Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew

In your hands I leave the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which, with the important help of some of you, I translated into Armeno-Turkish for the benefit of those of you who use only or chiefly that language. With these Scriptures you have also a Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, which also with your aid I prepared for you in the same language. And I am now putting into the hands of the printer more than forty of the sermons which some of you may recollect to have heard me preach to you, in order that you may better “ remember the words I spake unto you while I was yet with you.” And whether these words be “ the words of truth and soberness ”; whether they be in strict conformity to God’s holy word, — you must search and see for yourselves. Blessed be God! you now have the whole Bible in your native language, and you need not, and must not, remain ignorant of its holy doctrines and sublime teachings.

When we first came among you, you were not a distinct people, nor did we expect you ever would be; for we had no sectarian object in view, it being no part of our plan to meddle with ecclesiastical affairs. Our sole desire was to preach Christ and Him crucified. Our object was precisely the same as that of the missionaries to that ancient church in Persia. The labors of those missionaries have produced no separation in that church; but they have been permitted to labor side by side with the bishops and priests, to preach in their houses of worship, to assist in supporting and superintending their schools, and to do much in every way to enlighten and elevate that whole community.

Civil powers for protection

But if instead of giving the missionaries a cordial welcome among them, they had anathematized and persecuted to the death all those who loved the truth and wished to live a godly, conscientious life, the consequence would have been, that those persecuted suffering ones would have been forced to appeal to the civil powers for protection, as you had to do here. And the civil power there might have found it necessary, in order to afford this protection in conformity with ancient usage, to separate those persons from their former connection, and acknowledge them as a distinct community, entitled to all the protection and privileges of any other community in the empire. This you know was the case here. The Sublime Porte, to save you from perishing, was compelled to separate you from the old Armenian community. This is your present condition; and this condition you should “ accept with all thankfulness,” and use it for your own and your children’s good.