History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume II Part 7

Deacon Guwergis of Tergawer, the well known "Mountain Evangelist,"

died on the 12th of March, called suddenly from earnest and most useful labors to his reward.

The course of the Persian government towards the mission and its friends, at this time, was very unsatisfactory. Asker Khan, a general in the Persian army, was appointed to investigate the truth of certain charges brought by the papists against the American missionaries, and early evinced a most unfriendly feeling towards them, and a partiality for their accusers. Indeed, he took no pains to conceal his hostility, and did all he could to stop the schools and other evangelizing agencies. But the missionaries had the aid, as far as aid could be rendered, of the Hon. C. A. Murray, the English Amba.s.sador, and of Mr. Abbott at Tabriz, and Mr. Stevens at Teheran, and also of Mr. Khanikoff, the Russian Consul General at Tabriz. The disturbed state of political relations, and especially the want of harmony between the English and Persian governments, made it impossible for these friends to accomplish what they desired to do in their behalf. After withdrawing from Teheran, Mr. Murray visited Oroomiah, and the correspondence which then pa.s.sed between him and the missionaries, showed his desire to aid both the suffering Nestorians and the missionary work. In his absence, the Russian Consul General became their protector,--"at first," as he said, "unofficially, but with very good heart; and officially, whenever he should have the right so to do." It is remarkable, and reveals a protecting Providence, that no department of labor, with the exception of village schools, very materially suffered at this time.

In February, 1856, there began to be indications of the special influences of the Holy Spirit in some of the villages occupied by native helpers; and very soon there were marked indications of another work of grace in the two seminaries. The feeling in both the schools became very general. The voice of prayer was heard on every side; and a large proportion of those who were not pious, appeared to be seeking in earnest the way of life. On the 30th of March, Mr.

Cochran reported that, with the exception of those most recently admitted, nearly all were hoping that they had pa.s.sed from death unto life. In the villages, also, there were cases of peculiar interest.

Mr. and Mrs. Rhea were alone in Gawar. In the autumn it was deemed advisable, in view of the insurrectionary state of Koordistan, that they should withdraw for a time. They at first felt it their duty to remain; but the progress of events soon made it plain that Gawar was an unsuitable place for a lone lady, especially when winter should render it impossible for her to remove. Mr. Rhea, while at Oroomiah, continued, as far as possible, to superintend the labors of the native helpers in Memikan, and he returned the next summer, with Mrs. Rhea, to their mountain home. The Koordish chieftains, who had proudly boasted, that they would put their heels upon the necks of the poor Christians, were soon fleeing in dismay before the advancing Ottomans.

Mr. Stoddard wrote, in September, 1856, that for six months, in consequence of the withdrawal from Persia of the English Amba.s.sador, the missionaries had been without any political protection, and at the mercy of a hostile government, yet there was perhaps never a time when their work presented a more cheering aspect on the whole.

The seminaries, being on the mission premises, suffered less annoyance than did the village schools, which were scattered widely over the plain. The teachers in these schools had many of them been educated in the seminaries, and were altogether superior as a cla.s.s to what they were a few years before; and thus the standard of instruction was raised, and more religious influence was exerted over the pupils. Nor was there ever a time when more people were brought within the sound of the gospel, or when there were more stated attendants on preaching. And much use was made of the Monthly Concert on the first Monday of the month. The whole day was devoted to the natives. "Early Monday morning," writes Mr. Stoddard, "some of our friends arrive from the nearer villages, and others are continually dropping in during the forenoon. At about the dinner hour, nearly all are a.s.sembled. We occupy considerable time with them in private, or in little companies, each one attending to the helpers under his care, in hearing the monthly reports of their labors and trials, their hopes and fears, and intermingling the reports with religious conversation and prayer. At three in the afternoon we a.s.semble, and spend an hour or two in public religious exercises. In the evening a similar meeting is held, when the natives not only speak freely, but often occupy nearly the whole time, leaving the brother who has charge of the meeting little to do. It very often happens, also, that after the meeting has been together two hours, there are several who feel that they want to be heard, if but for a few moments." These monthly occasions Mr.

Stoddard enjoyed exceedingly, and came to look upon the "First Monday" as the great day of the month.

In October, Messrs. Stoddard and Cochran and Miss Fiske made a tour of three weeks in the mountains of Koordistan. At Gawar they were joined by Mr. and Mrs. Rhea, and visited the districts of Ishtazin and Ba.s.s. From that point Messrs. Cochran and Rhea extended their journey to Amadiah, and returned to their party at Tekhoma, a week later. Thence they pa.s.sed through the districts of Tal, and up the Zab to Gawar. The fact that American ladies traversed in safety the gorges and precipices of central Koordistan, was an encouragement to native helpers and their families to reside in those difficult regions; but such tours were too fatiguing, probably, to be often repeated.

The object of the visit to Amadiah was to make further explorations with reference to the formation of a station on the western side of the mountains. The ma.s.s of the people were on that side, and could not be advantageously reached from Oroomiah. The eastern district was fast becoming supplied with pious helpers, and it seemed very desirable for that section of the country to share in this initiatory work, before anything occurred to hinder it. The convictions of the brethren as to the desirableness of commencing a station there were much strengthened, and Mr. Cochran offered his own services for that purpose.

November was ushered in by an event deeply interesting to the mission families; a public profession of religion by the three eldest children of the mission; and hope was entertained as to the piety of some of the younger.

Asker Khan, agent of the Persian government at Oroomiah, now became more troublesome than ever, resorting to every form of annoyance in his power. At the instance of Mr. Khanikoff, Dr. Wright and Mr.

Stoddard visited him at Tabriz, to see what could be done to induce the government to check the doings of its agent. But in this they failed, though the Consul did all he could to a.s.sist them. Even the Turkish Consul volunteered his aid, but almost in vain. Through Mr.

Khanikoff, they learned that the orders from Teheran to the Kaim Makam required him to forbid the labors of the missionaries in the province of Salmas; to see that no school was established save in the two places where missionaries resided; and that the number of the schools should not exceed thirty, nor the number of pupils one hundred and fifty. He was to require that no girl receive instruction, at all events, in the same school with boys. The missionaries were not to induce any person to change his religion, and were to enter into a written engagement not to send forth preachers. Books conflicting with existing religions in Persia were not to be printed, and native teachers and preachers were to be approved by Mar Yoosuf and Mar Gabriel, two unprincipled and bitter opposers of evangelical religion. Such were the orders issued, it is believed at the instigation of the French, by the Prime Minister of Persia, and Messrs. Stoddard and Wright, unable to secure even delay in carrying them out, returned to Oroomiah. The mission now, at the suggestion of the Consul, made a formal application for protection to the Russian Amba.s.sador at Teheran.

Asker Khan was a.s.sa.s.sinated six days after the return of the brethren from Tabriz, by a Koordish chief at Mergawer. But his coadjutor, Asker Aly Khan, governor of the Nestorians, pursued the same persecuting course, urged on by the Kaim Makam at Tabriz. The career of the Kaim Makam, however, was now short, for in January, 1857, the populace of that city, exasperated by his oppression, rose in a body, broke into his palace, plundered it, and compelled him to flee for his life. He was subsequently summoned to Teheran, and on his approach to that city, was stripped of his honors, mounted on a pack saddle, and thus led to prison, while a fine was imposed on him of a hundred thousand tomans.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE NESTORIANS.

1857-1863.

The sojourn of three weeks at Tabriz had been a source of constant anxiety to Messrs. Stoddard and Wright, and the former had premonitory symptoms of fever on his way home. But he was not apprehensive on that account, and finding Mr. Cochran and two of the native teachers disabled by sickness, he devoted much time and labor to the Seminary, and to the correspondence which had acc.u.mulated in his absence. Yet fever was threatening, and on the 22d of December, ten days after his return, he became decidedly ill. On the 25th he was confined to his bed, where he lay for two and thirty days, while the fever ran its fatal course. He died in great peace January 26, 1857, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. The public funeral services were in Syriac, and his remains were borne to their last resting-place by graduates of the seminary, whose conversion dated back to the first revival.

The mind of Mr. Stoddard was cast in a fine mould. The older members of the Board remember him at the Annual Meeting in Pittsfield in 1849. My own thought at the time was, that were an angel present in human form, his appearance and deportment would be much like those of Mr. Stoddard. A calm, seraphic joy shone in his face, and all that he said and did was just what all delighted to hear and see.

His presence did much to give a character to that meeting. Mr.

Stoddard had a frail body, and an almost feminine grace of person, like the popular impression of that disciple who leaned on the bosom of his Lord; but, like that disciple, he had strength of principle and inflexibility of purpose. His consecration to the missionary work was no sudden impulse. It was the result of repeated, and sometimes unexpected, meetings and conferences with Dr. Perkins, whose sagacious eye had marked him for a missionary. But the question once settled, it was settled for life. He went whole-souled into the work, and never doubted that his call to it was of G.o.d. His talents, which were of a high order, and his learning, which excited the admiration of Persian n.o.bles and princes, were unreservedly consecrated. "He goes among the churches," said the lamented Professor B. B. Edwards, of the Andover Seminary, "burning like a seraph. So heavenly a spirit has hardly ever been seen in this country."

Mr. Stoddard's daughter Harriet followed him to the grave within two months, at the age of thirteen, a victim to the same disease. She was sustained by the same calm trust in Christ, which lighted up the last hours of her excellent father.

Dr. Perkins wrote in 1857, that when the mission was commenced, twenty-four years before, hardly a score of Nestorian men were able to read intelligently, and but a single woman, the sister of the Patriarch. The people had no printed books, and but few copies even of portions of the Bible in ma.n.u.script, and these were all in the ancient Syriac, and almost unintelligible. Their spoken language, the modern Syriac, had not been reduced to writing. Their moral degradation was extreme. Still there was a remarkable simplicity in their conception of religious doctrines, and a remarkable absence of bigotry in their feelings, as compared with other oriental sects, and they were very accessible to the missionaries. The change had been great. Of the fifty-six in the male seminary when he wrote, thirty were hopefully pious; and so were ninety-one of the one hundred and fifty who had been connected with it. These were the fruits of seven revivals. Of the one hundred and three who had been connected with the female seminary, sixty, or more than one-half, gave good evidence of conversion; and the same might be said of three fourths who were then in the school. A large portion of the young men who had left the seminary, were either preachers of the gospel, or very competent teachers in the village school; and the greater part of the religious graduates of the other seminary were married to those missionary helpers. This seminary had been blessed with eight revivals. The instruction in both inst.i.tutions had been almost wholly in the native tongue.

The entire Bible had been translated into the spoken language, which the mission had reduced to a written form; and two thousand intelligent readers, the result of the schools, had been supplied with the sacred volume. Indeed, the Scriptures had been printed and given to the people in the ancient Peschito version, as well as in the spoken tongue. To these were added valuable works on experimental and practical religion, for the use of the schools, and to meet the wants of a community in the early stages of a Christian civilization.

Though separate churches had not been organized, none but pious Nestorians, for the last two or three years, had been admitted to communion with the mission church. The number who had thus communed was about two hundred, and it was thought that from one hundred and fifty to two hundred more were worthy of a place at the Lord's table.

The French Jesuits and their emissaries had been a sore trial, but their success had not been great; and they had probably been useful, by stimulating the mission and the pious Nestorians in their Master's service.

Mrs. Rhea had been two years a member of the mission as Miss Harris, and three as Mrs. Rhea. Her active and useful life closed on the 7th of December, 1857, at the age of twenty-nine years and five months.

"Her sick room," says Dr. Wright, "was a hallowed place, where the Sun of Righteousness shone with wonderful brightness."

Another revival of religion occurred in both the seminaries, at the opening of the year 1858, which was extended to Geog Tapa and other villages. Miss Fiske, in charge of the female seminary, relates a fact of much significance. She writes: "Some of the girls' pious friends came to pray with them yesterday, and I was led to inquire how many of them have a pious father or mother (or both), or older brother or sister; and I was surprised to find, as I think you will be to know, that about two thirds of them have such praying friends.

I contrast this with the facts respecting their friends in 1846, and feel that we ought to be thankful and humble before our G.o.d, for what he has done for them."

Mr. Rhea spent the winter of 1857 and 1858 on the western side of the Koordish mountains, and everywhere found an open door for preaching to the rude dwellers among the rocks. In Shermin, Usgan, and Argin, Nestorian villages southwest of Amadiah, he was cordially welcomed to their houses and churches, and had large congregations that gave earnest attention to his preaching. Snow fell eleven out of fifteen days, and when ready to return to Amadiah, he found the way entirely blocked up. Mr. Marsh having joined him from Mosul, they spent a number of days among large papal villages in that region, where they found ample opportunity for preaching the Gospel; and several individuals seemed earnest inquirers after the way of salvation from the power of sin. With reference to Mosul and vicinity, Mr. Rhea writes: "I am deeply impressed with the evidence, that the labors of the mission here have not been in vain, and that their results are not to be measured by the number of names on the church roll. The Jacobite Church here is now shaken to its foundations; and it cannot be doubted, that whatever of feeling after something better exists among many of its members is owing to the steady light of the Protestant church streaming in upon its darkness." He was absent six months, and for one third of this time was in Mosul. He regarded the proper field of the mountain branch of the Nestorian Mission as extending from Amadiah on the north to Mosul on the south, and from Akra on the east to Bootan on the west; including the mountain districts between Gawar and Amadiah. The Christian population was one in respect to nationality and language, and was a remnant of the once great Syrian Church. The language was the same substantially as that spoken in the eastern districts.

As the result of these explorations, Mr. Rhea made an eloquent appeal for more effective labor in Western Koordistan, which was published in the "Missionary Herald," but cannot be sufficiently condensed for these pages.[1] His health had suffered in his mountain tours, which resembled those performed by his eminent predecessor, Dr. Grant. This rendered it necessary for him to spend a year for recovery in his native land, where his missionary addresses were well received. Two other members of the mission, second to none in the field,--the venerable Dr. Perkins, and Miss Fidelia Fiske,--were obliged to visit the United States in 1858; the former to care for the health of Mrs. Perkins, who, after burying six of her children, had accompanied Mrs. Crane to America, taking her only surviving child; and the latter, in consequence of a disease, which proved fatal after a few years. Dr. Perkins was also accompanied by Mrs. Stoddard, and three children of the mission.

[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1858, pp. 317, 318.

Mr. Rhea's appeal had not been without effect. The Rev. Thomas L.

Ambrose joined the mission near the close of 1858, the Rev. John H.

Shedd and wife in 1859, and the Rev. Henry N. Cobb and wife in 1860, with direct reference to the mountain field; and the Rev. Amherst L.

Thompson and Rev. Benjamin Labaree, with their wives, and Frank N.

H. Young, M. D., in 1860, to strengthen the force on the plains, together with Misses Aura Jeannette Beach and Harriet N. Crawford.

Mr. Thompson had given much promise of usefulness, but died at Seir, August 25, 1860, only fifty-four days after his arrival. Miss Beach was to be a.s.sociated with Miss Rice, who had rendered efficient service in the girls' Seminary as the a.s.sociate of Miss Fiske, but was then alone and overburdened.

The unexpected but providential withdrawal of so many older laborers, at this juncture, was not favorable to a more enlarged occupation of the field; and the plan of forming a station on the western side of the mountains, was not carried out. The height of Amadiah above the plain of Mesopotamia, and its salubrity in summer were found to have been overestimated; and further researches made it evident, that the demands of so trying a mountain field were more than the average health of missionaries would be able to endure at any season of the year. Indeed, impaired health obliged Mr. and Mrs.

Cobb, who had been specially designated to the mountain district, to return home within two years; and, to their own great regret and that of their a.s.sociates, they have never been able to rejoin the mission.

The Nestorian helpers, as a cla.s.s, were p.r.o.nounced able and faithful men, remarkably so for Orientals. But they could not fully take the place of missionaries. "They do n.o.bly," wrote Mr. Coan, "if properly directed and watched over, better perhaps, in some circ.u.mstances, than we can; but it is not the work of a day, nor a year, thoroughly to eradicate the habits of life of those who are brought up in gross superst.i.tion."

Early in the year 1859, the seminary for young men was blessed with its tenth revival, in which a third of its pupils were hopefully converted. There had then been eleven such spiritual refres.h.i.+ngs in the seminary for girls. In most of these outpourings of the Spirit, as now, the villages were more or less favored. The effects of these revivals were by no means limited to the souls converted. An enlightening, softening, elevating influence affected the ma.s.ses.

The young men from the seminary were generally of good abilities, having been selected from a large number of candidates, and many of them were distinguished for piety; and quite as much might be said of the other seminary.

More than fourteen millions of printed pages had been distributed among the Nestorians. The Old Testament with references formed a part of this literary treasure; and the New Testament was about being issued in that form.

Among the novelties to be recorded was the marriage of Mar Yohanan, in violation of the canons of the Nestorian Church. The bishop had been connected with the labors of the mission from the beginning. He pleaded the example of Luther and the Apostles. The step was one of his own choosing, and taken in the face of many threats, as well as the imputation of unworthy motives; but the "evangelicals" almost universally approved his course. The excitement was much less than had been apprehended; and another of the bishops, after some time, followed his example.

In 1860 the observance of the Lord's Supper, instead of being confined to the missionary stations; was held, once in four months, in the various villages where the converts resided, and about a score of virtually reformed churches were thus planted and watered in as many different places. The native pastor was held responsible for the persons whose names were presented to the missionary, as suitable to be admitted to the Lord's table. Mr. Coan speaks of those little churches, as being such in fact, "scattered in the different villages, as so many moral light-houses in the surrounding darkness."

Mar s.h.i.+mon, the Nestorian Patriarch, died near the close of 1860, at the age of fifty-nine, and after having been thirty-five years in office. His successor was a nephew, eighteen years old, and a youth of amiable disposition. The patriarch had stood variously affected towards the mission, but was, for the most part, unfriendly. The effect of the Gospel in diminis.h.i.+ng the superst.i.tious reverence of the people for him, was one of the causes of his hostility.

About this time, a spirit of unlooked-for liberality was manifested among the Nestorians. It should be borne in mind that the people are poor, that the man worth five hundred dollars is counted rich, and that probably no Nestorian is worth two thousand dollars. The indications in our own country were at that time very unpromising; and when the prospective embarra.s.sments of the Board were stated at the monthly concert in Geog Tapa, John, the pastor, urged the people to support their own missionary in the mountains, and one of the audience rose and pledged nearly a month's support. Others contributed unwonted amounts, and soon the whole congregation was in a blaze of enthusiasm. Those who could command money gave money, others contributed wheat, or other produce, and even women took off their ornaments and gave them. At the monthly concert the next day in the city, the people were more aglow than at Geog Tapa, and gave on a larger scale, though frequently reminded that they were poor, and urged not to give more than their cooler judgments would approve. The amount contributed was five hundred dollars. They seized upon the figure of "a bride"-- more forcible in Persia than in America,--which Mr. Coan had used in his address; and one and another contributed for her "shoes," "dress," and other things, until the "church," the "Lamb's wife," had a very comfortable outfit.

This outburst of benevolent effort was too sudden and excessive to last in the same measure. The advantage gained by the elevation thus reached, was the practicability of keeping the converts up to giving according to their ability, which is the Gospel standard. Dr.

Perkins, writing two years later, thought there was a real gain by this effort, though it had reacted somewhat. Most of the pledges were redeemed after the next harvest and vintage.

Dr. Dwight was eighteen days at Oroomiah during his Eastern tour in 1860 and 1861. Mr. Wheeler had accompanied him from Harpoot. Some important changes in the practical working of the mission, made at the Annual Meeting, threw a greater responsibility on the native pastors. They were to have the responsibility, not only of administering baptism, but of the Lord's Supper; and the children of none except communicants were to be baptized. The relation of pastor and people was thus made more prominent and distinct. Dr. Dwight declares himself satisfied by what he saw at Oroomiah, that nothing more than this was needed to complete the organization of the reformed church. He had had the impression, for years, that sooner or later the converts among the Nestorians, like the same cla.s.s of persons among the Armenians, would be organized into separate churches, wholly distinct from the Nestorian Church. The excommunications and persecutions that had led to that result among the Armenians, he seemed to think would not occur among the Nestorians; and it was evident to him that the old ceremonies of the Church were silently vanis.h.i.+ng away, and that reformed services were taking their place, as the result of a fundamental change in the minds of the people. A distinct theological cla.s.s was to be formed in the seminary of promising young converts, and no more men were to be educated in that school than could afterwards be profitably employed. The conclusion was also reached, in view of past experience, that the mountain regions should not be occupied by American families; reserving them as the peculiar field of the reformed church of the plain; as a training-school for their missionary spirit, and a necessary outlet for their pious zeal.

The native preachers and helpers held a two days' meeting at Oroomiah while Dr. Dwight was there, in which several important subjects were discussed. He liked their appearance, admired the spirit of many of them, and was greatly moved by the extraordinary fire of their eloquence, though he understood them only through an interpreter. He was specially impressed by the childlike piety of the venerable Mar Elias.

Mr. Breath, the ingenious and efficient missionary printer, died of cholera on the 10th of November, 1861. He had so far succeeded in training native printers and book-binders, that there was no further call for such workmen from the United States. Mrs. Breath returned home, with her three children, in the following year.