The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-04-28
HOW WE FOUND MR.. LEE.
FROM MARASH TO THE COAST.

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CHURCH, MARCH s, 1882.
1t is fact which may not be gen.
orally known that although our mis-
sionaries have been laboring in
central Turkey more than so years
they have not yet succeeded in con-
verting single Turk, and only one
Mohammedan. In fact they have
about given up all hope of accom-
plishing anything among that class of
people, under the present existing
government, and in the face of
fanatical prejudice which is all ready
to pitch upon the first convert as a
traitor to his country and his religion
and tear him to pieces by mob rio
tence. In other words, when Mo-
hammedan Turk makes up his mind
to become a christian, he must make
up his mind also, to die at the same
time. 1t is certain and inevitable,
and when in addition to this fact you
consider that from the time of the
crusades until the present, the name
of christian has been handed down
from father to son -.with} intensest
hatred and contempt, such as only
barbarous people is capable of, and
which has been newly awakened and
aggravated by the semi.religious war
Russia, and when you consider also
that those nominal christians of the
old Armenian church by whom they
have always been surrounded-are no
filter representatives of genuine
christianity than the wild Indians that
roam over our western prairies are of
American civilization, why then it
is not to be wondered at that only
now and then man can be found
sufficiently thoughtful and free from
prejudice and withal enough of
martyr and hero to stand forth be-
fore his fellow countrymen and say 81
am a christian-now do your worst
with me-" Only one Mohammedan
has dared to do that in 50 years-and
he was not full-fiedged Turk but
Koord, or as we more commonly call
them, Tartar. And this was what
happened to him, as ! have heard the
missionaries tell at Marash. In the
first place his friends tried to per-
suade and then to frighten him out
of his new belief. That failing they
shut him up in the house of chief
and began to torture him. They
poured boiling water on his head,
scalding his hair off. They put blocks
of ice on his eyes, bound tight with
cloth. They took knives and
worked the sharp points of them un-
der his nails as you would pare an
apple. Then they gashed and laid
open his breast and poured in some
mixture of liquid torment. His wife
stood up for him like true woman
and they poisoned her to death.
They brought the man out and asked
him "Are you christian nowp" He
said, 81 am" They shut him up
again and in the night woman comes
to him. She tells him that to-mor-
row he will be tortured again and
what he has already suffered will be
nothing to what she has heard them
planning for the next time. She
urges him to escape and. get out of
the country, and shows him a way.
With her assistance he makes his way
out Of the house and stands alone un-
der the night heavens, his flesh bleed
ing with the cut OF knives, the first
u III. "a =
Mohammedan martyr for sChrist's
sake that God ever looked dow.>'upon
in central Turkey He stood there
meditating. He had only to say l,
recant, / am no christian-and by
to-morrow's sunrise he would be re.
stored to everything, house and land,
friends and public favor and admira-
ton. But if not then--banishment
forever; no home, no friends, no
money-only the desert before him
and no strength to drag his weary
way across it. A great temptation
comes upon him--a great struggle
shakes the poor mans soul and