Constantinople, Turkey
By E. R. P.
While pressing on with the good work in our respective fields, it is certainly most uplifting and cheering to us all as workers and burden-bearers to hear of some ‘one else in a distant part of the world engaged in the same kind of work, carrying similar burdens, fighting similar battles, and winning victories over trials and difficulties by the same means that enable each of us to conquer. The following extract from a letter recently received from Brother Voigt, of Constantinople, Turkey, was read by us with more than usual interest:— “As you know, we have opened here, in harmony with a resolution passed at the last General Conference, a branch of the Hamburg Publishing House. I have been here since the middle of October20to look after the work. We have a stock of tracts, and I send you by this post, as printed matter, three copies of each as samples. As you see, we print in Greek, Armenian, Turkish-Armenian, Turkish-Greek, and Turkish. It is also planned to print in Armenian-Turkish. “Thus we are adding two or three languages to those already reported in the last missionary number of the REVIEW. It was resolved at the last session of the Turkish committee to print also some new tracts in Greek and in Turkish, also to print ‘Steps to Christ’ in Armenian, and then ‘His Glorious Appearing’ in Greek. The whole work will be done here in the Levant, for we have found good printers. “Regarding Arabic publications, I am in correspondence with the brethren in Palestine about their stock, and their plans for the future. I will inform you about the publishing work for the Arabs as soon as I have an answer. We began at once with the regular canvassing work as nearly as we understood it—a new thing for this country—as new as the Bible lectures and Bible work, as we do it. Now we have two canvassers working for the Armenians and Turks. Both also take literature in the Greek with them. A third, a real Greek, is ready to begin the canvassing work. Our canvassers are doing well, and are able to make their living by their work, even in this piaster country (one piaster equals four cents).” Doesn’t it seem good to read in a report like this of literature being prepared for Greeks, Armenians, Turks, and Arabs in such places as Constantinople and Palestine? It is a surprise, also, and fills our hearts with joy, to learn that canvassers can make their living even in those countries. With such successes in the self-supporting colporteur work in Mexico, Porto Rico, the Philippines, South America, the West Indies, and in the Orient, our hearts bound forward with bright hope in the possibilities before us in the circulation of our literature. Above all other needs, the cause of God demands consecrated young men as pioneers in these fields. E. R. P.