Protestantism in Turkey [pp. 449-453]

TURKEr.449
mysterious future. The world now moves in
clearer light, and hope, for this world and the
future, gilds the horizon of many a beleaguered
soul, and strengthens it to exertion in the darkest hours.
Hitherto our picture has been the dreary path
of those who banished the pure, spotless image
of Truth and took to their bosoms her unholy
counterpart. Let us now turn to the serener
embodiment of all that is lovely and desirable
in life. Look at yonder gray-hlaired sire, who
has preserved his integrity through much tribulation, and stands before his fellow-men a monument of rectitude and the feal subject of Right.
What an admirable thing that all who know him
can rely upon his every word, feeling that it is
truth, and especially those who are united to
him by the tenderest ties, his wife and children.
When a wife can rest assured that her husband
never intentionally deceived her, she should be
able to overlook many faults he may possess.
Deliberate and premeditated deception leaves a
sting in the bosom of the deceived which seldom
expires except in death alone. It may be afterward glossed over and its serpent head be hidden
among leaves, but the victim will still be conscious, thloughl perchance forever silent, that the
poison which has worked so much woe is still
alive to wound and mortify. Therefore, wives
of erring but truthful men, try to believe and
realize that you are in possession of much that
makes pleasant life's dusty and toilsome thloroughfare; that the outgrowths from truth, deeprooted in the heart's soil, are those which we
fondly liken to the rippling song of rivers, the
warbling of birds, the bloom of flowers, and the
thousand music sounds of Summer. They atone
for lesser imperfections; they are the foundation of all that is desirable in this life, and a
guarantee for high estates in the life to come.
There are many very good wives who esteem
it quite commendable and a proof of ingenuity
when they are able to practice a little harmless (?)
deception upon their husbands; and sometimes
there will be a little gathering of these, playfully
discussing how "nicely they blinded him." O
beware, well-meaning but thoughtless wives!
It is "the little foxes which spoil the tender
grapes." Cast a look forward to the possible
day when the forbearing husband shall awake
to a truth upon which he will never again be
able to close his eyes-the fact that you who
have been long deceiving him in little things,
when you think there is need, will not hesitate
to practice the same in greater things. It is
truth alone which constitutes the ground-work
of that perfect faith in each other which renders
the marriage tie the holiest, happiest, and most.
Vol.. XXVIII.-29*
complete of all. It will alleviate the bitterness
of loss and misfortune, and soothe the spirit to
calmness, that under a consciousness of having
been made the victim of duplicity would have
broken forth in acrimony and upbraiding.
Unalloyed truth at all times is the wisest,
safest, and most expedient. Falsehood is a
miserable subterfuge when a fault has been
committed which we are unwilling should come
to the knowledge of others. St. Paul says,
"Confess your faults one to another," and he
displays a sagacious acquaintance with human
nature, for there is little that will more readily
soften the heart than a candid and truthful acknowledgment of error; by this the judgment
is inclined to lean kindly and charitably toward
the offender, whereas if he had striven to conceal his misdemeanor, when at length discovered, he would obtain but little sympathy and
be adjudged as a willing if not intentional delinquent.
When an individual is beset with adversity,
and his numerous Summer friends forsake him
as Autumn leaves forsake the branches that
supported them, if his course has been truthful,
and upright, and conscientious, amid all the
pains that his foes can inflict, there will still be
a few faithful ones, who, able to read and comprellend his nature and its impulses, will adhere
firmly and devotedly to his interests, and by the
force of their example compel his enemies to
surrender their prejudices and yield to him his
due. Then, standing upon the foundation-rock
of honest purposes, with TRUTH as his high
priestess officiating at the altar-fires of templ)orary affliction, no fear but that the sequel for
him will show an open way of escape without
fear and without remorse.
TURKEY.
PROTESTANTISM IN TURKEY.
HE introduction of Protestantism into
Turkey is of very recent date. Paradoxical as at least half the statement may sound,
the movement owes its origin to the Bible Societies of England and Russia. The St. Petersburg Society published, in I8!3, the old Armenian version of the Bible, made in the fourth
century, from the Septuagint, and of which only
a few portions had as yet been printed in the
Polyglot. Another edition of this same version
was printed at Calcutta two years later, by the
Calcutta Auxiliary to the British and Foreign
Bible Society. The latter purchased, in I8I8,
a large number of copies of the old Armenian version of the New Testament, from the
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