A History of Protestant missions in the near East

74 History of Protestant Missions in the Near East
for translating, printing and distributing the Holy Scriptures
in all the languages and dialects of the Oriental Churches,
and for selling them so cheaply that they may be in the hands
of all. In most of the languages of the Christian populations
Arabic, Armenian, Bulgarian Protestants have laid the
foundation of a healthy, popular Christian literature, while
in other cases they have been the first
to introduce a written
language.
Day schools have everywhere received careful attention,
and higher schools have been founded. The Robert College
near Constantinople, the colleges in Marsovan, Kharput,
Aintab, Marash, Tarsus and Assiut are leading higher education
in the Near East. The Syrian Protestant College in
Beirut is
the best and most advanced Christian school in the
whole of Turkey.
The only competitors of these schools are not the native
Christian schools, but those of the Roman Missions. Nor
may we underestimate the value of the founding of separate
Christian Churches, in spite of all that is to be regretted in
connection with them. The course of their history has in
general run thus after the :
rupture was complete, the ancient
Church shut itself
up against Protestant aims in a spirit of
suspicion and hostility, placing every possible obstacle in the
way of influencing its people. Those were critical times of
patient endurance, when the missionaries felt as if
they had
been put into the corner. Their only hope lay in the small
Protestant congregations, which they cherished with all the
greater solicitude since these were to be an object-lesson to
the resisting Churches. When, at times, the question was
raised in these Protestant Churches, whether, out of national
loyalty they ought not to return to their native Church, the
answer was generally in the negative.
And the reason given
was characteristic. They said While we maintain a separate
:
position as Protestants, our very existence and all our institutions
are an incentive to the old Churches to reform themselves,
and to clear away the rubbish of their antiquated
usages; but if we return to the old Church, we shall our-