Dr. Dwight wrote in May, 1859: "The work among the Turks is looming up; and if not hindered by some untoward event, or by our neglect, it will by and by assume very large proportions. That Turkish officials through the country have been instructed not to persecute Mohammedans who embrace Christianity, is very evident. The governors of Sivas, Cesarea, and Diarbekir have, to our knowledge, within a short time, and with actual cases before them, publicly declared, that a Mohammedan who became a Christian could not be molested."
Mr. White visited a place on the north of the Taurus Mountains in May, 1860, and had many calls from Mussulmans. "Every day they came," he says, "with an apparently sincere desire to learn the truth; and held long conversations on man's sinfulness, and how it was possible for God to forgive sin. 'We have lost God;' 'We have lost the road;' 'We cannot find God;' were expressions they used very often. At almost every meeting, from three to five Mussulmans were present. One is known all over the city as a Protestant; and a second is a member of the Governor's Council."
Mr. Herrick, speaking of the Turkish department in the Bebek Seminary, wrote thus, in the same year: "Quite a number of Mohammedans have renounced Islam, and become true Christians; many more are soberly inquiring after the truth; and many others are turning, unsatisfied, from a religion which cannot save, or wavering in a merely nominal devotion to Islamism. That which is most striking is the clear evidence, often, of the work of God's Spirit in individual cases, and in general movements."
Dr. Schneider gives this testimony concerning the Mussulmans at an out-station of Aintab: "There is a willingness among the Moslems here to listen to arguments in favor of Christianity, that is uncommon. By intercourse with Protestants, and the reading of the Scriptures, many of them have obtained glimpses of the truth, and a few are more or less convinced that Christianity is true. While I was there, fifteen Mussulmans and several women attended a service. Apparently there is no place in this region where there is so much prospect of a speedy work to be done among the Mussulmans."
The inducement to labor among the Moslems, was much increased in the year 1860. At one large town in the heart of Asia Minor, a Moslem said to a Protestant, "Since you came here, you have caused us to fall into doubt and fear." At another, a Turk and his wife appeared to be true Christians. Though the man was zealous in making known the Gospel, the Moslems agreed to ignore his being a Protestant. At Diarbekir, a Turk declared himself a Christian, and a captain of the army at Harpoot did the same. Many Turks in the latter region purchased the New Testament, and some the whole Bible. The military Pasha of this district bought a Bible publicly, and so did the civil Pasha; thus showing the effect of the thorough evangelization of that community. At Constantinople, Dr. Dwight reported his having read the Scriptures and bowed in prayer with a high officer of the army in the palace of a Pasha, in the Mussulman quarter of the city, and in the presence of servants; the officer appearing to be strongly under the influence of evangelical ideas and feelings. Six Moslem converts were baptized that year at the capital. One of these was an Iman, seventy years of age. There had then been fifteen baptisms of adult converts from Mohammedanism in Constantinople.[1] The Grand Vizier subsequently required the Serasker to call Abdi Effendi, the baptized Iman above mentioned, and examine him. This was done, and the old man made the following confession and statement: "We are no ghiaours (i. e. we worship neither pictures, nor crosses, nor saints); we assemble and read out of this book (drawing out of his bosom the New Testament); we sing out of this one (producing a Turkish Hymn Book); and we listen to preaching from the Gospel, and engage in prayer for all men. If there is anything wrong in this book, please point it out to me." He supposed (on inquiry) that there might be some forty men who were like him, and mentioned some of their names.
[1] In part, by English missionaries.
It would be easy to multiply illustrations like the foregoing of the susceptibility of Mohammedans to Christian influence; and the reader will notice that they are of the same general nature with the early manifestations of interest among the Armenians. There have been, also, Turkish converts, who braved death in their Christian profession, and remained steadfast unto the end.
No churches have been formed by our missionaries exclusively of Turkish Christians; and it can hardly be said, that the Board has yet had an organized mission to this people. Of the four missionaries sent especially to the Turks, Dr. Schauffler has devoted himself chiefly to translating the Scriptures into the Osmanli-Turkish; Mr. Herrick, besides doing service by his commentaries and other literary labors in that language, has been mainly employed in the Turkish department of the Theological Seminary, first at Bebek, and then at Marsovan; the younger Mr. Schauffler was born on the ground, as we may say, and began his labors amid the strifes of the Armenians in Constantinople with the missionaries, which was a great hindrance to his work, and the health of his family not allowing him to remain in Turkey, he is now a pioneer in the new mission to Austria; and Mr. Hutchison had scarcely entered the Turkish department of the Bebek Seminary, when the failure of his wife's health required a return to the United States. The mission of the Rev. James L. Merrick to the Persian Mohammedans, in 1834, was little more than a tentative exploration of the field, and was not continued.[1]
[1] It should be stated that the English Church Missionary Society has had a missionary to the Mohammedans in Constantinople since 1862, and reports five converts who are communicants. For the reactionary movement among the Turks at Constantinople, in consequence of the distribution of Dr. Pfander's Defense of Christianity against Mohammedanism, see page 234 of this volume.
With a field so inviting as the Armenian along side of the Mohammedan, it was not easy to obtain missionaries to the Moslems. Then again, missionaries to the Armenians soon became engrossed by their labors. "The Mohammedans," wrote Dr. Schauffler in 1859, "never will be cared for by missionaries to the Armenians or the Bulgarians. We can all render each other important services, but no missionary can take charge of two nationalities. Each one, soon after coming, finds his hands so full of business for which he feels responsible, that he cannot do much besides. Moreover, every man gets his sympathies enlisted for the people of his charge. This is probably necessary to enable us to labor with energy, and suffer with patience; but this needful concentration of feeling precludes the idea of universality in missionary labor."