Much has also been accomplished in the line of self-propagation and aggressive Christian work. Various organizations of native Christian leaders, like the Bithynia Union of Western Turkey, organized in 1864, the Harpoot Evangelical Union organized in 1865, the Cilicia Union of Central Turkey, and similar organizations in Marsovan and in Bulgaria, as well as in other places, have rendered loyal service in the work of evangelization. These Unions have cooperated with the missionaries in aggressive operations as well as in the direction and supervision of the churches already organized. Their annual meetings have been marked events in the history of the churches. In these the missionaries are only honorary members, the native brethren taking the burden of responsibility. In some of the Unions, as at Harpoot in Eastern Turkey, a committee is annually appointed to cooperate during the year with the missionaries in looking after and directing work in the churches and schools as well as in planning and executing general evangelistic movements. What the native churches are doing in the line of expansion is best exhibited in the Koordistan Missionary Society which had its beginning nearly forty years ago in the Harpoot Evangelical Union. This society was formed for the purpose of carrying the gospel and the advantages of a Christian education to the Koordish speaking Armenians who dwelt in the heart of Koordistan between the Harpoot, Mardin, and Bitlis stations of the Board. Funds were collected, visitations made, and promising Koordish speaking students from that country were brought to Harpoot and educated at the expense of that society and later returned to their people as teachers and preachers. As the work enlarged, evangelical churches in other parts of the country joined in the enterprise until it has come to be recognized as a work belonging to evangelical Armenians wherever found. Many Armenians in the United States have liberally contributed to sustain this society. The Armenians give freely for any Christian work that appeals to their national pride or that takes hold upon their sympathies. In more recent times the alumni and students of Euphrates College who have gone to England or come to this country have contributed for providing scholarships in that institution for the education of poor but deserving students. While some are endowing scholarships, others propose to provide permanent professorships in the college. All this is additional evidence that, the Armenians once assured of safety to life and property, the Christian educational work in Turkey will speedily become largely, if not entirely, self-supporting. The Greeks, among whom much less work is carried on, would not fall behind in self-support. XXII. INDUSTRIAL AND RELIGIOUS CHANGES In the year 1860, in a public address in the city of London, the Earl of Shaftesbury paid the following tribute to the character of the American missionaries in Turkey:—