Awakening Among Women in Turkey
Rev. Dr. G. I. Bliss gives the following account of the commencement of the wonderful awakening that still continues among the women of Eastern Turkey: During the cold, bleak month of March, 1882, a number of Armenian women were noticed going day after day up the valley into the mountains. One day the pastor of the church made it convenient to be at the roadside as they passed, and asked them where they were going. They replied, "We are forty women who have formed ourselves into a society to study the Bible, and we go up here to a secluded place to talk and pray over it." The work increased until the priests were obliged to favor it. They, therefore, invited the women to meet in a room connected with one of the churches. That soon became full to overflowing, and the church itself was opened to the women and a man appointed to read and explain to them the Scriptures. Hundreds of women assembled, the church was filled, and the windows thrown open to admit the light, a very unusual occurrence, as the Armenian churches are not light enough to read in. The good work has gone on from that time to this, missionaries and Bible-readers being often stopped in the streets by requests to read, then and there, the precious word of God.