The department of the Minister of Police

Let, then, a respectable and trustworthy person, acceptable to and chosen by themselves, from among their own number, be appointed, with the title of “ Agent of the Protestants,” who shall be attached to the department of the Minister of Police.

It shall be the duty of the Agent to have under his charge the register of the members of the community, which shall be kept at the police. The Agent shall cause to be registered therein all births and deaths in the community. All applications for passports and marriage licenses, and special transactions of the community, that are to be presented to the Sublime Porte, or to any other department,” must be given under the official seal of this Agent.

For the execution of my will, this, my Roval Mandate and August Command, has been specially issued and granted from my Imperial chancery.

Hence, thou, the minister above named, in accordance with the explanations given, will execute to the letter the preceding ordinance; except> that, as the collection of capitation tax, and the delivery of passports are subjected to specific regulations, you will not do any thing contrary to them. You will not permit any thing to be required of them, on pretense of fees or expenses, for marriage licenses or registration.

Other communities

You will see to it that, like the other communities of the Empire, in all their affairs, and in all matters appertaining to their cemeteries and places of worship, they should have every facility and needed assistance. You will not permit that any of the other communities should in any way interfere with their rites, or with their religious concerns; and, in short, in no wise with any of their affairs, secular or religious; that thus they may be enabled to exercise the usages of their faith in security.

And it is enjoined upon you not to allow “them to be molested an iota in these particulars, or in any others, and that all attention and perseverance be put in requisition to maintain them in quiet and security. And in case of necessity, they are permitted to make representations regarding their affairs through their Agent to the Sublime Porte.

Visit at Auburn Theological Seminary

CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 1865.

From Chicago he went to visit a brother in Wisconsin, stopping often by the way, going and returning, to address numerous assemblies. His visit at Auburn Theological Seminary, in returning, will long be remembered by those who were students at the time, as if it had been a call from one of the patriarchs. He addressed them in their public gathering, and conversed personally with several who had a missionary life in view. He went thence to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, in which he had ever taken a deep interest; and in New York City was once more at home with the beloved friend of his youth, and the son of his honored preceptor, Rev. William Adams, D.D.

He spent a day at the residence of Bev. S. Irenaeus Prime, D.D., on the Hudson, who made the following mention of the visit in the “ New York Observer,” of Nov. 30, 1865: —

“ It is only in idea that I write by the fireside. In these warm Indian summer days, the fire has gone out, and if there were any leaves on the trees I would go out too. One of these delightful genial days has been spent with a venerable and lovely old man from a far country, long known to the religious world as one of our missionaries at Constantinople. Twelve years ago I sat with him in his house on the Bosphorus, and was now glad to welcome him to mine on the Hudson.

Dartmouth College

“ Seventy-three years ago William Goodell was born in Templeton, Mass. He grew up to boyhood there, and at Phillips Academy in Andover was prepared for college. While here his uncle, Solomon Goodell, sent to the principal, Mr. Adams, to ask if the boy was ‘ worth raising and learning that he was, the good uncle sent him a yoke of fat oxen ‘ to draw him over the hills of learning.’ From Andover he went to Dartmouth College, graduating in 1817, and then to Andover Theological Seminary, where he completed his course in 1820. During these years of study, a young man by the name of Temple was his room-mate, and afterwards his fellow-missionary to the East: the distinguished Daniel Temple, of the Smyrna mission, who returned to this country a few years ago in feeble health, and died. It so occurred in providence that Dr. Goodell arrived here on a visit just in time to preach the funeral sermon of his old chum and lifelong friend.

Still jealous over its Mohammedan subjects

Humayoun was promulgated, direct efforts toward the evangelization of the Mussulman population of Turkey were undertaken. These efforts were, of necessity, more quietly made than in the case of the other nationalities. The Turkish government was still jealous over its Mohammedan subjects, and any thing like the noise of a revolution, even of a religious revolution, was peculiarly distasteful to the ruling powers. The Turks are not only strongly conservative, but they particularly dislike any movement that is demonstrative. As Dr. Goodell wrote at one time, “ they would rather thousands of Turks should be converted than that any noise should be made about it.” The circulation of the Bible among the Mussulmans went steadily on, and Mohammedans dropped in occasionally to hear the Gospel preached. In October, 1859, Dr. Goodell wrote: —

“ Within the last five or six years, several hundred copies of the Holy Scriptures every year have been sold to the Turks. The history of these we never knew; but we now begin to find among the Turks those who really seem to be Bible Christians, spiritually minded, who. with no teacher but the Bible, have become wise unto salvation.

Drop down upon us abundantly

How many minds are thus awakened, and how many hearts are thus affected, it is impossible at present to say. We are told of thousands; but if they be counted only by hundreds, or even scores, it is still a great work. Facts are coming to our knowledge every day that fill us with astonishment. It really seems as though the heavens were about to drop down upon us abundantly. A nephew of one of the pashas here, who lives with his uncle, and who was educated by him to be one of the four great Mollas of the empire, is a candidate for Christian baptism.”

More than twenty Mussulmans had been baptized at Constantinople, and one of these, Selim Effendi, who had taken as his Christian name Edward Williams, was licensed to preach the Gospel. This work was going quietly on, the American missionaries all pursuing the line of policy which Dr. Goodell had strenuously advised from the very beginning of his work at the Turkish capital, that of avoiding collision with and opposition from the authorities, civil or religious.

Anchor in the Golden Horn

The following correspondence, though chiefly personal, will be read with no less interest on that account: —

BEBEK, Feb. 3, 1860.

DEAR BROTHER GOODELL, — Do you remember February 3d, 1839? It had been a snowy day and night on the 2d. We cast anchor in the Golden Horn late in the evening of the 2d, and I went up on deck and could see nothing but straggling lights. Early in the morning I was up, and all the roofs were covered with snow, although it was not extremely cold. Henrietta came up and asked, “Is this Constantinople?” But after we had looked round in all directions we agreed that it was “ beautiful for situation,” — a truly glorious city.

Mr. Homes came in a caique, and we recognized him from his portrait, which we had seen at his father’s. We came ashore with him. Oh what mud and slosh! We were glad to reach Father Goodell’s house twenty-one years ago this morning. Belle and Mary were little bits of girls, and William and Constantine were little boys, and II. was only in the decrees. What changes of joy and grief! What heart-breaking sorrows, what long watchings, what days and hours of anxious suspense, what forebodings of coming ill, what anguish of heart at the bedside of suffering and death, and what peace and joy intermingled, have made this life a checkered scene! “ I would not live alway,” although I can sing of mercy as well as judgment.

Cassim Pasha

Not less strange have been the vicissitudes of our work. Freedom of conscience acknowledged in Turkey! Mussulmans baptized and preaching the Gospel in safety! Churches formed, churches built! Protestantism an acknowledged element of the empire! Unwilling ambassadors compelled to protect what they hate! “ Kings to shut their mouths!” God has truly done great things for us in these twenty-one years, since from that quiet room Henrietta and I used to look down upon Cassim Pasha and that part of the Golden Horn.

The next twenty-one years will see greater things than these, but ere that shall have passed we shall all, I trust, look down upon the events of time from Mount Zion above. Love to Mamma Goodell and all.

Yours truly,

C. HAMLIN.

HASS KEUY, Feb. 3, 18G0.

America was such a blessed country

I told him that it was out of my power to do any thing of the kind; and that, if I had the power, I should still not have the disposition; for that, as a general thing, it was much better for persons to be educated at home than abroad. At this he expressed the greatest disappointment, and said, America was such a blessed country, had prospered so many years without a king, and had such liberty and such privileges, that he must absolutely go there.

“ But there is a better country than that, I replied. America, good as it is, after all is not perfect; various evils exist there; some of the people there are proud, and some are selfish; briers and thorns grow there; the weather is sometimes too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry; there is more or less of poverty; sickness is found there; and there is a graveyard near every town. But in that better country of which I speak not a single one of all these evils exists; not a brier is found there; the inhabitants are, all of them, just as kind and benevolent as you could possibly wish them to be; no one there suffers want; no one —

“ But I want an education; are there any schools there?

“ There is not an uneducated person there, for every one is furnished with the very best of teachers free of cost, and, of course, can hardly fail of becoming learned in every department of knowledge. I was going to say that there is not a single pauper there; but, on the contrary, every one is rich; that no one there ever lies down and says, ‘ I am sick,’ but on the contrary, every one enjoys perfect health the whole year round; that though it has been long settled, no grave has ever yet been opened there, nor has any sign of death ever yet been seen there; and —

“ But where is that country? Is it beyond? — no, it cannot be beyond America, for that is Tchin me Tchin (China).

“ No, it is not beyond America, nor is it exactly that way. But I was going to say that every man there is really like a king, and lives in a great palace, and abounds with every comfort.

“ But where is that country?

“ Have you never read any thing of it?

“ Never.

“ Have you never heard of it?

“ Never.

“ If 1 tell you where it is, will you begin to make immediate preparation to go there?

“ To be sure I will, but how much will it cost to get there?

“ Probably not so much as to go to America balkan tours 2019. To go to America will require, on the least calculation, from eighty to one hundred dollars; but 1 have known persons go to this ‘ better country ’ for less than half that sum. Indeed, the ruler of the country is so desirous to have emigrants come from every part of the world, that he offers to pay their passage, to take upon himself the whole charge of their getting there, and of making most handsome provision for them after their arrival.

“ But where is that country? Pray tell me.

The woman of Samaria

“ After giving him various descriptions of it, and finding he had no more spiritual understanding than the woman of Samaria, I at length told him it was the ‘ better country, even an heavenly.’ But even this Scripture expression he did not apprehend, and I had to tell him in plainest language that it was heaven itself. He immediately clapped his hands to his head in utter astonishment, as though the eyes of his understanding had been opened for the first time. After a few moments I continued, Will you go there? I have come to this country for no other purpose than to turn the attention of men to that, and to encourage and help them on their way by every means in my power. Will you go there, and be eternally rich and happy?

“He was still silent; and after a pause I added, When you lie down to-night, remember you have had an invitation io go to that blessed country, and the offer of having all your expenses paid. When you awake in the morning, let your first thought be on this subject; and delay not to make up your mind, whether you will go or not.

“ lie sat and thought, with his head down, and said little; and when he left he was followed by a prayer, that this strange conversation might be the means of waking up a new and sanctifying train of thought in the man’s mind. And let all to whom this story shall be told pray for the same thing.”

Music-book of Scotch church psalmody

To the REV. R. W. STEWART:

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR, — Your note from Malta, with the music-book of Scotch church psalmody, went by the way of Beyrout, and did not reach me till quite lately. As our eldest daughter has been at Broosa for a few weeks, we have as yet only tasted a wee bit of your sweet music; but we expect she will return next week, and then we intend to have a real feast, wishing you could be here at least for one evening to enjoy it with us.

Yours of August the 21st was received the 8th inst. And so, dear brother, the manse, that sweetest and happiest and most hallowed of all spots, is gone for ever! Well, you all have our tenderest sympathy, and, I may add, you all have our high veneration. Yes, we venerate those four hundred and seventy men of God who stood ready at the call of their Master to “ provide the creels again; ” and, leaving the manse, the glebe, the church, the stipend, all, to go forth, not knowing where they should erect their next altar or kindle their next hearthlires. Everlasting thanks to the great Head of the church that there are so many of this stamp in Scotland! — men of noble birth, who are born from above and belong to the royal family, and are jealous for the royal prerogatives, and who, suffering with their Prince here, shall soon sit down with Him on His throne, and reign with Him for ever.

Witnesses your Free Church

That memorable 18tli of May will never be forgotten. The world has seen nothing like it for at least two hundred years. With what a great cloud of witnesses your Free Church must have been surrounded, composed of those ancient, noble martyrs, confessors, and covenanters, of whom the world was not worthy! It does appear to me that the Lord is about to bless all Scotland with such a revival of pure and undefiled religion as has never yet been known there, and that the influence of this mighty movement of yours will be felt, not only in every part of England, but even to the uttermost parts of the earth. It is intimately connected with the light and liberty and glory of the Gospel of Christ, and the missionary spirit seems in a wonderful manner to pervade and sanctify it all.

Calling for special thanksgiving to God

I say nothing here of the great increase of enlightened Armenians, who may now, I suppose, be computed at some thousands. But, in the character of the work described above, is there not something very peculiar and striking, calling for special thanksgiving to God? It is not confined to children in school, who are out of the way of temptation and out of the war *? present usefulness, and of whose future exposures and apostasies there is just cause for apprehension. But the subjects of this work are men of present standing in society, already stemming the entire force of this world’s. dreadful current; already placed in their respective neighborhoods as so many distinct lights that burn and shine; already, like the angels to the wandering shepherds, reporting to their neighbors and friends the glad tidings of a great salvation for all people.

Nor is the work confined to those who are in our employ, or who are expecting some temporal advantage from us, and are thus willing to hear something about Christ for the sake of the loaves and fishes. But, on the contrary, as I have already said, it is almost exclusively confined to those who expect nothing but the Gospel, with persecution; who are known to us in no other way than as those who are ready to count all things but dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ; who always have to give, instead of receiving, not being able to come even once to us without making a sacrifice of time and money.

You would naturally suppose that the meetings on the Sabbath would be the best attended; but just the reverse is the case. The reason is that our hearers have nearly all of them turned preachers on that day. As it is a day of leisure with their friends and acquaintances, they improve the opportunity for making them acquainted with the Gospel; and in this work of faith and labor of love they have the divine blessing.

Yours,

W. GOODELL,

Old Testament into Armeno-Turkish

The translation of the Old Testament into Armeno-Turkish, having finished the New Testament before coming to Constantinople. This may be regarded as the great work of his life, especially as he devoted many subsequent years to its careful revision and perfection. This translation has been, and will long continue to be, the lamp of life to the millions of the Armenian nation. On the day that he completed this labor, he wrote to the Rev. S. H. Calhoun, then in the Levant, as the agent of the American Bible Society, under auspices of which this translation was given to the people of the East: —

Brighter even than the mid-day sun

Some of them represent the patriarch as holding a little taper in his hand to light them along, which, while the darkness continued, answered a good purpose; but now, the sun being up, the taper cannot be seen, while the patriarch still insists that they shall all turn away their eyes from the sun and walk by his taper, as heretofore. But a light from heaven, brighter even than the mid-day sun, may yet shine round about him, as it did about Paul, and bring him to renounce all the sparks of his own kindling for ever.

Sultan in obtaining a firman

“The Turkish book, of which much use has evidently been made against us, was published many years ago, and, I believe, at Astrachan. We have none of us ever seen it, though we have often heard of it. It is the same book which our enemies made use of with the Sultan in obtaining a firman against the Scriptures and all our tracts, fourteen or fifteen years ago, while I was in Syria. So the book, which has evidently contributed to stir up the Armenians, came overland all the way from India. Missionaries must remember that they are acting for those afar off as well as those that are near, and for future years as well as for the present time. Books may be useful in one place, while they would be very dangerous in another; nor can missionaries or their helpers always judge aright as to what is most important to be published to the world.

As missionary operations are extended and multiplied, and opposition to them is organized and strengthened, greater care than ever will be necessary in this respect; and the church should give her agents a special remembrance in her prayers in reference to this very thing. No missionary ‘ liveth unto himself,’ in a most emphatic sense. I am persuaded that we at Constantinople could at any time do that which would endanger every mission of every society^ in the whole Turkish empire; and all this without its seeming to our patrons at home that we had been guilty of any indiscretion.

Stoical indifference of the Mohammedans

The Greeks, Armenians, Jews, of Constantinople were far from regarding it with the stoical indifference of the Mohammedans. The disease was considered in the highest degree contagious, and its horrors were often aggravated by the terror and dread of each other, that seized upon these people whenever it made its appearance. If a person were attacked with the disease, neighbors and friends would remove to a distance, and not unfrequently he would be left to die unattended. When a death occurred, public porters, who were secluded from the rest of the community, came and took up the body, and cast it, unconfined and unattended, into a common pit.

As a consequence, during the greatest prevalence of the disease all missionary work among the people was suspended, the schools were closed to prevent its spread, and all ordinary intercourse was broken off. Even the missionaries established a rigid quarantine among themselves. None but the heads of the families were allowed to go into the street, lest in some unguarded way the infection should be brought into their homes. Each house had its closet or box in the yard for fumigating every one that entered. Not a parcel of any kind was handled until it had been thoroughly smoked.

Letters were received from the hands of the courier with a pair of tongs, and disinfected in the fumes of sulphur, or by some other process, before it was considered safe to open them. At such times, to the missionaries and their families, there seemed but a step between them and death. Mr. Goodell once said, “ When the plague is very bad, we always read the ninety-first Psalm.” In his annual letter to his friend, Judge Cooke, in January, 1837, he gave the following account of the pestilence: —

CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 6, 1837.

MY DEAR SIR, — It is now near, or quite, six months since the plague passed beyond its ordinary limits, and full three months since it became truly frightful; nor have its ravages yet entirely ceased, though I am thankful to say that it has received a check. Could you look in upon us at such times, you would see our schools suspended, our meetings broken up, our intercourse with the people cut off, our plans of usefulness interrupted, our domestics confined closely to the house, and every being and every thing admitted within doors either fumigated or made to pass through fire or water.

Jugglers and buffoons

Indeed, they were jugglers and buffoons, and one of them personated folly to perfection. As the company were introduced from one apartment of the house to another, they had in every room the musicians to entertain them with song, or the Jews with sleight of hand and vulgarity. The Turks did not seem transported by either the one or the other, but looked on with all the gravity becoming sages; and, when they had smoked out one chibook, the slaves brought them another.

The principal room in the harem was the one appropriated to the ceremony which was to be performed, and it was elegantly furnished for the occasion. Cashmere shawls and other drapery of great beauty and value were hung tastefully round the walls, and a superb couch for the son, with a suitable one for the other two boys, was fitted up at one end, with hangings enriched with various devices in diamonds and brilliants, and a garlick withal, suspended from the centre, to keep off the evil eye.

Ali Bey’s tabernacle

Whenever we entered this sanctum sanctorum of Ali Bey’s tabernacle, his wives, of which he has several, retired with their female friends and attendants to an adjoining apartment, where through the lattice, or, as it might very properly be called, the jealousy windows, they could see us and every thing that transpired, without exposing their own charms to the profane gaze of any but their husband. We could just perceive their moving forms with great indistinctness. But a little daughter, perhaps six years old, dressed in the long, rich, and splendid robes of the Orientals, and certainly a child of singular sweetness and modesty, was present most of the time, as also a little girl of about the same age from another family.

We dined at four o’clock, P.M.; and, fo r at least an hour before this, portions were sent to the needy, — not the fragments, or the refuse, as is the custom with us, but whole plates of pilaff and other savory dishes, of which none of the guests, hungry as we all were, had yet been permitted to taste. One table was prepared a la Frank for the Commodore and his friends, and Ali Bey and a brother of the last Reis Effendi sat down with us; when, according to our custom, we implored the blessing of our Father in heaven upon our food and upon all our brethren of the human family, in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The food was excellent and abundant; soup and pilaff; flesh, fish, and fowl, cooked in various ways; different kinds of jelly; and almost every kind of fruit. The table was also furnished with wine, of which Ali Bey and his brother Turk drank as freely as any other person at the table; and, indeed, the latter of the two manifested a fondness for it which I was not gratified in seeing, as he seemed to me to be in danger of exchanging one of the best virtues known in Turkey, viz., temperance, for one of the worst vices prevalent in Christendom Grand Balkan Tour, viz., intemperance. He begged the Commodore to send six bottles of wine to his brother, the late Reis Effendi, who now resides at Kan deli, in the house where the exchange of ratifications of our treaty with the Sublime Porte took place a year ago. This man was treated by all with marked attention and respect.

He appeared to possess a good share of intelligence, and I had a pleasant conversation with him about America and its customs. He at first expressed the opinion that we were to be pitied in being confined to one wife; but, on my telling him that ours could read and write, and enlarging on the ten thousand other good qualities they are allowed to possess, he at length acknowledged that one good wife was worth a dozen poor ones, and that, in this respect as well as many others, the people of Turkey were, to use his own expression, barbarians and brutes. His daughter is espoused to Ali Bey’s eldest son, — perhaps the same little girl we saw in company with Ali Bey’s daughter.