AN INTERESTING PEOPLE

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, January 22, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 4

AN INTERESTING PEOPLE.

IN the Independent of Dec. 18 we find the following brief sketch of a peculiar sect of Russian Christians:

“Mr. Cole, of the mission of the American Board in Eastern Turkey, writing of the state of affairs in Kars, describes a sect of Christians called Malagans, who are settling in Kars in great numbers. The history of their origin, as they give it, is that between fifty and sixty years ago their fathers were taken as captives into Germany, where they received some ideas of Protestantism. They speak the Russian language and come from north of the Caucasus. They have been much persecuted. They dress somewhat

like Quakers; they abstain from wine-drinking and the use of tobacco, and wear long beards. They will not eat pork, and also eschew some kinds of herbs, and have a fervent desire to go to Jerusalem. They are diligent readers of the Bible, which they prize very highly, and will have no other book. Though they believe in the New as well as the Old Testament, they do not celebrate baptism nor the Lord’s supper. They observe the Sabbath, and are noted for their love of truth and fair dealing. They bought all the Bibles Mr. Cole had to spare, and desired him to come and teach them and correct their mistakes. There are now about 500 of them in Kars, and many are yet to come. Mr. Cole thinks there ought to be a Protestant congregation in Kars for their benefit. The introduction of a little steamer on Lake Van for missionary use greatly excited the natives, who gravely discussed the question whether Solomon was as wise as the Protestants, and gave a verdict in favor of the latter.”