History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume II Part 17

These and other distractions seriously hindered the spiritual growth of the churches in the winter of 1869 and 1870. But in the spring, a very thorough work of grace was enjoyed at Degala, and it was believed that there were more than twenty genuine conversions, mostly among the aged and middle-aged. The church in that place paid half the salary of its pastor, and was expected soon to pay the whole. Mar Yooseph, the young bishop at Bootan, wrote that his congregation had increased to one hundred and fifty, and that, for much of the time, Christ and his salvation formed the only theme of conversation. He had hopes concerning considerably more than a score of new converts. Deacon Toma, who had spent a year in the Seminary, was with him as a helper, and promised to become another Deacon Guwergis.

The immediate foreign mission field of the Nestorians, is among the Armenians in Russia, and the same people at Tabriz, Hamadan (the ancient Ecbatana), Teheran, and Ispahan in Persia, with the numerous villages in the intervening regions; descendants, to a great extent, of Armenians carried captive, in the year 1605, from the regions of Ararat by Shah Abbas the Great. They furnish the field providentially offered to the Nestorians, as the Koords do for the Armenians in Turkey. Hamadan is about three hundred miles southeast of Oroomiah, on the great caravan road between Tabriz and Bagdad. On the 28th of May, 1870, the mission resolved, that they considered it a duty urged upon them to embrace at once within their efforts the Armenians and the Mussulman sects of Central Persia, by planting a station at Hamadan; and they expressed the hope that the Board would heartily endorse this action, and help them to carry it out without delay, and also to occupy Tabriz.

The members of the mission, in the spring of 1870, were the Rev.

Messrs. Coan, Labaree, Cochran, and Shedd, and Dr. Van Norden, with their wives, and Miss Dean, princ.i.p.al of the female seminary. The mission was now known as the "Mission to Persia," in view of plans to reach the entire population of the country. To Mr. Cochran was a.s.signed the superintendence of twenty out-stations in Oroomiah, Sooldooz, and Tergawer, and the field outlying these, together with the male Seminary, To Mr. Coan was committed the press, the editing of the "Rays of Light," care of the treasury, and the oversight of the city church, and of two out-stations. To Messrs. Shedd and Labaree, jointly, was given the care of twenty out-stations in Oroomiah and Salmas, besides Tabriz and Hamadan, with the Armenian work in general; and, separately, to Mr. Shedd the mountain field, and to Mr. Labaree the Mussulman work. Dr. Van Norden was to carry on his medical department, and to translate the Gospel of John into Turkish.

In the autumn of this year the Mission to Persia was formally transferred to the care of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions; reserving, however, the Armenian work in the northern portion of the field, from its intimate connection with the mission to the Armenians of Turkey.

It remains only to speak of the honored founder of the mission.

Dr. Perkins lived through the entire connection of the mission with the American Board, and died at Chicopee, Ma.s.sachusetts, on the 31st of December, 1869, when he had nearly attained the age of sixty-five; having been born on the 12th of March, 1805. He graduated at Amherst College in 1829, taught the next year in Amherst Academy; spent the two following years in Andover Seminary; and was tutor in his Alma Mater for the greater part of another year. The engagement last named was shortened by his call to commence the mission among the Nestorians. His life, from the time of his sailing from Boston, with Mrs. Perkins, in September, 1833, for six-and-thirty years, is largely the history of the Nestorian mission.

The careful reader of this history will not need a portraiture of his character. He was evidently made for the position he so long occupied. He was an acknowledged leader in the Lord's host; a Moses and a Joshua, with traits of character resembling those both of Elijah, and of the Apostle Paul. To idleness, vagrancy, and drunkenness, besetting sins of the Nestorians, he was the old prophet; and in his longing desire to make them savingly acquainted with the gospel, he was the apostle. Their spoken language he reduced to a written form, and gave them, in their vernacular, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; with a commentary on Genesis and on Daniel. Is it too much to p.r.o.nounce him the Apostle to the Nestorians? He came to his end as a shock of corn fully ripe; and glorious results of his self denying, and in some respects suffering mission, he will a.s.suredly behold in the heavenly world.

Where in his native land could he have labored, with the prospect of so large a spiritual harvest, taking no account of the widely reacting influence of his labors on the churches at home? And we might propose the same inquiry with respect to the departed Stoddard, and Rhea, and Grant, and Fidelia Fiske, and others, both among the dead, and the living.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.

SYRIA.

1857-1860.

Dr. Eli Smith, whose name has an honorable place among the translators of the Scriptures, died at Beirt, Sabbath morning, January 11th, 1857.[1] Thirty years had elapsed since his first arrival in Syria, and he had before been connected for several months with the press at Malta. In 1829, he made an exploring visit, with the author, to the Ionian Islands, the Morea, and the Grecian Archipelago; and the next year, he and Dr. Dwight explored Armenia, and a part of the Nestorian country. The other more important events of his life are so far known to the reader, that they need not be repeated.

[1] Dr. Smith expressed a decided opinion, in his last sickness, that no memoir of his life and labors should be published, since he had never kept a journal, and there were not sufficient materials.

In this he was probably correct, considering what the public would have expected. A well written obituary, somewhat extended for that publication, may be found in the Missionary Herald for 1857, pp.

224-229. See, also, pp. 123-125.

The mind of Dr. Smith was rich in general principles, and in well-considered applications of them to the missionary work; though, in this latter respect, he was restricted more than his brethren among the Armenians, by the less pliable nature of the materials on which he was called to operate. After having explored countries which others were to occupy; after contributing largely to the accuracy, variety, and value of Dr. Robinson's "Biblical Researches"; and after securing the formation of type that would be acceptable to the most fastidious Arab; he set himself to prepare a new translation of the Bible into the Arabic language. With this in view, he pursued the study of Arabic and kindred languages to a greater extent than was necessary to become either a good speaker, or a good preacher. His learning was both extensive and accurate, and he was continually adding to his stores by a wide range of judicious reading. To a good knowledge of the ancient cla.s.sics, he added an acquaintance, more or less perfect, with the French, Italian, German, and Turkish languages. With the Hebrew he was familiar; and the Arabic, by far the most difficult of all, was to him a second vernacular.

Dr. Smith was eminently a man of business, and was accustomed to give attention to the minutest details. He spent much time in superintending the cutting, casting, and perfecting of the various fonts of type, made from models that he had accurately drawn from the best specimens of Arabic caligraphy.[1] For many years he read the proof-sheets of nearly every work that was printed at the mission press; and he bestowed much thought and labor upon the mechanical apparatus and fixtures of that establishment.

[1] See. vol. i. p. 233.

To him every pursuit was subsidiary to a faithful translation of the Word of G.o.d into the Arabic language. Yet he did not neglect the regular preaching of the gospel, which he regarded as the first duty of every missionary; and having early become a fluent speaker in the Arabic, this was ever his delight. "Almost as a matter of course, his preaching was expository and didactic. In clear, lucid, logical exposition of divine truth, he had few equals. His language, though select and grammatical, was always simple, and within the comprehension of the humblest of his hearers. In regard to matter, his discourses were eminently Biblical, sound, and evangelical. In form and costume, his theology was that of Edwards, and Dwight, and Woods,--the theology of the Puritan fathers of New England. Upon this system of divine truth his own hopes of eternal life rested, and it was this which he earnestly labored, for thirty years, to infuse into the Arabic literature, and transplant into the hard and stony soil of Syria's moral desert."

The author, having had the best opportunities for knowing Dr. Smith, bears testimony to his excellent judgment, and to the great value of his correspondence with the executive officers of the Board, in the forming period of the missionary work.

It did not please the Lord to grant the earnest desire of Dr. Smith to live and complete his translation of the Scriptures; and it must be admitted, that his ideal of perfection in the work was such, that it is doubtful whether he ever could have been satisfied that his entire translation was ready for publication. Only Genesis, Exodus, and the first sixteen chapters of Matthew, had received his final revision, and were acknowledged by him as complete. But, with the help of Mr. Bistany, his a.s.sistant translator, he had put into Arabic the entire New Testament, the Pentateuch, the Historical Books of the Old Testament, and the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, and Nahum.

He had revised, and nearly prepared for the press, the whole of the New Testament, and all except Jeremiah, Lamentations, and the last fourteen chapters of Isaiah, of the books named in the Old Testament. With these finished specimens, and with so large a portion of the remainder translated and carefully revised, together with the helps to translation which he had acc.u.mulated, his brethren believed that he had laid the foundation for one of the best versions of the sacred Scriptures to be found in any language.

Dr. Van Dyck had been connected with the mission since 1840, and very soon made himself master of the spoken Arabic, in which he greatly excelled as a preacher. It soon appeared, that he was the man to succeed Dr. Smith as translator of the Scriptures, and the mission arranged his removal, for that purpose, from Sidon to Beirt; so that in due time he was enabled to bring the great work to successful completion.[1]

[1] See chapter xl.

Mr. Aiken had joined Mr. Wilson at Hums, a new station north of Damascus, where he was bereaved of his wife before she had been six months in the field. The arrangement for 1857 was that Beirt should be occupied by Messrs. Van Dyck and Ford, and Mr. Hurter, the printer; Abeih by Messrs. Calhoun and Bliss; Sidon by Mr. Eddy; Deir el Komr by Mr. Bird; Bhamdn by Mr. Benton; Tripoli by Messrs.

Jessup and Lyons; and Hums by Mr. Wilson. Dr. Thomson and Mr. Aiken were in the United States; the latter with health so impaired as to forbid his resuming his mission. He had previously married Miss Cheney. In the following year, Miss Jane E. Johnson and Miss Amelia C. Temple arrived to take the care of a girls' boarding-school at Sk el Ghurb, on Mount Lebanon; but the former was soon found unable to endure the climate. Dr. Thomson, while in this country, published a valuable work on Biblical literature, in two volumes, ent.i.tled "The Land and the Book." Dr. and Mrs. De Forest had come to this country in the hope of a restoration of his health; but on the 24th of November, 1858, this excellent missionary was released from long and severe physical sufferings by a peaceful death.

The health of Mrs. Wilson made it necessary, for a time, to leave Hums without a resident missionary. The princ.i.p.al operations, both here and at Deir el-Komr, were through schools for both s.e.xes, which had been embarra.s.sed by Syrian and Greek opposers, but in no case suppressed. The female department of the school at Deir el-Komr commenced with a dozen pupils, but in six months the attendance exceeded fifty. When Mr. Bird came to that place, he thought there were not six females in the nominally Christian population, who could read; but a year had not pa.s.sed before half the pupils in his girls' school could read their Bibles. There were other mountain schools under the care of the station, and in one there were more than sixty pupils.

The following contrast of the state of things in 1857 with what it had been fifteen years before, indicates a preparatory work in no small degree encouraging. "Then, the missionary could hardly purchase here the necessaries of life; and when he left, he was followed by stones and execrations. Now, he is welcomed and honored.

Then, fear kept even his friends from venturing to visit him; now, priests and even a bishop are ashamed not to return his calls. Then, the Protestant sect could not be vilified enough; now, it is spoken of with favor in public and in high places. The old Emir Bes.h.i.+r, once the persecutor and terror of Protestants, has pa.s.sed away, and his dilapidated palace is used as barracks for Turkish soldiers. His prime minister, or secretary, who did much injury to the cause of evangelical religion, and whose mansion was, as it were, the stronghold of the enemy, is no more. What remains of this Ahithophel's house is the abode of the missionary, and furnishes apartments for Scripture schools, and a Protestant chapel. His sons-in-law were leaders in the movement which brought us to Deir el-Komr, and are among our firmest friends. His grandchildren learn the folly of popery by the knowledge of the Bible they acquire in our schools.

"Time was, when every one trembled at the anathema of the clergy.

Now, the latter dare not show their impotence by p.r.o.nouncing it.

Some of the people would be glad to be thus dissevered from a church which they abhor, for they would thus not only gain their end, but retain the sympathies of many who would else oppose them. Those who send their children to our schools, have been refused admission to the confessional and the eucharist; the Maronite bishop, however, has at length yielded the point, and tries to win, rather than compel. Their high school he has made free of charge, and has promised to open a girls' school beside. In the Greek Catholic communion, on the other hand, the men and some of the women remain "suspended;" yet they are of good courage, some glad of so excellent an excuse to get rid of the confessional, and others incensed at the glaring injustice that would admit the drunkard and the notoriously vicious, but exclude the respectable and the moral. We have here the anomaly of those being thrust out of the church, who are still its very pillars, its substantial supporters, whose names are known, and whose influence is felt, throughout the region.

"We have reason to thank G.o.d and take courage. Still we long to see a work more purely spiritual. Light is being diffused, but there is not the corresponding religious interest. The truth is viewed by many as a beautiful theory, the heart remaining a flint. We have to regret the fact, that some of the best minds in the place are tinged with skepticism. Happily the most influential are, notwithstanding, our firm friends, and are in favor of good education and good morals."

Ain Zehalty, a village situated in the heart of Lebanon, has been already mentioned.[1] Mr. Bird says, "We now have there five church-members. There have been regular Sabbath services under the charge of the native helper, Khalil. The audience has been on the increase, and is now not only larger than that in Deir el-Komr, but is composed of better materials. Those who come desire instruction, and are regular attendants and declared Protestants." An Ain Zehaltian, when out of his village, if not a Druze, was set down at once as a Protestant. The day school in that place had forty scholars, and half as many attended the evening school for adults.

This school was for the special purpose of studying the Bible, and the pupils had gone through the historical books of the Old and New Testaments. Their custom on Sat.u.r.day and Sabbath evenings was to read the devotional parts, and hold a prayer meeting.

[1] Vol. i. p. 383.

Mr. Ford made a visit to Hasbeiya in February, 1857, with Mr. Jones, Secretary of the Turkish Missions Aid Society. He had never before been in that region, and speaks highly of the native laborers. Of the church-members he says: "When compared with the rock from which they were hewn, and the hole of the pit from which they were digged, they show the genuineness of the work of grace in their hearts."

"The signs of the times," he adds, "in the community around, are most encouraging. I will only refer now to a remarkable stirring up of the Maronites to defend themselves against the inroads made by the gospel upon their hitherto solid ranks. Their ecclesiastics have always maintained an att.i.tude of proud contempt, as though conscious of the strength of their hold upon their people, and they have rarely deigned to come into personal contact with the despised preachers of the gospel. But the serious diminution of their numbers in various parts south of us, and the diffusion of spiritual light among the rest of their flocks, have forced them down from their a.s.sumed elevation, and now they select the ablest of their priests, ordain him bishop, and send him on a crusade through Deir el-Komr, Hasbeiya, Merj Aiun, and so on to Alma, where the spirit of Asaad es-s.h.i.+diak, the modern martyr of Syria, seems to be revived in the hearts of a simple people, preparing them to brave death itself for the Gospel's sake. This bishop has sought public discussions with Mr. Bird, at Deir el-Komr, and also with Mr. Wortabet, at Hasbeiya.

In the latter place there had been two such discussions held just before we arrived. In the first, the bishop was effectually caught in his own craftiness, and so completely worsted, that he and his friends came to the second session prepared to regain by violence the advantage they had lost in argument; and the result was a stormy debate, terminated abruptly by an a.s.sault upon some of the Protestants present."

Kefr Shema, a promising out-station, became a station by the removal thither from Aleppo of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy. No objection to their residence was made by the people, though it was not four years since they had combined in a desperate attempt to drive all Protestants from the village. The missionaries were visited and welcomed by many.

Honorable mention is made of Antonius Yanni, the only native Protestant in Tripoli, who had been two years connected with the mission church, and had suffered much for the cause of Christ. He had refused the honorable and highly lucrative post of vice-consul for Russia, because its acceptance would necessarily have made him subservient to the corrupt Greek Church, and an attendant upon its services.

There had been preaching for several years at Aramon, three miles from Abeih. But the congregation was broken up in midsummer by a mob. Mr. Calhoun, who was regarded with great respect by the people, visited the place, and in a very kind, gentle manner, told the people that religious freedom was guaranteed to all, and that they of the mission should be allowed to wors.h.i.+p in their own hired house. The people listened with attention. On Monday Mr. Calhoun referred the case to the English Consul-general, and to the acting Consul for the United States. Late in the week, two officials from the government in Beirt, and two from the governor of the mountain district, met Mr. Calhoun at Aramon. "When the time for service arrived, the officials publicly stated, that there is to be perfect religious freedom for all;--to-day, to-morrow, this year, next year, and for all time. This they repeated over and over again, as the will of the Sultan, and then ordered some one to go upon the house-top and proclaim aloud, after the manner of the Mohammedans, _that it was time for prayers, and that all who wished to come might come_. Services were then conducted as usual, with an attentive audience; and at the close, in a place appointed, the officials demanded that the persecutors should ask pardon of the persecuted, which was accordingly done, many kissing the hand of the man whose house they had entered, and which we had hired. The governor also called some of the men to his own village, and threatened them with severe punishment if they should again molest any one on account of his religion. He then, Mohammedan as he was, repeated, in substance, the sentiment advanced, in the presence of his officers, by Mr.

Calhoun, that religion pertains to the individual conscience and to G.o.d alone." Henceforward Mr. Aramon, the first teacher in the seminary, met with no opposition in a regular preaching service.

The number of pupils in the Seminary, at the close of the year, was twenty-five, and some of them were of unusual promise. A theological cla.s.s, of four middle-aged, married men, was kept up during the summer, and then they went forth preaching the gospel, or laboring as teachers and colporters. Thoroughly-educated young men, otherwise qualified to preach the gospel, could only be obtained to a limited extent. But men of riper age, of good common sense and simple-hearted piety, could be fitted, by a few months of direct Biblical training annually, to preach to the uninstructed peasantry,--a labor for which there was the loudest call.

On the 12th of January, 1858, a deputation of four young men was received by Mr. Eddy, at Sidon, from a large village east of Tyre, called Cana. These brought a letter, signed by twenty-six persons, professing their dissatisfaction with their own corrupt Church, in connection with which they obtained no knowledge of G.o.d or of heaven, and asking that a preacher might be sent to them at once, and a teacher for their children. They denied being actuated by any worldly motive, and were sent back with two New Testaments, and the a.s.surance that some one would be sent to instruct them as soon as possible. They were, accordingly, visited by Daher Abud, a faithful native helper, who was much gratified with the zeal and interest he found among them. In February, Mr. Eddy went himself, and was warmly welcomed. About forty men attended his preaching, whose eagerness to hear and converse detained him over the next day.

From thence he went to Alma, a village of five hundred inhabitants, a long day from Cana, beautifully situated upon the summit of a high range of hills, two miles from the sea. The evangelical movement had commenced there two years before, and there was a Protestant community of about forty, including nine members of the church.

"This was considered, in some respects," writes Mr. Eddy, "one of the brightest spots in the Syrian field. The great adversary of souls tried in vain, by the terrors of persecution and the seductions of flattery, to recover the people to himself. Failing in this, he sought to sow discord among brethren, and thus to conquer them; and for several months past he has rejoiced in seeing this 'house divided against itself.' I felt much anxiety as to the issue of my visit, and had made it the subject of special prayer. I spent three days among the people, one of which was the Sabbath. The conversation and the preaching were mainly directed to the end of securing peace, and a day of fasting and prayer was observed. On the morning of the fourth day the clouds parted, and the Saviour revealed himself in love. Then, amid tears, and confessions, and promises, and prayers, the covenant of peace was signed, and thanksgiving offered to G.o.d, and we separated."

Mr. Eddy visited Cana twice in the summer, and found the people, young and old, eager to be instructed in the Word of G.o.d. So many children attended the school from Catholic families, that the priest sent word to the bishop in Tyre, that if he did not interpose his authority, all the village would turn Protestant. Accordingly the bishop came, bringing with him several wealthy and influential men of the city. The Protestants were all invited to a.s.semble at the house of the head man of the village, and then these friends of the bishop, in company with the head man and the priest, labored most of the night to induce them to return to their church. It would have been beneath the dignity of the bishop to have interceded directly with them, especially if he had not succeeded. The effort was a failure. Next the Prior of all the convents in that part of the country, hearing of the bishop's ill success, came, and sought to obtain, by love and promises, what the bishop had failed to accomplish by threats. But he too returned disappointed; and coincident with his departure, two persons came out from the Catholic Church and joined the Protestants.

The month of November found Mr. Eddy again at Alma, to dedicate the first completed Protestant church in Syria. The enrolled Protestants numbered then about fifty. Dr. Van Dyck, before leaving Sidon, had selected a site for the building and seen the foundation laid, and had since collected from native Christians and foreign residents nearly the amount required for the church, which was of stone, thirty-two feet long and twenty-two feet broad, and capable of holding from one hundred and fifty to two hundred persons. It cost about three hundred dollars; thirty of which were contributed by the people of Alma out of their deep poverty, besides a large amount freely bestowed in labor. No opposition was made by the government to its erection.

After the dedicatory sermon, the Lord's Supper was administered to the nine church-members, who renewed their vows to the Lord; and these, with other appropriate services, made it a Sabbath long to be remembered.

In the summer of 1859, Mr. Eddy again visited Cana, taking Mrs. Eddy with him to secure access to the women. He pitched his tent, the first night, on the banks of the ancient Leontes, six or seven miles north of Tyre, and the next day at noon they were at Cana. The poor women, ignorant, yet eager to be taught, had never before enjoyed such an opportunity, and prized it exceedingly.

The people had pa.s.sed through severe sufferings. Several of the women had been beaten, and the men had a bitter tale to tell of oppression by their governor. He demanded a duplicate payment of taxes, and when the head man of the Protestants respectfully showed him a receipt, with his own seal affixed, he ordered him to be severely beaten and placed in confinement. He then sent officers to bring others of the Protestants before him, but, suspecting his intention, all except two fled into the open country. These two, when brought, were thrown down upon the ground before the governor, and beaten with staves without mercy upon their backs and feet, he encouraging his servants to deal harder blows with commands and threats. Thus beaten till their backs were livid and swollen, they were wounded also by being kicked and stepped on by those who beat them, to make them lie still. When hardly left alive, chains were placed upon their necks and feet, their hands were placed in wooden stocks, and they were cast into prison, where they spent the night with companions who had been previously beaten. Next morning they were brought before the governor, and two of them were again beaten, when they were dismissed with a threat, that if they left the village he would pull down their houses. They however, despite his threats, made their way to Tyre, whence they embarked in a vessel to Beirt, to seek redress from the Pasha, and sympathy from the missionaries. When they appeared before the Pasha's court, their backs were ordered to be uncovered, and their wounds exhibited; and the greatest indignation was expressed by the members of the council against him who had so barbarously treated them, in violation of the laws of the realm."

The governor was sent for, and the indications were, that he would be expelled from office. But he was not. The Pasha suddenly changed his tone towards the Protestants, ordered one of them to be cast into prison on a false charge by the governor, and forbade the council to proceed further against him. The Cana people were detained two months from their homes. The proffered interposition of the English Consul was rudely rejected, and their release, when it was effected, was with no regard to the claims of justice. The visit of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy at that time must have been very seasonable and acceptable.