Volume II Part 23 (1/2)

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE ARMENIANS.

1869-1872.

The year 1870 commenced at Marash with another revival. A thousand persons were present at the prayer-meeting on the 3d of January, which was admirably conducted by Pastor Murad. The missionaries, though present, did not deem it necessary to a.s.sist him. Fifty-three new members were received into the two churches, and a much larger number offered themselves for admission. Successful efforts were made to reach the women, who were visited in their own homes by the wives of students in the theological school, and by the older scholars in the girls' school. The number of houses thus visited during six weeks, was three hundred and eight, and there were fifty-five prayer-meetings.

A revival was also in progress at Bitlis. For many weeks there had been a sunrise prayer-meeting every day; and it was fully attended for eight months; its location being changed occasionally to accommodate different parts of the city. The meeting on the 18th of February was the most interesting and profitable. Nearly ninety persons were seated on the floor of a room thirteen feet by twenty.

Pastor Simon had charge of the meeting, and so ready were the people, that it continued two hours and three quarters before he could bring it to a close. As many as seventeen spoke, and about as many prayed. During the meeting, a prominent church-member called the attention of the weeping congregation to the importance of making a covenant with G.o.d _now_; and after reading a beautiful and appropriate hymn, he requested all who were ready to make such a covenant to rise. Nearly all rose, and while they were standing, he offered an earnest prayer for the aid of the Holy Spirit in keeping that covenant. It was an impressive scene. Forty were added to the church as the result of this revival. The people paid the debt on their chapel and parsonage, and enlarged the former. They also gave a site for the building to be erected by the two Misses Ely for the girls' boarding-school, in which were twenty pupils, for the most part wives of native helpers.

Some time in the month of April, the good people of Bitlis observed a day of fasting and prayer for the village of Havadoric, where the blind preacher, John Concordance, had labored, and where he died.

After a few weeks, Mr. Knapp visited the place, with Pastor Simon, and they found delightful evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was in contemplation to organize a church in that place, and the church in Bitlis had sent three delegates, who walked forty-five miles over the muddy roads. Ten hours were spent, the day after their arrival, in examining more than a score of persons for the new church, and eleven were approved, including two women. After the church had been organized, Avedis, a graduate of the Harpoot Seminary, was ordained as pastor. Fifty were present at the Lord's supper from Bitlis, Moosh, and Khans.

The barbarous expulsion of Mr. and Mrs. Coffing from Hadjin, in 1862, will be remembered.[1] This was attributed, at the time, to the priests and the Turkish governor, and not to the people. Mr.

Adams from Adana, and Mr. Trowbridge from Marash, went there in 1870, in company with Hagop Effendi, the Civil Head of the Protestants in Turkey, who was then on an official tour through the empire. They found the door for Christian effort wide open, as Messrs. Montgomery and Perry had done the year before. Though situated on the northern side of the Taurus mountains, Hadjin is more conveniently cared for by the Central mission than by the Western, and that section of country had been transferred accordingly. Native laborers had gone there, and a great change had taken place. Thirty-two had been enrolled as Protestants, and no mention is made of opposition. At the evening services on the house-top, where the missionary's tent was pitched, not only the Protestants, but large numbers of the Armenians, listened with eager attention. From early morn until dark on the Sabbath, there was hardly an intermission in the preaching, exposition, or reading of the Word of G.o.d.

[1] See p. 221.

In the autumn of 1869, Dr. Schneider, by direction of the mission, attended the examination of the Theological School at Marsovan. He writes, ”The examination continued through most of three days, and as a whole was quite satisfactory. The appearance of the students in theology was peculiarly gratifying. The readiness and propriety of their answers proved that they had bestowed thought on the various points brought up, and saw their relations to one another. Their public addresses, when they received their diplomas, were all excellent, while some were of quite a superior order, and exhibited no common degree of oratorical power.” He was also much gratified by the appearance of the girls' boarding-school.

Seven days' travel, on his return to Broosa, brought him to Angora, a city of from forty to fifty thousand inhabitants. The probable estimate gave ten thousand to the Catholics, three hundred to the Greeks, a thousand to the Armenians, and five hundred to the Jews; the remainder were Mussulmans. Many books had been sold there, much light disseminated, and a small body of Protestants earnestly entreated for a missionary to reside among them, or at least for an educated native preacher. No uneducated man could sustain himself there against the powerful array which the Roman Catholics could bring to bear upon him by means of their educational establishments.

Among the obstacles to be encountered, were the extreme worldliness of the people, and their devotion to sensual pleasures. Angora is within the limits of the ancient Galatia, and very probably was the site of one of ”the churches of Galatia.” It appears not yet to be occupied as a station.

Another interesting place was Erzingan, within the Erzroom district, visited by Mr. and Mrs. Cole in the autumn of 1870. They travelled the whole distance of a hundred miles in a gig; with many risks, it is true, but with no disaster. The city was supposed to contain as many as ten thousand Armenians, forming a third part of the population. Mr. Dunmore, the brave pioneer, had spent three months there, and various helpers had been stationed there from time to time. The missionary and his wife were received with the utmost kindness, and had crowded meetings during the nine days they were there. Mrs. Cole had several interesting meetings, also, with the women. ”Thus time pa.s.sed,” writes Mr. Cole, ”and you may be sure it was a continual feast to the soul, and we felt quite reluctant to turn homeward.”

The mission sent by native churches to the Koords, like most new missions, had a tardy success; and, after four years, the zeal of the native churches began to flag, and some of the native pastors proposed to stop the work in Koordistan, and devote themselves more fully to the ”home field.” Knowing that the influence of such a course would be disastrous, Mr. Wheeler threw himself into the breach, and was off for a three weeks' tour in Koordistan. Redwan, the seat of the mission, was eighty miles east of Diarbekir. He was accompanied by Hagop Effendi, Civil Head of the Protestants, and two native preachers; and was rejoiced to find at Redwan a congregation of eighteen men, thirteen women, and twenty-two children. They had learned, or begun to learn, to read in the Armeno-Koordish, into which the four Gospels had been translated; and some were learning the Armenian language, so as to be able to read the whole Bible.

Their chapel, of sun-dried brick, ten feet by twenty, was crowded on the evening of their arrival. ”They sang 'Sweet hour of prayer,'”

writes Mr. Wheeler, ”and 'There is no other name so sweet,'

translated from Armenian by their preacher, who had also translated, with the help of Pastor Mardiros of Harpoot, 'Forever with the Lord,' 'How lost was my condition,' 'My faith looks up to Thee,'

'Safely through another week,' 'My days are pa.s.sing swiftly by,' and others. Perhaps it was all romance, but somehow that little, close, low, dark, foul-aired chapel seemed to me almost a heavenly place, as we joined,--they in Koordish and I in Armenian,--in singing those sweet hymns.” At an expense of forty dollars in gold, the people bought a fine lot for a larger building, including chapel, school-room, and parsonage, which they hoped to put up in the following year. They desired also the formation of a church, and the ordination of a pastor. ”Do you wonder,” adds Mr. Wheeler, ”that I returned with a light heart to tell the churches these good news from their mission field?” The Harpoot church immediately decided to send a school-teacher to Redwan, so that the preacher might give himself entirely to his work.

Mr. Pond, of Mardin, went to Sert four days distant in Koordistan, and experienced the usual trials by the way,--sleeping in ”stifling stables, with a perfect menagerie of animals and fowls, and creeping creatures too numerous to catalogue.”

The church at Sert he found full of brotherly love, simple faith, and a desire for knowledge. It had given freely to the brethren in Redwan, and paid the entire salary of its own pastor. ”Indeed,” says the missionary, ”but for this church in Sert, we should almost despond for the Arabic-speaking portion of our field. In Mardin, it is true, we have a flouris.h.i.+ng church and community, but not so refres.h.i.+ng in its simplicity and strength of faith and love. The pastor of the Sert church is one of the best men for the pastoral work I have ever seen in Turkey, and is the chief cause, under G.o.d, of the cheering state of his flock.”

Mr. Pond next visited Mosul, and found it no longer an unpleasant part of their field. ”Once, and that not long ago, it was the least hopeful spot in all our bishopric. For over thirty years has the Gospel been preached there, and by such men as Grant, and Lobdell, and Williams, Marsh, and Hinsdale. The church contained at one time twenty members, but had dwindled to ten.”

A pastor was to be ordained at Mosul, and Mr. Andrus, missionary from Mardin, Pastor Jurgis of Mardin, Pastor Elias of Sert, and delegates from these two churches were there to aid in that service.

The pastor elect was ordained, the dead branches in the church were cut off, and eight new members were added, while as many more were ready to join at the next communion.

Dr. Williams died at Mardin on the l4th of February, 1871, at the age of fifty-three, broken down by an acc.u.mulation of labors and cares, which, until near the close of his life, he had been compelled to bear alone. It was a great loss to the mission, but especially to Mardin; and he was called from earth just when the clouds, which had made his field seem dark to him, began to break.

He saw it, and rejoiced. He said he was like Moses, who was permitted to look into the promised land from Pisgah, but was not allowed to enter it.

Mr. H. N. Barnum, who knew Dr. Williams intimately, while admitting that he was unduly disposed to distrust his own powers and judgment, says that, aside from this, he was a rare man. ”He had great self-control, and was so undemonstrative, that those who did not know him intimately can scarcely be said to have known him at all.