A History of Protestant missions in the near East

122 History of Protestant Missions in the Near East
was formed in Marsovan in 1868, while a " fourth, The
Cilioian Union" was formed in the south. These unions had
a decided effect in developing a spirit of self-government.
After a visitation from America in 1883, the unions were
constitutionally organized and extended.
The characteristic feature of the inner life of these congregations
is the general adoption of the Congregational principle
of distinguishing between the communicant members and the
adherents. All the seceders from the old Church had already
been baptized and confirmed and their children had also been
baptized as infants. So it was very surprising and puzzling to
them when they learned that the Americans admitted but a
small number to the Lord's Supper, and permitted only the
children of communicants to be baptized, especially as it was
the exaggerated and almost superstitious view of the sacrament
which had contributed in no small measure to the petrifaction
of the Oriental Churches. Under the new regime they
must pass an examination to gain admission to the Lord's Supper,
an examination often by no means easy. In one place
twenty candidates were examined for ten hours, after which
only eleven of them were considered fit for admission. It
will, perhaps, be best to describe the case of a single congregation,
which, after passing through the stage of utter
astonishment, at last accustomed itself to this congregational
practice.
In Diarbekr the pious and zealous medical missionary, Dr.
Azariah Smith, founded in 1851 a small Protestant church of
about fifty Armenians and Jacobites, eleven of whom he admitted
as communicant members. As soon as it became
known that only those who were of reputed 'piety would be
recognized as communicant members, influential Jacobites endeavoured
to have the rule altered, so that any Protestant of
irreproachable character should be regarded as a full member
without further test. There ensued much controversy and the
Protestant
cause was all but ruined, as the natives threatened
to return to their old Churches. At length Dr. Smith persuaded
them to listen to a sermon on Luke 18 : 18-30 and