In the high school for young men at the same station, under the very competent instruction of Baron Alexan, twelve candidates for the ministry were taught in secular branches, to whom lectures were delivered in the departments of theological study by Drs. Schneider and Pratt. At an examination of this school in the church, in the presence of several hundred persons,—including six Moslems of prominent social positions, most of whom listened for several hours with the deepest interest,—the scholars gave highly satisfactory proofs of mental ability and discipline; while the simplicity of their piety, and their readiness to labor where divine Providence should call them, gave good promise of their future steadfastness and usefulness. It was then resolved to remove the Theological School to Marash, and place it under the instruction of Dr. Pratt and Mr. Goss, assisted by Baron Alexan, and that none but pious young men should be admitted. The course of study was to occupy three years; and so much of their own personal expenses were to devolve upon the students, or their friends, as might test their character, and furnish a healthful stimulus to the Protestant community on the subject of education for the ministry.
The Theological Seminary at Harpoot sent forth its first class of eighteen young men near the close of 1863. Eight of these had been licensed as preachers of the Gospel, and nearly all the rest were employed at out-stations, as catechists and teachers. Some were expecting to be soon ordained as pastors. The demand for additional laborers was urgent, because of the very general increase in the size, as well as number, of the congregations.
Social meetings for the study of the Scriptures were found to be so influential for good in the Harpoot district, that the Armenian ecclesiastics of the Old Church sought to counteract their influence by the same expedient; but the result disappointed their hopes. In Malatia, they appointed a meeting for such readings every evening in the week, in each of the twenty-four wards of their part of the city. Their intention was to have the Scriptures and the church books read in the ancient language; but the people insisted on having the Bible alone read, and read in the spoken language. So every night the Word of God, in the vernacular, was read and commented on in twenty-four assemblies of from forty to sixty persons.
Of more significance was the fact, that many of the local communities, besides the one at Harpoot, were taking upon themselves the support of their pastors and preachers, and were beginning to relieve the Board of the expense of their schools. A missionary spirit was also springing up. The churches in the cities were beginning to care for the villages. Missionary societies were formed. In one of the out-stations of Harpoot, the school boys had an evangelical society. On Saturdays they met and had prayers, singing, and the reading of a tract; and the next day they went out, two and two, to the houses of such Armenians as did not come to the Protestant place of worship, and asked the privilege of reading from the New Testament. Being children, they often found a hearing where older persons could not. A boys' missionary society in Diarbekir bore the expense of a scripture reader in a large Armenian village nine miles distant. A like association of men paid seven eighths of the salary of a helper in another village. Subsequently, a door being found open in an unhopeful village near the city, the native brethren hired a house, and each Sabbath sent one of their own number to spend the day as a scripture reader. A similar zeal was manifested at Bitlis by a number of young men, who were studying at their own charges.
But there were trials. Some of the young men in the Harpoot Seminary refused to exercise the self-denial necessary to live on the means allowed for their support, and returned to their homes; and a few of the graduating class preferred to enter secular business, rather than accept the salary offered. This was not without its uses, as it confirmed a wholesome principle, and was the means of bringing some men, after a time, into the service under a more just apprehension of the true value of the ministry.
The Eastern Turkey Mission was painfully afflicted in 1865 and 1866. The three families at Harpoot each lost two children; and Mrs. Williams was called to her rest, depriving the mission of a highly valued and beloved member, and leaving her husband alone, in the sole charge of a difficult station. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson were obliged by illness to visit their native land, and the Arabkir field was placed under the permanent care of the Harpoot station.
The Eastern mission had now ten missionaries, with as many female assistant missionaries, six native pastors, seventeen licensed native preachers, twenty-five native teachers, and thirty-two other helpers. The out-stations had increased to forty-seven, eighteen of which were connected with Harpoot. The average attendance at the regular religious services was over two thousand and two hundred; and many more heard the informal preaching of colporters and other assistants. Twenty-two Sabbath-schools embraced one thousand and four hundred pupils. There were sixteen churches, with a membership of four hundred and fifty, of whom sixty-eight were admitted on profession of faith in 1864, and one hundred and twenty were women. The number of registered Protestants was three thousand five hundred and thirty. Besides four hundred adults receiving instruction, there were one thousand five hundred children in fifty common schools, of whom more than five hundred were girls. The girls' boarding-school at Harpoot had forty-two pupils. The Misses West and Fritcher, from Marsovan, had been very usefully connected for a time with this school, in consequence of the return home of Miss Babcock. Miss Clarissa C. Pond was now connected with the school, and early succeeded in gaining the language. The mission was much encouraged by a growing interest in education, especially among the women. Parents who, a few years before, thought it wholly unnecessary, if not a disgrace, for their daughters to read, and who could hardly be induced to allow them to attend school, now gladly paid considerable sums for their tuition. This advancing spirit of intelligence was seen, not only among those who were brought directly under the influence of missionary labor, but also among the Armenians generally, compelling their ecclesiastics, in some places, to open schools of their own. So, also, to keep the people away from the Protestant chapels, extra services were established in Armenian churches, in which the Bible was read and explained, and prayer was offered in the modern or spoken language. In the village of Ichme, they even went so far as to open an opposition prayer-meeting, a female prayer-meeting, and an evening meeting; and societies were formed in several places professedly to carry the Gospel to neighboring villages.
There was much suffering from poverty, this year having been one of special trial in this respect, but there was great liberality on the part of the churches. In the Harpoot district, "there was a promptness in paying their pastors, preachers, and teachers," says the report of that station, "which would put to shame some richer and more enlightened communities, even in Christian America. The sums paid by the people for the support of pastors, schools, chapel building, the poor, and for other benevolent objects, amounted during the year to $1,224 (in gold), and would have been larger had not the mass of the people been unusually poor, even for them." Two things are noted that were especially cheering in regard to them: "First; so soon as they become interested in the truth, they earnestly desire a pastor of their own, and, when necessary, are willing to pay according to their ability for his support. Secondly; they are easily pleased, and are not fickle minded; do not desire, but rather oppose change. The preacher who has once been given to them, almost without exception they learn to love; and having learned this, they do not wish to part with him."
Mr. Williams was at Diarbekir in February, and found the church in great prosperity under the pastorate of the Rev. Tomas Boyajian. For a year the station had had no missionary; and it was a year of high prices, almost a famine, and great stagnation in business throughout Eastern Turkey. At the same time, owing to the trouble in Constantinople, the Turkish officials were more averse to Protestants than ever before. Sickness, too, had prevailed, thirty-three having been buried at Diarbekir from the congregation over which the young pastor was settled. "Yet," says Mr. Williams, "the city work is in advance of any one thing at Harpoot. The congregation at the Sabbath-school, three fourths of whom are adults, numbered three hundred and thirty-nine, and I wish those whose contributions have aided in planting this vine, could have looked upon the clusters of faces which were studying the Book of Life, and heard the hum of voices asking and answering questions! They would have felt that there are some places where the missionary work is not a failure. The figures I have not by me, but since Mr. Walker has been absent, the church has increased, the congregation has increased; and that it is not an idle increase is shown by the fact, that this one congregation has, in the year of the missionary's absence, contributed four hundred dollars for the support and spread of the Gospel; for schools, two hundred and forty; for the poor (a year of high prices and great want), two hundred and seventy-five; and for the national head at Constantinople, forty."
The year 1865 was signalized by the death of two very useful missionaries,—Rev. Edward Mills Dodd, and Rev. Homer Bartlett Morgan. Mr. Dodd died of cholera at Marsovan, on the 19th of August. He was a native of New Jersey, and his first labors were among the Jews of Salonica, commencing in April, 1849. In 1863, he was transferred from Smyrna to Marsovan. Mr. Barnum, of Harpoot, who was there at the time of his death, speaks of him as a sincere Christian and an earnest missionary, working up to and often quite beyond the strength of his feeble constitution. "His first missionary language was Hebrew-Spanish, of which, I have been told, he had a fine command. When he was transferred to the Armenian work he learned the Turkish, which he used with much more than ordinary correctness; and some of the best sermons which I have heard in that language were from him. He devoted considerable attention to Turkish hymnology, and many of the best of the Turkish hymns now in use were contributed by him."[1]