Missionary physicians, their medical schools, hospitals, dispensaries, and practise among the people have been a mighty force not only for alleviating suffering, but for breaking down the superstitions of all classes of people. The Arabs, the Koords, the Turks, as well as other Mohammedan races, have found their belief in kismet, or fate, greatly shaken by the practises of men who seemed successfully to set themselves against the will of God. They have seen the scourge of cholera stayed in its ravages by the application of modern scientific methods, and diseases which were regarded as almost universally fatal become little feared, and they are compelled to inquire if, after all, “whatever is, is ordained by Allah.” Perhaps the medical work of the missionaries in Turkey has accomplished more in breaking down that benumbing belief in fatalism among the Mohammedans than all other phases of mission work together.
XX. STANDING OF MISSIONARIES
My purpose is twofold: first to show the American people the kind of work in which the missionaries in Turkey are engaged, and second to assure them from personal observation that these missionaries do not encourage revolutionists or the revolutionary spirit. I am surer of nothing than I am of this. If you could see them at their somewhat thankless tasks you would regard them as the most consecrated men and women on the planet, as far removed from fostering rebellion as heaven is from earth, making the sacrifice of life and of all social and even domestic relations, and doing it with a cheerfulness which must command not only our respect but also our admiration.
The price to be paid for the enlightenment of the nation is very heavy, but these noble men and saintly women are willing to pay it, and I, for one, feel that my poor life amounts to nothing in comparison; so with a full heart, a heart with a big ache in it, I cry, “God bless them!”
The missionaries are the Sir Knights of modern times, their weapons are no longer swords, but ideas. They are to be found in all quarters of the globe, and they are always surrounded by ambushed perils. They are the representatives of a high civilization and of the best religious thought of the age, and are the little “leaven” which in good time is to “leaven the whole lump.” I do not hesitate to say that they are doing more for the Turkey of to-day than all the European Powers combined.
—George H. Hepworth
in “Through Armenia on Horseback.”
At the beginning of work in Turkey all classes were suspicious of the missionaries. Experience with the representatives of the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches had led the Mohammedans and others to fear that their errand was not wholly religious. At the same time, it was impossible for one brought up in the atmosphere of Turkey not to confound religion with nationality. The American missionaries had one great advantage, for few even of the educated in Turkey ever heard of the United States. So there was not much alarm at the prospects of missionaries from the United States gaining political supremacy in Turkey. So far as the Turks understood, the country back of them was without strength or repute. This fact allayed the otherwise inevitable suspicion that they were political agents.