The mission was strengthened, in 1868, by the arrival of Messrs. Lewis Bond, William Edwin Locke, and Henry Pitt Page, all ordained missionaries, and their wives. Mr. Bond was stationed at Eski Zagra, and Miss Esther P. Maltbie came thither as a teacher in 1870. Mr. Haskell welcomed the arrival, at Philippopolis, of Miss Minnie C. Beach, in 1869, and Messrs. Locke and Page commenced a new station, before noticed, at Samokov, in ancient Macedonia. Mr. and Mrs. Ball of Adrianople and Miss Reynolds of Eski Zagra found it necessary to return to the United States on account of their health; and it soon appeared that it was too late for them to recover. Mr. Ball died at Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, June 6, 1870, after a useful connection of seventeen years with the missionary work, and Miss Reynolds, at Springfield, Massachusetts, June 1, 1871, just eight years from the day of her sailing for Turkey, and after a life of singular devotedness and success.[1]
[1] See Missionary Herald, 1871, p. 247.
Previous to the year 1870, the missionaries to the Bulgarians had sustained a nominal relation to the Western Armenian Mission. This connection was now dissolved, and the associated brethren took the name of the EUROPEAN TURKEY MISSION. Its stations were Eski Zagra, Philippopolis, Samokov, and Adrianople; and Dr. Riggs was reckoned as a member of it, though he continued to reside in Constantinople, his labors being chiefly for the Bulgarians. The Rev. Henry A. Schauffler, then in the United States, was also transferred from the Western Turkey Mission, and was expected, on his return to the field, to go to Philippopolis, where he would use the Turkish and Greek for the benefit of those who spoke these languages; and with the expectation that the work among the Bulgarians would everywhere connect itself, as soon as possible, with that of the large Mohammedan and Greek population, with whom they were intermingled.
The Sultan, having confirmed the appointment of Bishop Anthimas, of Widdin, to be Exarch of Bulgaria, the Bulgarians thus virtually acquired their ecclesiastical independence, and so both their national spirit and their unwillingness to allow Protestantism to come in as an element of apprehended division, acquired strength. Few were yet able to see how one could be both a Bulgarian and a Protestant, and no general movement on the part of rulers and ecclesiastics towards Protestantism, was to be expected. But the Scriptures and evangelical publications were extensively circulated. Thoughtful minds were reached, and examples of what the Gospel could do to regenerate character and give peace to troubled spirits were beginning to attract attention. There was not such liberty to persecute as there had been in Asiatic Turkey. Truth was gaining a hold in cities and villages. The girls' school at Eski Zagra, under Miss Norcross, numbering twenty-six pupils, contained several who gave evidence of spiritual renewal, and applications for teachers had come from several towns and villages, accompanied by comparatively liberal subscriptions for their support. The hope, at Philippopolis, of getting helpers from the high school for young men, had been much disappointed, but some of its pupils were doing good. An influential merchant in Samokov was an active convert, and there was much to encourage in that region.
Early in the autumn of 1870, Miss Norcross sickened, and on the 4th of November died, greatly to the grief of her pupils and of the whole mission.[1] Miss Maltbie arrived in less than a month after she had passed away. It was soon resolved to remove the school to Samokov, as a more healthful place, and more eligible on other accounts. A regular Sabbath service was held at this station, and a weekly prayer-meeting. The audiences were very small, and but five persons were deemed worthy to be received to church fellowship. At the out-stations, though there had been no striking success, there were everywhere signs of an advance. The native helper in the beautiful town of Bansko had a school of twenty-two pupils, and a congregation of sixty-five, and the little company contributed to Christian objects, during the year, nearly two hundred dollars, including the purchase of a site for a house of worship. The cause was greatly advanced by the labors of an earnest and devoted Bible-woman, whom the women of Bansko helped to support.
[1] See Missionary Herald, 1871, p. 53.
Bansko will have the ecclesiastical distinction, hereafter, of being the place where the first evangelical Bulgarian church was formed, and fully organized. This was in August, 1871. The candidates were fifteen, nine men, and six women. In accordance with a written invitation from the people, Messrs. Locke, Bond, and Page started on Tuesday, August 22d, and went by a circuitous, though a pleasant, picturesque and easy route, passing through two cities, where they found several who were examining the truth, and reached their place of destination on the 24th. The brethren at Bansko had arranged liberally for the brethren and their horses, at their own houses, and gave them a hearty welcome. The candidates for church-membership were all examined, and answered the questions put to them more clearly than the missionaries had thought possible, considering the advantages they had enjoyed. The candidate for ordination as pastor, Mr. Evansko Touzorve, was examined on Saturday afternoon. He had been preaching there as a helper of the mission, and the examination was quite satisfactory, especially on the evidences of Christianity, just then a subject of special importance in that field, owing to the influx of German and French infidelity.
Sabbath, August 27th, was devoted to the organization of the church, and the ordination of the pastor. A deacon had been previously chosen. The service was concluded with the Lord's Supper. The people were to have the services of the pastor eight months in the year, and to pay half his salary for that time, and the mission was to employ him the other four months in another part of the field. The new church could not then pay more towards the salary, having bought a lot of land, on which to build a church. The little flock was jubilant and of good courage. "What a contrast," exclaims the missionary, "between this state of things, and that two years ago, when the people seized our horses, and drove us from the village!"
One of the most important results of the mission to the Bulgarians, has doubtless been the translation of the whole Bible into their present spoken language.[1] This was published for the first time, in the year 1871. "Methodius and Cyril, who first preached the gospel to the Bulgarians a thousand years ago, gave them the Scriptures in their then spoken language, the Slavic. But this ancient tongue, the mother of the modern Russian, Bulgarian, Servian, Polish, Illyrian, etc., has long since ceased to be the vernacular of any of the nations. Hence the necessity of new translations of the Word of God in all these dialects." One of the earliest results of the waking up of the Bulgarian people, was a translation of the four Gospels by Messrs. Seraphim of Eski Zagra, and Sapoonoff of Trevna, published at Bucharest in 1828. The first edition of the whole New Testament in Bulgarian was issued at Smyrna, in 1840, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society; but the literary labor was performed by a Bulgarian, the Rev. Neophytus P. Petroff, of Rila, with the aid of Hilarion, the Metropolitan Bishop of Ternovo. This edition was well received, and sold rapidly. It was faithfully, carefully, and ably prepared.
[1] See Dr. Riggs' statement in the Missionary Herald, for 1872, pp. 76-79.