Constantinople by E. Frauchiger

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 29, 1912

Constantinople

By E. Frauchiger

E. FRAUCHIGER

THIS winter we are working in four different places in Constantinople. Among the Turkish-speaking people in Stambul, Brother V. Pampaian is holding meetings. On the Pera side Brother A. J. Girou is giving a series of special lectures to the French-speaking people. In our own church hall I am speaking to the German and the French people, while to the Greeks Brother Girou and I speak alternately by translator. The meetings have been well attended. At present we have snow about one foot deep.

Since introducing systematic canvassing, we have sold twenty thousand piasters' worth of literature in the city of Constantinople. Our canvassers have been arrested week after week for knocking at the doors. It is an entirely unknown custom in the Orient to enter the house of a stranger for the purpose of selling anything. Only the overcoming faith of our canvassers makes them able to endure all the hardships of being beaten and put in prison. They know that this message must be carried to every one.

The accompanying picture shows the progress of our school. We have at present fourteen in attendance. They come from Konia, Smyrna, Brusa, Kaiseri, Adana, Magnesia, Nicomedia, and one even from Bagdad, in Mesopotamia. We have to teach in three languages,—Turkish, Armenian, and Greek. By educating the youth, we hope to get some good help to work among the natives in a more direct way in the future.

We expect this year to be a year of progress. I believe the tithe will increase to nearly ten thousand piasters. In the last nine months of last year we received in tithes as much as for the whole of the previous year. While figures

are dead, they show the spiritual life of hearts in the message. Our members are scattered from the coast of the Adriatic Sea almost to Mt. Ararat, to Nineveh and Bagdad in the east, the Sudan in the south, and Adrianople in the north.

The new constitution has brought some sadness to our hearts on account of the military question. Many young men leave the country for Egypt or America for fear of the military service.

Things look really very serious and dark for the future of Turkey. The parliament has been dismissed, and the patrols are going through the streets.

Many thousands of Turkey's young men are in the military camps to-day.

It is feared that revolution may break out at any time. Confidence in the management of the city is lacking. The city remains under war rules. There is a great deal of animosity among the Moslems, as they see that the Christians are taking Turkey piece by piece and putting it under Christian rule.

Our prayer is that the Lord may hold the winds until we are able to finish the work, that soon all nations may be united under one King. Pray for the work in Turkey.