A Turkish service in the Armenian church

Dec. 27, 1856, he writes in his journal: —

“About two months ago the Bishop of Ilass Keuy commenced a Turkish service in the Armenian church here, precisely at the hour of my service. As the Armenians at the capital understand Armenian much better than Turkish, it is difficult to see what the object could be, except to prevent people from coming to our chapel. It was said that he preached evangelically; and that on one Sabbath he preached not only at the same hour, but from the same text I did, and, moreover, divided his subject precisely in the same way.

As I preached the same sermon in another chapel on the previous Sabbath, it is supposed he must have had a reporter there to take notes; for my treatment of the subject was not such as an Armenian bishop would naturally fall upon. But however this may be, ‘ Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea and will rejoice.’ The text on this occasion was, ‘ The Master is come, and calleth for thee.’ ”

In March, 1857, Dr. Goodell drew up and forwarded to the Board an elaborate paper on “ The Importance of Constantinople as a Missionary Field,” as compared with some other fields on which a large amount of labor and money had been expended. Only the heads of this paper can here be given: —

1. Constantinople is a great world in itself. It contains, including its suburbs, more inhabitants than the whole Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and ten times as many as all the Sandwich Islands.

2. All the nationalities of the empire are represented at the capital. Every sect and almost every clan in the empire has here its civil and ecclesiastical head; its court, to which all appeals are made, and where all its business of any importance is transacted.

Eastern and Western Turkey

3. All the pashas and acting bishops, or vartabeds, in every part of the empire, go out from Constantinople. 4. Constantinople is the great centre of Eastern and Western Turkey. It stands on the margin where European civilization terminates, and where Asiatic barbarism commences. 5. There are at Constantinople not less than fifty thousand foreigners, from England, France, Germany, Italy, and, indeed, all parts of Europe; and the greater part of them are never reached by any evangelical influence.

These several points he enforced with strong argument, and in answering the objection to the thorough occupation of this stronghold on account of the expense, he wrote: —