History of the missions of the American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions to the oriental churches, Volume II.

by Rufus Anderson

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE ARMENIANS.

1860-1861.

The fleets and armies of Europe had retired, and the Turk felt in a measure freed from a troublesome guardianship; which had, however, greatly promoted both religion and reform in Turkey. The fact that the war had materially weakened Russian influence at the Porte, may have been among the reasons that induced England now to relax its hold on the government of the Sultan. As a consequence, French diplomacy was decidedly in the ascendant, and lent its influence to promote Papal schemes. "The Armenians," writes a well informed missionary, "accept a declaration of the Bible as ultimate, and as the Protestant missionaries made the Bible the basis of all their work, and accustomed the people to refer to it for authority in all spiritual matters, the Papists have been shut up to the use of political measures to gain adherents. This they have done by espousing the cause of any party in litigation on condition that he should register himself a Roman Catholic. This influence was very powerful throughout the country, as it was supported by the intervention of the French embassy, and led to violence and persecution in various parts of the empire, especially at Mardin, where the papal power was comparatively strong."

Anticipating the history, it may be said, that the Franco-German war changed all this. The Turkish government then no longer feared the French, and hence no longer lent itself to Papal intrigues. The dogma of the Papal Infallibility has been also a severe blow to the Oriental Papacy.

No one was more competent than Dr. Dwight to testify concerning the state of religious opinions among the Armenians of the metropolis. Writing in February, 1860, he said it would be hard to find an intelligent Armenian in Constantinople, unless among the ecclesiastics, who did not acknowledge that there were many errors in the Armenian Church, and that the evangelical system was the best.

About the game time, he found a great change for the better at Rodosto, on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmora. The evangelical brethren had suffered many indignities from the Armenians, but now even the magnates were disposed to cultivate friendly relations with them. This he attributed, in great measure, to the wise and yet firm demeanor of Apraham, the native preacher, who afterwards became pastor of the Rodosto church. He was a native of the place, and was once a deacon in the old Armenian Church, and a candidate for the offices of vartabed and bishop. His first knowledge of the truth was gained while in the Armenian monastery at Jerusalem. From thence he came to Bebek, where he studied theology. He was an exception to the rule, that a prophet has no honor in his own country, for without compromising the truth, he had gained the respect of all. He showed his missionary friend a list of eighty families, upon which he called in regular order. Though most of them belonged to the old Armenian Church, they received him kindly. The missionary called with him upon two of these families prominent in the Armenian community, in one of which they spent an entire evening. A copy of the Bible, in the modern language, was in the house, and was brought forward, read, and commented upon, just as if this had been a Protestant family.

Dr. Dwight attended the examination of the Protestant school at Rodosto. More than half of the pupils were from non-Protestant families; and an audience of two hundred and fifty expressed very general satisfaction with the attainments of the pupils. On the Sabbath he administered the Lord's Supper. A large number not connected with the church, were present, and gave close attention to the preaching. Many must have come from mere curiosity, but the missionary never preached with greater certainty that he had the sympathies of his audience.

In the following July, events showed that the new influences had in some way reached all classes of Armenians in the metropolis. An aged Protestant died and his body was borne by his friends to an Armenian cemetery, which hitherto had been open to all bearing the Christian name. Now, however, a mob, composed of the very lowest class of Armenians, seized the coffin, and forcibly carried it out of the burying-ground, where it remained four days. The mob increased to thousands, and kept possession of the ground day and night. The American and English Ambassadors were at length roused, and remonstrated with the Porte and the Patriarch. The burial was assented to, and the Seraskier, or Minister of War, came with several hundred troops. A place was selected for the grave within the cemetery, but the mob, at the first blow of the pickaxe, rushed forward with a savage yell. The troops were ordered to resist, but not to fire. After twenty or thirty had been wounded, the mob fell back. The Patriarch and other dignitaries of the Armenian Church now came upon the ground, and gave their sanction to the spot selected for the burial, and the grave was dug. Just then the Seraskier, for some unexplained reason, ordered the grave to be filled, and another to be dug outside of the cemetery, in the middle of the public highway. The Protestants declined taking part in the burial in such a spot, though entreated to do so by the Seraskier, but remained and looked on in silence, while Mussulmans dug the grave, put the coffin into it, and filled it up. As soon as this was done, the mob rushed forward and trampled spitefully upon it, in the presence of the Pasha and Patriarch. The representatives of the Protestant powers now united in a strong remonstrance to the government; and Stepan Effendi, the civil head of the Protestants, was speedily notified, that ground would be given them for cemeteries wherever Protestants were found.

A native assistant died at Baghchejuk, near Nicomedia, early in the year, who had from the beginning been intimately connected with the work in that place, and was called the "prince of colporters," on account of his success in distributing the Scriptures. Being by nature an earnest man, when converted he became zealous in disseminating the truth. As he was respected through all the region, there was great anxiety among the Armenians to regain him, and an ex-Patriarch visited Baghchejuk, in the hope of bringing him back. Promises and threats were equally vain, and the storm of persecution finally burst upon him. His vineyards and mulberry orchards were cut down, and much of his property was wrested from him. He was beaten and stoned, and his name cast out as vile. When they were building the church he brought a basket full of stones and brick-bats, which had been thrown through his windows, to be incorporated in the foundation wall. He described the effect of persecution in his own case, thus: "The truth in my heart was like a stake slightly driven into soft ground, easily swayed, and in danger of falling before the wind; but by the sledge-hammer of persecution God drove it in till it became immovable." "His working power," says Mr. Parsons, the resident missionary, "like everything else in his possession, was consecrated to Christ. With great self-denial on his part, two hundred piasters a month (about eight dollars) enabled him to give all his time to street preaching, and the sale of the Scriptures. As a bookseller he was eminently faithful and successful. Not contented with sitting in the book-stall waiting for purchasers, he used to shoulder a basket of books, and go through the streets and lanes of town and city, offering for sale the 'Holy Book;' the 'Book that would not lie;' the 'Infallible Guide;' and proclaiming, in a loud voice, its divine origin, man's need of it, and its light-and-life-giving power. This he did as time and strength permitted, from Broosa to Angora, and from Bilijik to the Black Sea. He everywhere either carried with him, or had near at hand, a supply of Bibles in the Turkish, Armenian, Greek, and Jewish languages. Probably not less than one hundred thousand persons have heard from him the proffer of the word of life."

"The word of God," continues Mr. Parsons, "was his constant companion. He was so familiar with it, that he could turn with facility to any passage desired. He walked with God. He was a man of prayer. His happiest moments were seasons of devotion—private, social, and public. I should say, rather, that next to the work of bringing others to Christ, his delight was in prayer and praise. He has rested from his labors, but his works do follow him. Before he died, he could rejoice in a rich harvest from his own sowing, but a greater harvest is yet to be reaped from the seed so widely scattered by his hand. He has gone, a sheaf of the first-fruits of the work in Baghchejuk. He 'came to his grave as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.'"

Mr. E. E. Bliss passed through Marsovan on his way to Harpoot, and found that the rampant hostility of eight years before had died out.[1] Instead of the hootings and stonings, which then greeted his arrival, he was met, a long way out, by a goodly company to escort him to his lodgings. On the Sabbath, in place of the little company assembled in a lower room of his own house, he now preached to a good audience, in a large and commodious chapel.

[1] See chapter xxiv.

"I spent," he says, "a few days at Sivas, where I was eight years ago, and found the small room, where ten or fifteen then met for God's worship, exchanged for a large upper room, filled with an audience of more than a hundred. And as we went onward to places we had never before visited, it was a continual feast to see the extent to which the work of God had spread in the whole country. In almost every place where we stopped for the night, however obscure the village, some would gather around us as brethren in the Lord. They were often coarsely dressed and rude of speech, undistinguishable in appearance from the mass around them; but a few words of conversation would show that their souls had been illuminated by the truth."

The annual meeting of the Northern Armenian Mission for 1860, was held at Harpoot, east of the Euphrates, seven hundred and fifty miles from Constantinople. And it was a significant fact, that the delegates from the metropolis were able to communicate with their families over the telegraph wires, destined to connect London with Calcutta.

The distance from the capital, and of the stations from each other was so great, as to render it difficult to assemble in the annual meetings, that were indispensable for an effective administration. At this meeting, what had been known as the Northern Mission, was divided into Western and Eastern, and Erzroom, Harpoot, and Arabkir composed the Eastern Mission. The Southern Mission then took the name of the Central; and the stations of the Assyria Mission were united to the Eastern. It will be convenient to use the names Western, Central, and Eastern in designating territory, but we shall, as far as possible, treat the three divisions as constituting one great mission.

The church at Harpoot received its first native pastor at this annual meeting. He was one of several young men, who left Diarbekir for Constantinople, eight years before, for the purpose of obtaining a Protestant education at Bebek. They were subjected to many revilings on their way, and few showed them any kindness. Some who were in sympathy with them deprecated their removal from Diarbekir, as the withdrawal from that place of the little light which had begun to shine. Now, having completed the course of study at the Seminary, Tomas, one of that company, was preaching the Gospel every Sabbath in Diarbekir, and was to become pastor there; and Marderos, another, combining great excellence of character, was made pastor of the flourishing church at Harpoot.

Mr. Dunmore, when he commenced the Harpoot station, five years before, found not a single Protestant in that city. It was now only three years since the arrival of Messrs. Wheeler, Allen, and Barnum, and there were thirty-nine church-members, and Harpoot was fast becoming an important centre of influence. There were schools in ten of the thirteen out-stations, eleven of which were supplied with preaching on the Sabbath by the missionaries and students of the Seminary, and in all the surrounding regions there was an increase of attendance on preaching. Women learned to read, and groups were found studying the Bible. In the numerous villages of the Harpoot plain and outlying districts were many faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus. The spirit of freedom had gone forth, as was seen in the growing activity of laymen, and the consequent decline of superstition and ecclesiastical despotism. Instruction was communicated to large numbers of both men and women, and it was beginning to be regarded as disgraceful for adults of either sex not to be able to read.

The theological school contained twenty-four pupils, of whom eleven were from the vicinity and ten were married men. The students devoted their winter vacation of four months to preaching and teaching, and in term time they preached at out-stations.

Mrs. Dwight, after twenty-one years of eminently useful service, died at Constantinople in November, 1860. Dr. Dwight's family being thus broken up, he commenced, with the approval of his brethren, a tour through Syria and Asiatic Turkey, intending to go over much of the ground he had traversed with Dr. Eli Smith in their explorations thirty years before.

How great the changes in the intervening period! Then, for fourteen and a half months, he was unable to receive tidings from his wife, whom he had left in Malta. Now, from beyond the Euphrates, he could have communicated daily with Constantinople by telegraph. Then, no fellow-laborers were to be found between Smyrna and the little bands of German and Scotch brethren soon after to be driven away from Russian Armenia and Georgia, and nowhere did they meet among the people any religious sympathies in unison with their own. Now, the survivor found missionaries scattered over the land, and he scarcely entered a place where some one, at least, did not greet him with a joyful welcome. Then, the object was to explore an unbroken scene of spiritual death. Now, it was to confirm living churches, and help forward a growing spiritual work.

The tour was extended as far as the Nestorian mission, and occupied about eight months. Reviewing this journey of almost unprecedented interest, Dr. Dwight could not refrain from using the language of Christian triumph: "I have visited," he says, "every station of the Board in Turkey and Persia excepting those among the Bulgarians. It has been my privilege to see all the missionaries and their families,—a rare body of men and women, of whom our churches and our country may well be proud,—and also to become personally acquainted with hundreds and thousands of the dear Protestant brethren and sisters of this land—God's lights in the midst of surrounding darkness; God's witnesses even where Satan dwelleth."

Dr. Dwight was at Marash in April, and this is his own vivid description of what he saw there: "This place is indeed a missionary wonder! Twelve years ago there was not a Protestant here, and the people were proverbially ignorant, barbarous, and fanatical. Six years ago the evangelical Armenian church was organized with sixteen members, the congregation at that time consisting of one hundred and twenty. On the last Sabbath I preached in the morning to a congregation of over a thousand, and in the afternoon addressed nearly or quite fifteen hundred people, when forty were received into the church, making the whole number two hundred and twenty-seven. Nearly one hundred of these have been added since Mr. White came here, two years ago. One old woman of seventy-five years was admitted who was converted only four months ago. She was previously a bigoted opposer, but now she seems full of the love of Christ. Her emotions almost overpowered her on approaching the table of the Lord.

"The church-members here impressed me from the first as men who thought more of the spiritual than the temporal. The Holy Spirit has been evidently at work here during the whole of the year, and especially through the past winter, and conversions are constantly taking place. The burden of conversation among the brethren is in regard to praying and laboring for the salvation of souls.

"On the Sabbath the half of the body of the church was filled with women packed closely together on the floor. The other half, and the broad galleries around three sides of the house, were completely crowded with men. A new church is needed immediately in the other end of the town. I bless God that He brought me here, and I feel almost like saying, 'Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.'"

It should be said that this visit to Marash was in the midst of a revival. The resident missionary, Mr. White, describes the work as being chiefly among the Armenians and Roman Catholics. "Every night they met in the houses of the Protestants and spent hours, sometimes even till near morning, examining the Scriptures and comparing them with the corrupt teachings of their own churches. Our young men were very active, laboring both day and night, so much so, that the Catholic bishop said he could not understand it; that if the young men were paid for thus laboring, the missionaries had not money enough; and if they were not paid, they had a love which he could not understand. Many of his people, however, seemed to comprehend it better than he did, and are now regular attendants at our church."

The veteran missionary pays a noble tribute to the wives of the missionaries at the several stations of the central mission: "I felt myself rebuked when I saw the earnest, self-devoted spirit of my missionary sisters, who are laboring in Aintab, in Marash, in Antioch, in Aleppo, and in Oorfa, for the salvation of their degraded sex; thinking little of the sacrifices they have made in leaving America, to live in such a country as Turkey. It would be difficult to find in Christendom a more happy class than these, our helpers in Christ Jesus. The holy object which fills their hearts lifts them above the distracting and embittering influences of external circumstances."

The change at Diarbekir, during the score of years since Dr. Grant and Mr. Homes barely escaped with their lives, had been truly wonderful. Drs. Dwight and Schneider and Mr. Nutting, on their approach from Oorfa, were met, eighteen miles out, by a deputation of Protestant brethren on horseback; and, a few miles further on, by another detachment, headed by Mr. Walker and the native pastor; and when near the city, by a third on foot, thus giving them a sort of triumphal entry. Nor, during their whole stay, was there anything to awaken a feeling of insecurity, but convincing evidence, that Protestantism had a strong hold on many minds.

Dr. Dwight noticed a decline of the Turkish population in the region of the Euphrates. Several entire quarters in Diarbekir, formerly Turkish, had passed into Christian hands, and the process was going on. Armenians, Jacobites, and Protestants were buying Turkish houses, but seldom did a Turk buy one of theirs; and around the outskirts of the city there were extensive Turkish quarters all in ruins.

Mrs. Dunmore had come to the United States in 1856, in consequence of the failure of her health, and was never able to return. Her husband continued his self-denying labors four years longer, until, seeing no prospect of her recovery, he believed his duty required him to follow her. It was then a time of civil war in his native land, and his public spirit led him to accept an invitation from a regiment of cavalry to be their chaplain. A detachment, with which he was connected, was surprised early in the morning of August 3, 1861, and he fell, shot in the head before he was fairly out of his tent.[1]

[1] See Missionary Herald, 1862, p. 321.

In courage, enterprise, tact, and efficacy, Mr. Dunmore stood in the front rank of missionaries. "He did not write much of what he did," says Mr. Walker, his successor at Diarbekir. "He cared not to be known. But he cared for the souls of this poor people, and for Christ's kingdom. I think that few missionaries are so well fitted for the work, and very few labor with the same zeal and self-denial. To few is it given to accomplish so much. There is comparatively little accomplished in Diarbekir, Arabkir, Harpoot, and Moosh, which is not, under God, due to this brother. His influence will long be felt in these parts. Paul was his model, and there are few who come so near to that exemplar. He had wonderful power in attaching the natives to him. He could sympathize deeply with them, and aid them as few can. His heart was in the work here, and it was a very great trial for him to return to America. His fearless journeys among the Koords in this land, led us often to feel apprehensive for his life. The Lord forgive the Texan, whose bullet cut short a life so valuable."

In the years 1860 and 1861, the ill health of either husband or wife deprived the mission of the labors of Messrs. Clark, Hutchison, Parsons, and Plumer, and their families. Mr. and Mrs. Peabody returned to their native land, after a faithful service of nineteen years. Dr. Schauffler also terminated his official connection of twenty-nine years with his missionary associates, and entered the service of the American, and the British and Foreign Bible Societies in the work of Bible translation for the Turkish Mohammedans. Miss Tenney was married to Dr. Hamlin, who had been released from his connection with the Board to take charge of a Protestant college in Constantinople, though without any change in the great object of his labors.

Mr. Williams reoccupied Mardin in the year 1861. This was then, as now, the capital of the Syrian Church, and the natural centre of operations among the Arabic-speaking people in Eastern Turkey. It embraced Mosul, and multitudes of towns and villages scattered over a wide region, and required more than one missionary; though that one was a man of first-rate abilities and eminent devotion to his work. It was put in connection with the Armenian Mission, partly because its missionary policy was the same, and partly because it seemed necessary to work that whole field from one central station, and by a small number of missionaries, and because it would require the moral support of the larger mission in its neighborhood.

A training-school was commenced at Mardin in the following year, on the plan of the one at Harpoot, with a class of eight hopefully pious young men. The congregation had doubled since Mr. Williams' return and Protestantism had a more favorable position; but as yet the intellect accepted the truth more readily than did the heart.

Trebizond had only a native pastor, and the day-school was reported as one of the best in Turkey. Khanoos, southeast of Erzroom, had been faithfully cultivated for some time by the native pastor, Simon, who was now removed to Moosh, where he would have a better field. Erzroom was again without a missionary in consequence of the necessary removal of Mr. Trowbridge to the capital.

In addition to notices of versions of the Scriptures in the preceding chapter, it should now be stated, that Dr. Goodell had completed the great work of his life,—the translation of the Bible into the Turkish language, as written in the Armenian character and spoken by the Armenians. The version was from the Hebrew and Greek; the New Testament had received three distinct revisions, and the Old Testament one. His principal helper, for thirty years, was Panayotes Constantinides, who died March 11, 1861. "He had greatly desired," writes Dr. Goodell, "to live to see the end of the revision, and we pressed on together, returning thanks at the end of every chapter, that we had got so far on our journey. But his strength failed him on the way, and when there was but little further to go, he laid himself down, and the angels carried him to his home in heaven." Dr. Schauffler had nearly completed a translation of the New Testament in Turkish, with the Arabic or sacred character, and after much difficulty had obtained the consent of the government to its publication. Dr. Riggs had reached the books of Kings, in addition to the Psalms, in his version of the Scriptures in Bulgarian, and had also given time to preparing and editing Bulgarian tracts.

The amount of publication in the year 1860, in the Armenian, Armeno-Turkish, Bulgarian, and Modern Greek, was 164,500 copies, and 13,296,000 pages. The total expenditure was $15,789, from the following sources:—

American Bible Society $3,473 British and Foreign Bible Society 1,243 American Tract Society, New York 2,646 American Tract Society, Boston 674 London Tract Society 1,175 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 5,462 Other sources 1,116 ———— $15,789

Among the books published were a Reply to Archbishop Matteos in Armenian, a Commentary on Matthew, Hymn-Book, Theological Class-Book, and Geography,—the last at the expense of Haritûn Minasiyan, an Armenian printer. The Word of God was more in demand than any other book. The Armenian Bible, with marginal references, electrotyped and printed in New York by the American Bible Society, was highly prized. The American Tract Society had also electrotyped and printed several works for the mission, which were admired for their beauty, and were furnished more cheaply than they could have been prepared in Constantinople.