I had occasion some years ago to visit a considerable part of Turkey, from Constantinople and Beirut to Mosul and Bagdad, and everywhere I paid particular attention to missionary¹ conditions and the influence of mission work upon the people. This is a land assigned almost wholly to American Missionary Boards, and the influence is everywhere marked and excellent. The late Premier² Stviloff told me in Sofia that but for young men educated by American teachers in Constantinople, Bulgaria when it became independent would have had to depend on Russians for administrative³ officers. He was himself, like so many other distinguished⁴ Bulgarians, a graduate of Robert College. In Syria a native physician, graduated at the Syrian Protestant College, said to me, “We say, ‘After God, van Dyke⁵.’” In the interior cities, such as Marash, Aintab, Urfa, Mardin and Diarbekr, the American schools and the large self-supporting churches were evidences of the new evangelic spirit and culture which had put new heart into those ancient seats of intellectual decay. About Harpoot there were thousands who had learned English, and hundreds have come from there to this country believing it to be a very paradise. The contrast was sad enough when I came into the towns south from Mosul where American missionary influence had not reached, and scarce any signs of intellectual or material improvement were to be found. I am convinced that the work of devoted⁶, intelligent, broad-minded missionaries⁷ is far more effective in lifting a people out of ignorance and social decay into enlightened civilization, than all the influences of commerce or mere⁸ governmental policy. Our missionaries bring the motive⁹ of faith as the example of unselfish service which nothing else can supply.

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