THE FIRST-BORN. REMOVAL TO THE COUNTRY. -OPENING OF THE SEMINARY. DRESS OF MISSIONARIES THREE MONTHS' RESIDENCE AT ARNAOUT KEUY ENTERTAINMENT OF INVALID MISSIONARIES -BEBEK HOSTILITY OF INHABITANTS MRS. HAMLIN'S INTEREST IN THE SCHOOLDOMESTIC CHARACTER VALLEY OF SWEET WATERS VALLEY OF HEAVENLY WATERS SUPERSTITIONS OF ORIENTAL CHURCHES THE SULTAN GOING TO THE MOSQUE PEEP INTO DOMESTIC LIFE. "Mystery! mystery! Is folded here, sweet within sweet, like a blossom!" J. C. MERRIGATE. On the 5th of December, 1839, the hearts of Mr. and Mrs. Hamlin were gladdened by the birth of their first child. Although the infant stranger, by the hand of her father, very soon introduced herself to her grandmother's notice, yet that letter, with subsequent ones from its mother; was unfortunately never received. What a new fountain of tenderness and joy was thus opened in the heart of Mrs. Hamlin ! a heart whose last beatings were true to her deep maternal affection and solicitude. The expression of her feelings on this occasion being lost, the first mention we find of the little one is when it was about five months old: "The baby grows finely, and gets a great many compli ments for her beauty and intelligence. She is the liveliest little thing you ever saw, and full of laugh and play. "My health is very good, and I have much zeal for Greek and Armenian. To read a difficult language is not so very difficult a thing; but to speak one is so, and requires much practice of the ear and tongue. The Greek I speak sufficiently for ordinary purposes. The Armenian I speak less, because I have not heard it so much. "I must pay more attention to dress, and to the forms and customs of society, than I was ever obliged to before. The plan upon which I purchased my wardrobe,' that of the greatest possible plainness,' was erroneous." On the subject to which Mrs. Hamlin here alludes. not a few good people are under a misapprehension. The devoted missionary, Mrs. Sarah L. Smith, in a letter home, after mentioning some articles of dress to be procured for her, says: "You have doubtless perceived, from my letters, that we have not come out of the world by coming to Beirut, but that we require, as much as ever, to be respectably dressed. In our chapel we are seldom without the presence of English travellers, and not unfrequently there are with us English noblemen. For two reasons, at least, I think our little company should appear respectable, first, for the honor of the missionary cause, and secondly, for our national dignity." That the personal influence of missionaries among a cultivated people, like the Armenians, would be unfavorably affected by any obvious neglect in regard to externals, is evident. The same glowing zeal for Christ, the same self-sacrificing love for the souls of the perishing, may lead a missionary, in one part of the world, to a more enlarged expenditure than would be necessary or befitting for one in a different state of society. We consider it desirable for our ambassadors to foreign countries so to attend to externals as to command the respect of all, and reflect honor upon our government. In a proportionate degree will intelligent Christians wish to have the representatives of our church avoid bringing discredit upon the cause of missions by any style of dress or mode of life which might appear mean or disreputable. There is a befitting attention in externals to times and circumstances, to places and people, to position and influence, as pecessary on missionary ground as in the towns and cities of our own country. While, then, we admit that there may be, as among ministers' families at home, some who err in this particular, yet, before we censure any one, let us be sure that his motive is not a regard for the most extended influence. May the day soon come when our noble and devoted band of missionaries will neither be restricted in their expenditures for preaching the gospel, nor stinted in the necessaries of life! As the lease for their house had expired, Mr. and Mrs. H. removed into the country, and, until a situation could be found suitable for their projected school, they took rooms temporarily in Arnaout Keuy, five miles up the Bosphorus. Here their rent was much cheaper than in the city, and here too they had an abundance of fresh air and fine scenery. Their rooms were in a spacious palace, containing forty apartments, once the magnificent residence of a Greek lord, the Prince of Wallachia, who perished in the Greek revolution. To one of Mrs. Hamlin's intense love of nature, the change from the crowded city to this romantic country residence was truly delightful. And there was much of peculiar interest lingering about this ancient castle. The parlor, with its twenty-nine windows, and its massive mirrors on either side, opened into a hall seventy feet long, which looked out upon a beautiful garden. From the seat of honor in the parlor to the opposite end of the hall was one hundred and eight feet. "It is so long," says Mrs. Hamlin, "that it seems like setting out on a journey when I have occasion to walk the whole length of it." On a moonlight evening, a land of enchantment is spread out before the eye. Beneath the windows are fairy gardens, superb kiosks and palaces, while the Bosphorus, like a sheet of molten silver, stretches away towards the Golden Horn, many a white sail dancing upon its glad bosom, and arrowy caïques, gliding like sea-birds over their moonlit way; and, ever and anon, fitful lights gleaming fantastically from ancient castles upon the Asiatic shore. The effect is heightened by a charming illusion, caused by the reduplication of all these lovely objects from the vast mirrors on either side. Upon this varied and beautiful scenery Mrs. Hamlin would gaze in silent rapture, or, walking with her companion through these noble rooms, she would listen for the echoing footfall of the past, or express her musings upon the fate of those who had left these once splendid apartments for the silent city of the dead. In the Armenian Catholic families residing with them in the same palace she felt a deep interest. One of the young ladies became warmly attached to her, and often expressed the wish that she could escape the folly and falsehood by which she was surrounded. To a missionary sister, then with her husband at Vienna: "Arnaout Keuy, Sept. 23, 1840. "MY DEAR MRS. SCHAUFFLER: Mr. Hamlin says he has done telling my correspondents that I shall write by the next mail. "We have been looking for a house, moving and getting settled. I am now very well, and enjoying the fine country air and scenery. It is indeed good to be here, where I can see so much of this pleasant world. It refreshes my spirits, and I feel coming back a little to my former self, when I lived among green fields. I had become very restless in that prison-house in Pera. May I never be condemned to another such period of close confinement! We have very pleasant rooms, which we have taken until Mr. Hamlin can find a house suitable for the school. This house accommodates four families besides ourselves, and yet we are not crowded, as you would see could you look into our spacious apartments. "Mr. Hebard has been with us since several weeks before we left Pera. He is an excellent man, and we have enjoyed his long stay as a favor. His cough is still troublesome, and there is reason to fear that consumption has fastened upon him. He loves the missionary work, and seems too valuable a laborer to be spared from the field; but there is One who knows better than we, and who will order all things well. Mr. and Mrs. Powers are also with us. Mrs. P. is very feeble. She was brought here upon a bed, and has left it only once a few moments during the ten days she has been with us. We have invited them to remain until the opening of the school. "Sultan Murad was born on the 21st, and we are having the rejoicings usual on such occasions. I wish the Turks would find out something new, for I am tired of the same thing over and over again. I am making out a page of items, but I don't know how much of it will be news to you. "Whenever anything has occurred which I thought would be particularly interesting to you and your husband, I have hoped that some one of your correspondents would write and tell you, and have presumed that Mr. Goodell would. In this way, I have kept you informed of almost everything that has happened. 66 'I have often wished to tell you about my little Henrietta. I did not know before that babies were so smart." ** |