History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume II Part 6

Subsequently a papal priest, to whom, in former years, he had given a Bible, joined himself to the missionary, and patiently endured severe persecution. But the most encouraging case was that of an influential merchant named Meekha. He was originally an Armenian, and, thirty years before had become a Papist, and carried over one hundred houses with him. He was the champion of the papal party. His conversion was on this wise. The priest just mentioned had sown much Gospel truth among his disciples, and among them was a son-in-law of Meekha. At length the old man, provoked by an instance of dishonesty and falsehood in his bishop, and unable to read himself, sent for his son-in-law to read to him the Gospel. The young man was kept reading for three days, until the Gospels and Epistles were all finished. Amazed to find his religion opposed by the whole spirit and teachings of the divine oracles, Meekha sent for the priests and they came. "Prove me your doctrines from the Bible," said he.

Convinced, from their manner of reply, that they had nothing to say, he ceased from the wors.h.i.+p of the Virgin, and declared himself a Protestant; and his wife was as sincere and earnest as he. Though father, mother, and three unmarried daughters were excommunicated, and subjected to continued insults, their souls were overflowing with joy and thankfulness that the Gospel had come to them.

Speaking of this family, Mr. Williams says: "I have never witnessed such amazed eagerness as that with which, for the first time, they comprehended that salvation is without money and without price--absolutely free and gratuitous. It was to them _news_--good news; and when I call to mind Meekha's impetuous temperament, and see him listen with such docility to Christ's teaching, I cannot but hope that, though imperfectly sanctified, the 'good work' is begun in him, which G.o.d's grace will complete. He accepts no new truth without a challenge, and nothing short of a 'Thus saith the Lord,'

will give it currency with him. At one of my evening lectures I alluded to Isaiah's statement, 'All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,' when two or three spoke up: 'What 's that?' On repeating it they were incredulous, and demanded chapter and verse.

I gave it to them next day, and it has taken hold of them like iron.

I have seen Meekha since throw that verse into a crowd of opposers with such force as to start them from their seats with an emphatic 'G.o.d forbid,' and the most positive denial that such a verse could be in the Bible. When I turned to the pa.s.sage, and put the book into their hands that they might read it for themselves, they could not believe their own eyes, but continued poring over it, reading carefully from the head of the chapter; and this very day some of them came in to ask what it meant, and so changed in their manner I could hardly believe my eyes. Before, obstinate, dogged, unreasonable; now, meek, docile, and asking what the will of the Lord is. One said, 'That went like a dagger to my heart, and I slept none all that night.' And when to-day, I turned to Rom. iii. 26, Eph. ii. 8-9, and Rom. iv. 1-4, they listened as children. Truly the word of the Lord _is_ a sharp sword, piercing to the heart."

Mr. Knapp's health forbidding a longer residence at Diarbekir, he commenced, in May, 1858, a new station at Bitlis, a healthy place several thousand feet above the level of the sea. Dr. and Mrs.

Haskell were with them during the latter half of the summer, and spent the summer of 1859 at Mardin; but Mr. and Mrs. Marsh and Mrs.

Lobdell decided to remain at Mosul. In May, Mr. and Mrs. Marsh were called to part with their second and only surviving child. A fortnight later, Mrs. Marsh herself had a severe attack of fever, but soon recovered. The fatal attack was three months later, and her death occurred unexpectedly. The thermometer in the early part of the night before, stood at 113. During the day it was 120; and on the night of her death it was 100 on the roof, where they slept.

She had had a slight illness for a few days, and it now became a burning fever, with delirium, and all remedies proved vain. She died on the 12th of August, at the age of thirty-two, after a residence of six years at Mosul, as an earnest and faithful laborer. Her mother and her only sister had died before reaching the age of thirty, and it is possible Mrs. Marsh might not have lived as long in her native land, as she did at Mosul. "Yet it is probable," as her husband wrote at the time, "that the heat, so unusually extreme, cutting the leaves from the tree in our court by thousands, and causing many natives of the country to fall dead by the roadside, was the immediate occasion of her death."

Mrs. Lobdell found reason, in the necessities of her children, for returning to America, and in April, 1860, she bade adieu to the little band of women, who, for eight years, had sat at her feet to learn of Jesus. She reached her native land in August, in company with Mr. Marsh.

Mosul remained unoccupied during the summer, the heat at that season being found too great for endurance; though the climate is agreeable for nearly three fourths of the year. The summer retreat prepared by Dr. Lobdell at Deira, near Amadiah, was distant seventy miles, or four days' travel, and it required at least nine days to reach Mardin.

There were but two or three places in Turkey where missionaries, up to this time, had had such marked success as in Diarbekir. The church, at the close of 1859, numbered sixty-one, and after the April communion, seventy-three. Rarely did a communion pa.s.s without some additions. Protestants were a recognized power among the people, and their influence was extending. Books were eagerly sought after and paid for. Illegal taxes had nearly ceased in the city itself. After a weary struggle of nine years, the a.s.sessment of the tax-roll for the Protestants was made upon a satisfactory plan, which bid fair to be permanent. The commercial standing of the Protestants was above that of any other sect, though there were no wealthy men among them. But the increase of the congregation had been r.e.t.a.r.ded by the want of sufficient accommodations for public wors.h.i.+p. The lamented removal of Mr. Holmes, the English Consul, to a more desirable consulate in European Turkey, while it was a great loss to the mission, threw his house upon the market, and it was purchased for a place of wors.h.i.+p at less than half its cost. It required only slight alterations, and could be indefinitely enlarged. The members of the church subscribed a thousand dollars towards its purchase, and a certain amount was granted by the Board.

The school for boys, and the one for girls, were both eminently a success. At Cutterbul, half the village was Protestant and the rest more than half so, and the place of prayer would not hold the congregation.

In 1860, the stations of the a.s.syria Mission were brought within the field of the Eastern Turkey Mission, and the a.s.syria Mission ceased to have a separate existence.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE NESTORIANS.

1851-1857.

The return of Mr. Stoddard, accompanied by his wife and Mr. and Mrs.

Rhea, was mentioned in the first volume. He thus describes the manner of his reception: "While crossing the plain of Oroomiah, we arrived at a village twelve miles from the city, where a company of our brethren and sisters, with their little ones and many of the Nestorians, greeted us with tender emotions. A tent had been pitched, and a breakfast prepared; and we all sat down on the gra.s.s, under the grateful shade, to partake of the repast. Our hearts were full. During the three hours which we spent at this village, Nestorians of all cla.s.ses, many of them our brethren in Christ, were continually arriving; and when, soon after noon, we set out for the city, our progress resembled more a triumphal procession than a caravan of weary travellers. Every mile increased our numbers. Our way was often almost blocked up by the people who came to meet us, some on horseback, some on foot; bishops, priests, deacons, village teachers, members of the seminary, with whom I had many times wept and prayed, all pressing forward in eager haste to grasp our hands, and swell the notes of welcome. Three years ago, they followed us out of the city, holding our horses by the bridle, and begging us not to leave them, while their mournful looks bespoke the sorrow of their hearts. Now I was returning to them with restored health, to identify my interests with theirs. I brought with me the salutations of many thousand Christians in our native land, and was accompanied into the harvest-field by new reapers. As I turned from thoughts of the past, and looked on the animating scene around us, the contrast almost overcome me."

This was in 1851. In October of the following year, Dr. and Mrs.

Perkins, going to meet Mr. and Mrs. Crane, and Sarah Stoddard, on their way from Trebizond, experienced a severe affliction in the death of their only surviving daughter, a very interesting girl. The journey was expected to be of advantage to the health of Mrs.

Perkins and to their two children, Judith and Henry; and it was due to the new-comers that some one, acquainted with the language and country, should aid them through the long and tedious route from Erzroom. After a ride of thirty miles, they were unexpectedly exposed to a pestilential atmosphere at Khoy, where they spent the night. All went well with them until they had crossed the plain of Khoy, and the mountain beyond, and pa.s.sed their last resting-place, when the beloved daughter showed signs of cholera. They could not rest there under the burning sun, and there was no water near; so they were obliged to proceed three or four miles further, to the Moslem village of Zorava. The nature of the disease was now painfully certain. The Mohammedan villagers were terrified and inhospitable. They would not even allow a morsel of bread to be sold to the faithful Nestorians who accompanied the family, nor even barley for their tired, hungry horses. And when the limbs of the child were cold and stiffening under the power of the deadly disease, they would not sell one stick of wood to warm water for her; but again and again ordered the heart-stricken travellers to leave the village with their dying child. As a further aggravation, after the father had twice administered laudanum, the vial containing the medicine disappeared from their tent, and could no more be found. There were all the usual accompaniments of the cholera, and in that high region the night air was cold. Collecting dry weeds, they managed to kindle a fire, and heated a stone which they placed at her feet.

The spirit of the child was quiet, and beautifully resigned to the will of G.o.d. There had been no doubt as to her piety before her sickness, and the whole scene was all that could have been expected of an older person. At length the end came. "Breathing shorter and shorter for fifteen or twenty minutes," writes her father, "she gently slept, as we believe, in Jesus, at three o'clock on the morning of September 4, 1852, aged twelve years and twenty-six days."

The bereaved and afflicted family was now a hundred and forty miles from home; but home was the place for her burial. The mother washed the corpse with her own hands, and dressed it for the grave. As no coffin could be obtained, the loved one was sewed in a strong oriental felt of the size and form of a bed-quilt, and placed upon a bed, and two willow sticks, cut from the margin of the brook, were sewed upon the sides of the bed, and it was then bound to the back of a faithful horse; the panic-stricken villagers calling upon them all the while, "Depart, depart." With what different feelings were they received on their return, by their large circle of weeping friends! One of the Nestorians, who had accompanied the family, standing by the grave, artlessly described to the Nestorians the affecting scenes he had witnessed, and all were bathed in tears. "In all the families of the village," wrote Miss Fidelia Fiske, "Judith had taken a deep interest, and several of the middle-aged women had been taught by her in the Sabbath-school. Indeed, she had greatly endeared herself to all the scores and hundreds of Nestorians who knew her, and was a universal favorite among the people. A Nestorian of a distant village said, on hearing of her death, "There was none like her,--so beautiful, so wise, so pious. She would pray like an angel."[1]

[1] See _The Persian Flower; A Memoir of Judith Grant Perkins of Oroomiah, Persia_.

The Gospel made its way among the Nestorians amid many discouragements. Yet there was progress, Even in the mountains of Koordistan, where the brethren could do little more than watch the leadings of Providence, there was much that was hopeful. It was an indication of promise, that the people of Memikan, the mountain station, notwithstanding their sufferings for the sake of the Gospel, did not falter in their adherence to it. Strangers, after listening to the reading and reciting of the school children, sometimes went away exclaiming, "Glory to G.o.d! There is nothing bad in all this." Religious wors.h.i.+p was well attended. Even in the busy season, when the laborers were in their fields before dawn, and worked till late, a goodly number attended the daily evening service. Nor was it here, only, that a listening ear was found. In a tour among some of the largest neighboring villages, the missionaries were kindly received. Some sat from morning till the setting of the sun, giving earnest heed to the preaching. Could the people have been a.s.sured that they had nothing to fear from the civil power, they would have braved their ecclesiastics. Even as it was, the missionary pursued his work without molestation, and was treated with uniform respect by the authorities.

On the plain of Oroomiah, there was more preaching than ever before, and the line of demarkation between an evangelical church and a dead Christianity, was becoming more and more distinct. Mar Yohannan boldly discarded many customs of his Church, and then seemed disposed to go as fast in the work of reformation as his people could be induced to follow; and there was the same spirit among the helpers of the mission.

The two seminaries were coming under a stricter discipline, and aimed at a higher standard of scholars.h.i.+p. About half of the forty students under Mr. Stoddard were hopefully pious, and some of them gave high promise of usefulness. One was appointed to succeed the bishop of the largest diocese in the province. Several were from different mountain districts, and one was from the valley of the Tigris.

The number in the female seminary had increased from forty to fifty, and it was delightful to witness the intelligent zeal of some teachers in the Sabbath-schools. The ten who graduated in March were all hopefully pious, well educated, and quite refined, and most of them were expected to become teachers in their own villages.

The description given by Mr. Stocking of a very aged priest, whom he saw among the hills north of Gawar, encourages the belief that the Holy Spirit sometimes makes the faintest rays of Gospel light effectual to salvation. The man was nearly deaf, and bending under the weight of a century or more, according to the statement of the people, but was able to converse intelligently about events which happened two or three generations before. "We were much surprised,"

writes Mr. Stocking, "at the correctness of his views in regard to some of the cardinal doctrines of the Scriptures, and particularly as to the necessity of an evangelical faith, in distinction from one that was dead, and of the work of the Holy Spirit in renewing and sanctifying believers. Though not remarkable for his learning, he appears to have been taught by the great Teacher himself; for he had never before seen a missionary. As I left him, to see him no more, he affectionately took my hand, and said he had one request to make, which was that we would remember him in our prayers at the mercy-seat. He also requested a New Testament in the ancient and modern Syriac, for his village, which we sent to him."

In August, 1851, Mr. Coan, accompanied by Priest Dunka and Deacons John and Khamis, visited the districts of Jeloo, Ba.s.s, Tekhoma, Tiary, and Diss, and discoursed to more than four thousand persons.

A part of this ground had never been trod before by a missionary.

The ecclesiastics were, as usual, the greatest opposers, but there were two pleasing exceptions. In Alsan, a village of five hundred souls, there was one priest who, at first, seemed reserved, but as his prejudices were removed, he became, with his people, an attentive listener. The missionaries tarried four or five hours, preaching the Word to the hungry mult.i.tude. The people, in little companies, conversed about what they had heard, and publicly upbraided their priest for letting them remain in such ignorance. He made humble confession, and expressed a desire to send his little boy, a bright looking lad, to Oroomiah for instruction. At another village, they found a decidedly evangelical priest. That his influence over his large village was good was apparent in the quiet and orderly behavior of the people, and their attention to the Gospel. Indeed, they were accustomed to the word of exhortation daily at their evening prayers. This priest had a small school every winter, to which several lads resorted from neighboring districts.

A very different scene was witnessed in the village of Mar Ziah, which was thronged with ecclesiastics who obtained their livelihood by begging. "They were dressed," Mr. Coan writes concerning them, "in scarlet and silk, and were exceedingly haughty in their bearing.

We met the people in the churchyard, but, after a few words, there arose such a tumult as I hope never to see again. For an hour or more, the place was like a pandemonium. Some wished to hear what we had to say; but others, with savage fierceness, flew at them, yelling at the top of their voices, and looking as if ready to drink their blood. In the course of an hour or two their rage had spent itself, and after a few words of solemn admonition, we left them."

At another village, scarcely three miles distant, where was no priest, a few persons a.s.sembled in a room where the missionaries stopped, and their solemn and tearful attention was very unlike the noisy scene they had just left. One young man begged, with tears, to receive a copy of the Gospel.

Nazee was one of three Tiary girls who came to Oroomiah after the ma.s.sacre of the mountain Nestorians, and in the seminary became hopefully pious. She was now living at Chumba, and having heard of the coming of her missionary friends, was standing on the bank of the impetuous Zab, awaiting their arrival. There was no fording the torrent, but the travellers ventured across on two single string pieces, bending under them at every step. She greeted them joyfully, and hastened to prepare a place for their lodging. While she was gone, the Malek came and took them to his house. Nazee was disappointed, but followed, eager to hear every word. During the address to the villagers a.s.sembled on the roof, it was affecting to see the eagerness with which she listened. Though others left she could not leave, and not till near midnight did she bethink herself, and apologize for keeping Mr. Coan up so late after a fatiguing day's journey. She was a light in her village, by which the deeds of the wicked had been reproved, and she had consequently suffered much persecution. Some friends in America, interested in the account which had been given of her while in the seminary, had sent her articles of dress; but her neighbors a.s.sembled and maliciously tore them into fragments before her eyes. She bore it meekly, and only prayed for them. She expected fresh insults because of the kindness shown her in the present visit. Long before light, on the day they were to leave, she was with the visitors, anxious to improve the few moments left for Christian conversation; and she followed them, lonely and sad, to the river's side. There they kneeled by the roaring stream, and commended her to the Great and Good Shepherd.

Mr. Stoddard mentions the visit of Mr. Khanikoff, a Russian scientific gentleman, in the summer of 1852, to obtain information concerning the elevations and climates of these districts. Lake Oroomiah was ascertained to be about four thousand one hundred feet above the ocean, and the city four thousand five hundred feet, the plain sloping down gently towards the lake. Mount Seir rises two thousand eight hundred and thirty feet above the city, and seven thousand three hundred and thirty feet above the ocean; differing not greatly, in real height, from the White Mountains in New Hamps.h.i.+re. The mission residence, on the mountain side, is a thousand feet above the city. The mountains of Koordistan, some of which are capped with snow through all the year, often rise to the height of twelve thousand feet, and one peak is supposed to be fourteen thousand feet above the sea. Mr. Khanikoff afterwards became Russian Consul General at Tabriz, and proved himself a sincere and valuable friend to the mission.

Failure of health constrained Mr. Stocking to return, with his family, to the United States, and he was never able to resume his missionary labors. Since his lamented decease, a son has taken his place among the Nestorians.

It should be gratefully acknowledged, that violence towards missionaries has almost everywhere been the exception, and not the rule. It has been so even in Koordistan. But Mr. Cochran, while travelling with several Nestorians through Nochea, was a.s.sailed by five robbers in the employ of a Koordish chief, named Seyed Khan Bey. As Moslems the a.s.sailants were of course reckless of the life of Christians; and, for a time, the party were apprehensive of being murdered. But at last, while the freebooters were intent on their prey, the company fled up the steep mountain side, leaving their effects. Their horses were afterwards recovered.

The year 1854 opened with a revival in both the seminaries. At the commencement of it, scarcely half the students in either of the inst.i.tutions gave evidence of piety, which was an unusually small proportion. The thought of this, and especially that several of the senior cla.s.s were about going forth into the world without Christ, led to earnest prayer, and to efforts which were followed by an immediate blessing. The special religious interest continued several weeks, and extended to the large village of Geog Tapa, but the results appear not to have been distinctly reported.

The eighteen young men who graduated in 1854, were of higher promise than any previous cla.s.s. Several of the performances at their graduation were very gratifying, particularly the valedictory addresses, p.r.o.nounced by a young man of eighteen, which would not suffer in matter or manner, Dr. Perkins thought, by the side of similar addresses at any American college. Nearly all were hopefully pious, and were returning to homes widely distant from each other.

In some parts of the field there was much enthusiasm. In Geog Tapa, for example, about seventy adults had commenced learning to read.

The mode pursued there and elsewhere, was to induce teachers, scholars in the village schools, and other readers to teach adults, by the promise of a Bible, Testament, or other book, if they were successful. At an examination, the forenoon was devoted to the girls' school, taught by two graduates of the female seminary, and the afternoon to the Sabbath-school. Such a crowd of Nestorians was present, that it was necessary in the afternoon, to meet in a grove.

The first cla.s.s examined in the Sabbath-school consisted of men from twenty to seventy years of age, headed by the chief man of the village. Then followed a cla.s.s of women, fifty or sixty in number, from forty to fifty years of age. These cla.s.ses, not being able to read, had been taught orally. Next came a cla.s.s of men, about twenty in number, and a cla.s.s of twenty-three women, who had recently learned to read. These had been taught individually by boys connected with the village schools, each of whom received a copy of the Old Testament as a reward. On the plain of Oroomiah seventy-three free schools were reported, with more than a thousand boys, and one hundred and fifty girls and women as pupils.

In Gawar, two schools embraced fourteen boarding and thirty-two day scholars. Fourteen of these were from Jeloo, Ba.s.s, and Tekhoma districts. Among them were four deacons, four from the family of the bishop of Jeloo, and nearly all were from prominent families. They were wild mountaineers, and in some thing's difficult to manage, but they acquired knowledge rapidly and with delight; and the constant study of the Bible wrought a perceptible change in them. In the Bootan districts, hitherto inaccessible to missionary influence, there was now a strong desire for schools, and for the labors of evangelical teachers.

The New Testament in the modern language was beginning to be circulated among the people; a much enlarged edition of the hymn book had been issued, and a volume, ent.i.tled "Scripture Facts," had a wide circulation. Mr. Perkins had completed a translation of Doddridge's "Rise and Progress," and was engaged in translating Barth's "Church History."

Mr. Crane died at Gawar on the 27th of August, 1854, at the commencement of a career of bright promise. So ardently was he beloved by the people there, that at the funeral service the whole a.s.sembly repeatedly broke forth into weeping. The afflicted widow was called, within a week of her husband's death, to mourn also the loss of a beloved son, and removed to Mount Seir, where she was a valued helper in the mission. She returned home in 1857. Mr. Rhea and Miss Harris were united in marriage in October, and spent the winter at Gawar.

The audacity of the papal missionaries, backed by the French emba.s.sy, was marvelous. The American mission having been importuned to open a school in the large village of Khosrova, in Salmas, where popery predominated, two young men, graduates of the seminary, were successively sent thither. The first was several times driven away, through the instigation of the Lazarists, and those who were friendly to the mission also became objects of persecution. The second was a.s.sailed by the mob, headed, by the French chief of the Lazarists, and by a bishop. These two men, with their own hands, threw him into a ca.n.a.l, and called on the people to drown or kill him. He was mercifully delivered, but narrowly escaped with his life. The matter being reported to Mr. Abbott, the English Consul at Tabriz, the chief of the Lazarists, with some fifteen of his satellites, went thither, and apprehending a cool reception from the Consul, whose protection the Lazarists enjoyed in common with the American missionaries, he applied for a.s.sistance to the Russian Consul, proposing to transfer his pa.s.sports to his hands. Mr.

Khanikoff refused, and severely rebuked them for their conduct. Mr.

Abbott obtained an order from the Governor of Azerbijan to lay heavy fines on the Mussulman deputies of Khosrova for withholding protection, and on the princ.i.p.al papists for their acts of violence, with the requirement of bonds for future good behavior.

Messrs. Abbott and Stevens, English consuls at Tabriz and Teheran, kindly exerted their protecting influence, and Mr. Cochran subsequently spent a week at Khosrova, and had his house thronged every evening with from fifty to a hundred and fifty people, eager to listen to the preaching of the Word. The ecclesiastics raged, and stirred up the agent of the master of the village (who lives in Tabriz) to endeavor to drive our brother away; but the attempt failed. Sixty houses gave their names and seals, wis.h.i.+ng to become Protestants. They were exceedingly desirous of having a missionary, and even threatened, good-naturedly, to take one by force to live among them.

The reader may remember what Dr. Lobdell said of the course of this mission in respect to the forming of distinct churches.[1] Dr.

Perkins, writing in May, 1855, gives the following account of the progress of the reformation towards that result: "Our communion occurred about two weeks ago, and nearly one hundred communicants sat down to the table of the Lord, including our mission. It was a solemn and delightful season. Among the native brethren present were Mar Yohannan and Mar Elias; and most of the others, of both s.e.xes, were educated and quite intelligent; but, what is of far greater importance, they were, as we trust, true Christians. It would be easy at once to triple the number from those who, in the judgment of charity, are the children of G.o.d; but we think it better to introduce them somewhat gradually and cautiously to the ordinance; while, at the same time, we would not too long allow any of the sheep and lambs of Christ's flock to suffer for want of this important means of grace. It is exerting a powerful influence on those who partic.i.p.ate in it, and on many others; and it cannot fail ultimately to produce the effect either of redeeming the ordinance from abuses, as administered in Nestorian churches, or drawing off the pious part of the people to a separate observance of it. We are quite willing that the scriptural administration of the ordinance to the pious Nestorians should work out either of these results, in the legitimate time and way, or both of them, as the Lord shall direct."

[1] Chapter xxvii.

Some months later, notice was given that, in the future, instead of personal invitations, the door would be thrown open for all who should consider themselves worthy candidates. Uniting with the missionaries would thus seem more like a voluntary and public profession of religion. None were to be received, however, to the communion without a private examination. On one sacramental occasion about one hundred united with the missionaries, and more than thirty of them for the first time. A large number were also present as spectators, many of them deeply interested.