vance will have been taken. For in that case a Mussulman who accepts Christ can be treated simply on relig ious grounds and under the new Constitution he ought to be safe. He would no longer be looked upon as guilty of a civil offense. But that day has not yet come.

Who can say what the outlook is in Turkey! One night in April less than two years ago when we were passing through the awful experience of the Adana massacre, with all the lamps in the house extinguished to lessen the risk from rifle-shots, the glare of the conflagrations threw a reddish light into the room where we were gathered, and I noticed lying on the table a copy of Dr. Barton's "Daybreak in Turkey." It had come to us fresh from the printing-press only a week or two before. Daybreak! We were still at midnight!

The new government is on the side of law and order; but what really constitutes the Ottoman government? (This is a pertinent question because rapid transitions are taking place.) The following are the constituent elements at present: the Chamber of Deputies and the Cabinet in the great matters of legislation and finance, the Sultan in his many royal prerogatives supported in the caliphate by popular Mussulman sentiment, the Sheikh ul Islam and his appointees in all that concerns the Koran and Moslem law, the army' and the provincial officials in all the manifold details which actually touch mission work. But all these branches of government are to-day largely controlled by a group of Moslems-the Committee of Union and Progress, with its headquarters at Salonica. This committee is outside of the government and yet in marvellously intimate touch with almost all departments. The intelligent and patriotic officers in the army have attached themselves to the committee and have given it practical power. The control of the majority in the

1 Which holds the key position at present.

Chamber of Deputies has scarcely wavered since the day of opening.'

Thus an extraordinary situation exists. The attitude of the government upon any vital question is largely determined by the dictates of a committee outside of the government and backed by the best part of the army.

What then of the attitude of this committee? At present the leaders are so absorbed in political affairs and in the military strategy by which their difficult position is held that they are giving little attention to religious matters. Some have even denounced religion as being the cause of divisions in the nation. But they are not directly opposed to Christian missions so long as public feeling and fanaticism are not aroused. Their instincts are so intensely political that they resent any movement which weakens Islam. This is not in most cases from religious faith, but from the instinct that Islam is the strongest available bond for national unification and for defense against foreign aggression.

If Christian missions could be demonstrated to them to be an advantage to the nation and a means of unification and progress, these "Young Turks" would waive traditional Mohammedan objections. But they are far from the field of faith and theology. They are bent upon political and economic reorganization. A considerable proportion of these "Young Turks" are at heart agnostics, somewhat influenced by French writers, but more influenced by the corrupt condition of Islam.

It is impossible to forecast the future. Meanwhile the history of the early Church furnishes inspiring and sug. gestive studies. It does not seem likely that the present Ottoman government will vouchsafe real religious liberty.

1 Yet the "Young Turks" are involved in an'intense struggle to keep in check the reactionary forces and in several conspicuous instances they have been obliged to compromise.

Islam is avowedly the state religion, and the Constitution will be operative only so far as it does not conflict with Mohammedan law and custom. Missionaries were once regarded much as foreign consuls. But the spiritual nature of their work is now understood and the government no longer feels obliged to strive for their protection. Nor does the government protect in any special way the communities under their charge. No doubt this also is of God. The Gospel of the Cross of Christ must be presented in the spirit of peace and without worldly power. From this point of view opposition may be interpreted in terms of sacrifice.

Indeed, there is reason to take heart and thank God. In a list of questions submitted to experienced missionaries in Constantinople, Salonica, Van, Marash, Aintab, Sidon and Beirut I closed by asking, "On the whole, have you reason to feel encouraged by the present attitude of the Ottoman government towards Christian missions?" The answer was unanimously affirmative although touched with the shadow of approaching trial. Assuredly this gives hope of a glorious consummation to a very dark part of the world's history.

XII

CONDITIONS IN CENTRAL ASIA

COL. G. WINGATE, C. I. E., LONDON

W

HEN we were children, in spite of childish griefs for which we regarded Virgil as wholly responsible, there was no more captivating story to us than the siege of Troy. How we delighted in the Greek stratagem of the wooden horse which brought the long siege to an end, and trembled with fears for the accomplishment of the maneuvre when we read of the wise old priest Laocoön who "feared the Greeks even bringing gifts," and begged his fellow Trojans, triumphantly dragging into their city the innocent-looking horse, to leave it outside their walls. We rejoiced when Ulysses' clever scheme was crowned with success, and wished we had been the Lesser Ajax or some other of the hundred heroes who climbed down out of the horse by night and opened the gates of the city to the waiting Greeks outside.

But we have lived to have more sympathy with the suspicions of the sagacious old priest, and there is a curious similarity to the ancient legend, which we would fain shut our eyes to, in this question of Christian missions to non-Christian countries. The West again confronts the East, and "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" seems borne to our ears, this time from the mouths of non-Christian rulers and very specially of the priests and mullas of those rulers who are apt to regard Christian missionary enterprise as a modern Wooden Horse which, however innocent it looks, will introduce foreign ele

ments into their fastnesses and in due course throw open the gates to that enemy of whom it has been all the while the emissary.

It is necessary to meet and remove this prejudice in the minds of native rulers, for in too many well-founded instances the establishment and progress of Christian missions has seemed to native rulers the precursor of political agitation and local discontent, and finally the interference of Christian governments on behalf of the missionary and mission property resulting in the loss or restriction of power or territory to the native state.

While missionaries may see and find advantages in government recognition and protection, they must also remember that in every contract there are two contracting parties and that if they receive practical benefits from their own government, this confers a right to government to look for a corresponding return. The missionary becomes all unwittingly the government agent to extend its sphere of influence, which may be followed by demands for "rectification of frontier"; for a government is often unwillingly forced to this procedure by purely political considerations. Much as the missionary may regret these consequences it is then impossible for him to detach himself from the obligations of the position, which often result in making him appear in the eyes of the people among whom he is working as an agent of the foreign power.

Many missionaries have already laboured to remove this reproach, and if we can in Central Asia dissociate our presentation of the claims of Christ from any national colouring, we shall not find so much reluctance on the part of either Mohammedan or Buddhist to listen to what we have to say. They will recognize that it is a question of the soul, and that it concerns the appeal of God to the conscience.