"When it was decided to take a new class of training pupils in Arabic, Oosee was the first to whom I spoke about joining it. The proposition was wholly unexpected, and I wish you could have seen the joy that shone in his eyes and beamed from every feature! I asked him if he thought his wife would consent to his going. 'We will ask Jesus,' he said. 'If he wants me to go he will make her willing. I don't think she'll oppose.' To some, who attempted to dissuade him on the ground that the allowance was insufficient for his family, he said, 'If only they will let me study, we will consent to live in the yard; no matter about a house, we'll get on any way; anything for Jesus.' Some days after, I said; "How about the wife?' 'O, she says go, and if need be we'll sell our vineyard to meet expenses. She is more anxious to go than I.' The vineyard would possibly bring, if sold, forty dollars in currency."
A church was organized at Mardin in February, which engaged to choose and support a pastor. On Sabbath afternoon, when it was organized, and the sacraments were administered, there were present three hundred and fifty persons, in a room which Mr. Williams says, "I had always insisted would hold one hundred and fifty, if properly packed." While candidates were being examined, the wife of Oosee presented herself. "No one had thought of her as a church-member, but before her examination was through, each had written against her name 'accepted.' We were as much delighted as surprised at her answers, and the meek, loving spirit she showed." Oosee did not go on the proposed mission, not deeming himself sufficiently educated; but is understood to have adorned his Christian profession down to the present time.
The reader has already some acquaintance with the people of Zeitoon, inhabiting the mountains north of Marash. Until subdued by the Turks in 1862, they were famed for their defiance of all law. The town contained about twelve thousand inhabitants, all of them Armenians. The men were described as of athletic make, quick step, and piercing eyes, showing in all their bearing that they breathed the free air of the mountains. The town is about thirty-five miles from Marash, built against the side of a high rock, the houses hanging one above another, so that the roof of the house below is the front yard of the house above.
Two years after their subjugation, Dr. Pratt made a professional visit, to attend one of their leaders then dangerously sick, and suffered no molestation. Two years later, at the earnest solicitation of several Protestants, Mr. Montgomery attempted a visit, with Pastor Avedis of the second church of Marash, and a deacon of the first church. The town being then under Turkish authority, they anticipated no special danger. "At evening, as we were entering the city," writes Mr. Montgomery, "to visit the governor of the place, according to custom, a furious mob of men and boys dragged us from our horses, and at once began beating and stoning us with frantic rage, rending the air with savage yells. Our Protestant guide was driven out of sight amid volleys of stones, the mob crying, 'Kill him! kill the wretch!' The deacon was allowed to secrete himself; but for Avedis and myself there was no escape till the mob had spent their fury, stoning us, and afterwards kicking and beating our prostrate bodies, while we were looking for escape only through death."
At this crisis, a great strong man, yelling so as to appear in sympathy with the mob, rushed up to where Mr. Montgomery was lying, and threw him on his horse, saying to him in an under tone, "Don't be afraid, trust me;" and then with curses hurried him out of the way, and took him and the pastor in the dark to his own house, where, as he dared not to keep them, he got them ready, as well as he could, to return at once to Marash.
"Thus we were saved," continues Mr. Montgomery, "after having been in the hands of the mob over two hours. We had a hard ride that night, hatless, our clothes bloody and torn, and our bodies so bruised that we could scarce sit on our horses; but we were enabled to pick our way homeward by the rough mountain paths."
It was subsequently known that this outrage was instigated by the priests at Marash, with the connivance of the governor. Meanwhile the Zeitoon people were fearful lest they had gone too far, and the Protestants began to breathe more freely; and many, who had failed to declare themselves before, now stood up openly for the truth.
In the summer of 1868, a native preacher was sent to Zeitoon by the home missionary society of Marash, and was allowed to remain unmolested, with ample opportunities for preaching the Word. At the close of the year, Mr. Trowbridge, having removed from Constantinople to Marash, made a visit to Zeitoon, and remained there laboring freely from Thursday till Monday. His guide homeward was a Zeitoon Protestant,—"a tall, gaunt man, past middle life, who has suffered much there for Christ's sake. At one time the people blackened his face with a coal, put him astride of a donkey with his face towards the tail, and thus paraded him through the streets; a crier shouting before him, 'Thus shall it be done to all who reject the worship of saints, and do not honor the Virgin Mary.' There is now no persecution."
Hopeful indications once more appeared among the Greeks at Erzroom and Trebizond, and also at Kerasun and Ordo, on the coast of the Black Sea west of Trebizond. Mr. Parmelee visited the two places last named, and put a helper named Harootune at Ordo, around whom the people gathered, earnestly desiring to learn the way of life. Even the women, who were precluded by their notions of propriety from assembling with the men, anxiously inquired when the helper would bring his wife, that she might teach them also. Persecution arose, but as usual it was overruled for good.
Dr. William Goodell, after more than forty years of successful missionary service, returned in 1865, in feeble health, to spend the evening of life in his native land. With his wife, who had been his faithful companion from the first, he made his home with his eldest son, a physician in Philadelphia. There, beloved and revered, he lived until February 18, 1867, when he was removed to his heavenly home, at the age of seventy-five.