XXI. COMPLETED WORK
What is in the future no man can tell, but the growth of pure religion in whatever form of church organization; the development of freedom of thought; the attainment of civil liberty, and that not merely for Armenia, but for Greek, Nestorian, Jacobite, and even for the Turk himself, depends upon the continuance of the influences for a higher life that have been at work during the past sixty years, and that depends upon the missionaries being supported at their posts. Theirs is no sectarian work. They stand as the friends of Gregorian Armenians, Roman Catholic Chaldeans, Nestorians and Jacobites as well as of those in closer affiliation with the Protestant Churches of Europe and America. America should stand by them and demand their full protection. It is our right by treaty; it is our right by the duty we owe humanity, by the duty we owe to our tradition as a liberty-loving nation. We have no political ends to serve; we want not a square foot of the sultan’s domains; but we stand, as we have always stood, for freedom for the oppressed, for the right of every man to worship his God in the light of his own conscience.
—Edwin Munsell Bliss,
in “Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities.”
In order to understand the methods employed in planting missions in Turkey and the permanent results following, one must have a clear idea of what the missionaries were attempting to accomplish. Perhaps we make the subject clearer by stating first some of the things they were not attempting to do.
They were not attempting to plant American churches in Turkey over which the missionaries should preside as pastors and which should be under the control and direction of the mission.
They were not attempting to transport into Turkey American churches, and American schools, and American customs and dress or anything else that is American.
They were not attempting to plant churches or schools or any other line of Christian work which should be perpetually dependent upon contributions from America for their maintenance.
What then, to speak positively, were some of the things the missionaries were attempting to do in Turkey? It should be stated at the outset that no settled policy was clearly in the mind of any one missionary at the beginning of the work. When missionary work began in Turkey no one, not even the officers of the Mission Board, had framed such a policy in detail. All had one vague desire and purpose, namely to preach the gospel of Christ to the people who dwell in the Turkish empire. At first, as has been stated, there was no intention of organizing churches separate from those already in existence there. It was expected that the missionaries upon the ground would shape and adopt their measures as necessity demanded. Men of broad culture, deep piety, and sound common sense were appointed to the fields, and to them was entrusted the responsibility of evolving a policy for themselves.
When independent Protestant churches were organized in 1846 it seemed the only natural step to ordain over them pastors from among their own people. There were several able and well-educated Armenians whose fitness for this office was unquestionable. At any rate, there were not enough missionaries upon the ground to fill these positions. Perhaps this last fact helped materially in settling the policy of a native pastor for a native church. Be this as it may, there was a speedy recognition of the right of the native church to have a pastor of its own from among its own race. This was early recognized as good policy, and was put into operation.
It does not, however, seem to have occurred to the missionaries then that the native churches had the same right to support the pastor thus ordained over them. The missionaries were there to see that the Christian work was carried on, and, to their minds, a most important part of it was to provide for the expense of the churches they had been agents in forming. In the annual reports of that period we find no allusion to payments by the people themselves for the support of their pastors. That was regarded as a part of the service missionaries were to render, and the people seemed perfectly willing to have it so.
A CLASS OF NATIVE STUDENTS GRADUATES FROM THE
AMERICAN COLLEGE FOR GIRLS, CONSTANTINOPLE
In 1856 Crosby H. Wheeler was sent out as a missionary and in 1857 he was assigned to Harpoot in Eastern Turkey. He had received a thoroughly practical training in business and as a pastor in Maine before going out. While profoundly earnest in his purpose to Christianize the people of Turkey, he had little sentiment in his makeup and was eminently practical in all he undertook. He soon discovered that the churches in Turkey were regarded by the people as belonging to the missionaries, since the missionaries paid all the bills. Many who attended felt it to be a favor they were conferring upon the missionaries. A church in the city of Arabkir, some two days’ journey northwest of Harpoot, was in need of a stove. Dr. Wheeler ordered one from America, paid the bill, even for transportation to Arabkir. One of the deacons of the church received the stove and set it up, and then sent a bill for his services to Dr. Wheeler. This turned the tide. Dr. Wheeler from that time became the champion of self-support for native churches, as a fundamental principle of self-government and self-propagation.
The people, for the most part, did not welcome the change. They were Orientals, and could not see why the American Christians should not have the privilege of supporting their pastors and meeting all the cost of their churches if they so desired. Dr. Wheeler, by pen and voice, advocated the policy with great energy and force. The wisdom of it was recognized by the officers of the Board. It gained general approval from most of the missionaries in Turkey, but many of them hardly dared to apply it vigorously in their own immediate community. It required no little courage to adopt and put through so unpopular a measure. The principle was a right one and could not but prevail. The wiser Armenians and Greeks saw that only in this way could they secure for themselves liberty and independence of action befitting their ability. While their desire for money inclined them to cling to the old custom, their love of freedom forced them towards self-support.
The same principle was applied to the missionary schools. At first they also were free, but in the Orient no real value attaches to that which costs nothing. Schools that are free can be attended or not as the pupil sees fit. Books given away are easily lost or destroyed and are never valued. To command respect for the schools and insure regularity of attendance it became necessary to charge the pupils tuition. A pupil for whom tuition had been paid could be depended upon to be present when not seriously sick. Books and slates when purchased were cared for and used. Dr. Wheeler once spent several hours in persuading a man to purchase a two cent slate for his boy in school. The contest was for the principle, not the two cents. It is needless to say that Dr. Wheeler carried his point.
This principle is now a well established policy throughout the Turkish missions. Native churches, as soon as they become financially able, assume the entire expense for themselves. No missionary is the pastor of a native church. The weaker churches pay what they can, the missionaries supplementing with the understanding that the mission’s aid shall diminish as their financial strength increases.
Many Protestant schools in Turkey to-day receive no aid from mission funds. The people assume that an education has a real value for which they are willing to pay. Some of the colleges receive in tuition fees as much as three-fourths of the cost of conducting the institution. With others differently situated the proportion is less but all get no small part of their income from the students. Probably the higher educational institutions in Turkey secure as large if not a larger part of their running expenses from the pupils than do similar institutions in any other country in the world.
The same principle applies also to literature and to medical treatment. The people pay liberally for all the products of the press, whether it be in the form of periodicals or books and tracts. Missionary physicians early learned that they could accomplish more good by charging fees for service and for medicine in all cases where the patient is able to pay. The patient who receives medicine free when he has money to pay for it is apt to defy all directions, or even not take it at all unless he likes it. Medicine that has been paid for is pretty sure to be taken. Some of the hospitals in Turkey, apart from the salary of the missionary physician in charge, are practically self-supporting, the fees of the patients and the sums paid for medicine being sufficient to meet the cost of attendants, supplies, and the care of the hospital.
The deserving poor, however, are not turned away. In schools methods of self-help are provided for students who have no funds with which to pay tuition, so that their self-respect and independence are not destroyed. In the same way provision is made for books. In cases of sickness, no one who is worthy is ever refused treatment by the missionary physician because he has no money to pay.
This principle of self-support has become a fixed part of the work in Turkey. The people are now thoroughly committed to it. They recognize that the mission is not there to transplant institutions from abroad, but to sow seed from which institutions may grow in the soil of Turkey, watered by Turkish showers, warmed by the Turkish sun, cultivated and cared for by Turkish hands. Much greater progress would have been made in self-support had it not been for many overwhelming disasters which have swept over the empire at intervals since missionary work began there. First it was devastating wars with Greece, with Egypt, and with Russia. Then came famine and massacre, the latter paralyzing trade, killing the wage-earners, and driving many of the most enterprising from the country. Had the Greeks and Armenians in Turkey been free from these terrible disasters for the last generation, it is safe to say every missionary church, school, hospital, and press would be to-day entirely independent of financial aid from this country. There would probably be need of missionaries for some time to come, and money from this country might still be called for to open new sections of the country, as, for instance, in Koordistan, and Albania, and Arabia, but in the old fields ample financial support would easily be supplied by the people themselves. In 1907 in spite of their poverty and distress the people connected with the American Board missions alone paid for their own churches, schools, and missionary medical attendance over $128,000,—a sum far in excess of what was paid by the Board to support the same work. We may confidently expect that if a new imperial policy should be put into operation and Turkey afford safety to life and property and liberty of conscience and judgment to all her subjects, there would be a marked advance in the support of all Christian and educational work in the country, and a rapid enlargement of all such institutions.
Much has also been accomplished in the line of self-propagation and aggressive Christian work. Various organizations of native Christian leaders, like the Bithynia Union of Western Turkey, organized in 1864, the Harpoot Evangelical Union organized in 1865, the Cilicia Union of Central Turkey, and similar organizations in Marsovan and in Bulgaria, as well as in other places, have rendered loyal service in the work of evangelization. These Unions have cooperated with the missionaries in aggressive operations as well as in the direction and supervision of the churches already organized. Their annual meetings have been marked events in the history of the churches. In these the missionaries are only honorary members, the native brethren taking the burden of responsibility. In some of the Unions, as at Harpoot in Eastern Turkey, a committee is annually appointed to cooperate during the year with the missionaries in looking after and directing work in the churches and schools as well as in planning and executing general evangelistic movements.
What the native churches are doing in the line of expansion is best exhibited in the Koordistan Missionary Society which had its beginning nearly forty years ago in the Harpoot Evangelical Union. This society was formed for the purpose of carrying the gospel and the advantages of a Christian education to the Koordish speaking Armenians who dwelt in the heart of Koordistan between the Harpoot, Mardin, and Bitlis stations of the Board. Funds were collected, visitations made, and promising Koordish speaking students from that country were brought to Harpoot and educated at the expense of that society and later returned to their people as teachers and preachers. As the work enlarged, evangelical churches in other parts of the country joined in the enterprise until it has come to be recognized as a work belonging to evangelical Armenians wherever found. Many Armenians in the United States have liberally contributed to sustain this society. The Armenians give freely for any Christian work that appeals to their national pride or that takes hold upon their sympathies.
In more recent times the alumni and students of Euphrates College who have gone to England or come to this country have contributed for providing scholarships in that institution for the education of poor but deserving students. While some are endowing scholarships, others propose to provide permanent professorships in the college. All this is additional evidence that, the Armenians once assured of safety to life and property, the Christian educational work in Turkey will speedily become largely, if not entirely, self-supporting. The Greeks, among whom much less work is carried on, would not fall behind in self-support.
XXII. INDUSTRIAL AND RELIGIOUS
CHANGES
In the year 1860, in a public address in the city of London, the Earl of Shaftesbury paid the following tribute to the character of the American missionaries in Turkey:—
“I do not believe that in the whole history of missions; I do not believe that in the history of diplomacy, or in the history of any negotiations carried on between man and man, we can find anything to equal the wisdom, the soundness, and the pure evangelical truth of the body of men who constitute the American mission. I have said it twenty times before, and I will say it again—for the expression appropriately conveys my meaning—that ‘they are a marvelous combination of common sense and piety.’ Every man who comes in contact with these missionaries speaks in praise of them. Persons in authority, and persons in subjection, all speak in their favor; travelers speak well of them; and I know of no man who has ever been able to bring against that body a single valid objection. There they stand, tested by years, tried by their works, and exemplified by their fruits; and I believe it will be found that these American missionaries have done more toward upholding the truth and spreading the gospel of Christ in the East, than any other body of men in this or in any other age.”
Mr. William T. Stead once said, “How many American citizens, I wonder, are aware that from the slopes of Mount Ararat all the way to the shores of the Blue Ægean Sea, American missionaries have scattered broadcast over all the distressful land the seed of American principles. When General Mosseloff, the director of foreign faiths within the Russian empire, visited Etchmiadzin the Armenian patriarch spread before him the map of Asia Minor, which was marked all over with American colleges, American churches, American schools, American missions. They (the American missionaries) are busy everywhere, teaching, preaching, begetting new life in these Asiatic races.”
—From “Memoirs of William Goodell.”
Industrially Turkey was ages behind even at the beginning of the last century. Practically nothing modern had entered the country from without and found acceptance there. The agricultural implements in use were of the same primitive character as those of two thousand or more years before. The plow of Abraham’s day, made of the branch of a tree and only scratching the surface of the soil, was the only plow known, and it is not by any means extinct. The winds of the plains winnowed the grain, and the old threshing instruments with teeth still performed its ancient service upon the threshing-floors of earth.
In some respects the people were more jealous to guard their methods of work than they were their beliefs. It was found, however, that when a man had enlarged the horizon of his thinking, he was far more susceptible to suggestions as to his method of living and working.
Little by little new tools were brought in and made use of by native carpenters. Winnowing-mills for cleaning up threshing-floors, after years of opposition, won favor and are now found everywhere. In some sections cotton-gins run by water-power have brought a blessing to the farmers, while now and then a modern plow and other improved implements are finding acceptance. The sewing-machine is found in almost every town of importance, and the kerosene lamp has completely changed the character of multitudes of homes and greatly multiplied the possibilities of intellectual improvement and social reform.
The first electric telegraph instrument ever set up and operated in the empire was exhibited to the sultan of Turkey by Cyrus Hamlin, the missionary. The potato, the tomato, and other vegetables have been introduced into various sections, and in many cases have become regular articles of diet and staples in the market. Space forbids mention of the many industrial, mechanical, and economic improvements which have entered the country through the influence and even by the direct exertions of the missionaries.
All this in the earlier years was incidental to the mission work. During the last twenty years deliberate plans to teach industries have been made by the missionaries in some of the leading schools. While this industrial instruction was begun for the purpose of affording an opportunity to worthy but needy students to earn their way through school, the experiment proved that there was still another advantage not second to this in importance, and that was the educational value of practising an industry, as well as an economic value to the student and to the country. Industrial plants have been attached to some of the higher educational institutions like Anatolia College at Marsovan, where the results have amply justified the effort. It is surprising to see how rapidly new industrial ideas are disseminated from such a school.
At the time of the massacres of 1895-96 a large number of orphan children, both boys and girls, were taken in charge by the missionaries. These numbered many thousands. Their presence and needs forced the adoption of methods by which they could earn a part, at least, of their own support. Various industries sprang up wherever orphans and widows were found gathered into homes superintended by the missionary. These activities include cabinet work, carpentry, tinsmithing, blacksmithing, baking, embroidery, lace-making, with many other trades, besides silk culture and farming. As the children are bright and quick to learn the use of tools and remarkably good at imitation, marked progress is made. It is inevitable that out of these industrial plants will come new ideas and new industrial and mechanical impulses. Many of the young men who have come to the United States have learned trades which they will carry back to their own country as soon as they are satisfied that liberty is given them to return in safety. Probably industrial reform has not taken hold of the country as yet with the same force as other reforms. One prominent reason for this is that all industries are discouraged by the government. We can expect but moderate results until there is a change in this respect in the policy of administration.
Many changes in the construction of houses have taken place in the interior of the country. Wooden floors are rapidly coming into use, and windows admitting light and often with a few panes of glass are found even in remote villages. The one-story buildings in agricultural villages in which the family and the cattle during the winter occupied one room, are having a second story added for the family with pure air and with plenty of light. This one change alone is of inestimable value in lifting up and improving a people. Whitewash made with lime is freely used upon the inside of the living rooms and much pride is exhibited in the surroundings of the home. All this indicates a decided advance in family life and in the desire for what is civilized and wholesome. Every step forward is permanent. The industrial advance goes hand in hand with the introduction of comforts in the home. The possibilities for rapid enlargement of these reform measures are innumerable as soon as freedom of action and safety to life and property are assured.
Enlightened by education, chafing under the restrictions which crushed all enterprise in that country, and knowing about the large freedom and the wider opportunities open to all in the United States, a large number of Armenians have left their homes in Turkey for this country. Emigration began largely from Harpoot, but has extended now to all parts of the country, until it is estimated that there are now in the United States more than thirty thousand Armenians, with perhaps as many Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Turks and Syrians. Many of these have become prosperous business men, worthy and loyal citizens of the United States. Others are farmers, professional men, and laborers in factories. Some have returned, but the Turkish government is suspicious of all, and especially of Armenians who have been in this country, and is likely to deport them if they succeed in passing the guards at the frontier. In proportion to their numbers, the Protestants in Turkey have furnished by far the largest number of emigrants. They were the first to come into closest contact with the American missionaries and to catch the spirit of modern education. It was most natural that they should be the first to turn their attention to this country as the land of the greatest opportunity. Many have come here to secure more education for work among their own people at home, but the severity of Turkish rule has hitherto kept the most of these here. Many Armenian Protestant churches and congregations have been formed in this country, at points from Boston to California, and in every case the pastors and preachers were trained at mission schools in Turkey. If it prove true that old restrictions are removed and safety and freedom assured to these exiles from their fatherland, no doubt the greater part of these will return with joy, carrying back with them not only the capital they have secured, but the enterprise and skill they have acquired in their experience here. Many of these men may soon become a great force in aggressive commercial Christian and educational enterprises for their own people.
The missionaries set out to aid the Armenians and other races in Turkey to an intelligent and reasonable faith and practise. Separation from among the Armenians was forced upon the evangelicals, as we have already seen, but the line that divided the Protestants from the old Gregorian Church did not mark a cleavage between those who seriously thought upon religious matters and those who were blind followers of the Church. Many thoughtful men remained in the old Church, and the discussions that produced so much disturbance outside were carried on in greater quietness, even among the clergy. There were two reform movements proceeding at the same time; one through the propagandism of the Protestant or evangelical body, separated in 1846 from the old Church by the action of the Church itself, and the other a much less marked but no less sincere spirit of investigation and inquiry continuing within the old Church. The general reform movement had been too rapid and aggressive for the conservative elements of the Church, but after the withdrawal of the most active leaders the reform spirit continued to develop and exert its influence.
These two widely divergent parties of sixty years ago have now drawn toward each other. There are probably to-day more intelligent evangelical believers within the old Gregorian, Greek and Syrian Churches than comprise the entire Protestant body. Separation no longer takes place in any marked degree. The same men preach occasionally in both Protestant and Gregorian churches. Evangelical teachers are engaged without dissent to teach Gregorian schools, while in many instances there are more Gregorian than Protestant pupils in Protestant schools.
Gregorian young men preparing themselves for orders in their Church are welcomed to the Protestant theological schools where they stand upon precisely the same footing as the Protestant youth with that ministry in view, while missionaries are invited to give lessons in Gregorian theological schools.
The Gregorian Church, as a whole, while yet far from the goal reached by many of its strongest supporters, is making advance towards an intelligent faith and practise. No longer do the leaders believe that there is virtue in the forms of worship or salvation in submission to the demands of the priesthood. They believe that true religion consists in true belief and right living and to this end they strive.
It is also evident that the Mohammedans have been perceptibly affected by reading the New Testament; thousands of copies have been sold them. Whereas heretofore they had interpreted Christianity by the lives of the people among them who bore that name, they are now studying the sources and see that between the two there is a wide gulf. They have been compelled, in self-defense, to search their own religion for fundamental truths of high character in order to prove to the reformed Christians that Islam is not as bad as it appears in the lives of many of its adherents.
In a word, all classes in the empire are learning that religion is a matter of conviction and life, and not of form, and that it manifests its true character in the acts of its followers, and not in the boasted declarations of its leaders.