THE ARMENIANS.
1840-1844.
The young Sultan, soon after coming to the throne, pledged himself;
in the presence of all the foreign ambassadors, to guard the
liberty, property, and honor of his subjects equally, whatever their
religious creed. No one was to be condemned without trial, and none
were to suffer the penalty of death without the sanction of the
Sultan himself. No person at all conversant with Turkey, would
expect such a change in the administration of the government to be
effected at once, nor indeed for a long course of years. Yet this
was the beginning of changes, which were momentous in their
influence on the Christian and Jewish population of Turkey.
There was now such a number of Armenian boys and young men around
the mission thirsting for knowledge, both religious and secular,
that a boarding-school for such could no longer be properly delayed.
Mr. Hamlin accordingly opened such a school at Bebek, on the
European side of the Bosphorus, six miles above Constantinople.
Mr. Jackson commenced a station at Erzroom in 1840. At first he was
almost disheartened when he saw how confidently the people rested
their hopes of heaven on saint-worship, and the rigor of their
fasts; but he soon saw reason to expect a better state of things.
Messrs. Dwight and Hamlin made a visit, about this time, to
Nicomedia. Their intercourse with the native brethren there was
generally private because of persecutors, but it was in the highest
degree satisfactory. The first meeting was on the Sabbath, in a
retired garden, where they sat four successive hours, in the middle
of a circle of hungry souls, expounding to them the Gospel. After
partaking of some refreshment, they sat three hours more in an
adjacent house. Later in the day, they spent three hours in the same
manner, in another garden; making in all ten hours of preaching and
conversation in the course of one Sabbath; besides an hour more in
their own room, with transient visitors from abroad. Many of the
questions asked were of a highly practical nature. During this
visit, a stranger called upon them, whose curiosity had been excited
by the Patriarch's letter of warning against the American
missionaries. He, in common with many of his brethren, was anxious
to know more about this new way. Considerable time was spent with
him in needful explanations, and with these, and a copy of the New
Testament in modern Armenian and several tracts, he departed highly
delighted. It was thus that a knowledge of the Gospel was first
carried to Adabazar where this man resided, twenty-seven miles east
of Nicomedia.
The papists took advantage of the religious interest awakened in the
Armenian Church; and there was reason to apprehend, that dark,
dissatisfied minds, if not made acquainted with the Gospel, were in
danger of falling into the iron embrace of the Romish Church. The
papal missions had been roused to activity in all the Levant, and
their numerous adherents enabled them to come extensively into
contact with the native mind. Nor were they scrupulous as to their
manner of exciting the jealousies of the people against Protestant
missionaries. There is evidence also, that, after the Greek
revolution, they took advantage of the fact that nearly all the
dragomen of foreign ministers at the Turkish court were Roman
Catholics.
The obstacles in the way of preaching the Gospel at Broosa, became
so great as to make it a question whether the preachers ought not to
go elsewhere. Just then there began to be indications of the
presence of the Holy Spirit. Individuals came to Mr. Schneider,
almost every Sabbath, deeply affected by the truth, and there were
several hopeful conversions. Not only there, but elsewhere and
especially at Constantinople, during the year commencing May, 1840,
there was a manifest reaction, caused by the persecutions of 1839,
which became more and more decided during the year. Minds were
awakened, which, but for the banishments, anathemas, burning of
books, and shutting up of schools, might have been aroused only by
the angel of death. Some of these became hopeful converts, and one a
preacher of the faith he had endeavored to destroy. The spirit of
freedom and Christian boldness was increased. Priest Kevork and
Priest Vertanes were more active than ever. Attempts to break up the
mission seminary failed, because neither scholars nor parents would
obey the mandate of the vakeel to withdraw from connection with the
missionaries.
The Rev. Henry J. Van Lennep and wife joined the mission in April,
1840, and were stationed at Smyrna. Mrs. Van Lennep lived only till
the following September. The Rev. Josiah Peabody and wife became the
associates of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, at Erzroom, in the following
year; and in that year Mr. Ladd was transferred from Cyprus to
Broosa. Mr. Hallock, the missionary printer at Smyrna, returned to
the United States, but continued to manufacture Arabic and Syriac
types for the printing establishments in the Syrian and Nestorian
missions. The printing at Smyrna, during this year, was equivalent
to 10,843,704 pages duodecimo; and the pages printed at that
establishment from the beginning, had been 51,910,260. Two
printing-presses and seven fonts of native type were in use. An
"Armenian Magazine" was edited by Mr. Adger; and a Greek "Monthly
Magazine" by Mr. Temple, with the efficient aid of Mr. Petrokokino.
In November, Mr. Goodell completed the translation of the Old
Testament into Armeno-Turkish, and immediately commenced revising
the New Testament, which he finished in a few months. The Old
Testament had now been translated into Armeno-Turkish from the
Hebrew, and the New Testament from the Greek. The Armenians had,
also, Zohrab's popular translation of the New Testament in their
modern tongue, revised by Mr. Adger, and published under his
superintendence, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible
Society. The ancient Armenian translation, which is said to be a
good one, and to be much valued by the people, was made about
fourteen hundred years ago.
Mr. Dwight began a course of lectures on systematic theology,
commencing with a class of three Armenians, one of them a priest.
The Armenian college at Scutari was closed by the bankers in
October, after having been in operation three years, at great
expense to the community. But the seminary at Bebek was so full of
promise, that grants were made to place it on a broader and firmer
basis.
The change in the Armenian community, in the course of five or six
years, had been very encouraging. At the beginning of that time,
some were truly interested in the things of religion, and the
missionaries had religious conversation with many. But by far the
greater part then came for the purpose of general inquiry, or to see
the philosophical apparatus, or hear a lecture on the sciences; and
it was matter of joy, if mere human knowledge could be made the
entering wedge to their minds for the knowledge which is divine. How
marked the change! They now came in large numbers, drawn by the
power of the truth of God alone, not to inquire about electricity,
or galvanism, as before, but about the eternal destiny of the soul,
and the way by which it might be saved. There had been, also, a
favorable change in the general style of preaching at the capital;
and among the people there was a growing disposition to compare
every doctrine and practice with the Scriptures. This the vartabeds,
or preachers, could not disregard. It was not an uncommon thing to
hear of sermons on Repentance, the Sabbath, the Judgment-day, etc.;
and sometimes the preachers were largely indebted for their
materials to the publications of the mission. Indeed, one of the
most respectable vartabeds in Constantinople made repeated
applications to the missionaries to furnish mutter for his sermons.
Instances of pungent convictions of sin became more common. Some who
had been drunkards, gamblers, adulterers, and downright infidels,
were thoroughly converted, and exhibited that humility, purity,
spirituality, and Christian zeal, which are the fruits of the Spirit
alone. The older converts, also, appeared to grow in the knowledge
of Christ, and one striking characteristic was an active zeal for
the salvation of others.
Vertanes was full of hope and activity. It is mentioned by Mr.
Dwight, in his excellent "History of Christianity in Turkey," that a
report reached Constantinople, in the spring of 1841, that a
considerable number of Armenians in Nicomedia, members of the old
Church, had become disaffected, and were about going over to the
Jesuits; and that the Patriarch commissioned this same Vertanes to
go thither with all speed, and endeavor to bring them back to their
Mother Church. He was successful in the object of his visit; and
while he heartily and faithfully obeyed the Patriarch, and
endeavored to persuade men not to suffer themselves to fall into the
snares of Rome, he also labored zealously to bring them to a sense
of their sins against God, and to a hearty reception of Christ alone
as the Saviour of their souls. His visit was very comforting and
useful to the brethren in Nicomedia.
The intelligence received from Adabazar early in this year, was most
cheering. An attempt had been made to raise a storm of persecution,
and one of the brethren was thrown into prison, but he was soon
liberated by a powerful friend, and afterwards the truth spread more
rapidly. Meetings for prayer and reading the Scriptures were held
every Sabbath, at which from twenty-five to fifty were present, and
one of the priests seemed to have become obedient to the faith. No
missionary had yet been among these brethren, and the issues from
the press were almost the only instrumentality employed among them
by the Holy Spirit. One year previously, it is believed, not a
single soul could have been found among the four thousand
inhabitants of Adabazar, who was not groping in the deepest
spiritual darkness. Now, some forty or more were convinced of the
errors of their Church, and ready to take the Bible as their only
religious guide, of whom several appeared to be truly converted men,
and even willing to lay down their lives for Christ. It was not
until the autumn of 1841, that a missionary was able to visit them.
Mr. Schneider, of Broosa, was then hailed with joy by all the
evangelical brethren, and returned with the most delightful and
cheering impressions. A spirit of inquiry had extended into many of
the neighboring villages.
The Rev. George W. Wood1 was transferred to this mission from
Singapore in 1842, and was associated with Mr. Hamlin in the
Seminary. The Rev. Simeon H. Calhoun, for some time resident at
Smyrna as agent of the American Bible Society, received now an
appointment as a missionary of the Board; the Rev. Edwin E. Bliss,
designated to the mountain Nestorians, having been refused a firman
to go thither by the Turkish government, was associated with Mr.
Johnston at Trebizond; and Mr. Schauffler devoted himself to the
Jews. Mr. Homes had the special charge of the book distribution at
Constantinople.
1 Afterwards one of the Corresponding Secretaries of the Board.
There being so little to impart peace to a really awakened
conscience in either the Roman or the Oriental Churches, individuals
were often found wandering to and fro, as in pagan India, vainly
seeking for rest. One of the most noted cases of this kind was that
of an Armenian. To pacify the clamors of conscience, he became an
inmate of a monastery far in the interior, where he undertook to
perform the most menial services for the monks. Failing to find
peace in this, he penetrated into the depths of a wilderness,
clothed himself in sackcloth, and lived on the coarsest fare, away
from the abodes of man. Here also he was disappointed. Returning to
Constantinople, he united himself to the papal Armenians, hoping in
their communion to find the relief he sought. He became chief singer
in one of the churches near the capital, and endeavored to derive
comfort, but found nothing to impart peace in the strictest forms of
papal worship. A friend now advised him to visit the American
missionaries. He had heard of them only as heretics and enemies of
the Christian faith, but was at length persuaded to accompany some
friends to Mr. Hamlin's house. Taking a seat as near the door as
possible, he listened in silence; then proposed some objections; but
gradually became interested, and drew his chair nearer and nearer to
his newly found teacher; until at length he seated himself on the
floor, literally at the very feet of Mr. Hamlin, and there drank in,
with mute astonishment, those divine truths which he had never heard
before, but which revealed to him the only sure foundation for peace
of mind. There was an instantaneous change in his whole character;
and we hear of him twelve years afterwards, as a living witness of
the truth, and a faithful laborer in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.1
1 Dwight's _Christianity Revived in the East_, p.118.
In October of this year, it was deemed advisable to suspend the
preaching service at Constantinople for a few Sabbaths, in
consequence of violent opposition on the part of some Armenians,
formerly reckoned as brethren. This unexpected and painful change
was owing to their forming an acquaintance with individuals who had
imbibed the errors, which threaten the unity of the Episcopal
Churches of England and America. Just before the outbreaking of this
opposition, Mr. Dwight thus gives utterance to his feelings: "How
wonderful are the ways of Providence in regard to the Armenians! In
one way or another, men are continually brought from distant places
to the capital, and here they become acquainted for the first time
with the Gospel; and returning to their homes, they spread abroad
that which they have seen and heard. There is something quite
wonderful in the state of the Armenian mind at the present time."
The persecuting spirit above noted was directed more especially
towards Hohannes, and this induced him to go to the United States to
prepare himself for preaching the Gospel.
In the early part of this year, the Armenian brethren met in a
retired part of the hills adjacent to the capital, and there, after
united prayer, agreed to send one of their own number, at their own
expense, on a missionary tour among their countrymen in the interior
of Asia Minor. Of their own accord they also agreed to set apart the
first Tuesday in each month, for special prayer to God in behalf of
their nation, and for his blessing on the means used for their
spiritual illumination. Not unfrequently they remained after Mr.
Dwight's preaching, to have a prayer meeting by themselves for the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit; and if there was any one present at
the meeting who was particularly anxious about his soul, they kept
him with them, and talked and prayed with him. It is recorded also,
that at one time as many as thirty Armenian men were present at the
monthly concert for prayer, which was necessarily held in the middle
of the day, and that some of them prayed as if they felt true
longings of heart for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
About forty different works, and more than forty-four thousand
volumes and tracts, were issued from the Smyrna depôt during the
year 1842. Eight or ten booksellers at the capital were kept
constantly supplied, and the products of the press were sent into
almost every part of the interior.
It is worthy of note that Mr. Dwight's first formal sermon to
Armenian women, was in May, 1843. It was in Pera, and four of them
had walked not less than three miles to attend the service. One was
forty-five or fifty years old, and her sentiments were decidedly
evangelical. The religion of the Gospel shone beautifully in some of
the Armenian families. Mr. Hamlin had an interesting experience at
Bebek. On the 13th of August, on returning from Constantinople, he
found nine women and one man waiting his return to preach to them
the Gospel. On the 21st, sixteen listened with breathless attention
to a sermon on the unsearchable riches of Christ, and nine of these
were women. On the 25th, another company of men and women called.
Mr. Hamlin was at work upon some philosophical apparatus, when one
of the men put his head through the door, and said, "Good-morning,
reverend sir, come here, and preach to us the Gospel." September
22d, a company of Armenian men and women, four of them from
Nicomedia, came and asked him "to teach them out of the Gospel." On
the 24th eight, besides the students, were present at the services,
forenoon and afternoon; two from Galata, one from Constantinople,
three from Nicomedia, and two from Adabazar. On the day following,
thirteen were present, most of whom had heard the maledictions of
the Armenian Patriarch pronounced, the day before, on all who should
visit the missionaries. On a day in December devoted to family
visitations, Mr. Dwight preached the Gospel to more than thirty
women.
It was not the missionaries alone, who labored in word and doctrine.
Several priests were "obedient to the faith," and preached it more
or less formally; and intelligent lay brethren,--scattered abroad,
some by persecution, some in the prosecution of their worldly
business,--like the primitive disciples, preached the Word; that is,
they took such opportunities as they could get, to make known the
truth to those of their countrymen who were disposed to hear it.
Vertanes, who had suffered imprisonment and banishment for the sake
of Christ, made an extensive missionary tour through Armenia.
In the summer of 1843, a body of Turkish police was seen conducting
a young man, under twenty years of age, in the European dress,
through the streets of Constantinople. His face was pale, and his
arms were pinioned behind him. Arriving at a place of public
concourse, they suddenly halted, the prisoner kneeled, and a blow of
the yatagan severed his head from the body. His crime was apostasy
from the Mohammedan faith. He was an obscure Armenian, and while
under the influence of alcohol had abjured the faith of his fathers,
and declared himself a Mohammedan. He had not submitted, however, to
the rite of circumcision before he repented of his rashness. The
penalty of apostasy being death, he fled to Greece. In about a year,
impatient to see his widowed mother, he returned in a Frank dress,
but was soon recognized, imprisoned, tortured to induce him to
reabandon his original belief, and even paraded through the streets
with his hands tied behind his back, as if for execution; but upon
his proclaiming aloud his firm belief in Christianity, he was
sentenced to decapitation. The British ambassador, Sir Stratford
Canning, impelled by motives of humanity, made an earnest effort to
procure his release, and the Grand Vizier promised that the young
man should not be beheaded. On learning that he had been, the
ambassador declared it to be an insult to the Established Religion
of England, as well as to all Europe, and insisted that no similar
act of fanaticism should ever again occur. In this he was said to be
warmly seconded both by the French and Prussian ministers. The Grand
Vizier, as before, was ready to give a verbal pledge; but soon a
second act of treachery was discovered. A Greek, in the interior of
Asia Minor, had declared himself it Mohammedan, and afterwards
refused to perform the rites of that religion, and the Turkish
minister was preparing the death-warrant for him, at the very time
when he was making these promises to the ambassador. Sir Stratford
now very peremptorily demanded, that a written pledge be given by
the Sultan himself (as his ministers could no longer be trusted),
that no person embracing the Moslem religion and afterwards
returning to Christianity, should on that account be put to death;
and the Earl of Aberdeen, on the part of the home government,
instructed him in a noble letter not to recede from the demand. The
Prussian and French governments were equally decided; and after some
hesitancy, even Russia threw the weight of her influence into the
scale. After a struggle of some weeks the required pledge was given,
signed by the Sultan himself, that henceforth NO PERSON SHOULD BE
PERSECUTED FOR HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS IN TURKEY. The British
ambassador distinctly acknowledged the finger of God in this
transaction, which he said seemed little less than a miracle.
It will hereafter appear, that the pledge had a wider range, than
was thought of at the time by the governments of Europe, by their
representatives, or even by the Turks. God was setting up a
spiritual kingdom, and his people must have freedom to worship Him
in his appointed way. The battle for religious freedom in Turkey was
fought over the mutilated remains of the Armenian renegade, and the
Sultan's pledge secured to the Protestant native Christians the full
enjoyment of their civil rites, while openly practicing their own
religion.1
1 This brief statement is compiled from the _Correspondence relating
to Executions in Turkey for Apostasy from Islamism_, published by
the British Parliament in 1844, occupying forty folio pages. The
correspondence is highly honorable to the great men who were then
controlling the political affairs of Europe, and to a large extent
also of Western Asia.
But before this comprehensive meaning of the pledge could be
understood, and the benefit of it actually enjoyed by the people of
God, they were subjected to more grievous sufferings for their faith
than any yet endured. From 1843 to 1846, there was no long respite
from persecution; yet in all this time the spirit of inquiry
wonderfully spread, and believers were the more added to the Lord.
In 1843, Priest Vertanes was rudely deposed from office, and thrown
into prison. Finding he could not be induced to sign a paper of
recantation, drawn up for him by the Patriarch, he was hurried by
the Patriarch's beadles, with great violence, into an open
sail-boat, without opportunity to obtain even an outer garment from
his house, although it was midwinter, and sent across the sea of
Marmora to the monastery of Ahmah, near Nicomedia.
The Foreign Secretary of the Board spent eleven weeks in this
mission, in the winter of 1843-44, accompanied by Dr. Joel Hawes, of
Hartford. At that time it was arranged by the mission, in full
accordance with the views of their visiting brethren, to discontinue
the Greek department, to give distinct names as missions to the
Jewish department and to the work among the Armenians, to open a
female high school at Constantinople, and to associate Mr. Wood with
Mr. Hamlin in the seminary at Bebek. It was also decided, that
Messrs. Riggs and Ladd, turning from the Greeks to the Armenians,
should acquire the use of the languages spoken by the latter people;
that Mr. Calhoun should be authorized to visit Syria, with a view to
an opening for him in connection with the projected seminary on
Mount Lebanon; that Mr. Temple, then too old to learn either the
Armenian or Turkish languages, ought to be authorized, in view of
the discontinuance of the Greek department, to return to the
churches whose faithful messenger he had been so long; and that the
native Armenian agency should be put upon a footing on which it
would be more likely to be sustained ultimately by the people.
There was reason afterwards to believe, that it would have been
better for Mr. Temple to remain in Turkey, in the exercise of his
eminently apostolic influence upon his brother missionaries and the
native Protestant community, Greek and Armenian. Yet his own opinion
was in favor of the course he pursued. "I am too old," he said, "to
think for a moment of learning a new language, and no opening
invites me here in any language I can command." After a farewell
visit to his brethren in Constantinople, he set his face homeward,
and arrived in Boston in the summer of 1844. He was usefully
employed as an agent of the Board, or in the pastoral relation,
until his health broke down. In January, 1851, through the kindness
of a friend, he made a voyage to Chagres, and another to Liverpool.
But he returned from the last of these voyages enfeebled by the
roughness of the passage; and his strength gradually declined, until
the 9th of August, 1851, seven years after his return to America,
when he died at Reading, Massachusetts, his native place, in the
sixty-second year of his age. It may be truly said, that few men
have borne more distinctively than he, the impress of the Saviour's
image.1
1 See _Life and Letters of Rev. Daniel Temple_, for twenty-three
years a Missionary in Western Asia. By his son, Rev. Daniel H.
Temple, Boston, 1855.
A daughter of Dr. Hawes accompanied him on his voyage to Smyrna as
the wife of Mr. Van Lennep, but was permitted only to enter upon the
work to which she had devoted herself in Asia. She died at
Constantinople of fever, within less than a year from the time of
her embarkation. The health of Mrs. Benjamin was such as to oblige
her and her husband to return home. A similar cause occasioned also
the return of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson.