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.'"