ASIATIC TURKEY | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 10, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 57.

ASIATIC TURKEY.

THE recent outrages perpetrated upon the nominally Christian people of Armenia, by the Moslem minions of the Turkish Government, with the connivance and in some instances by the orders of both civil and military officials, renders mission work in that country a matter of peculiar interest. The principal Protestant work done in that country is through the instrumentality of the American Board of Foreign Missions. From the “Annual Survey” of the work, published in the Missionary Herald of November, we cull the following extracts:—

“In no part of the fields occupied by the board are the contrasted lights and shades of missionary labor more marked than in the Turkish Empire. . . . In all these fields the mission staff is diminished in numbers and weakened in strength to an unusual degree, and the scantiness of the resources at the command of the board has added a peculiar embarrassment. The exactions of the government, the presence of famine in parts of these fields, and outbreaks of lawlessness at many a point, have still further added to the trials and anxieties of the year. As if these were not enough, the Turkish Government seems to be controlled by the steadfast purpose to restrict the evangelical movement, and fetter the freedom of foreign missionaries and native laborers, and to make difficult, if not impossible, the regular prosecution of missionary labor. It is no small proof of the inherent strength of the forces that work with the Christian faith, and of the gracious hand of God over all, that, in spite of these manifold embarrassments within and discouragements without, the work as a whole has not only not gone backward but has made gains in almost every field and in well-nigh every form of missionary effort.

“The attendance upon the colleges and higher schools, both for young men and young women, is more than twenty per cent. in excess of that of last year, and the native contributions for all purposes are twenty-five per cent. in advance of what was reported a year ago. In some places where the pecuniary aid from the board was reduced, or even wholly withdrawn, the native community has addressed itself with good courage to the added responsibility, and has, out of its own slender resources, maintained the work at quite its former volume, and in some places with increased efficiency.

“Woman’s work, which in these missions forms a more considerable part of the whole work than perhaps in any other field occupied by the board, is in equal measure effective and successful. From the colleges for girls at Constantinople, Harpoot, and Marash, down through boarding schools and common schools to the kindergartens, we have substantially one uniform report of prosperity and growth.

“The diminishing missionary force at some points is becoming a matter demanding serious attention. While it is wise to devolve additional responsibility upon the native agency as that agency increases in number and capacity, there is obviously a limit to the diminution of the foreign force which can wisely be permitted, and that limit in these fields seems to have been reached.”