When Moslems pray they pray towards Arabia under the rule of the sultan, and when they think of their holy prophet their minds turn to the relics at Constantinople. In the face of these facts, it requires no demonstration to show that Constantinople and the Turkish empire constitute the political and religious center of Islam. Other countries may be important, this is supreme. Mecca and Medina cannot yet be entered, but Constantinople and all the rest of the Turkish empire is, by treaty, accessible for residence to the Christian of every race and name. To begin mission work here was to start at the fountainhead. The fact that Christian preachers and teachers are permitted to reside at Constantinople and freely preach their faith, cannot but have favorable influence over intolerant Moslems in remote parts. They all have faith in the power of the sultan as well as in his supreme wisdom. If _he_ permits this, why should _they_ object? In several instances in India, when the writer was conversing with Mohammedans, it was almost amusing to see the keen interest they manifested in the progress of Christianity in Turkey. They were ignorant but were ready to listen, and undoubtedly went away to ponder upon what they had heard. Evidently one thing that impressed them was that while the sultan of Turkey is a mighty ruler he does not prohibit the teaching of Christianity, even within the Throne City. If he does not prohibit it, perhaps it is not so bad a religion after all. It is also of no little value to print and send out from Constantinople large quantities of Turkish literature, and from Beirut, Arabic literature, the two languages which are most widely read by the Mohammedans. Every volume thus printed bears the stamp of approval by the government of his imperial majesty the sultan, assuring all who read that the book was issued with his sanction and authority. Under these circumstances a publishing house at Constantinople is calculated, by its very location, to reach millions who might otherwise refuse to read what is printed. In Arabia an Arabic Bible, at first rejected because it is an infidel book, is later accepted because it bears upon its title page the authoritative permission of his imperial majesty. As a strategic center for Christian work, calculated directly and indirectly to reach the two hundred and thirty million who bear the name of the prophet of Arabia, there is no place that can compare with Constantinople, resting upon two continents and swaying the most mighty religious empire on earth. X. SOCIAL, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS