Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus

“Well, you have had quite a day’s work,” says the missionary, as they turn at length toward the hotel once more. “ It has been rather a busy day,” says the visitor, ruefully, for he feels that he has had a surfeit of missions, and has walked almost twenty miles besides. He is glad enough that the time is short when the missionary goes on to apologize because time does not allow him to be taken to other congregations in the city connected with the Mission. One of them is in Hasskeuy on the Golden Horn, another is in Scutari, on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, and not far from that great hospital where Florence Nightingale did her work as a nurse during the Crimean war. Besides these there are also an English service for the students of the Girls’ College in Scutari, another English service for the students of Robert College on the Bosphorus, a congregation of some forty Armenians at the house of Dr. Washburn for whom Mrs. Washburn always sees that a preacher is provided, and another little congregation of as many more Armenians and Greeks together at one of the districts farther up the Bosphorus.

American Board’s mission in Constantinople

visitor is quite willing to admit that the work of the American Board’s mission in Constantinople is not solely educational work. He does not need to be dragged about to see all these other congregations. And in the evening as he thinks it over at his hotel, tired as he is with gadding, he is glad that there are men and women who are not too tired with the labours of the week to use their day of rest in trying to aid the spiritual development of this medley of peoples. For at this meeting point of the continents this kind of work, if properly maintained must end in teaching men and women over large expanses of territory to know Jesus Christ, must attract them to follow Him, and must inspire them to do the same kind of work for their fellows in all the places where they live or to which they go for business or pleasure. The work of the mission is the slow work of influencing the roots of character. But let the friends of Jesus Christ in the western lands support this work as it should be supported, and we shall begin to see that the awakening of the Eastern Church from its long lethargy has begun private ephesus tours.

The missionary does not merely preach to the people. He seeks to win a place in their hearts by all means in his power.

Among the motley crowds in the streets of Constantinople are seen great numbers of coarsely dressed villagers, in blue cotton clothing with a bright handkerchief perhaps around the head and a gaily coloured shawl wound about the waist to keep together the loose and unfitted clothing. Some of these are Kourds, who arc the burden bearers, and the ditch-diggers of the city, and some are Armenians, who are the masons and carpenters, and the hod-carriers of every enterprise in building houses.

All such have come from their homes at the ends of the Empire, often plodding on foot for two or three weeks to reach a sea-port, and then crowding the decks of the steamers with their bedding and their food bags because they are unable to pay the cost of even a steerage ticket. In the city they live in masses together, six or eight men hiring a room and making it their home during four or five years while they are earning enough money to make it worth while for them to return again to visit their families.