Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

Mission stations all over the country rapidly multiplied, and the number of Protestant churches increased. In 1860 forty Protestant churches had been organized, mostly among the Armenians, and twenty-two stations at which missionaries resided were in full operation. At nearly all of these stations, schools for boys and, in cases not a few, schools for girls, had been opened and these were well patronized. The printing-press was moved from Malta to Smyrna in 1833. The press always has been and is still one of the most active and effectual agents for reform in the empire. During the first forty years of the work, from five to ten million pages of Christian literature were issued from the press each year, in five different languages.

In no part of the Turkish empire has the work of the missionary been more difficult than in Syria. Owing to papal supremacy there, which called to its service both Turkish and French political aid in its endeavor to thwart the missionaries and the evangelicals, no separate church of native Christians was organized until 1848 at Beirut, two years after the formation of the Evangelical Armenian Church at Constantinople. There was in that field no intellectually and morally dominant race to receive and extend the gospel as there was in Asia Minor and the greater part of the Turkish empire, while the races occupying Syria were for the most part hostile to each other and always mutually suspicious.

In 1858 direct work for the Bulgarians was begun by opening a station at Adrianople, which was followed by a station at Philippopolis and Eski-Zagra within the next two years. The Bulgarians were longing for political freedom and welcomed the missionaries with their new literature and education as calculated to strengthen them as a nation. For fourteen years the work among the Bulgarians was considered a part of the Armenian mission. In 1872 the European work was set off by itself as the European Turkey mission, which is almost exclusively for the Bulgarians. The condition of the old Bulgarian Church was similar to the Armenian Church, so far as need of reform was concerned.

The churches which were organized in 1846, among those cast out from the old Gregorian Church, were severely plain and simple in their form and ritual, as well as in their articles of faith. In the reaction from the rigid ritualism of the Church from which they had been driven, these evangelical Christians went to the other extreme, putting the emphasis of the service upon the sermon. Prevailing conditions demanded direct positive instruction in Christian living rather than new forms of worship. Had these people not been rudely excommunicated from the Church there is no doubt that they would have clung fondly to much if not all of the rich service of the old Church. Much place was also given to the reading of the Scriptures in the modern spoken language of the people and to congregational singing. The people were so eager for the sermon, and especially in the expository form, that large numbers who repudiated the name of evangelical, and who were among the persecutors of the Protestants began to demand that the priests of the old Church also expound the Scriptures. Few of them were able to accomplish this with any degree of success. Dr. Goodell published a volume of sermons in Armenian which were eagerly bought by the priests and preached by them to their people. Although the evangelicals had been violently thrust out of the Church, the spirit of reform in considerable measure remained.

During the first bitter years, when feelings were stirred up and controversy was rife, there was a wide breach between the Gregorian and Protestant Churches. After discussions all over the country, extending to nearly every village of importance, had settled the question that the modern version of the Bible in the vernacular was the unquestioned Word of God, there was actually no ground for continued separate existence. All Armenians accepted the modern Scriptures as the revelation of God to men and an infallible guide to faith and practise. Neither did they have any scruples against the Bible being put into the hands of the people. Hence, as one might expect, the breach between the old and the new began gradually to heal. The spirit of bitterness, little by little, passed away until now it does not exist upon the old grounds which led to the separation.

In many places the Protestant pastors are now asked to speak in the old churches, and the children of both Gregorian and Protestant parents meet in the same Christian schools and upon exactly the same footing. In the theological seminaries of the missions there have been and now are students who are not Protestants and who are preparing for ordination as priests in the old Church. Many ecclesiastics of the Gregorian Church received the major part of their training for that service in the mission schools. During the last twenty years there has been little separation from the old Church. The missionaries have generally exerted their influence against it. Some Gregorians have tried to keep the controversy alive by claiming that the Protestants are not loyal to the race, but that charge has been so fully proven untrue that it is now little used.

In no instance have the missionaries for any length of time been the pastors of the native churches. At the first the policy was clearly settled that the only true and effective pastor of an Armenian church is an Armenian. The missionaries preach, and they have always been preachers, and some of them of great power, but this is quite different from being the settled pastor of a church. The rapid increase in the number of evangelical churches, each one of which demanded its own native pastor, compelled the missionaries to redouble their efforts to raise up and train an adequate number of worthy young men for these high offices. The seminary at Bebek produced men who have left the stamp of their piety, earnestness and ability upon the reform movement in Turkey. Some of these men came from the far interior of the country, and returning became the leaders in the new movement.

This seminary was ultimately moved to Marsovan, while other similar institutions sprang up at Marash and at Harpoot, in the eastern part of the country. A similar training-school became necessary also at Mardin, where the spoken language is Arabic, while in Beirut, Syria, a large training-school flourished. A whole educational system grew up out of the necessities of the work. This will be considered later when discussing the work of education in the empire.

The evangelical Churches were not denominational in any ordinary sense of that word. Their creed was the Bible in the language of the people and this was taken as the guide of their life. While the missionaries, because of their superior knowledge and experience in such matters, were constantly sought for advice, they did not exercise ecclesiastical control. These Churches were early advised to form themselves into Associations or Unions, as they were more generally called, for the purpose of mutual help. One such union was formed in the vicinity of Constantinople, and later one in Aintab and vicinity and at Harpoot and elsewhere. In these organizations missionaries could be only honorary members without a vote. They were composed of pastors and delegates from the churches, and held an annual meeting, with more frequent meetings of standing committees with varying functions. In some parts of the country these unions ordain to the gospel ministry and examine worthy candidates and grant them licenses to preach. It is not a Congregational system, neither is it Presbyterian, but it has worked well in developing native talent and directing it into right channels of action.

The development and strength in the evangelistic work in Turkey is due perhaps more to the leadership of a few individuals who seem to have been sent into the empire at a time most opportune. Dr. William Goodell, the first missionary of the Board to Constantinople, lived and labored there for forty-three years, or until 1865. With rare wisdom, patience and firmness did he direct the work through the period of fiery persecution and of organization of the Church and the Protestant community. Men are now there in the work, both missionaries and others, who were colaborers with him and who have helped to carry out the wise measures devised by him for the true reform of that people. Time would fail us to speak of Schneider, Dwight, Thompson and Riggs, of Post and the Blisses, of Wheeler, Farnsworth and a great multitude besides who gave their lives to build in the Turkish empire the pure, intelligent Church of Jesus Christ, to say nothing of the equally faithful and able company who are still there among perils and difficulties not less severe, but who know they are doing the Lord’s work, and that they are in the place where he has called them.