VOL. XXXVI, No. 5 THE of the World MAY, 1913 Signs of the Times THE PRESENT OUTLOOK IN TURKEY HE sad assassination of King George, of Greece, by a poor fanatic, has placed King Constantine on the throne, but otherwise has not changed the situation in the Balkan war. The fall of Janina and the capture of Adrianople has, however, brought the war nearer to the end. Turkey can not hold out much longer. The question uppermost in the minds of those who seek first the Kingdom of God is: What will be the probable effect of the war on Moslem work. A missionary writes to the American Board, in answer to this question: "It will probably mean the opening of doors which have never been open, in the lines of an approach to the Mohammedan people. In fact, these people are already looking to us, in our capacity as missionaries and representatives of a higher civilization which they recognize and long for, to help them in their present emergencies. I think our opportunities for approach to the Mohammedan people will be immensely increased as the old time position held by the Turkish Empire in regard to missionary work for Mohammedans VOL. XXVI, No. 5 will give place to one of toleration, if not to one of almost frantic appeal for help to western civilization as represented in our educational and other missionary work. Mohammedanism will hereafter lack the watchful care which the government of Turkey has heretofore given it, and in its reorganized position or under the protectorate of foreign powers, the government will not interpose the same obstructions and hindrances against which we have battled in the past." God has, perhaps, at last broken down the opposition which has hitherto kept back the Church. It is time for a forward movement, with the cooperation of the native Christians, to a degree that could not have been possible before. AN OPEN DOOR IN THE BALKANS THE Christian churches of Amer ica are already planning to enter the Balkan field with missionaries who could never have established mission stations in these regions so long as Turkey was the dominating power. Methodists and Congregationalists, especially, will The editors seek to preserve accuracy and to manifest the spirit of Christ in the pages of this REVIEW, but do not acknowledge responsibility for opinions exprest, nor for positions taken by contributors of signed articles in these pages.-EDITORS. joyfully enter these new fields opened on the other side of the Mediterranean. There is no doubt that Robert College, founded by a New York merchant connected with the Congregationalist denomination, has exerted tremendous influence by instilling the love of liberty and statesmenlike courage in the heart of people who are now crushing the cruel despotism of Turkey. The American Bible Society has prepared the way for missionary work by the sale and distribution of 65,000 Bibles and Testaments a year for many years. It is said that many a Bulgar soldier, buried as he fell, has taken to the grave with him an American New Testament. Verily, God is the God of nations, and "He setteth up one and putteth down another." IT FREE ALBANIA AND THE GOSPEL T is expected that before long a new flag will wave in the Balkan Peninsula. The ancient people of Albania 2,000,000 of them-after the struggles of centuries, are to be free and independent, according to the verdict of the Peace Conference in London. Protestant mission work has been hampered in this mountainous region, because of Turkish fanaticism; but, while most of the Albanians have been nominally Moslems, they have not been staunch adherents to that faith. Rev. C. T. Erickson, the American Board missionary at Elbasan, thinks that the new nation will be bound neither by the "Orthodox" Greek Church nor by Islam. "What influence," he says, "can the 'Orthodox Church' wield in Albania after the armies of Greece have swept the country with fire and sword, rapine and plunder, murder and outrage, robbing priests and churches as well as hodjas and Mohammedan mosques? They are hated worse than the Turks were hated before them. As for the Mohammedan population, I am convinced, having it from the mouths. of the people themselves, that once they are free from the Turkish yoke, off goes the Moslem yoke as well. What are these people to do?" What is to save them from religious anarchy? Only Protestant Christianity can do it. Protestant missionaries have their confidence and regard; England and America are their ideals, and their highest hope as a nation is to be like them. It is hoped that the American Board will open new stations in Albania, and that this new nation will become a Christian nation. POMAKS BECOMING CHRISTIANS A LARGE number of Pomaks, or Bulgarian Moslems, in the Chepino Valley, in the heart of the Rhodope Mountains, are reported as turning Christians-Greek Christians. A population of some 12,000 of them were baptized about the first of February into the Bulgarian Church. The six Moslem villages in question were incorporated in Bulgaria with the rest of Eastern Rumelia, in 1885, after they had taken their share in the massacre at Batak nine years before, but until now they have kept their Moslem faith. H. M. Wallis, of the Friends' Relief Mission to Bulgaria, writes (in the Manchester Guardian): "For 30 years these people have paid their taxes and given no trouble. Send their children to school they would not, nor register their births, but King Ferdinand is very lenient and wise; he let them bide, he allowed . ranged, now them to keep their old guns and dioceses and districts can be arswords until the outbreak of this reports that 300,000 war, when their weapons were col- applications for baptism have either lected, as a precaution, and without reached him or are confidently exany difficulty. pected. The watchwords of the movement are 'Brotherhood' and 'Bulgària.' At Chepino the new Christians, after baptisms, voluntarily dug up the font of the buried and lost Christian Church, desecrated and forgotten since 1657." "They all came over to Christianity with a rush, not under pressure, for when the war opened the Moslems were six to one. They came when they did come almost as one man. It has been a landslide, due, as I believe, to natural causes. In the first place, the unchecked march of the Bulgarian troops from victory to SIN victory, and the deplorable show made by the Turk have imprest the imagination of a fatalistic race. It has been Allah's will; who may resist Him? The contrast between their own educational, social and financial condition and those of their Christian neighbors, always obvious, has lately grown acute. They can no longer blink the patent fact that a Pomak stands no chance with his Christian brother at any game, or that the root of his inefficiency is ignorance. The big, white schoolhouse which he has hitherto refused to allow his children to attend is, in the speech of Bulgaria, the stick that has beaten the Turk, and has beaten the Pomak. 'You can't expect us oldsters to like the change; we were brought up in the old way,' said a greybeard elder over the coffee; 'but what is done is well done, and it gives a better chance to the youngsters.' "The Greek Church of Bulgaria has a marvelous opportunity. The emergency has come with such dramatic and overwhelming suddenness that no church organization in Europe could cope with the inrush efficiently. The man whom the Exarch has placed in command until new RECENT CHANGES IN PERSIA INCE 1905, Persia has been the scene of political changes that have followed one another with perplexing rapidity. Persons living in Persia feel that a new era of foreign control has begun, tho the exact form of that control is not yet fixt. Underlying the political revolutions there has been a social change that is both extensive and profound, and not entirely a result of the political changes. There are increasing signs of a breaking free from the traditional trammels of religion, which restrict intercourse between Moslems and non-Moslems. There is a growing realization of the inadequacy, and, in many cases, of the futility of the old learning and the old system of education. There is also a questioning of all religious sanctions, and an increase of unbelief. The power of the mullahs has been broken, and people are accustomed to breaches of the traditional prohibition of intercourse with Christians and the acquisition of European culture. The appetite for knowledge has been awakened and demands satisfaction. The change was felt in mission work, first of all, in the growth of educational work. About a thousand children from Moslem homes are in |