_Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association_
It is said, by Him who never told a lie, that every tree is known by its
own fruit, and the confirmation of the statement is conclusive to the
student of natural and human history.
It was an idea of King Maximilian of Bavaria, to transmit to history a
reminder of his reign. He instructed the architects of Germany to design
a new style to be named after him. Such a style of Maximilianesque was
created. An architect--it was Semper, if I am not mistaken--when asked
to take a part in this creation of the so-called Maximilian style,
answered that such a thing could not be made to order, that a style of
building is the consequence of the history, the culture, life, and
doings of a great period of people. If such be the case with a style of
architecture, how much more must it be the case in regard to religion?
The history of this style of Maximilian's is, that it has no history,
and consequently all efforts of pursuing eminent architects to adopt the
Maximilian style failed. This short history is that of the attempts to
create a very much needed world religion. It is not the dogma nor the
doctrines or the profession that will make it possible for all right
thinking minds to unite efforts in building a universal religion,
sufficient to satisfy the intellectual want of every people and of every
time. Attempts, all-powerful, such as Papism and Mohammedanism, failed
in their egotistic purposes to enforce upon the world an exotic
structure. Neither the fires of Torquemadas, nor the sword of Islam
could deter the bravery of civilization. The blood that was spilled by
the millions of martyrs of the lowly Nazarene served to make the history
of the man who died upon the Cross, more effective and heartfelt
world-need for the only aristurgimatical shrine in which all human
families may live in peace and prosperity.
At a time when the world was imperilled by the treatment accorded to
Galileo for believing in the motion of the earth; and though 69 years of
age he was cast, by the tools of Vatican, into a dungeon, where he lost
his sight and ultimately his life; and Copernicus was facing the same
fate, for accomplishing a noble astronomical discovery; and Martin
Luther was persecuted by the Roman Catholic church, for trying to bring
the people nearer to God. The Greeks, a brave people, who, in the face
of starvation, for lack of food, and horrified by the sword of the
conqueror, dishonored in their holiest sacreds, pure maidens slain after
being used in the most beastly way, mothers put to death after their
children were torn off into shreds of flesh under the sword of the
barbarous Turk, young people and old aged having no rescuing place to
escape from horror and death; when all crowned heads of Europe should
bow on their knees and kiss the slipper of the holy father before they
could attain their rights to the throne of their own kingdoms; when all
the known world was trembling equally in the name of Mohammed and Pope,
these people (the Greeks) stood up, and with all the strength that was
left in their lungs, they cried out, "we prefer political slavery rather
than to be the slaves of the Pope," and for more than three centuries
the Greeks suffered such a martyrdom which if only printed it would be
more than a human heart could bear.
The history of Greece shall remain until the end of time, and as the
peoples of the world grow intelligently and intellectually more
enlightened they will come to the appreciation of the fact that the
Greek people has contributed more material in paving the way to the
spiritual freedom and the individual liberty of the world than any other
nation on the face of the earth, and that the Greek spirit is still
living and ruling in principle in the very heart of the civilized world.
It is essential that every nation in making up the list of its
benefactors should give the first place to the most distinguished one.
In accordance to the general law the Greek nation of today not only owes
its literary language, in part at least, to the exertions of the great
patriot Korais, but to him is accredited the prophecy, that, "the Greek
nation shall never be great again, unless regenerated in Christ."
Adamantios Korais was born April 27, 1747, in Smyrna. From early youth
he devoted himself to the study of old and new languages. In obedience
to his father's wishes, he followed a mercantile career during the year
1772-78, without, however, neglecting the sciences. From 1782-88 he
studied medicine in Montpellier and established himself as a practising
physician in Paris. From there he worked incessantly for the education
of his compatriots, and endeavored to awaken a favorable opinion of his
nation in the Occidental countries. In 1800 he received the prize of the
Academy for an edition of the writings of Hippocrates, but before this
time he had attracted the attention of the world of learning by his
ability, and Napoleon the Great conferred upon him many honors and
titles and appointed him the medical adviser of the Court. Later on he
gained fame by his Greek translation of Beccaria's work on crimes and
their punishments. This was followed by a work entitled "De l'etat
actuel de la civilization en Greece" (Paris, 1803). This was the first
publication in Europe which gave true information on the intellectual
and moral conditions of the new Greeks. During the period from 1805-27
he published a collection--twenty volumes--of old Greek classics, with
critical explanations and prolegomena. In the latter he gave his
patriotic teachings and advices. His greatest merit consisted in his
promoting the Greek morals and the Greek language; he eliminated as much
as possible all foreign elements, but retained all that was good and
useful from all centuries, rejecting the one-sided retention of the old
words and forms as not compatible with the understanding of the people.
He above all, helped to establish a noble literary language. On account
of his old age he could take no part in the rising of his fatherland in
1821, but aided it greatly by his patriotic pen. When Greece had gained
her independence he took an active interest in the new formation of his
country. In 1830-31 he attacked the government of Kapodistria in two
publications. He died in 1833. His autobiography appeared in Paris in
the same year. The name of Adamantios Korais will never die from the
memory of every patriot Greek, and yet his sincere opinion that "the
Greek nation shall never be great again, unless regenerated in Christ,"
had little effect upon the hearts of the people, or rather upon the
hearts of the leaders of the people.
Great nations have failed, and in every case it was the government's
corruption and neglect of duty that caused the sufferings and failures,
of which the political history is too abounding and too accessible to be
quoted. We only mention the Greek nation, perhaps the greatest and most
illustrious of all nations that ever failed in their political career,
because we are well informed and personally acquainted with the details
that brought this formerly world-wide respected and valued gem of
civilization into insignificance in the eye of the scornful, and a
plaything in the hands of the so-called great powers of Europe.
In the year of 1902, while I was a High Priest, Archimandrites, grand
representative of the Saint Mary's Monastery, Salamis; Orator and Grand
Chaplain of the Supreme Council of Greece; and confessor in the most
exclusive societies of Athens, hearing confessions and granting
absolutions; the following incident, which is published for the first
time, and only in parts that are printable, brought me to a final
decision, that I should leave my home, my loved ones, and all the
flourishing prospects to be a Bishop, with all the comforts and luxuries
attached to a Bishopric, just because I had witnessed a few scenes of
the manifold political plots that caused the downfall of my own nation,
and my own people scattered to the four corners of the world, wandering,
struggling for their existence, while Greece, the land of the Gods, and
the home of art and beauty, was left in the hands of a few parasites,
strangers and unsympathetic feudals who have shown no mercy in straining
every material and spiritual bit from the people that still honors them
as their kings and sovereigns.
At the time spoken of, there was an open secret to every well informed
Greek that the Queen of Greece, Olga, had been the tool of the Russian
bureaucracy, trying by means of religious influences to keep the Greeks
under the Russian political control; that the Queen Olga paid the
expenses for the education of a monk, who, on his return from Russia,
where he was graduated from the theological academies of Kiev and
Moskow, became the Queen's personal confessor, and afterwards by the
Queen's very earnest and almost scandalous activities that monk was
raised to the Metropolitan Throne of Athens, which position placed him
at the head of the Greek Church, and made him the President of the Holy
Synod of Greece.
The Metropolitan Throne of Athens is the highest and most exalted
position that a mortal Greek could approach, and it is, in fact, the
next to the King's Throne, most influential occupation, and more
powerful, even than the Royal Throne, because, the Metropolite of Athens
is the spiritual leader of all Greeks.
There was plenty of rejoicing in the Queen's camarilla, at the
installation of Procopios (that was the name of the monk) as the
Metropolite of Athens, and every effort, Queen Olga leading the fight,
had gone forth to assure a complete victory for the Russian bureaucracy,
over the few remaining unspoiled patriotic Greeks.
All the characteristics of a civil war were enacted in the streets of
Athens when Queen Olga attempted to enforce upon the Greek people a new
inferior language in their Bibles, and in their holy mass--a language,
which the Greek people considered as a means to confound their
historical and religious customs and habits and subdue them into a
Russian spiritual dependency. Against the attempt there was the very
best element of the Greek scholars. Adamantios Korais fought the fight,
100 years before this attempt was made, and he distinctly and clearly
made it understood that the Attic Greek language has been, it is and
must be the safeguard of all that is beautiful in the Greek history.
Faithful to their traditions the Greeks of the present generation fought
and won a triumphant victory. The innocent blood of the people that was
slain on the streets of Athens by orders from the Royal Palace, have
wrote with indelible letters, the anathema, which, frenzied mothers in
the sight of their assassinated sons, and overwhelmed in grief, cried
against Queen Olga, and her crown all but torn to pieces by the wronged
multitudes.
Within 24 hours from that terrible bloody day, that will remain an
indelible stigma in the history of Queen Olga's life, the most exalted
Metropolite Procopios was a fallen ragmuffin and the most hated person
in all Greece. And when every one of his colleagues deserted him and the
King and Queen shut their door in his face, leaving him a pitiful victim
of the political plots to save the royal skin, and while there was no
visible friend to give him a helping hand when fallen from the
Metropolitan Throne, and while this monk-metropolite Procopios, in all
his glorious days had been a profound enemy against every honest effort,
especially against young priests who refused to serve his unlawful
appetites, and my own experience with this monk-metropolite Procopios is
not of the kind to be printed, yet, it was I who put my own life in a
probable danger to save him from the mob, that was ready to attack him,
and probably kill him, the day after I made his escape possible into
the Saint Mary's Monastery, Salamis, where at the time I was
Archimandrites.
Procopios, in the opinion of his own friends, was the last man in the
Greek priesthood, qualified to occupy the Metropolitan Throne of Athens,
and totally lost his will power when he became Metropolite by Royal
favor. There was an organized clique around the Metropolitan mansion,
but the controlling power should be located within the walls of the
Royal Palace. Procopios was only an instrument transmitting orders. And
if I was allowed to publish all that Procopios himself told me, in
Salamis, it would make the Greek people sit up and take notice, but in
my vows as confessor I have to carry the confession of the fallen
Metropolite Procopios with me to my grave, unless the need arises to
serve the best interests of my beloved country. It was his last
confession upon the earth. He died and went there, where, at the great
Judgment Day, he, surely will give account for all his deeds done in the
body.
For the first time in the ecclesiastical history of the Greek Kingdom, a
Metropolite abdicated from his throne, rejected by his closest friends,
helpless under the anathema of the people, above whom he was called to
be the spiritual leader, his life imperilled by the injured public
sentiment, Procopios, left a real wreck cast by the shore, as a warning
sign of those dangers to which every public man is exposed, when
corrupted by higher favours and neglects his duties to the people who
entrusted him with responsibilities of national importance.
This incident, which I hope will never occur again, and many other minor
opportunities, in which I had a part to play, during that fateful Queen
Olga's attempt to adulterate the beautiful and pure Attic Greek
language, gave me the exceptional privilege to study all the works of
the political machinery in Greece. I have seen the drama enacted behind
the scenes. It is a dreadful drama that could break the neck of the
strongest long-suffering. The awful drama that is enacted in Greece at
the expenses of the people is a long, very long story; perhaps it has
its beginning with the reign of King George and Queen Olga, I will not
say, but the people of Greece, the poorest people of Europe, are
contented and well pleased that they have a King who is a great
diplomat, and he is one of the richest Kings in Europe, and their Queen,
Olga, they believe (the ignorant do) that she is a saintly woman (as all
the Russian saints are), and this ignorant Greek people, they simply
feel glad to leave their homes and their children and go into war, like
sheep into the butcher's shop, sacrifice their lives, thus destroying
their homes and the hopes of their loved ones, every time King George
calls them to arms to fight against the Turks. And King George has
always a great patriotic cause to fight the Turks. And the Greeks could
not appreciate more highly a privilege than to fight and die for the
deliverance of their brethren in Crete and for the salvation of the
unfortunate Christians in Macedonia.
Yet, for half a century, in fact, since King George came to Greece,
there are hundreds of thousands of the best Greek patriots that have
been killed, slain, or assassinated, and nearly a billion drachmas
national debt, hanging upon the neck of every Greek, like the Damoclean
sword, but there is no deliverance for the Cretans, and there is no
salvation for the Macedonians, instead there are the traps strategically
placed across the Greek borders, so, every time the Greek patriots, in
answer to the call of their King, are sent to render a helping hand to
the sufferers, they cross the border, only to find, but too late, that
they have been trapped, under the sword of the enemy, the Turk; or they
are left at the mercy of their assassins, the Bulgars. This drama is
going on repeatedly with great success, and to the amusement of the
observing great powers of Europe.
Occasionally there is some crippling of the territory already belonging
to the possessions of Greece, because the places are of some strategical
importance, and this reason is enough, that they should be taken away
from the Greeks. And there is a financial commission appointed by the
great powers, because King George is a great diplomat and he wants to be
sure that his allowance is coming to him increasingly, every year, from
the coffers of the Greek treasury, while the international commission
should count every penny that the Greek expends in bread for his
children.
In the evolution of events, I believe, that there is a time coming, when
the Greek people shall rise, from the lethargy, in which they
unnaturally are slumbering, for a long time, and they shall awake and
break every fetter, and shake off their feet every chain, and their eyes
shall be opened and they shall see things that will horrify them as a
nation; then shall they know the persons responsible for their
sufferings and for the sufferings of the Cretans and Macedonians and why
Carditses was beheaded in a dungeon, without giving him the privilege of
free citizenship, to prove his reason or his sanity, without any chance
to protect his life; and where and by whom that plot was framed up, just
to turn the tide of public anger against a royal gang, thus causing the
destruction of two beautiful Greek girls, that left alone in the world
to suffer from consumption, in agony, to die with the stigma as sisters
of a would-be royal assassin. It was my privilege to take care of these
two unfortunate sisters, both suffering, and the story of these two
girls and the uprising of the Greek people against the adulteration of
their language by Queen Olga, settled my determination to fight for the
rights of my own people and my beloved country. But, the time for the
Greek people to stand up and walk on their own feet, shall come when the
prophecy of the great patriot Adamantios Korais, is no more prophecy,
but in reality the Greek people will be regenerated in Christ, and there
and then shall be a great Greek nation, not only within the boundaries
of the feudatory of King George, but within the bounds of love that
unites all the millions of people that speak the historical Attic Greek
language, and a great Greek nation shall attract the attention of all
the civilized world, once more as in the days of old.
I know the dangers in which I am exposed for the step I have taken,
because, I know the character and the principles of the Greek people,
perhaps, as well as any living Greek, the demagogues, the priests, the
church, and the drones and parasites of the royal gang, they each and every
one and all together are going to use all their power and money that is
at their disposal, and with no regards as to the honesty of means they
shall move earth and hell to quench this movement for the regeneration of
the Greek people, but having all my trust upon the Almighty and Omnipotent
God, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, Who died that all men may be
happy, and in the right Spirit of love to God and to my fellow men, I dare
launch the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association.
Every Greek of reputable character, and all the lovers of the Greek
ancient and modern history, are eligible to membership. It is my purpose
to endeavor by all the Christian means to bring the Greek and American
people into a mutual, intellectual and intelligent understanding. It has
been my experience in studying conditions for the last six years, that
the Greeks in the United States know very little or nothing of the
American history, government, political, social, customs and habits of
the American people, which, also, unfortunate as it may appear, yet it
is the truth, that only a very limited number of Americans whom I have
found all over the United States, are well informed of the doings in
Greece, and still fewer well acquainted and unprejudiced as to the
historical and classical importance of the Greek nation.
It is estimated that there are about 300,000 Greek people in the United
States, representing the 12,000,000 of Greek-speaking people that is the
Greek nation extended all around the Mediterranean countries.
When it is considered that the vast majority of the Greeks in the United
States, has never had any opportunity to attend a Christian meeting, or
hear the Gospel preached in their own language, it is to their credit
that, with all the temptations and the ambiguous associations which the
laboring class is often in contact with they have not been worse than
they are; it is an indication that the primitive and strong character of
the Greek seldom yields to temptation; they hold fast to their
historical energy and honesty.
There has never been an attempt of any importance, neither has there
ever been any organized effort, for the regeneration of the Greek
people, and while the Home and Foreign Missions of America for the last
25 years have given the best of their spiritual leaders for the
conversion of the Zulu and the Mogul and millions of American dollars
have been expended, with insignificant returns, in trying vainly to make
real Christians out of a barbarous and semi-human race of people, and
trying to civilize the jungles of Africa, the most urgent duty has been
neglected, and some spasmodical efforts that have been put forth by the
zeal of earnest individuals, were soon exhausted, and failed, not only
for lack of financial support, but, the worst, by spiritual
discouragements, and today a noble and the most historical race of
peoples, the Greeks, are drifting in despair, away from God, politically
perishing, blind, and ignorant priests, and political demagogues leading
them fast into the ditch.
The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; who will help
us to garner in? HELP! is the cry, the most earnest cry, that was ever
uttered from the lips and from the heart of a sincere Christian worker.
In organizing the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association, all the latest
and most effective, spiritual and industrial methods will be employed.
It is hoped that the organization will be incorporated under the laws of
the United States, as soon as there are members sufficient in number to
assemble in their first meeting and vote the Constitution and the
By-Laws of the Association.
Much consideration will be given to the methods of the Y. M. C. A., and
Y. W. C. A. This two-fold Institution, which in the opinion of Christian
leaders, and the most distinguished sociologists, of the present time,
is the very best agency to approach all nations, and spread
civilization, well established upon the fundamental principles of
Christianity.
For the last few months in my struggle trying to establish the
Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association and at the same time keep my soul
and body together providing a lean livelihood by selling this book, I
can truthfully say that I had more experiences than in all my life
before. One clergyman of the high Episcopal church in the most
fashionable Back Bay, Boston, offered to grant me the use of his church
any time I wanted to offer the mass as high priest according to the
ritual of the Greek Orthodox Church, if I would only "break off all
relations with Protestant bodies here in America." I have a letter from
this clergyman which is the most astounding fact of his inconsistency,
because he himself is an active member of the Bible Club, a purely
Protestant organization: he invited me to one of their meetings, but he
would not purchase my book to help me to my bread and butter. Another
clergyman, a member of the executive committee of City Missions, Boston,
would not purchase my book, unless I offered myself to be employed by
them at a certain salary, and he gave me his card introducing me to the
chairman of that organization.
Last winter I began to preach to the Greeks at Kneeland street, Boston,
in the open air, and when I went to see the police captain of that
district he promised to co-operate with me and gave me his consent to go
on with my work, but the following Sunday his Lieutenant came up to me,
while I was preaching on the street, he stopped me, on the pretense,
that he was informed of a plot among the Greeks to take my life. And
when I made my complaints to the General Secretary of New England
Missions, he told me that I should have known that Boston is a Catholic
town, and that the police being informed that I was an ex-priest, they
simply would not tolerate me. Horror stricken by this statement I went
to see the captain myself, and the very same man who promised
co-operation, only a few days hence, he stood up in front of my face and
in a savage manner told me that he would not tolerate me to preach on
the streets of Boston.
The names of all concerned are in my possession and open to
investigation by the general public. But I will omit them here for
reasons well understood.
A number of other discouraging instances, only worked together to deeper
impress upon my heart the importance and the excellency of my high
calling. Sooner or later, in the inevitable law of evolution and
universal progress, the Greek nation must be regenerated in spirit and
in truth: and I believe that it is not only a case of courtesy, but,
there is a sense of duty for every true American man and woman to
co-operate in the uplifting of all mankind. As for me I fully appreciate
the privilege to suffer for the benefit of my fellow men, and I can
hopefully repeat Tennyson's immortal words:
Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed,
Up then came a flower,
The people said, a weed.
To and fro they went
Thro' my garden bower,
And muttering discontent
Cursed me and my flower.
Then it grew so tall,
It wore a crown of light,
But thieves from o'er the wall
Stole the seed by night.
Sow'd it far and wide,
By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried,
"Splendid is the flower:"
Read my little fable,
He that runs may read:
Most can raise the flower now,
For all have got the seed.
_Conclusion_
Allow me, dear reader, to say in closing, that it is my sincere opinion
that in view of the reasonings and facts presented in the preceding
pages, every individual who reads this Book intelligently, and who is in
possession of a sound and unprejudiced reason, will come to the
conclusion that there is only one religion worth having, and that is the
religion by Jesus, of Jesus, for Jesus, which is the revelation of the
Bible, Divinely adapted to produce the greatest present and eternal
spiritual good to the human family. And if anyone should doubt His power
(which, in view of its adaptations and its effects as herein developed,
would involve the absurdity of doubting whether an intelligent design
had an intelligent designer), still, be the origin of the Gospel of
Jesus where it may, in heaven, earth, or hell, the demonstration is
conclusive that it is the only religion possible for man, in order to
perfect his nature, and restore his lapsed powers to harmony and
holiness, which is the only avenue to usefulness and happiness.