THE ARMENIANS. THE PRESENT CONDITION.
1872.
It seems often to be required of missions, though not properly, that
they shall exert a vastly greater reforming influence on
unevangelized countries, than the Gospel has yet done in Christian
lands. When we speak of "the conversion of the world," we are
generally understood as meaning the introduction of the
"Millennium." But what we refer to is not the millennial state, but
such a diffusion of gospel agencies and influences through the
unevangelized world, as we see in the most favored Christian
communities.
This is all that can reasonably be expected from missionary efforts.
The Millenium, whether it be near or remote, doubtless implies such
a previous extension of gospel agencies as we are now attempting,
but will be the actual result of a universal outpouring of the
Spirit, such as we are taught to expect when the time comes for the
ultimate triumphs of the Christian dispensation.
The question naturally arises, in closing this History, how far
progress has been made in evangelizing Turkey, or in preparing the
way for its future evangelization. From the nature of the case,
there can be only an approximation towards an exact reply; and
perhaps none can be given more satisfactory, than is furnished by
the narrative already recorded in these pages. Yet a brief notice of
some of the more important facts, may reasonably be expected here.
It must not be supposed, that some of the first facts that will be
mentioned are regarded as direct results of missionary effort, or as
indications of evangelizing progress; but even these mark a progress
in the condition of society, which is very cheering, and full of
promise with reference to future efforts for the introduction and
establishment of a true and pure religion; white others noticed have
a more direct and full connection with the missionary work.
Where there has been intellectual and social progress on a large
scale, we naturally look for material improvements. Turning, first
of all, to the great metropolis, Dr. Wood testifies to such
improvements as these: "The streets are named, and doors designated
by numbers. Scavenger carts are supplanting the dogs. The terrible
conflagrations have secured broad avenues, and handsome stone and
brick structures, in place of mean wooden buildings, on streets so
narrow that the sun could hardly enter them. Spacious flag-stone
sidewalks are taking the place of the rough pavements of horrible
memory, and macadamized roadbeds help one to climb the steep
hill-sides of Constantinople. 'Tramways' are built or building, a
boon of inexpressible value to the aged and feeble, and a thousand
dwellings have been demolished for the track of the Belgrade and
Vienna Railroad, entering at the Seven Towers, and carried along the
Marmora, and around the Seraglio Point, to its terminus on the
Golden Horn. The demolition of much of the sea-wall to make way for
it and furnish materials for embankments, is a suggestive symbol of
the social and religious reconstruction, which is tearing up old
foundations, and using the labors of ages past for that which is to
be."
Dr. Wood next instances the significant telegraph lines, running to
all points of the compass, of which he counted twelve on one side of
a street, and four on the other. "The spectacle of small craft on
the waters, sea-going steamers of the largest class, smaller
passenger-boats for the Bosphorus and ports on the Marmora, and the
magnificent iron-clads anchored in front of the Sultan's palaces,
impresses both residents and strangers with a vivid sense of the
greatness, wealth, and power, which, in spite of mismanagement,
corruption, misrule, and all the elements of weakness and decline in
the country, are here concentrated."
"Costumes," he says, "are changing, and customs and ideas change
with them. Even Turkish women are adopting Frank articles of dress,
worn beneath the external covering, and go about tottering on
high-heeled shoes of latest Parisian style; and Armenian women
appear in public with unveiled faces, attired like ladies of Europe.
Thirteen newspapers--three of them dailies, three tri-weeklies, and
seven weeklies (one of which issues a daily bulletin), for Armenians
alone, at the capital--attest a new intellectual life, by the fact
of their existence, and by the freedom of their discussions.
"Schools for girls are multiplying; even a normal school for Turkish
girls has been established under government patronage; but a still
greater zeal is displayed for the education of boys. The notions of
the people concerning education are, indeed, very faulty, and much
of the instruction given is poor enough in quality; but the waking
up on the subject heralds a brighter day in the future. That this is
far greater among the Christian populations, than in the Mohammedan
and Jewish, and that the former are gaining more and more upon the
latter in the possession of wealth, is suggestive of coming events,
of the highest interest and importance."
Dr. Clarke, Foreign Secretary of the Board, writing in the same year
(1871), after his visit to the East, mentions the following
indications of progress: "Hundreds of miles of railway, begun and
under contract; telegraphic communication between the principal
towns; postal arrangements for the conveyance of money, as well as
letters, established within a few years between many places; police
regulations, securing protection to life and property as never
before; the suppression of robber-hordes, which had infested
different sections; and the beginning of a newspaper press. The
public mind in the great centres is waking up to what is going on in
the outside world. The war in our own country, by its derangement of
commerce, led to much inquiry; and the later conflicts in Europe
have excited a lively interest in many minds. And not the least
significant matter is the change of sentiment in reference to France
and French influence. Already is it said by native merchants, that
their children must learn English, or German, instead of French; and
the power of Romanism, upheld so long by French consuls, is sensibly
weakened. And Protestantism is quietly doing its work of
enlightenment,--directly, in thousands of minds, and indirectly, in
thousands more."
Mr. Adams, of Adana, writing a year earlier, affirms that the
Christian populations are far more ready to hear and read the Gospel
than is commonly supposed, and that the Protestant faith has found
its way into the remotest corners of the land. He says, we should
not measure the success of missions by "tabular views" alone, for it
often happens that a missionary's strongest grounds of hope are
quite outside of the largest array of figures. "As I write this," he
adds, "a statement of Hagop Effendi occurs to me. He said: "I have
travelled a great deal among the Protestants of Syria and Turkey,
and the strongest impression I have does not arise from the schools,
books, or churches, as pledges that Protestantism is to be a success
in Turkey, but from the prodigious extent to which the country at
large is leavened by Protestant truth. The grandest results of your
labors are not apparent."
Another testimony is by Mr. Leonard, of Marsovan, under date of
January, 1871. "Evidence," he says, "of a gradual reform in the
Oriental churches, especially the Armenian Church, chiefly as the
result of evangelical labors, crops out in almost every city.
Consecrated pictures leave church walls for the garret; silver
crosses go into the refining pot; auricular confession is neglected;
many superstitious ceremonies and foolish restrictions, imposed by
the priesthood, are regarded only as a curious relic of the past. We
note, also, a growing friendliness towards Protestants, and
occasionally very sensible efforts, in emulation of them, to educate
the people."
Mr. Leonard doubtless had a special reference to the Armenian Bishop
of Amasia, who, having secured a majority of the people in his
favor, swept two churches of their gold and silver images, crosses,
and vestments, and appropriated the avails to the erection of
school-houses and the support of teachers. The minority appealed to
the Patriarch at Constantinople; but he is known to have been in
sympathy with the reforming party in the church before his election,
while at Van and Moosh, and is said to have sanctioned the whole
proceeding, and to have followed his sanction with an exhortation to
preach the Gospel.[1]
[1] _Report of the Board_ for 1871, p. 27.
Another testimony is from Mr. Wheeler, of Harpoot, written in April
of the same year: "Henceforth we shall need less money, and more
prayer; for this finishing of the work is, in some respects, even
more perilous than was its beginning. The people expect and demand a
thousand things, which they cannot _now_ have; and sometimes the
more earnest ones are inclined to take the missionaries by the
throat, with a 'Pay us that ye owe!' We are encouraged by the
reflection that such experiences necessarily enter into such a work
of awakening and reform, as is here going on."
The testimony of Hagop Effendi, the Civil Head of the Protestants of
Turkey, should also be adduced. He says: "The fact that eighty-five
per cent. of the adults in the Protestant community can read, speaks
greatly in favor of its members. Any one acquainted with the social
condition and religious ideas of the Orient, who will take pains to
compare them with the liberal institutions now introduced, can
readily imagine the state of society that must necessarily follow
such a change. As yet, the people do not possess the intellectual
and moral elements necessary for the maintenance of the liberal
institutions of Protestantism independent of foreign aid." "Those,"
he adds, "who have become Protestant in principle, far exceed in
number the registered Protestants. The indirect influence of
Protestantism has been greater and healthier than is apparent." He
then instances the strictly sober habits of the Protestants, among
whom the use of strong drink is very rare, and habitual drunkenness
is hardly known. And he was everywhere gratified to find, throughout
the empire, a great improvement in domestic relations, as compared
with the condition of families before they became Protestants.
The districts of Harpoot, Aintab, and Marash are probably more
advanced in the matter of self-governing, self-supporting,
evangelical churches, than any other considerable portions of the
field in Western Asia. The Rev. Herman N. Barnum, of the Harpoot
station, while in the United States, drew up, at my request, a
statement of some of the more important results of missionary labor
in his own district, which may be regarded as illustrative of the
results of missionary labor in other districts.
He states these as rules,--that no church is to be organized without
a native pastor; that no church is to receive aid from the mission
for more than one half the salary of the pastor, and none for more
than five years. Eighteen churches have been formed in the district,
with six hundred and fifty members, and most of them on this plan.
The church at Harpoot was self-supporting from the outset. Wherever
a fully organized and self-supporting church existed, the peculiar
work of the missionaries was regarded as completed in that place;
the church and pastor, rather than the missionaries, being
henceforth held responsible for the evangelization of the
surrounding community. The missionaries aid, if necessary, by their
counsel and in other ways, but what they do is through the church.
His response as to the character of the churches, which I
necessarily abridge, is deemed applicable, substantially, to the
seventy-four churches among the Armenians. He says:--
"1. They are becoming intelligent. Making the Bible a study, they
become established in Christian doctrine.
"2. Church discipline is better maintained than it is in American
churches. Their 'watch and care' are delightful to witness. Many of
these Christians came out of the grossest corruption, but the
fellowship of the church is a shield and a support.
"3. They are self-denying. The support of their own institutions,
including the building of their school-houses and houses of worship,
with very little missionary aid, necessitates the sacrifice of
comforts which they cheerfully forego. Experience in Turkey has
abundantly proved, that dependent churches are nearly worthless for
evangelizing agencies. When the institutions of the Gospel are
supported for them, they regard the work of extending it as
belonging especially to the missionaries; and hence, however lavish
the expenditure, they often complain that money is not more freely
spent, and the work prosecuted on a grander scale. Complaints
against missionaries come chiefly from churches doing little for
themselves. On the other hand, self-supporting churches regard the
work of propagating the Gospel as their own, and whatever is given
them, they gratefully receive as aid in doing their own work.
"4. These churches resemble the primitive churches in their
disposition to work for others. They are imbued with a spirit of
labor. They go from house to house, reading and preaching the word.
This is the theme in the shop, the field, and by the way-side.
"The chief source of discomfort is in the Armenian character itself,
in which there is a lack of stability, and a want of perseverance.
But there is ground for hope, that even this national trait may be
overcome by the power of the Gospel.
"In Harpoot and its seventy out-station is a Protestant community of
about five thousand souls, characterized by a remarkable reformation
in the outward life. Many of them are doubtless Christians, who, in
the great care which the churches use in receiving members to their
fellowship, are in a certain sense on probation. The Protestant name
has become a synonym for integrity and uprightness.
"The extent, to which the Gospel has affected the communities not
Protestant, cannot be appreciated by one not in actual contact with
them. It manifests itself partly in the weakened power of
superstition, the multiplication of schools, the number of adults
who have learned to read, the increase in general intelligence and
knowledge of the truth, the decrease of intemperance and vice, the
promotion of enterprise and good order; and, in short, the
beginnings of a civilization, that has a Christian aspect. There
have been sold at Harpoot about four thousand copies of the Bible,
and twenty thousand portions of the same, with nearly fifty-five
thousand volumes of other books, religious and educational, from the
mission press. Large numbers of these have gone into the hands of
the unevangelized, and are silently exerting an influence. This
class of persons is always represented in our congregations. They
hear the truth discussed everywhere, and thousands of them have
accepted it intellectually, who have not yet separated themselves
from their own religious communities. All this suggests the
possibility of a rapid development, when the Spirit shall be poured
out from on high.
"Were the Harpoot field limited to the district seventy miles
square, of which the city is the centre, it might now be safely
left, with its seminaries and hundreds of villages, to the eleven
churches and the native laborers found there, with an annual grant,
for a few years, from the American Board. As it is, there is good
hope that, by the blessing of God on the means in use, the whole
district, embracing more than twenty thousand square miles and half
a million of souls, may, in a few years, be relinquished as a
missionary field."
Some estimate may be formed of the influence exerted by the press,
when it is considered that more than ten and a half millions of
pages were issued, in the single year 1870, in the Armenian,
Armeno-Turkish, Græco-Turkish, and Bulgarian languages; and that
nearly three hundred millions of pages have been issued by these
missions since they began their operations. The number of
missionaries among the Armenians, in 1870, was forty, and of female
assistant missionaries sixty.
When the missionaries entered Turkey, religion was administered
wholly by the hierarchy, and had everywhere a stereotype form. Death
was the penalty for heresy among the Moslems; and it was scarcely
less in the prevailing sentiment of the nominal Christian sects. The
history relates how far this obstacle existed, and how far it has
been overcome. Whatever be true as regards thy ecclesiastics, the
people have now accepted, in some good degree, the principle of
religious freedom, and so has the government of the Sultan.
Before the institution of Protestant missions, the school-books
among the Turks, Armenians, and Greeks were in the ancient
languages, and the schools were consequently of little practical
value. One of the first things done by the missionaries was the
publication of school-books in the languages spoken by the people;
and this simple movement took wonderfully with both Christians and
Moslems, and has wrought a mighty revolution in the empire.
The principle of self-support in native churches appears now to be
the well-defined policy of all the missions in Turkey, to be
realized in practice at the earliest possible day. In some of the
missionary districts, the forming of the church and the ordination
of the pastor are expected to occur at the same time; and when aid
is given it is only for a limited series of years; and the schools,
and all other necessary agencies, are to be transferred at the
earliest moment from the mission to the people themselves. As a
general rule, the missionaries do not now take the lead in the
building of school-houses and places of worship. They aid as may
seem necessary; but the responsibility and chief pecuniary burden
are left with the people; except where the power of precedent, from
a different course, is too strong to be overcome at once.
The various testimonies embodied in this chapter will not affect all
minds alike. Yet all must admit, that the Gospel has gained a
deeper, firmer hold on the Armenians, than it ever had before, from
the days of Gregory "the Illuminator" until now. A mental, moral,
and social revolution is in progress, and mainly as a consequence of
the republication of the Gospel by missionaries in the past half
century; and there is no probability of any event occurring that
shall be sufficient to arrest it. Doubtless great evil would result
from extensive inroads of sectarian zeal. But there is hope of
triumph even then,--from the Bible in their own language, brought by
the press within reach of thousands of families, with fathers,
mothers, and children able and free to read it; from self-governed,
self-supported, self-propagating churches, scattered over the
empire, each with its indoctrinated native pastor; from woman
holding such a place in the family and social circle, as she never
held before; and from common schools, and normal schools, and high
schools, and theological seminaries, and even colleges, all
independent of the hierarchy, and beyond the power of the Jesuits;
with the logic of free thought, and a free conscience.
It would seem that it may not be needful greatly to enlarge the
present number of missionaries among the Armenian people. The native
ministers and native churches are the main thing. And it must be
admitted, that the Gospel, through the grace of God, has been
republished, and its institutions replanted, extensively and most
hopefully in the Armenian Church of the Orient. "In the midst of
fermentation," writes the Constantinople station in 1872, "the
leaven of truth is making its way; and so is, also, that of
infidelity; but the latter is temporary in its influence, the former
permanent. There is far more Protestantism outside of the Protestant
church than within it. Protestant ideas of truth, of liberty of
conscience, of progress, are spread far and wide, and are convulsing
these nations."