and his relation to us; the spiritual and moral nature of man ; with an examination of the anti-Christian schemes of philosophy-materialistic, pantheistic, or mixed.

SECOND.-Historical Apologetics--Comprising the evidence of the divine origin and authority of the Christian faith.

THIRD-Philosophical Apologetics-Taking its materials (1) from the Philosophy of Religion, proving by the history of religion and a comparison of its various forms, that Christianity is the one absolute religion; (2) from the Philosophy of History. showing that Christianity is the key to the enigma of man's destiny; (3) from the Nature (or philosophy) of Christianity itself, especially as compared with philosophy in generalmaking it evident that Christianity, as a system of truth, is higher and better than any scheme of philosophy-is the sum of wisdom for the human race.

Art. VI. THE DECAY OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE. By EDWARD RIGGS, Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., in Sivas, Asia Minor.

THE "Eastern Question" has come to be classed in many minds among the things hopelessly insoluble, and those who think at all about it, after floundering laboriously through a pile of theories, generally settle down to the conclusion, that the fault must be somewhere in the indomitable inertia and stolidity of oriental character. Without attempting to prove the incorrectness of this view, suffice it to state, that the trouble lies far to the west of the Bosphorus, and the mutual jealousy of the European states is all that prevents the collapse of the undermined structure. The trouble is not that the "sick man" will not die, but, being long since dead, like the dead king, who, in the old readers, used to frighten and yet fascinate us, he is painted and bolstered up by his cowardly attendants to deceive the people, and defer for a while the hazardous question of a successor. Perhaps there is no harm done by the transparent mockery, but when inquiries in regard to the state of Turkey, made in the British Parliament, are replied to by flimsy falsehoods and bombastic bunkum, it would seem to

be time for those who have good facilities for observing the truth, to share their conclusions with thinkers less favorably situated in this respect. Those travelers who consider themselves qualified to write on Turkey after a week's visit to Constantinople, should remember that they have seen but the gilded outside. It takes a residence of years in the interior of the country to be able to judge truly of the state of the country. The late discussion on Turkey in the British Parliament, and its echo in the London press, reminds one of the romantic and adulatory extravagances of Lamartine, whose estimate of the character of the Turks is a sample of the errors that learned historians may make, and is of a piece with his reverent mention of "Ethiopia, where lie concealed, the fountains of the Nile." Perhaps humanity will be as much served in the course of modern investigation by revealing the sources of the melancholy state of affairs in the Turkish empire, as by opening up the head-waters of the Nile. It is as a slight contribution toward this enterprise that this article is undertaken. It is its purpose to illustrate, rather than describe, the present state of things in the empire, and thus rather hint at than determine the character of the changes required.

Before examining the present status of the empire, let us take a rapid glance at its origin, which may aid in the understanding of its decline. Eight centuries ago a horde of armed shepherds swept down from the steppes north and east of the Caspian Sea, and took possession of Turkestan. While conquering with a high hand, they were themselves conquered, and became ready adherents of the Mohammedan faith, of which they soon figured as the fiercest and most successful upholders and missionaries. Their conquests spread rapidly till the empire of the Seljookian Turks touched China on the East, and westward came to the gates of Bagdad. In taking possession of this city, they virtually brought to an end the power of the Caliphs, and while Togrul Bey, with humble mien, stood to hold the stirrup for the Prophet's successor to mount his horse, he, in fact, held him more a prisoner than Victor Immanuel holds Pius IX, to-day.

Strengthened by such acquisitions, the Turkish power rolled on till it reached the Mediterranean and the Bosphorus, and

making the Greek empire tremble, roused all Europe to plunge into the crusades.

Like all such immense empires acquired by the sword, the Seljookian empire soon fell to pieces; but, still proud of the name, survived in parts, one centre being at Iconium in Asia Minor. These Turks, brave and successful in war, were not less diligent and successful in the arts of peace, and it must be from the romantic story of their exploits in arms and arts that many moderns have formed a picture of character which they arbitrarily and erroneously consider a correct likeness of the modern Turk. Besides furnishing an asylum for science and literature, and forming a sort of connecting link between the Arabian and the European periods, they cultivated the æsthetic arts, and gave birth to a distinct style of architecture, which is not only recognized in the standard classifications, but of which the noble specimens still standing bear powerful testimony, and put to shame the awkward and puny efforts of their degenerate successors.

In course of time another wandering shepherd soldier strayed down from the East with a troop of followers, and early in the thirteenth century, having served the Sultan of Iconium some good turn, received from the latter a strip of territory in Central Asia Minor. This wild free-booter's son was Othman, the founder of the present dynasty, who gave his name to the Osmanli Turks. (The Arabic letter th is pronounced s in Turkish.)

The conquests and aggressions of the successive Sultans it is needless to relate. Suffice it to say, that after their power had reached its acme, and their territory stretched far and wide all around the eastern end of the Mediterranean, instead of falling to pieces, like its Seljookian predecessor, there began within it a more undemonstrative process of disintegration by moral corruption, which has gone on ever since, and has now reached such a point that it is beyond the power of political specifics to restore life to the decayed mass. National vitality has long since ceased to exist, and the very appearance of it would soon fade away, were it not that this would cause a vacuum in the political atmosphere; and it is to avoid the concussion of the opposing elements which would rush in to occupy the space, that this artificial and pestilential cloud is

kept hanging over the eastern horizon. That these statements are correct may be proved by an impartial examination of the existing state of things in the country. The few facts selected for presentation here may be classed under three heads, as they pertain to the material, political, and religious concerns of the country. These three classes, however, are so bound up in each other, that the merest allusions to them cannot be mutually exclusive.

I. The condition of the material interests of the country has been illustrated to the world by the absolute prostration of that portion of the land lately visited by famine. Compare the results of this famine with those of the famine in India but a short time before. In the latter the vigorous arm of a live government, with a far-seeing policy, sustained the stricken portion of country, kept the people from scattering, and gave them the means to begin their work anew when the calamity was past. But how was it in Turkey? At first-yea, and almost to the last-obstinate denial of the fact of famine; and when they were practically driven from this, thousands of taxpaying peasants perished, or scattered as paupers through the land, while the officials were making out a formal statement of the case, and then haggling and quarreling over the question how the aid they had decided to give should be distributed. And when, in the meanwhile, benevolent foreigners had obtained from other lands, and were distributing thousands of dollars and saving thousands of lives, not only were their exertions unappreciated, but their motives were basely maligned, and their very laborious efforts were hampered in every way by jealous officials and greedy hirelings. The means used by these officials to meet the grave question, how to control a hungry populace, would be laughable, were they not ghastly and sickening in their results. In one city dependent on importations of grain, the city authorities suddenly issue an order to the merchants that they must no longer speculate in grain, but must sell at a stipulated price, so low as, under the circumstances, to be ruinous to their commercial interests. The city is at once jubilant over an abundance of grain, but alas, the granaries are soon emptied, and this short-sighted policy having killed the trade, not a merchant can be induced to invest a cent in grain, and so once more starvation stares the whole city in

the face. The disappointed officials piously roll up their eyes and murmur "Kisinet," but quickly lower them again to curse the people for being hungry, and the merchants for not feeding them gratuitously.

The means and methods of agriculture in use among the people are in keeping with these evidences of childishness. All antiquity and ignorance cannot outdo the awkardness and inefficiency of the crooked stick, to which, under the name of plough, they adhere with stolid indifference to modern inventions, and with which they scratch the surface of the ground, and then mourn and wonder that they can reap not more on an average than four or five times the amount of the seed sown. In spite of the triumphant success of a dozen or so of threshing machines introduced in one part of the country, there is no manifestation of any general desire to substitute any thing modern for the venerable and laborious method of treading and scraping and grinding out the grain under the feet of cattle. In the midst of soils and climates capable of producing an abundance of vast varieties of produce, the peasants blindly follow in the foot-prints of their fathers, and sow and reap just one or two kinds of grain year after year, without change, while millions of acres lie waste and useless, either because the danger from robbers exposes crops at a distance from the village, or because it does not enter the brain of the laboring generation that it can be possible to cultivate more land than their fathers did. For similar reasons the houses of the farmers are all huddled close together in the village, making each a long walk to get to his fields.

The trade of the country is in a similarly prostrate and melancholy condition. The underlying principle and universal fact on which all business is carried on throughout the land, is that every man is, and must be, in debt. These debts, generally inherited or contracted early in life, are carried through long years as a heavy burden, the law allowing interest at the rate of twelve per cent., and are fruitful causes of quarrels and heartburnings, and yet few seem to think it possible to exist without debt.

To still further vitiate and embarrass the structure reared on such a foundation, are the following facts and customs, viz.: 1. The system of fixed prices is unknown outside the capital,