Turkish government against religious liberty

“The influence, then, which was, and which still is exerted upon the Turkish government against religious liberty is more powerful than can well be expressed. But, blessed be God! there is now another influence, the pressure of which they begin to feel, and we most devoutly pray that they may teel it more and more.

Whatever influence the representatives of England and of other Protestant governments have exerted upon the Turkish government in favor of Protestantism, has been mainly in opposition to other mighty influences of a most adverse character. Whoever has read the ‘ Missionary Herald ’ for the last forty years must have seen that in perhaps ninety-nine cases out of a hundred our persecutions have come not from the Turks, but from these corrupt churches, — the Turks never of themselves showing a disposition to molest us, and being drawn in to side with our persecutors only when under this terrible outside pressure to which we have alluded.

Other European powers

“ Bat it will be asked, Did not the other European powers unite with England in procuring the Ilatti Ilumayoun? We answer, yes; at any rate, they assented to it; some of them perhaps not really expecting it would ever go into effect, or, at any rate, be of universal application; for, in point of fact, it is more or less opposed to the very principles and practices of their governments at home. And by the persecuting churches here, that part of its provisions which relates to liberty of conscience is regarded as any thing rather than a blessing, for it is really an infringement of their liberty to ‘ bite and devour one another.’

Liberty of worship in their own churches, and according to their own forms, they already had to perfection, and ‘ they needed no more,’ as an intelligent Greek gentleman once said to me. ‘ What,’ said he, in speaking of this document, in reference to liberty of conscience, ‘ what is the use of this Ilatti Ilumayoun? We had before just as much liberty as we wanted.’ And so they had; but, blessed be God! this llatti Sherif prevents them from abridging the liberty of others. Thus the carrying out of the principle involved in this feature of it strikes tenor into all these wicked churches; and it is this which has awakened the wrath of a near neighbor of ours (Russia) almost to frenzy, she calling it ‘persecution.’