Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-04-02

Christians in Western Persia are the
bloodthirsty Kurds, who are perhaps
a little quicker with the knife and the
trigger than any others on earth, not
even excepting the tribesmen of At
ghanistan. They are virile, stalwart
people, who have been holding the
mountains Of Kurdistan for thousands
of years, yielding only nominal sover-
eighty to whatever empire CHANGED to
be in control.
Friends of the Presbyterian Amer
lean Mission in Turkey - the only
American mission in that country
have felt rather serene in this time of
upheaval because of the known friend
ship of the Kurds to the Americans.
The bountiful work of medical mis-
sions, which has been done among the
tribesmen by the Americans, has won
their gratitude.
Last Fall when certain Kurdish re-
ligious leaders were sentenced to death
near Urumiah, it was american mis-
sionary, DR.. Shedd, who interceded in
their behalf and saved their lives, since
their guilt had not at all been proved.
In addition to the American mis-
sionarieS in Persia, there is the French
Catholic Mission and the Archbishop
of Canterburys Mission to the Nestor-
ians. In adjacent Turkish territory the
American Board has missions, as well
as in all other parts of the Turkish
Empire, except Palestine and Arabia,
where the Presbyterians and the Dutch
Reformed Church are at work.
a Romantic Ancient Church
The slaughter of the Christians near
Urumiah recalls one of the romances of
religion possible only in the imme-
mortal East. The cablegram spoke
of Assyrians Christians. Now there
| have been no Assyrians for n thousand
years, although that word does occur
In the formal title of the Archbishop
! of Canterbury's Mission. The Chris
tians meant are the HISTORIANS, whose
| church still centers in this religion,
even as it did in the fifth century when
Bishop Nestorious was driven from
| Constantinople.
| Nestorious was the victim of high
handed ecclesiasticism, at the "robber
council" at Ephesus in the fifth GEN.
tury. His particular "heresy" was the
statement that Mary, while the virgin
mother of Jesus, the divine Son of
| God, was not to be called the Mother
of Cod"
The followers of Nestorious retired
| to Odessa, the modern Urfa, and from
this center began the work OF Chris
tian propaganda, which has only been
equaled by the past one hundred years
of missionary activity. The HISTORIANS
carried the Gospel over the entire
continent of Asia In parts of India
there are to this day large HISTORIAN
settlements. They penetrated China,
and even converted some of the Chi
nese emperors. Marco Polo reported
that there were HISTORIAN churches
along the entire route from Bagdad to
Peking.
| Harried by centuries of persecution,
the HISTORIANS have survived chiefly in
the mountains OF Armenia and Kurdi-
stan, and 1T is among them that the
missionaries are now working. Nes-
torians have had fifteen hundred years
of experience of fleeing from persecu-
tion, so that in the present upheaval
they are true to type.
Missions Ministry in the War
| An elaborate Red Cross work is be-
ing done in Turkey at the present
time and this is made possible by the
presence of the missionaries. The
American Red Cross in Turkey"
! originated with DR.. Mary Eddy, a
Presbyterian woman missionary of
Beirut, and it was fathered and fur
thered largely by G. Bic Ravndal,
United States Counsel General at
Beirut. 1t has since grown until it
embraces most of the missionaries in
the Turkish Empire, and many of the
American businessmen.
| Now this American Red Cross has
| become a potent factor in Turkey s.
/
hospitals in Constantinople were early
turned over to the American Red
Cross. And in addition, the American
Mission Hospitals at Konia (to which
city the Sultan is said to have fied)
Cesarea, Marsovan, Erzeroum, Sivas,
Harpout, Aintab, Latakia, Adana, Mer-
sin, Mardin. Diarbekir and Van have
all been placed at the disposal of the
Red Cross. This gave at the outset
the equivalent of one thousand beds
in fifteen modern hospitals for the care
of the sick and wounded soldiers and
their families
Mrs. Morgenthau, the wife of the
American Ambassador, is active in the
Red Cross work, and Robert College
has contributed beds and equipment.
The American Red Cross has sent a
medical mission with the central coll
umn of the Turkish army marching
toward Suez. This was led by DIR.
Edgar st. John Ward, of Syrian Prot
estant College at Beirut and accom-