In the Land of the Crescent
The latest news from our Turkish superintendent at Constantinople tells us that while other professed Christians are stirred up against our work and doing all in their power to turn the authorities against us, and while the authorities of course are always suspicious, yet the Lord has overruled all things for good. One of our native brethren has been selling with success a little tract on “Who Is Jesus?” written in Arabic and dedicated to Moslems; but the authorities were set on his track and the Ministerial Department notified. The Ministerial Department referred the question to the Minister of the Interior, he to the Minister of Justice, and he to the Director of the Punishing Department; consequently our brother was brought before this last. The Minister of the Police claimed that the International Tract Society represented by our brother was not Christian, and he was told to read the tract. Just then a Moslem teacher who was standing beside him testified that he had read it and found it wholly in harmony with the Bible. This affected favorably the mind of the official, and he assured us that we should not be hindered if he found it was in harmony with the Bible. He read it and decided it to be Christian. Then he wrote a favorable reply to the Minister of the Interior, who in turn wrote the same to the Minister of Police, and at last the command was delivered to the Director of the Police in order to have it generalized and to reach all the police stations of Constantinople. And this is the sum of the commandment: “Tho the nature of the Seventh-day Adventist religion has not yet been verified by the government, the tract entitled ‘Who is Jesus?’ has been investigated and found to be in harmony with the four Gospels; therefore let Dirkran be unmolested in selling it.” Thank God for this. So the lands are opening all over the great world, and the appeal is always to the workers in the home land for men and means.