At Aintab, for example, he found the church supporting its own pastors and common schools, and taking upon itself the supply of nearly all its out-stations. No appropriations were asked of the Board, except for the theological class, the female boarding-school, and one out-station; for all the rest the church provided. For these objects, for their own poor, and for their taxes to government, the sum total raised by the Protestants, in the then closing year, had been two thousand five hundred and fifty-six dollars, averaging one dollar and a quarter for every man, woman, and child in the community. The congregation being too large for one pastor, arrangements had been made to form a second church, and thus to have two churches instead of one. The theological school was on the point of being removed to Marash, and it was his opinion that, were it not for the female boarding-school, which would probably remain, the missionaries at Aintab should be preparing to withdraw from that place, and go to "regions beyond." While he deprecated too sudden changes, he thought the great question for the brethren at that station was: "How can we, in the most graceful manner, set up in life this first born child of ours, now come of age, and ready to act for itself?"
Dr. Goodell speaks of Oorfu, along with Aintab and Marash, as advanced in Christian knowledge. About the year 1851, a native helper from Aintab spent three years in Oorfa, working at his trade as a weaver, but receiving a partial support from the mission, and reading and explaining the Scriptures to all that came. Mr. Schneider visited this place in 1854; a church was organized by Dr. Pratt in December, 1855, and Mr. Nutting commenced his residence there in 1857. Mr. White was also there a year or more, till 1859. The church was then small, and very partially sanctified. The number of church-members, in 1861, was fifteen, and nearly all the members were active, working Christians; and the real progress had been greater than the statistics indicated. Protestantism had become known, and was exerting a good influence. The congregation supported three schools, containing ninety-four pupils, of whom thirty-one were from non-protestant and non-paying parents, and thirty were girls. The Oorfa church regarded the evangelization of Germish, a neighboring Armenian village of a thousand souls, as their appropriate work.
The report of the Harpoot station for 1862 states, that there was an increasing number in the city, and at nearly all the fifteen out-stations, who gave serious attention to the truth; and that there was a growing agitation among those who kept aloof from the preaching. A reform party among the old Armenians was rapidly acquiring influence; and to satisfy their demands, mid-day Sabbath services, for expounding the Scriptures in the modern tongue, were held in the churches of several villages. In the city, the party had formed a society for mutual improvement, and one of its rules was, that the Bible should be read in all their meetings. The sale of Bibles, or portions of it, in two years, exceeded two thousand, and the same was true of other volumes. The Theological school contained thirty-nine pupils,—twenty-one in the first class, and eighteen in the second. It occupied the upper story of a substantial building, erected chiefly by the aid of friends in America; while the lower story furnished a neat and well lighted place of worship. Mr. Wheeler writes: "Supplied as it is, without expense to the Board, with solar reflectors and two neat pulpit lamps, it is exerting an influence for good in the villages. Already the people of three villages have covered the black mud walls of their chapels with a neat white plaster, and four villages have each purchased one of the 'wonderful lamps, by the light of which a man can read on the opposite side of the room.' At their own expense they are also furnishing their places of worship with clocks, and are beginning to learn that (to an oriental) very difficult lesson, to be prompt, and to value time." A girls' boarding-school was opened in 1862.
Hadji Hagop, an old and valued helper at this station, went one Sabbath to Hulakegh, an out-station, to preach. On leaving the Protestant chapel, he met the teacher of the Armenian school with a Bible under his arm, going to the church, where they were to have a "preaching meeting,"—as was the case in several villages where the mission had congregations, partly in imitation of the mission, and partly to counteract its influence,—and he asked Hagop to go with him. He went, and the leading men urged him to preach, which he consented to do. The news spread through the village, and the congregation almost immediately swelled to two hundred and fifty. He preached Christ and Him crucified for about an hour, securing most fixed attention, and it is said the women were nearly all moved to tears.
Mr. Walker, the resident missionary at Diarbekir, visited Mosul in 1861, and found the congregation in that city about as it was when the missionaries left. Subsequently, when visited by Mr. Williams, the Mosul church sent an earnest plea for a missionary to the Prudential Committee. Mr. Williams was with them three months, married three couples, baptized several children, and admitted one to the church.
Mr. Walker's tour was extended more than a thousand miles, and he found much that was very painful, and yet much that was encouraging, among the Arabic-speaking people in Eastern Turkey.
The church in Diarbekir numbered eighty-four members in 1862, and the pupils in the Sabbath-school were two hundred and eighty-four. At Cutterbul a house had been built, to be occupied as a place of worship on the Sabbath, and for a school-house during the week, and there were hopeful indications in places near. At the annual meeting of the mission, in the following year, Baron Tomas Boyajian[1] was ordained as pastor of the first evangelical church in Diarbekir. His examination was well sustained. The ordaining services were necessarily in the open air, and were conducted in Armenian, Turkish, and Arabic. More than a thousand, adults were present, besides hundreds of children, and the interest was sustained to the end. The members of the church pledged themselves to furnish nearly half the salary. Thirteen members, heretofore connected with that church, were formed into a separate organization at Cutterbul.
[1] Known to the reader as Tomas. Baron is equivalent to Mr.
These services were like our own; and how much more rational and appropriate must they have appeared to the people, than the ordination services prescribed in the Liturgy of the Armenian Church, as described by Mr. Goss. "In the first place, the exercises are all performed in an unknown tongue, the old Armenian. The bishop sits at one end of the church, the candidate enters at the other, walking on his knees, and thus proceeds to the altar. The skirt of the bishop is thrown over his head, and the bishop asks a few general questions, which are answered by a third person, either priest or deacon. They are such as these: 'Does this man understand the Scriptures'? 'Is he the child of a lawful marriage'? etc. An affirmative reply is given, when perhaps the man cannot read. He is then asked, if he is a disciple, not of Christ, but of certain church fathers. Also, if he will pronounce 'Anathema maranatha' upon all heretics. Then Arians, Nestorians, and other heretical sects are mentioned, and the sweeping question is put,—'Will you pronounce all accursed who do not acknowledge Mary to be the mother of God?' The candidate repeats the names of these sects, and curses them all. Then follows the re-baptism, with the sacred oil, according to the Armenian custom with infants. The hands of the new priest are then bound together and oiled, and he is made to stand outside of the church, when the congregation come, and, kissing his hands, put their paras[1] on a plate, which is near by to receive them. The priest is then imprisoned forty days in the church, with the cuffs of his sleeves and his trousers sewed close to his limbs. In this condition, he is not allowed to brush off an insect, or to relieve his body from any unpleasant sensation whatever. He cannot change his clothes during the whole time, and his food is of the coarsest quality. His wife passes through a similar ordeal at home."
[1] About a mill of our money.