HARVARD 
COLLEGE 
LIBRARY 



Digitized by Google 



y 




Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



IN 



PERSIA 



BEING 



GLIMPSES AT A QUIETER OF A CENTURY OF LABORS AMONG 

THE NESTORIAN CHRISTIANS. 



BY 



REV. JUSTIN JPERKINfi^D.D. 



lift gllnsir&ixons 



y 

^ PUBLISHED BT THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

28 CORNHILL, BOSTON. 



Digitized by 



'Ur College Library 
; t-mii fho Library of 
»<ev. A. t\ Poabody 

ie oot. isosi 
Asia So85. b 



En to rod, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by the 



la the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of 



ILICTBOTTFID AT THE 

■ Olioi iriiiorrn rocioir. 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
LIBRARY 

AUG + * tQgo 



Digitized by Google 



PREFACE. 



This little book is made up substantially of mis- 
sionary narratives, the first portions of which were 
used in addresses, during the author's brief visit to 
the United States, in 1842, in company with Mar 
Tohannan, a Nestorian bishop ; and some of the last 
portions have been used, in a similar way, during my 
second visit to this country, in 1859, '60. Having been 
importuned to republish my "Residence in Persia," a 
work which was given to the public at the first-named 
period, and deeming that work too large and minute 
to be adapted to the railroad and telegraph spirit and 
taste of the present day, I have supposed that these 
first narratives may well serve the purpose of an epit- 
ome of that volume ; while the latter portions naturally 
succeed them, and bring down the missionary work, 
among the Nestorian Christians, in a still briefer form, 
to the present time. 

09 

Digitized by 



4 PREFACE. 

Slight recapitulations, in different parts of the vol- 
ume, may possibly be observed, but it is believed that 
they are too few and brief to be objectionable. 

It is proper to state, that, in offering this little work 
to the public, I yield primarily to the wishes of per- 
sonal friends, who desire to possess some such humble 
memento of my visits among the churches; while I 
also indulge the hope that it may prove a not unwel- 
come token to many others — especially to "Zion's 
friends and mine," who have so long helped us, and 
we trust will continue to help us, with their prayers 
and their offerings, in the prosecution of the hallowed 
enterprise of missions. 

The consideration which leads me to publish so small 

more elaborate one, on 
so ample a subject, may be associated with the hopes of 
the missionary, in regard to the progress of the gospel. 
It is a flying contribution — such in deference to the 
flying demands of the times ; and the advance of the 
gospel in Asia, and other parts of the world, if we have 
a right understanding of "the signs of these times," is 
soon to be a greatly accelerated one — far more than in 
geometrical ratio to past experience. The author, in 
a word, believes that we are on the eve of those "glori- 
ous things " spoken of Zion by Hebrew prophets. He 
accounts his eyes blessed in the things he has seen, 



Digitized by 



PREFACE. 



5 



and his ears blessed in the things he has heard; but 
he hopes to see and to hear far greater and more 
glorious things. 

The engravings embodied in this volume are nat- 
urally suggested by the subjects where they respec- 
tively occur. The plain one, at the beginning, is 
inserted with much misgiving; but while my friends 
are thus challenged to bear with me in my u folly," to 
some of them I may say, " Ye have compelled me." 

I will only add the expression of my hope, that, 
among the readers of this little book, there may be 
not a few whose interest in the missionary work will be 
quickened, and their prayers for its success rendered 
more frequent and fervent, by the perusal. If so, my 
object in the publication of so humble an offering will 
be accomplished. 

J. Perkins. 



Digitized by 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Commencement of the Mission to the Nestorians. 

Origin of the Mission. — Embarkation. — Way to the Field. — Ar- 
rival at Constantinople. — Trebizond. — I>and Journey Erz- 

room. — Troubles from the Koorda. — Entering Georgia. — Mount 
Ararat. — Detention. — Entering Persia. — Sir John Campbell. — 
Dr. Riach. — Arrival at Tabreez. — Sickness. — English Kindness. 
— Visit to Oroomlah. — Mar YohftTmnTi. — Reception among the 
People 11 

CHAPTER II. 

State of the Field, and Early Labors. 

Dead Christianity. — Degraded Morals. — Arrival of Dr. and Mrs. 
Grant. — Removal to Oroomlah. — Expo sore of Health. — Open- 
ing our first School.— Want of Literary Matter for onr Learn - 
ers. — Fevers.*— Ophthalmy. — Bereavements. — Attractions of 
the Field 35 

CHAPTER III. 
PRnvinRVTiAi, Interpositions. 

Visit from a Prince. — His Order. — The Affshars. — The Loo tec.— 

A violent Assault , — PnnWhTn ent of the Offender. — Arrival of 

(7) 



8 



CONTENTS. 



Messrs. Holladay and Stocking. — Rupture between England and 
Peru!*. — Protection. — A Health Retreat. — Death of Mm. Grant. 

Abase of Mar Yohannan by a Mohammedan Noble. — Malek 

Kasem Meerza. — Royal Order. — Papal Emissaries. — Secular 
Papists.— Coercive Conversion to Papacy.— Captives made .Con- 
verts — Arrival of Dr. Wright and Mr. Breath 48 

CHAPTER IY. 

Progress in thk Missionary Work. 

A School for Mohammedans. — Note of a young Persian Noble.— 
Nestorian Schools.— Introduction of the Press. — Preaching in 
Nestorian Churches. — Religious Interest. — Providential Aspects. 
Influence of Steam Power. — Commerce. — Change of Customs. 

— British Influence. 71 

CHAPTER V. 
Thk Country and the People. 

Persia. — Route to it. — Physical Features. — The Persians. — Their 
yatural Traits. — Their Moral Condition.-— Hopeful as the Ob- 
jects of Missionary Effort. — The Nestorians. — Lineal Descent. 

— Conversion to Christianity. — Origin as a Sect.— Their Num - 
ber. — Geographical Position, — The Koords. — Why we first 
labored for the Nestorians. — Their Condition when we reached 
them .t. 90 

• • » • 

CHAPTER YI. 

Missionary Results. 

Education. — The Ptcbb. — Preaching. — Revivals. — Character of 
the Converts. — Letters of a Native Helper.— The Mountains of 
Koordlstan. — Our Mountain Station. — Deacon Gewergis.— Out- 



CONTENTS. 9 

station i in the Mountains. — Gorge of Ishtazin. — Hymn on that 
Gorge. — Prevalence of Christianity In rough Countries and 
among hardy People 108 



CHAPTER VII. 
The Revival of 1849. 

Circumstances preceding the Revival. — Its Commencement. — The 
First Monday of January. — Interest to Members of the Female 
Seminary ; in the Male Seminary. — Correspondence of Native 
Christians. — Letter of Deacon Moses. — Note of Deacon Gewer- 
gis. — A Day of Fasting and Prayer. — The Work In the Village 
of Seir. — Labors of the Pupils in Vacation.— The Mountain Girls. 

— Interest in Geog Tapa. — In the Village of Dcgala. — Deacon 
Isaac. — Melek Aga Beg. — The Means used to promote the Re- 
vival . , , t , 1 44 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Religious Interest among the Mohammedans. 

Influence of the Reformation among the Nestorians on the Mo- 
hammedans. — Oroomiah the Home of Zoroaster. — The Persian 
Scriptures. — Individual Inquirers among Persians and Koords. 

— Prospective Ingathering 183 

CHAPTER II. 
Obstacles rem ov e d and Opposition overruled. 

Obstacles not Hindrances. — Civil Oppression. — Papal Influence. 

— NeBtorlan Massacres by the Koords. — The TTaldcnslan Hymn. 

— The Slaughter on Mount Lebanon. — Restrictions from the 
Persian Government. — Russian Influence. — The Early Death of 
Missionaries.— Civilizing Agencies. — English Protection and 
Aid in the Missionary Work 1M 



10 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER X. 
Conclusion. 

The Morning oomcth. — Much remains to be done. — Rapid Prog- 
ro8B. — The Handful of Corn to the Top of the Mountains. — 
First Armenian Inquirers. — Contrast now at Constantinople. — 
Conversion of the Mountain Deacon. — His Labors, Sickness, and 
Death. — Obligations of Christians to come up to the Help of the 
Lord. — The Lord in Advance of his People. — The Missionary 
Cause a Means of Grace to the Churches. — Obligations of Chris- 
tian Females to the Gospel. — Trials and Sacrifloes. — Separation 
of Families. — Leaving my Field. — The Power of Prayer. — Con- 
secration our only Safety. — The Kingdom of Christ will tri- 
umph 237 



MISSIONARY LIFE IN PERSIA, 



CHAPTER I. 

COMMENCEMENT OP THE MISSION TO THE NESTORIANS. 

" Go ye into all the world. 1 * 

Origin of the Mission. — Embarkation. — Way to the Field. — Arrival 
at Constantinople. — Trebizond. — I And Journey. — Erzroom. — 
Troubles from the Koords. — Entering Georgia. — Mount Ararat. — 
Detention. — Entering Persia. — Sir John Campbell. — Dr. Riach. — 
Arrival at Tabreez. — Sickness. — English Kindness. — Visit to Oroo- 
miah. — Mar Yohannan. — Reception among' the People. 

• 

The mission to the Nestorians was undertaken 
in consequence of the favorable representations 
of the missionaries, Messrs. Smith and D wight, 
who visited their distant country in the spring of 
1830, while on a missionary tour through Ar- 
menia and into Persia, the result of which was 
given to the public in their published " Re-* 
searches." Their visit to the Nestorians was 
short, — of only about a week's duration, — but 
it was most gratifying. Says Mr. Smith, in their 
report to the American Board of Foreign Mis- 



Digitized by Google 



12 MISSIONARY LIFE 



sions, "The week that we spent among them 
was the most intensely interesting of our lives ; 99 
and, " For myself, I never felt a stronger desire 
to settle at once as a missionary among any peo- 
ple I have ever seen." 

The American Board justly viewed it as of the 
first importance to commence a mission in so 
promising a field, with the least practicable de- 
lay, — particularly as those simple-hearted people 
were in great and immediate danger, as we 6hall 
have further occasion to observe, of being led 
astray by the ever-watchful and wily emissaries 
of Papal Borne. 

It was in January, 1833, that I received my 
appointment to commence this mission. So little 
was then known of that distant and untried field, 
and so short the period allowed me to prepare for 
it, that it was deemed important I should take a 
passage with Mr. Smith, as far as Malta, on his 
return from a visit to the United States to his 
field in Syria ; that, by the opportunity of familiar 
conversations thus afforded on the way, I might 
come in possession of the facts he had collected, 
and the suggestions he might make, relative to 
our prospective operations among the Nestorians. 
This arrangement was highly prized by myself; 
for hardly could one enter upon an undertak- 
ing with a deeper consciousness of weakness and 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



13 



incompetency for so great and responsible a work, 
than I felt at that time. 

We received onr " Instructions " together, in 
the chapel of the Theological Seminary at An- 
dover, on the evening of the 8th of September, 
1833, arrangements having been made for our 
embarkation iu the course of the same week. 
The excitement and pressure of my hasty prep- 
aration had so prostrated my system, that, at 
the close of the impressive services of that even- 
ing, I found myself hardly able to walk to my 
lodgings, and was reluctantly compelled, for the 
first time in my life, to yield to the strong arm 
of a violent fever. Hopes were at first enter- 
tained that my disease might be early arrested, 
and our vessel accordingly lingered, a few days, 
for my recovery; my fever, however, baffled all 
the means used to check it, and the result be- 
ing at length considered as doubtful, it was con- 
cluded that Mr. and Mrs. Smith must proceed 
without us. But the day after it finally left me, 
intelligence reaching us that the vessel in which 
we had expected to sail was detained in the har- 
bor by adverse winds, I prevailed on my phy- 
sician to place me in a wagon, and carry me to 
Boston, in the hope of still being able to secure 
the important advantages of performing the voy- 
age in company with Mr. Smith. To this propo- 



Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



sition the physician tho more readily yielded, as 
he was himself of the opinion, that could I, with 
out too much exhaustion, be once placed on 
board tho vessel, my recovery would be rapidly 
promoted by the effects of sailing. The first day, 
therefore, on which I was raised from my pillow 
and dressed, I was put upon a bed, in a wagon, 
and rode thus twenty miles to Boston, and the 
next day was carried on board the brig George, 
Captain Grosier, and laid in my berth, and we 
immediately sailed. Never did my heart swell 
with livelier emotions of thankfulness to God, 
than when my feet reached its deck, and I took 
my last look of my native land. So unexpected 
was the privilege of doing this according to our 
original arrangement, that the pangs of the last 
parting with friends were all swallowed up and 
forgotten in the overflowings of my gratitude 
and joy. 

Our captain, as he afterward told me, re- 
marked to his mate, when I was lifted on board, 
" We shall very soon have to throw that man 
overboard." But so rapid was my recovery, that 
the tender assiduities of the first evening, lav- 
ished upon me by Mrs. Perkins and the very 
estimable and long-since departed Mrs. Sarah L. 
Smith, — helpless almost as an infant as I then 
lay in my berth, — were, in a day or two, recipro- 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



15 



cated by mo toward them. They were both 
prostrated by seasickness, under the fury of the 
equinoctial storm which met us at the mouth of 
the harbor; while I, as soon, and by the same 
influence, under the blessing of God, was raised 
to a degree of strength that enabled me immedi- 
ately to walk about, and in a few days raised me 
to a far better state of health than I had long 
before known, and which alone could have sus- 
tained me under my subsequent hardships and 
labors. 

I dwell the longer on these incidents, as they 

furnished us, so early in our missionary course, 

occasion for the grateful recognition of what God 

had done with us, and an encouraging pledge 

that he would open for us a door of faith unto 

the Gentiles. 

• 

We were favored with a prosperous passage to 
Malta, and thence, in a Greek vessel, to Constan- 
tinople. There we passed the following winter 
with beloved missionary friends, — that city be- 
ing then the outpost of missionary stations occu- 
pied by the American Board in that direction, 
and the lofty mountains on our land journey 
being impassable by a lady in the winter season. . 
We had hoped, moreover, to be joined by a med- 
ical companion before proceeding further; but 
so difficult did the Board find it to obtain one, 



Digitized by 



16 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



that none reached us until more than two years 
after our own embarkation : then we were glad- 
dened by the arrival of Dr. and Mrs. Grant. 

It was in the spring of 1834, that, bidding fare- 
well to our friends at Constantinople, we started 
alone on our adventurous way to Persia. We 
took passage in an English vessel for Trebizond, 
which is a city of ancient Pontus, situated on 
the south-eastern shore of the Black Sea, about 
six hundred miles east of Constantinople. Mrs. 
Perkins was the first American lady that ever 
navigated that dark and stormy sea; and no 
Americans had preceded us, except Messrs. Smith 
and D wight, on their return from the missionary 
tour I have mentioned. 

At Trebizond we were hospitably entertained, 
the few days we spent there, by the gentlemen of 
the English consulate, who, with the French and 
the Russian consuls, were the only Europeans 
then resident in the city. The American Board 
has long had a missionary station there ; and the 
increased facilities for communication, particu- 
larly by means of steam, have so annihilated the 
distance as to render that remote city almost 
like a suburb of Constantinople. 

At Trebizond we completed our preparations 
for our land journey. Its length, roughness, and 
solitariness ; a distance of between six and seven 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



17 



hundred miles, leading over almost impassable 
mountains; our own condition as defenseless 
wanderers, unacquainted with the languages of 
the people on the road, and with Eastern man- 
ners and modes of travel; the perils from the 
savage tribes of robbers with which the way 
is more or less infested ; and the frightful pes- 
tilence which then often poisoned the atmosphere 
of those regions, — all stared us in the face, and 
challenged our faith and our courage. But 
committing ourselves to the care of Him who 
•protected Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in their 
wanderings in foreign and hostile lands, and has 
given to all his disciples the comforting assur- 
ance, " Lo, I am with you alway, even to the 
end of the world," we felt little disposition to 
shrink or linger, cheered by a happy confidence 
that as our day so also would be our strength. 

The far interior position of our mission is a 
circumstance that renders it a field of peculiar 
self-denial in many respects. It is remote and 
difficult of access. Facilities for communication 
are rare, and more or less unsafe; and instead 
of being in the vicinity of some commercial port 
often visited by American and European vessels, 
or in a country under Christian rulers, or bor- 
dering on a country that would offer a secure 
retreat to fall back upon in an emergency, as is 

2 



Digitized by 



18 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



the case with most other missions in interior situ- 
ations, ours is far away in the central regions of 
Asia, encompassed on all sides by vast territories 
of Mohammedan rule. 

We performed our land journey on horseback, 
no wheel carriages then being used in those 
countries. The first third of it — the part be- 
tween Trebizond and Erzroom — led across the 
lofty, rugged mountains of ancient Pontus, and 
the western sections of Armenia. Frequently 
did we ascend and descend mountains, so steep 
and rough that Mrs. Perkins could retain her 
seat upon her horse only by having him led by 
one muleteer, and her saddle held upon him by 
another; often did we skirt precipices by a foot- 
path so narrow that a single misstep of the ani- 
mals we rode must have plunged us down almost 
unfathomable chasms ; and sometimes we pitched 
our tent at night on hights so lofty that the 
clouds were far below us ; and though it was the 
middle of June, snow lay deep within a few feet 
of us. 

Our journey to Erzroom, however, was, on the 
whole, less trying than we had apprehended. It 
was rendered interesting by recollections called 
up by the venerable objects and primitive scenes 
on the way. Among them were the River Eu- 
phrates, which we crossed, and the frequeut sight 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



19 



of shepherds with their flocks, gathering the lambs 
iu their arms, and carrying thein in their bosoms. 
On our arrival at Erzroom, that distant cap- 
ital of ancient Armenia, which tradition says was 
founded by a grandson of Noah, having been car- 
ried over one third of the distance, and by far the 
roughest part of our journey, without harm or 
accident, we felt called upon to render special 
thanksgiving to the great and good Shepherd who 
had so literally made us to lie down in green pas- 
tures, and led us beside the still waters, amid 
surrounding desolations and perils. 

There was, at the time we passed, no civilized 
resident at Erzroom except Mr. Zohrab, a com- 
mercial agent of the English consul at Trebizond. 
Now, the American Board has long had a mission 
station in that city ; and an English, a Russian, and 
a French consul, and a few other Europeans, re- 
side there. Thus wonderfully does the Lord pre- 
pare the way for the spread of the gospel by the 
rapid march of commerce and civilization east- 
ward, even into that remote interior and over the 
dreary mountain hights of ancient Armenia. 

At Erzroom we received intelligence that the 
Jell alecs, a powerful Koordish tribe, who prowl 
around the base of Mount Ararat, had intercepted 
the route to Persia near the frontier, and plun- 
dered a large caravan, murdering several of its 



Digitized by 



20 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



muleteers. All hope of our being able to travel, 
with even tolerable security, on that road for a 
long time being thus cut off, we concluded, by the 
advice of the Pasha of that part of Turkey, to 
turn off and pursue a circuitous route through 
some of the Russian provinces of Georgia, the dis- 
tance being about a hundred miles farther than 
on the direct route, but no other means being left 
us of evading the threatening danger from the 
Koords. • 
In Georgia, whither we thus fled, from a Mo- 
hammedan into a nominally Christian land, we 
were subjected to trials and oppressions from 
the combined agency of despotic Russian laws 
and the caprice of unprincipled officers, which 
wo had little anticipated. After having per- 
formed a long quarantine in most comfort- 
less circumstances, we were subjected to the 
arbitrary order and heavy expense of having 
almost all our effects and traveling accouter- 
ments sent back to Erzroom, a distance of nearly 
two hundred miles, these being as absurdly as 
unjustly pronounced contraband articles of mer- 
chandise. Besides these and almost numberless 
other very trying embarrassments encouutcred on 
entering' the country, we were, on the other fron- 
tier, arrested and virtually made prisoners, our 
passports being there declared deficient, though 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 21 

they had been examined, vised, and pronounced 
ample by the authorities in every Russian town 
through which we had traveled. 

Our detention was on the banks of the River 
Aras, (the ancient Araxes.) It was in the month 
of August, and the thermometer ranged from 
100° to 110° in the valley of that river, under 
Mount Ararat,* along the base of which we had just 
passed, while eternal snows lay deep on its hoary 
brow in spotless majesty, as if frowning rebuke on 
the corrupt inhabitants of the fair region below. 
We had almost melted on the road under the 
scorching power of that Eastern sun ; and the heat 
was little less where we were now confined. We 
were on a vast plain of sand, guarded under our 
tent by Russian Cossacks. An unceasing gale 
blew up the valley of the river frpm the Caspian 
Sea as withering almost as the blasts of a furnace. 
This kept the light sand in constant motion, drift- 
ing it incessantly through every joint and seam 
of our tent, upon our beds, our provisions, and 
ourselves, like the sifting of light snow in the fury 

* Mount Ararat is entirely unique in appearance, rising: from the great 
Ararat range, swelling broader than that range at the base, and peering 
upward, a vast pyramid, 17,000 feet above the level of the sea, and look- 
ing down upon all other mountains of those regions. The plain at its 
western base is about 6000 feet above the sea. On the east side the 
plain is lower. This mountain is a common boundary of the three em- 
pires of Turkey, Persia, and Russia ; and is a suitable bridge between 
the antediluvian and postdiluvian worlds. 



Digitized by Google 



22 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



of a winter storm, and frequently upsetting our 
frail canopy for the want of sufficient soil to retain 
the pins of our tent in the ground. We were 
several miles from any village, and neither our 
attendant nor myself was permitted to leave the 
spot to go and procure provisions ; and the only 
means by which we kept ourselves from starvation 
was, to induce the Persian boatman, on the other 
side of the river, to bring us food from their vil- 
lage, which was about four miles distant, in Persia. 
By paying an exorbitant price, we thus obtained 
bread and melons once in two or three days. 
The period of our detention in that trying situa- 
tion was to us entirely uncertain, depending as it 
did on unfeeling Russian officers. The state of 
Mrs. Perkins' health was very precarious. Prayer 
seemed to offer pur only hope for deliverance. I, 
however, induced a government courier, on his 
way to Tabreez, in Persia, as he passed by our 
tent, to carry a letter from me to Sir John Camp- 
bell, then English embassador to that country, in 
which I briefly stated our circumstances, and in- 
closed to him letters of introduction which I had 
taken from Constantinople. Through the prompt 
and efficient agency of that gentleman, together 
with that of the Russian embassador residing in 
the same city, we were set at liberty three days 
afterward, though ignorant at the time by whose 
friendly exertions our liberation was effected. 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 23 

Our hearts melted in gratitude to God when 
we planted our feet on the Persian shore of the 
Aras, in all the buoyancy of liberated captives, 
as well as in the joyful assurance that we had at 
length reached the borders of the distant land of 
our* destination. 

Quiet, defenseless travelers as we were, wish- 
ing merely to pass across a corner of a remote 
province of the Russian empire, I know not the 
reasons of such oppression as we experienced in 
doing it, beyond the despotic character of the 
government, and the particularly bad character 
of its officers in those distant provinces, unless it 
were that my passport announced me as an Amer- 
ican clergyman — a character of course very ob- 
noxious in that benighted region, where every 
entrance to a ray of light is sedulously guarded. 
It was, moreover, but a few mouths after our de- 
tention that all Protestant missionaries were pro- 
hibited from prosecuting their labors in the czar's 
dominions. An order was also said to be issued 
to the effect that no clergyman should be allowed 
to enter them without the emperor's special per- 
mission. Mohammedan Turkey, on the other 
hand, had welcomed us, without the least obstruc- 
tion, to its generous hospitalities ; and Persia now 
invited us, with open doors, to these, and to our 
missionary field and labors. 



Digitized by 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



After crossing the River Aras, which is there 
the boundary between Russia and Persia, we had 
proceeded on our way only two or three miles, 
when we met a courier from the English embas- 
sador at Tabreez, who delivered to me a letter, 
which will best show the promptness of his kind 
exertions to effect our release and facilitate our 
journey, 

LETTER OF SIB JOHN CAMPBELL. 

Tabreez, Monday Evening, Aug. 18, 1834. 

My dear Sir : . About half an hour since I received your 
letter, with those of introduction you forwarded, and lost no 
time in waiting upon the first secretary of the Russian em- 
bassy and placing the whole of them in his hands, for the 
information of his excellency, Count Simonitch, who this 
night (Monday) despatches a letter to the officer command- 
ing Nakchevan, to make arrangements for your immediate 
permission to cross the frontier, should you not already have 
received your passports from Eriv&n. 

A duplicate of the letter in question will leave this by my 
own gJtoldm [courier] to-morrow morning at daylight, to 
guard against accidents, which, together with this, will be 
delivered to you ; but my servant is not permitted to cross 
the Aras. 

In consideration of Mrs. Perkins' situation, I have sent a 
common iakhtraxoan and four mules, the only ones I could 
procure at this short notice, which will relieve her from the 
fatigue of riding, and enable her, I hope, to reach Tabreez in 
safety. The takJitrawan will leave the city to-night, and be 
on the banks of the Aras on the third day, in which I have 
placed three or four bottles of French claret, and some tea • 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



25 



and sugar, and biscuit, as your long detention on the quaran- 
tine ground may have exhausted your supply of such articles. 

As none of the houses occupied by Europeans are capable 
of accommodating Mrs. Perkins and yourself, I have just 
seen Mr. Nisbet, and directed him to hire a couple of rooms 
for you in the vicinity of his own,*till you can make better 
arrangements for yourself. - 

Should you meet the takhtrawan on the road, the man is 
directed to place it at your disposal ; and if you require other 
assistance, pray have the kindness to send in the bearer of 
this to let me know. He will come in from the banks of the 
Aras in a day or a night If any accident should have hap- 
pened to the letter sent by the count, have the kindness to 
forward the duplicate now sent to the commandant of Nak- 
chevdn. With regard to your books, &c, if they are not 
restored to you or sen£ back to Turkey, subsequent arrange' 
meots must be made. Excuse this hasty scrawl from 

Yours, very obediently, 
(Signed) J. N. R. Campbell. 

P. S. You may trust to my gholam to do any thing you 
require on this side of the Aras. J. N. R. C. 

This efficient assistance from the English em- 
bassador was rendered at the distance of a hun- 
dred miles from Tabreez, within the short period 
of three and a half days after I forwarded my 
letter to him from our confinement, in a country 
where dispatch, with the existing modes of con- 
veyance, is almost as impracticable as it is un- 
common. 

An hour after the courier, the takhtrawan 



Digitized by 



26 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



(which is a kind of litter borne by two mules) 
also arrived. This easier mode of conveyance 
was very timely for Mrs. Perkins. She had al- 
ready ridden on horseback, and with comparative 
comfort, between six* and seven hundred miles ; 
but her delicate state of health now rendered the 
exchange of her saddle for the litter most grate- 
ful, and even necessary. This vehicle, and the 
other comforts mentioned in the letter as having 
accompanied it, were as unexpected as they were 
welcome. In the few Hues I had hastily written 
to the embassador, I had not intimated that we 
were in need of any thing of the kind ; and the 
whole, coming thus promptly from an entire 
stranger, impressed us the more gratefully, stand- 
ing in such broad contrast with the studied op- 
pression which we had so long experienced in 
Georgia. 

We performed a stage of forty miles the same 
night on which this relief reached us, the weather 
being too hot to allow us to travel during the 
day. And we had scarcely encamped the next 
morning, when an English gentleman rode up to 
our tent, who proved to be Dr. Riach, physician 
to the British embassy, whom we had seen at 
Constantinople, on his way to Persia, and whom 
we have since had frequent occasion to mention 
as a most indefatigable friend of our mission. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



27 



Hearing of our detention, lio had procured a 
traveling passport from the Russian embassador 
in Persia, jand advanced toward us with all prac- 
ticable speed, determined to cross the frontier 
and remain with us to comfort and relieve us in 
case of sickness, however long we might be con- 
fined in that dreary situation. Such generous 
kindness made an impression on our hearts, then 
bleeding with the fresh recollection of our recent 
trials, and throbbing with joy in view of our de- 
liverance, too deep to be ever obliterated. 

We performed the remaining part of our jour- 
ney in company with Dr. Riach during the two 
following nights ; and when, on the morning of 
the 23d of August, 1834, we entered in safety, 
after all our exposures, the city of Tabreez, the 
place of our first destination in Persia, I need not 
attempt to describe with what emotions of grati- 
tude our hearts rose to God for all that he had 
done with us on our way to the confines of the 
field of our labors. 

Our first entrance into distant Persia was at- 
tended with incidents which called up many hal- 
lowed missionary associations, as well as emotions 
of gratitude. We went into the city of Tabreez 
by the same gate from which the sainted Martyn 
had passed out from it twenty-one years before, 
and we had crossed the river forming the boun- 



Digitized by Google 



28 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



dary in the same rude boat in which he crossed, 
(judging from the description of it in his jour- 
nal,) and encamped in the same villages on the 
way at which he encamped but a short time before 
his death — coincidences, trifling as they were, 
which we noticed with interest, being among the 
first to enter that benighted land after he left it, 
to labor for the salvation of its perishing inhab- 
itants. 

The cordial reception which we met from all 
the gentlemen of the English embassy at Tabreez, 
and of the military detachment stationed there at 
that time, and from Mrs. Nisbet, the only English 
lady then in that land of strangers, was as grate- 
ful to us as it was kind on their part. 

But trials still awaited us. Only three days 
had elapsed after our arrival, when Mrs. Perkins 
became the mother of a daughter, of whose exist- 
ence she was not conscious for several days. The 
trying nature of her long-previous exposures had 
prostrated her system, and this sickness laid her 
quite on the brink of the grave — nay, carried 
her further, apparently, across the stream of Jor- 
dan than any other person I ever knew who was 
brought back to its nether shores. We were 
favored with the attendance of three English phy- 
sicians — Dr. Riach, above mentioned, Dr. Grif- 
fiths, surgeon to the British military detachment, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 29 

and Dr. McNeill, first secretary of the embassy, 
afterward Sir John McNeill, English embassador 
to Persia. They teuderly but frankly informed 
me that they saw no possibility of Mrs. Perkins' 
recovery. My feelings, in those circumstances, 
can be more easily conceived than described — the 
perils and trials of our long and toilsome journey 
just terminated ; my companion for life, who had 
so happily survived those trials, now apparently 
in the agonies of dissolution ; and for myself only 
the cheerless prospect of being so soon left a soli- 
tary pilgrim in that dark and distant land. 

But though no American voice was near to 
solace me in that extremity, a merciful Provi- 
dence, as I have intimated, had not left me with- 
out friends. Parents and brothers could not have 
been more assiduous in their kindness than were 
the English residents. The embassador sent re- 
peatedly to me, saying, " My house is open to 
you ; spare nothing that can contribute to your 
relief or comfort." Mrs. Nisbet took home our 
infant on the day of its birth, and relieved me 
<rf all care respecting it ; and Dr. Riach staid five 
days and nights constantly at Mrs. Perkins' bed- 
side, not retiring from the room to eat or sleep, 
until, by little less than a miracle of divine mercy, 
we were permitted to cherish the hope of her re- 
covery. 



Digitized by Google 



80 MISSIONARY LIFE 

I may add, in this connection, that the kindness 
which we thus experienced from English friends, 
on our first arrival in Persia, is but a sample of 
their treatment of us during our whole residence 
in that country ; and I feel constrained to bear 
testimony that the friends of missions in America 
are indebted to English residents in the East for 
the protection and assistance which they render, 
in various ways, to their missionaries in those re- 
gions, to an extent that can not well be understood 
at this distance from the scenes of our missionary 
operations. 

As soon as Mrs. Perkins was raised to a meas- 
ure of health that would allow me to leave home, 
about two months after reaching Tabreez, I made 
a journey to Oroomiah, a distance of one hundred 
and forty miles, and on the opposite or western 
side of the lake of the same name. I had resolved 
not to attempt a residence in that remote city, as 
no Europeans resided there, until we should be 
joined by missionary associates. I therefore vis- 
ited the Nestorians at that time to procure a 
teacher, from whom I might learn their language 
while remaining at Tabreez, and to become better 
acquainted with the state of the field. 

I reached Gavalan, the village of Mar Yohan- 
nan, which is forty miles this side of the city of 
Oroomiah, one morning before day, the weather 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



31 



being so warm as to render traveling by night the 
most comfortable. He was the first Ncstorian 
with whom I shook hands. I was announced to 
him as an Englishman who had come to do his 
people good, our distinct nationality as Americans 
being then hardly known in Persia, and our 
country itself barely heard of by the simple- 
hearted Nestorians. He met me in his yard, in 
the dark, and the first salutation of welcome had 
hardly fallen from his lips, when he artlessly in- 
quired, " How can your people make books for us 
when you do not understand our language?" 
The acquaintance which he had made with Messrs. 
Smith and Dwight a few years before, and their 
conversations with him about schools and books, 
were evidently still fresh in his mind. 

An arrangement for this bishop to return home 
with me and become my teacher was readily 
made, and he has generally been associated with 
us from that day to this — an efficient coadjutor in 
our missionary work. 

Mar Yohannan accompanied me at that time 
through a considerable part of the province of 
Oroomiah, his people every where hailing my visit 
almost as the visit of an angel, and giving me 
most grateful assurances of a cordial welcome to 
my missionary work. When I returned to Ta- 
brecz, the bishop not only accompanied ine, but 



Digitized by Google 



32 MISSIONARY LIFE 

took with him, as a companion, priest Abraham, 
who has also, from that time to the present, been 
an efficient helper in our labors. I could not but 
recognize, at that time, the good hand of the 
Lord; and I have often since done the same, 
which led me thus to an acquaintance and to a 
permanent connection, at the outset, with those 
influential men, of whom I before knew nothing, 
but who were destined by Providence to hold so 
important a place in the subsequent history of our 
mission. And during every step of that delight- 
ful missionary tour, I had fresh occasion to reit- 
erate my wonder at the extent to which God had 
prepared the way before me, and how he had 
opened for mo the door of faith unto the Gentiles. 

We lingered a year and three months at Ta- 
breez for our first associates, Dr. and Mrs. Grant, 
during most of which time I was occupied in 
learning the Syriac language from the bishop and 
priest, and teaching them our own. Near the 
commencement of that year we were bereaved 
of our first-born — a bereavement the more afflic- 
tive in our lonely situation, as there was no phy- 
sician in whom we could place confidence within 
four hundred miles of us, the English embassy 
and military detachment having removed to 
Tehran, the Persian capital, on the accession of 
Mohammed Shah, the young king. Our covenant 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



33 



God, however, did not forsake us, but sustained 
us, while we saw our loved little one sicken and 
die, and enabled us, in those trying circumstances, 
to say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken 
away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." 

The plague visited Tabreez that year, but it 
was not permitted to come nigh our dwelling ; 
and while I was absent on a journey into Turkey, 
to meet Dr. and Mrs. Grant, and Mr. Merrick, 
and conduct them through the difficulties and 
dangers of the Koordish part of the journey, that 
still more awful Eastern scourge, the cholera, ap- 
peared in that city, and swept away its guilty in- 
habitants by hundreds in a day for a considerable 
period. Mrs. Perkins, in my absence, was at our 
house in Tabreez alone. When I learned, on my 
journey, of the prevalence of the cholera there, 
my suspense and solicitude respecting her were 
distressing, not being able to hear a word from 
her till I reached our dwelling on my return, 
where, to my inexpressible relief, I found her 
well, having been graciously spared, and kept from 
danger and from fear, while thousands had fallen 
at her side. 

Our hearts have often bled in view of the mul- 
titudes in the East who are hurried, under fearful 
condemnation, into a dark and miserable eternity 
by "the pestilence that walketh in darkness and 

3 



Digitized by 



34 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



> 



the destruction that wasteth at noonday." And 
our only relief, in contemplating the paiuful sub- 
ject, has been the thought that God may be using 
these terrific scourges, the plague and the cholera, 
to shake down the abominable system of Moham- 
medanism, thus preparing the way to open effecrt- 
ually the door of faith to all those Gentiles. It 
is during the prevalence of these frightful dis- 
eases in Asia that I have beheld the most striking 
exemplification of the Scripture language: "Men's 
hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after 
those things which are coming on the earth." 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA . 



35 



CHAPTER II. 

STATE OF THIS FIELD, AND EARLY LABORS. 

. «ff one look to the land, behold darknue" 

Dead Christianity. — Degraded Morals. — Arrival of Dr. and Mrs. 
Grant. — Removal to OroomJah. — Exposure of Health. — Opening: 
onr first School. — Want of Literary Matter for our Learners. — Fe- 
vers. — Ophthalmy. — Bereavements. — Attractions of the Field. 

Before proceeding to notice our permanent re- 
moval to Oroomiah, I should speak briefly of the 
circumstances and character of the Nestoriaus at 
the time of our arrival among them. They are 
but a small remnant of a once great church and 
mighty people. Their present number is not 
probably more than one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand souls. The Nestorians of Oroomiah, which 
is a part of aucient Media, situated in the north- 
western province of modern Persia, to whom our 
labors have hitherto been primarily directed, are 
simple-hearted peasants, humble in their worldly 
circumstances, being subject to Mohammedan 
rulers, by whom they are more or less borne 
down, though they naturally possess high, inde- 
pendent feelings, and are restless under their op- 



Digitized by Google 



36 MISSIONARY LIFE 

prcssion. Those dwelling in the adjacent, rough 
Koordish mountains, which are a part of ancient 
Assyria, are a wild, rude people, leading a more 
precarious life, mostly with their flocks, being 
less subject to systematic exaction ; but, until 
lately, in constant apprehension and danger of 
being overrun and sacked by their more numer- 
ous and powerful neighbors, the Koords, except 
the inhabitants of two or three almost inconceiv- 
ably rough mountain districts, who, by the aid of 
the rocky ramparts that surround them, and their 
muskets and daggers, which they always wear or 
keep near them, maintained a kind of desperate 
independence of the marauding Koordish chiefs, 
who in turn had long resisted the control of the 
Turkish government. 

As Christians, the Nestorians, when we reached 
them, might well be described in the language of 
the Apocalyptic address to the church of Sardis : — 

" And unto the angel of the church of Sardis 
write : These things saith he that hath the seven 
spirits of God and the seven stars: I know thy 
works, that thou hast a name to live, and art 
dead." 

The Nestorians also had a name to live. And 
to the forms of their church, which have almost 
a Protestant simplicity, they clung with mortal 
tenacity. Their periodical fasts, consisting of re- 

v 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 37 

striction to vegetable diet, for example, many of 
the people would sooner die than violate. Dec- 
larations to that effect have been repeatedly made 
to our physician, when he has prescribed chicken 
soup for the sick, which they would most perse- 
veringly refuse, because prescribed on days when 
their church canous restrict them to vegetable 
diet. And one of their bishops, when visited by 
missionaries, in time of Lent, while he scrupu- 
lously abstained from the use of wine at dinner 
because the vessel that contained it had been oiled 
to prevent leakage, urged them to join him in a 
glass of arrack, or native brandy, as an innocent 
beverage, inasmuch as it had not been thus con- 
taminated by contaot with animal oil ! 

But with a name to live, and with all their 
rigid punctiliousness in adhering to the letter of 
the forms of their religion, the Nestorians were 
dead. The life and the power of Christianity 
bad departed. Of the meaning of regeneration, 
even their most intelligent ecclesiastics seemed to 
know nothing ; and their works were not found 
perfect before God. The plain commandments 
of the Decalogue — those against falsehood and 
the violation of the Sabbath in particular — 
were wantonly and almost universally broken. 
They would not indeed labor on the Sabbath ; 
but, as matter of calculation, would visit, engage 



Digitized by Google 



38 MISSIONARY LIFE 

in festivities, trade, and transact other business, 
on that sacred day, far more than during all other 
days of the week.* And falsehood, among all 
classes seemed to be much more habitual than 
telling the truth, and when there was not even 
the poor apology of a pretext for preferring false- 
hood to truth. Intemperance, too, was fearfully 
prevalent. Their temptation to this vice is great, 

— their fertile country being like one great vine- 
yard, and furnishing wine almost as cheap as 
its springs of water. When reminded of the sin 
and inconsistency of these vices in nominal Chris- 
tians, — especially in those who in theory recog- 
nize the Bible as their rule of faith and practice, 

— they would acknowledge the wrong, but, at 
the same time, excuse themselves in considera- 
tion of their depressed political condition, where 
lying, they would urge, was often indispensable 
to shield them from being overreached and op- 
pressed by their Mohammedan masters. 

The scriptural observance of the Sabbath, too, 
in their circumstances, they would say, must not 
be expected. And as to indulgence in the use of 

* The missionary, on observing - a poor woman overhauling her rag- 
bag on the Sabbath, said to her, " Are you not called a Christian ? 
Do you not know what day it is i " With a shrug of pious horror she 
replied, « God forbid that I should work on the Sabbath day; I am 
only selecting patches to sew on to-morrow.'* 

Query.— Has she any sympathizers in America, in this economy ? 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA 



39 



wine, why, they would account their facilities 
for it as a most precious boon vouchsafed by 
Heaven, and almost the only one left for them, to 
cheer and sustain their spirits under the habitual 
burden of their heavy oppression. These ex- 
cuses were to a great extent pretexts ; aud if not, 
would of course constitute no reasonable apology 
for openly violating the commandments of God. 

From some vices, however, the Nestorians were, 
as a people, generally free. The seventh com- 
mandment was comparatively but little violated 
among them ; which is the more remarkable and 
interesting, considering their situation in the 
midst of corrupt Mohammedans, among whom 
little less than the abominations of Sodom prevail. 

Nor should it be inferred that Christianity, in 
the fallen state in which it then existed among 
the Nestorians, cost them no sacrifices. It cost 
them the privileges of freemen, and subjected 
them to almost every species of ignominy and 
oppression. American Christians know nothing, 
in comparison with Nestorians, of suffering for 
the name of the Lord Jesus. They are habitually 
called, by their superiors, infidels, unclean in- 
fidels, and dogs, and are treated accordingly. 
Their property, and in some instances their chil- 
dren, are wantonly taken from them, because of 
their attachment to Christianity ; while their re- 



Digitized by 



40 MISSIONARY LIFE 

nouncement of it would place them at once be- 
yond the reach of such indignities and sufferings. 

Nor should it be supposed that their formal 
Christianity — their having a name to live, while 
they were dead — was of no practical benefit to 
them. Even the apparently lifeless fossilized 
skeleton of our holy religion exerted on them a 
very important influence. It saved the existing 
remnant from becoming Mohammedans, and from 
the little less deplorable alternative of yielding to 
Papal control ; and, as already suggested, it pre- 
served among them, in some -respects, a far 
higher standard of morality than exists among 
the debased followers of the false prophet, in the 
midst of whom they live, aud by whose vices 
they are much contaminated. 

As of the church of Sardis, so also in regard 
to the Nestorian church, we may, in the spirit 
of charity, hope that it might be said, "Thou 
hast a few names which have not defiled their 
garments." If such there were, however, we 
must stretch the mantle of our charity much 
broader to reach them, and cover their defi- 
ciencies, than in enlightened Christian lands ; so 
blinded were they by the deep darkness, and 
borne downward by the mighty current of in- 
iquity and corruption that prevailed around 
them. And still, that there were, at that time, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



here and there a solitary Anna and Simeon, sit- 
ting in obscurity, and prayerfully waiting for the 
consolation of their Israel, I have, in the progress 
of our labors, found more and more reason to 
hope and believe. 

Education, when we reached the Nestorians, 
was at an ebb almost as low as vital religion. 
None but their ecclesiastics could even read ; 
and but very few of them could do more than 
chant their devotions in an unknown tongue — 
the Syriac, a modern dialect of which is their 
spoken language, while neither they nor their 
hearers knew any thing of the meaning. 

They possessed nearly the entire Scriptures, 
but ouly in very rare copies in that obsolete 
tongue. Indeed, both in a religious and an intel- 
lectual point of view, the flame of their candle had 
long been flickering, and was just ready to expire. 
The threatening of the angel to the church of 
Sardis seemed to be already falling upon them — 
" I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt 
not know what hour I will come." The com- 
mencement of our missionary labors among them 
was just in time to strengthen the things that re- 
mained and were ready to die, and save them 
from actual extinction. Such has been the ob- 
ject, and such, to a happy extent, the result of our 
labors ; and as such they have been welcomed by 
all classes of the Nestorians. 



Digitized by Google 



42 MISSIONARY LIFE 

It was late in November, in the autumn of 
1835, (Dr. and Mrs. Grant having just before 
reached us at Tabreez,) that we went to Oroo- 
miah to commence our missionary settlement. 
The Nestorians, after my first visit to them, had 
been quite impatient for us to open schools, and 
enter upon our other labors. Our arrival to re- 
side among them was welcomed with the strong- 
est demonstrations of joy by all classes of that 
people, and with at least a higli degree of satisfac- 
tion by the Mohammedan population. The Nes- 
torians, in some villages, marched out in masses 
to meet us, with their rude trumpets and drums, 
to express their gladness on the occasion, and 
would not be dissuaded from doing so by our 
earnest remonstrances. 

It was after the 20 th of November, in a climate 
about as cold as that of our Middle States, that 
we were obliged to repair and plaster the dilapi- 
dated, mud-walled houses which we rented to 
live in. The rooms, at that late season, had no 
opportunity to dry ; and during the first winter, 
while the barley (from the cut straw mixed with 
the mud) grew from the walls of our own sleep- 
ing room, which communicated with the room in 
which we lived, and was thus partially warmed, 
the frost stiffened the bed clothes of the lamented 
Mrs. Grant, whose damp sleeping room was not 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 43 

- 

even thus wanned ; and these exposures that win- 
ter did much, doubtless, to undermine our sys- 
tems, and render them an easy prey to the 
distressing sicknesses which we suffered the en- 
suing summer. 

Such exposure of health should have been 
avoided, perhaps even at the expense of deferring 
a few months longer our settlement at Oroomiah. 
But so ripe and inviting was our field, so eager 
and even impatient were the people for instruc- 
tion, that we felt constrained to forget ourselves, 
while we entered as speedily as possible on our 
labors for their salvation. 

Within two months after our arrival at Oroo- 
miah, a school room, fitted up, on the Lancasterian 
plan, in the basement of my house, — the first of 
the kiud ever known in Central Asia, — was 
ready for the reception of scholars, and our sem- 
inary commenced, under my superintendence, 
and priest Abraham's instruction. We began 
with seven boys ; but the number soon increased 
to forty or fifty, and has continued such from 
that time to the present. Its object, from the 
first, was to raise up pious teachers and preach- 
ers. It numbered among its early members some 
bishops and priests, and many deacons. The good 
which it has accomplished, and the greater good 
which it promises, will appear in future years, 



Digitized by Google 



44 MISSIONARY LIFE 

though its full amount eternity alone will un- 
fold, 

A formidable difficulty met us at the outset — as 
is the case with most new missions — in the want 
of literary matter for our seminary, — the spoken 
language of the Nestorians having never been 
written. With the assistance of priest Abraham, 
I therefore immediately commenced reducing this 
language to a written form, and translating parts 
of the Scriptures for reading cards, which two of 
our oldest scholars soon learned to copy for the 
use of our classes in this our first missionary 
school. Thus was I occupied, during my first 
missionary year, at Oroomiah, laboring on the 
language to bring it to a grammatical structure, 
and preparing school cards, eight hours in a day, 
and teaching the English class two hours ; besides 
superintending the general concerns of the sem- 
inary, preaching twice on the Sabbath, attending 
one or two meetings during the week, and per- 
forming an amount of miscellaneous labor inci- 
dental to the commencement of a mission, which 
of itself often seemed quite enough to occupy 
the whole of my time. 

When spring and summer came, sickness seized 
upon us like a strong man armed. As I have sug- 
gested, our exposure in damp houses during the 
first winter, and the pressure of missionary labor, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



45 



undermined our constitutions, and prepared the 
way for disease. The climate of Oroomiah is 
also trying to foreigners. It is naturally good, 
but is rendered unhealthy by artificial causes. 
The constant evaporation in summer from its 
myriads of irrigated fields — almost the entire sur- 
face of the district, consisting of a plain of nearly 
a thousand square miles in extent being repeat- 
edly flooded, (and the rice fields constantly so,) 
to water the soil during the warm months of the 
year, — is one such cause ; and another and still 
more prolific one is the almost limitless extent 
of its annual vegetation. A country so charm- 
ing, — stretching more than fifty miles along the 
beautiful lake, and back from it to the base of the 
lofty Koordish mountains, — so bright under the 
effulgence of its gorgeous sun and pure heaveus, 
and rejoicing under its thrifty growth of abun- 
dant crops, presents to the eye so much the 
aspect of an Eden as almost to preclude the idea 
of sickness and pain. But the foreigner is soon 
forced to feel that its brilliant skies and balmy 
breezes, beautiful and grateful as they are, are still 
pregnant with the elements of disease and death. 

The other individuals of our missionary circle 
were repeatedly and violently attacked with fever 
and ague, and with ophthalmy — a burning in- 
flammation of the eyes — during the first spring 



Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



and summer. My own health continued good, 
and I performed all my labors unremitted till 
about the middle of August, when I was seized 
by a bilious fever of a most obstinate and malig- 
nant character. It ran violently many days, under 
the burning sun of a Persian summer, defying 
all efforts to arrest its progress* Three days and 
nights I lay entirely inseusible, and all hope 
of my recovery was given up. Our circum- 
stances were then the more trying, as my compan- 
ions were themselves so ill as almost to disable 
them from attending upon me ; and a child, then 
our only one, who has since died, lay apparently 
at the point of death at the same time. But He 
at whose bidding diseases come and go stayed the 
progress of mine, even when it seemed to be do- 
ing its last work, and brought me back to life, to 
health, and to my missionary labors. 

I was, in two or three of the subsequent years, 
attacked by bilious fevers, in the same manner 
and at the same season ; but by the divine bless- 
ing on the means used, they were sooner arrested, 
and at length I became acclimated to the trying 
influences of that foreign land. 

Most of the other members of our mission have 
suffered from attacks of fever and ague, and from 
diseases of the eyes. Mrs. Grant lost the sight 
of one of her eyes from violent ophthalmy some 
time before her death. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA • 



47 



There were also sweeping bereavements of the 
members of our mission in the death of their chil- 
dren. Thrice before my first visit to America 
had death come up into our windows, and written 
us childless ; and our associates had been afflicted, 
though less, still painfully, in the same way. 

Such exposure of health, and such heavy be- 
reavements, are severe trials for flesh and blood ; 
but they were inseparable from our early resi- 
dence at Oroomiah ; and its rich encouragements 
and strong attractions as a missionary field — 
the wide door of faith which God there opened to 
the Gentiles — reconciled us, and rendered us 
willing, nay, happy, thus to suffer, in the cheering 
confidence that he that goeth forth there and 
weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless 
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
with him. 



Digitized by 



48 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



CHAPTER III. - 

PROVIDENTIAL INTERPOSITIONS. 
t£ T<yuch not mine anointed, and do mu vronJwtv no harm " 

Visit from a Prince. — His Order. — The Affshars. — The Loo tee. — A 
violent Assault. — Punishment of the Offender. — Arrival of Messrs. 
Holladay and Stocking 1 . — Rupture between England and Persia. — 
Protection. — A Health Retreat. — Death of Mrs. Grant. —Abuse 
of Mar Yohannan by a Mohammedan Noble. — Mnlck Ktsem Mecr- 
za. — Royal Order. — Papal Emissaries. — Secular Papists. — Coer- 
cive Conversion to Papacy. — Captives made Converts.— Arrival of 
Dr. Wright and of Mr. Breath. 

In the autumn of the first year of our residence 
in Oroomiah, Kahraman Meerza, a favorite brother 
of the king, and the Prince of Azerbijan, the north- 
ern and most important province of Persia, visited 
that city. He had heard of our residence there, and 
of the fame of our seminary ; and he sent to us 
an uncle, who accompanied him on his tour, to 
visit us and look into our missionary operations. 
That uncle came, in a most friendly manner, dined 
with us, and inspected our seminary ; and, as the 
result of his report of us and our labors to the 
king's brother, the latter, entirely unsolicited by 
us, prepared and sent to us a firman, of which the 
following is a translation : — 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



49 



" The command of His Highness is : Whereas the very 
honorable and respected gentlemen, Messrs. Perkins and 
Grant, at Oroomiah, are attending to the education of the 
people, and render the people useful by teaching them Euro- 
pean science, the grace of our Excellency and Highness hav- 
ing become favorably disposed toward them, we order and 
command three soldiers for their safety at this harvest season 
and onward ; and in accordance with this grace, we command 
that they shall be honored and have occasion to praise our 
beneficence. It is our command that the exalted and noble 
lord, Nedjeff Kooly Kh&n, governor of Oroomiah, shall take 
care to protect them in every respect, and he shall give to 
each of the three soldiers, the guard of their safety, three 
dollars per month, and never shall he neglect it It is or- 
dered that the trusty secretaries arrange and execute the sum 
of this blessed command. 

u Written in the month Jumady id evvel, in the year 1252 
[of the Hegira]." 

It is, of course, always far " better to trust in 
the Lord than to put confidence in princes." 
Such protection and encouragement, however, 
voluntarily tendered to us by the second man in 
Mohammedan Persia, in the infancy of our mis- 
sion, could not but impress us with a strong and 
delightful confidence that God was verily, by his 
providence, opening for us a wide and effectual 
door of faith unto the Gentiles. 

The provision made in the above firman for t>ur 
personal safety (of but a part of which we ever 
found it necessary to avail ourselves) renders it 

4 



Digitized by Google 



50 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



proper that I allude to the character of the domi- 
nant class of the people of Oroomiah ; which will 
also furnish additional illustration of divine guar- 
dianship over the interests of our mission. The 
Mohammedans of that province are Affshars, a 
bold, warlike tribe, originally from Affgh&nistan, 
or Eastern Persia. They have such a reputation 
for rudeness and barbarity, compared with other 
Persians, that it was at that time the opinion of 
several of the gentlemen of the English embassy, 
who were deeply interested in our object, that we 
could not, with a due regard to safety, attempt a 
residence among them, especially as no Europeans 
ever had been residents of the re'mote city of 
Oroomiah. He, however, who has the hearts of 
all in his hands, and turneth them as the rivulets 
of water are turned, so favorably disposed those 
Mohammedans toward us, both rulers and peo- 
ple, that they have not only from the first offered 
us no molestation, but have treated us with uni- 
form kindness and marked attention. 

But in Oroomiah, as in all parts of Persia, is a 
class of professional ruffians called Lootee, — tak- 
ing their name, as it is said, from the patriarch Lot, 
but resembling in character the corrupt Sodom- 
ites, who vexed the soul of that righteous man, — 
whose lawless acts of violence on property, and 
often on persons, being usually m mixed with a 



Digitized by Google 



IN PEBSIA. 



51 



measure of buffoonery, are regarded as half li- 
censed, or, at least, are more or less connived at, 
by the constituted authorities ; and these desper- 
adoes are always the instruments of violence in 
the hands of the fanatical Moollahs, whenever 
they attempt to carry a point against laws and 
rulers by the agency of a mob, as is often the 
case in Persia. The Lootee are more numerous 
and savage in Oroomiah than in most other parts 
of the country ; and it was against robbery and 
harm from them particularly that the king's 
brother wished to shield us ; and the issuing of 
his firman, becoming a matter of general notorie- 
ty, did much to effect that object. 

Another event, which occurred about the same 
time, while it nearly cost my life, contributed 
much to the permanent security of ourselves 
and the interests of our mission. In company 
with Mrs. Perkins and Dr. and Mrs. Grant, I was 
visiting one of our village schools. As we were 
walking quietly through the village in which it is 
situated, three of those Lootee, or professional 
ruffians, who were under the influence of liquor 
at the time, hedged up our path by stationing a 
horse across it just before us, and taking a stand 
themselves on either side. Priest Abraham, who 
was with us, stepped forward, and mildly requested 
them to turn the horse a trifle, and allow us to 



Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



pass by ; upon which one of them instantly drew 
his dagger, — a fearful weapon which they always 
carry, and raised it to strike him. Seeing the 
defenseless priest in such peril, I instinctively 
sprang forward, not doubting that my presence 
would check the ruffian ; but so far from that, he 
turned in a twinkling, and stabbed me with inde- 
scribable ferocity. I was just recovering from the 
severe sickness to which allusion has been made, 
and to this circumstance, under God, I owe my 
preservation. Being still very weak, as I sprang 
back to evade the weapon, I suddenly fell, and the 
prompt intervention of Dr. Grant with his riding 
stick prevented a repetition of the blow. The 
weapon passed through all my clothing, and 
slightly penetrated my body. Had I not fallen 
as I did, it must have entered my heart, and iu- 
stantly killed me. As it was, it harmed me only 
just enough to leave a speaking witness, in the 
small wound, against the bloody assassin. An 
almighty and ever-present Protector said to the 
deadly point, " Hitherto shalt thou come, and no 
further." And as we ran into a house near by, 
and barred the doors, and found ourselves secure 
from those men of violence, who still fiercely pur- 
sued us, I felt a stronger and calmer confidence 
than ever before in the guardian care of an un- 
failing Deliverer. # 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



53 



But it was tbe effect of this event in reference 
to our subsequent security that I had in mind in 
detailing it in this connection. The governor of 
the district, on hearing of the affair, without any 
complaint having been made by us, immediately 
arrested the assailant, and caused two hundred 
and fifty lashes to be laid upon his naked back ; 
and the king, some time afterward, hearing of 
it through the English embassador, ordered his 
brother, the ruler of that part of Persia, — the 
same who had favored us with the firman, — to 
seize the offender and send him to the capital. 
The prince sent officers to take him ; but, being 
apprised of their coming, he fled from the prov- 
ince, and thus evaded their pursuit. The sum- 
mary punishment, however, which he had already 
received from the governor, and the vigorous 
efforts made, under the king's orders,' again to 
apprehend him, in connection with the prince's 
firman a little before received, produced a strong 
and lasting impression that we could not be in- 
jured with impunity. A series of misfortunes, 
moreover, befalling some of the connections of 
the wicked man who had assailed us about the 
same time, a feeling bordering on awe grew into 
a common proverb in the province, that the Lord 
would arrest and punish whoever should harm 
the missionaries. From that period to the pres- 



Digitized by Google 



- 



54 MISSIONARY LIFE 

ent we have never been annoyed by the lawless 
Lootee, frequent and desperate as are their out- 
rages on the suffering inhabitants among whom 
we live. 

These outrages were so numerous that hardly 
a week elapsed in the early period of our mission 
in which murders were not committed, though 
the murderers were often apprehended and ex- 
ecuted. The Lootee have a branch of their fra- 
ternity among the wild Koords of the mountains, 
who can the more easily evade justice by retiring, 
after the commission of crime, to their rocky fast- 
nesses. The day before we left Oroomiah, on my 
first return to this country, two of these savages 
were seized, beheaded, their bodies split in two, 
and the halves hung over the gates of the city to 
deter their comrades ; and this is by no .means a 
strange transaction in Persia. Such summary, 
frightful punishments may shock the common 
feelings of humanity in this happy Christian 
country ; they shock us 9 who have been so long 
familiar with them in that land of despotism, 
violence, and blood. But we have little doubt 
of the necessity of severity there, to give to 
property and life any measure of security; for 
even such appalling examples, occurring not un- 
frequently, are but a limited check to the com- 
mission of crime, so ineffectual a preventive is 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



55 



mere punishment, in any community, in the ab- 
sence of morality and religion.* 

That wo have, in such circumstances of ex- 
posure, lived sp long unharmed and unmolested 
in the open prosecution of our missionary work, 
can be ascribed only to the gracious and constant 
care of that divine hand which has opened for us 
at Oroomiah so wide a field of labor. 

In the summer of 1837 our mission was reen- 
forced by the accession of Messrs. Holladayf and 
Stocking and their wives, whose arrival greatly 
cheered our hearts in our distant seclusion, and 
relieved us by sharing in our multiplied and con- 
stantly increasing labors. 

In 1838 we were thrown into much solicitude 
by the political rupture which occurred between 
the Euglish and Persian governments, and the 
highly threatening prospect of immediate war be- 
tween the two nations. The only alternatives before 
us seemed to be the abandonment of our interest- 
ing missionary field, at least temporarily, in the then 
incipient and critical state of its culture, or to in- 

* Under the general softening influences of the gospel on the Mo- 
hammedans a great change has taken place — so much so, that a murder 
is now (In 1800) A comparatively rare 6vent in the district where we re- 
side 

f Mr. Hoiladay died in America in 1850, and Mr. Stocking in 1854, 
having returned to their native land on account of the failure of 
health. 



> 



Digitized by 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



trust ourselves in that remote Mohammedan land, 
during the storm of hostile collision, to the mercy 
of the excited Persians, who, we supposed, would 
naturally identify us with the English, whose pro- 
tection we had previously enjoyed, especially as 
our distinct nationality as Americans was but very 
imperfectly understood. Some time before the 
English embassy withdrew from the country, how- 
ever, the Persian authorities, of their own accord, 
relieved us by pledging to us their efficient pro- 
tection, whatever might be the issue of the pend- 
ing difficulties between them and the English. 
"Hitherto," said the governor of Oroomiah to us, 
" I have regarded you as my brothers ; how that 
the English embassador leaves the country, I as- 
sume the place of a father to you." And how- 
ever treacherous the Persians may be toward 
foreigners in their diplomatic transactions, — and 
they are charged with flagrant treachery in these 
matters, — they did, from the king down to the 
city magistrate, fully redeem their pledge to ex- 
tend to us uninterrupted protection during their 
rupture with England. The fact that we had 
nominal protection from Russia during that pe- 
riod doubtless contributed to keep the Persian 
authorities faithful to their promise. But what- 
ever may have been their motives, that we, defense- 
less missionaries, were enabled to prosecute all 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



57 



our various and extended operations in the heart 
of distant Mohammedan Persia during the almost 
three years' absence of the only Protestant Chris- 
tian embassy that had been in the country, and 
while the power to which that embassy belonged, 
and whose protection we were known to have en- 
joyed, assumed a directly hostile attitude toward 
Persia, is a fact that strongly evinces the vigilant 
care of the great Head of missions, that the door 
of faith which he had opened for us should not 
be closed by political commotions, however threat- 
ening. It is one of the many facts connected 
with our work, which should, in all our prayers 
and labors for the advancement of Christ's king- 
dom, even amid approaching convulsions or ap- 
parent reverses, give us unwavering confidence 
in the stability and security of His cause, who 
himself rides upon the whirlwind and directs 
the storm. Wherever we can see the hand of 
God, it is always safe for us to follow, wheth- 
er it be through seas, over deserts, or up moun- 
tains. 

Suffering severely as we did from the com- 
mencement of our residence at Oroomiah from its 
climate, we early felt the need of a health retreat, 
to which the sick of our number might repair for 
relief. The subject was embarrassed with diffi- 
culties. Any mountain village to which we might 



Digitized by 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



go, even within the Persian territory, would then 
have been constantly liable to be sacked by the 
savage Koords from beyond ; and retiring from 
the city and plain, even temporarily, would with- 
draw, in a measure, our strength and influence 
from the most central and important part of our 
field. But the sudden death of Mrs. Grant, in the 
early part of 1839, led us deeply to feel that due 
regard to our lives, as well as true missionary 
economy, required us to provide such a retreat. 
Gavalan, the village of Mar Yohannan, which is 
about forty miles from the city, is shut out from 
the sickly influences of the main part of the plain 
by an arm of the Koordish mountains, which runs 
down almost to the lake ; and this was the place 
which we selected as being equally healthy, and 
a more secure residence than any mountain 
village. 

We readily obtained a firman from the prince 
of Northern Persia, whom I have repeatedly men- 
tioned, authorizing us to build at that village, 
(which is the property of government,) and reside 
there as much of the time as we should find de- 
sirable. I accordingly went to Gavalan in the 
spring of 1839, and commenced erecting a rude 
building for our accommodation. But scarcely 
had we laid the foundation when the selfish Mo- 
hammedan nobleman who farmed the village, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



59 



apprehending that his opportunities for oppressing 
the villagers might, iii some way, be curtailed by 
our residing there, sent his son, at the head of 
eight or ten armed ruffians, who suddenly came 
upon our workmen, beat them severely, and drove 
them from their work. They then seized the unof- 
fending bishop, Mar Yohannan, tied him to a cart, 
and brutally bastinadoed him, for the alleged 
crime of having invited the missionaries to his 
village. This took place in my presence, and in 
the face of my earnest remonstrance, and protesta- 
tion of the bishop's innocence of even the sin of 
that charge. 

The tyrannical noble committed this outrage on 
the bishop, whom he knew to be our particular 
friend, to deter us from attempting to reside in 
the village. And to make the affair at the same 
time a lucrative one, he extorted from him a large 
fine, before he would allow him to be liberated 
from the cart. A few days afterward he seized 
and imprisoned his aged father, and kept him 
under constant apprehension of being bastina- 
doed, until the distressed family rescued him, 
by borrowing and paying to the oppressor a sum 
of money which, together with the fine extorted 
from the bishop, amounted to two hundred and 
fifty dollars. Thus wantonly were the Nestorian 
Christians, even the highest of their clergy, some- 



Digitized by 



60 MISSIONARY LIFE 

times oppressed by their merciless Mohammedan 
masters. In vain did the governor remonstrate 
against the unrighteousness of such proceedings, 
with that wicked Khan, who openly defied his offi- 
cial authority ; and equally in vain did the Rus- 
sian consul at Tabreez, to whom the affair was 
reported, represent it to the higher authorities 
there. Their order, that the extorted money 
should be restored, the obstinate •noble contrived 
repeatedly to evade, by bribing the officers sent to 
him to carry that order into execution. 

Malek Kasem Meerza, the prince who had vis- 
ited us and reported so favorably of our seminary, 
the first year of our residence at Oroomiah, had 
repeatedly shown us much kindness, and had him- 
self procured for us the firman from the king's 
brother, authorizing us to build and reside in Gav- 
alan. This prince was then providentially at the 
capital, and in great favor with the king. And 
on being informed by Mr. Merrick, with whom he 
was intimate, of our interruption in our work, and 
the wanton abuse and oppression of Mar Yohan- 
nan, he lost no time in presenting our cause, and 
that of the bishop, in consideration of his being our 
friend, to the attention of the king, — and in so 
effective a manner, that his majesty sent orders to 
his brother at Tabreez, that justice should be done, 
in the following laconic terms : — 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



61 



Kahhaman Meebza : Those learned men must be held in 
honor — especially that holy stranger, [alluding to me, as 
longest in the country and best known to him,] who has 
come from the new world at his own expense, and is teaching 
knowledge to our subjects. By all means inquire into the 
wishes of his heart, and cause him to be satisfied. Let him 
erect a dwelling for himself there. And that man, Nazir Ali 
Khan, who has so much annoyed the man from the new world, 
you must surely punish. 

These orders of the king the obstinate Khctii 
could not set aside. He was compelled to restore 
the extorted property ; and so numerous were the 
fees of the officers intrusted with the execution 
of the royal order, as to subject him also to a 
severe pecuniary punishment. 

These are among the instances of fidelity on 
the part of the Persian rulers, in protecting us, 
during the rupture between them and the Eng- 
lish government. The repeated favors which we 
have received, unsolicited, from the king and 
other members of the royal family in Persia, and 
which have contributed so essentially to our per- 
sonal safety and the prosperity of our work, have 
often delightfully impressed us, as being at least 
a partial fulfillment of the cheering promise of 
Scripture to Zion, that, in latter days, kings shall 
be her nursing fathers and queens her nursing 
mothers. 

The interruption of our undertaking by the 



Digitized by 



62 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



Khan, and various other circumstances, prevented 
our securing a health retreat at that time. But 
the district of Oroomiah having passed into the 
more efficient hands of a new governor, and the 
adjacent declivities of the Koordish mountains 
beinpthus rendered more secure from the preda- 
tory incursions of the savages beyond, we soon 
afterward prepared a residence in a small village, 
on a beautiful and commanding site, on the de- 
clivity of Mount Seir, about six miles from the 
city. It was, we thought, sufficiently elevated to 
escape the febrile influences of the plain, and at 
the same time was not so distant that a residence 
there would seriously retard our missionary work. 
The last labor which I performed, before my first 
return to America, was, to stand from morning 
till night, among the workmen there, for thirteen 
weeks, laboring also myself, to prevent the waste 
of missionary funds, in the preparation of that 
mountain residence. It promised much for the 
preservation of the lives and health of the mem- 
bers of our mission, and in that way very much 
for the advancement of the great cause in that 
field where the Lord had opened for us so wide 
a door. And it has proved to be all that we an- 
ticipated, and much more. Our male seminary 
has long been located in a portion of that health 
retreat, and two or three families have perma- 



Digitized by 




Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



nently dwelt there, and more, some months, every 
summer. From that charming spot the eye ranges 
a hundred miles over some of the finest scenery 
in the world. 

In the autumn of 1839, the mission was reen- 
forced by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Jones. 

I should not omit to mention, in passing, a por- 
tentous cloud, to which I have not yet alluded, as 
having darkened our missionary horizon. I refer 
to the influx of Papal emissaries into our previ- 
ously undisturbed field. The pope, it would 
seem, had observed, with a jealous eye, from the 
first, our entrance and successful commencement 
of operations among the Nestorians. And to 
secure if possible so interesting a post in his 
assumed province, the world, he has been sending 
his emissaries into Persia for many years, like 
swarms of locusts, to devour the land. They have 
made frequent and bold attempts to take from our 
hands the Ncstorian field ; but the people them- 
selves have as often and promptly resisted their 
efforts, and the good hand of the Lord has hith- 
erto in a great measure thwarted their evil de- 
signs. 

These subtle foes become the more formidable 
from their alliance with the numerous secular Pa- 
pists, who, banished for crime, or strolling for ad- 
venture from their homes in Europe, seek a living 



Digitized by Google 



64 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



in Persia ; and though many of them are avowed 
infidels and atheists, they still often show an in- 
terest and an activity in promoting the Papal 
cause which vie with the zeal of a Jesuit. As 
they frequently obtain posts of influence and 
authority in connection witli government, their 
power and opportunity to advance that cause are 
far greater than those of the Jesuits themselves. 
Their singular deVotion to Papacy may arise from 
a superstitious notion (for professed infidels and 
atheists are often the most superstitious) that 
they will thus atone for their accumulated crimes; 
and such a reward may not improbably be prom- 
ised to them by the priesthood. 

An instance will best illustrate the kind of 
efforts which these adversaries use to advance the 
interests of Romanism, not questioning, of course, 
the grand principle in their system, that the end 
sanctifies the means. . The individual whose case 
I mention was understood to be an Italian quack, 
though after his death, papers were found proving 
him to be a Frenchman, who was the head clerk 
of a branch mercantile house in Smyrna, and ab- 
sconded with a large amount of funds. He had 
been an outlaw from his country twenty years, 
whose adventures, in the interval, are too fearful 
to repeat, and who prided himself so much on his 
boasted infidelity, that he often avowed his pur- 



Digitized by 



■ 



IN PERSIA 



65 



pose to originate some now religion, denouncing 
that of the Bible as antiquated and obsolete ; and 
yet this man was a zealous Papal agent. 

Possessing considerable intelligence and an 
insinuating address, he succeeded in obtaining a 
place in the service of the prince of Oroomiah, 
first as his physician, but subsequently, by his 
artful management, as governor, under the prince, 
of the Christian part of the population. No posi- 
tion could have given him more power to embar- 
rass us, in our missionary work ; and Satan him- 
self, it would seem, could have selected no more 
practiced and wily foe to occupy that position. 
No sooner had he assumed his office as governor 
of the Nestorians, than he commenced a course 
of open opposition to us, and a vigorous system 
of efforts to make proselytes to Romanism. He 
threatened all the Nestorian ecclesiastics, who 
were in our employment as teachers and assist- 
ants, with fines, if they continued their connec- 
tion ; promising, at the same time, diminution of 
their heavy taxes, freedom from military enroll- 
ment, and other important immunities, to as many 
as would become Papists. And in entering upon 
the execution of this oppressive proselyting sys- 
tem, he began with the four bishops of the prov- 
ince, all of whom were then among our native 
helpers. His prerogatives being only limited, he 

5 



Digitized by 



66 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



represented to the prince that these bishops re- 
ceived annually large salaries from their people, 
and could well afford, and of right ought, to make 
a present of a hundred dollars each to his royal 
highness. Tempted by his strong love of money, 
which, in Persia, is emphatically the root of all 
evil, and believing the reiterated assertions of his 
European magistrate, that the bishops were well 
able to pay that sum without feeling it, the prince 
governor proceeded to issue orders that the money 
be exacted, allowing a fortnight for its collection. 
The bishops, no one of whom receives a hundred 
dollars — nor half that sum — from their poor, 
oppressed people, were thrown into great distress, 
and knew not what to do ; especially as their Pa- 
pal governor managed so effectually to hedge up 
the way of access to the prince, that neither they 
nor their people could reach him and represent 
the truth of their condition. But while iniquity 
was coming in like a flood, the Lord lifted up a 
standard. Within the fortnight allotted to the 
bishops for obtaining and paying the demanded 
presents, the Mohammedan population of Oroo- 
miah, disgusted with the overbearing conduct of 
the same European quack, and roused by some 
instances of oppression toward themselves, to 
which he had instigated their prince, rose sud- 
denly against both the prince and his Enropeau 



Digitized by 



IN PEE8IA. 



67 



satellite, fled to Tabreez, the seat of the general 
government of Northern Persia, and represented 
their grievances to the king's brother. The 
prince, following the malcontents to Tabreez with 
all practicable speed, left his unjust demands on 
the bishops unexecuted. It was only by paying a 
large sum to his superior, and pledging a more 
equitable administration, that he retained his 
place as governor of Oroomiah; and from that 
time forward, I hardly need say, he never again 
touched the subject of a present from the Nesto- 
• rian bishops ; and the quack did not attempt 
again to reside in the province. 

For nearly two centuries emissaries of Rome 
have been struggling elsewhere, with a zeal and 
perseverance worthy of a better cause, to effect 
the conversion of the entire Nestorian church. 
And they have succeeded, by means as wicked as 
various, among most of the Nestorians of the 
plains on the western side of the Koordish moun- 
tains, to which part of our field their efforts have 
till latterly been principally directed. There, 
too, secular men, acting in connection with cleri- 
cal emissaries, are often equally zealous and far 
more efficient agents of the pope than Jesuits 
themselves. A fact will b&st illustrate the kind 
of means used in that region also, and show the 
formidable nature of this mighty foe to the prog- 



Digitized by 



68 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



ress of truth and light among the Nestorians, 
and, indeed, in the East in general. A score of 
years ago a Koordish chief came down from his 
mountain fastness, and, as the Koords often did, 
sacked a Nestorian district on the declivity, taking 
a considerable number of females captive, whom 
he sold to Turks in the region of Mosul as slaves. 
The French consul at Bagdad heard of the cir- 
cumstances, and with an ostentatious affectation 
of philanthropy, applied to the sultan, through 
the French embassador at Constantinople, and 
obtained a royal firman for the immediate and 
unconditional liberation of those captives. This 
firman was committed to the consul, who engaged 
to see it faithfully carried into effect. But instead 
of doing this, he took the firman, and offered free- 
dom to such, and such only, of the captives as 
would, on their liberation, become Papists. In 
one instance, a poor Nestorian priest, whose 
daughter was among those in bondage, traveled 
on foot a long distance to Bagdad, to beg the 
French consul to liberate his captive child. To 
him also the consul submitted the only condition 
on which he could liberate any of the captives, 
viz., their becoming Catholics. But the noble- 
spirited priest preferred that his daughter should 
remain a slave to a Mohammedan master, rather 
than become one to the pope ; and replied to that 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA 



69 



effect to the consul. The latter then contrived to 
in trap the poor priest by false accusations, and 
caused him to be seized and beaten by the Turk- 
ish authorities, hoping to effect, by violent coer- 
cion what he had failed to accomplish, in that 
case, by his philanthropic scheme of oppression. 
But the priest remained unmoved. Few, how- 
ever, of that company of captives, or their friends, 
possessed his firmness, and the result was, that 
most of them were set at liberty on their becom- 
ing Papists, as the price of their freedom. 

Such is the Papacy which we encounter in 
Asia, in the middle of the nineteenth century. It 
has there all the wily subtlety and grasping ambi- 
tion of its essential character, and all the bloody 
vindictiveness, however cautiously and artfully 
concealed, that lighted the fires of Smithfield, or 
plied the racks of inquisitorial Spain, in bygone 
centuries. Yes, it is from the agents of the " man 
of sin," even in the dominions of the false proph- 
et, that the Protestant missionary must experi- 
ence his most violent opposition and relentless 
persecution. But by these formidable foes, even, 
we have little reason to be discouraged, in view 
of what God has done with us, and how he has 
opened for us, and hitherto kept open, the door 
of faith unto the Gentiles. For even Antichrist 
cannot prevail against "Him who openeth, and 



Digitized by 



70 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



no man snutteth; and shutteth, and no man 
opene*." 

Tlie year 1840 was marked by the arrival in 
our field of Dr. Wright, and of our printer, Mr. 
Breath. Mr. Merrick was also transferred from 
the mission to the Mohammedans to the Nesto- 
rian mission. 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA . 



71 



CHAPTER IV. 

PROGRESS IN THE MISSIONARY WORK. 

" I4ke a grain of mustard wed." 

A School for Mohammedans. — Note of a young Persian Noble.— Nes- 
torian Schools.— Introduction of the Press.— Preaching in Nea to- 
ri an Churches.— Religious Interest. — Providential Aspects. — In- 
fluence of Steam Power.— Commerce.— Change of Customs.— Brit- 
ish Influence. 

I have repeatedly alluded to the protection, 
kindness, and special favors which we have expe- 
rienced, in our residence and labors in Persia, 
from the Mohammedans of that country. Some 
of that class have also manifested so much confi- 
dence in us as to desire us to extend our educa- 
tional efforts to their children. The king himself 
has shown a deep interest in this branch of our. 
labors, and, unsolicited by us, he even issued in 
our favor a royal firman, pledging us protection, 
and encouraging us to proceed in the instruction 
of his subjects. And as a peace offering to this 
class, rulers of the country and masters of the 
Nestorians as they are, as well as with the hope of 
benefiting them, and gradually preparing the way 



Digitized by 



72 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



of the Lord among them, we so far complied with 
their wishes as to keep a small school for young 
Mohammedans two or three years. And though 
we bestowed little time, and less expense, on that 
school, it was by no means without interest, as a 
collateral branch of our missionary operations. 
If we did not formally preach Christ and him cru- 
cified to these youthful followers of Mohammed, 
we did use the New Testament as text book in 
that school, and, as opportunities were presented, 
explain its contents to them, with the same free- 
dom which we used in instructing Nestorian chil- 
dren. 

It may not be uninteresting, in this connection, 
to insert a short letter, which I received during my 
first visit in this country, from one of those Mo- 
hammedan pupils. He was the son of one of the 
wealthiest and highest nobles of the province, and 
nephew of the governor ; and though a small boy, 
was himself a KMn ; and I may add, that he was 
one of the brightest scholars and finest boys that 
I ever instructed in any land. As he had studied 
English but a short time, and this note is one of 
his early attempts at writing our language, allow- 
ance will be made for its imperfect style. It is 
under date of August, 1841 — about a month after 
our first departure from Oroomiah. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



73 



OROOMIAH, August 5, 1841. 

My dear Sir: How is your health in this month? I 
wish to write a letter in every month, but the casid [foot 
messenger] has not come from Tabreez yet I hope the 
Koords did you no harm on the way, and that you have ar- 
rived at Constantinople, and that you will go safely across 
the ocean, and that God will keep you. We read and learn 
in school with Dr. Wright, and sometimes talk with Mr. 
Breath. It is necessary for me to speak the English lan- 
guage ; for, perhaps alter two or three years, I may go to 
England or to America. 

Our Moollah wished me to find, in the gospel, if it was 
forbidden to drink wine. We looked into the gospel trans- 
lated into the Persian language, and we found it written in 
I Cor. 6 : 10, that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of 
God. I send you my dooa saldm [prayerful salutation]. 

Your friend, very truly, 

.Hassan Ali Khan. 

The promise of good which missionary instruc- 
tion to Mohammedan youth of this boy's standing 
and prospects holds out for Persia can be fully 
understood only by those who have seen the 
mighty barriers of prejudice existing against the 
Christian religion there, which must be softened 
before the gospel can triumph in that country, 
and which such preparatory means do much to 
undermine. And when bigoted moollahs applied 
thus to our scholars for proof texts from the gos- 
pel, against prevalent vices, is there not reason to 
hope that their prejudices are beginning to yield ? 



Digitized by 



74 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



Returning to the Nestorians, I may remark, 
that we early multiplied village schools among 
them, as teachers became qualified in our semi- 
nary, to the utmost extent of our pecuniary 
means. These schools, as well as the seminary 
and female boarding school, have, from their com- 
mencement, been in a flourishing condition. It 
was delightful to mark the progress of these schol- 
ars, where, twenty-five years ago, no schools ex- 
isted ; to see them gradually rise, in the brief 
course of even the imperfect education which we 
were, in the early periods of our work, able to 
furnish them, from the rude, ignorant, squalid 
children" first collected, up to the comparatively 
intelligent young, men, like plants grown up in 
their youth, and daughters, as corner stones, pol- 
ished after the similitude of a palace ; and yet 
far more delightful was it to mark their rapid 
progress in religious knowledge, their increased 
attention to eternal things, and the hopeful con- 
version of some of them from the power and the 
bondage of sin to the love and service of the liv- 
ing God. 

Our educational efforts thus held out the grate- 
ful prospect, in connection with our other labors, 
of furnishing the Nestorians with an intelligent 
and pious ministry, and, by their aid, gradually 
raising the masses from their deep degradation to 
be an enlightened and virtuous Christian people. 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



75 



Oar press arrived in 1840. It was like a rising 
sun, bursting suddenly upon the long-darkened 
horizon of the Nestorians. A small Scripture 
tract was the first fruit of the labors of the press, 
and the first book ever printed in the spoken lan- 
guage of the Nestorians. As I carried the proof 
sheets of it from our printing office into my 
study for correction, and laid them upon the table 
before my translators, they were struck with mute 
astonishment and rapture to see their language 
in print, though they had themselves assisted, a 
few days before, in preparing the same matter. 
As soon as recovery from surprise allowed them 
utterance, " It is time to give glory to God," they 
mutually exclaimed, " that we behold the com- 
mencement of printing books for our people " — 
a sentiment to which, it will be readily supposed, 
my heart most fully responded. 

In connection with my other labors, I usually 
devoted a part of each day to the work of trans- 
lating, and was thus enabled to complete a trans- 
lation of the New Testament, and some smaller 
works for the use of our schools, before my first 
visit to America. Parts of this New Testament 
were printed during my absence. 

But the most interesting department of our 
labors remains to be mentioned. I refer to our 
preaching the gospel in the Nestorian churches. 



Digitized by 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



We had long preached statedly, on the Sabbath, 
to the members of our seminary and female board- 
ing school on our premises, and extensively in 
our village schools during the week, and, more 
or less, from house to house, as opportunities oc- 
curred and our other labors permitted. But we 
had not expected (certainly not so soon) to enter 
their churches as clergymen, and formally preach 
the gospel ; for we apprehended that the native 
ecclesiastics, much as they rejoiced in our more 
general labors, would be likely to regard them- 
selves as in danger of being undervalued by their 
people in their clerical capacity, by a comparison 
with the missionaries, and so take offense at the 
measure, were we to assume the attitude of regu- 
lar preachers in their churches. What, then, was 
our surprise and gratification, when, in 1840, we 
began to be invited and urged, by the most intel- 
ligent and influential ecclesiastics, with an impor- 
tunity that would take no denial, to enter their 
churches, every Sabbath, and proclaim the gospel 
to their people ! We were thus invited to preach 
in far more churches than we could possibly oc- 
cupy. During that year those of our number 
who were able to speak the native language 
preached usually three times on the Sabbath, to 
as many different congregations situated some 
miles distant from each other. Occasionally we 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



77 



yielded to the importunity of other churches still, 
and preached a single Sabbath to their' people. 

The scene was more interesting than can possi- 
bly be conceived, as we took our places in those 
venerable churches, a Nestorian bishop stand- 
ing usually on one hand and a priest on the 
other, and a congregation of both sexes and all 
ages seated upon their mats, on their simple 
earth-floor, crowded shoulder to shoulder, and 
listening to the words of life as they fell from the 
speaker's lips, with an eagerness of countenance 
that would almost loose the tongues of those of 
our number who had not yet learned their lan- 
guage, and inspire them with the power of utter- 
ance. It is always an unspeakable privilege to 
preach the gospel of salvation, but especially so 
in such circumstances. Never have I addressed 
audiences, elsewhere, in regard to whom it might 
apparently with so much truth be said, that they 
received the word with gladness. 

Some of the clergy who were a considerable 
time under the influence of our* mission early 
became able and faithful preachers. Often have 
I heard them address their people with a solem- 
nity and power which we associate with the 
preaching of apostles. The earnest, moving voice 
of priest Abraham and priest Yohannan, who 
were then in middle life, and the less pungent 



Digitized by 



I 



78 MISSIONARY LIFE 

but affectingly serious and tremulous tones of the 
venerable Mar Elias, urging their people to re- 
pentance and salvation, seem often to be still 
sounding in my ears. They and a few others of 
the clergy were accustomed to go out, not only in 
company with the missionaries, but alone also, 
and address other congregations on the Sabhath. 

The attendance on our preaching at the Nes- 
torian churches, during the last winter and spring, 
before my first return in 1841, was very large, and 
a deep solemnity pervaded the assemblies. In- 
deed, an unwonted interest on the subject of 
religion seemed to be awakened, and extending 
itself throughout the whole province. The indi- 
cations that the Holy Spirit was verily in the 
midst of us and around us were clear, and often 
very impressive, — not in the thunder nor the 
whirlwind, but in the still small voice that con- 
vinced many of their sins and their need of a 
Saviour, and led some to Christ — to the saving 
of their souls. 

Such was the state of our mission, when I re- 
luctantly left the field for a season, in 1841, on 
account of the impaired health of my wife ; and 
such are some of the incidents in our previous ex- 
perience and labors that occur to me in the brief 
retrospect we have now taken of the work up to 
that period. Many of the nominal Christians, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA • 



79 



who, when I reached them, found ready apologies 
for their sins in their civil oppression, then as 
readily turned the scale against themselves, rec- 
ognizing, in the rigor of their bondage, the hand 
of a kind heavenly Father, scourging them for 
their backslidings, and seeking to reclaim and 
save them. The church that was dead, while it 
had a name to live, was beginning to awake and 
rise into life. The great valley which was full of 
bones — very many and very dry — had begun to 
feel the quickening power of the breath of Je- 
hovah. Bono was coming to its bone, and the 
ghastly, lifeless skeleton beginning to be invested 
with flesh, with spiritual comeliness and vitality. 
In a word, the Lord was moving on the body of 
the Nestorians of Persia, — a population of near 
forty thousand souls, — waking them to thought 
and serious reflection ; and a work which might, 
in a certain sense, be called a revival of religion, 
still and gradual, yet deep and general, was in 
progress among them, which promised to make 
them again a people whose God is the Lord. A 
verdant oasis had thus suddenly sprung up around 
us in the midst of that great moral wilderness, 
small, indeed, but bidding fair to extend until it 
should cause the whole mighty desert to bud and 
blossom as the rose. 

And was there nothing in our unobstructed 



Digitized by 



80 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



access to the people from the first ; in our oft- 
repeated restoration from distressing sickness ; in 
the long preservation of our lives amid sickly 
influences of a strange climate, and of our work 
amid threatening prospects of hostile commotion ; 
in our manifold deliverances from perplexities 
and difficulties, from the subtle designs of artful 
and formidable Papal adversaries, from personal 
danger and death ; in the favor we had enjoyed 
from Mohammedan rulers ; in the uninterrupted 
prosperity that had attended our various and ex- 
tensive missionary operations ; and, above all, in 
the influences of the Holy Spirit, vouchsafed to 
crown with a measure of saving success our feeble 
instrumentality? Could wc see nothing in all 
that God had thus done with us, and how he had 
opened for us the door of faith to call forth our 
thanksgivings ? Yes, much, very much, to ex- 
cite in us gratitude for the past, nor less to en- 
courage our hopes for the future. Had the Lord 
thus begun a great and good work among the 
Nestorians, and would he fail to carry it forward 
to completion? Never. His arm is not short- 
ened, that it can not save, nor his ear heavy, that 
it can not hear Their iniquities had indeed 
long and lamentably separated between them and 
their God ; but he will purge away their sins for 
\is name's sake — yea, purge them as gold and 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA 



81 



silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offer- 
ing in righteousness. 

Nor needed we to rest this hope solely on the 
reformation, in such delightful progress, among 
that people. There is much also in their circum- 
stances and history to warrant the belief that the 
day of salvation for that venerable church has 
fully come. Is not their almost miraculous pres- 
ervation so long from being crushed by the 
heavy arm of Mohammedan oppression on the 
one hand, and decoyed and annihilated by the 
wiles of Papal emissaries on the other, an en- 
couraging pledge that He who has graven Zion 
on the palms of his hands — the Lord of the 
church — will revive and build up this remnant 
for the glory of his name and the advancement 
of his kingdom ? May he not have very important 
purposes for it, as a church, to accomplish — a 
conspicuous part for it to act in ushering in the 
millennial glories of Zion ? What geographical 
position could be more important, in its bearing 
on the conversion of the world, for a Christian 
church to hold, than that occupied by the Nes- 
torians ? — situated, as they are, in the center of 
Mohammedan dominion, and far toward the cen- 
ter of benighted Asia. Pure religion once re- 
vived among them, — they are, most emphatically, 
a city set on a hill, whose light can never be hid. 

6 



Digitized by 



82 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



And is it too much to believe that this ancient 
church, once so renowned for its missionary efforts, 
— its heralds of salvation having carried the gos- 
pel for centuries, in the face of danger and of 
death, even into China, — still possessing rare 
native capabilities, as well as such felicity of 
location for the renewal of like missionary labors, 
— is it too much to hope and believe that it will 
awake from the slumber of ages, put on again the 
beautiful garment of its espousal to God, and be- 
come bright as the sun, fair as the moon, and ter- 
rible as an army with banners, to achieve triumph 
for Zion ? — that it will again diffuse such a ra- 
diance of the blaze of truth as shall put for ever 
to shame the abominations of Mohammedanism, 
roll back the corrupting tide of Papal influence, 
and send forth faithful missionaries of the cross 
in such numbers and with such holy zeal, as shall 
bear the glad tidings of salvation over their own 
dark plains and mountains, and aid in speeding 
their flight through all the world ? 

I then anticipated, and still anticipate, such re- 
sults, and at no very distant period, — not indeed 
by any human might or power, nor by miracles, 
strictly so called, — but " by my Spirit, saith the 
Lord " — by the promised, and to some extent then 
already vouchsafed blessing of Jehovah on the 
humble efforts which American Christians put 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



8S 



forth for the revival of religion among the Nes- 
torians. 

There were then, as now, encouraging aspects, 
in the providence of God, affecting not only the 
Nestorian mission, but also the cause of truth in 
general in the East; and which gave to the revival 
of religion in progress among that people a pe- 
culiar interest that strangely impressed my own 
mind, and may with propriety be thankfully rec- 
ognized in this connection. 

To the extension of the power of steam, after 
our mission was commenced, by which the dis- 
tance is almost annihilated between Europe — and, 
indeed, between America — and the remote ports 
of the Black Sea, I have already alluded. The 
influence of this extension of steam power is 
amazing in preparing the way for the spread of 
the gospel, by bringing different and distant na- 
tions into near and familiar proximity, and thus 
breaking down their national prejudices, and in 
the intercommunication and rapid diffusion of 
light and general intelligence. 

Beyond the shores of that distant sea the steam- 
er can not push its way. It can not scale those 
lofty mountains, whose snow-capped summits 
pierce and peer above the clouds. But ever-sleep- 
less, restless, advancing commerce does cross those 
mountains ; and though it can not level them, it 



Digitized by 



84 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



can smooth the way over them. When I first 
went to Persia, thirteen thousand caravan horses 
and mules were accustomed to pass annually on 
the route which we traveled between Trebizond 
and Erzroom ; but on my return, eight years after- 
ward, the number had doubled, twenty-six thou- 
sand, instead of thirteen thousand, as the English 
consul at Trebizond informed me, then annually 
traveling that same route. And the adamantine 
ledges of the rocky passes had evidently been 
worn down and smoothed, aud the road essential- 
ly improved, in the interval, by the incessant at- 
trition of the hoofs of beasts of burden in so vast 
an amount of travel ; so much so, that rude wheel 
carriages were beginning to take the place of the 
backs of animals as the vehicles of merchandise 
over a part of the way, and it was expected that 
they would ere long be able to run the whole 
length of that formidable route. 

But how much more important an effect of this 
rapid increase of commerce in that direction is 
the tide of light and civilization which it is rolling 
into the dark empires beyond those mountains ! 
By these mighty strides of commerce, the earth is 
verily helping the woman; in other words, the 
hand of the Lord in controlling and directing the 
current of secular adventure and enterprise, is 
opening the way for the introduction and triumph 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



85 



of the gospel in all the world, but particularly in 
Western and Central Asia, in a manner too won- 
derful to be comprehended, or hardly believed, 
save by the astonished beholders who personally 
observe the surprising phenomena. 

Not that this flood of commerce, which is thus 
rolling eastward, is entirely under religious con- 
trol. The vicious influence of civilized nations, 
like the frogs of Egypt, is every where. In the 
heart of Turkey the missionary sees the children 
of peasants playing briskly with European cards, 
where not one child in perhaps thousands knows 
a letter of any language. And New England rum 
is still almost the only commercial representative 
with which our Christian, Protestant country has 
ever yet honored the wants of benighted Moham- 
medan Persia. But the overruling hand of the 
Lord can, and does, cause the good greatly to pre- 
ponderate. The swelling tide of trade and ad- 
venture on which this liquid poison and these 
demoralizing practices steal their passage pours 
into the East far more light than darkness — far 
more blessings than curses ; and with all its at- 
tendant evils, it is rapidly hastening the day when 
holiness to the Lord shall be written on the bells 
of all its caravan horses. 

The increasing disposition in Asiatics to obtain 
European knowledge and adopt European cus- 



Digitized by Google 



8G 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



toms is another encouraging aspect of things in 
the East. Borne onward by the general current 
of light and improvement, the Persian monarch 
long since exchanged the flowing robes of his 
Oriental costume for the less graceful, but more 
manly, tight coat and pantaloons, which he once 
as heartily despised as he did the European who 
wore them; and the beard which, on the face 
of his predecessor, being of extraordinary length, 
was generally and reverently styled the glory of 
the empire, and upon which he would once have 
placed a value scarcely second to that of his 
crown, was clipped to his chin ; and he obliged 
all his subjects who enjoyed the emoluments of 
office, willing or unwilling, to follow his example 
in these innovations.* 

I attach no importance to such changes of cus- 
tom and costume, being, as I conceive, quite in- 
different in themselves, except as they strongly 
indicate the decline of Mohammedan and Eastern 
prejudice, and the rapid opening of facilities for 
the spread of the gospel. 

* When I was in this country in 1812, 1 journeyed to the south as far as 
Richmond, and to the west as far as Buffalo, and saw not a single beard 
except that on the face of Mar Yohannan. On reaching Boston, at the 
close of 1858, one of the wonders that surprised me was a beard on at 
least every third man of all professions. Little did 1 anticipate that 
the venerable appendages then beginning to drop from the chins of 
those staid Orientals were so suddenly to migrate and reappear on the 
youthful and the aged faces of so many of my countrymen. 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



87 



The extension of British political power and 
influence in Asia is another sign of the times, 
auguring most auspiciously for the spread of the 
gospel over that continent. I say this, not, of 
course, as a party politician, but as a Christian 
philanthropist and a missionary, who has long 
had abundant opportunity to observe and feel the 
effect of British influence in the East. Where 
English power is felt in Asia, in general, it is no 
more certain that the rod of oppression is broken, 
the captive liberated, and the condition and pros- 
pects of the inhabitants vastly ameliorated, than 
that there the Protestant missionary, and espe- 
cially the American missionary, has an unfailing 
pledge of protection, encouragement, and aid in 
his object and labors ; and there only has he any 
such sure and permanent security. 

To the eye of the Christian observer it is clear- 
ly not chance, nor success in the game of politics, 
nor military skill or prowess, that is placing so 
much of Asia under British control. It is the 
hand of Providence, the arm of the almighty 
Ruler of the world. 

It is a most interesting circumstance, not per- 
haps generally understood, that among the Eng- 
lish who are scattered through the East there is a 
large number of devotedly pious men, and among 
them many military and civil officers of high 



Digitized by Google 



88 MISSIONARY LIFE 

standing, who, like the good centurion of old, are 
not ashamed to be known as the humble servants 
of God, as well as the faithful servants of their 
country. A British envoy at the court of Herat, 
in East Persia, was Colonel Todd,* of the Indian 
army, who was previously some time in Persia. 
He was a devoted Christian, and repeatedly 
cheered us with his counsels and labors. Colonel 
Stoddart, another pious officer, was envoy to the 
yet more distant court of Bokhara, which is one 
of the strongest holds of the religion of the false 
prophet, and one of the most inaccessible points, 
and least known to Europeans, in all Central Asia. 
Mohammedan bigotry cast him into prison, and 
submitted to him the fearful alternative of conver- 
sion to that bloody faith or a violent death. f Amid 
the perils of his gloomy confinement, and under the 
pressure of his trials, Colonel Stoddart forgot not 
us and our labors in Persia, but cheered us in like 
manner with fraternal epistles. Need I say that 
such Englishmen — and scores of them there are, 
scattered over the wild regions and posted on the 
high places of benighted Asia — are missionary 
pioneers, rapidly preparing the way for the spread 
of the gospel throughout that continent. 

* Afterward killed at the head of hie regiment, in a great battle of 
the Punjaub war. 

t He was finally beheaded, after being confined in a pit among ser- 
pents and venomous reptiles. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PEBSIA. 



Indeed, Providence seems to be extending and 
strengthening British influence in all parts of the 
world, but especially in Asia, (exceptionable as is 
much of its policy and the character of many of 
its agents,) as a radiant orb of light, a mighty 
bulwark of truth, a grand antagonist of false and 
corrupt religions — the protector of Protestant 
missions, and the champion of pure Christianity. 

Let it be our fervent prayer that favored Amer- 
ica may never be found slow to emulate the fath- 
erland in this highest and best of the momentous 
purposes for which Providence has given to the 
two countries so exalted a place among the na- 
tions. 

In view of these general aspects in the signs 
of the times in the East which I have mentioned, 
and many others I might name, as well as of all 
that God early did with us in our particular field 
in opening the door of faith, and enabling us to 
occupy that open door, what occasion had we to 
thank him, and take courage! 



Digitized by 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



CHAPTER V. 

THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 

" Being filled with all unrighteousness." 

Persia. — Route to it. — Physical Features. — The Persians. — Their 
natural Traits.— Their Moral Condition. — Hopeful as the Objects 
of Missionary Effort. — The Nestorians' Lineal Descent. — Conver- 
sion to Christianity. — Origin as a Sect. — Their Number. — Geo- 
graphical Position. — The Koords. — Why we first labored for the 
Kestorians. — Their Condition when we reached them. 

In bringing forward the account of the mis- 
sionary work among the Nestorians, our object 
may best be secured by slightly recapitulating and 
noticing in this connection somewhat more dis- 
tinctly, though briefly, the lands and the people 
where that work has been carried on. 

Persia, the principal scene of our labors hither- 
to, is a venerable land, teeming with sacred asso-' 
ciations, the land of Cyrus and Darius, of Daniel 
and Mordecai and Esther. To reach that distant 
clime, as already stated, we make our way by 
water to the south-eastern extremity of the Black 
Sea. Disembarking there, we ascend the lofty 
mountains of ancient Pontus, rising suddenly from 
the home of the olive, the fig, and the lemon, to 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA . 



91 



towering summits clad with perpetual snow, on 
which, on my last return, the mustaches of our 
traveling companions were frozen on the 17th of 
August, after suffering very intense heat just on 
the other side of them. Crossing those high 
ranges of mountains, much of the way on narrow 
parapets, along the face of lofty precipices, we 
pass eastward by a moderate descent upon the 
elevated table lands of Armenia, on which we 
cross the ancient rivers Araxes * and Euphrates,! 
and skirt the base of the sacred mountain of Ar- 
arat. Another moderate descent from those high 
table lands brings us down upon the immense 
sunny plains of Persia, surrounded by stern ranges 
of naked mountains, like vast enclosed gardens 
— a country at once genial in climate and at- 
tractive in scenery, whose atmosphere is so clear 
that the naked eye with ease traces objects dis- 
tinctly at the distance of a hundred miles, which 
would hardly be visible one fourth of that dis- 
tance in America, and readily descries celestial 
bodies | seen elsewhere only by the aid of a tel- 

* We cross this classic river about forty miles east of Erzroom, on 
the plain of Pasin, by an ancient arched bridge, built strongly of brick 
and stone, some six or seven hundred feet long. 

f Doth branches of the Euphrates are fordablc where we cross them, 
willows skirting- their margins, as was the case on the banks of that 
ancient river in the days of Israel's captivity. 

t Mr. Stoddard often saw the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn's rings 
with the naked eye. 



Digitized by 



92 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



escope. Much of it is a land physically so fair as 
to be almost fairy, abounding in luxuriant fields, 
orchards, and vineyards, and smiling with tasteful 
gardens of brilliant and fragrant flowers, studded 
with gurgling fountains and shady arbors, and 
vocal with the notes of warbling nightingales and 
other musical birds — a land, emphatically, 

" Wtiero every prospect pleases. 
And only man is vile." 

But the spiritual watchman looks with far more 
interest to the people, however much he may be 
charmed with the natural scenery ; for lie watches 
for souls as one who must give account unto 
God. And truly the inhabitants of Persia are 
vile ; not, however, externally, and to general ob- 
eervation. On the contrary, the modern dwellers 
of Persia, the direct descendants of the ancient 
Medes and Persians, are naturally among the 
noblest specimens of the human race, manly and 
athletic, of full medium stature, fine forms, reg- 
ular Caucasian features, and good complexions. 
They are also an intellectual people, lively, im- 
aginative, social, fond of discussion, and exceed- 
ingly shrewd and discriminating in their observa- 
tion of men and of things ; and the higher classes 
are a literary people ; while in manners so pro- 
verbially courteous are they, even to fastidious 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA 



93 



punctiliousness, as, with much reason, to be des- 
ignated " the French of Asia." 

But with all that is externally decorous in the 
intercourse of the Persians, and polished in their 
manners, they are a deeply depraved and corrupt 
people, while they are still not destitute of kindly 
and generous traits of character. Politeness with 
them is generally a cloak for studied iutrigue and 
deception. Falsehood seems so much more con- 
genial to them than truth, that lying is not only 
common, but habitual, often even when there 
seems to exist no motive for it where the truth 
would better serve the purpose to be gained. Such 
is the power of depravity,* intensified by habit ; 
and the depths of their secret impurities it were 
a shame to mention. The highly favored of 
Heaven in country and climate, and in physical 
and intellectual endowments, their very elevation 
in these respects tends but to render the more 
painfully conspicuous their fearful moral degra- 
dation, presenting them before us more in the 
likeness of fallen spirits than those who bear the 
image of God, and their fair country like the 

« ■ 

* Ask a Persian what be thinks of a liar, and he will promptly re- 
spond, " A liar is the enemy of God." ABk him, " Why, then, do you 
lie?" and be will reply with equal promptness, " Because our business 
will not succeed without lying " — a species of reasoning and of prac- 
tice in which the Persians probably have sympathizers in more favored 



Digitized by 



94 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



land of Sodom, which was also naturally as " the 
garden of the Lord." And we -marvel that such 
a land has so long been spared, under its provo- 
cations against the divine forbearance, hardly less 
than we admire the charming earthly paradise * 
which it is, as the goodly work of the Creator's 
hand. 

The modern Persians are descendants of the 
ancient fire worshipers, and are themselves Mo- 
hammedans in religious profession. Those resid- 
ing in Persia proper amount to perhaps twelve 
millions of souls, and they are numerous in India. 
Their religion, I hardly need say, has no power 
to regenerate or elevate their moral character, but 
the reverse, imposing, indeed, a few arbitrary 
restraints and austerities f for a portion of the 
time, but in other respects giving loose reins to 
corrupt propensities and fleshly indulgences in 

♦ The word paradise has its home in the Persian language, meaning 
garden, and the thing thus designated has eminently its home in the 
country in the physical features of the cultivated portions. 

t An entire lunar month, called Ramazan, is observed as a fast from 
all food and drink, and from smoking from early dawn till twilight. 
But the table stands ladeu with the best food they can command, ready 
for the hungry ones to gormandize as soon as the gun announces per- 
mission to cat ; and many pass most of the night in feasting, in antici- 
pation of the next day's abstinence. As this fast, so called, circulates: 
with the lunar month through the year, it is very severe for the labor- 
ing classes in spring and summer j and excess in eating during the 
night, added to the gnawing hunger and fatigue of the day, is a very 
fruitful cause of disease and death. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA . 



95 



this world, and promising only a sensual paradise 
in the world to come. 

Yet, in justice to the corrupt Persians, and as 
necessary to a proper understanding of their char- 
acter, I should repeat that they are not destitute 
of redeeming traits. With all their rank deprav- 
ity, they possess, in common with most Orientals, 
a strong religious vein, which, in the absence of 
truth, feeds greedily on error. They cherish, for 
example, an habitual recognition of an ever-pres- 
ent, overruling Providence in all that pertains to 
this world — a recognition which, while in their 
case it savors of fatalism, may still be preferable 
to the atheistical, or even heartlessly Christian, 
exclusion of God from the affairs of men, too 
common in the worldly masses in Christian lands. 
With the Persian, whatever happens is from God. 
Whatever he undertakes, it is, in his language, 
BismillaJi — In God's name; and Inshallah — If 
God will ; and when accomplished, it is Al hem- 
doolillah — By God's help, and with thanks to 
him for success. 

A perversion of this habitual recognition of the 
divine presence and agency leads to their shock- 
ingly prevalent profaneness in the familiar use 
of the name of the Supremo Being. It is impos- 
sible, in a Christian land, to conceive of the fre- 
quency with which that sacred name is invoked 



Digitized by 



96 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



in the East. The gardener, every time he drives 
his spade into the earth, and the woodman, every 
time he lifts his ax, exclaim, " O God," as though 
there were some charm in that idle repetition to 
prosper them in their work.* Yet, in all their 
reckless trifling with that sacred name, we hear 
from them nothing of the daring, blasphemous 
imprecations coupled with it that often stun our 
ears in the marts of Christendom. 

Their grinding avarice, which seems to consti- 
tute their ruling passion, though probably less a 
devouring mania in them than in many who bear 
the Christian name in America, is neutralized by 
the same strong religious element which prompts 
them to expend liberally of their ill-amassed 
treasures on religious objects, as they regard 
them, as the building of mosques, the perform- 
ance of pilgrimages, &c. ; and on charitable ob- 
jects, as the construction of bridges, the opening 
of fountains, and the erection of caravanserais 
by the wayside in the desert, the redemption of 
captives, and the distribution of bread to the 
hungry poor, &c, albeit for religious merit or 
ostentation. 

* Mr. Stoddard, not long after reaching his field, once told two of Ills 
pnplls to remove a box of books. As they eagerly grasped it, one of 
them exclaimed, " In thy name, O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ! " 
" What do yon mean by using such language ? " reprovingly inter- 
posed Mr. Stoddard. "It is heavy > sir," promptly responded the 
Nestorian boy. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



97 



The noble harp of religion thus presents itself 
in the soul of the Persian, even in its ruins, as 
formed peculiarly for the worship and the service 
of God, and in this view, as a very hopeful ma- 
terial for moral culture, when the power of the 
gospel shall reach and regenerate that soul and 
restring that ruined harp. 

The Nestorians — that other people in Persia to 
whose benefit our labors have been more immedi- 
ately directed — are- of much humbler pretensions 
than the Mohammedans, yet very interesting in 
their history and character, being a small rem- 
nant of a once great, influential, and active mis- 
sionary church. They are the oldest of Christian 
sects, and in their prosperous days, as already 
mentioned, were numerous through all the re- 
gions of Asia — from Palestine to China, and in 
China itself. The last point is now well attested 
by enduring historical inscriptions in that coun- 
try, in their own written character, the Syriac, on 
a solid stone tablet which remains to this day. 

The lineal descent of the Nestorian Christians 
is not the same as that of the Persian Moham- 
medans, though they are not inferior to them in 
cither physical or intellectual endowment. They 
are of the Shemitish stock, which is clear from 
their language, the Syriac, strongly guttural — 
a cognate of the Hebrew and the Arabic ; and 

7 



Digitized by 



98 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



from other peculiarities they claim such an origin 
among the sons of Noah. Some have supposed 
them to be descendants of the lost ten tribes of 
Israel.* In favor of that supposition is their own 
common tradition, and some other quite plausible 
but not fully conclusive arguments. 

Their conversion to Christianity they refer to 
Thomas, one of the twelve apostles — a point not 
fully made out, though strongly favored by tra- 
dition, and more or less by concurrent evidence. 

Their origin, as a Christian sect, is matter of 
authentic church history. Nestorius, from whom 
they derive their name, born and educated in 
Syria, was a presbyter at Antioch, where believ- 
ers were first called Christians, and was made 
Bishop of Constantinople in the year 428 A. D. 
The conspicuousness of his station, his attempts 
to resist some popular superstitions, and perhaps 
his rashness in theological speculation, made 
him a convenient mark for the envy and hostility 
of cotemporary bishops, particularly of the am- 

* Jews arc numerous in all parts of Persia, particularly in the large 
cities. Five thousand, at least, reside in Oroomiah. They speak the 
languages prevalent among the people where they dwell, as Turkish, 
Persian, &c. Their physiognomy is every where quite marked — so 
much bo that I can always distinguish one from all other nationalities, 
when I meet him. Every where in the East the Jews are sorely down- 
trodden and heartily despised. No epithet in the vocabularies of 
abuse there is so odious as that of Jew. Thus the fearful imprecation, 
" nis blood be on us and our children," rests crushingly on the de- 
scendants of Israel, even unto this day. 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 99 

bitious Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, a celebrated 
heresy-hunter of that early period. Summoned 
to a trial, Nestorius was deposed and excommuni- 
cated, at Ephcsus, by the third General Council, 
in A. D. 431. A prominent charge, on which 
that assembly decreed his excommunication and 
exile, was, that he refused to apply to the Virgin 
Mary the idolatrous, if not blasphemous, epithet, 
Mother of God. To this day his name and mem- 
ory are often and vehemently anathematized by 
the Papal church and other sects of Oriental 
Christians, as the arch heretic of all time ; and 
his followers are despised and detested by the 
same fallen churches as little above heathen. 
Yet, for aught that appears, he may have been 
quite as orthodox, to say the least, in any proper 
sense of that term, as his opponents and judges ; 
and his comparative purity, in the general cor- 
ruption which then prevailed, may have been the 
real ground of the rigor with which he was 
treated. 

The cause of Nestorius being regarded as that 
of a persecuted man rapidly gained adherents, 
until the sect became, as I have stated, a very nu- 
merous, influential, and active missionary church, 
carrying the gospel through vast regions of Cen- 
tral Asia during the night of the middle ages, 
while the rest of Christendom was buried in pro- 
found slumber. 



Digitized by 



100 MISSIONARY LIFE 

The history of these Christians has been a 
varied one — sometimes, as under the tolerant 
policy of the mighty Tartar conqueror Gengis 
Khan, being raised to high places in the camp 
and at the court ; while, subsequently, as under 
the bloody monster Timour Lane, they were cut 
down and swept away till scarce a vestige re- 
mained, save in the fastnesses of well nigh inac- 
cessible mountains. 

The present remnant of that venerable church, 
numbering about one hundred and fifty thousand 
souls, are situated geographically on the eastern 
borders of Turkey and the western borders of 
Persia, in the very heart of Mohammedan do- 
minion, and just on the dividing line of the two 
* great rival Mohammedan sects — the Soonees and 
the Shii tes. Their country — to be more definite — 
stretches from the ancient River Tigris, along the 
southern border of Armenia, into Northern Per- 
sia, more than three hundred miles, and extends 
southward along the Tigris on the west about the 
same distance, embracing the Assyrian mountains 
and plains as far as Mosul, or ancient Nineveh, 
on the south-west; and on the east it includes 
several of the most beautiful and fertile Persian 
plains. If you have followed me in thus briefly 
sketching the locality of the present Nestorian 
Christians, you will have in mind, then, that 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



101 



they are found in the north-western province of 
modern Persia, which is ancient Media, and the 
adjacent eastern province of Turkey, which com- 
prises ancient Assyria, embracing much of mod- 
ern Koordistan. The latter is an exceedingly 
wild, mountainous country, inhabited by numer- 
ous tribes of a yet wilder people, the Koords, of 
the Mohammedan faith, among whom and in 
proximity to whom many of the Nestorian Chris- 
tians dwell, subject to lawless extortion, and 
often, till lately, to violent plunder, from those re- 
doubtable neighbors. The Nestorian field, then, 
is one and continuous, though lying in two em- 
pires. The Koords number nearly two millions. 
About half of them live in villages, cultivating 
the land, and the other half are nomads — not 
exactly wanderings for they have well-defined 
circuits which they annually perform, moving 
down to the mild plains of Persia on the one 
hand, and of Assyria on the other, as the frosts 
of autumn come on ; and then, with early spring, 
commencing their upward course, with tents, 
flocks, and herds, — the hardy females bearing 
their little ones in their cradles on their backs, 
the older children being packed in large sacks, 
often with lambs to balance them, and thus slung 
over the backs of oxen or cows, their heads 
only emerging from the mouths of the sacks, — 



Digitized by Google 



102 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



the whole motley throng often moving from en- 
campment to encampment, gradually rising with 
the advancing season, till midsummer finds them 
near the summits, in the neighborhood of per- 
petual snow, among cool rills, and verdant pas- 
tures, and redolent flowers; and as summer 
wanes and autumn returns, they gradually again 
descend to the plains. 

Those Koords consist of many tribes, from one 
hundred to two hundred, speaking dialects more 
or less different, yet all having the Persian rad- 
ically as their origin. The tribes possess ele- 
ments so incoherent that extensive combination 
is impracticable, which is a great favor to Turkey 
and Persia; for could the Koords have beeu 
firmly united, those empires might often have 
been laid waste by them. 

The Nestorians are, in general, sparsely scat- 
tered among the more numerous classes, the Per- 
sians and Koords, to whom most of them stand 
in a relation analogous to that of serfs, being 
cultivators of the soil, and artisans in the more 
common and useful mechanical trades. 

On the eastern boundary of their country is 
Lake Oroomiah, a noble sheet of salt water, ninety 
miles long and thirty miles broad. 

It was among the Nestorians of Persia, in the 
district of Oroomiah, which is one of the richest 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



103 



and fairest of the Persian plains, as has before 
been stated, that wo commenced our missionary 
labors twenty-five years ago. This plain of Oroo- 
iniah skirts the beautiful lake of the same name, 
and runs back thence to the Koordish mountains 
as its broad pedestal. 

The wild regions of Eoordistan were, for many 
years after our arrival in Persia, under the rule, 
or rather the anarchy, of the bloody Koords, and 
thus rendered too insecure for the residence of 
civilized men. Latterly Turkish garrisons have 
been established among them, and for nine years 
we have bad a mission station in that part of our 
field. 

The query may arise, why we passed by the 
more numerous and dominant classes, tho Mo- 
hammedan Persians and Koords, and directed 
our efforts mainly to the Nestorian Christians. 
I may answer, in few words, because those Chris- 
tians were such but little more than in name, 
and therefore about as far from salvation, while 
continuing thus, as the followers of the false 
prophet ; yet, being Christians in name, and thus 
being regarded by the Mohammedans as the rep- 
resentatives of Christianity, it would be extremely 
difficult to affect favorably those followers of tho 
false prophet toward our holy religion, while they 
saw it so poorly exemplified by a people living in 



Digitized by 



104 MISSIONARY LIFE 

the midst of thoin, and bearing that sacred name* 
Those nominal Christians were, moreover, at tho 
commencement of our mission, entirely acces- 
sible, while death was the penalty for any Moham- 
medan who changed his religion. The guiding 
hand of Providence thus pointed us to the Nes- 
torians as the proper medium through whom to 
reach the Mohammedans. 

In sketching the state of tho Nestorians when 
we reached them, and tho results of our labors 
among them, I seem to stand in my distant field, 
and respond to Zion's inquiry as sounded by the 
prophet, " Watchman, what of the night ? watch- 
man, what of the night ? " " The watchman said, 
The morning cometh, also the night." The mis- 
sionary watchman fulfills his office in the night. 
The lands to which he goes are lands of darkness 
— deep moral midnight. The gospel lamp, which 
he bears in his solitary hand, is the only light to 
gleam on that darkness, break in upon its death 
shade, and kindle rays of the longed-for morn- 
ing. The Nestorians were in a night of deep 
darkness when I reached them, a little more than 
a quarter of a century ago. Ground down to the 
dust by their Mohammedan rulers and masters, 
toward whom, in that relation, they naturally 
cherished a bitter hostility, as sore oppressors, 
luxuriating, in idleness and voluptuousness, on 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



105 



the fruits of their own severe and ill-requited toil, 
they still contracted many of the prevalent vices 
of those hated oppressors. Falsehood, among 
those nominal Christians, also, was nearly univer- 
sal. The Sabbath was a day of business, trade, 
and recreation, and almost every command of the 
Decalogue was habitually violated with little com- 
punction, or even shame. Indeed, in their mor- 
als, the Nestorians were nearly on a level with 
the corrupt Mohammedans around them, with 
the single exception — which is indeed a great 
and important one — of their better observance 
of the seventh commandment, the awful violation 
of which, with kindred sins, is a loathsome pit of 
abominations, from approaching which, to depict 
it, we shudder. 

The Nestorians were very ignorant, as well as 
immoral ; their ignorance doubtless being a fruit- 
ful cause of their immorality. Not a female 
among them could read, except the sister of the 
patriarch, who being regarded as belonging to a 
higher order, it was deemed befitting that she 
should possess that peerless accomplishment. 
And but very few of the men could read, — hard- 
ly any except their ecclesiastics, — and most of 
them being merely able to chant their devotions 
in an ancient and unknown tongue — the Syriac. 
They had no printed books, and but very few in 



Digitized by 



106 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



manuscript. Portions of the Bible, or most of 
it, they possessed, in very rare copies, rolled up 
and hid away in secret places in their churches, 
to keep them from the ravages of the Moham- 
medans, Some of the copies are very venerable, 
written with nicest care on parchment, and dating 
back between six and seven hundred years, to 
the period of England's Magna Charta. " The 
word of the Lord was precious in those days." 
The parchment copies are mostly found in the 
wild mountains, where they could be most easily 
secured from Mohammedan marauders, by aid of 
the strong fastnesses of the Acks. From those 
mountains the ancestors of the Nestorians of Per- 
sia descended to the more genial plains, in the 
lull of deadly persecution, two or three centu- 
ries ago. 

Thus were these Nestorian Christians when we 
reached them, — their home the almost enchant- 
ing vale of Oroomiah, skirted on the one hand 
by mountains of unsurpassed grandeur, and on 
the other by a lake of equal beauty, — smiling 
physically like an Eden, yet being morally a mel- 
ancholy desolation, a valley of dry bones, like that 
portrayed in EzckiePs vision. 

Yet these nominal Christians, though thus de- 
pressed and degraded, possessed many interesting 
traits, and were very hopeful as the objects of 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



107 



missionary effort. Naturally, they possess deep 
religious susceptibilities. They are artless and 
confiding, welcoming us with open arms and 
hearts to our labors among them. They are also, 
as before stated, much more simple and scriptural 
in their religious belief and practices than other 
Oriental sects of Christians, acknowledging the 
Bible as the highest, and, in theory at least, as the 
only authoritative rule of faith and practice, and 
rejecting image and picture worship, the doctrine 
of purgatory, confession to priests, <fcc, with hearty 
indignation. They were thus, even at that time, 
well entitled to the honorable distinction which 
had long been awarded to them — that of being 
called the Protestants of Asia. 



Digitized by 



108 MISSIONABY LIFE 



CHAPTER VI. 

MISSIONABY RESULTS. 

" The joy of harve$t. n 

Education. — The Tress. — Preaching'. — Revivals. — Character of the 
Converts. — Letters of a native Helper. — The Mountains of Koor- 
distan.— Our Mountain Station. — Deacon Gewergis. — Out^tations 
in the Mountains. — Gorge of lshtazin. — Hymn on that Gorge. — 
Prevalence of Christianity in rough Countries and among hardy 
People. 

Having a broad field of common ground with 
the Ncstorian Christians (though they were deep- 
ly fallen) in their regard for the Scriptures, and 
the most ready access to them, we at once entered 
upon the work of their amelioration and salvation. 
This we of course attempted by means of the gos- 
pel lamp which we bear to the benighted, a lamp 
that shines by its own light, yet through appro- 
priate mediums, as the school, the Sabbath school, 
the press, and last, but preeminent, the preaching 
of the word. 

Our first school, which was commenced in a 
cellar (apt emblem of the moral state around us) 
for want of $ more comfortable place, it being 
winter, with seven small boys, was the germ of 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



109 



our flourishing male seminary. The number of 
pupils soon increased to forty or fifty ; and from 
learning their alphabet, on manuscript cards, at 
the beginning, they steadily and rapidly advanced, 
till they have long graduated with very respectar 
ble general attainments, a remarkably familiar 
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and most of 
them with considerable acquaintance with theolo- 
gy as a system. 

Our female seminary was commenced, under 
less promising auspices, about two years later. It 
had greater obstacles to encounter at the outset, 
among a people who deemed it not only unneces- 
sary, but unbecoming, for females to read. " Will 
women become our priests ? " was the common 
sarcastic inquiry, when we first spoke of opening 
a female school. But those prejudices the female 
seminary soon couquered, and it advanced with a 
success so complete, that it has long been, if pos- 
sible, more popular than the male seminary ; and 
its graduates successfully rival their compeers of 
the other sex in intellectual acquisitions. Both 
these missionary nurseries, under the able and 
indefatigable management of the lamented Mr. 
Stoddard, and his associate and successor, Mr. 
Cochran, and of Miss Pisk and Miss Rice, have 
for many years been among the very best 
regulated and highly favored schools on mis- 



Digitized by 



110 MISSIONARY LIFE 



sionary ground, and few surpass them in Chris- 
tendom. 

In the course of the first year of our residence 
in Persia we opened three primary schools, in as 
many large villages, and the number of those 
village schools gradually increased to sixty or 
seventy, in almost as many different places. . 

Sabbath schools have also come in, as most im- 
portant auxiliaries. Our largest Sabbath school 
now numbers three hundred pupils, of all ages 
and both sexes, from the sightless matron of more 
than threescore years and ten, down to the lisp- 
ing child of three or four. In this school is a 
class of adult females, of forty members, nearly 
all of whom have learned to read the Scriptures 
there, having new attended school in their child- 
hood; and most of them have found the pearl of 
great price. In another Sabbath school, the old- 
est scholar is an aged man more than ninety 
years old, who became hopefully pious at the age 
of more than eighty years. He has never learned 
to read, not having had the opportunity in his 
childhood, and not having had eyesight to do so 
after he became hopefully pious. But he goes 
regularly to the Sabbath school, and commits his 
lesson to memory, by having it repeated to him 
by a little boy who sits by his side for that pur- 
pose ; and then he rises and recites it very accu- 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



Ill 



rately to the whole school, most delightfully im- 
pressing all who 4>ehold him, as a venerable pil- 
grim on the threshold of heaven. 

In our seminaries, schools, and Sabbath schools, 
have risen near three thousand intelligent readers 
of the Bible, among a people where hardly a score 
of male readers, — and they not intelligent read- 
ers, — and no female readers, were to be found 
when we reached the field. And every reader, 
child or adult, is an independent lamp in his dark 
village, neighborhood, "and household. 

To provide reading matter for our learners, in 
an unprinted language, was a problem of not easy 
solution. The spoken language of the Nestorians, 
which is a modern dialect of the ancient Syriac, 
(the latter supposed to have been used by the 
Saviour* while on earth,) had never been writ- 
ten. Simultaneously with opening our schools 
we therefore entered upon the task of reducing 
that language to form, and translating into it 
brief portions of the Scriptures, which were copied 
with the pen (or, rather, reed, which is the Ori- 
ental peti) on cards, and suspended on the walls 
of our school rooms, around which ten or a dozen 
eager children took a standing position and 
spelled out their lessons. How affectinglyinter- 

* The quotations in the New Testament, as Talitha Cum{, Lama Sa- 
Iwhtltanii Ac., occur just In their place and form in that language. 



Digitized by 



112 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



esting was the sight of those delighted semicir- 
cles of bright children, for the first time drinking 
in the waters of life from the pure fountain of the 
Bible ! 

This laborious process of furnishing reading 
matter by means of the pen was continued and 
extended as our schools increased and progressed, 
till seven years after the commencement of the 
mission, when our press and printer arrived. 
Nothing could exceed the wonder and delight of 
the Nestorians when the long-anticipated press 
finally reached them. And no marvel. It was 
as the trump of their intellectual and moral res- 
urrection. The announcement of success in the 
laying of the Atlantic telegraph could not have 
been so startling or gratifying to the Anglo-Saxon 
race, as was, to the simple-hearted Nestorians, 
their first sight of the rapidly-falling leaves of the 
treo of life from the mysterious- engine which 
those ancient Eastern Christians had received 
from their more favored brethren far beyond the 
setting sun. 

Our press has been vigorously occupied, during 
the last twenty years, in giving books to that hun- 
gering people. The Holy Scriptures have been 
translated, and printed in repeated editions. Oth- 
er excellent books and tracts have also been mul- 
tiplied. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Baxter's 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



113 



Saints 1 Rest, Doddridge's Rise and Progress, The 
Dairyman's Daughter, The Shepherd of Salisbury 
Plain, The Young Cottager, a Church History, 
and other like works, have long had a place in 
the family library of many a humble Nestorian 
dwelling, by the side of the Scriptures, yet always 
far below them in the reverential regard which 
that primitive people ever cherish toward the 
inspired oracles. We have published a book of 
hymns, containing two hundred and forty, most 
of them translations of the richest and sweetest 
hymns in our own language. Excellent school 
books have also been prepared and published, and 
an able treatise on theology, prepared with great 
care by the acute and erudite Mr. Stoddard. 
And during the last twelve years, our press has 
also given to the Nestorians its monthly periodi- 
cal, made up of the various departments of Re- 
ligion, Education, Science, Miscellany, and Po- 
etry, which has been highly useful in our schools 
and among the people, as a vehicle of religious 
truth and general intelligence. Its name is 
Rays of Light y and it has proved itself no mis- 
nomer. 

Our press has already given to the Nestorians 
more than seventy thousand volumes, large and 
small, comprising more than fourteen millions of 
pages, in a language not before written. The 

8 



Digitized by 



114 MISSIONARY LIFE 

printing office * has thus risen among that dark- 
ened people like a stately tree of life, striking its 
roots deeper and deeper, and sending its branches 
further and further, to drop its saving leaves over 
every village and every dwelling, even in the re- 
mote hamlets of the Koordish mountains, those 
leaves being an eminent instrumentality for the 
healing of the dwellers of both the plains and the 
mountains. 

The question has sometimes been discussed as 
to what place preaching should hold among mis- 
sionary operations. I would say that it should 
hold, the first place, and all places, every where 
and at all times, though certainly not to the 
exclusion of its auxilaries, or, rather, subsidiary 
agencies, that I have mentioned, as the scho'ol, 
the Sabbath school, and the press. It has little 
reason to repudiate those agencies. On the con- 
trary, every village school may be a preaching 
center, where not only the teacher may daily, 
nay, hourly, " expound the Scriptures," as well 
as teach them, — the Scriptures, which should in 
every mission school be the leading text book, — 
but where also the missionary may occasionally, 

* Mr. Breath, our printer, has not only done our printing in excellent 
style, but bis skillful band, aided by Nestorians whom he taught, has 
also constructed all but one of the numerous founts of our beautiful tyjio, 
thus saving to the missionary treasury thousands of dollars during this 
long period. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



115 



if not statedly, and the pious helper, as school 
visitors, hold forth the word of life to the pupils, 
and others who so often drop into the school 
room, especially when thus visited, to say nothiug 
of the numberless truths which are constantly 
inculcated by every teacher, male or female, 
who is fit for the occupation, God's word thus 
distilling incessantly as the dew, as the small 
rain upon the tender herb, whatever may be the 
particular branch which is the subject of the 
lesson. 

The missionary seminary, so far from curtail- 
ing the preaching of the gospel, affords a daily 
and most promising audience, where the truth as 
it is in Jesus may be habitually proclaimed, and 
under the greatest conceivable advantage, to say 
nothing of the character of the studies pursued, 
and the methods of pursuing them, which should 
ever lead the mind of the pupil to God, the Cre- 
ator and Redeemer. The result of teaching and 
preaching in some mission seminaries has attested 
the truth of this estimate of them as preaching 
agencies. I should like to be pointed to the church 
or the chapel, if such exists, where Christ and 
his cross were ever more the standing themes, or 
ever more effectively proclaimed from day to 
day and year to year, than ' by Mr. Stoddard in 
our seminary on Mount Seir ; nor less truly has 



Digitized by 



■ 



116 MISSIONARY LIFE 

this been done in our female seminary in the city 
of Oroomiah. 

The printed volume, too, and especially the 
sacred volume, is itself a living and enduring 
preacher, the missionary being invested, by his 
labors through the press, with a kind of ubiquity, 
the volume going in every direction where he can 
not; and with perpetuity, for the volume lives 
and continues to exert its influence lon£ after 
the missionary who prepared it is laid in his 
grave. 

Yet the school, and the seminary, and the mis- 
sion press may never, one nor all, usurp the place 
of the more formal proclamation of the gospel in 
the Sabbath and week-day congregation, from 
house to house, and by the wayside. I com- 
menced preaching in a language of the country, 
in our " own hired house," the first Sabbath after 
reaching the field, having learned something of 
that language on the way. Nor have I failed thus 
to preach once, twice, or thrice on the Sabbath, as 
health and circumstances have enabled me to do, 
and more or less on other days of the week, 
during all the years that I have been a watchman 
in Persia ; and the same has been true of my fel- 
low-laborers, however much they have been addi- 
tionally occupied in giving instruction and pre- 
paring matter for the press. From our dwelling 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



117 



room our Sabbath service was soon adjourned to 
our cellar school room, and thence, a year after- 
ward, to a more spacious and airy apartment 
above ground. In the course of three years we 
were invited and importuned, as already stated, 
by the most intelligent and influential Nestorian 
ecclesiastics, to take our places in their churches, 
and proclaim to their assembled flocks the tid- 
ings of salvation. Those humble but venerable 
churches, built of plain earth or stone walls, 
have, from that day till this, been open to our use 
for preaching Christ to congregations varying 
from four hundred and more down to some scores. 
We have also preached in hamlets and by the 
wayside to a few individuals, as we have been 
able to collect them. In our chapels, at the mis- 
sion stations, we have had stated Sabbath congre- 
gations and Sabbath schools, and much of the 
time religious services every evening, and, at fa- 
vorable seasons of the year, on some of the days 
of the week. 

It is an unspeakable privilege to preach Christ, 
in whatever way, to listening Nestorians. The 
common people heard him gladly while he jour- 
neyed and preached the gospel here on earth. 
Our message has been emphatically good tidings 
of great joy to those humble but deeply interest- 
ing Christians. 



Digitized by 



118 MISSIONARY LIFE 



I have stated briefly the various ways in which 
we have essayed to carry the gospel lamp to those 
darkened dwellers of Persia and Assyria who 
bear the Christian name, and the manner in which 
it has been received. We have extended that 
light to them through the school and the Sabbath 
school, our highdr seminaries, the printed page 
and volume, and yet more by the stated procla- 
mation of the gospel. 

But in thus cursorily detailing what the watch- 
men have done, I may not omit to tell you what 
God hath wrought, while in infinite condescen- 
sion he has been pleased to smile on their feeble 
and unworthy instrumentality by the agency of 
his Spirit. Except the Lord build the house, they 
- labor in vain that build it ; and except the Lord 
keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vaiu ; 
and Paul may plant and Apollos water, but God 
giveth the increase. Powerless and fruitless were 
an angel's tongue and a seraph's zeal except the 
Lord add his blessing ; and how much more so 
the weak and imperfect instruments he uses in 
the missionary work ! 

It is fifteen years since the first extensive revival 
was enjoyed in our field, though limited refresh- 
ings had previously been vouchsafed to it. Since 
that, to our mission, memorable year, 1846, there 
have been ten very precious visitations of the 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



119 



Holy Spirit enjoyed in our male seminary, and 
eleven in our female seminary, besides seasons of 
special quickening in the remaining years of this 
period. These revivals have extended into Ncs- 
torian villages, where many have also been con- 
verted ; and in some cases revivals commencing 
in those villages have from them reached and 
blessed our seminaries, and a general enlighten- 
ing, softening, and elevating influence of un- 
woutcd power has gone forth, during all those 
seasons of refreshing, pervading the masses of the 
people. 

It is impossible to convey an adequate impres- 
sion of the intensely interesting character of these 
visitations of mercy among the Nestorians. They 
have reminded me more of the revivals associated 
with the labors of Nettleton, in the days of my 
youth, than any others I have witnessed, so far as 
the difference of the people thus blessed and their 
very diverse circumstances would admit of com- 
parison — the same deep and searching conviction 
of sin experienced by the impenitent, his sins 
appearing to him like the sands on the sea shore, 
innumerable, and like mountains for magnitude ; 
the almost overwhelming sense of his totally lost 
condition by nature, but not less of the boundless 
fullness and freeness of salvation through a cru- 
cified Redeemer ; the grasping of that provision 



Digitized by 



120 MISSIONARY LIFE 

with all the heart, casting the soul prostrate and 
contrite at the foot of the cross, and laying its 
sins on the head of the atoning Lamb ; and the 
unreserved surrender of soul and body into his 
hands, to be his wholly and for ever. 

Then the joy, and peace, and love, and grati- 
tude, and praise suddenly welling up in that be- 
lieving, penitent, grateful soul, before hardened 
and besotted, and but just now writhing in bitter 
anguish, if not heart-riving agony ! Yet in depth 
of interest I have never witnessed such scenes 
elsewhere, nor expect elsewhere to behold them. 
Heaven itself, while complete in bliss, will not 
present that peculiar form of interest of beholding 
penitent Nestorians turning to " the Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the world," except 
as viewed in retrospect, and contemplated in those 
monuments of mercy among the blood-washed 
inhabitants of that bright world. And afterward, 
to follow the new-born soul in his career heav- 
enward, sometimes halting, indeed, yet probably 
less than the mass of believers in more favored 
lands ; to listen to his songs of praise, his melting 
prayers, and moving exhortations, and mark the 
good confession of Christ which he witnesses in 
his life, often under hardships and persecutions ; 
and, in the case of those who have died, to 
see them lie down on the bed of mortal sick- 



Digitized by Google 



IN PEBSIA. 



121 



ness undaunted, their confidence in a personal 
and present Sctviour calm and unshaken, and 
their faith,' hope, and joy waxing stronger and 
stronger as their outer man approached its disso- 
lution, till, their face often shining like dying 
Stephen's, they have slept peacefully in Jesus ; 
these have been, amid manifold trials, sore be- 
reavements, and untold sacrifices, the missionary's 
full hundred fold in this world.* 

One of the most striking characteristics of these 
revivals has been fervor and earnestness in prayer. 
I recall the following scenes : Under the effect 
of a pungent discourse preached by the lamented 
Mr. Stocking in our male seminary in time of a 
revival, I saw the pupils leave the place of meet- 
ing under so deep an impression, that nearly all 
betook themselves to their closets with the least 
possible delay, to unburden their souls before God, 
till those closets, and every other available nook 
and corner, were filled ; when several individuals, 
seeking also where to pray, caught up rush mats 
that happened to be near, and spread them upon 
the snow in the yard, knelt down upon them, 
and cried to God for mercy, apparently uncon- 
scious of what passed around them. And once, 

* There is a little book published by the Massachusetts Sabbath 
School Society entitled 44 Nestorian Biography," embracing* about twen- 
ty sketches of pious Nestorian s who have died, which strikingly illus- 
trate the character of their godly lives and happy deaths. 



Digitized by 



122 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



listening to a native convert who was leading in 
social prayer in time of a revival, the expression, 
" Dear Saviour, we will cling to the skirts of thy 
garment till thou dost shake off our hands,*' struck 
me so forcibly that I instinctively opened my eyes, 
standing as I did near the person, and I observed 
him simultaneously reach forward with an earnest 
grasp of the arms, as though consciously clinging 
to the Saviour's garment. Yet such was the deep 
solemnity of the speaker, that nothing appeared 
irreverent or unbecoming in the language or the 
manner. It was but obeying the apostolic exhor- 
tation to " come boldy to a throne of grace to 
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of 
need." 

The missionary work among the Nestorians has 
been eminently God's work. While the gospel 
treasure, there as elsewhere, has been committed 
to earthen vessels, the excellency of the power 
has been very clearly seen to be of God, and not 
of us. 

While I have stated briefly how many schools 
we have opened, how many souls we have taught 
to read the Scriptures, and how many Bibles and 
other good books we have published, I may not 
presume to be thus definite in regard to God's 
spiritual part of the good work. The records of 
eternity alone will reveal the number who have 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



123 



been converted. We can not, however, doubt 
that that number embraces many scores and hun- 
dreds. We have been permitted to sit at the 
communion table with hundreds of Nestorian 
brethren and sisters in Christ at the same time. 
And never, till admitted to the marriage sup- 
per of the Lamb in heaven, do I expect to sit 
in such heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, as at 
those Nestorian communion boards ; — nowhere 
else, where the Saviour more obviously presides 
at his table, and visits the hearts of more loving, 
grateful, and devoted guests. 

The line of demarkation between the converted 
and the unconverted among the Nestorians is be- 
coming more and more distinctly drawn. Indi- 
viduals are admitted to communion with the 
mission churches only after careful examination, 
and on their adoption of its church covenant. A 
score or more are usually added to the number 
of the communicants at each successive celebra- 
tion. Without any rending severance, most of 
them quietly withdraw from their old organize 
tion, in the observance of the ordinances, — not 
relishing the indiscriminate and heartless manner 
of their observance in the Nestorian churches ; 
and a clear distinction between " the holy and 
the vile " is thus becoming well understood by all 
classes. Those communion gatherings — where 



Digitized by Google 



124 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



scores and hundreds of Nestorian brethren and 
sisters in Christ thus sit down at his table with 
the missionaries — are not only affectingly inter- 
esting occasions, but they exert a very strong 
influence, both in the edification of believers, and 
in extending and deepening a general impression 
of spiritual religion, in contrast with that which 
is formal, and silently rebuking, and in a measure 
reforming, the abuses in the celebration of the 
ordinance as practised in the old church. They 
have, for a considerable time, been held in the 
city of Oroomiah, and at Seir, simultaneously, — 
the former place being found too strait for all ; 
and recently in several other places on the plain 
of Oroomiah, and at Gawar, in Koordistan. The 
problem of " separation " is thus being successful- 
ly worked out by the hand of the Lord quite 
as fast, doubtless, as the prosperity of the work 
requires it. 

The extent of the work of conversion among 
Nestorians is not to be measured by numbers. 
B While every individual soul is of infinite value 
in the sight of the Lord, it has pleased him to 
gather in, as first fruits among that people, a 
large number of chosen vessels to bear his name 
to the Gentiles. The converts are the most influ- 
ential part of the people. Two of the communi- 
cants are intelligent and much respected bishops, 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 125 

— the aged and venerable Mar Blias, and Mar 
Yohannan, — whom some of my readers may re- 
member as having visited this country. Another 
is Deacon Isaac, the most influential brother of 
the Nestorian patriarch, intellectually, perhaps, 
superior to any other individual among the peo- 
ple, yet in piety possessing the humility and art- 
lessness of a little child. A great company of the 
priests are also obedient to the faith. Thus an 
efficient host of the Lord's elect is raised up by 
his own hand, to carry the word of life among the 
masses of the entire people. 

Were I to refer to comparative results in the 
different departments of our labors, I might speak 
of at least three fourths of the pupils of our sem- 
inaries as converted during the course of their 
education, and of many of those who have left 
those favored nurseries of Zion impenitent, and 
some of them apparently hardened under the 
strong religious influences there, as having been 
reached by the grace of God afterward ; the seed 
long buried at length springing up, and bearing „ 
saving fruit. Of these graduates of our male 
seminary, I might speak of near sixty already 
engaged as faithful preachers of the gospel, pro- 
claiming Christ to their perishing people as their 
stated occupation ; of others as pious and com- 
petent teachers of schools ; and of others still 



Digitized by 



126 MISSIONARY LIFE 

engaged in secular callings, yet ensamples to 
the flock, recommending the gospel by a godly 
life and by word as they have opportunity. And 
of many of the young women* who have left our 
female seminary, I might speak as now the wives 
of graduates of the male seminary, and of other 
pious Nestorians, intelligent and godly families 
being thus multiplied, exemplifying Christianity 
in the domestic relations by well-ordered house- 
holds. Others still of those female graduates are 
among our best teachers of village schools. 

In giving prominence to these model sem- 
inaries, we may not disown the more obscure 
village school, which supplies them with pupils, 
besides quietly pursuing its own humbler mission 
in the village where it is located, diffusing light 
and truth, the fruit of which at length appears 
in here and there a plant of righteousness, thus- 
made wise unto salvation, — the retired school, 
like the silent rill, being little known, except by 

* The transformation in some of the earlier graduates of our female 
v seminary, during their education, was amazing^. When first taken by 
Miss Fisk, some of them resembled so many wild " Topsles," (not in 
color— their complexion being light,) and must be initiated through the 
wash room, to be at all endurable on the score of cleanliness. A few 
years change them into intelligent and refined young ladies ; and yet 
more, Christ adopts them as his children, and grace makes them 
devoted and active Christians. In later years, after our villnge schools 
had advanced, the pupils of the female seminary were much more Intel, 
ligent, orderly, and inviting in appearance at the commencement of 
their course. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 127 

the smiling green, which, in due time, skirts its 
margins. 

Nor may we leave out, in such a comparison, 
the blessed agency of the press, which, like a 
treasure house opened by God's own hand, fur- 
nishes the intellectual and spiritual nutriment for 
both school and seminary, as well as scatters its 
leaves from the tree of life, broadcast among 
the people. It is the gospel of Christ, in what- 
ever way made known, by tho printed leaf or 
book, by conversation, by instruction, and, of 
course, wherever practicable, by the formal dis- 
course to the assembled congregation, which is 
the power of God unto salvation to those who 
read, or hear, and- believe. 

In this hasty sketch of our various labors, I 
have not made specific mention of the medical 
practice of our physicians. I would therefore 
state, in a word, that that important department 
has been faithfully prosecuted in our field for a 
quarter of a century, by Dr. Grant, till his death, 
and by Dr. Wright, who has been constantly at 
his post for twenty years. It is impossible to con- 
vey a full impression of the obligations of the 
mission to it, alike for the relief and welfare of 
its members and families, and the vast influenco 
it has exerted for the security and prosperity of 
its general interests. The medical practitionor 



Digitized by 



128 MISSIONARY LIFE 

- 

has access to ail classes at all times, and readily 
acquires their confidence and power to do thein 
good. 

Our physicians have by no means limited their 
labors to medical practice. Dr. Grant was an 
" elder " before he left this country, and an able 
and faithful laborer, in word as well as in deed ; 
and Dr. Wright, being a clergyman as well as a 
physician, has preached regularly and abundantly 
in common with the other members of the mis- 
sion, and has performed a great amount of litr- 
erary labor, in connection with the operations of 
the press. 

I have spoken of the Nestorian converts as an 
influential body, chosen of the Lord to make 
known his name to others. They are such, not 
only from their superior intelligence and social 
or ecclesiastical relations, but also from their 
natural traits and the stamp of their piety. In 
temperament, the people are ardent, impulsive, 
and aggressive ; and as a class, the pious are de- 
cided, devoted, whole-hearted Christians, account- 
ing that they are no longer their own, but bought 
with a price, — even the precious blood of the 
Son of God, — and thus "judging that he died 
for them, that they which ,live should not hence- 
forth live unto themselves, but unto Him which 
died for them and rose again." 



Digitized by Googl 



IN PERSIA . 



129 



These interesting traits in their religious char- 
acter, and some other points, may bo illustrated 
by my introducing three or four notes from a 
Nestorian preacher. The imperfection in the use 
of our language, in the writer's limited knowl- 
edge of it, is of course observable ; but it detracts 
nothing from the force of his deep and solemn 
earnestness, nor from the interest of the subjects 
on which he writes. These notes are addressed 
to Miss Fisk and Miss Rice, the principals of our 
female seminary. The first is written from our 
male seminary, on Mount Seir, where the writer 
was engaged a few days in religious labors, at 
the commencement of a revival. 

My dear Sisters in Christ: I am very anxious to 
know about your school ; for I have not heard of you about 
two days. I hope you will write me about your interesting 
meetings, and about any new event, if it has occurred. 

If you ask about the seminary here, the Christians are 
quite awakened; and there are some individuals who are 
lately awakened. These days the countenances of all are 
fallen, and they are sober and prayerful. Always the voices 
of prayers are heard around us. Joseph of Degala is very 
sad ; I went and talked with him, and prayed with some 
others who were there. Yonan, from Ada, is distressed very 
much about his backslidings. Soon after we finished even- 
ing meetings, I took him into a very small closet of dark- 
ness; I talked with him very sad subject; he commenced 
weeping till we finished. I £ook Sarah's brother to talk with 
him, and I put my arm around him ; he wet my hand with 

9 



Digitized by 



■ 



130 MISSIONARY LIFE 

tears. And I have talked with Sanem's brother. He seems 
to be sad. Will you ask Sanem and Sarah to pray for their 
brothers P On Sabbath day many of the boys were Tery 
solemn. It is evident that God is here. On Sabbath day I 
had more feelings than I had had there. I always remember 
your labors at the mercy seat ; and I hope you always re- 
member me in your closets. Arsanas and Moses have more 
feelings than I ever have seen them. Will you ask Morissa 
to pray for her brother ? I have talked with him some ; but 
I will try to talk and pray with him more. Tamo sends his 
love to you, and he needs your prayers. Will you ask the 
girls [i. e., the female pupils] from me, till when will they 
delay repentance? And until when will they grieve the 
Spirit? It is a very dangerous thing to drive away the 
Spirit from their hearts. 
I wrote this note very late — at one o'clock, [at night] 

Yours very truly, 

John Hormezd. 

P. S. I have conversed with Joseph this morning all 
alone, and we prayed. I addressed to him very sad subjects, 
and he thanked me. 

The following, from the same individual to the 
same persons, is dated one day later : — 

My dear Sisters in Christ : I thank and magnify the 
name of Him who rejoice th the needy, and who hears the 
suppliant's cry. If I should have been some more days so 
much distressed for the boys, [the pupils,] I should have been 
sick. As soon as priest Eshoo finished the meeting in the 
evening, I read Yonan's description about our village. 
Moses and Joseph of Degala and some others wept What 
should we do then ? [i. e., how could we help it?] and many 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



131 



of the boys who just went out from the school room came in, 
so that it was made a loud voice. During the meeting two 
prayers were offered fervently. Some of the boys were 
moved then ; but afterward it became a lamentation. It did 
not make me to think it was foolish to cry aloud. Sisters, 
it is the hand of God, and the prayers of the righteous. We 
must not cease from daily praying. There are six or seven 
boys, who prayed all night. 
Excuse this. My pen is bad, and the time is late. 

Yours, &c 

P. S. I was mistaken to tell you that seven boys were 
praying all night ; but thirteen were praying till twenty min- 
utes remaining till two o'clock. That same Moses, whom we 
were talking about one day down there, is quite changed, — 
very prayerful and zealous. 

The following, from the same individual to the 
same persons, is written from his native village, 
which is the scene of his stated labors : — 

My dear Sisters : Sunday night, very late. ' I can not 
write you every thing about our labors here, but will tell you 
about a very interesting night which we have had. The 
house '[his dwelling] was quite full — more than a hundred. 
We offered four prayers. Yonan preached from " Ye are not 
willing to come to me, for ye do not wish," [a free transla- 
tion from Syriac into his imperfect English.] Priest Abraham 
and I talked also. Afterward about thirty individuals did 
not go out. I read Sarah's very interesting letter to them. 
We had again four prayers offered. Afterward some of the 
brethren went again with me into a closet. We felt so much 
we did not wish to leave the closet We prayed very ear- 
nestly that the Sabbath should be a Pentecost. We hope that 



Digitized by 



132 MISSIONARY LIFE 



the work of the Lord is increasing. We have begun to talk 
and pray with the large boys of priest Abraham's school. 
TeU for the Christian sisters that my father confesses his very 
hard heart. He says, " I strive for my hard heart to God, but 
he does not hear me.** Do pray for him, I beseech you.* 
There is much hope for him, for he prays often for himself. 
We never have had such an interesting night We did not 
wish to sleep any, but for the sake of the day's labor we 
slept This morning our house was quite fulL 

The following and only other note I will add 
is also written at his native village : — 

My dear Sisters, Miss Fisk and Miss Rice: From 
engagements of going round in the houses to talk and pray 
with my dear people, I could not write you soon, I feel often 
like what you feel, distressed for your dear ones. Do you 
remember, when I left you, that I told you that my coming 
home seemed very heavy ? Yes, it appeared to me so till I 
reached the village ; then I looked up to heaven very ear- 
nestly. Just when I reached the door of our yard I stopped 
a little, and said, " O Lord, I have often entered this door," 
&c I meant that my entering should not be there as at 
other times, with negligence about the service to which I am 
devoted. I have not much time to write you about m /labors 
and meetings. I have never in my life seen such days in my 
village, new days and new labors. I do not mean that many 
awake and repent, but engagements in the work of the Lord. 
There are several individuals who are awakened lately, and 
the Christians are dreadfully awakened, and are a great help 

* This aged man gained the victory. Ho became pious probably at 
the age of ninety, lived a godly, praying life for several years, and then 
slept peacefully in Christ, being suddenly summoned away by cholera; 
and his aged wife, of like character, followed him a week afterward. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



133 



for the work of the Lord. I give you tidings about my wife. 
She is awakened dreadfully. Very early, much before the 
dawn, she asked me, " What shall I do ? There is no such 
great sinner as L" I talked with her some ; then I got up 
and pleaded for my labors. 

My dear sisters, I am content [gratified] that you remem- 
ber me always before our heavenly Father ; for I remember 
you more than when I was with you personal I thank you 
very much for Yonan's coming. He was a great help for me. 
He will tell you about our pleasant labors. We have in my 
house a great company of people for meeting every evening. 
Do, if you please, any of you, come with Mr. Stocking, and 
help mc on Thursday, and spend one night here. Please to 
send brother Gewergis to help me. Yours truly, 

(Signed) John Hormezd. 

The glimpses furnished by these hasty notes, 
which I use rather than others, as they happened 
to fall into my hands after I left my field, can 
give, of course, but an imperfect idea of the devo- 
tion to Christ that marks the piety of many of the 
Nestorian helpers and converts — an earncstuess 
in the native preachers partaking much of the 
holy unction of the sainted Stoddard, under whose 
self-consuming toils and prayers they were trained, 
and which reminds us of an apostle who continued 
his parting exhortations till the break of day, and 
of " those women " who so faithfully helped him 
in the labors of the gospel. 

Such being the character of many of the Nes- 
torian converts, they form a very effective agency, 



Digitized by 



134 MISSIONARY LIFE 

under the supervision of the missionary and in 
cooperation with him, for carryiug the gospel to 
the masses of their people, to their families, their 
neighbors, their respective villages and their re- 
moter countrymen. 

In many villages of Persia, as I have already ■ 
stated, native pastors are stationed, who, with 
well-ordered families, are standing luminaries 
among their darkened people. Others are teach- 
ers of schools, and some unite the two relations. 
Others travel as evangelists from village to village, 
with the word of life ever in their hands and on 

< 

their lips ; and others, as private Christians, by 
their godly example and faithful labors as they 
have opportunity, are hardly less useful co-labor- 
ers in the work of the gospel. 

Thus the word of the Lord has free course and 
is glorified among the Nestorians of Persia. Con- 
verts are often introduced to us for the first time 
as applicants for a place at the Lord's table, who 
appear well as Christians, having been led to the 
truth and to the cross through the labors of our 
helpers. 

Nor is this work limited to Persia. Prom the 
commencement of our mission we have desired 
and sought to push our labors into the wild moun- 
tains of Koordistan, the portion of ancient As- 
syria forming the eastern province of modern 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



135 



Turkey, which I have mentioned — a region than 
which none more rugged, physically, exists on the 
face of the globe, and few more fearfully infested 
with bloody men, the savage Koords. 

The Nestorian Christians probably betook them- 
selves to those mountains, many centuries ago, as 
an asylum from deadly persecution, as was the 
case of the Waldenses of Piedmont in similar cir- 
cumstances. They may have had much less to 
fear, at some periods, when Mohammedan fanati- 
cism raged in Persia and Mesopotamia, from the 
wild Koords of those mountains, than from the 
more civilized inhabitants of the plains on either 
side, especially as those Christian fugitives, by 
securing some of the most central and roughest 
gorges of those mountain districts, deemed nearly 
untenantable even by the Koords, have from time 
immemorial been able in general to defy the ap- 
proach of their Mohammedan persecutors near or 
distant.* As men, the world over, partake much 
of the character of the lands they inhabit, so 
those mountain Nestorians are not a little allied 
in their character to their rugged mountains, and, 
like the savage Koords around them, are wild, 
brave, defiant, desperate, and bloody in their mu- 

* To reach this people in such a region, especially as they are en- 
compassed and interspersed by the yet wilder Koords, was a problem 
the solution of which required prudence as well as courage, the better 
part of courage, indeed, boiug prudence. 



Digitized by 



136 MISSIONARY LIFE 

tual feuds. They are also jealous of innovation, 
especially in religious matters, and much in propor- 
tion as vital Christianity had declined among them, 
and empty forms been substituted in its place. 

For many years, particularly since Turkish gar- 
risons have been established in Koordistan, we 
have had hardy, self-denying evangelists travers- 
ing different districts of those mountains, bearing 
the lamp of the gospel to their darkened dwellers. 
Prominent among them was the holy, indefatiga- 
ble Deacon Gewergis, familiarly styled by us " the 
mountain evangelist ; " not that he was the only 
one, but eminent among them. He rested from 
his labors about four years ago. His monthly or 
quarterly reports might often have been summari- 
ly given in the language of Paul : " In journey- 
ings often ; in perils of waters ; in perils of rob- 
bers ; in perils by mine own countrymen ; in 
perils iu the city ; in perils in the wilderness," 
&c. Sometimes tempests have overtaken him in 
winter on desolate mountain passes, darkening 
the atmosphere, and the driving snow obliterating 
his path. Then he would kneel down and pray, 
aud on rising has sometimes found the storm lull- 
ing, and light breaking through the clouds. He 
journeyed on foot, supported on his wearisome 
way by his well-worn staff, his New Testament, 
his Hymn Book, some tracts, and a few morsels of 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



137 



dry bread slung over his shoulder in a substantial 
shepherd's bag, being instant in season and out 
of season, ever ready to speak for Christ with all 
whom he met. Few happier men than Deacon 
Gewergis have ever lived. A heavenly serenity 
ever lighted up his benignant countenance, and 
the rocks and the valleys often echoed his songs 
of praise as he journeyed alone. 

For nine years, as I have said, we have had a 
mission station on the bights of Koordistan, as 
a resumption of the labors commenced by the 
lamented Dr. Grant twenty years ago, and soon 
interrupted by Koordish massacres of several 
thousands of the mountain Nestorians. Our sta- 
tion is not in the roughest and most central por- 
tion of Koordistan, but near it, just at the base 
of its loftiest mountain, which is fourteen thou- 
sand feet above the level of the sea, and second 
in hight to Mount Ararat only, in that part of 
Asia. That station is at the village of Memik&n, 
on the vast level plain of Gawar, which is sur- 
rounded by mountain ranges. There a good work 
has already been accomplished by schools and 
preaching, and it promises much through the es- 
tablishment of out-stations, which are advanta- 
geously superintended from that point. At some 
of those out-stations are located married helpers, 
cultivated young men and women, educated in 



Digitized by 



138 MISSIONARY LIFE 

our seminaries at Oroomiah, who cheerfully forego 
the comforts of the mild plains of Persia for the 
self-denials and hardships of a residence among 
those interior mountains. We have enjoyed sea- 
sons of most affecting interest in giving " instruc- 
tions " to those young brethren and sisters on 
sending them forth to their distant posts of toil 
and self-sacrifice, not unlike leaving the endear- 
ments of America, in our own case, to go to dark 
and far-off Persia. I now recall one such young 
married couple, who have been located in a deep 
gorge of those central mountains, which is the 
home of thousands of Nestorians, where the lofty 
encircling ranges limit the rising and setting of 
the sun to ten o'clock A. M. and two P. M. much 
of the year ; where the towering cones of solid 
rock, like peering Gothic spires, cast their pointed 
shadows from the moonbeams on the sky, as on 
a canvas — nay, rear their tops against that can- 
opy, which seems to rest on them as on pillars ; 
and where, in winter, the terrific roar of ava- 
lanches above and around is one of the most 
common sounds that salute the ear. 

Do you ask what tempts them thither ? Let 
me answer you in the language of a hymn of the 
missionary whose home is not distant from that 
mountain valley. 



Digitized by Google 




Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA . 139 

There Is a dashing river, „ 

Down the deep gorge swiftly rolling, 
Foaming and leaping ever. 

Boiling and wildly roaring. 

« 

t 

On each side of that river, 

Onward in fury raving, 
Rise mountains in their grandeur, 

Their tops to heaven lifting. 

Like ancient ramparts towering, 

To the passer they proclaim, 
His eyes in wonder fastening, 

The great Creator's name. 

Five villages embosomed 

Adorn the narrow margins, 
With trees and vines bestudded, 

Small fields and smiling gardens. 

There, too, are ancient churches, 

All of choice stones constructed, 
Desolate since long ages, 

No gospel note resounded. 

Thousands of men benighted,* 

Who sit in darkness there, 
Themselves and all their kindred 

Are hastening to despair. 

In those wild mountains scattered, 

With none to guide their way, 
How will the lost be gathered, 

If thus still left to stray? 

There axe many such secluded glens among 
the lofty mountains of Koordistan ; and it is in 
response to such calls that our intelligent, culti- 
vated helpers plant themselves as spiritual watch- 
men among them. 

Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



Nor has the missionary himself shrunk from 
participation in labors and hardships in such 
places. Often has he also scaled those mountain 
hights, and threaded their deepest gorges, to 
search out the sheep of those long-forgotten folds, 
and point them to the good Shepherd. Some- 
times he has crept along the steep and lofty, 
cliff" towering threateningly above him, where 
whispers, at particular seasons of the year, must 
be his only method of communication, lest the 
sound of the human voice, by an echo, bring upon 
him an overwhelming avalanche, ever ready, at 
such seasons, to quit its bed at the summons of 
the slightest jar. 

Not all the Nestorian mountains are thus 
precipitous and difficult of access. There are 
gentle declivities and extended intervals clothed 
with verdant forests of the gall-nut oak, and fruit 
trees growing wild as well as in their fields. 
But the most rugged districts of the mountains 
are the most populous, and for the very reason 
that such retreats have offered the safest asylums 
to those long-persecuted Christians. 

Our mountain station and out-stations have 
been blessed of the Lord. At the former a good- 
ly number of conversions have occurred, and 
whole villages, in different districts of the moun- 
tains, have declared themselves Protestants, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA . 



141 



though but imperfectly enlightened. At some 
of the out-stations much light has been diffused, 
and some souls have come to a saving knowledge 
of the truth, and the good work is happily pro- 
gressing. 

The Gawar station has been a trying one, par- 
ticularly on account of the early death of two who 
have occupied it — the youthful and very esti- 
mable Mr. Crane, and the not less estimable Mrs. 
Rhea. But their death was from causes not 
peculiar to that locality. Mr. Rhea was thus 
long left to live and toil alone in those remote 
mountains. Born and reared in the lap of afflu- 
cnco in the sunny south, his devotion to the cause 
of Christ in the wilds of Koordistan has bound 
him as by a chain of gold to his arduous work 
in that self-denying field. 

Is it said that so rough a field as Koordistan 
is unattractive ? It is in some respects difficult, 
but is still a very interesting and promising field. 
Where has our holy religion, in the whole history 
of the Christian church, found its firmest foot- 
holds and its most congenial soil ? Has it not 
been in rough countries and among hardy people ? 
Look at Scotland, and Switzerland, and Piedmont, 
and the rugged hills of our own New England, 
beginning at Plymouth Rock? Yes, and look 
at those same mountain Nestorians, who, in their 



Digitized by Google 



142 MISSIONARY LIFE 

fastnesses, have clung so desperately to little more 
than a shadow, to the name of Christianity during 
long ages of bloody persecutions, and their entire 
isolation from the rest of Christendom, clinging 
as for their life to their rare parchment copies of 
the New Testament, in an ancient, unknown 
tongue, locked up in their venerable stone 
churches. 

The towering mountains and deep glens of 
Koordistan begin again to resound with the songs 
of salvation, and good soldiers of the cross are 
already numbered among its hardy sons and 
daughters. The heroic Deacon Tamo, during a 
cruel imprisonment of more than a year in a dis- 
tant Turkish town, on false accusations, witnessed 
a confession that would do honor to a martyr. 
There is an ardor of patriotism,* a sacred love of 
the land where God gives them their birth, pecu- 
liar to the inhabitants of such regions, which is 
second indeed to religious principle, but strongly 
allied to it, and very favorable to its culture. 

* Mr. Coan saw an aged woman in Di* who was wailing oyer the 
slaughter of her husband and son, and the sacking and burning of her 
village, by the Koords. The missionary told her of another country, 
where there is no sorrow, nor sighing, nor pain, nor death, and invited 
her to go and dwell in that better land. She listened earnestly as he 
pointed upward ; but at length, wringing her hands, she exclaimed, 
** Oh, how can I leaye these dear rocks and go there ? " of course but 
poorly comprehending the nature of the country to which the mission- 
ary pointed her. 

* « 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA • 



143 



Let no note of discouragement be sounded in 
regard to that portion of the Nestorian field ; 
rather let the work there be vigorously prose- 
cuted, since God in his providence has opened 
the way for us by the subjugation of the savage 
Koords. Possession has been successfully taken 
of it in the name of the Lord, and that possession 
hallowed by the precious dust of some of its 
pioneers, as if to invest the field with a deeper 
and more touching interest and more imperative 
claims. Koordistan, by the grace of God, will 
yet, and at no very distant day, become Imman- 
uel's land, a mountain of holiness, a habitation 
of righteousness. 



Digitized by 



144 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE REVIVAL OF 1&49. 



u 



I trill pour out of my Spirit upon alljlcsh. 



Circumstances preceding the Revival. — Its Commencement. — The first 
Monday of January. — Interest in Members of the Female Semina- 
ry ; in the Male Seminary. — Correspondence of Native Christians. 

— Letter of Deacon Moses. — Note of Deacon Gewergis. — A Day of 
Fasting and Prayer. — The Work in the Village of Seir. — Labors 
of the Pupils in Vacation. — The Mountain Girls. — Interest in Geog 
Tapa ; in the Village of Degala. — Deacon Isaac. — Melck Aga Beg. 

— The Means used to promote the Revival. 

As revivals have long been the most interesting 
feature of the work of the Lord among the Nes- 
torians, it is meet that we give to them a corre- 
sponding prominence in this small volume. With 
this in view, we here introduce a chapter on that 
subject, which is made up of a simple narrative 
account of one of those visitations of mercy penned 
by one of my respected associates, Dr. Wright, 
duriug the year in which it occurred. Dr. Wright 
was an eye-witness of the work which he describes, 
and shared largely in the arduous and responsible, 
yet delightful, labors connected with such a vis- 
itation. His statement was prepared, by appoint- 
ment of the mission, to be read at its annual 




Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



145 



meeting of that year. There is an obvious ad- 
vantage in using for this purpose the testimony 
of such a witness, given with care on the spot 
and at the time, above any reminiscences of my ■ 
own of the same or a similar work of grace that 
I might be able imperfectly to recall at this dis- 
tance from the field, and after the lapse of a 
considerable period. There is also an advantage 
in a connected account of a single work of the 
kind above fragmentary notices of different re- 
vivals. Dr. Wright's narrative is given nearly 
entire. 

" Before commencing a sketch of this work of 
grace among the Nestorians, we must not omit an 
allusion to the scenes of the year 1848. That 
year we can never forget as a year of persecution 
and trial. Much of it was spent in efforts to 
thwart the design^ and machinations of the patri- 
arch and his friends, and, though the gospel con- 
tinued to be preached regularly in most places, 
where it had been preached before, our own 
strength, as well as that of our native helpers, 
was more or less diverted from our proper mis- 
sionary work — laboring for the salvation of souls. 
But the persecution resulted in good. It strength- 
ened the faith and love of the pious Nestorians, 
aud prepared them to labor more acceptably for 
their divine Lord. In the autumn it became 

10 



Digitized by Google 



146 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



evident to the patriarch and his friends that they 
could not succeed in their designs, and all out- 
ward opposition on their part ceased. The course 
• of events during the season ending in this result 
had been wonderful, showing that the mission 
was, in a special sense, under the guardian care 
of the Most High. I think it may be said with 
truth that many hearts that had been borne down 
with care and anxiety for months together were 
now filled with wonder at God's goodness, and 
heartfelt gratitude for it, and new resolutions of 
devotcdness to his service were formed ; and it 
was felt that that merciful Being who had so sig- 
nally interposed to defend his friends against the 
wiles of their adversaries would not withhold tho 
still richer blessing of the Holy Spirit. For this 
great blessing much earnest prayer was offered 
here toward the close of the year 1848 ; and we 
are also assured that much prayer was offered for 
the Nestorians by the people of God in America 
at that time. The intelligence of the machina- 
tions of the enemies of the truth had reached 
them ; their anxieties were awakened, and they 
presented themselves, as we are informed, at the 
throne of grace with unwonted importunity. 

" But we will proceed to more particular details. 
In doing so, the names and agency of individuals 
will be unavoidably mentioned to some extent, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 147 

and at the same time we would attribute all the 
efficiency in this blessed work to the Lord, and to 
him we would give all the glory. 

" It was jp the month of November that Deacon 
John came from his village to the city to teach 
the Mussulman boys the English language. He 
devoted himself to the work with great zeal, and 
became deeply interested in the study of the lan- 
guage himself. He used to be up till a late hour 
of the night poring over his books. But souls 
were perishing, and his conscience did not con- 
tinue at case. In December, 1 Pike's Guide to 
Young Disciples' was put into his hands by a 
member of the mission. The chapter on back- 
sliding fixed his attention. He studied it, trans- 
lated it into Syriac, prayed over the subject, and 
talked of it with others, until he was fully roused 
to a sense of his spiritual condition. He com- 
muned with the two native teachers of the 
female seminary, young men of like spirit with 
himself, and they often spent seasons together in 
prayer for a revival of roligion. The first Mon- 
day in January of this year was observed as a 
day of fasting and prayer by the mission, the 
members of both seminaries, and our native help- 
ers. It was a day of solemn interest, though 
nothing occurred worthy of particular remark. 
Some of the hopefully pious were waked up to a 



Digitized by 



148 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



sense of their departures from Christ. The Bible 
of one of the girls in the seminary was found 
open at the fifty-first Psalm, and its pages were 
wet with her tears. She had just been beuding 
over it, meditating on that psalm, and had then 
retired to her closet to pray. 

" The first among the impenitent in the city who 
was brought under conviction of sin was Ehnan 
Eshoo, who was then employed as a steward in 
the female seminary. His convictions were deep 
and almost overpowering. It was on the 8th of 
January that he gave such signs of having become 
a child of God, that one brother remarked to an- 

• 

other, * What would you say if you knew there 
was a new-born soul in this yard ? ' Some days 
later two of the girls in the seminary, who had 
been hitherto careless, were found in deep dis- 
tress, and one of them, about the middle of the 
month, came to one of her teachers with a coun- 
tenance radiant with joy and love. H^er errand 
was, to tell what the Lord had done for her soul. 
The other did not find peace until a later day. 

" Most of the month of January passed without 
any general awakening among the impenitent on 
the mission premises in the city. The older girls 
in the seminary, who were hopeful subjects of the 
revival of 1846, passed through a season of deep 
searching of heart. They had become so cold 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



149 



and formal that they thought they had no part 
nor lot iii Christ, and set themselves to the first 
work of repentance as lost sinners. They spent 
day and night in weeping and praying. For 
some time their prayers were mainly confined to 
themselves, as they felt that, in their backslidden 
state, they could not pray for others. Deacon John 
was unwearied in laboring and praying with them, 
and also with all the members of the female semi- 
nary. He also labored with all the printers one by 
one; but little interest was manifested among them 
until the revival had progressed several weeks. 
- "In January scenes of thrilling interest were 
witnessed in the male seminary at Seir. But as 
I was there only occasionally, they can be better 
described in the words of Mr. Cochran, the su- 
perintendent of that institution, who was a con- 
stant observer of what was passing. He wrote to 
Dr. Anderson in April as follows : * At the be- 
ginning of the present year there were unusual 
solemnity and increased earnestness in prayer on 
the part of a few of our number who were hope- 
fully pious. Some ten or twelve days afterward, 
more marked and positive indications of the Spir- 
it's presence appeared. There were fervency in 
prayer, a waiting attitude, and a trimming of 
lamps for the coming of the Bridegroom. Satur- 
day and Sunday, the 13th and 14th of January, 



Digitized by 



150 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



are memorable days in connection with the com- 
mencement of this work in the seminary. At the 
morning exercise on Saturday of that date, nothing 
unusual occurred to attract our notice or quicken 
our hopes ; but in the afternoon, there being no 
school exercise, the voice of prayer fell upon our 
cars with unwonted earnestness and importunity. 
The prayer closets, (ten or twelve in number,) 
we were surprised to find, were all simultaneously 
occupied by anxious and weeping suppliants. A 
group of boys had also assembled in one of the 
rooms for united supplication. The following 
day gave still more decisive evidence that the 
Lord was in our midst. The whole seminary 
was trembling with a sense of his presence. Dea- 
cons Tamo and Moses, [teachers,] and deacons 
John and Gcwergis, the two latter of whom were 
spending a few days with us, together with several 
of the older members of the seminary, had spent 
nearly the whole of the previous night in prayer, 
so burdened were they with a sense of the perish- 
ing condition of those around them. The con- 
victions of the hopefully pious became increasing- 
ly pungent, till nearly every individual abandoned 
his former hopes, and was constrained to seek 
anew for pardoning mercy. From this date the 
work progressed with great rapidity and power. 
A large proportion of the pupils were soon awa- 



Digitized by Google 




IN PERSIA. 



151 



kened, and very many had the new song upon 
their lips. The voice of prayer and praise could 
be heard at all hours of the day, and frequently 
at all hours of the night, and additions, wo trust, 
were daily made to the number of those that will 
be saved. 

Early in the revival, several of the pious Nes- 
torians adopted the habit of writing short notes 
to each other, to stir each other up to more faith, 
love, and zeal ; and also to the impenitent, warn- 
ing them to flee from the wrath to come — a 
means which, in many cases, was signally blessed 
of God. The following may be taken as a speci- 
men. It is a translation of one from Deacon 
Moses to his sister in the female seminary, in an- 
swer to one which he had received from her. 

^ January 13. 

My joy was great, my dear sister, when I received your 
letter, and saw that you were waked up to a sense of your 
sins ; and at the same time tears rolled down my cheeks on 
account of the wretchedness of yourself and of myself — a 
lost sinner, an abuser of the great free grace of God. My 
dear sister, I mourn for those who oppose the Holy Spirit. 
My sister, he careful that you do not stand in the way. I 
beseech you, be not like Achan. Search in your heart with 
a candle, (the word of God,) and see if there be one small 
6in hidden there. I remember you and your companions in 
my poor prayers, though I have found myself wholly lost, and 
a heavy load of sin is on my back, and I am weary with bear- 



Digitized by 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



ing it. I see that darkness has covered my soul, and the 
shades of death have encompassed me. I find no remedy 
any where. My eyes hang upon Him who can not lie. I 
wait for the true light and the rays of his grace to shine 
upon me, and scatter the darkness, and dissipate the shades 
of death. I regard all my works as filth, and my righteous- 
ness as filthy rags. I entreat you and your companions to 
be always in earnest prayer, to cast yourselves before the 
bloody cross, and look for the precious drops that flow from 
the Prince of Life, that you may be washed ; and I, a lost 
sinner, will try to do the same ; for God regards not a dea- 
con, or priest, or bishop, or patriarch, who are [wicked] sin- 
ners, but regards, forgives, and accepts those that fear and 
love him, and keep his commandments, though they be poor, 
and of no account among men. Oh, my sister, what a beauti- 
ful palace of God, and place of his dwelling, is the closet of 
the poor man who fears his name ! If you wonder that you 
have not fallen into the burning lake, wonder still more at 
your great and innumerable sins. Mourn and lament with 
strong crying and tears in your closet, and seek from God 
the forgiveness of your sins. And thank God your Father, 
and the Lord Jesus Christ your Saviour, that you have not 
fallen into that dreadful pit 

The letter closes with these words : " Our help 
is from God alone ; we are but dust and ashes." 

The night of January 29 is marked as an 
era in the history of the revival in the female 
seminary. Up to this time two or three only of 
the impenitent had shown any signs of alarm. 
Most of them had listened to the most pungent 
exhortations, and the most rousing warnings, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 153 

» 

unmoved. Indeed, they seemed so light and 
trifling, and to care so little for their immor- 
tal souls, that their teachers were almost heart- 
broken in view of their state. The evening 
meeting of the above date passed without any 
incident worthy of note. The bell was rung for 
the girls to retire for the night, at the usual time, 
but the signal was not heeded. One of the pious 
girls came to Miss Fisk, and said that many souls 
were distressed on account of sin, and that it was 
the time to pray, and not to sleep. The Holy 
Spirit had come like a rushing, mighty wind. 
Most of the school had assembled in one room ^ 
and there the pious girls were pouring out their 
souls in importunate prayer, and the impenitent, 
with scarcely an exception, were borne down un- 
der a sense of their sins, and were crying for 
mercy. Those of us who witnessed the scene 
can never forget it. It reminded us of a wreck, 
tossed upon the wide ocean, where the unhappy 
crew were pleading for their lives. One prayer 
commenced, " O Lord Jesus, throw us a rope, for 
we are on a single plank out upon the open sea, 
and wave upon wave is dashing over us." Eter- 
nal realities rose up before our minds with awful 
vividness. Jesus and his salvation were the ab- 
sorbing theme. Prayer was continued till past 
midnight, when they were advised to seek rest. 



Digitized by 



154 MISSIONARY LIFE 

Our meeting, the next night, was deeply sol- 
emn. Most of the girls were in tears ; and sev- 
eral other persons who were present were much 
affected. Mar Yoliannan looked pale and anxious, 
and the printers were filled with awe. 

We have now arrived at the first day of Feb- 
ruary ; and to record events in the order of their 
dates, we must return to the male seminary at 
Seir. What transpired there is best recorded 
again by the superintendent: — 

" On the first day of February we were again 
visited with a fresh baptism of the Spirit, more 
affectingly powerful than the first, and in the 
opinion of all who witnessed it, far exceeding 
any thing that had ever been seen in Oroomiah. 
On the previous day, apprehensions had been ex- 
pressed that there was an abatement of interest. 
Christians became alarmed, and addressed them- 
selves anew to the work. The unoccupied por- 
tions of the day, and much of the ensuing night, 
were spent in solitary prayer. The importunity, 
and wrestling, agonizing urgency of their suppli- 
cations were truly wonderful. It was the strug- 
gling importunity of earnest, burdened souls. 
4 Give me the blessing, or blot out my name from 
among the living ; restore unto us the joy of thy 
salvation, or let us die pleading for the blessing, 9 
was the attitude which Christians assumed. And 



Digitized by Google 



IN PEESIA. 



155 



while they were yet praying, the blessing was 
received. 

" On the morning of the 1st of February, the 
heavens were indeed bowed, and the Lord of Sab- 
aoth came down with fearfully searching and 
quickening power. The seminary assembled for 
its ordinary exercises, but tho young men seemed 
more like culprits, dragged to the block for ex- 
ecution, than like buoyant youths in the pursuit 
of knowledge. A load of guilt and a burden 
for the salvation of sinners were upon every soul. 
Being convinced that an errand of greater mo- 
ment than the acquisition of science was pressing 
upon the mind, I suspended study, and exhorted 
the pupils to repair to their closets to implore 
relief and pardoning mercy from their grieved 
but compassionate Saviour. The prayer closets 
attached to the seminary, and all the unoccupied 
rooms in the buildings, were immediately filled ; 
and yet a majority of the pupils had no place to 
give vent to their burdened hearts. Prayer was 
proposed by one of the pupils in the yard ; and 
there, on a wintry day, for nearly an hour, these 
youths were pouring forth their earnest prayers 
to Heaven for pardon and salvation. It was a 
scene more solemn than language can describe, 
and seemed to me more like the dread assizes of 
the judgment day than any thing I had ever be- 



Digitized by Google 



156 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



fore witnessed. The scenes of the following day 
and evening were scarcely less marvelous. The 
few in the seminary who had been hitherto 
unconcerned for their personal salvation were 
powerfully awakened; and quite a number of 
individuals, I find, date their conversion from this 
period. The whole aspect of the work becamo 
thenceforth intensely interesting. The attention 
of all was called to the one great subject ; and 
prayer and preaching of the word, in season and 
out of season, by day and by night, were the en- 
grossing pursuit of all." 

It was just after the scenes above recorded, that 
the "mountain evangelist," Deacon Gewergis, who 
was a witness of them all, wrote to a friend in the 
city, " Glory to God, there has been such an 
awakening among the boys as I have never seen 
— a lamentation, a mourning for sins, that is 
wonderful. Many of the boys prostrated them- 
selves on the floor to pray ; others left the room ; 
and there rose such a sound of weeping in the 
yard, prayer closets, and elsewhere, as to melt 
our hearts ; and this continued until midnight." 

A member of the seminary wrote to priest 
Eshoo at the same time, " I think there has not 
been such an awakening among our people as 
this since the days of the apostles. It resembles 
that on the day of Pentecost. As they were then 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



157 



pricked in their hearts, so are the boys of the 
seminary now. They cry out one to the other, 
4 What shall we do to be saved ? ■ " 

Friday, February 2, was observed by the mis- 
sion and pious natives as a day of fasting and 
prayer. In the city two public services were 
held — one in the forenoon for preaching, and 
one in the afternoon for prayer and exhortations. 
Besides the members of the female seminary, the 
printers and persons immediately connected with 
the mission, a large number of men and women 
from the surrounding villages were present. The 
season was one of deep solemnity. The Holy 
Spirit was evidently moving upon many hearts, 
and the realities of the eternal world were 
brought clearly in view. During the interval 
of the public services, those who loved to pray 
assembled by themselves ; and many earnest 
praters were offered that the people from abroad 
might not go homo without a blessing for them- 
selves, their families, and their villages. 

A blessing evidently rested upon the services 
of the day. At night a spirit of most importu- 
nate prayer was bestowed upon the members of 
the female seminary. Their burden was, first 
their own sins, and then the weight of perishing 
souls around — the bishops, printers, and others. 
Their own sins weighed upon them as an insup- 



Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



portable ourdcn. A member of the mission en- 
tered the door of the room where a few of them 
were assembled, when the following words broke 
upon his ear: " We are hanging over a lake of 
fire, with a heavy load on our backs, by a single 
hair, and that is almost broken. We are in a 
ship burnt almost down to the water ; the flames 
are just seizing hold of us. 0 God, have mercy ! 
O Jesus, Son of David, have mercy ! 0 Lamb 
of God, have mercy ! " Prom this time the work 
progressed in the city with an interest and power 
marvelous to us all who were permitted to wit- 
ness it. We can never forget some of those 
scenes in our meetings for prayer, when the vail 
that shuts out the view of the eternal world was, 
as it were, taken away, and hell, with its fearful 
realities, rose vividly to alarm the sinner, and 
heaven, with all its joys, stood bright before the 
Christian, to move his heart, and make him lt>ng 
to go away and be at rest. The inexpressible 
worth of the soul, and its lost condition without 
Christ, seemed to fill every mind. Earth and its 
vanities sunk away as nothing. It was at this 
time that some of the most interesting Christians 
were wrought up to such a pitch of feeling that 
their physical system could not sustain it ; and in 
our social meetings, and even in their closets, 
they were overpowered by their emotions — an 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



159 



event which, to us who witnessed these scenes, is 
no matter of wonder. For several weeks in suc- 
cession they had been crushed to the earth under 
the weight of their own sins, and borne down by 
an awful sense of the lost condition of souls 
around them ; they could neither eat nor sleep ; 
night after night was spent in continued prayer ; 
they were consequently much reduced in physical 
strength, and the exercises of their minds were 
greater than their bodies could sustain. 

While these events, which we have been record- 
ing, were transpiring on the mission premises in 
the city and at Seir, the Holy Spirit was doing its 
convicting and converting work in several vil- 
lages around. It was reported abroad that re- 
markable scenes were passing in the seminaries, 
and the relatives and friends of the pupils came 
to.witness them. Our premises, especially in the 
city, were daily thronged by strangers, who, 
though they came in many cases to scoff, went . 
away with an arrow in their hearts, and returned 
to their homes to warn their families and neigh- 
bors to flee from the wrath to come. 

The first week in February the work extended 
in its greatest power to the village of Seir. From 
the commencement of the revival in the male 
seminary, the people of that village had attended 
the religious exercises there ; but no special feel- 

Digitized by Google 



160 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



ing was manifested by them until early in Febru- 
ary. At this time the teachers and pupils in the 
seminary had become intensely interested in the 
village, and some of them held daily meetings in 
it for prayer and preaching. At last the Holy 
Spirit descended with marvelous power. The 
flood-gates of feeling were opened, and the whole 
population of the place — old and young, men 
and women — were intensely moved. When the 
gospel was preached, we can never forget with 
what breathless attention it was listened to, and 
how the tears rolled down the cheeks of the ven- 
erable old men, as they listened to the story of a 
Saviour's love and death. We can never forget 
how some, bent with age and decrepit from in- 
firmity, poured forth their souls in prayer, in 
6imple but touching language. At various times 
some of the older girls in the seminary spent 
several days in tfoe village laboring for the fe- 
males. Their efforts for the salvation of their 
sex there, as well as in other places, were emi- 
nently blessed. About the middle of February, 
two of them, Sanum and HUnee, spent a short 
time in the village, and wrote to their companions 
in the city as follows : " Beloved sisters, we have 
just come from the house of mourning. What 
shall we tell you ? Such a day we have never 
seen in all our lives. To-day we went from house 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA, 



161 



to house ; and every house appeared to us like 
that day in which the angel of the Lord came 
and removed a beloved one from every house in 
Egypt. There was such a great mourning in 
every house we entered that we could not do 
otherwise than mourn with them. We saw the 
old women bowed upon their faces, the tears roll- 
ing down their cheeks, and brides and girls in the 
same, and even greater distress. The poor old 
women made our hearts burn most of all. To- 
day we visited only eight families; for in each 
one we found so much work to do, that we could 
not draw our feet after us to leave." 

On the 16th of February the male seminary 
was dismissed for two weeks, to gratify the wishes 
of the pupils to visit their relatives and friends, 
and to labor for their salvation. The morning 
of their departure is described by those who wit- 
nessed it as a season of tender and melting in- 
terest. The superintendent writes, "With eyes 
suffused with tears, and with mutual exhortations 
to fidelity, and zeal, and prayer in the good 
work, they set out for their homes, stopping by 
the wayside before they had generally separated 
to hold another parting prayer meeting, and to 
commend themselves anew to the great Shepherd 
and Guardian of Israel." Going to their friends 
with hearts full of love and zeal, they were in- 

11 



Digitized by 



162 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



stent in season and out of season in laboring for 
their spiritual welfare. In many cases they had 
opportunities to address large congregations in 
the churches, and in other places, in their vil- 
lages, and often with so much humility, love, and 
power, that their hearers were moved to tears. 
The day of final judgment alone will disclose the 
amount of good done by these youths during the 
period of their dispersion. Often, very often, 
have we heard of their taking a father, a mother, 
a brother, or a sister, by the hand, and with eyes 
filled with tears, pleading with them to come to 
Christ. 

About the 1st of March the members of the 
male seminary were again assembled. The fact 
was most cheering, that their love and zeal had 
not at all diminished from their contact with the 
cold world in their villages. As soon as they 
were assembled, they held a meeting, at which 
they recounted the dealings of the Lord with 
them after their dispersion, and narrated the 
scenes through which they had passed in labor- 
ing for their relatives and friends. Some spoke 
of wonders which they had witnessed in the con- 
viction and hopeful conversion of souls. Near 
the close of the meeting, Deacon Tamo arose, 
and with a tremulous voice and flowing tears, in 
his own earnest and graphic way, remarked, u I 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



163 



-will tell you what wonders I now see — I see the 
Son of God hanging upon the cross, dying for sin- 
ners, and our hearts little affected by the sight." 
The appeal was like an electric shock. The 
youthful company were melted to tears. 

In this connection I am reminded of the sepa- 
ration of three girls from their companions in the 
female seminary ; and though it occurred at a 
later day than the events we have been recording, 
I can not refrain from briefly alluding to it. They 
had come to the mission hungry and almost na- 
ked, refugees from the ruthless hands of bloody ^ 
men. Here they had met with kindness. They 
were fed and clothed, and, what is more, their 
souls were cared for. In the revival of 1846, two 
of them became hopefully pious, and the other 
one during the revival of this year. By their 
amiable and lovely deportment, they had en- 
deared themselves to their teachers and compan- 
ions — indeed, we all loved them. But their 
friends, who were returning to their mountain 
home, wished to take the girls with them, and 
they were constrained to go, though not without 
a struggle. Can we ever forget our emotions, 
when we heard that they must go — that their 
friends were inexorable ? And that praying one, 
too, — that "mountain Sarah," — she was to go. 
We were no longer to hear her pour out her soul 



Digitized by 



164 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



in prayer, and such a prayer as but few have grace 
to offer. How gifted she was in this grace! 
Though a poor and ignorant girl, who can tell 
what agency she had in the scenes of the past 
winter ? When she laid hold of the horns of the 
altar, it was not in vain. 

They left us weeping and praying, and they 
were followed with tears and prayers. We can 
not doubt but they will be lights in Tiaree, and 
instruments in the hands of God in the salvation 
of some souls in that benighted region. 

But we have too long deferred to notice the 
scenes that transpired in several other villages 
besides that of Seir. Geog Tapa has so many of 
its sons and daughters in the seminaries, that 
a chord which vibrates in these institutions is 
always felt in the village. Nothing, however, oc- 
curred there worthy of record until Deacon John 
went home, about the middle of January. His 
soul was on fire as he approached the place, and, 
as he reached the door of his own house, he lifted 
up his heart in prayer that he might not enter, as 
he had too often done before, without the blessing 
of the Lord. He first set himself to labor with 
the hopefully pious in the village, to bring them 
into a praying frame. He first talked with them 
one by one, and then assembled them in small 
groups. His efforts to recover them from their 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA, 



165 



backslidings were successful. On the 28th of 
January, a member of the mission went to the 
village to preach, and, on entering Deacon John's 
house, heard the voice of most earnest prayer in 
an adjoining room. Deacon John remarked, in 
English, " The Christians here are becoming like 
fire," (that is, very zealous.) A small company 
of them had gathered there for prayer. Meetings 
were held every night for prayer and preaching ; 
and every Friday several persons came to the city 
to attend the services on that day on the mission 
premises. 

Early in February Priest Abraham, Deacon 
John, and some other brethren, began to visit 
from house to house, and to pray with every fam- 
ily. To their great surprise, they were welcomed 
wherever they went, even by those who had hith- 
erto been bitterly opposed to the truth. Several 
persons of abandoned habits, and notorious for 
their wickedness, were brought under conviction, 
and, after some days, gave evidence of being born 
again. 

The work steadily increased in power and inter- 
est until the middle of February, when the young 
men in the seminary from that village returned 
to their homes for their winter vacation. A new 
impulse was then given to it, and the 18th of 
February, the Sabbath, was a day long to be 



Digitized by Google 



166 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



remembered in the annals of that village. It id 
called by the people the " Pentecostal Sabbath." 
At evening prayers, on Saturday, the day before, 
the attendance was unusually large in the church, 
and Deacon Tamo, a teacher of the male semi- 
nary, and Yonan, a teacher of the female semi- 
nary, were both there with fire in their bones. 
They addressed the large assembly in the most 
feeling and touching manner, and it is said that 
there was scarcely a person in the house not 
affected to tears. One of the printers, in describ- 
ing the scene, remarked, "Glory to God, we 
have never seen any thing like this." The native 
brethren were full of faith and hope for the next 
day, and they were not disappointed. Early the 
next day a messenger was dispatched to the city, 
with a request that a member of the mission and 
Mar Tohannan would proceed to the village to 
aid in gathering in the harvest, as the leading 
laborers there had become quite exhausted from 
excessive exertions. Mr. Stocking and the bish- 
op hastened to the village, and spent the day in 
pointing inquiring souls to Christ. The whole 
population was roused, and, with few exceptions, 
resorted to the house of God, and gave breathless 
attention to the preaching of the word. Those 
who were unable to obtain admittance to the 
church assembled in a school room, where the 



Digitized by 




MAR YOHAXAK, BISHOr OF OROOMIAH. 



Digitized by Google 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



gospel was also preached. Prom this time the 
work there progressed with wonderful power. 
Scenes of thrilling interest were daily witnessed. 
Deacon John, in a note to a member of the mis- 
sion, writes, "The former revival, [meaning that 
in the year 1846,] in comparison with this, was 
trifling in the eyes of the people ; but in this the 
truth of God was wonderfully revealed to men, 
and fears fell upon many. There was such a 
time that it seemed as though the last day was 
drawing nigh, and the last trumpet sounding." 
Several scores of persons were brought under deep 
conviction of sin, and, as we trust, led to Christ 
for peace and pardon. 

The Sabbath following the one above alluded 
to, Mr. Perkins spent in Geog Tapa. " The state 
of the village," on his arrival, he writes, " was 
very peculiar. It was the day preceding the long 
fast, which is, by common consent, devoted to 
eating, drinking, and carousal, by the mass of the 
people, in anticipation of their approaching absti- 
nence from animal food and every dainty. But 
Geog Tapa, as I entered the village on Saturday 
afternoon, was as still as the Sabbath in the strict- 
est New England village. No circles for convivial 
purposes were to be seen, nor had any assembled 
that day. Deep solemnity sat on every counte- 
nance, and a great congregation assembled in the 



Digitized by Google 



168 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



church immediately after my arrival, to which I 
preached the gospel. The old men of the village 
expressed their wonder at the state of things." 

Mr. Perkins preached six times, while in tho 
village, to congregations " large and very solemn. 
Many seemed very deeply affected in view of 
their lost condition as sinners ; while others were 
full of the peace, and joy, and gratitude of first 
love." 

The whole aspect of the village, from that time 
to the present, has been extremely interesting. 
An order and sobriety have prevailed, and a still- 
ness reigns on the Sabbath altogether remarkable 
in a Nestorian village. The daily meeting for 
prayer and preaching, held after the people have 
come in from their labors, is still continued. 
During the summer, it has been held on the roof 
of Deacon John's house, which, being in a central 
position,* the voice of prayer and praise, and the - 
words of the preacher, are distinctly heard by 
nearly all the people in the place, as they sit or 
recline on their roofs at the still evening hour. 

The village of Degala shared in this blessed 
work. February 9, Sayid, " the tailor," " full of 
the Holy Ghost and of faith," went there, and was 
present at evening prayers in the church. After 

* The houses, In the Tillages of Persia, are built thickly together, aa 
in cities, for protection. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



169 



the regular prayers were concluded, the priest of 
the village asked him to address the people, which 
he did iu so affecting a manner, that it is said the 
whole congregation was in tears. The next day, 
several females came to the mission premises in 
the city, in an anxious state of mind, asking what 
they must do to be saved. From this time for- 
ward, the gospel was frequently preached in Dc- 
gaia, and our native helpers residing in that place 
were faithful in carrying the messages of salvation 
from house to house. During the vacation in the 
male seminary, in February, Deacon Tamo and 
Mar Yohannan preached there several times, and 
persons were so wrought upon, under the preach- 
ing of the word, that they cried out in the midst 
of the sermon, " Brethren, what shall we do ? " 
Several persons gave the most decided evidences 
of conversion, and the change in them was so 
marked, that even those of the " baser sort 99 were 
constrained to confess that there was something 
marvelous in it. Though but few were convicted 
of sin, an impression was produced on the mass 
of the people ; so much so, that the Easter holi- 
days, which are usually observed there by dan- 
cing, rioting, &c, were spent in prayer and preach- 
ing, and there was so much solemnity in those 
days, that Deacon Joseph remarked, "I thought 
the whole village would repent." 



Digitized by Google 



170 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



The following is extracted from some notices 
of the revival in Degala, by Deacon Joseph: 
" Whenever I went home, during the revival, I 
used to find our house like a house of mourning. 
At night, after the lamp was put out, and it was 
time to sleep, I could not sleep on account of the 
sounds of sighing, weeping, and prayer, that issued 
from the closets and retired places in the house. 
In four or five houses, even the small children, 
only three or four years old, used to kneel down 
and pray. They had heard their fathers and moth- 
ers pray so much, that they had learned to pray 
well themselves. The women were very zealous. 
After preaching, they used to meet by themselves 
to pray. One day I took some men by the hand, 
and led them near the place where the women 
were praying. When they heard their bitter cry 
on account of their sins, they began to tremble 
and weep, and begged me to teach them also 
the way of life, and to pray with them. Thanks 
be to God, by the election of grace, there are 
some stable Christians there, who are always 
talking with others, and stripping them of their 
vain hopes." 

The enemy was roused there, and the friends 
of the truth were often reviled and abused. An 
attempt was made, at one time, by some wicked 
men, to exclude by force the preachers of the gos- 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



pel from the church. But their counsel was put 
to naught, 

A few persons from Charbash, early in the 
revival, became interested in the work of their 
salvation. They attended the meetings frequently 
on the mission premises, and heard the truth from 
the preachers of the gospel, who often visited the 
village. Priest Benjamin was deeply convicted of 
sin, and for some days he appeared among us, 
pale and emaciated, like one from the dead. Sud- 
denly he fell sick, and when visited at his house 
by members of the mission, he was found in a 
peaceful and happy frame of mind, resting on the 
bosom of his Saviour, and only desiring that the 
Lord's will might be done. While he had peace 
in his own soul, he was burdened with an inex- 
pressible sense of the lost condition of his aged 
father and mother, and of the mass of the people 
in his village whose spiritual shepherd he was. 
When he recovered his health, and was able to 
leave his house, he was earnest and zealous in 
endeavoring to discharge his duty to his poor peo- 
ple. From that time to the present, he has ap- 
peared to adorn the doctrine of God, his Saviour, 
and we have reason to believe that his labors for 
the salvation of others have not been in vain. He 
has borne reproach and persecution with com- 
mendable humility and patience. When denied 



Digitized by Google 



172 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



a place for himself and wife in his father's house, 
he meekly took up his abode in a small room in 
the yard, and thought it better to be there, where 
any might come unmolested who wished to hear 
the truth, than to be in more comfortable circum- 
stances. 

From the commencement of this work of grace, 
much prayer was offered by the friends of the Re- 
deemer for the Nestorian quarter of the city; but, 
though so near our door, the religious interest 
never became general there. The temptations of 
the people in that quarter are peculiar. At one 
time — it was near the last of February — the 
pious natives were full of hope and expectation 
that this stronghold of sin and Satan was giving 
way, and that Christ was about to take possession 
of it for himself. Up to this time they had held 
meetings frequently in the place, but only in pri- 
vate houses, which were, however, attended by 
many people. But now a deputation was sent to 
them by the principal men of that quarter, pro- 
posing that if they would come to the church and 
preach, they would all attend. The native breth- 
ren were much encouraged by this proposition. 
We can never forget the joy that lighted up the 
face of priest Eshoo, when it was made. They 
went to the church, and preached to a congrega- 
tion consisting of persons of every description. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



173 



Some quite drunk were present. All the chief 
men of the place were civil to the brethren, and 
said nothing in opposition. Only some low fel- 
lows gave vent to their hatred of the truth. 
When any outward emotion was manifested by 
any one, under the preaching of the word, as was 
sometimes done by those who had been awakened 
at the meetings on the mission premises, some 
shameless person would speak out, " What, are 
you becoming a fool ? " The native brethren did 
not long frequent the church. The blessing of 
the Lord did not appear to rest upon their labors 
in it. They, however, continued to labor in pri- 
vate houses, and by the wayside, and a few were 
brought into the fold of the good Shepherd. 

Babito, a joiner, a subject of the former revi- 
val, rapidly grew in grace and knowledge in this. 
He labored with his family and neighbors with 
great devotion, and it was thought that -God 
blessed his efforts to the salvation of some souls. 
He is indeed a burning and shining light among 
his people. 

In this place, the case of a joiner's apprentice 
ought to be mentioned. He was a poor orphan 
boy. One Sabbath he was seen by one of the 
native brethren working at his trade, and was 
expostulated with for it. The word was timely, 
and the Spirit blessed it to his awakening. That 



Digitized by 



174 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



night he attended the meeting on the mission 
premises, and was deeply affected. He attended 
again the next night, and on, Tuesday morning — 
it was February 20 — came into our house to 
family worship. He was much agitated during 
the exercises. He left the room with others, who 
were in the habit of attending, but soon returned 
in great distress of mind, and weeping like a little 
child. He trembled from head to foot, and sank 
down upon the floor, overcome by his emotions. 
I asked him, " What is your burden ? " He re- 
plied, "I am a great liar, swearer, thief, &c. ; 
what shall I do ? " After being pointed to Christ 
he left the house. For some time he continued 
to attend regularly upon the means of grace, and 
the native brethren, who saw most of him, thought 
that he had committed his all to Christ. 

In noticing the places where the presence of 
the Holy Spirit was specially manifested, the vil- 
lage of Vazerowa is to be mentioned. Situated 
as it is near Geog Tapa, it could not be otherwise 
than influenced by the remarkable scenes which 
transpired there. But the agency of Deacon 
Sayid, the teacher of the school in Vazerowa, 
ought to be recognized. Having been, as we 
trust, truly converted to Christ some years before, 
he early waked up, this winter, and breathed in 
the spirit of revival. I am not informed in detail 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



175 



of what passed in the village during the progress 
of the work, I remember but a single incident. 
One night the deacon, with a full heart, was ad- 
dressing his own family on the subject of their 
salvation, and with such earnestness, that a num- 
ber of persons, who happened to be on the roofs, 
heard his voice, and gathered around the opening 
on the top of the house to listen. They could 
distinctly hear his exhortation, and, as I am in- 
formed, his words sank into their hearts, and they 
were melted to tears, as well as the members of 
his own family. 

Deacon Gewergis, as has been already men- 
tioned, participated in the revival scenes in the 
city and at Seir, during the month of January 
and a part of February. He entered into the 
work, and labored and prayed with great devo- 
tion. About the middle of February, he was so 
burdened with desire for the salvation of his fam- 
ily and neighbors in Tergawar, that he could 
remain here no longer and be contented. He 
returned home, and as soon as he entered his 
house his family and neighbors gathered round 
him, to whom he recounted what God was doing 
in Oroomiah. He closed with a direct appeal to 
them, which was blessed by the Spirit of God to 
their souls. A number of persons were then 
awakened, and, as the good deacon hopes, found 



Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



the pearl of great price. One of them was his 
own brother, older than himself. The deacon, in 
speaking of him, says, " The drowsiness that used 
before to close his eyes whenever the gospel was 
preached, from that time was turned into tears." 
Deacon Gewergis, full of love and zeal, went forth 
and preached the gospel in many other places 
besides his own village, and, at a later day, made 
an extensive tour, with Deacon John, in the moun- 
tain districts. Though he was not able to speak 
of any general awakening in the places he visited, 
he often found individuals, here and there, on 
whose minds the Holy Spirit appeared to be doing 
a saving work. 

It would be interesting to notice many particu- 
lar cases of conviction and hopeful conversion to 
Christ, in the course of this revival. This might 
be done to almost any extent, but an allusion to 
two only must suffice in this brief sketch. 

Deacon Isaac, the brother of Mar Shimon, the 
patriarch, long before this revival commenced, we 
had regarded as a reformed and enlightened, 
though not converted man. He had shown a 
strong attachment to evangelical views in defend- 
ing the mission when it was attacked by the pa- 
triarch, and in exposing himself to great reproach 
from the people in separating from him. During 
the month of January he was a serious and atten- 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



tive listener to the truth. But wheu addressed 
on the subject of his personal salvation, his mind 
appeared hampered with difficulties about the 
doctrine of election. Early in February he was 
taught by the Holy Spirit. He awoke to a sense 
of his duty to repent, and no longer was disposed 
to excuse himself from it on the ground of any 
inability on his part. When conversed with, he 
seemed tender, and thenceforth desired to live for 
the glory of God. We all remember how fer- 
vently and humbly he poured out his soul in 
prayer when called upon in our social meetings. 
Though naturally a proud man, now he had the 
simplicity of a little child, and was ready to sit at 
the feet and learn of the most humble of the 
people. He used to send for the " mountain Sa- 
rah " to come to his room and talk and pray with 
him. From that day to this he has appeared to 
walk with God ; and it becomes us to give thanks 
to God, that he chose one so gifted in intellect, so 
effective as a public speaker, to be a vessel of 
mercy to this perishing people. 

The case of Malek Aga Beg, of Geog Tapa, is 
one of the deepest interest. Being the most in- 
fluential layman on the plain of Oroomiah, and 
being surrounded by the strongest temptations on 
account of his position, his conversion is a won- 
derful trophy of the power of divine grace. Early 

12 



Digitized by Google 



178 MISSIONARY LIFE 

in February he manifested unusual interest in the 
subject of religion, and was observed often to weep 
under the preaching of the gospel, and to be much 
in prayer. On the 23d of February he accepted 
the invitation of a member of the mission to come 
to the mission premises in the city, and spend a 
few days, that he might be more free from worldly 
cares to attend to the concerns of his soul. While 
there, he requested to see his daughter, a member 
of the female seminary, and the other girls in the 
seminary from Geog Tapa — seven or eight in 
number. They gathered around him, and, in an 
earnest and affectionate strain, pleaded with him 
to make his peace with God. He asked them to 
pray with him, and they knelt down and prayed 
one after another. He was affected and wept, 
and then he prayed himself. I do not know just 
the period when he found peace ; but from about 
this time he showed more decision in the cause 
of Christ than ever before, and he has appeared 
ever since to grow in grace and knowledge. He 
is a source of great joy to the native brethren in 
Geog Tapa, by his humble walk and godly con- 
versation. He aids them in every way in his 
power ; occasionally accompanies Deacon John 
and others when they go to neighboring villages 
to preach the gospel ; exercises his authority as a 
malik (or civil chief) to secure the proper ob- 

Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



179 



servance of the Sabbath, and to promote the cause 
of temperance, and spends his leisure time in 
learning to read. 

As to the means used to promote this work of 
grace, we may mention, 1. Prayer. Early in Janu- 
ary those who had a heart to pray, both in the city 
and at Seir, began to meet daily for prayer. Sub- 
sequently the meetings became more general, and 
included all who wished to attend. We can not 
doubt that much prevailing prayer was offered in 
them ; and still more, far more, was done in the 
closet to advance this work. There, in a peculiar 
manner, the struggling, agonizing prayefof faith 
was poured forth by burdened souls. 

Yes, it is prayer that has wrought these won- 
ders. God in a remarkable manner heard and 
answered the supplications of his children. He 
is a prayer-hearing God. Those nights spent in 
continued prayer were not in vain. Those hours, 
when the children of God knelt before the throne 
of grace, aud poured forth their souls with strong 
crying aud tears, had their fruits. Our God is a 
faithful God, and oh that his professed children, 
in ail the world, would take him at his word, and 
ask and receive ! 

2. The preaching of the word. The members 
of the mission and their native helpers endeav- 
ored, in the strength of God, to obey the corn- 



Digitized by 



180 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



mand of the apostle — " Preach the word ; be 
instant in season and out of season ; reprove, 
rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doc- 
trine." The great truths of the word of God, as 
man's total depravity, regeneration by the power 
of the Holy Spirit, salvation by the free grace of 
God on the terms of repentance and faith in Christ, 
were set forth in the most plain and simple man- 
ner. Some of the native preachers had a pecu- 
liar unction from the Holy One in unfolding these 
truths, and in pressing them upon the sinner's 
heart and conscience. They preached with un- 
wonted Ability and power. 

3. Efforts for the salvation of individuals. 
These were abundant from the very commence- 
ment of the work. For months, probably, scarce- 
ly an individual came upon the mission premises, 
whatever his errand might be, who was not taken 
by the hand, led to some retired place, entreated 
to attend to his soul's salvation, and prayed with. 
Our hearts have often been melted as we have 
overheard these tender and pungent appeals. I 
can not refrain from recording one, which is but a 
specimen of many others. One of the girls of the 
seminary was spending a few days in one of the 
mission families. While there, she was faithful 
in laboring with a woman living in the -family as 
a nurse. One evening she drew her away alone, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



181 



and was overheard addressing her in the follow- 
ing strain : " My dear B., iny heart burns for you 
— you are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. 
Your soul is as my soul — why will you pefish? 
Think of your soul — think of your poor husband 
and children in the village — they are perishing 
in their sins. You love them. You have left 
them, and are here doing service that you may 
earn bread for their dying bodies. Think of their 
souls and your own. What will you do without 
Christ ? Lift your eyes to him hanging on the 
bloody cross. See him die ; he dies for you" 
The blessing of God has rested in a very peculiar 
manner on these efforts for the salvation of indi- 
viduals. 

In view of what God has already done for this 
people, we have reason to hope and expect much 
in future. Blessed be his name for the showers 
of mercy which he has vouchsafed to the plain ; 
but what wide regions still remain dry and 
parched ! The darkness of midnight still sits 
upon the mountains. They, too, need these gra- 
cious visitations from on high. Let us, then, 
gird up the loins of our minds — give ourselves to 
prayer and effort ; for in truth the song of salva- 
tion shall roll over every mountain, echo through 
every valley, and a multitude shall become the 



Digitized by Google 



182 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



sons and daughters of the Most High ; for the 
Lord our God hath spoken it." 

Thus far the sketch of the revival of 1849, 
by Dr. Wright. It may serve to convey to the 
reader a good general idea of the character and 
fruits of about half a score of seasons of refresh- 
ing from the presence of the Lord, with which the 
Nestorian field has been graciously visited during 
the last sixteen years. 



Digitized by 



IN PEESIA. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RELIGIOUS INTEREST AMONG THE MOHAMMEDANS. 

** The Gentiles sludl come to thy liglti." 

Influence of the Reformation among the KcBtorians on the Moham- 
medans.— Oroomiah the Home of Zoroaster. — The Persian Scrip- 
tures. — Individual Inquirers among Persians and Koorda. — Pro- 
spective Ingathering. 

The reformation among the Nestorian Chris- 
tians, as might be expected, and was expected 
when our mission was commenced, is a most 
effective agency in making known the gospel to 
the Mohammedans, both Persians and Koords, 
who are the dominant classes in the lands where 
those Christians are situated. The pious Nesto- 
rians, now forming a numerous and influential 
body, are indeed a city set on a hill, whose light 
can not possibly be hid in that very heart of Mo- 
hammedan darkness. 

Oroomiah, the principal seat, of our missionary 
operations hitherto, has long been memorable as 
an emanating center of religious influence. It 
was the home of Zoroaster, the founder of the 



Digitized by Google 



184 MISSIONARY LIFE 



ancient system of fire-worshipers* in Persia, 
whose lofty mounds of accumulated ashes on that 
yast and beautiful plain still indicate the sites of 
their altars of perpetual flame. It has also been 
conspicuous at later periods as the home of dis- 
tinguished doctors of the Mohammedan system. 
And with the Nestorians there as an evangelizing 
fulcrum, what more befitting point on which to 
rest the missionary's gospel lever to act on the 
mingled masses — to upheave and sweep away 
the Mohammedan system ? In the language of 
the lamented Eli Smith, in the report of his visit 
of exploration to that distant spot more than 
thirty years ago, what more appropriate center 
where to " rekindle the light of pure Christianity, 
to shine forth upon the corruptions of the Persian 
on the one hand, aud the barbarities of the Koord 
on the other, till all shall come to its brightness, 
and the triumphs of faith shall crown his labors 
of love " ? 

The striking and delightful changes that have 

* There are not, probably, more than ten thousand fire worshipers 
now remaining in Persia. Most of these are found in the city of Tezd ; 
a few reside in Tehran. They are a down-trodden, mild people, called 
by the Mohammedans gwbtts, (infidels.) They bow to the rising sun, 
and perform various ablations. They also perform pilgrimages to Bak- 
koo, a locality of naphtha springs, on the western shore of the Cas- 
pian Sea, which spontaneously ignite, and are constantly burning. The 
Par sec s of India, as the fire-worshipers are there called, were driven 
to that country by the Persian Mohammedans, and arc a numerous and 
enterprising people. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



185 



taken place among those nominal Christians dur- 
ing the last twenty-five years, already described, 
raisiug thousands of them from sottish ignorance 
and stupidity to intelligence and mental activity, 
and hundreds from deep moral degradation to the 
purity and the beauty of holiness, exemplified in 
individual character and life, in households^eigh- 
borhoods, and villages, form a spectacle that can 
not fail to arrest general attention, and produce 
a profound impression. Religious discussion has 
thus become common on the part of the pious 
and enlightened Nestorians with their Moham- 
medan neighbors and superiors ; and cases are 
not wanting of intelligent followers of the false 
prophet avowing themselves convinced of the 
truth of Christianity, and ready to make a public 
profession of it but for the death penalty, that 
at present would inevitably follow such a pro- 
fession. 

The recent promulgation of more tolerant laws 
in Turkey, as a consequence of the late war with 
Russia, opens a partial asylum for such Persians. 
In one instance, a very amiable young Persian 
meerza, (scribe,) convinced of the truth of the 
gospel, imbued with its spirit, and earnestly de- 
siring to make a public avowal of it, traveled 
the long and arduous journey of twelve hundred 
miles, to Constantinople, to enjoy that privilege. 



Digitized by Google 



186 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



There ho was baptized by Mr. Schauffler with 
the appropriate name of Henry Martyn. He is 
now pursuing a Christian course of study, we 
trust, to become a herald of salvation to his coun- 
trymen. 

One of our Nestorian helpers accompanied that 
young* Christian brother of Mohammedan origin 
in his escape from his native land a hundred 
miles to befriend him in case of disaster. He 
was often astonished, and sometimes not a little 
concerned, at the boldness and ability with which, 
in public, as well as in private, this meerza pro- 
claimed salvation through a Saviour's blood ; his 
very boldness for the time disarming bigotry, and 
shielding him from the hand of violence. And 
as the pious Nestorian and this young convert 
from the proud followers of Mohammed bowed 
the knee together and implored the Spirit's influ- 
ence on the word thus proclaimed, did not angels 
rejoice over the spectacle ? 

The wonderful providential changes which char- 
acterize our age, especially in the Eastern world, 
warrant the hope that the rigor of Mohammedan 
law in Persia also will ere long be relaxed, and 
converts to Christianity from the Mohammedans 
there have no longer a bloody ordeal to pass 
in the profession of their faith in the Re- 
deemer. 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA 



187 



Happily the entire Scriptures exist in the Per- 
sian language* — the New Testament as trans- 
lated by the holy Martyn f half a century ago, 
and the Old Testament, translated more recently 
by the venerable Scottish missionary Dr. Glen, 
who found* his grave a few years ago at the Per- 
sian capital. These excellent translations have 
been extensively circulated by an agent of Brit- 
ish Christians, as well as by our mission — not 
broadcast exactly, but presenting copies discreet- 
ly to persons who would prize them; and the 
sacred volume in these attractive forms is thus 
read by increasing numbers of the Persians. Not 

* I here speak of the language of the Mohammedans, and not that 
of the Nestorians, into which oar mission have translated the Sorip- 
turcs. 

t Just as I was leaving Persia I fell in with a Chaldean bishop about 
seventy years old, in the district of Salmas, with whom Martyn had 
stopped as a guest for a week, forty-seven years before. This aged man 
is the only Persian I have met who personally recollected Martyn. He 
was charmed with the missionary, pronouncing him the finest English- 
man he ever saw ; and his remembrance of him was very vivid so long 
afterward. Ue spoke of him as social, active, and inquisitive, writing 
from morning till night, yet always ready to engage in conversation 
with all who called — as very temperate, eating (as the bishop figura- 
tively said) an egg for breakfast, and dining on a chicken wing. When 
riding out to visit antiquities in the region, he was accustomed to pro- 
pose a topic for discussion ; for instance, when they mounted their 
horses one day, Martyn said to the bishop, " Let us discuss the ques- 
tion, Was darkness* created? You take one side, and I will the other, 
and see what we make of it ; " showing Martyn's taste for metaphysics, 
and his knowledge of the Persian tastes and mind. The bishop repre- 
sented him as small in stature and frail in appearance. There must 
have been wonderful power, as well as a singular fascination, in Martyn 
to have left so enduring and grateful an impression on that Persian. 



Digitized by Google 



188 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



a few of our Nestorian helpers learn to read that 
language (which is not vernacular to them) that 
they may use it in expounding the Scriptures to 
the Mohammedans. 

What is true of the influence of our labors on 
the Mohammedans of Persia is measurably true 
also in regard to those in the Assyrian mountains. 
There the barbarous Koord is often an attentive 
listener to the gospel as proclaimed by the mis- 
sionary and his Nestorian helpers. As a class, 
the Koords, though rough and savage, are still 
remarkably accessible to the gospel message. 

Thus it is, as before suggested, through the 
Nestorian Christians as a nucleus and an effec- 
tive agency, that the millions of Mohammedans in 
Persia and Koordistan — yes, and through un- 
measured regions far beyond them — are to be 
brought to the knowledge and acknowledgment 
of the gospel ; and the position and character 
of this remnant of an ancient church, possessing 
remarkable qualifications for the fulfillment of 
that high agency, invest those Christians, and our 
labors for their reformation, with an interest and 
importance quite independent of their numbers. 
Their ancestral missionary history* being one of 
unparalleled interest, Persia, Tartary, Thibet, 
Hindoostan, and China, during many bygone 
centuries, having been scenes of the little less 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 18tf 



than apostolic zeal and success of their fathers, it 
is proper to hope that the descendants of such 
an ancestry, fallen though they have long been, 
will emulate that illustrious example with the 
revival of pure Christianity among them ; and 
such is their own fondly-cherished anticipation 
and holy ambition.* Indeed, the reformation now 
in such rapid and cheering progress among the 
Nestorians should be regarded more in the light 
of a means than as an end. Momentous in itself 
as an end, it still looks to an ulterior and far 
broader object — the conversion of uncounted 
millions of Mohammedans, among whom Provi- 
dence has placed and preserved that remnant of 
a once great missionary church, we trust, for such 
an end. We have been accustomed to contem- 
plate that end as yet far off in the distant future. 
But present indications rebuke the weakness of 
our faith. 

Favoring the Christian influences now brought 
in advantageous contact with the Mohammedans 
in their strongholds, is their own deep and wide- 
spread distrust in their religious system, and 
growing apprehension of its downfall, a forebod- 
ing, in this case as in many others, hastening the 
result it most dreads. The sword, they are fully 

* One of our most promising helpers has often importuned us to 
send him onward to regions beyond. 



Digitized by Google 



190 MISSIONARY LIFE 



sensible, is passing from their hands, and they 
feel that a religion propagated and maintained by 
the sword must fall with the staff on which it 
leaned. 

Surprising moral and religious changes, we 
know, are often of very sudden occurrence, espe- 
cially where preparatory influences have long 
been in operation. The colossal iceberg, for illus- 
tration, may be months, or years, or ages loosen- 
ing its hold on the solid polar mountain, under 
storms, or the gentle power of a brief summer 
sun, or the wild lashings of the sea ; but it finally 
parts from its moorings in a twinkling. As I 
listened, at Constantinople, on my return to this 
. country, to an excellent sermon from a converted 
Turk, in open day, in a public assembly and a 
Protestant chapel, the scene struck me as one of 
very deeply affecting interest, and not more in- 
dicative of the marvelous changes that have 
recently transpired in that capital than as fore- 
shadowing yet greater ones to come, and prob- 
ably very near at hand, both there and in Persia. 
The latter country, lying side by side, will not 
fail to follow quickly any favorable movements 
in Turkey. And more recently still has been 
witnessed in that Mohammedan capital, the scene 
of the once bigoted moollah, while discoursing 
from the Koran in the great mosque, indignantly 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



closing the book and pronouncing it a lie — a 
thing which could not have occurred there a 
short time ago without that moollah's leaving the 
mosque at least a head shorter. The religious 
interest among the Mohammedans of Persia may 
best be shown by brief extracts from letters of mis- 
sionary brethren in the field. One of my associates, 
Mr. Coan, writes thus : " God seems to be moving 
on the hearts of many of the Mohammedans. I 
gave a New Testament a few days since to a 
prominent merchant. He has read attentively 
the four Gospels, and had a long discussion be- 
fore the saint, Meerza Ali Akbar, in the pres- 
ence of several of the Moslem heads of the 
town, in which he maintained the divinity of 
Christ." 

The " saint," so called in the foregoing extract, 
is a Mohammedan priest, regarded by his follow- 
ers as so holy that they dignify him with the title 
of saint, and some, in their delusion, kiss the 
ground on which he treads. 

In a letter dated a few days later, the same 
missionary writes, " You will be surprised, per- 
haps, to hear that many of the Mohammedaus are 
inquiring. One, formerly a moollah, but latterly 
a merchant, is keeping up discussion openly in 
the market. Men are astonished at his boldness. 
We know not whereunto this may grow. The 



Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



movement among the Mohammedans at Constan- 
tinople is felt even here." 

Dr. Wright, another of my associates, in a letter 
of still later date, writes as follows : " You may 
have heard of a Koord, living on the river above 
the village of Bant, who has often been to the 
village of Dcgala, to discuss religious subjects 
with Deacon Joseph. The same man has been in 
our guest room in the city, and at our house at 
family prayers. A few days ago he came and 
wanted to bo baptized. I had much conversa- 
tion with him, speaking in Persian, and was sur- 
prised to find him so well .informed as to the way 
of salvation through Ciirist. He appeared won- 
derfully well. I stated the reasons why we could 
not baptize him in Persia. He passed the night 
on our premises. In the morning, when he came 
to take leave of me, he said, with deep serious- 
ness, " I came to you to be baptized ; you don't 
do it. Can you answer for your refusal to Christ 
in the judgment day ? " That is a juncture to 
try men's souls. It is not from lack of courage 
that the missionary declines baptism in such 
cases ; but he prefers that applicants for baptism 
from the Mohammedans should go into Turkey 
for that purpose, where the death penalty for con- 
version is abolished, rather than subject them 



Digitized by Google 



IN PEBSIA. 193 

to that penalty until toleration may be granted 
in Persia. 

May we not thus hope and believe that the 
second half century of the operations of the 
American Board is to be ushered in by the com- 
mencement of a great ingathering of Mohamme- 
dans, both in Turkey and in Persia ? 

13 



Digitized by Google 



194 MISSIONARY LIFE 



CHAPTER IX. 

OBSTACLES REMOVED, AND OPPOSITION OVERRULED. 
" The thinas which Juwncned unto me have fallen out rather unto the 

Obstacles not Hindrances. — Civil Oppression. — Papal Inflnence. — 
Ncstorlan Massacres by the Koords. — The Waldensian Hymn. — 
The Slaughter on Mount Lebanon. — Restrictions from the Persian 
Government. — Russian Influence. — The Early Deatli of Missiona- 
ries.— Civilizing Agencies.— English Protection and Aid in the 
Missionary Wort. 

The faithful missionary watchman, in respond- 
ing to the church's inquiry, What of the night ? 
may not dwell exclusively on the signs of the ap- 
proach of morning, but tell also the state of the 
night ; for the night also comcth, after there are 
tokens of morning. Its dark folds, for the time, 
obscure the cheering rays of approaching day, 
and threaten to extinguish -them. Yet they only 
thus threaten. The faith of the watchman learns 
to trust in every such temporary obscuration, as- 
sured by experience that the passing clouds will 
not long intercept the beams of the Sun of Right- 
eousness ; nay, those very clouds, in their varied 
evolutions, are intended in the end only to hasten 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



195 



the approach, and display more fully the glory, of 
the morning. It is preeminently in the missiona- 
ry work that 

** Behind a frowning providence 
God hides a smiling face." 

The echo of the prophet, " The morning cometh, 
also the night" has, indeed, a deep and solemn 
significance in a missionary's experience. We 
would not conceal the fact that obstacles exist. 
Bat they are removed or surmounted, in the prov- 
idence of God, doing little more in effect than to 
raise slight ripples on the mighty stream of that 
providence, to show the rapidity of its current 
toward the sure and full accomplishment of his 
purposes of mercy. Though mountains, they be- 
come a plain before Zerubbabel. The night yields 
to the rays of approaching day, as they glimmer 
on the eastern sky. The morning in nature, .we 
know, is often all the more beautiful for the pres- 
ence of clouds that linger in the horizon. The 
brightest bows of promise span the arch of heaven 
after tempestuous storms, and on the darkest 
retiring clouds. In all cases we may rest assured 
that the clouds and the storms are the Lord's, as 
well as the fair weather ; and as clouds and 
storms are vehicles of mercy and of blessings in 
the natural, so are they in the spiritual world, 
and preeminently in the missionary work. 



Digitized by Google 



196 MISSIONARY LIFE 



CIVIL OPPRESSION. 

A dark cloud in our field, and a serious obsta- 
cle to the progress of Christianity there, at first 
view, is the heavy civil oppression which the Nes- 
torians experience from their Mohammedan ru- 
lers and masters, though not a great deal heavier 
than rests also on the Mohammedan peasantry. 
It is an oppression whose iron bolt goes through 
the soul, binding it down in its noblest aspirations 
to rise socially and civilly ; /yet, even in that land 
of Mohammedan darknes* and grinding despot- 
ism, it does not deny to those nominal Christians 
their Bibles and churches, nor separate their fam- 
ilies, nor rob them of their manhood, nor deprive 
them of their personal freedom, and of many of 
their proper rights and privileges as men and as 
subjects ; and it never treats nor regards them in 
any sense as chattels. And how long, in humili- 
ating contrast, must this refinement of sin and of 
wrong be practised by Protectant Christians under 
a republican government ? 

While the civil disabilities of the Nestorians, 
the oppressive exactions and crippling restrictions 
which they suffer, bear heavily upon them, the 
galling yoke is still doubtless overruled, by that 
wonder-working economy of Divine Providence, 
which from great evil educes a greater good, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



for their more welcome reception of the gospel. 
They rejoice the more, in consequence of that op- 
pression, that to the poor, emphatically, the gospel 
is preached. 

Christian hope, too, comes in to lighten their 
burdens, and soften the rigor of their hardships ; 
on the one hand, yielding them present conso- 
lation, and on the other, grateful anticipation; 
for it assures them that " godliness is profitable 
unto all things, having promise of the life that 
now is, and of that which is to come ; " that the 
meek shall, in due time, inherit the earth. And 
this they find true, to a limited extent, in their 
own experience ; for, as they rise in intelligence 
and moral character, they rise rapidly also in the 
respect which they receive from the dominant 
classes. The change, in this matter, which has 
taken place during a quarter of a century, is sur- 
prising. When we entered our field, it was un- 
safe for a Ncstorian to appear in public clad in 
new, or even decent, apparel. It would be 
stripped from him in the streets by some rapa- 
cious Mohammedan ruffian. Now, nothing of the 
kind occurs at Oroomiah. Then, compulsory con- 
version to Mohammedanism was common, more 
especially of attractive young females, by their 
Mussulman admirers, with the purpose of marry- 
ing them. Now, such conversions are not allowed ; 



Digitized by Google 



198 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



and when attempted, the parties are often sent by 
the authorities to the missionary, that he may 
hear the declaration of the supposed convert, un- 
embarrassed, whether coercion has been used to 
convert her, and, if so, the proceeding is arrested. 
And the evangelical Nestorians, as a class, are 
treated by their Mohammedan superiors with 
marked consideration in a country where persons 
of all nationalities, bearing the Christian name, 
had been more heartily despised than the dogs of 
the streets. These oppressed Nestorians are thus 
beginning to comprehend that it is for their sins 
that God permits them to be thus trodden down, 
as was the case with Israel of old ; and that, as 
pure Christianity takes root in the hearts of men 
in any land, it weakens the oppressor's rod, and 
points to a year of jubilee to come. Most natural- 
ly, therefore, does their grievous yoke itself lead 
them to long for the coming of that kingdom, in 
the midst of them and around them, which is 
made up of those who do justly, love mercy, and 
walk humbly with God — assured that where the 
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 

PAPAL INFLUENCE. 

The zealous proselyting exertion of the French 
Jesuits has long been a dark cloud in our horizon, 
as is the case at almost every Protestant mission 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



199 



station. Knowing well the importance of the 
Nestorians, for or against their cause, they leave 
no stone unturned to subject them to the Papal 
yoke. It is difficult for those who have never 
been thrown into proximity with French Jesuits 
to realize that even Popery can transform its prop- 
agators, who are from a civilized land, into such 
perpetrators of evil, and therefore difficult to con- 
ceive the nature and number of the wicked expe- 
dients to which they resort, descending to the very 
lowest, to effect their object. Think of a polished 
French priest, for example, with his own hands 
pitching one of our pious, unoffending Nestorian 
helpers into a stream, and plunging him under 
the water, after calling in vain on his native con- 
verts to "come and drown him;" all for the sim- 
ple offense of entering the village where the priest 
resided — to strike terror on any who should in 
future be so presumptuous. 

It is matter of gratitude to God that these em- 
issaries of the pope in Persia have met with com- 
paratively a small measure of success in their 
efforts to convert the Nestorians. The gospel had 
entered that field before them ; and where it has 
free scope the race is not doubtful. Their tire- 
less exertions and endless stratagems have there 
turned out rather unto the furtherance of the 
gospel ; on the one hand, quickening our mission 



Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



and Nestorian believers in their efforts to save the 
people from the threatening Papal thralldom; 
and, on the other hand, the policy of the Jesuits 
has revealed such depths of iniquity, which those 
Eastern Christians had never before conceived, 
as effectually to demonstrate to them the worth- 
lessness, and worse than worthlessness, of a reli- 
gion of forms, and give to multitudes a strong 
disrelish for that part of their own religious sys- 
tem which is merely formal, (though far less 
unscriptural than the Papal system,) and, in the 
same measure, enhance their estimation of a reli- 
gion of inward vitality and practical godliness. 

But in the remoter portions of our field, on the 
western declivities of the Assyrian mountains, the 
Jesuits have had their own way. There the gos- 
pel lamp has not met them at each turn, to expel 
the deep darkness they would intensify ; and 
there, consequently, more success has attended 
their exertions. Speedily, should those portions 
of the field be manned* with missionaries, to resist 
that active adversary, now waging so desperate a 
warfare. 

NESTORIAN MASSACRES. 

Another dark cloud that settled on our field — 
and to human view the darkest — was the bloody 

• Mr. Rhea and his associates have in mind soon to commence a sta- 
tion on the western side of the mountains. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



massacre of thousands of Nestorians, about seven- 
teen years ago, by the ruthless, fanatical Eoords, 
led on by two tigers in human form, — the noted 
chiefs, Noor-oolah Bey and Bader KMn Bey, — 
when, like fearful avalanches, descending upon 
their peaceful vales, the savage hordes suddenly 
surprised the brave, but too self-confident inhab- 
itants, and mercilessly put thousands of them to 
indiscriminate and wantonly revolting slaughter ; 
when helpless infants, tossed on the points of their 
spears, and caught again while falling, before the 
eyes of their agonized mothers, were but pastimes 
in the appalling tragedy. 

But mark the providence of God in an event 
itself so dark and melancholy. Nothing less 
than the thrill of horror which the tale of those 
haassacres every where excited could have roused 
the indignation of Christian governments, and 
impelled them to demand of the Porte to send 
an overpowering army iuto those wild border 
regions, put a hook into the nose of those modern 
Sennacheribs, and drag them to a far distant 
and life-long exile on the Island of Crete, where 
they still are ; thus breaking effectually the ter- 
rible power of the Koords, and establishing the 
more regular and far less unrighteous govern- 
ment of the sultan throughout the Koordish 
mountains. 



Digitized by Google 



202 MISSIONARY LIFE 

It was my lot, on my return to America, to be 
on board the same Turkish steamer from Trebi- 
zond to the Osmaniy capital, which bore the rem- 
nant of Bader Khfin Bey's connections, about 
twenty in number, in chains on the deck, on their 
way to join the fallen chieftain in his dreary exile. 
Nothing but the impression of retributive jus- 
tice reconciled me to the sight, and especially to 
the captivity of the poor females, one of whom, 
sickening from the hardships of the long land 
journey, died on the passage, and was thrown 
overboard. Verily there is a righteous God in 
heaven, who rules in the affairs of men, nor least 
of all in the dark places of the earth, which are 
full of the habitations of cruelty. The murderous 
sword of the savage Koord proved no less fatal 
to itself than to its bleeding victims in those 
fearful massacres. 

On the other hand, mark the effect of that sore 
visitation on the surviving portion of the moun- 
tain Nestoriaus. It has proved morally beneficial 
to them. Shut up in their rugged fastnesses, 
complacently felicitating themselves on the muni- 
tion of rocks thrown around them by the Crea- 
tor's hand, bearing the Christian name, and 
retaining the Christian rites with a simplicity 
almost primitive, though sadly fallen in - their 
moral condition, those Christians had come to 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA 



fancy themselves the inalienable favorites of 
Heaven, too wise to be instructed, too good to 
be reformed. Not inaptly would the thrilling 
strains of the hymn that has so often reverberated 
through the valleys of Piedmont, as sung by the 
Waldenses, in many respects have represented the 
self-gratulatory feelings of the mountain Nestori- 
ans at that period. 

For the strength of the hills we bless thee, 

Our God, oar Cithers' God ; 
Thou hast made thy children mighty 

By the touch of the mountain sod } 
Thou hast fixed our rock of refuge 

Where the spoiler's feet ne'er trod ; 
For the strength of the hills we bless thee, 

Our God, our fathers' God. 

We are watchers of a beacon 

Whose light must never die ; 
We are guardians of an altar 

'Midst the silence of the sky ; 
The rocks yield founts of courage, 

Struck forth as by thy rod ; 
For the strength of the hills we bless thee, 

Our God, our fathers' God. 

For the dark surrounding caverns, 

Where thy still small voice is heard ; 
For the strong pines of the forest, 

Which by thy strength are stirred ; 
For the storm, on whose free pinions 

Thy Spirit walks abroad ; 
For the strength of the hills we bless thee, 

Our God, our lathers' God. 

The royal eagle darteth 

On his quarry from the hights ; 
And the stag, that knows no master, 

Seeks there his wild delights ; 



Digitized by Google 



204 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



But we, for thy communion, 
Hare sought the mountain sod ; 

For the strength of the hills we bless thee, 
Our God, our fathers' God. 

The banner of the chieftain 

Far, far below us waves ; 
The war-horse of the spearman 

Can not reach our lofty caves ; 
Thy dark clouds wrap the threshold 

Of freedom's last abode ; 
For the strength of the hills we bless thee, 

Our God, our lathers' God. 

For the shadow of thy presence, 
Round our camp of rock outspread , 

For the stern defiles of battle, 
Bearing record of our dead ; 

For the snows, and for the torrents,* 
For the free heart's burial sod ; 

For the strength of the hills we bless thee, 



Alas ! they had fallen — forsaken their God — 
their fathers' God ; yet little conscious were they 
of their fall. In the graphic language of one of 
their more intelligent bishops, addressed to them 
just before the sad day of their visitation, they 
were confident of being taken right up to heaven 
just as they were, with their muddy sandals all 
on — far enough from a state to receive, or hold, 
the truth in the love of it, vainly glorying in the 
dead letter. 

But the overwhelming tornado of slaughter 
broke the spell of their false confidence that they 
were the inalienable favorites of Heaven even in 





IN PERSIA 



their deep degradation, awakened them to a sense 
of their real condition, humbled them in view of 
it, and made them more grateful to the hand 
stretched out to help them. 

Their bloody catastrophe also drove forth many 
of the trembling survivors from their native cliffs 
and gorges, in which they had gloried and trustr 
ed, and brought them in contact with people of 
other nations, to receive from them gospel light, 
and feel a softening, humanizing influence. Their 
wild seclusion had well served the purpose of pre- 
serving for them, from age to age, the Christian 
name, and the Christian forms in comparative pu- 
rity, secure on the one hand from the vindictive 
Mussulman, and from the wily Jesuit on the other, 
till the boon of richer spiritual provisions should 
be restored to them. Large numbers went tem- 
porarily down to the plain of Oroomiah, and fell 
under evangelical influences there. Others de- 
scended, for the first time, to Mosul, and were met 
and blessed with similar influences there. And 
at Constantinople, on my way to this country, I 
met, in a Protestant chapel, one Sabbath, more 
than thirty of those poor Nestorians, who had 
wandered thither, for employment, from the far- 
off wilds of Bootan, the district of the famous Ba- 
der Kh&n Bey. I gladly preached Christ to them 
in that chapel, and they gladly received my mes- 



Digitized by Google 



206 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



sage ; their joy being affectingly evinced by ex- 
pressions of mingled surprise and delight, as the 
tones of their mother tongue fell on their ears, in 
that foreigu clime, in accents of good tidings. 
They had never before seen a missionary who 
could speak their language ; yet with character- 
istic simplicity they had enrolled themselves as 
Protestants * on being told by the Armenian con- 
verts that Protestants follow the New Testament 
as their guide of life and doctrine. These and 
other Nestorian wanderers for occupation, adven- 
ture, or gain, are thus brought under the influ- 
ence of light and truth, in the distant cities they 
Tisit, rays of which they convey back to their dark 
native mountains. 

Our mission and its helpers, as already stated, 
are bearing the lamp of life to those mountains, 
as they have strength to do it, and the Lord opens 
their way. 

The unworthy Nestorian patriarch Mar Shim- 
on, now in his dotage, has set himself against the 
progress of the gospel many years ; being led to 
do this by Puseyite counselors, and from choice 
when he perceived the spiritual tendency of our 
labors as likely to cross the superstitious homage 
which he exacts from his ignorant, down-trodden 

* Members of the Protestant community, not of the church. 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA 



207 



flock. Often has he made violent onsets against 
our helpers in the mountains ; but they have been 
little daunted thereby ; and very much in propor- 
tion to his opposition has his influence over his 
people diminished, and now there remains little 
either to hope or to fear from him. 

It is a wonder, in the providence of God, that 
those valleys in the heart of Koordistan, so much 
desolated by the massacres, are again quite as 
thickly populated, to say the least, as before ; and 
in all that is valuable in human freedom the moun- 
tain Nestorians now possess more of it under a 
regular Turkish government than they could ever 
have possessed in their former irresponsible and 
doubtful independence of that government, always 
liable to lawless onsets from the Koords, now 
effectually controlled by the same Turkish rule. 
And long ages, in the . ordinary course of events, 
could not have thrown those Nestorians and their 
Koordish neighbors and adversaries so fully open 
to the influences of the gospel as those same 
bloody massacres and their consequences have 
done it. Not, then, in vindictive wrath, but in 
judgment mingled with great mercy, did God visit 
them, that both might thereby be made partakers 
of the living gospel ; the poor Koord receiving 
it in lio small measure from his Nestorian brother, 
in the blood of whose kindred his or his father's 



Digitized by Google 



208 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



hand may be stained, dire evil being thus re- 
quited with the highest good, according to the 
holy dictates of that gospel. God may show us, 
there and elsewhere, that in building up his king- 
dom he attaches far less importance to nationali- 
ties than men are wont to do, magnifying rather 
the grand principle in the divine economy asserted 
by apostles, that he is no respecter of persons, 
but in every nation he that feareth God and work- 
eth righteousness is accepted with him, who hath 
made of one blood all the nations to dwell on the 
face of all the earth. And so, in regard to the ter- 
rific tornado of slaughter that has lately swept so 
furiously through many of the glens of the good- 
ly mountain of Lebanon, fearful, sanguinary, and 
revolting as it was in its occurrence, rest assured 
that God will bring greater good out of this great 
and sore evil, thus hastening the time when " the 
mountains/' always the haunts of terrible men in 
unevangelized lands, shall bring peace to the peo- 
ple, and Lebanon all the sooner thereby become 
more truly than ever a mountain of the Lord. 

RESTRICTIONS PROM GOVERNMENT. 

Another dark cloud that has hung over our 
field is the jealousy of the Persian government, 
which has led it to embarrass our work with some 
restrictions. This jealousy is not of long stand- 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



209 



ing. For a score of years that government not 
only tolerated our labors, but gave them positive 
encouragement ; in one instance, as we have 
seen, by a royal firman in our favor, unsought by 
us, and in other cases by edicts of provincial gov- 
ernors to the same purport, princes and high 
officials vying with each other in showing us 
kindness, regarding our work, as in truth it is, 
highly beneficial in the instruction and improve- 
ment of their subjects. When duty once called 
me to the capital to answer to some gross misrep- 
resentations filed against us there by our Papal 
adversaries, I stood before the former king for 
the purpose, who, satisfied of the falsity of those 
charges, declared to me in the kindest manner 
his approval of our residence and labors among 
his loyal subjects. 

The wonder is, that this very favorable disposi- 
tion of the Persians toward our mission continued 
so long, especially in view of the rapid and strik- 
ing changes which our labors, under the divine 
blessing, were producing. The mission is, in fact, 
a moral wonder, a surprising monument of God's 
providential and gracious care, suddenly rising and 
rapidly expanding, as it did in the heart of Moham- 
medan rule, with its flourishing seminaries, its 
many schools, its prdss, its scores of native preach- 
ers, and its hundreds of converts, all unharmed 

14 



Digitized by Google 



- 210 MISSIONARY LIFE 

aud unchecked for so long a period. The calm 
continued till the good work had taken root, and 
acquired a degree of strength and maturity 
which enabled it to bear the shock of persecution 
uninjured when it came, and even derive benefit 
from it. 

The government at length became suspicious 
of all foreign influence in the country, and it 
naturally classed our mission with other foreign- 
ers. There were not wanting French Jesuits 
near us, and their tools at the capital, to fabricate 
rumors unfavorable to us and the Protestant re- 
ligion, representing us as red republicans, level- 
ers, revolutionists. The former king had died, 
and his fickle son, a boy in years, and still more 
so in character, easily led by evil counselors, had 
ascended the throne.* 

The result was, that several years ago this 
young king appointed a civil governor of the Nes- 
torians to reside at Oroomiah, with special in- 
structions to restrict our labors, particularly our 
schools and preaching, and so annoy and harass 
our converts as to cripple our work, while some 
limitation of it only was the ostensible object. 

* The present Shah of Persia, like his eo temporary, the Saltan of 
Turkey, in imbecility, contrasted with the energy of his predecessors, 
is a standing emblem of the waning tendencies of the religious system 
that has so long scourged those two countries. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 211 

The agent selected for that evil purpose was well 
chosen, being remarkably wily and malevolent 
even for a Persian. He has repeatedly made 
violent onsets against our helpers, beating some, 
and wrathfully threatening all, but has accom- 
plished far less than he has attempted, and at- 
tempted far less than he has threatened. When 
persecution has raged most, as was the case dur- 
ing the late war between England and Persia, it 
seemed to effect little more than to impart firmness 
and decision to our suffering converts, and nerve 
them not only to bear much and cheerfully for 
Christ, but also to engage more actively than ever 
in his service. 

The providence of God has also strikingly in- 
terposed to thwart the designs of our enemies, 
some of the principal movers in the persecution 
being arrested by the hand of God in a manner 
so marked as to produce a strong impression. In 
one case, a Khan of high rank, a general in the 
army, volunteered to stand pledged to the govern- 
ment for the destruction of our mission, being the 
person who, as it was reported, first marked out 
the plan for accomplishing it. Not long after- 
ward, leading his troops back to the frontier 
mountains in the pride of his power, he levied 
heavy exactions on the border Koords, not for any 
specific misdemeanor on their part, but to replcn- 



Digitized by Google 



212 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



ish his exhausted coffers. To effect this object, 
the Koordish chief, a man of might, daring, and 
blood, was decoyed to the general's camp by fair 
promises, and then treacherously detaiued until 
he should meet the enormous demands. The 
chief, incensed and desperate, entered the gen- 
eral's tent, and told him that he had a private 
proposition for him. Being ordered to deliver 
it, he advanced seemingly to whisper it in the 
general's ear, but with a dagger concealed un- 
der his garment, with which he instantly assas- 
sinated the tyrant, while reclining on his damask 
cushions. 

This startling providence at once arrested the 
Persian agent's persecuting career; for he had 
relied for his power to carry it forward on the 
support of the now assassinated general. 

At the same time the governor of Azerbijan, 
the northern province of Persia, in rank the third 
man in the kingdom, was urging forward his in- 
feriors, the above-named KMn, and the agent, in 
the same work of persecuting our mission. He 
had rendered himself obnoxious at Tabrcez, his 
provincial capital, by extortion, and his subjects 
there just then rose in violent insurrection against 
him. It was with great difficulty that he escaped 
from the city. Soon being summoned to the cap- 
ital to answer for that state of things, he was 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



213 



stripped on the road of all his attendants and his 
baggage by officers of the king sent on for that 
purpose, mounted on a pack-saddle, and thus led 
a prisoner into Tehr&n in the greatest humilia- 
tion and terror, where he fled for his life to a 
place of refuge deemed inviolable even for the 
worst of criminals, all his immense ill-gotten 
treasures being immediately confiscated. 

Thus sudden are the changes of fortune, even 
with the favorites of royalty, in that land of des- 
potism. The more rapid and the higher the eleva- 
tion, the more precarious the tenure of place and 
power, and the more probable, as well as signal, 
the fall. And yet, such are the bad character and 
conduct of most Persian officials, that when thus 
rigorously treated they seldom receive more than 
a just requital for their evil deeds. 

The most active and powerful supporters of the 
Persian agent who was charged with the inter- 
ruption of our work being thus in quick succes- 
sion providentially cast down, the agent relaxed 
his zeal in his attempts to break up our schools 
and embarrass the labors of our evangelists ; and 
as before, and more than before, the gospel has 
since had free course and been glorified. 

Acknowledged toleration in Persia is a problem 
that must be practically worked out. To urge it 
on the government too strenuously would be to 



Digitized by Google 



214 MISSIONARY LIFE 

petition denial, and postpone the day of its being 
granted. But the evangelical Nestorians do, in 
fact, enjoy a considerable measure of toleration 
already ; and as their numbers increase, it will 
doubtless, in due time, become such in form, and, 
we trust, at no distant day, extend also to con- 
verts from the Mohammedans — perhaps as soon 
as pure Christianity there shall be most effectually 
advanced by it. In such a country some safe- 
guards against imposture are salutary. 

How easy for the Lord, when his cause requires 
it, to " instruct judges and reprove kings " for his 
servants' sake, sayiug, " Touch not mine anointed, 
and do my prophets no harm " ! 

RUSSIAN INFLUENCE. 

Another threatening obstacle to the progress 
of the gospel in Persia, as we have sometimes 
regarded it, is the prevalence of Russian influence 
in high places there, and the general apprehen- 
sion that that despotic power may eventually roll 
down its gloomy folds over the northern province 
of that country, if no further. 

"When I first went to my field I was told by 
many that the advance of Russia in that direction 
was inevitable and near at hand, as the debt of 
some millions, incurred in settling the terms at 
the conclusion of a war not long before, was due, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 215 



*and an important part of that province was held 
in pledge for its payment. And the same appre- 
hension has often since been urged as discour- 
aging to our missionary prospects, our field being 
almost within sight of the Russian frontier. But 
nevertheless, Russia has not encroached a foot on 
the territory of Persia in that direction during 
this period ; and the probability of such an event 
is less now than then, Russia having lost much 
of its former prestige in the East as a result of 
the last war with Turkey. * 

And so far from our mission having been in- 
jured by Russian influence in Persia, on the con- 
trary, it were ungrateful not to acknowledge its 
obligations to the kiiduess of high Russian offi- 
cials in that country. In one instance, when the 
Jesuits had laid deep their plot for breaking it 
up, they were boldly met and thwarted by the 
Russian embassador, Count Sled&n, an intelligent 
Protestant gentleman, (since Russian embassador 
at Washington,) whom Providence had placed in 
that important position for such a time. 

In another instance, in the late war between 
England and Persia, when we were without any 
civil protection in that remote Mohammedan 
land, whose inhabitants were then strongly excited 
against all in any way associated with the Eng- 
lish name and the Protestant faith, and the prop- 



Digitized by Google 



< 



216 ftflSSIONABY LIFE 

• 

osition was even made to mob, and perhaps massa- 
cre, the missionaries in their dwellings, Chevalier 
Khanikoff, another noble representative of Russia, 
promptly stepped forward for our succor, assert- 
ing our proper nationality, and claiming for us 
protection from the Persian authorities ; and his 
demand was heeded. 

I admit that such Russian officials are much 
better than the policy of the government they 
represent. That government, I know, is despotic, 
and especially jealous of missionary influences 
within its borders and beyond them. Of this I 
have often been made sensible ; and I was forcibly 
reminded of it by a little incident that occurred 
on my way home. When *at the house of Dr. 
Schauffler, of Constantinople, a German peasant 
from Odessa called one day and offered to take 
packages for the missionary. Dr. S. wished to 
send some account of the revivals then in progress 
in America to a pious Englishman residing at 
Odessa. For that purpose he tore up a number 
of the New York Tribune containing a very full 
and interesting account of those revivals, and 
told the peasant to wrap the torn pieces around 
his spare shoes, to evade the rigor of polico cen- 
sorship, and on delivering the paper, request his 
English friend to re-adjust the scraps and read it. 

What a tale does such an incident tell of the 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



217 



policy of Russia ! Yet there is hope, great hope, 
even in regard to Russia. How significant is the 
revival of the Bible Society there, which had been 
suppressed by the former emperor ! And what 
a chapter in history is the heavy blow inflicted on 
Russian serfdom ! — an example of state policy 
which some governments, making far louder pre- 
tensions to freedom, would do well to emulate. 
Grant that this is a measure of mere policy ; but 
the causes in operation that call for it, the en- 
lightened, humane, and Christian spirit of the 
age, which exacts, even at the hands of the Rus- 
sian autocrat, such concessions to religion and 
freedom, are far more significant and hopeful 
than if volunteered simply by the will of the 
sovereign. 

The policy of that colossal empire, so potent 
for evil or for good, is undergoing some favorable 
changes. It is becoming less belligerent, seeking 
to extend its influence by the harmless and be- 
neficent means of commerce and friendly inter- 
course with other nations, rather than, as before, 
mainly by hostile aggression. My attention was 
arrested at Constantinople by the appearance, 
under the Russian flag, of some of the largest 
steamers in the Golden Horn, a harbor that now 
contains many of the finest in the world. And 
on inquiry, I was informed that eighty such 



Digitized by Google 



218 MISSIONARY LIFE 



steamers were under contract to ply about the 
Levant and other, foreign waters. One of those 
steamers, soon after my passing, bore a company 
of our missionaries from Smyrna to Syria, and at 
a much cheaper rate than any other boat would 
carry them. How hopeful to see Russia thus 
vying with other civilized countries in that pacific 
manner, rather than solely by the increase of her 
arms and the adroitness of her diplomacy ! And 
if this feature, too, arises from the necessities and 
the demands of the age more than any preference 
for such changes for their own sakes, in the cen- 
tral government, the fact is none the less inter- 
esting and encouraging. 

There are evangelical elements at work in 
Russia — the silent leaven of the gospel. One 
such element has recently come to light in the 
Christian sect of the Malakan. For several years 
Nestorian laborers who wander into Georgia for 
employment during the summer have told us, on 
their return to Oroomiah, of people whom they met 
in that province who keep the Sabbath, and follow 
the teachings of the New Testament, always wind- 
ing up their account of them by saying, " They are 
just like your missionaries." This sect are in the 
main Protestants, (though irregular in the observ- 
ance of the ordinances,) scattered through various 
parts of the Russian empire, whose history is soon 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



told. Ninety years ago a Russian embassador to 
England took with him a German tailor and his 
wife as servants, who there imbibed the spirit of 
the gospel. On their return they quietly (to a 
considerable extent secretly) made known to oth- 
ers the pearl of great price which they had found ; 
they and their converts, in their turn, always im- 
parting the diffusive spirit of Christian love, and a 
million souls, supposed now to be embraced in 
this wonderfully interesting sect, is the result of 
this humble instrumentality in three generations. 
What a comment on the vital power of the gos- 
pel ! And what a rebuke of the apathy of most 
Protestant Christians ! 

Let Russian policy and influence be modified 
by evangelical elements and by general increase 
of light, and we have little to fear, but might have 
much to hope, from their extension in Moham- 
medan countries. Russia, with its long iron 
front, may yet perform a vastly momentous 
agency in battering down the strongholds of 
Mohammedanism and paganism in Ccutral and 
Eastern, as it has done in Western Asia, and pre- 
paring their untold millions for the reception of 
a purer Christianity than itself can now offer, 
but which God, in his providence and grace, will 
make ready for them — either from Russia re- 
formed, or from other more favored lands. Al- 



Digitized by Google 




220 MISSIONARY LIFE 

ready has that aggressive power done effective 
service of this kind, however little intended as an 
end. The present prostrate state of Mohamme- 
danism in Turkey is owing to the rough treatment 
it has received from that overshadowing Chris- 
tian neighbor, more than to any and all- other 
human influences combined. Deeply humbled, 
and further threatened, Mohammedanism there 
naturally turns to other rival Christian nations 
as allies, for its very existence, and not from any 
love to them or their institutions, and much less 
their religion. The idea that the corrupt system 
of Mohammedanism, as such, has changed its 
nature, or can change it, — can be exorcised of 
its deadly elements, aud made harmless, and even 
beneficent, is futile. The single element of po- 
lygamy, in any system, and among any people 
embracing it, precludes all hope of essential amel- 
ioration. But God, who is wonderful in work- 
ing, so orders events that the agcucies which are 
digging the grave of Mohammedanism, shall, on 
the same soil, nurture the reviving germs of 
pure Christianity, causing even its death strug- 
gles to protect those germs in their early growth, 
and hasten their maturity. Its concessions to 
freedom or toleration, though made in good faith 
by the contracting parties, yet being the result 
of necessity rather than of choice, are carried 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 221 

out only in proportion to the continued pressure 
of the same necessity which occasioned them — 
a pressure, however, which is certainly not small, 
and is ever increasing. 

And when ambitious Russia stretches forth her 
grasping hand to lay it on her long-coveted prize 
of Turkey, before she is prepared to build up the 
truth on the ruins of the error she is beating 
down, God has counter agencies at hand to thwart 
her purpose, saying, " Hitherto shalt thou come 
and no further," until her influence shall be more 
Christianizing, and less exclusively self-aggrandiz- 
ing. And would it be strange if astute Russia 
herself should at length begin to comprehend the 
signs of these times ? It has well been said that 
Christian missions seem to be the only cause that 
gained in her late war with Turkey. And we 
surely need not marvel that God should not only 
bring great good out of so tremendous an evil, 
but also cause it to accrue to the special advan- 
tage of his own kingdom, which, though not of 
this world, is in it, and is far dearer to him than 
all earthly kingdoms, which exist only for the 
good of this. 

EARLY DEATH OP MISSIONARIES. 

Another dark cloud that has passed over our 
field is the death of a number of our mission- 



Digitized by Google 



V 



222 MISSIONARY LIFE 

- 

aries, when apparently much needed in their work. 
Grant and Stocking, Stoddard and Crane, (be- 
sides others at Mosul,) all younger than myself, 
and successively welcomed by me to their mis- 
sionary watch-towers, have fallen, and left the 
ranks of their fellow-laborers desolate and much 
enfeebled. 

It is hard — well nigh heart-crushing — for the 
missionary to lay his beloved associates in. the 
grave, especially his younger associates. How 
much easier would it be for him willingly to lie 
down in that grave ! Hardly more crushing to 
his spirit is it to lay his loved children there, as I 
have kuown, by the bitter experience of burying 
six dear children in Persia.* Dark, indeed, was 
the day, for example, when we bore the gifted 
Stoddard to his resting place on Mount Seir. 
To entomb so much worth, such rare ability, fit- 
ness and qualification for his holy calling, flesh 
and blood staggered under it; faith alone was 
able to bear up. 

u Weep not for the saint that ascends 
To partake of the joys of the sky ; 
Weep not for the seraph that bends 
With the worshiping chorus on high. 

" But weep for the mourners who stand 
By the grare of their brother in tears ; 
And weep for the people whose land 
Must still wait till the day-star appears." 

♦Judith, "the Persian Flower," was the last of the six who died, 
leaving but one survivor from seven children. 



Digitized by Google 



• IN; PERSIA. 



But while to human view the providence is 
mysterious which thus removes missionaries in 
the midst of their days, there are yet consoling 
aspects, even in these dark visitations. Most of 
these brethren who thus early fell were still per- 
mitted to spend a goodly number of years in 
the missionary service — Mr. Stocking, seventeen 
years ; Mr. Stoddard, fourteen years ; Dr. Grant, 
nine years. And when we call to mind that they 
were men whose ardent love to the Redeemer, 
and almost more than mortal activity in his ser- 
vice, led them to crowd so many years of life and 
labor into those short periods, we can not say 
that they died young. 

« That life is long which answers life's great end." 

There is also the influence of their holy con- 
versation and burning zeal still continued in 
the field, as a shining light undimmed by the 
lapse of time, through the power of their exam- 
ple, as well as the fruits of their toil. It is, em- 
phatically, on missionary ground, among those 
whom he has pointed to the cross of Christ, that 
the righteous is held in lasting remembrance. 
Many a rude Nestoriau, and ruder Koord, in the 
wilds of the Assyrian mountains, to this day in- 
stantly lay their hands on their lips at the men- 
tion of the revered name of Dr. Grant; thus 



Digitized by Google 



224 MISSIONARY LIFE 

mutely, but expressively, declaring that they have 
no words to testify their estimation of the worth 
of that man of God. And at the mention of the 
cherished names of Stocking and Stoddard, the 
hearts of multitudes in Persia quickly melt, and 
overflow in tears of affection and gratitude. Their 
words are treasured, and repeated to children* as 
household words. 

The grave of Mr. Stoddard, on Mount Seir, is 
a tenderly sacred place to the Nestorians, whith- 
er many love to resort for solemn reflection, 
one of whom remarked, just before I left my 
field, that that missionary's grave still preaches 
to them hardly less impressively than his eloquent 
lips while alive. The grave of the youthful 
Crane is similarly regarded by not a few on the 
hights of Koordistan, — as is also that of Dr. 
Grant, hard by the ruins of old Nineveh, on the 
banks of the Tigris. Mr. Stoddard had often 
expressed a strong desire to be buried among 
the Nestorians ; thus to testify with his death, as 
well as his life, his devotion to their eternal well- 
being. His wish was accomplished; and being 
dead, ho yet speaketh in Persia as well as in 
America.* 

The death of a devoted missionary, sorrowful 

• Road the excellent Memoir of Mr. Stoddard, prepared by Dr. 
Thompson. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



225 



as it is to surviving associates, and sad for the 
work that still needs him, is then still a boon — 
such to himself, to his field, and to the church 
of God. His is a happy death. Oh, what mis- 
sionary death-bed scenes have we been privileged 
to witness on the plains of Persia, and on the 
mountains of Koordistan ! How calmly and 
peacefully did the beloved Stoddard face the 
grim messenger — how valiantly meet that king 
of terrors, and triumph in the hour of final con- 
flict, as he passed from earth into glory! And 
what fountains of heavenly joy welled up in the 
soul of the not less favored Mrs. Rhea, flowing 
marvelously, as from the river of God, into her 
longing, ravished spirit, raising her far above the 
power of racking and prostrating pain, and caus- 
ing her literally to sing of mercy and grace 
abounding during all her excruciating bodily 
sufferings. To her, also, there was "light on 
the dark river." 

Is it not worth the trials and self-denials of a 
missionary life — long or short — to enjoy the 
blessedness of such a death bed? Worth it, a 
hundred times told, in personal experience ; nor 
less as a more than golden legacy to the hallowed 
cause, and to the church on earth, for its com- 
fort and encouragement. Let my last end be 
like theirs ! 

15 

Digitized by Gc 



226 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



I have dwelt somewhat at length on the aspects 
of the night, in the missionary work, beeause this 
part of the subject is usually but little under- 
stood. Properly viewed, the darkness is not un- 
miugled gloom. One side, at least, is gladdened 
with rays of coming light ; and it needs but the 
aid of Faith's telescope to penetrate the dark 
folds of the clouds, when turned toward us, and 
catch glimpses of their illumined surface. With 
God there is no night. 

In the present state of the church and of her 
missionaries, — so earthly, so far below what it 
is our duty and our privilege to be and to do, — 
we need to encounter these overhanging clouds, 
for the salutary exercise of our spiritual vision, 
the discipline and strengthening of our feeble, 
halting faith, to plume its drooping pinions for a 
more heavenward flight, in the face of the bright- 
ness of the Sun of Righteousness. So soou as 
the church and her missionary watchmen are pre- 
pared for it, we may confidently hope that they 
will be enabled to utter to her the grateful re- 
sponse — A morning without clouds. 

God, moreover, in many of his most gracious 
dispensations, makes darkness his pavilion toward 
his people, on the one hand to bring their hearts 
the nearer to him, — thus inciting them to seek 
more earnestly the blessings they need, and 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



227 



which he delights to bestow, mercifully compel- 
ling them to see light in his light, — and on the 
other hand to prepare them to receive those 
blessings with gratitude, under a deepened im- 
pression of their dependence. Then the darkest 
hour is but just before day. 

" The clouds they so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and will break 
With blessings on their head." 

How often is this true in our most favored 
missionary experience ! Indeed, whenever I now 
see a cloud rise in the moral horizon, I have come 
to ask myself, as it were, instinctively, "What 
special favor is God about to show to Zion ? " 

I may not omit to refer again to the general 
civilizing agencies now in vigorous operation in 
the East, and the predominance of British in- 
fluence in Asia. These are familiar themes ; yet 
they enter so largely into the signs betokening 
the coming of Zion's glad morning, that they are 
entitled to another brief allusion. 

The God of grace and of salvation is also the 
God of providence. He who vouchsafes the re- 
generating influence of the Holy Spirit, and lias 
multiplied revivals and converts among the Nes- 
torians, is the same God who overturns among 
the nations, to dry up the waters of the moral 
Euphrates, and prepare the way of the kings of 
the East. 



Digitized 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



The same distant seas now lash the shores of 
the dark East as in ages gone by ; but instead of 
now separating Europe and America from it, as 
by an impassable abyss, they are the straight as 
well as level, highway, for the swift steamer ; thus 
bringing the capital of the Turkish empire, and 
fallen Palestine, and dark Egypt, and the once 
fabulous shores of the far-off Euxine, into the 
near neighborhood of Protestant Christendom, to 
feel its genial influences, and be regenerated by 
them. Under such influences the imperial pal- 
ace of the Sultan of Turkey is lighted with gas* 
and the telegraph wire passes not far from it. 
And even the Shah of far-distant Persia has com- 
menced stretching that wire across portions of 
his kingdom. It gladdens the Christian heart to 
reflect that while God is leading his church to 
obey the last command of her Redeemer, he is 
also raising up other agencies to second her en- 
deavors. 

The same mountains now tower in Pontus and 
Armenia that stood there twenty-five years ago, 
— nay, in the age of the flood. But interesting 
changes are taking place on them. Instead of 

* An singularly, yet strikingly, suggestive of some of the influences 
which mingle in the Ea*t, demolishing the old and introducing the 
new, it is a curious fact, that hard by the sultan's palace he has s moek, 
a theater, and a gas factory, — doubtless paying quite as much attention 
to the last named as to the first— probably more. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



229 



the narrow parapets along the faces of the cliffs, 
from which a single misstep might precipitate the 
hapless traveler hundreds or thousands of feet 
into the rugged gorges below, a good carriage 
road is being constructed over them by the Turk- 
ish government. The growing demands of com- 
merce bring about these changes. In place of 
the ten or fifteen thousand loads of merchandise, 
on its way from Europe to Persia, that crossed 
those mountains annually a quarter of a century 
ago, at least one hundred thousand loads now 
annually pass over them. Such an influx of the 
fruits of European industry and skill into Per- 
sia, and their diffusion through the length and the 
breadth of that remote inland kingdom, can not 
fail to exert a very strong influence on its entire 
population. It must obviously — to take the low- 
est view — stimulate their industry and awaken 
their skill in production of commodities for ex- 
change. And increasing their wants, in thus 
furnishing more ample supplies, it must raise the 
general standard of civilization, as well as convey 
new comforts to the humblest dwellings. It must 
also give to the people new and strong impres- 
sions of the superior wealth, power, and prosper- 
ity of Christian nations. And the great number 
of merchants and muleteers engaged in conduct- 
ing such vast operations of overland commerce, 



Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



being brought in contact with Christians, become 
comparatively intelligent and liberal in their feel- 
ings. Their religious prejudices are disarmed, 
and they are thus prepared to act the part of 
pioneers in diffusing light and opening the way 
for momentous changes among their country- 
men. 

In a room opening into the same entrance of a 
great caravanserai with the public office of the 
mission, in the heart of Constantinople, where 
Bibles, and tracts, and other books, are put up 
to be sent to all parts of the empire, and where 
inquirers often call for religious conversation, a 
large but fluctuating company of Persian mer- 
chants have their quarters ; and they are not idle 
observers of what they there see and hear. 

The myriads of jingling bells on the great car- 
avan route between Europe and Persia, as I have 
passed them; have thus long been to my ear a sol- 
emn and delightful sound, — solemn, as the em- 
blem of a mighty agency, put in operation and 
carried forward by the hand of the Lord, for 
the sure accomplishment of his purposes of mer- 
cy for dark Asia, — and delightful, as pointing to 
the certain and rapid approach of the day when 
"Holiness to the Lord" shall be written on 
the bells of all those myriads of horses. And 
when the railroad whistle shall take the place of 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



231 



those caravan bells, as it has already begun to do 
in Turkey, then also, in his appointed day, shall 
" Holiness to the Lord " be written on the banner 
of each car, as it rolls through the gorges of those 
rugged mountains, and over the broad table lands 
and the palmy plains beyond. 

As my eye rested, at Springfield, Massachusetts, 
a few months ago, on the most magnificent rail- 
road car ever yet constructed, and I was told that 
it was destined for the personal use of the Viceroy 
of Egypt,* a moral sublimity, to my mind, clus- 
tered around it ; for I could not help regarding 
it as sure to be an eloquent preacher of civiliza- 
tion, as it shall roll along the valley of the Nile, 
and indirectly a preacher of righteousness. 

The good providence of God which has placed 
so much of the Eastern world under British con- 
trol and influence, is a subject on which, I con- 
fess, I am always inclined to feel deeply and speak 
strongly. But the relations of our mission to 
representatives of England in Persia must be my 
apology. The Ncstorian mission, whatever good 
it has accomplished, or may now promise, is, so 
far as human guardianship is concerned, a child 

* A strange combination of ancient misty ages and modern times — 
of •« Old Egypt " and *• Young America," of civilization iu its cradle, 
entombed and embalmed, rudely desecrated by tbe unsparing hand of 
irreverent Yaukeedorn — occurs in the fact, that mummies, taken from 
the catacombs, are u*od for fuel to drive the railroad cars. 



Digitized by Google 



* 232 MISSIONARY LIFE 

- — yes, an adopted and kindly cherished child — 
of the British embassy in that country. Our 
own government has never had a representative 
of any kind in that distant Mohammedan king- 
dom. Not even an American traveler, who was 
not a missionary, has, to my knowledge, ever been 
in Persia. 

Dr. Bacon and his son, in company with Mr. 
Marsh, of Mosul, on their way to visit us, were 
robbed and turned back by the Koords, barely 
escaping with their lives, within about a hundred 
miles of Oroomiah. During my last sojourn of 
more than fifteen years in Persia, I never saw an 
American except the missionaries. A few Eng- 
lishmen and other European travelers, at inter- 
vals far between, were the only other civilized 
men with whom I met during that period. Aud 
peculiar were my emotions, in once more emer- 
ging from that loug exile, on reaching the large 
cities of Turkey, and again beholding seas, ves- 
sels, and boats. 

There are indeed some advantages in our 
remote isolation. We are thus shut out from 
the vicious influences of civilization, which are 
a sore scourge to many of our missions differ- 
ently situated. 

Another advantage incidental to our isolation 
is freedom from the fluctuations of fashion, 



Digitized by Google 



IN PER8IA. 



which, in Persia, like "the laws of the Medes 
and Persians " of old, " changes not." We have 
sometimes received from our friends numbers of 
Harper's Magazine ; but I regarded the " fash- 
ions " represented in them as fancy sketches, 
never expecting to see an American lady thus 
draped. But when, on our return, we reached 
Trebizond, on the Black Sea, (the fashions will go 
wherever there is a water level,) the missionary 
lady residing in that city met us, a living em- 
bodiment of such a garb. So strange was the 
sight to us that we could not help rudely staring 
as she courteously met us at the door and wel- 
comed us to her hospitable dwelling ; while the 
ladies of our party, from the remote interior, in 
the unchanged fashions of years long gone by, 
were hardly less strange to her; and for the 
time we were thus the objects of mutual wonder, 
if not of mutual admiration. 

It may be in place to inquire in passing, 
"When will our great American republic be 
represented in Persia by others than its mis- 
sionaries ? " With more than twenty American 
citizens (including the missionaries and their 
children) in that distant country, of ancient, sa- 
cred, and classic memory, for more than a score 
of years our government has never yet deemed 
it expedient to send thither an embassador or 



Digitized by Google 



234 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



consul to look after their welfare, to say nothing of 
other important interests to be thus secured. In 
the absence of any civil protection of our own, 
we have, however, enjoyed it from the British em- 
bassy, when at the Persian capital, to the fullest 
extent it could have furnished such protection to 
its own countrymen. And far beyond bare pro- 
tection, the representatives of that noble govern- 
ment have seemed to take pleasure in aiding us 
and our labors in every way in their power. For 
illustration, the letters and periodicals which we 
have received have been carried from Constanti- 
nople and Trebizond to Persia, and our letters 
brought thence to those distant ports, by the 
English monthly post, without the charge of a 
single farthing. This is an important item. Not 
only have we thus enjoyed a safe mode of letter 
conveyance, which could in no other way have 
been secured, but, during this long period, 
many hundreds of dollars, in the expensiveness 
of supporting a mail to that far interior realm, 
have thus been saved to the Missionary Board. 

And what the British government, through its 
generous representatives, has done for our de- 
pendent missionaries in Persia, it has shown itself 
ready to do for them in all parts of the world. 
What would our missions have accomplished in 
Turkey, and yet more in India, but for the shield 



Digitized by Google 



IK PERSIA. 285 

of that government stretched over them ? And 
what are its ubiquitous power and influence 
doing at this hour to advance the cause of Christ 
in all those Eastern lands ? 

Rare is the American missionary, I believe, in 
any land, whose heart does not prompt from him 
the fervent prayer, " May God bless and prosper 
England, as a bulwark of civilization, light, truth, 
freedom, and Protestant Christianity, from the 
rising to the setting sun." 

And how bright a counterpart to what Brit- 
ish officials abroad are doing for American mis- 
sions is the noble work of the Turkish Missions 
Aid Society in England itself ! — an organization 
which, composed of Christians of various denom- 
inations, furnishes funds to be expended by 
our missionaries in Turkey and Persia, irrespec- 
tive of their ecclesiastical connections — an in- 
stance of unsectarian Christiau philanthropy as 
rare and sublime in itself as it is beneficent in 
its operation. 

The flippant newspaper editor, the scheming 
politician, or the carping traveler, who seek to 
serve their sinister purposes by exciting preju- 
dice or hostility on either side, I choose to 
excuse on the score of ignorance or misappre- 
hension, rather than arraign them on the charge 
of low malevolence, however large the reach of 



Digitized by Google 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



charity which such a construction may require 
at my hands. England and America — noble 
branches of the Anglo-Saxon race — are not more 
one from a common parent stock, than in all 
their highest interests, and especially in their re- 
lations to the less favored portions of the world. 
Together may they advance in the grand mission 
of man's amelioration and salvation which Prov- 
idence has so largely committed to them. Would 
that the light sent forth from ' this new western 
world were as clear as that irradiated from the 
father-land ; that it were unobstructed by the 
gloomy pall of that " stupendous wrong " which 
enshrouds our southern borders and overclouds 
the whole ! Would that the sun in its course did 
not look down upon such an abomination, all the 
more revolting and appalling for existing in a 
Christian, Protestant land ! While we awake to 
the wants and the woes of the distant heathen, 
let us not forget the heathen at our doors ; es- 
pecially as they are involved in a thralldom which 
rears such mountain obstacles to the conversion 
of benighted nations. 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



CHAPTER X. 

CONCLUSION. 

" AU the ends of the earth shall fear him." 

The Morning' comet h. — Much remains to be done. — Rapid Progress. 
— The Handful of Corn in the Top of the Mountains. — First Ar- 
menian Inquirers. — Contrast now at Constantinople. — Conversion 
of the Mountain Deacon. — His labors, Sickness, and Death. — Obli- 
gations of Christians to come up to the Help of the Lord. — The 
Lord in Advance of his People. — The Missionary Cause a Means 
of Grace to the Churches. — Obligations of Christian Females to the 
Gospel.— 'Trials and Sacrifices. — Separation of Families. — Leaving 
my Field. — The Power of Prayer. — Consecration our only Safety* 
— The Kingdom of Christ will triumph. 

The inquiry of the prophet returns as we draw 
toward the close of this volume, " What of the 
night ? 99 I respond with the prophet's echo, 
"The morning cometh, also the night. " Yes, 
the morning cometh ; the day is dawning. Sure 
is its progress, by the power of God's word, by the 
rich effusions of his Spirit, and by the wonderful 
working of his providence. Also the night. Clouds 
rise and lower in the missionary horizon ; but 
they have always a smiling as well as a frowning 
surface, and in their varied mutations, even when 
seemingly most portentous, are themselves bar- 



Digitized by Google 



238 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



bingers and helpers of the approach of the mil- 
lennial day. 

I say not that the morning has come in Persia. 
The day only dawns. The great work has been 
auspiciously commenced there, and is in rapid 
and glorious progress. There is a shaking in the 
valley of dry bones. Bright beacon lights are 
kiudled there, which stream upward to the skies, 
darting gleams of heavenly radiance into the 
gloomiest recesses of the reigning death-shade. 
There exist not more interesting churches on 
earth than among the Nestorians. A foundation 
has thus been l&id for marvelous revolutions, 
which must come, and which may at any time 
very suddenly come. 

But myriads of the Nestorians remain yet to 
be converted, as well as the millions of the Mo- 
hammedans. The almighty agency of the Holy 
Spirit is that which we most need, and for which 
we should most earnestly long and pray. How 
inadequately do we appreciate the dispensation of 
the Spirit ! how faintly desire and feebly expect 
the fulfillment of this promise of the Father ! 
How easy for him, and how in harmony with his 
holy will, there as here, to multiply converts as 
the drops of the morning, when his churches and 
their missionaries are prepared for the blessing ! 
On that hangs our hope for the salvation of the 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



239 



Nestorian Christians, for Mohammedan Persia 
and Assyria, for dark Asia and a lost world. 

The agency of the Holy Spirit, I hardly need 
remind the churches, is fully adequate to such a 
consummation — nay, is firmly pledged for it, and 
gloriously advancing toward it. The missionary 
enterprise is now in a stage of rapidly increasing 
progress. 

One of the felicities of the missionary's position 
in the East — an incidental compensation for his 
unavoidable sacrifices and self-denials — is the 
vivid and striking illustrations of Scripture in the 
every-day life and circumstances with which he is 
there surrounded. As an instance, take the beau- 
tiful prediction of Zion's rapid increase in the 
seventy-second Psalm — " There shall be a hand- 
ful of corn in the earth upon the top of the moun- 
tains ; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon." 
In Persia, the sunny land where I have spent so 
many years of my lifq, there is little or no rain 
from the month of May till November. Fair, dry 
days and weeks succeed each other as a rule, 
unmoistencd by a shower and undimmed by a 
cloud during all that period. A consequence is, 
the necessity for artificial irrigation. This is 
effected by taking the rivers, or portions of them, 
from their beds, where they leave their moun- 
tain gorges, and conveying the water along the 



Digitized b' 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



declivities, as high up as practicable, in canals pre- 
pared for the purpose. Those canals are, at inter- 
vals, diminished by out-letting branches; those 
branches are subdivided, and the smaller ones 
divided jet again, and so on, and water is thus 
conveyed periodically, through that network of 
canals spread over the country, to every field, and 
orchard, and vineyard, and garden, and to every 
part of each — to every plant, and tree, and vine, 
and flower ; and the lower slopes of the declivities 
and level plains of the country are thus kept beau- 
tifully verdant during those months without rain. 

But what, in the mean time, has become of 
those mountain tops? Water can not thus be 
conveyed to them. Showers do indeed visit 
them in spring somewhat later than the great 
plains below ; but as the season advances those 
mountain tops become dry, and parched, and 
baked, under the scorching sun, presenting the 
image of sterility personified, like vast beds of 
ashes baked anew with each day's returning 
drouth and heat 

Such I suppose to be the source of the Psalm- 
ist's metaphor. And every benighted land, when 
the missionary enters it, is the parched, barren 
mountain top. The handful of corn or wheat, a 
quantity quite insignificant, as men may view it, 
— nay, it may be, heartily despised by the world- 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



ling, — is cast into that unpromising soil ; and 
behold the result! Under the divino blessing, 
that seed, the gospel leaven, silent but mighty, 
germinates even there, and matures and brings 
forth a crop so thrifty and tall, that it waves 
before the breeze like the stately cedars of Leb- 
anon. 

The missionary work, in its commencement 
and progress, is a standing fulfillment of this fig* 
urative prediction. Perhaps no one passage in 
the Bible presents the whole subject so compre- 
hensively, as it were in a nutshell. The period 
between the casting in of the seed and the ripen- 
ing of the harvest is not defined ; but the infer- 
ence from the language is, that the one follows 
the other in quick succession. 

I repeat, this prediction has its glorious fulfill- 
ment in every successful missiou. We have seen 
it fulfilled in Turkey. It was during my stay of 
five months at Constantinople, on my way to my 
field, twenty-seven years ago, that the first two 
Armenian inquirers came to the three senior 
missionaries, who arc still there — Messrs. Good- 
ell, Dwight, and Schaufflcr, then but recently 
established in that great Babel of strange lan- 
guages and multifold nationalities. All around 
them was dark as tl\p shadow of death. Those 
two inquirers came to them tremblingly, like 

16 



Digitized by 



242 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



Nicodemus by night, groping in the darkness and 
feeling after the light. The entire field was then 
as the parched mountain top, a few kernels of 
corn having but just fallen upou that single point. 
Now mark the contrast — all Turkey dotted over 
with Protestant missionary stations and churches, 
and pervaded, and in a certain sense shaken, by 
the power of divine truth. 

The same has been true among the Nestorians, 
as we have seen in our glimpses of the work in 
Persia and Koordistan. " Is any thing too hard 
for the Lord ? " Contemplate a single case of 
conversion ; and to select a clear one, which our 
feeble faith might perhaps pronounce a hard one, 
we will recur to that of Deacon Gewergis, the 
mountain evangelist, who was as bad a man 
before his conversion as he was good afterward 
— a noted thief and robber, who had even there 
earned a fearful eminence in every evil path. It 
would be difficult to tell what prompted that 
man — yet doubtless it was the finger of God — 
to bring his two daughters down from the wild 
mountains and place them in our female semi- 
nary. A few months afterward the father came 
again to visit his daughters. As the Lord or- 
dered, he came at a very interesting period of a 
revival in that seminary, himself and his compan- 
ions all bristling with deadly weapons, according 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 243 

to the usage of their native mountains. Finding 
his daughters, with many others in the school, 
deeply moved and weeping under conviction of 
their sins, he, too, was moved, but at first in a 
very different way. Surprised and angered by 
what he saw, he alternately plied threats and rid- 
icule to divert those daughters; but all to no 
purpose. Among his sarcastic taunts was this, 
with many others which are stereotyped in that 
land of metaphors : " Are your grandfathers all 
dead, that you are thus weeping and taking on ?" 
Miss Fisk, the principal of the seminary, observ- 
ing his course, addressed to him a few words of 
remonstrance and of solemn warning in regard to 
his own condition. Her words were a barbed 
arrow to his heart. Soon, trembling and weep- 
ing, he requested of her a place to pray. Miss 
Fisk, at first suspecting him of playing a double" 
part, put him off, fearing that he might steal ex- 
posed articles if allowed to occupy a room. But 
his importunity prevailed, anc^in his closet, on 
his knees before God, he found pardon and salva- 
tion before leaving the place. And there has 
not, perhaps, been a more sudden and marvelous 
transformation of character since Saul became 
Paul on his way to Damascus. Even his native 
roughness of manners, under the softening power 
of divine grace, soon disappeared, and he became 



Digitized by Google 



244 MISSIONARY LIFE 

a living model of a truly bland and courteous 
Christian gentleman. 

It is further remarkable that this Nestorian 
deacon, almost from the hour of his conversion, 
adopted Paul as his Christian model. The idea 
of doing so was quite original with him. Hav- 
ing found the pearl of great price, he at once 
resolved, in God's strength, to spend his life in 
publishing the glad tidings. And conferring not 
with flesh and blood, he started at once to fulfill 
that high purpose, and faithfully and zealously 
pursued it to the end of his pilgrimage, travers- 
ing the wild Assyrian mountains in their length 
and their breadth, proclaiming Christ and him 
crucified to all whom he met — nothing daunted, 
though often reviled, abused, threatened, and 
even beaten. Thus did this good soldier of Jesus 
Christ perform the work of an evangelist, without 
stipulation or remuneration, till his family were 
at length known to be in deep want, when the 
small Christian pillage of Seir adopted him as 
their mountain missionary, paying to him reg- 
ularly the avails of their monthly concert, which, 
in their poverty, amounted to about four dollars 
per month. 

Deacon Gewergis overworked, and the result 
at length was a violent brain fever, of which he 
died. As is common in that disease, he was de- 



Digitized by Google 



IN PEB8IA. 245 

lirious ; but it was affectingly interesting to listen 
to him, even in his delirious hours. He reit- 
erated, at the top of his voice, almost incessantly, 
the single phrase, " Free grace ! free grace ! free 
grace!" — an utterance which carried with it a 
moral sublimity seldom equaled, especially in the 
recollection that free grace had been with him 
so emphatically the sole foundation of his confi- 
dence, that he was pardoned and washed, made a 
child of God and an heir of heaven ; that free 
grace had for many years been the burden of his 
message to perishing thousands ; and that that 
same free grace was now the ground of his ear- 
nest longing to depart and be with Christ, which 
for him was far better. When the disease had 
spent its force his reasqp returned ; and, like the 
calm sunset after a storm, — peaceful, joyous, and 
triumphant, — he fell sweetly asleep in Jesus. 

I do not regard myself as justly open to the 
charge of superstition ; but I must confess to the 
weakness, if such it be, of having begged of his 
brothers the favor of Deacon Gewcrgis's walking- 
stick, which had so often supported him as he 
journeyed over the wild mountains. I hung it 
upon the wall of my study, that I might be daily 
reminded of that good soldier of the cross, and 
that my other helpers might also be thus remind- 
ed of him. And often, when they have entered 



Digitized by 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



the door, I have observed their ejes instantly 
fill with tears, as they rested upon that staff. I 
must confess further to my weakness, in having 
brought Deacon Gewergis's walking-stick to Amer- 
ica, and deposited it at the Missionary House in 
Boston. 

While we admire the power and the grace of 
God in such wondrous moral transformations, we 
may not forget that that power is infinite and 
that grace boundless. How easy it is for God to 
multiply such conversions by thousands and mil- 
lions! Who would dare to limit the Almighty ? 

Yet it is clearly not enough that wc admire 
and thankfully acknowledge what God hath 
wrought, and give wings to our iaith and hope 
in predicting what he wjll do, and speedily do, 
in the missionary work. The churches are called 
upon, at the same time, prayerfully to inquire 
what God would have them to do — what efforts 
make and influence exert in the advancement of 
his kingdom. It is infinite condescension on his 
part, and the most exalted honor conferred on 
his children, that he permits them to be co-work- 
ers with him in the matchless scheme of the 
world's salvation. And while he grants to his 
people this high honor and this unspeakable priv- 
ilege, he expects, nay, requires of them, a prompt 
and willing cooperation. He calls on them by 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



247 



the authoritative language of his word, and the 
hardly less unequivocal voice of his providence, 
to come fully up to his help against the mighty. 
* He is far in advance of his people by the move- 
ments of his providence and the bestowments of 
his grace ; thus assuring us that he waits only to 
be properly inquired of by them to give unto his 
Son the heathen for an inheritance and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for a possession — to fill 
the whole world with the knowledge and the 
glory of his name, as the waters fill the mighty 
deep. Linger not, then, Christian brethren, but 
come at the call of the Lord up to his help by 
your prayers; for it is not by might nor by 
power, I repeat, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord, 
that the kingdom of Christ is to come in the 
world ; and the Holy Spirit is vouchsafed in an- 
swer to fervent prayer. Come up to the help of 
the Lord also by your contributions ; for, as faith 
without works is dead, so prayer without alms is, 
in this case, unavailing. 

To a thoughtful mind some of the present as- 
pects of our own country are calculated to excite 
deep concern, if not gloomy foreboding. The sea 
of worldly influences, — of fashion and luxury, 
of error and of vice, — broken up, every day, 
from its lowest depths, and sent surging through 
the land by the driving car, the lightning wire, 



Digitized by 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



and the million-tongued press ; and that terrible 
scourge of southern bondage, communicating its 
death torpor to every moral and religious sensi- 
bility, not only in the regions of its prevalence, 
but measurably also throughout the whole coun- 
try, — to a looker-on, like myself, after an ab- 
sence of twenty-five years on the other side of 
the globe, these things are suited to excite deep 
and painful apprehensions for the safety of our 
beloved native land. 

In musing on this subject, in my journeyings 
and labors among the churches, the most hopeful 
instrumentality that I have been able to discover, 
by which, under God, our American churches 
and the country can be saved from the threaten- 
ing perils, is the hallowed cause of missions. 
Here is an ample field for the highest aspirations, 
the warmest zeal, and the most enlarged activity, 
for the roused energies of American Christians. 

I have often wished that I might address my- 
self directly to Christian females in America, and 
try to impress them with their peculiar obligations 
to the gospel. This can never be fully under- 
stood till we see the condition of the female sex 
in a benighted land. The missionary, in every 
unevangelized country, finds the females several 
degrees below the men, — oppressed, abused, 
down-trodden, — not in Africa alone, but wherever 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA. 



249 



the gospel is not. And surely it was meet that 
woman should be last at the cross, and first at the 
sepulcher, in view of her obligations to Christian- 
ity. A straw shows the direction of the wind. 
When I commenced reducing the language of the 
Nestorians to writing, I early observed that there 
were no words in that language for wife and 
home. Why not? Because the things did not 
exist among the people. Woman and Iiouse were 
the nearest approximations ; but what a world 
of meaning ranges between those corresponding 
terms, in every language that deserves to be 
called a Christian language ! And so in all their 
social and domestic usages, woman is the down- 
trodden slave, and man the tyrant lord. Mothers 
and sisters, among the fallen Christians in the 
East, were not accustomed to Sit with their hus- 
bands and brothers when we went among them. 
They must first serve, and then take the rem- 
nants, if any there were. The revival of pure 
Christianity there elevates woman to her proper 
dignity and place. 

The gospel, my Christian sisters, to which you 
are so deeply indebted for what you are and what 
you enjoy, is able to raise your sex, in every 
benighted land, to the temporal and spiritual bless- 
ings which you so richly inherit. There, as here, 
we find woman's heart, when reached by the truth, 



Digitized 



250 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



far more susceptible to its power than that of the 
other sex, as a rule. To Christian females iu Amer- 
ica we look — and feel that we have a right to look 
— as to a tower of strength in the prosecution of the 
missionary work. It is an appropriate sphere in 
which woman can give free scope to her feeling 
heart in the discharge of her unspeakable obliga- 
tions. Christian friends, attest your gratitude 
to Christ, and fulfill your mission of love, by 
more fervent prayers, and redoubled efforts, for 
speeding the tidings of the gospel to your suf- 
fering sisters throughout the benighted world. 

I have not unfrequently been asked about the 
trials and sacrifices of missionaries ; nor would 
we affect to conceal that their pathway is beset 
witli manifold self-denials. The missionary's life 
is a life of wearing care, severe toil, aud sore trial 
and self-sacrifice. It has well been styled a 
"standing martyrdom," — not, however, from 
hunger, nor thirst, nor nakedness, nor often from 
the shedding of blood, but from the sorer rend- 
ing of heart-strings. There are scenes iu that 
life which are never written, — which can never 
be told, — but which are experienced, and felt, 
through the inmost fibers of the soul. It was my 
privilege, on my return from Persia, to conduct 
home with me several fragments of broken fami- 
lies — not unmeauing incidental emblems of the 



Digitized by Google 



IN PERSIA 



251 



nature of the service. There was in that compa- 
ny an unmarried female missionary, with health 
prostrated from long, arduous, unremitted, and 
very successful missionary labors, who must sun- 
der herself from scores of beloved pupils, and oth- 
er scores who had been such, or been led by her 
to the cross of Christ, all bound to her as daugh- 
ters to a mother, and making the place of their 
separation a Bochim, as she now turned her face 
from them toward her own distant, widowed 
mother, of more than fourscore years ! 

There was in the same company a deeply- 
stricken missionary widow, bidding farewell to 
the grave of her husband. There was a small 
orphan girl, whose parents and only sister had 
found their graves on missionary ground. There 
were two other missionary daughters, sisters, 
of eleven and thirteen, whose parents, almost a 
score of years in the field, had the hard lot of 
parting with their loved offspring at that tender 
age, and sending them to the opposite side of 
the globe. That parting was a peculiarly af- 
fecting scene. The long-looked-for and much- 
drcadcd hour arrived. The solemn sound of 
the bells announce the caravan before the door, 
and the party must file in. The two daughters 
arc now seen hanging on the neck of their fond 
mother, whose emotions, at that moment, can 



Digitized 



252 



MISSIONARY LIFE 



better be conceived than described. The caravan 
is waiting ; and the not less feeling father, pale 
from inward conflict, must summon them away ; 
but for the first time, perhaps, in the lives of those 
docile children, his voice is not heeded. He must 
take them by the arm and lead them from the 
yearning embrace of their mother. Arrived at 
the door, there comes from one of the departing 
weepers the touching cry, " O papa, do let me go 
back and kiss mamma once more." Wonder not 
if that father's heart falters. A large concourse 
of Nestorians, who had assembled to bid us fare- 
well, look on and weep, and smite on their breasts, 
deeply moved with this affecting form of mission- 
ary sacrifice for Christ's sake, and for their sakes ; 
and an aged matron of that sympathizing people 
raises her voice with the plaintive cry, " Enough ! 
enough! Do not consume that poor mother's 
heart ! " 

In that company of fragments of families, on 
my return, there was yet another missionary 
child, from a neighboring mission — a loved 
daughter, bidding adieu to her aged parents, who 
have toiled at their post almost forty years, and 
must part with that cherished solace of their de- 
scent to the tomb. 

Few know the living martyrdom, in missionary 
experience, connected with the separation of par- 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 



ents from their children who are sent to this 
country, and the desolation of the homeless con- 
dition of returned missionaries and their children, 
and missionary widows and orphans in America, 
where most of their kindred are, in many cases, 
in the graveyard, and a new generation in their 
places. May I be spared the pain of ever again 
hearing, from a beloved only missionary child, 
who had been tossing, between two and three 
years in this country, without any feeling of home, 
the touching expression, " I never expect to find 
a home any more till I find it in heaven." 

But I am treading on sacred ground. I have 
said that the trials of the missionary are not to be 
told. I may not further lift the vail, nay, can not, 
having passed through too many such ordeals to 
permit me to describe them. 

Yet the missionaries do not complain. With 
all their sacrifices and self-denials, they account 
their work a privileged, a glorious work, unspeak- 
ably so, nor least of all in their tribulations. If 
I may be permitted to allude to my own feelings 
on the trying day of my departure from my mis- 
sionary field, I should say, that the work never 
appeared to me so blessed as amid the affecting 
scenes of that day, to some of which I have re- 
ferred. There were hallowed joys mingled with 
those cups of tears, even the bitterest. 



Digitized by Google 



254 MISSIONARY LIFE 

And how glorious is the privilege for all believ- 
ers to be co-workers with the missionaries, and, 
yet more, with their and your common Redeemer, 
in such an enterprise ! The laying of the Atlan- 
tic telegraph, if it ever be accomplished, is a 
matchless human enterprise ; and marvelous, and 
well nigh limitless, must be its results, in binding 
nations and continents together in a common 
brotherhood — in diffusing peace on earth and 
good will to men. But your closet, fellow-disci- 
ple, — yes, the closet of the humblest disciple of 
Jesus, — is a telegraph station, whose wire con- 
nects with the throne of God ; and quicker than 
the electric passage may you pour your deepest 
and largest desires for a lost world into the ear 
of the Lord of Sabaoth, whose resources are 
boundless, and whose purposes of mercy for this 
lost world are as sure as the foundation of his 
throne. He will, 'I reiterate, be inquired of by 
his people to do these things for them. And the 
mites of penury, with prayer, are equally accept- 
able and available with God, as the treasures of 
affluence, and far more so than those treasures 
unaccompanied with prayer. 

Earth and its interests are transitory. Riches 
take to themselves wings. Life is a vapor. But 
the cause of God ! His holy kingdom, for which we 
pray and labor, and of which we profess to be cit- 



Digitized by 



IN PERSIA. 265 

izens and heirs, is an everlasting kingdom ; and 
the sun of that morning which is rising upon it 
shall never go down. Every farthing cast into its 
treasury shall be trarismuted into eternal gold. 
All who identify themselves with that kingdom, 
and give it their hearts, their prayers, their sub- 
stance, and their children, are safe, in all their es- 
sential interests, for time and eternity — .everlast- 
ingly safe ; and they only are safe. Let the church 
awake and do this, and soon will her watchmen, 
from distant realms and remotest islands of the 
ocean, echo the glad tidings, The morning has 
come — the blissful millennial morning, when the 
light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, 
and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold. The 
Lord our strength hath promised it ; and though 
heaven and earth shall pass away, not one of his 
promises for Zion shall ever fail. 



Digitized by Google 



1388 !H0 



Digitized by Google 



I 

I 



Digitized by Google 




THE BORROWER WILL BE CHARGED 
AN OVERDUE FEE IF THIS BOOK 18 
NOT RETURNED TO THE LIBRARY ON 
OR BEFORE THE LAST DATE STAMPED 
BELOW. NON-RECEIPT OF OVERDUE 
NOTICES DOES NOT EXEMPT THE 
BORROWER FROM OVERDUE FEES. 




gle 



