DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14563#0341
302
EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT.
church, the people of that communion in towns and villages
remote from the capital, are prepared to welcome judicious
and kindly missionary labors. In the capital, the influence
of the Patriarch, and of the higher clergy, would be more
powerfully felt; but even there the Rev. Mr. Leider, the
excellent missionary of the Church of England, has been
able to accomplish something, incidentally, for the enlighten-
ment of the Copts, while maintaining an English service
for the benefit of travellers and of foreign residents. "We
have seen that the Bible has lately been circulated to ad-
vantage at some points on the Upper Nile. Besides the
Copts, who are very numerous, there are in Cairo two
thousand Armenians, eight or nine thousand Franks and
Greeks, and four or five thousand Roman Catholic Copts,
Greeks, and Armenians. In Alexandria, there are mem-
bers of the Greek, Armenian, and Roman Catholic com-
munions, as well as Copts; . at Rosetta, on the seaboard,
there is a Latin convent; and at Damietta, the most easterly
part of Egypt, about one half the population are of the
Greek Church.
The existence of so many bodies of professed Christians
in Egypt, shows at once the toleration of the government,
and the advantages of this land as a field of missionary
effort. Egypt belongs to Turkey, and in all matters of
faith, is obedient to the decisions of the Mufti of Constanti-
nople. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that the same en-
lightened and liberal policy which permits the labors of
American missionaries at Beirut, at Smyrna, at Constanti-
nople, at Brousa, at Aintab, and other points in the Turkish
empire, and that guarantees to Protestant converts from the
old recognized churches the enjoyment of full religious
liberty, would grant protection to missionaries laboring in
Egypt, and would allow them in like manner to garner the
results of those labors. At all events the experiment should
be made.
EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT.
church, the people of that communion in towns and villages
remote from the capital, are prepared to welcome judicious
and kindly missionary labors. In the capital, the influence
of the Patriarch, and of the higher clergy, would be more
powerfully felt; but even there the Rev. Mr. Leider, the
excellent missionary of the Church of England, has been
able to accomplish something, incidentally, for the enlighten-
ment of the Copts, while maintaining an English service
for the benefit of travellers and of foreign residents. "We
have seen that the Bible has lately been circulated to ad-
vantage at some points on the Upper Nile. Besides the
Copts, who are very numerous, there are in Cairo two
thousand Armenians, eight or nine thousand Franks and
Greeks, and four or five thousand Roman Catholic Copts,
Greeks, and Armenians. In Alexandria, there are mem-
bers of the Greek, Armenian, and Roman Catholic com-
munions, as well as Copts; . at Rosetta, on the seaboard,
there is a Latin convent; and at Damietta, the most easterly
part of Egypt, about one half the population are of the
Greek Church.
The existence of so many bodies of professed Christians
in Egypt, shows at once the toleration of the government,
and the advantages of this land as a field of missionary
effort. Egypt belongs to Turkey, and in all matters of
faith, is obedient to the decisions of the Mufti of Constanti-
nople. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that the same en-
lightened and liberal policy which permits the labors of
American missionaries at Beirut, at Smyrna, at Constanti-
nople, at Brousa, at Aintab, and other points in the Turkish
empire, and that guarantees to Protestant converts from the
old recognized churches the enjoyment of full religious
liberty, would grant protection to missionaries laboring in
Egypt, and would allow them in like manner to garner the
results of those labors. At all events the experiment should
be made.