History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume II.Anderson, Rufus
Religion
History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume II.
Anderson, Rufus
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; Missions -- Eastern churches
On the 15th of November, 1866, Mrs. Adams died at Aintab, of
consumption, much lamented.[1] Mr. Richardson, on his return from
America, joined the Broosa station. Mr. Williams was then alone amid
the multitudes using the Arabic that centered around Mardin and
Mosul; and Mr. Walker was the only missionary at Diarbekir, with at
least a thousand towns and villages in his district. Yet it was a
year of decided progress in Turkey. The missionary force received an
unwonted accession in the years 1866 and 1867. Five ordained married
missionaries arrived in the last of these years, namely, Messrs.
Henry T. Perry, Theodore Baldwin, Henry S. Barnum, Charles C. Tracy,
and Lyman Bartlett, with as many unmarried female assistant
missionaries,--Misses Roseltha A. Norcross, Mary E. Warfield,
Harriet Seymour, Sarah Ann Closson, and Mary G. Hollister. Mr. Henry
O. Dwight, son of the distinguished missionary, Dr. H. G. O. Dwight,
arrived at Constantinople as secular agent, with his wife, a
daughter of Dr. Bliss. Miss Mary D. Francis arrived in 1866, and was
afterwards married to Mr. Adams.
[1] See _Missionary Herald_ for 1867, p. 98.
Among other signs of progress was the increase of newspapers in
Constantinople, and one or two other cities of Turkey. In
Constantinople, five years before, a newspaper was rarely seen in
the hands of any one of the thousands of persons passing up or down
the Bosphorus and Golden Horn in the steamers which take the place
of the street cars of Boston or New York. Now it had become a common
sight, and newsboys thronged the thoroughfares with their papers, in
Turkish and other languages. The standard of journalism was not
high, but the thoughts of men were stirred. The influence of these
papers was generally adverse to the missionary work. Partly to
counteract this influence, the missionaries published, once a
fortnight, a small newspaper called the "Avedaper," or "Messenger."
It appeared alternately in the Armenian and Armeno-Turkish
languages, and had fifteen hundred subscribers scattered over
Turkey. Mr. E. E. Bliss, the editor, estimated the aggregate of
readers at ten thousand. One incident may illustrate its influence.
A villager living on the Taurus Mountains was so impressed with one
of the sententious speeches of President Lincoln, translated in the
paper, that he committed the whole to memory, that he might teach to
others its lessons of "malice toward none, and charity to all."[1]
[1] _Missionary Herald_, for 1867, p. 82.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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