The Detroit times., 1914-11-17
II LANGUAGES
REPRESENTED In
Y. M. c. A. MEET
Multiplicity of Tongues Ham
pers Work in Turkey, Says
Secretary
TELLS INCIDENTS OF
MISSIONARY EFFORT
Comes in Touch With Hundreds
Who Never Heard of
. Christianity

Many interesting phases of the hu-
man side Of missionary work-much
Of Il performed during war times
have been brought to Detroit by Oar.
fus A. Davis, general secretary of De
troit's branch OF the Y. NJ. G. A, IN
Constantinople, for the past four
years.
Az Red Cross workers. Mr.. Davis
and his assistant, ID. j. Van Bomme!.
were able to render a valuable SER
vice during the Balkan war In the
care OF the sick and wounded men as
well as in making the barracks where
the men were housed, sanitary place
In which TO live. Thousands Of pieces
Of linen were Numbered under the gu.
pervision Of Mr.. Davis and army ON
GERS and the soldiers were better
taken care of than ever before.
while II was somewhat OF q shock
TO the Turkish director TO see Amer
lean gentlemen actually working
with their hands," says Mr.. Davis
he seemed to be very grateful to
be able TO. give the soldiers clean
linen. He said with evident convic
ton that no one else would have un
dertaken the work we did"
"One OF the most difflcult problems
confronting any sort of organized
Christian work In the Turkish EN-
pre-" says Mr.. Davis, lis that of the
great variety Of languages. For that
reason II has been hard to get men
together, though at the opening meet
ing In the Y. M. G. A. quarters IN
Constantinople, II different languages
were represented. At the billiard
table one night, for example, there
were four men. no one Of whom spoke
the others language. Still these fell
lows came together under the roof
OF the Y. N. G.. A. and made them.
selves understood by means OF signs.
I'm q public meeting 1t is often
necessary TO have half a dozen in
terpreters. and always 1t Is necessary
to combat natural race hatred
which exists everywhere throughout
the Moslem empire.
"a Moslem or even q resident OF
Constantinople, for that matter, has
NO civic pride-no idea Of helping the
other fellow or even of doing any
thing for the benefit OF the city. II
IL. perhaps, the most cosmopolitan
city in the world, and there are many
prejudicos and hatreds to overcome.
Ten per cent Of the participating
membership OF the Y. M. G. A., how
ever, II M0slem. and that is to US q
very encouraging sign; for gradually
the culture and ideals of the west are
beginning to permeate inc the nation
al consciousness there, and In the
Wan t< orvxnA thA trutttu-
tons In operation there must have a
great Influenza
There were 80 men present at the
opening Of our association quarters
four years ago. The first year we
had q membership OF 500 men; now
the. figure IL considerably over that
about 600.
Hundreds Of these men never be.
fore heard the gospel of Christianity.
And, Of course, we have considered II
q great privilege to be able to ins
struct them wherever we could get
an audience"
Mr.. Davis relates q Christmas story
that Ii perhaps typical Of the work Of
many other missionaries and work
ers In the foreign field.
"on Christmas night after every
one else had gone, asked one of
the Turkish soldiers who had read
the New Testament nearly through II
he would not read the Christmas
story from the second chapter of
Luke to the other men. wish you
could have seen the faces OF those
soldiers and the approving mods Of
their heads as they sat or stood with
open eyes and mouths while their
comrade read to them with strong.
clear voice the story we love SO much,
He had scarcely finished reading
when the men began to ask:
What Is that book? How much
does II cost? Where can we get one ?
when told that had several OF
the books, but was not allowed to
give them out, they said: 1t is fool
ish not to let US have that book. We
can tell when book II good or bad.
~ II were bad, Of course, we would
not want II, but this book shows q
good road Another man said: 1T
doesn't merely show road Il shows
a beautiful avenue
AS much as / dared under exist
Ing restrictions, told them the
meaning OF that story for us today.
For the first time In my life | had
the chance to which have long since
looked forward, to tell the nfe-giving
story to men who had really never
heard Il before. That moment, when
! stood al II were, looking into the
starving souls Of those Moslem
friends and brothers, made me glad
beyond measure that had given my
life to this work. and will be an In
SEPARATION to untiring effort as long IS
live"
And Davis Is Just that--an untir-
Ing worker. with an unquenchable
zeal and un9agging spirit. Physically
he IL giant. and that gives him a
bearing that adds materially to his
work. He was famous as stroke
on the Syracuse crew, and was active