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THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES

AirD THE

ARMENIAN PROTESTANT

COMMUNITY.

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PRINCETON, N.J.

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BV 3190 .A53

The American missionaries
and the Armenian Protestan

* APR 3 1911

AN APPEAL

AGAINST THE POLICY OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES AMONG THE
ARMENIAN CHRISTIANS.

Bead at a Special Meeting held in the City of New York, United
States of America^ in 1867.

In presenting to this honoured assembly a condensed account of
the existing differences between your Missionaries and the Armenian
Protestant Churches, I fear that some of my hearers will not hesitate
to think that we— the Armenian Protestants— after having received
incalculable blessings from the American Christians through their
missionaries, instead of expressing gratitude are demonstrating an un-
christian spirit and evincing ingratitude and dissatisfaction. I beg,
therefore, to say that such feelings do not exist either in the hearts of
my brethren or myself ; and I can assure this assembly that we have
always considered the Christians of this country, as well as their
missionaries, our most respected benefactors. Feehng that their desire
is to spread the light of the truth in dark countries in a way they think
best, we — as far as it concerns us — think it our bouuden duty to point
out to them their mistakes in policy and operation, that the light may
be spread more and more, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of
the glory of the Lord. We feel that we are in a condition to do this
because of our better acquaintance with the peculiarities of the people,
and our knowledge of the manner in which the policy of the missionaries
is affecting them.

You have, Rev. Gentlemen, before you a person to deal with who
will be very glad to receive your advice ; if he is mistaken in one or in
all points, nothing will give him more delight and pleasure than to be
corrected ; and, when he returns to his country, it will give him great
satisfaction to communicate to his brethren the opinion formed by this
assembly, after a careful investigation of the points under question. I
firmly beheve that the result of this would be a reconciliation of all
parties.

I wish it to be understood plainly that, as far as T am concerned, I
have not any personal interest in prosecuting this matter. If you give
to my people a better education, after being a father of a few children
there is no probability of my having any share in it. If you increase
the salaries of those employed by your missionaries, it will be no ad-
vantage to me ; I have long ago determined to live and die with my
people. As to treatment, I confess that the missionaries, with few
exceptions, have behaved towards me with kindness and regard before
these questions were raised. Then what induces me to speak ? It is
because I am convinced that if we do not attempt to remedy the exist-
ing evils, there will be danger of a reaction in the work, which will
cause great pain to all who love the kingdom of Christ.

Perhaps some of you will be inclined to ask, are these complaints
general, or in some Churches only ? I have little doubt my friend. Dr.
Wood, will reply : " They are only in Constantinople and its vicinity."
"We all of us are liable to forget things that are past. If he, in his
leisure hours, takes the trouble to look into the Missionary Reports of
the last fifteen years (preserved, I beheve, in the Mission Housej,
perhaps he himself will be surprised to find complaints, here and there,
now and then. If he carefully examines all these, he will discover that
there have been complaints in nearly all the stations where the mission-
aries reside ; and his surprise will be still greater when he finds that
these grievances are almost all marked by their peculiarities ; these
were stopped either by dismissing the complainants, or, for their high
esteem and love to the missionaries, they did not dispute with them
further. The fire, however, is under the ashes. I had the opportunity
of seeing many of the pastors, preachers, and members of different
Churches ; nearly all of them have some complaints, only they are
unable to trace them to fundamental principles. And what is most
remarkable is, that the most intelligent among them have the most
complaints. But suppose these are few ; are we to look at the cause
and nature of the complaints, or at the number of the complainants ?
If we find that they have reason for dissatisfaction, shall we say,
because the great mass of the people are ignorant, we need not, there-
fore, remove the cause ? If there is a leak in a boat, and only a little
water flows in through it, shall we say it is of no consequence, this
small quantity of water cannot endanger the safety of the boat ? Does
the danger lie in the quantity of water, or in that small leak by which
the water flows in ? Is it not the wisest way to take every measure, as
soon as possible, to stop the leak which threatens the safety of the
boat ? A few years ago they used to say, " Only Pastor Simon Utijian
and his Church are dissatisfied with missionary policy;" after a short
time the Church at Haskeuy,then the Churches at Constantinople. Find-

ing the numbers of dissatisfied Churches were increasing, the missionaries
began, for the comfort of the Christians in America (perhaps their own
also) to use the collective term, " Constantinople and its vicinity,"
instead of enumerating the churches. Who can understand how many
Churches they mean in these collective words ? Perhaps more than ten
Churches.

Suppose we find that these Churches have some ground for dissatis-
faction; will you leave them in this condition simply because the policy
of the Mission is such as it is? Ah ! policy is a good thing when it is
adapted for a desired end ; but after all policy is not gospel ; it is
framed by a few short-sighted human beings. They may make a
mistake, and, indeed, a great many mistakes. It is, therefore, our
duty to give due attention to those who complain, and either to satisfy
their demands or to convince them of their errors.

The Christians in this country have spared neither money nor men
to plant these churches. Now I ask you, my Christian brethren, to
spare a few hours or days to find out a remedy for these difficulties.

I shall now proceed to state, briefly, the principal points of com-
plaints, at the same time submitting them to your consideration.

First, the Church organization. When the missionaries found them-
selves under the necessity of organizing the first Churches, I have no
doubt that they then did whatever they thought best, sincerely and
prayerfully ; but they must have known that this arrangement could
only be temporary. Now, the circumstances are changed ; there are
numerous Churches with their own pastors, and many congregations
which will soon be formed into Churches. It is evident — at least,
from the Protestant point of view — that the Church herself is endowed
with the right to choose the form of her organization. The present
condition of our Churches, in consequence of their organization, is
such that they are entirely disconnected, and have no sympathy with
each other ; they are longing after such an organization as shall
contain unity among all individual Churches in profession, practice,
and discipline, without destroying the rights of each individual con-
gregation. Any organization which does not contain this simple
element will prove, not only a failure, but will offend those to whom
we intend to preach the Gospel. All those who are acquainted with
Church history are aware that an organization which is pecuHar to the
Occidental mind cannot be adapted to the Oriental mind. What is
the cause that the Roman Catholic Church, which has become the
dominant Church in the West, has not succeeded in spreading itself in
the East ? The Oriental mind has always an inclination on the side
of a form of religion which contains in it some elements which unite
the whole race together. The Roman Catholic missionaries, having

A 2

learned this great lesson, have given permission to their converts to
have their choice. By this wise toleration, they have gained, and are
gaining, a great many converts.

I cannot see what advantage is to be gained from keeping our
Churches in their present isolated condition, the unavoidable conse-
quence of which must be alienation from one another. We have
Congregationalist and Presbyterian missionaries, some of whom are
very extreme in their views, and impart their notions to the Churches
under their care. Some missionaries advocate re-baptism, while the
others condemn it. Churches under the former re-baptize, while the
Churches under the latter condemn, and sometimes even go so far as to
threaten to have no communion with them. Another branch sprino-s
out and says, " You have no authority in your Church ; we prefer the
Episcopalian form." A missionary preaches, it is said, dangerous
doctrines in regard to the Holy Trinity and atonement; Churches
under his care are leavened with his doctrines. All these things are
done on the responsibility of the missionaries themselves ; the Church
has not a legitimate voice at all in these matters, only it is passive,
subject to their views. If doctrinal and denominational differences are
a part of missionary work, and desirable too, it will come to pass very
soon ; but for the present, while the Protestants in our country are so
limited in number, is it wise to keep them in this isolated condition ?
And besides, must we not consider the form of the Government under
which they have to exist, and what denominational system will be most
effective ?

The only way to secure this end is to have a general conference of
the Churches there to confer together (having the missionaries also
with them) on this subject ; if possible, to consult previously with emi-
nent and experienced ministers both in America and Europe, to act
prayerfully and carefully, keeping before them the sublimity of the task,
remembering that they are laying a foundation on the firmness of which
depends, in one sense, the temporal and eternal welfare of present and
future generations. But the missionaries object to this plan by saying,
" You have no railroads, and the Churches are distant from each other."
Is there any hope of having railroads next year ? They say, moreover,
" How can so many persons come together?" If we cannot come now,
we shall not come at all, for the number of Churches increases every
year. Then they say " You must first have local unions, then the
general one." We want the general one in order to form an organiza-
tion by the general consent of the Church ; but if we organize the local
unions, that will at once be a form. Besides, we have already the local
unions. Then they say, " You must continue some time in this state
until you have learned how to manage affairs like this." If we are able

to manage the local unions, why not a general one ? After all, they
say, " It is very expensive." If the matter is important for the safety
of the Church, let us not spare the expense. If the Board is not able
to pay, let us ask the other Christians to help us in this great work.
In reply to this they say, " No, we cannot advise you to do this." The
meaning of all this is very clear — that is to say, they wish us to remain
in our present position.

Before quitting this portion of my subject, let me mention that it
is neither desirable to give to our Churches a denominational name (as
we have already adopted the name of " Evangehcal Armenians"), nor
to mould them into the exact form of one of your Churches here. The
most important element is their union, and if you name them here Con-
gregatioualists or Presbyterians, Methodists or Episcopalians, we shall
not care at all.

Secondly, the relation of the missionaries with our Churches. The
assertion of the missionaries that •' they have not any relation with us,"
is altogether absurd. They are working in our Churches and through
our Churches. We are their co-operators in that happy work. It is
evident from the state of the case that they have relation with us. The
only difficulty is to define the exact limit of that relation. In conse-
quence of this the missionaries exercise unlimited control over our
Churches.

The missionaries are the authorized agents of the Board. The
funds are entrusted to them^ and they are responsible for them. In
order to aid in the support of our Churches and schools, they give from
this money to our pastors, preachers, &c. Hence their right is un-
questionable to have a voice in those matters. On the other hand, we
have Churches regular in all respects, only they are not able to support
themselves entirely. We think that these Churches also have rights —
rights which have their origin in Heaven — sacred rights.

Y\^hen a missionary is labouring in a new field he has a perfect right
to employ or dismiss his catechists, preachers, &c. ; but when he
organizes a Church, that Church at once assumes a new position ; he
gives her rights that she had not before, and he ought to acknowledge
them. He must either not organize a Church, or, if he does so, he
must acknowledge her position.

It is said that the policy of Home Missions is similar to that of
Foreign Missions. I am not acquamted with the operations of the
former, but one thing is very clear to me. The relation of the home
missionaries with their Churches is very different to that of the foreign
missionaries with their Churches. The Mission Church at home is
immediately under the Church who supports her. The members of the
Mission Church are, in one sense, the members of the Church that cares

for them. It is the Church that labours in Mission Churches, and con-
sequently she has the right to admit members and keep them in the
Mission Churches, which are branches of the mother Church, the mis-
sionaries acting as mediums between them. But the foreign mis-
sionaries are not, in the full sense of the word, the agents of the
Church, but of a society. The society, as a society, has no right to
admit members. If a missionary ever acts in this direction, he cannot
act as an agent of a society, but in virtue of his ministerial capacity ;
consequently he cannot admit members into another Church, but can
only organize an independent Church. As soon as he organizes a
Church, this new Church stands on the same level as others. Whether
she supports herself or not, it is morally out of the power of a mis-
sionary to keep her down. Here is the weak point of a Missionary
Society. Perhaps that was the reason that our Lord gave the com-
mission of evangelization to the Church herself, and not to any society.

In connexion with this I will mention the necessity of a Christian
tribunal between the missionaries and ourselves. The missionaries are
not subject to any court, they are neither the members of our Church,
nor have they any ecclesiastical connexion with us. Neither you nor
they think that they are infalhble ; the Pope only has such a claim — for-
tunately under dispute. It very frequently happens that difficulties arise
between the missionaries and the Church members, pastors, preachers,
and Churches. In such cases the missionary is a party in the quarrel ;
at the same time he is the judge, and that without jury. He dismisses
the pastors, excommunicates the Church members, nullifies the acts of
the Church councils, deprives a regular Church of many years' standmg
of all her rights, and pronounces her to be void of all her capacities as
a Church. This the missionaries do without being responsible to
any one. It is impossible to get the missionaries to hear an appeal
against another one. If you bring even a serious charge against one
of them, their answer uniformly is, "You are not good men ; of course
he had good reason for acting as he did." The only way of reconcilia-
tion with a missionary is unconditional surrender, and once a person is
pronounced by any missionary as a bad man he is regarded in that
light by all the other missionaries.

In justice to the missionaries I must here remark that most of these
difficulties belong rather to their policy than to personal matters. The
private life of many of them is considered by us to be a Christian life,
but, notwithstanding, they are liable to mistakes and to sin.

The third point of difference is the question of education.

Missionary work has two objects before it : the first and the greatest
is the salvation of souls, and the second the civilization of the world.
While all of us agree that the principal means by which these ends are

to be gained is the simple preaching of the Gospel, yet none of us doubt
that this must be accomphshed through educated and prudent
Christians. That is the reason why you send out educated missionaries.
Some may object to this by saying, "Were the Apostles educated?"
To this I reply, No. But God in his infinite mercy deemed it necessary
to send to his Church, in her infancy, one thoroughly educated — the
great Apostle Paul ; and who knows how many more ? The Apostles
had advantages which we have not ; they were inspired by the Holy
Ghost to understand the Scriptures and to write the New Testament.
For us education is necessary that we may understand what they have
understood and taught ; besides, the means by which God made known
his truth to the human mind were different then to what they are now.
He used to speak to the senses more than to the intellect ; it was for
this that He bestowed upon the Apostles and the Church at large the
gift of languages and the power of working miracles. But now he
speaks directly to the intellect ; therefore, those who have to convey
God's truth to others must have preparation for it.

The work of a missionary is a temporary one ; he is in the field until
he finds the Church capable to do the work herself, then he leaves that
place for another one. But pastors and preachers are the permanent
officers of the Church ; they have to improve and enlighten the people
under their charge, and raise them as high as the level of Christian
civihzation.

At the commencement of missionary work among our people the
missionaries acknowledged the principle above referred to ; accordingly
they established a better educational system. Just now, when there is
a great demand for educated Christian ministers, they have closed the
Bebek Seminary, under Dr. Hamhn, and established three others
much inferior to that, and graduates from these are settling as pastors
in the new-born Churches. Some of the missionaries declare even that
they " do not desire to have educated pastors," and that " they do not
require more knowledge for the present." In reply, I say we
must keep in our mind the people to whom the missionary etfort is di-
rected ; they are not savages and heathens, but civilized Christian
people, though ignorant and superstitious. Your missionaries are not
going to teach them the fundamental truths of Christianity, for they
know them ; but all they need isl reformation, and this can only be
effected by giving them a better literature and a higher Christian edu-
cation, for all the corruptions of the Armenian Church have been
introduced through the ignorance of the clergy and the force of cir-
cumstances in which she has been placed. Shall we place these
reformed Churches in the same position ? It is true that the present
pastors are more educated than the people under their charge, but

"what is the extent of their knowledge ? It is not uncommon to hear
many of our pastors and preachers preaching, Sabbath after Sabbath,
nothing else but the errors of corrupted Churches. How can a con-
gregation grow in knowledge when they hear nothing but lectures like
this ? I am aware some will say " that after many years' experience Dr.
Hamlin's seminary was not found to answer the purpose for which it
was intended; the students, after receiving a good education and
learning the English language, were not willing to leave Constantinople
and be employed in missionary work, but sought some other employ-
ment by which they might get rich." It is true. But we must take
into consideration all the circumstances connected with it. When the
Bebek Seminary was established there were only a few Protestants in
the capital. Owing to circumstances they were obliged to admit
students without regard to their religious persuasion. Of course none
of the missionaries could expect to employ all those young men in
their work, yet many of them offered themselves to the missionaries,
and they became their right hands in the time of severe persecution,
when missionaries could not raise their little finger. It was these
men who translated books, even the Bible, into modern language, and
became pastors and teachers to preach and teach the truth, while
many of your missionaries were not able to repeat correctly the
alphabet of the language in which they intended to preach the Gospel.
The other students, though they did not directly work with the mission-
aries, nevertheless were not lost to the cause. . Many of them became
ministers and teachers among the Armenians of the ancient Church.
They kindled the light of the truth among their people ; and when
we hear of the great reformation movement in that Church, the ori-
ginators of it are these students mostly.

But in the year 1852 the majority of the students were Protestants,
and from the interior of the country. There were about twenty-eight.
Out of this number twenty-three entered into the work ; some of them
died in it, four of them left, and the remainder are in the work up
to this day. Knowledge does not prevent us from labouring for
Christ ; if we love Him we love also His cause, and we labour for it.

It is said, " Those who have a high education require a higher
salary." This is true. But equally true it is that they can do more
than those who have not the same education. The union which is
generally called " The Kharpoot Union " has a president, a graduate
of Bebek Seminary — a man of a considerable amount of education.
If he dies to-day the union will perish with him. What a deplorable
state of things ! so many Churches to be dependent on the life of one
man. Does not this show us what education can do ?

But the missionaries say, " We educate you now a little ; when you

are able to support educational establishments, then you may do as
much as you like." Ah ! Who will persuade the people to support
education if your missionaries teach our pastors and teachers " that
science is an injurious thing. You must only learn your Bible ; that
is all that you and your children need ?" Many a time have I seen
people, in observing the books in the missionaries' study, say, " One or
two Bibles are quite enough ; what will you do with so many Bibles f
supposing that all those books were Bibles.

Again, the missionaries, as a general rule, do not reach the minds
of our people; though some of them after many years' experience
and toil may succeed. In a great measure they fail from want of
perfect knowledge of the language, customs, and the mode of convey-
ing ideas to them. They come to us with the full blessings of Chris-
tianity. If we have well-educated men, capable of understanding the
language of the missionary, they can act as mediums for transferring
their Christian thought and ideas to our people ; and thus, on the one
hand, your missionaries will become useful from the very commence-
ment of their labours ; on the other hand, our young men will occupy
many important posts in our schools and Churches, and, having the rich
literature of the English language at their disposal, they will be able
to impart its useful contents to our people. There will not be any
need of sending a silent missionary to fill the chair of a professorship
m the so-called Theological Seminary of Marsovan or elsewhere; one
of our number will fill this post without spending years in learning the
language.

Infidelity and Popery are rapidly gaining ground in our country.
The Christian ministers have to contend with them. But how ? With
the Bible ? But many of our pastors do not understand even those
parts of the Bible which are oftentimes attacked by infidels. And at
this day there is not a single Protestant minister amongst us who can
be compared with many learned Armenian Roman Catholic priests.
Either you will have to educate us or to support your missionaries
amongst us for centuries.

But some will say, perhaps, If we educate them they will oppose us,
and discuss our policy. I cannot see any harm in this. It is much
better to have co-operators who are intelligent, and openly express
their opinion, than to have those who can only echo your sentiments.
Why should we exclude persons from the work because they are
educated ? Would you do the same in America ? What would be
public opinion about it ? Would they tolerate it ? I believe not.

It has been said, " It needs longer time and more expense for a
better education." In reply, I must say neither extra time nor expense
are necessary ; all that is needed is willingness to teach. The

course of study at the Bebek Seminary was only four years ; during
this time the students were taught nearly every branch of mathematics, '
natural philosophy, metaphysics, moral science, geography, astronomy,
logic, rhetoric, systematic and practical theology, evidences of Christi-
anity, Church history, besides the English, Greek, Armenian, and some-
times Turkish languages, &c., &c. The principal of that seminary
was thoroughly acquainted with our language, and his first care was to
acquaint the students more or less with his own. He always em-
ployed the best Armenian teachers that could be found. But in Khar-
poot they have none. In Marsovan, although they have one, he is not
well acquainted with his own language. The new missionary, who is
the principal of that seminary, does not yet speak our language ; the
students do not understand his ; what can you expect from such a
school ?

The fourth point is the present economy.

Economy, no doubt, is very important in a work like this ; but if you
injure your work by pushing it too hard, then you will have to pay
for it.

In this great work two different agencies are employed — foreign
missionaries, and brethren from the country itself. These two are equally
essential for the work.

You send the missionaries without being sure they will succeed in
learning the language and accustoming themselves to the climate of the
country ; many times the result is a failure. Of course you do not ex-
pect any benefit from a missionary simply because he is in the field,
but you send him in the hope that he will succeed.

During the last few years, for the sake of economy, your mission-
aries have begun to diminish the small salaries of those in their employ-
ment, saying " they cannot afford to pay so much ; " in the meantime
they send for new missionaries and increase their own salary.

If I am not mistaken, the highest salary that a pastor receives does
not exceed one quarter of that of a missionary (not mentioning those
who get only one-eighth). It is believed generally that a missionary
lives in great self-denial. How can it be that the needs of these two
classes of people are so widely different? Either the missionaries
receive very large salaries, and consequently do not five as the Chris-
tians believe they do, or they starve the pastors by giving them such a
small sum. My opinion inclines to the latter. Some of these pastors and
others, after being in this work for many years, and becoming fathers
of two to seven children, when they find their small salary diminished
they leave the work, if they can obtain some other employment, in
order to support their famihes. If not, they spend their life in distress,
and other valuable young men seeing this shrink from the work. Thus

they damage the cause by expelling from the work superior men and
opening the door for inferior ones. It is true that those who gave them-
selves to the cause of Christ did so without any expectation of getting
rich ; but it was understood, and many times promised, that the mis-
sionaries would support them. If economy is really necessary, it is
I better to keep those who are already working, and not to invite new
missionaries, whose coming and going will cost ten times more to the
society, and who will not be useful before five years, provided every
thing be favourable.

As to the self-supporting doctrine, undoubtedly it is most important
for the existence of our Churches ; but we must push it as far only as
they can bear it — not compel the people to sell their very beds to pay for
the expenses of their Churches, and give a fine opportunity for the
missionaries to publish it in America that the people under their care do
so much for Christ.

The missionaries are not able to decide how much a congregation
can afford to pay for the support of their religious and school ex-
penses, for they are not acquainted with the circumstances of the
people. The Protestants are generally from the poorer classes, and
their numbers are very small. They give already five times more than
they used to give while in their former Church ; they have just suffered a
bitter persecution — they lost all they had, churches, schools, and even
grave-yard ; they are oftentimes taxed heavily on account of embracing
this religion ; besides, being many times out of work, they have to strive for
the daily bread of their poor children with none to sympathize with
them. How can such a people support their Church ? It is not because
they do not wish to do it, but actually they cannot. Instead of
compelling this people to support their pastor, you had better dismiss
one or two of the eight missionaries in Constantinople ; that will not
have a serious consequence. The missionaries say it is not for
economy, but for the Churches that we do so. When they find the
salaries of their pastors small, they venture to take it upon them to
pay it. Are we going to teach the Churches to support their pastors as
beggars ? If we do, can we expect any time that a respectable Christian
man would offer himself to the work of the ministry, except those who
would seek it merely for their daily bread. But they say they must
have self-denial. A^ery good. Do you expect to find more self-denial
there than in this Christian land? Are not the ministers of
this country good examples for us ? Would you blame a minister here,
who, when he finds himself unable to support his family with his salary,
and cannot possibly get it increased, gives up the ministry for
another occupation ?

But the missionaries say that the pastors must live like the middle

class of their people. I accept this, with only a slight modification
they must not live as the middle class of their own people, but like the
middle class of the people at large. Protestants are generally very
l)Oor, but their middle classes are poorer still. I once inquired into
the circumstances of the Protestants of a particular town, when to my
surprise I found that the wealthiest among them were in debt about
£40. One of the Constantinople Churches contains only seven
families belonging to the town, and Mr. Washburn told me that there
were applications to him for help from all the seven. Now what is the
middle class of this community ? Even if the pastors are content to
remain in this condition, what can you expect of them ? They are not
able to get a book or a paper to increase their knowledge, how shall
they be able to instruct and interest the people of their charge ?

As a general rule when the pastors and preachers come together, the
subject of their conversation is their extreme need.

Now the question comes again, Is it not better not to give
them even their present amount of education, then there will be no
need of books, papers, or even ink ? I confess it would make a little
difference, yet I know that all those cheap pastors and preachers, " for
we have them," are also quite as dissatisfied with their means.

If pastors are necessary to a Church, we must give them a reasonable
salary, and we must teach the Churches also to do the same.

This is a brief account of the difficulties between the missionaries
and our Churches.

For my own part I determined long ago to work for Christ and for
my people, at any rate as far as God helps me, and in peace and
harmony with missionaries as far as I am able. I have worked more
than ten years with them, and I have never been the one to quarrel with
them. But for the sake of the general cause it is most desirable to
bring these things to a speedy solution; either correct if there is
any thing to be corrected, or convince the people. The leak must be
stopped at any rate. This disaffection is like a contagious disease — it
will pass very rapidly from one Church to another.

To conclude in one sentence. If you desire to see the work more
prosperous and sure in its progress, help to unite the Churches,
establish a sound and reasonable relation between your missionaries and
your Churches out there on the healthful basis of missionary anc
Church rights, give a good education to promising Christian young
men, employ them in this blessed work (for a short time) with less
stinted means, and yet far more economically than for the support of
a missionary. Then you will see, and that not many years hence, that
the Churches will become self-supporting, not for a short time only, as
is now too often the case, but permanently, and they will assume an

independent and manly spirit and position; and by their moral,
spiritual, and mental light, under the grace of God, they will be able
to enlighten all the dark countries and people among whom they are
living. The glory of the apostoHc age will return where the light of
the pure Gospel has so long been extinguished. The missionary work
will cease, and the efforts of American Christians will be crowned with a
glorious consummation, and the blessings of my redeemed people will
rest on your heads, and on the heads of our venerable missionaries.
All soon pass away ; but the names and memory of American Chris-
tians shall stand in Armenia — yea, in the heart of every Armenian —
like a great monument, for generation after generation, till the end of
this present dispensation.

By Pastor THOMAS BOYAJIAN,

Diarbekir, Turkey.

TO THE CHRISTIAN PUBLIC.

The unfortunate difficulties between the American Missionaries
and the Armenian Protestant community of this capital have already-
become known to the public.

They originated in the attempt of the former to prevent the Rev.
gentleman whom the Ylanga Church lately elected as their tem-
porary pastor to preach in the chapel, and they were the first who
gave publicity to these difficulties by their further attempt to keep
him (the pastor) out of the chapel by civil power ; and not being
satisfied by this, they took upon themselves the responsibility to shut
up forcibly, without any notice, the chapel at Yeni-Kapou, Ylanga,
in which the congregation had worshipped for the last seventeen
years, nailed up the schoolroom, and scattered the school children
into the street, and gave into custody the Protestant Mukhdar, who
was in the premises at the time, and represented to the authorities
as burglars the officers of the Church who quietly unlocked the door
and let the children into the schoolroom.

We notice with sorrow that our missionary friends are attempt-
ing to give a different colouring to this contest. They say it is a
question of property with them. It has already been stated on the
other side that the property issue is a false one forced by the mis-
sionaries upon a helpless people, on purpose to compel them, in
obedience to their commands, to give up the pastor elect.

The Church never claimed the ownership of the chapel (although
it asserts having contributed out of its poverty towards its purchase).
They only contested the right of the missionaries so to control it as
to drive the people out of it by violence. The missionaries claim
that they are the proprietors of the religious work at Ylanga ; the
people deny that ; they say, " We are by the grace of God and by
your own admission the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
work of evangelising our people is ours, and you are our helpers ;"
and really for several years past the work at Ylanga was carried on
on this principle, that is, the Church there had the entire charge of
supplying the pulpit.

With a desire to assist the public to form a correct idea — as far as

possible— oa the whole subject, we take the liberty to bring before
the impartial public certain letters and papers written on this general
subject, to which we also add the communications already published
in the papers on both sides on same subject.

H. SIMON EUTUJIAN,

Pastor of Evangelical Armenian Church.
Constantinople, May 18, 1869.

OFFICIAL CIRCULAU.

The council of pastors and delegates which was convened at
Ylanga on Friday, the 16th April, 1869, by the invitation of a
portion of the Evangelical Armenian Church of that place, having
examined the following points one by one and ascertained " that the
Rev. Sdepan Eutujian was unanimously and in regular manner
elected by the above-mentioned Church to be their temporary pastor-,
and therefore he is justly entitled to perform the pastoral duties over
that Church and congregation," declare the same to the Churches
of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout Turkey : —

First. In the month of December, 1868, Rev. Sdepan Eutujian
was unanimously elected by the Church as their temporary pastor.

Second. The missionaries raising opposition to this election, diffi-
culties arose concerning the support or salary of the pastor, conse-
quently the formal invitation was delayed for about two months-
Third. During these two months nothing was said or done by the
Church to reverse or recall their decision ; on the contrary, every
effort was made, both individually and collectively, to find a remedy
for removing the above-mentioned financial difficulty.

Fourth. The committee of the Church having learned that there
was a promise or a hope that a certain individual would assist the
Church in this financial difficulty, called a Church meeting, and
■ there stated this fact; the Church then, thinking the obstacle removed,
by the vote of the majority, decided and arranged to put into execu-
tion what was decided on last December, that is to invite the Rev.
Sdepan Eutujian to commence his services as pastor.

Fifth. The opposition or the assault against this arrangement was
commenced on the part of the missionaries, and not from among the
Church, and it was after much labour and many efforts that a
minority was won over to the side of the missionaries, that is, they
were induced to recall their vote.

Sixth. On the Sabbath day, February 21, after a public and

threatening declaration by tlie missionaries from the pulpit of the
sanctuary that they were firmly resolved not to allow the choice of
the Church to preach there, the Church, by the united voice of the
majority, testified to and reconfirmed their former invitation to Rev.
Sdepan Eutujian.

Seventh. Notwithstanding that so many threatening and unlawful
efforts were made to compel the Church to recall their vote, the ma-
jority firmly adhere to their choice up to the present day.

Eighth. The entire worshipping congregation of Ylanga are unani-
mously with this portion of the Church, that is, they are in favour of
Kev. Sdepan Eutujian's pastorate over their district.

Written by the choice and under the revision of the Council of
Pastors and Delegates

H. SIMON EUTUJIAN, Moderator.
GARABED KAPRIELIAN, Clerk.
ALEXANDER DJEDJIZIAN, ^

Pastor of Adapazar. ( p * .
ABRAHAM BOUGHDANIAN, I ^^^^^i^t^^^-

Pastor of Rodosto. ^

Constantinople, April 26, 1869.

7'o the Prudential Committee of the A. B. G. F. M., Bost07i,
Mass., U. S. A.

Constantinople, April 19, 1869.

Dear Brethren^ — We, a council of pastors and delegates of the
Evangelical Churches of Constantinople and its vicinity, having been
invited by the Vlanga Church of this capital to inquire into the
regularity of the call and invitation of Pastor Sdepan Eutujian
to become their minister, have during this inquiry ascertained facts
which have given us deep concern and sorrow ; and we deem it our
duty to yourselves and to the Churches we represent to lay them
before you.

We have ascertained, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that at the
invitation of your missionaries residing here to proceed to the choice
of a temi)orary pastor, the Church worshipping in the Ylanga
Chapel unanimously chose Pastor S. Eutujian, well known as the
first pastor of the Church in Broosa, where he successfully laboured in
the ministry for the space of twelve years, and as having already
been acceptably employed by your society during the last twenty

years. As soon, however, as your missionaries became acquainted
with the fact of his election, they declared that they would withdraw
their accustomed aid to the Church for the support of their pastor,
and this, not on the ground of a doctrinal error or moral defect on
his part, but, as they claimed, because be would not be a " useful
pastor ; " by this expression we cannot understand that he would fail,
in their opinion, to nourish and enlarge the Church, for his ante-
cedents jn-ove the contrary, and the man whom the missionaries
desired the Church to elect has already broken up every Church
of which he has had the charge long enough ; the only interpretation
of which this language is capable, is that the miosionaries believe that
no pastor can be useful who fails to submit to any of their arbitrary
requirements. The Church, however, succeeded in finding elsewhere
the means to support their pastor. The missionaries then, forgetting
the precept of the Master, that a house divided against itself cannot
stand, sought to introduce dissensions and divisions into this hitherto
harmonious Church, acting partly directly themselves, and partly
through brethren, who, being in their pay, depend upon them for
their living. They declared that whoever adhered to Pastor Sdepan
would not be considered friendly to the missionaries, and threatened
to eject them from Church membership, and in case of persecution or
wrong, they will be left unprotected by the foreign embassi«js.
Having by these means succeeded in withdrawing only a minority of
the males or voting Church members, they applied to the civil
authorities to prevent the entrance of the newly-elected pastor into
the chapel, and even laid violent hands upon him to pull him out of
the pulpit. Three of them subsequently went during the week to the
chapel, forcibly ejected the school, the schoolmistress, and her family
from the premises, even taking the sick out of their beds and carrying
them out in their own arms; they then broke the locks, put on new
ones instead, nailed up the schoolroom, and locked up the place ; they
also delivered into the hands of the Turkish police a brother who was
present in the chapel at the time.

The officers of the Church went and reopened both the school and
the chapel. The missionaries, however, through the American
Minister, complained to the Turkish Government that " their
house had been forcibly opened and entered by unknown persons,"
but the Government authorities refused to recognise as a private
house a building which had been dedicated and used as a house
of worship for the last sixteen years ; they have acknowledged the
right of the community who worship there and enjoy the ministra-
tions of theii- chosen pastor. It is yet doubtful, however, whether
your missionaries will not be able on legal grounds to deprive this

people of a place of worship which was purchased for their special
accommodation.

But we must call your special attention to another and a deeper
wound inflicted by your missionaries upon this portion of the body of
Christ. We have already stated that your missionaries had succeeded
in inducing a certain number of the male Church members to with-
draw their support of Pastor S. To these a few sisters had been added
who depend upon the missionaries for their support. Not content
with this, they gathered them into a private house, constituted them
into a separate Church, and made them proceed to the choice of
officers ; they also appointed them a place of meeting in a private house,
instead of the chapel. They declared several of the other brethren,
among them some of the most experienced and of the longest standing,
to be no Church members at all, and thus claim a majority on their
own side. Those, however, who steadfastly adhere to their choice of
Pastor S. are a majority, while nearly all the sisters and the entire
congregation, as indeed all the Protestants of Constantinople, are on
the same side.

Under these circumstances it is impossible for us, acting, as we
must, as impartial judges in the case, and under our responsibility to
our several Churches, and specially to the great Head of the Church,
to do otherwise than stand by the imperilled right of our brethren
and sisters of the Vlanga Church.

We have been brought up to respect and love your missionaries
as the representatives of our sister Churches in America. But the
despotic and unreasonable policy, introduced within a few years by
young and inexperienced men, is fast breaking up the Churches of
Christ already gathered in this land, and destroying the formerly
high reputation and influence for good of these defenders of our faith.
Should we be silent at such a moment, the blood of unnumbered
souls would be required of us. Our appeals to your missionaries
have not been heard. Shall we address ourselves in vain to you,
whose larger experience enables you to take broader views and be in-
fluenced by more unselfish considerations 1

In behalf of the Ecclesiastical Council now here convened, we
remain your brethren in the fellowship of Christ,

H. SIMON" EUTUJIAN, Moderator,
GARABED KAPBIELIAN, Clerk.

N.B. — The Armenian Evangelical Churches of Pera, Hasskeuy,
Rodosto, Nicomidia, and Adapazar were represented in the Council
by pastors and delegates, and the Churches of Diarbekir and Marash
by pastors only.

To the Missionary Station at Constantinople,

Bebek, March 4, 1869.

Dear Friends, — I have already, in friendly conversations, made
known to you my dissent from the position you have recently taken
in the affair of the Yeni-Kapou Church, and now I deem it proper,
by your permission, to lay on your record the view I take of that
position, as well as my reasons of dissent therefrom. To this end I
beg leave to state —

First. The Yeni-Kapou Church was. organised years ago by the
missionaries as an Evangelical Church, and to this day she is acknow-
ledged as such, and is in regular Christian fellowship both with the
missionaries and with her own sister Churches of the land.

Second. I believe the Yeni-Kapou Church is held by the mission-
aries and by her own sister Churches in repute of being as perfect as
the other Evangelical Churches of the land are considered to be on an
average, or at least nothing contrariwise is known to or said by
either.

Third. The Yeni-Kapou Chapel is and has since its purchase, which
was many years ago, been both publicly used and known as a Pro-
testant meeting-house (though I believe it is the private property of
the American Board entrusted to the care of its missionaries here,
and that by legal right it can at pleasure be withdrawn from its
present use), and in it the present Church was organised, and ever
since its organisation had the continuous gratuitous use of it, and it
was always intimated to them by the missionaries that in all proba-
bility they would continue to have that use, if not eventually have it
presented to them as the gift of the American Board, as long as
they would rightly remain in the Christian communion of the sister
Evangelical Churches of the land.

Fourth. I firmly believe in the principle or love of liberty. It is
held sacred both by the Church and State in all civilised lands, and
for the proper development of the Churches under the missionary care,
and for their becoming self-supporting, it is absolutely necessary that
tlie missionaries, in their intercourse with these Churches, should
respect that principle.

Fifth. I believe the withdrawal by the missionaries of the accus-
tomed needed pecuniary aid from the Churches (as long as their
being Christian and Evangelical Churches is not denied, and as long
as they are in regular Christian fellowship both with the missionaries
and with their sister Churches), is a dangerous interference with the

freedom* of those Churclies and a hindrance to their right Christian
development.

Sixth. I understand that the missionaries, in taking their present
position in the affair of the Church at Yeni-Kapou — not allowing
them room in the chapel for oiu service on the Sabbath, to be con-
ducted by their recently-chosen temporary pastor — 'they acted on the
sole ground that said pastor, in their opinion, will not promote the
good of the Church ; and although I believe that said opinion was
and is held by them in honest conviction, yet I cannot resist, on
equally honest conviction, considering their act under it as an unne-
cessary violation of the sacred principle of Church liberty, on the
maintenance of \vhich principle the permanent prosperity of the
Churches so much depends, and I fear that if the precedent be per-
sisted in, the state of things which has been unfortunately existing
for a score of years between the missionaries and the Churches might
not otherwise find a remedy.

"With deep Christian sincerity and affection submitting the fore-
going to your prayerful consideration, I subscribe myself,

Yours, ttc,

S. M. MINASIAN.

Mv. S. M. Minasian,

Constantinople, March 9, 1869.

My Dear Sir, — Your letter of the 4th instant to this station of
our Mission was duly received, and I have been requested by my
associates to reply to it."|"

You sjieak of our " not allowing the Yeni-Kapou Church room in
the chapel for one service on the Sabbath, to be conducted by their
recently-chosen temporary pastor." It is astonishiug that you could
crowd so many mistakes into so few words. Any such request would
have been entitled to a respectful consideration. But no such
request has been refused, for the simple reason that no such request

* The missionaries trenched upon the liberties of the Church in refusing all
aid to it, because it did not choose a pastor accoi'ding to their prejudices or
judgment, although they brought no charge of moral or doctrinal error against
the pastor elect.

t Dr. Riggs, in this "reply,'' evades entirely the fourth and fifth topics of
Mr. Minasian's letter, and it is left to the Christian public to judge of the fair-
ness of the answer to the sixth.

has been made. Instead of a request of any sort we received a
peremptory demand.* Instead of its being for one service, it was
for the entire control of the pulpit. And instead of its being from
the Church, it was from a minority of the Church, assembled at an
unusual time, without public notice or any notice to some members.

Already a written protest against this whole proceeding has been
signed by more members of the Church than were present at the
meeting when the alleged call to Badveli Sdepan was made out. This
protest with the signatures I have seen. N"ow when, in a full meet-
ing,t called on purpose to ascertain the mind of the whole Church,
and to which every member was specially invited, Badveli Sdepan,
witii that alleged " call " in his hand, interrupted the proceedings,
utterly refused to have the protests (presented by members) con-
sidered, or to have the vote of eight members (for three of the eleven
who voted for the " call," being members of other Churches, were
not entitled to a vote) called in question in a full meeting of the
Church, or to allow a vote to be taken as to who should preside (or
any vote whatever), who is it who is " violating the sacred principle
of Church liberty " — we, who tried to secure an expression of the
Church's views, or Badveli Sdepan, who refused to allow that ex-
pression ?

We desire, as you know, to see the true liberty of the Church
understood and enjoyed. But do you not (with us) desire to have
men understand the difference between rational liberty and that
licence which would io;nore the rights of others 1

After duly considering the above facts I trust you will dismiss
for ever from your mind the absurd idea of our attacking the liberty
of the Y. K. Church.

In regard to the rules in accordance with which aid is granted to
the Churches, they are the result of experience, and there is nothing
in them which assails Church liberty, but their direct tendency is to
develope it.

You are of course at liberty to show this note to Badveli Sdepan,

* The Church did not "peremptorily demand" the chapel; that was not
then in question ; it informed the missionaries that it would supply the pulpit
and pay the pastor, supposing that, beyond all doubt, this was comphance
with missionary principle often urged and set forth. See Mr. Herrick's letter
on page 26.

+ The missionaries had no right to get up a meeting of the Church against
its pastor. No meeting of the Church could be had except called by the
Church itself, and the meeting in which Pastor Sdepan opposed Mr. Her rick
was itself an invasion of the Church's liberties.

towards whom I assure you we cherish no ill will, though we deeply
regret the course he has taken.

I remain, on behalf of my associates and myself,

Most truly yours,

ELIAS EIGGS.

Rev. Dr. Riggs and Constantinople Station.

Bebek, March 10, 1869.

Dear Friends, — Your favour of yesterday is before me, to which
I beg leave to reply.

My expression of dissent from you in the affair of Yeni-Kapou
Church, as it is very well known, was and is on matters that took
place on February 19, 20, and 21 between the committee of that
Church and the Constantinople Station, represented by Messrs.
Herrick and Baldwin, and culminated in the peremptory refusal by
the latter of an entrance to Pastor Sdepan (for preaching or other-
wise) into the chapel; therefore anything that might have taken place
subsequent to said dates I do not feel called upon either to defend or
refute.

According to your own statement, I do not see that we differ as to
facts. Our difference may be in the manner we state those facts. I
say you did not allow the Church to have their own chosen man to
conduct their service in a chapel, the use of which was granted
them long ago, on the sole ground of your personal objection to said
man as not being useful, and not that he was upheld only by a
minority. That I state the case not erroneously I refer to the letter
of Mr. Herrick to Pastor Sdepan, written on Feb. 20, as the very best
evidence that can be desired upon this matter.* In the presenee of
that letter I cannot see how the correctness of my statement can be
called into question. That letter speaks of "a committee of the
Church informed us — that they have taken upon themselves the
supply of the pulpit." The letter that is now before me speaks of " a
peremptory demand for the entire control of the pulpit." I can see a
little difference between these two statements, and like the form of
the former better, as being probably more in accordance with the
design of the committee that waited upon Mr. Herrick, as well as
being nearer to the sjDirit of the privilege and usage accorded to Yeni-
Kapou Church.

* See Mr. Herriek's letter on page 26.

In conclusion allow me to repeat what I mentioned elsewhere that
if a majority of the Church is opposed to Pastor Sdepan's preaching
to them in the chapel, let the decision be made in a regular way;
then of course, everybody will respect their wish.

I remain, yours,

S. M. MINASIAK

Rev. Dr. Riggs and Constantinople Statio7i.

Bebek, March 19, 1869,

Dear Friends, — In my previous correspondence with you, I have
stated my opposition to your recent action in the affair of Y'eni-
Kapou Church, also my reasons for said opposition. My views
briefly stated, amounted to these, viz. : —

First. That you hastily, and without sufficient reasons, withdrew
the use of the Yeni-Kapou Chapel from the Church there, and
have peremptorily refused an entrance into it to their temporary
pastor.

Second. That your action under those circumstances was a
dangerous interference with the liberty of the Church, and it would
eventually, if not corrected, prevent their development. I have
entered into the correspondence with you on this subject after a long
consideration, and with anxious and prayerful desire to induce you
to recede from a wrong or questionable position ; but I do now fear
that the design or spirit which impelled me to act in this matter was not
understood, or rather it was misunderstood. Therefore, I feel it a solemn
duty to myself, and to the Evangelical cause in this land, to ask you
to allow me to forward the copies of our correspondence, together
with some other papers, between the Church, yourselves, and Pastor
Sdepan — bearing on this subject — to the Prudential Committee at
Boston, also to lay the same papers before the enlightened Christian
public.

I remain, most truly yours,

S. M. MINASIAN.

Consta/iitinople Station.

Bebek, March 23, 1869.
Dear Friends, — I must apologise for writing so soon after for-
warding you mine of the 19 th inst., but as I expressed then, I fear

that my object in taking action in reference to the present unhappy
affairs might be misunderstood. My aim in this matter is, of course,
not to prove that your course is wrong, and that you are erring in
judgment, or that I have an infallible judgment and have the highest
motive for thus acting in the affair, &c., ttc, neither I do believe you
look upon those personal questions as the chief points in the case.
The real question in the controversy is, what course will promote the
highest good of the Churches, or, in other words, will lay the Evan-
gelical religion on firm bases in the land. As an answer to this
question on my part, I beg leave to quote here a portion of a private
letter I wrote to Dr. Riggs on the 1st inst.: " I think I have already
said to other friends that it is and has ever been my deep conviction
that the only way to promote the cause of Evangelical religion in this
land will be found in cordial and Christian and wisely planned co-
operation between the missionaiy body and the Evangelical Churches
of the land ; and I feel that I have so much more reason to mourn
over the fact that that Christian co-operation and confidence never
existed in a satisfactory degree, and that it never existed in so little
degree, if I am not mistaken, as at present, while friends who know
me will admit that for the last seventeen years, in all my honest
endeavours for the good of this land, I always, and by the use of all
the means at my command, aimed for the creation or increase of that
most desired harmony and Christian confidence between the parties
mentioned." In conclusion, dear brethren, allow me to say in earnest
that God will never bless the work in this land unless the Churches
and the missionaries labour in harmony.

Yours,

S. M. MINASIAK

The following is the only answer the Rev. missionaries made to the
preceding three letters of Mr. Minasian, in which not the slightest
notice is taken of the grave charges made against them, as though they
were matters of no account : —

Mr, S, J/, Minasian.

Constantinople, March 2G, 1869.

My Dear Sir, — We have not had a meeting of the Station since
receiving your note of the 19 th until to-day. I am directed to reply
to it that we offer no objection to your communicating to the
Prudential Committee all that has passed between us on the subject
of the Yeni-Kapou Church. In reference to securing an early answer

from them, you would save time by giving us a copy of what you
send. Otherwise their first step would naturally be to send us a copy,
and ask for what we have to say in reference to it.

As to publishing these communications, or anything on the subject,
we do not see what good can be gained by it. You must decide
this point according to your own judgment. In our view, Christians
should be slow to throw before the world their differences, at least
until every effort has been exhausted to reconcile them,

I remain, on behalf of the Station, yours truly,

ELIAS RIGGS.

Eev. Dr. Riggs and Constantinople Station.

Bebek, March 29, 1869.

Dear Friends, — In answer to my note of the 19th instant, I
received yours of the 26th instant, announcing that you have no
objection to my communicating to the Prudential Committee all that
has passed between us on the subject of the Yeni-Kapou Church, and
suggest that, in order to secure an early answer from them, I might
give you a copy of what I may send. I will endeavour to comply
with your suggestion, unless, in view of my leaving for U. S. so soon,
I might deem it desirable to present the case to the Prudential
Committee personally; in that event, I will not be prepared to furnish
you beforehand with the copy of the communication. In reference
to bringing our differences before the Christian public opinion, you
say, " Christians should be slow to throw before the world their
differences, at least until every effort has been exhausted to reconcile
them." My own views are quite in accordance with that statement,
and I think the same rule also applies to the bringing of our differ-
ences before the Prudential Committee ; but you forget that by
ignoring my letters, written to you expressly on those differences, you
deprived me altogether of the means of reconciliation, and thus the
responsibility of whatever I may deem it proper to do rests entirely
with you. You deny a hearing to this cause ; you either don't regard
the cause as worth your attention, or may be myself and these
poor Churches. AVe thought almost any case respectfully represented
deserved a respectful answer. We must have a hearing at some
tribunal — the Prudential Committee, or the Christian public, or both.
In this connexion it may not be improper for me to remind you that
the life or death of the Evangelical Churches of this land depend on
the principle involved in our present controversy.

You lay solemn responsibilities upon the Churches, but when they
exercise their will in the discharge of those responsibilities, you
trample that will under foot. Under those circuQistances, it is
absurd to say that you are trying to make them independent and self-
supporting Churches ; your course, instead of doing that, is calculated
to destroy whatever particle of life and independence they may
possess. I know you say we don't touch their independence. If
they have their own church, their own school-house, built by their
own money, and if they support their pastor and their schools, then
let them choose any one they like. This seems like mocking poverty.
In that case, would they ask you 1 What power would you have 1
Would not your saying " We give you leave," be ridiculous ? Would
not your prohibition be equally so 1 The Churches must have liberty
to do what they think is right. Liberty to do your will is strange
liberty. That you act under the highest motives does not change the
wrong principle into a right one, neither do I believe God blesses a
wrong act because it is intended for good. Your difficulties with
these Churches are not of recent origin, they are of twenty years'
standing, and I very much fear that the same unreasonable course
of laying responsibilities upon, but withholding the corresponding
freedom of action from them, may have had much to do in creating
and in keeping alive those difficulties. I know in this controversy I
labour under disadvantage, because it so happens that the cause I
advocate is that of feeble and imperfect Churches, yet I need not be
ashamed of that, because it is not the first time that people of that
class stood in need of sympathy.

I remain, most truly yours,

S. M. MINASIAN.

On the 31st of March Rev. Dr. Riggs, acknowledging the receipt
of this letter on his own part, " as an individual," says, " Yours of
yesterday has been received, and will, of course, be communicated to
my associates. I do not see anything in it which requires an answer
from them."

Jiev. Sdepan Eutujian.

Constantinople, Feb. 20, 1869.

Dear Sir, — A committee of the Vlanga Church informed us last
evening that they have taken upon themselves the supply of the

piilpifc, commencing with to-morrow, and have invited you to preach
in our chapel. In view of our recent action in reference to your
preaching here, this action of the Church is surprising and much to
be regretted. Of course, a Church has the right to select its own
minister, when it pays his salary^-' and all other expenses, and
holds its worship in a building of its own. The Vlanga Chapel
is the property of the Board, and in our charge, and no man has
the right to preach there without our consent. We do not consent
to your preaching there. I said this to the committee that called
upon me yesterday, and requested them to recall their invitation to
you. They replied that th<;re was not time to assemble the Church.
Therefore I write you this note that there may be no misunder-
standing. We shall ourselves preach there to-morrow, D.Y. ; so I
trust you will not come down.

In behalf of the Missionaries, yours truly,

GEO. F. HERRICK.

* We claim that feeble Churches have Hberties, and not only strong Churches,
which have no occasion to ask anything of anybody ; we have ascertained by
careful inquiries that the feeble Churches in America are allowed to choose
their own pastors before they are able to support them entirely. All we ask
is the same right for our Churches here.

FKOM THE ''LEVANT TIMES AND SHIPPIM aiZETTE.

THE PROTESTANT MEETING-HOUSE, STAMBOUL,

To the Editor of the ^'Levant Times and Shijyping Gazette.'^

Sir, — Some time since a question arose between the American
missionaries and the consfreffiition of the Protestant Church at Stam-
boul, as to whether, in view of the former paying the largest part of
the salary of the pastor over that Church, the latter, after making a
choice of a person to fill that office temporarily, should give up their
choice because the missionaries objected to him on the ground (not of
moral or religious character) of usefulness, and advised them to give
him up. On the congregation deciding that they would rather forego
the aid than give up their choice, the missionaries took upon them-
selves the responsibility of forcibly shutting up the Protestant
Meeting-house of Stamboul on last Tuesday, the 6th inst., turned the
children out of the schoolroom into the street, and also gave in
custody a Protestant who happened to be in the chapel at the time of
this violent action.

We regret very much to see the missionaries enter into such a con-
test, because, whatever its merits in other respects may be, it is an
outrageously unequal one. It is between the humble, poor, and
unlearned on one side, and the influential and learned on the other ;
and we fear that its effect might be that the missionaries may lose
their influence for good on a class of people over whom we desire to
exert Christian influence, and for whom we have all been long and
arduously labouring to induce them to receive our Evangelical faith.

ONE OF THE PEOPLE.

Constantinople, April 10, 1869.

To the Editor of the " Levant Times and Ship2^ing GazetteP

Sir, — In answer to the statements concerning the Protestant
Meeting-house in Stamboul, made by " One of the People " in your
issue of yesterday, I beg leave to say —

First. The house is tlie sole property of the American Mission.
They bought it, paid for it, and hold a clear title to it. Their owner-

ship has been frequently acknowledged by the Church and congrega-
tion, who have been permitted to worship there free of charge.

Second. Some time since a discontented minority of the local Church
attempted to take the control of the jDulpit out of our hands, and to
place it in the hands of a native preacher violently opposed to us.
As the result of conferences we were assured by the head of the
Protestant Armenian Community that the said preacher would not
occupy our pulpit without our consent. But when the violent faction
saw that a clear majority of the local Church was against them, they
determined to do by force what they could not do in an orderly way.
Accordingly, a week ago last Sabbath, before we could reach it, the
pulpit was occupied by said native preacher, with whom came a large
number of outsiders to protect him in his seizure of the pulpit. We,
of course, demanded the pulpit, and when it was refused, retired. To
prevent the recurrence of such a scene we went to the building on
Tuesday, requested the teacher (who also occupies our premises rent
free, as does the school) to remove her effects and the school to
another part of the same premises (separated from the chapel part by
iron doors), where there were good empty rooms at her disposal, also
rent free. The removal effected, we closed the chapel part of our
premises, intending to open them as usual on Sunday. We used no
violence to any one. On the afternoon of the same day certain indi-
viduals broke into the building, and seized a house belonging exclu-
sively to us, and to the control of which they have no right
whatsoever. The contest is between a perfectly clear title and no
title at all, between undoubted owners and a body of usurpers, who
claim that because we have allowed them to worship there free of
rent, they have acquired the right to break into our property forcibly
and hold it against us.

ONE OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES.

Constantinople, April 13, 1869.

To the Editor of the ^^ Levant Times and Shipping Gazette."

Sir, — Letters having been published respecting the difficulties
which have arisen between the American missionaries and the native
Protestant Church and community in Constantinople, your readers
will perhaps be interested to know som.ething of Pastor Sdepan Eutu-
jian — the "man" whom the missionaries refused to acknowledge as
pastor of the above-mentioned community in spite of its unanimous
choice. He is one of the oldest Protestant native pastors, a man

known in all the country as a defender of the truths of our religion.
The subjoined testimony, of undoubted authority, will suffice to intro-
duce him to the public.

I am, (kc,

AN ARMENIAN PROTESTANT.

Constantinople, April 14.

{Copy.)
The undersigned, in behalf of the Missionary Station of the
American Board at Constantinople, certifies that the Rev. Sdepan
Eutujian was educated in the Seminary of the American Board at
Bebek, where he pursued with fidelity and success the scientific and
theological course, and, believing him in accordance with his own pro-
fession to be called of God to preach the Gospel, the Station assisted
in his licensure and ordination as pastor of the Broosa Church, and
has always been gratified with his faithful labours and Christian life
and sound doctrine among the people of his charge, so far as known
to them during his pastorate of twelve years unto this day.

By order of the Constantinople Station,

(Signed) C. HAMLIN.

P.S. — In the month of July following Pastor Sdepan was chosen
by a majority of the representatives to the ofi&ce of Askabed* of the
nation, in regard to which election the missionaries of the American
Board and of other societies in Constantinople, having been invited
to express their opinion, it was unanimously approved, and a com-
mittee was appointed to aid in its execution. But difficulties having
arisen from the opposition of the first Askabed's party. Pastor
Sdepan, not wishing to be the occasion of further divisions, sent in
his declinature and voluntarily withdrew.

(Signed) C. HAMLIN.

April 2, 1863.

To the Editor of the ^^ Levant Times and Slvq^i^ing Gazette.'^

SiR^ — In your issue of April 14 "One of the American Mission-
aries" attempts to make an answer to the letter of "One of the

Civil head of the comnninity.

People " about the scandalous affair in the district of Vlanga. I beg
leave to answer him as follows : —

1. "The house is" not "the sole property of the American
Mission." Not one of the men who are now endeavouring to get
possession of it ever paid a para towards it. The money was given
partly by the Protestant community of Constantinople, and at their
request partly by benevolent individuals in America. All these
parties gave the money for the specific j)urpose of furnishing the
Protestants of the capital with a house of worship, and not to give
the American missionaries a house which they can sell or use as
they like.

2. Your correspondent endeavours to draw away the attention
from the real point at issue, which is this : This place of worship has
been used by common consent by the Church and congregation living
in the cj[uarter of Vlanga, for whose benefit it was purchased. It is
the custom both of native and American Protestant Churches, and
their fully recognised right, to choose their own pastor or preacher.
In accordance with this right the missionaries of the capital invited
the Ylanga Church at the beginning of the year to choose a pastor,
with the promise of paying themselves three-quarters of his salary*
In accordance the Church unanimously elected Pastor Sdepan
Eutujian — a man of whose character you can judge from the cer-
tificate published in your paper of April 15, and who has already
been honourably employed by these and other American missionaries
for the last twenty years. The missionaries have repeatedly and
publicly promised not to interfere with the choice of a pastor unless
he be unsound in doctrine and morals. But in the present case they
desired to put into that important post a creature of their own, whom
they could use to accomplish their own purposes. They therefore
declared that they could not pay anything towards the salary of the
said pastor, and when the Church informed them that they had
themselves found the means to provide for it, they declared they
would prevent his preaching in the chapel, and even threatened to

" push him out of the pulpit by the hand of the police.

Seeing that these means failed of accomplishing their object, the
missionaries then endeavoured to divide the hitherto unanimous
Church j they declared that whoever wanted Pastor S. E. was the

I personal enemy of the mission, and " would be by them excommuni-
cated, and in case of difficulty Mould be left unprotected by the

I foreign embassies." Failing in this way also to obtain a majority on
their side, they declared their intention to examine the right of every
one to Church membership, in order to eject those who did not suit

' them. Again they failed, for the people loudly called for a religious

commission to examine and decide the point in litigation, which the
missionaries refused.

Finally, when everything else had failed, the Rev. triumvirate
went in haste to the chapel, accompanied by locksmiths, forcibly took
off the lock of the door, and drove out the people who were within —
not, as they claim, gently persuaded them to remove, for they took
up the sick with their own hands, and the school children were
turned into the street ; they then made fast the doors, after violently
ejecting persons who came to entreat them to desist, and even
delivered one of them into the hands of the police. The doors were
opened again, the school children, schoolmistress, &c., were taken
back to their places, but it was done lawfully and regularly by the
constituted authorities.

You can judge. Sir, by the preceding account, of which every
word can be proved true before a court of justice, how much credit
is to be given to the statements of " One of the American Mis-
sionaries." The contest, as you see, is not " between a clear title and
no title at all," but between a people who claim the right to choose
their own pastor, and men who require unconditional submission.

I am, ifec,

ONE OF THE PEOPLE.

Constantinople, April 15, 1869.

To the Editor of the " Levant Times mid Shipping Gazette.''^

Sir, — The second letter of " One of the People," in your issue of
Saturday, is full of misrepresentations ; but we must decline to entei"
into a newspaper controversy with the author. If any of your
readers has the least desire to see the evidence of the truth of my
previous statement, that the building in question is the sole property
of the American Mission, we shall be happy to show them, at our
depot in Stamboul, a document legalised at the American Consulate
at the time of the purchase, in which it is expressly stated that the
purchase was made " entirely and exclusively wnth the money of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions."

I am, (fcc,
ONE OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES.

Constantinople, April 19, 1809.

FEOM THE "LEYMT HEMLD."

The followiug, in reply to some statements of the Manaoumei
B/kiar, appears in the Avedwper^ an Armeno-Tarkish paper published
by the American Missionaries : —

Inaccurate statements having been published in certain papers of
this city, concerning recent events relating to the Yeni-Kapou
Protestant place of worship, we give the following brief account of
the matter : The Protestant place of worship and school is in a house
bought and held by the American missionaries as trustees for the
American Board of Missions. The missionaries have granted the
use of portions of this building, rent free, to the local Protestant
community, for purposes of school and chapel, themselves paying
nearly all expenses of teacher and preacher, from the first till now,
and often preaching, and always worshipping with the native
community themselves. One of this number has sometimes resided
in the building. Their ownership and right of control have been
repeatedly acknowledged by the community. Eight weeks ago, a
small irregular meeting of the local Church abruptly and indeco-
rously demanded to put into the pulpit as preacher a man whom
they knew to be unacceptable to the missionaries, and were warned,
as was this preacher himself, and the civil head of the Protestant
community also, that his attempting to preach there would be regarded
as a trespass, and they were assured officially that he would not
preach against their permission in their chapel. But when the party
supporting this preacher saw that a clear majority of the Church had
pronounced against them, and for co-operation with the missionaries,
they became desperate, and, in violation of promise, and directly
against the consent of the missionaries, put the above-mentioned
preacher into the pulpit on Sabbath morning, the 4th inst. The
following Tuesday, the missionaries went to the house, gave notice to
the teacher of the school that she m.ust immediately remove the
school into an unoccupied room in the wooden part of the house, and
remove her own room there also. The empty part of the building,
within the stone walls, was securely closed and locked. The state-
ments that violence was used are utterly folse. The missionaries
designed to open the place as usual for public worship on the Sabbath,
and they left those occupying the other portion of their property (the
wooden house), with the school, undisturbed for the present. Bat
toward evening of the same day the lock was broken in, and the

premises forcibly seized and held by certain lawless persons. Com.
plaint of this violation of tlieir property was of course made to the
authorities by the missionaries. Upon this, persons were sent to
Yeni-Kapou to make inquiries into the facts of the case, and the head
of the Protestant community was asked for information concerning
the affair. Having done thus much without coming to any decision
in regard to the merits of the case, official action was deferred for one
week, in the hope of some mutually satisfactory arrangement being
made. The statement that the missionaries cited a priest and the
leading members of the community before the police is utterly false.

To the Editor of the " Levant HeraW

Sir, — In 3/our issue of April li is an account, professedly taken
from the Armenian paper published by the American missionaries of
this city, which contains so many erroneous statements that, although
the undersigned belongs to neither party, he deems it but fair to
correct them. The chapel at Yani-Kapou used to be a private house,
but has been dedicated and used as a church for the last sixteen years.
It was bought at the earnest request of the congregation, who have
there been accommodated, and a firman was on the point of being
issued recognising it as such. The missionaries would never have
thought of claiming the ownership in it for their society, much less of
shutting it up, which it is well known is contrary to the wishes of the
said society, were it not for the purpose of compelling the native
Church to give up their undoubted right to choose their own minister.
The article from the Avedctper makes a simply false statement when
it says that " a clear majority " w^ere opposed to the pastor. I have
myself seen the documents which prove that his choice was unanimous.
Strange to say, the Sultan's rayahs have given a noble example of
moderation and forbearance to the foreign teachers who have come to
enlighten their " darkened minds." It was the missionaries who
sent for police to take their quiet opponents into custody, who
surrounded the pulpit to prevent the people's choice from entering it,
who broke the locks of the building, who compelled those who occupy
it to vacate the premises, ^vho took the sick in their own arms out of
their beds, and turned out the school into the street, although they
claim that they merely removed them to another part of the house.
This is really a distinct house, though it communicates by an iron
door, and it is but mockery to say that any addition could be made to
its already crowded tenants. This letter would be too long were I to
endeavour to point out all the erroneous statements to which I refer.

Suffice it to say that, if the " American Mission " has obtained a foot-
ing in Turkey, it was done by the labours of love of a generation now
gone ; but the despotism of their present successors is fast destroying
the works of the " fathers."

I am, &c.,
Constantinople, April 16. FAIR PLAY.

To the Editor of the " Levant Herald.^^

Sir, — Letters have been published in your and other papers on the
part of the American missionaries respecting the differences between
them and the Protestant congregation at Vlanga in Constantinople.
In these letters the whole question has been made to turn upon the
legal ownership, and a claimed consequent right of control, of the
Church building and premises. This is a false issue. The true point
at issue is whether the Churches should be so independent that they
can choose their own pastors and enjoy their ministrations undisturbed.
The following letter refers to a proposition which was about to be
made by a gentleman, himself a native, who has no connection with
the American mission, to assume the payment of all the money now
disbursed by them, for the purpose of removing all cause of litigation.
The missionaries were aware that this highly promising plan was
about to be presented to them, and the unfortunate contest at Vlanga
about the Church building was conjured up by them in order to
prevent its realisation.

I am, &C.J

Constantinople, April 20. AN INDEPENDENT.

To , Esq.

My Dear Sir, — You ask me to state to you the impressions which
I received in the conversations we had as to the possibility of restor-
ing harmony to the Evangelical work in Constantinople. Our first con-
versations were in regard to Haskeui, for which we had a plan that
seemed to promise good, but which proved abortive. Next, you pro-
posed, as a matter of consultation, the plan of seeing how much the
Churches and congregations here could be induced to raise for the
support of all their religious institutions, you engaging to supply the
deficiency to the amount of three or four hundred pounds a-year,
thus relieving the mission and station from all financial coDnection
with the churches. You expressed the hope and the earnest desire
that in this way a truly harmonious co-operation between the mis-

c 2

sionaries and the Churclies would spring up and tlie work be rescued
from ruin. I fully agreed with your views, and thought the station
would hail the j^roposition with joy, and that it afforded an op-
portunity to take a neio start. I supposed also that all would regard
your having so prominent a part in it, and being willing to contribute
so generously towards it, as a pledge that the movement would be
such as all might co-operate with who labour and pray for the
establishment of the kingdom of Christ in this land. You expressed
the conviction that with freedom of action and consequent entire
responsibility on the part of these feeble Churches a new spirit would
come in and efface the many unpleasant feelings which exist. I fally
agreed with you in this view, and felt strongly desirous that it should
be tried on the basis you proposed — freedom and responsibility. If
it should work badly it could hardly be worse than the present. I
will not enter into events which followed, but I do sincerely regret
that the experiment was not made.

Yours truly,

C. HAMLIK.

P.S. — 1 mentioned your proposal to Mr. Bliss, and he seemed to
think favourably of it. He remarked to this effect, that the project
would need to be stated in full, and each part have its duties and
responsibilities defined. We w^ere on board the steamer, and the
conversation was not continued.

Bebek, March 22, 1869. C. H.

To the Editor of the " Levant Herald''

Sir, — Your correspondent " Fair Play " having expressed the
opinion that the present generation of American missionaries in
Turkey are pursuing a course of action towards the native Churches
quite unlike that of their predecessors, we, the undersigned, having
been connected with the mission more than a quarter of a century,
feel called upon to say over our own signatures that the principles
which guide the present missionaries are precisely those which guided
the " fathers." They have always claimed and exercised control
over the building in question ; they always claimed and exercised the
right to give or withhold aid to the native Churches or communities,
according as, in the exercise of their own judgment, giving or with-
holding would promote the prosperity of the work for which they
were sent to this country. They and their successors in this respect

only obey the instructions of the Society which has sent them forth,
and are responsible to it alone for the exercise of their judgment.
At the same time, the " fathers " and those who are now in this field,
while they can never surrender the right of control of property
belonging to their Society, and of the funds entrusted to them by
that Societ}^, have ever desired to exercise this right in the kindest
spirit towards the native Churches. In the present case, when the
missionaries were asked several months since to aid the Vlanga
Church in'^the support of a preacher whom the Church had chosen,
they declined to do so, and assigned tlieir reasons in writing. If
" Fair Play " has seen any document referring to the choice of a
preacher, it undoubtedly refers to this action several months ago,
whereas the assertions of the missionaries respect subsequent votes of
the Church cancelling that action ; it is upon these subsequent votes
that the missionaries found the declaration that a clear majority is on
the side upon which they have affirmed it to be. " Fair Play"
should have examined all the documents, and heard both sides, before
presuming to pronounce judgment. A written protest against the
pretended unanimous choice has been signed by a majority of the
members of the Church question. We 'aver that the principal state-
ments of " Fair Plaj's " article are false, and we think the candid
reader will judge so from a simple comparison of them with those of
the article quoted from the Avedaper.

We are, &c.

ELIAS EIGGS.
EDWIN E. BLISS.

Constantinople, April 20.

To the Editor of the " Levant Herald:'

Sir, — The American missionaries, the Eev. Messrs. Eiggs and
Bliss, have in your issue of April 21 found fault with the impartial
statements I had made respecting the unfortunate afiair at Vlanga.
It had been reported that they had disapproved the rashness of the
triumvii'ate who were the principal actors of the said scandalous
afifair; they now father their doings, and thus render hopeless the
prospect of amendment. There are two points in their letter to
which I reply as follows : —

1. Messrs. Biggs and Bliss claim to belong to the former generation
of missionaries, and that the policy of the mission has not changed.
This is a heavy charge to bring against such men as the '' fathers,"

Goodell, Temple, and Dwiglit, against Benjamin and Everett, and
some yet living and honoured among us, Hamlin and Schauffler.
When they can prove that any or all of these men have attempted to
pull out of the pulpit, by force, preachers of the Gospel against whose
doctrine or morals there was not the shadow of a charge ; that they
have violently shut up churches, scattered schools, and taken away
the sick by force from their beds ; that they have annulled or pro-
tested against the united and moderate advice of a council of the
pastors and delegates of the Churches, sought to disrupt Churches and
form new ones on the simple authority of their own wills, and have
not even spared those of their own number who have failed to ap-
prove their strange innovations, but have brought about their excision
from their body without trial or regular judgment ; whenever they
can show, I say, that the " fathers " have also done these and similar
things, then shall we acknowledge that the " policy " of the mission
has not changed; but until then, we shall rightly maintain that
Messrs. Eiggs and Bliss belong to the later generation of American
missionaries, whose " unavoidable destiny " is to destroy the work of
the " fathers."

2. Messrs. Biggs and Bliss consider that the choice of Pastor
Sdepan Eutujian by the Church was unanimous, but claim that the
majority are now against him ; they advance in proof a document.
But what says the document ? Not that the undersigned dee ai the
pastor unfit for his office, but that, the missionaries being opposed
to him, they desire to give him up for the sake of peace. And it
was a minority,* not a majority, of the Church that signed the docu-
ment, as found and solemnly declared by the council of pastors and
delegates from the surrounding Churches, which has just sat and
passed judgment in the case.

I am. Sir, yours, &c.,

Constantinople, April 23, 1869. FAIR PLAY.

To the Mitor of the " Levant Herald:'

Sir, — Neither the " fathers '* nor any of the present generation
of American missionaries in Turkey have done one of the things
charged in the communication signed *' Fair Play," and published in
the Herald of yesterday.

We are, Sir, <fec.,

ELIAS RTGGS,
Constantinople, April 26. EDWIN E. BLISS.

* See page 15.

To the Editor of the " Levant Herald:'
Sir, — Your anonymous correspondent " Fair Play " has had the
hardihood to use my name in the interests of the foul cause* which
he advocates. I wish all concerned to understand that I consider
the use of my name in this connexion slanderous, and that of the
missionaries of sainted memory sacrilegious.

Bebek, April 28. W. G. SCHAUFFLER.

To the Editor of the " Levant Herald:'

Sir, — Though I do not pretend to be responsible for any one's
statements, yet justice impels me to say that I am prepared to prove
by unimpeachable testimony most of the charges brought forward in
your and other papers against the missionaries by " Fair Play " and
others, in behalf of the outraged Armenian Protestant community,
notwithstanding the denial of the same by Messrs. Riggs, Bliss, and
others.

I am, <fcc.,

Bebek, April 28. S. M. MIN'ASIAN.

CIECULAU
Respectfully submitted to the members of the Mission of the American
Board at Constantinople, and of the Evangelical Armenian Congre-
gation of Yeni-Kapou.

Whereas difficulties have arisen between the missionaries of the
A. B. C. F. M. and the Evangelical Armenian congregation at Yeni-
Kapou, for the settlement of which application has been made to the
Turkish authorities ; and whereas we are warned of the unseemliness
of brother going to law w^ith brother, and that before the unbelievers,
and feel convinced that an effort ought to be made to heal those
differences by a free and brotherly conference between both parties,
with earnest prayer for the Divine blessing, the undersigned, there-
fore, beg respectfully to request the missionaries of the Board and the

(*) Our venerable friend Dr. Schauffler, through some influence, has been
misled to take the universally recognised "irrepressible conflict" between
the weak and the strong, in the present case, for a "foul cause." "We submit
to the unbiassed judgment of the Christian public whether less *' hardihood " is
evinced in calling the friendly allusion of "Fair Play" to his and other
honoured names "slanderous " and "sacrilegious."

committee of the said congregation, or sucli parties as have been
acting with and for them, to meet at the Bible Magazine on Monday,
the 26th inst., at half-past 2 p.m., to consider the following basis of
agreement — viz. : —

First. As the Vlanga Chapel was purchased by funds mainly con-
tributed by friends in America, the Protestant community consents
not to contest the right of the missionaries to control the same, pro-
vided they will not undertake to shut it up against the worshippers
as long as the Church maintains Orthodox Evangelical doctrines.

Second. That the missionaries shall agree to grant to Ylanga con-
gregation the use of the schoolroom during the week and of the
chapel for half the day on the Sabbath, with access to the premises
on other occasions as in time past.

Third. That the missionaries acknowledge the right of the Church
to choose its pastor or preacher ; but in case the Vlanga Church, in
exercise of this right, shall choose as their pastor or preacher one
against whom the missionaries formally protest on doctrinal and
moral ground, and lodge with the clerk of the congregation within
three days after they have received official intimation of the said elec-
tion by the congregation, the Church agree that such person shall not
officiate in either capacity until the choice be approved by a suitable
council of the sister Churches regularly called for that purpose, it
being understood that such right of protest is allowed to the mission
only so long as they continue to aid the congregation in the support
of their pastor or preacher.

Fourth. That in consideration of existing circumstances the con-
gregation at Vlanga agree to consider all their action, as to the choice
of Kev. Sdepan Eutujian as their pastor, to be null and void, and to
proceed to a new election at an interval of three months from the
date of agreement, it being understood that during that interval only
those will officiate in the chapel who have not taken any part in the
late contest.

Bebek, April 24, 1869. S. M. MINASIAN.

Mr. S. M. Minasian.

Stamboul, April 2Q, 1869.
Dear Sir, — The missionaries instruct me to inform you that they
cannot consent to attend a meeting for the consideration of the pro-
posals of your circular of April 24.

I am, truly yours,

H. A. SCHAUFFLER.

Rev. Dr. Clark, Secretary/ of American Board and Mission House,
Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

Vienna, May 24, 1869.

My deak Sir, — I sent you a telegram from Pesth on the 20th inst.,
requesting you to suspend the action of the missionaries at Constanti-
nople against the Protestant community until you would hear the case.
I have no time to tell you now what the " case" is, but presume you
know all about it by the reports of the missionaries. My only wish is,
that the missionaries might be advised to refer such an important
question to the Prudential Committee before or instead of appealing to
the Turkish Court, as they did. I enclose the copy of the note I
addressed to Constantinople station to-day on the same subject.

With kindest regards I subscribe myself, yours,

S. M. MINASIAN,

Hev. Dr. Biggs, Constantinople Station.

Vienna, May 24, 1869.

My dear Friend, — I sent a telegram on the 20th inst., from
Pesth, to the Prudential Committee at Boston, as my telegram on the
same day to you informed you, that they might suspend your proceed-
ings in court against the Protestant community until they will hear the
case. I do not know whether my message will be intelligible to them
or not, nor whether they will think it advisable to interfere in the
present stage of the case ; still I thought the idea was a good one to
refer the case to the Prudential Committee and wait for their decision,
rather than to appeal to the Turkish Courts, and I feel very sorry that
the thought did not occur to me while I was in Constantinople, so that
I might have suggested it to both parties.

It was very much to be regretted that nothing was done by the
station in the way to effect the settlement of the difficulty without going
before the courts. I write in haste. With kindest regards to all the
brethren now in Constantinople, and with an earnest prayer that the
Divine blessing may attend them in all their deliberations, I remain,
most sincerely yours,

S. M. MINASIAN.

S. M. Minasian, Esq., Constantinople.
Missionary House, Boston, U.S.A., May 31, 1869.
My dear Sir, — Your telegram of May 20 was received the same day,
and a week after came a paper giving the action of an ex-parte council

in regard to the difficulties in the Vlanga Church. No action has yet
been taken in the case by the Prudential Committee of the American
Board. Amid so many conflicting statements it is not easy to arrive
at the truth, and it seems better to wait till all the facts shall have been
laid before us, and till the passions excited by this most unhappy
difference shall have had time to cool, and the true Christain sentiment
that we believe to exist shall have made itself felt.

It is hardly necessary for me to express my surprise and profound
regret that any such difference and misunderstanding should have
arisen among Christian brethren sincerely devoted to one common
cause, and that it should have become a matter of such public notoriety
and scandal to the Christian name. The injury done to the cause of
Christ in Constantinople, and elsewhere in the Turkish empire, and
wherever the press has carried the painful tidings, is immense, and very
grave responsibilities rest on every man who by inconsiderate haste,
ill-temper, or unchristian spirit, has fostered or given publicity to an
evil which, as a raging fire, every true friend of the Gospel should have
tried to put down as soon as possible.

We cannot but believe that if time had been taken for kindly counsel,
and a full and free conference upon all questions in dispute, in a spirit
of Christian love and forbearance, all difficulties could have been
adjusted. It is far better to suffer wrong for a time, if need be, than
to stir up evil passions by hasty and violent action ; especially
when this wrong is suffered from the hands of those who, when better
informed, will be only too glad to make proper amends.

The great respect and high personal regard entertained toward you
by our committee generally, and particularly by those who have had
the pleasure of your personal acquaintance, make them regret all the
more that any difference of sentiment should exist between you and our
missionaries ; and we cannot but hope that a better understanding of
each other's views will have been gained ere this reaches you, and entire
good feeling restored.

As you are well aware, neither we nor our missionaries have any
personal ends to gain by the efforts we are making for the spiritual
welfare of the Armenians in Turkey. The love of Christ alone con-
strains us to make the large expenditure of money and of missionaries
for this object. The Armenian Missions have had a large share of the
funds placed at our disposal for the promotion of the missionary enter-
prise. We have spent the more freely in the hope that the Armenian
Protestants would soon be able to carry forward the great work of
evangelization in the Turkish Empire without assistance from abroad.
This hope is greatly encouraged by the spirit of self-denial and earnest
devotion to the cause of Christ, and hearty co-operation with the

missionaries, evinced by many of the Churches, making them bright
and shining examples to the Christian world.

Considering onr motives and object, the self-denial and sacrifices
made by the Christian men and women who have left home and country,
and positions of honour, ease, and influence, to go abroad — circum-
stances which you can fully understand and appreciate from your
acquaintance with this country — is it too much to ask for a kindly
forbearance, for a generous Christian consideration for particular acts
of ours or of our missionaries that may not at once commend themselves
to 3^our judgment, but which maybe modified or recalled upon a better
understanding of all the facts in the case ?

We do not suppose that we ourselves, nor our missionaries, nor our
brethren in the Armenian Churches, are exempt from the possibility of
mistakes on practical questions of duty or expediency. But I would
hope that the spirit of Christ in all who bear His name, of whatever
nationality, will be a spirit of love, of forbearance, and of Christian
charity.

It has seemed to me that our Armenian brethren in Constantinople
and vicinity have not always appreciated aright the one supreme object
of our missionary labours — not to attempt to import che Christian
civilization of this country, the fruit of many years of culture and
discipline, all ready made as it were, but to lay the basis of an equally
noble civilization, not American, but Armenian. The foundation of
our culture and prosperity as a people is the Gospel of Christ, with its
quickening energy and inspiring motives, prompting behevers to seek
for themselves and their families the best culture and the enjoyment of
all the arts and blessings of civilized life. Mere education, however
complete and wide in its range, cannot secure this. The civilization
of Paris and Berlin and Vienna is not of the English and American
type. It is not such as we would introduce or help to develop in our
mission fields. Men are everywhere eager to reap the fruits, before
they have time to grow and to ripen on the soil. They crave the forms
and the accomplishments of cultured life before they get the substance,
and so we are urged to set up fashionable schools, and to introduce
modes of living entirely out of keeping with the real wants of the
people, as well as their best interests. Men of great learning and piety
among our fathers cherished simple habits of life, and lived in humble
dwellings that their children would now despise ; but they laid firmly
and deeply the foundation for the social and moral elevation of our
people to-day. It is not the civilization of Paris and of Berhn that we
wish to establish through the prayers and contributions of Christian
men and women in this country, and the labours and sacrifices of our
missionaries abroad, but rather one that may more nearly resemble in

its spirit that of New England, while true in its forms to the genius of
each people among whom we labour.

Our first work is to bring men to Christ, and then to introduce them
to all the arts and accomplishments of true Christian culture. It is no
easy matter to withstand the pressure of those who are eager for the
material results of culture, who seek a high education, not to honour
Christ, but to improve their social condition and worldly prospects.
We could easily spend all our funds in Turkey alone in building up
great institutions of learning and promoting the cause of science and
the arts, and splendid material results might follow, but with them the
infidelity and scepticism of France and the rationalism of Germany ; and
the establishment of the kingdom of Christ would be farther off than
ever.

We carry everywhere the Bible and the school. The first book we
would have read is the Bible, the first influence exerted that of the
Gospel, to mould the rehgious character. We would rouse up a spirit
among the people to seek for themselves the advantages of civihzed and
cultured life, and render them such aid and counsel as may be necessary
at the start. In this view we seek first of all to raise up an educated
ministry, who shall not be so far in advance of the people as to be out
of sympathy with them, and whose habits of life should not lead to
expenses above the present abihty of their people to supply. The great
centres in Turkey as in this country will require men of higher culture
than the rural sections, and such men must be supplied. We are,
therefore, raising the standard of education in our seminaries every
year, and propose to keep them in advance of the growing intelligence
of the people. Individuals of special gifts and ability will seek still
further attainments by private studies under the advice of the older
missionaries, and thus become prepared for the highest positions. Any
other course than this will tend to keep your Churches dependent
upon foreign aid, and perpetuate occasions for differences of feeling,
and to give Protestantism the appliance of a foreign religion. It is now
becoming naturalized, it is already a recognized national rehgion in the
country, and any appearance of dependence in pecuniary or ecclesiastical
matters should cease as soon as possible. For that result we are steadily
striving, and desire to make ourselves unnecessary to the progress of
the Gospel in Turkey at the earliest moment, and to see the Reformed
Armenian Church standing forth in its might, a power for Christ.
Then will our joy be fulfilled.

In this view we have welcomed the establishment of Evangelical
Unions, and have desired to pass over into their hands, as far as pos-
sible, the entire conduct of their ecclesiastical affairs. The manner in
which these responsibilitie s have been assumed is worthy of all praise

and is full of promises for the future of the Church. As fast as the
Churches become independent we withdraw and leave them to the full
and free exercise of all their rights and liberties as Churches of Christ.
The proper missionary work — the extending of evangelistic labours
into new fields, and the grants in aid of feeble Churches toward the
support of their schools and preachers — belong to us ; and in this we
seek the hearty co-operation of all who love our Lord. While we
desire the aid and counsel of our Armenian brethren in these plans,
the control of our funds is properly in our hands. This arrangement
is most satisfactory to our Churches at home, and saves complication
abroad. The wise and responsible use of funds necessitates careful
inquiry into the character of the objects for which they are appro-
priated, and may thus lead to temporary differences of judgment
between the missionaries and the Armenians on practical questions,
and sometimes to the appearance of interference in the local affairs
of the Churches. But it is a necessity that passes away with the
occasion, and ought to be promotive of good feeling rather than
otherwise.

The views I have thus set before you in this informal manner are
not peculiar to the American Board and its missionaries ; but, so far
as I know, are accepted as the result of large experience and obser-
vation by nearly all or quite all of the great missionary societies of the
world, though individual missionaries here and there may dissent. This
very morning my eye has fallen upon a passage in the annual report
of the London Missionary Society, presented at its recent anniversary
in London, which expresses so perfectly what 1 would say of every
Church formed by our missionaries that I beg to call your attention
to it : " In its outward form it may be purely native to the lands in
which it flourishes. Though founded by friendly foreigners it need
not perpetuate the Western customs of the men who began it ; but
native in its fellowship, its worship, and its action, its outward forms
shall more truly express and develop the feeling, the principle, and the
life of its Christian members than any foreign system can do. In a
word, pure in its spirit, complete in its consecration, filled with the
rich experience of the varied past, the full force of all its native ele-
ments shall be offered with simphcity and truth to the Saviour, who
is its Lord. This is the end to which the efforts, the co-operation, the
full Scripture teaching of all branches of the Church of Christ lead
us on."

I have thus, my dear Sir, written you quite at length, out of the high
respect we all entertain for you, and feeling that your acquaintance
with this country and our institutions would enable you the better to
understand our position.

The condicion of our work at Constantinople has been a source of
great anxiety to me for years; the want of harmonious co-operation
between the missionaries and the Churches, the frequent misunderstand-
ings that arise, have been quite inexplicable on any Christian grounds.
I cannot help feeling that evil influences have been at work to disturb
the peace and good feeling of the Christian community. Precisely
what they are, and what measures should be taken to meet them, I
am unable to determine. I hear that you are purposing to visit this
country during the present season. If so, I shall hope to have the
pleasure of a full and free conference with you on many points relating
to the progress of the Gospel in Turkey. In the meantime, we trust
your good offices will be employed to secure the restoration of peace
and harmony in the Christian community. Your position and influence
are such as to give especial weight to whatever you may do in behalf
of good order and the progress of Christian culture.

With great respect, yours sincerely,

N. G. CLARK.

(As an individual ; not in the name of
the Prudential Committee.)

To the Prudential Committee of the American Board at Boston^
Mass., U.S.A.

OsTEND, July 24, 1869.
Christian Friends, — On my leaving Constantinople, the 14th of
May last, the quarrel between your missionaries there and the
Evangelical Armenian community w^as at its height — the former, ia
the name and in behalf of the American Board, prosecuting, and the
latter defending themselves, in public Turkish tribunal. All my pre-
vious efforts to bring about a better and a Christian understanding
between these opposing parties not only failed, but was made the
occasion of, by your missionaries, to bring odium on my personal
character. Yet the interests at jeopardy in those quarrels being
most momentous, and being dearest to me, as they doubtless are to
the Christian heart everywhere, I was still desirous to find an expe-
diency by which time might be given to the enraged passions of the
parties to cool. It was then that the thought occurred to me that
you might do great good in this way, and very properly too, by
requesting the missionaries to suspend the proceedings they had

already commenced in your name, and bring the subject before you
for a bearing.

'With this view my message of the 20th of May was forwarded
you, the acknowledgment of the receipt of which was received by me
here the day before yesterday, in a letter of Dr. Clark, dated May 31st.
Although I do feel thankful to Dr. Clark for doing me the favour of
writing that long letter, and though the most of what he says is in
entire harmony with my own views, still I must confess that I
cannot see the relevance of the topics therein discussed to the subject
of my telegram.

It surprises and deeply pains me, my Christian friends, to learn
that, after the matter was brought before you so urgently, still you
found it to be your duty to allow the missionaries to continue to
pursue a course which in the judgment of ninety-nine per cent, of all
Evangelical Armenians (not mentioning the number of foreign Chris-
sians and the large body of most honourable men of every nationality
who were in sympathy with them in this matter) was most disastrous
to the missionary cause in Turkey. Dr. Clark in his letter remarks :
" The condition of our work at Constantinople has been a source of
great anxiety to me for years." And so, truly, he has reason to have
anxiety ; but can the anxiety of American Christians in behalf of a
people six thousand miles away be compared with the anxiety of that
people in its own behalf? What alarms our intelligent Christian
men in Turkey is, that whatever is and has for years been true for
Constantinople, is already partially true for every mission station
among the Armenians in Turkey; and unless the Christian world
begin to pray to God — and we were sure such a prayer would be
answered — that He would keep back from the interior of Turkey,
for fifty years at least, the great tide of education and intelligence
which is so rapidly flowing in now, it will be wholly true very soon.
And would not such a spectacle (may God divert it !) burn the heart
of every true Christian ?

Gentlemen, on these things you have the testimony of the mis-
sionaries alone. That is not enough. You must hear also whatever
intelligent Armenian Christians have to say about them. They are
most vitally interested in these affairs, and if they are refused to be
heard, the cause of Christ in Turkey will sustain irreparable injury.

In Turkey, among the Armenians, the American Board had a most
fruitful field for missionary labour, and hitherto God has blessed that
labour. Still the work is yet by no means done as it ought to be
done. To do it properly and well we must give up some of our pre-
judices. We must observe the signs of the times, and be willing to
learn something from the world. Now, what are the signs of the

times I refer to. Reform and liberty ! ! ! Hitherto the missionaries
have ruled like unconstitutional monarcbs ; and perhaps that way-
answered well in those days, but it will not answer now. Hitherto
the Churches have been under the complete control of the mis-
sionaries as our American slaves were under the control of their
masters ; and perhaps that state of things was a necessity then, but
surely it is not so now.

In one word, if you wish to see peace and prosperity in the mis-
sions in Turkey, curtail some of the powers of your Diissionaries, and
break ofif some of the links from the chain that has been binding the
Churches ever since their organization. Never allow any missionaries
to be put to rule over persons who are not only superior to himself
in age, but also in Christian experience, and many other talents*
Although your missionaries are now unanimous in defending what
was done on their side, yet I verily believe the recent crisis would
have been diverted if older, calmer, and more experienced men were
at the immediate head in the manaofement of the affairs.

I have written thus, dear friends, as a Christian man, frankly,
though very briefly and imperfectly, and pray that it may be read in
the same spirit in which it was written

S. M. MINASIAN.

To the Prudential Committee of the American Board, Boston, U.S.A.

OsTEND, Belgium, Aug. 6, 1869.

Dear Brethren, — Since I wrote you on the 24:th ult., I have
received two letters from the Churches in the neighbourhood of
Constantinople, and believing that, at a time like this, you would be
desirous of obtaining all the information you could in regard to the
difficulties between the missionaries and the Churches, I take the
liberty of translating and sending them to you, premising, however,
that I take no responsibility in the matter beyond thus making myself
the medium of transmission.

I remain most respectfully yours,

S. M. MINASIAN.

Mr. S. M. Minasian.

BAGHaEjiCK, July 5, 1869.

Dear Brother in Christ, — As it is already known to you, for
the past three years we have been without a minister of the Gospel to
preach in our village, and therefore were deprived of the blessings and
comforts which the Lord instituted should come through the preaching
of the Gospel of Christ.

But now, we thank the Lord that He has been pleased to grant us a
preacher in the person of brother Hohannes Bassian, This brother,
having laboured among us for a couple of months, we thought best to
engage for a year, and after that, if it pleased God, to settle him per-
manently as our pastor. We have also a teacher, who labours faith-
fully, we believe, for the spiritual as well as mental instruction of our
children, so they may, through the blessing of God, become useful in
the future.

For the present year, to support our preacher and teacher, we need
90^. j 60/. for the preacher, and 30/. for the teacher.

We tried to raise this amount without making application for it
to any friends outside, and to this end our ^brethren and sisters, all
with one heart, laboured, and the result was 60Z. only.

As it is well known to you, our principal business here is the raising
of silk cocoons, which business for several years past, as also the pre-
sent year, has not been successful, and it was on this account that our
efforts to raise the entire 90/. ourselves have failed.

Besides this, we have to raise 10/. for contingent expenses, also
114 pa's for Government taxes.

While we were meditating over these circumstances, our brother
Alexander, the Pastor of Adapazar Church, met us, and exhorted uS
not to be discouraged, reminding us that there were Christian friends,
such as Rev. Dr. Hamlin and Mr. Minasian, who felt interested in us,
and promised to aid us when we found a preacher.

Thus, dear brother, we are encouraged to apply to you to assist us
in the support of the Gospel institution in this village, and hope our
application will meet with your approval.

We also make known to you, with deep sorrow, that for several
years there have been differences between the Rev. Mr. Parsons, the
missionary of the American Board here, and ourselves, concerning the
manner of working for spreading the kingdom of Christ in our midst.
We applied to the Missionary Committee at Constantinople to send
one here to investigate the matter, and mark out a course in which we
can all work together in harmony. But the Committee at Constanti-
nople have not given any importance to our application. We there-
fore thought it best, feeble though we are, to work alone, and inde-
pendently of the missionaries in the kingdom of God in this land,
hoping and praying that the Lord may strengthen us for His glory.

With earnest prayer we remain, yours, in behalf of all Evangelical
Armenians at Baghgejick.

MINAS SEPETJIAN, ^

TOROS MINASIAN,

Committee

VAHAN DAIYAN,

of the

GARABED SINASIAN,

Church.

HOHAXNES TAYITIAN.

HOHANNES CANDANIAN, ^

SDEPHAN TOPOOSIAN,

Committee

SARKIS PANOSIAN,

1 of the

SDEPHAN ARABIAN,

Society.

HARGOP GOBELIAN. J

Mr. S. 31. Minasian.

RoDOSTO, July 17, 1869.

Dear Sir, — On the 3rd inst. there arrived here the missionaries,
Rev. Messrs. Schauffler and Baldwin, and on the 8th they returned to
Constantinople. During the stay of these brethren with us we treated
them with all the hospitality, civility, and kmdness possible.

They first spoke privately with me and a few brethren, and la-
boured hard with threats and promises to induce us to repudiate the
action of the Ecclesiastical Council convened at Constantinople the
19th of April last, and also to disapprove the letter sent by that
Council to the Prudential Committee. But to do this we considered
wrong, and contrary to our conscience.

In the evening of the 6th instant, the missionaries begged me to call
a general meeting of the Church, which I did ; but only seven members
(that is only the half of the Church) being present, of course no business

could be lawfully transacted, and so our brethren declared to the
missionaries. But they persisted in their efforts to persuade the
brethren present to act as a lawful meeting, and repudiate the action
of the Council above referred to, and recall the letter to the Prudential
Committee ; but the brethren evidently opposed them, saying there is
not a quorum present for transacting business, and as to repudiating
the action of the Constantinople Council, it is childish, wrong, and
against our conscience. Finding that they could accomplish nothing
in this way, the young missionaries became angry, and venting the
severity of their anger on myself, gave, in a paper signed by Mr.
Schaufiler, the following condemnatory decision in regard to myself :

'* The mind of Pastor Abraham, in regard to our missionary work,
policy, and principles, is so much at enmity, and his want of confidence
in us is so great, that before it becomes altogether changed we hasten
to declare that we cannot have intercourse with him as missionaries any
longer ; and that in regard to his salary we will not be able to assist.

" H. SCHAUFFLER."

Against this action I sent a protest to the Missionary Committee
ad interim at Constantinople, of which I send you a copy, and beg that
you will be pleased to draw the attention of American Christians to the
grievous wrongs done to a poor minister of the Gospel of Christ in
Turkey. Our Church and brethren unite with me in regards to you.

I remain sincerely yours,

PASTOE ABRAHAM.

Another friend at Constantinople writes : " Letters from Nicomidia
this week mention that Mr. Parsons presented a paper to the Church
there, requesting them to sign it, repudiating certain articles published
in regard to the missionaries, otherwise all assistance to them will be
cut off. The same thing was done to the Church at Rodosto."

S. M, Minasian, Esq.

Missionary House, Boston, August 13, 1869.

My dear Sir, — Your favour of July 24 has come to hand. I am
sorry to find that our action and the contents of my letter are not
agreeable to you. In regard to your telegram, I ought to say that we
did not understand its purport till your letter came, and it was then
too late to stay proceedings in the courts, even if we had thought it
best to do so. As the result showed, the seizure of our property was

D 2

an unjustifiable act of violence on tlie part of a portion of the Vlanga
Church, and it could only have delayed justice to have had any inter-
position on our part.

The tyranny of which you complain is something I do not under-
stand. The object of the missionary at any point is to develop and
establish an independent, self-supporting, self-governing Church, and
then to leave it to itself and go elsewhere. His power and authority
cease the moment the Church is able to take care of itself. While it
depends on him for the support of its pastor or its schools, it is but
just that he should have a voice in its affairs, and not expend money
for men or schools which he does not approve of. He will advise
with the people and consult their wishes so far as possible. He will
put all the responsibilities on them he can in order to prepare them to
act for themselves just as soon as possible. This is our policy, and so
we instruct all our missionaries. How such difficulty can arise as at
Constantinople is a great surprise to me.

Will you have the kindness to tell me just what you want — just what
manner of conducting the missionary work would please you and those
who sympathize with you, and are opposed to the missionaries?

You complain bitterly, but I really do not know what you want.
Excuse my frankness, but I am anxious for light.

Sincerely yours,

N. C. CLARK.

To the Prudential Committee of the A.B., Mission House, Boston,
Mass., U.S.A.

Paris, September 2, 1869.

Dear Friends, — The last note which I addressed you was dated
August 6. Since then, a few days ago, I had the pleasure of receiving
your favour of the 13th August. You wish me to state to you "just
what manner of conducting the missionary work would please me and
those who sympathize with me." I fear you do not understand exactly
the nature of the relation I sustain towards the missionaries and the
people among whom they labour.

I always prided myself that I belonged to neither party, and thought
that my peculiar position enabled me to see the errors as well as the
excellencies of both. It is not I who am discontented with the manner
in which the missionary work is conducted — the people sympathizing
with me, as you suppose, for the acts of the missionaries can in no wise
affect me; but it is tlie inople who feel themselves oppressed and
wronged by their acts. The expression of those feelings may be found
in the frequent commotions between the missionaries and the Churches ;

the more intelligence in the Church, the louder and more frequent the
complaint. My frequent opportunities of observation convince me that
in this thing they are right ; and must I suppress or withhold my
sympathy from a people in that condition ? It will be " woe " unto me
if I do.

It requires a free talk and various explanations to make the state of
affairs somewhat plain ; but as we have not that opportunity now, and
as you are " anxious for light," I take the hberty to present the follow-
ing statements on the subject : —

First. In the recent controversy with the missionaries I had only one
issue with them, and that was on a most vital principle — the freedom of the
Churches from outside interference — a principle absolutely indispensable
for making the Evangelical Churches throughout Turkey self-supporting
and self-propagating, and the violation of which, no matter on what
grounds, and with what amount of pure and good motives, will bring
distortion over those Churches; and thence the great end aimed at by the
Christian Churches of America, with much prayer, through forty years of
patient, faithful, and self-denying labours, and with the expenditure of
much treasure, will fail to be accomplished. It would be far better
for the Churches to be entirely free and make many mistakes than to
be interfered with. It is always between two evils men have to choose
in this imperfect world. It may seem presumptuous in me to speak of
freedom to the free Churches of America. Yet, after being a most
close observer of, and a most deeply interested party for more than
twenty-five years in, what has been going on in connexion with the
missionary work in Turkey, I cannot speak differently.

Second. The course pursued by your missionaries is in violation of
just this principle spoken of. They virtually say to the needy Churches :
" Obey' us, and do as we say, even to the selection of your pastor, else
we do not help you." But in the recent case not only did they say this
to the Ylanga Church, but went beyond it. Several months before
Pastor Sdepan was elected to have the temporary charge of the
Ylanga Church, he started a meeting at Ortakeuy, one of the most
important suburbs of Constantinople of a very large Armenian popula-
tion, where any missionary work had never before been done. One
day he invited all the missionaries of Constantinople, besides the Rev.
I. Gr. Bliss, Dr. Hamlin, and myself, to a meeting to advise whether it
was best for him to continue to labour at Ortakeuy, and whether the
Mission or individual Christians would sustain him pecuniarily in that
work, or to receive any other advice the meeting might give him.
The meeting was convened; the Rev. Messrs. Riggs, Bliss, Trow-
bridge, Hamlin, and myself, being present, and, after some dehberation,
gave to Pastor Sdepan substantially the following advice : —

" The Mission, in times past, hired individuals to labour as evange-
lists in certain localities ; but that plan is now abandoned, the present
plan being to help the Churches, and let them undertake to do the
missionary work of their districts. But as to yourself, there are the
Ylanga and Adrianople Churches, both in need of a pastor; you may go
to them and see, perhaps they will give you a call." It seems, how-
ever, that several members of the Ylanga Church were already at this
time trying to persuade him to accept a call from their Church if it
were offered him.

These brethren, who I understand take sides now with the mission-
aries, unanimously voted with the Church for Pastor S., and up to the
last were among his most ardent supporters. It is further testified
that some time previous the missionaries, in urging the Ylanga Church
to call a pastor, suggested among other candidates Pastor Sdepan.
But when the Ylanga Church, in a regular meeting, by a unanimous
vote, elected Pastor S., and notice of it was given to the missionaries,
they sent word to the Church to the following effect — viz.: "We
decline to assist you to support Pastor S., because we are well convinced
that his labours over the Churches of this capital will not be productive
of good, and that our co-operation with him will be impossible."

This message was not taken very pleasantly by the Church, and she
began to show signs of insubordination. But still, had the missionaries
stopped there, the thing might have been arranged and the crisis
averted ; but they were inconsiderate, and went beyond, and when the
Church, after considering their message, informed them that they had
concluded to take the entire responsibility of the support of their
pastor upon themselves rather than give up their choice, the mission-
aries brought a further and entirely unexpected pressure upon her in
order thus to compel her to submit, saying : " The Ylanga Chapel is
our property, and no man has the right to preach there without our
consent. We do not consent to the preaching of Pastor S. there.''
At the same time they applied to the civil authorities to keep Pastor
S. from entering the chapel. The civil authorities considered it be-
yond the range of their power or duty to interfere in keeping a man
from peaceably entering a church edifice opened for public service,
much less to prevent a minister from entering the edifice where his
Church is assembled ; but, wishing to make peace, proposed to have a
neutral person preach until the matter between the parties could be
amicably arranged.

But the missionaries would not consent to this, because Pastor S»
would be present in the chapel as a mere hearer. I may here remark
that the men of Turkey, though we might wish them to be, are not
exceptions to, but of like passions with men everywhere. It was a

wrong accusation the missionaries brought forward that the people
were seizing their property. The Ylanga Church, in concert with
the Protestant community in and around Constantinople, merely acted
on the principle that they had the right to continue to hold their
services in the chapel which they had been^occupying by a common
consent for the last seventeen years, until they received proper notice
and time to quit. But the missionaries, instead of giving this notice,
hastily, and without any warning, repaired to the place, discharged the
people's school, nailed up the schoolroom, removed the family from
the premises against their entreaties, called in the police to take away
from the chapel a man who happened to be there, and locked up the
building ; and, when they were remonstrated with for acting so rashly
and unlawfully, declared, "We are foreigners, and not subject to
Turkish law." Were they justified in thus acting? And were there
no other considerations but the ownership of the property by which
the Protestants of Stamboul, in the presence of their unsympathizing
neighbours, could claim the right to be treated decently in this matter
by the missionaries ?

Third. Turkey is not a missionary ground now in the sense that she
was forty years ago. There is a people there now compared with
which no other people in the world appreciate more the principles and
privileges of the Gospel, to secure which they have been made to suffer
" the loss of all things." To sustain and perpetuate the institution of
that Gospel is not only their sincere desire, but it is also to their
interest. In this work they have many wants, and they need ask the
sympathy and aid of their more favoured fellow-Christians and the
Christian Churches in other lands; being convinced and desirous,
however, that aid should be granted on the simple ground of their
being of the body of the Church of Christ, founded on his pure Gospel,
and sincerely seeking to spread that Gospel, believing that their end,
and the end of the Christians who help them, would be best secured if
no other conditions were imposed upon them, The foreign missionary
should never exercise " power and authority " over the Church because
'' it depends on him for the support of its pastor or its schools ;"
that is, not any more power than the home missionary exercises over
feeble Churches in the West which he aids.

I have merely touched on the above points with the sincere desire
to draw your patient and earnest attention to the grave questions under
consideration ; and hoping that some means might be found by which
harmony and co-operation between the missionaries and the Churches
may be established, I remain, most respectfully, yours,

S. M. MIN^ASIAN.

To the Prudential Committee of the A.B., Boston^ Mass., U.S.A.

Paeis, November 5, 1869.

Dear Friends, — Since I addressed you my last communication I
have received two letters, one from Pastor Thomas, of Diarbekir, and
the other from Pastor Simon, of Constantinople ; and I herewith take
the liberty to send the translations of them to you, thinking that, con-
sidering their position and their labour in the missionary work in Turkey
for a quarter of a century or more, you would be glad to have their
views touching the state of that work.

I also enclose the copy of the letter I wrote to Rev. Mr. Washburn,
at Constantinople, on receiving the report of the recent investigating
committee there.

Respectfully yours,

S. M. MPSTASIAN.

P.S. — It is very much to be regretted that such an unguarded
report* as I have just read was published by the A.B. concerning the
recent difficulties at Constantinople. I presume that report was prepared
before full and more correct information as to the actual causes and
the nature of the difficulty had reached the Missionary House, otherwise
the case would not have been so painfnlly misrepresented.

It not only does extreme injustice to earnest Christian men who
honestly differed with the missionaries and remonstrated with them, but
also does injury to the cause of truth and religion. For the sake of all
I hope in some way it may be rectified.

S. M. M.

* Extract frora the Annual Report of the American Board, 1869. — "At Constan-
tinople the missionaries have been greatly tried by the conduct of a portion of the
Protestant community. The motives and conduct of the missionaries in endea-
vouring to raise them to independence and to the support of their own institutions
at the earliest practical moment have not been properly appreciated, and secret
and open enemies of the truth have improved the occasion to embarrass our work.
The experience of the early Churches as recorded in the Acts and the Epistles of
the New Testament finds renewed and painful illustration at Constantinople.
Happily, the difficulties thus referred to are thus far wholly confined to the
capital and its immediate neighbourhood."

M7\ S, M. Minasian.

Constantinople, Oct. 8, 1869.

Dear Brother in Christ, — I need not describe to you now the

recent events that have taken place here, as by this time you must
have received sufficient information in regard to them. It is not pos-
sible to foretell what the effect of these events will be for the future,
but thus far they have been injurious beyond measure, and if things
continue in this way all hope for our work, at least in this capital, is
terminated. Truly it has been a question of life and death to the
Churches, and whatever little ray of light has been dimly shining has
almost died out; and it only remains, it seems, for us to mourn in
solitude over ourselves and our Churches, waiting for the omnipotent
power of God to appear. Of course, this state of things has a double
effect upon me. It is in itself a solemn and bitter thing to see scattered
and in great danger the flock which God has committed to my un-
worthy care, and over which I have tenderly watched for the last
twenty-five years, under circumstances of much trial and hardships of
every kind.

Is it possible for a pastor to become a spectator of such a scene
without having the greatest anguish of heart ? Experience alone can
answer the question.

This event has also a pecuniary effect of the hardest kind upon me.

I have spent more than a quarter of a century of my life in this
work, all my powers, feelings, and desires have been nourished in it,
and now I am compelled to give up this chosen work and calling, and
at my present age run about like a young man of twenty in search of
secular employment to support my wife and children. If it was an
enemy who had given us this stroke it would certainly have been
severe and unbearable ; but now our hearts lie in more bitter and
amazing sorrow because it was our brethren and our considered bene-
factors who have done it, those who were expressly sent to do us good,
and from whom we certainly had the right to expect better things.

Alas 1 for the severe toils of many years. Alas ! that the glorious
cause of Christ, which had been secured only through a death-like
struggle, has to be sacrificed to the passions of a few inexperienced
men.

I have this painful news to communicate, dear brother, to you :
the work for and in Constantinople is terminated.

May God save his cause in other places from coming to this most
fearful and solemn end.

PASTOR SIMON.

S. M. Minasian, Esq.,

DiARBEKiR, September 9, 1869.

Dear Brother, — Under the shadow of his wings, God has
brought us safely home again. The brethren, about 2,000 in number,
had come out of the city to meet us, and received us witii great
joy. Truly during these four years of separation their love for me
had increased tenfold, notwithstanding the incessant efforts of the
missionaries to induce them to discard me, saying to them that
would never return, or, if I did, would not be suited for them,
(fcc, &c. The people were well convinced, however, that the cause of
the opposition of the missionaries was that their Pastor did
not obey them blindly ; they would have the Church leave me and
take such an one in my place as would submit to all their require-
ments without complaint. But now, as I have returned, they cannot
find further fault with me on that ground, but still they seem
determined to trouble this people and myself in another way. Our
present meeting-house was purchased about ten years ago, for £1,000
Turkish, equal to 4,400 dollars. Of this amount the people here
paid £300, of the balance the missionaries collected from Christians
in America £420, and they also received from the funds of the
American Board £280 — the last-mentioned sum, however, was
received as an advanced rent for use of the building by the Mission,
and was to be liquidated by deducting from it so much every year as
a rent. On my return here we wished the deeds of the premises, in
order that we might commence our preparations to erect the new
church edifice. They replied that they would not give it to us, unless
we would pay for it. A few brethren and myself then went to see
Mr. Williams and his associates, and tried to arrange the matter
amicably with them. In order to settle the thing peaceably and har-
moniously, we were willing to make even sacrifices if need be, and to
this end offered to pay for their claim £150, in six equal annual
instalments, with the endorsements of our brethren. To this arrange-
ments Mr. Williams with his associates agreed perfectly, and seemed
to feel rejoiced, too, that the matter was arranged in harmony and
friendship, and said they would write to the missionaries at Kharpoot
about it. They did so, and the answer was that they would not
consent to the arrangement to give us the deeds unless we paid the
£150 cash down. We applied again to Mr. Williams and the
Kharpoot missionaries. It is now about six months since writing to
the former, and it seems that they do not consider our letter even
deserving an answer. From the Kharpoot missionaries we heard, and

they answer as before, insisting on the payment of the ^150 cash
down, or we cannot have the deeds. They know very well that the
brethren are not able to raise that amount for them now, as they will
have to raise several hundred pounds before the building is finished,
bat still they persist in their demand, and in this way prevent us from
commencing our work. While I was in America I was told that the
buildings purchased for the people would be given to them ; the same
thing was repeated to me by the officers of the A.B. at the ministers'
meeting at Dr. Crosby's house in New York. Now we are not
asking any gift from the missionaries, we are offering payment and
security, but they refuse to accommodate or give us their encourage-
ment. Through all this summer we held our meetings in the open
air, exposed to the heat and the dust, and now as the rainy season is
approaching we know not where we can flee to. The present building
is in an upper story 24 steps high, and far too small for the congrega-
tion, and I have fears also that it may some time give way, and
endanger the lives of the people.

It seems strange to our people here that the missionaries should
thus be the first to throw obstacles in the way, even before the Turks
had commenced doing so. If you can find some way, through the
Prudential Committee or otherwise, to deliver us from this embar-
rassing condition, you will accomplish great good. The condition of
our people here is a difficult one. They raise annually more than
£300 for their expenses, and considering their means, they all
contribute liberally, and with much self-denial. Our work here is
quite extensive, and in a few weeks the brethren are going to call in
an assistant pastor. We have four schools ; two — one for boys and
one for girls — have recently opened, in which the higher branches of
studies will be taught. In the boys' school the English and Turkish
languages are also taught, and both schools are in a prosperous con-
dition. It is hard to see so promising a field before us, and yet be
prevented from fully entering into it for want of adequate means. We
need school-books, maps, and various instruments, but cannot get
them.

The missionaries in these parts, especially those of Kharpoot, are
exercising extraordinary oppression over the people. Often, in order
to continue to hold their rule over the Churches, they put uneducated
and unsuitable persons as pastors over them, and in this way our
people are falling into new kinds of errors and superstitions. I had
often said, and am obliged to say still, that if things continue in this
state these organized Churches will be ruined, and the missionaries
with us all will view in sorrow their ruin.

I presume you have heard of the result of the recent events at
Constantinople.

The missionaries say there is no work in Constantinople.

There are three Churches there, with each of which they are
quarrelling. Let us pray that God may come to the rescue of his
glorious cause.

I remain, sincerely yours, &c.,

PASTOR THOMAS.

Bev. G, Washburn.

Paris, September 19, 1869.

Dear Brother, — I am really glad for the turn the affairs in
Constantinople have lately taken. The recent conference between
the missionaries and the Churches, and the appointment of the
commission to investigate the difficulties, were certainly steps towards
important reform long needed.

I would also, as the commission did, express thanksgiving for the
calmness and brotherly courtesy with which its deliberations were
characterized, and for the impartiality and consideration, too, with
which its opinions were declared and its recommendations made. I
trust the improvement thus begun in the mutual relation between the
missionaries and the Churches will be gradually extended, so that the
evangelical work throughout Turkey may keep pace with the increasing
intelligence and otherwise changed and reformed condition of thti
country. The long-existing state of the affairs in connexion with the
missionary work in Turkey, as you know, has often been to many of
the best friends of the cause of Christ there a cause of query whether
Protestantism as a distinct organization should be longer kept up, and
also if the ascendancy gained in the religious reformation in Turkey by
the Christian Churches of America would or should longer continue.
If we must take the affirmative side of these queries, it would neces-
sitate the introduction of some important changes in the mode of
missionary operations in Turkey.

The status of the native labourer with the missionary must be raised,
his importance and equality to the missionary in the work must be
practically acknowledged. The missionary should not be able to say
to a native pastor, who, feeling his ministerial character injured by the
former's official acts, appeals to him for redress : " There is no hope of
redress for you this side of the water — as for my official acts, even if
they injure your character, I am responsible only to my Board, six

thousand miles away." Neither should he be again permitted to say
to a Church: "Your pastor or delegate in an Ecclesiastical Council of
your sister Churches voted unfavourably to \m, therefore you must
repudiate his acts, else, as we are the keepers and distributors of the
money, we cannot conscientiously assist you to sustair the institution
of the Gospel in your midst."

This state of things ought to be changed, and I trust, as the com-
mission respectfully recommends, the American Board will send " a
deputation to Turkey to visit the Churches, confer personally with the
brethren, examine the present state of the work, and fix upon the
principles upon which the missionaries and the Churches are to labour
together."

I am not in favour of inciting a subject people to opposition, yet I
hold that when they want or ask for liberty it must be granted.
The very fact of their asking for it proves that they appreciate and
are prepared to enjoy it. May God grant us all the spirit of
humility, so that we may daily ask, " Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do?"

I remain, yours, etc.,

S. M. MTNASIAK.

DATE DUE

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