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TURKEY : THE BLIGHT OF ASIA

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OUR MISSIONARY INSTITUTIONS IN TURKEY

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    It seems hardly probable that the Mission Board would come out and officially inform the contributing church members of the United States:

    "We have no intention or desire, either immediate or ultimate, of converting Mussulmans in Turkey. We are running secular schools there with the hope of raising their general moral standing and making Mohammedans of them."

    If the board can raise money for such a purpose, that would be a frank honest proposition for both Turk and Christian.

    It is logical for the devout Christian to give money for the conversion of the Moslem. The faith of the Nazarene is one of the proselytizing religions, as Professor Max Muller said in his famous lecture in Westminster Abbey in 1873. It can not be possible, however, that there is any mental impulse in this country which would lead Americans to contribute large sums for the support of purely secular schools in foreign countries. Even from a humanitarian standpoint, there are more crying needs for their charity.

    The one thing that the missionary working in Turkey really fears is that some Turk may be converted. Should this occur a storm of fanaticism and violence would break upon his head that might close his school and end his career. It is not possible to convert Mohammedans in Turkey, nor even let them get wind that one is trying to do such a thing. In my thirty years of service in the Near East I have known of but one Moslem really converted. I remember distinctly the uneasiness, which his impending public confession caused among his teachers, imperiling, as it did, all their future activities. He was persuaded by the missionaries that the time was not ripe for him to proclaim his change of faith, but the Mohammedans became aware of it and promptly murdered him. According to the best information available it cost between forty-five and eighty million dollars to convert that unfortunate young man and he did not last long. The Moslem who renounces his religion suffers ostracism, forfeiture of his goods and practically commits suicide.

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