My purpose is twofold: first to show the American people the kind of work in which the missionaries in Turkey are engaged, and second to assure them from personal observation that these missionaries do not encourage revolutionists or the revolutionary spirit. I am surer of nothing than I am of this. If you could see them at their somewhat thankless tasks you would regard them as the most consecrated men and women on the planet, as far removed from fostering rebellion as heaven is from earth, making the sacrifice of life and of all social and even domestic relations, and doing it with a cheerfulness which must command not only our respect but also our admiration.

The price to be paid for the enlightenment of the nation is very heavy, but these noble men and saintly women are willing to pay it, and I, for one, feel that my poor life amounts to nothing in comparison; so with a full heart, a heart with a big ache in it, I cry, “God bless them!”

The missionaries are the Sir Knights of modern times, their weapons are no longer swords, but ideas. They are to be found in all quarters of the globe, and they are always surrounded by ambushed perils. They are the representatives of a high civilization and of the best religious thought of the age, and are the little “leaven” which in good time is to “leaven the whole lump.” I do not hesitate to say that they are doing more for the Turkey of to-day than all the European Powers combined.

—George H. Hepworth
in “Through Armenia on Horseback.”

[Pg 213]

At the beginning of work in Turkey all classes were suspicious of the missionaries. Experience with the representatives of the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches had led the Mohammedans and others to fear that their errand was not wholly religious. At the same time, it was impossible for one brought up in the atmosphere of Turkey not to confound religion with nationality. The American missionaries had one great advantage, for few even of the educated in Turkey ever heard of the United States. So there was not much alarm at the prospects of missionaries from the United States gaining political supremacy in Turkey. So far as the Turks understood, the country back of them was without strength or repute. This fact allayed the otherwise inevitable suspicion that they were political agents.

It required more than fifty years of residence in that country, accompanied by a life of constant devotion to the interests of the people, to remove the impression that the missionaries were there for what they could make out of it. The following conversation, which actually took place, illustrates fairly well the attitude of inquiry and doubt. The parties to it were a missionary and an intelligent Armenian in the interior of the country:

“You must receive a pretty large salary to lead you to leave your home and friends in America and endure here among us the hardships of this country.”

“Quite the contrary,” replied the missionary; “I receive what all American missionaries receive and no more, that is my bare living with no surplus.” [Pg 214]

“Then,” the Armenian quickly replied, “you must expect, after you have learned the language, to receive some government appointment at a large salary.”

The missionary answered, “Few missionaries have ever given up missionary work for a government appointment, and I have never seen one who would consider such an appointment, or who would remain in the country at all for diplomatic or consular service.”

“There can be little doubt, then,” said the questioner, “that in your country the missionary is held in high honor by all the people, so much so that it is worth all it costs to win it by a period of severe hardship in a land like this.”

“You are wrong again, my friend,” said the missionary, “for most of the people in the United States think a missionary is a fool to throw his life away in a strange and hostile land; and, besides, the missionaries enter upon the work for life; therefore they have no time left to go home and enjoy the honors that an admiring people might wish to thrust upon them.”

“What are you out here for, anyway?” asked the discouraged guesser.

“We missionaries have come out here only to help the people of this country to establish worthy Christian institutions and to become better men and women.”

“Surely there is some other reason,” said the man as he walked away. “Who would ever bring upon himself such hardship and trouble for that?”

The true Christian motive that considers others’ needs ahead of self-interest was little understood, and it required generations of missionary labors to bring the people to begin to understand it. [Pg 215]

Times of great national distress like war, massacres, famine, and plague, had given the missionaries unusual opportunity to prove to the people that they were there, not for their own personal comfort but to bind up the broken heart and give cheer to the downcast and the dying. Every added missionary grave, and they dot the country from Arabia to the Black Sea and from Persia to Salonica, was an added argument which no Oriental could answer, that the missionaries were there to minister and not to be ministered unto, and to give even their lives for others.

Through many vicissitudes and misunderstandings and misconceptions the missionaries have quietly continued their labors until, without doubt, it would be hard to find an intelligent man of any race or creed in the empire who does not believe them to be earnest, sincere, altruistic in their life and work. All classes have learned that in times of trouble the missionary is their best friend, no matter how much they may have abused him in times of prosperity. They know that he will always do what he believes to be for their best good, even though there may be a difference of judgment as to what is the best good.

In the midst of Oriental duplicity, the missionaries have established the reputation for speaking the truth. At first this was one of the severest puzzles to the Turks in the dealings of the missionaries with the government. They could conceive of no reason for telling the truth under such circumstances, so they were completely misled. The missionaries applied to the government, in an interior city, for permission to erect a schoolhouse. All school buildings were at that time opposed by the Turkish officials. The governor asked, “For what is the building to be used?” “A school,” replied the missionary. “What are [Pg 216] you going to keep in it?” asked the governor. “Scholars and teachers,” was the repl............