THE CHRISTIAN REVIEW. NO. XCV.-JANUARY, 1859. ARTICLE I. THE EVANGELICAL ARMENIANS OF TURKEY, THE REFORMERS OF THE EAST. Christianity Revived in the East. By H. G. O. DWIGHT. 1850. Missionary Herald, 1832–1858. THE population of the Turkish Empire consists principally of Turks, Greeks and Armenians. The first of these, constituting about two-thirds of the population, profess the Mohammedan faith, though many of them are free-thinkers, and have no respect for the Koran; the second belong to the Greek Church, and the third principally to the Armenian. Besides these are the Jews and a small body of Roman Catholics. Among the Armenians, evangelical views have begun to prevail. Protestant churches have been constituted, and an evangelical Armenian community formed, with equal rights and privileges with others of the Empire. The character of the evangelical Armenians, the success of the Gospel among them, and their hearty reception of it, their zeal and wide-spread influence, what they have already done, and what seems to be their providential mission to accomplish, have already made them frequent objects of interest to the Christian world, and entitled them to be called, The Reformers of the East. Their past history, their present and future influence, especially upon Mohammedanism, will claim our attention in this article, in the preparation of which special indebtedness is acknowledged to the two works named at its heading. The Armenians of Turkey originally inhabited the country which is supposed to have cradled the human race, about six hundred miles east of Constantinople, not far from the Black and Caspian seas, where the Euphrates, the Aras, and the Tigris have their sources, and where rises the noted mountain of Ararat. Many of them are still found in that country, but the wars of Toghrul, Timoor, Shah Abbas, Mohammed II. (the first of whom lived in the eleventh, and the last in the fifteenth century) and of other conquerors in ages long since past, together with their fondness for trade and commerce, have scattered them throughout every part of Turkey and Persia, and also through Russia, Poland, and various parts of Europe. Their number has been variously estimated from two and one-half to seven millions. It is now supposed that between two and three millions reside in Turkey. As a people they are said to be frank and ingenuous in their intercourse, possessing more sense but less wit than the Greeks. As a body they are the most active, industrious and enterprising, the wealthiest, if not the most intelligent of the Christian sects in the East. As the principal traders, great travelers, merchants, commercial agents and bankers, they are found in almost every large city of Asia, from Teflis to Calcutta. In their business transactions they are quite respectable, though not always honest; cheating is deemed allowable, and some degree of it is thought to be necessary to gain a livelihood.* Christianity was first introduced among the Armenians as early as the second century, but spread more widely among them in the fourth. After much persecution and a lengthened war, the Armenian Christians were allowed the free exercise of their religion in the fifth century. About this time Mesrob perfected the Armenian alphabet, and commenced in 411 the translation of the Bible, which was finished in 511. This gave an impetus to the cultivation of literature, the most flourishing period of which was in the sixth century, though it continued to flourish till the tenth, * See Missionary Herald, 1839, page 39; and 1850, page 330. was revived in the thirteenth, and maintained till the middle of the fifteenth. The Armenians have had almost from the beginning a corrupt religion. As now held by them, it differs not essentially, in its forms and doctrines, from those of the Greek and Roman Churches. They hold to the seven sacraments, which are called mysteries, to the worship of saints and images, but not to purgatory. Christ as Mediator enters not largely into their religious system; the common people are found calling on the Virgin Mary, but never on Christ, to intercede for them. There is no great concentration of power as in the Roman Church. The nominal head of the Armenian Church lives within the Russian territory; but the Armenians of Turkey do not acknowledge allegiance to him. Their ecclesiastical establishment is now under three patriarchs. The Patriarch of Constantinople is only a common bishop, having no more spiritual authority than any other in the land. His office is civil and not ecclesiastical, and has been held by successive patriarchs since 1453. His power has often been used in persecution, and as late as 1828 ten thousand of the papal Armenians were stripped of their property, and driven from their homes, at his instigation, merely because they adhered to the Church of Rome. Twenty-seven years ago the Armenians were comparatively without the Bible. The Scriptures were written in the ancient Armenian language, which but very few could read. The same was true of their prayers, and as to preaching and pulpits, they really had none. The clergy were secularized at heart, tradition was substituted for the Word of God, and preaching banished to give place to rites and forms. The language of prayer was considered of minor importance, whether it were Greek, ancient Armenian, or some other unknown tongue, if only addressed to a saint, to the Virgin, or before some favorite shrine. There were indeed a few noble exceptions, who gave evidence of the power of Christianity on their hearts; but the mass of the people grew up with degraded habits; cursing, lying, drinking to excess, or giving a loose rein to every wicked passion. Such was the condition of the Armenians in 1831, when the |