POLICIES & PRINCIPLES: Read & Reflect

In 1857, the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin of Bangor, Me. took off for the Turkish province of Bulgaria. His instructions: "The people needs to be taught to read, hear and reflect." Few did more to teach Bulgarians to read and to reflect than Cyrus Hamlin and his Protestant missionary friends. They translated the New Testament into Bulgarian and helped bring out the first periodical in the Bulgarians' native tongue. When the Turks massacred Bulgarian rebels in 1876, it was the missionaries' protests that did much to make Bulgarian liberation into a world cause. After the liberation in 1878, the missionaries...

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