the Nicomedia station for 1871, contains the
following: "In Diermendere, a basket-maker has learned Turkish, and
is supplied with books and tracts in that language for use among the
Turks. The book he thinks most of, and which he begs may be put into
the Arabic character, is Dr. Goodell's sermons. A Baghchejuk
brother, whose business takes him often among the Turks in the
vicinity of Armash, always takes these sermons with him. He says
that the Turks always listen with interest, and sometimes with
tears. He is often requested to read the same sermon over and over
again." The Marsovan report for the same year contains the
following: "At Vizier Keopreu a change in public sentiment has taken
place to such a degree, that the Armenian teacher is preaching Dr.
Goodell's sermons to attentive audiences of his own people."
Dr. Goodell had few equals as an agreeable letter-writer. The author
was in official correspondence with him through his whole missionary
life, and never ceased admiring his vivacity, humor, and felicity of
expression, the aptness of his thoughts, and his very appropriate
quotations of Scripture. He had the power, beyond most men, of
passing at once and by an easy transition, from the merriest
laughter to the most serious topics. His addresses to children had a
resistless charm, and his power of turning a conversation into
channels of his own choice was invaluable, in dealing with conceited
disputatious orientals. "Indomitable in his purpose to do good,
affable and courteous in manner, of ready tact, and abounding in
resistless pleasantry, he gained access wherever he chose to go, and
wielded an influence powerful for good upon all with whom he chose
to associate. He commanded the respect of foreign ambassadors and
travellers, of dignitaries in the Oriental Churches, bankers, and
the highest in society, as well as the common people. Even enemies
were constrained to honor him. Few possess in so high a degree the
admirable faculty of doing good without offense, and of recommending
personal religion to the world."[1]
[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1867, pp. 129-133: also 1865,
p. 350.
Mr. Herman N. Barnum's account of a tour to Diarbekir, Mardin, Sert,
Bitlis, and Moosh, in 1867, brings the Eastern field vividly before
us. His new associate, Mr. Henry S. Barnum, together with the
pastors connected with the Evangelical Union, and nine recent
graduates of the Seminary, accompanied him as far as Diarbekir,
where they arrived on Saturday. There was a union service of the two
congregations, on the next day, in the yard of one of the chapels,
at which as many as eight hundred were present. The church in
Diarbekir, though its pastor had been absent for two and a half
years, and there was only one native preacher for the two
congregations, yet had maintained the ordinances, and secured
frequent accessions to the community. They supported their preacher,
and also several schools, sent money to their absent pastor, and
supported two students at the Theological Seminary, whom they had
sent thither to be educated for the mission in Koordistan. They
chose several of their more intelligent members to assist the
preacher in keeping up the services of the two congregations; thus
proving their ability to care for themselves under very unfavorable
circumstances.
The Union was in session four days, and its meetings were well
attended. The evangelizing of Koordistan received a good deal of
attention. The five young men who were preparing for it, had
locations assigned them, their salaries fixed, and thus the native
pastors were acquiring experience in missionary superintendence.
Seven young men, just graduated from the Seminary, were carefully
examined for licensure, especially in their religious experience and
their motives for entering the ministry.
The last day of the session was the most interesting, when one of
the pastors read an essay upon the "means of promoting an awakening
among the unconverted;" which was followed by remarks from nearly
all the pastors present. The interest was greatest when some gave
expression to their deep feeling of responsibility, and to the
conviction that their own want of earnestness and spirituality was
the reason of so much indifference among the unconverted.
From Diarbekir the missionaries and six of the pastors went to
Mardin, whence, after ordaining one pastor, they went a journey of
five days to Sert. There they took part in another ordination, and
the formation of a church. Elias, the new pastor, had labored long
and faithfully in this place, and refused a most pressing call from
Mardin, though in worldly things it was much more desirable. He
believed he could be more useful where the poor and oppressed looked
to him as their spiritual father. Out of seven persons who offered
themselves as candidates for church-membership, six were organized
into a church. The congregation was small and poor, but a long
series of persecutions had wonderfully purged them of selfishness.
They had paid largely for their house of worship, had provided the
pastor elect with a new suit of clothes for the ordination, and,
considering their deep poverty, had made extraordinary subscriptions
towards the required half of his salary. They now adopted the system
of tithes cheerfully, which had been so successfully advocated by
John Concordance.
From Sert Mr. Williams proceeded to Mosul, and the rest to Bitlis.
There the congregation had long desired for their pastor Baron
Simon, who received ordination as an evangelist years before at
Constantinople. He has been repeatedly mentioned as Pastor Simon,
and was a man of experience and sterling worth. There were no
missionaries then at Bitlis. From hence they passed on to Moosh. The
plain on which the town is situated, is sixty miles long and ten or
twelve wide, and contains about seventy nominally Christian
villages. The travellers were exposed to a snow-storm while crossing
the plain. "It was genuine winter weather," writes Mr. Barnum, "yet
I think I never saw anywhere else, not even in the warm sunshine of
Egypt, so much nakedness, total or partial. Adults of course had the
semblance of clothing, though it was often a mass of rags, sewed or
tied together; but the poor children! It makes my heart ache to
think of them. Some had a tolerably whole shirt and drawers, some
had no drawers, and what was once a shirt was now a few shreds,
hanging from the shoulders. Many had merely a rag, as a sort of
jacket, with holes to put the arms through, and others had not a
thread upon their bodies. The people seem to be almost bedless.
Wherever we went, we found that the beds were a piece of carpet, or
felt, or only a little straw, with a piece of carpet as a covering.
In the six or seven villages visited by us, we did not notice a
woman, or a child, who had either stockings or shoes. They walked
about in the snow, and over the frozen ground, with bare feet. The
soil is fertile, and the people own the land themselves,--not
the Turkish Aghas, as is the case in many other parts of the
country,--so that it must be mere thriftlessness, rather than any
stern necessity, which makes them so destitute. They have not
learned to raise cotton, and consequently do not have on hand the
material for making clothes, except some kinds of woolen garments;
and as they do not like to pay money for cotton cloth, they live in
this truly barbarous state. Our pastors had never seen any
destitution like this among their Christian brethren, and it made a
deep impression upon them."
Mr. Barnum adds: "The spiritual condition of the people is as bad as
the physical. In the three or four monasteries surrounding the
plain, there are said to be fifty vartabeds--men of more or less
education. What a work they might do in these seventy villages, in
improving the condition of the people, if they only had the heart
for it. They are in a great measure responsible for this state of
things. They come down periodically from their haunts of
dissipation, and gather up and carry off whatever the people can
spare; and this has helped to discourage enterprise. The great want
now is the pure Gospel. This will not only save their souls, it will
give them true civilization and refinement. To us it seemed that the
people were ripe for the reception of the truth, for they are
growing tired of their present condition. The pastors turned away
from Moosh plain with the determination to induce the Evangelical
Union, if consistent with the work undertaken in Koordistan, to do
something for these people."
This journey of five hundred and fifty miles occupied thirty-eight
days, and was too much for the new missionary, who reached home
"jaded and worn," and had a serious illness. Before his recovery,
and probably in consequence of her care of her husband, Mrs. Barnum
was prostrated by typhus fever, which proved fatal on the 31st of
December, 1867, a little more than three months after her arrival at
Harpoot. But even in so short a time she had greatly endeared
herself to her associates.[1]
[1] _Missionary Herald_ for 1868, p. 136.
North of the territory traversed by Mr. Barnum, is the Erzroom
district. Of the sixty thousand inhabitants of the city of Erzroom
in 1868, fifteen thousand were Armenians. The hundred villages
scattered over its plain are smaller and more scattered than those
on the plain of Harpoot. But then the territory connected with
Erzroom is nearly as large as New England west of Maine, and has a
population of half a million, two thirds of whom are Armenians.
Touring in this territory is easy, as compared with the Harpoot
district; since the roads, almost everywhere, admit of the use of
wheels, and on the public thoroughfares the khans are comparatively
good. A wagon road was then in a sluggish process of construction
from Trebizond across the mountains.
The church in Diarbekir continued to grow, even during the three or
four years' absence of the pastor. They were active in communicating
the truth to their neighbors, and were especially interested in
securing the introduction of the Gospel into the surrounding
villages, and into Koordistan. But since then, the energy bestowed
upon these outside enterprises has been turned toward the building
of a large church, by means of funds collected by the pastor chiefly
in England, and to strictly home affairs.
The young men sent on the mission to Koordistan addressed themselves
chiefly to the Armenians and Jacobites, without neglecting the
Moslems, Koords, and Yezidees. These sects, in their social
intercourse, used only the Koordish language; but in their prayers,
the Armenians used the ancient Armenian, the Jacobites the ancient
Syriac, and the Koords the Arabic, all wholly unintelligible to
them. And it was a new thought to them, that God could be addressed
in the Koordish language.
A company of native missionaries was sent from Harpoot, in the
summer of 1868, to the benighted region of Moosh. This was a result
of the tour just described, and was a self-denying enterprise, but
the sacrifice was cheerfully made.
The two Seminaries at Harpoot were now full. Including the students
brought thither for a time from Mardin, and the Koordish students,
there were fifty in each Seminary; and these, with their children,
made a colony of one hundred and fifty.
It became manifest, soon after the Crimean war, that the Papal
ecclesiastics in Turkey, emboldened by the increased prospect of
French protection, grew relentlessly cruel where they had power, in
their persecutions of the Protestants. A painful illustration of
this occurred at Mardin in the summer of 1868, upon the arrival of a
new Papal Patriarch. He and the Papal Armenian bishop resolved to
make a determined effort to crush out Protestantism. The charges
upon which the proceedings were based, were pretended arrearages in
the payment of taxes, whereas none of the taxes were due.
On July 25th, six Protestants were arrested, and taken, not to
prison, but to the cavalry camp, to bring water for the horses,
sprinkle the ground, build mangers, clear privies, etc. Suleeba, the
Protestant preacher from Diarbekir who was laboring there at the
time, went to the Muteserif or governor of the city, and represented
the injustice of the proceeding. As a result, he was ordered to
prison himself, but was soon released. After various other efforts
with the Muteserif and the Pasha to secure justice (in which he was
opposed by the Papal Syrian Patriarch, and by priests and leaders of
the other sects at Mardin), and after presenting receipts which had
been given the Protestants for their taxes, Suleeba was delivered to
the soldiers, with the rest. He writes:--
"A gendarme took me to the camp. On seeing me the soldier said,
'This is their priest; bring some _large_ jars (water jars) for
him.' They fastened two jars to my neck, one before and one behind,
and gave two into my hands.[1] A soldier was assigned to each one of
us, and each one carried a long stick of wood, an inch in thickness,
and with these they freely beat us. In filling the jars which were
fastened to us, the soldiers would pour nearly as much into our
necks as into the jars, so that we were thoroughly drenched all the
time. Once I was so much fatigued that I begged permission to set
down the jars and rest, but the soldiers would not allow me. I
dropped one of them, as I could not hold it any longer, for the road
was long and my hands grew weak. In trying to recover it I fell to
the ground, and the soldier beat me severely with his stick."
[1] The four jars, when full of water, weighed more than one hundred
and fifty pounds.
It was on Monday that Suleeba was sent to the camp, and things
remained thus till Friday. "A little after sunrise on that day, a
gendarme came and said, 'The Protestants are wanted at the palace.'
We were taken to the Muteserif, and he began to curse us in the
vilest manner for not giving the money. I said, 'Examine our
accounts, and if you find that we owe anything we will pay it.' He
then ordered a stick to be brought,--it was a strong one, thicker
than my thumb,--and telling a soldier to take me by the head and
bend me forward, he gave the stick to a centurion, who gave me ten
or twelve blows. I still feel the soreness, though he was not
violent in his beating."
"About nine o'clock they called us to the Mejlis, or city council.
After a careful examination of the documents, in which the Pasha's
scribe, Fettah Effendi, took a prominent part, the Mejlis said with
one voice, to those on the other side, 'You have no claim whatever
on the Protestants.'" This decision was not accepted by the enemies
of the Protestants. In the afternoon of the same day, Suleeba
writes: "The Patriarch and the Papal Armenian Bishop called on the
Pasha. They stayed about half an hour. Before they left, a
lieutenant came from the Pasha, accompanied by two priests, and said
to the Muteserif, 'The Pasha orders that you instantly deliver each
one of the Protestants to two gensdarmes, and collect the money from
each one _at once_, according to this paper.' The Muteserif replied,
'There is no claim upon these men. What shall we collect?' He
replied, 'This is the Pasha's order.' The Muteserif said, 'We have
just examined these men's accounts, and have found that the
Protestants do not owe a para. Tell the Pasha so.' The Lieutenant
replied, 'The Patriarch and Bishop were with the Pasha just now, and
he told them that this money should be collected.' The Muteserif
then turned to Fettah Effendi, of Diarbekir, and urged him to go and
explain to the Pasha, but he did not wish to go. He then called out,
much excited, 'Come, gensdarmes, take these men and kill them.' I
then said, 'How much money do you want? Tell us, and we will give
it.' The Muteserif said, 'I don't know.' I said, 'You are delivering
us over to these soldiers. Tell us how much you want and we will
give it, and save ourselves from them.' The Muteserif then asked
Fettah Effendi, who had looked over our documents, and who had said
that the Protestants owed nothing, 'How much are these men to pay?'
He said, 'I don't know.' He then turned to the members of the other
sects and said, 'How much do you want of these men?' They said, 'Let
them come to the market [where the chief of police was receiving
taxes], and we will see.' So we were hurried off there. This was
less than an hour before sunset. We were taken to the shop occupied
by Daoud Agha, the chief of the police. A great crowd gathered as we
went along, and afterwards, which completely filled all the streets
in that vicinity. As we entered, Daoud Agha, who is an old enemy of
the Protestants, said to his men, 'Bring me two bottles of raki and
three or four candles, and I will collect this money before
morning."
The reader will remember the interesting account Mr. Williams gave
of the conversion of an influential merchant at Mardin named
Meekha.[1] This is the old man, Muksi Meekha, whom the chief of the
police delivered over to the gensdarmes, with the charge to collect
six thousand piasters from him. Mr. Barnum thus describes the
treatment he received: "They took him out into the street and began
to beat him with their gun-stocks. This is done by taking the gun in
both hands and striking with it endwise. He promised to give
security for the payment of the money in the morning, and begged to
be allowed till morning to raise the money, as the shops were all
shut; but they said, 'We must have the money now.' He wandered
through the market in the vain hope of finding somebody who would
advance the money, the guard all the time beating him, and so
severely that he several times fell down, and his outer garment was
torn into shreds; and he has since that time, now more than a week,
kept his bed most of the time. At last he met a member of the Mejlis
(a Turkish member), who told the guard that if it was money they
wished they must take _kefil_ from him, and wait till morning, as it
was now evening, and nobody could raise money at that time; 'but,'
he said, 'if your object is to kill him, take him back to the chief
of police and butcher him there.' They then took him back to the
crowd, and he found a man who gave a part of the money and a note
for the payment of the rest in the morning, and he was released. He
thinks that he would have been killed but for the intervention of
the Turk.
[1] See Chapter xxvii.
"Each one of the prisoners was then passed over to two gensdarmes.
Some of these were at once delivered, by their friends advancing the
money; but four of them, besides Muksi Meekha, were treated just as
he was, and all of them have kept their beds most of the time since.
"The police were at the same time sent to the houses of all the
other Protestants, and they were brought, and the money which the
sects demanded collected from them, by their paying the money or
getting security for its payment in the morning. In this way, in the
space of a few hours, and that evening, nineteen thousand piasters
were collected."
Only a very small portion of this money was ever refunded.
Mention was made, in connection with Dr. Goodell's visit to the
central mission in 1862, of the progress of the evangelical
reformation at Oorfa. Two years later, Mr. Nutting, the resident
missionary, announced an interesting revival of religion among his
people. Both church and congregation were aroused, and the
missionary had never seen more thorough conviction of sin, than was
apparent in many. They had been studying the Westminster Assembly's
Catechism for two years, and recently had attended lectures on the
Epistle to the Romans; "and the fundamental truths thus lodged in
their minds," writes Mr. Nutting, "had been greatly blessed." They
met entirely the expense of their own religious and educational
institutions. In February, 1865, the church numbered forty-two, and
as many more were known to be inquirers.
About this time there arose considerable uneasiness in the mission
from an apprehension of doctrinal errors in a candidate for the
pastorate of this church. To what extent such errors actually
existed, was never determined with certainty, but there was a spirit
of alienation and division, which was regarded with concern. The
churches in Oorfa and its four out-stations contained a total, in
1870, of one hundred and sixty-one members, of whom twenty-five had
been received in the previous year. The Report of the Board for 1871
declares the difficulties of former years to have happily passed
away; except that unsound doctrinal views continued to disturb the
harmony of the church at Severek, and that this place was noted, in
early times, for the prevalence of similar errors.
Mr. Wheeler returned from his visit to the United States in October,
1868, accompanied by Mrs. Wheeler, and the Misses Parmelee and
Baker; and they were met, six hours or nearly twenty miles out, by
the Harpoot and village pastors, and quite a delegation from the
city. The last day was a constant succession of welcomes. As they
drew near the city, they saw a large crowd on the hill, with a white
flag. It was the theological students drawn up in a line; and next,
the women and girls of the school; and then men, women, and children
crowded to greet them. It was the spontaneous expression of love to
those who had told them of Christ and his salvation.
The return of Dr. David H. Nutting from the United States to the
Central mission, in the autumn of 1868, led him to speak of the
progress of civilization at Aleppo. "All the stations of this
mission are now connected with this city by telegraph, while it is
connected with Constantinople. A line from here to Killis, Aintab,
and Marash, has just been constructed. We have French and Russian,
as well as Turkish, posts. A semi-weekly paper called the "Frat"
(Euphrates), is printed here, in three languages--Arabic,
Armeno-Turkish, and Arabo-Turkish. The streets are being repaved and
widened in some places, and street-lamps are put up. A carriage-road
from here to Alexandretta, the sea-port, is to be built
immediately."
John Concordance, the blind preacher at Havadoric, died at that
place in March, 1869, greatly beloved and lamented, and not by his
own people alone. The Armenians vied with the Protestants in
attending to the burial services, and especially in seeing that
Hohannes' particular requests were carried out to the letter, and
both classes were genuine mourners at his grave. His influence in
the matter of consecrating one tenth of one's income has been
extensively felt; and he practiced what he preached. His salary was
only eight dollars a month, and although he had a wife and child to
support from this, he never failed of giving one tenth into the
"store-house;" thus leaving but little more than seven dollars for
the monthly support of himself and family.
In the year 1868, Dr. Schneider, after a residence at Aintab of a
score of years, returned again to Broosa. It was natural for him to
review the progress of the good work at Aintab during his connection
with it, and his statement will interest the reader.
"I preached my first sermon in Aintab to a company of twenty-five or
thirty in the year 1848. Now, the average audience is near one
thousand, and often rises to twelve or fifteen hundred. Then, there
was a church of only eight members; now, there are two churches,
containing three hundred and seventy-three members. Then, the entire
community of Protestants numbered only forty souls, while at present
there are nineteen hundred, small and great. The number has become
so large, that a division into two separate congregations became a
necessity; and while there was then hardly any native laborer, now
two able native pastors are settled over these two churches. In the
beginning, next to nothing was done in the way of self-support and
general benevolence; while now, these communities pay the salaries
of their pastors and school-teachers, and all their other expenses.
Besides this, nearly five hundred dollars in gold were given for
general benevolence, and more than nine hundred towards a second
church edifice. All this in a community where a day-laborer receives
thirteen and a half cents per day, and a mason or carpenter
thirty-two cents. In view of their poverty, and the exactions of the
government, this is extraordinary liberality. More than one half of
the male members of these churches give a tithe of their income to
benevolent objects.
"In the beginning, we worshipped in a private house; but for many
years a large church edifice has been filled, and a second one, for
the benefit of the second church, will be completed in a few months.
At first, there was no school through the week, or on the Sabbath;
now, there are seven common schools, with nearly four hundred
pupils, and a Sabbath-school averaging a thousand, which has been as
high as sixteen hundred. More than a score of pastors and preachers
have been trained at Aintab, most of whom are still in the service,
and a large number have been sent forth as teachers and colporters
into the surrounding regions. Finally, when the Gospel was first
preached in Aintab, the Protestants were despised and persecuted;
while now, they are not only recognized as a regular community, with
rights and privileges, but they have acquired for themselves a name,
respect, and influence."