History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume II Part 8

Some uneasiness was created about this time by rumors, that priests of the Russian Church were coming to Oroomiah to proselyte Nestorians. They did not come; but emissaries were sent by them secretly, who made large promises, that deceived many; yet the evangelical party, with two or three exceptions, kept aloof from the affair. The proposal was that the Nestorians should renounce their religion, and receive the seven sacraments of the Greek Church; the inducements held out being such as the payment of their taxes for some years, and salaries to all ecclesiastics and head men of the villages. The Persian government at length became somewhat alarmed by these proceedings, and the English Consul, Mr. Abbott, having demanded the official interference of the authorities at Tabriz, measures were adopted promising some degree of relief to the oppressed and therefore discontented Nestorians.

I have pa.s.sed in silence, for the most part, the long series of efforts by the Persian government to embarra.s.s the mission, since they appear to have been generally prompted by bribes from emissaries of the Papal Church, and proved strangely inoperative.

Another interesting revival of religion occurred in the two seminaries in February, 1862. It seems to have been marked rather by an increase of grace in the church-members, than by the number of converts. The first months of 1863 and 1864 were also distinguished by special religious interest, extending to many of the villages on the plain.

On Sabbath morning, December 6, 1863, the good old Mar Elias died, more than four score years of age. Until within a week of his death, he was accustomed to walk to town to attend the monthly concert, a distance of five miles, and for many years he had visited the villages of his diocese on foot. He was sick only three days, and his mind was clear. When asked by the young men about him for his dying charge, it was, "See that ye hold fast to G.o.d's Word." An immense concourse gathered from the surrounding country to do honor to his memory; and Dr. Perkins preached from the text: "My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and the hors.e.m.e.n thereof."

As a most cheering ill.u.s.tration of what Nestorians may yet become, through the grace of G.o.d in the Gospel, I quote largely from an account of the venerable man, by Mr. Rhea.[1] "While our good old bishop was not an educated man,--his knowledge in books extending little beyond the Word of G.o.d,--and had but ordinary intellectual ability, he was still one of the most interesting characters among the Nestorians. There is no name among them that will be more fragrant; none that deserves a more honored place in the annals of his Church. The singularity of his position here, thirty years ago,--devout, spiritual, G.o.d-fearing, and active, when a deep night hung over his whole people,--like a mountain beacon, whose summit had caught the first beams of the sun, which was soon to flood all below with its glory; his prophetic antic.i.p.ation of the coming of missionaries; his joy in welcoming them; his peculiar attachment to them and their families; his true-hearted devotion to them as G.o.d's ministers, and to their work, through all kinds of vicissitudes; the charming guilelessness of his character, ingenuous as a child; his wonderful love for the Word of G.o.d, making it his meditation by day and by night,--not able to pa.s.s two or three hours consecutively, without drinking from this well-spring of life; the child-like gentleness of his character,--though, when stirred in G.o.d's behalf, he showed a lion-hearted courage, tearing down the pictures and images which Papal hands had stealthily hung on the walls of his church, and pitching them indignantly from the door; his love of sound doctrine, holding forth the word of life in his humble way, always and everywhere, his face never so full of spiritual light as when rehearsing a conversation he had just had with some Mussulman friend, to whom he had opened the Scriptures, and talked of the kingdom yet to fill the whole earth,--the brotherhood of all races,--the one flock and the one shepherd; his silent patience, in a land of cruel wrong, under heavy burdens, borne uncomplainingly for many years; his wonderful spirituality, all things earthly being but the types of the heavenly,--the one, by resemblance or contrast, constantly suggesting the other, so that he could not be reminded that he was late to tea without the quick reply, 'May I not be late at the marriage supper of the Lamb,' or 'Jesus will gather us all in, in season;' all these traits of Christ-like beauty combined to make a character which, in this weary land, was a constant rest to the toil-worn missionary,--an influence for good, continually streaming forth into the darkness of spiritual death around him.

G.o.d, who accurately weighs all men, only knows how much his kingdom in Persia has been advanced by Mar Elias, than whom the Nestorian Church never had a more spiritual and evangelical bishop."

[1] See _Missionary Herald_, 1864, pp. 146, 147.

Almost five thousand Armenians inhabit the plain of Oroomiah, and the attention of the mission was gradually turned towards their spiritual enlightenment, with a prospect of ultimate success.

At a general meeting of native helpers, in March, 1863, a Church Manual, or Directory was adopted; "in the observance of which," Mr.

Cochran writes, "we have all that is essential to a reformed church, with reformed pastors; and in the possession of the substance, we can afford to dispense with the shadow of new organizations.....The prospect, we believe, was never brighter than at present for the ultimate evangelization of the old Church."

During the thirty years from the arrival of Dr. Perkins, five of the twenty men and seven of the twenty-four women, who had joined the mission, had died; and five men and nine women had for various causes been obliged to retire from the field, leaving in the mission seven male and nine female laborers. In this time, the vast unknown of men and things where dwelt the primeval race, had become well known. A great work of exploration had been performed. So far as knowledge of the field was concerned, many a valley had been exalted, many a hill brought low. This was indeed preliminary work, but it was indispensable, and was no small share of what is involved in the conquest of the country for Christ. The seven missionaries then in the field had more than fifty Nestorian fellow-laborers in the gospel ministry, graduates of their seminary, and the nine female missionaries rejoiced in scores of pious young women from their seminary, abroad as wives, mothers, and teachers, doing a work perhaps not second in importance to that of the pious graduates of the other school. Nor should we overlook the reduction of the spoken language to writing, the translation of the Holy Scriptures into it, and the multiplication of books to the extent of seventy-nine thousand three hundred volumes, and more than sixteen millions of pages. Of the half a score and more of revivals in the seminaries, Dr. Perkins affirms that they would compare with the purest revivals he had ever witnessed in America.

The return of Miss Beach to the United States threw the whole care of the female seminary on Miss Rice. She was afterwards materially aided by Mrs. Rhea, and from time to time by other members of the mission.

The interest taken by the English government in the oppressed Nestorians, should be gratefully acknowledged. Mr. Taylor, English Consul at Diarbekir, was sent early in 1864 through the Nestorian districts of Koordistan, to ascertain their grievances, and report to the Amba.s.sador at Constantinople; and Mr. Glen, a pious attache to the British Emba.s.sy in Persia, spent several months on the plain of Oroomiah for a similar purpose.

CHAPTER x.x.x.

THIRTY YEARS AMONG THE JEWS.

1826-1856.

The first missionary sent by the Board to the Jews in the Levant, was the Rev. Josiah Brewer, who, while connected with the Board, was supported by the "Female Society of Boston and Vicinity for promoting Christianity among the Jews." Sailing from Boston, September 16, 1826, he proceeded to Constantinople by way of Malta and Smyrna, expecting there to find every facility for learning the Hebrew-Spanish language, spoken by the Spanish Jews. But disturbances, growing partly out of the Greek revolution, so hindered his gaining access to the Jews, that he deemed it his duty to turn to some more open field of missionary labor.

After the retirement of Mr. Brewer, the ladies a.s.sumed the support of the Rev. William G. Schauffler who became his successor. He was a native of Stuttgart in Germany, but early removed, with his parents, to a German colony near Odessa. He came to this country through the agency of the Rev. Jonas King, and spent several years at the Theological Seminary in Andover, to prepare himself for a mission to the East. He was ordained at Boston in November, 1831, and embarked soon after, going by way of Paris, where he attended the lectures on the oriental languages and literature, for which that city was then distinguished. He had been familiar with the French language from his youth, and, having an apt.i.tude for such studies, applied himself successfully to the Arabic and Turkish. His health beginning to fail after some months, and the cholera making ravages in the city, he resumed his journey through Germany to Odessa, and thence by water to Constantinople, where he arrived on the last day of July, 1832.[1]

[1] For Mr. Shauffler's account of his residence at Paris and this journey, see _Missionary Herald_ for 1833 and 1834.

The greater part of the Jews in Constantinople are descendants of the eight hundred thousand who were expelled from Spain in 1492, and their language is the Hebrew-Spanish; or the Spanish with a mixture of Hebrew words, all written in the Spanish Rabbinical alphabet. As soon as Mr. Schauffler had acquired this language, he began the careful revision of a Hebrew-Spanish translation of the Old Testament, already in print, but not intelligible to the common people. He found the Jewish mind in an unquiet state. Eight years before, as many as a hundred and fifty had renounced Judaism at one time, but nearly all were soon driven back by persecution. Several of these now requested baptism, and were ready to suffer for the sake of becoming Christians; but they seemed incapable of understanding that anything more could be required of them than an exchange of external relations, and gave little evidence of piety.

Near the close of 1834, Mr. Schauffler baptized a German Jew, whom he named Herman Marcussohn, having formed his acquaintance in South Russia, sixteen years before. As he could not there profess Christianity except by joining the Greek Church, he had come to Constantinople, bringing letters to Mr. Schauffler, and was engaged by him as a literary a.s.sistant.

Religious excitements were not wanting. Three young Jews became anxious for Christian baptism, and both the Greek and Armenian Patriarchs refusing it, they fell into the cold embrace of the Papal Church. Three others expressed the same desire; and ten young men took advantage of the death of the civil head of their community to flee, as was supposed, for the sake of greater freedom in religion.

Mr. Schauffler's varying and perplexing experience constrained him to believe, that private charity, and sacrifices for individual Jews, should be employed very sparingly.

The year 1835 was chiefly employed in revising the Hebrew-Spanish version of the Old Testament, and in preparing a Lexicon in the two languages. He also commenced a series of tracts in Hebrew-German. To some extent there was among the Jews a hearing ear, and to a greater extent the absence of an understanding heart. The German and Polish Jews were less bigoted and more intelligent than the Spanish Jews, but were more greedy of gain, and more indifferent to religion. On the great day of atonement they allowed Marcussohn to address them in their synagogue on the Christian religion; the rulers of the synagogue having first given him a seat on the platform among themselves, where they read their Scriptures and prayers, and where sermons were delivered.

A visit of some months made by Mr. Schauffler among his friends at Odessa, in 1836, resulted, through divine grace, in a revival, as has been already stated, among the German population, and was not without good effects upon the demoralized Jews of that city. During his absence, his revision of the Psalms in Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish was printed at Constantinople, under the superintendence of Mr.

Farman, a missionary of the London Jews Society. A relative of the chief rabbi called on Mr. Schauffler after his return, and took a hundred copies for distribution, and he thought his chief might be induced to give his _imprimatur_ to the contemplated edition of the Old Testament; but from some unknown cause, the chief rabbi became a fierce opposer of the Psalms, and prohibited the use of the edition.

In May, 1839, Mr. Schauffler left for Vienna, to superintend the printing of the Old Testament for the Spanish Jews. As he was leaving, the caique, in which himself and family, including an infant child, were going off to the steamer, upset, and the whole party narrowly escaped drowning. His visits to Odessa, in going and coming, were the occasion, as before, of spiritual blessings to the people. His family expenses were paid by the Board, but the printing was at the charge of the American Bible Society. He was absent nearly three years, returning in August, 1842; and in that time carried through the press three thousand copies of the Old Testament in Hebrew-Spanish, in two volumes quarto, containing fifteen hundred pages. The Hebrew occupied every alternate page. He also printed five hundred copies of the Hebrew-Spanish Pentateuch, in two volumes, 16mo., with the Hebrew on the opposite page. The Sefardim, or Spanish Jews, having the New Testament previously, were now favored with the whole inspired volume in their vernacular tongue.

Notwithstanding the anathemas of Jewish rulers, the three thousand copies of the Psalms, printed in 1836, were nearly exhausted in 1844, and the book was in great esteem among the people. A vain effort was made by the rabbis to suppress the Vienna edition of the Old Testament. Only a few of the hundreds of copies in the hands of the people were delivered up, and it was believed that those confiscated by the rabbis found their way again into circulation.

About this time, the "Committee of the General a.s.sembly of the Church of Scotland on the Scheme for the Conversion of the Jews,"

made a grant of 2,162 (about $10,000) to this mission for the circulation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the purchase of rabbinic type, and the publication of school-books and tracts for the Jews. This, while it generously enlarged the operations of the mission, afforded no relief to the treasury of the Board.

Such were the calls for the Hebrew-Spanish Old Testament, that more than twelve hundred copies went into the hands of the Jews previous to June, 1843. One rabbi requested twenty copies for poor Jews in Roumelia; another, and he the chief rabbi, asked for ninety copies for six dest.i.tute places; and another, the rabbi of Orta Keuy, made repeated solicitations for thirty copies for schools in that suburb, and for twenty additional copies to place in reading rooms, where Jews come together in a social manner, on their Sabbath, to read the Bible.

Calls for religious conversation were frequent, but there was painful evidence, that in most cases the object was more selfish than spiritual. There appeared to be a general dissatisfaction with Judaism, but no proper knowledge of Christianity. Poverty and distress were the princ.i.p.al occasions of these calls. A few appeared to be interested in more fundamental truths; and they attentively read McCaul's "Old Paths," a controversial work that exposes the absurdity of rabbinism. The chief difficulty with all was in respect to the divine nature of the Messiah.

The Spanish Jews, numbering seventy or eighty thousand souls in Constantinople, afforded a field for the faithful sower, rather than the cheerful reaper. The tyrannical rule of their rabbis rendered them less accessible, perhaps, than any other people in Turkey, the Moslems alone excepted; and intellectually they were among the most degraded races in the East. Yet they stood higher in their morals than did the Turks. They had but few books; and until the issue of the edition under Mr. Schauffler's superintendence, they had no copy of the Old Testament in their vernacular tongue, that was accessible to the people at large. Two editions of the Old Testament, in Hebrew-Spanish and Hebrew and Chaldee, with Rabbi Solomon Jarchi's commentary in opposition to Christian doctrines, had been published in 1816, at Vienna, in six quarto volumes. Now the Christian church, while waiting for a wider entrance among the people, was called on to provide the books that would be indispensable when that entrance should be secured. Among those most needed now, were a Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish vocabulary of the Old Testament (then in preparation); a Spelling Book for schools; a short Hebrew Grammar; a brief Arithmetic; a Geography of the Bible, and a Natural History of the same; various religious tracts and essays on prophecies, especially those concerning the Messiah; and a translation of McCaul's "Old Paths" into Hebrew-Spanish.

The Ashken.a.z.im, or German Jews, were only about two thousand, and were chiefly young men driven from Moldavia by the Boyars, and from Russia by the law of conscription that threatened them with the hards.h.i.+ps and perils of a soldier's life. This department was under the charge of Mr. Allan, a missionary of the Free Church of Scotland, in connection with Mr. Schwartz, a converted Jew.

The Protestant Armenians showed a deep interest in efforts for the conversion of the Jews, and were forward to render their aid, Nor could Jews or Mohammedans be wholly uninfluenced by the change then going on in the Armenian churches of the metropolis in respect to the use of pictures; the greater part of which had been removed, and the patriarchal church, in place of them had set the example of having pa.s.sages of Scripture painted in large letters on the walls.

Besides the Spanish and German Jews in Constantinople, there was a small body of Italian Jews who were generally dest.i.tute of all religion. Then as there were many Germans in the city, Mr.

Schauffler held a stated service for them, in which his labors were blessed to the hopeful conversion of some. The attendance was often composed largely of Israelites. In the closing month of the year 1844, he baptized a Jewish physician.

The Jews are probably more strongly prejudiced against the Gospel, than any other people. Their whole literature is anti-Christian. So are their education and internal religious policy. The great effort of Jewish learning for fifty generations, has been to prevent the Old Testament from suggesting Christian ideas to the Jewish mind.

Hence a Jewish mission requires an extraordinary amount of preparatory work, in the first instance; though its main objects and duties afterwards will differ little, if at all, from those of other missions.

Mr. Schauffler was specially adapted to the preliminary work in Jewish missions, growing out of the peculiar state of the national mind. What this was, up to the year 1845, has been sufficiently indicated. In that year, a second edition of the Pentateuch, in Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish, was printed at Vienna; and a new edition, of five thousand copies of the Old Testament in the same languages, was commenced at Smyrna. The American Bible Society, which bore the expense of these editions, also authorized the printing of a Hebrew and Hebrew-German version of the Old Testament, for the German Jews.

The testimony of Mr. Schauffler is so explicit on a point of great importance in a mission of the Jews, as to justify the following quotation:--

"My own observation from the first, has established this fact, that whenever a Jew is truly converted, the hope of seeing all Israelites settled in Canaan sinks to the level of many other secondary ideas; and Christ and him crucified,--Christ risen, ascended, and reigning in glory, Christ and his kingdom, wherever its centre may be,--becomes the all-absorbing theme. In other words, such Jews I have always observed to be just what true converts among ourselves are; differing from us only in this, that they cherish that desire for the conversion of Israel, which we ought also to cherish, and of which Paul has left so splendid an example. Half-converted men, in whom the carnal pride of the old Pharisee has never been broken down by a divinely wrought sense of the guilt of unbelief in Christ, who, when they were baptized, thought they did Christ and his people an honor; these, of course, never fail to consider themselves as something special in the kingdom of Christ, and they expect to be treated by Him accordingly. These make an exception. There are, also, truly converted men among the proselytes, who cherish that notion. They are those who have been under the influence of missionaries, who make them a 'royal race,' amid the divinely designated 'royal priesthood' (than which nothing can be higher) of Christ's true people. We are all apt to believe what magnifies ourselves. But I have observed no inherent tendency that way among truly converted Jews, and never found it necessary to make efforts to eradicate such carnal hopes."

The particular relations of the Board to the Spanish Jews in Constantinople underwent an unexpected change in the year 1846.

Owing to the protracted and unavoidable delay in providing a.s.sociates for Mr. Schauffler, the brethren from the Free Church of Scotland had so far taken possession of the ground, as to render another mission in that city inexpedient. Whatever cause there may have been for regretting this after the Board had obtained the men, no blame was attached to our more zealous brethren of the Scotch Church. Mr. Schauffler would continue to reside in Constantinople, and would render valuable aid to all the missions to the Jews in those parts.

Attention was now directed to Salonica (the ancient Thessalonica), which had been visited by Messrs. Schauffler and Dwight some years before. The city was visited again by Mr. Schauffler in July, 1847, and he urgently recommended occupying it as a Jewish station. The number of rabbinical Jews residing there was estimated at thirty-five thousand, or about half of the whole population. The number of their synagogues was fifty-six. The Jews were diffused throughout the city, and not confined, as in Constantinople, to certain quarters. There was, therefore, a good degree of intermingling in civil life with other people. The natural consequence was, that a Salonica Jew did not evince the shyness so common elsewhere, in approaching Christians, or in entering their houses. They were thankful for the gift of the Old Testament in a language they could understand. Moreover, the centre of rabbinical learning was at Salonica, and not at Constantinople; which made the a.s.sent given by the Salonica rabbis to the correctness of the Hebrew-Spanish version, the more influential.

The Rev. Messrs. Eliphal Maynard and Edward M. Dodd, appointed to this mission, reached Salonica, with their wives, in April, 1849, going by way of Constantinople. Mr. Schauffler was to remain at the metropolis, but accompanied them to Salonica and was with them seven weeks, helping them much towards a successful entrance on their work. Both of the brethren devoted themselves to the Hebrew-Spanish.

Mr. Dodd gave, also, some attention to the Turkish, with a view to the Zoharites, or Moslem Jews, numbering about five thousand; all of whom seemed to rejoice that missionaries had come there to reside.

He describes them as among the n.o.blest of the inhabitants of the city, and as very ready to talk on religious subjects, with less self-conceit than the rabbinical Jews.

The Prudential Committee, on sending forth these brethren, stated the more important facts, principles, and usages, which should be kept constantly in mind in their mission to the Jews.[1] The relations of that people to Christ's kingdom were believed to be the same with those of all other people; and they were no more shut out from that kingdom by a "judicial blindness," or more really "cast away," than any other perverse and wicked nation. The obstacles to be overcome among them were substantially the same with those in the Oriental Churches. The relations sustained to the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic covenant being no longer of blood, but of faith, these blessings must be common alike to believing Jews and Gentiles. Never again, in the spiritual kingdom of G.o.d, will there be circ.u.mcision or uncirc.u.mcision, Greek or Jew. Never again will there be a need of b.l.o.o.d.y rites, a mediating priesthood, and a showy ritual. Never again will there be a theocracy with a sensuous external economy, limited to a single nation. Never again, in the kingdom of G.o.d, will he be accounted a Jew, in the evangelical sense, who is one outwardly, nor that be accounted circ.u.mcision which is outward in the flesh; but he will be a Jew, who is one inwardly, and is, of course, heir to all the spiritual promises made to the Jews in the Old Testament; and circ.u.mcision is of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter. On these broad, fundamental Scripture principles, rested the whole superstructure of our mission to the Jews.

[1] More fully stated in the _Missionary Herald_ for 1849, p. 101.

The prevalent idea, that judicial blindness came upon Israel in consequence of their crucifixion of the Son of G.o.d, precluding their conversion as a people until the arrival of some great prophetic era, seems without any proper Scripture warrant. They were blinded only "in part;" only "some" of the branches were broken off; they are not "cast away" as a people; and when the rest of mankind shall embrace the Gospel, and come into the kingdom, the Jews will do the same.

The practical inference drawn from all this was, that the same general course should be pursued in Jewish missions, which is proper in missions to any other unevangelized people. They must be instructed as to the oneness of Christ's body, the church, and the equal members.h.i.+p of all true disciples. If a church be formed of Jewish converts alone, it should be in full communion with all other Christian churches.