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 Correspondence and other Documents 
 Relating to the Troubles 
 in the Turkish Missions 
 of the American Board, C.F.M. 
 
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EV 156 1883 
 Minasian, S. M. 
 Correspondence and other 
 documents relating to the 
 
705 
 16^ 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE ■ .^^ 
 
 AND OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATING TO 
 
 TROUBLES IN THE TURKISl^ ftjISSIONS 
 
 AMERICAN BOARD, 
 
 C. F. ^L. 
 
 Submitted to Members of the Board 
 
 V 
 
 BY S. M. MINASIAN, 
 
 WITTI A PREFACE 
 
 BY REV. LEONARD AVOOLSEY BACON, D. D. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 PRINTED BY ATKIN & PROUT, 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE^ 
 
 1. Circular Letter of the Rev. Dr. Laurie, aduressed in behalf of the Committee to 
 
 Missionaries of the Board 5 
 
 2. Second Circular Letter of Dr. Laurie, addressed to Armenian Pastors and others. . 6 
 
 3. Letter from Ada Bazar, Turkey, to Rev. Dr. Laurie, April 2, 1S83 7 
 
 4. Letter of Rev. K. Yakobian, Cesarea, Turkey, to Rev. Dr. Laurie, Feb. 23, 1883. 10 
 
 5. Letter of Rev. D. G. Garabedian, Broosa, Turkey, Dec. 30, 1882 12 
 
 6. Letter of Rev. Thomas Boyajian, Diarbekir, Turkey, Nov. 17, 1882 13 
 
 7. Rev. A. M. Iknadosian, Aintab, Turkey, to Mr. S. M. Minasian, Dec. 6, 1882.. . 14 
 
 8. Circular Letter to the Evangelical Armenian Churches, Jan. 30, 18S3 15 
 
 9. Rev, Messrs. S. M. Keeler and G. H. Griffin to Rev. Dr. N. G. Clark, Jan. i, 1883. 16 
 
 10. Letter of a Corporate Member of the American Board to Mr. S. M. Minasian, Nov. 
 
 4, 18S2 17 
 
 11. S. M. Minasian to Rev. Dr. Laurie, July 7, 1883 18 
 
 12. Letter of Rev. K. Yakobian, Cesarea, Turkey, Dec. 9, 1879 18 
 
 13. Letter of Dr. Kavalgian, Ada Bazar, Turkey 18 
 
 14. From the Missionary Heview, September, 1883 19 
 
 15. Letter from a Friend^to Mr. S. M. Minasian, July, 1S83 21 
 
 16. Letter from an Armenian 21 
 
 17. Letter of S. M. Minasian, Feb. 3, 1883 22 
 
 18. Letter of Mr. S. M. Minasian to the Prudential Committee, June 15, 1883 23 
 
 ig. Sec. Alden to Mr. S. M. Minasian in behalf of the Prudential Committee, July 11, 
 
 1883 25 
 
 20. Letter of S. M. Minasian to the Prudential Commjttee, Aug. i, 1883 26 
 
 21. Letter of Dr. Cyrus Hamlin addressed to Joseph N. Bradford, Esq., Jan. 3, 
 
 1880 27 
 
 22. Report of the Harpoot Union 31 
 
 23. Letter of S. M. Minasian to Rev. Dr. G. Washburn, Sept. 19, 1869 33 
 
 24. Letter of an Armenian Pastor to Mr. S. M. Minasian, Aug. 9, 1883 33 
 
 25. S. M. Minasian to Personal Friends 34 
 
 26. Circular from the Bithynia Union, Dec. 26, 1882 35 
 
 27 Extract from Rev. Dr. J. G. Warren's letter, former Sec. of the Baptist Missionary 
 
 Union 35 
 
 28. From the Christian Union, July 12, 1883 • 35 
 
 29. Rev. Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon in The Independent Feb. i— Feb. 22— April 
 
 26 37, 40, 42 
 
 30. From the Vermont Chronicle, Aug. 31, 1883— Missionaries and Native Converts.. . 45 
 
'^^fiSSSL^ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 I have had only a brief time to look at the contents of the following pamphlet, in the 
 proof sheets, before writing a preface to it. I am glad, on the whole, that I did not see it 
 earlier, for I should have been tempted to propose some changes in it, in the arrangement of 
 the materials, and to add something in the way of argument and application. But it is better 
 as it is— a mere collection of papers which the Protestant Christians of the Turkish Empire 
 represented by Mr. Minasian desire to lay before the members of the American Board of 
 Commissioners for Foreign Missions as necessary to the full understanding of their case. It 
 is safe to say that the Board will give a generous and considerate attention to an appeal from 
 the policy of its Executive proceeding from such a source ; and that the unfortunate indis- 
 cretion, hastily committed a year ago on the part of the Executive, in attemoting to prevent 
 such a communication from coming to the knowledge of the Board, will not be repeated. 
 
 The letters from Armenian pastors and church-members will make on most readers a strong 
 impression, first, of the intelligence and good spirit of the writers ; it will be obvious that 
 we have to do with clear-headed and Christian gentlemen. Secondly, it will be seen that 
 they write under grievous burdens of poverty, trouble and anxiety. It will require no smal' 
 effort of imagination on our part to put ourselves in their place. They belong to a nation 
 without a country — the very oldest of the Chiistian nations, now living under the intolerable 
 yoke of infidel conquerors, and crushed into the dust by burdens of misgovernment. They 
 love the truth of Christ — how well they love it, some of them have shown by proofs such as 
 it rarely falls to any of us to give. And they also love, with an affectionate patriotism that 
 is deepened by her sorrows, their homeless nation, their kindred according to the flesh. The 
 cause of Christ and his truth, and the interests of their beloved people, both seem to them 
 in danger of ruin from an unwise policy on the part of the Executive and missionaries of the 
 American Board ; and from that policy they appeal to the Board itself, which is the proper 
 Court of Appeal, and whose proper function it is, each year, in all the light that it can get 
 from whatever quarter, to review the administration of its Executive and control its policy. 
 On questions of policy we may dissent from the views of the Armenian brethren. What 
 our judgment on the whole case is going to be, after the fuller light which we are waiting 
 for, none of us ought to pretend to know at present. But that we shall fail to give the most 
 kindly, patient and unstinted hearing to everything that these brethren wish to say, out of 
 their " continual sorrow of heart," their deep poverty and their faithful service, now that 
 after many delays and hindrances they have at last reached the ear of the Board — this is not 
 credible of such a body of American Christians. 
 
 Mr. Minasian has (unexpectedly to me) appended to his pamphlet three articles of mine, 
 written just after the meeting at Portland, and published at long intervals afterward in The 
 Independent. I am glad he has reprinted them. They were written with an earnest and 
 single desire to help toward a right solution of pending questions, and I believe they are 
 substantially sound. This view is confirmed by a very gratif) ing letter of approval addressed 
 to me from one of the Prudential Committee, and still more by the answers that have been 
 made to the articles. One answer, by a recently returned missionary, complains that I 
 " misrepresent the Western Turkey mission in some important particulars," and then pro- 
 ceeds, quite unconsciously, to confirm my statements on every point of fact on which he 
 testifies. Our old friend. Dr. Wood, of Constantinople, repels the imputation of a lack of 
 frank dealing toward the l^oard on the part of its Executive, by charging it to a Rip Van 
 Winkle somnolency or dullness in me. I am too painfully conscious of my own defects to 
 deny the charge, to which my remembrance of the Doctor's own wide-awake vivacity on 
 
missionary subjects gives double poignancy. Buf it is really hardly fair for him, in the con 
 sciousness of his own exuberant animation, to reproach his less gifted brethren. .Some con 
 sideration must be shown, in dealing with so large a public, for that class of sleepy-heads to 
 which I am so unfortunate to belong. It is possible, however, that the good Doctor's per- 
 sonal observation of public assemblies, in his experience as a public speaker in America, 
 may have led him to exaggerated ideas of the sleepiness of the general public. 
 
 In closing this Preface, I would emphasize the point, presented elsewhere, that the main 
 question before the American Board is not that of the Turkish missions, momentous as this 
 question is. It is the question whether the constitution and authority of the Board are to be 
 respected by its own officers and employees — whether the annual meeting of the Board is to be 
 steered and controlled by the Executive, or whether the Executive is to be controlled by the 
 annual meeting — whether parties alleging objection or grievance against the Executive, 
 such as missionaries, mission-churches or contributors, are to have prompt hearing for their 
 complaint, or are to hang on the consent of the opposite party — whether, in short, the noble 
 constitution of the Board is to lapse, through habitual though unintended encroachments on 
 the part of its Executive. 
 
 I am strongly convinced that this question will not be rightly settled except by the safe, 
 simple and easy course of confiding the arrangements for the business of the annual meeting 
 
 of the Board to a special committee. 
 
 Leonard Woolsey Bacon. 
 Norwich, Conn., September 15, 1883. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 AND OTl^ER DOCUMENTS RELATING TO TFJE TROUBLES IN TI^E TURKISfj 
 lyilSSIONS OF THE P^. B. C, F, IVI, 
 
 LETTER TO THE MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Providence, R. I., December 22, 1882. 
 
 Dear Brother : You are doubtless aware that a committee was ap- 
 pointed by the Board at its late meeting in Portland, to examine to the 
 bottom the grounds of the differences between the missionaries in Western 
 Turkey and some of the Armenian brethren, and to suggest the needful 
 remedies. 
 
 That committee has had one meeting, and appointed me to act for them 
 In this correspondence. I need not assure you of the kind feelings of al 
 the committee, or our satisfaction in having the privilege of doing some- 
 thing that may tend to promote the kingdom of Christ in Western Asia. In 
 behalf of the committee, I write for information from you as an individual 
 on the following topics, viz : 
 
 1. The origin and present condition of the trouble. Is it likely to pass 
 away if treated judiciously ? 
 
 2. The claims of the Armenian brethren in connection with the disburse- 
 ment of missionary funds. 
 
 3. The methods and extent of mutual co-operation between you and 
 them. 
 
 4. The exodus of graduates of our missionary seminaries and of pastors 
 to other countries, and especially to the United States. 
 
 5. Does the alleged feeling of caste exist among our missionaries, and 
 what has occasioned that imputation? 
 
 6. What is the prospect of the speedy completion of foreign missionary 
 work among the Armenians and how is it to be brought about ? 
 
 7. In the present aspect of the matter, would a deputation from this 
 country be desirable ? 
 
 We should be happy also to hear from you on any other points which 
 you deem it important for us to know in order to enable us to render the 
 best possible service to Christ in this matter. 
 
 After you have written to us as an individual, we would like to hear 
 from your station as such, on the same topics, and also from the Western 
 Turkey mission. 
 
 We shall also write for information to some of the Armenian brethren. 
 
 In behalf of, and at the request of the committee, 
 
 Your fellow-servant, T. Laurie. 
 
6 
 TO THE ARMENIANS. 
 
 Providence, R. I., December, 1882. 
 
 Dear Sir : Though personally strangers, yet I trust we are members of 
 one blessed family, whose head is Christ. It is one of the privileges of my 
 life, which I never recall without thankfulness, that I was permitted to be 
 present at the organization of the first Evangelical Armenian Church, of 
 which the beloved Apisoghom was Pastor, and one of my must delightful 
 anticipations of heaven is to meet that great multitude, which no man can 
 number, redeemed to God by the blood of Christ, out of every kindred, 
 and tongue, and people, and nation, and spend eternity with them in behold- 
 ing the glory of our Redeemer. 
 
 Dearly beloved brethren have gone out from us to make known the great 
 love wherewith Christ has loved us, and you have received them as angels 
 of God. Some of them are now worshipping along with some of your 
 people before the throne of God and of the Lamb, but it grieves us to hear 
 that other plants have sprung up in the garden of God along with his 
 pleasant fruits, and that there is a coldness between some of your people 
 and some of the missionaries. 
 
 The churches, which sent out the missionaries, grieve over this state of 
 things, and at the late Annual Meeting of the American Board at Portland 
 appointed the Hon. William Hyde, of Massachusetts ; Hon. J. B. Page, 
 ex-Governor of Vermont ; Z. Styles Ely, Esq., of New York ; Hon. A. C. 
 Barstow, ex-Mayor of this city ; the Rev. Geo. Leon Walker, D. D., of 
 Hartford, Connecticut ; the Rev. Samuel Harris, D. D., Professor of 
 Systematic Theology in the Seminary at New Haven, Connecticut, and 
 myself, a committee to examine to the bottom the grounds of difference 
 and to suggest the needful remedies. We desire to do all that in us lies 
 to heal these wounds of the body of Christ, and in order to know best how 
 to do it, we seek information on the subject from you and from the mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 So we come to you as to a brother in Christ asking you to tell us all about 
 it. We do not propose particular questions, but want you to tell us all that 
 is a source of trouble to you, or if you have nothing to complain of your- 
 self, tell us what others complain about, and tell us fully, for we believe 
 that the more thoroughly we search into the trouble, the better we shall be 
 able to arrange for its relief. 
 
 We would like also to have your own idea of the best method for its 
 removal, for, though we have this treasure in earthen vessels, yet we also 
 know that those who are in Christ have learned of Him who is meek and 
 owly in heart, and so we have good hope that one and all of them shall 
 receive rest to their souls. 
 
 If in any way we can minister to your spiritual good, and that of the 
 churches which God has planted among you, we shall thank God who gives 
 us to enjoy a privilege so blessed. 
 
7 
 
 Please excuse the printing of this letter, as my hands are full of work, 
 and I send it to many others as well as to yourself. 
 
 In behalf of the committee, and at its request, I write this, and subscribe 
 myself. Yours, for Christ's sake, Thomas Laurie. 
 
 Ada Bazar, Asia Minor, Turkey, April 2, 1883. 
 Rev. Thomas Laurie^ D.D.: 
 
 Dear Sir: We hailed with pleasure the appointment of a committee by 
 the last annual meeting of the A. B. C. F. M. in Portland, Me., to take into 
 consideration the anxious desires of the Evangelical Armenian churches in 
 Turkey, for the building up of Zion. While looking with the deepest in- 
 terest for the result, we received your very kind and courteous letter, which 
 disappointed us of our expectations; for we see that neither is the question 
 well understood, nor is the mode of treatment satisfactory to us. Truly 
 angelic men from America — as your letter says — came to preach the pure 
 gospel to us. Thank God for it. Through the preaching of the word we 
 were awakened, and have seen the ultimate aim of Christianity. Thank God 
 for it. Thanks to the American churches. Thanks to the missionaries. Nay ! 
 no " other plants have sprung up in the garden of God." No ! there is no 
 personal " coldness between some of our people and some of the mission- 
 aries." No ! we have no personal troubles and quarrels with any one and 
 anywhere. We maintain that the facts are entirely opposed to your state- 
 ment. 
 
 The question is this — ought we to think that the American Christian 
 deems it incompatible with love and gratitude when the Armenian — being 
 taught of them — is more earnest to save his own people, and to repair the 
 waste places of his Zion — that Zion for the standing of which the native hag 
 labored and suffered with tears and bleeding. For this cause the Armenian 
 Protestant is exiled out of his community and church; entirely deprived of 
 his inheritance and institutions ; and for this cause sainted Apisoghom — 
 kindly mentioned in your letter — and others were martyred. Are these our 
 aspirations for the elevation of our people incompatible with our devotion to 
 you and to the missionaries, while this country is in a great crisis ? We 
 were rather thinking that you would be grieved if there were no such agita- 
 tions and complaints, and you would be glad that we are not indif'erent and 
 dead tools and hirelings in the hands of the society. Will an affectionate 
 Father look with dislike on the increasing efforts and demands of his ma- 
 turing son ? Which is the best, to have a river which sometimes overflows, 
 or to have a stagnant pond that brings forth death ? Every good move- 
 ment will have some irregularity, if there is any in ours. 
 
 We do not think it necessary to repeat our complaints in this letter, as 
 they are already published to the world. And we are sure that they reached 
 you already through Mr. Minasian, our honored representative, and you 
 could know them if you would. And by and by another official document 
 will be published. Our complaints are, the decay of the former piety of 
 
our churches ; the comparatively very small profits that we got from an 
 immense labor of forty long years ; the ruin threatening our posterity. 
 God forbid that you should be passive, or putting charges of petty quarrels 
 to our doors, while here we are in a heart-rending condition, and in agony, 
 and shedding bloody tears while popery and infidelity are threatening to 
 swallow up the country with open jaws. Our complaint is on a question 
 between death and life, and not on personal questions or " coldness." We 
 surely hope that you will do your best, and lend us a helping hand as soon 
 as possible, as you expect comfort at the last day, for the great God will 
 judge Boards and Managers, as well as individuals. Remember, dear sir, 
 that our business here is not with a heathen country, nor even with a 
 Roman Catholic one. Our work is to revive spiritual Christianity in a 
 Christian church of an existence of many centuries. The Armenians of 
 the old church ought to find us their superiors in every way. Our elevated 
 and improved position might invite others to join our community. But 
 the general policy of the Board has thrown obstacles in the way. The 
 arbitrary control of the foreign missionary puts us in a position that our 
 old Armenian friends look upon us as a handful of worthless renegades, 
 who sold ourselves to the foreigners for selfish ends, and this is all and the 
 only source of our troubles and grievances. 
 
 After speaking thus much of our complaints, allow us to tell something 
 of the complaints of others of us. Missionaries of the Board have no sym- 
 pathy with those of our young men who go to America. You are not 
 ignorant of the present lamentable condition of this country. Is it a mat- 
 ter of wonder that our young men who received light from you become over 
 fond of America, the source of light ? Why! the Chinese and the Japanese do 
 the same. We are rather surprised that so few of our select men go from us 
 to America. Nine out of ten of those who went to America and returned 
 have been useful men amongst us, and leaders to elevation, both by counsel 
 and work and contributions. We would have been better oft" if some of them, 
 unfortunately, had not turned their backs, disgusted by the treatment of 
 the missionaries, who represented them as being unprincipled and faithless 
 mercenary deceivers. The hand that worked for their mental development 
 seems to try to crush their attempts towards mental and social elevation. 
 It is objected that they are becoming burdens on the charity of the Ameri- 
 can Christians. Why, let that community withhold their charity if they 
 could and would ! But, fortunately, neither the missionaries nor we na- 
 tives are the judges and directors of that Christ-like .sympathy that flows 
 from the American headquarters throughout the world and through every 
 channel. 
 
 Another point : Whenever we bring forth our complaints, the mission- 
 aries, both here and in America, throw to our teeth always the same charge, 
 that money and the handling of the treasures of the Board are our sole 
 object. This is altogether wrong, and we protest to death and forever 
 against this foul charge. In the mean time, it ought not to be overlooked 
 
that money is a secondary thing, and a valuable servant if used for the 
 work ; but if it is a weapon in the hands of him who holds it turned against 
 the right management of the work, then it is a curse. There is also an- 
 other important point here to be mentioned in this connection. The great- 
 est and most difficult part of the work is accomplished through native agency-' 
 pioneer work is always done with the natives ; nor can we deny that the 
 humblest Armenian Protestant has done his best for the work, with all his 
 might and property and life. In one word, all the work is ours, and if the 
 pecuniary help given to us in Christian charity will always be held to our 
 face as a reproach, on the other hand, it must not be forgotten that the 
 missionary also could do nothing without the native, and the work would 
 be totally paralyzed. The natives, with their hundred churches and con- 
 gregations, in their extreme poverty contribute from twenty to thirty 
 thousand dollars for religious and educational purposes. The noble 
 American, observing our struggles, sacrifice and work, will he not help us, 
 giving as much in this gigantic undertaking ? We know the Americans — we 
 kliow them from our own personal experience ; we know their Christian 
 spirit and generosity ; we know that he is willing and ready to do the more. 
 
 At last, dear sir, we object to your mode of treatment, and this for two 
 reasons. If you will look at the cause and nature of these complaints by 
 the answers of individuals, and form your judgment according to their 
 personal opinions, we fear that you will seem to ignore the just rights of 
 our feeble churches, and confirm the natives in their suspicions that the 
 Board holds a policy that has never taken into consideration the rights 
 of the churches, but cares only for its own interests. And from this source 
 arise the conflicts between the native and the missionary. Remember the 
 eagle that stole a coal from the altar, and thereby set her nest on fire, which 
 consumed both her young eagles and herself. 
 
 Second. Yours is not a natural method. We ask to be judged as 
 churches, according to ecclesiastical methods of procedure, with any sort' 
 of ecclesiastical council or court. If not, who will decide the question ? 
 Can a committee chosen by the Board do this work ? For there is a great 
 dissimilarity between the Board and these churches. 
 
 We will try to describe our idea with an example very familiar to us 
 We often make the hen sit on duck's eggs. She hatches ducklings, vvho 
 naturally run away from their mother into the water. Of course the 
 mother hen is very kind and fond of them, and runs after them cackling 
 and verymuch confused, fearing that her brood is in danger of drowning 
 But we all know very well that the kind old mother hen is not a competent 
 authority in this matter from her peculiar stand-point. 
 
 But if all these appeals will go for naught, we confidently leave our cause 
 to the judgment and good sense of the Christian public. The Americans 
 are our models in every good thing, and we are sure that they will not 
 despise us, weak and puny though we are, as they are lovers of fair play in 
 everv case. 
 
May the grace of our Lord be with you, and the other banarexl Christian 
 gentlemen of the committee. Amen. 
 
 We remain, dear sir, your obedient servants and co-laborers in Christ. 
 
 Alexander Djijizian, Pastor. 
 
 S. C. Kavalgian, M. D., Elder. 
 
 FROM REV. KEROPE YAKOBIAN. 
 
 C/ESAREA, February 23, 1883. 
 Rev. Tho>nas Laurie, D.D. : 
 
 Dear Sir : In your printed letter, bearing the date December 15, 1882, 
 your expressions of Christian love and affection have caused us very much joy. 
 We thank God that in the far distant part of the world, on the other side 
 of the ocean, He has prepared Christian brethren who think of us and who 
 pray for us ; and we believe that they and we, all of us, belong to the one 
 family of faith. We have the same Heavenly Father, the same Saviour, the 
 same hope and the same object of life. 
 
 You express the desire on the part of your honorable committee to know 
 the causes of the present differences between the missionaries and the 
 native Christians, in order that you may find out some means of removing 
 them. The following, in my opinion, are some of the causes of the dif- 
 ferences : 
 
 First. We, as a simple Evangelical Church, are beset by many difficulties, 
 and have various needs. We are obliged to protect ourselves against the 
 attacks from without, and at the same time to keep our organization in good 
 order, and we use every means for the advancement of the kingdom of 
 Christ among us. The object and the duty of this church is the reforma- 
 tion of our country, the progress of our nation, the enlightenment of 
 individuals, and the furtherance of the kingdom of Christ. Our church 
 considers it her duty to use every means for the nresent and future benefit 
 of herself and her descendants ; and hence would consider it unfaithful to 
 her call and injurious to her growth to become indifferent and leave al 
 these things to other hands. 
 
 Within the Armenian nation and this evangelical church there is another 
 agency, namely, the missionaries, working for the advancement of the cause 
 of Christ. l"he object of these two organizations is the enlightenment of 
 one nation, the strengthening of one church ; and the furtherance of the 
 kingdom of God in one country. But these two organizations in their 
 deliberations and decisions are free and independent of each other. There 
 is no connecting link between them ; there is no division of labor among 
 them. From the very foundation of the Evangelical Armenian Church, 37 
 years ago, no pastor or delegate in behalf of the Armenian Evangelical 
 Union has been admitted to the meetings of the Western Mission when 
 thev had discussions regarding the Armenian nation and the Evangelical 
 Church. You may easily imagine how many difficulties and differences 
 may come out of such an arrangement. 
 
 Second. Intelligent and able young men who have a desire in their 
 
hearts to work for Christ, seehig that the missionaries treat those who work 
 with them as hired assistants, are reluctant to enter the work ; and if they 
 do enter it they leave it very soon. 
 
 Third. The Protestant elementary schools are not superior to the Greek 
 and Armenian schools, and in many places are inferior to them. As to the 
 condition of the high schools and seminaries, I may refer you to the very 
 clear explanation contained in the letter of Dr. C. Hamlin in the pamphlet 
 called "Controversy." 
 
 Fourth. You will see, in the pamphlet just referred to, a letter contain- 
 ing a decision of the Central Union in regard to the expediency and 
 usefulness of sending able and intelligent young men to the universities 
 and theological halls of Europe and America. The Union have come to 
 this decision, in the belief that young men thus educated would be more 
 useful to our church and country. It causes us great sorrow and regret to 
 see that some of the missionaries oppose such a plan, and that others keep 
 silent. Such conduct seems to be opposed to our rights and freedom, and 
 discourages the able and intelligent young men from any undertaking for 
 the benefit of the country and the church. It is impossible for us not to 
 feel sorrow for such a policy. 
 
 These are some causes of the differences which we deplore very much. 
 For the removal of these differences and for the re-establishment of har- 
 mony between the missionaries and the Unions, I propose the following 
 remedies to your honorable committee : 
 
 First. For the furtherance of the kingdon of Christ among the Arme- 
 nians in Turkey, it is necessary to pay more attention to the subject of 
 Christian education. In this way, the greatest need being supplied, the 
 majority of the complaints would be removed, and able and educated young 
 men being prepared in the Evangelical Church, it would cause great joy to 
 the natives as well as to the missionaries, and its natural result would be 
 harmony and love between the natives and the missionaries. 
 
 Second. Let there be a mixed committee composed of missionaries and 
 of men elected by the Unions, to decide regarding the means to be em- 
 ployed for the reformation of the Armenians, such as Christian literature, 
 schools, higher schools, colleges, and theological halls, and the curriculum 
 to be gone through in each. In such co-operation with the missionaries 
 the native members would acquire experience in conducting such business, 
 and when the board withdraws its missionaries from the field, the church 
 will have able and experienced men to carry on the work begun, a.ad such 
 a step will be agreeable to the Protestant communities in this country. 
 
 Third. It is desirable and urgent that the missionaries belonging to a 
 station, and the pastors of the church in that station, should decide together 
 and with equal voice regarding the work affecting the churches and mission 
 stations, and that they should decide who should go to the universities and 
 theological halls of Europe and iVmerica to get theological and medical 
 training. In this way the missionaries and the pastors would come nearer 
 
to each other and understand each other better, and the result would be 
 real co-operation, and both parties would be encouraged in their respective 
 works. 
 
 Fourth. If the churches in America and more especially the American 
 Board would occasionally condescend to hear the desires and the plans of 
 the clergy of the Evangelical Armenian church, for the advancement of the 
 cause of Christ in Turkey, the rights and the freedom of the churches being 
 in this way recognized, they would be encouraged in their work. 
 
 Having taken the liberty of expressing my thoughts and desires to your 
 honorable committee, I leave them to your high decisions, and praying for 
 the help of God for the success of your committee, I remain your brother 
 in Christ, Kerope Yakobian, Pastor. 
 
 FROM REV. D. G. GARABEDIAN. 
 
 Broosa, Turkey, December, 30, 1882. 
 
 If the proposed deputation from America is to be composed of those 
 who only regard the interests of the American Board, it will be utterly 
 useless, or if they draw their information from new, inexperienced 
 persons, who do not at all understand the questions, it 
 will be equally useless. There is fear that our inexperienced young 
 preachers, depending upon the missionaries for their support and knowing 
 nothing about the questions, may take their part. Rev. Mr. Baldwin has 
 on several occasions threatened us, saying that the Bithynia Union (and 
 Mr. Minasian) has done them great injury in America ; hence, he says, they 
 will not be able to give us the needed aid this year. He tries in this way 
 to mislead the people and induce them to protest against the doings of the 
 Bithynia Union. May God, who is the judge and Lord over all, deliver 
 our people from such tyranny! That wicked mammon, which rules the 
 earth, they wish to make it also rule in religious matters. " One who has 
 no money can have no rights!" I was much grieved to hear that Pastor 
 Simon has resigned. To be left, in his advanced age, after forty years' 
 labor, in his unfortunate position, is extremely trying. ' His withdrawal 
 from the field at this moment, when important questions are to be discussed, 
 is a serious loss to the work, as very few of us can have the experience 
 he possesses. Our church also has come to that state that it cannot sus- 
 tain itself. Some of its well-to-do members are lately deceased, and others 
 have become embarrassed in the general business crisis of the country. 
 The trustees of the church deliberating upon this matter a.sked Mr. Bald- 
 win to aid them in order to make up the deficit of the year. Mr. Baldwin, 
 referring to the late occurrences in America, told them he could not do it. 
 The people are looking upon the state of things with growing despair — 
 their organization is not satisfactory at all, neither are they able to sus- 
 tain it. 
 
 Those who comprehend the tottering state of the work entertain grave 
 apprehensions. You may infer from the account given that my remaining 
 here is quite doubtful, and if I leave here, do not think I can succeed in 
 
13 
 
 any other place in this country, for the same general reasons. Sometimes 
 I think that compelled by these circumstances I might go to America, 
 there to become a pastor to the German colonists, as about 50 of my class- 
 mates in Bale are now pastors there. The Lord knows with what zeal and 
 aspirations I returned to Turkey at the close of my studies in Bale! 
 How long, O Lord, how long! 
 
 FROM REV. THOMAS BOYAJIAN. 
 
 DiARBEKiR, Turkey, November 17, 1882. 
 The pamphlet entitled " Controversy," &c., represents very correctly the 
 true state of things. But what good will it do, since neither the missionaries 
 have the desire to be corrected, nor is there any strength left in the people 
 to carry on the battle ? I am thoroughly tired of all talking. Protestantism 
 in this land has become as a thing of no account. Popery will eventually, 
 I fear, rule over the people, .\lready Popish missionaries are filling every 
 part of the country, and by their wise course have accomplished great 
 things and will accomplish still greater. During my absence from here 
 disturbances have been successfully created in my church. Missionaries 
 say they have done nothing, but the brethren state to the contrary. On 
 my return I worked very hard to re-establish peace in the church, and suc- 
 ceeded in a measure. But the state of things made a painful impression 
 upon my mind. Furthermore, the increasing poverty among the people 
 seemed to predict a sad future as to the progress of the work. Our church 
 had two pastors and three schools, besides other work, for which about 
 $1,400 annual expenditure was required. I found that the people would 
 not be able to meet this expenditure any longer. They have not been able 
 to pay my salary for the past three years. If I continued my pastorate it 
 would have been necessary to dismiss the assistant pastor and shut up the 
 schools. It seemed to me best to sacrifice rather my own interests, there- 
 fore I sent in my resignation as pastor three months ago. The brethren 
 labored hard to persuade me to recall it, but I did not think it wise to do 
 so. Now the assistant pastor carries on the work, but I still preach regu- 
 larly, though relieved from official responsibility; and shall continue this to 
 me most pleasing service so long as my time and ability permit. Thus, 
 you see, my dear brother, that I also have been compelled, after twenty- 
 eight years' pastorate, to withdraw from the work. Pastor S , who you 
 
 know has faithfully devoted his life to the work, is getting old, and the 
 missionaries do not help him. He receives from his people less than $70 
 a year ; so in his last days he is compelled to live in utter poverty. The 
 pastors of our neighborhood have retired — one to Constantinople and the 
 other to America. 
 
 \ 
 
FROM REV. A. M. IKNADIOSIAN. 
 
 AiNTAB, Turkey, December 6, 1882. 
 
 Having heard that a committee was appointed by the American Board 
 to investigate the difficulties in the Turkish Mission, I deem it a duty to 
 tell you what I know about some of the questions. 
 
 Some years ago I was sent by the Church at Malatia as a delegate to the 
 meeting of the Harpoot Association, held in Uiarbekir. At that meeting 
 complaints against the missionaries were presented. Three years after I 
 was again a delegate at the meeting of the same conference, and found 
 that the complaints of the churches against the missionaries were greatly 
 augmented, and many of the brethren were urging that an appeal should 
 be immediately made directly to the American Board ; but we finally suc- 
 ceeded in persuading them to present their appeal to the missionaries in 
 Harpoot, which was afterward done in writing through delegates. But 
 the outcome of the matter was, that the brethren were severely rebuked, 
 and even insulted by the missionaries, and others were secretly persecuted 
 and oppressed in various ways. After this the missionaries tried to have 
 these Association conferences discontinued, and whenever they were 
 held and the discussions referred to the relations of the missionaries to the 
 native churches, they always threatened the brethren. 
 
 At a meeting of the churches at Arabkir in 1881, the brethren expressed 
 great dissatisfaction with the conduct of the missionaries, and the general 
 state of things, and felt aggrieved at the tone of Dr. Clark's circular ; and 
 were strenuously urging to have issued a public protest against it and expose 
 everything. 
 
 But I, with others, using our influence, succeeded again in pacifying them 
 and induced them to confer with the missionaries, and, if possible, to har- 
 monize matters. But our efforts as peacemakers only brought forth a 
 severe rebuke from headquarters in Boston. Many of the rules of the 
 mission, in connection with the school work in the Harpoot field, are arbi- 
 trary and obnoxious to the people. The pecuniary assistance which they 
 render may amount to 25 or 30 per cent., and in return for this small per- 
 centage they obtain control of the schools and have practically everything 
 under their own management. They carry out this line of action in all the 
 small towns, and among the weak and scattered communities, but in 
 the larger towns, and among more independent communities, they find it 
 quite impracticable. The missionaries have, however, ways for carrying 
 out their own plans, which, according to Dr. Clark, are the best; for instance, 
 they put serious obstacles in the path of those who, in earnestly working 
 for the good of the people, come in contact with their own views and plans. 
 These men are often already weighed down with many difficulties from 
 other sources. Many have, in this way, been driven from the work in dis- 
 gust and disappointment. I know from my intimate connection with them 
 that many of the pastors in the Harpoot field are in this unfortunate condi- 
 tion. To this cause may be attributed the retirement of Pastor Boyajian^ 
 
15 
 
 of Diarbekir, Pastor Mardiros, who went to Constantinople for " change of 
 air," and the resignation of the pastor of Kooylou, an important town in the 
 Harpoot field, and also the pastor of Arabgir, who is now abroad trying to 
 raise funds for church building, and who will resign if he does not succeed 
 in his efforts. I myself have been working ten years in Agen. For five 
 years I was pastor of the church there, and had to retire from my work for 
 the same cause, and am now teaching in the college in Aintab. If changes 
 for the better in the workings of the mission are not made soon, others will 
 be driven off in the same way; churches that are neglected and tottering are 
 already not wanting. 
 
 I beg you, sir, to look upon these as simple facts, and not as an expres- 
 sion of ill-feeling toward the missionaries; as personally I have rarely had 
 any occasion for complaint, but have received many favors from them, for 
 which I feel under great obligations. Still, under the circumstances, I feel 
 in duty bound to give this information to our Christian friends in Amer- 
 ica, who have been praying and laboring for these Armenians, who are the 
 only efficient instrument in Divine Providence for the spread of Christian 
 enlightenment and civilization among the various races in Turkey. 
 
 TO THE EVANGELICAL ARMENIAN CHURCH.ES. 
 
 Constantinople, January 30, 1883. 
 
 A printed letter signed Thomas Laurie and issued by the committee 
 appointed by the American Board at its last annual meeting, has just been 
 distributed to various persons, inviting the brethren to communicate to 
 said committee their opinions and views respecting the " coldness " which 
 has arisen "between some of your people and some of the missionaries," 
 and which it calls " other plants which have sprung up in the garden of 
 God along with its pleasant fruits." 
 
 The Executive Committee of the Bithynia Union, which is appointed by 
 the churches to examine every question affecting their interests, is very glad 
 and thankful to learn that this benevolent society has turned its attention to 
 this most unportant subject, and has consented to appoint a special committee 
 in order to inquire into the facts and report at its next annual meeting. 
 
 But the language and style of this printed letter do not altogether 
 accord with your committee's understanding of the matter. The subject 
 which the Special Committee is to investigate refers, according to our 
 understanding, to our churches, and that too in, as far as concerns the 
 principles of action and their application, whereby the churches and the 
 Lord's work have suffered injury. Our churches and L^nion honor the 
 reverend missionaries as preachers and ministers of the Word. The 
 question at issue has no reference to individuals personally, or to their 
 moral conduct, as one would conclude from the language of the above 
 mentioned letter. Our churches regard the missionaries as helpful fellow- 
 laborers in spreading the Gospel throughout this noble field. The question 
 raised by the pamphlet does not refer to any dispute between brethren and 
 missionaries arising from any "coldness." 
 
i6 
 
 The Union and our churches are on the best personal terms with the 
 reverend missionaries ; they have no quarrel with them, and they commune, 
 pray and labor together. It has often been said on our side that the " suf- 
 fering of our churches is not personal, but is produced by the retrograde 
 and evil state of the Lord's blessed work." 
 
 Your Executive Committee, fearing lest the brethren should take a wrong 
 view of the subject and be led into mistakes which might give rise to per- 
 sonal questions, followed by evil consequences, have thought it proper to 
 impress the following points upon the brethren and churches : 
 
 1. The brethren should be very careful lest the questions which belong 
 to the entire community should be mistaken for personal ones, and lest 
 they should be tempted to write upon their personal responsibility what 
 ought to be first examined .officially. The churches and the Union will 
 give no importance to such individual unofficial communications, and will 
 not be responsible for them. 
 
 2. The Executive Committee are examining the question of inviting the 
 Union to hold its annual meeting this year before May, in order to con- 
 sider this subject and officially communicate to the Special Committee the 
 facts of the case and the exact points of difference through Mr. Minasian, 
 their representative. 
 
 3. Unofficial individual communications, cannot and should not affect 
 the decision of the questions. To the churches belong the questions, and 
 our Union can properly present their complaints. 
 
 4. It is requested that the pastors and delegates confer with their 
 churches and come to the meeting with a full understanding of their 
 views. 
 
 5. The Executive Committee do not think it useful to publish anything 
 on these subjects in the Armenian papers, and request, therefore, the 
 brethren to avoid it. 
 
 The Executive Committee, Bithynia Union. 
 
 To Rev. N. G. Clark, D. D.: January i, 1883. 
 
 Meanwhile there had come to us both a pamphlet containing 
 letters from Dr. Hamlin and others as to a difference between the native 
 pastors and the missionaries of the American Board in Turkey. We have 
 carefully read it, and feel that the Board at its meeting in Portland ap- 
 pointed a committee to consider the matter none too soon. We are glad 
 that four of the seven are laymen, because some of the ecclesiastical ques- 
 tions involved may best be looked at by laymen. We regret much the 
 course of Rev. Mr. Barrows, one of the missionaries, in speaking of " the 
 inbred deceptiveness of the Oriental character," as if it could not be up- 
 rooted by divine grace, and had not been in the young men who have come 
 to this country. We regret that one of the secretaries has put himself on 
 record as opposing the coming of these Armenians to this country to seek 
 a higher education ; for this is just what the young men of China and 
 
17 
 
 Japan are doing ; and if tliese iVrmenians are to be leaders of thought in" 
 their own country, such an education would be desirable ; in fact, several 
 educated in England and Germany are already very useful in Turkey ; 
 why, then, should not an education here be sought by some of them ? 
 
 Moreover, the words of Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, " I cannot resist the impres- 
 sion that we are in danger of losing the works of forty years," will have 
 and ought to have great weight with the American .churches, who sustain 
 the American Board. S. M. Keeler, 
 
 MiLFORD, Conn. , G. H, Griffin. 
 
 FROM A CORPORATE MEMBER OF THE 
 AMERICAN BOARD. 
 
 November 4, 1882. 
 Though I have not the pleasure of a personal acquaintance, I presume 
 that I am indebted to you for the pamphlet in regard to the difficulties 
 between the Missionaries of the American Board and the Armenian 
 Churches, which I failed to get when in Portland during the meeting of the 
 Board. I have read it with great interest. I have been long aware that 
 these difficulties existed. I was in Constantinople in 18 — , and as a cor- 
 porate member of the Board was invited to attend the meeting of the Mis 
 sionary Association then in session. I confess that I was a good deal sur- 
 prised to find not a single Armenian pastor present, and still more to learn, 
 
 as I did from my friend — . , that none of them would be allowed to 
 
 attend, even as spectators. My dear friend. Pastor , asked me to 
 
 meet some of the Armenian pastors, and to hear their grievances, which I 
 did, and I have ever since felt that however '' wise" Dr. Anderson might 
 have been in the conduct of the Turkish Mission, he displayed a great deal 
 of '• zeal without knowledge." In the autumn of that year, at the meeting 
 
 of the Board, I heard Mr. expound and defend what seemed to me 
 
 his very foolish scheme for the education of native pastors. But as he was 
 backed by Dr. Anderson, opposition to it was then useless. From what I 
 learned in Constantinople, I became convinced that the Ecclesiastical rela- 
 tions of the Missionaries to the Armenian churches were both anomalous 
 and absurd. And in the next place, that it was foolish to attempt to trans- 
 plant the New England Congregational Polity in Turkey. Of course not 
 very many Armenian young men can be educated for the ministry in the 
 United States, England or Germany, but it seems to me that those who 
 are thus trained should be sent back by the Board, to serve, not so much 
 as pastors of local churches, but as evangelists, to stir up the old Mother 
 
 Church. For proper missionary work, a man like Pastor , in my 
 
 judgment, is worth ten men like the one who protested against the Hart- 
 ford ordination. If our Boston friends did the proper thing they would 
 instantly recall him. The man who could write such a letter has no busi- 
 ness to be where he is. 
 
i8 
 
 Tarrytown, N. Y., July 7, 1883. 
 Dr. Tho)nas Laurie : 
 
 Dear Sir : When do you expect Pres. Chapin back from his mission 
 to Turt:ey ? I should like very much to see and have an interview with 
 him. I should also like to have an interview with your Com. before 
 you prepare your report to the Board. I beg that you would kindly arrange 
 for the desired interviews, and report to me as to time and place, and 
 oblige. * Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed.) ' S. M. Minasian. 
 
 Providence, August 20, 1883. 
 S. M. Minasian, Esq. : 
 
 Dear Sir : I have notified a meeting of our Com. at the Cong. House, 
 Boston, August 28, at 11 a. m. 
 
 But whether they will be able to prepare the report then, or will wait to 
 confer with Pres. Chapin on his return, I cannot say. He sails Septem- 
 ber 1. 
 
 Nor can I say how much time they could spare on the 28th, as there is 
 a great mass of manuscript to be gone over at this meeting. I am sorry 
 to be so indefinite, but I thought it best to tell you all I know about it now, 
 and let you decide for yourself what course to take.* The Lord direct us 
 all. Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed.) . T. Laurie. 
 
 FROM FASTOR KEROPE. 
 
 Cesarea, Turkey, December 9, 1879. 
 I am exceedingly pained to see the ungenerous conduct of the mission- 
 aries in regard to our young men. They always try to keep back our people, 
 and putting themselves forward, dare to publish insinuating stories about 
 us, such as Mr. Barrows does in his letters lately published in America. 
 . . . Our missionaries, who always are ready to proclaim themselves 
 to the world as our friends, not only do not show any sympathy or friend- 
 liness themselves toward our young men, but show them ill-will, and try in 
 every way to bring them into public disfavor ; thus dissuading those who 
 
 felt inclined from rendering any assistance 
 
 Kerope Yakobian. 
 FROM DR. KAVALGIAN. 
 " . . . . We Armenians notice this caste spirit in our American mis- 
 sionaries in this country, and we feel it very keenly indeed. It is true what 
 the doctor says about intermarriage between the missionar}- and his con- 
 vert. Our old members relate a painful story of forced separation between 
 an Armenian gentleman and an American missionary lady who were at- 
 tached to each other sincerely. The lady was sent back to America almost 
 by force, and the affair was over. This is an old sore, but there are recent 
 cases that we could quote from personal knowledge, if we deemed it need- 
 ful to speak on this topic 
 
 * As no definite arrangement was made by Dr. Laurie for the interview requested, Mr. Minasian did not 
 intrude himself upon the Committee. 
 
19 
 
 " I do not know of any missionary that has, or will have, his child bap- 
 tized by any of our native pastors, but they go many miles to find an 
 American to baptize their children. From among the many scores of mis- 
 sionaries that we have among us, I know of only one lady who is a member 
 of one of our churches. Our missionaries never enter into fellowship with 
 the churches that they organize. We have a young American missionary 
 somewhere not very near to Adapazar. He is a Yankee. Some of the mis- 
 sionaries do not believe that this gentleman will ever be of much use in this 
 country unless he changes his career. He once lashed his Armenian Prot- 
 estant servant with a horse-whip for a trifling offence. In our late Annual 
 Conference, that took place at the same time with the annual meeting of 
 the mission, while at lunch with missionaries and natives all together, this 
 gentleman did not deign even to recognize one of us, I heard two of our 
 venerable pastors — men that will do honor to any Christian society in the 
 world — say to each other, ' And this young man will sit in conclave with 
 other missionaries to prescribe the ways and project the means that you and 
 I and all of us natives are obliged to work in, without our having a voice in 
 that council, with all our experience and knowledge of the work.' This 
 made a very painful impression on my mind. The doctor is true again 
 when he says : ' Possibly our missionaries may have to make the yet greater 
 sacrifice of caste feeling to living tvith instead of ajiio/iiy their converts.' I 
 only add they must do so if a better success is desired. 
 
 " But this sounds very miich like accusing the brethren. God forbid ! I 
 only brought forth some facts suggested by the doctor's letter. We have 
 many respectable exceptions." . 
 
 FROM THE MISSIONARY REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1883. 
 
 LETTERS FROM PASTOR SIMON EUTUJIAN, ETC., TURKEY. 
 
 As the missionaries and Bro. Washburn are favoring us with their views 
 of the proceedings of the American Deputations and the Armenian Eccle- 
 siastical Unions in Turkey, it is eminently proper and desirable that some 
 of the native pastors be heard also. The following from Pastor Simon will 
 be found timely and considerate : 
 
 " The annual meeting of the Bithynia Union commenced May 30, and 
 terminated June 15. It is a great comfort to us that everything was done 
 in harmony and unanimity. We had with us pastors and delegates from 
 other unions of our churches. Our friends — the missionaries — always 
 used to insist that these questions or complaints were raised only by a small 
 clique in Constantinople. At these meetings it became clearly known how 
 utterly mistaken they were in that opinion, as well as in many other things, 
 and in the minutes it will be seen how inexcusable their mistakes were. 
 The reports of the grievances coming from the provinces greatly shocked 
 the feelings of the brethren, the evils complained of being such as had 
 never been seen and felt to that extent in Constantinople. The Executive 
 Committee will try to publish the minutes of their meeting as soon as pos- 
 sible. When they are published, it will be seen that the grievances of the 
 
churches are general and the same in kind everywhere, though possibly 
 they may differ in degree in some localities. This fact will also be seen 
 that the Board has not enough to show for the large expenditure made 
 annually within the past fifty years. We have laid everything before the 
 Deputation fully and frankly, and they confessed that there were, indeed, 
 questions which should be seriously considered. I am glad that the matter 
 was so fully presented, though we, unlike the missionaries in these respects, 
 were unprepared and burdened with many cares : nevertheless we do not 
 expect much good to result from our interviews. We were in hopes that 
 the missionaries would modify their course, at least for a while ; but we are 
 doomed to disappointment. They will not change their policy, which is 
 altogether inadequate and unsuited to the work of evangelizing the great 
 body of Armenians, especially at the present time, when they have lost 
 their former high prestige, and the people at large look upon them as they 
 look upon the Jesuit missionaries. The expected reform will not be 
 brought about — we could not perceive anything like it in the mouths of the 
 Secretaries. From all we see, the mistaken policy is to be carried on even 
 w.th greater pressure, if possible, than heretofore. All the efforts of the 
 mission seem to be now, without changing the basis of their position, 
 merely to throw a handful of dust into our eyes; but the brethren are get- 
 ting educated in these matters, and will not be deceived. You will hear 
 also that the condition of the ministry is becoming more and more deplor- 
 able — especially in the provinces, and the churches are being left without 
 
 pastors Dr. Bacon's memory, in bravely defending the weak and 
 
 oppressed churches of Christ in this land, will never be erased from our 
 minds and hearts. May the Lord reward him. Though the Board's Depu- 
 tation has shown great patience and gentleness in hearing everything from 
 us, their investigation can hardly be regarded as satisfactory, because they 
 did not bring the opposing parties face to face, or give opportunities for 
 cross-examination." 
 
 The following extract from a letter of an Armenian lay brother to a friend 
 in America is also helpful in presenting the Armenian view of the mistakes 
 of the Board and missionaries : 
 
 "The mission, you know, has been wrong on the education question. 
 Wrong on church building question. They have been wrong in put- 
 ting the evangelical communions under a Church polity so unsuited 
 to the genius of the people, and against which they have been protesting 
 from the moment they understood the case. They have been wrong 
 in heartlessly, nay, even scandalously, pursuing their runaway scholars 
 and other young men who came to America for a higher training. 
 They have been wrong in refusing to admit a single Armenian pastor, even 
 the best, even as a mere spectator into their business meetings, and in not 
 putting a single pastor into an equally responsible position with themselves. 
 The policy of the Mission on this point is just as censurable as the policy 
 of the Turkish Government in refusing to place its Christian subjects on 
 
equality with themselves. Whatever little advance has been made on any 
 of these points, has, you know, been gained, every inch of it, by hard fight- 
 ing. I asked the missionaries in 1852 to invite Pastor Der Sahagian, a man 
 upon whose soul the spirit of God had been working before missionaries 
 entered Turkey. You know all the history of Der Sahagian's life — how he 
 was exiled for the Gospel's sake. Afterward he visited the United States 
 to obtain a more complete education, and you know how on his return he 
 cheerfully took up the self-denying labors of an humble country pastor. 
 They refused to admit such a man into the meeting as a mere spectator. 
 My motive in the request was simply to have him gain more experience and 
 more zeal, if possible, in the work." 
 
 FROM A FRIEND. 
 
 July, 1883. 
 
 You know that it is hard for men to acknowledge that their policy has 
 been wrong, and if they are publicly attacked their pride is apt to make 
 them stand firm rather than yield an inch. They will be more likely to 
 change their policy voluntarily than if there is an attempt to force them 
 to do it. It is true that they have let the appeals of the Armenians go un- 
 heeded for thirty years; and very likely they would have let them go 
 unheeded for thirty years more, if it had not been for your persistent ef- 
 forts, and for your pamphlet of last fall, and especially for the blunder 
 which the Board made in attempting to suppress it. Your appeal to the 
 public has been effective ; but the attention of the management has now 
 been gained, and I should recommend waiting now to see what they ^n\\ 
 do before appealing again to the public. 
 
 True that this is a one-sided investigation; there has been no submitting 
 of the matter to the Investigating Committee by our Armenian friends, yet 
 it is possible that the management will propose something that will be 
 measurably satisfactory. If not, our Armenian friends can then appeal to 
 the public as well as now, and will be in a better position to do it if it be- 
 comes manifest that the management are not going to do anything to re- 
 move the difficulties. 
 
 FROM AN ARMENIAN. 
 
 There is not a pastor in Turkey, a part of whose salary is paid by the 
 mission, who is not, in the language of the leaflet a "hired helper;" and 
 there is not one pastor who has not been to Europe or America, though he 
 receives no help from the Board, who is independent, and not looked upon 
 as a "hired helper." When a pastor has some trouble with a missionary, who 
 is their judge ? " You must," they say "go to Boston and speak to the Sec- 
 retary ; as we are responsible to them only." Is it possible to labor with a 
 body of men who recognize no authority, no church, no council, no con- 
 science out of Boston ? . . . They say that some of the churches in Turkey 
 are entirely free from missionary control, as the Congregational churches are 
 free from Home Missionary control. What a blissful state ! Have we 
 come to that ? Is not that the burden of all our requests — to be free from 
 
missionary control, which at times is as hard and heavy as that of the 
 Turk? 
 
 They call the remarks about caste and race prejudice " weak and foolish." 
 What do you think of the letters of Messrs. Herrick and Barrows ? In 
 private they condemn those letters, but in public they think it foolish in us 
 to speak of them. Mr. Herrick, in one of his addresses before the Amer- 
 ican churches, without making any distinction, calls the natives among 
 whom he is working ''domesticated animals; men in whom the human 
 element cannot be discerned — beasts who use their fore feet in place of 
 their hands, growing like the wild ass' colt." He is a missionary who was 
 removed from Constantinople by request of the natives, on account of his 
 belligerent qualities, and the same missionary by the Board made teacher of 
 our young men preparing for the ministry. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Wheeler, the President of Armenia College, calls the native 
 pastors his donkeys in his stables crying for food. The church at Harpoot? 
 on account of such frequent unkind expressions, prohibited him from preach- 
 ing in their pulpit. He came to America, raised a sum of many thousand 
 dollars, and went back to thunder from the pulpit that was closed to 
 him. But what power is there in a native church ? All the power is with 
 the strong. 
 
 FROM MR. S. M. MINASIAN. 
 
 February 3, 1S83. 
 
 Incalculable wrong and injustice are done to the feeble churches in Tur- 
 key by those who are supposed to be their friends, and we have no one 
 whom Wv! could put forward for their defense. Please read in page 428, 
 November Herald, 1882,* Dr. Clark's statement in regard to the Armenians 
 who differ from the missionaries in their policy. That statement wholly 
 misrepresents the case. I know of no Armenian who wants " to be put in 
 charge of the funds of the American Christians." Such charges are repeated 
 again and again, and everybody here seems to believe them. Dr. Clark's 
 paper passed through the hands of an honorable committee, who are pre- 
 sumed to have examined impartially the subject matter, and this committee 
 voted upon it and recommended to have the paper printed, including the 
 entire unjust charges against the Armenians. What must we do under such 
 circumstances ? 
 
 A deputation from the American Board to the Western Turkey Mission 
 for information, will not have any good result unless the said deputation 
 be composed of persons, so to speak, of different politics from that of the 
 Prudential Committee. Also, it should be guaranteed that the people whose 
 testimony is taken will not be discharged from the employ of the mission, 
 or in any way injured, if their testimony or opinion should be against the 
 
 *" Natives who are indebted for all the education they have to the agency of the Board, and whose esti- 
 mates of their own abilities or whose views of mission policy are not fully concurred in by the missionaries 
 on the ground or by the Prudential Committee, continue to be quite free in their advice and criticisms' 
 Some of these gentlemen^ if they cannot be J>ut in charge oj the work themselves^ so far at least as to dis _ 
 iurse the funds of American Christians^ would gladly bring in other agencies to take part in the work2 
 
policy of the mission. 1 hardly expect, however, that our poor people will 
 be treated with that degree of justice, not to say magnanimity. A friend 
 suggested a little while ago to have the grievances of the Armenian churches 
 presented directly to the constituencies of the American Board. But you 
 know we have not the suitable men able to give their time to such a work, 
 which necessarily would require following up. I am willing and glad to do 
 all I can to deliver my brethren from that sort of a semi-slavery state into 
 which they have been forced by the narrow policy of the mission. I thought 
 that giving the pastors power to vote upon the deliberations of the mission, 
 upon things that concern the highest interests of their churches and the 
 future of the Evangelical cause in Turkey, would lead in time to that de- 
 liverance, and that it would raise their status and help to develop their 
 higher manhood, and would also lead to peace and harmony between the 
 missionaries and the churches, by training each party to a mutual respect. 
 Hence my suggestion. Dr. Clark seemed to favor the suggestion and has 
 encouraged it all along, but he makes no allusion to it at all in his letter 
 now, and it appears evident that nothing like it is contemplated. It is not 
 possible for any missionary from a land six thousand miles away, with 
 habits, early training and associations so different, and living apart from 
 the people in exclusion, no matter how devoted and wise he may be, to feel 
 as keenly for and understand as well the wants of the people as those who 
 are of the people themselves and sustain the closest social relations toward 
 them. 
 
 FROM S. M. MIN ASIAN. 
 
 Tarrytown, N. Y., June 15, 1883. 
 Joseph Bradford, Esq., Chairman Frud. Com. of the American Board. 
 
 Dear Sir: I read with deep emotion and interest in the Independent of 
 June 14th the account given by Rev. Mr. Dwight about the "enlightened 
 Armenians," under the leadership of Dr. Avedis. 
 
 I knew Dr. Avedis intimately. I last met him in London in 1878, while 
 he was on his way from the United States to his home in Turkey. He was 
 full of hope and enthusiasm in view of what he was hoping and intending 
 to do, by Divine help, in the way of enlightening his countrymen belonging 
 to the Armenian Church, in things pertaining to spiritual life and to revive 
 scriptural piety among them. I expressed deep sympathy with his pro- 
 posed work and bade him God speed. I was rejoiced to learn from Mr. 
 Dwight's account that Dr. Avedis has gathered about eight hundred 
 followers with whom he has been working for the regeneration of the 
 Armenian race within their mother Church — a most desirable thing, and a 
 work with which every member of the American Board and all its sup- 
 porters, as well as enlightened Christians everywhere, would doubtless 
 gladly sympathize. 
 
 I regret, however, to learn that there was danger of putting a stop to this 
 good work by these enlightened Armenians being cut asunder from their 
 connection with their church, and I hasten to write this to respectfully ask 
 
24 
 
 the Prudential Committee of the American Board, if they deem it best, to 
 request their missionaries in Turkey, by cable or otherwise, to use all their 
 influence in the case against the formal separation from the Armenian 
 Church, and the uniting of the said eight hundred enlightened Armenians 
 with the Protestant organization, I know that the leading men in general 
 in the Armenian Church do not oppose evangelical views entertained by 
 their people. They rather favor it.* Their opposition is wholly against 
 the spirit of secession from the national organization into which state the 
 enlightened men often fall, being led by outside influences and unwisely. 
 I fear that Dr. Avedis may have rather injudiciously and unnecessarily led 
 his followers to imitate too closely the Protestant forms and usages, and 
 thus excited the fears and suspicions of the Armenian Bishop, who resorted 
 to the rather severe measure of discipline and caused his banishment. 
 
 In expressing this my fear in regard to my dear friend Dr. Avedis, I do not 
 mean in the least to pass judgment upon him, for I deeply sympathize with 
 him in his troubles. I further suspect that the missionaries of the American 
 Board, being already unfortunately committed to this measure of encourag- 
 ing secession from the Armenian Church, in the belief that it is impossible 
 for one to lead an enlightened spiritual life in that church, may have also 
 exerted their influence, may be unconsciously, to have these " Enlightened 
 Armenians " clothe themselves too much with the forms of Protestantism 
 and spirit of secession and thus helped indirectly to bring about the distur- 
 bances related in Mr. Dwight's letter. That little body of Armenians hold- 
 ing Evangelical sentiments, if left to act and work in their mother church, 
 may prove like the little leaven which will in time leaven the whole lump. 
 Better, a thousand times better, it would be for vital Christianity in Turkey 
 to have this body of Armenians remain in their Ancient Church and bear 
 much persecution rather than to be cut off from connection with their 
 church, kindred and people. I have no fear, however, that they would be 
 persecuted long, for the Turkish government, if they remain firm, will be 
 compelled at last to protect them in their rights to retain their Evangelical 
 views without being molested. To and for this end let Christians pray 
 and lend their sympathy. I write as a member of the American Board, and 
 in the name and behalf of the pure and undefiled religion of Christ our 
 dear Saviour, and in the hope that the Prudential Committee would in their 
 wisdom deem it best to take the proposed action in the premises. 
 
 I am most respectfully yours, 
 
 S. M. Mm AST AN. 
 
 * " It would be hard to find an intelligent Armenian in all (Constantinople who does not now acknowledge 
 that there are many errors in the Armenian church, and that what is called the evangelical way is the true 
 way." — Rev. Dr. JHvight in Missionary Herald., May., iSbo. 
 
 " The Protestants here have never been separated from the Armenian civil community, and hence the 
 old Armenians regard them as a part of themselves. They call upon us, buy Bibles at our hands, and come 
 to our meetings ; so that we have many opportunities to make known the truth to them, which we should 
 not have If the lines of separation were closely drawn." — Re-'. Mr. Barnuvi in Missionary Herald., March, 
 iSbo. 
 
25 
 
 FROM SECRETARY ALDEN. 
 
 Congregational House, Boston, July ii, 1883. 
 
 -5". M. Mi/iasiaii, Esq. : 
 
 My Dear Sir: Your favor to Mr. Bradford of June 15th was duly 
 received. You have already heard from him, I believe, that the documents 
 have been passed into the hands of Mr. Hardy, the Chairman of the Pru- 
 dential Committee. 
 
 I now write in behalf of the Prudential Committee to say that we are, 
 with you, very much interested in the statement made by Mr. Dwight in 
 the Independent of the 14th of June, in relation to the enlightened Armenians 
 of Cesarea. I may add that this is a matter which was fully talked over at 
 our recent Conference in Constantinople among the missionaries, and with 
 Dr. Clark and Mr. Torrey and myself, as well as with Dr. Chapin and Prof. 
 Mead, who were present at the conference. We are always, as you know, 
 greatly interested in any indications of the presence and power of the spirit 
 of God among the Armenians. As related to this particular case, as you 
 yourself recognize in your letter, and as was presented most emphatically 
 in the statement given of the incident, the significant fact is that the 
 separation of these "enlightened Armenians" from the Old Church was 
 caused by severe and violent persecution. This we regret, of course, but 
 it is a matter which must be met as wisely as it can be met by those who 
 are thus exposed to the persecution. We are praying very much for your 
 friend, and for our friend, Dr. Avedis, that God may guide him wisely, and 
 that out of this seeming trial there may come the very best results for 
 spiritual Christianity. May God grant His blessing to accompany all the 
 efforts which are now being put forth both in the Armenian church and by 
 the members of the Protestant churches, and also by missionaries and by 
 Christian friends, for the increase of earnest spiritual power in the Turkish 
 Empire ! You may be sure that the Prudential Committee and the mission- 
 aries will do everything possible in this direction. Already there are indi- 
 cations which are exceedingly promising of a bright day which is coming, 
 when all differences will be healed and the whole work will move on to its 
 nobler future. 
 
 I write this in behalf of the Prudential Committee, who desire to be 
 remembered particularly to yourself. Dr. Clark is still absent, resting for 
 a time in Switzerland. We hope that he will be back by the close of the 
 next month. I need not add that it gave us extreme pleasure to meet and 
 take by the hand so many of your own personal friends when we were 
 recently in Constantinople. 
 
 I remain, in behalf of the Prudential Committee, 
 
 Yours respectfully, E. K. Alden, Sec. and Clerk. 
 
26 
 
 Tarrytown, N. Y., August i, i8g3. 
 Hon. Alpheus Hardy, Chah-ma/i Frud. Com. of the American Board. 
 
 Dear Sir : The letter of Rev. Simon Eutijan, herewith inclosed,* is the 
 first direct communication I have had from Constantinople since the visits 
 of the Prud. Coms.' Deputation to that city, and as it expresses views so 
 unreservedly on the pending missionary difficulties, from the stand-point of 
 the natives at the spot, I thought it proper to respectfully furnish the Prud. 
 Com. with a copy of it. 
 
 Referring to Dr. Alden's answer to my letter of June 15, addressed to 
 your honorable body, I beg leave to explain that in writing that letter, I 
 assumed that the Prud. Com. in the case submitted would feel it to be 
 their duty to use their influence so as to prevent, if possible, a repetition 
 of the mistake which was once made in the name of the American Board. 
 I refer to the setting up, by the missionaries, of the Evangelical party in 
 the Armenian church, into a separate church organization. You are aware 
 that according to law in Turkey, every religious sect means a nation, and 
 every honest and disinterested man who understands this fact and knows 
 how great an evil these so many conflicting" sects and petty nationalities 
 are in Turkey, and how great an obstacle to Turkey's real welfare and pro- 
 gress, would seriously deprecate the introduction or adding of a new sect 
 to the many already existing. Dr. Goodell's very expressive declaration 
 in regard to this matter is just to the point, and I quote it here from his 
 " Forty years in the Turkish Empire:" 
 
 " Nor do we make any attempt to establish a new church, to raise up a 
 new party. We disclaim everything of the kind. We tell them frankly, 
 you have sects enough among you already, and we have no design of set- 
 ting up a new one, or of pulling down your churches, or drawing away 
 members from them in order to build up our own. No! let him that is a 
 Cireek be a (rreek still, and him that is an Armenian be an Armenian 
 still." 
 
 AVhy the mission changed its policy in this matter and took up one so 
 deprecated, is a great mystery to me. To say that the persecution led to 
 the change, seems like begging the question. There was no persecution 
 until the missionaries began the '' pulling down " and '' setting up" process; 
 besides, it must be borne in mind that the said persecutions were not by the 
 state, but by a religious hierarchy of divcry limited or subordinate and only 
 temporary power, amenable to the superior authority of the government of 
 the country, when they exercised power over their people beyond simple 
 church discipline. Most of the said persecutions consisted merely of tem- 
 porary derangement of business — personal violence was very, very rare 
 indeed. Out of the forty members of the first church which the mission- 
 aries organized in 1846, because of the persecution, as they say, only two 
 were imprisoned for three weeks and one for two or three days.f These 
 
 * See page ig. 
 
 + Since writing the above, I see by the records that a fourth person was imprisoned and another member 
 was exiled three years before, but all were liberated previous to the organization of a separate church. 
 
27 
 
 imprisonments were on false pretenses, and as soon as the cases were 
 fairly brought before the government, the parties imprisoned were Hber- 
 ated. You further are aware that the setting up of the Evangehcal party 
 into a separate church organization did not stop the persecution. The 
 separation thus, as a remedial measure — as the missionaries say it was — 
 utterly failed of its end. I have personally and with heart and soul been 
 in this work from its beginning, and fail to see the good that this policy 
 of separation has accomplished. Had the missionaries stood firmly by 
 their first principles to have " nothing to do " with " pulling down " the old 
 churches and " setting up " new ones, as Dr. Goodell so significantly and 
 in his own native honesty expresses it, we would have had none of the 
 troubles we are burdened with now — we would have had no " vagabond 
 Evangelicals " calling for a complete secular and religious organization, and 
 we would have seen more spiritual power in the Armenian church ; and the 
 cost of the entire work to our American churches here might have been 
 less than half of what it has been. I really pity the missionaries and sympa- 
 thize with them, for this mistaken policy has placed upon them a heavy 
 burden, which they can neither repudiate nor know what to do with now. As to 
 the question that the people themselves asked to be organized into a church, 
 or approved of the scheme, it does not bear a moment's consideration. 
 They were not fit to pass judgment upon such questions any more than a 
 five-year-old boy would be to pass judgment upon any important state 
 questions. 
 
 With the kindest regards to the members of the Committee and sincere 
 prayers that wisdom and grace from above may be given them in these per- 
 plexing times 
 
 I am, respectfully, yours, S. M. Minasian. 
 
 FROM DR. HAMLIN. 
 
 Bangor, January 3, 1880. 
 /. R. Bradford, Esq.: 
 
 My Dear Sir: .... I cannot resist the impression that we are in 
 danger of losing the work of forty years. The reasons of this impression 
 
 will appear as we advance Two events may be mentioned, 
 
 among many others, as specimens of those occurrences which have been 
 continually disturbing harmony and introducing discouragements and 
 sourness. The first was the American Board's change of base on the mat- 
 ter of education. The Board abolished Bebek Seminary and the female 
 seminary, which had been most singularly blessed in the conversion of its 
 students, and, in the presence of half a dozen Catholic colleges and as 
 many female seminaries, reduced all education to a miserable common- 
 school basis in the vernacular, such as country towns in New England had 
 sixty and seventy years ago ; with this single exception that there was but 
 a limited supply of such trained and sharp teachers as New England then 
 had. This measure at first astounded the native brethren. It was not be- 
 lieved. When it became demonstratively true, anger was mixed with dis- 
 
28 
 
 appointment. I was personally acquainted with some who in consequence 
 went over to the Armeno-Catholics, giving as a reason that the Catholics 
 had never practiced any such enormous deception as to pretend to be the 
 friends of education and then become its real enemies. The choice was 
 a hard one, but among the Catholics their children could be 
 educated in the two or three languages that were more important to them 
 than their vernacular, which was nowhere the language of commerce,, 
 trade, industry, the market-place or public meeting. It is true, the firm, 
 consistent, persevering opposition of the native element compelled Marso- 
 van and even Harpoct, after years of useless and injurious resistance, to 
 abandon " vernacular education" as the highest to which man may aspire. 
 Mr. Wheeler's conversion is one of the remarkable events of missionary 
 labor. It seems to be genuine and thorough, but it costs too much. This 
 long contest over education, although the native brethren have won the 
 field in principle, has left a root of bitterness, which has not been eradicated 
 to this day. . . . Another most unhappy event which has had sad 
 consequences, was the attempt and failure of the Pera church to erect its 
 long desired church edifice. A site had been purchased, the missionary 
 church building fund, result of Crimean war bread, contributing a thou- 
 sand dollars and Mr. Minasian a thousand, which was afterwards increased. 
 The pastor was sent to England to solicit funds. The English 
 promised to do as much for him as the Americans would do, and he came 
 over here, was at the semi-centennial (i860) in Boston, and I translated 
 his address to the vast congregation from the platform. He was coldly re- 
 ceived by Dr. Anderson, but he had made a good impression and he felt 
 very much encouraged. Just at this juncture there came a brief letter 
 from one of the missionaries who had opposed the scheme of the church, 
 saying that the money for the church edifice was more than provided for 
 by a national penny contribution in all the churches of Prussia, as ordered 
 by the king ! ! 
 
 This seemed incredible, the pastor did not credit it, but the letter of the 
 missionary was unimpeachable testimony, and the pastor had to go home, 
 with a little more than his expenses, to find it all a mistake, and not one 
 penny from Prussia. I do not remember how the mistake occurred. 
 
 The missionary was honest but hasty, and never stopped to consider 
 how extremely improbable the thing was in itself. He waited for no 
 inquiries and no confirmation, and what was worse, he did not seem to con- 
 cern himself at all about the results. All this filled the hearts of the whole 
 church with overwhelming sorrow and bitter indignation. It was just one 
 of those things that Satan rejoices in. It was a blight upon all good feel- 
 ing between the church and the missionaries. I will mention but one 
 topic more as explanatory of the want of harmony and sympathy. That is 
 the sending of young men abroad for their education. The vernacular 
 standard greatly increased the desire of young men to escape from it, 
 and of the churches to have them escape. There was only one thing 
 
29 
 
 wanting to intensify this desire, and tliat was the opposition of the mis- 
 sionaries. This was given in full measure, and the necessary result fol- 
 lowed — that is, a determination to go. 
 
 . . . . In the conflict which has ensued, the native brethren com- 
 plain that some of the missionaries never treat them as gentlemen ; 
 they know better than we do what belongs to gentlemanly intercourse, 
 and they are sensitive when the missionaries disregard toward them 
 the rules not only of Oriental politeness, but of Occidental as well. 
 If Mr. Barrows had condescended to treat Mr. John Minasian as a 
 gentleman, and had answered his note in a kind, frank, Christian 
 way, that letter would never have come to the Herald of Hartford. An 
 Armenian gentleman, a true Christian gentleman, came to me one day and 
 said he had written two notes to one of the missionaries, a reverend man 
 of long service, and that he had answered neither. I replied " he prob- 
 ably received neither." But he replied that the carrier was a trusty person 
 and had delivered them both. Incredulous, I went to the brother 
 myself. He acknowledged that he had received them both, but he didfit 
 think it worth while to answer them ! ! That went through all the commu- 
 nity and was commented upon as boorish, uncivilized dind above all unchristian 
 Many similar things have happened, trifles if you please, but it may be 
 doubted whether their resulting influence is altogether trifling. 
 
 . . . . I think I can best explain the whole thing to you by 
 supposition. If it will not fit in all particulars, it will be sufficiently ex- 
 act for my purpose. I wish you to suppose that Boston, instead of 
 being as it is, were composed of a population entirely and absolutely 
 without public schools. There are Unitarians, Universalists, Catho- 
 lics, Tunkers, Hardshell Baptists and Mormons. But each sect has 
 its own churches, school-houses and schools, and is exclusive and 
 bitter toward other sects. Now you yourself belong to a new sect called 
 Orthodox, the smallest and most insignificant of all the sects in Boston. 
 But you know you have the truth and are comforted. You have nc 
 church edifice, and, being poor and persecuted, you cannot build one. 
 You hire some place to worship in, or you beg from some of the other sects 
 the use of a church at such hours as will not incommode them. If people 
 ask you about it, you reply : "Oh, we are going to build sometime," and 
 you continue to make that same 2in'i^t.x for forty years. With your schools 
 you do the same, or even worse. Often you can hire no house for a school 
 and your children are in the streets among the Mormons, or get into Uni- 
 versalist or Tunker schools, and are abused and cursed. Now there is all 
 the time another sect called the Uniates, because united to the true Church 
 of Rome. They are numerous, rich, powerful, have noble churches and 
 school buildings; but they speak your language, read your books, have 
 many points of sympathy with you. They have become dissatisfied with 
 Rome because the Pope claims infallibility, which belongs only to God. 
 They hold to the supremacy of the Bible, and are going to renounce Rome. 
 
You now invite them to join you. But they at once reply : " We like many 
 things about you very much, but you are vagabonds ! You have neither 
 church nor school after forty years. You have no central home. You live 
 by begging. Whether it is your fault or 3-our leader's, is nothing to us. In 
 religion you are Gypsies, only you do not own even a black tent," I think 
 after receiving such a reply you would have little courage to invite the 
 Uniates to join you. And when you should hear that they are carrying off 
 with them some of your own staunch friends, and are inviting you all to 
 come with them, assuring you that you shall have freedom of conscience 
 and be incorporated into a powerful body with churches, schools, colleges, 
 high-schools and female seminaries, would ^'•ou not feel that your little dis- 
 couraged community is in danger ? And most assuredly you would no 
 longer wonder that not one of the Uniates should join you. Now, my dear 
 Mr. Bradford, if you have been able at all to enter into this supposition in 
 imagination, you have, after all, but a feeble idea of the disadvantages 
 under which the Protestant Armenians labor. 
 
 Every young man who has started with a good foundation 
 of English and of character, has done well. I recall at this moment 
 five such cases : i. Alexan Bezjian, now professor in Aintab Col- 
 lege. 2. Alexander Djijizian, pastor at Ada Bazar, who spent one 
 or two years in Edinburgh. He is a noble and strong man in judg- 
 ment, power of argument, in true insight, in theological training, and 
 as a preacher — the superior of many a missionary. 3. The late Broosa 
 pastor, now head of the High School, who studied at Basle. No one 
 will dare to impugn his character and ability. 4. Pastor Kerope, like 
 the others, a Bebek Seminary student. He went to England, and Mr. 
 Farnsworth, instead of opposing him, had the grace to aid him. He made 
 a good impression in England and obtained aid to build a church, and Mr. 
 Farnsworth pronounced it the best church that has been erected in Turkey 
 among the Protestants. 5. Pastor Thomas, of Diabekir. I do not know 
 of a man who speaks the Armenian language who is his equal for a plat- 
 form speech. He carries his audience with him. He is clear and logical. 
 He lifts up his audience to higher planes of principle, thought and feeling. 
 I never had a student more easy to be led, more difficult to be driven. Mr. 
 Wheeler undertook to drive him. All his campaigns against him failed, 
 inflicting, however, deep and rankling wounds in the evangelistic work. 
 He is still an excellent and powerful preacher of the Gospel, and should 
 have been a most efficient coadjutor. Now all experience proves that a 
 well educated man of well-balanced mind and character may derive advantage 
 that will be permanent and valuable by one or two years' study in England 
 or America. Instead of uniform opposition let there be intelligent advice, 
 and all these evils will disappear. So long as there is nothing but opposi- 
 tion the evil will increase. Two will come instead of one. Mr. Barrows, 
 or some other one, will vilify them through the press, the whole community 
 will be on fire, and so the pit will be digged. It cannot go very much 
 
31 
 
 farther. Already the idea is afloat of going back to the old Church, with 
 liberty of worship. I am not sure the Church would not grant this, and then 
 both church building and school building would be provided. 
 
 . . . . I have written this long letter as one sympathizing with the 
 native body, and with a part of the missionary body. I say frankly, I have 
 no sympathy with the other part. 
 
 Their course must end in disaster and ruin., and it is not far from it noiv. 
 
 May wisdom from above be given you to do that which the case de- 
 mands. Very sincerely yours, Cyrus Hamlin. 
 
 REPORT OF THE AI FETING OF THE HARPOOT UNION. 
 
 [conclusion.] 
 
 By the contents of personal and official information received so far by 
 the meeting of our Union, we have come to this conclusion about the state 
 of the churches in our Union: 
 
 That in general the churches now are not in the state in which they 
 were fifteen years ago; that the churches for the most part have neither 
 school nor church building, and of those that exist some are dilapidated, 
 some half-built, and some improper; that generally the churches are poor, 
 and even giving according to their ability have not been able to provide for 
 the immediate wants of the church; that ministers and teachers greatly 
 suffer from material wants, and there have been some who have died on 
 that account; that the churches in general have not only ceased from grow- 
 ing in number but even grow backwards; that the churches are generally in 
 despair, and for this reason some individuals have gone back to the church 
 of their fathers; that some churches have no ministers, their dead remain 
 for days unburied, and there is no one to perform the ceremonies of mar- 
 riage and baptism; that some churches and ministers are dishonored, 
 scorned and ridiculed and find no encouragement, whereby in this body 
 some deep and incurable wounds have been opened; that ministers with- 
 draw from the work; that the churches cannot defend their rights before 
 the government; that we have no written records — -not even the primitive, 
 leaving aside the official; that there is no sympathy between the natives, 
 and missionary body. 
 
 But why did these things become so ? Seeing the results, we are natu- 
 rally led to seek for causes in that body which before the Christian world 
 has taken charge of this work. And we plainly see that the principles of 
 that acting body are the cause of the present disastrous state of the 
 churches. Behold the causes which our Union with long expe- 
 rience and irreparable losses has found to come into collision with the local 
 good of the churches and to damage them seriously : 
 
 I. The officers of the Board, who have officially taken the charge and 
 responsibility of the work, worked with extreme independence and did not 
 respect the idea, opinion, counsel and co-operation of the natives in what- 
 ever form they were presented to them with respect to the work which con- 
 cerned the local good of the churches. 
 
 II. They held the work in a vague manner : where there was plainly no 
 hope of success there they started to work, and even after many losses did 
 nor recognize their mistake; and where hope was all apparent, they kept 
 back their hands. Instead of strengthening the work in a centre, they 
 hurried to establish here and there insignificant and nominal Protestant 
 communities, and churches unable to govern themselves. 
 
32 
 
 (For example. In the Harpoot field : Shuntil, Garmri, Tchoteli, Yert- 
 ming, Sursuri, Korpe, etc., etc., etc. In the field of Palou : Habab, Khosh- 
 mat, Abrank, Nboushi, Shnaj. In the field of Arapgir : Dsack, Heynetsig, 
 Mashgerd, etc.) 
 
 III. The principle of self-support, which our Union well approves of when 
 at the proper time, the missionaries used before the time, by cutting off 
 their help from the churches prematurely, without having prepared in them 
 the elements necessary for self-support. Before these poor churches such 
 new ways of expense were opened, that the accounts of some could not be 
 closed, even after getting a tithe from the bread, wheat and fuel, which 
 the poor had obtained by begging. 
 
 IV. Following the principle of " vernacular" education, the missionaries 
 did not educate the ministers and preachers as much as their high calling 
 and the good of places they went to required ; they sent men to lead 
 churches and communities who had a deficient education, often not able to 
 understand the principles of their mother tongue, leaving aside the classic, 
 which is absolutely necessary for the present. Though now the Armenia 
 College gives a high education, but this " conversion" has been so late, and 
 the ministry is so fallen to-day, that however much we have examined and 
 inquired, we have not been able to find an able young man who should 
 desire to be a minister. 
 
 V. The native workers were not encouraged in any way, especially 
 morally, and many times some missionaries showed the native such offend- 
 ing treatment, and wounded the heart of the native workers with such bitter 
 words, that the cure is very difficult and requires a long time. The natives 
 were abused publicly and in private, and even attempts were made to abolish 
 our Union. (Leaving aside unbecoming words said in private to ministers, 
 such as, " (jO and eat barley," " You eat from our manger," it was said after 
 the death of a minister who had preached thirteen years, " It was well that 
 he died," etc.) 
 
 F^or the meeting of 1879 o^ ^^^ Union, it was said, " It perished" 
 [like an animal]. Here is an extract from the minutes of that year : 
 
 " At that moment one of the missionaries changed the matter to a per- 
 sonal question, and abused the whole of our native meeting, and to him one 
 of the pastors opposing the discussion became so hot, that the meeting was 
 confused, and while there were many questions to solve, the audience, tired 
 and satiated with the abusing and scorning words of the missionaries, cries 
 were raised of, ' Let the meeting be closed,' and the closing of the meeting 
 was resolved." This small portion of that nation which has accepted 
 Christianity since fourteen centuries, and held it for five centuries among 
 Mohammedan peoples, has heard from strangers such words that have 
 sorely wounded their hearts. 
 
 VI. The educational establishments, which are few, are in such a position 
 that they are inaccessible to the greater part of the children of the church, 
 and the rich alone are profited by them, while our children grow poor in mind. 
 
 VII. The missionaries have not shown a disposition to keep harmony 
 and union even among the churches, and often acted against it. 
 
 VIII. They concealed the real state of the churches from the helping 
 churches of America, and often presented it in too bright colors. 
 
 IX. When a difficulty arises about any question between the people, or 
 with the missionaries, there is no court with any power to end these diffi- 
 culties, so they remain unending. If the present disastrous condition of the 
 churches is in any way slighted and essential changes are not made, there 
 is danger that the labors of thirty years in this field will be totally lost. 
 
33 
 
 If the loss had been only a loss of money (both what the Board spent 
 here, and what our people gave, which means more) the thing would not 
 be incurable (may (iod forbid that it should be so) ; but rational men, bear- 
 ing the image of God, are being lost. God forbid, but if this state of 
 things remain so, our eyes will at last see that the sun shines upon the piti- 
 ful wreck of all our expectations, and to us will remain only a small num- 
 bered community, exposed to the ridicule of others and thrown about like 
 dust before many winds. 
 
 FROM S. M. MIN ASIAN. 
 
 Paris, September 19, 1869. 
 Rev. G. Washburn : 
 
 Dear Brother : 'I'he long-existing state of the affairs in connection 
 with the missionary work in Turkey, as you know, has often been, to many 
 of the best friends of the cause of Christ there, a cause of query whether 
 Protestantism as a distinct organization should be longer kept up, and also 
 if the ascendancy gained in the religious reformation in Turkey by the 
 Christian churches of America would, or should, longer continue. If we 
 must take the affirmative side of these queries, it would necessitate the 
 introduction of some important changes in the mode of missionary opera- 
 tions in Turkey. 
 
 The status of the native laborer with the missionary must be raised, his 
 importance and equality to the missionary in the work must be practically 
 acknowledged. The missionary should not be able to say to a native pastor, 
 who, feeling his ministerial character injured by the former's official acts, 
 appeals to him for redress : " There is no hope of redress for you this side 
 of the water ; as for my official acts, even if they injure your character, I 
 am responsible only to my Board, six thousand miles away." Neither 
 should he be again permitted to say to a church : " Your pastor or dele- 
 gate in an Ecclesiastical Council of your sister churches voted unfavorably 
 to us, therefore you must repudiate his acts, else, as we are the keepers and 
 distributors of the money, we cannot conscientiously assist you to sustain 
 the institution of the Gospel in your midst." 
 
 This state of things ought to be changed, and I trust, as the Commission 
 respectfully recommends, the American Board will send " a deputation to 
 Turkey to visit the churches, confer personally with the brethren, examine 
 the present state of the work, and fix upon the principles upon which the 
 missionaries and the churches are to labor together." 
 
 I am not in favor of inciting a subject people to opposition, yet I hold 
 that when they want or ask for liberty it must be granted. The very fact 
 of their asking for it proves that they appreciate and are prepared to enjoy 
 it. May God grant us all the spirit of humility, so that we may daily ask : 
 " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " 
 
 I remain yours, etc., S. M. Minasian. 
 
 FROM AN ARMENIAN PASTOR. 
 
 August 9, 1883. 
 S. M. Minasian, Esq. : 
 
 Mv Dear Brother : You have already been sufficiently well informed of 
 our doings at the meeting of the Bithynia Union. We had delegates with us 
 from Marash,Harpoot, etc., and all the brethren were unanimous on all points 
 of differences which exist between the missionaries and the Evangelical Ar- 
 menian Churches. ... I trust you will not waver in the steps you have taken 
 in behalf of our churches, and pray that the Lord may assist and guide you 
 by heavenly wisdom in all things that you may do for us. The delegates 
 
34 
 
 from the Board tried to encourage us, saying that the American Board may 
 introduce many changes or improvements in the management of the mission 
 work here, and that they themselves will do all they can for us in this mat- 
 ter, and advised us to wait and not make further public appeals. 
 I do not feel very hopeful, however, that these questions will be solved in 
 any satisfactory manner, and fear that by conciliatory words they are trying 
 to gain time. 
 
 S. M. MINASIAN TO PERSONAL FRIENDS. 
 
 They say "the churches are free from missionary control, and they can 
 change their system of church government," etc. 
 
 Have they not broken up the Pera church, because that church wanted to 
 change its church government ? and have they not starved out the men in their 
 employ who belonged to that '■^ free " church in order to bring them to terms ? 
 Have they not turned out the Vlanga church and school from the chapel 
 building by police force just because the church elected a pastor whom the 
 missionaries did not favor ? The question is not whether the missionaries 
 are praying men, but whether they acted fairly and v/isely in these matters, 
 and whether they are presenting honestly the points at issue now. I men- 
 tion these instances because the present troubles are to a great extent the 
 result of the actions of the mission in those days. 
 
 We in this country deprecate the pauper labor system of the old world, 
 but our missionaries in Turkey are helping to perpetuate that vile system, 
 not by living as paupers themselves, but by forcing the men whom they hire 
 to do the gospel work to live as paupers.* The plea is that they must teach 
 the people self-support, but really by this course the missionaries are 
 driving away all good and able men from the ministry, and no young man 
 who has the example of these pauper pastors before his eyes ever thinks of 
 entering the ministry. Yes, they may study for a while, but soon give it up. 
 
 There are two points in the controversy in which the representations of 
 the missionaries seem to me to be unfair. One is, when the Armenian 
 churches ask to have a voice in the management of the mission work, they 
 are represented as claiming to have "control of the funds of the Board." 
 Now I have not seen or heard of a single Armenian who makes such an 
 absurd claim. 
 
 The next point is this : The Evangelical Armenians have been agitating 
 this question of co-operation for more than a quarter of a century. In 
 1879, ^s we were returning from the meeting of the American Board at 
 Syracuse, I remarked to Dr. Clark thus : "We have triumphed in a measure 
 on the education question, and now are going to fight on the same line for 
 co-operation, until the delegates of the Armenian churches are admitted 
 into the missionary meetings." We also, since that time, have had special 
 conferences with Dr. Clark upon that subject. They have at last been 
 convinced and compelled to acknowledge that something must be done in 
 that line, and for the last two or three years have begun experimenting 
 upon it. Now, my query is this : Is \t fair or honest for the mission to pub- 
 lish to the world that they have co-operation already, as though they them- 
 selves of their own accord initiated it ? Ought they not to tell the whole 
 truth in this matter? 
 
 * " If I am not mistaken, the highest salary that a pastor receivesdoes not exceed one-quarter of that of 
 a missionary (not mentioning those who get only one-eighth). How can it be that the needs of these two 
 classes of people are so widely different ? Either the missionaries receive very large salaries and do not 
 live as the Christians believe they do, or they starve the pastors."— ,i(/c//vj-.s 0/ Rev. Thomas Bagaziaii. 
 
35 
 
 FROM THE BITHYNIA UNION, DECEMBER 26, 1882. 
 
 We declare that we bring forward no charges, unless it be by an unavoid- 
 able implication, and we protest against being called " defamers." 
 
 Nor do we see that charges are even implied by the contents of the 
 pamphlet; whether against the Board or its missionaries. When a suffering 
 man brings forward facts to prove the injuries he is meeting, or points out 
 the causes thereof, does he (necessarily) by so doing become a " de- 
 famer ? " 
 
 To speak plain, this seems nothing more than an attempt to make us hold 
 our peace. A beneficiary will not, except under a dire necessity, find fault 
 with the agent of his benefactor. Whenever we attempt to make known 
 our pain, we are sure to receive this slap upon the mouth, and are reduced 
 to silence ; but our feelings are not changed thereby, nor are our pains re- 
 moved, for the facts remain unaltered, and matters even grow worse. 
 
 We have no thought of bringing " charges" against either the mission- 
 aries or the Board. God forbid. But if by revealing the actual state of 
 things we should hurt the feelings of any one. or mar the good name of the 
 cause itself, it will give us pain, but we deny the responsibility therefor. 
 
 From the very incipiency of these now glaring evils, we entreated and 
 petitioned that a prompt remedy might be applied so as to nip them in the 
 bud. But nobody paid them any attention. Behold I this is a fact ; * * * 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM DR. J. G. WARREN S LETTER— FORMER 
 SECRETARY OF THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION. 
 
 My next step was to place the whole work in Burmah in the hands 
 and under the supervision and management of that body, made up, 
 observe, oi misslonarks and representatives of the native ehurches ; that body 
 to appoint its own officers, including its treasurer, and make appropriations 
 for all parts of the service, whether relating to education, Bible and tract 
 printing and distribution, the compensation of native helpers, the erection of 
 chapels, etc. . . . The most important end had in view was the training 
 of the natives, of all classes, especially preachers and pastors, to habits of 
 doing business correctly, and to make them ready to take the helm of man- 
 agement in all things when the Union retires, as it must, from that field, 
 finally and forever. 
 
 To the plan outlined above, several of the missionaries decidedly ob- 
 jected, one, certainly, as I well remember, even threatening to resign and 
 come home if it were carried into practice. He would not be placed, in 
 any respect, in the hands or at the dictation of his brother missionaries, much 
 less of the natives, or of both classes acting in concert. He mu^ be inde- 
 pendent of all these ; he must be bishop in his own diocese, he claimed. 
 And, Anderson, that is what our missionaries virtually are, and are tenacious 
 of continuing to be. It grows up within them. It grows up around them. 
 It envelops them like the air they breathe. Surrounded, as they constantly 
 are, by dependents, the habits of control and of superiority grow upon 
 them. I am not, in this, arraigning them for judgment and condemnation. 
 I should do the same were I passing my life amidst such surroundings, un- 
 less I set a stronger and more constant guard around myself than any per- 
 son is adequate to. And that is what is the matter. They control, as a 
 general thing, kindly, but still effectually, the natives. 
 
 Watchman, Sept. 2, 1883. 
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN UNION, JULY 12, i88j. 
 The missionary convention in Turkey, of which we give a report in another 
 •column, appears to us to mark a decided and important advance in mis- 
 
36 
 
 sionary operations. It is a distinct and emphatic — so far as we know, the 
 first distinct and emphatic — recognition of the principle, that in spiritual as 
 well as in material philanthropy the end to be always kept in view is so to 
 give help as to promote self-help. The native churches say, the mission- 
 aries in this Conference are the chief agency for the conversion of Turkey; 
 we are their helpers; the right of control must be left in their hands; the 
 rights exercised by free Christian churches in other lands must be every- 
 where recognized as theirs; the responsibility must be thrown upon them; 
 in all our work, whether evangelistic, literary or educational, the same 
 weight must be given to their opinion as to missionary opinion; and as fast 
 and as far as native men competent for the work as preachers, editors, and 
 teachers can be found, that work must be put in their hands. This is 
 admirable. If it is not novel, it is at all events something new to have it 
 put with such emphasis, and by such a body. 
 
 We believe that history and Scripture clearly demonstrate the truth that 
 every great reform must be wrought from within; it must be, in a true 
 sense, native and indigenous. The impulse may come from without, the 
 permanent life must be developed within; the seed may be wafted from 
 foreign shores, but it must take root and get its growth in the land which 
 needs the fruit. No tree can be transplanted fully grown. When God 
 would send the Gospel to mankind he sent it through men and by men 
 When he brought it himself, he came assuming a human form, proclaiming 
 it from human lips, and manifesting it in a human life. The first preachers 
 were men selected from the race and the ranks to be reached. When that 
 Gospel was to be carried into Greece, one man was appointed to carry it, 
 and he a man born and bred in a Grecian city; but the work was left to be 
 carried on by native preachers and through native churches. In the sub- 
 sequent history of the Church, the great theologian of the Grecian churches 
 was Chrysostom, a Greek; the great theologian of the Latin churches 
 was Augustine, a Roman; the great revivalist and reformer of Germany, 
 was Luther, a German; the great evangelists of England were Wickliffe, 
 and Tyndale, and Ridley, and Cranmer — Englishmen. Where in the his- 
 tory of the Church was a country ever truly permeated with the new religious 
 life except as the leaders and teachers were its own sons ? 
 
 We therefore welcome the distinct and emphatic recognition of this 
 principle by the missionaries and secretaries of the American Board in their 
 work in Turkey, as indicating, if not a new departure in missionary work 
 at least a new adoption and application of a principle very imperfectly 
 adopted and applied in the past. Under this principle each community 
 will not (^ly form its own external organization, but will develop also 
 its own interior life. Between the theology of Christianized Asia 
 and Christianized Europe there may be differences as great as be- 
 tween the theology of Chrysostom and Augustine, Calvin and Wes- 
 ley ; between the worship of Africa and America differences as great as be- 
 tween Oliver Cromwell and Archbishop Whately. This principle, faith- 
 fully and fearlessly carried out, will give a new illustration of the truth : 
 many members, one body. For though there may be differences of theol- 
 ogy, there will be one faith ; though differences of ritual, yet one worship ; 
 though differences of organization, yet one Church of Christ. And in 
 each community the theology, the ritual, and the organization will take on 
 that form which will best subserve and embody the spiritual life of peni- 
 tence, of faith, and of consecration. 
 
 Heretofore we have had foreign missionaries and native helpers. If the 
 principles laid down by this Conference are consistently maintained and 
 
37 
 
 applied, we sliall have in tlie future native preacliers and foreign helpers. 
 The bearing of this principle on the question which has arisen between 
 the Armenian churches and the missionaries we shall not here discuss. 
 That question is indeed a somewhat complicated one. In Turkey every 
 one who changes his religion must change his nationality ; and the organ- 
 ization of a new religious body involves the organization of a new national- 
 ity, with a civil representative in Constantinople. The missionaries be- 
 lieved that the Armenian Church could not be reformed ; that converts to 
 a reformed Christianity must leave the old Church and form a new one, and 
 this course has been pursued. The Armenians were of the opinion that 
 this was unnecessary ; but now that this has been done, they demand a 
 complete civil organization of the new churches, with a civil head at Con- 
 stantinople. They also desire a larger influence and a final control in the 
 entire evangelistic and educational work among the Armenians. On this 
 whole subject we shall await with patience and a good hope the report of 
 the Special Investigating Committee, whose character is such as to give a 
 guarantee that it will be faithful and conscientious, and a promise that it 
 will be wise, and of a kind to be accepted by all concerned. 
 
 FROM THE INDEPENDENT, FEBR UAR Y i, iSSj. 
 
 AN INTERPELLATION OF THE FOREIGN SECRETARY, FROM A MEMBER OF 
 THE LOWER HOUSE. BY LEONARD WOOLSEV BACON, D. D. 
 
 So scanty is the time allowed at the annual meeting of the American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, for the proper business of 
 that body — so complete are the arrangements made in advance, by those 
 who take control of the affair, to pre-occupy the time with a programme of 
 matters that are not business — that a member who would perform his duty 
 must have recourse to the press. The method has its drawbacks. Through 
 no one journal can the ear of the Board be reached ; and in any journal the 
 discussion must needs go to a much larger proportion of outside observers 
 than if the Board were to be allowed, as formerly, to deliberate upon its 
 own business in its own meeting. 
 
 In the few hasty and impatient minutes, which were all that could be 
 spared at the meeting of the Board in Portland for the consideration of 
 questions of vital, one might almost say fatal, importance to the noblest of 
 all the Board's missions, there emerged two or three questions even more 
 important, since they concern the very foundation-work of all the missions. 
 It is a pity that there was not time to put and answer these questions, then 
 and there. But it is better that they should be put and answered here than 
 not at all. 
 
 I. What is the exact meaning of it, when the administration of the Board 
 being under discussion, the secretaries interrupt a speaker to announce : 
 " If the Board have not confidence in us, we are ready to step down and 
 out ? " The announcement is received with a round of applause, as if for 
 some heroic act of self-abnegation, or for some escape from impending 
 peril. 
 
 1. This cannot mean that the administration are ready to resign. They 
 can't resign ; their time is up, the Board is just reviewing their work pre- 
 paratory to a new election. If the Board has not confidence in them, they 
 won't be elected ; that's all. They are " down and out," and it is only 
 because the Board has confidence in them that they are put back again. 
 
 2. It cannot mean that, in case they are not re-elected, they have no 
 intention of making a coup d'etat, seizing the treasury, and running the mis- 
 sions on their own hook. Of course they have not. They are not the sort 
 
38 
 
 of men to do it ; and about the time of the annual meeting the treasury is 
 rarely in a condition to tempt any man to run away with it. It can't mean 
 that. 
 
 3. It cannot mean that if the Board performs its duty of scrutinizing, 
 criticising, and, when necessary, disapproving the course of the administra- 
 tion, the secretaries will refuse to serve. This supposition is morally 
 impossible. 
 
 What can it mean ? Perhaps a precedent may throw light on this question. 
 
 I remember a meeting of the American Board, at New Haven, something 
 less than half a century ago. There used to be a time for the transaction of 
 business in those days, and the Board had taken in hand some question of 
 policy on which it was proposed to modify the course that had been 
 adoped by its officers. Then uprose Secretary Rufus Anderson to protest 
 against such interference : "If the well-considered plans of the Prudential 
 Committee are to be reconsidered and overruled by this meeting, we may 
 as well hoist all sail and run the ship aground." And this saying, from the 
 altitude of his physical stature and official station, made a deep impression. 
 Presently, the youngest corporate member of the Board arose, and began, 
 with painful slowness and deliberateness of utterance: "This will be my 
 first vote in a meeting of this Board, and I have a great mind to say it 
 shall be my last !" And then followed such an exposure of the arrogance, 
 veiled under the Secretary's poetic imagery, and such an exhibition of the 
 right relation of the secretaries and Prudential Committee as subordinates 
 to the Board as their superior, that it is safe to say that during the remain- 
 der of Secretary Anderson's long and splendid administration this particu- 
 lar mistake was never repeated. 
 
 Let us hope that we have had the last of this " confidence game " in the 
 American Board. That the Board has a general confidence in its officials 
 — in their ability, honesty and prompt and loyal obedience to the Board's 
 instructions may be inferred from the fact of their election. But to ask 
 of the Board any such confidence in its secretaries and committee as should 
 excuse it from the most searching scrutiny into their doings, and the most 
 thorough review and control of their policy, is to invite it to a dereliction 
 of its duty. 
 
 The real question is not. Has the Board confidence in its secretaries, but, 
 Have the secretaries confidence in the Board ? or do they mistrust the 
 capacity of that body to deal with the administration of its own affairs, and 
 feel it important to use a measure of reticence toward it on critical ques- 
 tions, and to keep it well entertained with eloquent talk, lest it should get 
 down to business ? 
 
 II. What is the meaning of this ? A member of the Board at the late 
 meeting was advocating the report of a committee of the Board on which 
 he served, when he was met by the singular announcement from the secre- 
 taries : " Wc had you appointed on that committee." Is not this a little 
 queer ? The member certainly thought he was appointed by the Board to 
 study and report upon the administration of its officers; but he is publicly 
 told that he is the secretaries' appointee, as if this had some proper bearing 
 on his duty in the case. The secretaries ought to have an opportunity of 
 explaining this. Is it common for them to manipulate the appointment of 
 committees that are to inquire into their course? Or is it only done on 
 critical occasions ? Is the treasurer in the habit of hinting whom he would 
 like for auditors or for the committee on the treasurer's report ? just how 
 much of this sort of thing is done ? And if only a little is done, is it not a 
 little too much ? 
 
39 
 
 Far be it from me to question the sagacity of the secretaries in selecting 
 that member for that committee; but it would be better to let the Board 
 manage its own business, however inadequately, than to have the interested 
 party interfere, however judiciously. Since the secretaries claim the credit 
 of having made up a fair and thorough committee on the Western Turkey 
 Mission, they must also bear the responsibility of the make-up of the com- 
 mittee ad interim to inquire into the affairs of that mission ; and if it ap- 
 pears to any that in the constitution of this committee there is nothing to 
 give to the public a guaranty of severely thorough work, and something to 
 suggest prejudgments in favor of the secretaries and against the mission 
 churches, an official disavowal of any tampering with the nominations in 
 this case may be needed to see the matter right. 
 
 III. Finally, just what does it mean when the Secretary, speaking in the 
 name of the administration, declares what "we are willing" or what "we 
 are not willing " to have brought to the knowledge of the Board ? The oc- 
 casion when this expression was used at Portland has not been forgotten. 
 A member of the Board, having some very exceptional claims to respect 
 and love and consideration, wished to make to his colleagues a communi- 
 cation of great importance affecting their work. He is a man without ready 
 facility in English speech, in fact a convert of one of the Board's own mis- 
 sions, and one who has shown his grateful love for the mission work by a 
 self-denying devotion such as no man dare impeach. This member, unable 
 to utter himself to his fellow-members by voice, attempted to lay the case 
 before them in print. By a most indiscreet proceeding (however well-in- 
 tended), the copies of his pamphlet, intended for his fellow-members, were 
 gathered up and secreted, and the secretaries assumed the responsibility of 
 the act and gave their reasons why they approved the suppression of the 
 pamphlet ; why, under the circumstances, they were not willing to have it 
 submitted to the knowledge of the Board, and how, in such and such cir- 
 cumstances, they would have been willing. The pamphlet was one that 
 raised grave questions as to the wisdom or propriety of the official action of 
 the secretaries — questions which any member had a right to raise, and 
 which the Board had a right to judge for itself whether it would entertain ; 
 and for the secretaries to make themselves parties to the act of suppressing 
 this communication ; for the secretaries, present in the meeting for th.i very 
 purpose of having their official work inquired into ; for the secretaries, the 
 subordinates and employes of the Board, to thrust themselves between the 
 Board and one of its members, and say " We object," or " We don't ob- 
 ject," does really seem (unless some explanation can be suggested) to be a 
 very extraordinary line of procedure. 
 
 Considered as business meetings, the meetings of the American Board 
 are suffering from too mnch official management. But it is not the secre- 
 taries that are to blame for this altogether ; I am almost ready to say that 
 they are justified in it, as things stand. I want to emphasize my great 
 respect and admiration for these able and faithful men. But none the less 
 I feel bound to expose a public abuse which involves the gravest perils to 
 the noblest and best organized of our great charities, and may easily result, 
 sooner or later, in its loss of public confidence. 
 
 And since it is only a half duty to expose an abuse without showing 
 the remedy, I propose to show, in another article, what are the improve- 
 ments required in the meetings of the American Board, and then to speak 
 .of the merits of the questions concerning the Western Turkey Mission. 
 
 Norwich, Conn. 
 
40 
 FROM THE INDEPENDENT, FEBRUARY 22, 1883. 
 
 THE MEETING OF THE AMERICAN BOARD. BY THE REV. LEONARD WOOLSEY 
 
 BACON, D.D. 
 
 What is the object of the Annual Meeting of the American Board ? 
 
 Secretary Hayden says (in The Independent recently) that the Annual 
 Meeting is " part of a great scheme of operations for diffusing missionary 
 information." 
 
 A more common impression is that it is a four-days' prayer and confer- 
 ence meeting. 
 
 Another opinion, widely prevalent, is that it is an occasion for procuring 
 large subscriptions of money under the stimulus of high excitement and 
 the pressure of competition. 
 
 The last idea of it to occur to the popular mind is that it is the meeting 
 of a responsible deliberative body for the transaction of important and 
 sometimes difficult public business. At the late meeting at Portland, when 
 there were a few minutes of brisk interlocutory debate on a matter of some 
 consequence, it was almost comical to hear the expressions of shuddering 
 deprecation of an incident so calculated to " frow a chill ober de meetin' ;" 
 and one of the younger clergymen illustrated the prevailing notions and 
 quite astounded some of us old men with the information that anything of 
 the nature of debate was quite unprecedented at the meetings of the Board ! 
 
 And yet, as everybody sees, on a moment's thought, the one reason and 
 "formal cause " of the Annual Meeting is that it is the business meeting of 
 a corporation that calls its officials annually to account, reviews its work for 
 the past year, and determines the policy to be carried out by its executive 
 for the year to come. Everything else is incidental to this. The corpora- 
 tion is made up of godly men, who do not enter upon such business without 
 earnest prayer. The business is of a sort to bring together the eye-wit- 
 nesses of distant scenes and momentous events and so to " diffuse informa- 
 tion." The information thus set forth is such as to touch the deepest foun- 
 tains of religious eloquence. And, amid the fervors of the occasion, charity 
 opens wide its heart and purse with splendid gifts; but all this is properly 
 incidental to the business of the meeting. 
 
 Of late years it has become a settled habit, not only with that vague 
 person, "the general public," but with others who ought to know better, to 
 regard the incidental things as the essential and the essential thing as a 
 dull incumbrance, that has to be tolerated as a matter of form and tradition, 
 but which must be kept in a corner as much as possible, so as not to " frow 
 a chill ober de meetin'." The general public are supposed to find the 
 splendid parade speeches much more attractive than the work-day deliber- 
 ations upon grave questions, and the meeting must be made attractive to 
 the general public. It is so sweet to sit together in heavenly places that 
 the disciples all want to set to and build tabernacles on the mount. And 
 when hearts are flowing together and money is flowing forth, it does seem 
 too bad to leave this exaltation and come down to business. This is just 
 what Simon Peter thought when " he wist not what he spake." 
 
 Now, let me not be mistaken as implying any reflection which I do not 
 •distinctly express when I say that this tendency of the Annual Meeting is 
 inevitably promoted by the abnormal fact that the meeting to hear and act 
 upon the report of the executive is substantially arranged for and " run " 
 by the executive, whose report is to be heard and acted on. It is they that 
 prepare the voluminous "special papers," that engage the distinguished 
 speakers to "occupy the time," that see to it that the right men are on the 
 iright committees, and that digest the programme in general. They almost 
 
41 
 
 have to do it; for, apparently, it has to be done and it is nobody's else busi- 
 ness in particular. And how natural, how (almost) reasonable that the 
 secretaries and Prudential Committee, knowing in their hearts that the 
 Board's business has been done by them faithfully and honestly, and feeling 
 very sure that it has been done wisely, should forget that it is important 
 that the Board should know this, too, and that the public should know that 
 the Board knows it. How natural that they should like to take a short 
 cut through the business by a general appeal for " confidence," forgetful 
 that just so soon as the Board begins to repose that kind of confidence in 
 its officials the public will be bound to withdraw confidence from' the 
 Board. 
 
 The golden age of the American Board was the age when it was the 
 forum of earnest deliberation and strenuous debate upon the conduct of 
 missions, shared in freely by the vast body of the honorary members and 
 decided on by the authoritative vote of the corporation. The decadence of 
 the Board — if, as Dr. Todd seems to intimate, its decadence has begun — 
 may be dated from the time when the business meeting was supplanted by 
 a meeting for popular impression. In the long run, the steady support 
 founded on the solid, intelligent confidence of the public in an able and 
 faithful executive, held to rigorous responsibility in the annual public in- 
 quest of the governing Board, is a better reliance than the annual spurt of 
 competitive subscription amid the cheers of a mass meeting. 
 
 If the Annual Meeting of the Board is to be restored, the first step to be 
 taken is for the secretaries and Prudential Committee, by an effort of faith, 
 to divest themselves of all sense of responsibility for its conduct and for its 
 conclusions. The second step is for the Board to assume this whole 
 responsibility upon itself, and at each annual meeting to appoint its own 
 committee from outside the Mission-House, to arrange and prepare the 
 order of business for the next annual meeting. It is needless to say 
 that such a committee would not act without the most free consultation 
 with the mission-rooms. Whatever subject the secretaries or Prudential 
 Cv^mmittee wanted to have come up would be sure of a hearing. And, if, 
 at some time, it should appear that there was something that the executive 
 particularly did //c*/ want to have come up, that would have a fair chance 
 too ; whereas, now, it has no chance at all. Doubtless, such cases are not 
 frequent ; but when they do occur they are sometimes the very cases which 
 it most behooves the Board to have upon its docket. 
 
 There seems no good reason to fear that the annual meeting thus organ- 
 ized for the transaction of business would be less really impressive than the 
 meetings directly contrived for popular impression. It does not appear, as 
 a general rule, that people are the most impressive when they are most con- 
 scious of trying to make an impression. And in the history of the American 
 Board it does not appear that the great debates, like that at Brooklyn, on 
 the relation of missions to slavery ; at Utica, on the mission schools ; and 
 at Hartford, on the Indian missions ; were less interesting to those whose 
 interest is of most account than the finest modern programme, made up of 
 special papers and set speeches by distinguished orators, with the business 
 tucked out of sight into the odd half hours. In fact, the papers and the 
 speeches need not be omitted. Without trenching on the time needed by 
 the Board for business, there is room for them and need of them in the re- 
 maining time, and in the crowded " overflow meetings." Here the " In- 
 formation Bureau," proposed by Dr. Todd, would have ample scope, and 
 maps and magic lanterns would come, if necessary, to the re-enforcement, 
 of the living pastor or missionary. But the best instruction and the highest 
 
42 
 
 inspiration of interest would commonly be found, after all, for the best 
 minds, in the business meetings. 
 
 Is it not safe to restore the business meetings of the Board ? 
 
 Is it safe not to restore them ? 
 
 Norwich, Conn. 
 
 FROM THE INDEPENDENT, APRIL 26, i88s. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE WESTERN TURKEY MISSION. BY LEONARD WOOLSE^ 
 
 BACON, D. D. 
 
 I never have approached the discussion of any public question with such 
 pain as I feel in view of the present subject. 
 
 Thirty-two years ago, when I traversed the whole breadth of the Turkish 
 empire in Asia, visiting every station of the American Mission then estab- 
 lished, it was the fairest and most fruitful field in all the vineyard of the Lord.. 
 In the lands of the patriarchs and the apostles and martyrs were renewed 
 the triumphs and'the graces of the apostolic churches, and the sowers and 
 the reapers were rejoicing together. How warm the mutual love that pre- 
 vailed everywhere, between the missionaries and their multiplying flocks ! 
 What mutual confidence ! What hopes of progress, which, nevertheless, 
 were overtaken year after year by the beautiful reality ! 
 
 How is it now ? We do not fully know. It does not seem that we have 
 been frankly dealt with by the agents whom year by year we have put in 
 charge with our work, with instructions each year to report to us the con- 
 dition of their trust. But we begin to find out that for these many years 
 the great and hopeful work, in some most important parts of the field, has- 
 been brought to a standstill; that the mutual love and confidence between* 
 the missionaries and the Mission churches has been changed into a relation' 
 of mutual distrust; that in the very metropolis of Turkey there has been 
 exhibited a miserable scandal — the missionaries going to law against their 
 own converts before an unbelieving Turk, for the possession of a paltry 
 bit of real estate; that the building of churches at that great centre has- 
 been inexplicably hindered, even when funds have been provided by indi- 
 vidual enterprise and self-denial; and finally, that young men of unim- 
 peached standing in the churches of the Mission, coming to this country 
 on their own responsibility, and in the exercise of their unquestionable 
 rights, to seek the highest education, have been pursued by missionaries- 
 with detractions and efforts to defeat them in their undertaking. And this 
 course, involving not only detraction but dissimulation toward the young 
 men, has been countenanced at the Mission-House in Boston. The situa- 
 tion may be summed up in the sorrowful declaration of Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, 
 that the work of forty years is in danger of being lost. 
 
 The distress of mind with which I recount these facts before the public 
 is not relieved by the thought how easily the necessity of this discussion 
 might have been avoided by a different course on the part of the Board's- 
 executive. If only they could have apprehended that their business was 
 only to manage the missions, and not also to manage the Board, but rather 
 let the Board manage them; if, instead of turning the business meeting to 
 which they should render full account and look for their instructions, into- 
 a four days' prayer-meeting and praise-service varied with a pious auction 
 for raising gifts with the sounding of a trumpet, they had simply rendered 
 their account without reserve and stepped aside to give the Board the ful- 
 lest opportunity to examine, discuss, decide, with whatever additional light 
 they could get, from whatever quarter; then the discussion might have 
 been confined to its proper forum and the administration would have been 
 relieved of grievous responsibility for a sorrowful failure. 
 
43 
 
 Or even so lately as last October the necessity of this discussion might 
 have been saved by the appointment of a suitable committee of inquiry. 
 But the pernicious usage of letting the executive control the appointment 
 of the committees that are to inquire into their administration has borne 
 fruit after its kind. In the Committee on the Western Turkey Mission at 
 Portland was one member distinguished among the rest as the strongest 
 partisan of the secretaries and the missionaries in the questions between 
 them and the Mission churches and members of the Protestant community 
 — the one having the least patience with any complaint, the least sense of 
 any need of inquiry — the one who attempted to extract from all his col- 
 leagues a promise of silence in the meeting when the report should be 
 presented. I refer to the Rev. Dr. Laurie, of Providence. The Committee 
 ad i)iterim \% made up of Dr. Laurie and six impartial gentlemen. Dr. 
 Laurie, by reason of a brief experience as a missionary in his early youth, 
 can speak with a modicum of authority ; the other gentlemen have no 
 special acquaintance with the subject. I need not say that the conduct of 
 the inquiry is in the hands of Dr. Laurie, and that the facts which will 
 come before the Committee will be such as he shall have collected and 
 digested. Lhidoubtedly Dr. Laurie will intend to do justice in the case. 
 But he is perfectly positive what is justice in the case before the inquiry 
 begins. Conspicuously, in the Portland Committee, and in marked contrast 
 with the judicial temper, the ample knowledge and the penetratiug insight 
 of Dr. Hamlin, he held that the complaints presented by Mr. Minasian in 
 behalf of his fellow-countrymen were worthy of the very scantiest consider- 
 ation or even courtesy. The vindication of the course of the executive 
 and ot the missionaries by the report of a properly consti- 
 tuted committee would have been generally accepted as conclud- 
 ing the question. Such a vindication, at the hands of the Committee 
 as now organized, will not be so accepted by righteous men, who are 
 resolved that the cry of their aggrieved brethren, lifted up over three 
 thousand miles of ocean, in broken English or in a foreign tongue, and 
 coming to our ears, at last, in spite of powerful influences to stifle and sup- 
 press it, shall have a full, patient, kindly and impartial hearing. The sec- 
 retaries were mistaken if they thought that this way of making up a com- 
 mittee of inquiry was a short cut to piece and quietness. 
 
 In the few lines of space that remain to me I can speak of only one of 
 the many points of difficulty between the missionaries and the Armenian 
 Protestants, and on that point I must be brief. I will speak of the Arme- 
 nians coming to this country to complete their education. 
 
 The missionaries do not like to have young men go from their churches 
 to America or England for a higher education ; and they have a right to 
 entertain that preference. They do not think it wise; and they have a 
 right to their opinion. They give no aid nor encouragement to such enter- 
 prises, and no one can justly demand that they should give it. Some of 
 them have taken pains to write to people in this country, dissuading them 
 from aiding Armenian students — a more dubious right. In some cases, 
 letters of personal detraction have been written concerning these young 
 Christians in a strange land, privately impugning their character in such a 
 way that they could confront neither the accuser nor the charge. And this 
 is, I was going to say wicked, but it is worse — it is mean. And in one 
 instance a missionary has allowed his zeal for hindering these young men 
 in their quest for education so far to run away with his discretion and his 
 conscience as to involve them, together with the whole communion of the 
 Mission churches, in one sweeping charge of habitual mendacity. And 
 
44 
 
 this is not only shameful but suicidal. If this is the fruit of forty years 
 missionary labor, we might have saved our money for a better use ; we had 
 better recall the mission and abandon the field. But what, even then,, 
 should we do with our thirty years' boasting of the graces of sincerity and 
 truth that adorn our converts, making the name of Protestant the synonym 
 of integrity wherever a Mission church is found ? But this accusation of 
 the brethren is unjust; and the author of it owes it to his own character, 
 as well as to the outraged feelings of an insulted people, to make apology. 
 
 But whether they have a right or not to attempt to hinder Armenian 
 young men from coming to America for education, there can be no doubt 
 that this is most fatuous folly. Here have these excellent men for forty 
 years been deepening the impression in the Armenian mind that x\merica 
 is an overflowing fountain of power and beneficence, of civilization, of 
 Christian learning and piety. They have trained up a generation of ear- 
 nest young men in their high-schools to desire knowledge and the power 
 of doing good, more than gold ; and have done all this within easy walk of 
 a score of seaports ; and now they think that by saying No, they can pre- 
 vent these young men from seeking an American education. Expedient or 
 inexpedient, this current to and fro has got to fiow, and the missionaries 
 might much better be occupied in wisely and kindly directing it than in a 
 futile attempt to resist it. It has got to flow, and as the return current 
 begins to be felt, the missionaries must make up their minds, however 
 reluctantly, to lose that prestige of being the sole depositaries of Western 
 learning which has given them a more than prelatic influence over the Prot- 
 estant Armenian churches, and must have faith to witness the unquestionable 
 dangers incident to the transfer of direction and control to the hands of 
 their own disciples. 
 
 But while there comes an unwise demand from the missionaries, on the 
 one hand, abetted by the Mission-House at Boston, a like unreasonable 
 demand is heard, on the other hand, that young Armenians of approved 
 character, thoroughly equipped by an American education, in all respects 
 the peers, and in some respects the superiors, of American candidates for 
 the mission work, shall be ordained and sent out as missionaries. To con- 
 sent to this demand is to establish a permanent prelatical order among the 
 Armenians, such as neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. The 
 answer to be made to it is that when the time comes that such a demand 
 can be made the time is already past when new missionaries are needed at 
 all. The mission work is done. Seed time is past. The church and the min- 
 istry are established. What more is wanted is co-operation in another form 
 from America to aid the Armenian Protestants in a more advanced work, 
 which the Mission Board, as its repeated protests of non possuinus declare, 
 is constitutionally disqualified from undertaking. 
 
 Norwich, Conn. 
 
45 
 FROM THE VERMONT CHRQ-^CLE, AUGUST 31, 1883. 
 
 MISSIONARIES AND N-A'Jri'VE CONVERTS. 
 
 The Missionary Revie-iv of September, writing of the "American Board's 
 Deputation and PoHcy in Turkey," as to which it thinks there is room for 
 criticism, takes issue with some points presented in Mr. Dwight's letter, 
 which appeared in our columns July 20th. There is certainly sufficient 
 reason in what the Missionary Review has to say to entitle its words to re- 
 spectful consideration. They are as follows : " We have no time or space 
 here to answer Brother Dwight's letter of June 9th, to the Vermont Chronicle, 
 but must suggest a thought on one or two points, (i) Brother Dwight says: 
 ' Missionaries do not become pastors of churches, because they can render 
 all aid, when asked, without such connection, and because such connection 
 would tend to make the churches foreign to the soil' Foreign to the soil ! 
 Fifty-four ordained tnissionaries, by being members of the ecclesiastical unions, 
 would make one hundred and thirteen native churches, with six hundred and 
 thirty-eight native preachers, teachers and helpers, and seven thousand seven hun- 
 dred and thirty-one members, yo'R.^iq,^ TO THE soil! will Brother Dwight 
 hold up that idea and look at it a moment? The presence of these mission- 
 aries there, and their absolute control of theArmenian pastors and churches by 
 means of the $245,000 annual expenditure, does not make them_/(>'/r/>//. But if 
 the missionaries should become members of their church courts, all these 
 thousands of Armenians would h&com.& foreign to the soil ! Really, brother, 
 is not this a little too childish ? Brothers Riggs and Williamson are mem- 
 bers of the Dakota Presbytery. Has thif made the Dakota Indians 
 ^'foreign to the soil "i " Dr. Wilson, Dr. Murray Mitchell and other Scotch 
 missionaries in India became co-presbyters with Rev. Nara\an Sheshadri 
 and other converted Hindus. Did this make those Hindu brethren and 
 the native members of their churches /^r^4''''^ ^<^ ^-^^^ -^^^^-^ (2) You expend 
 great force in emphasizing the entire freedom of the Armenian churches 
 from the missionaries. You say : ' The churches of Turkey are entirely 
 independent of any missionary interference.' ' Theynre so free from mis- 
 sionary control that they can change their system of church government 
 to Presbyterian, Congregational or Episcopal, if they choose,' etc. (What 
 is it now, brother ?) Why do they desire to be so free from the brotherly 
 influence of their best Christian friends and teachers ? (if indeed they do, 
 which seems not to be the case). And why do your missionaries desire 
 such a separate relation to them ? Is it that you may have a more effective 
 control over them by means of the money you dispense to them? Would 
 common ecclesiastical relations with them in church courts give them an 
 opportunity to bring you into closer sympathy with them in their peculiar 
 difficulties, and hence an opportunity to influence you to an extent you are 
 not willing to be influenced ? Are you not aware, brother, that this 
 separate church relation between your Armenian brethren, which you so 
 distinctly affirm and reiterate, is the most damaging item in all the charges 
 urged against you and the Armenian Board's officers in this case ? Is it 
 not this standing aloof and above the native churches and pastors that is 
 considered as wholly without authority or precedent in the example and 
 teaching of the apostles, and especially of Him, who, though 
 he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, took upon Him 
 our natures, dwelt among men and became one of us, that he might the 
 better bear our griefs and carry our sorrows ? Do you really take pride 
 in so distinctly and repeatedly affirming that you refuse membership with 
 your native brethren in church courts ? Does not your higher separate 
 
 \ 
 i 
 
46 
 
 position and outside dictato'-chi'.t. give you a vantage ground for the 
 arbitrary control of churches, ^e. savs, teachers and all the work and in- 
 terests of your Armenian brethren, by means of the money you dispense 
 to them, such as you could not gain from common membership in the 
 churches and church courts, exercising your Christian functions and chari- 
 ties, and dispensing the board's money on the New Testament principles 
 of Christian fellowship and brotherhood ? You may think this high outside 
 ruling position more agreeable than to come down into common church 
 membership with them ; but will this more agreeable scheme ever 
 succeed in lifting the 1,000,000,000 heathen and unevangelized from their 
 superstitions and debasement to the high platform of Christian faith and 
 spiritual life ? When Elisha sent his staff to be laid upon the Shunamite's 
 dead child by the hand of Gehazi, it availed not. Elisha had to ' stretch 
 himself upon the child, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands.' 
 Then, and then only, did he succeed in restoring the dead child to life. 
 When the Son of God undertook human. redemption, he attempted it not 
 from the heights of his own separate position, divine and glorious as that 
 position was ; and not by the exercise of mere power, divine and infinite as 
 his power was; but he became a man — 'a man of -sorrows and acquainted with 
 grief,' ' eating with publicans and sinners,'' despised and rejected of men ;' 
 laying aside his divine prerogatives, 'he took upon him the form of a ser- 
 vant, and was made in the likeness of men.' suffering with us and for us 
 that by thus coming down from the heights of God's throne to our state of 
 humiliation and wretchedness, he might lift us into fellowship and union 
 with himself, call us not servants but friends and brethren, and making us 
 joint-heirs with him to all the glory and treasures of heaven ! If we, dear 
 brother, would lift men from sin to holiness as Christ did, must we not 
 follow his example ?" 
 
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 Correspondence and other documents 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00037 6097